Well, 2016, you have a big job ahead of you. I don't mind saying that your predecessor, 2015, did a pretty poor job. There were many reasons we finally had to let him go.
Please try not to make the same mistakes. Your contract is for a full year (you drive a hard bargain) and there won't be much we can do if you screw up so we are stuck with you.
On the other hand, you are stuck with US too. So it's a mutual "let's try to get along" deal. Your year matters to US in that we have to live through it, but your legacy depends on it as well. Surely, you do not want to go down in history as "one of the bad years". We expect great efforts from you.
Pursuant to that, let us point out some salient terms of our contract. To wit:
Paragraph 3, subsection B, clause 12 - "Humans take no responsibility for their actions in any way, shape, form, and all general synonyms".
And clause 13 of the above - "2016 is entirely, totally, completely, and all general synonyms responsible for all bad events specified (but not limited to) clause 13, list 2:
List 2: War, Illness, Asteroids, Alien Invasion, Politics, Religious Extremism, Starvation and Hunger, Climate Change, Wildlife Extinction, Volcanic Activity, and Pollution". Plus items listed in Secret Addendums 2 and 3".
We note your objection that "Politics" were to be specifically excluded, but we snuck it back in and you signed the contract by appearing on January 1, 2016 midnight, so HA-HA-HA on YOU!
We remind you that, in accordance with standard practice (i.e., software licensing agreements), all disputes will be resolved in our favor by own personally-chosen hired arbitrators, so you don't have a snowball's chance in a furnace of winning any argument.
So we wish you a successful year with us, 2016! Good luck.
You'll NEED it!
Humanity
Friday, January 1, 2016
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
The HD TV
It went full circle tonight. Years ago, when I first shopped for an HD TV, one on the showroom HD TVs showed a dinosaur stampede among humans. I was stunned both by the action and by the realism! I asked "What is THAT and the salesman said it was the new King Kong movie.
I bought a 60" plasma tv that day, but not so I could watch the movie. I prefer nature/science/biology DVDs. But every time the newer King Kong movie was on, I checked it for the dinosaur stampede. Never caught it... Too early, too late, whatever.
But I caught it tonight. Saw the listing and just as I turned it on, the dinosaur stampede started. Watched that whole part. Finally!!! And then I turned it off. The movie itself is both too depressing and too weirdly violent. Movies where too many people are just obliterated are Not My Thing...
I bought a 60" plasma tv that day, but not so I could watch the movie. I prefer nature/science/biology DVDs. But every time the newer King Kong movie was on, I checked it for the dinosaur stampede. Never caught it... Too early, too late, whatever.
But I caught it tonight. Saw the listing and just as I turned it on, the dinosaur stampede started. Watched that whole part. Finally!!! And then I turned it off. The movie itself is both too depressing and too weirdly violent. Movies where too many people are just obliterated are Not My Thing...
More Bulb Planting Fun
The Project That Never Ends continues... WHAT was I thinking when I ordered 350 tulips/hyacinths/daffodils to plant? Well, I suppose because I had new space and I decided in September to landscape rather than just plant grass. And its not the bulbs, its the making of and the digging for all the wire cages to protect them from the Evil Squirrels and Nasty Voles.
Just planted in the ground, the squirrels dig them up from above and the voles eat them from below. I'm hoping the wire cages keep them safe and blooming for years. But I never expected it would be so much work!
I've bored you with the process before, so I won't do that again. But even to do a few cages takes time. It's the weather...
In one sense, I have been very lucky with the weather. The ground is usually frozen hard by mid November and it has stayed oddly warm this year. So I have had more time to plant them. On the other hand, it has rained some almost every day for 6 weeks. Not that we are flooded; the rain is a soft drizzle. But that's enough to make the soil slippery and muddy. And you don't want to dig in wet soil because it packs down. And at the end of a day working in wet soil, I would look like The Swamp Thing!
So I have a large 36'x30' sheet of plastic I cover the area with every day. OK, the bottom 4' are not covered, but that section was the first I planted so I don't have to step in it.
So every day when it is not raining, I take all the stones off some of the edges of the plastic, peel it back for where I want to plant, and get 3 more bulb cages (holding 9 bulbs each) set in. 3 cages take about 90 minutes and after that I'm tired. Well, each hole has to be 14"x16" and 12" deep. And the dug up soil has to go somewhere other than on top of the previous plantings (I have styrofoam plates marking the planted spots and I can't cover THEM).
So putting the dug-up soil gets trickier the more cages I plant. I have all the tulips planted (20 cages) and I am on the hyacinths at the outer edge on one side. That side (of the 30' edged circle) is the easier to dig in (sandier soil vs clayier soil), so I favor that area for digging.
The other side of the circle will be for daffodils, more about those when I plant them, but they are FAR easier to plant...
So I wanted to start on the hyacinths yesserday. The forecast looked good. The Weather Channel website for my town said no rain until 6 pm. Hurray! I got started at 2:30. It took 15 minutes to get the ools and bulbs outside and peel the plastic sheeting off. So I started to dig the first hole.
And then it started to rain! Misty at first but then more steadily... Dammit! I waited a few minutes as the rain got heavier. But I gave up and re-covered the planting site with the plastic and put all the tools away.
Fortunately, I also needed to go grocery-shopping, so off I went with rain falling on the windshield. For 2 minutes...
Then it stopped completely. For the rest of daylight. ARGHHH!
Well, at least I got the grocery-shopping done...
Just planted in the ground, the squirrels dig them up from above and the voles eat them from below. I'm hoping the wire cages keep them safe and blooming for years. But I never expected it would be so much work!
I've bored you with the process before, so I won't do that again. But even to do a few cages takes time. It's the weather...
In one sense, I have been very lucky with the weather. The ground is usually frozen hard by mid November and it has stayed oddly warm this year. So I have had more time to plant them. On the other hand, it has rained some almost every day for 6 weeks. Not that we are flooded; the rain is a soft drizzle. But that's enough to make the soil slippery and muddy. And you don't want to dig in wet soil because it packs down. And at the end of a day working in wet soil, I would look like The Swamp Thing!
So I have a large 36'x30' sheet of plastic I cover the area with every day. OK, the bottom 4' are not covered, but that section was the first I planted so I don't have to step in it.
So every day when it is not raining, I take all the stones off some of the edges of the plastic, peel it back for where I want to plant, and get 3 more bulb cages (holding 9 bulbs each) set in. 3 cages take about 90 minutes and after that I'm tired. Well, each hole has to be 14"x16" and 12" deep. And the dug up soil has to go somewhere other than on top of the previous plantings (I have styrofoam plates marking the planted spots and I can't cover THEM).
So putting the dug-up soil gets trickier the more cages I plant. I have all the tulips planted (20 cages) and I am on the hyacinths at the outer edge on one side. That side (of the 30' edged circle) is the easier to dig in (sandier soil vs clayier soil), so I favor that area for digging.
The other side of the circle will be for daffodils, more about those when I plant them, but they are FAR easier to plant...
So I wanted to start on the hyacinths yesserday. The forecast looked good. The Weather Channel website for my town said no rain until 6 pm. Hurray! I got started at 2:30. It took 15 minutes to get the ools and bulbs outside and peel the plastic sheeting off. So I started to dig the first hole.
And then it started to rain! Misty at first but then more steadily... Dammit! I waited a few minutes as the rain got heavier. But I gave up and re-covered the planting site with the plastic and put all the tools away.
Fortunately, I also needed to go grocery-shopping, so off I went with rain falling on the windshield. For 2 minutes...
Then it stopped completely. For the rest of daylight. ARGHHH!
Well, at least I got the grocery-shopping done...
Saturday, December 26, 2015
What Are My Politics?
I've never figured that out really. I usually end up voting for Democrats, but that's not much about party. I just like ideas that are fact-based and seem like they will work. Too often, we assign our political views to party ideology.
For example, I think (Conservative) it is worthwhile to protect our borders. I don't want mass immigrations of one group of people coming in. But I do want immigration (Liberal). From all around the world. Equally. That is neither Republican nor Democrat; Conservative or Liberal.
We need people to come and help harvest the crops from our farms. It is seasonal work. So let'slet it be "guest-worker" status that helps all of us. They get wages to help their families back home, we get the massive crops to fill our stores and to export to other countries not so farmland-rich. It helps all.
But why should we need to allow foreign workers to harvest our crops? That bothers me when we have unemployed citizens. Why can't they do the same work (Conservative)?
Well, in one sense, they don't have the experience to do it. If you are a city person, you don't have the experience. You can't be expected to do what you are not experienced to do (Liberal). But if you need a job, you should be able to learn basic work skills (Conservative). But how do you get the skills to harvest farmcrops if the only vegetable you ever see is in a school lunch (Liberal).
See how confusing it can get?
We need The New Deal brought back again. You can also call it "Workfare"(Conservative). Why not create new Government Programs to employ the unemployed at working on infrastructure and farms. Call it on-the-job training where they learn employable skills (Liberal).
We need a lot of building work done here. We have unemployed people on welfare. Why not combine the two (Conservative). Yeah, and give them a livable wage (Liberal).
Give a family a house for free and they will trash it (Conservative), but help them to afford to buy one and they will cherish it (Liberal).
Get the idea?
My view is that there are too many superrich people and too many seriously poor ones. This country had it's best days when there was a large middle class. A large middle class means both stability and class mobilty.
The possibilty of class mobility is probably the best thing we ever had/have. The local rich guy's kids should be ABLE to fail. The poorest kids should be ABLE to succeed. And Middle class kids Should go in either direction as their skills allow.
The current rules are set up legally and financially to prevent that (Liberal). And the bias toward massive inherited wealth is getting stronger (Conservative).
I don't want specifically Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal. I want the recreation of a strong majority Middle Class through some Centrist bi-partisan politics. Because a majority Middle Class is what makes a democracy work best.
For example, I think (Conservative) it is worthwhile to protect our borders. I don't want mass immigrations of one group of people coming in. But I do want immigration (Liberal). From all around the world. Equally. That is neither Republican nor Democrat; Conservative or Liberal.
We need people to come and help harvest the crops from our farms. It is seasonal work. So let'slet it be "guest-worker" status that helps all of us. They get wages to help their families back home, we get the massive crops to fill our stores and to export to other countries not so farmland-rich. It helps all.
But why should we need to allow foreign workers to harvest our crops? That bothers me when we have unemployed citizens. Why can't they do the same work (Conservative)?
Well, in one sense, they don't have the experience to do it. If you are a city person, you don't have the experience. You can't be expected to do what you are not experienced to do (Liberal). But if you need a job, you should be able to learn basic work skills (Conservative). But how do you get the skills to harvest farmcrops if the only vegetable you ever see is in a school lunch (Liberal).
See how confusing it can get?
We need The New Deal brought back again. You can also call it "Workfare"(Conservative). Why not create new Government Programs to employ the unemployed at working on infrastructure and farms. Call it on-the-job training where they learn employable skills (Liberal).
We need a lot of building work done here. We have unemployed people on welfare. Why not combine the two (Conservative). Yeah, and give them a livable wage (Liberal).
Give a family a house for free and they will trash it (Conservative), but help them to afford to buy one and they will cherish it (Liberal).
Get the idea?
My view is that there are too many superrich people and too many seriously poor ones. This country had it's best days when there was a large middle class. A large middle class means both stability and class mobilty.
The possibilty of class mobility is probably the best thing we ever had/have. The local rich guy's kids should be ABLE to fail. The poorest kids should be ABLE to succeed. And Middle class kids Should go in either direction as their skills allow.
The current rules are set up legally and financially to prevent that (Liberal). And the bias toward massive inherited wealth is getting stronger (Conservative).
I don't want specifically Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal. I want the recreation of a strong majority Middle Class through some Centrist bi-partisan politics. Because a majority Middle Class is what makes a democracy work best.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Tulip Planting Concerns
I have realized that all my tulip bulb planting efforts MIGHT be a waste of time. Spring-Flowering bulbs like tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils (et al) need "chill time". In other words, they have to get cold enough for long enough to flower properly.
Tulips require temperatures below 50F to begin to chill. The colder they are, the less time they need. This has been an unusually warm December here. We have set a couple of record high temps, but that wouldn't be too much of a problem if it also got cold sometimes.
We have only had 3 nights below 32F here this month and are not forecast to have another until JANUARY. This is almost beyond bizarre! The average frist hard freeze here is usually in late October and the ground usually freezes a foot down for the Winter by early December.
I sure appreciate the warmish weather for the ability to keep working outside, but what is likely to happen next Spring is that I will have tulip plants, but no flowers. After all this work, that would be a hard blow. At least (as I read on most sites), that won't harm the plants permanently, just prevent blooms next year.
At minimum, tulips need 8-10 weeks of freezing ground. And since that isn't likely to happen until early January, I am going to need a late Winter keeping the ground really cold into mid-March. And THAT isn't the usual pattern here.
And I still have 8 cages of tulips and 8 cages of hyacinths to plant! And 150 daffodils, but they don't need cages (being toxic to voles and squirrels) so I can just use my drill auger to plant them individually. And from past experience, I know I CAN plant 150 daffodils that way in 2 days easily.
I think I will take the hyacinths and plant them in some large plastic tubs I have. The voles can't get into the tubs and I'll cover the tops with wire mesh to keep the squirrels out. I can harvest the bulbs in May to plant them properly
These are probably the last tulips and hyacinths I will plant. The Winters are getting too short for them to survive. I shouldn't have planted these, but I got all excited when I had an excavator remove the 6' high ridge in the backyard and thought of things I could plant there instead of grass to mow. I love to see almost anything more than grass...
And I still have 200 crocus bulbs to plant! I kind of got in over my head this year. But better to try to much and stay busy, then to try too little and look back with regret at wasted time now, next year.
But I also have to say... I've lived in this spot for 30 years. I've seen the changes in the seasons as only a gardener/landscaper can. The ground used to be frozen solid by the start of December. Now it happens at the start of January (this isn't the first year of warmish weather at Solstice around here).
Anyone who thinks the climate isn't generally warming isn't a gardener!
Tulips require temperatures below 50F to begin to chill. The colder they are, the less time they need. This has been an unusually warm December here. We have set a couple of record high temps, but that wouldn't be too much of a problem if it also got cold sometimes.
We have only had 3 nights below 32F here this month and are not forecast to have another until JANUARY. This is almost beyond bizarre! The average frist hard freeze here is usually in late October and the ground usually freezes a foot down for the Winter by early December.
I sure appreciate the warmish weather for the ability to keep working outside, but what is likely to happen next Spring is that I will have tulip plants, but no flowers. After all this work, that would be a hard blow. At least (as I read on most sites), that won't harm the plants permanently, just prevent blooms next year.
At minimum, tulips need 8-10 weeks of freezing ground. And since that isn't likely to happen until early January, I am going to need a late Winter keeping the ground really cold into mid-March. And THAT isn't the usual pattern here.
And I still have 8 cages of tulips and 8 cages of hyacinths to plant! And 150 daffodils, but they don't need cages (being toxic to voles and squirrels) so I can just use my drill auger to plant them individually. And from past experience, I know I CAN plant 150 daffodils that way in 2 days easily.
I think I will take the hyacinths and plant them in some large plastic tubs I have. The voles can't get into the tubs and I'll cover the tops with wire mesh to keep the squirrels out. I can harvest the bulbs in May to plant them properly
These are probably the last tulips and hyacinths I will plant. The Winters are getting too short for them to survive. I shouldn't have planted these, but I got all excited when I had an excavator remove the 6' high ridge in the backyard and thought of things I could plant there instead of grass to mow. I love to see almost anything more than grass...
And I still have 200 crocus bulbs to plant! I kind of got in over my head this year. But better to try to much and stay busy, then to try too little and look back with regret at wasted time now, next year.
But I also have to say... I've lived in this spot for 30 years. I've seen the changes in the seasons as only a gardener/landscaper can. The ground used to be frozen solid by the start of December. Now it happens at the start of January (this isn't the first year of warmish weather at Solstice around here).
Anyone who thinks the climate isn't generally warming isn't a gardener!
Monday, December 21, 2015
Winter Solstice
I celebrate this day! No I'm not a modern day Druid or anything, but this day means something to me. I am just very practical about the day. It is the shortest day of the year. Tommorrow, the days will start getting longer.
The longer days will lead to gardening season.
The gardening season leads to fresh tomatoes, fresh bicolor corn, small seedless cucumbers, flat italian beans, celery leaves and spicy greens to add to salads, fresh ripe melons, zucchini, and all the minor crops.
It leads to spring bulbs that I love walking among and admiring in my backyard.
It leads to some time standing out on the deck looking at the backyard and thinking what I will do to reclaim the far parts from brambles that have gotten a bit out-of-control the past 2 years since I had a few trees removed.
It leads to the cats enjoying the outside again and running around all crazy for the shear joy of running.
It leads to thoughts of projects that will be harder than I expect but worth it after all the effort.
AND (many of you will have to just tolerate me on this), it IS the ORIGINAL "Reason for the Season". I don't say hat lightly. Just that most ancient religious beliefs have oriented around the Winter Solstice. It makes sense that "Hope Springs" when the days start to get longer and promise a new beginning.
May There Be Peace on Earth, and Good Will to All. :)
Mark
The longer days will lead to gardening season.
The gardening season leads to fresh tomatoes, fresh bicolor corn, small seedless cucumbers, flat italian beans, celery leaves and spicy greens to add to salads, fresh ripe melons, zucchini, and all the minor crops.
It leads to spring bulbs that I love walking among and admiring in my backyard.
It leads to some time standing out on the deck looking at the backyard and thinking what I will do to reclaim the far parts from brambles that have gotten a bit out-of-control the past 2 years since I had a few trees removed.
It leads to the cats enjoying the outside again and running around all crazy for the shear joy of running.
It leads to thoughts of projects that will be harder than I expect but worth it after all the effort.
AND (many of you will have to just tolerate me on this), it IS the ORIGINAL "Reason for the Season". I don't say hat lightly. Just that most ancient religious beliefs have oriented around the Winter Solstice. It makes sense that "Hope Springs" when the days start to get longer and promise a new beginning.
May There Be Peace on Earth, and Good Will to All. :)
Mark
Sunday, December 20, 2015
More Tulip Planting
Why do I keep getting involved in these projects that are nearly beyond my ability? It is easy to plan things, I suppose, underestimating the physical work required. Back in September, I ordered enough tulip bulps to fit 9 each into 27 cages. Seemed like there was plenty of time...
(Some of this may have been previously mentioned)...
But then I learned that the bulbs wouldn't be shipped until early November. So no point in doing anything before then. (coff, coff) Well, yeah, I SHOULD have made all the cages before then, but I thought that would only take a day. I mean, I have good metal snips and a couple of metal blades for my jigsaw. It should be like cutting cardboard.
WRONG! The first cut into the wire mesh bends the cut wire and those grab the snips. And the wire mesh is so flexible, it just vibrates along with the jigsaw blade to no effect. So each wire in the grid along the cutting path has to be individually snipped from straight down. I counted once and each cage required 277 snips! After 4 of those cage cutouts (and forming the cutout into a cage) my hands started cramping. It took a week to make 20 cages, and at that point I decided I better plant some and see how well they worked.
Well, digging the holes for the cages couldn't be all that hard, right? 12'x14'x10' deep. I knew I was in trouble at the first stomp on the spade. Now, this is a 100% metal spade with a newly sharpened flat blade. Roots, rocks, clay. I had to pound in an outline of the cage, use my leverage fork to break up the inside portion of the hole-to-be, pry out rocks, axe roots, and shovel out the soil one level at a time. The clay stuck to the shovel and had to be knocked off. For every shovelful I scooped out, I had to do several different things! Each cage planting took 30 minutes of hard work.
Best I could manage was 3 holes a day before I was exhausted. I can still do that kind of work at 65, but I don't think I would have done much better at 35. Back was sore, legs were sore, hips were sore.
But just digging the hole is only half the work. The soil below the hole had to be loosened so hole wasn't just a smooth clay bathtub and so the bulb roots could penetrate. Tnen I had to sprinkle in some organic bulb fertilers and mix in in the loosened bottom. Then I had to add some 1/2 compost 1/2 topsoil blend I bought a trailerload of at a landscaping place and mix in more fertilizer. Then place the cage on the bottom and add more of the compost blend (you don't want the bulbs ON the wire mesh).
Then set the bulbs in the cage in a way that looks "natural" (If there is anything less "natural" than this whole process, I can't imagine it), then fill up he cage with for blend (for good drainage). Then add another couple inches of blend over the top and rub it around to make sure there was no air space in the cage. Then shovel some of the removed soil back on top slightly higher than soil level to allow for settling.
As a final gesture of organization, I bought a package of styrofoam plates to use as placers, wrote the name of the bulb (I have 4 varieties of tulips) on the plate with a marker, and stuck the plate over the spot with a 10" metal tent peg.
That's ONE cage of 9 bulbs...
Then because it has suddenly become randomly rainy lately, I had to cover the entire area with a large sheet of plastic (which I have) so the entire area wouldn't become a sea of mud. Naturally, with the rain comes wind, so I had to surround the perimeter with rocks. Which weren't enough, since the plastic was blown loose each of the first couple tries. I finally had to resort to using 12' sq paver stones and REALLY large rocks and old pipes etc to hold it down.
And since the plastic cover got blown loose the first couple of times and I had to let the soil dry some (and some days when the plastic STAYED on after that, it rained all day so I couldn't really do any work there anyway).
So here I am in late December, having planted only 12 of the 20 cages. And everytime I do, I have hand-cramps a couple hours later (naturally, just the time I am trying to prepare dinner). Muscle rub creme helps, as does an aspirin, but only about 30 minutes after they start. Meanwhile, I'll be cutting up veggies and meat, and my fingers just lock into place around the knife handle or cooking pot handle and I actually have to pull them off.
ARGGHHH! I would worry more, but that only happens after a day of hard tool use. But it still is really annoying.
I've gotten better at the process. Between the spade, the shovel, the leverage fork, and the post hole digger, I can get the hole dug out a bit easier and faster. The spade defines the outline, the leverage fork breaks up the soil inside the outline, the shovel scoops out the loosened soil, and the post hole digger takes up the lower level of soil better. But, mainly, switching tools uses different muscles so I don't get sore so fast. I have it down to 20 minutes per planting a cage start to finish.
Fortunately, we don't have freezing temperatures forecast again until January. But therein lays a problem. More about that in 2 days!
(Some of this may have been previously mentioned)...
But then I learned that the bulbs wouldn't be shipped until early November. So no point in doing anything before then. (coff, coff) Well, yeah, I SHOULD have made all the cages before then, but I thought that would only take a day. I mean, I have good metal snips and a couple of metal blades for my jigsaw. It should be like cutting cardboard.
WRONG! The first cut into the wire mesh bends the cut wire and those grab the snips. And the wire mesh is so flexible, it just vibrates along with the jigsaw blade to no effect. So each wire in the grid along the cutting path has to be individually snipped from straight down. I counted once and each cage required 277 snips! After 4 of those cage cutouts (and forming the cutout into a cage) my hands started cramping. It took a week to make 20 cages, and at that point I decided I better plant some and see how well they worked.
Well, digging the holes for the cages couldn't be all that hard, right? 12'x14'x10' deep. I knew I was in trouble at the first stomp on the spade. Now, this is a 100% metal spade with a newly sharpened flat blade. Roots, rocks, clay. I had to pound in an outline of the cage, use my leverage fork to break up the inside portion of the hole-to-be, pry out rocks, axe roots, and shovel out the soil one level at a time. The clay stuck to the shovel and had to be knocked off. For every shovelful I scooped out, I had to do several different things! Each cage planting took 30 minutes of hard work.
Best I could manage was 3 holes a day before I was exhausted. I can still do that kind of work at 65, but I don't think I would have done much better at 35. Back was sore, legs were sore, hips were sore.
But just digging the hole is only half the work. The soil below the hole had to be loosened so hole wasn't just a smooth clay bathtub and so the bulb roots could penetrate. Tnen I had to sprinkle in some organic bulb fertilers and mix in in the loosened bottom. Then I had to add some 1/2 compost 1/2 topsoil blend I bought a trailerload of at a landscaping place and mix in more fertilizer. Then place the cage on the bottom and add more of the compost blend (you don't want the bulbs ON the wire mesh).
Then set the bulbs in the cage in a way that looks "natural" (If there is anything less "natural" than this whole process, I can't imagine it), then fill up he cage with for blend (for good drainage). Then add another couple inches of blend over the top and rub it around to make sure there was no air space in the cage. Then shovel some of the removed soil back on top slightly higher than soil level to allow for settling.
As a final gesture of organization, I bought a package of styrofoam plates to use as placers, wrote the name of the bulb (I have 4 varieties of tulips) on the plate with a marker, and stuck the plate over the spot with a 10" metal tent peg.
That's ONE cage of 9 bulbs...
Then because it has suddenly become randomly rainy lately, I had to cover the entire area with a large sheet of plastic (which I have) so the entire area wouldn't become a sea of mud. Naturally, with the rain comes wind, so I had to surround the perimeter with rocks. Which weren't enough, since the plastic was blown loose each of the first couple tries. I finally had to resort to using 12' sq paver stones and REALLY large rocks and old pipes etc to hold it down.
And since the plastic cover got blown loose the first couple of times and I had to let the soil dry some (and some days when the plastic STAYED on after that, it rained all day so I couldn't really do any work there anyway).
So here I am in late December, having planted only 12 of the 20 cages. And everytime I do, I have hand-cramps a couple hours later (naturally, just the time I am trying to prepare dinner). Muscle rub creme helps, as does an aspirin, but only about 30 minutes after they start. Meanwhile, I'll be cutting up veggies and meat, and my fingers just lock into place around the knife handle or cooking pot handle and I actually have to pull them off.
ARGGHHH! I would worry more, but that only happens after a day of hard tool use. But it still is really annoying.
I've gotten better at the process. Between the spade, the shovel, the leverage fork, and the post hole digger, I can get the hole dug out a bit easier and faster. The spade defines the outline, the leverage fork breaks up the soil inside the outline, the shovel scoops out the loosened soil, and the post hole digger takes up the lower level of soil better. But, mainly, switching tools uses different muscles so I don't get sore so fast. I have it down to 20 minutes per planting a cage start to finish.
Fortunately, we don't have freezing temperatures forecast again until January. But therein lays a problem. More about that in 2 days!
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Really Stupid
You ever done something dumb? I don't mean robbing a bank or driving your car into a tree. I mean small stupid. I decided my old Rival crockpot which worked fine for 30 years was too annoying to clean. So I wanted a better one. One that had a removable stoneware insert that was easier to wash. And products get better, right?
So I ended up ordering a 5 qt stoneware removable inset crockpot. They day I received it, I tossed my old Rival in the trash. Its gone. And then I realized that the new one wasn't right for me at all. Too big and clumsy. So I returned it.
And was crockpotless... So I went searching for a smaller one everywhere.
I don't know about you, but I pay a lot of attention to negative comments about products. The new ones my 2.5 to 3 qt size were all "too hot", "burned food", "couldn't be left unattended for more than 30 minutes" etc.
Oh damn!
And I hate the way they look. White, polka dotted, metal "burns you" "burns food but all the new ones do".
I decided cleaning the old one wasn't all THAT bad. Sometimes you have to return to what you know works. I went to Ebay. I bought the same Rival crockpot I had before. At twice the price and almost the same amount for shipping. It grates on my nerves to do that, but I'll be happier.
One thing I've learned is that sometimes paying for a mistake is sometimes better than hoping for a better outcome in the face of contrary information. I want my old crockpot back, and I have to pay to get it.
So I ended up ordering a 5 qt stoneware removable inset crockpot. They day I received it, I tossed my old Rival in the trash. Its gone. And then I realized that the new one wasn't right for me at all. Too big and clumsy. So I returned it.
And was crockpotless... So I went searching for a smaller one everywhere.
I don't know about you, but I pay a lot of attention to negative comments about products. The new ones my 2.5 to 3 qt size were all "too hot", "burned food", "couldn't be left unattended for more than 30 minutes" etc.
Oh damn!
And I hate the way they look. White, polka dotted, metal "burns you" "burns food but all the new ones do".
I decided cleaning the old one wasn't all THAT bad. Sometimes you have to return to what you know works. I went to Ebay. I bought the same Rival crockpot I had before. At twice the price and almost the same amount for shipping. It grates on my nerves to do that, but I'll be happier.
One thing I've learned is that sometimes paying for a mistake is sometimes better than hoping for a better outcome in the face of contrary information. I want my old crockpot back, and I have to pay to get it.
Friday, December 18, 2015
Hey, Republican and Democratic Candidates
1. I want the infrastructure rebuilt.
2. I'm tired of stupid wars from Korea to the present.
3. Let's stop subsidizing agri-businesses that are making fortunes.
4. Let's remake Unions to counterbalance CEOs.
5. Let's let the minor drug prisoners go home to their families.
6. Let's stop the police from shooting every black male who "looks threatening".
7. Let's stop insane people from buying guns.
8. Let's stop letting people from buying assault rifles. Period.
9. Let's fix our schools. We can't survive raising uneducated children.
10. Let's raise the social security retirement age. 70 is what 65 used to be.
11. Why do rich people get to avoid social security taxes above a certain amount? Flat that tax!
12. Raise the minimum wage. I'm tired of supporting the low Walmart wages with tax subsidies to keep those workers fed and sheltered beyond what Walmart and McDonalds pays. Let THEM pay for their workers' needs.
13. End restaurant tipping. Pay waiters, etc, regular wages!
14. Let the Middle East fight their own wars. It's a religious battle and I don't really care who wins.
15. Stop subsidizing fossil fuels. Let us grow into renewable energy sources.
16. Stop illegal immigration. Really. Mexico could do it from their side. And we give them money.
16A. Encourage talented and educated immigrants to come here from EVERYWHERE! We thrive on diversity.
17. End billionaire control over elections. Its one person, one vote; not one dollar, one vote.
18. Start "if you are too big to fail, you are too big to exist" trustbusting.
19. Begin aggressive anti-foreign hacking attacks. Consider blowing up a Chinese ship in exchange for a hack-attack by the Chinese govt. Focus their attention on consequences.
20. Support our friends who fight our battles. Kurds. Syrian rebels.
When the US attacked Iraq in 2003, I and my friends ASSUMED that we would have political experts following closely behind to support local communities in constructing democracy. We were shocked when we did not but not surprised at the insanity that followed. If ever there was a lost opportunity, that was it. The Bush/Cheney Administration failed at so many levels there. And too many Republicans want to repeat those errors.
Let's not let that happen again. Let's stop being all "Dick Cheney" about international events. Let's start being smarter.
2. I'm tired of stupid wars from Korea to the present.
3. Let's stop subsidizing agri-businesses that are making fortunes.
4. Let's remake Unions to counterbalance CEOs.
5. Let's let the minor drug prisoners go home to their families.
6. Let's stop the police from shooting every black male who "looks threatening".
7. Let's stop insane people from buying guns.
8. Let's stop letting people from buying assault rifles. Period.
9. Let's fix our schools. We can't survive raising uneducated children.
10. Let's raise the social security retirement age. 70 is what 65 used to be.
11. Why do rich people get to avoid social security taxes above a certain amount? Flat that tax!
12. Raise the minimum wage. I'm tired of supporting the low Walmart wages with tax subsidies to keep those workers fed and sheltered beyond what Walmart and McDonalds pays. Let THEM pay for their workers' needs.
13. End restaurant tipping. Pay waiters, etc, regular wages!
14. Let the Middle East fight their own wars. It's a religious battle and I don't really care who wins.
15. Stop subsidizing fossil fuels. Let us grow into renewable energy sources.
16. Stop illegal immigration. Really. Mexico could do it from their side. And we give them money.
16A. Encourage talented and educated immigrants to come here from EVERYWHERE! We thrive on diversity.
17. End billionaire control over elections. Its one person, one vote; not one dollar, one vote.
18. Start "if you are too big to fail, you are too big to exist" trustbusting.
19. Begin aggressive anti-foreign hacking attacks. Consider blowing up a Chinese ship in exchange for a hack-attack by the Chinese govt. Focus their attention on consequences.
20. Support our friends who fight our battles. Kurds. Syrian rebels.
When the US attacked Iraq in 2003, I and my friends ASSUMED that we would have political experts following closely behind to support local communities in constructing democracy. We were shocked when we did not but not surprised at the insanity that followed. If ever there was a lost opportunity, that was it. The Bush/Cheney Administration failed at so many levels there. And too many Republicans want to repeat those errors.
Let's not let that happen again. Let's stop being all "Dick Cheney" about international events. Let's start being smarter.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
The Good: I had planned to go to the post office to mail the Cat's cards and my own on Wednesday. But I got up too late. Don't laugh, I keep REALLY weird hours sometimes. But then I realized it was going to rain all day Thursday and I figured that would keep the customer line short in the morning. I was right, "maybe".
I walked in and there was NO line. But before I got my turn at the counter, there there 10 people behind me! So it was just REALLY lucky timing. It took me less time to BUY the 52 domestic mail stamps and arrange for the 9 international envelopes than it took to APPLY the 52 stamps to the domestic mail envelopes than it did to arrange for the 9 international.
But thank you USPS for inventing peel&stick stamps!
More Good: With the time I saved not standing in line at the Post Office, I was able to get to the meat&liquor store (a really neat place) before the lunch crowd rolled in to crowd up the deli counter. I was in and out in 15 minutes. If I get there with the lunch crowd or when the high school next door lets out at 2:30 it can take an hour!
The Bad: I've been going a little nuts trying to mow the lawn. Yeah, so that doesn't seem a big deal... But I haven't since early September when I had the soil level raised and sowed new grass there. The grass was too new and the soil was too soft until November. I wanted the new grass to develop deep roots and deep roots come from high grass (they each power the other). And then it has rained just some every few days since. You don't want to cut wet grass (fungal diseases). So I finally got 3 dry days and went to mow.
More Bad: Dead riding mower battery since it hadn't been used for 3 full months! Even the boat battery I keep in the toolshed was dead. Fortunately, I had just bought and charged a portable power pack and jump-started it. Started right up, so it wasn't old gas, fouled spark plugs etc. Mowed the lawn and mowed it double. Thats because I don't rake leaves, I shred them in place. It's good for the grass and the trees to keep the nutrients in place. The leave shreds disappear into the ground after enough cuts. But the next day, the mower battery was just as dead as before.
I have to keep the power pack on the mower between my legs as I mow now. &*@# Everytime I stop the mower, I have to jump-start it again. When batteries get too low, the charger won't detect the "too low" battery. A glimmer of hope though: I've just read that if you put a charger on a good battery and connect THAT one to a "too low" battery, the charger detects the good battery and the good battery transfers the charge to the Too Low battery. I haven't tried that yet.
The Ugly: The planting of tulip and hyacinth bulbs in vole&squirrel proof cages is WAY behind schedule. The soil is what was below the ridge I had removed in September, and it is a lot harder to dig in than I expected. My cages are 12'x14'x4". They have to be buried at least 8" deep. It is taking 30 minutes per hole. I acted like a crazed lunatic on one just to see how fast I could possible dig one. and plant the cages with the bulbs and compost/topsoil mix and 2-6-3 fertilizer AND put a labeled styrofoam plate pinned with a metal tent peg.
20 minutes, and I was exhausted... Best I could do all out fanatic crazy was 3 cages in 75 minutes!
Its the stones, tree roots, and clay. And all the other details (sprinkling fertilizer, scooping the compost/topsoil mix into a bucket to pour over it all, and then covering it with existing soil takes a lot more time than I realized. 10 days of that (in non-rain days) and I have 11 of 20 cages planted. And I have 150 daffodils to plant (which at least don't need cages, being toxic to mammals, and I can use an small auger for those.
But the worrisome thing is that tulips, etc, need chilling time, and the ground here is usually frozen by December 1st. So it is possible that none of all these bulbs I am killing myself planting will bloom at all next year (they would grow foliage and bloom next year if there is enough chill-time), but climate-warming may make all my work futile!
More Ugly: Winter is coming, and even though my 11 year Toyota Highlander is kept in a built-in garage, the battery routinely dies. The experts say I just don't drive enough. So I might be looking at 3 months of having to jump-start the car in the garage everytime I want to go anywhere (everything I need is within a mile usually and once every couple weeks I drive 10 miles to the meat/wine store). I have to keep a fully charged boat battery in the car for jump starts. It isn't the battery, new ones die too.
Hey, some people love to drive, I don't.
It begins with the first hard freeze and ends with the last hard freeze. Yet the garage temperature never falls below 45F. Drives me nuts. I KNOW there has to be some car component that is drawing on the battery in cold weather, but I can't image what. One of the many things Dad didn't teach me about was cars. The experts at dealership and online just say drive it 30 minutes every few days. ARGH!
I walked in and there was NO line. But before I got my turn at the counter, there there 10 people behind me! So it was just REALLY lucky timing. It took me less time to BUY the 52 domestic mail stamps and arrange for the 9 international envelopes than it took to APPLY the 52 stamps to the domestic mail envelopes than it did to arrange for the 9 international.
But thank you USPS for inventing peel&stick stamps!
More Good: With the time I saved not standing in line at the Post Office, I was able to get to the meat&liquor store (a really neat place) before the lunch crowd rolled in to crowd up the deli counter. I was in and out in 15 minutes. If I get there with the lunch crowd or when the high school next door lets out at 2:30 it can take an hour!
The Bad: I've been going a little nuts trying to mow the lawn. Yeah, so that doesn't seem a big deal... But I haven't since early September when I had the soil level raised and sowed new grass there. The grass was too new and the soil was too soft until November. I wanted the new grass to develop deep roots and deep roots come from high grass (they each power the other). And then it has rained just some every few days since. You don't want to cut wet grass (fungal diseases). So I finally got 3 dry days and went to mow.
More Bad: Dead riding mower battery since it hadn't been used for 3 full months! Even the boat battery I keep in the toolshed was dead. Fortunately, I had just bought and charged a portable power pack and jump-started it. Started right up, so it wasn't old gas, fouled spark plugs etc. Mowed the lawn and mowed it double. Thats because I don't rake leaves, I shred them in place. It's good for the grass and the trees to keep the nutrients in place. The leave shreds disappear into the ground after enough cuts. But the next day, the mower battery was just as dead as before.
I have to keep the power pack on the mower between my legs as I mow now. &*@# Everytime I stop the mower, I have to jump-start it again. When batteries get too low, the charger won't detect the "too low" battery. A glimmer of hope though: I've just read that if you put a charger on a good battery and connect THAT one to a "too low" battery, the charger detects the good battery and the good battery transfers the charge to the Too Low battery. I haven't tried that yet.
The Ugly: The planting of tulip and hyacinth bulbs in vole&squirrel proof cages is WAY behind schedule. The soil is what was below the ridge I had removed in September, and it is a lot harder to dig in than I expected. My cages are 12'x14'x4". They have to be buried at least 8" deep. It is taking 30 minutes per hole. I acted like a crazed lunatic on one just to see how fast I could possible dig one. and plant the cages with the bulbs and compost/topsoil mix and 2-6-3 fertilizer AND put a labeled styrofoam plate pinned with a metal tent peg.
20 minutes, and I was exhausted... Best I could do all out fanatic crazy was 3 cages in 75 minutes!
Its the stones, tree roots, and clay. And all the other details (sprinkling fertilizer, scooping the compost/topsoil mix into a bucket to pour over it all, and then covering it with existing soil takes a lot more time than I realized. 10 days of that (in non-rain days) and I have 11 of 20 cages planted. And I have 150 daffodils to plant (which at least don't need cages, being toxic to mammals, and I can use an small auger for those.
But the worrisome thing is that tulips, etc, need chilling time, and the ground here is usually frozen by December 1st. So it is possible that none of all these bulbs I am killing myself planting will bloom at all next year (they would grow foliage and bloom next year if there is enough chill-time), but climate-warming may make all my work futile!
More Ugly: Winter is coming, and even though my 11 year Toyota Highlander is kept in a built-in garage, the battery routinely dies. The experts say I just don't drive enough. So I might be looking at 3 months of having to jump-start the car in the garage everytime I want to go anywhere (everything I need is within a mile usually and once every couple weeks I drive 10 miles to the meat/wine store). I have to keep a fully charged boat battery in the car for jump starts. It isn't the battery, new ones die too.
Hey, some people love to drive, I don't.
It begins with the first hard freeze and ends with the last hard freeze. Yet the garage temperature never falls below 45F. Drives me nuts. I KNOW there has to be some car component that is drawing on the battery in cold weather, but I can't image what. One of the many things Dad didn't teach me about was cars. The experts at dealership and online just say drive it 30 minutes every few days. ARGH!
Monday, December 14, 2015
Politics 3
About Ted Cruz:
Slick, Might be the smartest guy in the Republican list but that's not saying much.
But crazy...
Sen Cruz's statements are in Blue here. Fact-Checkers statements are in black...
"Here’s the simple and undeniable fact: The overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats."
False. The statement cherry-picks one partisan academic study.
"Under Barack Obama and the big government economy, the median wage for women has dropped $733."
The wages for women actually rose.
Slick, Might be the smartest guy in the Republican list but that's not saying much.
But crazy...
Sen Cruz's statements are in Blue here. Fact-Checkers statements are in black...
"Here’s the simple and undeniable fact: The overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats."
False. The statement cherry-picks one partisan academic study.
"Under Barack Obama and the big government economy, the median wage for women has dropped $733."
The wages for women actually rose.
False, the percentage of Democrats relative to Republicans is higher than in 2008 and 2012.
False, there will be 150 international inspectors.
False, inspections will make it harder for Iran to produce nuclear weapons. Iran can't hide residual radioactivity.
Supreme Court rulings are binding on all States.
No evidence for this claim.
14 of 44 have been neither. For a serious US politician not to know such a basic fact suggests a lack of knowledge or deliberate lying.
The Constitution disagrees. There is no religious test in the Constitution, nor is there anything about sexual preferences.
Small businesses routinely fail. But they are not failing in record numbers.
The election results and exit polling results said otherwise.
The nominee had an MD from Yale.
No evidence found.
"Most" people have not.
2 Democratic votes out of 190 isn't "bi-partisan".
Never happened.
Never happened.
Statistics find the statement false.
Frequently false.
9% isn't double.
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A Day Late
But I wanted to remember a sad day. I remember some parts. I was only 13. I saw a lot on TV afterwards. But my most specific image is the...
