Yard Flowers

 Some flowers do better than others.  And some have their own season to grow.  I try to plant flowers that can deal with the local climate.  But sometimes even they need a little help.

I've had these Stoke's Asters for maybe 25 years.  They are pretty durable and (apparently) insect-free.  But there used to be a dozen and now I see only 8. I enjoy seeing them every year.

The daylilies are durable too.  But I don't see as many colors as I used to.  There is weed competition and I need to do something about that.  Using a hedge-trimmer at ground level between the lilies should help.

But I really need to dig them up this Fall and move them to the front yard where The Mews don't go. Daylilies can be harmful to cats.

The yard Pansies are thoroughly done for the year!  Well, they are Fall-to-Summer annuals.

The ones in deck pots get some shade and better watering, so they are still blooming.

These are from a few weeks ago, but they still look pretty much the same.

I tried to pick out some of the weeds, but the roots are very entangled, so I think I will just leave them alone.

Some Intrusion Pics

Here is where the "I think it was a fox" burrowed under the fence.  

This one shows the light from outside the fence.  Those fence boards were 4" below ground, so it suggests the amount of digging.

This one shows the scattered dirt inside the fence.  That is a lot of scattering!

The spot is now filled with cat pee and poops and no sign of anything digging there since.  Whatever it is, I just want it to leave my yard alone.

Noise

You should not have to listen to a neighbor's music when you can barely hear your own TV with all the doors and windows closed.

Yesterday, one of my neighbors decided to "delight" the entire neighborhood with their personal choice of music. You could hear it 1/4 mile away (yes, I walked that far and checked).  After an hour of having repetitive loud bass beating through my walls, I dragged one of my 3' DCM speakers out on the deck and turned the tuner to the hardest music I could find.  At full volume.  For 1 minute.

They got the message and turned down their music to "their yard" level.  LOL!  

Independence Day

"    WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

          We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—-That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.
          He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.
          He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 
          He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People, unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.
          He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.
          He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.
          He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within. 
          He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
          He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
          He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and the Amount and Payment of their Salaries.
          He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.
          He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures.
          He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
          He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
          For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:
          For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
          For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:
          For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
          For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:
          For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:
          For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule into these Colonies:
          For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
          For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.
          He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
          He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
          He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.
          He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
          He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.
          In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.
          Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of Consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

          We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." 

Independence Day

Yesterday, I posted the Declaration Of Independence, which I thought was good to re-read.

But today, I want to add some things.  We are (mostly) a Nation of immigrants.  From everywhere.  Some people want to forget their foreign roots and keep others out.  I don't understand them.

We all here came from "somewhere else".  Even the Native Americans came from Asia.  And they came here looking for new opportunities.  As did we all.  Well, not the slaves, but no argument or place is perfect.

But, still, this nation was built by "incoming people" regardless.  Most came from places too dismal to live in.   Some stayed were they were.  But the "best, bravest, and brightest" took a huge chance to come here.   Sometimes with barely pennies in their pockets.  In hope of a better life, in hope of freedom, in hope of a job you could choose yourself.

Just for a chance to escape kings and autocrats.  And they found what they sought.  Not everyone succeeded, but they knew they had a chance to succeed.

My favorite song for yesterday is New Diamond's 'America'.  It expresses hopes, dreams, and a new start in life.

HERE.  

Direct link...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrgCxSSwBto&ab_channel=neildiamondVEVO

My general family has been here a few centuries,  But that doesn't mean I fear newer arrivals.  I have never met a new immigrant who didn't work hard and kept a dream in their pocket.

Have you ever flown across the US at night?  I have several times.  It's mostly dark, and I don't mean just cornfields.  The place is still mostly empty.

We need to continue to welcome the "best, bravest, and brightest".  The people who take a chance to come here from "everywhere".

"America of thee I sing" today.

A Fox? And Other Varmints

Wildlife is suddenly showing up.  I assume the dry weather has driven them to suburban yards.  Deer came and ate all my hosta leaves.  I have static charge repellent posts with an apple scent lure to attract them there before they go for the hostas.  It gives their "deer" little tongues a nasty shock and they flee.  But apparently the batteries were dead.  I've recharged them, added new apple scent, and replaced them.  It will be weeks before new leaves grow, though.  

A few days ago, I saw a groundhog run into the brush when I opened the deck door.  Big one too!  I'll set up a non-lethal Hav-A-Hart cage baited with melon rinds.  That has worked before.  But that is just to catch it (so the cats can't be harmed if they wander in).  The cage may not be lethal to varmints, but I am.  The cage fits into a large tub of water I keep out back.

Sorry if that is disturbing, but groundhogs are pure misery to have around garden veggies.  I walk away for 2 minutes and it is dead.  And it is less bad than it sounds.  I watched the 1st time.  It was simply confused at first, then exhaled and was dead in 10 seconds.  Most groundhogs probably don't have such quick deaths.  At night, I push it into the barred storm drain.  The vultures can't get at it, the water decays it quickly, and there is no smell.

A few years ago, the was a Cooper's hawk around the yard, and I was worried that little Ayla looked too much like a rabbit.  So I kept harassing the hawk and I never saw it after a couple weeks.

But this morning at dawn I saw something worse.  It seemed to be a fox.  Not a cute little red fox nor a cute little grey fox.  I wasn't sure what it was.  It was larger, longer-legged, about 30" long and 18" at the shoulder, and jet black.  Maybe 20-25 pounds.  It sure didn't look or move like any dog I've ever seen!  

I did some internet searching immediately and everything said foxes aren't normally a danger to cats.  But there are a few examples of one grabbing a kitten or very elderly cat.  But everything just mentioned the small red and gray foxes.  Well "almost everything".  I finally found a reference to a "silver fox" that does inhabit parts of my State.

While it is called a silver fox, it comes in light gray, dark gray, and black.  What I saw fits the size definition well enough.  It certainly seemed large enough to kill or injure an adult cat!  I tried to open a window quietly to get a picture, but it looked right at the window and ran off.  Well, not "ran" like a dog runs; more like a slight loping motion.  I noted the direction it ran.

I don't want to be indelicate here, but for the rest of the morning, I saved my pee in a bottle.  Later, I checked the fence line to see where it had burrowed under.  I found one.  The dirt was freshly dug.  I shoveled the dirt back under the fence and poured the pee all over it.  I'll check the spot (and other areas of the fence) every morning for a week.  If there is no further burrowing, I will trust it was scared away.

Foxes are shy and cautious.  They routinely run from other predators (even cats).  And they are nocturnal or crepuscular (dawn and dusk).  I only let the cats out at mid-day, usually when I am outside too.  So they would probably be safe from even a large silver fox.  

But maybe it won't leave.  It occurs to me that a few days ago, I stepped out front and saw a weird smaller critter in the neighbor's yard and it ran away with the same loping run.  I could only see it from behind.  My initial thought was "can a black bear cub be that small"?  Now I think it was a silver fox cub ("teen-age")+.  

Which means there is a den nearby.  Which means the adult won't leave and there will be more adults soon.  That could be bad!  I will call the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and ask them about silver foxes.  I expect they will doubt my observation, but maybe not.  I hope they will take me seriously.

I know the local wildlife pretty well.  It wasn't a badger, raccoon, groundhog, bear, deer, dog, etc.  

The slightly good news is that some vet in the UK did a study on fox/cat interactions.  Something there called "VetCompass" collects data on household pet injuries.  Cat injuries due to foxes accounted for something like 0.014% of all vet reports and cat deaths were much rarer.  Most cats that die untimely, die from cars.  After that, from dogs, and after that, from eagles.  And most cat injuries are "cat on cat" (which are rarely fatal).

But I'm still worried...

A Pleasant Surprise

Sometimes I get lucky.  Sometimes I forget stuff but get away with it.  For example decades ago, I abandoned a grocery cart full of food.  Not deliberately, of course.  The store was trying to prevent people stealing carts, so they install pylons around the entrance that prevented customers from rolling the carts to their car.  Instead, you had to drive to drive to the front of the store, wait in line and load your groceries from the imprisoned cart directly into your car.  

Well, one time, I walked to my car and simply drove home.   When I got there, no groceries!  I drove back immediately and the cart was still there.  👍.   The store abandoned the policy soon and removed half the pylons.  Too much negative feedback I assume.

Well, today I did something like that again.  Walmart has a self checkout area that is way faster than waiting in the cashier lines.  Unless I am buying cases of cat food (where each one has to be scanned individually) I go there.  A cashier can scan one can and enter "24" but customers can't do that in self-checkout.  

I wasn't buying cat food and I am used to the quicker self-checkout anyway.  Loaded my bags, but them in the cart, but the bags in the car and drove home.  But unloading everything I realized I didn't have the milk and 3 other items.  I had left 1 bag at the checkout station!

About $10 worth of stuff.  So there was a dilemma...  Was it worth driving back to Walmart?  The next customer might have simply taken the bag along with their own stuff (innocently or not).  The clerks might have just taken the stuff and restocked the shelves.  And gas isn't free.  And it was hot outside.  And I had other things to do.  And I didn't want milk that had been sitting around for 45 minutes...  👎

But I decided to drive back.  I stood in line at Customer Service for 10 minutes.  I explained to the clerk there about leaving a bag behind and showed him my receipt with the missing items.  He checked some place in an adjoining room, then simply walked away halfway across the store.   

I didn't follow him because I didn't want to lose my place in the line.  But I watched him.  He finally waved at me and pointed down.  So I went.  3 of the 4 items were there in a bag but no milk (which I wasn't sure I still wanted anyway - I am very careful about perishable items).

But he said "just grab another and you can leave".  Cool!  Literally, nice fresh-cold milk!

So many parts of that could have just not worked.  So as I said, I am lucky sometimes.  Just thought I would share this...

Computer Chair

It is old.  Between me sitting in it for years, the arms rubbing under the desk, and cats clawing at it on the top, it is not looking good but still functional.

So should I replace it?  Can a vinyl-covered chair be "repainted" with more vinyl?

 

Spam Alerts

I have 3 AOL email accounts I read on different browsers just to keep them separate.  One, I almost never use, so spammers haven't found it yet.  The other two get about a dozenspans each day.  They crack me up!  They are relentlessly repetitive, yet also inapplicable to me.  Most regard cancelling services I do have, tell me I have viruses that I can't have, or try to sell products I can barely imagine anyone would need.

And they tell me these same messages multiple times a day.  You would think the spammers would organize a bit and create a database.

So I decided to make a list...

1.  They advise me my Netflix, Sirius radio, Sam's Club, Best Buy, Costco, and some other businesses are being cancelled.  I don't have any of those.

2.  They advise me my Windows computer is infected.  I have a Mac.

3.  They advise me they can fix my Erectile Dysfunction problem.  How would they know if I had that?

4.  They promise to advise me on "the healthiest diet".  I probably know more about nutrition than they do.

5.  They tell me the IRS has rejected my [edited to correct] 2023 tax form.  I haven't filed yet (it is on extension).

6.  And apparently I'm behind on my natural gas bill.  But I'm 100% electric.

AOL has a feature I discovered some months ago that allows me to click on "all" and then "delete and block senders".  I'm sure most email providers offer the same.  But it doesn't stop the spammers.  I suppose they just create new email addresses every day.

I don't know about any of you and your email-sending volume, but I read an idea last year that I wish would be passed into law or regulations.  The idea was that every email you send would cost you 1 cent.   I can't imagine that many regular emailers would care.  But it could destroy the mass spammers.

It sure wouldn't make any difference to me (AOL could charge me a couple dollars annually), but 100,000,000 pennies might put most spammers out of business.  I doubt it would harm a legitimate tax-paying business (tax write-off).

Foreign spammers might be harder to enforce that against, but perhaps the email companies could be required to charge for new email addresses.  I haven't changed mine in 15 years and you probably haven't either, so that probably wouldn't affect most people.  I mean, we all get locked in to our email addresses so our friends don't lose track of us, the user names on sites are usually the email address, and it is just annoying to change them.

Just something to think about...

Dry And Hot

 It is dry and hot here.  And according to a map I saw today, it will get worse in July.  I mentioned previously that Maryland has pretty decent weather.  The Appalachian Mountains protect us from some of the worst heat surges of the midwest.  Our slight inward costal curvature and the Chesapeake Bay generally protects us from hurricanes.  Tornadoes were unheard of a decade ago, but my get smaller ones now (better small than large).

Locally, we get enough warmth from the South to escape heavy snowfall.  And we get enough ocean airflow to keep temperatures below 100F for more than a few days each Summer.

But there have been exceptions and sometimes they are serious.  And they come and go in a few years.  So I've experienced some of what many people are experiencing previously and now.  

My family moved to Maryland in 1963 and it was routinely snowy for about 5 years.  In Jan 1966 we had a real blizzard.  Snowed for 3 days, while drifts covering the back doors.  2' of snow actually (rare for here), but it "collected".  It was sort of scary to see snow up the the top of some doors.

Wouldn't you know, but that was the day Mom decided she had to give birth to her 4th child!  The neighborhood roads were impassible.  But a major road behind our yard was plowed.  It is slightly a curse being "the elder son".  I was expected (at 16) to keep up with Dad frantically shoveling a path from the garage to the plowed street behind us.  150'!  

But between he and I (I managed about 1/2 what he did) we cleared a path for him to drive Mom to a hospital.  And he basically told me "stay here and take care of the other kids".  Two days later, we had a new sister and Dad came home briefly to make sure we were OK.

We were.  There was food in the fridge, and I was a good Boy Scout, so I knew what to do to keep things going a few days.

And there was a hurricane that moved up the Chesapeake Bay in 1968 (1969?). It sank our 20' boat and Dad didn't have the desire to buy another 3rd hand boat and renovate it.  I didn't object.  Spending part of my Summer scraping off barnacles, siding, and repainting was not exactly how I wanted to spend my Summer vacation.  But we did have that hurricane and it wasn't a minor one.

When I moved here in 1986, the lawn had terrible soil.  The Summers were very hot for several years.  It was so bad, the soil just cracked apart into pieces the size of saucers.  It was brutal with weeks of no rain and many days in a row at or near 100F.  

I took advantage of the cracks to rake 50/50 topsoil/compost into the cracks those several years.  You have the opportunities you get to help things.  My lawn is healthier than my neighbors' these days.

And we are having a dry spell here.  One half an inch this month.  I know some people are getting less, but that doesn't help my lawn any.  But I see my neighbor's watering their lawns.  Grass in my area (fescue) naturally goes dormant in Summer.  And they don't water deeply enough.

So they encourage the grass roots to grow up to where the surface water is and then it needs more watering...  The way to help their grass survive is just to let it be and/or water it deeply once a month.

That's about it on the weather.  Some things you just wait out, somethings you let the grass go brown for a couple months, and some things you do have to deal with.  Like 2' of snow...

Father's Day

 I am not technically a "human father" (so far as I know, and at 74, I probably would by now).  But I am a "Cat-Daddy" and that is sufficient for me.  It is actually an honor.  I have known some people who just have a "family cat" and if it disappears or dies, they just get another.  Like replacing a broken vase...

They matter more to me than a vase.  Each cat in my life has been a distinct individual.  A self-aware being knowing it had a life.  And everyone of them has been unique in some habits.    

I wasn't always perfect in my care for them.  Sometimes in my early years, buying them food was more on my mind than regular vet care.  But as my financial situation improved, so did their care.   I feel sorry for the earliest ones who could have lived longer, but I seldom had one who died before 12.  I do often wish I had those years and cats to live over with better.

so the past 35+ years have sort of been making atonement for the failures of the past.  i have gone from "cool, a cat in the house" to being able to take care of several at  time.  sometimes, it has been 2 (Skeeter and LC) to 4 (a couple of times).

Today, it is 4.  It could be calmer.  Marley always gets along with all cats.  Lori doesn't love Loki and Binq very much (but that is getting better slightly these days).  Loki and Binq love each other.  And they both like Marley.  

I used to resist the title of "Cat-Daddy".  Their actual daddies were unknown male cats.  But I am accepting the idea now.  I serve as a parent to them.  I don't quite know how they think of me, so I stick with "The Big Thing".  Well, I am big and not a cat.  They probably don't quite know what I am.  I am probably more like "Mom" to them (food, cleaning, attention), but for all they know, "Dad" would do the same.

I would be pretty much "undone" without The Mews.  I need them at least as much as they need me.  They talk to me as much as I talk to them.  Loki is particularly vocal (as were Ayla and Iza). 

So Happy Fathers Day to all you of actual "Fathering'.  And I will take my indirect "fathering" of The Mews with respect for the day.