The Lesser Mouse War of 2026, is going well Brothers and Sisters. Rejoice in the many victories and travails of the Evil Fluff Empire. Recall the valiant efforts of the fallen rodents in their puny and futile resistance. Intelligence services tell me that their demands amounted to: warm, dry winter housing; plus free access to the grain stores! As the Emperor, there were other plans for that feed and housing, let me tell you.
Regular readers will recall that the first week of the war was a shambles. Mice had breached the outer house defences. Sandra and I (Empress and Emperor of the mighty land of Fluff) were helpless to halt the resistance’s onslaught. Other pressing activities took precedence, such as like, err, earning a living. But what a toll the fighting took. Disturbed sleep. Eerie late night scratching and squeaking. Treasury draining activities in the form of purchases of sturdy plastic containers to store dry goods. Monster clean up efforts every single morning. Efforts to rodent proof the storage systems for bagged up grains. And all the while, the rodent hordes were unrelenting.
Rats have been a nuisance in past years. Long term readers will recall the Greater Rat War of 2022, when the big rodents forced the valiant battle commander Dame Plum and her minion (me) to battle them for a solid two months. All of them. And permanently! Every day would demand some new modification of the chicken enclosure so as to thwart the rats forward advance.
Well, last week was the same goal, but this time with mice, and the house. Those smaller beasts can get through the tiniest of gaps. You will recall that earlier in the previous week, they had dug a big enough tunnel (as seen in the previous blog), so that rats could once again get under the house. This was a problem for the mice though, because the rats began eating them. The technical term for this activity is: muricide. The late nigh dying battle squeals of the mice were horrific. They’re not mates, put it that way. Nature is raw, very, very rough. Old timers have quipped that the enemy of my enemy, is my friend. But maybe not so much with the rats. Not a fan.
Unfortunately for the rats able to get under the house, they too were sealed under the floor due to the new concrete trench. Dirty rat deeds, were done dirt cheap. As the days went on, the big pests got hungrier and hungrier, and only the most fleet of mice warriors avoided them. Sadly, or perhaps not so, as the case may be, the starving rats succumbed to the bait which the Evil Emperor left for all of the rodents to freely enjoy. The two remaining mice were smarter in that they outwit their larger brethren fighters, and the best efforts of the humans, for they even learned to avoid both rat and bait.
Three weeks of disturbed sleep really f… me off! Sorry, almost broke the no swearing rule right then and there, and perhaps more correctly I should have typed out the words: ‘annoyed me greatly’. Being an Evil Emperor comes with cool benefits, although perhaps not in this particular instance for being outwitted by a tiny rodent is not good for the self esteem.
By this time, the final little mousey rodents had mapped out the entire house. They knew every nook and cranny, and it was all we could do day after day to prevent them from consuming our dry good stores. Far out! One evening I dreamt of mice, and could strongly smell dream rodent. I awoke in a panic sweating fear, and cried out. Had the mouse been appraising my lips and eyes? We’ll never know, but let’s just say that I’ve got my suspicions.
Even today, the house remains in a bit of a state of chaos, with bags of grains, feed, flour, oats etc. placed here, there and everywhere. Anywhoo, with the trench and cement work done last week, by Sunday (a week ago) the house underfloor was now tightly sealed up, on two sides at least. Rodents can’t dig through concrete trenches! We then began to consider how to deal with the remaining mice. Two cunning war strategies were devised. Plan One: Lure the mice out one of the doors with a tasty treat, then close the door on them. Plan Two: I wasn’t aware of this plan, until 3am Monday morning (a week ago).
Getting to bed at midnight after having written last week’s blog, I was awakened at 2am by noises emanating from near to the 80kg / 180 pounds of bagged up grains for the chickens. Early hours of the morning call for an introspective frame of mind, and the thought: ‘What has my life come to?’, flashed across the old brain. The mice were learning faster than I could outwit them. They had climbed up an item of furniture, jumped onto a Nepalese rug hung on the wall, clambered across that vertical surface, before then jumping onto another item of furniture, thus bypassing all of the protections for the grains. True despair can be experienced at 2am.
Not being one to linger on such negative thoughts, I chucked on the Ugg boots (sheepskin lined footwear)and swung into action – sorry, there will be no photos of this activity for reasons of modesty. This active response was more to my liking! Grabbed the plastic fly swat, then ran over to the chicken grains. Making a lot of noise, ineffectually, and also unfortunately waking up Empress Sandra, the mice decamped. Where had they gone? All was now quiet on the western front.
Full of adrenalin, and strong feelings, I fitfully went back to sleep, only to be awoken another hour later at 3am. Despair had turned to anger, and now I was really pis… off, oh, sorry, err, rather annoyed. Except this time, Sandra had cunningly employed Plan Number Two, and trapped them in the bathroom. The large bags of dog feed are stored in there on metal shelving. The frantic mice had no escape.
Again, donning the mighty Ugg war boots and grabbing the plastic fly swat, over the course of the next two hours, we learned every single hiding space for those two mice. The room was systematically pulled apart. Ever so slowly we reduced the areas where the mice could run and hide. Truly, it was several hours of a delicate game of cat and mouse. The rodent resistance was kept constantly on the move, and they’re fast. One even ran over Sandra’s foot, which earned a squeal.
At first Sandra was dubious as to the use of the fly swat, but after the first direct hit, we knew he had this kill in the bag. After more misses than hits, the Evil Empire won the day! Two dead mice. The Lesser Mouse War of 2026 is now over. Since then, it’s been six nights of quiet repose, with no signs of rodent activity within the house. However, staunch vigilance is the word that you heard. The cement trenching project around the house will continue, but our brains were a touch frazzled, and we needed a break. But we sure won this time. Mess with us, at your peril.
They assure me that shrinkflation is real, and that may be so. I purchased a lamington today, and it had shrunk. A sample size of one, is hardly statistically valid, but it is indicative! At least the quality is up to snuff.
Anywhoo, wanting to take a break from fixing up the house defences against the rodents, we began the job of installing the corrugated steel sheeting on the downhill side of the Cantina shed. After fifteen years, the exterior surfaces of the shed really needed a freshen up. Three sides were able to be repainted a week or two ago, but the side which faces the worst of the winter weather, needed some extra help.
Six sheets of pre-painted steel were installed. It was a slow and fiddly job. The large window void had to be cut out of the steel, and you don’t realise how high off the ground it is until you are handling a large and heavy sheet whilst attempting to measure exactly where the cuts will go.
Some folks may believe that wearing safety glasses as well as a chainsaw helmet with mesh face visor whilst using an angle grinder, is a bit over the top. However, years ago whilst using that tool, a small chunk of steel became lodged in my eye, despite the safety glasses. The memory of the eye surgeon poking a needle into my eyeball so as to suck out the metal shard, remains potent. It was the first time in my life, where I passed out. The surgeon was very mean about it. Much easier to be aware of the risks and take some basic precautions.
Needing to catch up on some lost sleep, we took our time with the work. It helped that the weather for most of the week was very nice.
It’s not easy to see in the above photos, but the corrugated metal sits about 15mm (3/5ths of an inch) at its furthest out from the original fibre cement sheets. At several points the razor sharp edges of the steel were exposed near to either corners of the shed. We had to pad out the edge capping. Then the whole lot was painted a consistent colour (Monument).
There still remains a small amount of work to do, such as applying coloured silicone sealant to all of the edges, but that is a job for when we have another run of warm and dry weather. Interestingly, grey and green colours blend pretty nicely into the forest here. Many of the local forest critters have grey fur too of various shades. Looking uphill towards the shed through the garden, looks very pretty.
Alas, all good things come to an end. We had to get back into rodent proofing of the house. The side of the house facing the Cantina shed needed to be done, but we had to figure out how to work around the dog enclosure.
The answer soon became obvious, dismantle the existing dog enclosure fencing, and re-make it in a better configuration. At the big box hardware store, we purchased a section of aluminium pool fencing. Strong stuff.
Four timber posts were removed from the ground. Three new post holes then were dug.
Observant readers will note a red plastic bowl sitting on the steel step. That thing is made of Bakelite, and is so tough. I use it for scooping soil from deep post holes (and also the recent trenches), although I’m sure the manufacturer never intended this use. They don’t make plastic like that any more. It’s considered an industrial plastic nowadays.
About half an hour before the sun went down, the enclosure was reduced in size and the three new timber posts now sat cemented into their final positions. All being well, the job should be finished next week. It’ll be a big improvement visually, as well as functionally, over the old fencing arrangement.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 11am is 11’C (52’F). So far for this year there has been 371.8mm (14.6 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 336.2mm (13.2 inches)
Comments
57 responses to “When the war is over”
deepgreenpermaculture.com.au
Lots of ideas here re dealing with them pesky rodents and other pests. As for meself, I’m slowly getting on top of a minor rat plague initiated by a neighbour feeding the local cockies with bird seed etc off her balcony.
Spring-loaded traps baited with peanut butter works OK for me for so long as the ants don’t get there first.
Looks like a mini moat system will have to be employed to keep them ants at bay.
Baited sticky cardboard pads have worked quite well for me in the last mouse plague in the Hunter. Buy from produce store up here. Bit expensive. You could probably make your own using spray-on adhesive.
Yo, Chris – Who can forget the Great Rat War of 2022? It’s still sung of, in the mead halls. 🙂 The chickens provide the backup chorus. Well, you got an impregnable chicken fortress, out of the deal.
Snakes can also get through the smallest of gaps. And, with all that rat and mouse on the hoof … Now that’s a problem you’ve headed off, well in advance.
At least there’s an end to your disturbed sleep. I was done out of 15 minutes of my afternoon nap (that I’ll never get back), by a “beep, beep, beep” in the parking lot. It “annoyed me greatly.” 🙂
That’s a plump mouse. Well fed. The final battle was epic. It too will be sung about, in the mead halls. Beats Beowulf all to heck.
The cantina shed really looks spiff. A lot of work, but the payoff is spectacular. Sets off the new wood shed, admirably. I see the olive tree is doing well.
I think I see Ruby, peaking out from underneath Ollie. He does provide good cover.
The changes to the dog enclosure sure makes a neater, and tidier impression.
Bakelite was a wonder material, early in the 20th century. They even made jewelry out of it, which is really “fun” and quite collectible.
Red daisies? Who knew? I noticed quit a bit of colorful leaf change, throughout your photos. Maybe that’s one of the reasons fall is my favorite season. So colorful. How are the leaf peepers, this year?
And, just for fun, an old / new discovery in Pompeii.
https://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/extraordinary-discovery-pompeii-doctor-identified-172052199.html
What with advances in science, we’re finding out so much more about the people who didn’t make it out of the city. Lew
Greetings Chris,
It was brave of you to show the old dog enclosure… but brings you closer to the human. Glad that things are making progress there. I wish I had a Bakelite bowl for like purposes – trowels and spades only work when a hole is shallow. For that matter, I wish my parents had kept the Bakelite and stainless steel cutlery we had all through my childhood, which no doubt they got second hand. I’d love it now. They exchanged it for a new uglier set with plastic handles and not all of them have lasted so well.
The flint quarry is awesome. There must have been quite the trading routes and political economy in the pre-colonial times and I know zip about them.
Two more had-been intact jars developed cracks in the dishwasher and another couple in the cupboard were revealed to have them too. I think since we don’t know when these jars were made (but for some there are published dates for the end of manufacture, many decades ago) that will continue to be their fate.
It turns out glass is more delicate than I had known:
https://manual.museum.wa.gov.au/book/export/html/114/
regards
kallianeira.
Hi kallianeira,
I know! Oh the humanity. You may not recall the now deceased Sir Poopy the Swedish Lapphund canine, but he had this clever digging trick useful in the occasional escape. And so the dog fence was constructed in haste to thwart his excavation antics. The steel sections are technically described as ARC steel fencing panels, and we’d gotten them second hand from a local earthworks business which had used them for road works. They’re tough stuff and put an end to the mischief. But does it look good? Opinions may vary here. 😉
That Bakelite bowl was discarded by a former house mate almost three decades ago. Over the years it’s done excellent service as a pet feed bowl, and now in its present task of manual excavations. I’ve not yet encountered a sturdier plastic.
Hey, remember the anodised aluminium cups from forty or fifty years ago? Shocking colours… 🙂
Stone products have been mined in this area for millennia, and there is another nearby indigenous flint quarry: Mount William stone axe quarry. I get the impression that the stone was excavated there, and ground near to here on the harder granite. Makes a lot of sense, and the products were traded far and wide.
Oh poop! That’s no good about your Fowlers bottles, but what do you do? By the way, I don’t use a dishwasher, and instead wash up by hand using our own soap (which is pure soap, not a detergent as you’d perhaps use in your machine). Much gentler on glass and skin. You can feel the difference as detergents give the glass a really dry and unpleasant feel to it. Plus, those machines heat the water to much higher temperatures, thus increasing the differential. Basically, it’s a bad idea for glass. However, all of it will eventually break. You may laugh, but long ago I predicted that western civilisation will fail due to a lack of food preservation systems. Who keeps such things nowadays? Hmm.
Pea soup thick fog here today. Not great for solar power.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Kezza,
🙂 You know, we’ve visited Angelo’s garden when it was open for the Open Garden scheme way back maybe a bit over a decade ago. Thoroughly enjoyable! I’ll add his blog to the links here, and that will provide some decent interweb back links and stuff. Hang on a second… …
They keep changing the software here, and every time something new pops up, the tricks and techniques have to be re-learned even though underneath it’s all the same. Ah, ’tis now done and I’ll check in on Angelo’s blog more regularly. Good to see another local hard at it, and I’m super impressed at the yields he’s produced.
Here goes a new take on the Serenity Prayer: Lord please save us all from neighbours whom feed cockatoos, for they know not what they do! You read it here first, and have my absolute sympathy and understanding. Yup, the things we endure…
So, someone around here feeds the Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, and the mob of about thirty birds made a smash and grab raid on the apples earlier in the year. This was the morning after having dealt with the feral Red Deer who just couldn’t moderate his behaviour. Anyway, the birds were like facing a horde of fast zombies, so I get what you are dealing with. Oh yeah. Good luck!
There are however, some advantages to living in a rural area, and the cockatoos were unharmed, but have not returned, put it that way. I scared the daylights out of them.
The rats and I are now at something of a stalemate, so they can’t bother me too much, and the winter and early spring months sets their upper population limit. Rodents have been on the continent for something like five million years, and that lot know every trick in the book. But neither should they feel comfortable attempting to over run the place. Hmm.
Man, there’s a lot of rats in the city, it’s feral. We used to add our kitchen scraps to the compost bins in the community garden at the end of the road, when living in the big smoke. You may have heard of them, it was the Rushall Garden? I knew the bloke who ran the group at the time, he was the local mechanic and we had some good chats.
Anywhoo, putting the kitchen scraps into the compost bins there was an exciting experience because occasionally rats would ooze out of the bins.
In the bush, I’ve seen snakes diving into compost bins hunting for rodents. You may note that there is no compost bin here! 🙂 And now no longer wonder why…
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Many of the Victorian era buildings I’ve worked on, had those false fronts too. Lot’s of cement urns, fern motifs and other stuff formed part of that. Maybe even a pineapple or two as well. Without the false façade, and polychrome brickwork, they’d look like an old fundamental miners cottage. By the way, did you check out the present census data for Green Horn City? Hardly a bustling metropolis these days. Interesting to see the black and white photo of the century old family in their Sunday best, with horse and cart.
What the heck? The thing is, with the system down here, if he wasn’t a citizen, he’d be deported for doing that if charged, after serving time and/or paying fines. It all comes as rather a shock to the miscreants. I’ve heard rumours that many are enjoying life on the island of Bali. Hmm.
That’s not cool about Elaine Miles. And hey, you may forget, but I’ve been on the wrong side of that show us your papers and ID demand business from authoritas with firepower even in supposedly peaceful old down here. It’s an unnerving experience to put it mildly. And in some third world countries, border guards have done a shake down a farang trick for mad cash routine on me, or else! I must say that a stash of US notes at such moments, smooths many a ruffled feather, but dude, they had machine guns. I took the threats seriously. Hmm. We know not what peace we have.
Your ICEY lot have got the process the whole entire wrong way around because they want to make a public statement. It doesn’t appear to be effective policy when there are easier ways to achieve the same result. Profilers have known to be wrong.
Lucky you and H with the nice run of weather once the fog lifts. Quite pleasant sounding. It was foggy here for most of the day, but somehow managed to get thicker this afternoon. Guess that there is an astounding amount of moisture in the atmosphere right now. Barely half an hour of peak sunlight for the entire day. Probably a bit like that town to the west of you, but along the coastline where the fictional vampires roamed.
The water tanks are full and over flowing. That’s something.
Looks like the zombie apocalypse fixed a lot of social problems in that amusing film you watched. Was it an enjoyable story though? By the way, the title may be a clever rip off a much older film from 1985: Better off dead. A bit silly really, but it had a fun sub plot with a debt collecting newspaper delivery boy who wanted his two dollars and was unrelenting.
I must say, that back in my day, the newsagency took the risk on non paying households, otherwise I never would have gotten out of bed to do the delivery rounds in the first place. I was paid promptly and regularly. The payment system in the film left me with the feeling that sometimes free enterprise as an ideological objective, can be taken too far. 🙂
Man, I know what you mean about the ‘Eat the Rich’ film, for that too appeared to be a bit silly and felt like a B-Grade production. On the other hand, it had some serious shock value, so there was that.
Your land sharks have hopefully smote the wood lice and slugs! It may well be a sign to plant. And the timing sounds pretty good to me, especially as the weather is warming.
That’s the thing with the Great Rat War of 2022, a rodent equilibrium was established which more or less works. Foxes and owls hunt them, and nobody has any particular advantage. The other night I was startled by an owl exploding into a garden bed to nab a rat. Much squealing ensued. The mice in the house is a whole different story. Warmth, protection (for a while) and feed. I had to put a line under this escapade.
Well, yeah, snakes would eventually be a problem with a big enough rodent population. Best if there is a reason that life is easier for the slithery dangerously venomous reptiles, elsewhere. Remember that Snakes on a Plane film? Just sayin…
Parking lots are never quiet places, and it can get worse. Long ago I rented a house opposite a supermarket loading bay. Oh my, who knew deliveries occurred at all hours of the night? And respect for respecting the house non-swear-bear rules! A lot of kids reading, man. 🙂 Truth to tell, sometimes I just wanna say that the mice were fat, well fed f….s! But can’t. Oh well.
Hey, we picked up some of that Bar Keepers Friend you’d mentioned for cleaning up a Pyrex baking dish. Worked a treat, although some baked on organic gunk still remains. It felt like a polishing powder to me, which broke down and also abraded the gunk. Dunno, but the results are good. Thanks for mentioning the stuff.
Thanks for saying that about the mouse battle of 2026! Hehe! A rather fun image and it will sure liven up an otherwise quiet mead hall evening!
Cool, and the cantina shed is looking sharp after it’s refresh. It’s funny you mention the olive, but after the hard prune, the tree has bounced back with solid growth. The plan is to keep them both to a reasonable size. Over shadowing the solar panels was not good for the household.
Ha! Don’t tell anyone, but Ruby is a bit to the left of Ollie in the photo. He’s a big dog. All three are a bit bored today because of the thick fog and constant drizzle. They’d head outdoors and run around, then want back inside.
Had a bit of a sourcing day today. Picked up a gate for the new version of the dog enclosure. More dog kibbles. And one of the induction cookers finally broke, so we’re trialling a different brand. It’s got a noisy fan, but the electronics are less buzzy sounding. It’ll probably last longer. Stocked up on fertiliser, as the greenhouse will have to be cleared out soon. The plan is to replace a lot of the soil in there due to the inability to rotate crops properly. It happens…
Bakelite is a super tough plastic, and despite having been used as a soil scoop for years, it shows little to any signs of wear. Looking into the stuff, some varieties had asbestos added to the blend, as you do – but the plastic was used for light fittings etc. which would have run hot.
Leaf peeping seems to be at a more reasonable level (depending on who you ask up here) this year. Probably a result of the increase in official interest rates, and of course higher fuel costs.
I had a weird thought today speaking of mad cash. If the property market declines, all those investor interest only loans out there, may face margin calls. That could precipitate selling into an over supplied falling market. Just the usual sort of stuff which goes on in my mind. I have some strong doubts that the people who hold such loans, realise this risk. It’s not something commonly known either, but after the thought bubbled to the surface, I had a look into the likelihood. I believe the terms for this mechanism, are in the contracts. You read it here first.
Pompeii keeps revealing all sorts of interesting things. And bummer the article didn’t really go into what metal implements survived.
Cheers
Chris
“The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy, no more, no less” Maxim 29 of the good book ‘The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries’
Naturally there are a number of other maxims about the enemy in the book as well, https://www.ovalkwiki.com/index.php?title=The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries
Words to live by, and a dead tree edition sits along with a copy of The Art of War
Yo, Chris – A lot of towns, dried up and blew away. We had coal towns, in our county, at one time. They were happening places. Opera houses, movie theaters, schools … Given our climate, nothing left now but the cancelation stamps, on old post cards. Quit collectible. Down in our SW, there are “ghost towns,” with quit a bit of the structures still standing.
Fearless Leader has floated the idea of a rebranding. ICE will become NICE (National Immigration and Customs Enforcement.) Yeah, that will fix things. You see what we have to deal with, here.
Our fog, the other day, burned off by about 10AM. Sunshine, but still cooler temperatures and scattered clouds for at least the next week.
The husband in “Better Off Zed,” was a real tool. He was perfectly content, hiding out from the zombies. Heck they had oranges and figs! Rain water off the roof. No more student loan payments or mortgage. Although, as his wife pointed out, they live in a desert. (LA I think.). She finds out he’s been hiding air dropped instructions to get to a safe area, and taking down signals to aircraft. “Send Help,” had the same theme going. She didn’t see any reason to leave the island, where they had everything, pretty much.
We had it a bit rougher, when I was a paperboy. We collected at the end of the month, and turned over the costs to the newspaper. Our bit came out of the tail end of the collections. And, it seemed like every month, someone had done a runner.
I’m going to have to change my ways. I did a bit more investigation into wood lice. Turns out, I’m going to have to water, in the morning 🙁 instead of late evening. I checked the potatoes, last night, and there were a few number under them. Potato half, and a trowel of dirt from underneath, went into a plastic bag and into the dumpster. I deployed more potato traps. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I did a bit more work, in the garden, yesterday. Mostly, on the strawberry bed. Buried a bag of kitchen scraps. I trialed the PVC pipe hoops, and it looks like they’re going to work. 2′ bamboo stakes to put the ends of the pipe into. Once the bird netting goes on, I think they’ll be stable. I also started mixing up soil, to add to the bed. Mushroom and chicken compost with some bone meal. I mix it in a 5 gallon bucket. I’m going to have to lift the plants, and rearrange them. I have no problems transplanting them.
Master Gardeners were here this morning, and I guess their sale was quit successful. They brought me a couple of tomatoes, but, not the variety I like to grow. So, new homes were found for them. I’ll see if I can buy plants, tomorrow.
I usually soak my bowls in dish soap and a splash of white vinegar, for a couple of hours. That takes care of the gunk and, often, most of any stains. But the Barkeeper’s Friend is really great for Pyrex.
Someone mentioned plastic handles on utensils. Bakelite was also used. Those held up, and are quit collectible.
Re: Property markets. Sounds like 2008 all over again.
Full surgeons kits have been found, all over the empire. And, apparently, Pompeii had more than one doctor. 🙂
https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/roman-medicine-the-surgical-kits-found-in-the-house-of-the-surgeon#google_vignette
Once the empire fell, that kind of medical care wouldn’t be seen again, for over a thousand years. At least in the western empire.
One of the most interesting things I’ve run across was a doctor’s tombstone. He was the doctor to workers in one of the public libraries in Rome. LOL. I’ve never worked in a library that had an on-staff doctor. Many Roman doctors were slaves that were scooped up during Rome’s conquest of Greece. I doubt they stayed slaves, long. Lew
Hi, Chris!
Hail to the Emperor! Why is it “Lesser”? It seems terribly bad to me. All those sleepless nights are unforgivable. I remember the Greater Rat War. Would you say that this new victory cost you more than the one in 2022?
Well, Great Emperor, ‘annoyed me greatly’ will have to suffice. It is noble of you to keep things clean.
Have you gone through all your drawers yet?
How enthralling was the Battle of the Bathroom! And there, indeed, is the photographic evidence, should any of us have doubted.
That’s a shrunk Lamington, is it? I tell you what, everything I buy has shrunk. Petrol here has held steady at $4.40 per gallon for 2 weeks, though, up a total of 60 cents since that other war started.
The cantina shed looks so nice. Why do you paint the steel before you put it up? You are so right about the greys and greens of forest and fauna. I read swiftly past the eyeball and the needle part. I might pass out, too. Where are my smelling salts?!
Aluminum pool fencing – I didn’t know about that stuff; neat (are you sure that’s not “aluminium”?). I have been digging holes in the bank in the front yard to plant some astilbe plants (if they ever get here). They like a lot of shade and the deer don’t eat them. What I have encountered in digging is 10% soil, 10% tree roots, and 80% rocks, large and small – I kid you not. It is taking me forever to dig 3 holes. I got out my mattock/pick and that wasn’t enough, so I had to get out an industrial size tire iron (pronounced here as “tahr ahrn”). I’ll just have to replace all the soil. It was your Bakelite bowl that set me off . . .
Thank you for the flowers! I had to cut back my lavender as those ferocious temperatures last winter killed a good bit of it. Could that be a chrysanthemum (ha! A Chrys flower!)? I have the same blackberry flowers now, though they are not confused. Lovely salvia, and I forgot you had leaf change.
From last week:
It is surprising what a tiny (ours is) local hardware store can carry. And then there is the delight of having an employee in every aisle (crowded though it gets) to help you find things.
Twenty years! Lordy, Tufty the Squirrel may outlive me. Today I forgot to buy the kinds of walnuts she likes . . .
Mama mia! Who ever knew there were neck fans? That man talked so fast I had to just jump to the end and see which was best. Well, somthing to keep in mind.
Pam
Chris,
Friday was preparing things for the weekend. The weekend was the carving group’s spring event. Aka the rendezvous, because traditionally it was held outdoors. Now it is indoors at the same venue that hosts the September show. Friday I suddenly realized that I was supposed to teach a session Saturday afternoon. Hmmmm, I knew what I wanted to teach, but it is always best to have an example for the class. Example got prepared.
Oh, yeah, the class. Well, it is possible to buy ice cream in a bag of a dozen individually packaged servings. The individual servings include an oddly shaped piece of wood to use as a “spoon”. They don’t work. I’ve been saving them up. The class was to sand them smooth, draw a geometric design on it. Or a bird or hearts or whatever, then woodburn it. It was surprisingly fun.
Turnout was the best we’ve had since before the unnamable virus. We are now holding the event 3 weeks earlier than in the past. After two days of being in a room with 30 people, I am “peopled out” today.
Killian and his human took Avalanche for the weekend. Then we met up this morning for a 6km walk. After several days of wind and occasional rain showers, today was sunny and pleasant. We got probably 3mm of rain here, maybe 4mm all told over several days. Other areas of town got a lot more.
The cantina shed looks very good. As the color you painted it is “monument”, does that mean that you now have a monumental cantina shed? Curious minds need to know these things.
I see. Three weeks of disturbed sleep really fibonaccied you off. Yeah, that’s the word you were looking for, I’m certain. Past tense of fibonacci.
I’m equally certain that you were “peeved off” when awakened at 3:00 a.m. Quite rudely awakened also, as that was the second time that night. Entirely uncalled for in my book. Cheeky rodents anyhow.
Another question arises, however. UGG boots? Is that what those of us with Neanderthal ancestry and tendencies call boots when they need to be worn when rudely awakened in the wee hours of pitch blackness? And the reply is “UGG. Boots. Go swat mouses.” So forever after they are called Ugg boots.
Of course, as rats eventually got involved in the Lesser Mouse War of 2026, that has to mean something. Maybe the title needs changing. The Lesser Mouse War of 2026: The First Rat Rebellion. Some quirky minds might actually think that the entire thing was the idea of the rats, and that the rats put the mice up to it before joining in. Beware lest the rats and mice enlist the aid of the rabbits during their next incursion.
The potatoes I planted are doing very well. More popping out of the ground daily. The zucchini are beginning to pop also. And I noticed some carrots are bravely venturing forth today. Young Neighbor and I are planning another workday later this week. She has no prior gardening experience, so should be rather surprised to see how much has changed since our last workday.
Meanwhile, Tuesday I need to enclose the potato/zucchini area. The Dame wants to traipse through there with regularity. I also had to chase her away from trying to nibble on potato leaves today.
Wasn’t there a Sherlock Holmes story entitled “The Case of the Shrinking Lamington”?
That picture of Ruby and Ollie admiring the work was very good. Ollie blended in well, I thought. Then Ruby was extremely well hidden. Nicely done.
DJSpo
Rats and compost bins. Made for each other. I think I have got a pair of powerful owls around here. Hoping that they will help take out the pesky rats.
Hi Kezza,
It’s the perfect crime isn’t it? The rats put on their midnight garb, and go and do a smash and grab on the fermenting kitchen scraps. Who’s to know who done it? And who is brave enough to report the rodent miscreants? Could be like heading to the pub for a big night out for the rats given the fermentation process?
Go the Powerful Owls, and whilst they are at it, hope they nab a couple of marauding possums too.
Those big birds do a once a year sweep through the area here too, so fingers crossed they clean up your rodents. Don’t be surprised by the results. They leave a surprising mess.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Chaos!
And hope you have not been overly troubled by the good folks at Control?
Thanks for the amusing list of truths. My personal favourite was: #42 “They’ll never expect this” means “I want to try something stupid
It’s personally a very accurate take on the theory of Modern Monetary Policy.
And yah! We got this rodent biz… 😉
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
Generally it’s an indication that my involvement in the day to day unpleasantness was not as great as the former incident.
Pam, rats hunt mice. It’s filthy. They’re not on the same team at all. I had an inkling this was going on after several late night squeals of horror from beneath the floor. And then there were the Reddit forums providing real world experiences of people who kept both rats and mice. It’s not pretty reading.
If rodent activity remains at this level, then the lesser war is of a shorter duration. However! Last night an ill fated attempt to tunnel under the house was made. The stainless steel protective mesh the rat encountered was too much.
Thank you, and there’s probably a few kids reading, so we have to keep things clean. Still, maybe not that clean where you didn’t understand the less filtered words!
What? Oh my! Hadn’t thought of the drawers. Thanks for that new nightmare… Already a few days ago we discovered that they’d been in the box with the spare light bulbs and chewed upon some cardboard. Clearly they too are unhappy with the LED bulbs.
Well, there’s talk, and then there’s ‘here the mouse is on the fly swat’. The rodent had been in a good paddock, put it that way. Honestly, Sandra looked at me wielding the plastic instrument and was very dubious until there were results. Whomever came up with the design, knew what they were doing.
It is shrunk, usually they’re taller. Apparently the business has been sold. At least the quality remains good, and do I, Sandra and the dogs need the extra cake anywhoo? It’s divvied up five ways, so I was candidly left reaching for the missing chunks.
Youch. Sorry to say it, but I don’t believe that fuel prices will return to where not all that long ago. For those of us who live a frugal life, it’s probably not that big of an issue. Others, well, they’ll eventually come to terms with the new normal. What do you reckon about the direction of fuel prices?
Pam, that’s the genius of the steel sheets. They are supplied pre-painted in a colour of your choosing. 🙂 The painting we did, was just touch ups, and of course to the additional trim. And that eye surgeon was very mean to me. Woozily recovering I was told: ‘there’s the door’. Hmm.
There’s only been one other time when I passed out. How about you? Have you ever experienced what seems to me like brain overload and shut down?
Honestly I worked late tonight and am a bit pressed for time! 😉 We call it Aluminium down here and pronounce it: “Al-Ooo-Min-Ee-Um”. I’m curious as to how it sounds in your part of the world?
Sorry about mentioning the Bakelite bowl, but it is really good. 😉 That’s a proper digging tool the tire iron, which is known as a ‘house wrecking bar’ or ‘crow bar’, although it’s hard to imagine why anyone would have issues with the Corvidae family of birds. Hope you managed to get the holes dug in the end?
Yeah, sad, but the lavender wouldn’t have liked your glacial winter. The flower may be a chrysanthemum! Dunno. It was a free give away plant at a nursery which closed up years ago.
Yes, I too enjoy having knowledgeable people to assist with such things. Unless they’re recommending the wrong style of chainsaw chain.
🙂 Tufty is a lady, and as such is ageless. Oh poop! Hope the little critter doesn’t come and get you for that oversight.
He’s a fast talker, but a true citizen scientist. If you want to see how products work in the real world – he’s the dude.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Did you get a good turn out for the spring event, and more importantly, what did you make for the class? Ah, I see, you took an everyday item, and made it interesting! It sounds fun, and takes things down a notch by not using an expensive block of timber. Nice thinking. Respect.
Man, I’d be peopled out after that as well. My social batteries also have a limited capacity, and dunno about you, but I’m in awe of extroverts. Probably uses up a bit of brain capacity being able to do such stuff, although that’s only what I’m telling myself…
4mm of rain, only a few weeks before the commencement of summer, is a thing of greatness. Hope you get some further rain. Yesterday was pea soup fog, today at least was merely thickly cloudy – a good name for a punk band, no? 🙂
Yes, why not? The colour has an almost regal-like air to it don’t you reckon? A national monument perhaps? It less sophisticated days, it was described as ‘woodland grey’.
Oh I approve of the grammatical correctness, and we sincerely hope that the lesser rodent war is now in the past. Although an attempt to dig under the house last night was thwarted by the outer perimeter defences.
Ugg! All Neanderthals when first stepping out into society, must have ready to hand, some comfy sheepskin Ugg boots. Think of it is as a formal acknowledgement of their peers, who have to navigate a world of the lesser so called Sapiens. If you know, you know.
Ha! The First Rat Rebellion. Very funny. Thanks for the laughs. You know what man, I’ve been wondering now whether the town over in the west of this continent with the mouse plague, somehow poisoned all of their rats prior to this situation? You never know. There’s always some reason for a lack of balance. I’d be almost sure that rats raid rabbit burrows. It’s feral out there.
Oh yeah, your neighbour is in for a treat seeing how the garden has grown so rapidly. Good stuff, and I’m a fan of both potatoes and zucchini.
Dame Avalanche. Here’s some advice down under style about that sampling of the leaves: Don’t do it mate!
No, sorry, I think it was the Lamington of the Baskervilles, and other lesser bakery adventures!
🙂 Ruby is there in the photo, just.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
That town in Oregon now apparently has a single household. Probably not enough taxes revenue there to pay for the library. Actually are property taxes levied on unincorporated areas? Yeah, the winter storms and rain would be pretty hard on the timber buildings if they weren’t maintained, especially at that elevation. The winters there would be cold.
It’s pretty cold here tonight as the skies cleared. The stars are quite pretty out there. Yesterday was like pea soup thick fog all day, and today was only just gloomy due to the thick clouds. The house batteries are merrily draining. Fingers crossed for some sun in the next few days. Did paid work all day, and finished late.
Hehe! Go on, if it wasn’t serious, the rebranding would be funny. I hear you man, but there does appear to be some self awareness behind that change.
The cooler temperatures for you at least mean that you don’t have to water as much. How are the seedlings enjoying the milder weather?
Send Help appeared to me to be a classic revenge, then control tale. Don’t annoy her, was my thoughts after watching the trailer. 🙂 That’s not good about the hiding of the instructions – I’d noticed the yellow pamphlets in the trailer, and wondered about those. There was some noticeable tension between the couple in the film trailer, which technically could be described as a lack of goal congruence. Not much rainfall in that area… Do you have any spoilers for me?
Whoa! Really? That’s a rough system, yup. The newsagent paid me in cash on a Saturday morning without fail at an agreed amount. I did fill in shifts too when the other kids failed to turn up for whatever reason. The thought of having to do the debt collection work as well as the delivery seems a tad exploitative. I’d have told them to go and shove the job under those circumstances, but then I had the chemist round in the afternoons to fall back on. You’d be in a hard spot though there with the collections, because I dunno, did you have any control over the sales in the first place? Like who took the orders for the deliveries?
Ha! Ah, change is always hard 🙂 , and yeah, water in the mornings is best for soil temperature reasons too. When the sun shines, the dampened soil warms back up again after being doused with cold water. At night, not so much. I’ll be interested to hear if you observe that the plants grow faster with the change in watering schedule?
Oh that’s hard with the potatoes being err, munched by the wood lice (presumably that is what you meant, maybe?) Go the potato traps. And hey, we removed all of the aphid affected green mustard plants, and fed them to the chickens. By the way, I noticed that bags of the Sea-stuff fertiliser were down to only a few left yesterday. Hmm.
Respect! Strawberries are the number one target for every critter, and they need protection. My gut feeling is that the arrangement will work, as long as the deer don’t stomp the bird mesh. I do that lifting with the Alpine strawberries and they don’t seem to notice, and in fact bloom after a good soil feed. A fine mix of ingredients too.
Oh fertiliser, yeah, the greenhouse will be cleaned out this week some time, maybe. Might even turn the pressure washer onto the polycarbonate sheeting.
Which variety of tomato were you after this year?
Ah, I see, dish soap is a detergent. Haven’t tried the vinegar. An interesting thought. Hmm. We soak the pyrex dishes in soapy water for while too prior to cleaning them, but that stuff you mentioned is the whole next level of cleaning. Very impressive.
I can see that about using Bakelite for plastic handles. It really is a very tough material, unlike most plastic compounds in use nowadays.
My thinking was more along the sad fall of the managed funds and the people who used leverage to purchase them in the lead up to the Great Depression.
I’d not appreciated before that the ancient Roman’s had such high tech medical kits. The thought of high-carbon steel blades attached to a bronze handle for a scalpel, is pretty advanced materials science. It’s not as if carbon steel (a product I use, just sayin…) is an easy to manufacture material due to the energy intensity. I must say that the thought of a cautery iron being applied to a bleeding wound, is a painful experience. Still, we know where the lack of treatment would have lead.
I’ve not worked anywhere which had an in-house doctor either. I’ve heard rumours that that profession tends to restrict supply of practitioners. Economics 101 suggests that the approach will keep salaries high. I doubt they stayed slaves for very long either, it would have been a prized skill in those days.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – You might find this article interesting, on growing coffee near an unexpected urban area. I bet it’s pricey.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/16/travel/hong-kong-coffee-beans-intl-hnk-dst
Counties have expenses, too. 🙂 So, taxes are levied on properties, outside town boundaries.
Our high yesterday was 68F (20C). Our overnight low was 46F (7.77C.) Our forecast high for today is 66F. We may hit 80F, day after tomorrow. The chard seedlings seem to be a little stalled. Not warm enough?
Spoilers: “Better Off Zed.” Wife ends up a zombie, and husband had to kill her. He’s moaning over her body, when a militia like group comes through, thinks he’s a zombie, and shoots him dead.
We’ve always been good at exploitive child labor 🙂 . Well, a person could just call in and order the newspaper, which would filter down to the carriers. But, every so often we were given lists of new move ins, to our routes, to go out and try and get them to subscribe. Sometimes, there would be prizes, for getting so many subscriptions. The one I remember is, a trip to the Seattle World’s Fair. I ended up winning three. I went twice, and brought my younger brother along, once.
I usually grow Sungold cherry tomatoes. And, Sweet 100s.
I saw an interesting article on beans, yesterday.
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/18/nx-s1-5768189/beans-fiber-diet-legumes
Pinto bean yoghurt? Really? Any-who, I hadn’t had any beans in awhile, so last night I made a sort of hummus. I took a can of garbanzo beans and microwaved them for a few minutes to soften them up, a bit. I then smashed them up with a dough cutter. I added diced tomato, garlic, a bit of olive oil, diced pre-heated frozen broccoli, and plane yoghurt. Mixed it all together and scooped it up with chips. Tasty.
Your fluffy collective may find this article interesting, about an archaeological find, in your country.
https://www.the-messenger.com/news/national/article_01232bf3-62a3-5b59-af22-63c45d45ee1d.html
Lew
Hi Chris,
Naw, Control is always fun to bug, just messing up their cones of silence does most of the trick, and that is just for the fun of it, since I am a freelancer, not directly connected to either Control or KAOS, but more of a light grey hat player with the fun TASK.to
Chris:
Wow, I remember the Rat War, but those mice seemed to me to be outdoing them, what with being right there with you in the house, even in bed, probably. Excellent news about the mesh.
I think you have a much bigger, meaner rat breed than out here in these woods. We have cute, small wood rats. They couldn’t take on a mouse.
I just looked at the mouse on the flyswatter again. I think maybe your mice are bigger, too. Gave him a nice funeral, did you? Next-of-kin invited and all that.
Maybe they have a new baker? Good Lamington bakers are hard to come by.
I don’t reckon anything about fuel prices. It’s like interest rates, one just never knows what tricks they have up their little sleevies.
Oh, the steel sheets come painted. That’s nifty.
When I was a youngster, and then into my teens, I passed out every time I was given a shot. My mother used to warn a new doctor ahead of time. Luckily, I outgrew it. I did fall down some steps and cracked my arm one time. That caused a brief blackout. Boy did that smart. Speaking of which -wasn’t Get Smart a hoot? “Sorry about that, Chief.”
A – lue – min – um. Accent on the lue.
I knew it was a crow bar (or digging bar). I never thought about the “crow”; I love crows. Maybe because the bars are always black? Or maybe it’s French. One never knows when a word is going to turn out to be French, and I’m only being slightly facetious.
I haven’t finished my holes yet. I got tied up with other things, a lot of which was watering; 98F today (again) (36.7C). Pickle the squirrel was playing in a sprinkler and all sorts of birds were flying through it.
Pam
Chris,
Today nearly got my brain back to what passes for normal. Or at least the typical abnormal. 😉 Other than our usual walk, I didn’t have to go anywhere. Or interact with any humans. Also got a lot of work done. We had an outbreak of cheatgrass in the back yard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromus_tectorum
Once it dries out during the summer, the seeds and other bits stick to everything and can wreak havoc on dogs. And clothing, especially socks. I finally got the last of it pulled from the back today. It has taken several sessions to do this.
After that was done, I got out my poles and a small sledge and some fencing. The veggie patch has now been enclosed. Nosy Huskies can no longer get curious about eating potato leaves. Strangely, she has no interest whatsoever in the tomato plants.
Merely Thickly Cloudy? Awesome name for a band. Any band with that name would have to cover Purple Rain, wouldn’t it? And the phrase describes perfectly the gray weather that is dominant here in the winter. Or, to change the lyrics from an Eagles song:
Don’t your feet get cold in the wintertime
The sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine
It’s merely thickly cloudy once again and again.
Okay. The monument color demands a monument. If not a national monument, at least a Fernglade monument. Perhaps to commemorate the most recent victory in the rodent wars. Dangerously, I was thinking about said rodent wars earlier today. Are these going to be devastating like the 30 Years War in Europe in the 1600s? Or will it be multigenerational, like the Hundred Years War between England and France in the 1300s and 1400s? Or maybe, to keep to the Star Wars theme, the third altercation might have some mercenaries: “Return of the Dingoes”. Or maybe “Revenge of the Wombats”, suggesting perhaps that the wombats eventually get entirely disgusted with the rodents and take matters into their own, er, um, paws.
Concrete. The superb outer perimeter defense. Worth its weight in gold during attempted rodent incursions.
Far out! The Lamington of the Baskervilles. Good one.
DJSpo
Hey Chris,
You could make a movie out of this. “Hunger Games: Revenge on the Rodents”.
It reminded of one time I was living in a small rented townhouse in South Yarra and got woken up in the middle of the night thinking the place was being burgled. Turns out it was a single solitary mouse trying to eat its way into a packet of pasta. That crinkly plastic wrapping makes a hell of a noise.
I’ve given up trying to kill the rats around here. You poison one lot and a new lot shows up straight away. Apparently, rats are territorial, so I figure it’s best to let one family set up shop and chase the others away. Fortunately, they don’t get into the house (touch wood), and don’t seem to eat much in the garden except the occasional tomato.
Cheers,
Simon
Hi Chaos,
Ah, the fictional character ‘Dexter’ created by the author Jeff Lindsay, who we should all acknowledge is a complete psychopath (the character not the author). Yeah, I’d say that’s a fair judgement. Anywhoo, the protagonists antics amuse us all the same, whether they be readers or viewers – it’s all the same, except the – spoiler alert – brother survived to the final book, unlike the TV series.
What were saying again? Oh yeah, Dex. Right! At one point in the series, suffering from a bout of megalomania, it’s a thing for such folks, he voices the opinion: “I can control everything!”
It’s a big call that claim, and possibly could provide enough material for an entire psychological symposium. Hopefully the coffee at such an event was not the horrid drip filter stuff usually provided.
Life being somewhat too short for bad coffee.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
The Greater Rat War of 2022, involved around 22 rats, maybe more. All sadly deceased, maybe. It was a lot, and Dame Plum pitched in too and helped out. We both ended up with worms, which was unpleasant. All very hands on, but went on for months as every access hole to the chicken enclosure was closed. I learned to respect them, yup.
That mouse dream was an horrendous experience, and all it did was fuel the overall annoyance. Not only was restful slumber rejected outright by the mice as a shaky philosophy, but what snooze I did get was also invaded. Thus the feelings of extreme displeasure they experienced on the wrong end of the fly swat that night.
The plan is to get back onto the rodent proofing of the house, but it’s a job which is integrated into other projects now due to the mass relocating of materials. The pace will slow from here, unless something goes horribly wrong and there is an intruder alert. We’ll see. Fingers crossed. 🙂
Pam, the rats are big here, frighteningly so. And to experience a swarm of them, is the stuff of nightmares out of the Black Plague era. Whoa! I’ll probably have nightmares tonight. We’ve got bush rats too, but this other lot are recent (relatively speaking) immigrants from Europe.
Yeah, the mice were much larger than I’d expected too. The living is good here, and I can only blame myself for over twenty years of hauling massive quantities of minerals and organic matter up here for the soil improvement. Brought this poop down on my own head, yup.
Now I feel a bit bad, look, the toilet was just there, it being the bathroom and stuff, and the battle was raging… Is it a bad thing to have done so? Truthfully I began to fret a bit, what if the dead mice produced a litter in the worm farm sewage system? Far out…
They tell me that good help is hard to come by, and I agree with that saying. Are there bakeries in your part of the world?
I have it on good authority that the Elder Ones from the land of Faery, are hard at it tweaking the noses of the banksters and politicians supporting this big drive down the road to debt in over sized vehicles effort. They do apparently feel the scratchy noses, but pretend not to notice the continual discomfiture. And all the while, the fairies are disturbing the sleep of the bond traders, so that when they go to work, they’re irritated before the first drip filter coffee substitution (also arranged by the other worldly folks) is even noticed. A proper, well prepared latte espresso with quality milk, I don’t think so, here’s this mud thing drink instead. We’re talking maximum annoyance factor. With all that going on, I’m hardly surprised that bond yields are going up around the so called industrial economies. You read it here first, and now you know why it’s happening. 😉
Yeah, those corrugated steel sheets are pretty good stuff. Source quality steel for slightly higher costs, and the paint wont fade over time.
Sorry to hear that about your experience. You’d be no good at donating blood then, I’d imagine. Out of respect for you, I will not mention some of the horrendous moments enjoyed doing that activity long ago. I hear you though, and some activities just don’t feel right to me either, like riding a motorcycle over the West Gate Bridge and being stopped in heavy traffic. You can feel the bridge moving up and down. In 1974 I believe a section fell rather further than anyone anticipated.
🙂 Get Smart was pretty funny, and I loved that show. Apparently a lot of the show was ad-libbed. You’d have to be on your toes. I’d probably: Miss it, by that much!
Ah, I can hear the spoken word in my mind. Thanks.
Lovely birds, and I’m on very good terms with the local magpie family who are of the same species – there are five of them at the moment. Super clever avians. Maybe Latin, given the scientific name? Dunno. A mystery!
Far out, that’s warm for this early in the season. Good to see that Pickle was enjoying the sprinkler without getting into a pickle. Do you leave some water out for the birds in such hot weather?
Any signs of a cool change soon in the forecast?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Thanks for the laughs, and hey, who can forget the famous Douglas Adams line: “We have normality. I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can’t cope with is therefore your own problem.” The Arthur quote about not listening is also a goodie, which I often recall in relation to my grandfather!
Your cheatgrass piqued the curiosity. Apparently difficult to harvest, but the seeds are edible. A lot of dry material though which could be a fire hazard. We have a lot of ground cover species which stick to the dogs fur, and it’s hardly a surprise that they spread. A few of them are local varieties too. Plants are pretty clever at getting us animals to do their heavy lifting.
Oh poor Dame Avalanche being excluded from her natural hunting zone, AKA the garden beds. Tomato leaves have an aroma which potato leaves don’t. Quite strong smelling, and dogs have sensitive noses. You’ve got me wondering whether the leaves are toxic for dogs. Some of the local critters here can eat the leaves, which is a nuisance. Ook! Hope the Dame is OK, and it’s probably a good idea to have some charcoal in powdered form for such moments. Dogs…
What a lovely song that is. Conjures up thoughts of the old west, ridin’ alone, chasin’ dreams which will come to naught, especially when the Husky of reality is snoozing away in the shade on hot days. Recorded in London apparently! Very far roughly west of Texas, which is inevitably the case anywhere when on a spherical planet.
The Eagles were right too, for ’twas another gloomy day down under. A good day for paid work. The three dogs are beyond bored at this stage, after having been stuck inside for days. The rain at times felt icy. Brr! Anywhoo, the forecast for tomorrow suggests some sun, we’ll see. Just between you and I, not having the dog enclosure fencing in place has been a bit of a nuisance. Gotta get onto that job.
You’d imagine that after the Norman Conquest of 1066, the two Kindoms (!) would be best friends forever. But no, that didn’t happen, it was all too close for comfort, and so they plunged into a century of blood thirsty activity to prove their differences, which was rudely interrupted by no less than Black Plague. I’ll bet soldiers daily pay rate and rider, had to rise after that incident?
Yeah, the plan is to get around the whole house with cement trenches, and that should do it. At the side and rear of the house are a lot of large-ish rocks and they’ll have to go somewhere. No point double handling them all, and so other projects have to happen at the same time.
🙂 One does their best to amuse!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Simon,
That’s funny, and hey after having read so many articles where the local property market was described as: ‘The Hunger Games’, I had to watch this film in order to form a coherent opinion. The first instalment was enough to get the general vibe of the series. Donald Sutherland was suitably sleazy and Machiavellian. Jennifer Lawrence played a suitably focused and capable INTJ. But there was a lot of talk about hunger and poverty, however nobody really looked as if they’d skipped twenty meals or so.
And for that matter, the same could be said about the mice and rats here. 🙂
But like your experience with the packet of pasta, plastic wrapping being toothed apart by rodents, is very hard to sleep through. Yup, if you know, you know – and you know. Man, you should have heard the squeals of horror when the rats discovered the mice nests in the house wall frame. Blood curdling, although being eaten alive is perhaps a more difficult experience to endure than ending up with a sleep deficit.
That’s a most excellent realisation too. Respect. It’s not a battle you can win. Why try? And I approve of your chicken feeder device. It’s good, but even so, the rats will consume the chook poop. Best to make their lives difficult, and hope that the chickens discover a rats nest. At such moments you acknowledge the reality, that chickens are definitely not vegetarians!
Hope you’re doing good man and that your garden is enjoying the plentiful regular rainfall! 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
You’re not wrong about the coffee beans there being pricey. The weird thing about coffee plants is that they want a certain narrow band of latitude (sub tropics to tropics), but at altitude, which would push the climate much further north and south than the latitude would suggest. Long ago I planted a shrub, and it thrived in the mountainous climate, but far out, one brief snowfall and the shrub died. It was brutal. I’d imagine that frosts would be seriously hard on those plants as well.
Tea Camellia is much easier and hardier. And speaking of which, I need to get around to planting those seeds. So many things to do…
Did paid work today, and finished up sort of late. Spent some time considering the goobermints new payroll requirements, and I just wonder because of the onerous red tape for a basic task which most businesses have to do, if the authoritas comprehend that sometimes people need a break from work? No. They probably don’t, and the cynic in me wonders whether the penalties for getting the system wrong are a revenue raising idea for them? Dunno. Crazy stuff. Ours is but to endure.
Ah, I see, so a county is a larger area which presumably may capture several small towns? Hmm. Might be something similar to the council areas down here with the next level up being the state goobers. We’ve got two, whereas you have three layers, maybe? City – County – State. Plus the Federal folks, same as here. Please correct me if I’m wrong there.
Most areas in this state are picked up by a council zone, but I am aware of an off shore island which sort of falls outside that arrangement. Living there would be an expensive proposition due to the need to use the barge (or ferry) to get any materials across. A difficult proposition. You’ve got heaps of islands in Puget Sound, I’d imagine some of the larger ones have some interesting places.
It barely made 12’C / 54’F here today, and was all rather gloomy. So your weather sounds pretty nice to my reading ears. But at least today here was better than yesterday, which itself was an improvement on Monday. The house batteries have not been fully charged since Saturday, although they’ve got enough juice remaining in them that there is no urgency (yet!) to crack out the generator.
Less than a week and a half to the annual solar danger zone! I’m hoping that the dozen additional panels will assist matters, but we’ll see how it goes. Ook!
Ha! Thanks for the film spoilers, and that’s a great ending, quite fitting really with a nice twisty of irony. Man, I know what my grandfather would have called the bloke. 😉
Probably not as bad as being forced to climb up chimneys and clean them as an orphan. If the mortality rate for that work was anything to go by, it was toxic and deadly work. The stories of the early textile mills sounded alarmingly dangerous too. Easy to become injured in such a workspace.
Wow! Getting out there, and hitting the streets to push newspaper sales would teach a person all sorts of skills and people experiences. Well done you, and it’s pure incentive that prizes up for grabs concept. We don’t really teach young folks those sorts of entrepreneurial skills, quite the opposite really. I’m not sure at a young age I could have done that sales work you did, but I’m not really wired for that activity, even when conditions are optimal. Everyone has their kryptonite. Still, I was assertive enough to get paid for work from a very young age. Your different experience there is fascinating.
Ah, yes, you’ve mentioned the Sungold cherry tomatoes before, and they do seem rather similar to Barry’s Crazy Yellow variety which is a bit weedy here. A good thing… Another fine choice there with the Sweet 100 tomato. I reckon both will do well where you are, and I get why you prefer them. Some images of the sweet 100 had a sort of oval shape to the fruit, and that reminded me of the fruit of the Kangaroo Apple shrub which is also of the Solanum family of plants.
This can’t be accidental. Did you know that beans are being recommended down here as well? Interestingly too, they’re pushing canned varieties, which are easier than the dried sorts, which have to be soaked ahead of time. Ah, the article also mentioned the Aussie cartoon Bluey, about the Blue Heeler dog and family. Never watched it, but it seems very popular. One of the characters apparently is a red Kelpie, named Rusty. A good name for a dog don’t you reckon? There is a lot to like about the humble pulse / bean.
I’m not convinced either about the Pinto bean yoghurt. Doesn’t sound right to me. 🙂 Go the hummus though, and it’d appreciate the garlic addition you made for sure. Nice addition of the chips too!
Thanks for the lovely article on the ancient dingo burial. As far as I can understand the situation, the indigenous folks had a relationship with all of the animals on country. Members of the tribe would have a totem animal, and it’d be their responsibility to ensure conditions throughout the area were good for the critter. And they’d have equal familial standing too from what I believe. Although I’d imagine that dingoes could get up to some embarrassing mischief, if the dogs I’ve known over the years are any guide. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis cont…
Almost forgot to mention it, but a local church is up for sale: Local church
Looks to me as if they just walked out one day.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Not exactly the rat wars, but … My second room mate, in my first apartment (an old Victorian that had been divided) was James Brown. He was a skinny, short ginger with John Lennon glasses. One night, I woke to a terrible commotion. There was James Brown, standing on a dresser, dressed only in his skivvy’s. Pounding on the wall with a coat hanger. “Squirrels are dancing in the walls!” 🙂 I don’t remember how that all resolved itself.
Payrolls. Constantly shifting targets, as far as getting them right.
We have city, unincorporated areas (overseen by the county), the county, state and federal government. Each entity has its hand out. Lenocracy at its finest, for the most part. Though they all provide some services.
All those islands have their very own county! 🙂
https://w.wiki/Nmqj
We also have another island county, San Juan.
https://w.wiki/Nmr6
Our high yesterday was 64F (17.77C). Our overnight low was 50F (10C). Our forecast high for today is 72F. Our solar is booming along. Sunset time is almost 9PM. Maybe we could put a giant mirror, in space, and bounce you some of our solar energy? Seems like a good idea. What could possible go wrong? 🙂
Last night, I watched the last episode of the “Father Brown Mysteries.” There will be a season 14. Then I started into the first season of “It: Welcome to Derry.” It’s a real twist and turn plot. Set mostly in the 1950s.
And, before one was a paper boy, there were always “the Barry fields” to make money during the summer. A ratty old school bus would show up at the local school, and haul us all out to the fields. Mostly on Suave Island, which is an island in the Columbia River. We followed the crops. Strawberries, green beans and then blueberries. You were paid on the spot, at the end of the day, based on how many flats you picked.
I’d be happy if they taught kids how to balance a check book, and the dangers of credit cards. Besides a few other useful financial things. It’s amazing how many people I know, who don’t religiously balance their check books.
Well, last evening, I thinned out the chard. It’s a bit tricky to pull some seedlings, and not disturb the rest. Then I pulled all the blossoms off a German Chamomile. They’re on a plate, drying in the window. I then pulled up the plant, to make room for the tomatoes. No worries. There are two other Chamomile, coming on. I then prepared the soil, for the small clutch of Mammoth Sunflowers, I like to grow. It’s in a corner of the strawberry patch, next to a bird house I can anchor it to. Swallows are in residence. 🙂 I soaked the seeds, overnight, and planted them this morning. I just want three, so, I planted two seeds in three hills.
I saw an interesting article about grocery stores, and how people are shifting their buying habits.
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/11/nx-s1-5716202/discount-groceries-aldi-food-affordability
By the way, we do not have that German grocery store, in our state. Doesn’t look like they have one planned, any time soon.
I trialed something new, for dinner. The same brand that does the okra / tomato and seasoned lima beans, also does a seasoned tinned cabbage. Also from the dollar + store. I added peas, broccoli and garlic. It was pretty tasty, but not as tasty as the other two.
Dogs. Man’s best friend. For a long time. Except when they’re not. 🙁 I had Dawg down at the Club, yesterday, I was checking out the pantry, and didn’t have my eye on her. She pooped on the floor! She has never done that before. Luckily, easy to pick up. And I always keep a couple of bags in my back pocket. Lew
Chris:
That was a Great War. I hadn’t remembered that it went on so long. Twenty-two rats. Ook. I wonder what the next war will be.
Whoa! No nightmares! Think of great-sized lamingtons, not you-know-whats.
Oh, yes – we have bakeries here, several, I think. I haven’t been to any of them as they aren’t gluten-free and I can’t have the sugar anyway; I don’t mind. I bake what I can at home.
I read it here first, and I thank you much! You may have hit the nail on the head. I’m glad I no longer know any banksters, politicians, or bond traders. Hmm, I can’t remember if I ever knew a bond trader.
I used to leave water out for the animals in hot weather and in frozen-water weather. I have not been doing so because I figure it draws them close to where the food is growing. There is a pond right behind us. Certainly the birds can easily reach it.
I heard thunder a little while ago; rain is forecast. And the temps should be dropping by 25 to 30 degrees F. Yay!
I had a tasty apple the other day. It is called an Opal apple. I looked to see if I might purchase a small tree to go with the Pink Lady. It turns out that it is quite a rare apple tree and generally can’t be bought, or at least only for a very high price. Ah – here we go:
Opal apples in the U.S. are grown exclusively by FirstFruits Farms in Southeastern Washington State (specifically in the town of Prescott). Because Opal is a strictly controlled “club” apple, distribution rights are tightly managed. While the variety was originally developed in the Czech Republic and is cultivated in several European countries (like Italy, Spain, and Germany), commercial availability in North America comes solely from this specific Washington orchard.
Pam
Chris,
That “normality” line Adams came up with was awesome. It’s unfortunate that it gets overshadowed by a lot of the other events. It captures a lot of truth. And Arthur’s quote? I use that a lot. “Why, what did she say?” Arthur’s “I don’t know, I wasn’t listening!” was perfectly written and is eminently useful.
Yes, I’d heard that cheatgrass seeds are edible. They are extremely hard to get at. That grass variety starts out green and lush, grows about a foot tall, produces seeds then dries out. It should all be dry in this area within another 10 days, maybe 2 weeks. That will provide a LOT of burnable material. It burns fast and it burns hot.
Wow. Some of the dryland grasses in the yard are already going dormant for the summer. One of the spruce trees is beginning to look thirsty, too. I watered the dryland grasses this evening. The spruce trees will get their watering in the morning. There have already been a few brushfires in the desert areas between here and Toppenish.
Tomato leaves are not good for dogs. Potato leaves are worse for them, but neither is good. Don’t be too sad for Dame Avalanche. She has plenty of prime areas to sniff and hunt. Heck, she has taken to snatching bees and hornets and flies out of the air. Then eating them. She tried catching and eating a spider the other day, too. It was somewhat feisty and was able to escape into thick grass.
Yup, Desperado was recorded at Island Studios in London. An album about the old Dalton Gang in the American west recorded in merry old England. Life is strange sometimes.
Driving in New Mexico between Las Cruces west toward Arizona, now that looked like it was straight out of a Clint Eastwood movie. Whenever I drove that stretch of highway, I fully expected to see a puff of dust on the horizon, watch the dust get closer and finally to see that it was The Man With No Name himself. It was that kind of country.
That line about feet getting cold in the wintertime. I tells ya, I learned very quickly something about winter. You could be wearing a great coat, gloves, hat. All of you could be warm. But if your feet get cold? Forget it, warm those puppies up or call it a day. Trying to do anything in the winter with cold feet is beyond miserable.
The Hundred Years War was weird. The English kept winning. And winning. Then they ran out of money for the war just as victory was appearing. Another time, England was winning again and the plague hit, stopping hostilities. And the tax thing hit them the next round, when the English were winning again. Then the English lost. But they were so used to fighting that the spent the next 35 years of so fighting among themselves – the Wars of the Roses. They were not a peaceful people.
So are the cement trenches suggesting that the next rodent war will involve trench warfare? And medals. If the current war is over, who on the side of the victors was awarded medals? A war can’t be won without Great Deeds of Valor having been accomplished and medals awarded.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Oh yeah, the new chicken enclosure was constructed maybe ten years ago, and I’d thought that the rats had zero chance of breaking in. Nope. I was wrong, and then Dame Plum and I spent almost two months killing rats and working how they were breaking through the outer defences. Clever creatures, and now we’re all sort of in some kind of balance with them. But then the mice! Oh my!
Dug and cemented a bit more of the house outer defences today. Found no signs of rat incursions there, but why leave a possible weak spot? The work has slowed down because we’re juggling about five different projects where the output from one, becomes the input for another.
The sweet dreams of proper sized quality Lamingtons! Alas the nightmare of shrunked reality…
Sorry, I forgot about your gluten intolerance. Oh poop, it’s no good. Hope you’re doing OK, but yeah, we’re all doing what we can. Seems to be the way of the world.
We probably don’t hang out where that trio you mentioned freely roam. 😉
Yeah, agreed with the water. I leave a good quantity out for the birds, two bowls for the dogs to drink from, and that’s it. At night during summer, the local forest critters come up for a drink from the dogs water bowls, and that’s cool. They’re nervous and soon run or bounce away. Ollie and I encountered a big wombat a few moments ago when I took him outside to go to do his business.
Did you eventually get a thunderstorm, or was it dry lightning? That happens here, and it’s a problem for fires. Yay for cooler weather for you!
The apple variety sounds good, but I steer clear of newer varieties, mostly because there are plenty of other tasty apples.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
The timing of the delivery of both of those funny lines was excellent. And they stick in the mind don’t they? So useful for everyday life.
You piqued the curiosity, and started me wondering about some of the local varieties of grass seeds and whether they were edible. Who knew? Turns out many of them are, although the seeds are like your cheatgrass in that they’re much smaller than bread wheat. Still, if you were hungry enough…
Did you remove all of the cheatgrass? Sometimes that sort of plant is good (once it’s dried) to chop and drop using a mower or brush cutter and that’s a decent form of mulch and feed for the soil critters. The roots in the ground also provide some decent soil critter feed too. But yes, unfortunately lots of burnable material if not chopped and dropped.
Summer is like that, and every growing season is so different. Still, it’s odd to see a tree looking water stressed this early on. Hmm. Spruce trees are quite lovely, and what sort is yours? I’ve got a Picea abies, Norway spruce growing and it has such a nice pleasing shape to it. The closest thing to one of those plastic Christmas trees, which presumably they are based upon.
Hope the fires this summer aren’t too bad. How’s the rez recovering from the fires last year? By the way, the Editor has just recently finished watching Dark Winds Season Four, and noted that the protagonist has had to do some soul searching. She’s remarked that he seems to be rather handy at getting into more trouble than most people seem to. The label ‘Byronic Hero’ may have been mentioned.
Dame Avalanche’s activities with the leaves surprised me too. Presumably dogs know what they’re doing? Dogs… Hmm. Had to stop Ruby from consuming a large Bogong Moth today. Very edible, but elsewhere in the state, they’re under pressure. Probably due to the epic fires six years ago (the so called Black summer fires).
I must say, the so called Three Guardsmen lived reasonably long lives, and the Wild Bunch gang messed up as many robberies as they pulled off without a hitch. You’d think that they’d have gone further and faster from the scene of the crime, but no, they kept getting caught up – and shot. Kansas being a dry state, must have been problematic to enforce.
Yes, the gentleman may have had no name, and even fewer lines of dialogue, but there were several nicknames: “Joe”, “Manco” and “Blondie”. Better than calling him Spud, as that name may not strike fear into those evil doers running afoul of the anti-hero. Hey, I must re-watch these films. They’re classic.
Dude, you should see some of the leaf change tourists, no disrespect intended, but did they really think about the possible weather conditions they’d experience up in the hills? Melbourne is a warm and mild climate. Winters are very mild there. Up here, hmm, not so much. Nothing quite says a drop or two of ancient fairy blood when tourists are observed wearing long socks and sandals, mini skirts and fluffy hoodies with animal ears. There’s lot to unpack in that story. We’re of one mind, when the feet are cold in freezing conditions, things are going badly.
🙂 Our ancestors were a blood thirsty lot. Not all that long ago, they directly controlled almost a third of the planet. It’d been a long journey from 400AD, and maybe a whole wild bunch earlier. The Romans wasted a lot of resources trying to quell the northerners, just sayin…
Got a bit more of the rodent proof trenching done today, but the work has become like a game of tetris where we’re trying hard not to double handle materials. Broke up and moved a lot of rhubarb crowns and plants today.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Go on, did your second room mate ever get sick of the James Brown jokes, and did he enjoy soul / funk music? Hey, he’s got some fine style there with the sunnies, which are the ones I wear too. Sadly these days they tend to make the lenses too large, which makes people look like the puppets on that Thunderbird show. That’s not cool.
Far out, you painted a heck of picture there with your freaking out room mate. Truly, it reads like a scene out of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas! We can’t stop here, this is squirrel country! Hand me the coat hanger, the hooch is kicking in. That was one trippy-as film.
And truly, it’s been remarked upon elsewhere, but some things you can’t un-see. You can thank me for not posting photos of what went down with the mice in the final scene. I would have preferred to be asleep.
Hey, the local pub has new owners (it’d been eventually sold earlier in the year), and we went to try it out tonight. The place was rocking, and you could see that a mind shaped by the thoughts of efficiency was running the place keeping everything moving and ticking along. Quite impressive. Not everyone is good at hospitality. We both had the traditional chicken parma and chips.
The tech bros and goobermint are forcing a lot of surveillance on payrolls – which produces a lot of red tape for business. I’ve always had the impression that they act as if there is a whole bunch of shifty stuff going on, but the vast majority of businesses do the right thing. The red tape is an onerous burden, and may stop me from ever having a holiday for any length of time.
I see. Lenocracy at it’s finest indeed. There is an entity I have to pay mad cash to, that I’m not entirely certain what they do for us. It’s a mystery, and one to which I have no option in.
Wow, both island county’s are fascinating places, and I’m surprised to see the population levels being as high as they are. There is quite some significant disparities in income too. Costs for everything in such a remote spot would be problematic due to the difficult logistics. It’s remote here as well, but if needed, I could at least walk to the train station. It’d take a few hours, but it’s not impossible.
🙂 Go your solar, and may the weather shine on your garden. Gloomy again here today. They say that sunshine tomorrow is a possibility, but we’ll see.
Did another section of trench along the rear of the house today. It’s good that job is getting done. With the trench dug, one of us – and the dogs – kept watch lest a rat dive under the house. That was time well spent too, for there was a bit rustling in the nearby bushes. It’s a slow and complicated process because we’re recovering materials from that area around the house, and using them on a number of other projects. Like playing a game of tetris. There’s no point double handling any of this stuff.
The space mirror has been tried, maybe by the land of the bear. Seems like an expensive thing to do. Did you notice that Mars Boy is selling off Rocketship HQ enterprises? Hmm.
🙂 More scary small English villages where the careless person comes to a bad end! Hehe! The Editor loves those shows as well. She said something about finishing season four of Dark Winds, and was enjoying that.
Another nice little summer break earner for kids. I’d imagine that there is no such work these days for kids. A bit sad really that change. At least I don’t believe that it is a good idea. I’ve only good memories of earning mad cash, despite the early dark winter frozen mornings.
Useful stuff like that, is not taught. Can you imagine the outrage if it was? What do you mean debt is bad! 🙂
No need to pull out seedlings to thin them. I use a pair of scissors and just cut them to ground level. That disturbs the soil way less. I’ll bet the chamomile smells nice – I like the herbal tea, and should grow some. Very good, and hope the sunflowers germinate and grow tall.
In the work today, we must have dug up about twenty or thirty bearded irises. They were all moved to a better location, as were about half a dozen rhubarb plants. They’re a bit weedy here, but we’ve decided to grow a line of them. The big leaves out compete the weeds.
Yes, what is a limited liability partnership? Lots of questions there, but people like the place. I just wish they all didn’t say the same thing: “We got so much for less.” That really freaks me out, and to my palate – it may be me – the stuff doesn’t taste the same. People love the place though, so it’s probably me.
Sometimes you get lucky. Remember the space lizards? 😉
The other two sound better to me, but why not use what you’ve got. And Popeye seemed good with spinach, although may have been silent on the cabbage.
Beans are in this year. Yup.
Naughty H! But when in public those bags are handy to smooth over all manner of canine mischief.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Well, it’s been over 50 years … But I think he just went with it. Might have even had a bit of a “move” to capitalize on it. So many people, I wonder what happened to them.
I’m sure I saw the Hunter Thompson movie, and I know I read the books. But, even before I developed a bit of antipathy, to addictions, I felt a bit repulsed by all the drug use and drinking. And, sort of had the feeling of, “Would I really want to be around these people? Have to be in a service position, in their presence?
But, boy, he was important to American letters.
I remember you mentioned the pub had been sold. Sounds like whoever bought it, has previous “hospitality” experience. I think I mentioned, the cafe next to the place I lived downtown, went through 7 owners, in 15 years. The initial owners when I moved in, had had it for 10 or 20 years. And made a good living off of it. Every time a new owner would show up, I’d slide over to introduce myself. And, somewhere in the conversation, would slip in, “So, have you ever been in the restaurant business, before?” It was always a negative, and I often thought to myself, “Doomed, doomed.”
Sure, there’s some fraud out there, but not near as much as is popularly claimed, I think. But it’s politically advantageous to loudly beat the fraud drum.
The islands are pretty upscale. Particularly the waterfront properties. Lots of second and summer homes. A few conference centers. I suppose some of the income disparity is, well, the help has to live somewhere. 🙂 The Native Americans also have a presence, on the islands. Years ago, I had a friend who managed to buy a place out there (not waterfront property.) He worked in downtown Seattle, not far from the ferry docks. So, he’d drive to the ferry parking, and ride as a passenger, back and forth.
Our high yesterday was 68F (20C). Our overnight low was 45F (7.22C). Our forecast for today is 81F. We’ll see. The forecast is for possible rain, on Monday. That’s a national holiday, by the way. Memorial Day.
Rustling in the nearby bushes. Might be Triffids. 🙂
Maybe Mars Boy is short of cash. All those kids …
I have a season of “Dark Winds” on my hold list. Should show up any time. It’s either season three or four. I watched more of King’s “It: Welcome to Derry.” The plot thickens.
Last night, I mixed up the right kind of soil (I think), for the pumpkin barrel. What I’ve been doing is, searches. “Do (insert plant name here), need (run through the possibles. Bone meal, coffee grounds, stove ash)? So, along with a good mix of mushroom and chicken compost, I work it into the planting space. So, the plants are getting a sort of tailor made mix.
After soaking the pumpkin seeds, overnight, I planted them the barrel, this morning. Last night, I also mixed up some tomato soil. This morning, I planted two of the tomatoes. Watered.
City kids might lose out, but rural kids (such as in our county), usually have income producing opportunities. “Haying” seems to be a big one. One kid started his own sour dough bread business. A few years down the line, it’s quit successful.
Well, that was a “Duh!” moment. Thanks for the tip on using scissors to thin seedlings. That’s the part they always leave out. The right tool for the right job.
Oh, I think believers in the space lizards are still around. Just not in as great numbers, as in the past. People have moved on to more interesting and intriguing conspiracy theories. 🙂 Lew
@ DJSpo:
Oh – that’s good!: “So are the cement trenches suggesting that the next rodent war will involve trench warfare? ”
Pam
Chris:
Wow. It’s already been 10 years . . . One thing you do well is juggle.
I’m fine. I can make a fair variety of GF breads, as long as they don’t have yeast in them. I always fail with that. I think Margaret is GF, too.
No lightning of any sort and no precipitation of any sort. All day today we were told “Rain!”. Nope, not yet, but the high today was over 30F degrees cooler than yesterday. Yesterday you could have worn budgie smugglers to work in, had you wanted to (Howdy, neighbors!) and today a jersey was needed.
I got my three holes on the front bank finally finished. I did have to bring in better soil for them. And I finally planted my sweet potatoes today. They may rebel and just lie down and die, as they would have loved to be outside yesterday when it was 98F, not today at 62F.
I see that you mentioned to Lew that you can thin seedlings by cutting them off at soil level. Can you do that with root crops like turnips and carrots? Won’t the little dead roots still be in the way?
Pam
Hi Chris,
We still can get colorful aluminum tumblers and goblets here in the states. I remember them from when I was a kid and will be buying some this week.
https://www.vermontcountrystore.com/jewel-tone-aluminum-tumbler-set-of-6/product/82719
Sorry to read about your mice wars.
Eileen
@ Pam,
Thanks. I couldn’t not say that. 🙂
I ate gluten free for a long time. I still prefer using gluten free flours when baking. No yeast. I never did get gluten free bread worth a darn with yeast.
DJSpo
Chris,
I amended one of them and used it at work on occasion. Occasionally when I was in a meeting somebody would ask me, “Er, what did you say?” I would quickly reply, “I don’t know. Weren’t you listening either?”
Did I remove all of the cheatgrass? Basically, you just asked me if I did something impossible. No, it is not possible to remove all of the cheatgrass. Why? It cheats. 😉 Seriously, it is a tricky plant and it is hard to find it all. I did get the vast majority of it removed from that one area. Areas of cheatgrass in the front yard I will mow before they get to be a problem. Like I better do that soon.
Byronic Hero? I think we got to watch the first season of that. Based on how they did the characters, I would guess that the phrase is describing Jim Chee? I know that in the books, Chee often gets in difficulties, but mostly because he would get a bit careless or something. I=He had the reputation as being very intelligent but would step outside of protocol, do things his way, sometimes making things more difficult than if he had followed protocol.
The Wild Bunch misfortunes seemed to be a continuance of the Dalton gang’s difficulties. Not surprising, since the founders had been part of the Dalton crew at times. More proof that “once it starts going bad, it just keeps going.” Methinks those guys needed to be in a different line of work. They weren’t very good at robbing things and getting away with it.
I’m shaking my head at your description of some of the leaf tourists. “Unprepared” is an understatement. As Jack Palance’s character often said in the movie City Slickers, with a contemptuous sneer: “City folk!”
Yeah, the Romans never really could tame “Germania”. The Welsh only partially. The peoples in Scotland? Not at all. And when these people weren’t fighting the Romans, they got busy fighting one another. Hmmmm, maybehaps their diets were similar to that of koalas? Can you imagine grumpy koalas with swords and spears and axes?
Got a lot done today. Young neighbor helped with pruning the crabapple tree. Used the pole saw and its cutting attachment. The tree looks better. Another short session left and it should be i n good shape. I think maybe next week we will work on trimming her shrubs together. This stuff goes so much faster and is a lot more fun with two people. We got done in an hour what would have taken me three hours to complete.
Friday will be a day off from yard work. Need to do some errands anyhow. Might be a good day to carve something too.
DJSpo
Hi Eileen,
Those are the exact ones, and wow, do they take the memory back a few years, or what? 🙂 Hope you enjoy them, and when partaking of a cooling summer beverage recall that the 70’s were intense! Beats flairs and brings to mind the Saturday Night Fever double LP, huh? The soundtrack was memorable, whilst the film, not so much.
Best wishes for a good harvest for your growing season. I’ve come to respect the humble potato, but refuse to rely on those most fickle of tubers.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
I know! The blog is just about to hit it’s dozenth birthday, although the err, new, chicken enclosure is yet to reach such heady heights. Ten years ain’t bad though. Earlier in the year some of the steel in that enclosure was hit with the wire brush, cleaned up, and then repainted with metal paint. That ol’ steel worm (rust), never sleeps.
When digging the rodent trenches around the house, I’m getting to see how the materials which are in contact with the ground are coping with entropy. They’re doing OK, and better than I’d expected. The plan is to get back into that work tomorrow.
Had today (mostly) off work, and went to a nearby nature reserve to go for a walk in the winter sunshine and enjoy a picnic lunch. It was nice taking things easier.
Ah, if you look at paintings of grain harvesting activities from centuries ago, the first thing I notice is that the stalks are five or six foot tall. True monsters those plants, which in these enlightened days, it is very possible that a combine harvester would baulk at. A person never really knows what thing may set off a physical reaction, and I’m no fan of some detergents, and instead make and use a traditional soap. The difference sorry to say, is kind of hard to ignore.
🙂 Thanks for the beautiful visuals! Fun stuff. Bummer that your rain didn’t eventuate. The forecast here for next week looked a deeper shade of wintry abysmal yesterday, but this evening seems to have calmed down somewhat. It happens with predictions about the future, although hope you get some rain, and soon.
Hey, for a moment there, you sounded like a sort of English summer weather person where multiple layers of clothing are required to ward off the err, warm chill. 😉 You may laugh, but I’ve seen shows from that part of the world set in high summer and they’re wearing woollen shirts and vests. A person would melt down here wearing that lot.
Good stuff, and yeah, there’s no substitute for additional fertile soil. Fingers crossed that the sweet potatoes do well, and that plant would struggle here due to the cooler mountainous summer nights.
I don’t grow carrots, and it’s been a year or two since turnips were planted, not for any real reason other than sheer lack of time. I’ve observed that pruned plants tend to respond well, and have heard that plants release some, but perhaps not all of their root systems into the surrounding soil when that happens. I doubt the tubers last for long in the soil without leaves, and most certainly they’d have a hard time growing. Dunno, but I try to disturb the soil as little as possible because when pulling seedlings, you damage the surrounding plants as well. Might be worth trying the scissors as an experiment and see what happens?
Plant root systems tend to fight a sort of chemical warfare, but I reckon they’d have some troubles doing that if their leaves and stalks were removed to ground level. But truly, I’m merely guessing. I’m learning about plant spacing as the years go on. I know what needs to be done, but have to fight my mind which sees empty soil space as a possibility for more plants. It’s actually counter productive. And this year we produced more tomatoes from less plants. But ingrained habits are hard to break, as you’d possibly appreciate?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Hehe! A fine and snappy reply, for if they were actually listening, they’d have known what you said. Surely you were conducting subtle experiments upon your peers and leaders? I must add here at this point in the conversation, that one of the undocumented benefits of working in small business, is no meetings. This may sing to your Viking and Border clan ancestry, so the equivalent experience to meetings works sort of like: Here’s this issue, what do we do about it? Quick discussion ensues, then action moves swiftly. Like a proper war band should!
That’s the thing with wind pollinated grasses, they’re feral! Anyway, perfection, what is this thing? I’ve visited open gardens which are maintained to within an inch of their lives, and the experience just wears me out even thinking about the effort that result may have taken. 🙂 The plants here by way of contrast, are remarkably low stress. Other than some occasional maintenance, they do their own thing. It’s all of the construction of infrastructure which takes most of the time here, and I like modifying those things to work well so that they require less effort in the future. On days off, I can walk away from those activities if needed.
I know of people who struggle with the amount of continual work required to live on the land, and almost every time, they have livestock. Sure, I’ve got chickens, but the system is so well set up that they really take me about ten minutes per day. Larger animals for produce, I dunno about that man.
I see, an interesting difference. Readers would have experienced Joe Leaphorn losing his wife, but in the series, his wife apparently left him. Please correct me if I’m wrong in that belief. Hmm. Presumably the book and series deviates the narrative, which is a matter you’ve alluded to in the past. Few shows aired for public consumption treat death properly, they tend to sensationalise and minimise it, but rarely dwell on the personal implications. At a wild guess it’s probably a reflection of how institutionalised that life moment has become. It wasn’t always like that, and things actually were different in the past.
That was my thinking as well with those long dead western outlaws. Good at getting into trouble, not so good at getting out of trouble. They do say that a fish rots from the head, and it may be true.
That was a fun film, and that big city would have so little nature, it’d send me loopy too. Those characters needed to get out ranching! 🙂 Much of the narratives from there tend to reflect a neurotic world view which kind of troubles and equally irritates me.
Ha! If all I had to eat was porridge and gruel, I’d be grumpy-as too. You know what, your diet relative to obstreperous outlook theory, might have some legs? Hmm. Oh yeah, the koalas would do serious violence, then lose no sleep over the matter.
Always better to work with others with these sorts of activities. Yup, in fact they were made for more than a single person. I’d struggle harvesting firewood on my own, and the splitter machines are most efficiently operated with two people – although you do want someone at the controls who you trust. 🙂
Life admin never stops. Did you get to some carving or burning projects?
Took today (mostly) off work. Headed to a nearby nature reserve and walked through the bush in the warm late autumn sunshine. Enjoyed a picnic lunch, and just chilled out. A quiet day, is a restful day.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The best response to such things is to be cool and just own whatever it may be. I’ve observed that some folks just want a rise out of you, and there’s no point feeding the beast. Of course, that wisdom took me a long time to learn, but still, better to get there in the end, than not at all. 🙂
Dude, that’s some dangerous thinking wondering about what happened to people you used to know. Sometimes, those ghosts can haunt your consciousness, then you foolishly stalk them on the interweb, only to find out they’d off’d themselves and you missed the funeral by three days. Take it from me, the experience is unsettling. The Editor is under strict instructions now not to look people up on the interweb, or at least don’t tell me about the activity. Far out…
It is possible that New Journalism, and Gonzo at it’s extreme logical end, over stepped the mark. There is a noted difference between the concepts of balance and narrative, and I guess after half a century of the latter, it may be difficult for the practitioners to lift their hands from the steering wheel. Sad that Mr Thompson only wrote under the influence. He’d be a hard one to have a friendship with.
Man, you’re so right there, and previous experience shows. The place ran like clock work, and you could even see into the kitchen (a bit) and let’s just say that you can tell when a commercial kitchen has been steam and pressure cleaned. It looked good. Maybe I’m getting cynical in my old age, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that they were so good, there’s a possibility it might be off loaded in the future for profit. I’ve known of folks who do that build it up, and sell it off, trick (never professionally). You can tell when the owner of a business is invested in the area, and that looks different again. Dunno. A mystery.
Exactly, if there is fraud going on, I ain’t seeing it. The funny thing is that one super big consulting firm got up to some serious mischief and blew up, and now the hole profession has mandatory annual ethics training requirements. I had nothin’ to do with that mess. This sort of stuff drives down my hourly rate and I can appreciate why the old timers are retiring early.
Hehe! Oh yeah, and that isn’t always the case, and house prices down here are a serious problem for even the average income earner. It should be cheap to live outside a city, that’s the whole point of having few services. Far out! There are some downsides to that wealthy beach front living biz: Surfside residents fear homes could be lost to sea in next storm.
Nice weather you’ve got there! 🙂 16’C / 61’F and beautifully sunny today. Did some paid work this morning, then headed off for a walk and picnic in a nearby nature reserve. A lovely day, and despite the chilly air, when the sun hit skin, it was wonderful feeling. Not to worry, a dude has to take the good with the bad, and winter is meant to return in force tomorrow night!
Hopefully we’ll get to do some more rodent proof trenching works tomorrow long before the rain hits.
Memorial day is worthy of remembrance and hope you enjoy the public holiday. There is a large memorial cross almost at the top western edge of the mountain range. It’s a massive war memorial, and over the years, I’d have to suggest laxity, has meant that the trees have grown up around it. Not ideal, but man, people are losing their minds about the trees being felled to take it back to where it was in the first place. Far out, I wish protesters would exert their energies in more useful directions and like, you know, made changes in their own lives to reduce the impact on the environment. It’s not too much to ask for is it?
Ook! The thought of Triffids hiding in the bushes is not a comforting one! 😉 Thanks for that.
Who knows what is going on, but the facts are suggestive that the gentleman is highly fertile.
I’ve observed private iniquity firms offloading steaming piles of things onto the public.
Thanks for the reminder, and last evening, you may have gotten the impression that err, the usual relaxed reply was perhaps MIA? It happens to the best of us. 🙂 Ah, I’d not appreciated that Welcome to Derry was a serial continuation of the most creepy of all clowns: Pennywise. And Bill Skarsgård has taken that fright to eleven. I must say here, that Mr King has a lot to answer for! Clown’s frightened me before IT, but afterwards, just say no! And shape shifting clowns who are superficially charming, well, you know what they say about psychopaths and that characteristic. Sometimes for a laugh I say to the dogs: Hey there dogs, come play with the balloons! This all proves that a person has to be careful with what narratives they take into their brain space.
Nice stuff, and respect! The interweb isn’t always right about what mineral stuff a plant needs, mostly due to the big echo effect and not being local advice, but it is indicative. I’m going to try some soapy water on the aphids tomorrow. Been busy…
Yeah, pre-soaking seeds like those, works a treat. You’re at such a nice time of the season.
By contrast, we pulled all of the tomato vines from the greenhouse this morning (oh, I’d forgotten about that work we did). The green fruit is sitting on several trays indoors, and we’ll see whether it ripens or rots first. Dunno, but they are slowly ripening indoors. The plan is on Sunday to give the entire greenhouse a big clean out with the pressure washer on the walls and ceiling.
Isn’t it amazing when that sort of business takes off? There’s a young bloke around these parts who runs a commercial egg farm (massive) and he started off by raising egg laying chickens in his parents paddocks.
Scissors are awesome for precision seedling thinning jobs, and none have ever bounced back from that. Simple, huh? 🙂
I’ve heard it remarked upon that even considering an idea as a conspiracy theory, is a conspiracy theory itself! A circular argument if ever there were one. I tend to think of Space Lizards as amusing background colour, which may keep otherwise annoying people out of trouble. It’s a theory, but is that also a conspiracy theory? So many problems here…
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I’ve not done much looking up of past people. The couple of times I did it (long ago). It sort of fell flat. I really need to take a look at my face plant account, to see if anyone has contacted me. That I might be interested in contacting, again. I haven’t looked at it, in years. I only got it because I needed it to sign up for a retreat.
Speaking of journalism, our local paper put an article in about our Club’s hunt for a new home. I thought it was well written, but wasn’t a featured article, and sort of buried. Although it’s next to an article about Dolly Parton’s kid’s reading program. 🙂 I guess squabbles among the port commissioners and articles about the next election, are more important. I will not vote for anyone who appears in their election pictures, in a cowboy hat.
https://chronline.com/stories/local-12-step-program-seeks-new-home-by-end-of-next-month,402797
One of the last people who acquired the cafe, next door, bought it to flip. It had pretty consistently sold for $25,000. They jacked it up to $75,000 … and got it. Speaking of food, I saw an article, yesterday. London has the best pizza in the world? I had to look up ragu. I’d heard the word, but really didn’t know what it was all about.
https://www.cnn.com/travel/london-pizza-best-world
Fraud. There have been some high profile prosecutions, but that’s the thing. They were caught and prosecuted. A lot of it is internet influencers, fishing for clicks. The bulk of those cases, in the end, turned out to be, as Gertrude Stein stated, “There’s no there there.” Of course, she was talking about her hometown of Oakland, CA., 🙂
Well, I hope those folks enjoy their ocean views … as long as the have them. Mitigation sounds like a pretty expensive process. Do the property taxes balance money spent? But, of course, those folks that can afford that kind of real estate, have “pull.”
“Chilly air? Really? Here, that doesn’t even require a light coat. Unless there’s a stiff breeze blowing. Our high yesterday was 79F (26.11C). Our overnight low was 46F (7.77C). Our forecast high for today is 77F. Looks like we’re going to get rain, starting on Monday. Maybe, a lot. Prof. Mass has a post on it.
I remember the memorial cross. I think you even posted pictures of it.
No MIA reply on this end. Always waiting for me, not long after I get up. Over my first cup of tea. I do get up a bit earlier on Sunday morning, as I figure you might be pushing to get the weekly post up. But otherwise, always dependably there.
Two of the tomatoes are in the ground. Pumpkin seeds got planted. New potato traps put out.
I remember the young bloke and his egg farm. Some kids just find a niche, that provides them mad cash.
Well, we should get our last box, this morning, from the local food bank. I hope I can catch them, and thank them. Lew
@ DJSpo:
Did you somehow go back to eating wheat?
Pam
Chris:
There was actually something good about having to dig the trenches, otherwise you would have had to make digging forays just to check on what was going on around the edges of the house. My son dug away about 2.5 feet (.76m) of soil around the posts that hold up the front veranda. Yep, a bit of termite damage.
Yes, grains were very different in those days. At least, I know wheat was, so I assume that is true of most others. That’s not even including GMO.
We had a nice gentle rain all day today. Yay!
One has to take into account the need for from 5 to 7 blankets (not wool) some of the time in the winter here.
Aren’t roots an underground extension of the plant’s trunk? And the roots have branches. As often as not, I end up pruning the roots on plants before planting them; depends on the circumstances. However, I’m not arguing with the idea of thinning by cutting; other people have told me that, too. It sounds too easy . . . However, I don’t like to disturb the soil either. That may be the only good thing about black plastic: It keeps one from disturbing the soil except in the very immediate vicinity of the plant.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Did another section of cement trenches around the house today. And that’s my take on things as well, in that the work lets me know what has been going on. Many years ago the rats in particular were active in the area we did today. Tell ya what, with that history in mind, one of us remained in that area at all times and on high alert once the trench was dug. With winter fast approaching, easy access under the house would be quite the temptation for a rodent.
Termites seem to be a thing in forested areas, and I find the wood antlets (!) in firewood from time to time. Gives a person pause for thought, yup. The house uses concrete stumps with steel ant caps and poisonously treated pine framing, but still… Termites never sleep.
They work fast those termites, and can eat veranda posts. Pesky little critters, surely they’d have better things to do with their time than eat your house! Do they use concrete posts in your part of the world? Never met a termite which could eat concrete. 🙂 But the little pest can climb concrete stumps.
That’s my thinking as well with grains, we’ve modified them to make the plant more efficient, and probably caused all sorts of undocumented problems which affect many people. Did you know that over a very long period of time, beekeepers did the same thing with the bees? GMO, yes, what could possibly go wrong? Commercial plant breeding can equally introduce issues. It’s a wonder that the population is as healthy as it is!
One of the things I’m trying to achieve is having edible plant varieties adapt to the local conditions and establish a longer term cycle. Dunno, but it is getting easier to grow these sorts of vegies.
Yay for you with the gentle rainfall. What a fine gift this close to the summer months. 🙂
Brr! Never known a 7 blanket night, and it sounds superbly cold! What kind of outdoor temperatures are we talking about here? Far out!
The worst here would be in the next month or so, at a maximum of 5 (wool!) blankets. It’s pretty chilly to wake up to 11’C / 52’F inside the house and 28’F outdoors. That’s as cold as it gets indoors. One of those nights you think to yourself that maybe getting up in the wee early hours and adding more firewood to the wood heater wasn’t such a bad idea after all!
For sure, the root systems are an essential part of the plant, yup. I’ve never done that, and will try out your method of cutting the roots to see what happens. Dunno. Generally I cut the bits above ground, which you may do as well. That black plastic will stop weeds and keep the soil a whole lot warmer than it otherwise would be. Plants would like that, a lot.
The plan for tomorrow is to plant out a heap of ferns in a big garden bed, and given the rainy weather next week, those plants sure will like that.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
The Editor keeps a face plant account for similar purposes, in that some businesses use that forum to make announcements, unexpected closures etc, presumably because it is cheaper and easier than having their own interweb page. There is also the unstated assumption that people will have face plant access, which I don’t. Did you end up checking out your access, and where you confronted by a long list of friend requests?
I remember the retreat, yeah. It was a while ago now. Are they a regular thing?
Hope the Club secures new digs, and as the article mentioned, you’ve been here before. A paragraph near to the end expressed a lovely sentiment: run by people who make walking through the door possible, when many things seem impossible. So very true, and life can get away from any of us from time to time. I’d never heard that perspective aired before, but it’s welcoming. The article made the suggestion that the Club is a reliable and quiet tenant. What more could a landlord ask for?
Now rodents, they’re neither quiet, nor are they reliable! 🙂 Did another section of trenching around the house today. Me tired tonight. It was quite a long trench and one of us (and the dogs) had to patrol the area at all times whilst the underneath of the house was so exposed. It didn’t help that the Kelpies were busy digging holes in the garden beds… Anywhoo, I dragged out the big electric cement mixing machine today, and eventually got the job done. We didn’t observe any rodents scrambling under the house, but you can never be too careful with those cheeky scamps.
By the way, inflation, not real. Except, the tires on the mixing machine are in tatters. Being the crafty and resourceful bloke I am, I put in an order for two solid tires (puncture proof) and they ended costing $50 delivered. Youch.
The soil we’re excavating from the rodent proofing job is proving to be quite useful as fill on the new path below the house. And the large-ish rocks are being used as fill behind the long line of rock gabion cages. It’s slow going juggling all these projects, but what, me hurry? We were actually in a hurry with the firewood shed, but that’s been completed for a few weeks now. It was just a long day of work today.
The plan for tomorrow, is to clear out the greenhouse, and give it a big clean up. We might even remove the shelves in there because they’re shading one of the raised garden beds. And the dozen or more ferns resting up in there, are being released into the world! They’ll be planted in a garden bed. We’re using some of the soil from the greenhouse too for that planting job, and will top up all of the garden beds with fresh stuff over the next week. If we had a second greenhouse, I’d be able to do proper crop rotation, but a refresh of the soil is about the best we can manage at this stage.
Isn’t ragu a slow cooked meat stew? To be honest, it’s pretty tasty, but then I like slow cooked meat. And it’s such a good way to turn a cheap cut, into something special – not that we ever make such meat meals, being mostly vegetarian and stuff. Yeah, best is a matter of opinion, and from my perspective the pizza’s looked as if they didn’t have enough toppings for my preferences, which is something I’ve noticed is a thing with European pizza.
The line, ‘there is no there, there’, is that a tautology? Assuredly it represents a puzzle, but with at best a hazy form, and thus appears to my brain as nonsense, or at maybe clever word play. But do the words convey an idea to a reader, other than perhaps, the lady of letters is far smarter than the rest of us! Or possibly taking the mickey? Maybe my expectations are too high, for I value words as a way to speak with other people. Out of context, the use of the two: ‘there’s’, in the sentence conveys absolutely no meaning, except that it may be a literary in-joke.
Coastal erosion never sleeps, as such homes will eventually discover. And yes, the capital costs and maintenance are usually expected to be paid for by the wonderful person of, someone else. And hey, speaking of which did you spot the iceberg drama? Antarctic station discovers its shipping containers floating away on iceberg after blizzard. A new take on waste disposal?
Hehe! To summer old soft me, the air sure felt chilly yesterday! Although I was walking around in a t-shirt. We returned to the more usual wintry gloom today.
Just read the Professor’s essays on the eastern Washington forecast rainfall. Sounds wet, and I’d not realised there’d been talk about droughts? If memory serves me correctly, DJ has mentioned that winter snowfall and rainfall have been reduced, but drought?
🙂 No worries then!
The forecast rainfall should be good for your seedlings. Happy days when the wet stuff falls from the sky mere weeks before the commencement of summer. 🙂
Putting on my literalist hat, did you just type the words ‘last food box’, as in final? End? Adios food more boxes? Have I misinterpreted your words? What’s going on? And more importantly, did you manage to catch the folks to say thanks?
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – No, I haven’t checked my face plant account, yet. Not a high priority. 🙂 I don’t know if the retreat is still going. I suppose, due to You Know What, it was suspended, for awhile. But I’m speculating.
What more could a landlord want? Money. Lots and lots of money. 🙂
I had a thought about the mice and rats, trying to breach the fortress. I wonder if you’re going to have a “hard” winter. Animals, know. They might be all in a tizzy, due to upcoming really bad weather.
You won’t regret getting solid wheels, for your cement mixer (or, anything else). Last place I lived, I had a wheel barrow, and always seemed to be fiddling with low or flat tires. I finally sprung for a solid wheel. It was well worth the money.
Yes, I end up moving soil around. Not to the extent of you, but still. What to do with some of the spent soil I scraped off the top of the pumpkin barrel? The soil from the potato and tomato holes? I scatter it around, and figure I’ll be augmenting it, before planting anything in those places.
The plan for later todays, is to plant the last two tomatoes, and tomatillos. I don’t have permission for the tomatoes, but, there’s plenty of room. I’ll give them away, freely, and also do some weeding in that plot. Ought to be fine. Tomorrow, plant green beans and Scarlet Runner beans. At least, that’s the plan. But you know how plans go. 🙂
Releasing ferns into the wild. Cue up the ear worm, “Born, Free!!!” 🙂
There seems to be a lot of recipes, out there, for ragu. It sounds pretty free form. Ground meat (of almost any kind) and tomatoes. Veg of almost any kind, ground or diced fine. A long simmer. Often ends up on pasta.
Actually, I looked into the Stein quote a bit more. In context, it makes sense. Look for the bold section.
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/10/20/no-there/
I had the exact same feeling, years ago. I returned to Seattle, after a long absence, and drove past a place I had lived. It was nothing but a hole in the ground. There was no there there.
That was quit a story, about the cargo containers. Well, at least they sank, and won’t wash up on a foreign shore. Every once in awhile, a cargo container, that fell off a ship, washes up on our shore. Sometimes, full of treasure. Once, a lot of high end sneakers. Another time, a container full of motor cycles.
I don’t know if you noticed an article, further down the page. A brush fire was moving in on a home, and the couple turned on the sprinklers, and left. Sounds like they have a set up, similar to yours.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-23/how-to-make-homes-bushfire-resilient-tasmania/106566908
Our high yesterday was 77F (25C). Our overnight low was 52F (11.11C). The forecast high for today is 72F. Nice today and tomorrow, and a 100% chance of rain, on Monday.
Prof. Mass is always banging on about how we are not in a drought situation. Anytime his newspaper says that, or, anything else that runs counter to his experience. 🙂
Yup. The last food box. As you know, we get the commodities box, early in the month. Late in the month, we get a box from the local food bank, delivered by volunteers from Catholic Family Services. Well, we got a memo that this months box, would be the last. That they will no longer be delivering, the end of the month box. No reason given, as to why. Lack of volunteers? Did one, or more of the Inmates, alienate them? Who knows. So, yesterday we were to get the last … and, it didn’t show up. Who knows why. No volunteers because of holiday weekend?
I finished watching season one of King’s series, “It: Welcome to Derry.” Took awhile for a penny to drop. One of the characters, is a much younger version (and different actor) of the chef, Hallorann, from “The Shining.” I finally caught on, when the characters are all going their separate ways, and he mentions that he’s going to go to London, and work for a friend in a hotel kitchen. “And, what could happen in a hotel?” 🙂 Lew
@ Pam,
Surprisingly, yes. I can eat wheat again. The entire context is important. Several months after retirement I was getting more relaxed, aka job stress was dissipating. I could start eating wheat. Within 18 months of retirement, I could eat mostly what I wanted, but I still avoid large quantities of wheat.
Eating wheat with many symptoms related to celiac turned out to be more a stress related thing than a wheat thing. Doesn’t mean that I can eat an entire loaf of freshly baked French bread like I could 30 years ago. I can have sandwiches, pizza, but no wheat based pasta. Weird, huh? I discussed this with my doctor during my last annual physical. He had me do the blood test for celiac. Negative result. So I blame the job stress.
I still use gluten free flour in all of my baking.
DJSpo
Chris:
I’m sure they use concrete posts around here sometimes. In fact, when my son dug out around the posts that hold up the barn, he replaced them, with concrete. I assume he will do the same with these house posts.
I didn’t know that about the bees. I’d better buy local honey like I used to, if I can find it.
Here’s the difference: I am not using the one super heavy wool blanket that I have, but 7 synthetic ones. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? And you are using all wool. But the temperature in the winter here is often way below freezing, like sometimes 10F or 12F (-12C/-11C). The coldest temp we recorded in our bedroom is 38F (3.3C).
I measured the water in my rain bucket early this morning. It was 2.25 inches (5.7cm), that’s from Friday and till early Saturday. It rained off and on all day today. This is good!
Pam
Chris,
Nice summary. Quick discussion, decision, action. But, you know, large companies and other bureaucracies need to have meetings so people can justify their employment.
The other reply I would often make in useless meetings was a quote of an old commercial from the telly. “What’s your opinion, DJ?” sometimes elicited the response “You’re right. Diet Dr. Pepper DOES taste more like regular Dr. Pepper!” However, knowing the difference between career limiting statements and actually getting in deep bat guano, I never quoted Wednesday Addams from the Addams Family Values movie. “The gods of my people have spoken. They have said not to trust you. Instead, I will scalp you and burn your village to the ground.” Somehow, I knew that that would NOT be received well. 😉
One of the neighbors works hard on his monoculture grass lawn. He has fertilized it twice this spring, once in April and once in May. He waters it a few times a week, but not as much as he used to. He mows once every 5 days. Meanwhile, I’ve got 6 different grass varieties growing, several different succulents, thyme, vinca, sage, and other things that have blown in. I counted like 25 different varieties of things growing in my front lawn. The goal is for things to spread and mix with the remaining bluegrass. Parts of it look like a natural meadow. Less water over the long haul and much less work. Biodiversity.
Chickens, the way that you have them set up, they make sense. Rabbits? Maybe. Any livestock bigger than that gets to be a problem.
Correct. In the books, Joe Leaphorn’s wife died. Serious illness. Also in the books, Jim Chee was born and raised on the Rez, never lived in the city. Additionally, he was very traditional and was studying with his uncle to be an hataalii, a special traditionalist who can perform ritual sings and traditional ceremonies among other things.
I can see it now. Koala Vikings. They would take over the world.
Yes, got some carving done on Friday somehow. Things got complicated in the afternoon, but I was able to make progress on a bison. When it is completed, I might work on an eagle before I tackle a 2nd bison. The bison are pine and it is a pain to carve. The eagle is basswood, which is fun.
Far out! Nature reserve. Walk. Picnic. That sounds like an awesome day.
“Just read the Professor’s essays on the eastern Washington forecast rainfall. Sounds wet, and I’d not realised there’d been talk about droughts? If memory serves me correctly, DJ has mentioned that winter snowfall and rainfall have been reduced, but drought?” Uh oh, Chris, you poked the bear!
Yes, there is talk about drought all over Eastern Washington. The forecasters I follow are suggesting a few isolated showers this coming week, not much rainfall. Unless something weird happens, not a lot of moisture expected.
Drought? Yeah we are already bone dry. This is the third consecutive day with highs in the upper 70s or low 80s and 20% humidity. Much of May has suffered low humidity in the 20% to 25% relative humidity range. That is humidity we expect in extreme temperatures in July and August, not throughout May. And it is windy. Too windy to set sprinklers to water the lawns. Following wet November and December with snowfall in the mountains, January and February were both warm and dry. March was very wet, but warm. April was wet also. May has been abysmal for rain. As of May 22, the official weather station has recorded 0.30 inches in May. Normal is 1.04 inches in May through the 22nd, 1.55 inches for the entire month.
Soil moisture content is a big factor for our droughts. Soils are wicked dry and have been for 3 weeks now. Dry winds suck up all the moisture. We are well below normal rainfall for the water year. With warmer than normal temperatures and exceedingly low humidity with winds, water in the reservoirs evaporates faster than what it used to.
One definition of “drought” is less rainfall than expected OR less snowfall than expected. We got hit with BOTH less rainfall and less snowfall. Yes, Eastern Washington is in, or nearly in, a drought. Average for January 1 through May 22 is 9.45 inches of rainfall equivalent. We have gotten 6.67 inches. That screams “drought” to me, especially with the expected warmer and dryer than normal forecast through at least January. And snowfall? Since October 1, we have gotten 20 inches of snow, less than half of the average 45 inches or so. These snow and rain trends are true for the entire east side of the state.
Ok. The bear that was poked is done snarling now. 😉 The sun still rises in the mornings, sets in the evenings. Dame Avalanche is still Husky Supreme. Life is good.
DJSpo
Hi everyone,
Thought you might be interested to read how mice are impacting other parts of the country (we’re in the Low category): Visualising the mouse plague infesting parts of Australia.
The winters here are colder, and that knocks the rodent numbers back – but you can see why we are spending so much effort to block access to the rats and mice.
Incidentally, it is possibly worth noting, that those areas with mice plagues, are devoid of rats, owls, eagles, cats, foxes, dogs, quolls, you name it. The ecological problem becomes like the deer here – there are no predators, and so the population booms.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Pam,
Concrete is probably the material with the longest lifespan, but eventually, they’ll all fail. I’ve been under a house when I just pushed over a timber post – it was that rotten. One of those moments when you’re grateful the house didn’t collapse onto my head.
Not so easy finding local honey. 🙂 With the bees, it was a long road to where we are today with the insect, like breeding specifically for reduced propolis, then finding it helps the insects fight bacteria and viruses. Still, maybe more resilient bees will result from all of the current problems? Long term I believe that they’ll be fine.
Ah, say no more. 🙂 Hehe! There are a lot of sheep down under, and pure wool may be one of those rare products which is cheaper! Pam, that is so cold, Brr!
Go the rain! It is great news.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
I get that, there are heaps of things to do, and face plant rates somewhere lower down the – dare I say it? – list. 🙂 I rarely think about those social media platforms, must be something wrong with my wiring there. The lack of dialogue in those spaces bothers me. On that note, I was reading that driving and scrolling through social media stuff on phones, is becoming a serious problem. I lack the skill to both drive and use the phone, but then being a guy means doing one thing at a time (you know the dude codes, don’t tell the ladies, but I can actually do more than one thing at a time, I just don’t want them to know.) 😉
Oh yeah, extra mad cash. It’s a strange old world when I believe a third of the population down here rent, and nothing says the Aussie dream is over, like that statistic.
It’s certainly possible that the rats and mice know what the winter weather will be like. Animals know, and you can see ants preparing for heavy rain days in advance. I added a link below to an article showing just how bad the mice plague is in some parts of this country. It’s feral, although here I’d describe it as being only slightly worse than usual.
Thanks for the confirmation, I’ve tested a few of those solid tires, and they’ve saved a lot of headaches.
Man, that today’s problem – what to do with the excess soil? Planted out ten ferns into the used ‘tomato’ soil in a garden bed, and hopefully those tasty summer fruits took the fertility down a notch or three. The local plants don’t appreciate soil which is too rich, although I’ve seen some things over the years which make me doubt that claim. Ooo, the ferns are looking pretty nice, and hope they get some rain over night.
Did you get a chance to plant the tomatoes today? Go the beans, and they’re having something of a moment this year. After the hail storm, the vines developed some new beans, but they’re a bit crunchy. Not sure that they’re good.
Oh hey, whilst cleaning up the greenhouse today – pressure washers are wonderful machines – I finally decided to plant the tub of turmeric, permanently into one of the greenhouse raised beds.That plant was born free today too!!! 🙂 There were a lot of tubers too.
Have you got a slow cooker? A ragu recipe might be worth a try. I prefer the stews with the thicker sauces. Quite nice. And that’s true, ragu sauce on pasta is a thing, and probably a cheap way to pad out an otherwise expensive sauce. Canny folks that lot.
Her infrequently punctuated stream of consciousness was sometimes difficult to parse. That was definitely my impression of the author’s style. Was it meant to inform, bamboozle, or mystify? In that context you provided, mystification of feelings seems to be the general vibe I got. Thanks for the elucidation, and it makes perfect sense in that context. The language used by the author baffles my brain, but hey, we were speaking recently of conspiracy theories, so here goes: Alien abduction. The language the author uses, and the way sentences are constructed, sounds garbled to my reading ear, so its as if an alien were attempting to reproduce the English language. 😉 I’ll bet that explanation is a first!
Oh, I began re-reading Mr King’s book ‘On Writing’ today. A lovely read, and whilst in the CV section, the glimpses of childhood unearth an intriguing development. I’d imagine the months spent at home pouring through comics, would have honed certain narrative skills. The graphic novelist has to be concise. And hey, I get the single mother biz, oh yeah. In some ways no adults were around to say the magic word: no.
Man, going back to place, is a complicated and fraught experience. Long ago I went back to visit a house I’d sweated many long hours over repairing. The discovery was the realisation that the next owners had not maintained anything. Not one thing. And the formerly healthy house, had languished. It was a sad moment, because maintenance would have been easy, they just did nothing. One of those pivotal moments when you get to apply the insight to the wider society.
Hehe! Yes, having worked in the transport industry long ago, I can assure you, containers fall off ships and end up in the big drink. Some, like those you mentioned, float.
Thanks for the article on the bushfire folks. The photos of their body language was quite interesting. And all of the things that they did, are worthy of a persons time. Trust me, we have a much bigger buffer to the bush, but even so, there are no guarantees. And the pumps and sprinklers here are equally independent. Water at such times is everything, and it is a matter which I take very seriously. The fire monks survived because they had independent water and pumps – that was what I took away from the book. They were lucky that their creek never stopped flowing.
Your weather, even with the rain on Monday, sounds delightful. Gloomy again here today, but with no wind and under an hour of peak sunlight. The mornings are getting dark again.
Newspapers have circulation, or click counts to contend with. The professor has the slight problem of err, facts and clear cut definitions. Gonzo on the other hand, sells.
Sorry to hear that about the food bank box. That is awful, and hope that everyone muddles on through. A sign of the times, perhaps?
Go Dick Hallorann, and some folks see and feel currents. I’ve often wondered if such skills are a form of self defence.
Cheers and better get writing!
Chris
Hi DJ,
Oh man, Sunday is writing night. And here I am faced with your most excellent comment, which of itself demands a reply. Alas, my blood and bones are of ordinary flesh, and well, there are only so many hours in the day. Look for a reply tomorrow must be the guide.
In the meantime, I will leave you with a suitably mysterious comment: Thanks for the comment, your rashudo, is superb! George R R Martin would understand, and I will say no more.
I’d like to add that the concept was my own, but I’m only but a Neanderthal and must make my way through a world full of apparently cleverer humans. 😉
Cheers and I seriously have to get typing, soon!
Chris
Yo, Chris – LOL. People always look at me strangely, when I say I don’t “do” social media. Or a lot of other tech I steer clear off. It’s sort of like learning enough about a movie, to know I don’t particularly care to watch it. From what I heard abut social media, early on, it sounded like more trouble than it was worth, or, going looking for trouble.
I fully expect, when I get around to looking at my face plant account, that if anyone from my past reaches out, it will be people I’m not interested in recontacting. And the one’s I wouldn’t mind hearing from, won’t be in evidence. 🙂
According to a look down the rabbit hole, 34.7% of Americans are renters. And, rising.
I worked awhile in the garden, last night, but the tomatoes didn’t get planted. You know how it is. Other things come up. Is that a pun? 🙂 I did mix up a five gallon bucket of soil to go in the tomato hole, so, it will be a pretty swift process. I also weeded out the bed they will go into. I figured I’d sweeten the deal, by offering to keep it weeded, as “rent.” I began clearing a place to plant the tomatillos. That required a lot of weeding. I think there will be enough mixed up soil, from the tomatoes, to get the tomatillos in the ground. Beans might get planted, tomorrow, maybe, between showers.
Go the turmeric. It will appreciate the breathing space.
Nope. I don’t have a slow cooker. If I need to slow cook something, I just slow down. 🙂
“Inform, bamboozle or mystify.” That’s a nice turn of phrase. Stein is one of those authors I’m not much interested in reading, but I find her life fascinating. I’m currently reading “Western Star: Th Life and Legends of Larry McMurtry.” (Streitfeld, 2026).
https://w.wiki/P94$
I can’t say I’m much interested in reading his books, or seeing the movies or TV series. Although I may pick up a copy of “The Last Picture Show.” The library has the DVD. He also wrote the book that became the movie, “Hud.” But, his life was pretty interesting. Book scout and book dealer. Was a good friend of Ken Kesey, and ended up marrying Kesey’s widow.
I don’t know if King mentioned it, but when I was watching his turn on “Finding Your Roots,” he did credit his father with one thing. He discovered that an aunt had a box of books, up in her attic, that his father had left behind. Mostly, sci-fi and horror paperbacks.
Our high yesterday was 66F (18.88C). Our overnight low was 43F (6.11C). Our forecast high for today is 75F. The rain will start coming back tomorrow morning. Lew