3rd Yardwork Project

The other major thing I want to do this Fall is move the surviving fancy hostas from the open front yard to the fenced back yard where the deer can't get at them.

The fancier they are, the more the deer seem to like them.  The good ones are marked with landscaping flags.  So where the impatiens and coleus have grown this year, there will be the best hostas.  The others will go into a 50'x6' long bed where there are some empty spots over the years.

I will be moving the numerous Japanese Painted Ferns all around after the far back yard gets cleared of blackberries in a week or two..  They seem to like it here and spread well.

The place where the fancier hostas will go is a framed area around my sunken patio.  And there is a reason.  I was in a carpool for years that met at a spot where hostas were up at stomach level.  I loved the effect.  I am replicating it.

Most will be Captain Kirk and June




With Blue Cadet


 And small gold drop all around.







The deer DON'T seem to like the large rough-leaved 'Sum and Substance' and 'Big Daddy' hostas.  So I will be dividing them and filling the spaces in the front where I am taking out the other hostas.

I prefer to deter them from eating my plants passively.  But I will set up a motion-detector strobe light to drive them away.  And if that doesn't work. I can sit quietly in a blind in the corner of my yard with a crossbow.  Deer need to relearn to be afraid of humans again.

2nd Yardwork Project

The next most important project is the bulb bed.  It is a 20' diameter edged circle.  I planted 100 tulips there in wire cages (to protect them from voles) last year.  They looked great this Spring.  I also had 200 daffodils of 2 varieties (one early and one late).  Voles don't bother daffs, so that was just drilling holes with an auger and setting them in.

I ordered more daffs for this year.  50 more each of the existing ones and 150 of a different one for the unused space in the circle.

I should have marked the space where the existing daffs were planted.  Well, you know, you think you won't forget exactly where they are but you do.  I have pictures, so I should be able to guess pretty well where to plant more of the same ones safely.  And where I can start planting the new ones next to them.  I HOPE, LOL!

But over the Summer, weeds grew.  I want a clean planting area for all the new bulbs.  My gas powered roto-tiller is just too big for the area, so I bought a small 10' tiller.

I tried it out today.  What a disaster!  Every grass leaf and root wrapped around the tiller blades  2 10' rows and the things was stuffed like a hard ball of cotton.  It took 20 minutes to pull them all out.  But it did do a decent job of tearing up the soil an inch deep, which was exactly what I wanted.  But that was way too slow and difficult.

So I used my electric string-trimmer to beat down all the long grass leaves.    That was an amazing 3 wheelbarrowfuls of plant debris!

So I tried the little electric tiller again.  It was actually worse.  The previous use has a lot of grass leaves in it, this time it was all roots.  It took 30 minutes to pull them all out.  They get wrapped and tangled very tightly.

So that wasn't the way to go.  The little electric tiller is great for small areas of bare dirt.  But it doesn't chop up roots.

So I raked off all the weed-whacked debris.  Then I decided to pull out the serious tiller.   It is kind of big for the job.  I couldn't get it to start.  So I thought about mowing the area.  I can use the drill auger to make holes for all the new daffs if weeds are down to ground level.  I couldn't get the push mower to start.  Last option was the riding mower but that is really awkward changing from forward to reverse (you have to stop the blade each change).

So Monday, I bring the gas rototiller and the gas push mower to a repairshop.  There is a good local one.  Fair prices.  I hope they aren't busy.

And then I can get back to MY interests which is USING the equipment to do things I need doing.

Yardwork

The approach of Winter is pushing me to get some yardwork done.  My knee is about back to normal as long as don't kneel on something hard (walking is general fine again even stairs feel normal).

I have several projects to complete.  The major one is a 1/3 of the backyard that has become overgrown with ivy, volunteer saplings, and blackberries.  What a weird combination!

I attacked it 2x this week.  I can cut down the saplings with loppers (a few demand a saw), but getting at the blackberries is horrible.  They drape over in a circle, so every one I cut HAS to fall on me and grabs my skin and clothes like an angry cat.  I was spending more time getting each individual came loose from me than cutting them.

The area is 50'x65' and that is not going to work.  The job requires EQUIPMENT!  I priced those glorified gas-powered ground surface hedge-trimmers and decent ones start at $2500.  Not the best idea for something I'm not likely to use again.  So I called a couple of brush-hoggers.

One came by today.  He just cuts everything off at groundlevel.  A high-powered mowing and debris removal service.  That might be good enough depending on the price.  With that, I would have a clear area.  I have a good roto-tiller and used it back there once.

It's rough work, but if all that is left is 1" stubs and roots, it WILL tear them out and a regular mower will keep them cropped until the roots are exhausted and die.  I can handle THAT.

I would PREFER someone to come in with a small bulldozer and scrape the soil a couple inches deep, remove the plant debris, them spread the soil out smoothly.  I haven't found someone to do that yet.

Landscapers want to turn everything into lawn or planted areas with their own shrubs and flowers.   I don't want that.

Excavators just want to flatten everything in sight and leave the debris in place.  They really don't want to mess with removing piles of brambles.

Part of the problem is that it is a tricky area.  There is a 9' diameter pond needing a new liner and a 40' water raceway uphill that flows pumped water down into the pond.  They don't want to get close to that.

I may have to take what I can get and try to do what I can afterwards.  But at least on this, I am willing to pay someone to do the rough work.

This is all because I had some trees that were shading my garden removed.  As some as they were removed, the space under them received a lot more sunlight.  I knew I had ivy around, but the blackberries were a complete surprise.  They just erupted out of no where.  I assume the tree shade prevented them from growing before.

So here is my plan.  I have five 2' tall specimen trees (2 korean dogwoods and 3 sourwoods) that should grow only about 20' high.  They won't shade my garden.  But they shold shade the ground around them to replace the shade that kept the blackberries and ivy from growing.  The ground under the older taller junk trees was nearly bare.  I'm hoping for a return to that.

I will help the 5 specimen trees grow by surrounding them with scrap carpet.  Carpet lets water through but not plants up.  I done that with many shrubs and trees and it works great.

The trees I bought are not yet dormant.  I water them every couple of days waiting for the cold weather.

If it works, I will have lovely Spring and Fall small trees in the back, no wild growth, and no new shade on the garden. 

Humor

I just HAD to post this...


That one was just too funny...

More Political Silliness And Illogic Comment

I received a comment from Angel Abbygrace's Mom in response to the original post.  The comment is detailed and it is valued.  And I don't want to change a normally personal and friendly blog into a heated discussion in the stress of the last week of an angry and partisan political campaign.

But a response is deserved, and I'll put hers it italics for ease of identification.  And unless noted otherwise, I will accept the accuracy of her statements (this is not Fox News, after all, and we are not competing talking heads.  She is a friend whom I respect).

And unless otherwise noted I am commenting on her quote, not her conclusions FROM the quote. 

As she quoted, From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were “up-classified” to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent.

"Chains" are series of emails on the same subject.  They can, as we all well know, contain many subjects varying widely as the "chain" goes on.  What starts as a chain can be about personal family matters, get into a brief argument about politics and then go right back to family matters.

In this case, I see that there are some numbers that seem to have meaning and some that do not.  "110 emails in 52 email chains" sounds like a whole lot.  Many people will multiply 110 by 52 and think "about 55,000 emails".  No.  It is still only 110 out of the original 30,000 emails.

That is "not many".

The numbers of emails that were "sent or received" is deceptive.  It is not a crime to receive improperly-marked classified information.   If I sent anyone of my friends classified information not properly marked as such, you would not be guilty of anything.  *I* might, IF I knew the information was classified.

The question is whether the information in the emails was known to either of us.

From what I understand, most of the emails considered to include classified information fell into 3 categories.

First, there was information not classified at the time but classified at a later date.  You are not guilty of handling information that was classified LATER! Such as, if you take a medication today and the Government declares it illegal next month, you can't be charged.

And even with classified information, there is a "lag time".  If some agency declares "Fact X" classified today and you refer to it tomorrow before you are told about that, you aren't guilty of anything.

It gets worse.  Suppose Agency A declares Fact A classified and Agency B says it isn't?  You still aren't guilty because there is reasonable doubt.

Second, classified information has to be properly identified.  In the movies, every classified document has a big red "CLASSIFIED" stamped at the top.  And maybe they do.  But they don't always show up that way in emails.  I have seen claims by seemingly objective sources that WHEN a classified email or  attachment in an email was sent to Clinton, there was simply a large "C" at the end.  

And there are 2 problems with that one.  If you only learn the information was classified AFTER you read it, there isn't much you can do to forget it.  And a "C" is not the same as a "classified" stamp...

Third, most of the information that is being challenged was "upclassified", meaning it was classified only after recent review by one Federal Agency or another and at a later date than the emails.  And if anyone has to choose between classifying information and NOT classifying it, it gets classified.

If my job was classifying documents, I would classify my office softball team schedule rather than make a mistake.  Because the is no penalty for over-classifying docoments, but a HUGE one for not when you should have.

Which leads me to my last 2 point, which I will combine.  Just because a document is classified doesn't mean it should be.  Just how many secrets to you think we have from the Russians and Chinese?  I think it was Kissinger who said that the only Nations we can keep secrets from are our Allies.  And apparently, we can't even do that anymore.

So I ALMOST question our whole habit of secrecy.  The only people who DON'T know US government secrets are the US citizens, LOL!

From AbbyGrace's Mom:  "The Top Secret email chains alone should set off alarm bells whether you support or don't support HRC as a candidate. If you had sent or received classified email on your own private server while working in the Government do you think the FBI would have been as lenient to you?" 

HRC has about the highest clearance.  I don't.

"Also from the director's statement: Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

"Careless" is not the same as "illegal".  If one classified person mentioned classified information to another privately at a party,  that is not illegal, but it is careless.

"One other note on classification from the Director: But even if information is not marked “classified” in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it"

At a certain level, probably almost anything could be classified.  And you have to be able to talk to people in real time without having staff research every fact for classification status.  I suspect that our classified system has gotten way out of anyone's ability to keep within the rules. 

I bet I could find half of the US classified information on the internet without trying too hard.  I think the whole classified argument is a mountain made from a molehill. 

Not that some information shouldn't be classified, but that most shouldn't.

And let me finish by saying again, no harshness, just my best answers to a good comment...

More Political Silliness And Illogic

This is partly about "the political games" but also about the illogic and careless language used by the talking heads on TV.  And I don't like either side of both issues!

First, the "the political games".   The Facts:  FBI Director Comey sent a letter to "Congress advising them that more emails were found that might involve their previous committee investigations, as he had promised to do if new information was discovered.  No specific information was included, and he noted that the possibilility of misunderstanding.

The basis of concern is that Huma Abedin (wife of Anthony Weiner of sexting shame-fame) is an associate of Clinton and there MIGHT be some Clinton emails not yet discovered.  She used a family laptop to send some emails to Clinton.  The content has not been made public at this time is not known at this time. Nothing suggesting anything improper has been offerred. 

The FBI, after reviewing all the emails on Clinton's server, has found nothing of concern and closed the investigation months ago.  A very few emails with classified information were sent TO her without proper notifications.  Her replies were lawful; if you don't know received information was classified, YOU are not at fault. The FBI said so.

OK.  As far as I can think, if Huma sent Clinton any emails, they are on Clinton's email system and already examined by the FBI.  This starts to look like the Kevin Bacon game.  Can you connect anyone socially unacceptable to Clinton?  LOL!

As far as I can tell now, the letter was addressed TO House Committee Chairman, all Republican of course.  I will explain something about the details of Government letter-writing.  There is "TO", there is "cc" (courtesy copy), and there is "bcc" (blind courtesy copy) just like on emails.

Only in Government letters, the cc and bcc is not on the original TO letter.  The "TO" recipients do not know about the cc and bcc list unless they ask for a file copy of the letter.  The cc list does not know about the "bcc" list unless they ask (and the originators admit to it).

So, unless things have changed (and they might have - I've been retired for10 years),  the Republican Committee saw only that they had been sent the letter, the Democratic minority leaders saw they had been sent a copy of the letter to the Republican Chairmen, and only Comey and his staff know who got sent a bcc copy (bcc's are usually sent only to internal staff who need to know about such things for media questions and file-keeping.

Is that confusing enough?  I spent 30 years in Government and got very used to those kinds of subtleties, LOL!  It all makes sense to me!  LOL!

Second, the talking heads discussions...

Everyone I heard on MSNBC and CNN got it all WRONG!  Clinton mentioned the Comey letter send to the Republican Committee Chairmen.  As usual, she was utterly technically correct.  The letter was indeed addressed to the Republican Committee Chairmen.  She said that with the same accuracy I would in discussing "TO, cc, and bcc".  She understands that stuff  and speaks of it accurately.

The TV talking heads did not!  They said Clinton claimed the letter was sent "only" to the Republicans and casitigatd her for a deception..  The ccs were sent to the ranking Democratic Minority Leaders.  But they received cc copies; they were not the original TO recipients.

Meanwhile, Clinton is saying that she would like any available information to be released ASAP, as there is noactual information in Director Comey's letter but there are suggestions.  Trump, on the other hand is claiming the non-information in Comey's letter as some proof of guilt  

As odd as that might seem in the real world, it matters in Government.  Comey very DELIBERATELY and EXPLICITLY sent the official copies of the letter to the Republican Committee chairmen  and NOT the official copies to the Democratic Ranking Members.  But cc'd them to cover his ass.  A true Washington wimpy asshole who needs to be removed...

Conclusion:  Comey wished to try to stay out of trouble by playing it both too carefully and too ineptly.  Whoever wins the Presidency, he is going to be gone for the crime of political incompetence.  He can't claim it was urgent (the FBI had the information 5 weeks ago), and he can't claim any factul reason for presenting the mere statement that the FBI was investigating new information 11 days before an election. 

Ex FBI officials have said there is an informal, but previously modern unbroken rule of avoiding all political statements 60 days before an election.  That Comey broke that rule says a lot about his intent. 

Scary Movies

Cat blog friend http://www.15andmeowing.com asked about scary movies and I realized I had more to say about one than would fit as a comment. 

When 'Alien' came out in 1979, a friend and I went to see it opening night.  We stood in line for hours in the rain, and missed the first showing by only 3 people.  We thought is was about bad things from an alien's POV.  Boy were WE wrong.  When the first viewers cane out, they were pale and shaken!  I turned to my friend and asked what we had gotten ourselves into?

Neither of us were particularly frightened by monster movies.  I'm realistic, and my friend was a cinema buff, so we weren't either really TOO worried.  Space aliens were generally silly, and Earthly ones too unlikely. 

But as the movie started darkly, and a sense of unease came over us, and we thought about the looks on the faces of the first audience as they came out, we began to worry.  When we first saw the queen alien skeleton in the derelict ship, we both said "Oh crap"! 

And even then, we weren't prepared for the first egg.  How harmful can a newly-hatched creature be?  We found out!  And it all got worse from there.  By the time Ripley was searching for her cat Jonesie, I was watching most of the screen with partially-shielded eyes.  The SUSPENSE was what was killing me!

Right up to the end, I wasn't sure who was going to win.  The movie had been unique enough that it might well have been the alien left, sending the ship to Earth...

It is the only movie I have ever left with popcorn uneaten!  As we left the theater, I turned to the nearest people in line and said "You aren't prepared for this one".

I still have a T-Shirt I had made afterwards that says "Alien" on the front and "Here, Jonesie" on the back.  But I have never watched that movie on TV.

The following Alien movies were easier to watch, but not by much.  Enough (since I knew Ripley would win) to watch though.  My favorite parts of the later movies were when Ripley confronted the Alien Queen using the personal equipment-mover outfit in Alien2, and when she let herself fall into the molten iron pit in Alien3.  I cried as she fell holding the newly-irrupting Queen hatchling to her to prevent it escaping.

Tgere was Alien; Resurrection, but if I saw it, I can't recall anything about it.

But I was surprised some years ago by the movie 'Prometheus'.  I watched for a few minutes and realized it felt a bit like 'Alien', so I kept watching.  I had no idea it was a prequel.  As prequels to movie series go, it was much better than most.   It involved a superior humanoid species (likely  space-faring ancestors to ourselves in some way, 8' tall, built like giant wrestlers, and technologically-advanced) developing dangerous interstellar creatures as weapons.  I didn't watch the whole movie (in and out of the room cleaning) but apparently the human heroine is fighting and losing to the humanoid when a cage is damaged and a dangerous captive octopus-like creature gets loose. 

Apparently, it was like a dozen strong humans could capture a panther, but one would have a very hard time of it.  And even then, it was a close struggle but the humanoid loses.  And the octopus-like creature absorbs him - and his DNA.  Making the Alien of the original movies...

The heroine escapes the planet in a makeshift spaceship and instead of returning to Earth goes after humonoid race seeking revenge.  That last part is a bit weak, but I guess they couldn't have the Earth being warned about the dangerous aliens.

I understand that there is a Prometheus 2 movie in the works which may explain how the Prometheus heroine fights the sperior humanoid race

But I still can't watch "Alien'...

US Election

Well, we are down to the final few weeks of the US Presidential election, and quite frankly, I wish it was tomorrow.  Or even yesterday.  I am SO tired of it I could scream!

At least it seems that the decision is no longer in doubt.  We will be referring to "Madame President" for the first time ever here, Democrats will have won a 3rd consecutive term controlling the White House since 1940 when Franklin Roosevelt was re-elected to a 3rd personal consecutive term, and (to steal a phrase from an previous generation) a long national nightmare will be over.

The election results will probably give nominal control of the US Senate to the Democrats by a small majority.  It is possible that the House of Representatives will become Democratic , but I'm not expecting it today (but who knows what things will look like in 3 weeks)?  Trump and the Republicans have the 3 weeks to make things better or worse.

If the Al Smith Foundation Dinner last night was any clue, it will get worse for the Republicans.  As background, the Dinner "is an annual white fundraiser in the United States for Catholic charities supporting needy children, held at theWaldorf-Astoria hotel in New York, on the third Thursday of October. It is organized by the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation in honor of Al Smith the former New York Governor and the first Catholic US Presidential candidate.  The dinner is hosted by the Archbishop of New York.

The idea is for the 2 major Presidential candidates to engage in self deprecating humor and some gentle digs at their opponent.

Trump failed at that utterly.  That's not just my opinion.  He received boos and several points when he just made his regular speech at a few points.  Commenters said afterwards that they had never heard boos at the event before.

Apparently, Trump does not understand humor at all.  He did have a few funny lines, none of which were aimed at himself, and even as delivered fell flat.  I suspect several of them would have gotten laughs if delivered by a professional.  Sarcasm can be funny, but not when delivered in anger.

Trumps best joke was when he mentioned 'Michelle Obama made a speech and everyone loved it. It was great.   My wife, Melania, made the exact same speech and everyone gets on her case.'

The audience loved it.  It is probably the best humor about plagiarism ever!  But even THEN, it wasn't aimed at himself.

The crowd stayed with Trump while he ticked down a list of what he called "corny" jokes about being a former Democrat and sarcastically calling himself "modest." And they mostly laughed along when he joked about Clinton accidentally bumping into him back stage and saying "pardon me."
"I very politely replied: Let me talk to you about that after I get into office," Trump landed the punchline. Trumps as said previously that Clinton should be in jail for various reasons.  Clinton was seen laughing.

His 20 minutes went downhill rapidly after that.

Clinton, on the other hand went straight to herself for humor.  "I took a break from my rigorous nap schedule to be here," Clinton told the audience.   And "Usually, I charge a lot for speeches like this."

She got in some rather harsh zingers, but they didn't get boos and there were definitely Trump supporters in the audience.  Rudy Giuliani was there and was the subject of one Clinton joke.  Clinton mentioned the many dignitaries in the audience positively, and then said "and then there is Rudy Giuliani".  Ouch!

“Now, many don’t know this,” Clinton continued, “but Rudy actually got his start as a prosecutor going after wealthy New Yorker's who avoided paying taxes. But, as the saying goes, ‘If you can’t beat them, go on Fox News and call them a genius".  Giuliani, a Trump surrogate speaker of increasing vicious attacks on Clinton, looked like he had a hot coal up where the sun doesn't shine...

But for the most part, Clinton was making jokes on herself and light digs at Trump, and Trump was his usual mean self.  I understand that.  People who are internally confident and happy can make jokes about themselves.

Not to say too much about myself in all of this, but I don't find self-humor threatening.  I tripped over a cat once while a friend was there, and landed on my hands and knees.  My first words were "so this is what it looks like from their point of view".

People like Trump can't laugh at themselves.  If one of his staff had written the absolutely funniest self-deprecating joke ever created, Trump would not have used it.  It would be against himself, and he can't imagine anyone against him.  Because they would simply be "wrong".

My point here, long time in coming, is that Trump can't be President because he lacks the fullness of self-awareness that allows most of us to laugh at ourselves.  I had a friend who did the almost slapstick gag of stepping onto a small boat from the pier and fell into the water as the boat moved away.

I laughed my ass off.  It was as if you actually saw someone slip on a banana peel.  He was livid, angry, enraged...  If I had done that myself, I would have keeled over in laughter at myself as I pulled myself onto the boat, and asked if anyone got a picture of it!

Narcissistic megalomaniac bullies cannot laugh at themselves.  Most of the rest of us can.  At ourselves, and at them...

But basically, all this means that the US Presidential election is decided.  Clinton will win; the question is by how much and will she carry the Senate and/or House along with her.  For the Democratic party, life looks good for 2 Presidential terms.  The interim elections are always iffy.  But the gains of the day are sufficient for the day.

I will be glad after election night Nov 8th.  No mor3e Trump for a while.

But do you know what is generally annoying?  In several places around the US, some people are starting their campaigns for the 2020 Presidential elections...

Yardwork Again

I wasn't sure I was gong to be doing much yardwork the rest of the year.  I usually try to do at least one useful thing each day.  Sometimes I don't, but that is the goal anyway. 

So when I twisted my right knee in early April, and it was difficult to walk the first couple of weeks, I grudgingly waited for it to heal.  I do these sorts of injuries every so often but generally heal quickly enough.  I'm used to it.  You live on your own, you push yourself to do more than you should sometimes, and there is the occasional time your body says hey ease off on me a bit. 

It has happened before.  10 years ago, I casually tossed a rock at a squirrel and strained my rotator cuff and I could barely raise my arm over my shoulder for 4 months!  But it healed fine and I kind of expect that.

But this time, April rolled into May, and May into June and eventually September and it was better but not normal.  Some projects got delayed.  I had planned to repaint the bathrooms and kitchen, but crawling all around washing the walls, putting tape along all the edges and then doing the actual painting seemed too awkward.  But it could wait.

I had also planned to use my gas-powered weed-whacker with the steel cutters to eliminate the backyard brush and brambles that sprung up after I had a few trees removed  several years ago.  That didn't happen.

A few weeks ago, my right knee suddenly felt much better.  Not perfect, but good enough, and I started some minor yard projects and felt ready to do more.  I got some work done.   Mostly de-clutterring the basement the computer room, and the cat room.

And then I went and did something to the left knee.  No idea what I did.  It felt like I had banged it against a door frame, but for 2 weeks, I had 2 bad knees.  I was worried I was sufferring some serious problem (like Lyme Disease affects your joints, or longer term problems like arthritis). 

But I woke up 2 days ago and the left knee was back to normal and the right knee wasn't bad.  I could walk around pretty much normal.

So I had found a sealed bag of grass seed in the basement left over from last year .  I mowed the front yard grass very short.  Today I raked all the loose grass and dumped it where I plan to put a flowerbed island around a large rock and tree in order to smother the grass and weeds and leave some improved soil.  Then I spread the grass weeds all around.  And then I spent 90 minutes carefully spraying straight down onto the grass to beat the grass seeds onto the soil surface and give them enough water to germinate.

It is a bit late to do that.  But I had the seeds and they won't last another year.  And we are having a warm spell, so the seeds should germinate if they are still viable.  There are 2 bare spots, so I will know if they germinate.  At least that is SOMETHING done.

And both knees felt just fine after all that.  So that's good.

The next things to do are planting Daffodils in mid November, tilling some dead areas of the flowerbeds, and eliminating weeds in the paths between the framed veggie beds.  

Are you familiar with those long strips of brown paper used as packing material?  I've been saving the longest strips for several years.  The stuff comes all twisted and crinkled, but I untwist it and lay in on the basement floor and use a push broom to flatten it out.  That works very well.  Then I fold it up in 4' lengths and put a piece of plywood on it to flatten it further and keep it out of the way.  I have several hundred linear feet of it now.

It seems like great stuff to put between the framed beds, on top of weedy dead sections of the flowerbeds, and on top of all the Spring bulbs to smother weeds (with shredded bark on top).  It will probably decompose by Spring, and in not, it will certainly be easy to pull up at planting time.

It may not kill all the weeds, but it sure won't do them any good.  I am reminded of a W C Fields vaudeville joke where he says he swallowed a few moths and said he swallowed a couple of mothballs to get rid of them.  The sidekick asks if it did any good.  Fields says "well it sure couldn't have helped them any".  (Do not do this at home, mothballs are toxic).

My point is that the brown paper cover is worth trying.  If it works, GREAT!  If not, it is easy to remove and will make good compostable material after 5 months exposure to rain and melting snow all Winter and early Spring. 

Gardeners might object that  covers the soil gives voles safe space to run around under.  I did cover part of my flowerbeds with black plastic 10 years ago, and they did love it.  They ate every tulip bulb, safe from predators.  But this time, there won't be anything for them to eat.  Well, the weeds, and if they want to eat the roots of those, they are not welcome, I encourage them.  Otherwise, they don't touch Daffodils or Daylilies (toxic to mammals), the Tulips and Hyacinths are in wire cages they can't get into, and the seeds from the birdfeeder will be on top of the paper where they waill actually have trouble getting to the spilled seeds. EVIL LOL!

So I am getting into the yardwork late, but not impossibly late.  The last project, which is to plant specimen trees that won't grow tall enough to shade my garden and flowerbeds is still in reach.  By "specimen trees", I mean Korean Dogwoods, Sourwoods, Wisteria shrubs, and Star Magnolias.  Those will shade out the brush and brambles like the taller trees used to do, but not cause shade problems across the yard.

I will surround the new trees with used carpeting.  That has really worked well for me over the years.  Rain soaks right through, but weeds won't grow up through it.  And it it is usually free.  Just look for some place being renovated and ask for the old carpet.  They will usually just give it away. 

OK, I'm off to buy some specimen tree saplings...

Back, I ordered 3 Sourwood trees and 2 Korean Dogwoods.  Sourwood trees are great in Fall.  They have small grapelike clusters of yellow berries and burgundy leaves and grow to about 25'.  The Korean Dogwoods are great in Springs, don't have the same disease problems as American Dogwoods, and spread sideways.  I have one on the shady side of the house that has been happily existing for 25 years at 20 feet, and I will take some tip cuttings next June.  It has pink flowers. The dogwoods I ordered have white flowers, so that will make a nice change.



I also filled in all the screw and nail holes in the main bathroom a week ago

Odd Connections

Last night, I was thinking about a couple of songs that run through my head.  One is "Maria" from West Side Story.  I had read that the central syllable was a "dishordant" note. So I brought it up to hear.

Apparently, I don't know music.  It sounded fine to me.  But the lovely sweet song 'Maria' was followed by 'America', a joyful contratemps song where the boys expressed having to fight there way into NYC society and the girls expressed how much better life was for them even in the slums.

And I thought of the current times, where things are so much better for their children, but not yet equal for all.

And then I thought of the current election. 

Where some people do not want "others" to join in our grand US adventure.  Where some are afraid of change and "others". 

I was an "other" once, or at least my ancestors were.  Everyone here is "other" except Native Americans.  My English and French forced their way here and decided THEY were the new native people.  When Germans came here later, my ancestors decided "they" were too strange and didn't belong.

A few generations later, when the Germans were part of the culture, the Irish came, and they were treated like dirt.  But they became part of the culture.  Do even the most fanatical "nativists" now think Germans and Irish people living here aren't part of "us"?

Then the Italians and Eastern Europeans came.  They moved into the slums and worked their way out of them.   After  couple of generations, they lost their language (but added some to ours) .  Can you tell who of us it from those places anymore?

And other people came here.  Chinese who built the railroads, Russians fleeing the Czarist monarchies and the Soviets, Jews, fleeing from everywhere, and people from all over.

Can you tell who's ancestor was Russian or Polish now?  I can't and it doesn't matter. My BI is half Korean and one of the finest people I ever met.  I can't guess at the ancestry of my youngest sister's life partner,.

I might be surprised at my own.  I bet I come from all over Europe and given my maternal Canadian French ancestry, there might well be some Native American there too.  It doesn't matter!  I'm proud of everyone in my past and present.

So there is this loudmouthed, boastful, lying, deceitful, cheating,  groping, hate-filled nativist asshole  demanding MY vote, as an American,  to keep other hard-working people out of this country.

This country, where people dream of a better life not for themselves but for their children, this land where the best and the hardest-working people come to work and prosper, this land where we have a statue holding a shining beacon to the world saying all you who are willing to try your best, "come here, come here, our golden light shine bright", join us, become one of us, make our land a better place...

And this demogogue, this would be dictator, who feeds on fear says NO!  Stay away, leave us alone, we don't want new people and new ideas, DARES to want to become our President. 

There are always frightened people fearing for their routine life, afraid of "others".  They forget that their grandparents or great-grandparents were "others" once.   They forget what makes us strong.  

We grow and thrive in diversity.  New thoughts match to old habits, and better things come from that.  New ideas lead to new ways, new thoughts, new discoveries; a continuing change, a look toward the future. 

The German Chancellor Bismark once said that America is fortunate to have friendly neighbors North and South, and oceans East and West.  But he only saw a part of it.   The people matter more.

In 1860,  before our massive Civil War, people said "the United States "are"; after it, they said "the United States "is".   That was a profound difference.  The war was fought between some States against the Government. When it was over, there was a Nation.

And it was a "Nation" for the first time.  Nebraska farmoys and Massachussets  fisherman boys met for the first time.  Alabama cotton growers and Virginia tobacco boys met for the first time.   None had ever had a sense on the whole place as a "nation" before.  By the end of the Civil War, they did. 

And now we have the party of Abraham Lincoln and General Grant living in the South in fear.

Shame, I say SHAME on you Republicans for claiming Lincoln as your birthright and denying his ideals!

Nations come and Nations go.  All that is required is the failure to to keep striving toward democracy.   Let the first little dictator in, and others will follow  One just a little worse than the last.  Like a frog in a heating pan.

The time to act is not the next election; the time to act is NOW.    We have to choose the President who will keep to the ideals of Democracy, not the one  who says "trust me I will figure it all out myself and tell you what to think"...

That is how democracy ends, in dibs and drabs,