Monday 2pm, our mobile phones became possessed by the evil spirits of demented bureaucrats. A nationwide test of some newfangled alert system was being trialled. With no actions on our part and the contraption in locked mode, an eerie voice began communicating a warning test message. We were working on placing rocks in gabion cages. Sandra’s phone sat next to mine, safely out of harms way. A solid plastic bucket protecting both chunks of complicated electronics from accident. Due to inherent delay with the two devices, the announcement had this sort of weird echo effect. Positively unnatural. Last I checked, the things are not meant to talk of their own accord, but clearly they can.
The other strange occurrence was that the display on our devices declared that we were having a: ‘Presidential Alert’. Like WTF? It’s not lost on me that the political party forming the present federal government held a national referendum way back in 1999 on the issue of becoming a republic. Voting in Australia is compulsory at risk of a fine. The national vote of all adults failed. You’d imagine that the question was settled. But given the title of the message, the sensitive person wonders if their political ambitions were never quite put aside.
Full disclosure, I didn’t vote in favour of the republic. I know, awful isn’t it? I didn’t like the model presented to the public was such that the politicians chose the President. Seemed like a job for the boys scenario to me, and the rest of the population. Anyway, who can forget that the Queen’s representative sacked the same political party from federal government in 1975? They probably got their just desserts. But clearly memories of past hurt remain with that lot. ‘Maintain your rage and enthusiasm’ (as that same party used to say). Truthfully, I’m now an older fella and have likewise been sacked unfairly, but you don’t see me hanging onto such strong emotions. To be a fine and upstanding gentleman, one must move on with their life. The old timers suggested that living one’s most excellent life, is the best revenge. The pollies probably feel impotent!
Oh yeah, the new ‘Presidential Alert’ thing, well, it was quite the surprise. I’d of course read about it in the news, and was expecting general weirdness. That was delivered. Fun fact: it turns out that the authorities can pin point individual’s locations on this continent (if they’re near to a mobile phone tower) to within around 160m / 530ft. A very impressive effort. I’m not sure why this next thought popped into my head, but the astute person realises from the observation, that if they’re up to any sort of mischief, don’t take phones along.
Fortunately, this is not a worry for me. What does bother me about this unexpected turn of events is the possibility that I’ll get disturbed sleep due to a random audible government warning at some future time. Imagine this, I’ve worked hard all day. Gone to bed feeling satisfied with the results. Deeply asleep. Bam! 6AM (never been my friend):This is a government warning that bird flu is present in your immediate area. You must evacuate now! Let’s just say that I’d not be amused.
Brings to mind the awful troubles I had with the first rooster purchased many long years ago. Not only did he attack Sandra, but it had the temerity to turn on me. Outrageous! And to make matters worse, he’d crow all night long. Totally my fault due to the rat incursions, but I’d been unaware of that at the time. Alas, the male bird had an attitude problem, and I delivered an attitude adjustment. Unwise to mess with my sleep.
I don’t really like mobile smart phones, and this new added functionality just annoys me. I could easily make do with a dumb flip phone for calls and text messages, but way back in early 2020, the government told me in no uncertain terms, that if I want to keep earning an income in my professional capacity… No point fighting City Hall, is there? They have more resources anyway, so we purchased two smart phones. A couple of years ago the same folks upgraded the software, so we had to purchase new phones because they could only run old software. The devices both worked perfectly well, what a waste. I know what a rat looks like.
I’d prefer if the choice as to what technologies this household burdens itself with, remained ours, but sometimes that isn’t an option. A mate of mine pays cash where ever he goes, even if it is not a possibility. Turns out, it usually is. He’s something of an inspiration to us all. Over the years I’ve observed his technique, which could impolitely be described as: ‘Old duffer’, which amuses me greatly for he’s sharp as.
At home, we’ve been putting this new hidden knowledge to good use, but often that involves lying. I’m uncomfortable about that, and it is not within the range of our natural wiring. However, it is worth noting that bullies energies are always best diverted. Confrontation is their natural playing field, and winning against them is a most unlikely outcome. A person is at a disadvantage from the first blow, and such folks are unlikely to take kindly to a truthful observation, like: your systems suck! Always will they double down.
Recently this nifty deflection strategy was trialled with the formidable banksters. That lot are natural bureaucrats and so have rules and procedures when in their jungle. The other day Sandra was waiting patiently in line to speak with a customer service representative. Instead of serving customers needs, another helpful staff member was forcing people to install a mobile phone application, thus serving the banksters needs. I don’t want that. Sandra watched whilst an 80+ year old lady further ahead in line was harassed into handing over her phone. When Sandra’s turn came up, she pulled ditzy face number two, which conveys a general sense of utter confusion, and then said: “Oh. Sorry, I don’t have my phone with me.” Let’s just say that the older lady took note of the clever response, and gave my lady a look which suggested: “You’re f#$king good!”
I’m not overly worried about all this sort of technological nonsense, mostly because economics combined with energy and resource depletion will eventually sort it all out. But in the meantime, like a prize fighter facing the reigning champ in a one sided bout, we just have to learn to duck and weave.
Thursday we had a day off work. It was lovely, with a visit to the nearby Trentham falls. With all the rain of late, the river was rocking.
Not too far from there is a delightful old pub in the middle of an otherwise agricultural landscape. Lunch was a super yummy cheese burger, with an Angus beef patty in a dark rye bun. This mostly vegetarian business is awesome, and when I occasionally do consume meat, why settle for rubbish which may allegedly have horse meat or rat hair in it?
Earlier in the week, in between paid work, we brought a few loads of rocks back up the hill and placed them in the open steel rock gabion cages. Two of them are rapidly filling up.
Some rough back of the envelope calculations suggest that we have to add another ten cages to the long wall before it is complete. Alas Peak Rocks is real, and we don’t have nearly enough to finish the job. However, the recent forest clean up work has proven that exploration activities, can produce a minor up-tick in rock supply. We’ll slowly get there, just not this year!
Speaking of the news media, it is full of dire predictions regarding the developing super El Niño. I have no idea what to expect, but I’m aware that the Indian and Southern Oceans have a greater impact on the summer climate at this location, than does the Pacific. Still, it makes for an exciting headline. Ironically, all this software tech bro waste stuff contributes heaps to warming the oceans and altering the composition of gases in the atmosphere. Dare to reconsider!
Conditions have been almost perfect for burn offs and general property clean ups, but the number of fires in the area has been rather dismal of late.
We’re not daunted, and continued with the forest clean up work this week. The first priority was dislodging an upside down tree stump which had been smooshed up against a reasonably tall young-ish tree. There was a nearby depression in the ground, so presumably the loggers had removed the stump from there.
The job was done in an hour, and I dug away all of the clay by hand using a mattock. The soil was then shovelled into the nearby hole, and other than the mark on the side of the large tree, and some disturbed looking orangey clay, you’d never know what an unsightly mess it was.
The stump was cut up into smaller chunks so that it could be moved downhill to where it was burnt off. Cutting dirty timber with a chainsaw quickly blunts the chain, and requires a person to be handy at maintaining and re-sharpening the thing.
It’s a pleasure on a cold winters day to warm oneself next to a bonfire. One side of your body is hot, whilst the other cold, and it feels deeply natural. The dogs will run around whilst all that work is going on, but when they’re tired, they too will camp themselves near to the flames.
The clean up work continued. In the above image of the fire, you can get an idea of how much forest litter there is laying around underneath the trees. In a forest fire, it’s those smaller woody materials which will provide the serious energy that kills everything. Best to clear an area of the stuff, and give the big old trees the best chance for survival in those worst case scenario conditions.
Speaking of big and old trees, the area where we were cleaning up has some of the largest trees on the property. They’re positively enormous.
I don’t know why the loggers didn’t harvest the tree on the left hand side of the above photo. It’s bigger than most and looks intact.
The camera lens can’t show the top, and the diameter of the trunk is almost as wide as my outstretched arms from one hand to the other! You can still see scars from the 1983 bushfire. Very impressive and worthy of protecting for the future. Those two trees may yet live for another couple of hundred years.
The lemon trees are producing a huge quantity of winter fruit. Lemon is the only preserving process where we use the freezer. The fruit is diced, then pressed for it’s juice which gets stored in glass jars and frozen for later use. It’s handy stuff in the kitchen.
Onto the flowers:
The temperature outside now at about 10am is 6’C (43’F). So far for this year there has been 757.0mm (29.8 inches) which is up from last weeks total of 741.2mm (29.2 inches)
Comments
54 responses to “Unreachable”
@ DJ, I hope that you and all of your family and friends are and remain safe from the wildfires.
Claire
Yo, Chris – We have those phone alerts, too. But you have to sign up for the. Which I did. But now, I don’t know why. Luckily, when my little flip phone is off, it’s off. And, as I often leave it off for weeks at a time …
No matter what they tell you, our politicians more or less decide who’s going to be the Fearless Leader. From time to time, the popular vote, who the majority of the people actually vote for, is set aside. Due to the Electoral College (don’t ask) and state electors. It’s happened more than once, in my lifetime.
That was cleaver of the Editor. However, what if her phone had gone off, with a bird flu alert, or something? There’s still a work around, if you keep your head. Look the bank minion directly in the eye, with a concerned air and say, “You know, auditory hallucinations are often a sign that you’re about to stroke out.” I cannot remember the situation, but I did actually deploy that, once.
The old duffer managing to pay cash, reminded me of my go-around with robo-man, this evening. I did some of those household administration things, like paying my auto insurance. I discovered something, the last time we had a chat. At one point, he wanted to either e-mail, or text me a code. I just gave a firm, “No.” He said he might not be able to blah, blah, blah, and we went onto the next step.
The rock formations next to the waterfall are beautiful. I see there’s a gravel bar, next to the falls. I wonder if there’s anything of interest? Maybe, gold nuggets. 🙂 Or, at least a pretty rock or two.
Sounds like a good lunch. Good tucker, and everyone needs to splurge, once in awhile.
A long line of rock gabions. And a long line of dogs. 🙂
Is that damage to the side of the tree going to heal? Or is it going to die and come down? I notice the enormous tree on the right, looks to have a widow maker, up there.
I bet pressing the lemons really smelled nice. Working around the garden, I often smell lemon balm or fennel.
Jonquil and Snowdrops. Can spring be far behind? Lew
Hi Lewis,
Ah, I see about your opt-in option, which is denied down here, for as far as I’m aware, there is no opt-out with the alerts. And I’ve heard serious people ask the hard question: Why are people so stressed out these days? At a wild guess, being constantly badgered is perhaps an unwise strategy, depending upon the perspective. There’ll be a future occasion where having the mobile phone near to me will prove beneficial, but I grew up before the devices and never expected to be rescued in the first place. As a late teenager I had an unfortunate car crash in a remote location, and just had to work out all of the details myself. That incident taught me caution to an extreme which might surprise folks, but that’s what learning about risk looked like historically. Back in the day, get in a big mess, and you’d have to sort things out on your own. Times are different now, and there are costs and benefits to that outcome.
Man, I’d so love to have a flip phone, but had very little choice in the matter. It was get a smart phone, and keep up to date, or risk economic annihilation. Thus why I mentioned the bullying. A dude has to know when to fight, when to run, and when to just eat a poop sandwich. Like that famous gambler song, he was right you know.
Oh my! It is possible our fearless leaders looked across the deep drink to your country and took notes on how things worked out, in the flesh. It is my opinion that the republic referendum model failed because the public had no say in who the President would have been, so we’re left with King Charlie. And he seems OK to me, and likes organic growing methods, which seems realistic to me. Few politicians these days know anything about agriculture. And I believe that only around 1% of the population is even involved in that pursuit, which I’d rate as a serious concern factor seven, or maybe eight. Possibly even nine. Oh well, this producing food stuff takes a lot of learning.
I won’t ask you about the electoral college, mostly because I read some wonky stuff about using arty-fish-al stuff to cheat at college tests. Awful isn’t it? 😉 On a serious note, I do not understand your electoral system, but have a good working knowledge of what goes on down under.
Oh you’re good! The Editor quickly also realised that risk with the phone and surreptitiously placed it on ‘do not disturb’. Ladies often carry bags with them, and who knows what goes on in such spaces? I do like your style with the auditory hallucination reply. Yeah, befuddle the behemoth is always a wise strategy for those in a weaker bargaining position.
I remember your joy at befuddling robo-man with the assertive ‘no’ and can only look on with total respect! Lewis, I have to fess up here, for my business, I have to speak with the nice telco business customer helper person on the phone in the near future, and have been putting off this task. I know! I even drove a half hour one way to drop into their store to sort out the issue, but no, only a call will suffice. What I wonder is whether I’m strong enough to expose the tender sides of my brain to this horror. Can I put the call off any longer? What to do here?
😉 Good thinking, it is gold country over there! Although perhaps the original lava flow was not ancient enough to contain gold. Looking at the square edged rocks, there was a certain sense of envy, which you alluded too. However, the goobermint had physically fenced off the track down to the swim spot under the falls and posted signs that the cliff face was at an imminent state of collapse – which clearly has been the case for millennia. Still, best not to be smooshed by rock falls. The basaltic columns were fascinating and I’d seen that elsewhere at the nearby Organ Pipes National Park.
Thanks, and it’s rare to have a splash up lunch, but yeah one must occasionally indulge. For your info, it was the Pig and Whistle Pub in East Trentham. I assume the now discontinued train line from Daylesford to Woodend used to extend past the pub given the reference to the word ‘whistle’. The food was very good.
I’m yet to work out how to get the dogs to assist with hauling rocks! Still, they serve other uses around here, so that’s good.
From experience with other trees and upside down stumps, I believe that the damage will heal and bark will eventually reform over the scar. Eucalyptus trees are remarkably hardy and after fires, new trees can form around a dead stag. Quite amazing really.
As to the widow maker branches, all of the older trees here have them. They serve part of the forest functionality, and when they do drop back to the ground, it leaves a hollow in the trunk. The larger birds such as the Black and Yellow Cockatoos will remove the pith in the search for wood grubs. Then other forest critters will set up house in the tree hollow. The old trees are like major apartment blocks. But the branches can also kill and seriously injure humans, and they can fall at any random moment regardless of wind. Other trees such as Elms, have a similar reputation. Hopefully the trees and I are friends and appreciate the work we do, but who really knows what goes on in their vegetative minds?
Oh yeah, the lemons smell wonderful when pressed. On Sunday I had to mow the citrus enclosure, and that is a very unusual activity to have had to do in August. The poor mower was filthy afterwards and scored an epic clean. Wet clumped grass does a lot to destroy steel components on mowers.
Spring may already be here? Dunno. The climate down here is odd, but there is nothing unusual about that. What freaks me out is when the growing season is perfect. The old timers used to say that a person has to pay for the good with the bad…
Oh my! DJ, his lovely lady and most excellent Husky as well as their wider community are in my thoughts as well, and may they be spared in this extreme moment.
As you say, a little bit of water stress forces the plants to work harder for moisture. You’d be amazed at how dry adapted the orchards are here, but this produces lower yields, smaller fruit and takes a lot of years of slow growth to achieve. It is not an easy path. They’ll survive 90’F+ without additional water and hotter, no dramas. It’s been one of those things I’ve been plugging away at for many long years, but don’t often mention it because, people seem to have access to lots of water and I doubt they’d have much interest in the subject.
Hehe! Blue is best! As to this we can agree, and I spotted the very first of the seasons ‘forget-me-not’ flowers, and they’re blue. 🙂 The Editor takes the flower photos, and had missed spotting them in time. Next week.
Your weather again sounds ideal to me. 🙂 It was partly cloudy and cool today with a bit of a breeze. There was even some rain late afternoon, but I was indoors flat out doing paid work and completely missed it. Oh well. The wood heater felt nice!
Ook! Thanks for mentioning that chard crosses with beets, to which they’re closely related. Hmm. It’s funny you mention that, but I’ve noticed that red is the predominant colour for new volunteer silverbeet plants, but can’t really taste the difference. Dunno. I’ve wondered about maintaining the various colours with the stalks, and it’s probably a good idea.
Just checked out ebuy, and there are no local editions of the landrace book so it’s around $60 a copy delivered. Might wait until you receive an edition and do the um, err, trail blazer read. I’d seriously appreciate a review of the text when it arrives and you’ve had a chance to give it a look over? 🙂
Hehe! There’s always something to do isn’t there? I had fun writing this latest essay. Hope the dog walk was pleasant.
Traffic, yeah, it’s bad. The big smoke sounds pretty similar to your description, although the freeway run in there is usually not too bad. It is a toll road though, and a person has to pay at every toll point, so the local roads avoiding that can be a bit hectic. And yeah, wrecks or cars parked in the emergency lane, create emergencies.
At least the Club establishment seems to be moving along. It’s not bad given all that they’d have to do.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – Why are people so stressed these days? I think there are some clues, in this article. They attack what can be attacked, because what’s really stressing them out, can’t be attacked.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/02/business/cracker-barrel-ceo-culture-wars
Yes, yes. I know you had NO choice. They had you cornered. Like a rat in the henhouse. 🙂 Or, mouse.
Yes, what mysteries lay in a woman’s handbag. Best not to inquire too closely. As, it’s women’s business. 🙂
That’s the pits about the telco. Only by phone? I’m surprised it isn’t something one can do, on-line. Well, have a book handy, in case you’re put on hold. Pray for decent music.
Basaltic Columns? I’m sure you’re familiar with the formation, over here.
https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/226
I saw an article, a couple of weeks ago, about a volcano that is spewing gold. I don’t remember the details.
Our high yesterday was 73F (22.77C). Our overnight low was 48F (8.88C). Our forecast high for today is 82F. The next three days is forecast to be 90F+.
I looked in my seed saver book about onion seeds. I need to chill them, at least 30 days. They can’t be planted too deep, as they need light to germinate. “Average germination time: 14 to 365 days.” (!!!)
There were bees in my pumpkin blossoms, yesterday. One lone bumble bee and one European honey bee.
I came around the corner of the building, yesterday afternoon, and there were two bunnies near the snail sanctuary. They took off. I hope that all the people coming and going, during the day, will keep them out of the gardens. And, they lay low at night. Due to the owls and prowling neighborhood cats.
Forget-me-not seeds stick to everything. Well, I guess that’s how they get around.
I saw the Master Gardeners, this morning. One of them has a cousin, who lost her house in Spokane.
Well, here’s an interesting collectible I’d never heard of. Eye paintings.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/03/style/lovers-eyes-jewelry-curio
If you feel like you’re being watched … 🙂 . Windows of the soul, and all that. Lew
@DJSpo:
Are you and the Princess and Avalanche okay?
Pam
@ Claire,
Thanks. We are fine right here. Didn’t have to evacuate. We have a ton of smoke and now some ash. Some friends had to evacuate. One lives in the area downhill from us that got slaughtered. He thought he lost his house. however, the official maps of the burned area indicate that his house was 3,000 feet outside the burned zone. Whew!
DJSpo
@ Lew,
Thanks. I enjoyed watching the video you linked to also.
Sitting indoors, mostly, with the air cleaner running.
DJSpo
Chris,
“Don’t Panic” is how I was managing things Saturday into noonish Sunday. It’s amazing how someone being calm is contagious.
At carving club Saturday, before the fires started, suddenly a lot of alarms and announcements started on several cell phones. These all had to do with the “Red flag warnings” due to high winds and extreme wildfire danger. Like me, many of the club members have that kind of alert turned off. Well, mostly turned off. The phones cannot turn off “Presidential Announcements”.
Ok, onto the news.
The last Saturday of normalcy in Spokane started like any other in these days of climate changed: warmer than whatever normal once was, some smoke from regional fires, wind with significant wind expected later in the day, drier than all but the most arid desert. Surreality started early, many cell phones squawking with warnings of the impending winds and fire danger. “Danger, Will Robinson” would have been preferred, such says hindsight.
Then the high winds hit hours early. And fire began southwest of town, but not far from town. Clearly, it was spreading rapidly. Then another started northwest of town and quickly jumped the Spokane River. Then a third, in the northeast corner of the city.
Suddenly, the winds stepped up to another level, the fires exploding in instant response. The river was jumped by the first fire within the city limits. Homes began burning. Entire swathes of the city and unincorporated areas were evacuated. More winds. More flames, billowing clouds of smoke of various hues ensued. Each wave of black smoke signalled another burning house or other building. There were a lot of black billows. Evacuation zones were expanded every 15 minutes for several hours. One man patrolled his yard, hosing down the house roof while wearing a straw hat. Someone told him that one hot cinder landing on that straw and he would turn into a hothead. The straw hat was removed, the wind rapidly carrying it into the distance where it disappeared from view.
Then night hit. The moon glowed a dull orange-red almost bloody color. Imaginations ran wild that the moon was actually dripping blood. The shifting wind brought wisps of foglike smoke through the area, covering the moon, then allowing the bloody moon to be visible, always a deeper and darker bloodlike color. Children were screaming about werewolves, vampires, zombies and hideous and nameless other horrors. Something howled. And the ongoing reports form the fire lines were that things were getting worse.
Sunday dawned, the first day of Post Apocalyptic Spokane. Some quickly renamed Spokane to “ashfall”, due to the precipitating residue of the untamed conflagrations. The sun was a mere orange blob in the sky, sometimes a pinpoint, sometimes a teeny bit bigger, but not by much. Unsightly, unmentionable things rushed about, noticeable in one’s peripheral vision, but not truly visible. The air, thick with smoke, could be tasted, smelled, felt on the skin. More unimaginables were not quite seen lurking in the peripherals. The roadways were conspicuous due to the dearth of vehicles of any kind.
Monday in Post Apocalyptic Spokane dawned, or maybe smoked, to another smoky start. Cars were coated with ash. Few cars were on the road. Many businesses were closed, being in the evacuation zones. After 5 minutes outdoors, clothes smelled like a campfire. One fire was controlled overnight; the closest one barely grew. The other exploded again, the wind shifting and blowing it back toward the city. Jumping the final barrier, the Little Spokane River, would allow the windswept flames to merge into neighborhoods already burned by one of the other fires. More ash fell. And more, now falling as little black chunks. Ventures outdoors resulted in immediately watering eyes, sore throats, aching sinuses, sooty skin. The weird horribles, becoming braver now, fully appear in their smoke-encrusted hideousness. Howling sounds, emanating from the thickening smoke, sent even the bravest people’s hair on edge, raising the calmest of hackles. I staggered to the car, a run for supplies being required. A dashing figure almost visible, another from another direction, as I reached the car I wa
DJSpo
Chris,
Actually, we are doing fine. The air cleaner is going, we can breathe indoors, and time spent in the smoke is minimal. Killian and his human are housing some who were evacuated. Neighbors with babies and young children evacuated my area Saturday but have since returned. Young Neighbor survived the worst just fine at her house, not needing to avail herself of the offer to stay with us if conditions warranted.
I kept a close eye on conditions Saturday. Killian’s human was at an event. Young Neighbor was at work. I kept both of them updated on the situation within our neighborhood. Other neighbors were also checking on neighbors.
I ran some errands this morning. It was surreal. Few people were out and the only road with much traffic was Division Street, aka the major north-south highway through the urban area.
The fire that started northwest of here is still active, having jumped the Spokane River well downstream from us, then moving eastward with the shifting winds. It DID explode Sunday night, but the Little Spokane River has extensive wetlands and marshes in that area. The fire remained north of the Little Spokane. Good thing, too, as the prevailing winds would have sent it racing towards the populated (and evacuated) areas, burning more homes.
Over 600 structures, mostly homes, were burned to the ground. 60,000 people were evacuated. A large swath of the City and County are still in Level 3 (Go Now) evacuations, residents not being allowed back to their homes, or to even see if their homes are standing. (Apparently, some people ARE being allowed in to evacuated but unburned areas to ascertain damage and get some items, but nobody is allowed back in to live yet.) There is no estimate when power will be restored to those areas.
Falling ashes and cinders are occurring regularly. We never lost power. Air quality is in the “Unhealthy” range. Or worse. No howling creatures have been heard. Nor have any unsightly things been almost seen lurking in the shadows and peripheral vision. The sun often is either a bright glow or a tiny orange ball. The moon is an orangish blood red color.
But we are alive and well.
DJSpo
Hi, Chris!
You’re just lucky they made their test at 2pm and not 2am. Actually, it sounds like the wannabe president hacked the system. You did right, Chris, in not voting for a scheme that would let the politicians choose the President, and not the voters (or supposedly the voters).
There now – you did think of an early warning. Or perhaps the system just decides to run itself. I assume that it can override any “do not disturb” or phone-turned-off settings. You hit the nail with not having one’s phone with one.
I was going to ask why a rooster would want to crow all night long. Poor guy – he was a watch rooster.
Brother – a rat is what I smell! Well, you have extensive experience with rats and know to always keep extra concrete on hand. Why did that make me think of a castle wall?
I always pay cash, too, except for online. Doesn’t work too well there. What’s a female duffer? That’s me. I have used that “I don’t have my phone with me” dodge in the past, when I had my flipphone. I carry my smartphone in my pocket and it probably shows. I’ll have to think of a new dodge. All of this is a very interesting topic.
What a gorgeous waterfall. That’s the sort of thing to reset one! And a delightful pub. Are we sure about rat hair?
The gabion cages are looking phenomenal. But ten more cages?!
It seems like you have a had a lot of rain this winter, so why are there so many fires? The fault of eucalyptus, which can burn wet? No, I would never know what an unsightly mess had been where the upside down trunk was. A one-hour job sounds impossible, but you guys are always doing the impossible! That is one huge uncut tree; it was good to use Ollie as a scale, because he’s one huge dog.
What a lot of yummy lemons! I need to get our potted citrus ready (add some fresh soil and feed them) in preparation for moving inside for the winter. Seriously, it will be here before I know it.
We’ve had 4.5 inches (6.4cm) of rain in two days. I’m very grateful for it.
Thanks so much for the flowers! I think I see how jonquils are different from daffodils.
Pam
Chris,
Arson. The fire that started a bit southwest of here, burned 3,600 acres and several hundred homes was arson. A suspect was arrested this afternoon.
DJSpo
@ DJSpo:
I see your responses to Chris. Thank God.
Pam
Hi Pam,
A 2am warning, across the entire land, would probably end up in a Royal Commission! 🙂 That’s what the politicians seem to do when they need an issue looked into more deeply (with hard limits imposed). Probably lucrative work if you can get it! Thanks, and the system proposed where we had to put up with the politicians choice for the head of state, seemed like a bad deal to me, and clearly the majority of the population felt much the same way.
Presumably the ‘do not disturb’ functionality can be overridden? You’ve got me wondering. Hmm. Oh no, my worst fears have been realised, however your delightful country took it one step further: 2018 Hawaii false missile alert. Some of the reddity comments on this subject were very amusing. The old timers used to say that such a person couldn’t work their way out of a paper bag, a sad indictment.
I know, I feel bad about the rooster and what he had to deal with, so no wonder he was grumpy with Sandra and I. But! Did he work co-operatively with us to resolve the rodent problems? And the answer is a clear: no. We had to do that work, and then Dame Plum and I had to sort out the loose ends. Then I had to finish off the mice. The rodents and I are not friends.
😉 Yes indeedy, a castle wall, and deep concrete filled moat, maybe full of salt water crocodiles. Sometimes extreme measures are called for!
Hehe! Sandra pulls that ‘female duffer’ trick now too, although at first she resisted due to ego perception concerns, but when the benefits out weigh the costs, well, you know how it rolls. This stuff works. I’ve asked Sandra what the feminine version of the act might be called and, how does this work with you: “Old chick trick!” Sounds slick don’t you reckon?
The media keeps banging on about how horrendous the climate will be due to sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, and yet, in the past two decades, only two years have been wetter than this (January to August). Sure, it may dry up between now and December, but this Sunday’s rainfall forecast looks pretty intense. When a huge amount of smoke particles rise into the atmosphere after a crazy summer of fires, you get a lot of rain at this location. How this can be ignored is beyond me.
Well, as a mostly vegetarian, I’m unlikely to encounter rat hair and horse meat substitute. See, there are benefits to my choices. However: Secret files show mouse fur and metal shavings detected in Australian food. You may wonder no longer why I chose to be mostly vegetarian. Historically people never ate as much meat as they do nowadays, the concept is impossible. You’d process cattle after the winter solstice, because you could no longer feed the herd – thus the mid winter feast. Spring is the dire time for food.
Oh yes, and maybe more cages than just ten. This Peak Rocks business is a real nuisance. By the way, a litre of petrol today cost me AU$2.039 which works out to US$5.42/gallon. Expensive and a good reason to own a fuel efficient vehicle.
🙂 It does take some skill and effort to get the wet timber to burn, but once the core of the fire is hot… At least this time of the year a bonfire won’t spread. And yup, that tree is enormous and probably only half way through it’s lifespan. It may get biggerer almost as large as a Californian Redwood! Some folks say that a few trees were taller down under back in the day and there is always a bit of contention there. Eucalyptus Regnans is not named lightly!
I hope not, and it would be nice for you to enjoy some lovely warm weather before the glacier-thing returns. 🙂
What a lovely quantity of rain, and hope the skies cleaned up of their smoke, but my, the humidity would be intense. How are you coping with that?
They are indeed different bulbs!
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
It’s truly awful to consider that there are some very dodgy people in the wider community, waiting for their time to strike. There was a guy who used to live north of the range, then south of the range, and allegedly the fires followed him. He’s apparently been convicted and even better, locked up.
Glad to hear that the three of you are doing fine, and using that ikea hacked air purifier fan machine of yours. Respect. Hope Killian and human were unscathed by the nearby fire and can return home again soon. In some ways these sorts of emergencies bring out the best in community, and I’ve seen that happen down here as well. It fades over time, but is brilliant to see in action. You get to know what we’re all capable of, and it’s good.
Yeah, your description of the roads was like a preview of the zombie apocalypse! I saw that a lot during you-know-what, and the quiet moments are appreciated, but it was way too lifeless and unsettling, even for an introvert.
Oh man, that’s awful, and the winds can push fate to the merest toss of a coin outcome some days. A lot of structures destroyed there, and I’d imagine more would have been damaged. It’s weird isn’t it how a damp landscape can just stop a fire in its tracks – someone down here noticed that with a large succulent garden they’d planted out. You don’t need to wonder why we’re motivated to continue with the forest clean up work.
The burned areas are a crime scene and are best if closed off for those who’d left. You’d be amazed at the cheeky crimz who decide to take advantage and loot stuff and potentially dump bodies in such areas. Best if the areas are closed off until they’re properly cleared. And spare a thought for the folks who have to go house to house checking, those scenes probably never leave them.
The falling embers should be taken very seriously as they can ignite dry materials. You know that anyway, and I’m sure are keeping alert. How are you coping man? It can get exhausting running on adrenalin for a few days. Remember to look after yourself and the household, although I’d imagine your lady keeps a cool head in a crisis.
🙂 Hehe! You’d hope there’d be no monsters or weird things hiding in all that smoke! Under a blood red sky sure is something to see. Did you remember to take any photos?
Anywhoo, time to fall in a heap and sleep when external conditions have calmed to the same level as your super chill demeanour!
Far out! We’ve got two smoke alarms in the house, and whilst they are useful devices, can you imagine the blaring noise during a bushfire, or what you’re experiencing? And looking into it tonight, the mobile phone alert cannot be switched off whilst the phone is switched on.
To be honest, you might discover that all the particulates rising into the atmosphere from this summers fires, produces a very wet growing season next year. Are you pulling my leg? Does your phone really make the claim of a ‘Presidential announcement’?
Out of curiosity, did the early weather forecast suggest that the fire risk was extreme for your area? A lot of people made that claim down here after the 2009 Black Saturday fires, but the media was full of early warnings, which were often ignored. Dunno. I vividly recall some dude getting caught in the thick of it, and he was probably in shock because he mentioned that he’d just been constructing a chicken coup and not expected the conflagration.
Thanks so much for the vivid description as to how things looked in your part of the world over the past three days. A lot can happen in a short period of time, and sometimes the world can just go mad.
It’s awful isn’t it how the fire can jump from one home to the next due to the released energy from the newly burnt fuels. It can happen so quickly, all it takes is about four minutes for a house to burn to the ground. Not even enough time to make a coffee – apologies for the gallows humour, but thought you might enjoy the laugh.
And the smell gets into everything. Not much you can do about that, but it passes with time. Hope the water stores were unaffected, because then you can taste it as well, not that you can avoid that just breathing the air.
So glad to hear that you got through the worst of it, and my thoughts are with your local community at this dire hour.
Survivor guilt is a thing, so keep a close check on Dame Avalanche in case she is feeling not quite up to snuff, as Wodehouse himself may have written.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Makes me wonder if the online trolls were supporting the mature business by spending mad cash there in order to keep it afloat? That’s what it takes, customers. On the other hand, the changes could have probably been made without altering the logo, especially if the abstract thing has what they describe as ‘brand recognition’. It’s weird isn’t it people getting all riled up about what is essentially an abstract symbol. Candidly, it doesn’t look like a good sign to me.
To be honest, I read about the budlight incident and wondered whatever were they thinking? If the person represented in the advertisement represented the halo customer, sure, but the message being sent in that instance was: ‘here is our customer, don’t you want to be like that?’ In my opinion, that was the core of the issue.
I’m not really into companies spending investors mad cash on social programming, unless there is a clear profit to be made from that activity. The last I checked, the board and senior management are employed to make decisions in the best interests of a wide number of stakeholders (to use fancy lingo), and formulating and advocating for pet social policies is a step too far. It’s kind of like a weird sort of mission creep doing that. But that’s merely my opinion, which I’d like to believe is a sort of middle ground approach. Prudent reserves should be maintained, but funds excess to that should be returned to the shareholders and not splurged on unrelated projects. Having access to lots of funds and power is too much of a temptation for most.
🙂 Guess I could have gone off and done something else with my life, so it wasn’t entirely a choice of no option with the smart phone. It was just close to that. Man, during the greater rat wars, I’ve had a full sized rat leap through the air at me like that Killer Rabbit in the famous Monty Python skit. And trust me, I squealed manfully! And was grateful that Dame Plum could do the majority of the hard yards. Anyway, Sun Tzu suggested that it was an unwise idea to back an opponent into a corner, and the constant badegering with this tech stuff does make me wonder if walking away is a good option.
Oh yes the mysterious handbag, definitely within the realms of secret women’s business, and best if us dudes weren’t poking our noses into that and getting involved unnecessarily.
The thought of being on the phone to the nice telco gives me an attack of the vapours, which is why I headed into the store to no avail, and have been putting off this task. I was on the phone once to them a bit under two decades ago for six hours, and they hung up on after I cracked it and swore. It’d been six hours for a simple query and they kept passing me around and nobody seemed to be able to resolve anything. My life had descended to the pages of a Kafka novel. My patience finally ran out with them, and the Editor said my face was red and it looked as if there was a thunder cloud over my head.
I worked out after that incident, to simply lodge a complaint strait away. It affected their KPI’s you know, and the issue was resolved speedily.
Ha! Have you ever encountered decent music whilst on hold?
That’s the one! The Devil’s Towerin Wyoming. Everyone knows that spacecraft land there. It looks like a giant interstellar landing pad, but there may not be a grid connection way up on top that could power a Moog, although the music machines are much smaller these days. I liked that film, it was suitably strange. Makes you wonder if it holds up well nowadays?
Gold dust volcano, whatever will they think of next. Visiting Antarctica would be interesting, but it’s not on my list of things to do. I’ve always wondered what would happen to that continent, and Greenland, when the weight of the last glacial ice sheet slumps off and into the ocean. You’d imagine it would rebound something shocking. Probably not a good place to be at the time.
Cold and rainy here today. Total poop about the brief run of 90’F+ days. On the other hand, the garden will love it. The beans will thrive and hopefully grow past the worst of the hungry critters.
Hehe! That’s an amusingly wide estimate of time for the seeds to germinate. Onion seed has a short shelf life too.
Go the pollinators and have you noticed any small pumpkins developing at the base of the flowers? They grow pretty fast once the flowers do their thing.
Rabbits are a major pest down here, so you perhaps know my thoughts on those critters. Although if numbers are low, like right now, I tend to leave them for the foxes and owls to hunt, like your predatory birds and cats. They have to eat too.
I like the forget me nots, and they grow all over the place. Not sure much eats the leaves around here.
DJ penned a vivid first hand account of the conditions in Spokane, well worth the read. My thoughts go out to all of the people in that fire affected are, and also the west coast east of the mountain range is showing a lot of fire activity this summer.
Would you be comfortable having all those eyes peering out from the collection? I’m not at all sure that it would suit my disposition.
Did a heap of paid work today and finished late. It happens and I’m glad for the work. The weather coming up this weekend looks remarkably wet. Oh well, it is winter after all.
Cheers
Chris
@DJ – Thanks for the updates. Truly, dire times.
You’re quite the writer. I think you could give Stephen King, a run for his money. 🙂 Lew
Yo, Chris – I don’t “get” all the rebranding. Unless a corporation has somehow gotten itself in deep do-do, and needs to move in a seemingly different direction. My regular tea brand, has just changed its box. Why? Took me awhile to figure out how to get it open.
Then there’s rebranding, because the original name was … unfortunate. When I worked security, out at our steam plant, the outfit I worked for was … Wackenhut. They changed their name to Black Rock. Then there’s a logging outfit, down by the freeway, that should perhaps change its name. It’s called “Onan.” See: Sin of … I suppose if you’re not up on your biblical references, it doesn’t make any difference. But, this county has a decided biblical bent. Judging from all the biblical names that kids get saddled with.
I think national corporate sponsorships is a pretty fraught area. Too easy to make a misstep. But locally, a business can get a lot of mileage out of sponsoring a little league team, or, awarding scholarships.
I don’t know. I seem to hear of more people, walking away from tech. I think last weeks run of comments at Mr. Greers is a pretty good indication of that.
The people who create the telephone hold music, could take a chapter from supermarket music. Always clear, never too intrusive, and, occasionally an oldie pops up that puts a smile on my face and a spring in my step. 🙂
I’ve read that most of the earthquakes in Britain are due to glacial rebound. After all these years.
Our high yesterday was 75F (23.88C). Our overnight low was 52F (11.11C). Our forecast for today is 93F. It was clear, yesterday morning. But by the time I took Dawg for a walk, in the afternoon, things had radically changed. I could chew the air. Take your pick. Smoke from Oregon, Washington or Canadian wildfires. It’s clear again this morning, as the smoke seems to be “aloft.” But that will change. Prof. Mass predicts that in a few days, onshore flow will blow it out. At least, for awhile.
My friends in Idaho are keeping an eye on the Tar Tar Fire. Not all that far from them, to their SW. But it seems to be moving NW, so, away from them.
No little nubbins on my pumpkins, yet. But, a lot of blossoms. I thought I was late, to get sweet basil plants, and was going to eventually get to the big box hardware store. Well, when I went to the yuppie discount store, last night, back in their produce section they had basil plants. 2 / $5. I got two. I’ll get them in the ground, tonight.
Sunday, I cleaned out my little chest freezer. Yesterday, I defrosted it. Most of the chunks of ice, went in the sink. But there was one chunk that had to go in the tub. It was about as big as the berg that sunk the Titanic. 🙂 So, I’m ready to tackle blueberries. There were three gallons, left from last year.
I went to our farmer’s market, this morning, with my card in hand. Good for $80. The certified organic blueberry people were there. This year, a flat was $66. I got a flat and a half, so, only spent $22. Pricey, but, he always tops up my flats.
I managed to park just 1/2 block away. But had time to kill. They can’t start selling until 10am. So, I thought I could chat up the young man and woman at the booth. No such luck. They just do sales.
I took a wander around the market, killing time. There’s about 20 vendors. Lots of fruit and veg, but also a mead-ery, someone who does a lot of dairy, cheese and stuff, a couple of bakers. one or two crafters. What I noticed is that the crowd was very thin. Last year, at the blueberry stand, the buyers were six deep. Today, just me and one other woman.
There’s an op-shop, just a block away. So, I killed a little time, there. Spent a whole $2. They’ve got their Halloween stuff out, already.
It was a popcorn night, last night. I watched “The Devil Wears Prada, 2.” It starts with a misstep that the fashion magazine makes. But, it’s a lot about the death of magazines, corporate takeovers, etc.. The plight of writers, these days. A lot more “meat” to it, than the first one. Well worth a bowl of popcorn.
Dawg and I went up to the new Club, last night. 15 minutes before the 8 o’clock meeting. Dawg was thrilled, and got to see a lot of her old friends. It’s early days, yet, and I’m not to concerned about the direction, of the Club, at this time. There seems to be a … lack of direction, as far as the … sociability aspects of the Club. But I think that will come, in time. Lew
Chris:
My goodness – I must have missed that false missile alert. It could have killed people with bad hearts. Expect to see more such things in the future with AI in charge. I tell you what, I am not going to evacuate if such a thing (true or false) happens. P.S. I look at reddity for a lot of things.
Ollie’s not going to like the crocodiles . . .
“Old chick trick!” That’s GOOD!
I know people didn’t used to eat so much meat; I eat way too much, a shame since I used to be almost vegan (I didn’t eat dairy, either, just eggs). Tomorrow I hope to make a vegan meatloaf. And I am glad Ms. Boyd is going to have a go at the secret files. What year is this – 1626?
My old Honda seems to get fairly good gas mileage, though she needs a bit of extra oil. I took her to be inspected (state) this morning. She always passes, the fine old car. It cost me (this is once a year) $20.
Our air quality is good now, but you are right, it has been so humid. The air conditioners help so much with that. I certainly can’t dry anything outside, though. When it was so hot (and dry), I could hang up laundry outside and take it back off in an hour.
Pam
@ Pam,
Thanks. It’s good to be one of the unscathed.
@ Lew,
Thanks. Glad you appreciated the updates. For some reason my creativity improves during dire events.
DJSpo
Chris,
That air purifier is working fine. I’m glad I ran into that idea. Air quality started at “Very unhealthy” this morning. It was into a less evil range this evening, so the Dame and I got out for a 10 minute leisurely stroll. It didn’t even smell like Mordor this evening. 😉
Oh, Killian and human are fine and remained at home. They opened their home for some friends of theirs who had to evacuate. The friends returned to their home this afternoon, although their neighborhood is still under “Go Now” evacuation levels.
I took several pictures of the moon and the sun. They really didn’t turn out very good, unfortunately. So my memory will have to suffice in the future. I’ll always imagine the wisps of smoke slowly drifting across the bloody moon, accompanied by the howling of werewolves and the horde of zombies chanting “Brains. Brains. Brains.”
I’ve actually been able to stay pretty chill through this. Not being able to get outdoors much is also allowing me to catch up on my sleep. As you surmised the Princess has also been very calm. We’ve both been through enough life events that we know that getting excited is counterproductive. Remaining chill is pragmatic.
Well, rather than “Presidential Announcement”, it is called “National Alerts”. This setting cannot be turned off on most cell phones.
The extreme fire risk had been forecast for nearly a week. For 5 days it was nearly a certainty that the winds would get extreme with high temperatures and low humidity.
Some of the news videos showed how rapidly homes were engulfed. Clearly burned to the ground in less time than it takes to brew a coffee. Or a tea. Gallows humor is required in times like these.
The Dame is out of sorts. Her routines don’t exist due to the air quality. When I do get outside to water veggies or pic tomatoes or something, she is much happier. Being cooped up in the house is not to her liking.
Ohhh, score one for Sandra. Her response in the bank was brilliant. I’d have a hard time pulling that off. I have my cell phone in a case attached to my belt. I can hear the conversation now.
Bankster: Can I see your cell phone?
Me: I don’t have it with me.
Bankster: What’s that on your hip?
Me: Erm, um, well, uh, yeah, that’s my OTHER cell phone. It doesn’t work.
No, that just doesn’t have the same level of panache that Sandra exhibited.
Trentham Falls look nice. Thanks for showing that. If I lived where you do, that would quickly become a favorite place to visit.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
The false alarm hit Hawaii and not your state, which having read about it, let’s just say would have freaked me out! Although being somewhat untrusting of authoritas I’d have sought confirmation of the giant disturbing nothing-burger. It astounds me, and also did the investigators in that incident, that one person could wreak so much havoc. Presumably the temptation was too great, and perhaps the person succumbed to total mischief with that message? Hard to know really, but heads did have to roll in that instance.
The problem with such messaging is really the same as the whole ‘boy who cried wolf’ story don’t you reckon? It’s all fun and games, until it isn’t. You have to make up your own mind about such warnings, but best be prepared and know that one day insurance is going to hit the proverbial poop-fan interaction.
Salt water crocodiles are enormous, and they’d consume both Ollie and I, even as we went down fighting for our very lives. Scary critters, yet I can confirm that they do indeed taste like chicken. Yum! A tasty burger. Is that wrong? 🙂 Do they ever cook up gator meat south and east of you?
Hehe! Glad you liked the play on words, and that was Sandra’s innovation.
Pam, I’ve only enjoyed a proper gumbo once or twice in all these long years and have been left hankering for more, but alas, it is a dish from an area where seafood is plentiful. And then this loose talk of Mrs. Boyd of yours lead me to a dessert of: Texas Sheet Cake With Fudge Icing. Have you ever made or sampled this delight? I’d only be able to consume a smidgeon of the stuff.
Honda’s have a reputation for quality builds, but my feeling is that the engines are cutting edge, so I’m hardly surprised the thing eats oil. Actually, I travelled into the big smoke today for work and was stuck behind two cars which were clearly burning oil. Haven’t seen that in a while and it caught my interest. Had the owners been skipping maintenance? Dunno. The machines do wear out.
Well done. The state to the north of here also has that annual inspection, and yours is rather affordably priced, but here all you have to do is pay the annual registration fee – except it is up around $900 a year. Living is ‘spensive down here.
🙂 I hear you about the hour summer drying routine, (and they’re all hot to the touch too) interspersed with the days of extreme humidity where nothing dries. Hope you’re all doing OK there?
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
If you’d left me for a century, I’d have never imagined the arrangement for your most clever air purifier. Respect. They use similar set ups on passive-houses in order to purify the air and keep it moving internally. It’s kind of like resolving one part of the longer term space ship or station problem – sealing up a volume of air, requires that the particulate matter be removed from it. I did a bit of a read on the subject a month or two back, and let’s just say that stepping off into a foreign port of call can assault the olfactory senses, so too does entering such extra vehicular machines bring their own stink to the forefront! Submarines have the same issue. But yeah, the smoke particles can get into everything.
We heat with a wood heater and it is a fine balance (and your physics brain would appreciate this challenge) between: running the combustion process hot enough that the smoke is reduced; running through heaps of firewood resources; over heating the house; under heating the house; and letting enough fresh air in to replace what has been converted into carbon monoxide and dioxide, plus who knows what nitrates etc.
I read a book on this subject years ago and the author suggested to just keep a window open. Sounds simple, until it’s near freezing outdoors! 🙂 Ah, the joys of a sealed and well insulated house…
Hopefully Spokane is now protected from the worst that the might of Mordor can throw at it. You have to feel for Professor Tolkien because I believe that he had PTSD from what he’d experienced in the trenches during WWI.
Oh poop! And fingers crossed that the evacuation orders get rescinded, and at least they’ve got their house when others have not been so lucky. It was a very generous act to open their house to friends at such a time.
Man, I so hear you about that. The camera used for the photos here is a Pentax DSLR K-30 which was ex-Japanese second hand, although was in near new condition as is often the situation. The other night was a full moon and I too was mucking around with the settings, reading advice on the interweb, and all the photos turned out to be complete rubbish. Yet at times in the past it worked perfectly for photos of the night sky. If I had more free time I could learn to use the machine properly, and then there is reality, isn’t it always the case?
My gut feeling suggests that both zombies and werewolves would be bad customers to deal with. Some days you know that things are going to go badly, and confronting either of those creatures is a sign that the end is nigh – yours, not theirs of course.
Time to rest up, yeah, nice one. And they do say that old campaigners rarely skip breakfast, which is an outlook on life which I thoroughly approve of. 🙂 That’s good news about your lady, and crisis moments are not the Editors best work, but we’d muddle through one way or another, as we’ve done in the past.
Presumably you’ve been inundated with alerts over the past few days on your devices? My hope is that the possibility is not used for frivolous or mischievous reasons – like that missile alert in Hawaii all those years ago. The rascals…
That’s good news that the weather forecast got it right and spread the knowledge – which is their job after all. What I’ve read about down here is that a third of the population are prepared, another third are taking a wait and see approach, and the remainder are somewhat clueless. It happens. Oh well. Probably much the same in your country?
Yup, they tell me four minutes, and I see no reason to disbelieve such hard won advice. Sadly the fire front doesn’t move as quickly and I’ve heard it can be around fifteen minutes from peak to trough in terms of extreme energy, which means you have to have somewhere to retreat to. Or be able to defend against that outcome. You may have noticed that we’ve done much to reduce plant material growing near to the house and sheds this year?
The poor Husky, and dogs do love their routines. Not always possible to achieve though, is it? I’d describe your present conditions as being less than sub fluffy optimal, and nobody wants that.
Ha! You’ve gotta play it cool with the banksters, and have well rehearsed lines. And switch the device to do not disturb mode ahead of time. 🙂 You could really freak them out by suggesting that the device is your burner phone, just in case the need arises. Such phones are impossible down here, but they do seem to be a thing in your country.
Trentham is a really lovely climate, and has some of the best and newest soils on the continent. As you’d imagine, they grow potatoes there, and have an annual ‘Spud Fest’ festival. Quite enjoyable. 🙂
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
I’m with you, the brand iconography is meant to be sacrosanct, and mucking around with that was probably where things became unstuck. The weird thing about the story was that the business was kind of turning around with all the other stuff done to the business, such as appealing to a wider customer base. I didn’t appreciate the need for the icon change, and the old timer with the barrel had a sort of cheeky raffish air to him.
Anyway, I will recount a time when a complete rebranding was necessary. Now I don’t know why, but I’ve had the misfortune to have been caught up in two bank runs in my life. At the time I was young enough to have had very little excess funds in either, so the loss would have been no big deal. The credit union died an untimely death, probably deserved, and everyone in the state had to make up for the loss with additional taxes for a few years. Nice. The actual bank was an odd situation, and they completely rebranded and honoured the deposit holders in full under the new moniker. It got weird when they rebranded back to their original name, presumably once the stink had blown away in peoples memory. At the time of the run I felt very chill about the goings on knowing that the deposits (mine at least being small) were backed by the government. I’d imagine if a person had collective deposits which exceeded the guarantee threshold, they’d be freaking out. You know, I mention that possibility to folks, but I’m probably over reacting…
Oh yeah, the moral here is that sometimes stink can be washed clean, with a bit of soap and a fresh face. 🙂
Poor Onan, I feel for the bloke, but then taking a literal interpretation, there did appear to be a bit of shagging going on and the gentleman was cutting a fine philosophical point by trying to err, navigate a third path option whilst partaking in goodies. Look as a strategy, it might work, reality suggests that vengeance wasn’t his. And I must add, in the romantic era paintings, Tamar is quite winsome looking, although trying to divine the underlying personality is almost impossible, especially because of the imploring look to the eyes. There is a lot to that story, and what’s everyone doing looking into the activities of their boudoir anyway? It’s a bit pervy if you ask me. Hehe!
Candidly I know what my grandfather might have called the bloke. 😉
Marrying one’s dead brother’s wife was very much a done thing back in the day. The same was true swapped around, and the Editor’s grandfather married his deceased wife’s sister. Such things occurred as part of the social safety net.
Agreed. The larger corporate social engineering things, are probably a dangerous path ripe with pitfalls. But locally, absolutely, businesses should support other local businesses, as well as other local organisations. I choose wisely where to spend my mad cash. We’re actually thinking of this aspect to our marketing. Not a bad idea.
The comments at Mr Greer’s have been interesting. I spotted your comment, and I’ve offered to write about herbal dog health. The weather from Saturday night on will be feral wet, so it’s a good time to get stuck into that project.They’re saying just under two inches of rain in the forecast for here on Sunday. Poop!
🙂 Ah my friend, there are licensing and royalty fees to be paid for using that music in a pubic commercial space. The annoying hold muzac is possibly free. Sad, and it is a pain in the ‘ear.
Hope the Professor is correct and you get some relief from the fire smoke. It’s a bad acrid stench isn’t it? There are summer days where I can even taste the stuff. Hope you and H are doing OK in the conditions?
Another cold and wet day today, but tomorrow through Saturday afternoon should be quite nice, maybe even a tad sunny. No real drama though I did paid work all day long today and ignored the conditions, and did some good stuff too.
Holy carp! The Tar Tar Fire is being reported as barely contained and over 138,000 acres. Some years are bad, and this one is shaping up to be a real doozy. Fingers crossed that your Idaho friends remain out of harms way, that is a big fire.
Basil is a quick growing plant in the heat and you have plenty of summer yet to run, but I’m a bit dubious as to variety because the taste of the leaves can vary wildly. And there are a number of varieties, members of other plant families which have a vague basil taste etc. It is complicated. How do your leaves taste? I love sweet basil leaves, and grow them in complete shade among the asparagus spears and fronds.
Hehe! Now we know who is responsible for the historic sinking – it was your fridge as gone and done it! 🙂 As may have been said on a murder scene investigation in one of those superbly quaint, but highly dangerous English villages.
Nice to have used up the card for the blueberry flats. Waste not, want not, as the old timers used to quip. Did you trial any of the tasty berries? I would have. Really? Oooo, that’s odd. I read about an open garden (let’s not name names here) where the staff were apparently lovely, but had no idea about the place. Not what you’d expect, is it?
Cost of living pressures probably, but your weather is getting hot, and people tend to dodge the warmer days don’t you reckon? If you go again in more favourable weather… Which you probably might not this season.
Nice buying, yup, and there’s always something to nab isn’t there?
The Editor went to the cinema with friends to watch that film, and said pretty much the same thing about magazines and the state of the world with such publishers. Ah, what halcyon days were they when a thousand words could produce a $300 cheque. In these more enlightened times, nary two thousand words will be enough to stop some passing troll from doing a drive by! Hehe! Although that doesn’t happen here, and gets deleted with rarely a second thought. Although for $300, I might accept some harsh words, I mean, they’re only words. It’s a good hourly rate too, put it that way. Hehe! The Editor also said that the latest instalment was more in depth. It’s a bit sad really, but I believe that in the not too distant future, a very cheaply produced magazine, distributed by post and paid for by subscription, will have a market. It’s revenge of the analogue you know. We’re not quite there yet, but it’ll happen – you watch and see. Light for a darker economic place kind of stuff. Dunno. Just my gut feeling there.
Go both of you! And glad that the Club has sort of opened. Ha! Isn’t it always the case? Far out. The Editor is enjoying the dog club going through a similar phase. What do you say again? This too shall pass? These things are about getting together for a purpose and also having a chat. The two parts are inseparable, but you can get leadership which stymies such things because of their own fears and inadequacies. Yup! Good luck! I’d stomp, but that’s me, I do such things. Sometimes it is easier to let sleeping dawgs lie as they say. Although I’ve never met a dog which would lie, obfuscate – absolutely, but always truthful. Dogs are lovely.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – $900 to register a car? !!! Is that per year? We used to have a system, in this state, where your fee depended on make and year. Some high end fees, were eye watering. So, the natives got restless and the peasants revolted, and it went to a vote of the people. Now we have a flat rate, usually less than $100. Every time it begins to creep up, “the people” tamp it down, again.
“CRACKER-BARREL definition: of or suggesting the simple rustic informality and directness thought to be characteristic of life in and around a country store. See examples of cracker-barrel used in a sentence.” When I sub-let the front of my store, on Tower, it was to an old friend (later, landlord), and his op-shop was a “guy” space. A real man cave. He sole old tools, military stuff, Boy Scout stuff, knives, etc. etc.. (Maybe a gun or two, under the counter.) There were always guys hanging out, just passing the time. Usually, four or five. I always referred to them as “the crackle-barrel boys.” 🙂
Nobody much talks about the cost of re-branding. Everything from stationary to trade-mark registering.
The deposit insurance, on accounts here, is $250,000. So, nothing I need to worry about 🙂 .
Often, particularly in the Old West, the marriage market wasn’t what you’d call a “target rich environment.” 🙂 And, maybe, you’d at least know what you were getting.
Our high yesterday was 84F (28.88C). Our overnight low was 52F (11.11C). Our forecast high for today is 94F. The smoke seems to come and go. But, as you mentioned, Prof. Mass said relief may be on the way.
I dinked around in the garden a bit. Picked some cherry tomatoes for my version of Spanish rice. Staked up that volunteer poppy, in my “rental” plot. Planted the basil. They were in tiny pots, and badly root bound. I mixed up some good dirt (compost, blood and bone meal) and we’ll see how they do. They smell like traditional basil. But, I know what you mean. There seems to be a lot of exotic varieties, these days.
I was watching a “Murdoch Mystery,” last night. Toronto, 1910. It took awhile to figure out the mode of murder. Stabbed with an icicle. No fingerprints to worry about. I’ve seen that ploy, in a number of mysteries, over the years. Might make the game of “Clue” interesting. Nightwatchman Clem, in the alley, with an icicle. 🙂
I drove out to a fruit stand, on the other side of Centralia, this morning. Picked up two more flats of blueberries. $38 per. I was surprised. Also, no line there. When strawberries came in, they were 20 deep, at opening, and ran out by 10:30. Traffic was a lot lighter, than usual. It was early, so not so hot. I got 3 “light” gallons, in the freezer, yesterday.
Fringe benefit: coming home, I drove right past the Club. There was to be a 10am meeting, so Dawg and I stopped. Chatted with Eric, who is a cinema fan. We always have something to talk about. He calls Dawg, Fur Face.
A few other people showed up, but … apparently, no one was there to open up. I’d guess, sooner or later, each group will be issued a key. Meeting are the most important part, and, in due time, the sociability factor will kick in.
I enjoyed “Prada..” but one thing I thought was that the heroine, Andy, was just too good to be true. I suppose there are people out there, who can forgive just about anything. But they’e rare.
We’re supposed to get a food box, today, but I wonder. The church that delivers our commodity boxes, well, their pastor just died. Cancer. Don’t know what kind, but he went from diagnosis to death in less than 6 months.
The blueberries are calling, and I must go … Lew
Chris:
I have indeed heard that they serve gator meat to the south of me. Nowhere around here, though. Darn. Real gumbo is a wonderful dish. Long ago I used to make my version of it.
I’ve never made a Texas Sheet Cake With Fudge Icing, but I’ve eaten it. I’m from Texas, remember.
Well, old Honey the Honda was built in 2003. I can’t remember how many miles she has. My parents used to travel a lot in her.
I’ve mentioned Old Tufty the Squirrel before, of Charlene’s “generation”. I hadn’t seen her for awhile, but while fixing dinner, I saw her heading out of the barn and scampering towards the house and so I watched for her to show up on the back porch (up 2 stories), which she did. She was thin, but looked wonderfully bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. And I could tell that she had been nursing babies. Goody gumdrops, more rodents.
While talking to a store clerk the other day while waiting on something, the topic of wells (bores) came up. She has one at her house and it is 700ft (213m) deep. Ours is 175ft (53m). Her pump is 600ft (183m)down, ours is easy enough to pull up and fix. I didn’t ask her how much it cost to dig that deep; ours was expensive enough. She is at the foot of the Blue Ridge, so that must make a difference.
We’re okay. I’m kind of dizzy.
Pam
Chris,
Yup, sealed air has to move. And get the introduced impurities filtered out. A house with stagnant air smells unlived in. Sort of like a den of zombies must smell.
Dad heated with wood but never paid much attention to fresh air. No matter. I usually had my bedroom window open unless it got too hot outside. It was usually open even in the dead of winter. Fresh air and cold enough to sleep.
Tolkien and PTSD. That wouldn’t surprise me. I know dad suffered from that after fighting in Holland and Germany in World War 2. Wednesday morning, a gent wandered into a neighborhood that had lost a lot of houses due to the fire. Then he had a PTSD attack., eventually pulling a knife on the paramedics. The situation eventually ended calmly. And THAT is why you remain outside of the burned-out areas that are still under “Go Now” evacuation orders. A military commander likened the aftermath of the fires to a battle zone. I thought things looked moonscaped. Probably a major PTSD trigger.
Progress is being made on the fires, but they burned so hot that removing most of the evacuation levels will take some time. A few areas have been downgraded or even removed, but not many. Another big wind gust and there could be a lot of flaring up.
Poor Avalanche thought the world was ending today. The heat is back. I had to let Killian outdoors around noon then had other errands to run. I left the Dame with the Princess. I got a mere 300 meters from home when the Princess called. Didn’t say a word, just held the phone near Avalanche. Her howls echoed through the car. Yes, the sound of Howling Wolf (the husky, not the blues singer) would have been enough to drive the Princess crazy. I returned, took the Dame with me, amended where to go on the errands so that I could park in shaded areas. The Princess was happy, the Dame was happy, and Killian was happy to see his pal.
With the heat, the humidity has disappeared again. 12% today. Somehow they got the fires completely lined despite the fires being more active in the heat and low humidity. Progress.
A good breakfast always makes muddling through a lot easier. One stanza from somewhere in the Poetic Edda goes something like this:
Groomed and clean-washed Keen man should be
and early have eaten his fill.
For unknown it is where at eve he be
Tis folly to forego one’s gain.
I can tell when I’ve missed my breakfast. I feel like a zombie and get short tempered, often snarling and snapping at people, maybe not too far removed from being a werewolf. Breakfast is good. 😉
The alerts we’ve been getting can be turned off. We’ve chosen to allow the local fire alerts to give us a signal. Ditto any alerts for fires on the Rez. We have everything else turned off except for the dread “National Emergency”, aka “Presidential Alert”.
Ahh nice idea:
Bankster: Can I see your phone?
Me: Nope, this is my burner phone. You know, the one I use for my money laundering ventures with the Mob.
Bankster: Well, bring in your regular phone sometime so we can update our software for you.
Me: No thanks. That’s the phone I use mostly with my drug cartel contacts.
The look on the bankster’s face would be priceless. The armed constabulary that breaks down my doors as a result of my hijinks would most likely be lacking a sense of humor. Sigh. I guess I would just have to say that that isn’t my phone, it’s my phaser. Beam me up, Scotty.
The potatoes should be ready to harvest in a few weeks. Maybe I will hold my own version if a “Spud Fest” then.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Gator probably tastes like chicken! They farm salt water crocodiles up north for the meat, and it’d be a place where you wouldn’t want to have an off-moment. Speaking of which, my chainsaw chaps finally did the job they were made to do. So I was felling a small dead tree and it just needed a little bit of a push as it’d slipped backwards on the wedge. Anywhoo, kept the machine running and chucked the saw in my left hand and pushed the tree with my right. This all happened in under a second, and the machine whipped around and brushed the chaps. Tore them up, but my leg was completely unharmed. Without the safety gear, that would have been a trip to the hospital. Better buy myself a new pair. 🙂
I’d diligently worn them for 15 years in hot or cold weather, and today, they proved their worth.
So nice to hear, and a proper gumbo is a real treat. Any secret ingredients? Actually dinner tonight is rice with veg, cooked greens and fresh eggs. The chooks are on the lay again! Yum.
😉 That’s why I asked as I thought you may have sampled the dish. Texas is a big state full of climate contrasts. When I was a kid, my grandmother, the crazy one, used to make the most amazing trifle dessert. I’ve never tasted better, mostly because people substitute low quality products such as cheap canned cream. Hmm. You know, I might try and retro engineer the dessert for the annual dessert-off. Not that I’m competitive but I was soundly thrashed last year. It was a moment like that Charlie Daniels Band sang about the Georgia song. Pam, we’ve got the technology, we can do this! Yeah…
Your Honda has the loveliest name, and clearly has a feminine persona. 🙂 If I may 2003 was around the peak of manufacturing excellence, and my one regret in life was selling the former 2004 Suzuki Dirt Rat. At the time it was the right thing to do because I lacked err, time to fix the machine. Turns out if I’d waited… Oh well, moving on and hopefully not making the same mistake.
Go Tufty! And you have mentioned the cheeky squirrel. Oh my goodness, more squirrels, but then isn’t that part of the joy and angst of dwelling amongst the trees? I spotted a ring tail possum the other night in the Loquat tree, and a few days before that Kuato’s girlfriend was high up in the Tagasaste. I’d wondered if the much smaller brush tailed possum was in the family way. Oh well, grow and they will arrive.
Hehe! Say, that’s a long way underground. I dunno what to say, and have made the choice to not mess around with the groundwater. The option is super expensive and requires constant maintenance, and I’m probably doing the wrong thing. My friends of the big shed fame have done what you describe, one shallow bore, and another super deep. They have access to more water than I can ever dream about.
The same is true here, and boring a deep hole through granite country, is not a cheap proposition. Yup, I so hear you about that.
Sorry to hear that you’re dizzy in the heat and humidity, and if it helps, it’s currently 7’C / 45’F outside. Brr! Better go and push the bonfire together. Did some very good stuff today.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Just headed way down to the forest edge and pushed the bonfire together. There’s beauty and terror in the hungry flames. Embers fly high into the air, and due to a trick of the eyes form streaks of orange light. The warmth is nice too, given it’s 7’C with occasional drops of rain. Your recent experience of fire is the polar opposite.
I didn’t want to do forest clean up work today, but from Saturday night onwards, the forecast says ‘wet’. So, we did the clean up work. Dropped a lot of small dead trees and cut them into six foot lengths for firewood, and burned off the heads. As you’d imagine there are some upside down tree stumps, previously unknown about.
Almost forgot to mention, but for the first time in fifteen years of wearing chaps, in a moment where I had to react quickly, the chainsaw whipped around and brushed the chaps. Ripped them up, but my leg was unharmed. It pays to wear the safety gear. Yup.
When looking at houses in the past, we’d encountered some which were just like you mentioned, uninhabited for a while. Smells stale and rank. Thanks for the visuals and yes, one would need some fresh air with the undead for company. 🙂
Good stuff, and like you I was always a fresh air fiend, and you do sleep better in those conditions. I often wonder if there is a build up of carbon dioxide in very well sealed homes. A friend has a meter, and it would make for an interesting test. Hmm.
I’m amazed that the guy managed to get into the cordoned off areas, although I guess people have their ways. To be honest, the gentleman may have begun the journey in an already traumatised state. The things I’ve seen and heard about, you know, the aftermath experience is not for everyone.
Yeah, it’s the wind driving that force of nature, and how is the forecast looking on that front? The wind is meant to pick up here over the next few days, but they’re also saying that Sunday could deliver 40mm, which is not an outdoors day.
Hehe! Now you know who the Dame’s favourite is, just saying! Sometimes I jokingly say to the Editor when the big dog Ollie disregards one of her commands, that the canine is saying: “Where’s Chris?” 🙂 Ollie is actually pretty good, but Sir Poopy would only take instructions from me. There is a lot of complexity to this subject, and the Editor is now into her third year with dog school and is now training others. Some skills have to be learned.
Which reminds me… Hang on…
12% humidity is incredibly low, and I seriously feel for what you’re experiencing. Hope autumn turns up soon. Man, sometimes fires just run out of things to burn.
Oh that’s good! Thank you for the introduction, and my favourite translation was:
I remember yet the giants of yore,
Who gave me bread in the days gone by;
Nine worlds I knew, the nine in the tree
With mighty roots beaneath the mold.
All good advice too, for we know not the future, and therefore should avoid skipping the breaking of the fast.
I do a very good representation of a zombie before the first coffee of the day. Ugg, is about the best reply my brain has to offer.
Your alert system is far more advanced, or maybe the one down here is – for it cannot be disabled beyond switching off the device.
Hehe! That’s a fine way to end up assisting the constabulary with their inquiries, as they say in the media! 🙂 I like your style and thrill seeker approach to the banksters. Or a tricorder?
You wont regret the home grown potatoes, and the taste is superb. How do you usually cook the spuds?
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
I’m not mucking around, that is about the annual fee, and I get a slight discount due to living in the boonies, or it may be for driving a small car. Life is expensive down here. The insurance bill turned up in the post the other day, and that lot want $1,200.
$100 for annual vehicle registration sounds pretty cheap to me. I believe that our heavily indebted state goobers, sold off part of the vehicle department business two or three years ago, but it’s always been expensive.
I’ve wondered about all these bills, and as a thought experiment, I reckon the most important one to keep paying is the annual property taxes. That lot can eventually take your house if unpaid. A bit of a worry that. Anyway, the rest can be more or less ditched, depending upon future circumstances. If the economic poop ever hits the fan, there may need to be some belt tightening, but I’ve been there before and survived just fine. As you’d be aware, it takes a lot of skills to live on the cheap.
There is a guy in the area who lives in a van. I see him moving from this spot, to that one, turning up here and there. Quite clever really, and he keeps tidy surroundings. Not over staying one’s welcome or abusing the commons in those circumstances is wiser path. I call him starlink dude, because he puts out his antenna, and who knows what work he’s doing. The winter nights in that van would be cold, but it interests me to see people doing their own thing given the economic circumstances.
That is an amusing name for the collection of dudes. A bit Jay and Silent Bob hanging around the front of a shop! 🙂 Ah, I frequent country stores, and the people tend to be very pleasant, and know their regulars – which I approve of. Sometimes, business is also a relationship. On the other hand, I’ve been on the wrong side of the: “it’s just business”, story. Brutal, but that was in the big smoke. Oh well.
Had a bonfire today. Did a clean up in an area which is sort of flattish, or at least the land could be described as having not much in the way of slope. Strangely, there were a lot of dead saplings there, and I dropped a lot of them. Nothing lives on them, and they act like candles in a bushfire by burning hot and lifting the fire into the canopy. Plus being dead and dry, they make good firewood.
I’d imagine that during wet years, groundwater wouldn’t drain away as fast in the flattish ground, and the saplings would get off to a good start, and then there’d be one dry year, and the smaller trees stand no chance of competing against the larger and older specimens. So that’s why they were there.
Anyway, so I’m dropping these small saplings, and one started to fall back towards me. Responding quickly, and I mean less than a second, the chainsaw was transferred to my left hand, and the right could push the tree in the correct direction – which it did. However, I hadn’t engaged the chain brake, and it spinning but slowing, so the rotating motion swung the bar around at my leg. Yikes!
The moving chain hit my chaps, and put a big rip in them. Better get a new pair. But my leg was totally unharmed. This is why, in the cold or the heat, I always wear chaps. In about the fifteen years of doing so, I’d not had an incident, but it’s times like these… I’m very grateful for the safety gear, and use it. One can never know the future, but one can be prudent.
Man, that is so true about the cost of rebranding and such decisions are like blood sucking tentacled monsters! Do you recall that I wrote a while back about the weird yellow posts that the local council installed everywhere? Clearly my property taxes had paid for these things, but the strange thing is that they are disappearing and/or being run over. What an absolute waste of the rate payers mad cash. And I still don’t know what they’re about, it wouldn’t mean nothing.
Say, where are all the ladies? 🙂 Agreed, there’d be a shortage of females in such environments back in the day, although in the wider population I believe that there are more ladies than dudes. And that’s so true as well, you’d at least know the soon-to-be-bride. I believe that is how it rolled with the Editors grandfather, and the sister would have been better with her sisters children. The evil step mother is not merely a trope of fairy tales.
84’F, so nice. We’re barely scraping past 50’F this week, and sometimes not even cracking that mark. Sunday’s weather forecast looks rather unpleasant.
Yum! Are your tomato plants beginning to produce more ripe fruit? Poppy is a handy plant, and it grows a bit wild down here, both European and Californian varieties. Your new basil plants will appreciate escaping from their pots, and those more exotic varieties of basil always seem a touch off in their notes. Sometimes I find the exotic varieties mislabelled as the traditional ‘basil’, and was once caught out by that. It happens.
Whatever will they think of next? Quite clever really to use a weapon which disappears of its own accord. Actually, I’d not been aware of that cheeky ploy. Just to add to the mystery, it was called Cluedo down here. Sounds like Play-Dough! Remember that stuff?
One wonders what Clem has been up to with his shifty looks and unexplained absences. 😉
Perhaps strawberries are in, and blueberries are out? It is weird, and I believe that blueberries are better for you. Alas, the local birds are unrelenting with both blueberries and strawberries, and neither are enjoyed, despite both plants thriving here. There is a blueberry farm a couple of properties to the north, and the birds simply teach one another.
Dumb question for you: How do you know the stand ran out by 10:30, if you were at the Club afterwards for a 10:00am meeting? Sorry, this talk of Cluedo slipped my mind into detective mode, and was a candlestick involved? 🙂
What a sweet name for H, and she’d love the attention the little hussy! Good to hear that the Club is getting back on track. But did they have the coffee machine going?
I’m with you, the meeting is the important bit, but then sociability is also providing a significant, but different form of support.
Ah, I looked up the film protagonists personality type, and no, such folks are like that, although they are rare. I know one such, and it’s a real pleasure to chat, but they do tend to be over extended. Such folks bring, and then hold, communities together. Lovely people, and I reckon they have a dash of Faery blood coursing through their veins, though they know it not.
The whole forgive thing bothers me, but then the Editor says that I have a donut, whatever that means. I tend to absorb lessons into my world view, and try not to get fooled the same way twice. Of course new and interesting ways of getting fooled seem to be a risk that we all run. It happens, yup.
Oh poop! Sorry to hear about the passing of the pastor, and change always brings trouble. Fingers crossed that the food boxes continue.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – So the Goobers have outsourced or privatized part of your licensing agency. A lot of that going around. Someone is getting rich, and it ain’t us! 🙂
I just reduced my auto insurance, and am now paying about $300 a year. I now only carry the “bare bones,” required by the state. Which mostly only covers injury to another party. I’m thinking about dropping some of my Medicare coverage, as it eats up my Social Security COLA, every year. But, I have a hard time figuring out what I’d be losing. Sure, I get a large booklet, every year, but it’s pretty … dense. And there are constant changes. There’s a small window, to make changes, but it’s later in the year.
Living on the cheap. Skills, and I think developing habits. Things you do that are thrifty, but require very little thought, anymore.
Van life. It’s a thing, now. 🙂 I mentioned I saw a documentary, not long ago. And, I just finished up a book that was a very good read. Too many late nights …
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738843/monster-of-a-land-by-lauren-hough/
There seems to be a bit of a divide, between van folks that are homeless, and those that live in their vans, by choice. Although how you sort them, I don’t know. When I was at the Club, yesterday, I heard that there was a woman living in a van, in the parking behind the Club. After a week, the op-shop owner called the police, and she was moved along.
Your mention of star link reminded me that yesterday, Mars Boy crashed one of his rockets, into the moon. Luckily, this didn’t happen. A short clip, less than a minute, from “The Time Machine.”
https://youtu.be/n-BmtnnmEbo?si=t6cWMOD20R1JJjzY
Yikes! That was a narrow miss. Peg Leg Chris probably wouldn’t be a good look, for you. And would be carrying the whole pirate thing, way too far.
I did a search, to see if there was anything about your mystery yellow posts. All that came up was “indicates upcoming hazards.” Which I find highly suspect. Someone mentioned something over at Mr. Greer’s, last week. Traffic counters. To figure out if a road should be upgraded, downgraded or, entirely abandoned.
We’ve talked a bit, over the years, about picture brides, the Mercer Girls, etc.. There was a fairly awful TV series, about those women. “Here Comes the Brides.” Then there was the movie “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” A really good old movie, was “Westward the Women.” About a wagon train of Civil War widows and spinsters, heading west.
Our high yesterday was 90F (32.22C). Our overnight low was 54F (12.22C). Our forecast high for today is 88F. Smoke still comes and goes.
I’m beginning to wonder about the wisdom of pruning the tomatoes. One of the Master Gardeners bangs on about that. But last year, and this year, when I have pruned, I don’t think the crop is as abundant.
Clem saw something in the alley, he shouldn’t have.
I forgot that the organic berry pippins, are larger, than the ones from the fruit stand. So, when all is said and done, I’ll have 12, almost gallons in the freezer. Not enough. I’m processing my 6th gallon, about now.
I heard about the fruit stand, selling out, from someone who had been there on a previous day. The Club is getting by, for the meetings, using a couple of drip coffee pots. Oddly, I had a dream last night, very short, that I stopped by the Club and the counter was in. Wishful thinking, I guess. Nice color scheme. 🙂
According to “True Blood,” fairy blood attracts vampires. It’s like candy, to them. 🙂 There’s another “fashion” film, out. By way of explanation, here, in slang, a booster is a shop lifter. The film is “I Love Boosters.”
https://youtu.be/I1xZegSgN8w?si=Rm9JcY82gx5de2de
Already on my library hold list. :-). Lew
@ DJSpo:
Poor Avalanche. Poor Princess. You have rescued a damsel in distress, in fact, a Princess. That’s what knights do. Sir DJ?
Pam
Chris:
Oh, my goodness, Chris! I am so glad you were smart enough to be wearing chaps. Go get another pair immediately! I don’t think my son has any and will suggest some to him.
I don’t remember any secret gumbo ingredients except that there are special gumbo spices. Can you get okra there? I didn’t have time to make the GF vegan meatloaf yesterday, so I made it today, out of chickpeas and blackbeans and stuff. It is pretty good, though it needs about a quart more ketchup on top. I guess it’s a beanloaf. Did you have a sauce with the rice and veg and egg?
I think I forgot to answer something last week: How do I preserve peppers? I bottle them in a vinegar mix.
Does it take special technology to make an outstanding trifle? Go Chris!
I am having a heck of a time pulling weeds out by the roots. I am wondering if it was because, in the drought and really extreme heat, they sent their roots way down, more so than usual. And my corn plants are looking good, but did an interesting thing: A couple of weeks ago about half of them fell completely over on their sides. It was raining so much, for so long, that I never had a chance to stake them back up. Yesterday I realized that they had all stood completely upright again. How do they do that?
Pam
@ Pam,
Sir DJ? It has been a long time since I was called that. The Princess simply calls me “Hero”. 😉
DJSpo
Chris,
Weirdly, the suspected arsonist said something similar about fire when he made a confession. He has now been charged with starting 4 additional fires in addition to this big one. And claims up to 25 that he started. Ouch.
Okay, I see how it is. You’ve run out of easily obtained rocks. Peak rocks. Rocks are often found with these upturned tree stumps. So you do forest cleanup as a means to find these stumps and maybe some rocks. In other words: Rocks, the stump byproduct.
Good job wearing the chaps. Safety equipment is there for a reason. I hope you replace them soon. As important as proper footwear, gloves, eye protection, hard hat. Chaps.
That would be an interesting test with the CO2 meter. It wouldn’t surprise me if the readings came back slightly elevated but near the high end of the “normal” range. All I know is that I feel better when I can open the windows for at least a few minutes every day. This smoky time of year means that open windows is a bad idea.
The police started allowing foot traffic into the evacuated and burned out areas. No vehicles. Neither the police nor the firefighters are happy with allowing people in, but technically, people cannot be forced to leave their homes. But they can limit vehicles entering the zones. From what I’ve been seeing, there are a lot of people who don’t understand the nature of fires, burned down buildings, hot spots, flare ups, etc.
Another high wind event is scheduled from late Friday morning into Saturday. And that’s regional, not just here, so the winds will be present with all of the active fires. Ugg.
Oh, there was never any doubt who was the Dame’s favorite. She’s always been like this to a degree, but she is very out of sorts since the local fires started and the smoke levels have increased. She can tell something isn’t right, needs to be with her papa.
Cool! Glad to hear that the Editor is now teaching some of what she has learned.
Alas! I don’t think autumn will help too much. The lower temperatures will help, of course, but until we get a lot of rain, everything will remain in this highly flammable condition. Then it might take weeks of rain and some snow before the current fires are truly extinguished.
Ohh, that’s a good one too. Thanks for that.
Before coffee or at minimum a strong cup of tea, I more or less stagger around bumping into things and looking lost. “Ugg” is at the top of my list of words. If I feel eloquent before caffeine, oh, wait, there is NO eloquence before that first cup of caffeine. The Princess goes by the adage “I stumble into the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition.”
Oh, nice one. Tricorder.
Bankster: “But isn’t that your phone on your hip?”
Me: “No that’s my tricorder. Here, let me use it to analyze you.” Then I muck about with my phone and have it make some weird noises for a bit. Then
Me: “Uh oh!”
Bankster: “What?”
Me: “Bad news. The tricorder says that you have no functioning brain.”
Spuds. Bake them. Fry them. Add them to a stew. I seem to remember Sam Gamgee having some things to say about the myriad methods for preparing the humble potato.
DJSpo
Hi Pam,
Thanks for the good advice, and yes I’ll put another pair on order on Sunday. I doubt the local hardware will have them in stock, but wow, did the safety gear earn their keep that day, or what? I’d not known of chaps until fifteen years ago I went for a two day chainsaw course out in the forest with a very crusty forestry worker old timer. He casually dropped in that he’d never had an injury under his watchful gaze! Pam, he was a drill sergeant and stickler for safety and also how to use the machine so you don’t injure your back. A couple of times I slacked off on technique, and was quickly brought back into line… Everyone needs training from a drill sergeant every now and then, maybe! 😉 I’m sure you’ve encountered some folks like that?
I’m sure okra could be purchased, it’s just not a commonly found vegetable around these parts. Say, that’s a lot of ketchup, and would taste superb. Given it’s chickpeas, I’d smoosh in a slather of Tahini paste, but with the rice, veg and egg meal, we do add a splash of fish sauce, which is an Asian condiment, and quite tasty. Also a dash of rice wine vinegar – so good, and gives the dish an Asian flavour. Yum! The fish sauce may not quite meet the vegan standard, sorry, but it is good. You could swap in some sesame oil, instead. Also yum!
Ah, a vinegar mix. Very good. Did I mention that the pickled cucumbers have lasted way longer than the fortnight everyone was freaking out about, although we employed some tricks – like white vinegar and baking paper.
Oh yes, it most certainly does. Pam, I’ll have to reach deep down into my memory to recall what was really good about my crazy grandmother’s (the other much nicer grandmother was a far better cook by the way) trifle. Hmm, turns out it is a dish of Scottish origins, so no wonder it’s in the blood. The traditional version is like a Scottish tiramisu without the coffee. I note that recipes use sherry, but I’d swap that out for the nicer tasting brandy. Hmm. We can do this… 🙂
I’ve not seen that, and have always staked up lodged corn. But then you did get a lot of rain recently. Beats me how they did that, but I have heard of large fallen trees righting themselves – sometimes to awful consequences and is something to keep in mind. Warning, I’m not mucking around about this: 12yo Queensland boy was crushed under fallen tree that sprang upright after severe storm. I’m only including a link in case you believe that I’m pulling your leg. Sadly, that’s not the case.
I treat trees with the utmost respect.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
That’s a bit eerie about the arsonist, and it is known that they often watch to see the results of their actions. Hmm. I got that beauty and terror idea from a book I read of oral histories from the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfire around these parts. Many people chucked in the thought that it was utterly terrifying and yet there was a weird sort of beauty when viewed from a safe distance. I get that.
Some folks are not safe to be allowed to roam around unmonitored, for that sort of thing can be a bit compulsive from what I’ve read. Oh well, we’re only ever as good as the weakest link.
Hehe! Yup, we mine rocks, and have to deal with the slag by-products AKA upside down tree stumps. Me tired tonight. I burned off about four of those monsters today and finished up around 8pm (just poking the fire in so that it burns fully before the rain hits tomorrow night).
Exactly about the safety gear. I rode a motorcycle for about a decade, and always wore full leathers, even in 104’F+ temperatures. It’s not nice, but having surgeons scrape gravel out of your cheese grated skin is probably worse. I used the damaged chaps today, but will get an order in for a new pair over the next two days. I’m sure with your outdoor activities, your safety gear has earned its keep at least once over the years?
I’m 100% with you about the windows and fresh air, and the same thing happens here over summer. A bit over half a year ago here was feral with fire activity and smoky skies – which is why this winter is probably crazy wet. Between Sunday and Thursday, we might get three inches of rain. It’s already wet out there. Oh well.
People don’t get it, what it means to experience the aftermath of a big fire. Nope. Down here, things are different, and if you left, you can’t get back in until they give the OK. A person staying, has to be well provisioned.
Yikes! Hope the wind didn’t turn out to be too bad, and that the fires stayed contained. I’m thinking of you and your family. Stay safe.
DJ, Ollie is like that with me too. The Editor has two Kelpies to deal with, although Dame Plum hangs with me as well, and sits on the fence so to speak. She’s the smartest dog of the three, so fair enough. The two girls got a smack today, they were initially play fighting, then it got serious. We’re now stomping that behaviour out.
The snow will put the fires out. May it arrive early this year for you. There’s not been much in the way of snow in the alpine country down here this season, but that may change on Sunday.
I so hear you about that with the caffeine in the wee hours, for otherwise, the mornings are rarely clear.
Like it, but I have to be super nice to the banksters today. Some idiot in your country began using my credit card number today. The first I knew about it was a text message from the bank – an unknown mobile number – saying there was an international transaction and is it OK with a demand for a yes / no response. Freaked out, then the Editor went into the bank, cancelled the card, disputed the transaction, and all was good. Turns out they use arty-fish-al stuff to produce credit card random numbers, and it’s a nightmare for the banksters. Problems are best nipped in the bud, and that was the case today. We dropped everything and dealt with that matter. How other more careless folk survive these tech onslaughts is a real mystery.
🙂 He’d know about the humble spud. My favourite is baked, no boiled! Argggggghhhhhh! (Thrown high into the air by the bridge troll)
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Funnily enough, I was talking to someone about this very matter on Wednesday. The last time the state goobers were in so much debt (the same political party as today, just sayin’), the replacement pollies had to sell off assets and shut down large chunks of the goobermint (being super young and hardly worth the pay, I was included in that redundancy era). I’m really not sure what is left to sell now to be honest. The current state goobers are in something like AU$190bn debt and historically it’s all grown fairly recently. Takes a lot of taxes to pay for that. Fifteen years ago, their debt was negligible. Oh well, maybe they’re hoping for a federal bailout, and that might happen.
Interesting! A bare bones policy down here would cover the injury and the other parties damage, and probably be twice as expensive as what you’re paying. Hehe! Lewis, there’s probably a good reason that your health care system is so complicated to navigate. It’d be a function of the system I reckon. It baffles me that getting sick in your country might be an economically terminal experience. Anyway, my preference is to dodge that system, if I can. The old timers used to say: “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away!”, like it is a bad thing to have to go and see the medical practitioner.
It is a habit, and I’d not thought of things that way, but yes. As individuals we can do things the expensive way, and blow a lot of mad cash, or we can b a bit more considered and think realistically about the return on that outlay. Of course not every spend is an investment, but the old adage (or is it fairly new?) about ‘sparking joy’, applies in this realm equally. And then there are new chainsaw chaps – an absolute necessity. 🙂
Alright, that book ‘Monster of a Land’ hits hard. I’m deeply impressed with the concept. Dude, the days of cheap books are now over. Landed, that paperback is $50 cheapest and more easily nabbed at $60. What the heck has just happened? This is frightening, we used to pay $20 for a book. Authors do it tough, but then I don’t get paid to write either. My brain has just exploded! Hehe!
The divide between travellers and what they’d call perms, short for ‘permanent’ in caravan parks was a thing when we drove around this big old continent. It was interesting to say the least, and some folks retired to vans with annexes at such places. Often there was little security for the spot and if the management of the park changed, then the retirees could be turfed out. It’s a pretty brutal system and sometimes the local councils about the country own and run the sites. You’d imagine they’d be better, more humane somehow, but they seem much the same as the privately owned places. Often I’m guessing their interest is in improving the area.
The van life folks are beginning to experience big fines and move-on orders in some parts of the country. If they’re from overseas, what do they care about fines. If they’re homeless, it’ll be something of an escalating series of crises.
Agreed, pirate life is one thing, an actual peg leg is entirely different. I don’t have a safety net, so have to be super careful, which is why I wear the safety gear, always. Still, things can go wrong.
Did more of the forest clean up today, and had a big bonfire. Finished up really late tonight as I had to go back down and push in the fire and we had enchilada’s for dinner, and I make the veg mixture and haven’t disclosed my cooking secrets to the Editor, who does the assembly and baking of the tasty treats. Yum! We had to do backups for the businesses data, and there was one bit of work I couldn’t get out of.
And earlier today we had a bankster drama. Some miscreants in your country had put a charge on my credit card. I’ve now learned how to switch off international transactions. The card was cancelled and the transaction is disputed, so we’ll not suffer any loss, but what a time eater. The folks at the local branch were super helpful and sorted the mess out.
Oh yeah, clean up. Burnt off a few more of those upside down tree stumps, I’d discovered a mass of them which had been previously over looked. At least this lot were somewhat rotted and far easier to cut up. Feels good to neaten up the place.
What a fascinating film, and I loved the plot. Agreed, it sounds like a great movie. Thanks for mentioning it. These things have happened, and probably will again. Yup.
Ooo, 90’F is starting to get a bit toasty don’t you reckon? Have you considered asking for a refund? Hehe! On a serious note, how are you and H holding up in the heat? It was 52’F today and just lovely and calm. Tomorrow will be warmer, but windier, then: Severe wintry weather to hit southern Australia later this week. On that first image, I seem to be in a ‘red zone’. Is this nice? Perhaps I should be requesting a refund… It’s a lot of rain in the forecast at this location.
Hmm. I prune the tomatoes, but there are usually two horizontal branches at each point, and you have to take off the correct one. And truly I forget which is which. I reckon your summer has been too cool for good tomato fruit set. It happens. What’s your thoughts about that?
Ha! I heard that Clem was doing something in the alleyway, just prior to leaving the scene in the library.
Sounds good to me with the blueberries, and good soils and just the right amount of water tends to produce large berries. Have you noticed any difference in the taste between the different purchases?
Hehe! I’m going out on a limb here, but was the counter colour blue, perchance? :-)They’ll get there, but drip filter coffee is not for I. It’s true, I’m a coffee snob and am proud of it!
Oh yeah, I’d forgotten that bit about the vampires. Well, the faeries are usually nice folks as long as you don’t ask anything of them, the price is way too high. Best to have your nose tweaked by the elder ones, then move on and ignore their jibes. The cheeky scamps.
The trailer was nuts, and so much fun. Intense.
Cheers
Chris
@DJ
So glad to hear that you and yours are safe. Even though I’ve been MIA here I think of you all often so when I heard about the fires in Spokane I checked in here to see if you were OK. About 3 weeks ago we had a tiny taste of what you’re going through here as we had quite heavy smoke from fires in Canada quite a distance away.
Margaret
Hi Chris,
Since I’m here thought I’d give a quick update. Not too much new really. My new garden space isn’t going to work out because as I expected it doesn’t receive enough sun. It was worth a try. I’m getting a few beans but not enough to make it worth the effort. Luckily there’s many places here to get reasonable produce and I still grow greens in pots out of reach of the rabbits. Think I’ve found a couple of sunny spots that aren’t out in the hinterlands to try a few things next year. Still getting a good number of raspberries and tomatoes though and have only a few more pounds of elderberries to pick for this years batch of elderberry mead.
Doug’s bees are doing great this year. He had four out of five hives make it through the winter this year – the best since he started beekeeping. The four pigs and two batches of meat chickens have kept him busy.
My sister, Kathleen, continues her very slowdecline and rarely gets out anymore. Hospice helps with pain management though. My two sisters and I visit her weekly.
Marty’s doing fine. He does continue to fall mostly because he’s clumsy, moves too fast with his walker and doesn’t watch where he’s going. The procedure he had early this spring to repair the 3 stress fractures in a vertebra seems to have worked. My nephew, who’s been visiting his parents over much of the summer got Marty out fishing a couple of times as well.
Spring and summer have fluctuated between too much rain and not enough. Overall though we’ve replenished much of the moisture we lost the last five years.
I use cash most of the time myself. It amazes me how many people don’t carry any and have no problem paying the extra 3% fee that is becoming more and more common especially at restaurants. Restaurants used to post the fact they were charging a fee but now most leave it up to the customer to ask or have it in small print somewhere on the menu.
Margaret
Yo, Our current US debt is 31 trillion. There are a few crazed economists, out there, who think this is a good thing. Or, at least, nothing to worry about.
Well, I’ve been with my insurance company, for decades. Never had a ticket, or accident. (We won’t talk about the deer…). I also carry a rental policy, with the same company, so, get a small additional discount, due to that.
Yes, the price of books is completely out of hand. Why I think long and hard about buying something. And, I usually wait for a bit, if it’s something new. Which also gives a bit of time for my book lust, to perhaps, cool off. 🙂 And time for used copies to appear. I often go for used, but read the descriptions, carefully.
A lot of publishing in the US is controlled by 5 multinational corporations. Who have investors to satisfy.
Trailer parks, here, run from well managed, to abysmal. And, often, are sold out from under the tenants. Although, there’s a movement afoot … I was reading about some organization that helps tenants actually buy their parks. Early days, yet, but it does happen.
Yes, now that being homeless has been declared illegal, in parts of the US, fines can just snowball. Of course, a lot of our prisons are now privately owned … Same with a lot of those illegal immigrant detention centers.
Your dinner sounds quit tasty. I didn’t have any rice on hand, but had a tin of beef chili. I tossed in some garlic, corn and tomatoes, and called it good.
That’s the pits about your credit card. All turned out well, but what a hassle.
Good going on the clean up. Did more rocks show up?
Our high yesterday was 90F (32.22C). Our overnight low was 54F (12.22C). Our forecast high for today is 86F. For the next week, it will be in the low 80s, with an onshore flow. We’re off the heat advisory. Looks like you’re in for some weather. Perhaps, a lot of wind.
That was a great movie. And, I see it’s available on U-Tub. Just about all the incidents in the film, did happen along the Oregon Trail. And, it has one of my favorite actresses, Marjorie Main. She plays a New England sea captains wife, who lost her husband and all her sons, when their ship went down. Needs a new start.
She was a really versatile actress. She could do humor, and also evilly evil … and everything in-between. I couldn’t find it, but in one movie, set in a women’s prison, she plays the evil prison matron. Ends up stabbed in the cafeteria, with a fork 🙂 .
Maybe I just need to not prune the tomatoes, quit so severely. But, I’m still getting quit a few.
Maybe Clem was in the alley, just cause he needed a little “me” time. 🙂 Or, stepped out for a ciggie.
I really can’t detect much difference between the different sources of the blueberries. Though the berries from the fruit stand are a bit “dirtier.” More stems, more dried blossom ends. But not overwhelmingly so. LOL. The most exciting part is when I’m getting the frozen berries, off the trays and into bags. I always seem to end up chasing a frozen berry, around the kitchen.
In my dream, it was different shades of blue and gray, with some white for relief. Not going to happen, but it sure looked pretty! 🙂
I thought a bit about the collection of painted eyes. To peruse one or two at a time would be interesting. But taken as a whole, sort of overwhelming. Often, collections are like that.
We got our food box, day before yesterday. But, as you know, I’m surrounded by morons, right? About noon, two hysterical inmates showed up with my food box. Apparently, they had been delivered very early, and … left outside. So there they sat, for three or four hours. And, it occurred to no one that that was perhaps odd, and something should be done…
I pitched a pound of what had been frozen ground beef. Also, a lot of stuff from that coffee company, which I pitch anyway. 6 or so individual sandwiches and four small trays of fruit / cheese / boiled eggs.
I kept the dozen eggs, as, due to the melting beef, the carton was still cool to the touch. No produce, again. So what else was there? A two pound brick of that cheese that won’t melt, a pound of butter, a half gallon of apple cherry drink. Two one pound boxes of spaghetti pasta, 2 boxes of cereal, and two quarts of shelf stable milk. Four bottles of old peoples nutritional drink and a jar of peanut butter.
Tins: Two each of unsweetened coconut milk, beef chili, 12 oz large tin of tuna, unsweetened applesauce, diced tomatoes, peas, and carrots. One tin each of 12 oz. chicken, pears, black. beans, and green beans. There was also a nice cloth bag, with a booklet from the “Long Term Care Foundation.” I ought to take a look at that. Affordable long term care of oldsters is practically non-existent in this country.
So it was an ok food box, but a lot of the “usual suspects” were missing. Usually they go long on beans, both tinned and dried. No extra “good” cheese, this time. And, as I mentioned, still no produce or fruit. Lew
@ Margaret,
Thanks! Nice to hear from you. I heard that the smoke from Canada was thick in your area. Glad you survived it.
DJSpo
Chris,
One stanza from Havamal in the Poetic Edda starts with “A bonny fire is a blessing to man”. So yes, fire can be beautiful and good. Within limits. Outside those limits, it is no longer a “bonny fire” methinks. Not a blessing.
Question: Sensei, what must I do to become enlightened?
Answer: Mine rocks and burn off tree stumps.
Question #2: Sensei, I have become enlightened. Now what do I do?
Answer # 2: Mine rocks and burn off tree stumps.
Hmmmm, safety gear. Boots with steel toes? Yup, the leather has some gashes but I have all of my toes intact. Helmet when kayaking in whitewater? Check, but I never crashed into any rocks when upside down in the water. Helmet when Downhill skiing? Yup. No concussions from falling on hardened icy snow, unlike my friend who fell on an icy slope while wearing a helmet and was stunned anyhow. Protective eyewear? Yup, both eyes are in place, although several pairs of goggles got dinged. Safety equipment is good.
Zounds, three more inches of rain expected in about a week? Wow. I’d like to see even three DROPS of rain, and that right soon. What, pray tell, is this multiple “inches of rain” in mere days that you are talking about? We have gotten 2.55 inches in the past 4 and a half months. Instead of rain, the humidity was an amazing 10% this afternoon.
I was chatting with a good friend who had to evacuate from the local fires. He and his wife are staying with their son. Their house is intact and a goodly distance from the fires. Anyhow, we got to discussing the large number of people who don’t understand why the evacuation areas are still in place. We agreed that it is a lack of experience combined with a lack of common sense.
If you drive your car out of the evacuation zone, they are not allowing your car back in and the authorities are successful with this. And they are trying to dissuade foot traffic also, but with less success.
So far, not a lot of problems due to the wind for the local fires or for the large existing fires in the north central part of the state. There is a new and rapidly growing fire south of here and south of the Snake River near the hamlet of Starbuck, Washington. Wheat fields, sagebrush, etc in that area.
Ouch, it is easy for play fighting to turn into the real thing with dogs. I’ve seen that a time or two with other people’s dogs. A neighbor’s dog got too aggressive while playing with the Dame a few months ago. Fortunately, they were both on their leads. We got good control of the situation before the Dame could react. She was nearing “Feral Wolf Mode”, which she had never done before when playing with other dogs.
Interestingly, there is one dog that walks by here a few times per week. An Akita. The Akita and Avalanche do NOT like one another. Avalanche senses the Akita and her hackles are up and she is in full snarl mode. The Akita growls and raises its hackles. Akita’s human and I avoid one another when we are out walking the dogs. Those two dogs meeting up could turn nasty quickly. That is the only dog Avalanche really doesn’t like.
Today started strange. The Princess heard at 4 a.m. that a beloved Native basket weaver had died. One of the favorite teachers of the Princess. So it was pack her up, make coffee and tea for the road, then off she went to pick up her brother and take him to the first of the services near Toppenish. I fell asleep for a bit, then had a large mug of strong tea before running errands with the Dame before it got hot. Then the large daily mug of coffee after returning home.
Stayed indoors after that. 98F, 10% humidity, smoky. Although the wind has improved the air quality from “Unhealthy” to the low range of “Unhealthy for Sensitive People”. Or as I call it, the air quality is now nearly in the “Visible, smelly, yet tolerable” phase. 😉
That sucks so bad about your credit card. Good thing the bank caught it and contacted you. Things then worked as they should, but it is still a big pain in the whatsis and rather scary. Well, very scary.
Troll Question: What’s your favorite potato?
Answer: Baked. No boiled! Aaaaggghhh!
Moral: Only give one answer. Or, in Highlander movie terms, “There can be only one”.
For the record, the Princess has an absolute favorite potato to which she claims that nothing comes close. DJ’s fried spuds. She says they have exactly the perfect amount of crunch to them. Who am I to argue with the Princess?
DJSpo
@DJ, I’m glad that you and yours, and your neighbors and friends, weren’t affected by the recent fire, except for the smoke in the air. Your homemade air filtering system is cool as!
I hope that your good situation holds through the next bout of heat and wind and for the weeks remaining of wildfire risk.
Hi Chris,
I ended up getting a very cheap (under $50 because it was a discontinued model) smarty-pants phone in late April when my old flip phone suddenly lost its ability to hold a charge more than 24 hours and a new battery didn’t fix the issue. The new phone has its advantages: when my siblings do a group text session on a holiday, I can respond to it as well as read it. The flip phone let me read group texts but wasn’t programmed to allow me to respond to them. The other advantage is that it has a data plan, so it has GPS on it and I can read and if need be respond to emails when I’m out and about. However, I don’t like its large size; it’s uncomfortable to hold for long during actual phone conversations. But I’d have to pay way too much to get one of the smaller sized fruit-flavored smarty-pants phones, so I’ll live with the awkward-sized but cheap tasteless version.
We had a presidential alert once on the US network, when I still had the flip phone. It was advertised ahead of time, so I turned off the phone before the alert and turned it back on after it was over.
Around here the cell phone alerts sound off for tornado warnings and also for what are called Amber Alerts (missing, potentially kidnapped children) and Silver Alerts (elderly folks who wandered off and can’t be found). They might also sound off for a flash flood warning, but so far there hasn’t been one in this area.
It has been a wet summer, with high humidity most of the time that it isn’t raining. A couple of weeks ago we experienced the worst combination of heat and humidity so far in my life. The high was in the upper 90sF but the dew point was 80F, creating a heat index of nearly 120F. We had the house AC set to 80F – when I went outside, my glasses fogged over! That level of heat and humidity was beyond my ability to tolerate; if the citrus trees in containers hadn’t needed watering, I would have stayed inside all day. Luckily, a few days later the heat-humidity wave broke and it got cool enough to turn off the AC for awhile and to do the little lawn mowing that I do to keep the property code enforcers off our backs.
No apples this year: a second wet and humid spring and summer has led all three trees to lose their leaves early again this year. I’m beginning to wonder if they are near the end of their lives. It would be consistent with the 25ish year life span of the varieties I bought, as they are about 23 years old. We’ll see what happens over the next couple of years. Meanwhile, the more reliable persimmon and pawpaw trees look much better, but I think the freeze in March froze a lot of the flowerbuds, because they don’t have much fruit on them. Harvest time for whatever is there will begin later this month.
Claire
Hi Claire,
Hope you like the trees in the lead photo? And more importantly, and for my long term safety, I hope they like me! 🙂 I’ve been nice to them, far out!
Ook! Sorry to say that there are some dodgy repairers out there, and batteries are a mature technology, and how would you know if they swapped in a new or used replacement battery? I wouldn’t, but have been on the wrong end of such arrangements and now lack trust and do my own repairs, which isn’t always easy. There are also major qualitative differences with batteries, I’m not mucking around. On the other hand, the components begin breaking down in the devices the day they were made, even if not used. A sad state of affairs. I’d often interpreted light bulb life-spans as so many hours in use, but no, apparently it is so many hours since the point of manufacture – those being very different things. Thus the initial ook! 🙂 Tomorrow being very wet will mean a day in the shed repairing and maintaining machines.
Respect to you for obtaining an older model used phone, and that’s exactly what the old timers had in mind when they said: re-use; repair; and only then recycle. Like your style, and it pained me deeply to have to upgrade from a perfectly working phone because the goobermints software no longer operated on the old phone operating system. But then I didn’t want the thing in the first place. Oh well.
Agreed some of the new functionality with this device stuff is pretty handy. 🙂 I like the ‘Do Not Distrub’ function and use it all of the time, which is why the alerts bothered me. Ah, the dreaded fruit company, yup. The device Sandra and I use was branded by the CAT company, them that also make big industrial machines. Like yours, it’s a brick, but an indestructible brick and can run for days without charging and be dropped onto concrete from six foot without damage. Let’s just say that it’s not fashionable, but does the job at a quarter of the price of fruit stuff. A person has to be aware of where their mad cash gets used to support organisations. As you are.
Well done to you with turning the machine off, I’d not really thought that far ahead to the implications, thus my surprise at the alert outcome. Ah, the state emergency service has an application which you can install, which presumably covers such incidents, but it’s an opt-in system. I don’t necessarily want the stimulation that comes with being prodded constantly by a device. As a teenager I was addicted to video games for a while as way to err, is wig-out on realities the correct description? Dunno, but those devices play on the same sort of receptors, and let’s just say that I’m wary.
And oh poop! The goobermint has just locked down the lower coastal part of the state with poultry due to the latest bird-flu outbreak. I may have to begin breeding chickens, but how much time does any one person actually have?
Whoa! Claire, I feel for you, the combination of high heat and extreme humidity is brutal. I’ve been to the tropics and life slows down as a result. Yup! It’s hard, and glad that the wicked combination has settled down for a bit. The weather here tomorrow will be feral due to a significant Antarctic storm. Brr! Very wet. I fear too much rainfall.
Save us all from the code enforcers, and we hates them for ever! 🙂 But must do their bidding when in Rome.
Ah, I see. Much depends with lifespan upon the root stock used with your apple trees. Sad. I’ve not known apples to not fruit, even in the worst conditions, they’re my safety net fruit when all else fails. The epic hail storm in February this year wiped out half of the seasons produce, so I hear you about the climate and risks. Took out the persimmons too.
Growing produce is a chancy proposition at best, and I dunno, all we can do is plant a huge diversity and hope for some produce at least. The silly almond trees were fooled by the early heat a week or two back and decided to produce blossoms. Hmm. It won’t end well you know! 😉
Cheers
Chris
Hi Margaret,
Lovely to hear from you, and if I may, perfect placement of a garden, is very much of a similar problem to perfect placement of solar panels, in that it is rarely easy to achieve that wonderful state of perfection! 😉 Like your experience, shading is an issue here as well, compounded with tall trees and by being on the cooler southerly side (your northerly facing) slopes of the mountain range.
Sometimes heading over to the northern side of the range is like visiting a different country. They can, and have historically done grains over there. It’s nicer for growing such plants, but there are winds and excessive sunshine, drying the soil out etc. Every locale has it’s pluses and minuses and shadier gardens are good for cool climate crops, depending. Speaking with locals, berries are a breeze here (if the birds keep off them), whilst they’re harder to grow in those sunnier environments. In the summer months my water usage is very low, you’d be surprised just how minimal. But on the other side of the range, they’d burn through the water if the rains failed.
Exactly, it is worth trying stuff out. And if I may, I’ve learned far more from failures, than immediate successes. This talk of rabbits and munching upon the produce is a major down under problem. Doug may have his work cut out for him there… 🙂
Those are all lovely crops, and how good is elderberry wine / mead? We use the flowers here rather than the berries and mix into a sugar wine, although I reckon it would produce a similar-ish tasting product. The local birds are feral for elderberries, and I grow lots of them as a super hardy decoy plant. But yes, so good.
Respect to Doug! That is a vast achievement. I’m genuinely impressed. And your bees would have been off to an early start in the season. And your farm critters would have a delightful life, and one bad day.
It’s nice that you all can spend time with Kathleen, and that she is being cared for at this time.
If I may add, and this is pure speculation, I’m wondering if the penchant for current diet fads may result in more people going through what your sister is experiencing. I’m a bit old school and would prefer if people had some bodily reserves regardless of expectations and societal pressure.
Go Marty! And well, the clumsy bit would be hard wired, sorry to say. We’ve discussed this before, but falling when there are a few years under one’s belt, is not good. Glad to hear that his stress fractures were attended to, oh my! But he’d have been more chuffed with the fishing expedition, which correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that a lately developed interest of your brother’s?
Nice that the ground water is replenishing, and that would be especially good for the local bird populations. They do it tough in super dry years – as you would have seen with the bluebirds.
Hehe! The same is true here, and I’ve seen stuck lines of people in shops where nobody has any cash. I dump the cash and leave the minor change and walk out the door with the stuff. It needn’t be this way, but then a lot of folks are very trusting with systems. The credit card charges, and weekend surcharges are very common nowadays down here. It happens, and small business can’t absorb every blood sucking parasite that wants to add on a fee to every transaction. They already do it pretty tough.
Cheers
Chris
Hi DJ,
Well, yeah, and much depends on what is meant by a ‘bonny fire’. The indigenous folks used fire in this landscape for tens of millennia, and intimately knew its ways. Whereas in these more enlightened days, we’ve got little to no idea on the subject and are suffering the consequences. One way of looking at it, is that fire is a good tool, and a bad master. So it could be a blessing, but is more often now a nightmare.
Hehe! Thanks for the laughs, and yes, rocks are the payment for the forest clean up services. Enlightenment, could also mean a 20 tonne excavator to do the work, but what a lot of mess the thing would create. Better to go slowly and respectfully around the forest giants.
Far out, I’d not considered a head / rock interaction whilst underwater in rapids. Hmm, that has given me a new found respect for the activity. A few months ago, someone had to have their leg amputated whilst in the water, in order to extricate them from the rocks. Each day we survive unscathed, is an amazing achievement don’t you reckon?
Hey, plenty of people have been killed due to skiing concussion incidents. Have to laugh, the beginner to medium slopes scared me long ago when I decided to go and find out what it was all about! Hehe! Oh well. By the way, bought a new pair of chaps today. Safety gear is a wise investment, and eyes are irreplaceable.
The forecast is suggesting rain all day tomorrow, but the front will hit in the evening. My friend, you are doing it super tough this summer, and I do hope that this is not a longer term trend for your wider area? Is your city on water rations yet, or is it purely voluntary still? Man, I’ve had some eight week summer periods when under 10mm of rain falls and plenty of 40’C days, and it’s brutal, but the rains do return. Hope yours do soon.
The average rainfall for your area in an average year (whatever that means) is not really enough to support super lush plant communities. I respect your garden adaptations and was wondering if you’d learned much from observing the plants in these extreme conditions. I was saying in another comment tonight that I learn more from failures, than successes.
People can be clueless because it is the easier path, but the outrage when dreams shatter against the rocky shores of reality are a bit rich for my tastes. Common sense is often the lower cost and less appealing journey! Or at least that is my opinion in the matter.
Ah, no car or foot traffic in these closed off areas after a fire down here, but agreed that would take a lot of resources to enforce in an urban area. In the bush a person going across country would experience considerable risk. Stepping into a peat fire for one example, would be very nasty. And you just can’t see the things.
Good to hear that the fires have settled down somewhat, and fingers crossed that the conditions ease.
Yikes, the Dame in full fight mode would be something else, as would the big dog Ollie. Large canines require a lot more care and attention, as you’d know. Man, I’m trying hard now to squash the play fighting between the two Kelpies, for that reason – it escalates, and can end up like what you wrote. I’m the boss, not those two idiots… Dogs! 🙂
In a cage fight, I’d put my money on the Husky over the Akita any day, but yeah best if they avoid each other. Some dogs have bad attitudes, and hey, that can be a top down human thing, just sayin’. But then there was that weird ‘Crunchy Beagle’ story from maybe ten years ago. The old boss fluff really annoyed that dog, and despite advanced age and solid bout of arthritis, it trucked no nonsense from my dog. She brought the response onto herself.
Sorry to hear of the loss of your lady’s well loved teacher, and may she now rest after her life’s endeavours. All we can but hope to do in the footsteps of those greater than us, is our best to carry the load passed onwards. Please extend my sympathy.
On a more practical note, is the sun even up at 4am? I hear you about the strong tea and then later coffee. Way too early for breakfast, which just wouldn’t sit right, would it?
Man, that’s an awful combination of conditions. Tolerable, as you noted, is a highly variable descriptive!
Yeah, the bankster thing was weird, and could have rapidly escalated based on what they were saying.
Hehe! I’ll keep your bridge troll advice in mind, and they’re certainly pesky folks to deal with. What you want to hear are the magic words: “Go on then!” I liked that movie, a lot. It was fun.
Well done for scoring the favourite spud variety. Respect, and such things form the basis of a long and happy union!
Took today off any and all work. Yay for a much needed break!
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Oh no! The debt pile is much worse. A whole bunch more than that number you mentioned, and it’s going up an extra one trillion, every three months. That is a very impressive achievement, and candidly speaking, I’m amazed that the system works at all. You have to admit, it’s astoundingly awesome to have gotten this far? I’d never guessed at such resilience to realities, but I was wrong.
Oh yeah don’t mention the deer, I remember that incident, which you eventually had fixed up. I dunno about that issue you mentioned though, because loyalty doesn’t seem to be rewarded down under when dealing with such large companies. They’re a bit weird like that, and I believe are often on the hunt for new customers, instead of looking after the existing lot. I’m sure someone has investigated that strategy, but it baffles me. It kind of looks like each transaction is treated as an entirely new interaction.
Hang on a second, it wasn’t all that long ago that books were around the $20 mark. This hovering around the $50 mark is quite astounding to me, but then I had been dodging the book recommendations here for economic reasons for a while now. Oh, holy carp! This price change is much wider than I’d initially realised. There has been flow-on effects into the second hand market.
You’re right, the concentration of ownership turned out to not be all that crash hot of an idea. I’ll bet your library budget has been hit pretty hard by this unexpected turn of events. Although I would add that I’m not such a fan of the book churn rate as over supply is not good for anyone in the industry.
That movement to purchase the caravan parks by the tenants, is not a bad idea at all. Although land prices being what they are, it’d be an expensive proposition and you’d hope alternative uses for the land didn’t jack-up the price.
It is so weird that there is no low cost living option on offer. I really thought long and hard on this subject way back in the day before the 2008 debacle, and the best option I could figure out was decamping to a place where there are few if any services. Those things being accompanied by bills. Dunno, the cost of providing services has been extraordinary, and fingers crossed that the systems continue to function properly into the future. It’s hard to know what would have been the better path. And starlink dude in his van, might be doing OK too – if he continues to avoid patterns.
Well, yeah, private facilities does tend to incentivise getting more people into them – for fun and profit motives. There’s probably an inherent conflict of interest built into that arrangement.
Gourmet chili mix with secret additives (although you did name them! 🙂 ) sounds pretty tasty to me too. Had home made veg pizza for dinner, and it was pretty good. Actually we ditched any and all work today and had a break. Picked up a pair of replacement chainsaw chaps at the nearby dealer, and wondered about the wisdom of repairing the torn ones. Might, but then, might not, depends – it’s safety gear and probably should be in tip-top condition. We’ve got repair patches for the material, but I really don’t know about that.
Had a gourmet pie too, which we hadn’t done for a while. Quite nice and they had a sunny garden with which to consume it. The breeze was cool, but the sun had some early spring feeling warmth – which won’t be the case tomorrow. An Antarctic blast is expected. Oh well, good with the bad and other stuff about life, or something like that! It was really nice to have a break from work.
The banksters were pretty good about the situation and, it’s becoming rather common nowadays. I don’t know how the merchant processed the transaction without all of the correct numbers, but presumably, the hackers have a system which just keeps trying. I run software here on this interweb site which just blocks people (cough, cough, arty-fish-al nuisances) from hitting the website too quickly in a repetitive way. They could implement that, for sure.
Yup, a whole bunch more rocks. As we provide services to the forest, the ground barfs up more rocks. It’s an ideal arrangement. 🙂
Glad to read that you’re now past the heat advisory menace. And hope that the fire conditions east of you ease off a bit. And yes, a lot of severe wind is in store for my future. Not a day to be working under tall trees.
I’d not considered watching the film on utoob. Thanks for letting me know about that. It’s sounds good, and the trail was clearly not for everyone. A new start in those harrowing circumstances, is probably a good idea. A person can dwell in the past, until they are living in that time which is a trap for the unwary. Grief is important to process properly though, and it takes wildly different paths for all of us.
That’s the problem with some inmates of long duration, they may have nothing further to lose. Sun Tzu would suggest to tread warily around such folks.
Ha! Clem should have been more careful to have not walked through the crime scene beforehand, and been more diligent in disposing of his ciggie! He found out the hard way that casual littering can have serious consequences, and that DNA testing is a thing. Anyway, I heard Colonel Mustard has expensive tastes which fail to accord with his income, but please don’t tell anyone! 😉
Ha! Your blueberries clearly have a life of their own, and I’m surprised that H is not assisting with any kitchen duties. Although dogs and blueberries might not be the same as H and her reaction to say, beef jerky.
I appreciate the desire for the collection, but all those inanimate eyes looking forth would mildly unsettle me. Like those paintings where the subject appears to follow your movements. Perhaps I’m being overly sensitive. Speaking of the revenge of analogue: New generation of players revives north Queensland’s pinball scene. It’s the social aspect which creates the pull to that scene I reckon.
You could suggest the colour combinations and see what happens? Although you’d hope the Club management didn’t respond by hand you a paintbrush and tell you to knock yourself out! Stranger things have happened they tell me.
Oh no, Not outside in that weather? But yes, apparently so. Well, it all depends on who does the heavy lifting and organising of distribution of boxes. Not everyone has a natural sense of curiosity, at least that is my observation on our species.
Wise to turf that stuff, the beef was probably spoiled, and I’m getting vibes of English food in colonial India back in the day. Super hot sauces were sometimes needed to make the unpalatable, palatable. The eggs at least have the decency to be sealed, although much depends on whether they’ve been washed as that reduces their longevity. By the way, if it’s still a block, then the facts indeed suggest that the cheese doesn’t melt.
What is this affordable thing you speak of? 🙂 I hear you!
Given what happened with the boxes, it was probably for the best that there was no produce in there. Still, good to obtain some and consume it. Food deserts are a real thing, sad to say.
Cheers
Chris
Yo, Chris – The US National Debt was zero … in 1835-36. 🙂
Not all that flush. I think they knock off $8 on my auto insurance, as I also carry renters insurance. I’m sure they make it up, somewhere else.
I wonder if the second hand book business, is getting pricey, due to flow on from the general abysmal economy? Just the general, “cost of doing business.” As far as buying books on-line, I’m sure the shipping costs are killing them. A lot of “free shipping,” but, again, they make it up somewhere else. I’ve noticed a trend in the second hand bookstore business. A lot of them don’t buy books, anymore. But will gladly accept donations! 🙂
My chili also had a splash of hot sauce and catsup. No cheese on top, but dollops of plane, non-fat yoghurt. Partly scooped up with broken up tostadas. You need those gourmet pies. Something substantial on your tummy, for all that mucking about in the forest.
Our high yesterday was 86F (30C). Our overnight low was 54F (12.22C). Our forecast high for today is 82F. The smoke is gone. Sounds like you’re in for a bit of weather.
I see there’s a new movie out about Anthony Bourdain. A sort of bio-pic. But mostly from “Kitchen Confidential,” and his first year in the food biz. Sounds pretty good.
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/07/nx-s1-5922435/tony-movie-anthony-bourdain
H assist with the blueberries? Surely you jest. She’d rather nap, than watch me mucking about with blueberries. Two more batches to go, and the flats will be done. I might get out this afternoon, and check out the state of our bushes, here at the Institution.
That was an interesting story about your pinball wizards. At least, they can’t play with a dumb phone in hand. 🙂 I wonder if there’s a bit of a dating scene?
I should have mentioned a couple of things, in Mr. Greer’s last week’s post. The state of modern toilets. And, I was thinking about how the … quality of what we get in our commodities box, has gone down over the last five years. Every once in awhile, I think of something we used to get, regularly, that hasn’t made an appearance in a long time. Such as, 5 pound bags of cane sugar, or, organic honey.
I saw an interesting article on snails, yesterday. It turns out they produce 5 kinds of slime, depending on the situation.
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/06/nx-s1-5920383/snail-slime-mucus-inspire-new-materials
I didn’t see any snails, last night. But one the night before. They come and go, going about their snail business. Lew
Chris:
The power went out yesterday, not for too long, and it gave us the chance to be sure if the generator was working (there were doubts). It was! Our internet went out at the same time and is still out, so I am on my phone. For some reason hotmail, which I mostly use for emails, is screwy, too. Ah, well, what would Mr. Greer say about it?That was a great post last week about retrovation.
It’s very hot and very humid. I don’t seem to be getting much done outside, though I did talk with a couple of neighbors today about when and what to plant for fall (soon!). They built a cold frame last fall which they love dearly. I keep wanting one, yet the stuff I plant in late summer usually overwinters okay without any protection. Maybe that garden site is better protected than I thought. Of course, a greenhouse(or two) is best . . .
Pam
Hi Pam,
A live test of machines is always a somewhat exciting experience! Will this beast of thing start, or not? I’ve got a can of something called: “Start Ya Bastard!”, and yes it does have an exclamation mark. Good for petrol engines, and what a fun name, says it all about the state of frustration a person arrived at before reaching for the spray can. 🙂
Great you’ve got the backup generator, and those things are worth their weight when the power goes out. They’ll power heaps more devices than a battery system.
You know what Mr Greer would say for sure! 🙂
By the way, I spent most of this rainy cold winters day down in the shed fixing and servicing the many machines we use around here. Nice to have spare parts too, but which one’s to hold is a mystery – which is an issue your son would also grapple with.
I tend to plant the winter / spring crops in March, which is your September, but winters are milder here, and alas time is running away. Have you made any firm plans?
If any plant survived your last winter glacial unscathed, I’d say you’re doing rather well. I find that the greenhouse merely extends the growing season at either end. In winter, there just isn’t that much sunshine, and they need that.
Cheers
Chris
Hi Lewis,
Oh you’re good, and totally correct. Respect! Of course, but I tend to see the debt matter as not dissimilar to a poker game. You just hope nobody calls your bluff! I note the land of stuff began unloading their treasury positions slowly about a decade ago so as to not lose their shirt, and the land of the rising sun was forced to begin doing that about a week ago which sort of increased your bond yields. Incidentally, they hold a lot more. And it created waves, not for the existing stuff, but more for the cost of the lot maturing later in the year. It’s a trust thing, and in poker…
The insuranceasitas down here tend to offer multi-policy discounts as well. Actually for the home and contents insurance, we shopped around last year (that scary bill arrives next month! Ook!) and the best quote was $10k, so we’ll stick with the current mob. I don’t think so with the quote, thus the continuing forest clean up work so as to reduce the overall risk. Sooner or later they’ll tell us to naff off, and I’ve had one of those nice friendly companies do exactly that many long years ago – just out of the blue. They’re not your mates, put it that way, so yeah, they’ll make it up, somewhere.
To me it looks as if the shipping costs have suddenly become more realistic. Like, I used to be able to get a brand new book delivered from the UK, by air freight, for free. How is that even possible? Now I’m observing that the freight costs are built into the price, even second hand, or the book is at a lower price with the freight separately disclosed. The outcome, is much the same. And between you and I, I’m really glad I bought the entire back catalogue of Jack Vance, and the other monster rando box collections of authors, hello Stephen King and Agatha Christie!
Which brings me to today’s story. You and I have been discussing barristers bookcases recently, and so we ordered a cheapie version so as to see how it all works and is put together. Candidly, it’s rubbish and might get burnt off, but I like the design elements and can simply rip that blindly using better quality materials, for much the same cost. The way the doors work is genius, and that mechanism would never have occurred to me. But the thing is so low quality that it embarrasses me that anyone would manufacture it. It should never be, like that creepy baby in the Twilight series. Just say no and maybe burn it with fire.
Yum! The plain yoghurt is a great idea and inspired us to chuck it into the enchilada mix – which if a person didn’t look too closely, is kind of the same recipe! 🙂
I know! Towards the end of the second day of forest clean up work, I could feel that the blood sugar levels were declining, and I was switching to the lower quality body energy. That’s what Anzac biscuits are for! As a young bloke I did middle distance running and know that swap over moment well. I suspect a lot of older folks hit that point too and then fall. It’s a moment to be wary of, yup, and eat properly.
86’F and 82’F sound so nice given I’m in the middle of an Antarctic outbreak of polar coldness and wetness. Today was horrid. I rugged up and headed down into the machinery shed and serviced and repaired most of the machines. It was very productive, and nice to then have a quick nap inside the warm house after lunch – which was soup and freshly baked bread, with lashings of jam and some home made peanut butter. Yum!
Had to order some more spare parts for the machines this evening, and I kind of learn what to keep as spares when things go wrong. But everything works at the moment, and that is a fine achievement. I quite enjoy the repair work, and may have missed my true calling there.
That is my kind of film, which doesn’t seem to be airing anywhere near here. It’s on the to-see list all the same. A sensei at the right time, with the right spirit, can save a lot of future drama.
Oh my goodness, the fluffs would be all over that kitchen business. Although it varies depending on the time of the day. Ruby is more active in the kitchen during the pre-lunch hours, then hands the batten over to Dame Plum who knows every cheese trick in the book from the afternoon onwards. H clearly is need of training!
How did the bushes in the garden produce this year? You’ve not mentioned them much, but then there was some strange pruning which went on a few months ago. I like blueberries but the local birds enjoy them more – the downsides of living not far from a local blueberry farm. They all know what they are. I admitted defeat and pulled the last bush out a week or so ago and gifted it to a local lady who lives in less wildlife hassled conditions.
By the way, Ollie and I startled an owl which was hunting mice and rats lurking near to the chicken enclosure tonight. A bit of food escapes via the drain, and this sort of equal pressure on the forest critters, is how it should be.
But of course! The young lady in the lead photo was the talented halo model, and like any champion, should be celebrated by the group. It was a really sweet set up with ladies nights, and then of course there’d be the mixed playing nights, and one thing leads to another. They guy who runs that gig seems pretty clever to me. People want to hang out and socialise, or hook up, this is not hard. But alas it is hard due to weak leadership which may not want to nourish the bigger picture. Oh well. I join groups because I’m chatty and enjoy the connections, this is what we do as a species. Your Club lost the plot about that aspect maybe a year or two back – and look what happened! I’ve been there too long ago! The Editor’s dog club is facing a similar challenge, but as you wisely noted, these things pass with time. But could be stomped out early on. I have a nip it in the bud hyper sensitivity, which may have downsides as well, but few options are perfect.
🙂 Public toilets scare me! As a bloke, the things I’ve seen over the years, it’s enough to give one stage fright on occasion! Interestingly, cane sugar is pretty cheap down under, but it only grows in one specific area of the continent. Fortunately, it is not a hungry crop. Man, organic honey is like the rarely seen but often spoken about unicorn. And you know what happened in the Death of a Unicorn biz! 😉
What delightful research into snail mucus, and I’d add that plants would thoroughly enjoy the Calcium deposited by the clever critters. Hmm. You know, I couldn’t find what the local variety of snails although they could be the introduced: Small Pointed Snail, or Cochlicella acuta? I’m not fussed, such critters convert plant material into soil feed. They don’t seem to be too big of an issue.
Cheers and better get writing!
Chris
Yo, Chris – You got it, as far as book pricing vs free shipping vs shipping fees. Not much difference in the final price. Maybe a buck or two. And that applies to other items, besides books. Sometimes, I do get a pleasant surprise, and an item with free shipping is actually a better buy. Occasionally. But, often, that’s a seller with low sales numbers and not much feedback. Just say no! 🙂
Congrats on tackling the barrister bookcase construction. Search: “Barrister bookcase hardware,” to source the door mechanisms. There might be Australian sources, maybe. Remember, you might need some kind of a base and topper piece.
So, are the Editor or you going to be signing up for a stain glass class? 🙂 Our local “community” college usually runs classes, that anyone can take. But you said you were going to go with plastic, which probably makes more sense. Although, even dusting plastic produces fine scratches, which eventually cause “clouding”.
Yup, blood sugar is something to pay attention to. I’ve had episodes of low blood sugar, in the past. But not for a long while. I guess I’m well fed! 🙂
Our high yesterday was 82F (27.77C). Our overnight low was 54F (12.22C). Our forecast high for today is 78F. It was quit pleasant, yesterday, with a nice breeze blowing. I hope your antarctic blast isn’t too deep or last for too long.
Chris got skills! 🙂 That’s quit an achievement, to keep all your machinery in tip top condition.
H doesn’t get fed, in the kitchen, other than what’s in her food dish. No snacks between meals! If she gets underfoot, she’s ordered into the hallway, and does obey and stays there. When I’m eating, she knows better than to beg.
I made my monthly Mac & cheese, last night. I threw in a can of tuna, so, she got some of the juice on her kibble, and pieces of tuna. She always cleans her dish. To my portion, I added so many vegetables, that there’s enough for dinner, tonight.
Blueberries. Well … I picked just over 2 quarts, last night. They’re small, about the size of peas. 🙁 I’ve decided, not really worth my time. There are still plenty of green one’s, on the bushes. I might ask the Master Gardeners, tomorrow, to increase the watering by, say, 5 minutes a day.
The Master Gardeners have said the birds are a problem, this year, as far as the blueberries are concerned. I’m not seeing a lot of damage. There were a few robins around, but I think they really prefer worms. When I went out front, to pick, there was a jay, giving me what for. Went on and on. He finally let off, and then, I think, a crow took up the assault on my ears. I ignored them both, and they finally went and did something else.
I think I’ll go out to the fruit stand, on Tuesday, and pick up another flat, to round up the gallons. If I need any more, I’ll pick up some frozen ones from Winco.
In other garden news, I have a lot of pumpkin blossoms. I have seen a few pollinators. I still can’t see much difference, between the blossoms. I saw my first zucchini blossom, yesterday. And, there are buds.
Pam mentioned cold weather crops. I have also been thinking about those. But, I need space! I don’t think the potatoes (which have taken up a lot of space), can be dug for another week or two. But I think I can remove the red onions, as, the pollinators seem to be done with pollinating. That would make some space. I don’t need much for my needs.
I took a look at the landrace book, last night. My, there’s a lot of information crammed into 138 pages. Besides photos and charts. A good glossary. “Promiscuous Pollination: The practice of encouraging cross-pollination. The goals of seed saving are genetic diversity and local adaptation, not stability of phenotype.” “Inbreeding Depression: Describes the loss of vigor that occurs when plants become highly inbreed.” Etc. Etc..
I’ll probably stop by the Club, on my way back from the fruit stand. I figure I’ll stop by, once a week, to observe progress. But, won’t start hanging out there, as I did in the past, until the sociability factor is re-established.
I wasn’t thinking so much about the state of public toilets. Although they can be abysmal, and I am also “shy” of them. I was more thinking of how I used to be able to repair my own toilet, if the ball, chain or flapper needed to be replaced. And I’m not “handy.” But now, I look in my tank, and it looks like surplus off the Starship Enterprise. Is there a GPS? Is it a “smart” toilet, that chats on the internet? 🙂
Oddly, one of the Murdoch Mysteries I watched last night, opened with a murder in a public restroom. See! Just another reason to avoid such places. 🙂 Lew
Hi Chris,
My sister, Kathleen, has had Crohn’s Disease for decades and has gone through a variety of treatments over the years usually resulting in significant periods of remission. The last few years have been unsuccessful in that regard thus the slow wasting.
That being said the diets you mention can often cause problems for sure. Also all these people on GLP treatments.
Marty has been an avid fisherman for many years but always from shore. As he doesn’t drive he put together a cart for all his supplies and gear and managed to get around. With his current unsteadiness it’s not safe for him to go off on his own though this took some convincing on our part.
Marty and his brothers were able to go on several fishing trips put together by Fishing has no Boundries
to central Wisconsin. They had local guides in the boats and were pretty successful. Marty won a plaque one year for one of his catches which is now proudly displayed on his wall.
https://fhnbinc.org/
Margaret
Hi Chris,
I don’t know what happened to the comment I just posted but it seems to have doubled.
Margaret