Garden Enclosure Screen Door

The garden enclosure door is giving me trouble.  The posts holding it keep getting out of alignment.  Sometimes the top sticks.  Sometimes, the latch won't catch.

I've bought some additional pvc pipes to help hold it in place, but I had to get the frame in alignment first.  One post had to be raised 1/4", and that was trickier than I thought.  Since it is stuck in the ground 2', the idea was to pry it up 1/4" and then hold it there while nature lets the soil below it expand and fill in.

So the first part was to lift the post.  Easier said than done.  I dripped water in around it for an hour, and that did loosen the post.  But lifting the post isn't just pulling it up a bit.  There had to be something to hold it up the 1/4".  And I don't mean to suggest that I am strong enough to just pull it up that much.

I had the idea of screwing a 2x4" board to the post and prying on the bottom of that board.  That would work, but how would I hold it there?  I tried putting a 4x4" post against the top of the frame and then lifting it with shims.  I did that, but the frame didn't rise.

All I was doing was pushing the post into the dirt...

Arggh...

And if I put a board under the 4x4" post, that was too tight to make it fit under.  I had to re-think it.  And the 4x4" post I was using to raise door frame was the wrong length by 1".

AHA!  I set a scrap piece on board in the screen doorway and set the post that was "just" too long on the board at an angle.  Pounding that 4x4" post that was at an angle, toward the post I wanted to lift worked!

Look at it another way.  The door frame post and the ground made a right angle, with the bracing post resting on a board at the bottom making the hypotenuse.  By pounding the bottom of the bracing board with a small sledgehammer, I pushed the top of the door frame up the required 1/4".  Hurray!

But how to hold it up?  The bracing post prevented the door from closing...

Well, that baffled me for a few minutes.  But then I realized that if I screwed on a board near the bottom of the door frame post  on the opposite side, it would hold it up for ever.  Well, I didn't need "forever", just long enough for wet soil to settle below the door frame post.

SO...   I set a cinder block next to the door frame post, stomped on it a few times to settle it into the soil so it wouldn't sink under pressure, and put a scrap piece of 2x4" board atop the cinder block.  And I screwed that board into place.

So the post holding the latch side of the screen door (that I had just raised 1/4") won't settle back down (the piece of 2x4" is resting on a cinder block that won't settle into the ground and the 2x4" board is screwed solidly into the door frame post).

I can leave all that in place forever.  Its not in the way of the door closing.

But the latch doesn't "catch",  I can solve THAT.  A small piece of aluminum fill fix that.  Actually some would a plastic credit card.

Just accept that the door and latch will now work, and that the screen door closes as smoothly as silk!

Tree Removal, Day 3 (Part 2)

Well, OK, time to wrap this up. I'm ready to start posting about other projects...

A 2nd crew came out for the final part.  They had a different tree trunk "grabber".  The previous day's grabber had hydraulic problems.  So did the new one.  Apparently, from what I overheard, the hydraulic lines can fall loose and then get cut if the crew isn't careful.  I have some square foot spots with hydraulic fluid on my lawn which can't be good for the grass.  I will have to replace some soil...

They finally had to use a small fork lift attachment (which must have used a different set of hyrdaulic lines) to move the last sections tree trunk away.  It worked well enough.

BTW, see the shadow in the lower right above?  That's my deck, with me resting my camera on the deck rail for stability, and me wearing my straw hat.  Cool!

With the last pieces of tree trunk removed, the crew brought the stump-grinder into play.  It a 2' diameter circular saw but with teeth like a small T Rex.  The operator hanles 3 joy-sticks like some super arcade-game-player.  He stands behind a shield, and wears super goggles for protection. 

I found that hilarious.  He wears the goggles because he can't see through the viewing screen in the protection door.  He can't see through the viewing screen because all the flying wood chips abrade new ones in just a few days of use.  Doesn't seem like a really well-designed product to me...

Anyway, the grinder blade is moved back and forth, up and down, forward and back (three directions, so 3 joysticks) and can take off about 1/2" of wood at a time.  So 10" of remaining tree trunk and going 6" below ground level took a while.  2 hours or so, actually.  It finally looked like this...

Well, they did remove the other tree pieces, but I can't find the good picture of the "after" right now.

The grinder guy wasn't thrilled to have to go below ground level on the stump (all that extra work), but I had made sure that was part of the quote, so I insisted.  Getting the stump below ground level hastens rotting and prevents the roots from sending up endless shoots.

They insisted that they had to spread the wood chippings out as company practice, so I didn't argue.  I'll take care of that later. 

All the gardening experts say that raw wood chips are NOT good for spreading around plants and shrubs.  First, the decomposing wood uses up all the nitrogen in the soil.  Second, it attracts slugs and snails that will eat your plants.  Third, "artillery mushrooms" love to grow in it and they spread their spores by exploding (hence the name "artillery") and the stuff leaves bright sticky pink material up to 4' away.  Not a problem where my chips are, but I've seen pictures of the stuff staining cars and house siding.

They did a great cleanup job!  They not only raked the entire worksite of all leaves and sticks, they got up on the roof and blew all the debris off there.  Then they even swept the gutter screens clean!  Finally they blew the sawdust and debris off the deck. 

Even with the delays from the equipment hydraulic lines on 2 pieces of equipment, they did an outstanding job.  I'll forgive the small puddles of hydraulic fluid leakage on the lawn as collateral damage and repair that myself.  The compacted soul from the equipment running all over it needs repair anyway.  I'll dig up the oily spots and trash it, then work the entire area over with my roto-tiller.

And I have an excavation crew coming in next week.  Maybe they will do that for me as part of the project.  I mean, they are digging up soil and disposing of a lot of it (a ridge of weeds, clay and gravel) anyway, and then bringing in 2 truckloads of topsoil to raise the sunken front lawn, so a bucketloader could dig up the "soiled soil" and replace it with a little of the new topsoil.

We'll see.  They are coming out here next week (day unknown).  Their work is tricky to schedule as sometimes other jobs go fast or slow, and I get only a days notice of when they will arrive. 

More about THAT next time!

Tree Removal, Day 3

By the end of yesterday, they had the oak tree completely cut down.  As I guessed, at some point they would simply cut off the trunk at the bottom and let it fall over.  It's sure easier to hold those big chain saws and cut down rather than sideways.

The rope at the top is so the guys can pull the trunk over away from the fence and deck.

And down it comes!

They went right at the trunk to cut it into manageable sections.

And there it is in pieces.  

Looks like one of those 6' party subs cut into individual parts...

The view is sure different!  There was sunlight on the ground where there hasn't been for at least a century.  

But it got a bit humorous after that.  The boss came by and told them to cut the stump lower because it would take too long to grind it all down.  Then he told me a stump grinder crew would by here "tomorrow" (today, now) for the grinding and final cleanup.  Then he left.

It wasn't the best decision he ever made.  They cut off 1' of the stump easily enough.

But the next foot drove them crazy.  And their problem baffled me too.  First, one guy cut all around the trunk as he had in the upper foot section.  But it just wouldn't come loose.  Well, his circle around the trunk was more of an upward spiral.   It was like 2 teams tunneling through a mountain and missing the meeting point by a few dozen yards.  So he went back at it.  And missed again...

This went on for 30 minutes.  I watched from the safety of the deck.  Far be it for me to tell them how to do their jobs.  Though I did wonder a bit watching one guy who didn't quite seem to know how to use the grabber point under the chain saw to lever it for best cutting and I saw another guy trying to give him advice.  I couldn't understand what they were saying (the crew is hispanic - more on that below).

Their problem baffled me at first.  I could see that the 3' chain saw blade could easily reach to the middle, and they had a couple wedges in place to keep the weight of the cut portions of the trunk from pinching the blade.

They finally tried wedging the uncut portion loose.  But they only had 2 wedges and that wasn't working.  So I went and offerred them my 5' iron breaker bar which they accepted gratefully.  Even that wasn't enough.

I could see from the deck that the cut section would rock east/west and north/south and I went down and showed them where the uncut part had to be.  Well, you don't have to be a tree removal expert to understand basic mechanics...  But I wasn't able to communicate that well enough with hand gestures.  So I tried another series of gestures suggesting they cut the top piece like a tic-tac-toe board so they could find the uncut part.  Now luck with that either...

Here's the part about my spanish-speaking ability.  I took Spanish in High School.  I could speak the written words well enough, and with a passable accent.  But that was 50 years ago, was mostly written, and I barely passed the class then.   So my ability to speak to the crew was limited.  I remember some phrases.  The most useful one for me is "Yo hablo muy muy poco Espanol" ("I speak very very little Spanish").  One guy asked "Como Esta?" (How are you"?) in the morning and it was an hour before I remembered the correct reply ("Estamos bien, gracias" - "I am well, thank you").   I used that to him later and got a smile and a thumbs up.  Well, at least he didn't laugh.  And when one of them waved at me and asked "agua?, I brought out a pitcher of cold water. 

So I watched them struggle with it for another 45 minutes.  I wish I had thought to bring out my laptop and use "google translate" to get some simple phrases that would have helped, but that only occurred to me after they left.

But they did finally manage to break the uncut part loose.  Do I need to say that the uncut part was exactly where I pointed to earlier? 

The 2nd half of Day 3 tomorrow...

Tree Removal, Day 2

Ok, actually, I'm starting with the work done yesterday.  The first day, they got the sweet gum tree removed, and the lower half of all the oak tree branches.  It looked like this after Monday...

I couldn't even close the fence gates to let the cats outside for the late afternoon.

The pictures of the guy climbing to the top of the tree didn't come out at all (drat) except for this one, and you can't see much there.

 But by the time he was done (took about 3 hours), it looked like this...

Then the bucket crane guy went to work again.

The trunk got lower and lower.  And when THOSE chunks hit the ground, the cats hid deeper in the bedroom.

Lower...

A piece falling, and that's 3' in diameter...

A dragonfly took advantage of the rope...

And I'll stop there for today.  The final pics tomorrow (I hope)!

Tree Removal, Day 1

This has been quite an adventure.  It's taken longer than I thought (or that the contractor estimated).  Part of the problem is that the "grabber" (the equipment that grabs chunks of cut-down trees in a huge metal jaw) developed hydraulic fluid problems, and in spite of their onsite attempts to fix it, it just wouldn't work properly.  Their other grabber was at another job today, but will be here tomorrow.

I've been taking pictures all of both days, and will be posting them here now and for a few days to come.  Here is the original view of the massive white oak...

They started with the sweet gum tree, since it was in the way of the large equipment.  I'm glad I wanted it removed, since they couldn't have gotten to the oak with it there anyway.

They cut off all the side branches first.

That tree was easy and they had it down in just over an hour.  That bucket crane goes REALLY high!

I got a nice action shot of them cutting the trunk down in pieces.

And there goes the rest of the trunk...

 The stump color surprised me.  The core is a small light brown area, then there is a dark area, then a light one.  It must have had some extremely different growing conditions that changed suddenly.  My guess is that the light area represents the tree getting a lot more sunlight after I moved in and had 2  shading big oaks removed.

But, it developed some problems later.  I suspected, and the cut sections showed, that the tree was dying from the top down.  So better it was gone now...

Then they started on the oak.  Now, these guys have see a LOT of trees, but even they were impressed!  I hated to have it removed, but it has been dropping more and more 6' diameter branches the past coule years, and I was becoming convinced it was dying and would fall over on the house (as the prevailing winds would blow it in that direction).

They cut off the smaller branches and push them in a safe direction.  The larger branches take a bit more preparation.  They tie a rope (which is looped up over higher branches) to the branch, twist the rope around the tree trunk (for friction), and then just one guy can can the cut branch from falling while releasing the rope slowly.  A couple other guys grab the branch near ground level and guide it to a safe landing (away from the house and fence).  I thought I had a picture of the twisted rope trick, but I guess that was one of the dozens of blurry ones I had to delete.

They use a neat knot I am familiar with from Boy Scouting called a "bowlin-on-a-bight" .  It makes a loop in a rope that it tight under weight, but undoes easily afterwards.  It is the knot commonly used to lift people from cliffs and such.  Its one of those "the rabbit runs into his hole, circles around, comes back up and then dives down again" kind of things.  There is an odd pattern of wrist looping movements that I recognized.

More tomorrow...

Tree Removal

My back yard is semi-wild.  I like it that way.  I hate removing trees, though I have removed a lot of them over the years.  When I moved here 29 years ago, the backyard was mostly filled with too many junk trees, too closely spaced for their own health.  I thinned out the smaller junkiest ones (especially a type of locust tree with thorns like needles all around the trunk).

At the same time, I looked at the drainage easement along the property line.  For those of you not familiar with a "drainage easement", it is an artificial rainfall control channel that leads to a natural body of water (in my case a swamp across the street).  But the drainage easement wasn't the natural drainage.  There is a 3' deep ravine that cuts across the neighbor's back yard and used to cut across the side of my front yard.  The county-mandated artificial drainage easement that goes between our property lines cut my part off.

So I first just wanted to fill in my ravine, and I did so with a full dump trick load of average fill soil.  I spread it all out myself.  It was some bit of work, all with rake and shovel.  But there were 2 fully mature oak trees right next to the new drainage easement, and I realized that the roots had been entirely sheared away on one side.  I had them removed so they wouldn't fall over on the house.  I left the 3rd oak tree standing because it was farther from the drainage easement and I wanted the shade on the roof (passive cooling was a big idea at the time). 

Then I thinned out some that were just too shaded by larger trees to ever thrive.  That still left a complete deep shade canopy across most of the back yard.

But even the larger trees were still "youngish", and didn't stop growing.  10 years later, I had about half of them professionally removed.  Later, one of the larger trees leaned over enough to fall in a windstorm and the top half of another snapped off and a 3rd one was starting to lean, so they had to go.

But lately, I've become obsessed with the idea that the remaining massive oak will fall on the house.  The past 5 years, it has been dropping 6" diameter branches and I doubt its health. It's only 20' from the house, and the prevailing winds would push it in that direction.  Given the estimated weight of the tree is at least 3,000 lbs (6,600 kilos), it would pretty much crush the entire house (and likely myself as well).  I can imagine the newspaper headlines.  "Local man has tree fall on house, drowns in his own waterbed"...

I'm having it removed tomorrow along with a large sweetgum tree that has been leaning over slightly.  I talked to my home insurance agent about it.  He admitted that should the tree fall onto the house, I was 100% replacement-covered, but it could take months of reconstruction and I would probably need to move out during the reconstruction.

It seemed like a great property when I chose it 29 years ago.  But having lots of mature trees near your house is over-rated.

It will be an adventure watching this oak removed.  I wasn't at home to see it's 2 siblings removed ( I was supposed to, but they arrived a day early and when I got home from work that day, they were just GONE!  The other trees I've had removed have been nowhere near as large as this one.

The tree guy says that the upper branches will be removed first by a combination of a crane and tree-climbers, and lowered by rope for eliminating collateral damage to other trees (and the house and deck).  The massive trunk itself will be cut off (lowered) 8-10' at a time and will be carried off by some sort of "grabber" to a flatbed truck.  I hope that's not "hype".  I will be taking pictures all the way and will post them.

The good news is that they will be taking down the sweetgum tree first.  It's small than the oak, and I will see how carefully they do that job.  If they seem careless or find that tree difficult, I can tell them to stop before they start on the much larger oak tree.  They have a "A" rating on Angie's List, but not a LOT of reviews.  It's possible they got their "A" rating from smaller simpler jobs.  I'm being careful.

There is some deconstruction work involved at getting at the massive oak tree, too.  At the least, 2 sections of my 6' shadowbox wood fence have to be removed (the tree is just inside my fence), and it is possible a gate and a concrete-set fence post will have to be removed (they suspect not, but if so, their "grabber" can just pull the 6"x6" fence post right up out of the ground without even damaging it and it can be set back down into the hole afterwards as sturdy as before.

I actually believe that last part.  I've set enough posts into the ground without concrete myself to know how well clay soil hardens around any bare post in plain clay.  One with an 12" cylinder of concrete around it should settle in better.  And it might be an improvement.  That post leaned slightly after being installed 25 years ago and the connections to the fence sections are loose anyway.

For generally useful information for anyone considering this kind of work themselves, the quote is $5,500.  As I understand it in very general terms, $500 is just for bringing all their equipment (a crane, a "grabber", and 2 flatbed trucks) and crew from 15 miles away to the worksite, $4000 is for the massive oak tree, and $1000 is for the sweetgum tree.  The cost includes detailed cleaning of all debris, removal and replacement of fence, and grinding both stumps 2' below ground level.  It seems worth it...

So anyway, tomorrow is going to be VERY interesting.

I will be watching them through the entire process of course.  Partly for knowing what happened if there is some accident, partly just out of fascination for a process I can hardly imagine, and partly because it is a rare opportunity to take some really interesting pictures (for my scrapbook and for blogging - one never wants to miss a chance at great pictures to blog about, LOL!).

But one can't spend the entire day taking pictures and hoping no one falls out of the trees.  So I have saved some yardwork for myself to do while the tree guys are doing their thing.  It is all stuff I can do while keeping an eye of the tree-work while being safely out of the way.  I have the garden to water, some trellises and screen door supports to install in the garden enclosure, and if that takes less time than I expect, part of the far backyard is getting overgrown with blackberries, thistles, and  and I have a gas-powered weed-whacker with a steel blade I need to start using.

And after that is done, I have excavation work to be done in the backyard!  The ridge in the middle of the backyard is going away and the sunken area of the front yard (that gets flooded every thunderstorm) will be raised 18"!  That's to be scheduled after the trees are gone.

Been Busy, Part 3

Getting rid of old pressure-treated lumber and boxes...

When I busted up the 25 year old garden beds last Fall, I collected them in a corner of the yard.  And there they sat.  Meanwhile, thinking I might move, I was collecting boxes that were of same shape.

This past week, I decided the old lumber had to go, and I wasn't going to move.  It was time to bring stuff to the landfill and the recycling center...

I did the old lumber debris first.  I was surprised at how much I had.  480 pounds of the stuff according to the landfill scale.  1/4 ton almost...  It took some work.  First, I had to haul all the 480# from the far backyard to the front yard.  Then into the hauling trailer.

Then drive it all 10 miles to the landfill.  Then drag it all out of trailer into the landfill disposal area (with dinosaur-sized bulldozers screaming around me barely 2 meters away).  And it cost $16 just to get rid of it.

And THEN I had a basement nearly full of identical boxes in 2 sixes.  One group of 4 dozen wine boxes and a group of 10 chewy.com boxes.  I was going to store them all in my attic, but decided "why".  So I packed those all into the back of the Highlander SUV.

They never would have fit by themselves into the car.  So I got inventive.  The chewy.com boxes could hold 3-4 wine boxes.  But there were still wine boxes left over.

I am spatially creative.  I looked at the leftover wineboxes and thought for like 2 minutes.  It hit me that a little reshaping of the wineboxes might fit them into the existingly-packed ones.

I crushed the narrow sides like paper grocery bags fold, and darn if they didn't fit right down into the other boxes!  Two boxes in the space of one and 2-3 pairs of boxes inside the larger ones

I filled up the back of the SUV and drove to the recycling center.  Free riddance of reusable materials!  There were even guys there so bored that hey emptied my car for me...

Getting rid of 480 lbs (1,056 kilos) of old lumber debris at a reasonable cost and 58 boxes for free is a good day!

Been Busy, Part 2

Part B) of the projects this past week...  The PVC pipe frames for the concrete 6" mesh wire...

It was an adventure cutting, drilling, and marking the 1" PVC pipe for the trelises.  The cucumbers and pole beans are wandering around the garden surface looking for something to climb.  I thought the pole beans would climb the cornstalks happily, but the corn is a short bicolor variety  and the pole beans need higher supports.

So I'm late in adding the trellises to the enclosed garden.  But maybe not TOO late.  I tested a pole bean and it can be unwound from the corn stalks.  I'm barely getting to the trellises in time!

My delay was due to the difficulty in getting at the concrete mesh.  I stacked in against the fence last Fall to get it out of the way, and the Evil Vines from the neighbor's yard have entirely taken them over. 

It took several hours to rip the D*** vines loose from the wire mesh 2 days ago.  And things are so tight between the new garden enclosure and the fence that I cant just pull out the 30' of concrete mesh to cut it apart on the open lawn.  I'll have to do it where it is.

Fortunately, I have a saws-all.  The metal blade cuts through even concrete mesh like a hot knife through butter.  But I have to construct the PVC frames the comcrete mesh will be attched to first so that I know exactly what sizes to cut.

And that means making the PVC frames first.  I have them in pieces.  Tomorrow, I'll attach them to the framed garden beds.  When the PVC frames are attached solidly, I'll cut the 30' of old trellis concrete remesh to size. 

Pictures will follow...

Been Busy, Part 1

Well, OK, I always TRY to stay busy doing something useful around the house each day, but some things aren't worth reporting on.  I'm pretty sure no one cares that I mopped the floors, did laundry, paid bills, weeded gardens, cleaned litter boxes, etc.  Not that those things don't take time and have to be done, but they aren't generally things I bother to post about. 

So, having been busy with such routine things, I haven't posted for a week.

I am pleased to say that the last 3 days have been at least a bit more busy on interesting things.  They fall into 3 categories:  Garden, Clutter, and "Other Stuff".  And because each part gets a bit long, I'm going to address one of the 3 parts in separate posts.

First (today) is the garden, and there are several parts to that work over the past week. 

A) While I was pleased to announce that the free-standing screen door to the new garden enclosure was finally completed previously, it apparently wasn't quite.  The posts have settled slightly, and even with metal corner braces, the door rubs on the top of the frame, and I can see that heavy rains will always make it a little bit loose.  So I designed some support structures of PVC pipe braces that should help.

B) The climbing plants need trellises to, well, climb.  Pole beans and cucumbers mostly.  So I designed some basic PVC pipe frame that can support concrete mesh wire.

C) The vining crops like melons spread out in all directions and need to be constrained to their own framed beds.

D) Raising one side of the frame 1/4".  That doesn't sound like much, but it is the difference between the door sticking and not.

So, a week ago, for part A) I went shopping at the Big D-I-Y stores looking for the parts that would brace the free-standing screen door.  I don't want to get overly detailed, but the idea was to attach 2 PVC pipes from the door frame to the nearest upright PVC post on each side of the door, and 2 from the horizontal post above down to the top of the door frame.  It was just a best guess of holding the free-standing door frame in place. 

The D-I-Y stores didn't have the right attachments, so I improvised.  That didn't work.  Part involved cutting the upright posts to add a "tee", and I realized that the upright posts were so locked in place by the chicken wire enclosure that I couldn't get that tee installed.  There is something called a "snap tee" that doesn't involve cutting the upright posts.  Literally, you just cement and push the snap tee onto a pipe. 

But that part that sticks up in the picture has to fit into another pipe, and somehow it just wont.  I suppose it is designed for some other purpose.  Then it struck me that a connector fitting (intended to attach 2 PVC pipes together) might work.

 It wasn't tight as if designed for the purpose, but close enough to cement after several applications.  And if the cement doesn't hold, I can put a bolt though it to get the same holding effect.

The trellis frames, part B) were a lot easier.  They are just an upside-down "U" of PVC pipe with the bottoms attached to the outsides of the framed beds in the back of the garden (so as to not shade the other lower-growing plants).

"Easier" doesn't mean "easy" though.  I still had problems.  I wanted the PVC pipe uprights to be solidly attached to the framed beds so I could then attach 6" grid concrete mesh wire to them.  I wanted them to be level up and sideways, and 2' below the top of the enclosure (so the vines wouldn't crawl up through the top). 

So I made a cardboard template that was even to the top and side of the frames.  Repeatability is wonderful.  I used the cardboard template to mark drilling spots in the frames.  I then used the template to mark drilling spots on the PVC upright pipes. 

Since the uprights had to be 7' (from a 10" PVC pipe, they had to be cut.  I tried clamping the pipes to 2 sawhorses, but the vibration from my saws-all

kept knocking the clamps loose.  I had to bring the 6 pipes inside the clamp them to the sturdier workbench.  Cut to 7' lengths, I then had to mark the spots to drill holes to match the pilot holes in the garden frames.  That's where the cardboard template helped A LOT!  The same holes in the cardboard HAVE to match up to the pilot holes in the garden frames, right?

We'll find out tomorrow...

Part C) was serendipitous.   I needed a whole lot of small bamboo stakes to keep guiding my free-ranging melon vines back into the beds.  Packs of 25 bamboo stakes cost about $7 and I need a few dozen.  But I was shopping at Target today and found 12" kitchen bamboo skewers 80 for $1.27.  That works for me!

One of the most useful discoveries I've made in life is that products meant for a purpose are expensive, but very similar things meant for another purpose can be quite cheap.  My favorite example is a plastic scoop.



Not the exact product, but an example... In a pet store, it was $6.  In a hardware store, it was $3.  Same thing, different customer...  *I* use the scoop to transfer the kitty litter in the 35# buckets into more wieldy smaller containers.

But back to the bamboo skewers...  I want to guide the melon vines in circles to keep them in the beds and out of the paths.  The 12" skewers will work just fine for that!

Part D), raising one side of the door frame 1/4" is a bit trickier.  I've figured out a way to do it.  I'm going to screw a short scrap of 2"x4" board near the bottom of the post I want to raise 1/4".  I will put a brick on the ground and stomp on it hard to make sure it won't settle deeper.  Then I'll use another 2x4 to use as a lever to pry the attached 2x4 1/4" higher.  I'll clamp it temporarily until I can wedge shims between the brick and the screwed 2x4.

That will hold the post up the 1/4" I need.  But it is going to have to stay there for months until routine ground expansion and rain fills in the spot.  Bet it is still there several years from now, LOL!

Despite the 4x4 posts being set 2' deep in the soil, I bet I'll always have to adjust the screen door frame from year to year.  Some things never stop needing attention.

I originally got the idea of building a chicken-wire-covered garden enclosure from a website HERE 

But I found some problems with the design, and fixed them for myself.  Well, I hope everyone improves on construction ideas they find on the internet or elsewhere, mine included.

You would be amazed at the way things travel around the internet.  

Next posts:  "Clutter" and "Other Stuff"...

Banks and Money

I almost hesitate to post about this.  It involves moving money around and, if you don't have it, reading about it is probably awkward and and annoying.

I have an account at a Credit Union from my career days.  And I have an account at a regular commercial bank.  I recently discovered that my Credit Union pays somewhat better interest on savings accounts than my commercial bank does.  So it made sense to transfer money from my commercial bank savings account to my Credit Union savings account.

My point of writing about this is how HARD it is to transfer the savings and it doesn't mter how much is involved. 

These days, you can do almost any financial transfer online.  But apparently not between a commercial bank and a credit union!  There is some barrier between them.

I called the credit union first.  I assumed there was some information about them I needed to enter into the commercial bank website.  They disabused me of that notion real fast.  "Can't be done online", even though I'm online with both the credit union and the commercial bank. 

"Can only be done by 'wire transfer' ".  And by the 10th piece of information, with more to come, I called a halt!  I asked, what if I just gave you a check from my commercial bank?  Couldn't you just deposit it in my credit union account? 

"Sure", they said, "just mail it to us, but we need to look up how to receive a check and we'll call you back".

ARGGGGHHHH!   "Dumber than a bag of sand" comes to mind.

It never occurred to my credit union "helper" to mention that to begin with?

Its not like I'm Donald Trump trying to send them a billion dollar check.  I just would prefer to get .35% on my savings at the credit union as opposed to .01% at the commercial bank.  Its not like the difference is going to get me a world cruise or anything, but why deliberately get less, right?

I'm only going through this because my credit union is an hour away now, and I'm beginning to wish I HAD just driven there and handed them a check.

No wonder that rich people have accountants to tell to do things like this.  If I was Donald Trump, I'd have an specialist bank accountant too.  Its maddening!  You would think I was trying to convert Russian Rubles into Swiss Francs through some fly-by-night African bank. 

And here I sit, waiting for some "expert" at the credit union to call me back with details on how to send them a simple check safely.  Feeling like an idiot for causing a fuss... 

I'm sure glad I didn't spend my working years involved in finances...

Ponderosa Pink Heirloom Tomato

I got my first ripe heirloom tomato today.  It was a Ponderosa Pink.  It wasn't great, well, the first ripe tomatoes of any kind usually aren't the best.  But this one had a special meaning.

You see, my Dad (deceased 2014) loved them.  I think that is what his Dad grew and to him, that was THE tomato.  Dad used to save seeds from them and regrow them each year.  Dad wasn't a very good gardener.  He just planted stuff in bad soil and went full-out chemical on them.  It was a very "modern" 1950s/1960s thing to do. 

We kids hated his garden.  He grew kale, for example, and we had to eat it.  The kale was so "metalic" that a magnet might have stuck to it. The corn was always too startchy.  The beans were OK.

But the tomatoes were pretty good, the few that grew.  Ponderosa Pink.  Dad saved the seeds in a paper bag in the garage.  As the conditions were bad in the garage, I'm surprised that any sprouted at all.  The year Dad and Mom left that house and moved north, the bag of seeds disappeared.  Dad always said he gave me the seeds, but he didn't.  The loss of the family Ponderosa seeds was a deep disappointment to him.  I assume that the bag of seeds on the garage shelf just got left behind and the new occupants tossed them away.

I followed Grandad's gardening practices.  He was organic, and his veggies always tasted good.  I suppose he also had good Ponderosa Pink tomatoes, but I was too young to know about varieties then.

As years passed and I got my own space for gardening, I looked up some of the best heirloom varieties of tomatoes.  I grew Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Prudens Purple, Aunt Gerties Gold, and Cherry tomatoes.  I didn't grow Ponderosa Pink. 

But I got curious about Ponderosa Pink this year and found a place that sold it (It doesn't seem to be very popular).  The shipping was more than the cost of the seeds, but, "well, what the heck".

So the first heirloom tomato I harvested this year was a Ponderosa Pink.

Dad, this one is for you...

A Surprise

Remember the "stick war" that seemed to be starting with a neighbor?  They aren't those original neighbors.  I looked up the property and it was sold 4 years ago to new people.  I got fooled because the guy looked the same (tall, skinny, beard).  The woman was different, but people change spouses, ya know?

They probably don't know they have any responsibility for the drainage easement and storm drain.  So I'm just going to quietly pick up the branches for now.  When I get a chance to meet them, I'll mention it and see how they react. 

I hate being wrong...

Some Details

Yesterday, I referred to being in bed for 10 hours and a "poacher's shovel".  It occurs to me that both could use some explanation...

FIRST, the 10 hours in bed (and sometimes it is more).  As a child, I was an early riser.  In college, I took early morning classes because I was up and ready to go.  My 35 year career had me up at 5 am to leave the house by 6 am to meet a carpool at 6:15 to get to work by 7 am.

When I retired in 2006, I just collapsed and went to late mornings.  At first, I assumed it was just a temporary reaction to all those years of getting up real early and that I would get "back to normal".  I didn't.  I can only get myself out of bed before 10 hours if some contractor just HAS to be here at 9 am.  And I feel wrong the whole day after. 

Well yesterday I read an article about sleep patterns.  I forget which magazine (National Geographic, Scientific American, one of those), that said we modern people are off our traditional sleep schedules.  Basically, we wake up to artificial lights, stay up late with artificial lights, and go suddenly to bed after 16-18 hours of bright lights.  Practically every gadget we own emits some light, and that has some effects.

According to the article, sleep research and historical research suggests that, before artificial illumination, we were awake after dark for a while and we used to have a different pattern of sleeping that involved a period in the middle of the night akin to meditation.  Something like 4 hours of regular sleep, 2 hours of general semiwakeful calmness, and then 4 more hours of regular sleep.

There were writings from less modern era people regarding things like "after my first sleep" and (paraphrasing) "then after some restful thought, I returned to sleep".  And history is full of examples of people who had great insights in that "restful thought time". 

My jobs+commutes used up from 5 am to 6 pm every workday.  Gave me 3 hours to make dinner, clean house, play with cats, do yardwork, etc, and then it was back to bed again to get 8 hours maximum sleep (even if I fell asleep at once, which seldom happened).

And it struck me that that's what I've been doing ever since I was freed from the requirements of regular job hours!  I've been going to bed after an hour of low light, sleeping about 4 hours, laying in bed lightly awake and contemplating things as I lay there, and then drifting off again for another 4 hours or so.

I think I have been getting into that pattern because I have the bedroom completely blacked out.  I put acoustical tile in the bedroom window years ago because the *%#@ Spring Peepers used to keep me awake at night.  But it also blocks out the morning sun.  And I keep the door nearly closed.  It stays dark in my bedroom.

I think they may be on to something that we have lost.  And that I have fallen into by fortunate happenstance.

SECOND, I referred to a "poacher's shovel".  It's a narrow shovel.

Apparently, it was originally designed to be assembled from pieces (blade and handle that could fit unobtrusively in a backpack) onto a shaft that looked like a simple walking stick, it was used for digging valuable plants out from rich folks' gardens at night and leaving a small hole that could be easily filled in with surrounding soil.

Today (hopefully), it is more a convenient "foot-powered trowel" for getting at deep-rooted weeds among flowerbeds.   I love mine!  Brambles are hard to dig up among my flowers and against the garden stone borders.  This can get into the tighter spots, and it cuts fewer flower roots.

I just thought that was worth explaining...

Busy Day

It was unusually nice weather today (partly cloudy, dry, 30% humidity and 80F).  I won't see many of those again until September.  So I was up early, for me;  10:30 AM.  I know many of you cringe to think of that as "early",   but an advantage of being single and retired is setting your own hours.

So I started the day with an English Muffin and a cheese/bacon/bell pepper omelet, a glass of green tea, and a glass of V8.  I've been cooking for so long now that all my cast iron pans are utterly non-stick.  They are wonderful!

Fed The Mews first, of course.  AND after.  When they haven't eaten for 10 hours (because I've been in bed), they need a 2nd breakfast.  I'd just give them more at first, but Iza can't keep it down all at once.  And normally, I would let them out afterwards, but it was lawn-mowing day.

So I went out and mowed the lawn.  Takes about an hour for mowing and 30 minutes trimming with the new string-trimmer.  There are a lot of places I just can't mow closely, so I finally bought one of those new 18 volt lithium battery trimmers and it works GREAT!  When they say "it's like a gas one", they are darn close!  I need to get a shoulder strap though; its not one of those little 2 lb jobs...

I let The Mews out after the mowing was done and the fence gates were shut...

After that, I decided to attack some of the brambles that have been invading the more civilized part of by back yard.  My "poacher's shovel" is great for that (think of an industrial-strength 18" trowel on a shovel handle).  I need the narrow blade because the brambles are among plantings.  I got about a dozen dug up.

Then I needed to do some watering.  All you sufferring from drought, forgive me, but we have had unusually frequent rain here and I almost didn't notice we had finally gone a week without any rain.  I started the watering because the annuals I still have in pots looked a bit wilted.  And once I get a hose in my hand, EVERYTHING gets watered, LOL!

Not that I water everything by hand.  I have a tripod with a fan-nozzle attached that I build a few years ago.

This original had a shower spray nozzle, I replaced it with one that spreads more sideways.  I use the shower head nozzle for hand-watering now.

And then I had to water the enclosed veggie garden.  I'm not used to the tight spaces yet, so it is a bit awkward.  I'll get the tricks for worked out this year.  Watering the 6 new raised beds takes a good 30 minutes.

And THEN I had to water all the deck containers.  I tried just filling and re-filling a watering can to water them, but that got pretty tedious.  I thought I would try either one of those super limp hoses that collapse back into a small container, or one of those coiled types that stretch out and fit back in a metal holder.  You've seen them on ads. 

But I was at a D-I-Y store and I noticed they were using the coiled type themselves.  So I figured they probably have some experience with their products, and bought the Melnor green coiled one.

So far, it is working very nicely and sure doesn't take up much space.  I screwed the wire frame to a piece of exterior plywood and attached the plywood to the side of the deck.  A short hose reaches to the multi-outlet water outlet.

For the record, I use one outlet for the hose to the deck, one for the hose to the nearby lawn, one to an industrial strength hose that goes 150' to the back veggie garden, and one for a jet nozzle right at the spigot that is useful for many things (cleaning buckets, hands, boots,  etc).  Dragging hoses all around the yard is both difficult and damaging to plants (I have the entire area around the spigot planted).

So I came back in at 6 PM and decided about dinner.  I decided I'd earned a steak.  I buy them in bulk from the local meat store, cut them in half, and freeze them in sandwich bags (wrapped in a bigger bag, wrapped in a heavier bag - no freezer burn).  So I stuck one bag in a pan of hot water (gentle thawing), made a nice home-grown tomato salad (with some minced onion, chopped cucumber, and shaved carrot), sauted some wedges of red and green bell pepper, M/Vd a potatoe, and poured a glass of wine while I sauteed the steak (its more stovetop-roasting in the covered cast iron pan). 

Dessert was cut-up fresh fruits (cantalope, green grapes, a plum, a navel orange, and some prunes).

Life is good...

Now I need to consult with The Mews about what they want to post for tomorrow. 

The Garden Inside

I have been planting while I built.  I risked losing plants to the Evil Squirrels or Groundhogs, but I've managed to avoid them this year.  I may have reduced the local population down to where they don't like getting into my space.

Which is good, because there are still gaps between the rolls of chicken wire I need to patch. 

They great news is that my garden, while incomplete, is growing well.

First, I have my first main season tomato.  It is a Big Beef, which is a hybrid and not my favorite, but it is still better than the store-bought ones.  The heirlooms are just now fruiting and will take a couple weeks to ripen.

I'm trying somehing in one bed based of the Three Sisters of Native America plantings.  Thats growing corn, letting pole beans climb the cornstalks, and growing melons below to shade out weeds. 

I may have planted the corn late; the beans are growing faster.  But I'll see what happens for this year.  I can stick 8' posts in the ground between the corn plants to let the pole beans climb (and the pole beans are the flat italian kind which taste better than standard ones to my mind).  The melons are honeydew.

The heirloom tomatoes are growing unusually tall.  New soil with good compost, I guess.  But most have blossoms now.  Below them are 2 green squash and 1 yellow squash.

This bed has cantalope melons.  I'm planting Fall crops around it.  I'm off-schedule with most plantings this year because of the enclosure construction work.  I should be back on schedule next year.  But it is a rare opportunity for Fall crops that I usually don't get around to.

This cherry tomato was planted late.  It sat in a tiny 6-pack cell for months and I had about given it up for dead and/or stunted.  But after being in ground for only 2 weeks, it went from a 8" sprig to this.  Talk about GROWTH!  I may harvest cherry tomatoes yet...

This is more late plantings.  Broccoli, Leeks, Cabbage, and Celery.  All I can get from Celery around here is leaves, but they sure are strong-tasting!  Which is exactly what I want in my salads.

And I have Brussels Sprouts, Radishes, Carrots,

The Garden Enclosure

The door is set in place.  Finally.  It was a struggle, and one I didn't expect.  I originally laid the door on the basement place and build a frame around it that seems accurate and solid.  The idea seemed so simple.  Build a frame around the door, measure the distances between the frame parts, and dig holes in the ground to put 4x4 posts to match so that the door frame could be attached to the 4x4" posts.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

Reality intruded...  Even with screws every foot. the frame sagged as I tried to put it up to the posts.  And even 4x4" posts move some even when set 2' deep.  It's not like building a door into a house where everything is pretty solid.

I won't bore you with the details.  No, wait, I will.

First, I tried to just attach the hinge side of the door frame to the 4x4" post that had been set into soil and rocks crushed as tightly as I could get it, for 2 weeks.  Well, we've had a lot of rain lately and apparently the soil wouldn't dry deep.  I tried everything I could to keep that post level and packed.  I tamped the soil around it with a short 4' piece of 4x4" post, I stomped around, and I surrounded it with plastic sheeting to keep the rain away.  I clamped other 4x4" posts to it in 3 directions to hold it in place.  I gave it time to dry.

When I finally attached the door to the hinge-side post, I braced the door so it's weight wouldn't pull on it.  It finally seemed to be set in place.

So then I worked on the latch side.  I somehow had mis-measured the first time I dog the hole for the supporting 4x4" post on that side, so I pulled it loose and did it right.  I got it right the 2nd time.  Well, the "distance" was accurate.  But the squareness of the door frame was off.

ARGGGH!

I did some annoying unsquare connections to make the door frame fit the posts.  I had the door fitting properly, but the next day it wasn't.  The latch-side 4x4" post has settled a bit.  I wedged it up a bit with a board on the ground and shims pounded together using the ground board as a support) to raise that 4x4" post slightly (to square the frame).  That worked.  For 2 days...

Then it was out of square again!

There are times when I know I do not really have skills at this sort of thing.  But I can be obnoxiously persistent.  Sometimes dumb persistence and determination overcomes lacks of skills.

I FINALLY got the door frame solid with enough corner braces and screws so that, even if the posts shift slightly, they shift together as a unit.  The door latched.

And then it DIDN'T!

It was REAL close, barely catching or not.  Well, the latch may need some work.  But it was mostly just a matter of 1/16" between "sometimes" and "always" latching.  A professional would have taken some things loose and adjusted them to fit.  But I was at the limit of adjustments and would have had to a lot of filling and redrilling.  But I found some "give" around the metal door frame.

A shim stuck between the post and the metal door frame gained me that 16/th inch.  Hurray, the latch clicks closed with a simple swing of the door.  For now (after 2 weeks of fighting), it shuts and latches smoothly.  And I have a couple ideas to connect the door frame more solidly.

If it shifts more and refuses to latch again on its own, I will just put a hook&eye to hold it shut.

But everything seems to be working on the door a week later now, and I'll declare victory on that part.

It's not pretty, but it works...  And sometimes, that's the best I can do.

Next time, the inside of the garden enclosure...

Headphones

I like to watch TV while I am am working in the kitchen.  But I also make a lot of noise in there (running water, etc) which overwhelms the TV sound.  And that's even with running the TV through the stereo speakers.

So I researched wireless headphones.  Most got poor ratings, but mostly for not trnsmitting through rooms walls.  Well, that wasn't my concern (I'm still in direct line-of-sight to the TV).  So I bought a well-rated wireless headphone.

I couldn't get it to work.  There were 2 ways to connect them.  One was  direct from the headphone plug to the back of the wireless headphone station.  The other was from the back of the headphone station to the A/V controller unit (whatever you call the device that lets you select the various other devices like TV/Stereo, DVD player, etc). 

The cable to plug into the device controller headphone unit was too small though the audio in/out fit perfectly.  No arrangement of plugs allowed the audio-out connection to work.  So I needed either an adapter plug to fit betwee the small plug and the headphone plug.  I hope that makes sense.  I assumed there was an adapter plug to fit from th small headphone plug to the larger one.  

So I went to Radio Shack, of course.  They opened and tried several adaptor plugs which didn't work.  I suggested maybe there was a cable that matched all the plugs.  The salesperson at Radio Shack didn't think so. 

I found it on the shelves myself.  Am I the only one how thinks Radio Shack personnel aren't as experienced as they used to be?  I had to find a rather obvious cable MYSELF!  At Radio Shack!

So back at home, I plugged it in.  It worked perfectly.  The wireless headphones work great.  But nothing is perfect.  Plugging the headset in cuts off the stereo speakers.  Worse, my radio won't play whether the headphone plug is in or out.  I'll have to explore that.

But I have to say that while the dishwasher is running and I an running sink water to clean dishes or get hot water, I CAN hear what is on the TV.

Small victory...

The Garden Enclosure

Its not finished, but I did finally get the door set in properly today.  It doesn't sound like That Big A Deal, but it drove me crazy to the point where I just stopped about it for several weeks (and did other useful stuff). 

But I went back at it 2 days ago.  It not elegant.  The half-lap joints that fit so well on the basement floor didn't fit well out in the garden.  I'm guessing that there were fitting options that options that "from basement floor to reality" were not right.  Putting posts into holes in the ground is not quite like the frames sitting on a nice level basement floor. 

But with enough support (uprights, cross, and sideways), I got the door to close smoothly and the lath to connect.   I bet any professional would cringe at the work I've done.  But as long as it latches closed, it doesn't really matter.  All it has to do is stay solid.

And then its worth finishing the chicken wire.  All I have left of that is wrapping some corners where the 4' rolls didn't quite reach.  That involves some cutting and pacthing using leftovers, but I have enough of those.

It will be SO great to have this completed.  Pictures when it is really completely done.  But the "damn door" was 90% of the unfinished work, so I am about there.

Neighbors

This isn't about a HORRIBLE AWFUL neighbor who does completely TERRIBLE MEAN things.  This is about a long-time merely annoying neighbor who just finally got me all ticked-off today.

OK, lets say you have a drainage easement along a property line.  And that drainage easement is shared by a neighbor.  And you are mutually legally responsible for it (the storm drain itself is a county responsibility).  The responsibility means keeping it free flowing right into the storm drain (meaning around the storm drain and the grate on the top of the storm drain is OUR responsibility).

Let's say you have had that same neighbor for 28 years, they refuse to pay any attention to cleaning (because their yard is higher and the occasional flooding caused by the debris-covered storm drain never causes them any problem), and you have mentioned this very politely several times over the years.

Let us further suppose that you have cleaned the sides and grate numerous times.  And picture the sides and top as "beaver dam material" - interwoven sticks and small branches that fill in with leaf-packed mud like the squishy stuff at the bottom of a natural lake but also plastic bags, fast-food containers, and general trash).

And let us further suppose that you had spent over an hour 2 weeks ago wedging the sticks and branches loose with an iron bar (throwing most of them onto your own side of the property line) before ripping loose handfulls of leaf-packed mud and feeding them into the newly-rushing water escaping into the now partially opened storm drain to break apart in the flood-flow.  And you are doing all this bent over at the waist with pooled water 3/4 the way up your boots.

After doing all this work, you clean up your property side, but also pick up all the trash plastic bags etc on both sides and fill up your trash can.  You leave the 1/4 of the sticks that happened to land on their property while you were pulling them all loose so that they will notice it while mowing and see that you have cleaned the storm drain grate ONCE AGAIN!

I don't usually act passive/aggressive (and it wasn't intended to be the "aggressive" part).  But I almost never see those neighbors outside and I didn't want to go bang on their door with my muddy hands and temporary annoyance.  I figured they would see the branches, see the cleaned storm drain grate and just pick up their minor share of the sticks pleased that I had cleaned the storm drain again...

Nope!  Are you surprised?

And, then imagine that after all that neighborly work, you return home today from errands to discover they have picked up all the sticks and dropped them onto YOUR lawn...

Now THAT's "passive-aggressive"!

I suppose I have to go knock on their door some Saturday afternoon and discuss it.  Again.  Explain the work I did, that I picked up most of the debris and all the trash, scooped the leafy mud with my bare hands, and that I am tired of doing this myself all the time when we are both responsible for it, and that I expect them to clean the storm drain grate themselves sometimes.

Not to get too far afield, but I DON'T like having to tell people what they should be doing.  I avoided several management offers in my career for that reason.  So I really don't want to go knock on their door and surprise them with a complaint (they may be utterly clueless).

Several ideas come to mind...

1.  Knock, knock.  "Hey neighbor are we having a stick fight"?

2.  Knock, knock.  "Did you notice I cleaned the storm drain in June?  It's your turn every November". 

3.  Knock, knock.  "Thanks for the sticks.  Is that a cultural gift I should know something about"?

4.  Anything else.  But please don't suggest "I should have just picked up their sticks as well".  I won't go for that one.

I'm willing to have a minor fight about this if there is a positive outcome.  But they seem to have some problems.  They half-built a garage and then let it stay that way for many months.  They did some yardscaping another year and that stayed half-done for several years.  A psychologist friend of mine said those are signs of personal and/or family dysfunction. 
 

My Deception Detector

Everyone seems to have some special talent.  Some people know instinctively who to trust.  Others can tell compass directions even down in the subways.  Some can choose the perfect gift every time.  Others can field a hard-hit ball, or dodge a speedy object (I saw a guy who could catch arrows aimed at him once), have great balance, etc.

I have a false-statement flag in my brain.  Most people don't (or else there wouldn't be deceptive advertisements).  I call it my "bull-shit meter".  I don't mean that I'm a skeptic who simply suspects every statement.  That's just a negative way of viewing the world. 

But I can hear statements that immediately don't ring true to reality.  Its not even concious, as if I heard the statement, thought about it carefully, and disagreed with it.  It's an immediate "WHAT?"  I don't even have to be paying attention for the "flag" to register.  I just "hear" false statements better than most.

Sometimes I'm doing housework with the TV on and the *DING* happens.  I even have to work to figure out what caused it.  Its usually a commercial and I see the ending of it enough to watch for it the next time, to find out what the *DING* was about. 

The latest one is some drug that specifies that (paraphrased) isnt for weight loss but can help in weight loss.  After paying attention a couple times, I realized that a side effect was diarrhea.  Well of COURSE that causes weight loss, DUH!  But it took several intent listenings to catch the deception.

Well, I heard one a week ago that really bothered me and I couldn't figure out what was getting my BS detector activated.  It was for some astronomy online or DVD class.  I should mention that (so far as I can tell) I am (mostly) immune to advertising.  Well my BS Detector helps, but I also buy products after research, and that helps too.

I finally caught the part of the ad that got my subconcious detector buzzing...

One part said "find out why Venus disappears at Midnight".  That didn't make sense and it really bothered me.  I'm a science-type guy.  And that "at midnight" part bothered me.  Why "at midnight?"  That's a pretty specific time...

I did some back-of-the-envelope" sketches and couldn't find anything special about "midnight.  Well, actually, one part was obvious.  At midnight, we are looking at the outer solar system, and Venus is in the inner solar system. 

Now I know the basic general distances of planets from the Sun.  Each one is "sort of" 50% further from the sun that the previous one.  Its nowhere near exact, but its a general estimation.  So with Venus having a smaller orbit nearer the sun, as the Earth turns, your spot on it turns away from the Sun.  And since Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth, your spot on Earth turns away from Venus, too.  It just takes longer because Venus is further from the Sun.

In fact, Venus is "about" 45 degrees from the Sun from our maximum POV.  Sometimes zero, but never more more than about 45 degrees.



So that ad for the astronomy "class" just burned me up and NOW I know why.  "At Midnight" is a deceptive come-on, it sounds "special" to midnight.  We only see Venus a few HOURS after sunset or a few HOURS before sunrise, not just "can't see it at midnight". And THAT is what set my subconcious BS-Detector off, even though I had to spend some time figuring out exactly why.

Independence Day

Suspicious Investment Advice

I went to the bank to start buying a series of 12 month CDs each month that would mature about once every 12 months for liquidity without penalty.  I can get better returns from my Credit Union, but the bank said they would match that.  Well, OK, that's more convenient.

Instead, I got sales pitches for riskier investments.  GRRR!!!  But on the possibility that I was missing out on some decent investments (and not outrageous "shooting the moon" types), I researched the advice.

I found lies at worst, and evasions at best.  I won't be trusting my commercial bank for any investments, LOL!

A wise person once said that you should never invest in anything you don't understand as well as "they" do.  I agree. 

I was set on guard when the investment guy at the bank started by asking me a lot of personal frendly questions designed to elicit a "yes" reponse.  But I know about that trick.  Once they are friendly and get you saying "yes", it is harder to say "no".  I can say "no" (and did),

One way to judge those questions and statements is to ask, "what would an honest person say and what would a dishonest person say?"  If the answer is the same for both, then be very careful.

As in what do innocent people in jail and guilty people in jail both say?  "I'm innocent".  Or if you are astronomy-minded, how do you know the Earth moves around the sun and not vice-versa.  It looks the same both ways, but only one is correct. 

I did some research on what the bank investor guy said.  Some statements were clearly true, but a few were clearly false.  A single persuasive positively-presented false statement negates all the true ones so far as trustworthiness is concerned. 

So I do not trust my current bank to support MY interests, and will be changing it soon. 

And all because they set up a meeting to do one thing I came for and pushed another I didn't...

Too Busy Too Early

Ever stayed up a few late morning hours just waiting to get some things done?  That was today for me.  Got to the bank to get some account management done, got out just in time for the barber shop to open.  Got to the Home Depot DIY store to get a cordless string trimmer recommended by Consumer Report magazine (and they {HD} sure don't make it easy to make sure the model number was the same).

Back home, hearing the weather forecast was for possibly extreme rain, I got the mattock out and redug a drainage ditch from the patio downhill (its at the bottom of the sloping backyard - one of those things you don't see in The Garden Tour). 

Then I stopped to dig out seeding thistle plants from the place I need to plant the zinnias.  And then, why not dig out the grass popping up in there too.  So, being tired and dirty already (and expecting heavy rain) I went out front to drag all the CRAP covering the storm drain (being at the bottom of the drain slope is no fun).  And if you EVER look at a property that mentions "drainage easement" run like hell!

My neighbor and I are legally equally responible for "drainage easement" maintenance, but his yard is 2' higher than mine so only I suffer from flooding.  I spent an hour wedging loose tree debris, collected mud, and general garbage to make the drain  open again.  I threw most of the junk on HIS lawn (HE's never cleaned it in 28 years)

And halfway through clearing the top of the storm drain, the rain started.  Sure, why not...  "It always rains on the unloved"...  So I finally got inside and changed all my clothes.  I was soaked right down to my socks...

And its only Noon!!!

I've opened a 1.5L bottle of my favorite cheap Zinfandel (pretty good stuff actually),  and I DARE anyone to say I shouldn't empty it.  I have leftovers from the previous 2 dinners (hot italian sausage/white kidney beans/bell peppers for one and chicken/mushroom/noodle casserole for the other, so I dont have to do any cooking this evening.

I have 3 cans of Wellness cat cans ready to go (can't ever forget the cats).

And what would be on the stereo as I type this but "Dancing With Myself".  Yeah that pretty much covers my day...

And its only 12:30 PM...

I'm not sure what I should do with the rest of the day.  I could go to bed and try to sleep til tomorrow morning, put on some soothing Simon&Garfunkle, crank up some Led Zepplin, or fade into mindless electronica CDs.

Well, there is time today, You tell me...