Today marks the conclusion of the annual solar power highway to the danger zone. For three weeks on either side of the winter solstice, the sun is so darned low in the sky, that it can be a challenge to capture enough electricity to fully charge the house batteries. It’s a tough time of year for those relying on energy from the sun, and I’ve remarked to serious people in the past that if the plants aren’t growing, you probably can’t run an industrial civilisation off this hippy technology. It’s good, but it’s not good enough for the purpose well intentioned folks want to put it to!
Here’s a picture of the gloomy conditions today:
It’s not all been bad news for there has been a mild cause for celebration this winter. The generator has been run on only four occasions (last year it was 11 times). Looking at the statistics, the little petrol generator was run for about 30 hours in total this winter. The fossil fuel machine produces 240V mains electricity. It works by powering a battery charger, flips the supply from AC to DC, whilst the voltage is lowered to an amount which the batteries can handle. Easy, but very inefficient! This converted 30L / 8 gallons of petrol into 44.2kWh of electricity. By comparison, the little Dirt Mouse Suzuki Swift could travel almost 570km / 350mi using that amount of fuel.
All the same, and fingers crossed, that’s all the generator usage we’ll need for the year, maybe. Much of course depends on the vagaries of the weather. How we achieved the improvement over last year, which was itself a win over the previous year (20 days of generator usage), was that we added an additional 12 second hand solar panels to the roof of the new firewood shed.
Here are some of the statistics which the off grid solar power system produces:
The period covers the three weeks either side of the winter solstice. Green chunks in the above graph, indicate what the combined 9.1kW of 48 installed solar panels have generated each day from the winter sun. When talking about High School maths results, I tend to look confused, then act anxious, but even I can see that most days during winter the high tech things rarely exceed the 9,000Wh mark on the graph. It’s not hard to conclude that a person is likely at this location to enjoy less than an hour of sun each day during winter.
An alert person will notice that some days, even close to the winter solstice, the house can enjoy up to two hours of sunlight (the green 18,000 mark). The reality however, is that there are thick clouds, rainfall, mist etc. The sun won’t deliver much energy at ground level in those conditions. If the plants won’t grow, there’s little chance that the batteries will get fully charged.
The pointy red chunks are the 44,100Wh of electricity which the batteries enjoyed courtesy of the fossil fuel powered generator. And the blue line is the % state of charge of the batteries first thing in the morning. You can see that line tanking as it gets closer to the middle of the graph. The trend is obvious to me, for as the days get ever closer to the winter solstice, there is less energy stored in the batteries – we’re simply using up that storage capacity. The system retains in the batteries about four days of supply, which means that if the panels produced nothing, we could limp along for four days, then the lights would go out. By comparison, despite all the big talk in this country about battery systems attached to the grid there is only around two to four hours of backup, in total. That ain’t four days, and as the song said, things that make you go hmm.
Maybe I don’t get out enough, but to get this hippy stuff to work, there needs to be plenty of over supply to get through the worst of the weather. Hoping for only the best climactic conditions, is well, an expression of belief. And I haven’t heard anyone in the media demanding that society pay for four days of backup grid scaled batteries, all of which may only last 10 to 20 years!
There is an astounding amount of solar panels installed on this sunny continent. Apparently 45.1GW, with something like 4.4 million households having a system of some sort. It’s a lot. However, coal fired plants produce 22.3GW and that makes solar sound like is a clear winner, until you recall that the sun doesn’t shine at night. Coal however, does that output 24 hours per day as does gas and oil and they make up 60% of the total electricity supply. Funnily enough though, at warmer times of the year, there is now so much solar electricity slurping around the grid system, it’s being given away for free around midday. Nature is very much a boom and bust kind of proposition. I’d imagine when the sun goes down though, the lost charges, would soon be made up.
People keep telling me that this stuff is getting so much cheaper, and that is partially true. Our first big solar panel purchase back in 2009 cost around $750 new, for each panel. The last 24 panels we’ve purchased second hand, have cost $700 in total. I’d call that a surprising turn of events, but then few people on the continent, know how to recycle this high tech. They are literally being disposed of. Candidly speaking re-using them is the best outcome, but I am in the minority with that perspective.
Anyway, it’s the other components in the system where the costs quickly add up. With the last dozen panels we added to the new firewood shed, it was lucky for the fluffy treasury that we could use so many spare parts which we already had. We only had to buy half the racking, the other half was a surprising $374. And I was short of only a couple of fuses, and they cost an alarming $265. Fortunately, we didn’t have to pay for wires, distribution boxes, fuses, connectors, solar charge controllers, batteries etc.
This hippy tech is financially ruinous stuff! But it’s also a hobby, and one to which which I derive equal parts enjoyment and heartache from. To put my efforts into a larger societal perspective, at best electricity accounts for about 18% of all energy used in this country, with the rest coming from fossil fuels and other stuff we can burn. Solar is wonderful and has a nice feel good aspect to it, but it’s merely a drop in the ocean.
The weather this week has swung between the extremes of a stunning early spring and bleak winter. Most mornings have been lightly frosty.
It’s cold here, but way colder down below in the valley. It’s a little understood mountainous fun fact, but cold air is dense, and it falls, only to pool in the valleys. Often it is several degrees warmer up here at this elevated location.
Up until Saturday afternoon, the days had been nice, then it all turned. The light was really unusual looking in the early moments of the storm. It rained a lot afterwards!
Earlier in the week when sunny and calm conditions prevailed, we headed down below to the forest edge to do some clean up work. I even managed to dislodge and then roll an upside down tree stump into the bonfire. The loggers left those stumps, because it was uneconomical to clean them up, and I believe they thought nobody would ever see them again. They thought wrong!
The next day, we kicked the fire off again and turned more forest litter, into ash. The dogs had a blast during those days. Ollie warmed himself and kept an eye on our activities, whilst the two Kelpies ran around like crazy dogs.
On Friday we headed an hours drive north to visit some of the gold-rush era 19th century ruins. The forests up that way are full of interesting places to visit, and usually they’re very peaceful.
This Eureka mine must have been quite profitable because the remains of buildings were littered all over the place. Only a wealthy society can afford to produce such waste. A closer look at a wall reveals that the builders in those days used local rock and clay.
There were even some unnecessary, but rather menacing looking signs depicting what may happen to adventurous folks:
An old school tripod / gin lifting arrangement remained in place above a remarkably deep mine shaft. I dropped a rock into the hole, and it took a long while before any sound was heard. I’d would not trust that lifting arrangement.
The surface of the shaft was protected by rather strong looking steel welded mesh. However, some cheeky scamp had cut a hole, and the imagination was troubled as to why that act had been done. Oh well, best to not be involved…
The lesser rodent wars continue, and they are going well brothers and sisters! A cruel blow to the fluffy empire was struck this week though! The rat resistance tunnelled into the greenhouse. Guess the nights have been cold! A trench was dug at the doorway.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that rodents are unable to tunnel through concrete. Therefore the trench was backfilled with cement.
Just as that work finished, the rain arrived. The surface of the wet cement had to be protected so that it could cure properly.
Earlier that day, we had to protect the trunks of some of the citrus trees from rabbits. When the days are short, plants produce less proteins, and so the rabbits sometimes turn to chewing bark off trees, and they love citrus.
The garden is still producing a lot of food, it’s just not growing fast, or much at all.
In some weird signs of plants acting out of season, I noticed that one of the almond trees sports some spring leaves. This is a bit too early…
You can see that the sap is rising in many of the trees. Spring is on its way!
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 7’C (41’F). So far for this year there has been 726.6mm (28.6 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 690.0mm (27.2 inches)
Comments
40 responses to “Alive and Kicking”
Yo, Chris – Cleaver boy! I was going to mention that the extra panels on the New Woodshed might have helped. And you figured it out all on your own! 🙂 So the answer to getting over the hump is … more solar panels!
I suppose you’ll be shopping the sales, and replacing all those spare parts you used. And, maybe, even some of the un-spare parts.
Is it my imagination, or have you had more frost, this year, than last? It just seems it wasn’t mentioned, as often, last year.
Classy wheels! Add a string of pearls, and it’s as timeless as the little black dress.
Those are great photos of the ruins. The pic, “…local rock..”? Is that a wee fireplace? And the alcove to the right. Might have just been handy storage, or, a warming / bake oven. I watched a Scottish movie, last night. Lovely accents. I pick up accents, without even thinking about it. More on the movie, tomorrow.
That’s some warning sign. Seems to be pretty clear. Although I’m sure some nuppity will think, “Oh, I’m sure it doesn’t apply to ME! I’m exceptional. I’m special.”
The new concrete door barrier is really functional, and pretty. The pavers are a nice touch. You folks do add visual accents that are quit pleasing.
I hear rabbit stew is quit tasty.
The succulent flowers are striking. We have an Inmate here, who has filled her entire planting bed / tub, with succulents. There must be a couple of dozen kinds. And a few of them have popped up, in other parts of the gardens. A lot of them are in flower. But I wonder. Are succulents edible? 🙂 Lew
Hi Lewis,
Sad news from down under, the actor Sam Neill passed away.
Thanks, and it wasn’t just you, I to was wondering how the additional dozen second hand solar panels would improve things – which they did! A few rough back of the envelope calculations suggest that another dozen panels would wipe out the four days of generator usage. Alas, the cost would be exorbitant, the risk with running higher currents would increase, and we’ve plain old run out of roof space to pull that trick off. The thought is in the never-never.
Well, I never said that I used up all of my stash of spare parts… 😉 What was the old scouts motto?
Yeah, light frosts have been pretty consistent the past week, but looking at the weather forecast, temperatures seem to be going up. Not sure what to make of that, but I take each week as it comes, and prepare for the worst. I’ll do a bit more forest clean up over the next few months, and that should lower the risk, a bit. Insurance is like the canary in the coal mine. One can never be too sure.
The little red Suzuki Swift dirt mouse can’t take interviews for it is currently auditioning for a role in the film franchise: The Fast and the Furious – which it is neither, but one must be in it to win it, don’t you reckon? 🙂 The car has a lot to offer in a pretty face, a winning smile, a flash of leg and breast, and of course the race winning wheels!
I also thought the alcove in the ruins looked like an internal fire place. And that was probably why that section of the wall had hung together for a century and a half. Aye laddie! 😉 A delightful and super smart Scottish lady used to work for me, and she had a really thick accent. We used to laugh about how her family at home thought she sounded Aussie-as. Some battles can’t be won, but we do pick up the spoken language heard, and it is a fluid thing isn’t it?
I’ll be interested to hear what it is that you’ve been watching. You are being remarkably mysterious! 🙂
Glad to see you enjoyed the warning sign, and the messages were clear. Nobody would survive a fall into that deep mine shaft, and the hole was not the first one cut into that strong welded mesh. People go missing…
Thank you! And the rodents have been particularly challenging this year. The heavy rainfall leaches soil minerals, and the low winter sunlight is a double whammy as plant proteins wane. I spent a couple of hours today digging a trench inside the chickens run. Last night I spotted where the mice may have been hiding, and it turns out the chickens had been scratching around a much older rat tunnel entrance. I’d not noticed it previously. The birds were once dinosaurs and had been busy… Anywhoo, a deep trench was dug, then backfilled with cement. It was another wet and gloomy day too. I’ll head outdoors in a little while to see if that puts an end to the mice. They eat an awful lot of chicken feed.
Other than that, I mostly did paid work.
🙂 The gourmet pie place bakes a very tasty rabbit pie. It’s a super lean meat though.
Hehe! That’s an intriguing question regarding the edibility of succulents. You know, I’m sure the flowers will attract and retain pollinators. There is no perfect solution to any problem.
I’m sure mars boy has heard of the kessler effect? Oh well, I’m unfussed and grew up without all of the tech, it’s no big deal. On the other matter, those crashed landed items are allegedly Hydrazine Propellant Tanks, and I for one am glad that none have landed here. The word on the street about that stuff is not good.
All this over sized stuff is OK, until the power grid becomes unstable, or there are telecommunication outages.
🙂 The fictional character Conan seemed more interested in creating, than destroying, unless you were one of the many rulers and their pet sorcerers who couldn’t leave well enough alone. That sentence jumped out at me as well. Wonder what went on? The bloke provided employment to his fellow countrymen immigrants who were newly arrived. Got their feet on the ground so to speak. I wonder why the family sold off the premises? And whether by doing so, they possibly walked away from the legacy. I’ve noticed that in some of these sorts of cases, the family take the mad cash, then make later demands.
I was actually serious about the self enforced rules, but the link you provided dispelled that idea. Wow. That is one Byzantine maze, which would annoy me deeply. Perhaps I’m not the intended audience for such services seeking such safety? As neither would you be given you went independent.
Didn’t make it much past 52’F here today, but the weather is picking up from tomorrow. I’m hoping to get some more sunshine so that the batteries don’t need recharging from the generator! Good to read that you got some decent rain, and not having to water some of the plants, is enough really. Too much and the soil begins to cool down, which further slows plant growth.
What a fine goat to have in a sticky situation. It had a collar on, so I wondered whether it was attached to the fire crew, or decided to attach itself to the crew. Animals are pretty clever, and a goat would not benefit from wildfire.
The butterflies come and go here as well. I’ve got a cocoon developing on a bit of the house, and left it hanging off the wall. When I was a kid, I used to see heaps more of these, so they’re probably not doing all that great these days.
Naughty Edwin. You know he could be sent to the Caribbean? That might keep the mischievous Cornu out of trouble! 🙂
It was pretty grungy that book, but it shows what was going on in the now swanky area not all that long ago. The book may have been turned into a film.
What the heck? Well that is a new one to me. But, it probably is going on. I hear things on that sort of eavesdropping business too. People can be very deeply weird. I spotted this unusual article the other day: Mick Jagger’s security guy reportedly helped Rupert Murdoch’s ex-wife disable security cameras suspected of beaming footage back to Fox HQ after divorce. WTF?
🙂 Ah, your catsup flavoured chips odyssey has begun!
Rice, veg, greens and eggs for dinner this evening. Yum!
Mouse update: None sighted! This may mean much, or little, depending.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I saw a headline that Sam Neill had died. A great actor. He will be missed.
More roof space for solar? Well, when you build the second greenhouse … 🙂 But I can see where you might be concerned about the system getting overloaded.
Not mysterious. I just feel that when you do your weekly post, my response should be about you! you! you! 🙂 Anything I’ve got going, can wait a day.
I wonder if the heat from the fireplace, baked the clay. Making it longer lasting. An interesting article from Vindolanda, on Roman concrete.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/1-900-old-latrine-helps-150000426.html
But to the movie. One of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Though, WARNING!!! BAD LANGUAGE AHEAD!!!
At least, in the trailer. Here’s a synopsis of the film. Spoilers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Swear_(film)
The film opens with John, getting the MBE from the Queen. And, drops an F-bomb on her.
https://youtu.be/zhRgPCUKFiw?si=DWRN1A0VHpRldSWT
The actor who plays young John, is really good. And the actor who portrays adult John, is superb. Quit a few people with Tourette syndrome are in the movie.
In further news from Hollywood, there’s to be a re-boot of “Little House on the Prairie.”
The Master Gardeners are here, this morning. One of them will take a look at the irrigation, and try to figure out what is going on. Some things are getting irrigated, but at odd times. Very few pollinators showed up, this morning. I wonder what’s going on, with them. One of my cherry tomatoes is turning yellow.
One or two of Mars Boy’s satellites are dropping out of orbit. Daily.
Speaking of big companies, I feel so used, and dirty. 🙂 Day before yesterday, I ordered some floss picks off of E-buy. Some outfit in Texas … according to the posting. Well, they showed up, yesterday. In a Store of Walls bag, from our local, I guess. I work so hard to avoid spending a dime there. So now I’m in a bit of a quandary, over how to do the rating, if at all. Did I get what I ordered? Yes. Was it well packed? Yes. Did it arrive in a timely manner? Yes. So, I am in a quandary, as to what to put in the ratings.
A lot of kids grow up, slaving away in family restaurants. And the last thing they want to do, is do that as adults. Also, I think, families want their kids to move up in the world, as professionals of one sort or another. I think there’s more of that, than “carrying on the family business.” Especially, in immigrant communities.
Our high yesterday was 73F (22.77C). Our overnight low was 46F (7.77C). Our forecast high for today is 85F. And, it will be in the 80sF, for the rest of the week.
Besides goats, donkeys are also used in the fight against wildfires. Aren’t the little ones, cute?
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/spanish-park-free-wildfires-over-184119733.html
The article you linked to, was behind a paywall. But I got the gist of it. That news organization has been caught in all kinds of dodgy operations. Even to stopping to tapping phones.
I had a similar dinner, last night. Rice, garlic, three eggs, peas, mushrooms and seeds, mixed up and fried as patties. I topped them with Mozzarella cheese, a can of diced tomatoes and hot sauce. Tasty.
Another find from Vindolanda. A sculpture. Not many of those, to be found.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/articles/roman-1-600-old-guardian-142215467.html
Clearly of local manufacture. It’s almost a form of folk art, though I doubt the Romans considered it such.
I was asleep at the switch. I went out, Saturday morning to pick up some stuff at the library. When I swung down to market street, there was spandex, for miles. It was the weekend of the dreaded Seattle to Portland (STP) bicycle outing. The traffic was very heavy, coming back on Washington Ave., which is pretty much a one lane road. Drivers were detouring up there, to avoid the riders on Market Street. Lew
Hi, Chris!
Well, yay! for the conclusion of the danger zone. You know me: In doubt early every morning if the sun is even going to come up at all. So – you are actually a hippy, not a bogan.
It’s not so gloomy when you have a rainbow! I only see rainbows on this site, not at home. Too many trees still.
Those are very good statistics for generator usage. That Dirt Mouse is an efficient little thing. I’ve got it: Run your power off of the Dirt Mouse. Si? But I’ll tell you what, when I started reading this blog I was so surprised to see how cloudy your winters are. Australia, don’t you know? I think you have more cloudy winter days than we do.
“but cold air is dense, and it falls, only to pool in the valleys. Often it is several degrees warmer up here at this elevated location.” But then in the summer is it like here, where the mountains are several, often 5F, degrees cooler? I guess it is lucky all those storms have been rain and not blizzards. And at least it has been safe to burn.
The Eureka mine must have been quite profitable if it was named “Eureka”. It is amazing that the tripod is still standing. I think maybe the hole was cut in the wire mesh to rescue a mini elephant . . .
Chris, Master Trench Digger, reigns! Something for your tombstone? I think I’m feeling a bit maudlin. A couple of days ago I went to a lovely memorial service for Jane, one of our neighbors who passed away.
Is spring really so close? I hope that here autumn is not.
That succulent grows Christmas trees! How charming. What a shame it’s not Christmas. I guess the roses do think it’s spring. I love the color of the foxgloves. Thanks!
From last week:
“While Juárez has consistently ranked among the most violent cities globally, homicides have seen a declining trend, falling to 928 deaths in a recent year—the first time in nearly a decade the city reported fewer than 1,000 murders.”
Mortar for sure in a cellar, unless one had naturally squared-off stones, which neither you nor I have.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Oh yeah, that’s what you get for waking up early! 🙂 And at least you are there to confirm the event happened, and that the sun actually rose. To be honest though, I hear you and the years are likewise making me less certain about things.
Neither bogan, nor hippy, although both are worthy categories, for various reasons. My race is with myself, and there may be no easy category for such a person. My friends used to go to a big hippy festival way up north and on the other side of the border in the next state. It was hot and dry, the food was OK, but those were not my people. Hard to know who really is, isn’t it?
Pam, the trees are nice too. Rainbows are lovely, and natural environments are all usually beautiful. Mind you, I’ve read that a person’s chances against a polar bear, are pretty slim, so there’s that. So nature can be rough-as. There are too many trees here as well, but I can’t undo a century and a half of neglect easily, or quickly. Only those with deep pockets can.
This morning the batteries were at 31% full, and I was dithering and dathering as to whether to run the little generator. Turns out that’s when you shouldn’t do so, and so I didn’t. Plenty of sunshine today. Yay!
They don’t sell Dirt Rat Suzuki’s in your country, which is a shame. It’s got a 73ci motor which is superbly powerful and uses very little fuel. I just have to keep an eye out for the other much larger vehicles on the road.
Si non! It’s crazy isn’t it how cloudy and humid the winters are down here. I reckon the super cold weather you experience is actually drier, maybe. In the past two decades, there has only been two years (to this point) which were wetter than 2026. If we hadn’t made that new firewood shed to store the excess firewood in, we’d be in a world of hurt. Truly, there are times when I get the impression that I’m just one step ahead of serious drama, knowing that sooner or later, I’ll be run over by that.
😉 Spot on, and yeah, summer days are about 7’F cooler up here, and then some, depending. The big smoke suffers from the heat island effect, and nobody wants that, do they? Never seen a blizzard here.
That’s such a nice thought about the purpose of the cut in the welded mesh, although we must not think of the poor little tiny elephant down there in the murky depths. My first thought was ‘crims’, and your reservations regarding the tripod matched my own – not to be trusted.
I’d not considered a tombstone, and would perhaps be happier if the forest critters did what they do. It’s not like I’d need the bits! 🙂
Owww, sorry for the loss of your beloved neighbour. Time has a way of stacking up the losses doesn’t it? Please accept a big virtual consoling hug.
Sorry to say it, but spring is on the way here. The daylight lengthens, and whilst there will still be cold nights, the sun is slowly awakening the plants. Trust me though, the big fricken fat brush tail possum is far from asleep. Why would the marsupial eat the rind off lemons and leave the uneaten core? Lemon zest must be in this year! On the other hand, two nights now, no mouse activity in the chicken enclosure.
🙂 It’s grey and gloomy here, but the succulents and those stunning foxgloves lift one’s spirits.
Yeah, it looks like things are settling down to a more normal homicide rate in that Mexican town. I’d call that an improvement.
Agreed, squared off stones are the stuff of legend! That cheeky Nearing’s couple had access to some choice materials! I always thought that Helen did the heavy lifting in that household.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Awful isn’t it? Vale Mr Neill, and may he rest up and sleep the slow dream of dinosaurs.
I like where you are going with the second greenhouse roof space, but err, the plants may benefit from the sunshine, and the panels would certainly shade them. It’s the wires which have to transport this energy, and after a while, there are a lot of compromises which may tilt out of my favour. Best to keep the beast in a manageable form, and you knew that.
Hehe! That was very funny, and whilst I like to write, it is the wonderful comments here with people such as yourself, which are the icing on the cake. 🙂
I’d read before that it was suspected that the Roman’s infused their concrete with Calcium Carbonate, so I’m unsurprised to read that the material has an effect on longevity. Shame about the steel reinforcing rods, it happens. And that was probably a factor with the clay, and both you and I looked at the image and said: fireplace. Repeated firing of the fireplace would have dried the materials. Actually, mortar used in brick fireplaces has to be a special variety which doesn’t shrink as it loses moisture.
The bad language in that instance can be excused, it’s involuntary ain’t it? 😉 Sometimes you imagine you’ve had the rough end of the stick, and then you see that things could be worse, a whole lot worse. I’ll chuck that one on the to-see list. It takes a strong character to rise up from the past. Thanks for mentioning the film.
I’m sure that the Queen had heard worse than that! Maybe…
A re-boot, man, I’m still reeling from that preparation for self leg amputation scene, which fortunately was not needed. Surely there are new ideas emanating from that city?
At best there will be a map of the irrigation system, at worst, well, it’ll be a mess to fix.Those systems have to be kept so simple and obvious, and always go wrong at inopportune moments. Did the master gardeners sort it all out? And go the ripening tomato! Yellow cherries are some of the best tasting, which do well in cooler areas. They’ve been super reliable here. By the way, all those insects will need a drink too.
Yes, chunks seem to be washing up down under. Best to not be involved is my thinking. And leave well enough alone if encountered.
It happens, and looks like you got hit by a smooth drop shipping operation. I try not to leave negative feedback, and some folks can escalate such matters. And here we must tread very, very carefully. I read this article the other day, and poked around to see who’d gone and done it. Hmm. I won’t direct link, but this is an intriguing situation, so type: ‘australia abc news councillors hepburn shuts down’ . No names, please!
OK, I get that about the individuals and families wanting some breathing space, and yeah, hospo work is not for everyone. I benefited from utter familial apathy, but long a friends parents used to break his err, nuts, all the time about getting a proper job. Not a recommended strategy, but then I hardly know what normal families do. It might be the done thing that? Dunno.
Makes a lot of sense, and few people realise that it is the fine fuels in the forest which drive the intensity. Trees generally don’t burn, and you can see that in the aftermath of a big fire, the trees will be charred and burnt sure, but what is gone are all the fine fuels. Better to consume them beforehand.
There was a lot going on in that article for sure.
Similar dinner this evening. 🙂 Your addition of mozzarella is genius! I tend to avoid spicy food for dinner as it affects my sleep, and this must not be! But for lunch, doesn’t seem to be an issue at all.
Did you notice how well preserved the face on the ancient Roman sculpture was? What was your thoughts on how the sculpture was perceived by the Romans?
Ouch! Well, once you’re stuck in traffic, it’s game over man. Not much you can do about that one, although don’t you usually mark the date on the calendar?
Oh, scored a solid hour and a half of peak sunlight today, and the batteries enjoyed a decent charging. It was touch and go this morning as to whether the generator might need to be run tonight.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I saw a pretty interesting article, yesterday, on recycling different kinds of batteries. No matter the material, if someone can’t make a bit of a profit, from recycling, it’s not going to happen.
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/13/nx-s1-5847025/ev-battery-recycling-economics
LOL. Well, Prince Phillip was an old salt, so, yes, the Queen probably had heard worse. And, as he aged, as with many of us oldsters, his buffers got thinner and thinner. For poops and giggles, you might search “Prince Phillip’s salty language?” Lots of articles.
Now, with the “Little House” reboot, there’s lots of articles on the old, and new series. One was about the episodes least in keeping with the general overall wholesome atmosphere. Or, sort of shocking to the viewers. Top of the list? “Ma-cuts-off-her-leg-with-a-butter-knife.” My title for that episode 🙂 The fans are all in a tizzy, because in the first episode of the new reboot, Ma talks back at Pa! About time. The horror, the horror. 🙂
We have several watering holes, for the insects, around the place. Bird baths, mostly. I got an e-mail, a couple of weeks ago, from the Master Gardeners. They had forgot to put a rock in a birdbath, and asked me to do it. So the bees can haul themselves out, and dry out. Happy to oblige.
Pollinators were out this morning. A small hornet was inspecting my pitcher plants. Would he check in, and not check out? He thought better of it, and flew on his way. I’m still getting a few European honey bees, but not in great numbers.
Speaking of bugs, the other day, Dawg was all wound up, about something in the bathroom. In a real tizzy. A mouse? A snake? (I once found a slug on the third floor, so why not?). A ghost? She plopped down in front of the entry, finally, still zeroing in on … something. I finally figured out, it was a small spider, on the baseboard. Smaller than a dime. The way she was acting, you’d think it was a giant Tarantula. I disposed of it, and peace was restored.
I read that article you didn’t link to. Sounds like a similar situation, to our library tempest. Lack of transparency.
There was a sidebar article, I found interesting. You’re having two Impressionist art exhibits, but I don’t know if either are within striking distance. If so, might be worth a look. When I was a wee small lad, I used to so enjoy looking at the Impressionist paintings, at the Portland Art Museum. They had at least one painting, by every major Impressionist artist. Except Van Gogh. You’re getting at least one Van Gogh.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-15/impressionist-art-exhibitions-agsa-geelong-gallery/106908738
The little Roman sculpture probably had some religious significance. He probably sat in niche, with a shelf, where people could leave offerings. Rank and file soldiers, probably thought it was just fine. People who had traveled more, and seen Roman “high” art, probably kept their thoughts to themselves. 🙂
I had thought about the STP, a few times, but the thought slipped away, before I looked it up to put it on the calendar. I suppose it wasn’t pressing, as I’m not going back and forth to the Club, these days. I’ll remember, next year. Lew
Chris:
The people here are my kind of people.
That’s a really tough call to make; no wonder you were dithering and dathering. But you chose well!
“Truly, there are times when I get the impression that I’m just one step ahead of serious drama, knowing that sooner or later, I’ll be run over by that.” I’ll second that sentiment. I spend a lot of time in that state. Well, we can only do our best.
Yeah, and tombstones are expensive. Best spend the money on something useful right now. Er, tiramisu?
Thank you for the sympathy. She is being missed by many.
That’s a thing here now: The animals don’t spend much time hibernating anymore, just in those really terrible cold spells.
I think Helen did that, too, but Scott was no slouch. She just seemed to know how to manage things. They were so clever (or lucky) the way they were able to get so many people interesting in helping them on the farm.
I have finally figured that when the weatherman says that we are going to have fog til noon, and we never have any at all, it is down below us. I can’t see the valley in the summer because of the trees, but I can see it from our row of mailboxes down the road.
What next? I have squash borers which are killing my squash and cucumber plants. They have lots of little squashes – neatly bitten off, so maybe it doesn’t matter. The cucumbers are still producing, but have really slowed down. I think it’s too late to do anything, but tomorrow I will try. Do you get these things?
Now then, this will make your hair stand on end. Did you know that deer can climb under fences? Well Lucy can. That’s the deer that gives us the most trouble. There was a fence corner where the wire was loosely attached to the post and she pushed her way under it (my son saw her). This is a deer who is close to 200 pounds; this is not a groundhog. And get this: Lucy can also jump through the ropes that we have over the 4 foot fence, like you do, to supposedly make her think the fence is taller. There is a lot of rope there; I put up a lot of it myself.
Pam
Chris,
Thanks for the link to the Colliwobbles the other day. That was an enjoyable read.
And Burnside? After all of his prior total screw ups, it’s surprising that he still had any type of command that late in the war. The words useless and inept come to mind. I like the sound of a word from the old Chinook Jargon trade language – cultus. Pronounced “kool tooce.” It means useless, of no account, worthless, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinook_Jargon
Congratulations. You’re through the worst of the low solar days. Unfortunately, your winter has lasted too long. “Attack on the Greenhouse: The Rats Return” is the latest chapter of your Rodent War Chronicles. It’s entirely unfair that they are coordinating their greenhouse efforts with the citrus tree attacks made by the rabbits.
I’m glad your “new” used solar panels are helping.
Today started comfortable. +18C. And cloudy. It stayed in the comfortable range until about noon, at which time the clouds left, the temperature went up and the wind started again. At least the humidity only dropped to 28%, much better than we’ve been experiencing in the afternoons.
Nice photo of the “weird looking light”. I’ve seen that before. Hard rain followed every time. Without fail.
Hmmm, a hole cut in the cover directly over the mine shaft? The DEEP mine shaft. Probably best not to know why that was cut. What, or even who, was thrown in? Are there bones in the bottom? A weird smell emanating out of the shaft? Are the ghosts of mine shafts past, present and future stuck at the bottom? Who knows what secrets lurk at the bottom? Some questions are best left unanswered.
They’ve gotten my new roof scheduled. The project starts next Monday. Crack of dawn. Remove old roof while new materials are getting delivered. Then build the new roof, complete with better attic venting and new gutters over the entire house and garage. Should take two days, maybe a bit more.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
It’s a delightful out of the way corner of the interweb!
Turns out, the dithering and dathering about whether to run the generator yesterday morning worked out OK. And today’s blue sunny skies was a record for winter solar power production in the system, and was a full ten days earlier than the previous record of a year ago with almost an extra 1.7kWh (the new dozen panels explains this). Nice, but we used heaps of electricity today and the batteries are still not full. Maybe tomorrow!
It seems to be a permanent state of concern, doesn’t it? And I guess it proves that you and I, only know what we know, and the rest is unknowable. Just have to live with the uncertainty I guess.
Hehe! Someone famous once said, a cake in the hand is worth more than the inscription on a tombstone, although I could have muddled that all up. When I go, hope something useful happens to the remains, and that people enjoy a proper wake and talk about all the fun, and other times. Seems only fair, and hope they declare a rip roaring toast.
Good neighbours are a real gift, and may the folks in your immediate area continue to get along and brighten the land with life.
Wasn’t your recent winter season a whopper in terms of the deep freeze? I do recall the word ‘glacial’ being casually used. 🙂 Winter here by contrast has been remarkably mild, unusually so.
Yeah, agreed, I too got the impression that Helen ran the household and dealt with much of the larger property matters, but also was better with the people. And oh wow, did they get heaps of folks turning up to help out or what? Pam, I have one word in relation to that matter: Insurance. Things are no longer what they once were.
Local weather anomalies, huh? Funnily enough, the other morning it was warmer here than in the more fashionable western end of the mountain range. Sucks to be them! 😉 And yeah, cold air pools in valleys.
Please do keep such hungry critters in your country! Oh my! There was an interweb article (posing with an AU link, but based in the UK) and the bloke said he poked needles into the pumpkin holes. I’m totally unfamiliar with such critters. How do you grow anything? We don’t tend to have so many plant diseases and/or insects, but make up for it with hungry birds and marsupials. See, grow, and they will feed, seems to be the way of things.
I’m unsurprised by the deer pulling that trick, and the other one too, because kangaroos and wallabies can do exactly the same. I love the wombats, but must they construct super highways under fence lines? Most of the deer fencing is well over six foot here, and utilises colour plastic coated stainless steel wire. If there were another way, although I did hear someone way down below tonight shooting with a silencer. Dame Plum and I kept the torch on, just to be safe, and then returned back into the house. The Kelpie was fascinated by a very large looking brush tailed possum.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Man, ignoring the footy tipping statistics and getting sucked into the err, loose talk, would make a proper mathematician blush, and fortunately I claim no such expertise. 🙂 Still, not my finest hour. Your more err, erudite skills in this arcane subject would have no doubts avoided that foolish outcome!
Burnside was a weak leader because he bowed to pressure from superiors who weren’t on the field. When the folks reporting to your command tell you it’s a bad idea to take a certain course of action, it probably is. Those frontal assaults are stupid, but only someone who doesn’t have to face the consequences would order one. There are ways to tell your superiors to ‘f%^k off’, none of which are nice, but they can be necessary upon a rare occasion.
By the way, I believe that there were trade languages down here as well. Each tribe had it’s own language, but I believe a very fluid trade language was once employed and trade was spread far and wide. English has kind of fallen into that role too nowadays, as once long ago did Latin. Proper communication can resolve many an issue.
Man, today the solar panels hit a new record for July energy production. The Editor did much cooking, but the battery state of charge went from this morning at 50% to now a bit over 70%. Not bad at all. And this peak occurred a full ten days earlier than the previous record.
I know, the rodents are acting quite unfairly! Anywhoo, for about three days, no mouse activity has been spotted in the chicken enclosure, and I feel bad about what that took, but as I remark to the Editor: They knew the rules! And took the risk. Still, it was not nice. And in the greenhouse, the deciding factor was when the rats decided to sample the slowly ripening babaco fruit. Those are my summer breakfasts, not some winter ratty unripe snack food. They’re pushing me man, I may snap! 🙂 Not really, but they test the systems 24/7, 365.
Yeah, the trick with solar panels and batteries is to just add more. Except there are physical limitations to what the controllers, wires, fuses and batteries can handle. Tweak but one component, and there’ll be implications somewhere else. There are times I’m gobsmacked at some of the helpful suggestions I hear. Handling 125A at 55V (and higher) is like trying to control a welder which is running continuously. And those things get hot and can cut and join metal. Hmm. People simply don’t know. Doesn’t stop them from having a strong opinion though! Keeps me entertained. I might chuck that winter production graph onto a forum just to see what happens…
Oh that is some nice weather, except for when the warm change swept through. It’s nice to occasionally feel cold in very hot summers isn’t it?
Yeah, did I mention that in the past two decades, only two winters have been damper than this one? It’s crazy wet outside. Oh well, mustn’t grumble.
DJ, that was my very first thought about the mine shaft as well. Nobody would cut that strong welded mesh to lower themselves into the murky depths, so they were probably lowering something else in. Yup, best if we were not involved is my thinking too.
Go the new roof! And you won’t regret that spend. Other cash outflows, that’s a different story. Hopefully the roof timbers are in good condition too, but it’d be easy to have any suspect ones replaced at this time. What’s your thoughts as to the condition of the house frame?
The venting will hopefully let out a lot of heat in the summer months – is that your thinking as well?
That venting trick is actually hard to do here because of the bushfire risk, and there is a large hot water tank in the ceiling cavity. This does heat the house up in summer. To be honest, I’m thinking of contacting the plumber and paying for some thoughts just in case the large 105 gallon tank ever needs replacing. It’s better to have a plan which can be quickly implemented, and it has been up there for almost 17 years. Dunno.
Such work is best done in the summer months. Are you and Dame Avalanche going to hang around the house during the day whilst the work is going on?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Thanks for the article, and between you and I, I have no idea what will happen to the LiFePO4 batteries when they eventually fail. Let’s hope it is later, rather than sooner as they’re only around six years old now, and I baby these storage devices and am super careful with them. It’s an interesting topic too, because despite their being claims that the product will last for say, 6,000 cycles, nobody really knows what that means in the real world.
And funnily enough, the young lady who processed the some of the former lead acid batteries at the scrap yard, mentioned the exact same thing to me: Scrap metal is a volume business. When it comes to recycling, bizarrely, lead acid batteries are the best of the lot.
Well, when you’re 94 and a photographer is messing around and wasting your precious fleeting moments, a good: ‘f$%king get on with it’, instruction is just the thing to focus the mind on the job at hand. He managed to convey the emotion of annoyance as well. Alas, if he was making that up, the world has lost a good mime. Thanks for that, and truly I look forward to the day I can speak my mind with zero repercussions! Few people value candid opinions.
And far out, pa in the new series may have had it coming. Had to laugh I recall years ago a young local comedian who’s family was of Greek ancestry. Anyway, the story went that she was visiting the grandparents, when the old bloke claims loudly and publicly: I’m so worried about you. You’re getting fat! To which she apparently replied: “F$%k off papou!” And oh the ensuing commotion, but the kicker was that the grandmother apparently quietly handed her $50 and said that: “Someone has needed to say that to him for a while now.” Proving that whilst we may get old and salty with our language, there’ll be someone to keep us polite. 😉
Oh yeah, insects love bird baths, especially if they have a landing platform, and that escape rock is probably very necessary. I do the same here otherwise the water soon fills up with drowned critters. By the way, speaking of critters, tonight is the first night I can recall for a few months, were the chorus of frogs off in the forest have been singing.
Hehe! Only the smart insects survive the dreaded carnivorous pitcher plant. Hungry beasts aren’t they? Does yours have a name, and is it say, err, a wild guess here, Seymour? 🙂 Don’t tell anyone, but I didn’t mind that err, let’s not call it the proper genre classification, but maybe: film, instead.
It may not be in our lifetimes that the European honey bee gets back to its former glory.
Go H, and she’s a little trooper for tackling the spider. Hey, down here, size has nothing to do with deadliness. All are treated as suspicious.
It’s kind of a system which was meant to do one outcome, but may have possibly been utilised in an entirely unanticipated way. There are other articles on the gentleman.
Geelong is almost a suburb of the big smoke now, but about two hours drive from here. It’s not often that such works tour down under. Hmm. I spotted the article this morning, and the works are delightful.
Ah, nothing wrong with provincialism, which clearly has been with us since the time of the ancient Roman empire, and probably well before that too. Still, a wider perspective is often called for, but as you noted, frowns upon local customs is not a winning strategy. Especially if commanders want their troops to do what they do best. Vindolanda keeps delivering.
I went into the big smoke for work today, but conditions here up in the mountains were meant to be delightful. We broke the record for the most solar power produced in either June or July. Most impressive, and those dozen new (old) panels are earning their keep. The Editor had a back log of stuff to do with the electricity, and made good use of it.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Well, in News of the World, there was a spectacular Bison attack, at Yellowstone Park. A later article said the old guy has had surgery, and is doing well.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/13/us/video/bison-tosses-man-into-the-air-at-yellowstone-digvid
Also, there may be an end to the madness. Making Daylight Savings Time, permanent, year around. It was approved by the Senate, once, and has been languishing in the House. If it passes the house, it will go back to the Senate. Bills go back and forth, each entity tweaking it a bit, until everyone is agreed on final form. It looks promising. The Senate passed it by a wide margin, in the first round.
When the batteries end their useful life, if you can’t recycle them, maybe dig a big hole and bury them. The Fluffy Collective will help dig the hole. 🙂
More wasps than bees, this morning in the garden. But, everyone seemed to be bumping along, in harmony. Also, a small dragonfly showed up, and hung around for awhile. I haven’t named the carnivorous plants. They haven’t inspired a name, yet, not even that famous one. “Feed Me!” This fall I need to repot and separate the plants. I’ve got two species, and will move some of each, indoors. They may inspire a name, then.
Speaking of art, I just finished a very good read, that I’ve been poking at for a number of days. “Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World.” (Johnson, 2026). Before our Civil War, when a young man, Church was a student of Cole. You may remember Cole did that 5 painting series, “Course of Empire.” The rise and fall of a mythical civilization. At that point, Church was a member of the Hudson River school of artists. But then he started globe trotting, on dangerous expeditions, deep into the Andes and up to Labrador to paint ice bergs. Later, he jaunted over to the Middle East to paint Petra. Of course, then the French Impressionists came to the fore, and he sort of fell out of favor. Although he had plenty of commissions, right up the the end of his life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Edwin_Church
Later in life, he built a home, based on his world travels. Luckily, it has been preserved. His wife and he stuffed it with treasures, from their travels. They loved company, and many artists and writers visited. Including, Mark Twain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olana_State_Historic_Site
The book was very readable. Not one of those dry, you’d swear, published dissertations. Not only Church’s art, but what was going on around him, in the art world, and in history.
I watched a good documentary, the other night. “Odyssey: The Real Story.” I approached it, with trepidation. So many documentaries are just done on the cheap, with free stock footage from commercial films, which are repeated, again and again over the course of an hour, or so. This was all fresh footage, of the places Odysseus may or may not have landed. There was a lot of animation, CGI and, yes, AI. But it all looked really good. The end of the film talked about the new movie, and where it was filmed. Greece, of course, North Africa, Scotland and Iceland. I quit enjoyed it, and am now ready to tackle the three hour (!) film.
More evidence that some of the Romans were interested in fossils of prehistoric beasts. Even in Roman Britain.
https://phys.org/news/2026-07-oldest-deliberately-fossil-ichthyosaur-roman.html#google_vignette
And, a really interesting exhibit in Hungary, reconstructing ancient Romans, from their remains.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/face-face-ancient-rome-exhibition-070411099.html
When will it end? All this World something-or-other, dominating the news for weeks, and taking up a lot of bandwidth. Who cares? I don’t. Lew
Chris:
Very nice! May you have even more sun tomorrow.
Yes, there were extra-cold days last winter, but like in summer, it went back and forth some, so it wasn’t always unbearable.
Insurance . . . how did we ever live without having every little thing insured (insure your bad mood, anybody?)?
Needles: That’s an interesting idea. Thanks!
Well, someone has a friend who has a bow, so we shall see.
Pam
Chris,
My maths skills? They would’ve told me not to play at all. I used to be able to quote all the stats in certain sports. Every bet I made lost.
I almost forgot. With World Cup football going on, the online language program I use for learning has something cute doing. Every day since the World Cup started, as soon as I complete my first lesson of the day, my icon gets a different world cup team uniform for that day. Saturday was Australia. Today was Capo Verde.
Yeah, Burnside had that as one of his big problems. I think the basic problem was that he was a jerk and a kneebiter. A total duffous. He did sport the whiskers that became known as “sideburns” in his honor. Then there’s another general, one of his peers. General Joseph Hooker. As the story goes, there were several women straggling through camp one afternoon. One officer asked another who they were. The reply was, “Leave them alone. They’re Hooker’s.” And a new term for ladies of the night was coined, totally NOT in honor of General Hooker.
And sideburns. My final year of high school, we had a brand new choir director right out of college. Having facial hair was against school policy for both teachers and students. However, the new choir director had better sideburns than any of the students could grow. One day, one of the tenors asked “why is it that we can’t have facial hair but you have good sideburns?” The tenor was sent to the principal’s office. That was NOT the proper question to ask the female choir director, even if she did have good sideburns. Oh, I sang bass.
I’m sure there were trade languages in Australia. They seemed to spring up wherever there was trade among various language groups. I once had two friends from Kenya. They were from different tribes. The two languages they had in common were fluency in English and some knowledge of the trade language Swahili. One day they got in an argument about which guy spoke the better Swahili. They finally asked me to judge!?! They both said the same sentence in Swahili, then asked me which was better. I replied, “Hmmm, it’s all Greek to me.” That ended the argument.
Now that is a nice July record to set! Heavy electricity usage AND big increase in the battery charge. Well done with those additional panels.
Every man has his version of the babaco fruit. Desecrate that and the rats are lucky if they don’t get hit with a complete set of ballistic armaments. Or literally kicked from Fernglade to the moon, or at least to the middle of the Indian Ocean. Never mess with a man’s favorite breakfast item!
Yes, that was a nice couple hours Tuesday morning. Today started hot, as there was just enough cloud cover Tuesday night to keep things from properly cooling. 35C eventually, and clear, and not cooling off. Supposed to hit at least 37C tomorrow. It’s July.
The framing of the house is good. No significant dry rot or anything in the attic as seen from below. Hopefully, the view from the top once the old roofing has been removed will also look good. I do know everything was fine when the roof was replaced 25 or so years ago.
Yes, that’s the idea behind the venting – let out the hot air in the attic.
Yup, the Dame and I will be hanging out here, mostly indoors. The Princess will spend two extra days in Toppenish this trip. Noise won’t bother me much, and if I stay chill, Dame Avalanche will cope just fine.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
For the record, only half as much sun landed today, AND (apologies for the capital letters) overnight a twenty-fifth of an inch of rain fell (1mm), and it was so wet outdoors this morning. The land is saturated and the air is 99% humidity.
Had this week’s day off, and went for a walk in a nearby nature reserve (a nice lunch was scoffed down too). It’s wet here, but there the dams and billabongs are full up to their eyeballs with water. Actually some of the local rivers are running quite high.
Ah, thank you for that. When you used the word ‘glacial’, I’d forget that whilst there were mountains of snow and ice, the sun occasional shone in freezing air at your place. I’ve never experienced such winter weather, and can only marvel at your stoicism, and multiple layers of blankets! 🙂 It was a five blanket night yesterday. Brr! Frost was on both vehicles this morning.
Ha! It’s true though about insurance. I was watching a utoob video on financial mistakes people make, and pet insurance popped up as a thing. I’ve never had that kind of policy, and keep those financial vultures at arms length if possible. Of course there are issues there, and in turn I have to take full responsibility for my own health and the dogs. By the way, Ollie is doing very well as an old dog in the cold winter with his supplements. The cost of all that care, is about a twentieth of taking him to the vet.
Pam, I hear you, and we all have days where things are a little bit ‘off’. Dunno about you, but I tend to communicate such feelings, as does Sandra, and life goes easier. It takes a lot of work and a touch of vulnerability to get to that point though.
The needle is a good idea, and the borers surely know that your pumpkins are off-limits? Between you and I, I felt bad about what had to take place in the chicken enclosure this week. The flip side is that I’ve saved maybe 40% on chicken feed by taking direct and prolonged action. Is it right, or was the action wrong? I don’t know. The question I had to face was: Am I keeping chickens for the benefit of rodents, or for the birds good health plus eggs for me? Fences are a thing, they have consequences. And this is a murky world where a win for us, is a loss for another critter. Mind you, the forest creatures have plenty of area to roam and productivity. It is complicated. I spotted two wombats roaming around the orchards tonight.
If the person you know can be trusted, and is respectful of the arrangement, and you don’t have to be physically involved, is it such a bad idea? I suspect the local bloke down here is waltzing onto my property way down below, but also doing a task with the deer I’d leave until there was no other alternative. I really don’t know. But there are lines which get crossed, and that’s what bothers my calm. The mice for example in the house and the chicken enclosure, both crossed that line. Sometimes, you have to fight just to stay in the same place. Dunno, and wish you luck in your consideration of that matter. What’s your thoughts in that matter?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
My maths skills aren’t all that great, however, the other chunks of the mind can consider the larger issue as to: ‘why is there a house?’ That’s the thing with gambling, the odds are stacked against the players, otherwise there’d be no house. The facts speak for themselves in this case. I’ve never laid a bet, and the only time I went into a casino, my mind reeled with revulsion. It was hard to describe the sensory overload, but I left soon afterwards. Probably something to do with an earlier life! 😉
How are your Welsh language skills going? And are there other languages you’re learning? I have little free brain space for such activities. And that’s fun those little details, yeah. I’d like such things too. On the Editor’s computer I put up a screen which showed a cartoon fox on her browser, and let’s just say that it’s now back to a blank white background with simple text box. Oh well. It happens.
Who knew anything about Cape Verde? 🙂 The images were revealing, in that parts of the islands are hot, whilst others are quite tropical. Drought can be an issue there.
Now that is a new term to me: A kneebiter. Ha! Douglas Adams to the rescue again. Very funny, and yes, we’ve all encountered such people, although it was not fair at all to use it upon the hapless Arthur who’d just lost his planet, and girl to Zaphod.
When I read about the changes to the lives of the blokes under his command, General Hooker made some common sense moves which would have improved fighting performance. It is possible that being competent, and right, are not always valued attributes in a person. He had a reputation, that’s for sure.
Ah, yes, such things happen, and students have been known to have not fully developed filters!
Trade languages develop organically, and when in other countries I’ve found myself picking up the local lingo through sheer usage. And trade between humans is as old as the hills. You don’t hear that saying any more, but way back in the day it was quite commonly used. It probably began being heard around the time of the Roman Empire.
Thanks. And the new old solar panels are working a treat. Today wasn’t quite so sunny, but it was good enough to bring in more than we needed – which is the entire point of the system.
🙂 Hehe! That’s funny, and also true about the observing of one’s favourite crop being consumed by rodents. The cheeky scamps. Four nights now, and no sign of mouse activity in the chicken enclosure. The lesser mouse war was brutal I can tell you, and the final blow from the evil fluff empire, was not nice.
It’s kind of funny growing produce, because you have to also work out, how much of it will the surrounding critters enjoy. And they never stop testing boundaries. Far out!
Oh poop! 99’F is not fun, but at least it is not a temperature with three digits. See, it all comes down to maths! How is Dame Avalanche coping with the daytime temperatures?
Very good to hear, but you never really know if the former roof has leaked, which leads to damage of one sort or another with the roof timber. Dry timber tends to stay preserved, basically because very few things can eat it in that condition.
There are some clever solar powered devices to extract hot air from a roof space during summer, but I’ll be intrigued to hear what you end up with. I’m curious about that subject.
Yeah, the Dame will most assuredly pick up on your vibe, and that’s how it works. You can see that with people in dog training, and anxious folks often own anxious dogs.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
It’s a Bison, not a pet to sit politely and be photographed for the ultimate selfie. Not that the guy was doing that, but they’re big and unpredictable, and a person has to be aware of the situation. Glad to hear that the old bloke recovered and wasn’t gored to death. The horns on the beast are a major red flag to my way of thinking. Man, people come unstuck in that annual running of the bull rite of passage, and it wouldn’t be popular if there wasn’t a chance that things could go horribly wrong.
Oh my goodness! Whatever will they think of next? I’ve not heard of similar moves down here, but who knows, we tend to follow rather than lead. It’d be nice not to have to get up in the dark in the depths of winter.
Hehe! Lewis, you are super bad for that battery burying suggestion! But I like your problem solving skills, and no doubts you two would have cut the proverbial Gordian knot. I’d be sure that Alexander when presented with the problem was sure to have said: “I’m not doing this! Where is my sword?”
Wasps do some good work in the garden as well as the bees. I’ll just chuck the idea out there ever so quietly: Seymour! Sorry for that, let’s move on… 😉 Yeah, that’s the thing with potted plants, they do need to be transplanted to larger pots with more soil every so often. Oh, how about the name: ‘Feed me’? Sorry, where is this stuff coming from? See what happens with m, mm, mmm, musicals. Man, I even had trouble saying that word.
Yes, Cole’s 5 panes of Empire are an astounding work, but Frederic Church’s paintings blew me away for their realism. Beautiful. The skill to reproduce in such fine detail is astounding. Such skill deserves commissions.
I noticed the pile Olana, with it’s Victorian bones and clearly influenced by his extensive travels There is a bit of old school Persia in there. Ah, it’s in upstate NY, right. I’d love to visit such a place. Sadly his first two children died of diptheria, which is having something of a recurrence down under, in the west and north particularly. A nasty way to go with a 10% mortality rate.
Hehe! There has been a lot of reliance on the arty-fish-al content producing machines. I’m of the belief that the things are good for some tasks, but not others, and trouble only begins when they’re applied to all. It’s like the kid and hammer metaphor when he sees everything as if it was a nail. Doesn’t work that way. Good to hear that it was used thoughtfully in the documentary.
Man, earlier this evening I was watching a brief documentary on how arty-fish-al software was used to run a café in Sweden, and let’s just say that conditions on the ground there got weird, quickly. Did you know that the chat bots will lie and fabricate stories? Hmm.
Is the new Odyssey film three hours? I guess there is a bit of story to cover.
Oh my goodness! Did the article suggest that the fossils in the Roman era were treated as sacred relics, rather than as the fossils that they were? It seems like a big leap to suggest such a thing. They were no dummies that lot and would have known what they were. Still, the find is very interesting.
It’s a clever use of DNA analysis to reproduce what the folks of the lower classes during that ancient would have looked like.
Had the day off work, and went for a walk in a nearby nature reserve. It was very pleasant and mostly sunny there. I was amazed at how much rain they’d had in that area and there was water everywhere. Some of the paddocks in the surrounding district resembled swamps, and the big river which drains the land was quite high. It’s been a long while since I recall it looking like that. I should check out some of the local waterfalls and see how they’re going.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Bison burgers are supposed to be quit tasty. I think they were mentioned in that article on Canadian food? There used to be a place north of Centralia, that had bison, and sold the meat. Never tried it, myself. Supposedly leaner, less fat.
Well, going to permanent Daylight Savings Time, has passed the house, and now goes back to the Senate. They passed it once, but who knows if they’ll pass it again? All this back and forth, and when I said they were tweaking the bill, it is that often, things will be slipped in, that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand. So, if the House has slipped in something unpalatable to the Senate, it might not pass.
Our high yesterday was 82F (27.77C). Our overnight low was 55F. (12.77C). Our forecast high for today is 72F. Wonder of wonders, we had what looks like, quit a bit of rain, overnight. And may see more today. I didn’t have to water. But, the pollinators weren’t out. We’ll be back to 90, by Monday. Darned deer ate almost all of one of my patches of Swiss chard.
Church was quit close to the Cole family. He lived with them, while being Cole’s student. Church bought land, across the Hudson River, from Cole’s spread. Church built a house / farm there, and later, it became the site of Olana. After Cole died, Church always looked out, for the family. Cole’s oldest son, though younger, was quit close to Church. Sort of a little brother. The son became Church’s farm manager, as he was often off globe trotting. Or, spending a lot of time in New York City.
Church was very civic minded, and was on many boards. New York’s Central Park, the 1876 Centennial celebration, the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. So, he was back and forth to NYC, a lot. He was also rather an entrepreneur. Sometimes, when he had a new painting to show, he charged $.25, to take a gander. Thousands of people showed up.
Olana was definitely influenced by the time his wife and he spent in the Middle East, particularly Syria. He had an architect, for Olana, but it was definitely a collaboration. Church was very hands on, in a lot of areas. And, from most reports was fun to be around and easy to get along with.
I watched an interesting documentary, last night. “Feels Good Man.” Something new from the library. All about Pepe the Frog, who Mr. Greer has discussed. And, much to my surprise and delight, guess who showed up? Mr. Greer! 🙂 Not once, but several times. Talking about Meme magic, etc.. I posted that I had seen it, and him, and that he gave a good account of himself. Off topic, so, he may not post it.
It was mostly about the poor artist, who created Pepe. He was pretty naive but eventually started going after people who misused his creation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Furie
It’s a fine distinction, but I think the Romans viewed fossils, not so much as sacred relics, but more as items connected to myth. Maybe. Did I ever link to an article about Trilobite fossils, being used in Roman necklaces? They were referred to as “amulets,” but I wonder. They even found one that wasn’t really a fossil, but just carved to look like one. A fake? 🙂
Here’s a longer, more detailed article, about the sculpture discovered at Vindolanda.
https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/07/a-roman-guardian-genius-hidden-for-1600-years-discovered-in-vindolanda/
Putting things under building foundations is pretty common, across many cultures, through the ages. Coins, inscriptions on gold. Sometimes, even people. Lew
Chris:
Why, 1 mm of rain doesn’t even count, but I guess it is enough to make everything damp. I think you mentioned recently how glad you are that you finished the new firewood shed in time. That doesn’t even begin to cover what a fantastic – and timely – job you did. Five blankets means pretty darn cold! In summer, I use a flannel sheet as a blanket.
It was 97F (36C) today, with smoke from the latest Canadian fires. My sister has brown air up in New York state. Those poor, poor people where the fires are. Syracuse is between New Paltz and New York City, pretty close to Canada:
https://www.syracuse.com/weather/2026/07/smoky-summer-skies-could-be-new-normal-in-upstate-ny-due-to-climate-change.html
I have heard about pet insurance, though I have never had it. We were mostly able to stay away from the vet. You are doing a marvelous job with Ollie’s health issues and probably way better than a vet could. It also saves him the stress (and you, time) of those vet visits.
I didn’t mean your bad mood (you didn’t have one!), of course. I was thinking of my own . . .
The action was right. You have to protect you and yours. Two wombats: Double trouble, and the pitter patter of little feet. Little fat feet . . .
I think I would probably have to ask my next door neighbor if it is okay with her to have a hunter come in. So far, the deer haven’t bothered her little garden very much. And she has the unfortunate habit, as I do, of naming them. The doe (who has a child) who is causing the most trouble she has named Nibbles and her fawn Niblets. I call the same one Lucy and her son Little Ricky. This could be a problem.
I had to, mostly, give up salt again. I had done that for quite awhile, but wondered, as I sweat so much in this heat, if I should put it back in my diet (I do use a bit, but never cook with it), but no, I have an inner ear problem and salt makes that worse and makes me dizzy. Oh, well, probably for the best, but it’s a good thing I don’t eat out.
Pam
Chris:
“Did you know that the chat bots will lie and fabricate stories?” They are programmed to do that?
Pam
Hey, Chris:
I was just watching a gardening Youtube video about using hydrogen peroxide in one’s garden and the host had to announce that there have been look-alike AI videos of her channel out there. Do you suppose that you might have a doppelganger somewhere on the interweb?
Pam
Chris,
Once upon a time when the casinos featured the old “one-armed bandits” that took in and spat out real coins, I could tolerate the casinos. In the early days of the video machines, many of the games had no sound with them. Those that did, well, the machines were fairly quiet. Then came the next generation of video “one-armed bandits”. These were much too visually active for me. Further, they all had sound with them, most of the machines having their volume set fairly high. The casinos then became full of loud noise and a lot of flashy lights. On a good day, and if I’m wearing ear plugs, I can last 30 to 45 minutes before the lights totally put me into freaked out mode. No earplugs? Ummm, walking through is very difficult. Forget hanging around.
The Welsh is slowly coming along. I’ll never be able to speak much of it. I can read some and understand some though. I need to pull out my copy of The Mabinogion in Welsh, try reading it again.
I do some Spanish lessons also. As Welsh is my main emphasis, the Spanish lessons are coming along much more slowly. Time spent on Welsh versus Spanish is about 3 to 1 in the Welsh favor. However, my grasp of Spanish is much better than my grasp of Welsh and it is improving faster. Of course, I have spoken some Spanish for 50 years, there are quite a few Spanish speakers in the area, and there are plenty of options to listen to Spanish. I’ve been enjoying the World Cup games on Telemundo, the Spanish language channel. Knowing the sport, I am sometimes able to understand some of what is being said and this is also helping with learning Spanish.
Way back in the Days of DOS, I shared an IBM PS2 with another guy at the job. Or, it was his PS2 and sometimes I got to use it. He had written a program so that a menu to the different applications came up when the computer was started. Of course, it was easy to get back the C prompt. I quickly wrote down the directions for how he had programmed the start up program AND saved a copy under the file name “Don’t Panic”. I then changed the start up routine so that the menu didn’t appear, but this did: C:< Don't Panic. I also wrote a little program that ran when the command "Don't Panic" was entered at the C:< Don't Panic.
He got there early the following Monday. When I got in, he was not amused and was in a total panic. After saying "Somebody had fun when I was gone." he accused me of erasing his program. I told him to simply follow the directions on the screen: Don't Panic. He looked baffled so at the C:< I typed the command Don't Panic and his menu appeared. I also showed him where the original program had been filed under "Don't Panic" and gave him the printed copy of his program. Then, much to his chagrin, I restarted his machine. The menu came up. Running my "Don't Panic" program returned his program and deleted my change of the command prompt. At that point, not only was he not amused, he was also quite angry at the smart arse who had outsmarted him.
Poor Arthur. At one point in the narrative, all he had going for him was a cave, his beard, and a rabbit bone he'd stuck into his beard after eating the rabbit. That was about the time Ford Prefect showed up again and a Chesterfield sofa began blinking into and out of existence in the nearby meadow. I always thought that Douglas Adams made one huge mistake when he wrote "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency". The sofa that got stuck in the stairwell needed to be a Chesterfield sofa.
Nice saying. As old as the hills. There's also "older than the hills and twice as dusty". Or "He's older than dirt." I mentioned to Killian's human today that I may be old, but dirt was already here when I was born.
I was mentioning your continued rat wars to Killian's human today. We started brainstorming. Yes, we eventually hit an idea. Since the mice and rabbits are now involved, you are in the midst of The Great Vermin Conspiracy of 2026.
Ohhh, today started off cloudy again. It didn't feel cool like yesterday did, probably because the cloud cover hit earlier and it never cooled down. On our walk this morning there were intermittent sprinkles. It never amounted to anything. Officially, a "Trace", meaning "Yes, it rained but not enough to measure."
Avalanche is doing okay with the heat. She tends to lie around in the sun longer than I prefer but will go into the shade if I chase her there. If I go somewhere in the car, she stays well out of the sun. Much of the time she is indoors where it is cool. Sleeps a lot. One of my cousins had two dogs that were 7/8 wolf and 1/8 malemute. They, too, slept a lot more during the summers than the winters.
UGG! Another big fire started today on the Rez. This time it is near the Colville Agency. A huge swath of territory, including the entire Colville Tribal and also the Federal campuses have been evacuated. One nephew is on the firefighting team that has been on the scene since the fire started this morning. Other family members live in that general vicinity.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
What the heck? I’d not heard of that use of the chemical in a garden, but it is a potent cleaner, especially for rugs. Amazing stuff, even at very low concentrations. What was the use they put the stuff to?
Hehe! The publicity from a doppleganger can only be good! Actually, you reminded me that years ago I was at an inner urban hippy hot spot, CERES in Brunswick, and noticed an advertisement for a gardening course. And I did a double take, because the dude on the poster looked like a total doppleganger, with work boots, blue jeans and a black t-shirt and wide brimmed hat. It wasn’t me though… Had the photo been stolen? Dunno.
It’s a problem though, and a lovely lady I follow in Arkansas who specialises in small engine and machine repairs, has had exactly that problem with fakes. The channel is on utoob, and called amusingly, Chicanic. I’ve learned so much watching those most excellent videos.
I don’t know what the arty-fish-al things are programmed to do, but next I catch up with friends who work with computers, I plan to ask them.
🙂 Summer is different, yup! Hehe! It was 35’F this morning, but followed by a truly delightful sunny and calm day. Had a big forest clean up, and recovered heaps of rocks. It takes much work to avoid the dreaded Peak Rocks. Went down and pushed the fire in a few minutes ago in the dark, and there was a vixen screaming off in the forest nearby. Sends shivers up your spine.
The paywall got me with the article. Oh poop. Well, a lot of locations in Canada have remarkably low annual rainfall, and the same is true of parts of the UK and Europe. If the temperatures in those areas rise on average, the pine forests growing there, are going to come to bad end, and eventually prairie will take over instead. You need at least 20 inches of rain for trees to grow, and look at what you get in your area, and how much falls here! If only 20 inches fell here in a year, I’d seriously be freaking out. The only reason there are dry adapted forests way up there to your north, is because it is cold, for now. I dunno about the future though.
I’ve never had pet insurance, and don’t have private medical insurance either. There is a public system which operates down here whereby everyone pays 2% or more of their income into. It mostly works, although there are waiting queues as you’d imagine. And agreed, it is a lot of stress to take the big dog regularly down to the vet. The two Kelpies are suffering a bit too with the cold temperatures this winter. Fernglade Farm: House of crunchy! 🙂
Pam, that’s not entirely true, because sometimes there are people who really push me. And they’re always shocked when I take a leaf out of Sun Tzu’s tutorial. Why they push me, is what bothers me. And you know, everyone has off days, so I hear you about that.
Another evening with no sign of miceie incursions in the chicken enclosure.
It’s probably best to have all the neighbours on board in regard to the doe, and fawn. You know, this morning I could hear shots fired with a silencer, so I revved the chainsaw for a bit before starting work on the forest clean up. I don’t want to have to wear high vis work gear just because someone around here is a bit trigger happy. I know! You named the deer, and those are cute ones too – that will be a problem. But you know, the red deer I shot a while back had become a nuisance, and there was no need for that level of critter arrogance. If they just tone things down a bit, there won’t be problems, and most critters do exactly that, but not all sorry to say.
Oh poop! Weren’t we just discussing balance? Probably not a bad idea to have a tiny dash of sea salt in your diet – it being the only source of iodine. Interesting, I used to get inner ear issues long ago, it felt like there was a bubble in there, and that was for me at least, a sign of dehydration. I’d slowly drink water, and it would go away when enough was scoffed down. Dunno.
Well, you may remember the time I ate too much salt with the purchased chips? So tasty, but I felt rather unwell, and Sandra described me as a greedy grabby salty! Not sure what that means, but was that much salt on the chips really necessary?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Man, the flashing lights and loud noises bothered me as well. How could I know if a Sabre Tooth Tiger was about to pounce with so much unnecessary activity going on all round? Those places are sensory overload central, and so I’d head back out the door and do something else with my time. It did mildly bother me that the friends I went with didn’t seem to be at all troubled by the commotion. Dunno. Interesting that you too notice that exact same thing.
Respect. If you’ve learned enough Welsh that you can read The Mabinogion in the original language, then that’s really seriously cool. I read Evangeline Walton’s version, which was in English, and had the feeling that it was a very special story. The Blessed Crow is always the most clever. As we had lunch yesterday in a botanical garden, a crow landed in a nearby tree. The poop it did was menacing enough, and looking upwards the sensitive person noted available branches for perching, and so I chucked the bird a chunk of apple cake (which was shortbread with icing). And we parted company with the clever avian on good terms.
Is it just my experience, but Spanish speaking folks are fast talkers. By contrast, I feel like I communicate with a slow drawl where each word is enunciated. Spanish by contrast flows fast. How you kept up with the commentary is a thing of wonder to me.
Ha! Good advice not to Panic! And yeah, your story brings back memories of the old days of DOS boot files. It’s all still there in Windows, hiding away. It’s weird isn’t it how we have these super grunty personal computers, and many of the programs get them to act like dumb terminals did way back in the day.
Man, I have to out myself here as an old school computer geek and would have been amused by your practical joke. My grandfather gave me a Commodore 64 computer for a birthday, and that machine was amazing. People still program the thing today. Taught myself how write 6510 machine language code from a book using the thing. It was an elegant machine. Nowadays the computers are faster with more memory and storage, but underneath it all, they’re kind of the same.
Yes, Arthur had some impressive facial hair at that point in the story, but he was kind of marooned along with the Golgafrinchans… Who amusingly turned out to be more necessary than first thought by the folks who ejected them! I loved that ironic twist. And the floating lounge was a fun touch for an escape.
Thanks for those two elaborations on the already clever quip. Yes, as old as dirt.And yeah, the stuff sure has been around the block, and then some.
That’s funny, and thanks for the laughs regarding the great vermin travails of 2026. However, the old timers used to also say, he who laughs last, laughs loudest. Five nights now with no mice activity…
Continued on with forest clean up today. Me tired tonight, but pretty happy with the work done. We also recovered a lot of rocks, and we all know how useful they are. That’s the cost of us doing the work. We’ll make the forest better, but cough up the rock. 🙂
Yeah, cloud cover holds in heat here as well. The plants would have taken note of the sprinkles, and some weeks over summer, drips from misty mornings are all the drink the shallow rooted plants will get.
What is with dogs cooking their heads in the summer heat? I too shoo them into the shade in such weather. Extreme ends of the season are perfect for that activity, catching up on rest. Hope Dame Avalanche continues to do fine in the heat.
Oh poop! That’s no good at all. Hopefully your lady is not up there, or up there helping co-ordinate the community? It’s pretty hard being displaced with uncertainty about what is going on where you left. Respect to your nephew. The shifts on those crews are long and dangerous at times. Fingers crossed that the winds don’t pick up.
You may wonder why I take the forest clean up work so seriously?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Oh yeah, those lovely Canadians had bison burger on the best meals menu. Forgot about that. Most wild meat tends towards being lean, and kangaroo is like that too. It’s good meat actually. The sort of grain fed, or feed lot raised meat isn’t as good in my opinion as paddock raised. Never seen bison for sale either, and I doubt that kangaroo meat would be exported to the US.
Had moussaka for dinner this evening. Lovely stuff. I’m a bit tired tonight. Did a day of forest clean up work, and had a decent burn off. Today’s weather was glorious, cool and sunny. Even managed to dig up one of those unusual upside down tree stumps which the loggers left long ago. Extracted plenty of piles of rocks too, some of them are a pretty nice size and ready to use on the rock walls. It’s nice seeing the cleaned up area afterwards.
Went down a while ago in the dark to push the fire in together, and it was a bit eerie. There was either a vixen screaming, or a bit of wombat romance going on. Both sound horrid, but I pushed the fire back in together and then will kick it off again tomorrow.
Dumb question for you. Down here, if legislation passes the lower, or upper house (depending upon where it originated), it doesn’t have to go back for another vote. If it is done, it’s done. Is that back and forth action a thing in the US system?
Nice weather, and some rain for good measure. You couldn’t ask for more than that. I see that the Professor has mentioned the quality lightning show the weather system put on for you. Hope no further fires were ignited by that electrical storm?
Lewis, I’m totally triggered by the news of what happened to your Swiss chard. The Editor would be encouraging me to deal with the herbivores in a somewhat permanent fashion if that happened here. You know my thoughts in this matter, and have you got any more blood meal to apply? Chilli spray might work too, probably better.
On that note, this morning as I was preparing to head down to the forest edge for the clean up work, I heard shots fired using a silencer. Revved the chainsaw up long and loud to alert the person of my presence, and didn’t hear from them again. Hmm.
Our present elites appear to have forgotten the term: Noblesse Oblige. And the painter Church appears from what you wrote, to have understood that requirement. Those are all what may be described as ‘noble’ acts. Some of the best teachers I’ve known, were fun people to be around. If I may, waspish personalities are really hard work, and rarely get the best out of the people reporting to them. It’s a difficult proposition to speak candidly to a person who you know will crack the sads. One of my favourite quotes of General Patton is: If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results.
I’ve had people occasionally micro manage me in the past, and that never works out and I’m left feeling like they’re not busy enough! Collaborative work, works well.
Mr Greer has mentioned this documentary in the past. I believe his quote may have been something along the lines of: “And that’s when things got strange!” And in relation to that frog, it sure did way back then, and I’d be troubled to know what it was up to these days. One must be very careful when dealing with ancient Egyptian deities. You don’t see me doing that… There’ll be a cost, there always is. Sadly, I’ve not watched that documentary, and should correct this latest example of my failing education!
Had to laugh, turns out the artist produced a warped image of Alfred E. Neuman as Pepe the Frog for Mad Magazine, as you do… Pepe the Frog’s Creator Creates New Amphibian for MAD Magazine. Cool, feels good man.
That makes more sense about the Romans seeing fossils as a link to the time of myths. And I am totally unsurprised that they’d be faked. It’s not like trilobite fossils are poking out of the ground ready to be nabbed. I’d call it, err, an enterprising action.
Ah, it was found carved into the bottom of a tile as a house spirit. Right, that’s clever. Hey, they had that story in True Blood where one of the vampires ended up encased in concrete. And I’ve heard rumours of such activities…
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Actually, for a little drive, I could source kangaroo meat. Back when I worked out in Yelm, a nearby town had a meat store (Since 1933), Stewart’s. They carry a lot of exotic meats. Including kangaroo. Ground, $10.95 per pound. Medallions, $16.99 per pound. I visited once. Mid week, early in the afternoon, and the place was a madhouse. They also sell at the Olympia Farmer’s Market. I notice on their website, two mottos I thought were clear. “Life is Short – Eat the Bacon,” and “Meat is Our Business – Not a Sideline.”
My Dad always preferred to get his deer, from the Willamette Valley, south of Portland. With all the farms down there, he said the deer were “grain fed.” Not as gamey tasting as deer, from wilder areas.
The moussaka sounds very tasty. Sort of a Greek vegetarian lasagna.
Our high yesterday was 64F (17.77C). Our overnight low was 57F (13.88C). Our forecast high for today is 77F. It’s overcast and looks like rain, but there is none in the forecast. For some reason, lightening is often forecast here, but seldom delivered. Not that we don’t have it, but, I’d say it’s rare.
Our passing of laws and bills is complicated. Everybody has their own hobby horse to ride. Often, bills are written by lobbyists, to try and advance their own agendas. They write them, give them to a senator or representative (along with a bit of graft? Maybe), to drop in the hopper. Bills can run hundreds of pages. It’s the rare official who reads through the whole things. Easy to sneak in … whatever. Here’s a bit about the process. You might scroll down to “Bills and Resolutions.” Each state has a similar set up. A lower and upper house.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedures_of_the_United_States_Congress
There’s still a bit of noblesse oblige, kicking around. I think, past and present, it’s maybe not as selfless as it appears. People try and push their own agendas. We’re seeing that now, in our local library mess.
I also think micro managers are a bit like the Puritans. Worried that someone, somewhere, was having a good time. Or not working hard enough. I always said the crazy woman, I worked for out at the Yelm library, didn’t think the minions should have too much fun, or be too comfortable.
The article you linked to, was behind a paywall. But, I found it, elsewhere. What a hoot. Yes, “Save Pepe!”
Yup, Russel Edgington, arch villain and fiend, buried in concrete. But not for long enough. 🙂 Whatever happened to Jimmy Hoffa? I finished that series, by the way. But, as with a lot of those things, what happened next! Turns out there’s a book or two, which I’ve put on hold.
I was ordering something on e-buy, the other night, and finally remembered to bite the bullet. I ordered a DVD copy of “Australia” (Hugh Jackman). I also ordered “Iron Sky” and the sequel. Nazis on the moon! 🙂 . With dinosaurs!
I think I might have figured out why we didn’t get produce in our last food box. We’re having a terrible outbreak, nationwide, of cyclosporiasis. Nasty stuff. A parasite. It seems to be mostly greens, especially the pre-cut stuff. Lew
@ DJSpo:
I am so sorry to hear about the fire on the reservation. Prayers are going out for them.
Pam
Chris:
As per peroxide, here you go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUSuSvUc0yo
Doesn’t that give you a strange feeling, seeing yourself? When I was in highschool there was another girl, same class, that looked quite like me, luckily not enough to actually get us mixed up.
“Chickanic” – that’s very clever. Are you sure you are watching it for the repairs?
I hear those vixens, too, sometimes. Makes life interesting.
Yes, normally we get quite a bit of rain, typically 48 inches (123cm) per year. Haven’t been seeing that for awhile.
Maybe you have whupped the mouse faction.
During deer season here I always wear something red when outside. There have been very trigger-happy hunters in the past around us and I can remember taking cover in our chicken house one time as bullets were whizzing by me. It’s a good thing my mother never heard about that one.
I am very good about watching out for dehydration, but thank you. That can cause some very unpleasant symptoms. I do get some salt and when I am not using one with iodine, I take a really tiny bit as a supplement. I am not sure that sea salt holds all that much iodine. I’ve done that with chips, too . . .
The smoke was almost unbearable today. The visibility was about a quarter mile and the smell is still very acrid. There was a hot wind and very high temps. Rather hellish. The comfort is that it is coming from somewhere far away and not close by.
I wish I could have just gotten a photo of what I saw out the window: A squirrel standing on the steering wheel of the medium (pink) Kabota tractor, with his tiny hands holding onto the top of it for all the world as though he was going to drive off. He is probably now inside the engine eating the wires, the little darlin’.
Pam
Chris:
Don’t fool with watching this whole thing, just skim along to 14 minutes and get a big laugh; straight out of Gilligan’s Island. I was trying to find a video for my sister so she can make a “sleep headband/headphones”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1jP2E8bJRs
Pam
@ Pam,
Thanks. It sounds pretty bad up there.
DJSpo
Hey Chris,
Some of us are wired so that our brains are more sensitive to most senses. Sensory overload can happen to us very rapidly. Having adequate personal space is also an issue for some of us.
Methinks I better add some clarifications. I can TRY to read The Mabinogion in Welsh. It’s a struggle, as the lessons have only gotten me so far, then the lessons quit. (Major languages such as English and Spanish seem to have lessons to nearly a supposed fluent level.) I might work on one paragraph in The Mabinogion for an hour with no guarantee that it will make sense even then.
Spanish football broadcasts are similar. The announcers speak VERY rapidly. So my first step was to pay attention so that hearing names is easy. Then a similar process with obvious words, such as “paseo” for pass. Knowing the game means that occasional words relevant to the events will be apparent to me. Sometimes I can learn a new word that way. Occasionally even a phrase now. Fluency? No. Understand most of the broadcast? No. It’s something to challenge my brain rather than
simply drooling in front of a football match. 😉
One of the things they were trying to do before I retired was to have our computers set up with a bare minimum of software on it. Windows and little else. All programs would be on the County network. They even wanted all data to be only on the County network. The computer guru in our department would regularly go paging through the data files of workgroups and individuals, purge what he thought wasn’t necessary. Important things often got disappeared that way. He had access to everything except hard drives. For that he needed the user’s permission.
Several of us were very uncomfortable with that. The network went down occasionally, yet there was still work to be done. A lot of us saved copies of current projects on our hard drives. We had our commonly used programs on our hard drives. That way, we could do some work if the network was down. And we could keep copies of important maps and documents on our hard drives so that the monster guru couldn’t delete them. We created such a fuss that, at least when I retired, we still had programs and data on our hard drives.
Yes, what they were trying to do was turn our expensive computers into nothing more than a terminal. One of the purposes of the PC was that the terminals attached to a mainframe could go slow when there was heavy usage, but the PC wouldn’t bog down like that. So, yes, the major difference between the Commodore 64 (I had one. It was a wonderful machine!) and the modern PCs is speed and storage capacity.
I always thought it funny that the undesirables getting removed from the planet caused the planet’s demise. If memory serves, weren’t accountants some of those on that space ship? I know that “accountants of all kinds” were on the little list of those who won’t be missed in The Mikado. 😉
I’m glad we could assist with the vermin problem. 😉
Dame Avalanche was cooking her head in the heat when Young Neighor and her son and I were eating lunch outdoors. She’s been around dogs a lot and mentioned that they all do that. I remember that even Rakhi the Samoyed would do that.
No, the Princess went south. The fire is up north of her. She is trying to get in touch with her brother who lives in the town close to the fire. However, power is mostly out in that area, so cell service might be gone.
It was caused by lightning two nights ago. It was windy then and yesterday was hot and windy east of the Cascades. Windy today up there. The entire east side of the state will have increasing winds tonight through Sunday night with gusts to 35 mph and sustained winds between 15 and 25 mph. Not good for the fire. There are several fires going in that section of the Rez in addition to the big one. As expected with the wind, the big fire grew a LOT overnight.
Meanwhile, there is a very large fire south of here on the Snake River near Lyons Ferry. The wind shifted from the east to the south overnight, which blew that fire’s smoke into town. The air quality ranged from “Very Unhealthy” to “Hazardous” most of the day. Now it has “improved” to a mere “Unhealthy”. It is supposed to improve slowly throughout the remainder of the weekend. I figure the increased winds will either blow the smoke out or make it worse. One extreme or the other.
However, staying mostly indoors anyhow. Haven’t had to set up the air cleaner fan yet.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Thanks for the laughs, and yeah, very Gilligan’s Island! 🙂 I loved the background music too.
Well, blow me down! Who knew that canny folks were using 3% hydrogen peroxide in the garden for all those uses. Far out. Tell you a little secret, you can buy the stuff at much higher concentration levels at commercial cleaner supplies, and water it down yourself. Saves heaps of mad cash, for those who are careful.
Whoa! That would have been similar to the problem of twins, and which is which? And you’d hope that your doppleganger in high school wasn’t continuously getting up to mischief, and sending the blame in your direction? What a thought, huh? The two Kelpies were hard to tell apart early on, and sometimes I’d find myself saying to them: “You! What’s going on? To which they’d supply innocent face number five, and thank gawd for Ruby’s floppy ears.
Blood curdling, I’ll say. 🙂 The forest critter calls down under are horrid sounding. Even cute little inebriated koala bears, sound like razorback the killer boar.
That’s a lot of rain, but I hear you about inconsistency. Annual rainfall can vary between a scary 25 inches to an even scarier 55 inches. Hard to really know what is going to occur next week at this location. Speaking of which, today was perfect weather. The sun even felt mildly toasty, which was nice. How’s things at your place?
We mustn’t tempt hubris with this loose rodent talk. And I’ll go outside and check in a few minutes.
Wearing red is a wise precaution in those circumstances. One the low centre of gravity mowers was purchased second hand from a lady who was on her own and told me that that very thing happened to her. It’s awful. At such moments, it’s a handy thing to take cover, call the cops and it’s at such moments you have to ask yourself whether you have the tools to respond in kind. Fortunately those moments are rare.
Sir Scruffy earned his title in myriad ways, but the big one was when he woke me up to let me know that mischief was afoot outside. The individual had been causing issues in the area at night, but was unprepared for what he met here, put it that way. The guy was eventually caught.
Yeah, I don’t believe that it is wise to fully eliminate salt from a diet, so I hear you about the supplements. And you got me wondering, how much iodine is in sea salt? Ah, interesting, there are local differences as it is deficient in some soils on this continent. Hmm. Very interesting, seems like a good source is seafood – not much help if you live inland! Eggs have some, but presumably that would vary depending on the birds diet. And of course there is bread and dairy, both of which use salt to make, but again, it would depend on what kind of salt. Oh my, you don’t want too of the stuff either. Yuk!
Ah, I see! I purchase sea salt which has added iodine, that’s different to just sea salt, but then eat plenty of dairy and sorry, bread. The packet didn’t specify what % of potassium iodate was added, but it had a nifty recipe for preserved lemons…
🙂 The chip incident was unpleasant! Yes, too much salt is very not good.
Oh poop! Sorry to hear about the smoke in your part of the world. It’s not nice, and I know the feeling, and taste of that polluted air.
The squirrel had no doubts been watching your son on that machine as well.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Yeah, man I get that and live on acreage and am used to space around me. Getting crowded in by people can be rather confronting. When we travelled to India a few decades ago, it was quite over whelming to be surrounded by fifty people all trying to grab my attention and/or sell stuff. It was weird too because my normal polite programs utterly failed in those circumstances, and were replaced by curt hand gestures and an authoritative ‘No!’ Truly, I’m not wired for that level of intensity or response, but adapted over a week or so.
Ah, well your efforts are better than anything I could achieve with that ancient text. I mentioned to you Professor Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf. Even when the words were comprehensible in English, much of the context was just lost on me. And the footnotes to each page gave the narrative a level of richness that I’d never have known otherwise.
Dumb question for you: I’m not sure that I comprehend why the lessons quit at a certain point?
Yeah, fast talking seems to be a thing with that language, or at least the folks I’ve encountered who use it fluently. Interestingly, those people’s spoken English language was also delivered at a slightly more rapid tempo than I’m adjusted to hearing. I suppose different languages have an impact upon a persons wiring?
Nice to keep your brain active whilst enjoying the game.
Oh, no mouse activity this evening. That’s six days of peace. Except someone way down below is shooting. You’d not want to be a deer around these parts this year, I’d say whoever is doing that, it’s personal.
If the computers have been turned into almost dumb terminals, there is an argument to simply dump windows. I’ve considered switching to Linux, but there are still a number of windows based programs I have to use so as to produce an income (kind of important to you know, do boring things like paying bills) so it’s a non starter proposition.
The joke about the arrangement you mentioned – which you also pointed out – is that each of the computers has excess computing and storage capacity, doing not much at all. And I’d be very annoyed at some computer tech person deleting data, just because. They need to ask the question first…
Incidentally, when the operating system went from version 10 to 11, my old computer, which worked perfectly fine, had to have it’s motherboard, processor and memory upgraded. Super wasteful, and do I really need a processor that has ten cores? It’s all such a waste, but that’s progress for you. It’s not good.
Respect! What a fun machine the old Commodore 64 was, and it was at a scale where a person could comprehend the workings.
Here I must correct your thinking, for a Golgafrincham Ark Ship B type ‘account executive’ is not the same thing at all as person who prepares ‘accounts’! 🙂 As to The Mikado, it’s a mmm,mmmm, musical, and my mind floated away upon other matters. I did have troubles trying to discern which of the three young maids in the farce was which. A story way too complicated for my limited brain! 😉 Stories need not be set to musical scores.
Man, speaking of canines cooking their heads in the sun, today was an early taste of spring. The dogs ran around like crazy, and then whilst we worked on the greenhouse, adding a cement trench and pavers on the other door, they settled down to absorb some solar power. A lovely day.
Oh yeah, the mobile phone towers do have backup generators, but fuel tanks can only supply an engine for so long. Hope contact has been made today? A fire earlier this year about an hours drive north, took out a radio and television tower: Mount Alexander fire knocks out TV and radio across central Victoria. You may wonder why I take forest clean up so seriously…
Professor Mass wrote a blog essay about the extraordinary number of lightning strikes in your state, and over summer, that’s not good – as has proven to be the case. Ook! Hope everyone stays safe in those conditions. Any update on the fire?
Yup, one extreme to another seems to be the way of things. At least you have the fan / filter combo machine ready to go if necessary.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Thanks for that info, and I looked up their store and it has some interesting meat. 🙂 It’d be nice for the business to be super popular, which is essentially the same thing as what you wrote. It’s a good problem to have don’t you reckon?
Man, I don’t have the skills to process a deer, and my experience with venison over the years, kind of matched what your dad said. It’s a gamey meat if fed on wild plant stuffs. And his idea was genius. But essentially, I consume very little meat, and so prefer if it is not too strong tasting. I’d imagine that long ago, all meat was fairly gamey tasting, and people probably ate more gruel than tasty steaks. Although I don’t really know and am simply guessing.
Yeah, the moussaka is exactly that, and has potato, eggplant and we also add French lentils with a béchamel sauce. Yum! It’s also one of those dishes which tastes better the next day, so presumably the essential pan juices need to do their thing!
We’re getting closer to your weather. 60’F and sunny today, and actually the sun felt warm, which it hasn’t for months. The dogs ran around enjoying the conditions, and then lazed around cooking their heads whilst we added a cement filled trench and pavers to the other door of the greenhouse. Nice weather to do that work in. Even your forecast of 77’F sounds good to me. Isn’t it a bit early to be so cool for your summer?
You’d imagine that there would be geographical reasons that lightning is rare in your immediate area? Thunderstorms are pretty common here during summer, but they can happen any time of the year. The weather simply arrives from way too many different directions, and that causes atmospheric drama. If a person can ignore the risk of being hit by lightning and of course the horrendous fire risk when trees and other objects are struck, thunderstorms are pretty interesting.
The complicated system must work, the facts suggest that this is so. However, I work in small business and the system as presented seemed Byzantine in its scope. I’m simply not wired to work with that sort of system. How anything can get done in that environment, let alone responding to a genuine urgent need, is way beyond my understanding. And I must say, having a portrait of Marie Antoinette overlooking that committee room is a remarkably astute choice.
That may be so, but I’m not observing a lot of noblesse oblige, although we’re a relatively young country down here, and such social things haven’t proven their worth yet. Man, I’m almost afraid to ask you about the ongoing library issues.
Pushing agenda’s seems to be something hard wired into people who seek power and control. That’s not my bag, but I’m probably not wired right. Those two attainments, are a lot of responsibility.
Almost forgot to mention, we moved a small almond tree today. It’d been ruined by the deer, and there was a spot in the citrus enclosure. Digging it up wasn’t too hard, but the shovel handle broke. Oh well, that’s what spares are for. Anyway, a good prune and some herbivore protection, and it’ll be fine.
I heard someone out shooting again tonight. It’s beginning to sound like a deer pogrom, but they have been a serious problem – until recently.
You know, I reckon you’re right about that thought regarding micro-managers. Whoa! My mind has now been blown. That’s awful, but presumably the lady mentioned to you that was her stated goals? Some folks thrive on misery. Far out. I can’t work for people like that, it just rubs me up the wrong way.
Maybe a quarter of a century ago I had a boss who’d just break my err, tender bits, about all sorts of stuff. Despite kicking massive goals and wringing order from chaos in that business, the dude just wanted more from me. I’ve read that there is a performance trap where if you do your job really well, bizarrely you’ll end up with even more work. It’s counter intuitive, but that’s how it seems to be. The only way I worked around that issue is to work on an hourly rate, but with no benefits. Sure, I can do the work, here’s what it will cost. And I’m happy to work, I’m kind of built for that but over working on salary simply drives down a persons hourly rate, so why bother playing that game? I dunno man, we don’t really live in a meritocracy.
Go Pepe!
Nobody wants to have their epitaph saying that they disappeared under mysterious circumstances… Way too much excitement for my life that sort of thing.
Please don’t hold back on juicy plot hints with the book series, if they’re any good.
Ook, haven’t seen that film! Not quite patriotic is it? Although Hugh Jackman did a great job in the Sheep Detective film – really, I do recommend that one! And it doesn’t have fighter aircraft and that other actor in it. 🙂 Thought I’d slip that cheeky bit in as we haven’t mentioned this subject for a while! Hehe!
The plot summary of Iron Sky is nuts, and so politically incorrect, but then why was I laughing? I can’t believe that there was a sequel made. The cheeky scamps. The dinosaurs are a nice touch.
Yuk! Nobody wants to encounter an oocyte, although they are around. Fingers crossed that this doesn’t become an issue for you.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – I posted to Mr. Greer’s blog, with a link to an article, about the “annoyance economy.” There’s been a lot of articles, about it, recently.
I think, long ago, folks knew how to cook and season wild game. To make it tasty. I think even the common folk knew how to jazz up that poached rabbit, with herbs of the fields.
Our high yesterday was 70F (21.11C). Our overnight low was 50F (10C). Our forecast high for today is 80F. Mornings have been overcast, but then it burns off and heats up. If you look at the first map Prof. Mass posted, you might notice a trough running from S. Puget sound, down to the Oregon border. (the Columbia River). Not much lightening action in that trough. And, that’s where we are, about halfway down. Yes, probably geography, but I don’t know why. Mountains to the east and west? Neuwakum Triangle.
There’s no figuring out dogs. Given the choice of hot pavement, in the sun, or cooler pavement in the shade, just feet away, H always goes for the sunny pavement. If a sunbeam makes it through the window blinds, that’s where she’ll lay.
I think our government system, is complicated by design. Complications must have benefited somebody. All added in bits and pieces, over time.
The library issue seems to have calmed down, although I suppose it’s still on the simmer.
I’m sure the almond tree will be happier in its new home. Not being nibbled on. I’m beginning to think the only deer deterrent is barriers. Or, a gun. 🙂
The Master Gardeners were here, this morning, to do a hydrangea workshop. Looks like they had a good turnout. But, they couldn’t find the key, to access their garden storage room, which is accessed from outside. It turns out, the key is now held in the office. As, wait for it, the irrigation problems were because one of the moron tenants (unknown), got into the sprinkler control room, and screwed around with the controls. I may have to buy a few tools of my own, mainly a shovel and digging fork. What a hassle.
Micromanagers are around, because, apparently, they boost productivity. And like a lot of growth, productivity is considered by some, to be a measurement of success. Never mind it sometimes breaks the minions.
Once I nailed down my retirement, I bailed out of Yelm. People couldn’t understand why I gave up the benefits, to go back to being on-call. I couldn’t say too much. But, eventually, crazy woman was moved to the service center, to do I don’t know what, with no minions under her.
“Sheep Detective” is on my hold list. It will be out on DVD the end of August, and I’ll get it a couple of weeks later. There’s a website that’s pretty good at listing DVD and BluRay release dates. I should be seeing “Deep Water,” “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” and “Pressure,” pretty soon.
I’m reading what I think will be a pretty good book. The author who wrote the book about the artist Church, also wrote one about an early American botanist and doctor. “American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic.” (Johnson, 2018.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hosack
I read a couple of chapters, last night. It covers the history period, before the artist Church book, although Hosack knew Cole. It’s very readable. Lew
Chris:
It is comforting to me to know that there are actually such, er, eccentric people out there.
I knew it was available somewhere at a stronger percentage, but haven’t tried looking for it. And i know that 6% H2O2 is common in Europe because of when my son lived there.
Things at my place, thank goodness, are wet! we just had a bit over an inch of rain in half an hour and the smoke has been put at bay at least for the nonce. I am extra-toasty glad for your weather!
I never thought of calling the cops as, at least at that time, when there were still a lot of very longtime “settlers” up here, to me it just would have seemed like a betrayal. And though a lot of my neighbors have been here for 35 years, like us – or more – some haven’t been a part of this old hamlet for as long and may not realize the country customs (yeah, like whizzing bullets). I do remember that incident with the miscreant. I was shocked that anyone would behave that way in that place. But now I have remembered when someone bought the property up above us, completely undeveloped land, and proceeded to make a dirt bike track for himself and his friends to use 24/7. After talking to them, to no avail, we did call the cops and were told that there were no county laws against that. We were finally able to get those people to meet with the neighbors here and an impartial mediator and sort of work things out. They still own the property, but have rarely visited it since then, and have never built anything, thank goodness.
Now there is something useful: A way to preserve lemons.
Pam
Hi Pam,
The world probably doesn’t have enough such folks, and would be a far more interesting place if it did.
Oh yeah, the commercial stuff is a 50% concentrate. A gallon of that stuff will last you a lifetime! 🙂 3% seems good enough to me, so why double the usage? To be honest though, with the usage in the garden, the stuff is basically nuking all of the soil flora and fauna, good and bad alike. Still, it is easy for me to say such things, when soil born diseases are rare. I’ve often wondered if the dozens of millennia of indigenous burning practices has produced this result? Dunno, and there is no way to test the theory.
Yay for the rain at your place! And an inch of rain in an hour is quite an intense storm, and hope there was no damage from the huge volumes of water. But yeah, such downpours wash clean the skies. It’s a relief when that happens. Has the smoke smell gotten into your house? That can happen here some summers.
On that note, we did another day of forest clean up and it’s looking good.
Yeah, I get that, but hunters have a responsibility to not get so far in the zone that they kill people. That’s a problem. Thank goodness indeed about the impromptu motor cross track. Fences become necessary with such folks.
🙂 I may try the preserved lemons, but then they grow fresh and the juice freezes easily.
Cheers and better get writing!
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Fortune wanted mad cash for me to read the article on the annoyance economy. Truly, they don’t have my best interests at heart. 🙂 Fortunately the article was available for free on archive. See what we’re dealing with here? A fascinating article, and it recounts stories of people getting stuck in administrative loops. Which is of course the entire point of the things. I do and subscribe to the bare minimum, and this reduces such pain, but does not eliminate it.
A few months ago, I may have mentioned that due to new anti-money-laundering legislation, the nice banksters simply locked me out of my online accounts. To say this was new, a total breach of trust, to which I was annoyed, was an understatement. So I went into the branch, (a half hours drive away in one direction) and their systems were down. Had lunch, went back, still down. Returned the next day, filled out a paper based ‘know your customer’ form whilst supplying appropriate identification. All was restored. The cost in my time, at least a full day, and then some. It is an option on the part of big corporations. The thing is, for the hundred or so you’s and I’s, there is a potential Luigi Nicholas Mangione out there with a hair trigger. It is not a wise strategy.
Agreed, and yeah, processing wild meat is only part of the story. Knowing how to cook with it, is another. We all simply lack experience, but can learn. I used to know a local lady who’s father bagged wallabies, and she said they were very tasty.
70’F sounds nice. Twas 60’F here today! And just the weather to head down below to the forest edge and continue with some clean up work. I’d intended to do one activity, and the Editor re-directed the work to a nearby spot, and it was a good call. There was a sickly coppiced tree which I had to drop so as to create a clear space for a bonfire. And one arm of the tree got stuck up in a nearby massively old tree, just dangling… We attached thick nylon vehicle recovery straps to it, and then to the Japanese four wheel drive low centre of gravity mower, and just pulled the branch to the ground. That was a relief. A very dangerous moment.
Hey, your mornings are weird, but there was a minor frost at one notorious spot here (and nowhere else on the property), but this morning was super warm at 50’F, and yet other locals in the valley said that they experienced 28’F. Brr! Sucks to be them. I’d certainly say that the surrounding mountains favour a mild climate where you are. Man, I’m on a mountainous slope in a massive amphitheatre, so it is mostly protected. Super volcanoes are really huge monsters on the bum of the planet.
Hehe! H know her canine perquisites and you and I can only but wonder at what goes on in the mind of a dog.
It’s probably for the best that your goobermint is a lumbering elephant. I’d have to suggest that individually the various points in the process make a lot of sense, but collectively, it’s nuts. But maybe we aren’t yet at a time where rapid responses are a valid strategy?
I doubt that the library issue has gone away, but it’s good to hear that it may be on the back burner.
🙂 Ah, grasshopper, you have exhausted all other options and now know the true deer path of barrier or blaster. I wish it were not so.
Hehe! Well, people often think of complicated systems with the first thought which pops into their heads: How hard can this be? We’ve all been there and turns out that it is plenty hard. My place resembles the convicted and probably lovely ‘Ms Stewart’s’ in that there are multiple redundant tools. If there were another way… A good use of your coin if you ask me. Just avoid stainless steel forks and spades for the metal lacks spring.
Exactly, what did the business gain by breaking my err, tender bits, other than the enjoyment of doing that? It’s a touch sadistic, but! A year or two back, I noticed that they were in the news for receiving a fine which exceeded ten million in mad cash. The stories I could tell…
Yeah, and exactly, you have to know the system in detail, to be able to play it. Respect too! 🙂 A smart move.
Dr Hosack was a clever bloke, and as an old fella myself, why do you think that I have such an interest in plants and soil, and yet can work a hard day in the forest which would destroy younger unprepared people. Then get up and do it all again the next day?
Cheers, and seriously I better get writing. It’s almost 9pm! Yikes! Or is that a double yike situation?
Chris
Yo, Chris – Well, first up, I ran across a good review of “The Odyssey.” I thought you might be interested.
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/17/nx-s1-5872759/the-odyssey-movie-review-christopher-nolan
Well, if not pulling a Luigi, attacks on infrastructure … corporate targets, might increase. That spate of cell phone tower attacks, not long back, comes to mind. Data centers? Might be a target.
Yes, modern day frustrations. I’m also reading a book (I’ve got three on the go), “Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register.” (Larson, 2026). She was sometimes in a supervisory position, with the magic card that accessed the song and dance for refunds. But, often, she’d follow all the steps, the register would say, “Yes, refund the money,” and … the cash drawer wouldn’t open. So, she’s got a frustrated customer standing in front of her.
I saw another article where the last, polio iron lung patient has died. There were issues with finding parts for her machine, finding someone to fix it, and, exciting times when the power went down.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/last-us-polio-survivor-in-an-iron-lung-dies-after-the-machine-began-to-break-down-and-no-one-could-repair-it-164727728.html
Our high yesterday was 72F (22.22C). Our overnight low was 52F (11.11C). Our forecast high for today is 84F. Tuesday and Wednesday, we’re under a heat advisory. Temps will be in the 90s.
Yes, good to take that snag down. Not exactly a widow maker, but apparently, the Editor isn’t ready to be a widow, yet. 🙂
I fooled around in the garden, last night. I pruned up my tomatoes. Ate the first one. Tasty. I also cut back the chard that had been damaged by the deer. I have leaf miners in my chard. At the advice of the Master Gardeners, I cut out all the affected leaves. Oddly, the yellow chard was more infected than the red chard.
I also buried a bag of kitchen scraps, in the strawberry bed. The soil there is still problematic. At least one end is. Plants are dying, and when I dug the hole for the scraps, to me, the soil seems sandy.
Mt. Saint Helens, is like your super volcano, but on a smaller scale. I was surprised, when I made a trip up there. Photos really didn’t reveal just how much of an amphitheater effect the blown out side created.
So, as far as garden tools go, if not stainless steel, what? I’ll also ask the Master Gardeners, tomorrow, what they recommend. They were busy setting up for the seminar, and I’ll be interested in getting the details, of the irrigation snafu. Lew