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

Derald wrote:
....

he's written and said they are ok, but no power
yet.

*whew*


songbird

"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

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

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!

George Shirley wrote:
....
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.

they have a Made in USA push (sorta) going on
as we are finding more items made here.


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.

yes, the shorts i have on now are hand-me-downs
from someone else and i've got AC/holes through the
pockets and they are about see through from being
worn so much. i don't wear them outside often as
i prefer to keep the direct sun off my skin most
of the time. just a few minutes here or there for
Vit D and that's it. t-shirt is a few years old
but a work shirt so it has a life span of another
five to ten years. my shoes, i just added a good
layer of rubber to the gardening crocs so they
should last another 10-15 years. i don't spend
money on clothes that often. the used goods
stores are places i will go first. i do need a
replacement pair of jeans for my old ones which
have lasted about 10yrs. i only wear them when
we go out and about. my work pants for the gardens
are hand-me-downs that were going to get thrown
away (i could have had another 15 pair but
compromised at five pair). i suspect they will
last me the rest of my lifetime, very sturdy work
pants from a friend who's company was bought out
by another so they changed the uniform.
unfortunately the shirts were not to my suiting.


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!

congrats and all that on the BD and being
around and still kicking.


songbird

On 9/23/2017 1:22 PM, songbird wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
...
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.

they have a Made in USA push (sorta) going on
as we are finding more items made here.


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.

yes, the shorts i have on now are hand-me-downs
from someone else and i've got AC/holes through the
pockets and they are about see through from being
worn so much. i don't wear them outside often as
i prefer to keep the direct sun off my skin most
of the time. just a few minutes here or there for
Vit D and that's it. t-shirt is a few years old
but a work shirt so it has a life span of another
five to ten years. my shoes, i just added a good
layer of rubber to the gardening crocs so they
should last another 10-15 years. i don't spend
money on clothes that often. the used goods
stores are places i will go first. i do need a
replacement pair of jeans for my old ones which
have lasted about 10yrs. i only wear them when
we go out and about. my work pants for the gardens
are hand-me-downs that were going to get thrown
away (i could have had another 15 pair but
compromised at five pair). i suspect they will
last me the rest of my lifetime, very sturdy work
pants from a friend who's company was bought out
by another so they changed the uniform.
unfortunately the shirts were not to my suiting.


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!

congrats and all that on the BD and being
around and still kicking.


songbird

I'm also very pleased by outliving most of my high school males in my
class. Several died in Vietnam and other fights, some just fell over
dead one day, and a few were deliberately killed by someone who didn't
like them. I liked most of my class mates but a few I cheered when I
read their names in the paper. Every small high school seems to have a
cluster of a-holes, mostly the jocks. Seems most of the women in that
small class are still alive, I don't go to reunion's very often so don't
see to many from 1957. Wife is on a tear again so I'm laying low, she
gets frantic about her garden and yard and then goes wild. Tried to get
her to let me hire someone for that stuff but she insists on doing it
herself, even with grands and greatgrands two blocks away. Some of her
ancestors were Germans and you know how hard headed they are. G

George

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.

George Shirley wrote:
....
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.

i rarely ever hear them (i keep the patio door closed
at night because i can't sleep with night time noises
from birds, animals and bugs), but i have had them climb
the screen door a few times (youngsters playing)...
i've never seen them in the daytime.

we don't keep animals outside (i keep my worm farm in
this room). so nothing is set up to attract them as best
i can manage and they seem to leave things alone other
than flipping some pieces of wood over once in a while.
i'm ok with that as they help break it down that ways
scratching for goodies.


songbird

Derald wrote:
....
The raccoons here eat baby squirrels in their nests. I sometimes
find a headless squirrel and had thought it to be left by one of the
cats who, I know for certain, eats heads first. Perhaps some of those
carcasses were left by raccoons. They occasionally dig in a garden bed.
They dig most often in newly tilled beds or those with small plants.
Most recent casualties are onions (a couple of years past) and mustard
seedlings that emerged a few days before Irma came through. The 'coons
got to them before she did but left enough that when I thin,the
seedlings may be transplanted elsewhere in the same bed.

they and the possums go for eggs in some of the
bird nests, they also eat quite a bit of the hornet/
wasps/bees nests that are wedged behind a lot of the
larger rocks we have around.


Don't let the Disney cartoon face fool you. Raccoons can turn
fiercely aggressive with little to no apparent provocation. At certain
times of day, in the garden, I keep a sledge hammer handle within reach.
It doesn't pay to kill them. They just increase production when
threatened or their numbers reduced.

i rarely see them during the day. i'm not outside at
night or in the early morning. the last animal that tried
to attack me was a very tiny snake in the palm of my hand
it was trying to bite me and would bounce off my skin.
good laugh. a few spider bites or mosquitoes. nothing
major. oh, except the stupid dogs that barked and one that
actually nipped. those were potentially serious but i didn't
escalate.

the air rifle gets some use once in a while but i try to
keep it to deterring animals instead of killing. not always
possible, but i try...


songbird

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

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

they are completely non-destructive here as far as i
can tell.

These raccoons dig holes in great number that resemble squirrel
holes except for size, which relates directly to the size of the beast.
Fill them and the 'coons'll just dig more, often in the same places.
Not a problem for me but causes neighbor great anquish, primarily
because, at age 73, he has yet to master the practice of looking where
he places his feet outdoors.

lol - i often have the other layer of that problem
where i'll be watching where i'm stepping and get
poked by something up top (wind chime crossbar in
one garden is the worst).

at the moment the ground here is fried so hard that
not much is getting dug up anywheres.

setting records for highs the past three days and
probably tomorrow too.

i shall have to get out to water this morning, get
red peppers done sometime, give dad a call and see if
i can visit today or tomorrow.

sorting beans, of course, found one cross i'd been
aiming for for many years. roughly. it is of two of
the varieties that have consistently done well here
because they are both early and small, but very
prolific. two seeds, i will have to scan closely for
more, but i have to do it in sunlight because the
pattern is a series of dark red lines on a dark red
bean. not at all easy to see. usually if there are
two there are a few more in the batch, but it is like
finding the needle in the haystack because there's
several thousand.

a good hot day activity if i don't go visiting.

cheers, gotta run,


songbird

On 9/25/2017 8:11 AM, songbird wrote:
Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

they are completely non-destructive here as far as i
can tell.

These raccoons dig holes in great number that resemble squirrel
holes except for size, which relates directly to the size of the beast.
Fill them and the 'coons'll just dig more, often in the same places.
Not a problem for me but causes neighbor great anquish, primarily
because, at age 73, he has yet to master the practice of looking where
he places his feet outdoors.

lol - i often have the other layer of that problem
where i'll be watching where i'm stepping and get
poked by something up top (wind chime crossbar in
one garden is the worst).

at the moment the ground here is fried so hard that
not much is getting dug up anywheres.

setting records for highs the past three days and
probably tomorrow too.

i shall have to get out to water this morning, get
red peppers done sometime, give dad a call and see if
i can visit today or tomorrow.

sorting beans, of course, found one cross i'd been
aiming for for many years. roughly. it is of two of
the varieties that have consistently done well here
because they are both early and small, but very
prolific. two seeds, i will have to scan closely for
more, but i have to do it in sunlight because the
pattern is a series of dark red lines on a dark red
bean. not at all easy to see. usually if there are
two there are a few more in the batch, but it is like
finding the needle in the haystack because there's
several thousand.

a good hot day activity if i don't go visiting.

cheers, gotta run,


songbird

We don't have soil in our yard, it's five feet of clay covered with a
couple of inches of sand so we have raised beds for gardening.