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Today's due diligence
Derald wrote:
songbird wrote: of the phorid flies, certain species are predators of fire ants. Unfortunately they are not native, not present in sufficient number to be meaningful, in short supply, not found on the handy homeowner retail market. At least, I haven't found a source. You may find the following citations interesting. http://okaloosa.ifas.ufl.edu/2011Hor...esFireAnts.pdf https://patch.com/texas/downtownaust...e-ants-zombies http://journals.fcla.edu/flaent/article/view/56812 a bit busy this morning to read all of those, but looks like they support my previous reading on the topic. Seems to me that in their native states a long term equilibrium exists between predator and prey. As a general rule, predator species don't eat themselves into extinction. some barren islands would refute that blanket statement... One more alien species will not eliminate the ants, guaranteed, and, if it _does_, who's to say what it will eat next? they've already been introduced to the USoA. like the ants they will spread through time. it may not stop them entirely, but the evidence i've read says it gives them more of a challenge so that other native species have more of a chance. if they were not specific feeders they'd already have been here (IMO) given that they've had 10,000 years to travel the distance and plenty of alternative hosts to use as skipping along points or stepping stones. whenever there has been an introduced/non-native species that becomes a problem it is usually because the species has been introduced without the rest of their system (prey species which would normally keep them in check somewhat). songbird |
#2
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the storm (was: Today's due diligence
Derald wrote:
.... Yikes! Just walked through and noticed this hadn't been posted yet. A little preoccupied, though. I'm told a storm is coming. yep, i thought you were already gone. the predicted track went back east and then has gone west again. i don't envy anyone in the path. be safe. songbird |
#3
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the storm
On 9/8/2017 7:44 PM, songbird wrote:
Derald wrote: ... Yikes! Just walked through and noticed this hadn't been posted yet. A little preoccupied, though. I'm told a storm is coming. yep, i thought you were already gone. the predicted track went back east and then has gone west again. i don't envy anyone in the path. be safe. songbird Isn't that strange, have lived on one coast or more for years on years, rode out a few hurricanes, always bought houses on high ground. Harvey just dropped about 50 inches of well-needed rain on us and ripped up Houston proper. We never lost power, etc. through the whole storm. Then along comes another one and it hit Florida. Probably another one will be coming along. We've always been lucky, none of our families has ever lost a house, not much ever but a few trees. And a cow disappeared once upon a hurricane, never found her again. I reckon a rustler got the cow or tornado in the storm got her. At least I never had to get up early and milk her again.G George |
#4
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the storm
George Shirley wrote:
.... Isn't that strange, have lived on one coast or more for years on years, rode out a few hurricanes, always bought houses on high ground. Harvey just dropped about 50 inches of well-needed rain on us and ripped up Houston proper. We never lost power, etc. through the whole storm. Then along comes another one and it hit Florida. Probably another one will be coming along. eventually. Momma Nature isn't going to stop cooking up storms. building and rebuilding lowland structures is rather stupid, but people are ... as long as they want to keep paying the insurance and costs. We've always been lucky, none of our families has ever lost a house, not much ever but a few trees. And a cow disappeared once upon a hurricane, never found her again. I reckon a rustler got the cow or tornado in the storm got her. At least I never had to get up early and milk her again.G do you have cold hands? mebbe it ran away? what interested me the most with this one was how the forecast first started with the storm being further west, then it shifted quite a bit east and then back to the west. i just read an article about the forecast models being worse than before. as usual complaints of lack of funding. and not that i'm agreeing entirely, but basic science should always be well funded (and usually isn't). songbird |
#5
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the storm
On 9/9/2017 9:33 AM, songbird wrote:
George Shirley wrote: ... Isn't that strange, have lived on one coast or more for years on years, rode out a few hurricanes, always bought houses on high ground. Harvey just dropped about 50 inches of well-needed rain on us and ripped up Houston proper. We never lost power, etc. through the whole storm. Then along comes another one and it hit Florida. Probably another one will be coming along. eventually. Momma Nature isn't going to stop cooking up storms. building and rebuilding lowland structures is rather stupid, but people are ... as long as they want to keep paying the insurance and costs. We've always been lucky, none of our families has ever lost a house, not much ever but a few trees. And a cow disappeared once upon a hurricane, never found her again. I reckon a rustler got the cow or tornado in the storm got her. At least I never had to get up early and milk her again.G do you have cold hands? mebbe it ran away? what interested me the most with this one was how the forecast first started with the storm being further west, then it shifted quite a bit east and then back to the west. i just read an article about the forecast models being worse than before. as usual complaints of lack of funding. and not that i'm agreeing entirely, but basic science should always be well funded (and usually isn't). songbird There were plenty of people outside the US tracking it. EU models had apparently appeared best. The climate change people make predictions 10 years out but weathermen are often wrong 2 days out. I like the water but don't want to live where a 10 ft tide surge could flood me. Even inland is at risk. Lower DE is coastal plane. I've seen storm surge cross the road from the Atlantic ocean to the Rehoboth bay. Lot of people live there and will eventually suffer. I like where I live at about 300 ft above sea level in upper DE. A couple of years ago, if hurricane Sandy had made the left turn a half hour sooner, DE would have suffered the damage seen in NJ and NY. |
#6
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the storm
On 9/9/2017 10:40 AM, Frank wrote:
On 9/9/2017 9:33 AM, songbird wrote: George Shirley wrote: ... Isn't that strange, have lived on one coast or more for years on years, rode out a few hurricanes, always bought houses on high ground. Harvey just dropped about 50 inches of well-needed rain on us and ripped up Houston proper. We never lost power, etc. through the whole storm. Then along comes another one and it hit Florida. Probably another one will be coming along. Â*Â* eventually.Â* Momma Nature isn't going to stop cooking up storms.Â* building and rebuilding lowland structures is rather stupid, but people are ...Â* as long as they want to keep paying the insurance and costs. We've always been lucky, none of our families has ever lost a house, not much ever but a few trees. And a cow disappeared once upon a hurricane, never found her again. I reckon a rustler got the cow or tornado in the storm got her. At least I never had to get up early and milk her again.G Â*Â* do you have cold hands?Â* mebbe it ran away?Â* Â*Â* what interested me the most with this one was how the forecast first started with the storm being further west, then it shifted quite a bit east and then back to the west. Â*Â* i just read an article about the forecast models being worse than before.Â* as usual complaints of lack of funding.Â* and not that i'm agreeing entirely, but basic science should always be well funded (and usually isn't). Â*Â* songbird There were plenty of people outside the US tracking it.Â* EU models had apparently appeared best.Â* The climate change people make predictions 10 years out but weathermen are often wrong 2 days out. I like the water but don't want to live where a 10 ft tide surge could flood me.Â* Even inland is at risk.Â* Lower DE is coastal plane.Â* I've seen storm surge cross the road from the Atlantic ocean to the Rehoboth bay.Â* Lot of people live there and will eventually suffer.Â* I like where I live at about 300 ft above sea level in upper DE.Â* A couple of years ago, if hurricane Sandy had made the left turn a half hour sooner, DE would have suffered the damage seen in NJ and NY. That's the beauty of hurricane's, lots of movement and makes people look for the correct time and way before it eats their houses. My family had beach houses on the Bolivar Peninsula on the Texas coast for fifty years or more. Eventually even the land they were on disappeared too, no more beach houses since. Used to be fun taking the kids down to the beach, do some swimming, some beach combing (odd stuff washes ashore in Texas), and a lot of fishing and walking the beach in the evening. It's been so long since we lost the last "camp" that I can't even remember it. One aunt actually lived on the beach after her husband retired and then they had to run and moved back to town. A large part of my life I was a responder to many problems: storms, fires, plants blowing up, injuries, and a few deaths. So goes the way of an active safety professional. Three states, two foreign countries, and lots of flight time. Now I'm retired but not bored, at least as long as we have a library nearby. Old friends all say, "Aren't you bored?" Not as long as I have a book nearby and my loved ones too. I don't have bad dreams, have no regrets about a busy lifetime. Nowadays I can always borrow a great grandkid and try to teach them something or, best of all, just someone to hug regularly. I will be 78 on 09/23/17 and am glad I'm still around to help the younger crew. George |
#7
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the storm
On 9/9/2017 8:33 AM, songbird wrote:
George Shirley wrote: ... Isn't that strange, have lived on one coast or more for years on years, rode out a few hurricanes, always bought houses on high ground. Harvey just dropped about 50 inches of well-needed rain on us and ripped up Houston proper. We never lost power, etc. through the whole storm. Then along comes another one and it hit Florida. Probably another one will be coming along. eventually. Momma Nature isn't going to stop cooking up storms. building and rebuilding lowland structures is rather stupid, but people are ... as long as they want to keep paying the insurance and costs. We've always been lucky, none of our families has ever lost a house, not much ever but a few trees. And a cow disappeared once upon a hurricane, never found her again. I reckon a rustler got the cow or tornado in the storm got her. At least I never had to get up early and milk her again.G do you have cold hands? mebbe it ran away? Nope, my Dad trained me properly, cold hands on a cow's bag could get you kicked, at the least. Warmed them with hot water in the winter, just used bare hands in the summer. Dad grew up on a four generation farm and knew a bit about cows. what interested me the most with this one was how the forecast first started with the storm being further west, then it shifted quite a bit east and then back to the west. i just read an article about the forecast models being worse than before. as usual complaints of lack of funding. and not that i'm agreeing entirely, but basic science should always be well funded (and usually isn't). songbird My wife's family, mostly men, worked for the gubmint for at least forty years for the two that worked for the gubmit. Her Dad and second brother, all the rest of the family had real jobs and had to work. My FIL told me flat out when I asked for his eldest daughter, and all the rest of her too, that don't work for the feds. Took him at his word, even though I had a fairly good offer from DC as I was getting out of the Navy. I never missed not going to work for the feds, but managed to work 47 years at what I wanted to do. Now I just lay around watching TV, fetching groceries when needed and loving the other three generations of our family, all the ones from us. Two kids and families, five grands and three of their families, and the great grands are best of all, hug them,and tell their folks it's time to take them home. G George |
#8
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the storm (was: Today's due diligence
Derald wrote:
songbird wrote: Derald wrote: ... Yikes! Just walked through and noticed this hadn't been posted yet. A little preoccupied, though. I'm told a storm is coming. yep, i thought you were already gone. the predicted track went back east and then has gone west again. i don't envy anyone in the path. be safe. Well,hope you don't mind but I'll break protocol here and post a portion of private correspondence he no problem with me since nothing in there is what i would consider private to me. .... irresponsible but approaches reprehensible and definitely is a disservice. The only, only, only tracking forecast that means anything comes from the National Hurricane Center at 6-hour intervals. that is all i actually have been following up until i noticed the change from one direction back to the other. it was "interesting"... i don't watch tv or the news that much at all. All of that other bs like "european" and "spaghetti" models and "forecasts" and multicolor zones of probability have nothing to do with reality or with actually informing the public, IMO. I see them simply as additional layers of "gee-whiz" technological eye candy intended to give the station "public service" bragging rights and to keep the rubes tuned in for the next commercial break. I mean, with enough garbage on the screen, the more likely they are to be able to brag about their "accuracy"; hah! I ask you, "What the hell good is a multicolor, moving radar display that is 3-to-12 minutes behind reality?" I hope I don't ever need radar to let me know it rained 6 minutes ago but I guess, "it could happen". as i've watched the local radar for many years now i can say that it has helped a few times when storms looked to be heading this way, but as you know we have a lot of things that break up when they get near so ... it is only for warning purposes. i surely do watch the horizon here when the weather seems potentially going to mess me up or my plans for the day. now, what is funny is that even with such things available it didn't do any good the day when the small tornade came within a few hundred yards of us. i happened to be busy and didn't notice until afterwards that the neighbor's garage was missing... So there you have it, 'bird: The Full Monty. .... my eyes! my eyes! you know, i figured that container could be a pretty safe space, but i would not want to get "stuck" in there if some debris got wedged against the door... if we don't hear from you in a week or two i'll send someone to knock. you should have enough food and water for that timeframe, but air? got holes/winders? songbird |
#9
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the storm (was: Today's due diligence
Derald wrote:
.... he's written and said they are ok, but no power yet. *whew* songbird |
#10
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the storm (was: Today's due diligence
"songbird" wrote in message ... Derald wrote: ... he's written and said they are ok, but no power yet. *whew* A real prepper would have had his wife pedalling on a bike to generate enough power for the wifi? Good to know he is safe. BUT I would like to see the house on the "prairie" Mike |
#11
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the storm (was: Today's due diligence
Derald wrote:
.... 'bird, I'm probably finally going to dig that damned hole instead of using an above ground pool but _shall_ have a mosquito hatchery in full production RSN.. if you are only using the water for gardens and flushing the emergency toilet you could put a screen over it to keep the raccoonians out of there and have a few black mollies, guppies or other surface feeders to keep the skeeters down. or an even finer mesh to keep them from getting in and laying eggs. though to me the joy of keeping a pond would be to be able to have a froggy or toad spot. i miss the good old days when we had ponds to swim in out back. For reasons even more wildly off-topic, this storm has deepened my resolve to avoid union-made products or services _and_ Walmart (a gigantic predacious retailer) stores at (almost) any cost and has convinced me that the "Walmart Shopper" is a distinct subspecies of human being. ok, well, i guess i'm that, but not often if it were my own device/gumption and not Mom's i'm not sure how much i would shop there as it is far enough away. songbird |
#12
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the storm
On 9/22/2017 3:40 AM, songbird wrote:
Derald wrote: ... 'bird, I'm probably finally going to dig that damned hole instead of using an above ground pool but _shall_ have a mosquito hatchery in full production RSN.. if you are only using the water for gardens and flushing the emergency toilet you could put a screen over it to keep the raccoonians out of there and have a few black mollies, guppies or other surface feeders to keep the skeeters down. or an even finer mesh to keep them from getting in and laying eggs. though to me the joy of keeping a pond would be to be able to have a froggy or toad spot. i miss the good old days when we had ponds to swim in out back. For reasons even more wildly off-topic, this storm has deepened my resolve to avoid union-made products or services _and_ Walmart (a gigantic predacious retailer) stores at (almost) any cost and has convinced me that the "Walmart Shopper" is a distinct subspecies of human being. ok, well, i guess i'm that, but not often if it were my own device/gumption and not Mom's i'm not sure how much i would shop there as it is far enough away. songbird I seldom buy anything from Walmart, it seems that most of their items are from some country I never heard of and the items have a less than 30 day lifetime. My wife buys cloth for sewing up stuff for the grands and great grands so she stays happy with cheap stuff they have and the kids don't keep the stuff long anyway. Heck, I have shirts and slacks that are over 20 years old that still fit and aren't worn out as my daily clothing is a pair of cheap shorts and a tee shirt that is about worn out but feels good. I have good shoes that are older than some of my grandchildren and no one knows the difference. George, up early giving the dawg her meds, everyone in this household has a bottle of something the doctors said was good for us. Tomorrow I will be 78 years old and I don't expect any presents either. G I'm aiming, eventually for 100 or more, yeah, that works, sure! |
#13
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the storm
On 9/22/2017 12:54 PM, Derald wrote:
songbird wrote: if you are only using the water for gardens and flushing the emergency toilet you could put a screen over it to keep the raccoonians out of there and have a few black mollies, guppies or other surface feeders to keep the skeeters down. or an even finer mesh to keep them from getting in and laying eggs. though to me the joy of keeping a pond would be to be able to have a froggy or toad spot. i miss the good old days when we had ponds to swim in out back. I'd introduce "mosquito fish" (as have done with another small manmade "pond"), available free from a number of sources here in FL. Of course, some shade would be necessary, most likely to be floating aquatic "pad lilys" as is frequently done to shelter so-caled "goldfish" carp. The rain barrels are screened and, in addition, we control mosquitoes with Bt "dunks" and a little goes a long long way so that'll continue. I have toads in the garden and frogs in another small pond. The cats drink from it and the raccoons do visit it but do no harm. They are not hostile, just mildly destructive nuisances. Anyone who can tolerate a 4y/o child can tolerate raccoons and I don't begrudge them the water access. Now, the wading pool put out there for the cats' benefit or the watering stations in the garden are different stories. The signs I put up don't do any good so I just live with it. And coons are right tasty if you get all of the glands out of the critter before cooking and eating. I don't know what a coon pelt sells for today but, at around 12, I made a good bit of money selling the pelts of the ones we ate and kept out of the chicken yard by shooting them. I've seen a raccoon kill a dozen chickens just for the hell of it and only eat the heads. I never had a raccoon mess up my garden, they went for the chickens, pigeons, and even the caged rabbits. They may be cute little bandits but they will scratch, bite, whatever they can do to you. Be careful of them or maybe you have peaceful raccoons, ours fought all the time. |
#14
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the storm (was: Today's due diligence
Derald wrote:
.... the water access. Now, the wading pool put out there for the cats' benefit or the watering stations in the garden are different stories. The signs I put up don't do any good so I just live with it. they are completely non-destructive here as far as i can tell. it helps that we do not plant sweet corn and have the onion starts inside the fenced gardens. before when we planted those outside the fence the raccoons would sometimes pull some of those up (fish ferts in the potting mix attracts them is my guess) - they'd not eat or damage the onions themselves, but leave them on the ground nearby. by far the deer, chipmunks and groundhogs do a lot more damage to gardens but i try to get along with them before engaging lethal methods. if we'd done a better fence i think that would have helped, but i'm not willing to redo the fence, yet... more likely i will fence a new area if i get frustrated enough. we'll see... songbird |
#15
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the storm (was: Today's due diligence
Derald wrote:
songbird wrote: Derald wrote: [...hmmm, hope this doesn't show up twice, but something odd happened when i tried to send this...] ... Yikes! Just walked through and noticed this hadn't been posted yet. A little preoccupied, though. I'm told a storm is coming. yep, i thought you were already gone. the predicted track went back east and then has gone west again. i don't envy anyone in the path. be safe. Well,hope you don't mind but I'll break protocol here and post a portion of private correspondence he no problem with me since nothing in there is what i would consider private to me. .... irresponsible but approaches reprehensible and definitely is a disservice. The only, only, only tracking forecast that means anything comes from the National Hurricane Center at 6-hour intervals. that is all i actually have been following up until i noticed the change from one direction back to the other. it was "interesting"... i don't watch tv or the news that much at all. All of that other bs like "european" and "spaghetti" models and "forecasts" and multicolor zones of probability have nothing to do with reality or with actually informing the public, IMO. I see them simply as additional layers of "gee-whiz" technological eye candy intended to give the station "public service" bragging rights and to keep the rubes tuned in for the next commercial break. I mean, with enough garbage on the screen, the more likely they are to be able to brag about their "accuracy"; hah! I ask you, "What the hell good is a multicolor, moving radar display that is 3-to-12 minutes behind reality?" I hope I don't ever need radar to let me know it rained 6 minutes ago but I guess, "it could happen". as i've watched the local radar for many years now i can say that it has helped a few times when storms looked to be heading this way, but as you know we have a lot of things that break up when they get near so ... it is only for warning purposes. i surely do watch the horizon here when the weather seems potentially going to mess me up or my plans for the day. now, what is funny is that even with such things available it didn't do any good the day when the small tornade came within a few hundred yards of us. i happened to be busy and didn't notice until afterwards that the neighbor's garage was missing... So there you have it, 'bird: The Full Monty. .... my eyes! my eyes! you know, i figured that container could be a pretty safe space, but i would not want to get "stuck" in there if some debris got wedged against the door... if we don't hear from you in a week or two i'll send someone to knock. you should have enough food and water for that timeframe, but air? got holes/winders? songbird |
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