Free Mulch Again!

For years, the County collected lawn and tree debris, shredded it, and aged it.  Then gave it back to county residents for free.  On Saturdays, they would even load it in trailers or pickups for free.  It wasn't big pieces like commercial mulch, nor aged enough to be compost.  I used to get 2 trailer loads each Spring.  One to use for mulch and the other to set aside to compost further.

Then they stopped for 2 (3?) years.  I kept checking their website only to see "No Mulch Available".  I figured they were either using it for county maintenance, or lacked the funds to keep processing the raw debris.

So when I had a landfill load of trash, I asked about it.  I was told the mulch had become available again all this year.  I would swear the website said "No Mulch Available" just last month.  But the imporatant thing was that the mulch was available again!

There used to be hour-long lines to get the Saturday free loading, but yesterday, I was the only customer.  I drove up, put a tarp on the bottom of the trailer (it has gaps between the floorboards) and set the edge of a larger tarp in the front so the mulch would hold it in place.  ONE big bucket load later, the trailer was filled to overflowing!  I folded the top tarp back over the pile and attached it down with bungee cords.

I drove it into the back yard, where I will scoop it out onto this beat up old tarp where the last of the compost mulch was used up this Spring.  Unfortunately, the top tarp did not reach all the way to the back end, and with 3" of rain falling on it, the exposed mulch got so heavy it tipped the trailer back.

Now there is too much weight against the removable back  upright, I can't remove it.  So I'll have to shovel a foot or so clear before I can slide the mulch out.

This is how tipped it is.  I removed the top tarp, in hopes that the rain forecast for tonight will even out the weight and let it sit level again so that I can remove the back.

I shot this picture crooked so that it would LOOK level.  LOL!  That's 2.75 cubic yards of free mulch!  I hate to think what it would cost to buy it by the bag!

As soon as I get this unloaded and spread around the flower/garden beds, I'll go back and get more to leave aside to compost, then whatever more I can get, I'll use to cover my daffodil and hosta beds!

Strange Rain

I had the oddest experience today.  Something that hasn't happened to me since I was about 11.  Those many years ago, we kids were playing outside and realized that it was raining in our yard, but NOT across the street!

Well, it finally happened again!  I was watching the rain suddenly pouring down in the front yard, so I went to the back to watch the rain gauge fill up.  Nothing!  It WASN"T raining in the back yard.  Not a drop.

Convinced I was just not seeing it, I went out on the deck.  Dry!  I even went out in the yard because sometimes the trees absorb a lot of rain at first.  Nothing!  It was several minutes before rain finally started falling in the back.

Talk about being on the edge of a cloud!!!  Has this ever happened to you?

Forced Shopping

This is NOT an advertisement for Walmart, though it may seem like one.  It's just that I had a massive shopping trip (for a reason).

For a week, there has been utility digging in the neighborhood.  A large sign said the electricity would be off Aug 1 from 8 am to 1 pm.  So I planned for it.  I had left my car for a battery problem at the dealership last week and the Walmart is right across the street.  I spent the scheduled service hour wandering through the store and found a number of things I could use, plus some things I didn't know Walmart carried (they have expanded their food area).  I didn't want to buy anything then because I would have had to haul it all back to the car dealership.

But I planned yesterday carefully.  The power was to go off at 8 am (and the temperature was forecast for the upper 90s). And I know that scheduled outages get extended sometimes.  So I got up at 6 am and cranked the A/C down to 65, showered, got dressed, made breakfast.  I took the car out of the garage (electric door).  At 7:45, I checked the computer, shut it down, and turned off the backup battery, and unplugged the emergency outage lights.

The power went off at 8:15.  As planned, I went outside to do some garden weeding and random yardwork in the "cool" of the morning (it was already 85).  I came inside at 10 am and the house temp was up to 70 already and no air circulation.  So I went on my planned shopping expedition.

First, to places that sold stuff Walmart doesn't (or has but is junk).  I started at the Home Depot (Big Box DIY store).  I have had several burst hoses lately (they are all getting old) so I wanted commercial-grade, and I needed a couple good new hose sprayers too.  Plus I am trying to design a stand for attaching a nozzle to so that I don't have to stand around holding a nozzle all day when I water the gardens.  I needed to just see what basic stuff I might use.

Got to the Home Depot and found 2 nice hose nozzles.  Damn, I forgot to pace off the lengths of hoses I wanted to replace.  I'll have to get those later.  And I forgot to get 2 more quick-connect male connections.  Later on those too.  Any shopping list is guaranteed to be incomplete.

From there, I went to PetsMart.  Petco has the higher-quality stuff, but where they both have the same product, PetsMart is cheaper.  I wanted a 3rd cat carrier (3 cats - 3 carriers) and a collar for Iza (she lost another one).  I found a nice new red collar for Iza (this one is even reflective).  It was hard deciding on a new carrier (trying to judge the size from memory of the other ones at home).  I already have a small one (fine for Ayla at 7 pounds) and a larger one (fine for Iza at 12 pounds).  But I decided that Marley is probably going to get near 16 pounds at the rate he is growing, so I got an even larger one.  AND it has a TOP opening door!  It has a front one too.  I never saw that before!  I decided to pass on the customized pad at $12; I have lots of old towels.

To my surprise, PetsMart is now carrying Eukanuba kibble.  I hadn't seen it there before.  Cheaper than Petco by $3!  Grabbed a bag.  I have some already, but it will last.

So then it was on to Walmart.  Some of their own brand stuff is well-rated by Consumer Reports magazine, and I go there for those anyway.  But when they sell the same brand name product at 75% of the regular price as other places, I'd be a fool not to shop there.

I bought/guesstimate savings:

Kleenex 3 packs/25%
Tidy-Cat litter/40%
Toilet paper/30%
A single outstanding car mat/(not found elsewhere)
Low sodium V8 juice/33%
Tea (regular and decaffinated)/50%
Narrow spatula (sharp-edged and heat resistant/it was only 88 cents!
A pill splitter (for vitamins and cat pills)10%
Sodas/10%
Spices/20%
Nestle's Quick (no sugar added)/20%
Candy (I have a weakness for Hershey Hugs and Dove Raspberry Dark Chocolate)/20%
A hand-held fertilizer dispenser (for where the yard-type one can't go)/not found elsewhere
Pajama shorts/ impulse purchase
Thick work socks (my gardening shoes are just a little large)/just seemed a good deal

Picture of the loot...

And the new cat carrier.  I hope whoever thought of putting a door ON THE TOP got a HUGE bonus for that idea!

Oh, about that car mat...  I have had this flimsy car mat from the previous car and it keeps sagging and folding under the pedals.  I have to straighten it out every time I drive.  I was going to rubber-cement it to a piece of old chairmat to stiffen it.  Partly because auto places only sell mats in 4-packs (2 front, 2 back) for about $30.  This single one is all I need, it is thick and ribbed  and it cost about $5!


Usually, I just go to Walmart for a few specific things.  I'm usually there for the kitty litter (they sell the 35# bucket for less than the pet stores sell the 27# bucket) and the V8 juice.  But when they sell brand name stuff at half-price, I gotta shop there...

I'll give an interesting example of how bulk changes prices.  When I moved here 25 years ago, one of the first things I bought from a local hardware store was a benchtop table saw.  3 months later, the first Big Box DIY store opened and they had the exact model for half the price and it wasn't even "on sale".  Just their regular price.  I felt robbed!

Another thing...  I had been looking on the net for a wall "clock" that gave date/day/time digitally in big letters.  Couldn't find one.  Walmart had one.  And it gives the outside temperature, indoor temperature and indoor humidity.  AND keeps the clock accurate by radio signal.  For $20!

Another thing...  I had been wanting a "touch-on" bedside lamp for years.  I found one at Home Depot for $40.  It broke in months.  They didn't sell it anymore.  Walmart had one, one time.  Two per box actually.  For $20.  Working fine after several years.

But anyway, it was a great day shopping.  It's not something I do often, so it was great fun!  But it worked out perfectly.  When I got home, the power was back on, and one clock I have counts the time from power-on.  It was only 15 minutes.  I pretty much timed it perfectly.

New Cat Tree

We have a new cat tree in the house.  Actually, I assembled it several weeks ago, but with one thing and another (mostly Ayla's surprise medical problems), there wasn't wasn't a good time for the cats to post it on their own blog.  So I held off posting about it here until they could.

Here it is each step of the way:

Weeding The Flowerbed

Between getting into a daytime sleep-cycle, the brutal heat of a couple weeks ago (but not much better now), and Ayla having medical complications all last week, the weeds took over!  It sure doesn't take them long to grow and for me to get behind...

This is where I planted annuals this year.  I had a large area where some evil runner grass had taken over last Fall.  I dug it out carefully, but some came back this Spring.

I lifted the perennials out and searched through their roots for runners, then moved them elsewhere mostly to make larger patches of their same kind.  My columbine patch is now double in size, for example.

Then I dug the runner grass out again using a spading fork to loosen the soil so that I could follow all the runners several inches underground and slide them out carefully .  That worked very well.  There is almost none left.

But all that digging brought a lot of other weed seeds to the surface and the planted annual bed exploded with them.  As you can see here...

Here's a closeup of one part for reference.

This is the same spot after I spent over an hour of weeding.  Remarkably better.

After the 1st effort I had plenty left to do...

And here is that same section after today's work!

An overview of the entire weeded area!

But that is just the annual area.  As you can see, I have a few more days of work waiting for me.  This spot won't be TOO bad.  Most of that is actually non-weedy perennials that have already bloomed for the year and weeds in the garden path that will come up from the pea gravel easily.

This area will be harder.  There are several kinds of weeds with thin roots that break off easily.  That means digging.

This will be difficult, too.  The close growing dianthus makes it hard to get at the wiregrass and mock strawberry embedded among them.

At least those areas are shaded after 4 pm.  But did I mentioned my area is infested with Asian Tiger Mosquitoes?  Deet works well enough on my arms and neck, but they still swarm around my face looking for a place to land!

And then I spent over an hour hand watering the weeded area and some parts that were most desperate.  I'll water the rest of the flower and garden later when the shade arrives.

Well, I'll have more pictures when I make more progress...

Its Been A Hard Week

Well, I should summarize the week...

Sunday - Ayla suddenly started extruding pus from her vulva.  I spent the afternoon and night keeping her as clean as I could.

Monday - Brought Ayla to my regular vet first thing in the morning.  He did some tests to eliminate urinary infections, then did x-rays to search for a reproductive tract problem.  He scheduled surgery for Tuesday.

Tuesday - Ayla was opened for exploratory surgery first thing in the morning.  At noon, the vet called to say that he had found the spayed uterus remnant was infected, which led him to discover her left ovary was intact.  He removed both.  Considering that the breeder's vet had done both a first and a followup spay operation, he was quite surprised!  I was very angry towards the breeder's vet.

Ayla (and I) have gone through frequent and lengthy heat cycles for 3 years.  Most times lasting for 10 days separated by 2 weeks of calm.  Occasionally, there was a whole month between heat episodes.  The news that my vet had found the cause was a matter of extreme joy.  I was thrilled.  The $800 was well worth all the trouble.

Tuesday night I picked Ayla up to give her the antibiotic, and I discovered she was dripping with red stuff all over the incision.  I assumed it was blood and brought her to an emergency pet hospital.  I was there for 2 hours.  The ER vet put a pressure bandage on her, did some tests, and decided she should see my regular vet in the morning. 

Wednesday - My vet was upset and distressed that I had had to go through all the ER stuff.  He explained that scar tissue is difficult to seal and that sometimes there is seepage.  But he apologized for not having advised my of that, and I am OK with the apology.  It DID cost me $1,000 at the ER hospital to learn that Ayla COULD have just lain on a thick towel all night.  The ER vet COULD have told me that, but he is running a business and I DID request service.  It was still pretty shoddy, though.

Anyway, my vet kept her for observation and examination all day at no charge. 

Thursday - Brought Ayla back to my vet for further observation.  He found the incision healing, not seeping, and he removed the IV catheter.  No charge, more apology, and lots of discussion.  And he gave me his home phone number in case of night time problems.

I hate the cone she has to wear, so I went out and bought an inflatable collar (XS dog collar, if you want to find one for a small cat, S for a regular size cat).  Ayla doesn't mind the inflatable collar, it even seems to make a decent pillow!

Friday - Ayla is alert and walking around, eating, and drinking.  She seems fine now, healing well with no "sera" seepage.

I spent the morning giving her lots of attention and scritching the itchy incision area that she can't get at with the inflatable collar.  She enjoyed that a LOT!

In the afternoon, I unwound by watering the veggie and flower gardens.  I have a nice system.  Stab a spading fork with a "D" handle in the ground, fit a hose nozzle in the handle (most will fit one way or another), and turn the water on for 5 full minutes at each spot.  Move the spade and repeat.  All afternoon!  Sit in a chair in the shade and drink a beer while listening to classical music on a little boom box.  Very relaxing and theraputive. 

It was 100+ outside, but I was sitting in the shade and there was a slight breeze.  There was water spraying, birds around, etc.  I NEEDED that!

Speaking of the gardens, the reason I was watering was because we are so dry here in MD.  There have been rains, but brief and hard and not much for several weeks.  How dry has it been?  The hosta bed still has dry crunchy leaves from last Fall.  They won't decompose!  Too dry.

More bad news!  A sign at the entrance to my neighborhood advises that electricity will be turned off for 5 hours August 1st!  Oh joy...  The forecast for that day is over 100 again.   I see that Verizon is digging up the neighborhood for some reason, so that must be the cause.

More bad news!  Have you ever used a garden hose and forgotten to turn the water off?  And the hose burst?  And not gone out there for 2 days?  That happened to me Tuesday.  I don't know exactly when the hose burst.  If I am lucky, it burst just before I went out and noticed.  If I am unlucky, it happened shortly after I went inside and it spewed water for 2 days.  And, of course, the water was not even spewing near any of my plants...  I will find out on the next quarterly bill.

More bad news!  Because of Ayla's apparently finally successful spay Tuesday, I contacted a radio vet show (The Animal House).  I had been a guest in June of last year discussing unsuccessfully "Twice-Spayed Ayla, and they asked for followup.  So I was scheduled for a taping Wed afternoon.  Well, Wed morning I had been up all night and morning, so I had to call to cancel (because I needed to collapse in bed).  They didn't want to reschedule for the next week, so they are just going to read the email I sent them.  I sure wish I could have been on-air to talk to them.  That would have been thrilling!  I guess I missed my 15 minutes of fame...

It will be broadcast in August and I will give details for that later.

I think it is finally safe to have "too much to drink tonight"!  And I plan to.  I just haven't decided whether it will be my favorite cheap wine (Twisted vine Zinfandel) or my own Sling recipe (1/2 oz gin, 1/2 oz pomegranate liquer, a shot of real pomegranate juice, fill up the glass with ginger ale over ice, and drink through straw).

I HAVE had worse weeks, but not often, and this one ranks way up on the list.  My baby sister died last Summer, Mom died last Fall, Skeeter died in Dec 2008, LC died in Jan 2010, I failed out of college in 1975 (I returned and graduated in 1993), and I got fired from a job because I couldn't roll tires off a truck fast enough.  All considered, I think this week places 5th.  Maybe 6th because I think at least Ayla IS finally spayed and that's good.

Door Visitors

I had a strange visitor today.  Someone selling garbage collection service.  She asked how many bags of garbage I had per mnth.  I said "one"  She looked at me oddly and repeated the questin, emphasizing "month".  I laughed and said "really, one per month".  I don't think she believed me...

SO I asked if they would pick up one bag per month for $5.  That's what it costs me at the landfill.   She said weekly pickup was $42/month.  I laughed.

Then she said they could do bulk pickup for $30 per ton.  I pointed to my hauling trailer at the street.  She said I was very weird and left.  "Yes, yes I am" (a la Phineas and Ferb).  And I love it...

LOL!

Planning To Move

I would like to move.  For many reasons.  As I mentioned last time, it is getting hard to garden here, and that is a major hobby these days.  But the neighborhood is going downhill (crazy drunk neighbors and gang fights becoming more common). 

Parts of the yard have always been a problem.  I live at the bottom of a long sloping neighborhood, the front yard has standing water for days after heavy rains.  I'm across the street from a swamp (something no one pointed out when I bought the property) and the mosquitos are fierce.  When the Asian Tiger mosquitoes moved into the area, it got worse.  I get bitten just going out to get my mail!  Some of the very old huge trees near the house are looking weaker, and I don't want to be here when one finally falls on it (and it would cost a fortune to have them removed).  The house is 25 years old and will need serious maintenance in the next 10 years (roof, driveway, fence, deck).

I'm 61 years old and need to plan for my older years and I am getting tired of stairs.  I want a flat house!  Nothing big.  Basically, a ranch house with an attached garage and a workshop.  I have been finding some decent houseplans.

And, I have to admit, I did a lot of DIY stuff when I moved in here that I wasn't experienced at (and before I had decent equipment).  I want to just escape all that and start fresh (I'll limit my future DIY to furniture and birdfeeders)!  I chose this place because it HAD mature trees.  I'll choose the next place because it DOESN'T.  I'll hope to cover a new open roof with solar panels and put in a geothermal heat pump.  A system that just blows in 50 degree air from the cool underground all Summer sounds very good to me.

I would LOVE to start landscaping again from scratch.  I did everything piecemeal, and it never did quite come together.  Its not UGLY, but a fresh start would be nice.  I could stay and try to fix everything the way I want it, but some parts (like the shady neighbor trees) can't be fixed.

But the idea of moving is daunting!  I have SO MUCH stuff accumulated.  And the idea of moving all my heavy woodworking equipment seems difficult and expensive.  Cabinet saw, floor drill press, joiner, planer, radial arm saw.  Same with the yard equipment:  Riding mower, push mower, chipper, tiller, snowblower, large slow-smoker; stuff a yard person accumulates in 25 years...

Then there is all the inside stuff.  The major furniture is simple to move, and I don't have that much of it.  No sofas, big chairs, beds, etc.  A waterbed folds up into small parts.  Its all the small stuff...  I guess I could have several yard sales.  But I have so many small things difficult to pack up.

The last time I moved, I was renting.  I had to pack up a dozen boxes of books, kitchen plates and cookware, a few standard pieces of furniture, a few boxes of hand tools, and a simple bedroom.  I have 10 times as much stuff now, at least!  And I want to keep most of it.  It's scary, but I am making plans...

Aquarium, Finished

Having finally gotten the plant light stand finished, I went after the aquarium again.  I tried sealing the leak in the old one twice, and failed.  Evidently, a structural failure in the glass just resists sealing.

So I bought a replacement 30 gallon high tank and got it in place.  It took a lot of pitchers of water to pill it 1/2 way.  I added all the plastic plants in.  I set a 12" long bubble aerator in place.   Oddly, it works better than it used to.  Bubbles all along the length instead on just in 2 spots.  I have no idea why, but I'm glad of it.

It was also good to get the several stylers of fake plants arranged into groups.  It looks a lot more natural now.    "Natural" being a relative term in such an artificial environment.  But I do what I can.

It is not a really fancy aquarium.  I have 8 tiger barbs, a few old serpa tetra, a couple of some rasbora that got added to a bag once by a really incompetent Wal Mart employee, and one really old plecostomus plecostomus (hypostomus plecostomus?).  That guy (gal?) is 8" long and my favorite indidual fish.  I think it is about 10 years old.  Possibly 15.  I didn't record the date.

It is SO LARGE I can't get it in a net.  To get it out of the old tank, I had to use a sieve.  To get it out of the temp tank, I had to put a pitcher in the water and encourage it to "hide" in there while I covered the opening with a net.  Fish are very strong.  I grabbed the pleco once and, at 8 ounces, it was like handling an angry cat!  And it had spines!  Not easy to handle.

So it was a relief to discover I could offer it a lace to hide in a pitcher and then cover the pitcher up with a net and slide it into the new tank!!!

You know where the pleco likes to hide?  Along the back of a piece of petrified wood!  You know where that petrified wood came from?  My dad brought it home one day in (guessing) 1957!  I've had that ever since and it is precious to me.  Cuz Dad gave it to me and I know about fossilized trees.

Hurray for the Pleco!  And hurray for the new fish tank!  I'm so glad it is finally up and running again.

The Aquarium

I mentioned weeks ago I had a problem with the fresh water "30 gallon high" aquarium.  It popped a fracture in the glass and leaked slowly.  I spend a long afternoon dragging stuff out of a deep closet to finally get at an old "20 gallon long aquarium" (same base size as 30 gal high).  I successfully moved all the fish to the 20 gallon long sitting on the floor (so I could siphon the water down).

I emptied the 30 gallon high of water, took out the plastic plants, and scooped out the gravel, and let it dry for days.   Then I bought a silicon aquarium sealer and applied it.  I let it dry for several days.  When I refilled it, it leaked again.

I drained it, let it dry, dried it mechanically  with paper towels and left the vaccuum cleaner exhaust blowing on it for hours, waited a few days, and re-sealed it.  It leaked again.  So I gave up and bought a new 30 gal high aquarium.  A 30 gallon high glass aquarium is not light.  I struggled to get it into the car from Petco (they had the vastly better price for the same aquarium).

I spent an hour removing all the plants from the old aquarium and scooping the gravel out.  Square food containers do a wonderful job of that!   It took some lifting to get the old leaking aquarium off the stand and onto a chair.  Then the new one in place.  I spent several minutes making sure the new aquarium was positioned properly on the stand.  That was after removing the background sheet from the old one and attaching it to the new tank.  It's just a colored sheet, but it gives a sense of depth to the tank.

So I filled up the new tank slowly, watching for any leaks at each rise in water level.  I didn't see any.  Sand first with square food container.  Then water, 2 qts at a time.  Man that is tedious.  A 2 qt pitcher takes 30 fills to get 1/2 way up!

But at least I could put the plastic plants back in at that point.  At least it looked better this time than the last.  I grouped the several styles better.  But having arranged the plants in the gravel, I couldn't just randomly pour new water in from a pitcher. Water-force too strong that way.  So I filled up a 5 gallon bucket on the top  and siphoned the water in slowly.   I filled the upper bucket continuously until it neared the top. 

I had an 12" long air bubbler working on the bottom to recirculate the water while the chlorine got evaporated out.  I remembered I had some powder that claimed to eliminate chlorine, chloromate/chloromine, and ammonia immediately, so I added some of that.  But I will still wait til tomorrow to add the fish back.  The old an new aquaria are both at room temperature right now so the fish won't suffer any temperature shock.  But room temp is too low for them in the long term.  As soon as the fish are transferred back to the new aquarium, I will raise the temp 1 degree per day to get the tank temp up to 76 where I think they do best.  I know, some people say 78 degrees, but they live longer at slightly cooler temps.

It will be great to have the fishtank working again.

But I have to tell you something that made me laugh about getting the new tank home.

I found the fine print of the guarantee on a small sticker inside the tank, facing away from view...

1.  They specified that the 5 year warranty only applied to their tanks on their own brand of stands.    What are the odds of that?  My aquarium stand is 50 years old and as solid as rock.  No new company builds them that solid anymore.  But it invalidates the warranty.

2.  They also demand that "the aquarium has not been lifted by the frame"...  Um, do you know any other way to transport one from store to stand other than handling the frame?  At some point, don't you HAVE to lift an aquarium onto a stand?  But there goes the warranty.  Who writes these things?

Idiots...   LOL!

Garden Harvest Starts

I finally got some garden harvest a few days ago,  Not much.  1 zucchini an 1 small tomato.  But they were good steamed together with some red onion!

I HAVE started getting italian flat pole beans and a few small cucumbers, but I forgot to take pictures (I had dinner on my mind).  My first main season heirloom tomatoes are getting large enough to start developing color soon.  The corn is sad again.  I JUST don't get enough sunlight for them.  They are tasseling at 3' high with 4" ears.  The celery is actually growing.  I've never successfully grown celery before. 

The flowerbed is doing OK.  I've kept the weeds clear better than usual, and the annuals are finally flowering.  They are in one large patch where I had some runner grass invade.  I kept digging it out and got rid of most, but I decided to just plant annual flowers there this year and dig it all up in Fall to get and the last of the runners.  I basically just used up all my annual seed packets, so there are marigolds, carnations, salvia, forget-me-not and wave petunias in small groups.  It will do for one year.

I need more sunlight.  Over the 25 years here, the neighbors' trees have grown huge and I get 6 hours sun at best.  I'm amazed I can still grow decent tomatoes (and they are getting leggier each year).