There seem to be 3 squirrels in the Grove Tree Gang who attack my garden. The small grove of trees on the east side dont have food trees like oaks, so they have learned to raid gardens and fruit trees.
In desperation this year, I set up a live trap. I caught 2 of them in 3 days. But the 3rd one must be the mastermind. I keep finding the trap shut yet the peanut butter all cleaned off the trigger lever. Its been 13 days of resetting the cage and applying new peanut butter sometimes even twice per day.
Today I walked out to the cage and heard a rattling sound. I GOT it! I was excited. I loosened the rope tied to the cage handle that keeps it from falling over the fence into the neighbor's yard and went to carry it away.
Oops, I forgot the wire that holds the cage to the fence. It made me lose my grip on the cage and fall 2 feet to the end of the rope. That caused the wire that holds the doors closed to flip loose and Squirrel Houdini was out in a flash.
I said a LOT of Very Bad Words...
So I did what I have done every day the past 2 weeks and reset the trap. I'm sure Squirrel Houdini is going to be leery of the cage. But I also know it LOVES the peanut butter. So it is a game of squirrel gluttony vs patience.
I'll get it eventually. And when the last of the Grove Tree Gang is removed, I hope the replacements don't learn the same garden-raiding tricks.
I don't have anything in particular against squirrels. We coexisted peacefully for 23 years before this one group started destroying my garden (and I put 2 squirrel baffles on the birdfeeder pole years ago). I even like them in their natural habitat (living in trees and eating acorns - of which there are plenty here). But last year they pulled every green aple of my trees and ate all but 2 tomatoes. This year they have pulled up 3 plantings of corn, beans and cucumbers.
Here it is the middle of July and I have eaten just 2 beans (and just tonight). The cukes are only a foot high. The last corn seedlings died under the cover I put over them (too hot, I guess) and there is probably no point in replanting them at this point. There is a new planting of beans under a tent of 1" mesh chicken wire. I MIGHT get some beans from this planting
I don't have a problem with the squirrels on the west side of the yard. There are 2 huge oak trees there so they seem to have all the acorns they need, and apparently, the birdfeeder is in their territory. They eat the seeds the birds spill out and they are welcome to them. No squirrel of the west side has ever run toward the east grove. I never bother animals that don't attack my food.
My only fight is with the east Grove Tree Gang. Sheriff Cavebear IS going to get them...
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
A Blast From The Past
I used to play a complex strategic computer game called Civilization 2 (not an action/shooter game). There would be a large map (unseen at the start) and you would slowly establish and improve cities with military, civil and science improvements. You would discover the map as you moved slowly. You started around 3,000 BC and very gradually moved to launching a spaceship to Alpha Centuri competing with up to 6? 8? other players. The game took many hours to play. I was obsessed by it.
But I quit when the new version (Civilization 3) of the game gave less and less control to the player and whole cities would switch sides to another player for no particular reason I understood ("through cultural influence"). And then I switched from Windows to Mac and my CD didn't work any more anyway. So I moved on to blogging.
Well, I suddenly developed a great desire to play the game again. I still had the old PC around and thought to have it cleaned and upgraded, but then decided that I liked internet multi-player competition, so I simply bought the Mac version of Civ 2. The CD should arrive in a few days.
But I wanted to review some of the game strategies and looked at the current Civ 2 discussion board. Its been 7-8 years since I played.
Imagine my surprise when the very first post I saw was advice FROM ME. LOL! And it was quoted by someone else as "from veteran player xxxxxxx", ME.
THUD!
It is going to take a while for me to get back into the details of the game. This rejoining the game is going to be VERRRY INTERESTING... I'm going to get KILLED at first until I remember the old strategies and catch up on the new ones. But that's the kind of thing that keeps the brain working, you know?
I could die of many causes. But brain boredom ISN'T going to be one of them. LOL!
[Update: The Civ 2 CD arrived today. I am devastated. The CD is too old to load on my up-to-date Mac... My anticipated thrill at playing Civ 2 again is stomped by technology failure. It looks like I will have to get the old Windows computer cleaned and working if I want to play Civ2.
But I quit when the new version (Civilization 3) of the game gave less and less control to the player and whole cities would switch sides to another player for no particular reason I understood ("through cultural influence"). And then I switched from Windows to Mac and my CD didn't work any more anyway. So I moved on to blogging.
Well, I suddenly developed a great desire to play the game again. I still had the old PC around and thought to have it cleaned and upgraded, but then decided that I liked internet multi-player competition, so I simply bought the Mac version of Civ 2. The CD should arrive in a few days.
But I wanted to review some of the game strategies and looked at the current Civ 2 discussion board. Its been 7-8 years since I played.
Imagine my surprise when the very first post I saw was advice FROM ME. LOL! And it was quoted by someone else as "from veteran player xxxxxxx", ME.
THUD!
It is going to take a while for me to get back into the details of the game. This rejoining the game is going to be VERRRY INTERESTING... I'm going to get KILLED at first until I remember the old strategies and catch up on the new ones. But that's the kind of thing that keeps the brain working, you know?
I could die of many causes. But brain boredom ISN'T going to be one of them. LOL!
[Update: The Civ 2 CD arrived today. I am devastated. The CD is too old to load on my up-to-date Mac... My anticipated thrill at playing Civ 2 again is stomped by technology failure. It looks like I will have to get the old Windows computer cleaned and working if I want to play Civ2.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Let There Be Light!
No offence intended but my bathroom is interior and light has always been an issue. It came to a head when I bought a new sagegreen bath towel and it looked dead gray on the towel rack. So I also bought a bright blue towel that matched the fancy marine fish shower curtain and it looked PURPLE!
OK, I decided to get some daylight in there. No, not a skylight, just "daylight" bulbs. I figured there were regular incandescent daylight bulbs, but I couldn't find any. I had to get compact fluorescent bulbs.
WHAT a difference! The color of both towels sprung to life. Now, I don't want to suggest that the color of my towels defines my life. But it WAS annoying that they looked so different than in daylight and I never saw a problem I didn't want to fix.
And don't get me wrong about the towels either. I'm both genetically and by upbringing used to going "cheap", but my escape is that I go by value rather than price. The $13 towels at Walmart and Target are as good as the $30 ones at Bed, Bath&Beyond. Soft, absorbent, oversize and 100% top cotton. I'm glad to see the true colors of the new towels.
But, OMG, I'm going to need to clean the bathroom a lot more often!!! And forgive me if I won't explain why...
But the towel color with regular incandescent and "daylight fluorescent"?
Big difference, huh?
OK, I decided to get some daylight in there. No, not a skylight, just "daylight" bulbs. I figured there were regular incandescent daylight bulbs, but I couldn't find any. I had to get compact fluorescent bulbs.
WHAT a difference! The color of both towels sprung to life. Now, I don't want to suggest that the color of my towels defines my life. But it WAS annoying that they looked so different than in daylight and I never saw a problem I didn't want to fix.
And don't get me wrong about the towels either. I'm both genetically and by upbringing used to going "cheap", but my escape is that I go by value rather than price. The $13 towels at Walmart and Target are as good as the $30 ones at Bed, Bath&Beyond. Soft, absorbent, oversize and 100% top cotton. I'm glad to see the true colors of the new towels.
But, OMG, I'm going to need to clean the bathroom a lot more often!!! And forgive me if I won't explain why...
But the towel color with regular incandescent and "daylight fluorescent"?
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
More Critter Trouble
All is NOT quiet on the Garden Front!
OK, It seems I pretty much have the Grove Gang Squirrels at a stalemate. But to review: They started by pulling up most my corn, bean, and cucumber seedlings (but not eating them) 2 plantings. I attached the live cage on the top of my fence (their highway to my garden). I caught one in the live cage and dispatched it. A second one pulled up my 3rd planting, so I covered the trellis bed with a tent of 1" chicken wire and covered my block of corn separately. Some squirrels penetrated the mesh tent and also got at the corn again (I had uncovered it for some afternoon sun and forgot to replace it). I then caught a 2nd squirrel and dispatched it.
In addition, I had had 2 groundhogs move in under my toolshed earlier. The first was live trapped and relocated. The 2nd was driven away after I filled 3 different burrow entrances with used cat litter. I thought I was done with them for the year (in the past, they have only showed up in the Spring).
So there I was trying to catch the 3rd garden attacking squirrel, but also having fixed the spots it/they got into through the mesh tent. I thought I only needed to catch the 3rd squirrel and then protect my developing tomatoes in another garden bed.
After catching the first 2 squirrels in just a few days, I expected to get the known 3rd and possible 4th easily. The peanut butter bait smeared on the trip lever was working well. However, I have since found the trap tripped daily with nothing inside.
I have figured out that its mostly my fault. There are 2 wires that need to be set in place after the doors are set open that lock the doors shut when snapped closed. That may be confusing; what it means is that a frantic squirrel CAN push back out through the spring-shut doors if 2 wires down lock them down. I HAVE found a couple of times where I forgot to set the lock wires. I know a squirrel has been in the cage because the peanut butter is licked clean.
But I may have outsmarted myself on a few other attempts. Trying to be clever, I put a small dot of peanut butter at the front of the cage to lure the squirrel in. I realized that when the cage was closed and no squirrel was inside, the dot of peanut butter was missing. What probably happened was that the squirrel grabbed the front of the cage to get at the dot on peanut butter hard enough to trigger the doors.
It must have gotten a wicked strike on the head, but was able to pull itself out. But it keeps coming after that peanut butter!
There is also a situation after I stopped putting the dot of peanut butter on the front of the cage and the cage is closed with the trigger lever still having the big smear of peanut butter on it. I suspect that a squirrel is jumping onto the cage just to get over it, and triggering the doors to spring closed. I may have to attach a circle of chicken wire around the outside of the cage to encourage them to go through it.
But I have learned to make sure the door-locking wires are in place each time lately and that the only peanut butter is sure to get them at the door trigger lever. In fact today, I smeared the peanut butter on a small stone and set it PAST the trigger lever. If THAT doesn't work, I will try the mesh wire surround to encourage them to go through the cage instead of jumping on it. I expect to be successful soon.
So what's the "MORE" problem? Well, as I was quietly walking to check the squirrel cage this evening, I surprised a HUGE FAT GROUNDHOG in the back yard. As expected, it ran to the toolshed. I looked around the shed at the previous burrows. None of the previous burrow entrances had been re-dug.
I wasn't surprised at THAT. I use scoopable cat litter and the stuff is slimy when wet and cement-like when dry. Plus it is full of cat pee and poop! I doubt any herbivore is going to mess around with THAT! But I looked around carefully (it's a bit overgrown with weeds and vines) and found the new burrow. They all seem to like the same spot (NW corner for some reason. It was dug this morning (I check around the toolshed every day at least once). So I went back into the garage and took out 2 plastic shopping bags of used cat litter and emptied them into the burrow entrance. I'll be able to tell if it digs its way back out (doubtful - not one has done THAT yet) or digs a new hole elsewhere. If neither of those happens, it either suffocated or had a panic heart attack, LOL!
One last odd observation. As I was walking back to the house, I noticed a 3' arc of eaten clover where I saw the groundhog. I know they like clover. If I thought that was all they would ever eat, I would leave them be. But I have, in the past, caught them eating my ripening heirloom tomatoes. And I love those at least as much as Hobbits love mushrooms!
So the new groundhog has to go too. I HOPE it leaves from the offense of the used cat litter. But if not, I will live-cage and dispatch it too.
OK, It seems I pretty much have the Grove Gang Squirrels at a stalemate. But to review: They started by pulling up most my corn, bean, and cucumber seedlings (but not eating them) 2 plantings. I attached the live cage on the top of my fence (their highway to my garden). I caught one in the live cage and dispatched it. A second one pulled up my 3rd planting, so I covered the trellis bed with a tent of 1" chicken wire and covered my block of corn separately. Some squirrels penetrated the mesh tent and also got at the corn again (I had uncovered it for some afternoon sun and forgot to replace it). I then caught a 2nd squirrel and dispatched it.
In addition, I had had 2 groundhogs move in under my toolshed earlier. The first was live trapped and relocated. The 2nd was driven away after I filled 3 different burrow entrances with used cat litter. I thought I was done with them for the year (in the past, they have only showed up in the Spring).
So there I was trying to catch the 3rd garden attacking squirrel, but also having fixed the spots it/they got into through the mesh tent. I thought I only needed to catch the 3rd squirrel and then protect my developing tomatoes in another garden bed.
After catching the first 2 squirrels in just a few days, I expected to get the known 3rd and possible 4th easily. The peanut butter bait smeared on the trip lever was working well. However, I have since found the trap tripped daily with nothing inside.
I have figured out that its mostly my fault. There are 2 wires that need to be set in place after the doors are set open that lock the doors shut when snapped closed. That may be confusing; what it means is that a frantic squirrel CAN push back out through the spring-shut doors if 2 wires down lock them down. I HAVE found a couple of times where I forgot to set the lock wires. I know a squirrel has been in the cage because the peanut butter is licked clean.
But I may have outsmarted myself on a few other attempts. Trying to be clever, I put a small dot of peanut butter at the front of the cage to lure the squirrel in. I realized that when the cage was closed and no squirrel was inside, the dot of peanut butter was missing. What probably happened was that the squirrel grabbed the front of the cage to get at the dot on peanut butter hard enough to trigger the doors.
It must have gotten a wicked strike on the head, but was able to pull itself out. But it keeps coming after that peanut butter!
There is also a situation after I stopped putting the dot of peanut butter on the front of the cage and the cage is closed with the trigger lever still having the big smear of peanut butter on it. I suspect that a squirrel is jumping onto the cage just to get over it, and triggering the doors to spring closed. I may have to attach a circle of chicken wire around the outside of the cage to encourage them to go through it.
But I have learned to make sure the door-locking wires are in place each time lately and that the only peanut butter is sure to get them at the door trigger lever. In fact today, I smeared the peanut butter on a small stone and set it PAST the trigger lever. If THAT doesn't work, I will try the mesh wire surround to encourage them to go through the cage instead of jumping on it. I expect to be successful soon.
So what's the "MORE" problem? Well, as I was quietly walking to check the squirrel cage this evening, I surprised a HUGE FAT GROUNDHOG in the back yard. As expected, it ran to the toolshed. I looked around the shed at the previous burrows. None of the previous burrow entrances had been re-dug.
I wasn't surprised at THAT. I use scoopable cat litter and the stuff is slimy when wet and cement-like when dry. Plus it is full of cat pee and poop! I doubt any herbivore is going to mess around with THAT! But I looked around carefully (it's a bit overgrown with weeds and vines) and found the new burrow. They all seem to like the same spot (NW corner for some reason. It was dug this morning (I check around the toolshed every day at least once). So I went back into the garage and took out 2 plastic shopping bags of used cat litter and emptied them into the burrow entrance. I'll be able to tell if it digs its way back out (doubtful - not one has done THAT yet) or digs a new hole elsewhere. If neither of those happens, it either suffocated or had a panic heart attack, LOL!
One last odd observation. As I was walking back to the house, I noticed a 3' arc of eaten clover where I saw the groundhog. I know they like clover. If I thought that was all they would ever eat, I would leave them be. But I have, in the past, caught them eating my ripening heirloom tomatoes. And I love those at least as much as Hobbits love mushrooms!
So the new groundhog has to go too. I HOPE it leaves from the offense of the used cat litter. But if not, I will live-cage and dispatch it too.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
I Caught A Squirrel
WARNING: Squirrel death ahead... Read or not, your choice.
Yeah, it was one of the Bad Grove Gang, at least from the direction it entered the live trap. I baited the center release lever with a smear of peanut butter, but I also placed a small dab on both ends assuming it would lick that off before going for the large smear. So I know the direction it came from. It has gone to Happy Squirrel Acorn Acres...
Peanut butter works...
I don't really want to kill any animals. I stopped hunting 40 years ago because causing unnecessary pain seemed wrong. If the squirrels had limited their hunger to fallen sunflower seeds and acorns, I would have just admired their antics and left them alone. I even forgave them stealing all my apples. I didn't spray the apples so none were ever really worth eating anyway. When they started taking my heirloom tomatoes last year I got angry about it. But when they wouldn't even leave bean, corn, and cucumber seedlings to grow this year, I drew the line. I have a right to a garden.
I have read many websites about the lack of success of relocating squirrels and humane killing methods. Relocation doesn't work well. First, most anyplace suitable to a common animal like squirrels is filled to capacity. Most young resident squirrels are driven out to unsuitable places and starve.
Second, any newly introduced squirrel that does succeed means that just one more resident squirrel won't. It's a zero-sum game for the squirrels.
Third, relocation of varmints is generally illegal. The idea is that you can't transport your problem to someone else. Its like trying to get rid of a color on a Rubik's Cube by moving the pieces around.
I am vaguely disturbed by the idea that I am actively eliminating the MOST successful and adaptive squirrels. I LIKE evolution. But I suppose that is entirely the point of this effort. I want DUMB squirrels here...
The live trap allows me to catch varmints with causing them the pain of a snap trap or the danger of catching a cat. That doesn't mean I use it to let them live. I can't shoot them through a small mesh cage, I can't inject them with a forever-sleep drug, and I can't stab them fatally fast
My wheelbarrow holds JUST enough water to cover the live trap. The squirrel was gone in 15 seconds. Its the fastest way I can use and they don't seem to know what is happening until a very sudden end. It didn't even move around.
I don't want to draw this out and I probably won't give details again. I know I can't kill all the squirrels; I don't want to. I just need to eliminate the few squirrels who have learned to attack my garden. I would be perfectly happy just to have new squirrels who live off the acorns from the 2 massive old oaks and the nuts from the beech tree on the property.
I've given this post a lot of thought (1.5 hours). Best I can do...
UPDATE: 7 am 7-3-13.. Make that 2 evil squirrels.... If I can find the smallest bit of good news, they apparently breathe fast. The 2nd was dead in less than 10 seconds. I force myself to watch this so that I know what I am doing. The faster the end, the better, and they go fast! But the live-trap is reset with fresh peanut butter...
Yeah, it was one of the Bad Grove Gang, at least from the direction it entered the live trap. I baited the center release lever with a smear of peanut butter, but I also placed a small dab on both ends assuming it would lick that off before going for the large smear. So I know the direction it came from. It has gone to Happy Squirrel Acorn Acres...
Peanut butter works...
I don't really want to kill any animals. I stopped hunting 40 years ago because causing unnecessary pain seemed wrong. If the squirrels had limited their hunger to fallen sunflower seeds and acorns, I would have just admired their antics and left them alone. I even forgave them stealing all my apples. I didn't spray the apples so none were ever really worth eating anyway. When they started taking my heirloom tomatoes last year I got angry about it. But when they wouldn't even leave bean, corn, and cucumber seedlings to grow this year, I drew the line. I have a right to a garden.
I have read many websites about the lack of success of relocating squirrels and humane killing methods. Relocation doesn't work well. First, most anyplace suitable to a common animal like squirrels is filled to capacity. Most young resident squirrels are driven out to unsuitable places and starve.
Second, any newly introduced squirrel that does succeed means that just one more resident squirrel won't. It's a zero-sum game for the squirrels.
Third, relocation of varmints is generally illegal. The idea is that you can't transport your problem to someone else. Its like trying to get rid of a color on a Rubik's Cube by moving the pieces around.
I am vaguely disturbed by the idea that I am actively eliminating the MOST successful and adaptive squirrels. I LIKE evolution. But I suppose that is entirely the point of this effort. I want DUMB squirrels here...
The live trap allows me to catch varmints with causing them the pain of a snap trap or the danger of catching a cat. That doesn't mean I use it to let them live. I can't shoot them through a small mesh cage, I can't inject them with a forever-sleep drug, and I can't stab them fatally fast
My wheelbarrow holds JUST enough water to cover the live trap. The squirrel was gone in 15 seconds. Its the fastest way I can use and they don't seem to know what is happening until a very sudden end. It didn't even move around.
I don't want to draw this out and I probably won't give details again. I know I can't kill all the squirrels; I don't want to. I just need to eliminate the few squirrels who have learned to attack my garden. I would be perfectly happy just to have new squirrels who live off the acorns from the 2 massive old oaks and the nuts from the beech tree on the property.
I've given this post a lot of thought (1.5 hours). Best I can do...
UPDATE: 7 am 7-3-13.. Make that 2 evil squirrels.... If I can find the smallest bit of good news, they apparently breathe fast. The 2nd was dead in less than 10 seconds. I force myself to watch this so that I know what I am doing. The faster the end, the better, and they go fast! But the live-trap is reset with fresh peanut butter...
Monday, July 1, 2013
Squirrel Games Again
Well, the bad news is that I uncovered the block of 9 corn seedlings in the afternoon yesterday (an opaque plastic bin) so that they could get some sunlight (the squirrels seem to stay away in the afternoon), and I forgot to put the cover back on them last night. 7 of the 9 seedlings were pulled up and most uneaten this morning. I meant to form a cover for them out of leftover chicken wire, but I got distracted by housework and putting the recycle bins out by the street, etc.
So I put the cover back over the surviving 2 plants and set 7 more seeds soaking overnight to replant tomorrow. I will use the bin I am covering the block with and use it as a form for a chicken wire cover BEFORE I replant them the 4th time. I should have done that the 1st time. But one time is happenstance, and the 2nd time can be coincidence. 3rd time is "enemy action" and I am at 4th.
Other bad news is that the squirrels are not going for the dried corn cob chunk in the live trap near the birdfeeder (I placed it there so I could easily see if, and how fast, it worked). It didn't get any attention.
So I decided to follow the advice of one website and use peanut butter smeared on the trap release lever. I put the trap on top of the fence the squirrels use as their highway from the tree grove to my garden. I attached a wire from the trap to the fence so that if one was caught it wouldn't fall into the neighbor's yard. Then I put some peanut butter on the release lever and tiny amounts in front of the trap and just inside of it.
The good news is that a squirrel followed the peanut butter, but tripped the trap while outside of it. But there are 2 wire bars that keep the doors from being pushed open from inside and I might not have secured those. And when I approached the trap, there was a squirrel right there, and it WANTED that peanut butter. So that bait might work if I set everything up correctly. I reset the trap before coming inside for the night. I hope to see a squirrel in there tomorrow morning.
I have high hopes for the peanut butter. And I really hope it works, because my tomatoes are starting to produce fruit and I don't want them stolen.
Enclosing each raised bed in chicken wire would be ridiculous, might prevent pollination, and be hard to access each time I needed to weed or harvest.
The alternative is to redesign my raised beds into one single large bed and enclose the entire thing with chicken wire, sides, and top (with a door of course). That would be a lot of work, it would be a bit ugly, and expensive. 1" mesh chicken wire isn't as expensive as some other garden fencings, but it isn't free.
So those individual talented garden-thieving squirrels just MUST go...
So I put the cover back over the surviving 2 plants and set 7 more seeds soaking overnight to replant tomorrow. I will use the bin I am covering the block with and use it as a form for a chicken wire cover BEFORE I replant them the 4th time. I should have done that the 1st time. But one time is happenstance, and the 2nd time can be coincidence. 3rd time is "enemy action" and I am at 4th.
Other bad news is that the squirrels are not going for the dried corn cob chunk in the live trap near the birdfeeder (I placed it there so I could easily see if, and how fast, it worked). It didn't get any attention.
So I decided to follow the advice of one website and use peanut butter smeared on the trap release lever. I put the trap on top of the fence the squirrels use as their highway from the tree grove to my garden. I attached a wire from the trap to the fence so that if one was caught it wouldn't fall into the neighbor's yard. Then I put some peanut butter on the release lever and tiny amounts in front of the trap and just inside of it.
The good news is that a squirrel followed the peanut butter, but tripped the trap while outside of it. But there are 2 wire bars that keep the doors from being pushed open from inside and I might not have secured those. And when I approached the trap, there was a squirrel right there, and it WANTED that peanut butter. So that bait might work if I set everything up correctly. I reset the trap before coming inside for the night. I hope to see a squirrel in there tomorrow morning.
I have high hopes for the peanut butter. And I really hope it works, because my tomatoes are starting to produce fruit and I don't want them stolen.
Enclosing each raised bed in chicken wire would be ridiculous, might prevent pollination, and be hard to access each time I needed to weed or harvest.
The alternative is to redesign my raised beds into one single large bed and enclose the entire thing with chicken wire, sides, and top (with a door of course). That would be a lot of work, it would be a bit ugly, and expensive. 1" mesh chicken wire isn't as expensive as some other garden fencings, but it isn't free.
So those individual talented garden-thieving squirrels just MUST go...
Sunday, June 30, 2013
More Squirrel Games
Determined to grow some flat italian style beans (Romano), I ordered some seeds from Burpee. The shipping cost more than the seeds, but it was the principle of the thing. They arrived yesterday and I soaked 12 seeds overnight.
I planted them today. The chicken wire covering the trellis soil wasn't too hard to lift. I had some garden clips (like round clothespins) to hold it up while I planted the new seeds. I also planted 5 new cuke seeds. The previous 6 came up but there were still gaps, so I filled them.
The squirrels don't seem to bother seedlings more than a few inches high (why they don't, I have no idea). Well, I'll make a guess that the new seedlings still have most of the growing seed and that's what the squirrels are after. But pure guess. I can't really know how squirrels think.
But under the 1" chicken wire cover, the beans and cukes should grow. The beans should begin to ripen in 60 days (sept 1st), so I could get 2 months of harvest even at this late date.
Now I have to figure out how to protect the tomatoes. That's trickier. I'll try draping the tomatoes in row cover cloth I think. If they chew through that (and they can), I will have to get more serious and lethal. I don't like "more lethal" things but anything that kills rats ought to kill squirrels...
Of all the plants I grow, I want the heirloom tomatoes the most. Last year, I didn't get a single one; the squirrels took them all before they were ripe. That will not happen this year if I have to trap and drown every squirrel within several properties.
I am considering a few designs to rebuild the garden beds and enclose them in chicken wire if I can't eliminate those few squirrels who have learned to depend on my garden for food.
If I redesign the garden beds to get them smaller and eliminate the spaces between them to make one large bed, I could build a frame to enclose the entire garden bed with a door for entry. I want a garden THAT much.
I planted them today. The chicken wire covering the trellis soil wasn't too hard to lift. I had some garden clips (like round clothespins) to hold it up while I planted the new seeds. I also planted 5 new cuke seeds. The previous 6 came up but there were still gaps, so I filled them.
The squirrels don't seem to bother seedlings more than a few inches high (why they don't, I have no idea). Well, I'll make a guess that the new seedlings still have most of the growing seed and that's what the squirrels are after. But pure guess. I can't really know how squirrels think.
But under the 1" chicken wire cover, the beans and cukes should grow. The beans should begin to ripen in 60 days (sept 1st), so I could get 2 months of harvest even at this late date.
Now I have to figure out how to protect the tomatoes. That's trickier. I'll try draping the tomatoes in row cover cloth I think. If they chew through that (and they can), I will have to get more serious and lethal. I don't like "more lethal" things but anything that kills rats ought to kill squirrels...
Of all the plants I grow, I want the heirloom tomatoes the most. Last year, I didn't get a single one; the squirrels took them all before they were ripe. That will not happen this year if I have to trap and drown every squirrel within several properties.
I am considering a few designs to rebuild the garden beds and enclose them in chicken wire if I can't eliminate those few squirrels who have learned to depend on my garden for food.
If I redesign the garden beds to get them smaller and eliminate the spaces between them to make one large bed, I could build a frame to enclose the entire garden bed with a door for entry. I want a garden THAT much.
Monday, June 24, 2013
OK Squirrels, Game ON!
I've had it with the squirrels pulling up my romano bean seeds, cucumbers, and corn. I LOVE those flat Italian beans and they are harder to find fresh than Giraffes at the North Pole. So after the squirrels pulled up most of the bean seeds again a 3rd time, I decided, as Bugs Bunny used to say "This Means War".
I went to the local hardware store and bought 50' of 3' wide chicken wire (aka "poultry netting"). I cut two pieces of it 20' long. It loves the way it is rolled up so I manually bent it flat and that took some effort. Then I made a tent of the two pieces along the trellis to shield my seedlings and the newly-planted new seeds.
"But", I hear you say, "they will find a way in". I'm EXPECTING that! Where they find a way in, THAT'S where I will cut a small opening and set the live-trap to just fit. And then I'll drop the live-trap in a trash can of water and drown the little %$@*#s ... And then I'll feed them to the cats!
Bwa-ha-ha-ha...
But seriously, for 20 years the squirrels and I mostly lived in peace. I put 2 baffles on the pole where I put sunflowers seeds for the birds and they can't get at the feeder. They were welcome to the seeds that the birds spill on the ground.
A few years ago, some squirrels in one tree grove started taking all the apples. I didn't mind that much because I never sprayed the apples and insects ruined them. Besides, it was funny watching them running along the top of the fence with apples in their mouths.
But then 2 years ago they started taking my tomatoes. I don't grow heirloom tomatoes for squirrrels... There are few enough fruits on an heirloom tomato as it is. Last year, I only got 2 ripe tomatoes from 8 plants.
This year they started pulling up the corn and bean seedlings for the tiny remnant of the planted seeds. I WILL have a garden. If I have to completely redesign the garden so that it can be enclosed with 1" mesh chicken wire and I have to pollinate the plants manually, I will do that! But killing those few squirrels who have learned to take my fruits and seedlings will (I hope) be easier. And I will not stay up nights unsleeping worrying about a few drowned squirrels...
I went to the local hardware store and bought 50' of 3' wide chicken wire (aka "poultry netting"). I cut two pieces of it 20' long. It loves the way it is rolled up so I manually bent it flat and that took some effort. Then I made a tent of the two pieces along the trellis to shield my seedlings and the newly-planted new seeds.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha...
But seriously, for 20 years the squirrels and I mostly lived in peace. I put 2 baffles on the pole where I put sunflowers seeds for the birds and they can't get at the feeder. They were welcome to the seeds that the birds spill on the ground.
A few years ago, some squirrels in one tree grove started taking all the apples. I didn't mind that much because I never sprayed the apples and insects ruined them. Besides, it was funny watching them running along the top of the fence with apples in their mouths.
But then 2 years ago they started taking my tomatoes. I don't grow heirloom tomatoes for squirrrels... There are few enough fruits on an heirloom tomato as it is. Last year, I only got 2 ripe tomatoes from 8 plants.
This year they started pulling up the corn and bean seedlings for the tiny remnant of the planted seeds. I WILL have a garden. If I have to completely redesign the garden so that it can be enclosed with 1" mesh chicken wire and I have to pollinate the plants manually, I will do that! But killing those few squirrels who have learned to take my fruits and seedlings will (I hope) be easier. And I will not stay up nights unsleeping worrying about a few drowned squirrels...
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Watering Trees
A neighbor has an orange bucket next to a tree he planted 2 years ago. I had wondered about that. Then today, I remembered a watering trick from a gardening magazine. Its funny how the brain can dredge up old information.
The idea was to slowly drip water from a small hole in the bucket onto the roots of a tree so it wouldn't run off. AHA! I have a few 5 gallon buckets around for various uses. So I took a green one (blends better into the background), drilled a very small hole into the bottom and set it next to the Sourwood tree I an trying to bring back to growth.
I love the Sourwood Tree. It has red and gold seeds and leaves in Fall. I planted 3 when I first moved here. 1 remains and it is only 3 feet high. I don't water the front yard as well as the back. Well, I live in the back and don't care about the front much (I'm changing that).
So I placed the 5 gallon bucket just uhill from the tree, filled it up with a hose, and watched what happened. It took 2 HOURS for the water to drip out the tiny hole. RThat means every drop went down into the root zone.
I LOVE this idea and will use the bucket all around the front yard plants. The advantage is that the bucket has a 5 gallons of water, but no more. I used to leave a hose dripping water out very slowly but I never knew how much it was getting (and forget it was going overnight sometimes.) THIS way, its 5 gallons and no need to remember it later.
What a great idea!
The idea was to slowly drip water from a small hole in the bucket onto the roots of a tree so it wouldn't run off. AHA! I have a few 5 gallon buckets around for various uses. So I took a green one (blends better into the background), drilled a very small hole into the bottom and set it next to the Sourwood tree I an trying to bring back to growth.
I love the Sourwood Tree. It has red and gold seeds and leaves in Fall. I planted 3 when I first moved here. 1 remains and it is only 3 feet high. I don't water the front yard as well as the back. Well, I live in the back and don't care about the front much (I'm changing that).
So I placed the 5 gallon bucket just uhill from the tree, filled it up with a hose, and watched what happened. It took 2 HOURS for the water to drip out the tiny hole. RThat means every drop went down into the root zone.
I LOVE this idea and will use the bucket all around the front yard plants. The advantage is that the bucket has a 5 gallons of water, but no more. I used to leave a hose dripping water out very slowly but I never knew how much it was getting (and forget it was going overnight sometimes.) THIS way, its 5 gallons and no need to remember it later.
What a great idea!
Friday, June 21, 2013
Plagues?
I'm beginning to get a bit suspicious at the series of "troublesome critters" this year. First there was the groundhog. I seem to get a couple each year for the past few years. I usually live-trap and relocate them miles away, but that is tiresome (and possibly illegal), and replacements always arrive for a while. This year I decided to just start dumping the bags of catbox scoopings into the burrow entrances. This groundhog dug 2 more new burrow entrances that I kept filling up before it gave up and moved away. At least, I can't FIND any new entrances and I haven't seen it out on the back lawn at dusk.
But perhaps it made a deal with the squirrels. As soon as IT vanished, the squirrels started pulling up my new bean, cuke, and corn seedlings. I've tried to live-trap THEM, but no luck yet. I attached the live-trap to the top of the fence they use as their personal highway, but I think they just run over top of it. I may have to encourage them to go THROUGH the live-trap with a small chicken wire wall above it.
Meanwhile, I was invaded by small ants. As mentioned in a previous post, they don't seem to be coming FROM anywhere or going TO anywhere in particular, just wandering around near the deck door and the kitchen backsplash. No trail of ants going back and forth, no food being targeted. They don't even bother the cat's food!
I think that the invasion is over, because I didn't see one for 2 days and then just one this morning.
But perhaps they all turned into houseflies! Yesterday morning, I woke up to find a dozen of them all buzzing at the living room window looking for a way out. The source baffles me. I haven't had any windows open, there are none in the garage where I keep the garbage, there are none in the small compost collection bin, there are none in the basement where some mouse might have gotten in and gotten killed by the cats.
They are easy enough to kill against the windows, but I found just as many there again TODAY! Killed those too of course.
What's next, a rain of frogs?
But perhaps it made a deal with the squirrels. As soon as IT vanished, the squirrels started pulling up my new bean, cuke, and corn seedlings. I've tried to live-trap THEM, but no luck yet. I attached the live-trap to the top of the fence they use as their personal highway, but I think they just run over top of it. I may have to encourage them to go THROUGH the live-trap with a small chicken wire wall above it.
Meanwhile, I was invaded by small ants. As mentioned in a previous post, they don't seem to be coming FROM anywhere or going TO anywhere in particular, just wandering around near the deck door and the kitchen backsplash. No trail of ants going back and forth, no food being targeted. They don't even bother the cat's food!
I think that the invasion is over, because I didn't see one for 2 days and then just one this morning.
But perhaps they all turned into houseflies! Yesterday morning, I woke up to find a dozen of them all buzzing at the living room window looking for a way out. The source baffles me. I haven't had any windows open, there are none in the garage where I keep the garbage, there are none in the small compost collection bin, there are none in the basement where some mouse might have gotten in and gotten killed by the cats.
They are easy enough to kill against the windows, but I found just as many there again TODAY! Killed those too of course.
What's next, a rain of frogs?
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Da Squirrels, Da Squirrels!
Well, I have pretty well confirmed that it's squirrels that have been
pulling up my bean and corn seedlings. The past 2 mornings, I have
slipped out of the house quietly in the morning and rousted several
squirrels from my garden at the right spots.
They all run away in the same direction. There is a grove of trees in the east neighbors' yards that direction that don't seem to produce much that a squirrel can eat. They seem to be aspen and birch. The trees on the west side are oaks, and I never see squirrels from the garden run in that direction.
Squirrel families are territorial, so I gather that the East Side squirrels are outcasts who are starving. I ALMOST feel sorry for them. Still, they pulled up 10 of my 12 bean seedlings, 18 of my 18 corn seedlings, and 6 of my 12 cucumber seedlings. It may also explain why most of my crocuses on the east side of my lawn have been dug up. Maybe I've been blaming the voles overly much (not that they are innocent either).
But the point is that there seems to be this one group of squirrels that have learned to get their food from my garden. I have been here 26 years and only started having a problem with squirrels 3 years ago. At first they only took the green apples from my 2 dwarf espaliered trees. I didn't mind that much because I never remembered to spray them and the insects always ruined the apples anyway. Last year, they started taking the green tomatoes. This year, its even the various seedlings. I have to stop this group before they teach others squirrels these damaging habits! I know that sounds silly, but local groups animals do learn successful feeding strategies not common throughout the species. So I am after one small group of squirrels.
I tried using a live trap several times, but I haven't caught a squirrel yet. I tried it on the ground next to the beans, on the ground just before the beans, and finally on the top of the fence where the squirrels run along. No luck! Well, I caught a young possum, and it won't be tripping my trap any more...
Well, maybe my bait was bad. I tried cashews, I tried a slice of peach, I tried a small apple picked from my tree. A couple of times the bait was simply gone with the enclosure doors closed, but most times the doors were shut with the bait still inside. I assume the squirrels ran over the top of the live trap and triggered the release lever.
So I went to a site that discussed the right bait for attracted squirrels into live traps. It said the best was peanut butter with peanuts in the shell stuck down onto it. I didn't have any of either. But I did had some dried corn on the cob. I bought a cheap bag of it to bribe the squirrels away from my garden, but hey if they like it that much, it should get them in the trap, right?
I sure hope so. One web site I found said that squirrels are gluttons and easy to trap. Right... I'll settle for ONE first.
They all run away in the same direction. There is a grove of trees in the east neighbors' yards that direction that don't seem to produce much that a squirrel can eat. They seem to be aspen and birch. The trees on the west side are oaks, and I never see squirrels from the garden run in that direction.
Squirrel families are territorial, so I gather that the East Side squirrels are outcasts who are starving. I ALMOST feel sorry for them. Still, they pulled up 10 of my 12 bean seedlings, 18 of my 18 corn seedlings, and 6 of my 12 cucumber seedlings. It may also explain why most of my crocuses on the east side of my lawn have been dug up. Maybe I've been blaming the voles overly much (not that they are innocent either).
But the point is that there seems to be this one group of squirrels that have learned to get their food from my garden. I have been here 26 years and only started having a problem with squirrels 3 years ago. At first they only took the green apples from my 2 dwarf espaliered trees. I didn't mind that much because I never remembered to spray them and the insects always ruined the apples anyway. Last year, they started taking the green tomatoes. This year, its even the various seedlings. I have to stop this group before they teach others squirrels these damaging habits! I know that sounds silly, but local groups animals do learn successful feeding strategies not common throughout the species. So I am after one small group of squirrels.
I tried using a live trap several times, but I haven't caught a squirrel yet. I tried it on the ground next to the beans, on the ground just before the beans, and finally on the top of the fence where the squirrels run along. No luck! Well, I caught a young possum, and it won't be tripping my trap any more...
Well, maybe my bait was bad. I tried cashews, I tried a slice of peach, I tried a small apple picked from my tree. A couple of times the bait was simply gone with the enclosure doors closed, but most times the doors were shut with the bait still inside. I assume the squirrels ran over the top of the live trap and triggered the release lever.
So I went to a site that discussed the right bait for attracted squirrels into live traps. It said the best was peanut butter with peanuts in the shell stuck down onto it. I didn't have any of either. But I did had some dried corn on the cob. I bought a cheap bag of it to bribe the squirrels away from my garden, but hey if they like it that much, it should get them in the trap, right?
I sure hope so. One web site I found said that squirrels are gluttons and easy to trap. Right... I'll settle for ONE first.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Those Darn Ants!
For 2 weeks, I have had very small ants wandering around the TV room and adjacent kitchen. They show up just inside the deck door, the kitchen windowsill, and on the backsplash board on the counters.
OK, ants seek food and sometimes they find their way into the house, but they aren't acting normal! There is no trail of ants going anywhere. There is no sign of them outside the house. There is no paricular entry point I can detect. There are never more than a few at a time, but there are ALWAYS a few any time I look.
They aren't in the pantry at some loose food box (I moved everything around and looked with a flashlight), they aren't at the cat food bowls, they aren't in the cabinets (flashlight again), they aren't even at the compost bin which is the main thing I would think would attract ants.
They aren't in the ceiling of the basement below the kitchen or the TV room.
Hey, this is vaguely sounding like a Dr Seuss poem... I'll have to work on that idea!
I sprayed only once right under the base of the deck door inside and out (and then cleaned the exposed floor because the cats found the smell interesting). I'm not too worried about the effect of the (organic) ant spray on cats because the stuff won't even annoy wasps and wasps evolved FROM ants (or vice versa) so they are very closely related, but why take chances. But the limited spraying had no effect on the few ants visible at all times.
The point is that I can't figure out WHERE they are coming from, WHY they are in here, WHAT is keeping them searching around, or WHEN they are most commonly seen. It seems completely constant, yet completely random.
I've probably killed over a thousand by finger and shoe. It doesn't seem to make any difference if I kill them or not. When I crush all the visible ones, there about as many in 10 minutes. Yet after not bothering them all night, there are still ONLY as many in the morning.
ON THE OTHER HAND, I haven't yet had a fruit fly (aka fungal gnats) yet this year, and I usually have problems with them by now. I'm pretty sure the ants aren't catching the fruit flies, but bigger theories have been proposed on such coincidental observations, LOL!
I expect the ants will simply stop appearing in a few days and I will never know why they where here or why they left. It will be one of those mysteries of nature; those "Ants In My Midst".
OK, ants seek food and sometimes they find their way into the house, but they aren't acting normal! There is no trail of ants going anywhere. There is no sign of them outside the house. There is no paricular entry point I can detect. There are never more than a few at a time, but there are ALWAYS a few any time I look.
They aren't in the pantry at some loose food box (I moved everything around and looked with a flashlight), they aren't at the cat food bowls, they aren't in the cabinets (flashlight again), they aren't even at the compost bin which is the main thing I would think would attract ants.
They aren't in the ceiling of the basement below the kitchen or the TV room.
Hey, this is vaguely sounding like a Dr Seuss poem... I'll have to work on that idea!
I sprayed only once right under the base of the deck door inside and out (and then cleaned the exposed floor because the cats found the smell interesting). I'm not too worried about the effect of the (organic) ant spray on cats because the stuff won't even annoy wasps and wasps evolved FROM ants (or vice versa) so they are very closely related, but why take chances. But the limited spraying had no effect on the few ants visible at all times.
The point is that I can't figure out WHERE they are coming from, WHY they are in here, WHAT is keeping them searching around, or WHEN they are most commonly seen. It seems completely constant, yet completely random.
I've probably killed over a thousand by finger and shoe. It doesn't seem to make any difference if I kill them or not. When I crush all the visible ones, there about as many in 10 minutes. Yet after not bothering them all night, there are still ONLY as many in the morning.
ON THE OTHER HAND, I haven't yet had a fruit fly (aka fungal gnats) yet this year, and I usually have problems with them by now. I'm pretty sure the ants aren't catching the fruit flies, but bigger theories have been proposed on such coincidental observations, LOL!
I expect the ants will simply stop appearing in a few days and I will never know why they where here or why they left. It will be one of those mysteries of nature; those "Ants In My Midst".
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Some Evil Squirrels
Some evil squirrels are about to die. I do not find pleasure in this. I admire squirrels in many ways; they are clever, agile, and adaptive and I generally respect that. I even think they are "cute". I set up two squirrel baffles on the bird-feeder and I thought we had reached an understanding. They couldn't reach the birdfeeder, but they were welcome to the seeds that fell.
But one one small group of them in a particular community learn to survive by eating every unripe apple, pull up every pole bean seedling, dig up every corn seedling, and pull off every heirloom tomato fruit , I have to put a stop to it.
I had squirrels around for the first 24 years here and never had a problem. 2 years ago , they suddenly learned to eat my tomatoes. Last year, they started to eat my bean seedling. This year, they are tearing up any plant I plant.
I wasn't sure it was really squirrels until yesterday when I caught them in the act. There were 3 squirrels in the garden at the places where I am losing plants that I am growing for my food! I know the direction they come from.
I seriously think it is just one group of squirrels. I intend to kill them as serious varmints.
I have several Hav-A-Hart live traps and one is sized for squirrels. But I must mention that I am only using Hav-A-Hart traps so that I won't catch innocent animals like my cats or other cats. Any squirrel I catch in the direction of the cadre that destroys my garden will die.
They have pulled up all my corn seedlings 3 times, my beans 3 times and half my cucumbers up twice. I admire squirrels a lot, but when it comes to MY food, they are going to lose. Its not ALL the squirrels; its only the ones that come from one direction and I'm going to get THOSE!
The most humane way I know to kill varmints is drowning. I tried stabbing them with arrows through the cage screen, but it didn't work fast. So I just drown them. Its not as bad as you think. They move around confused for a minute, then blurp an exhalation. Then they are gone.
I expect some complaints, but I've tried different ways and that is the fastest I've found.
But if it is a contest between my growing veggies for my own food and allowing the squirrels to stop me from growing my own food, the squirrels are going to lose gradually and eventually.
But one one small group of them in a particular community learn to survive by eating every unripe apple, pull up every pole bean seedling, dig up every corn seedling, and pull off every heirloom tomato fruit , I have to put a stop to it.
I had squirrels around for the first 24 years here and never had a problem. 2 years ago , they suddenly learned to eat my tomatoes. Last year, they started to eat my bean seedling. This year, they are tearing up any plant I plant.
I wasn't sure it was really squirrels until yesterday when I caught them in the act. There were 3 squirrels in the garden at the places where I am losing plants that I am growing for my food! I know the direction they come from.
I seriously think it is just one group of squirrels. I intend to kill them as serious varmints.
I have several Hav-A-Hart live traps and one is sized for squirrels. But I must mention that I am only using Hav-A-Hart traps so that I won't catch innocent animals like my cats or other cats. Any squirrel I catch in the direction of the cadre that destroys my garden will die.
They have pulled up all my corn seedlings 3 times, my beans 3 times and half my cucumbers up twice. I admire squirrels a lot, but when it comes to MY food, they are going to lose. Its not ALL the squirrels; its only the ones that come from one direction and I'm going to get THOSE!
The most humane way I know to kill varmints is drowning. I tried stabbing them with arrows through the cage screen, but it didn't work fast. So I just drown them. Its not as bad as you think. They move around confused for a minute, then blurp an exhalation. Then they are gone.
I expect some complaints, but I've tried different ways and that is the fastest I've found.
But if it is a contest between my growing veggies for my own food and allowing the squirrels to stop me from growing my own food, the squirrels are going to lose gradually and eventually.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Playing Risk Online
After practicing by myself for a few weeks, I rejoined online play. It was weird. The first 4 games I tried to join were apparently started by people who only start games to have inactive games. Those games never actually start. But the 5th game was weirder.
There were 4 other players, all who had many more game points than I did. And I had a terrible position (scattered around Central Asia, which is about the worst place to be). But 2 of the players had some sort of personal feud and I got Australia (barely).
Then they went to war over North and South America, so I took over Asia (while they also killed the other 2 players). It may have helped that I had just watched 2 hours of US Civil War battles because I would have made a general proud with enclosing moves and attacks on weak places.
So there were the 2 "strong" players still fussing with each other in North America and FOR ONCE I kept my forces carefully organized and only attacked with strength slowly and had Australia, Asia, Africa, and finally, Europe. And they both went "Hey wait, whats he doing?"
It was too late for both of them. LOL! Most satisfying game in quite a while. I wiped them both out while they were trading incriminations about each other's poor play.
The race may usually go to the swift and the battle to the best generals, and that's the way to bet. But the quiet and the sly also win sometimes. LOL!
There were 4 other players, all who had many more game points than I did. And I had a terrible position (scattered around Central Asia, which is about the worst place to be). But 2 of the players had some sort of personal feud and I got Australia (barely).
Then they went to war over North and South America, so I took over Asia (while they also killed the other 2 players). It may have helped that I had just watched 2 hours of US Civil War battles because I would have made a general proud with enclosing moves and attacks on weak places.
So there were the 2 "strong" players still fussing with each other in North America and FOR ONCE I kept my forces carefully organized and only attacked with strength slowly and had Australia, Asia, Africa, and finally, Europe. And they both went "Hey wait, whats he doing?"
It was too late for both of them. LOL! Most satisfying game in quite a while. I wiped them both out while they were trading incriminations about each other's poor play.
The race may usually go to the swift and the battle to the best generals, and that's the way to bet. But the quiet and the sly also win sometimes. LOL!
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Ticked Off
My backyard is not mostly lawn. 2/3s of it was wooded and under-brushy when I moved in and I have gradually removed most of the trees. Its not that I dont like trees (I do) but the neighbors let trees grow so tall all around my property lines that I was desperate for some sunlight for my flowerbeds and veggie garden. So there are actually MORE trees in the general area.
But one consequence is that the open formerly wooded area is growing all sorts of junk; briars, spurge, burdock, mock strawberries, vines, and tall grasses. Ticks love that stuff. I have to thoroughly check the cats when they come in. I check myself too, but I'm pretty sensitive to anything moving on me.
(Warning, possible TMI alert - You may want to stop reading)
But some places are less sensitive than others. Like the (ahem) "base of the spine". I idly scratched there a couple of times the other day before realizing that there was a tick. Upon divesting myself of some clothing I realized I must have chased it around a bit. I had 4 bite-bumps in just 4 sq inches! I pulled it off before it drew any blood and put it on the counter where I put a drop of rubbing alcohol on it. That always kills them. Not to be gross, but I then scratched all the bumps a bit raw and put Neosporin on them. The Lone Star ticks don't carry the worst tick diseases, but I like to be careful. even though the literature says it takes 12 hours before they can transmit any disease.
I did some research tonight, and it seems my yard has Lone Star Ticks (aka Seed Ticks). They are fast little suckers! Deet is supposed to repel them, but it doesn't according to some videos I watched. On the other hand, they seem to get me where I don't use Deet. I should mention that we have Asian Tiger Mosquitos here in MD (the only kind that I can't detect when they are on me) so I use a 7% Deet spray on my arms outdoors (which is generally sufficient) and I wear long tan twill pants even in Summer. So when I find a tick on me it is usually behind my knees or on my back. Hmmm, maybe the Deet DOES work. I think I will start spraying it on my pants legs and socks.
I rarely find a tick on the cats (although Iza famously had one right on her butt once). And I found a dead shell of one in Marley's earfolds once. He is touchy about me exploring there, so I tend to avoid it.
Well, anyway, the tick-bite-bumps have gone away now, I don't see any reaction, and the tick was too flat to have started to get any blood yet.
But watch out for those things. Most ticks move slowly but the Lone Star ticks run like ants! I wear the tan twill pants when working outside partly because it is easy to spot them. But these ones can get over your socks and on your legs before you check.
The backyard, other than the gardens is mostly a wasteland of scrub growth. I used to rather like the wildness of it. I keep the gardens organic, but I am not so fussy about the non-edible areas. I'm going to spray Roundup around a lot of the area. And trap the voles which seem to be the tick vectors here.
I'm sure you will forgive me for not taking pictures of the tick-bites, LOL!
But one consequence is that the open formerly wooded area is growing all sorts of junk; briars, spurge, burdock, mock strawberries, vines, and tall grasses. Ticks love that stuff. I have to thoroughly check the cats when they come in. I check myself too, but I'm pretty sensitive to anything moving on me.
(Warning, possible TMI alert - You may want to stop reading)
But some places are less sensitive than others. Like the (ahem) "base of the spine". I idly scratched there a couple of times the other day before realizing that there was a tick. Upon divesting myself of some clothing I realized I must have chased it around a bit. I had 4 bite-bumps in just 4 sq inches! I pulled it off before it drew any blood and put it on the counter where I put a drop of rubbing alcohol on it. That always kills them. Not to be gross, but I then scratched all the bumps a bit raw and put Neosporin on them. The Lone Star ticks don't carry the worst tick diseases, but I like to be careful. even though the literature says it takes 12 hours before they can transmit any disease.
I did some research tonight, and it seems my yard has Lone Star Ticks (aka Seed Ticks). They are fast little suckers! Deet is supposed to repel them, but it doesn't according to some videos I watched. On the other hand, they seem to get me where I don't use Deet. I should mention that we have Asian Tiger Mosquitos here in MD (the only kind that I can't detect when they are on me) so I use a 7% Deet spray on my arms outdoors (which is generally sufficient) and I wear long tan twill pants even in Summer. So when I find a tick on me it is usually behind my knees or on my back. Hmmm, maybe the Deet DOES work. I think I will start spraying it on my pants legs and socks.
I rarely find a tick on the cats (although Iza famously had one right on her butt once). And I found a dead shell of one in Marley's earfolds once. He is touchy about me exploring there, so I tend to avoid it.
Well, anyway, the tick-bite-bumps have gone away now, I don't see any reaction, and the tick was too flat to have started to get any blood yet.
But watch out for those things. Most ticks move slowly but the Lone Star ticks run like ants! I wear the tan twill pants when working outside partly because it is easy to spot them. But these ones can get over your socks and on your legs before you check.
The backyard, other than the gardens is mostly a wasteland of scrub growth. I used to rather like the wildness of it. I keep the gardens organic, but I am not so fussy about the non-edible areas. I'm going to spray Roundup around a lot of the area. And trap the voles which seem to be the tick vectors here.
I'm sure you will forgive me for not taking pictures of the tick-bites, LOL!
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Don't Shop For Colors On A Rainy Day!
OK, I'm a guy, I can remember about 16 colors in my head when I shop (but interestingly, I know 64 compass directions). But at least when I'm looking at them in a store, I can tell slight differences. So there I was deciding to get a new bath towel to (sort of) fit with the shower curtain with bright colors and the green floor mat. I thought a generally olive color would look OK. I selected one a computer color chart says is "dark moss green". I got it home and hung it on the towel rack. It looks gray with a hint of blue! I can't even FIND that on the computer color chart (well computer monitors are limited).
I also wanted some deep green casual button shirts and found one that was definitely green but pretty dark, but I thought it would do. At home? It looks charcoal! Maybe it will look OK outside in sunlight...
One of my first post-college jobs was as Manager of a department store shoe department. One aisle was of ladies fashion shoes. I ALWAYS used to insist that they bring the shoes they chose to the front of the store to see the real color in daylight. I would have done that myself today, except the Menswear Dept of the Target store is about 1/4 mile away from the front of the store, and it was raining anyway.
I should know better. Men buy things one at a time and hope they match. A mat here, a curtain there, when some item needs to be replaced, etc. Women buy "outfits" or "rooms". Someday, I will learn to do that.
But for now, I am cursed with bluish-gray towels that SHOULD look moss green. Well, the cats don't mind. Maybe I will buy real-daylight bulbs to put all over the house.
I also wanted some deep green casual button shirts and found one that was definitely green but pretty dark, but I thought it would do. At home? It looks charcoal! Maybe it will look OK outside in sunlight...
One of my first post-college jobs was as Manager of a department store shoe department. One aisle was of ladies fashion shoes. I ALWAYS used to insist that they bring the shoes they chose to the front of the store to see the real color in daylight. I would have done that myself today, except the Menswear Dept of the Target store is about 1/4 mile away from the front of the store, and it was raining anyway.
I should know better. Men buy things one at a time and hope they match. A mat here, a curtain there, when some item needs to be replaced, etc. Women buy "outfits" or "rooms". Someday, I will learn to do that.
But for now, I am cursed with bluish-gray towels that SHOULD look moss green. Well, the cats don't mind. Maybe I will buy real-daylight bulbs to put all over the house.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Well, That Was Fun, But A Surprise!
Last night around 10:30 pm, I lost access to one of my 3 email accounts.
I spent the better part of 12 hours trying to get it working again and only managed to lose access to ALL 3 accounts. I boiled, I steamed (taking an hour off at 6 am to rip the grass away from the front yard trees and prune a few wayward branches in frustration management). I had tried to find a way to reach Verizon but could only get a dumb computer assistant that was worthless. Verizon does NOT want you to reach an actual human being...
I was so angry I was QUIVERING. I wanted a HUMAN on line to solve this problem! I am sorry to say that I wouldn't let any of the Mews up on the computer desk. I couldn't handle the distraction.
About 9:30 am I finally remembered that I had old paper bills from Verizon and THOSE had a customer service telephone number. AHA! I had a telephone number, and it got me right through to a human (probably few people have that number now)!
It took HIM (matter of chance) an HOUR to fix the problem after I let him take over my computer (and I have to say that almost every serious computer problem I've ever had has been solved SMOOTHLY that way). I had to keep entering a password (must be Verizon policy since he could see what it was) but it did make me feel involved and gave me the illusion of privacy.
Watching the onscreen typing from the Verizon rep was a hoot. He types as badly as I do. He kept deleting keystrokes, LOL! But he fixed it and that's all I really cared about. My emails accounts are working again.
But you won't guess the sweet part of the frustrating hours on line...
Iza put her precious purple softy-mouse at my feet while I struggled.
When she comes in from the deck sunpuddle, I will start a DVD nature show and give her as much laptime as she wants... And she is getting extra treats tonight.
I spent the better part of 12 hours trying to get it working again and only managed to lose access to ALL 3 accounts. I boiled, I steamed (taking an hour off at 6 am to rip the grass away from the front yard trees and prune a few wayward branches in frustration management). I had tried to find a way to reach Verizon but could only get a dumb computer assistant that was worthless. Verizon does NOT want you to reach an actual human being...
I was so angry I was QUIVERING. I wanted a HUMAN on line to solve this problem! I am sorry to say that I wouldn't let any of the Mews up on the computer desk. I couldn't handle the distraction.
About 9:30 am I finally remembered that I had old paper bills from Verizon and THOSE had a customer service telephone number. AHA! I had a telephone number, and it got me right through to a human (probably few people have that number now)!
It took HIM (matter of chance) an HOUR to fix the problem after I let him take over my computer (and I have to say that almost every serious computer problem I've ever had has been solved SMOOTHLY that way). I had to keep entering a password (must be Verizon policy since he could see what it was) but it did make me feel involved and gave me the illusion of privacy.
Watching the onscreen typing from the Verizon rep was a hoot. He types as badly as I do. He kept deleting keystrokes, LOL! But he fixed it and that's all I really cared about. My emails accounts are working again.
But you won't guess the sweet part of the frustrating hours on line...
Iza put her precious purple softy-mouse at my feet while I struggled.
When she comes in from the deck sunpuddle, I will start a DVD nature show and give her as much laptime as she wants... And she is getting extra treats tonight.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
RSS Readers and Cable TV Nonsense Rant
The Old Reader makes me log in every time I want to check it, doesn't store my name/email/blogname for wordpress sites, and seems to dredge up multiple posts from blogs that aren't active.
Feedly lists all posts from all blogs individually so there seem to be 100s if I miss a day of visiting, and their icons are odd. Why a "check mark" should mean "its been read" is beyond me. Why not just have the button say "mark as read"?
Too many apps try to be too hip/cute/clever. We dont need that. We need simple functionality.
I don't really like either site. I am desperately hoping that some site will simply host Google Reader (with any name they like) so I can get back to visiting our friends easily an understand what I am seeing on the reader site.
It reminds me of the time I was on vacation and visited a restaurant that only had 2 different flowers identifying men an women bathrooms. I had to wait until a lady opened one door and asked inside "Is this the right room"? Then I used the other. Men/Women is functional, Buoys/Gulls is cute at a marina, 2 flowers is just stupid.
My TV is gonna go whacko in a few days. The Verizon FiOS folks just told me about an "improvement". Instead of the TV just coming on to the last channel watched, I will have a "helpful" screen full of choices. Like the temperature/weather outside at the time, advertisements of services I already know about from weekly junk mail I dont want and "channels" in the onscreen TV Guide that offer pay-to-view movies, and a description of the channel I last watched.
Gee, I can guess the current weather by looking out the window and I have a thermometer. I know all the services they offer. I find the idea that I need to be told the basic concept of the last channel I watched rather insulting. Who dreams up these ideas?
They brag that I can see the last channel I watched by just clicking "exit" on the remote. But I had that before without having to do the extra click. Some "improvement"...
I suspect that most businesses have a department dedicated to "what can we think of to change today to justify our existence". The only real change I want from my cable TV service is a la carte channel subscription. I want my cable service to divide up the exact current monthly bill by channel and let me choose the ones I will pay for. I'd even let them add 10%. I really only watch 12 channels.
The current system is ridiculous. It's as if you bought a blanket at Walmart and it was bundled with a blender, a bag of potting soil, 6 mismatched spoons, a kids shirt, and 2 videotapes from the clearance rack!
End of rant...
Feedly lists all posts from all blogs individually so there seem to be 100s if I miss a day of visiting, and their icons are odd. Why a "check mark" should mean "its been read" is beyond me. Why not just have the button say "mark as read"?
Too many apps try to be too hip/cute/clever. We dont need that. We need simple functionality.
I don't really like either site. I am desperately hoping that some site will simply host Google Reader (with any name they like) so I can get back to visiting our friends easily an understand what I am seeing on the reader site.
It reminds me of the time I was on vacation and visited a restaurant that only had 2 different flowers identifying men an women bathrooms. I had to wait until a lady opened one door and asked inside "Is this the right room"? Then I used the other. Men/Women is functional, Buoys/Gulls is cute at a marina, 2 flowers is just stupid.
My TV is gonna go whacko in a few days. The Verizon FiOS folks just told me about an "improvement". Instead of the TV just coming on to the last channel watched, I will have a "helpful" screen full of choices. Like the temperature/weather outside at the time, advertisements of services I already know about from weekly junk mail I dont want and "channels" in the onscreen TV Guide that offer pay-to-view movies, and a description of the channel I last watched.
Gee, I can guess the current weather by looking out the window and I have a thermometer. I know all the services they offer. I find the idea that I need to be told the basic concept of the last channel I watched rather insulting. Who dreams up these ideas?
They brag that I can see the last channel I watched by just clicking "exit" on the remote. But I had that before without having to do the extra click. Some "improvement"...
I suspect that most businesses have a department dedicated to "what can we think of to change today to justify our existence". The only real change I want from my cable TV service is a la carte channel subscription. I want my cable service to divide up the exact current monthly bill by channel and let me choose the ones I will pay for. I'd even let them add 10%. I really only watch 12 channels.
The current system is ridiculous. It's as if you bought a blanket at Walmart and it was bundled with a blender, a bag of potting soil, 6 mismatched spoons, a kids shirt, and 2 videotapes from the clearance rack!
End of rant...
Monday, June 3, 2013
Trailer Rebuild, Part 2
So there I was, back to the original framework (except for having some holes drilled through the metal - I tell you those step-bits for drilling metal are great)!
It was time to put on the new stuff. I had decided to raise the sides from 18" to 24". Most of the material I want to haul these days is fairly light - mulch and compost and tree debris. And if its heavy (like sand) I'll just keep the load below the metal framework.
First, I bought all new stainless steel bolts, nuts, washers, split-washers, etc. And a special purchase I will mention later.
Then I started with a solid floorbed. No more tarps of the bottom to damage when I shovel material out of the trailer. The side there is merely clamped down to hold the bottom sheet in place and to see how it would look.
One single 4x8' sheet and then custom fit strips off a 2nd sheet because
(surprise!) the trailer is off square by 1/4" and I didn't want any
gaps. I got that strip so accurate I had to stomp it into place! And then I couldn't push a fingernail in anywhere along the length. Given a long history of bad circular saw cuts, that may be a personal "best". It helped that I used a neat clampable straightedge tool (and measured 3 times before cutting).
Here is the clamping straight edge. It comes in two 4' lengths that can be connected to 8'. Very nice for cutting plywood! Mark the cut line and then 1 1/2" more (for MY circular saw - other brands may vary) and it's hard to go wrong.
So, with the bottom in place, I could attach the sides...
Since the sides stick up higher than the metal framework, they need some support. And the back is designed to be supported by 2x4s sticking into those small frames you can barely see on the back. They work, but they don't quite fit 2x4s; you have to plane or cut them at th corners. but I want better support at the top of the back anyway. And I don't like the exposed edges of the P-T plywood.
So I will show part 3 when I figure out the details. I know WHAT I want to do, but the measurement tolerances are tight so I may think about it a couple days. But if what I have in mind works, you'll like it.
It was time to put on the new stuff. I had decided to raise the sides from 18" to 24". Most of the material I want to haul these days is fairly light - mulch and compost and tree debris. And if its heavy (like sand) I'll just keep the load below the metal framework.
First, I bought all new stainless steel bolts, nuts, washers, split-washers, etc. And a special purchase I will mention later.
Then I started with a solid floorbed. No more tarps of the bottom to damage when I shovel material out of the trailer. The side there is merely clamped down to hold the bottom sheet in place and to see how it would look.
So I will show part 3 when I figure out the details. I know WHAT I want to do, but the measurement tolerances are tight so I may think about it a couple days. But if what I have in mind works, you'll like it.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Trailer Rebuild, Part 1
I love my 5x8' hauling trailer. It transports mowers, hauls sand/mulch/compost home, hauls tree debris/recyclables/trash to the county landfill, and I bet it would carry a dozen neighborhood kids on a joy ride for a dollar each (just kidding).
The thing has an open metal frame, so I had to built plywood sides when I bought it. Ten years+ later, the sides are rotting away. And the base is boards with spaces between them, so I've always had to put a tarp on the bottom to keep small stuff like sand and compost from falling out (and a tarp above to keep it from blowing away).
So it was time to rebuild! This time, I wanted rot-resistant (and higher) sides, a solid bottom, and more attached (but still removable) back. When the trailer is off the car, the front sits on a cinderblock so it tilts back (no worry about rain collecting inside).
So after sketching out various trailer side and bottom dimensions, I took the trailer to Home Depot (I needed it to haul new plywood home). I went for 1/2 pressure-treated (P-T) plywood 4x8' sheets. Home Depot changed a "no-cutting" policy on P-T wood last year or so to allowing it. They have a great sheet plywood cutting machine, but it's one free cut per sheet. I had fun figuring out the cuts (no seriously, I had FUN figuring out the cuts - I was good at geometry in school and I do some slight wood-working). I figured out a satisfactory way to do the whole thing with 3 sheets of plywood and only 1 Home Depot cut on 2 sheets. I would have had them do a cut on the 3rd sheet, but I needed to custom fit that cut.
Here are the BEFORE pictures...
You can see the sides were falling apart.
So I unloaded the new pieces.
And set about removing the old...
Easier said than done! Some of those zinc-coated bolts and nuts were locked in place. Considering that some of them just loosened and fell out over the years, that was a surprise. (And for those of you in the know, I used lock washers and double nuts on all the bolts)
Thank goodness for Liquid Wrench!
I soaked all the nuts with that. They still fought, but they DID all come loose with "persuasion".
And eventually, I had all the old sides removed.
Next time, I put on the new bottom and sides...
The thing has an open metal frame, so I had to built plywood sides when I bought it. Ten years+ later, the sides are rotting away. And the base is boards with spaces between them, so I've always had to put a tarp on the bottom to keep small stuff like sand and compost from falling out (and a tarp above to keep it from blowing away).
So it was time to rebuild! This time, I wanted rot-resistant (and higher) sides, a solid bottom, and more attached (but still removable) back. When the trailer is off the car, the front sits on a cinderblock so it tilts back (no worry about rain collecting inside).
So after sketching out various trailer side and bottom dimensions, I took the trailer to Home Depot (I needed it to haul new plywood home). I went for 1/2 pressure-treated (P-T) plywood 4x8' sheets. Home Depot changed a "no-cutting" policy on P-T wood last year or so to allowing it. They have a great sheet plywood cutting machine, but it's one free cut per sheet. I had fun figuring out the cuts (no seriously, I had FUN figuring out the cuts - I was good at geometry in school and I do some slight wood-working). I figured out a satisfactory way to do the whole thing with 3 sheets of plywood and only 1 Home Depot cut on 2 sheets. I would have had them do a cut on the 3rd sheet, but I needed to custom fit that cut.
Here are the BEFORE pictures...
Easier said than done! Some of those zinc-coated bolts and nuts were locked in place. Considering that some of them just loosened and fell out over the years, that was a surprise. (And for those of you in the know, I used lock washers and double nuts on all the bolts)
Thank goodness for Liquid Wrench!
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Replacement To Google Reader
Well, I finally did some research on a replacement to Google Reader, since it it planned to be shut off July 1st. I figured it would be a good idea to try out a few for the last month.
I considered functionality, simplicity, familiarity, and ease of transition most important. My needs are simple. I only use RSS feeders for blogs on a single desktop computer. Anything else, I have a bookmark for.
I went to a few discussion sites that compared the features of cloud RSSs versus web-based RSSs, and I'm not comfortable with The Cloud. I like applications ON my computer. OK, I'm OLD... LOL!
But seriously, if its on my computer, it can't disappear overnight since I have daily external backup right here.
The one I found most interesting was The Old Reader <http://theoldreader.com/> It seems to be very similar to Google Reader, and is relatively easy to import the Google Reader list.
You can sign in with various accounts, but I chose to create a new one separate from Google (just in case). I like to distribute my services around to frustrate the aggregators.
You export the Google Reader file in Google Reader to a zip file. Then you just create an account with The Old Reader (love the name) and it offers you to browse a file to open. On my Mac, opening a zip file automatically unzips it, I don't remember on a PC. You might have to unzip it first.
But with the Google file unzipped in Import, The Old Reader just loads it. It does take a few minutes. I got an email message saying the import was complete, so look for that.
When the Google Reader subscriptions are all imported, they will all show 10 or 20 unread per subscription. I suggest visiting all your subscriptions down to zero so that you can just mark ALL read after the import. I didn't think of that and I regret it.
And this point, your Old Reader should look generally like Google Reader, but there are some differences.
1. You don't click on the blog title to access it. Below the blog title, there are "site" and "feed" buttons. "Site" brings you to the home page of the blog; "feed" brings you to only the newest post.
2. To show only the updated blogs, you have to go to your name in the upper right corner. There is a drop down menu.
At "feed display mode", choose "show unread only, and at "Post Order" check "Show only those folders/feeds that have unread items".
And you are good to go! It sounds more complicated than it is. It only took me 15 minutes, and I'm a bit slow and cautious at this stuff.
Anyone have a RSS they like better? My ears are open...
I considered functionality, simplicity, familiarity, and ease of transition most important. My needs are simple. I only use RSS feeders for blogs on a single desktop computer. Anything else, I have a bookmark for.
I went to a few discussion sites that compared the features of cloud RSSs versus web-based RSSs, and I'm not comfortable with The Cloud. I like applications ON my computer. OK, I'm OLD... LOL!
But seriously, if its on my computer, it can't disappear overnight since I have daily external backup right here.
The one I found most interesting was The Old Reader <http://theoldreader.com/> It seems to be very similar to Google Reader, and is relatively easy to import the Google Reader list.
You can sign in with various accounts, but I chose to create a new one separate from Google (just in case). I like to distribute my services around to frustrate the aggregators.
You export the Google Reader file in Google Reader to a zip file. Then you just create an account with The Old Reader (love the name) and it offers you to browse a file to open. On my Mac, opening a zip file automatically unzips it, I don't remember on a PC. You might have to unzip it first.
But with the Google file unzipped in Import, The Old Reader just loads it. It does take a few minutes. I got an email message saying the import was complete, so look for that.
When the Google Reader subscriptions are all imported, they will all show 10 or 20 unread per subscription. I suggest visiting all your subscriptions down to zero so that you can just mark ALL read after the import. I didn't think of that and I regret it.
And this point, your Old Reader should look generally like Google Reader, but there are some differences.
1. You don't click on the blog title to access it. Below the blog title, there are "site" and "feed" buttons. "Site" brings you to the home page of the blog; "feed" brings you to only the newest post.
2. To show only the updated blogs, you have to go to your name in the upper right corner. There is a drop down menu.
At "feed display mode", choose "show unread only, and at "Post Order" check "Show only those folders/feeds that have unread items".
And you are good to go! It sounds more complicated than it is. It only took me 15 minutes, and I'm a bit slow and cautious at this stuff.
Anyone have a RSS they like better? My ears are open...
The Return Of The Mowers
I love Angie's List! I have had nothing but superb service and value from every contractor and medical service I have selected since I joined. Consumers Union for the local community...
Angie's List gives letter grades for quality, price, responsiveness, punctuality, and professionalism. I focus on price and quality. Price and quality together = value. You can search for service providers many ways, but I only look at the ones with straight A ratings. If the only ones were too far away, I would accept a couple of B ratings but price and quality HAVE to be A rating. So far, that has not been a problem.
And also so far, I found dad a geriatric doctor when he first arrived, a dentist specializing in elderly patients, a vinyl siding replacement company, a roof replacement company, a tree removal company, and most recently a mower repair company. Every single experience has been outstanding!
Today I got my riding mower and regular walk-behind mower back. The regular mower wouldn't start this year, and when it did last year (with great pulling of cords and bad words) the deadman lever didn't work and I had to stop the engine by shorting the spark plug against the engine block. They took apart and cleaned the carburetor, emptied and cleaned the gas tank, replaced a broken deadman lever cable, added about the same amount of new gas back, and sharpened the blades.
The riding mower was running well enough, but developed a sudden banging/rattling sound under the deck just as I finished mowing last week. Fearing a loose drive shaft or blade, I stopped immediately. And even more suspiciously, there was no bad sounds with the blades disengaged while just driving the riding mower to the trailer to bring it to them. They removed and replaced the drive belts, and found what they initially thought was a bent part of the blade undercarriage. It was dried grass clippings, but so hard after sitting all Winter that the blade was actually bouncing off it. They said they had to use a regular chisel to remove it and then they cleaned off the dried grass from the rest of the undercarriage.
That was embarrassing. I ought to know enough to scrape the packed grass clippings from the undercarriage by now. But I haven't done that for 3 years; its awkward to get a riding mower up off the ground for access to the underside, so I always think "well, maybe next time". But at least it's done now and I should think about a way to get easy access to the bottom in the future.
When I was a teenager, the house had a sunken basement with cinder block walls and concrete steps steps leading up the the lawn level. It just so happened to be exactly the width of my car tires, so I had a wonderful spot to change the oil and do the very simple car stuff I knew about. I need something like that for the riding mower.
But the point of all this is that this place (Tool Solutions, Inc) did great work, nothing more than needed, and the cost for both mowers was... $98! My guess was $200 at best.
And so I will go over to Angie's List and give them a straight A rating. I used both mowers today and they both worked better than ever, the price was great, they did the work quickly, discussed the needed work without exaggerating anything, and were very (but quietly) professional about the whole repair. And they are 3 youngish guys, only in business for 4 years. I will be glad to go back to them for anything.
They don't know I am writing this...
Angie's List gives letter grades for quality, price, responsiveness, punctuality, and professionalism. I focus on price and quality. Price and quality together = value. You can search for service providers many ways, but I only look at the ones with straight A ratings. If the only ones were too far away, I would accept a couple of B ratings but price and quality HAVE to be A rating. So far, that has not been a problem.
And also so far, I found dad a geriatric doctor when he first arrived, a dentist specializing in elderly patients, a vinyl siding replacement company, a roof replacement company, a tree removal company, and most recently a mower repair company. Every single experience has been outstanding!
Today I got my riding mower and regular walk-behind mower back. The regular mower wouldn't start this year, and when it did last year (with great pulling of cords and bad words) the deadman lever didn't work and I had to stop the engine by shorting the spark plug against the engine block. They took apart and cleaned the carburetor, emptied and cleaned the gas tank, replaced a broken deadman lever cable, added about the same amount of new gas back, and sharpened the blades.
The riding mower was running well enough, but developed a sudden banging/rattling sound under the deck just as I finished mowing last week. Fearing a loose drive shaft or blade, I stopped immediately. And even more suspiciously, there was no bad sounds with the blades disengaged while just driving the riding mower to the trailer to bring it to them. They removed and replaced the drive belts, and found what they initially thought was a bent part of the blade undercarriage. It was dried grass clippings, but so hard after sitting all Winter that the blade was actually bouncing off it. They said they had to use a regular chisel to remove it and then they cleaned off the dried grass from the rest of the undercarriage.
That was embarrassing. I ought to know enough to scrape the packed grass clippings from the undercarriage by now. But I haven't done that for 3 years; its awkward to get a riding mower up off the ground for access to the underside, so I always think "well, maybe next time". But at least it's done now and I should think about a way to get easy access to the bottom in the future.
When I was a teenager, the house had a sunken basement with cinder block walls and concrete steps steps leading up the the lawn level. It just so happened to be exactly the width of my car tires, so I had a wonderful spot to change the oil and do the very simple car stuff I knew about. I need something like that for the riding mower.
But the point of all this is that this place (Tool Solutions, Inc) did great work, nothing more than needed, and the cost for both mowers was... $98! My guess was $200 at best.
And so I will go over to Angie's List and give them a straight A rating. I used both mowers today and they both worked better than ever, the price was great, they did the work quickly, discussed the needed work without exaggerating anything, and were very (but quietly) professional about the whole repair. And they are 3 youngish guys, only in business for 4 years. I will be glad to go back to them for anything.
They don't know I am writing this...
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Good Yardwork Day Yesterday, 2
And by "yesterday", I mean Monday, since this is part 2...
After clearing out tree saplings and forsythia, I went after the running grass in the annual flowerbed. The running grass is some evil grass that spreads by underground runners. I don't know the variety of this one, but it is upright, single at first but will send up several stalks later, the runner roots are white, and they send up a new shoot about every 8-12". Each one has to be dug up deeply individually, but you also have to dig up the soil between shoots to get the runners. You can't even pull them up in soft soil. The roots are brittle and snap of when pulled, and if you leave any part of the runners in the ground, they grow from that. They probably arrived here in a coneflower or stella d'oro lily perennial I bought and planted at the sides and back edge.
Thank goodness for my leverage fork!
I think it is one cool tool. Oh of course, there are standard great tools like shovels and rakes and hoes. But in the "unusual" category, I have to rank that up with the scuffle hoe and the pointed stainless steel trowel! This thing is solid steel, when you put your foot under the curved part you have great pressure, and when it is in deep you just bend it back and the U-bar leverages the tines to push up the soil. If you can step the tines IN the soil, the bar will pull the soil up and loose. And it is great for chopping up big clods of hard soil too.
So I set to work on the runner grass with the leverage fork. Push it in, bend it back, move it 4" and repeat. Forever. But the point is that it goes deep enough to get below the grass runners and the grass comes out roots and all. If you soil is hard (as I hope it is not in any garden) you can pound the soil clumps on the U-bar to break up the soil and take out the grass runners.
I'm not saying the leverage fork makes it "easy", just "possible". It still took an hour this time (my 3rd attack on the grass in 2 weeks). THIS attack was on the difficult edges and around the perennials, so I had to work more carefully. In fact, I soaked the target areas with a hose the day before to soften the soil. When I used a roto-tiller to establish the bedding area many years ago, the edges were hard to get at properly, so the grass is harder to get at there.
I know from sad experience that I can never get ALL the below-ground runner roots. But I bet I set them back 4-5 years this time. Here is the de-grassed area...
Annuals will be going the bare spots next. I like to have red salvias and blue forget-me-knots, but I had poor germination and growth of my annual seeds this year. I even only got 75% of the marigolds to grow. Well, the seeds were several years old. I may have to buy some seedlings at the garden store. Or maybe I'll plant a few various veggies. I have some extra seedlings left over from the veggie beds. Still, I'd rather have annual flowers there. They bloom their little heads of all season.
After clearing out tree saplings and forsythia, I went after the running grass in the annual flowerbed. The running grass is some evil grass that spreads by underground runners. I don't know the variety of this one, but it is upright, single at first but will send up several stalks later, the runner roots are white, and they send up a new shoot about every 8-12". Each one has to be dug up deeply individually, but you also have to dig up the soil between shoots to get the runners. You can't even pull them up in soft soil. The roots are brittle and snap of when pulled, and if you leave any part of the runners in the ground, they grow from that. They probably arrived here in a coneflower or stella d'oro lily perennial I bought and planted at the sides and back edge.
Thank goodness for my leverage fork!
So I set to work on the runner grass with the leverage fork. Push it in, bend it back, move it 4" and repeat. Forever. But the point is that it goes deep enough to get below the grass runners and the grass comes out roots and all. If you soil is hard (as I hope it is not in any garden) you can pound the soil clumps on the U-bar to break up the soil and take out the grass runners.
I'm not saying the leverage fork makes it "easy", just "possible". It still took an hour this time (my 3rd attack on the grass in 2 weeks). THIS attack was on the difficult edges and around the perennials, so I had to work more carefully. In fact, I soaked the target areas with a hose the day before to soften the soil. When I used a roto-tiller to establish the bedding area many years ago, the edges were hard to get at properly, so the grass is harder to get at there.
I know from sad experience that I can never get ALL the below-ground runner roots. But I bet I set them back 4-5 years this time. Here is the de-grassed area...
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Good Yardwork Day Yesterday
Yesterday was cool, dry, and overcast; a superb day for yardwork!
I had in mind planting a few veggies and flowers, but a neglected back corner of the yard caught my attention because a long-forgotten weigela shrub (1 of 3 originally planted) was struggling to bloom among the shady underbrush of unwanted tree saplings, vines, briars, and a single will-not-die asparagus plant from my original 20' row planting 25 years ago. So I got out the loppers and waded in (carefully, as I also spotted a few small poison ivy plants).
The first thing was to cut down all the saplings. Trickier than you might think, because that corner seems to be the last refuge of the nasty thorny locust trees that originally covered half the backyard. They have thorns all along the trunk and branches like 3/4" needles, and they will grow back from being cut down 4" in a year. They are very hard to handle, and harder to kill. I once read that the original colonists used cut trunks as fenceposts (the wood is rot-resistant and the trunks grow straight) only to discover that the cut trunks would re-root when stuck in the ground!
It took me 10 years to finally kill them off. These probably came
from seeds of neighbors' trees since there weren't any in that corner
when I planted the weigela some 10 years ago. Because of a peculiarity
of lot shapes and drainage easements there is a triangle of space just
off my back yard that all 3 neighbors ignore. It is utterly wild and
filled with poison ivy, wild grape vines, mock strawberry, and
(apparently) a few mature thorny locusts; all nasty invasive stuff!
Anyway, it took a while, but I managed to clear the surface of all the bad stuff, and I discovered a 2nd weigala barely surviving at a foot high. With the additional light and less competition for nurients, it should recover. There was no sign of the 3rd weigela. I'll have to take a few stem cuttings and get them rooted in pots.
After that, and being in a clearing mood, I decided to tackle the forsythia growing into my flowerbed border from another neighbor. Those forsythia, though outside my fence, are entirely my fault. My street was built brand new in 1986. I was only the 3rd house built on my street and my neighbor was the 4th. She was elderly, friendly, and sneaky. There were not borders then and the property lines were uncertain. She noticed that I would mow any part between us that she didn't, and she gradually left more and more. So I planted a row of forsythias to mark the assumed property line. When I decided to build a fence (to keep the large off-leash dogs out, for cat-safety) I discovered pipes marking the corners of the property. From the plat measurements and compass directions, I figured out the property lines.
On my father's advice, I inset the fence 18" to allow myself legal access to the outside of the fence for repairs. That was the dumbest advice I ever followed, but more about that later! Anyway, I asked the neighbor lady if she wanted me to leave the forsythia and she said yes. I have regretted that ever since. Each year, forsythias pop up on my side and some years I am too busy to get them out. Well, when I planted them I didn't know they spread.
I usually just keep cutting them off at ground level, but this year I decided to get in there and dig them out. I used my "poacher's shovel" (on right).
Its called that because it is only half the width of a regular shovel, is more curved so it makes a smaller hole, its lighter to carry, and gives a smaller soil ball. So plant poachers loved it. Its like a super trowel on a short shovel handle. I like it because the small blade lets me get at problem roots in cramped spaces among plants you don't want to disturb. Three digs, and you have a nice 6" circle cut around a plant.
So I first pruned most of the forsythia canes away so I could see the rooted stems and dug them out carefully one-by-one. It took 2 hours! At least I have most of them out by the roots. The remaining ones are growing up through the roots of 2 shrubs I have disliked for years and plan to remove later.
The pile of removed forsythias does not look like much, LOL! But each one was an effort. I had to stand awkwardly to avoid stepping on wanted plants, the shovel handle would hit the fence, there were forsythia roots among the butterfly bush roots, etc...
Those 2 shrubs I plan to remove later are nice enough, yellow and green evergreen leaves, but way bigger than advertised and they keep sending up shoots from the spreading roots (golden euonymus 'you-on-i-mus').
I'm going to try to kill the forsythias. As the canes grow through the fence, I will cut the cane and put a dab of undiluted Roundup on the cut end. It worked for the thorny locusts...
I got a lot more done, but this is long enough and I'll finish tomorrow.
I had in mind planting a few veggies and flowers, but a neglected back corner of the yard caught my attention because a long-forgotten weigela shrub (1 of 3 originally planted) was struggling to bloom among the shady underbrush of unwanted tree saplings, vines, briars, and a single will-not-die asparagus plant from my original 20' row planting 25 years ago. So I got out the loppers and waded in (carefully, as I also spotted a few small poison ivy plants).
The first thing was to cut down all the saplings. Trickier than you might think, because that corner seems to be the last refuge of the nasty thorny locust trees that originally covered half the backyard. They have thorns all along the trunk and branches like 3/4" needles, and they will grow back from being cut down 4" in a year. They are very hard to handle, and harder to kill. I once read that the original colonists used cut trunks as fenceposts (the wood is rot-resistant and the trunks grow straight) only to discover that the cut trunks would re-root when stuck in the ground!
Anyway, it took a while, but I managed to clear the surface of all the bad stuff, and I discovered a 2nd weigala barely surviving at a foot high. With the additional light and less competition for nurients, it should recover. There was no sign of the 3rd weigela. I'll have to take a few stem cuttings and get them rooted in pots.
After that, and being in a clearing mood, I decided to tackle the forsythia growing into my flowerbed border from another neighbor. Those forsythia, though outside my fence, are entirely my fault. My street was built brand new in 1986. I was only the 3rd house built on my street and my neighbor was the 4th. She was elderly, friendly, and sneaky. There were not borders then and the property lines were uncertain. She noticed that I would mow any part between us that she didn't, and she gradually left more and more. So I planted a row of forsythias to mark the assumed property line. When I decided to build a fence (to keep the large off-leash dogs out, for cat-safety) I discovered pipes marking the corners of the property. From the plat measurements and compass directions, I figured out the property lines.
On my father's advice, I inset the fence 18" to allow myself legal access to the outside of the fence for repairs. That was the dumbest advice I ever followed, but more about that later! Anyway, I asked the neighbor lady if she wanted me to leave the forsythia and she said yes. I have regretted that ever since. Each year, forsythias pop up on my side and some years I am too busy to get them out. Well, when I planted them I didn't know they spread.
I usually just keep cutting them off at ground level, but this year I decided to get in there and dig them out. I used my "poacher's shovel" (on right).
So I first pruned most of the forsythia canes away so I could see the rooted stems and dug them out carefully one-by-one. It took 2 hours! At least I have most of them out by the roots. The remaining ones are growing up through the roots of 2 shrubs I have disliked for years and plan to remove later.
The pile of removed forsythias does not look like much, LOL! But each one was an effort. I had to stand awkwardly to avoid stepping on wanted plants, the shovel handle would hit the fence, there were forsythia roots among the butterfly bush roots, etc...
I'm going to try to kill the forsythias. As the canes grow through the fence, I will cut the cane and put a dab of undiluted Roundup on the cut end. It worked for the thorny locusts...
I got a lot more done, but this is long enough and I'll finish tomorrow.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Lawn Mowers
OK, the regular rotary mower I use for tight spots hasn't started this year, so I tried to fix what little I know about. I took out the spark plug. It was clean. I gapped it (checked the gap between the little folded-over part where the electricity comes in and where the arcing occurs to the gas, for those of you unfamilair with that) and sanded the surfaces. No go. I checked the oil. OK. I removed the old gasoline with cloth to absorb it and put in just enough new gas to let it start. No go. I tried a trick a mechanic taught me about spraying carburetor cleaner in the primer hole. That didn't work! I left the air filter off to see if that was the problem. No go.
I should mention that the deadman lever stopped having any affect a few years ago, AND last year I had to stop the engine by shorting the spark plug wire against the engine block. So there are obvious problems and I haven't been able to do any trim work this year. There is an area in the corner of the yard where I can't mow without it. I was embarassed (but thankful) that my neighbor did that part last week.
So I went to Angie's List to find a good repair shop. I found a 100% A rated place only 2 miles from here.
But yesterday, I was mowing the rest of the yard with the riding mower. Just as I was about done, a rattling sound started from under the mower deck. And I had just noticed that the mowing strips were looking uneven. My guess is that something is loose in the drive shaft to the blades, and I'm SURE not going to use it if that's the problem. Of course I checked all the simple stuff (loose deck, low oil), but it runs fine WHEN the blades are not engaged. I bet THAT repair is expensive. I'm almost hoping the repair is expensive enough to justify buying a new one. My current one was highly rated by Consumer Reports but I've never really liked it. It would almost be nice to be FORCED to buy one of those zero turning radius ones, LOL! The current one IS 15 years old and they DO wear out.
So I suddenly need to bring BOTH mowers in for repair. I will call that local repair shop in the morning (naturally, I found them 5 minutes after they closed yesterday) about repairs and estimates. All the reviews say they are great on speed, cost, and quality.
The grass grows SO fast this time of year. The yard needs mowing every 5 days. I hope they can repair either one fast. If not, I may have to beg a neighbor to lend me a mower in exchange for filling up the tank when I return it.
I sure hope there are SIMPLE CHEAP repairs for both, LOL!
One problem is delivering the 2 mowers to the repair shop. I have a hauling trailer, but it was filled with Leaf-Gro compost (a wonderful local product). So I spent 2 hours today using my mulch-fork to unload it into a wheelbarrow and from there onto the framed bed gardens. Temps in the upper 80s and humidity at about 100% . It was brutal. I sweated buckets. I soaked 3 kitchen towels with sweat but I got it all done. I hosed down the trailer to remove all the last bits of compost.
When I was done, I stood on the deck for an hour drinking 2 beers. And then I drank a quart of Gatorade. At least I sure get good exercise!!!
The trailer has a pin that, when removed, allows the trailer back to tilt backwards to sit on the ground. I can drive the riding mower up on it (causing the front to tilt level again). And I can lift the regular rotary mower onto the trailer. Well, at least I know I can get the mowers to the repair shop and save the cost of them coming here to get them.
I should mention that the deadman lever stopped having any affect a few years ago, AND last year I had to stop the engine by shorting the spark plug wire against the engine block. So there are obvious problems and I haven't been able to do any trim work this year. There is an area in the corner of the yard where I can't mow without it. I was embarassed (but thankful) that my neighbor did that part last week.
So I went to Angie's List to find a good repair shop. I found a 100% A rated place only 2 miles from here.
But yesterday, I was mowing the rest of the yard with the riding mower. Just as I was about done, a rattling sound started from under the mower deck. And I had just noticed that the mowing strips were looking uneven. My guess is that something is loose in the drive shaft to the blades, and I'm SURE not going to use it if that's the problem. Of course I checked all the simple stuff (loose deck, low oil), but it runs fine WHEN the blades are not engaged. I bet THAT repair is expensive. I'm almost hoping the repair is expensive enough to justify buying a new one. My current one was highly rated by Consumer Reports but I've never really liked it. It would almost be nice to be FORCED to buy one of those zero turning radius ones, LOL! The current one IS 15 years old and they DO wear out.
So I suddenly need to bring BOTH mowers in for repair. I will call that local repair shop in the morning (naturally, I found them 5 minutes after they closed yesterday) about repairs and estimates. All the reviews say they are great on speed, cost, and quality.
The grass grows SO fast this time of year. The yard needs mowing every 5 days. I hope they can repair either one fast. If not, I may have to beg a neighbor to lend me a mower in exchange for filling up the tank when I return it.
I sure hope there are SIMPLE CHEAP repairs for both, LOL!
One problem is delivering the 2 mowers to the repair shop. I have a hauling trailer, but it was filled with Leaf-Gro compost (a wonderful local product). So I spent 2 hours today using my mulch-fork to unload it into a wheelbarrow and from there onto the framed bed gardens. Temps in the upper 80s and humidity at about 100% . It was brutal. I sweated buckets. I soaked 3 kitchen towels with sweat but I got it all done. I hosed down the trailer to remove all the last bits of compost.
When I was done, I stood on the deck for an hour drinking 2 beers. And then I drank a quart of Gatorade. At least I sure get good exercise!!!
The trailer has a pin that, when removed, allows the trailer back to tilt backwards to sit on the ground. I can drive the riding mower up on it (causing the front to tilt level again). And I can lift the regular rotary mower onto the trailer. Well, at least I know I can get the mowers to the repair shop and save the cost of them coming here to get them.
Monday, May 20, 2013
How Boxes Are Built
Not my video, but sent along from a friend. Its long, but I promise its worth it. It moves along pretty fast.
I can't load it directly.
See HERE! I hope...
I can't load it directly.
See HERE! I hope...
Friday, May 17, 2013
GROCERY SHOPPING!
I live on fresh food. And by that, I mean I don't get meals at fast-food places. I LOVE fresh veggies, fresh meat and fresh fruit. I only keep refined sugar in the house to feed the hummingbirds.
And don't get me wrong on the fast foods either. I think Taco Bell Nachoes Bell Grande and steak soft tacos are great. I think MacDonald's Big Mac is fantastic. But I haven't had either for years. I just think that whatever I cook is better for me. I mean, I know what's in it.
And, in a weird way, this relates to Dad. Just before he arrived here last May, I had a freezer full of stuff I liked that he didn't. He was strictly a "meat&potatoes" guy. Hey, I'm adaptable, so I ate what I cooked for him - pork chops, or sausage or a chicken thigh plus a M/V potato and a tossed salad (an insistance I made for his health and my love of salads). It worked OK. I would normally slice up pork and stir-fry it with a lot of veggies but he wanted to see the pork in a whole piece, and I could deal with that.
So he's been gone a month now (and happily in the assisted living facility where they also like to cook things in chunks and offer potatoes). Well, I decided to live out of my freezer and pantry for 3 weeks. I used up 10 cans of soup, tupperware containers of frozen ham and pork, 5 cheap chicken pot pies, containers of cooked kale, frozen meatballs, and frozen shrimp. It wasn't bad.
But today I went GROCERY-SHOPPING!
They say never to go grocery-shopping on an empty stomach, and I can see why. I bought pickled beets, marinated artichoke hearts, a big bag of navel oranges, 6 plums, a big ginger root, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, grapes, a pineapple, 6 cans of soup, a couple cans of "chili beans in mild sauce", a can of white canelli beans, a can of garbonzo beans, milk, a half dozen eggs, marinated mushrooms, and if they had had yak milk chocolates I probably would have bought them too. LOL!
At the meat store. I bought a whole filet mignon on sale (1.5 inch thick slices) and with a free bottle of dry rub; I bought chicken thighs, a chicken breast, 3 hot italian sausages (for adding to the canned chili beans).
Three weeks of living out the the freezer can drive you to madness. I am in a cooking frenzy of the stuff I haven't made in a year. And next week, I plan to have large quantities of Moo Goo Gai Pan, hot&sour soup, spring rolls, char shu ding, and shrimp fried rice delivered. Most to be frozen for "later", but some for an orgy of eating.
I'm thinking I might want a Big Mac pretty soon too.
I weighed 163 when dad arrived and I weighed 169 when he left. I'm down to 160.5 today. Let the food celebration begin!
The wok is "in the building" again...
And don't get me wrong on the fast foods either. I think Taco Bell Nachoes Bell Grande and steak soft tacos are great. I think MacDonald's Big Mac is fantastic. But I haven't had either for years. I just think that whatever I cook is better for me. I mean, I know what's in it.
And, in a weird way, this relates to Dad. Just before he arrived here last May, I had a freezer full of stuff I liked that he didn't. He was strictly a "meat&potatoes" guy. Hey, I'm adaptable, so I ate what I cooked for him - pork chops, or sausage or a chicken thigh plus a M/V potato and a tossed salad (an insistance I made for his health and my love of salads). It worked OK. I would normally slice up pork and stir-fry it with a lot of veggies but he wanted to see the pork in a whole piece, and I could deal with that.
So he's been gone a month now (and happily in the assisted living facility where they also like to cook things in chunks and offer potatoes). Well, I decided to live out of my freezer and pantry for 3 weeks. I used up 10 cans of soup, tupperware containers of frozen ham and pork, 5 cheap chicken pot pies, containers of cooked kale, frozen meatballs, and frozen shrimp. It wasn't bad.
But today I went GROCERY-SHOPPING!
They say never to go grocery-shopping on an empty stomach, and I can see why. I bought pickled beets, marinated artichoke hearts, a big bag of navel oranges, 6 plums, a big ginger root, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, grapes, a pineapple, 6 cans of soup, a couple cans of "chili beans in mild sauce", a can of white canelli beans, a can of garbonzo beans, milk, a half dozen eggs, marinated mushrooms, and if they had had yak milk chocolates I probably would have bought them too. LOL!
At the meat store. I bought a whole filet mignon on sale (1.5 inch thick slices) and with a free bottle of dry rub; I bought chicken thighs, a chicken breast, 3 hot italian sausages (for adding to the canned chili beans).
Three weeks of living out the the freezer can drive you to madness. I am in a cooking frenzy of the stuff I haven't made in a year. And next week, I plan to have large quantities of Moo Goo Gai Pan, hot&sour soup, spring rolls, char shu ding, and shrimp fried rice delivered. Most to be frozen for "later", but some for an orgy of eating.
I'm thinking I might want a Big Mac pretty soon too.
I weighed 163 when dad arrived and I weighed 169 when he left. I'm down to 160.5 today. Let the food celebration begin!
The wok is "in the building" again...
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Star Trek
In the past few days, I have watched 2 Star Trek movies I never saw before: 'Nemesis' and 'Star Trek'. I had never seen them before partly because I do not subscribe to premium movie channels, partly because I do not like going to movie theaters, and partly because I thought the Star Trek franchise had died an ugly death with the TV series 'Star Trek: Enterprise' (starring Scott "Quantum Leap" Bakula, who I always thought was best cast as a handsome fool - I suspect he is the inspiration for Brewster Rockit in the comic strip).
So I avoided the subsequent Star Trek movies, giving up on them after 'Insurrection' and 'Nemesis'.
I have been returned to the flock!
The original Star Trek TV series started when I was 16 and well into reading serious and thoughtful sci-fi books (at 12 I had exhausted the library collection of "young adult" sci-fi and the librarian had granted me access to the "adult" books - not that there was anything very shocking about "adult" sci-fi back in 1962). But by 1966, when Star Trek appeared, I could tell it was different from the sci-fi movies of the time. I instantly recognized that each episode contained a social statement (perhaps a best example being the [literally] reversely half-black and half white opponents in an episode); and no, I am not really a trekkie who can recall episodes by number, name, or cast of special characters.
I was, like many, saddened when the original Star Trek was cancelled and watched it on syndication for years until the new Star Trek: The Next Generation came on in 1987. I watched a few and quite frankly, I didn't like the crew. I ignored it for a couple of years. Picard wasn't Kirk, Number One wasn't Spock, etc. Then, from boredom, I assume, I watched a few episodes and realized there was some "there" there. The characters were more defined, the situations were more complex, and "different" wasn't "worse". I grew to admire the new characters (and the actors who played them).
Star Trek: Voyager was a whole new leap, but I accepted the whole premise. Sci-fi requires the willing suspension of disbelief, and I have never had a problem with that in specific situations for a book, a movie, or a cat blog, LOL! So given the setup for Voyager, I had no problem and came to admire the series.
I watched Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with interest, but not much engagement. It was brilliantly conceived, expertly acted, and had wonderful new characters and enemies. I LOVED the idea of taking control of an enemy outpost and struggling to manage it. Just as a personal note, as a minor beauracrat with some responsibilities but no authority, I appreciated the day-to-day problems (though writ larger on a cosmic scale). I only gave up on that when Captain Sisko became a slightly paranormal messianic figure. I stuck with Voyager til the end, fascinated with 7 of 9 struggling back to humanity (the counterpoint of Data) and the Borg (truly one of the best opponents of all time).
Then came the disasterous 'Star Trek: Enterprise'. I tried to follow it, really I did, but I couldn't get past Scott Bakula in 'Quantum Leap". And I actually enjoyed that show many times. I just couldn't accept him as a Star Trek Captain. Ever.
I never saw a Star Trek movie I didn't like. I can't even pick a favorite. Each one was pleasing and impressive in its own way. I will nominate 'The Voyage Home' as the most Trekkie cult movie for all the inside jokes and interactions. I will nominate 'Star Trek' (2009) as one of the best origin prequels.
One of the things I admire about the Star Trek franchise is the "original" characters. The original had Spock, TNG had Data, DS9 had Odo and Quark, Voyager had 7 of 9.
I will place Spock out of the "unique" characters. He is too integral to the series to be unique to any one. So Data and Seven were my favorite unique characters. My apologies to Dr Picard, but he was limited in his interactions. Still, if I recall correctly, there was a time in the holodeck when he stuggled to the holodeck door to save a patient and he seemed as fully individual and sentient as anyone.
So, the point of all this is that I will wait for the latest Star Trek movie to show up on the non-subscription TV. Or I will brave the local movie theater. Its 50-50.
SO! I am sure glad I watched 'Nemesis' and 'Star Trek' this week.
Let's see Star Wars match that...
So I avoided the subsequent Star Trek movies, giving up on them after 'Insurrection' and 'Nemesis'.
I have been returned to the flock!
The original Star Trek TV series started when I was 16 and well into reading serious and thoughtful sci-fi books (at 12 I had exhausted the library collection of "young adult" sci-fi and the librarian had granted me access to the "adult" books - not that there was anything very shocking about "adult" sci-fi back in 1962). But by 1966, when Star Trek appeared, I could tell it was different from the sci-fi movies of the time. I instantly recognized that each episode contained a social statement (perhaps a best example being the [literally] reversely half-black and half white opponents in an episode); and no, I am not really a trekkie who can recall episodes by number, name, or cast of special characters.
I was, like many, saddened when the original Star Trek was cancelled and watched it on syndication for years until the new Star Trek: The Next Generation came on in 1987. I watched a few and quite frankly, I didn't like the crew. I ignored it for a couple of years. Picard wasn't Kirk, Number One wasn't Spock, etc. Then, from boredom, I assume, I watched a few episodes and realized there was some "there" there. The characters were more defined, the situations were more complex, and "different" wasn't "worse". I grew to admire the new characters (and the actors who played them).
Star Trek: Voyager was a whole new leap, but I accepted the whole premise. Sci-fi requires the willing suspension of disbelief, and I have never had a problem with that in specific situations for a book, a movie, or a cat blog, LOL! So given the setup for Voyager, I had no problem and came to admire the series.
I watched Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with interest, but not much engagement. It was brilliantly conceived, expertly acted, and had wonderful new characters and enemies. I LOVED the idea of taking control of an enemy outpost and struggling to manage it. Just as a personal note, as a minor beauracrat with some responsibilities but no authority, I appreciated the day-to-day problems (though writ larger on a cosmic scale). I only gave up on that when Captain Sisko became a slightly paranormal messianic figure. I stuck with Voyager til the end, fascinated with 7 of 9 struggling back to humanity (the counterpoint of Data) and the Borg (truly one of the best opponents of all time).
Then came the disasterous 'Star Trek: Enterprise'. I tried to follow it, really I did, but I couldn't get past Scott Bakula in 'Quantum Leap". And I actually enjoyed that show many times. I just couldn't accept him as a Star Trek Captain. Ever.
I never saw a Star Trek movie I didn't like. I can't even pick a favorite. Each one was pleasing and impressive in its own way. I will nominate 'The Voyage Home' as the most Trekkie cult movie for all the inside jokes and interactions. I will nominate 'Star Trek' (2009) as one of the best origin prequels.
One of the things I admire about the Star Trek franchise is the "original" characters. The original had Spock, TNG had Data, DS9 had Odo and Quark, Voyager had 7 of 9.
I will place Spock out of the "unique" characters. He is too integral to the series to be unique to any one. So Data and Seven were my favorite unique characters. My apologies to Dr Picard, but he was limited in his interactions. Still, if I recall correctly, there was a time in the holodeck when he stuggled to the holodeck door to save a patient and he seemed as fully individual and sentient as anyone.
So, the point of all this is that I will wait for the latest Star Trek movie to show up on the non-subscription TV. Or I will brave the local movie theater. Its 50-50.
SO! I am sure glad I watched 'Nemesis' and 'Star Trek' this week.
Let's see Star Wars match that...
Sunday, May 12, 2013
MISSING YOU TODAY MOM.
Dear Mom, gone 2 years+
My faithful correspondent over the years, teacher of cooking, lover of cats, literate jokester, player of puns, mistress of doggerel poetry, music lover, who taught me to not only read but love what I read, I miss you on this day most of all. You taught me that anything worth doing was worth overdoing. Every word I play with comes from your guidance.
In my younger years, you allowed my to try things I couldn't do well until I COULD do them well. My fondest memories are when I said "Mark Do", and you let me DO. I would not be the person I am if you hadn't allowed "Mark Do", as frustrating as it must have been at the time.
In later years, when I slowly became an adult you were my Dear Friend and I somehow became a co-equal in your eyes.
I am not quite what you thought I would be, but more than you may have imagined. I know what you desired of me and I am not that, but I have lived a full life in my own way. You sent me out into the world to see what I would do and I did "my thing". I wish you could see me now. I think you would approve.
I have always remembered that you wanted a "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John" but you liked the name "Mark" best and gave me that name as the eldest child. I have carried the name proudly but without the religious meaning. You accepted that from my early teenage years to the last day I spoke to you and you were proud of me to the end of your days.
Thank you.
Love,
Mark
My faithful correspondent over the years, teacher of cooking, lover of cats, literate jokester, player of puns, mistress of doggerel poetry, music lover, who taught me to not only read but love what I read, I miss you on this day most of all. You taught me that anything worth doing was worth overdoing. Every word I play with comes from your guidance.
In my younger years, you allowed my to try things I couldn't do well until I COULD do them well. My fondest memories are when I said "Mark Do", and you let me DO. I would not be the person I am if you hadn't allowed "Mark Do", as frustrating as it must have been at the time.
In later years, when I slowly became an adult you were my Dear Friend and I somehow became a co-equal in your eyes.
I am not quite what you thought I would be, but more than you may have imagined. I know what you desired of me and I am not that, but I have lived a full life in my own way. You sent me out into the world to see what I would do and I did "my thing". I wish you could see me now. I think you would approve.
I have always remembered that you wanted a "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John" but you liked the name "Mark" best and gave me that name as the eldest child. I have carried the name proudly but without the religious meaning. You accepted that from my early teenage years to the last day I spoke to you and you were proud of me to the end of your days.
Thank you.
Love,
Mark
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