Landscaping, Part 3

So I got to the point where I wanted to put edging around the trees and shrubs in the front yard.  The point was to prevent lawn grass from invading and to give a visual edge to the beds.  Well, the stuff is pretty much useless!

The widest I found was 6".  And 3" above ground is "ok" but 3" inches below ground won't hold in place.  Mowers push it loose and frost heaves it up.  It really has to be 12" and I couldn't find any.  I've gotten tired of going around the edging with a spade to push it back in again.

My lot is slightly sloped.  It is 100' wide and 200' front to back.  The front to back slope is about 6-8'.  Not enough to cause any rainfall problem, but enough to make edging awkward.  My cross-street neighbors have several nice inter-locking pavers set 3 high in tan and red.  Looks great.

But of course I don't want to copy them.  So I had the idea of buying 12" pavers to lay down around the curved edging around the Saucer Magnolia tree and then add a single layer of interlocking bricks on top to define the area.  I ordered both.  They arrived last October.

Then I discovered a problem.  Now, I am good at geometry, but I sure didn't think it right this time!  Square pavers leave gaps around a curved bed...  Where grass can grow...  Which is what the pavers were supposed to prevent.  😭

So I have another idea in mind.  I built a step-down shadow-box fence around the backyard a few years after I moved in.  You can see the "step-down" (for the sloping yard), and the alternating inside/outside "shadow box" boards here...

The point is that most of the boards had to be cut to length (variously above and less than 6').  And that left pieces.

I saved them of course...

So it occurs to me that I could make an edging using those pressure treated wood pieces (cut at random heights.  They can all go down 6" for stability and still stick up 6-10" high (to define the edges).  The boards will touch edge to edge to form a good curve.  And I can further stabilize them by using exterior construction adhesive to attach the old plastic edging on the inside of the boards.

Sometimes, it takes a while to figure out a good solution to a problem.  I think I've found it.  Then it will be on to other problems...  😁

Landscaping, Part 2

So there I was without a garden.  At the time, the neighborhood was mostly treeless except my West neighbor's yard.  So I had a lot of sunlight.  But the soil was terrible; all sand and gravel.  The first thing I tried was to dig 5 gallon holes and fill them with soil from the woody half.  I read about that in a gardening magazine.

The idea was that you would do that one year, then do it again in new spots between them the next.  Gradual improvement.  The next year, I decided the digging was just too hard.  Ever dig a twenty 5 gallon buckets of dirt?

So I tried something else.  The County offers free mulch.  Residents bring in all the tree/shrub debris, they pile it up for a year, bulldoze it around into new piles and 2 years later - something close to compost!  And if you bring a trailer to the place on a Saturday, they load it up for free!

I covered the area in 4" of the stuff one Fall.  And then bought a roto-tiller and turned into the soil.  And did it again the next Spring.  I planted tomatoes and corn there.  And built a few small raised beds for smaller crops like beans, broccoli, carrots, etc.  Worked well.

Not the exact model, but representative...  But well worth the cost.  I used it a lot.  Lowered some ridges, flattened some mounds of gravel, dug down almost 6' along 60' of the fence for a flowerbed.

It needs some professional maintenance now though.  I stupidly left old gas in it for 2 years 😱 and gas engines are bit of a problem for me to clean or fix.  

Tomorrow, "Edging"...

Landscaping, Part 1

This post starts with memories.  It will move the present during the week...

A few decades ago, when I first moved here, half the backyard was a sandy gravelly field and the other half was overgrown junk.  Wild grape vines, 10' thorny locust trees, poison ivy.  I eventually cleared it (took 2 years).  

I decided to dig out a 10'x 2'deep pond for goldfish and waterplants.  But the dirt had to go somewhere.  So I built a raised 12" high pressure-treated wood frame in the front yard.  The brick front and cement steps made 2 sides of it, the wood on the other two.  The soil from the pond hole filled that perfectly!  I planted hostas and Japanese Painted Ferns there.

Later, while visiting my parents in NH, I saw their woods were filled with a variegated ivy-looking plant.  The called it "Snow on The Mountain".  I took a dozen home.  No loss as there was nearly an acre of them.

Then I bought a heavy plastic pond-liner and dug a 25' water runway up the slope to make a "creek" flowing into the pond.  Big pump, more plastic.  It was beautiful.  Bought Sweet Flag and waterlilies to grow in it and added some fancy (but cheap) goldfish.  The hostas and ferns in front thrived.

So being young and strong and ambitious, I planted some small specimen trees.   Two Golden Rain Trees and the end of the driveway, 2 Sourwood trees, and 3 Burning Bush shrubs.

The front yard looked great, I had a pond in the wooded back.  So there was a garden to establish in the field half with the bad soil.

That's the next post...

Adventures With Computers

 The "better" computers get, the harder it is for me sometimes.  One year, it is software issues.  Lately, it has been the printer.  

I got so tired of the increasing cost of inkjet cartridges that I bought a Canon color toner printer 2 years ago.  And it worked great!  Toner lasts forever, so no more $50 inkjet cartridges every few months.

And then suddenly it didn't.  My surge/backup battery started beeping at me everytime I tried to print and shut down.  I assumed it was the battery backup, and tried everything I could think of to get it working.  Nothing seemed wrong.

So maybe it was the printer.  I called the help number.  Some changes worked.  And then they didn't.  I called the help number again, and they couldn't fix the problem.  I became so frustrated I bought a Brother color toner printer.

And it worked great for a month.  Then the battery backup started screaming at me again.  Brother could not solve my problem, so I was about to buy a new battery backup.

But I decided to try to find the problem online.  Duh, should have done that from the start.  But I finally found the right way to phrase my problem.   The top search result discussed electrical demands of "fusers".  I almost skipped that, but the site description mention color toner printers.

Apparently, the industry term for color toner printers is "fusers".  So I opened the site.  Lots of stuff I didn't understand.  But one part caught my attention.  Fusers demand a lot of power (amps, watts?) at startup.  And the backup battery can detect that as a surge and shut down.

The solution was to plug the printer into a different electrical outlet.  I tried that.  It didn't work.  But I thought about it for a day until an idea hit me.  Sometimes techies are casual about language.  The "different electrical outlet" was still on the same circuit.  What if the site meant "different circuit"?  

So I visited the circuit breaker box in the basement.  

Each individual circuit is labeled on the side as to which rooms they control (not shown).  They are initially labelled by the installing electrician, but sometimes they are a bit vague about that.  For example, there is not circuit breaker labelled to control the Master Bedroom.

So I spent yesterday tested the accuracy of the labels.  Fun, fun, fun...  I have a list of corrections to the original ones.  😖

The idea was to find the nearest electrical outlet to the computer room that wasn't on the same circuit breaker.  I needed to test the "different outlet" idea from the site.  And because there is evidently a heavy electrical draw for the "fuser" warm-up, I used a medium-duty extension cord (better than household extension cords but less than appliance cords or outdoors use).  

Fortunately, the master bedroom circuit has very little routine draw, mostly just a clock, a radio, and a bed-lamp.  So I ran the extension cord from the printer to the bedroom.  Restarted everything.  

Sent a test document to print.  No beeps from the backup battery.  3 pages printed are pretty as you please!  I think I've solved the problem.  "Oh Joy, Rapture"!

A problem is that I have a thick extension cord going through 2 doors.  The doors pinch the wire.  I'll figure out a solution for that...

Odd Stuff

Random Odd Stuff...

Luna Moth:  

 Mylar balloons last a long time.

These arrived May 21st and are still floating.

American Atheist Necklace...

My 1st car was a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible.  I loved it.  The gas milage was terrible, but I never drove much.  I've sometimes considered getting a restored one as a toy.

Here is an image of a restored one...

I really don't drive much.  My 2020 Subaru Forester only has about 3800 miles on it.  So gas prices don't really matter.  But I am too practical.  The Forester SUV suits my needs better.  

Chess And Other Games

I think it is time for me to retire my chess books to a remote bookshelf.  I can't play worth a damn anymore.

When I was about 8-9, Mom taught me the rules of chess and played it with me.  She recognized that I was very good at board games and thought I needed a more open-ended and challenging one.  The idea of different pieces moving in different ways was a bit confusing at first, but I began to see the possibilty of flexibility.

I should mention that Mom's family seldom played board or card games  but Dad's family did.  And they played to kill.  "If you couldn't stand the heat, leave the table".  😈. And they didn't give much consideration to age either.  

Dad's family mostly played 2 card games.  One was Gin.  When we visited them, both Gramma and I were early risers.  So we would play Gin for a while until the rest got up and she had to start breakfast.  But she would kill me happily.  I was about 14 before I could make it a "close to fair" game.  

The other game is not well-known.  It was sort of a regional game from Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.  It is generally called "Cinch" and sometimes "Setback" and it is a rather lethal game.

The basics are that you get 9 cards (2 decks if required).  You bid a number of tricks you will take.  No suits like in Bridge and not always hearts like in that game.  The highest bidder names the suit.  Everyone tosses out the cards that aren't that suit.  And then you are dealt enough to make 6.

The bidder tosses out the first card.  Whoever takes a trick leads with the next round.  Whoever has the most tricks wins the round.  I don't recall how the scoring was done for a whole game, but I have my 'Rules According To Hoyle' marked up to reflect the version we played (it varies regionally).

I mentioned Gramma Cavebear was a lethal card-player.  She was also non-secretive.  Sometimes she would say "Oh I filled".  Meaning her 6 cards were all trumps.  We all knew we were doomed at that point.  

Dad and Gramma taught me the rules at 14, we played practice hands.  When I could follow the rules and be somewhat competitive, I was allowed at the adult table after dinner.  Some families had dessert after dinner; we played cards.

I eventually achieved average family skill.  I miss playing the game, but Gramma and Grampa eventually got older and less able to play.  And I went off to college.

Where I learned Hearts (and later, Spades).  I never understood Bridge.  Symbolic bidding (the Goren System and others completely baffled me.  I guess I think too directly.  But I was good at Hearts and Spades.  No real bidding.

But back to chess...  When Mom couldn't beat me at chess anymore, she turned me over to Dad.  I have no idea what his chess experience was, but he was better at it than Mom.  But after a year, he couldn't beat me at it either.  

I found that a neighbor kid my age also loved chess.  We played it obsessively!  His mom got so annoyed at our focus that she dragged us to a public swimming pool a few times.  Sure, we swam around a bit, but I had a pocket chess set and we played there too.

When I went to college, I found several people in my dorm who played.  By coincidence, one turned out to be the President of the college chess club.  We played equally.  I joined the club.  As a result, I joined the United States Chess Federation (USCF).  I never achieved any high ranking, but just having a ranking at all put me in about the top 10%.  

My friend the President had a bad accident one summer and returned "mentally damaged".  He left after 2 months.

Which left a gap.  The club had no President.  I became it.  That means a lot less than it may sound.  The President organizes club meetings, lays out chessboards and chess clocks, and puts everything away afterwards.  Really Good chessplayers are not interested in that.  There aren't really truly good chessplayers who can manage their own lives, never mind administrative club issues, LOL!

But I discovered a skill that the past couple of Presidents didn't have.  Members just showed up to play each other.  I researched how to arrange tournaments.  There are various ways but I won't bore you with that (unless you ask).

But the club membership doubled and better players started to attend.  I retired after 2 years, leaving a successful club behind.

For myself, I participated in several public USCF tournaments.  The games are divided among ratings.  They ranged from 1200-1399, 1400-1599, and so on to 2000.  Beyond 2000, you are Master.  I was about 1250.  Yeah, "bottom of the best".  

I won a trophy in the DC Open at my rating.  I won 5 of 6 games.  The best win was against a 1650 rated player using The Stonewall Defense (if you want to look it up).  It is routinely a White attack, but I used it as a Black Defense.  

And then, hot off my success, I participated in the Maryland Open.  And got "pantsed".  My 1st opponent pulled a Scholar's Mate on me!

White Queen to move.

I was so unbelievingly embarrassed!   The worst thing a chessplayer can experience is to be the first to leave the room in defeat.  And I didn't return...

I did get over it eventually.  Played postal chess for a decade (time to stop and think about moves) and computer chess for a decade.  But at 75, I've lost my skills at the game.  A simple computer chess game beats me.  It is time to just stop thinking about chess.  

So I don't need the books over the computer.  I'll save them for "old times sakes", but I'm not going to be playing anymore...

Big Business Problems

Big Business are getting to hard to contact.  They have their website and various problem-solving options, but they are not designed for unusual situations.  And they don't want you to call them! 

AMAZON:  I order many things from Amazon.  Monday, I received a delivery confirmation with a photo of the delivery.  Naturally, they never knock on the door anymore.  So I went out and got the single-item package immediately after seeing the email from them.  

It was a very flat item just in a cardboard fold-up with 2 enclosure tabs.  It was empty!  OK, maybe some porch-pirate stole it and left the flat cardboard container.  But I looked at the delivery photo carefully, and the enclosure tabs were already open at the time of delivery!

So I conclude the item was either never actually placed in the container, that it slipped out during shipping, or slipped out in the delivery truck.  We don't have a porch-pirate problem in my neighborhood and besides, it was so flat as to be invisible from the street.

I spent an hour navigating the Amazon website looking for a way to explain "empty box".  But that just sent me to "returns".  I couldn't find a way to tell them I could return an item I didn't have.  Customer service just sends you in a circle of how to return items.  Customer Service and Help don't/won't give you a phone number to call.

So I looked up "Amazon Customer Service telephone number".  I found one on several sites, but they weren't Amazon URLs, so I was suspicious.  It was an 1-888 number and sometimes those are overseas pay-by-the-minute scams.  But I did eventually find one from a legitimate Amazon address (and it was the same as the other sites).

I got a chatbot that asked stupid questions repetitively.  I finally said "Human Agent Please".  It resisted, but finally did it.  I was told there was a waiting time.  😒.   But a human was on the phone in a minute.  😂

It didn't go well.  They expect everyone to have a text-capable phone.  I do but I can't manage it (and please don't try to explain how).  They verified my existence, but needed to send me a code to my email account.  Several tries failed.  I have been receiving emails regularly (and sent a test message to myself while on the call to check).  We checked the email address letter by letter.  The Amazon agent said it must be a problem on their end.

I have to call again later today during US business hours.  I spent 2 hours trying to resolve a $15 delivery issue.  But I don't let these problems go easily...  It just goes against my grain.

WALMART:  I discovered Walmart is playing a trick on us cat owners!  Walmart and Amazon usually keep their prices very similar.  I use A&H Slide litter these days.  There is a big box and a small box.  The big one (38 pounds) is a better deal, but it has gotten too difficult for me to drag into the basement these days.  So I've been buying the small box.  

The price per pound of the small boxes is not too much more than the large one...  Both Amazon and Walmart sell the smaller box at the identical price.  BUT, I discovered the Walmart box is 4 pounds lighter than the Amazon box (14 vs 18)!  Nasty little trick, Walmart...

Meadow Garden Update

Three major meadow things...

1.  I have buds on different meadow flowers and some are open or beginning to open.  Not enough to take a picture, but I can see the various varieties maturing.  

The first were 2' tall yellow daisy-like flowers.  They started to fade away 2 weeks ago, but now there are new blooms.  Yay!  Maybe they will do that all Summer.

The next were some dozen 2" purple spire-shaped flowers.  I took a couple pics, but they are nearly invisible to the camera.

After that came some yellow daisy-like flowers similar to the earliest ones, but 2' taller.  And today, some purplish flowers opened on a 4' tall plant.

2.  While I was focussed on looking at the new flowers, I suddenly realized they were covered with honeybees and different odd smaller native ones!  Every flower I looked at had at least one, and they seemed very active.  They kept moving from one to the other.  Nor "beeing"a bee, I can't exactly judge what kinds of nectar various bees prefer.  But they sure seemed like "happy little busy bees".  I also saw a couple of butterflies.  And I'll bet there are some very small insects that are feeding and laying eggs there too.

3.  I spent 4 years ordering trays of native meadow plants from a good source.  And planting them directly in the meadow (as instructed) never worked.  So last year (having delayed direct-planting) I stuck them all in my 10 gallon tomato pots (3 per pot, rich soil).  And they just sulked there all Summer and Fall.  But this Spring, grew fast and lush.  They were suddenly a foot tall, so I transplanted them to the meadow.

Talk about sudden growth!  Those 4' plants I mentioned above were those 12" transplants in March.  If I hadn't stuck labels and orange landscape flags next to the new transplants, I would had have assumed they were growths from 1-2 years ago, finally established and maturing.  

But these all seem to be from the transplants this Spring.  I am thrilled.  And I can't wait for there to be enough flowers to post pics of them are close-ups and "overall".  

Dad's Day

 Happy Dad's Day to all you dads in the world.  I was never one myself, so I can't claim it as my day.  But without one, I wouldn't be here.

So enjoy your day.  And if you get another tie you don't need, another tool that you already have (or is too weird to use), or just a card, accept it and be pleased.  It's the thought...

The Meadow Garden

HAL A LU YA!   After years, my meadow garden is finally starting to grow.  I didn't start it right.  The idea is to cover the bed in plastic for a year to smother all the grasses and weeds.  I'm too impatient for that.  So I just mowed the area and planted some meadow flowers.  They didn't grow.  I tried the same thing the next year and they didn't grow then either.  

Three years ago, I got a few sad lonely plants that grew, but they weren't much to look at.  Two years ago I bought yet another tray of 48 plants (groups of 3), but delayed getting them planted (I keep having hip injuries).  And they probably would have died had I planted them.  It was Summer and that's a bad time to transplant flowers.

I had bought ten 10 gallon pots for tomatoes (my regular garden has gotten too shaded by neighbor's trees, so I needed to try them somewhere sunnier).  So I stuck the meadow flower transplants in with the tomatoes (3 to a pot).  They just sat and sulked.   

But last year in Spring, they burst into growth!  I transplanted them in the meadow garden.  They grew some, but didn't flower.  But hey, growth is good!

This year, I have many groups of 3-4' high tall meadow flowers!  I'm thrilled.  Some few are blooming, some are showing buds, and some are just growing tall.  Well, some bloom in late Summer and Fall, so they might bloom later this year.  

Here are some pictures...

I think this one is orange coneflower.

I'm not sure what this one is (and it is bluer/lavender than it looks).

I don't have a label for this one either.  But I took the pic a few days ago, and it is opening up to a 3"circle.  It will be a beauty.

There is also a perennial I planted elsewhere that is blooming now and should do well in the meadow garden when I transplant it this Fall.  It seems to grow well in difficult conditions.

It is a Maltese Cross.  I suppose the name comes from the Isle of Malta, or a "maltese cross" has 5 points to it.  But it a nice red color and seems dependable.

A few days ago, I took some of last year's meadow flowers that survived from last year in a tray and planted them in this year's tomato pots.  I hope they thrive like last year's ones did.  That would pretty much fill up the meadow garden.  

Since most of them are perennials, they will last a decade.  But there are also self-seeders and some spread from roots.  So hopefully, in a few more years, the meadow bed will be full of flowers.  

And most of them are favored by both common and struggling butterflies, native non-hiving bees, and minor insects who will be supported by the meadow flowers that are finally growing here.

My heirloom Brandywine and Cherokee Purple tomatoes are thriving.  I need to get cages set up around them.  I have more domestic common flowers I am planting in deck pots, but that's a future post.  😀

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

I don't make them often, but I love chocolate chip cookies.  But I like them as bars (like brownies) even more.  I just scrape all the batter onto parchment paper in a glass baking dish and set them on a rack to cool until firmly set.

Then just cut them up and put them in a lidded container (I have a couple of nice metal ones that actual cookies came in as holiday gifts).

This may annoy some of you, but I have one every 2-3 days...  So a batch of 15 lasts a month or so...  😇

And it is time to make ore.  I make some from store pouches and some from raw ingredients.  The most annoying thing is that the batter is very thick.  I actually broke a wooden spoon mixing the stuff once.

This time, I think I will see how well my bread machine is at mixing it on the dough setting.  Aside from making good cooked bread (a topic for another post), it mixes pizza and bread dough for baking separately.  It sure would save a lot of hard stirring!