Today's due diligence
 

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home. This fire ant village comes to the surface at
various places around our raised gardens and the boiling water is one
way to get rid of them. Most likely the ants are five to fifteen feet
deep and have multiple queens who lay eggs continuously.

Fire ants can really hurt you and your pets just by getting on you in
swarms and bite you and inject something that will make you hurt for a
while and leaves pustules.

They will even make their own rafts if their area floods, the ant ball
moves constantly to avoid drowning, they protect the queens and eggs as
much as possible. Came here to Texas from ships coming into port from
South America about the time I was growing up, probably mid-fifties, I
have scars from getting into the !@#$%^ ants path as a teen out hunting
and fishing or just running the woods for the hell of it. (lived close
to large ports on the Gulf Coast) Nowadays they are every where in Texas.

My lovely wife is putting gallons of boiling water down their exit hole
and chortling while she does it. I just hope it works.

George, scratching his legs again

Today's due diligence
 

On 9/4/2017 5:14 PM, George Shirley wrote:
Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home. This fire ant village comes to the surface at
various places around our raised gardens and the boiling water is one
way to get rid of them. Most likely the ants are five to fifteen feet
deep and have multiple queens who lay eggs continuously.

Fire ants can really hurt you and your pets just by getting on you in
swarms and bite you and inject something that will make you hurt for a
while and leaves pustules.

They will even make their own rafts if their area floods, the ant ball
moves constantly to avoid drowning, they protect the queens and eggs as
much as possible. Came here to Texas from ships coming into port from
South America about the time I was growing up, probably mid-fifties, I
have scars from getting into the !@#$%^ ants path as a teen out hunting
and fishing or just running the woods for the hell of it. (lived close
to large ports on the Gulf Coast) Nowadays they are every where in Texas.

My lovely wife is putting gallons of boiling water down their exit hole
and chortling while she does it. I just hope it works.

George, scratching his legs again

One of the benefits of living further north where these ants cannot
survive winters.

I'd be dumping the recommended pesticides down the holes as these should
leave residues to continue further killing. Boiling water would cool
rapidly as it penetrates the ground and only kill the surface ones, I
would guess.

I get problems with yellow jackets nesting in the lawn and got a half
dozen stings on my ankle out back spraying weeds a few weeks ago. I
blasted the nest with the wasp spray soaking the ground and seem to have
wiped out the nest.

Today's due diligence
 

On 9/5/2017 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home.
I've dealt with fire ants for 40+ years; good luck with that hot
water down the hole bs. Just as with ground-nesting wasps, gasoline and
fire work well but, unlike the wasps, surviving ants will re-establish
nets elsewhere. In 20 years of "due diligence" at this place, I've got
them down to a few small outbreaks each year. Of course, since this
land was "cleared" 60-70 years ago, it may be that nesting sites
(decaying subterranean wood, e.g. tree roots) have diminished but I
credit Amdro, IME, the only ant specific insecticide that works on them.
Amdro is "fire and specific" only because many other types of ants won't
eat the bait but those that do die. Like the boiling water, any other
product that I've tried simply disperses them, resulting in a host of
satellite mounds, often at significant distance from the original
problem site. They're a major pain but at least they're more easily
controlled than grasshoppers and locusts.
Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it. I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several times
each year. I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded. It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

I was raised in Orange County, Texas, where so it is said, that foreign
fire ants first came ashore. They finally found us after several years
at the old home place, right after I got out of the USN and married,
about 1961 if memory, very old memory, works. Here we have five feet of
gumbo clay under two inches of sand for our front and back yards. The
fire ants come up sporadically in the spring, usually by our raised bed
gardens. Right where, if you're working the garden, you get bitten.
Don't want the amdro or other things there as the plants pick it up too.
The boiling water, two pots full, are to kill the queens, generally the
rest of the ants, less queens, generally just die off as I have seen
before. Now we're waiting for two things, if the ants all die we got the
queens; if they start moving out, they've still got at least one queen
and they're all moving next door. Suits me.

Today's due diligence
 

On 9/5/2017 11:25 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 9/5/2017 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home.
Â*Â*Â*Â*I've dealt with fire ants for 40+ years; good luck with that hot
water down the hole bs.Â* Just as with ground-nesting wasps, gasoline and
fire work well but, unlike the wasps, surviving ants will re-establish
nets elsewhere.Â* In 20 years of "due diligence" at this place, I've got
them down to a few small outbreaks each year.Â* Of course, since this
land was "cleared" 60-70 years ago, it may be that nesting sites
(decaying subterranean wood, e.g. tree roots) have diminished but I
credit Amdro, IME, the only ant specific insecticide that works on them.
Amdro is "fire and specific" only because many other types of ants won't
eat the bait but those that do die.Â* Like the boiling water, any other
product that I've tried simply disperses them, resulting in a host of
satellite mounds, often at significant distance from the original
problem site.Â* They're a major pain but at least they're more easily
controlled than grasshoppers and locusts.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it.Â* I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several times
each year.Â* I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded.Â* It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

I was raised in Orange County, Texas, where so it is said, that foreign
fire ants first came ashore. They finally found us after several years
at the old home place, right after I got out of the USN and married,
about 1961 if memory, very old memory, works. Here we have five feet of
gumbo clay under two inches of sand for our front and back yards. The
fire ants come up sporadically in the spring, usually by our raised bed
gardens. Right where, if you're working the garden, you get bitten.
Don't want the amdro or other things there as the plants pick it up too.
The boiling water, two pots full, are to kill the queens, generally the
rest of the ants, less queens, generally just die off as I have seen
before. Now we're waiting for two things, if the ants all die we got the
queens; if they start moving out, they've still got at least one queen
and they're all moving next door. Suits me.

Our poor dog has been covered up with fleas this summer. We've treated
the yard where she roams, treated her with Advantax several times, and
evidently it has quit working altogether. Next, we tried flea baths
with a flea collar, and no luck, either. She ended up scratching and
biting herself so much she has very little fur on her tail, butt, and
parts of her legs. We finally called the vet. He had a stronger flea
killer that is a pill. One was to kill all the fleas on her in 24 hours,
and the other is one pill a month. We have 3 months worth of it.

Our son suggested we bath her in dawn dish soap because it is gentle and
also kills fleas, so he did that this past Saturday. He also suggested
we put out bowls of dawn water around the house as a trap for any indoor
fleas. Speaking of which, we also treated the indoors for fleas too.

A week later from her original vet treatment, I don't see any fleas on
her body now, just the occasionally one that gets on her paws when being
outside. Evidently, the indoor treatment is working, too, because we've
caught some fleas in the bowls, but really not too many. Initially, we
caught like 4 or 5 fleas in different parts of the house, and now we're
only catching 1 or 2 new fleas a day.

The vet said that everyone is having horrible problems with fleas around
here. We didn't have much of a cold winter last year, so I guess that's
why. Is anyone else having flea problems?

--
Maggie

Today's due diligence
 

Derald wrote:
....
Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it. I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several times
each year. I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded. It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

of the phorid flies, certain species are predators of
fire ants.


songbird

Today's due diligence
 

On 09/04/2017 02:14 PM, George Shirley wrote:
Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home. This fire ant village comes to the surface at
various places around our raised gardens and the boiling water is one
way to get rid of them. Most likely the ants are five to fifteen feet
deep and have multiple queens who lay eggs continuously.

Fire ants can really hurt you and your pets just by getting on you in
swarms and bite you and inject something that will make you hurt for a
while and leaves pustules.

They will even make their own rafts if their area floods, the ant ball
moves constantly to avoid drowning, they protect the queens and eggs as
much as possible. Came here to Texas from ships coming into port from
South America about the time I was growing up, probably mid-fifties, I
have scars from getting into the !@#$%^ ants path as a teen out hunting
and fishing or just running the woods for the hell of it. (lived close
to large ports on the Gulf Coast) Nowadays they are every where in Texas.

My lovely wife is putting gallons of boiling water down their exit hole
and chortling while she does it. I just hope it works.

George, scratching his legs again


I heard somewhere that ants don't like vinegar. You
ever try that?

Today's due diligence
 

On 9/5/2017 5:02 PM, Muggles wrote:
On 9/5/2017 11:25 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 9/5/2017 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home.
Â*Â*Â*Â*I've dealt with fire ants for 40+ years; good luck with that hot
water down the hole bs.Â* Just as with ground-nesting wasps, gasoline and
fire work well but, unlike the wasps, surviving ants will re-establish
nets elsewhere.Â* In 20 years of "due diligence" at this place, I've got
them down to a few small outbreaks each year.Â* Of course, since this
land was "cleared" 60-70 years ago, it may be that nesting sites
(decaying subterranean wood, e.g. tree roots) have diminished but I
credit Amdro, IME, the only ant specific insecticide that works on them.
Amdro is "fire and specific" only because many other types of ants won't
eat the bait but those that do die.Â* Like the boiling water, any other
product that I've tried simply disperses them, resulting in a host of
satellite mounds, often at significant distance from the original
problem site.Â* They're a major pain but at least they're more easily
controlled than grasshoppers and locusts.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it.Â* I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several times
each year.Â* I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded.Â* It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

I was raised in Orange County, Texas, where so it is said, that foreign
fire ants first came ashore. They finally found us after several years
at the old home place, right after I got out of the USN and married,
about 1961 if memory, very old memory, works. Here we have five feet of
gumbo clay under two inches of sand for our front and back yards. The
fire ants come up sporadically in the spring, usually by our raised bed
gardens. Right where, if you're working the garden, you get bitten.
Don't want the amdro or other things there as the plants pick it up too.
The boiling water, two pots full, are to kill the queens, generally the
rest of the ants, less queens, generally just die off as I have seen
before. Now we're waiting for two things, if the ants all die we got the
queens; if they start moving out, they've still got at least one queen
and they're all moving next door. Suits me.

Our poor dog has been covered up with fleas this summer. We've treated
the yard where she roams, treated her with Advantax several times, and
evidently it has quit working altogether. Next, we tried flea baths
with a flea collar, and no luck, either. She ended up scratching and
biting herself so much she has very little fur on her tail, butt, and
parts of her legs. We finally called the vet. He had a stronger flea
killer that is a pill. One was to kill all the fleas on her in 24 hours,
and the other is one pill a month. We have 3 months worth of it.

Our son suggested we bath her in dawn dish soap because it is gentle and
also kills fleas, so he did that this past Saturday. He also suggested
we put out bowls of dawn water around the house as a trap for any indoor
fleas. Speaking of which, we also treated the indoors for fleas too.

A week later from her original vet treatment, I don't see any fleas on
her body now, just the occasionally one that gets on her paws when being
outside. Evidently, the indoor treatment is working, too, because we've
caught some fleas in the bowls, but really not too many. Initially, we
caught like 4 or 5 fleas in different parts of the house, and now we're
only catching 1 or 2 new fleas a day.

The vet said that everyone is having horrible problems with fleas around
here. We didn't have much of a cold winter last year, so I guess that's
why. Is anyone else having flea problems?

Our dog has never had a flea on her that I've seen. Have not found any
fleas on our property. No dogs on this block but ours. She has brought
in a tick or two after walking around the retention pond area with my
wife. Easy to find as she scratches at them and I drown them when I find
them. There's only a dozen or less dogs in this 200+ homes here as most
of the folks around us go off to work every day. Only half a dozen
retirees here that I know of. Lots of cats around, mostly seem to be
strays, leftovers dropped off from other folks that don't live here.
Have to call the pound every few months to come and round up the strays.
Dogs and cats that live here are house pets mostly. One family has a
parrot that stays in a tall cage and curses.

Today's due diligence
 

On 9/5/2017 6:44 PM, T wrote:
On 09/04/2017 02:14 PM, George Shirley wrote:
Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our
biggest pest in the gardens home. This fire ant village comes to the
surface at various places around our raised gardens and the boiling
water is one way to get rid of them. Most likely the ants are five to
fifteen feet deep and have multiple queens who lay eggs continuously.

Fire ants can really hurt you and your pets just by getting on you in
swarms and bite you and inject something that will make you hurt for a
while and leaves pustules.

They will even make their own rafts if their area floods, the ant ball
moves constantly to avoid drowning, they protect the queens and eggs
as much as possible. Came here to Texas from ships coming into port
from South America about the time I was growing up, probably
mid-fifties, I have scars from getting into the !@#$%^ ants path as a
teen out hunting and fishing or just running the woods for the hell of
it. (lived close to large ports on the Gulf Coast) Nowadays they are
every where in Texas.

My lovely wife is putting gallons of boiling water down their exit
hole and chortling while she does it. I just hope it works.

George, scratching his legs again


I heard somewhere that ants don't like vinegar.Â* You
ever try that?

Dunno, but I once learned that the German name for formic acid,
Ameisensäure, is ant acid as that is where it was first discovered.
Formic is stronger than acetic.

Today's due diligence
 

On 09/05/2017 03:44 PM, George Shirley wrote:
One family has a parrot that stays in a tall cage and curses.

Had a customer with a room mate and a parrot. He taught
the parrot to nag his room mate with the same words his
ex wife used. It was funny as all hell listening
to the room mate open the door to enter the house and
have the parrot yell "Where were you!" (among other things)
at him. The room mate almost murdered him.

:-)

Today's due diligence
 

On 9/5/2017 5:44 PM, T wrote:
On 09/04/2017 02:14 PM, George Shirley wrote:
Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our
biggest pest in the gardens home. This fire ant village comes to the
surface at various places around our raised gardens and the boiling
water is one way to get rid of them. Most likely the ants are five to
fifteen feet deep and have multiple queens who lay eggs continuously.

Fire ants can really hurt you and your pets just by getting on you in
swarms and bite you and inject something that will make you hurt for a
while and leaves pustules.

They will even make their own rafts if their area floods, the ant ball
moves constantly to avoid drowning, they protect the queens and eggs
as much as possible. Came here to Texas from ships coming into port
from South America about the time I was growing up, probably
mid-fifties, I have scars from getting into the !@#$%^ ants path as a
teen out hunting and fishing or just running the woods for the hell of
it. (lived close to large ports on the Gulf Coast) Nowadays they are
every where in Texas.

My lovely wife is putting gallons of boiling water down their exit
hole and chortling while she does it. I just hope it works.

George, scratching his legs again


I heard somewhere that ants don't like vinegar.Â* You
ever try that?
Yeah, they looked like they liked the taste of it. A few drowned the
rest just went on with their business. The one bed of ants we have has
either given up and moved after the boiling water hit them or they've
gone deep down to get ready to get us. We shall see how it all works.

We only have this one nest, asked around and no one else seems to be
bothered. Our subdivision sits on five feet of gumbo clay, put in to get
the houses above the flood zone that requires more insurance. I know we
didn't bring them with us and, they only pop up once or twice a year.
They may be harvesting the pipeline right of way behind our fence and
then found their lunch room called our vegetable garden. We shall see in
the coming weeks.

Today's due diligence
 

On 9/5/2017 5:02 PM, Muggles wrote:
On 9/5/2017 11:25 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 9/5/2017 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our biggest
pest in the gardens home.
Â*Â*Â*Â*I've dealt with fire ants for 40+ years; good luck with that hot
water down the hole bs.Â* Just as with ground-nesting wasps, gasoline and
fire work well but, unlike the wasps, surviving ants will re-establish
nets elsewhere.Â* In 20 years of "due diligence" at this place, I've got
them down to a few small outbreaks each year.Â* Of course, since this
land was "cleared" 60-70 years ago, it may be that nesting sites
(decaying subterranean wood, e.g. tree roots) have diminished but I
credit Amdro, IME, the only ant specific insecticide that works on them.
Amdro is "fire and specific" only because many other types of ants won't
eat the bait but those that do die.Â* Like the boiling water, any other
product that I've tried simply disperses them, resulting in a host of
satellite mounds, often at significant distance from the original
problem site.Â* They're a major pain but at least they're more easily
controlled than grasshoppers and locusts.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it.Â* I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several times
each year.Â* I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded.Â* It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

I was raised in Orange County, Texas, where so it is said, that foreign
fire ants first came ashore. They finally found us after several years
at the old home place, right after I got out of the USN and married,
about 1961 if memory, very old memory, works. Here we have five feet of
gumbo clay under two inches of sand for our front and back yards. The
fire ants come up sporadically in the spring, usually by our raised bed
gardens. Right where, if you're working the garden, you get bitten.
Don't want the amdro or other things there as the plants pick it up too.
The boiling water, two pots full, are to kill the queens, generally the
rest of the ants, less queens, generally just die off as I have seen
before. Now we're waiting for two things, if the ants all die we got the
queens; if they start moving out, they've still got at least one queen
and they're all moving next door. Suits me.
Our poor dog has been covered up with fleas this summer. We've treated
the yard where she roams, treated her with Advantax several times, and
evidently it has quit working altogether. Next, we tried flea baths
with a flea collar, and no luck, either. She ended up scratching and
biting herself so much she has very little fur on her tail, butt, and
parts of her legs. We finally called the vet. He had a stronger flea
killer that is a pill. One was to kill all the fleas on her in 24 hours,
and the other is one pill a month. We have 3 months worth of it.

Our son suggested we bath her in dawn dish soap because it is gentle and
also kills fleas, so he did that this past Saturday. He also suggested
we put out bowls of dawn water around the house as a trap for any indoor
fleas. Speaking of which, we also treated the indoors for fleas too.

A week later from her original vet treatment, I don't see any fleas on
her body now, just the occasionally one that gets on her paws when being
outside. Evidently, the indoor treatment is working, too, because we've
caught some fleas in the bowls, but really not too many. Initially, we
caught like 4 or 5 fleas in different parts of the house, and now we're
only catching 1 or 2 new fleas a day.

The vet said that everyone is having horrible problems with fleas around
here. We didn't have much of a cold winter last year, so I guess that's
why. Is anyone else having flea problems?

Â* It's been a bad summer for fleas and ticks both out here in The
Holler . I use frontline plus on Max , he still has a few fleas but not
nearly as bad as it could be . I spray his blanket (actually a handmade
afghan but I won't tell if you don't ...) regularly to keep it from
getting infested . Our house doesn't have carpet for them to hide in , a
bonus .

Â* --

Â* Snag

Today's due diligence
 

On Wed, 06 Sep 2017 00:44:27 -0400, Derald .
wrote:

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. One more alien species will not
eliminate the ants, guaranteed, and, if it _does_, who's to say what it
will eat next?

Look up a Pete Seeger song: "The People are Scratching," for a
humerous look at what happens when you try to change one thing.


---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
http://www.avg.com

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

Today's due diligence
 

On 9/5/2017 7:33 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
On 9/5/2017 5:02 PM, Muggles wrote:
On 9/5/2017 11:25 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 9/5/2017 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our
biggest
pest in the gardens home.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*I've dealt with fire ants for 40+ years; good luck with that hot
water down the hole bs.Â* Just as with ground-nesting wasps, gasoline
and
fire work well but, unlike the wasps, surviving ants will re-establish
nets elsewhere.Â* In 20 years of "due diligence" at this place, I've got
them down to a few small outbreaks each year.Â* Of course, since this
land was "cleared" 60-70 years ago, it may be that nesting sites
(decaying subterranean wood, e.g. tree roots) have diminished but I
credit Amdro, IME, the only ant specific insecticide that works on
them.
Amdro is "fire and specific" only because many other types of ants
won't
eat the bait but those that do die.Â* Like the boiling water, any other
product that I've tried simply disperses them, resulting in a host of
satellite mounds, often at significant distance from the original
problem site.Â* They're a major pain but at least they're more easily
controlled than grasshoppers and locusts.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it.Â* I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several
times
each year.Â* I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded.Â* It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

I was raised in Orange County, Texas, where so it is said, that foreign
fire ants first came ashore. They finally found us after several years
at the old home place, right after I got out of the USN and married,
about 1961 if memory, very old memory, works. Here we have five feet of
gumbo clay under two inches of sand for our front and back yards. The
fire ants come up sporadically in the spring, usually by our raised bed
gardens. Right where, if you're working the garden, you get bitten.
Don't want the amdro or other things there as the plants pick it up too.
The boiling water, two pots full, are to kill the queens, generally the
rest of the ants, less queens, generally just die off as I have seen
before. Now we're waiting for two things, if the ants all die we got the
queens; if they start moving out, they've still got at least one queen
and they're all moving next door. Suits me.
Our poor dog has been covered up with fleas this summer.Â* We've treated
the yard where she roams, treated her with Advantax several times, and
evidently it has quit working altogether.Â* Next, we tried flea baths
with a flea collar, and no luck, either.Â* She ended up scratching and
biting herself so much she has very little fur on her tail, butt, and
parts of her legs.Â* We finally called the vet. He had a stronger flea
killer that is a pill. One was to kill all the fleas on her in 24 hours,
and the other is one pill a month. We have 3 months worth of it.

Our son suggested we bath her in dawn dish soap because it is gentle and
also kills fleas, so he did that this past Saturday.Â* He also suggested
we put out bowls of dawn water around the house as a trap for any indoor
fleas.Â* Speaking of which, we also treated the indoors for fleas too.

A week later from her original vet treatment, I don't see any fleas on
her body now, just the occasionally one that gets on her paws when being
outside.Â* Evidently, the indoor treatment is working, too, because we've
caught some fleas in the bowls, but really not too many. Initially, we
caught like 4 or 5 fleas in different parts of the house, and now we're
only catching 1 or 2 new fleas a day.

The vet said that everyone is having horrible problems with fleas around
here.Â* We didn't have much of a cold winter last year, so I guess that's
why.Â* Is anyone else having flea problems?

Â* It's been a bad summer for fleas and ticks both out here in The
Holler . I use frontline plus on Max , he still has a few fleas but not
nearly as bad as it could be . I spray his blanket (actually a handmade
afghan but I won't tell if you don't ...) regularly to keep it from
getting infested . Our house doesn't have carpet for them to hide in , a
bonus .

Â* --

Â* Snag

Our ten year old Rat Terrier has never had fleas or ticks, she has been
on a regime of flea and tick medication the first of each month all her
life. She cleans her front feet often and also her back end when she's
been out. I guess it's because she has short legs, was supposed to be a
miniature ratty, but has the body of a regular rat terrier on short
legs. Vets look at her and shake their heads.

We don't have carpets other than our "Persian" carpets we bought during
our five years in the Middle East. The dog knows which she can lay on,
the cheap ones. G

The dog and I sleep under an Afghan blanket, made by my elder sister who
crocheted all the time and is now long gone. It's light, keeps us warm
when the AC is on, and we put a real blanket under it in the winter. Dog
let me sleep until nearly 7 am this morning, that's a first. Wife is
still snoring and the dog is napping on the couch behind my office
chair. The dog used to snore but the vet fixed that. I'm thinking of
taking my wife to that vet too.

George

Today's due diligence
 

On Wed, 06 Sep 2017 12:14:06 -0400, Derald .
wrote:

Thanks! A post-muse Seeger flashback! ...it could happen....

I saw him play several times, living semi-locally to his home in
Beacon, NY....the other tune that pops up whenever I hear more of the
present craziness is "God Bless the Grass."
I hope Pete was right; right now truth seems to be unimportant...

(We now return you to your gardens, hopefully still in progress. I'm
making SWMBO Basmati Pilaf with Tatsoi greens, and whatever else I
feel like tossing in).


---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
http://www.avg.com

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Today's due diligence
 

On 9/5/2017 7:33 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
On 9/5/2017 5:02 PM, Muggles wrote:
On 9/5/2017 11:25 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 9/5/2017 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our
biggest
pest in the gardens home.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*I've dealt with fire ants for 40+ years; good luck with that hot
water down the hole bs.Â* Just as with ground-nesting wasps, gasoline
and
fire work well but, unlike the wasps, surviving ants will re-establish
nets elsewhere.Â* In 20 years of "due diligence" at this place, I've got
them down to a few small outbreaks each year.Â* Of course, since this
land was "cleared" 60-70 years ago, it may be that nesting sites
(decaying subterranean wood, e.g. tree roots) have diminished but I
credit Amdro, IME, the only ant specific insecticide that works on
them.
Amdro is "fire and specific" only because many other types of ants
won't
eat the bait but those that do die.Â* Like the boiling water, any other
product that I've tried simply disperses them, resulting in a host of
satellite mounds, often at significant distance from the original
problem site.Â* They're a major pain but at least they're more easily
controlled than grasshoppers and locusts.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it.Â* I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several
times
each year.Â* I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded.Â* It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

I was raised in Orange County, Texas, where so it is said, that foreign
fire ants first came ashore. They finally found us after several years
at the old home place, right after I got out of the USN and married,
about 1961 if memory, very old memory, works. Here we have five feet of
gumbo clay under two inches of sand for our front and back yards. The
fire ants come up sporadically in the spring, usually by our raised bed
gardens. Right where, if you're working the garden, you get bitten.
Don't want the amdro or other things there as the plants pick it up too.
The boiling water, two pots full, are to kill the queens, generally the
rest of the ants, less queens, generally just die off as I have seen
before. Now we're waiting for two things, if the ants all die we got the
queens; if they start moving out, they've still got at least one queen
and they're all moving next door. Suits me.
Our poor dog has been covered up with fleas this summer.Â* We've treated
the yard where she roams, treated her with Advantax several times, and
evidently it has quit working altogether.Â* Next, we tried flea baths
with a flea collar, and no luck, either.Â* She ended up scratching and
biting herself so much she has very little fur on her tail, butt, and
parts of her legs.Â* We finally called the vet. He had a stronger flea
killer that is a pill. One was to kill all the fleas on her in 24 hours,
and the other is one pill a month. We have 3 months worth of it.

Our son suggested we bath her in dawn dish soap because it is gentle and
also kills fleas, so he did that this past Saturday.Â* He also suggested
we put out bowls of dawn water around the house as a trap for any indoor
fleas.Â* Speaking of which, we also treated the indoors for fleas too.

A week later from her original vet treatment, I don't see any fleas on
her body now, just the occasionally one that gets on her paws when being
outside.Â* Evidently, the indoor treatment is working, too, because we've
caught some fleas in the bowls, but really not too many. Initially, we
caught like 4 or 5 fleas in different parts of the house, and now we're
only catching 1 or 2 new fleas a day.

The vet said that everyone is having horrible problems with fleas around
here.Â* We didn't have much of a cold winter last year, so I guess that's
why.Â* Is anyone else having flea problems?


Â* It's been a bad summer for fleas and ticks both out here in The Holler
. I use frontline plus on Max , he still has a few fleas but not nearly
as bad as it could be . I spray his blanket (actually a handmade afghan
but I won't tell if you don't ...) regularly to keep it from getting
infested . Our house doesn't have carpet for them to hide in , a bonus .

AH! I can finally post again. (holds breath)

We are still battling the fleas, but it's not too bad, now. The dog is
still scratching from her skin healing up, so she has to wear the cone
of shame until her skin stops driving her bonkers. I have been giving
her benedryl tablets, like her vet recommended, and it seems to help some.


--
Maggie

Today's due diligence
 

On 9/10/2017 10:56 PM, Muggles wrote:
On 9/5/2017 7:33 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
On 9/5/2017 5:02 PM, Muggles wrote:
On 9/5/2017 11:25 AM, George Shirley wrote:
On 9/5/2017 10:43 AM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Those of you out there that don't have fire ants consider yourselves
blessed. We're in the progress of pouring boiling water down our
biggest
pest in the gardens home.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*I've dealt with fire ants for 40+ years; good luck with that hot
water down the hole bs.Â* Just as with ground-nesting wasps, gasoline
and
fire work well but, unlike the wasps, surviving ants will re-establish
nets elsewhere.Â* In 20 years of "due diligence" at this place, I've got
them down to a few small outbreaks each year.Â* Of course, since this
land was "cleared" 60-70 years ago, it may be that nesting sites
(decaying subterranean wood, e.g. tree roots) have diminished but I
credit Amdro, IME, the only ant specific insecticide that works on
them.
Amdro is "fire and specific" only because many other types of ants
won't
eat the bait but those that do die.Â* Like the boiling water, any other
product that I've tried simply disperses them, resulting in a host of
satellite mounds, often at significant distance from the original
problem site.Â* They're a major pain but at least they're more easily
controlled than grasshoppers and locusts.
Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Having said that, I must confess that a fragment of the familiar
colony persists (and has done for years) in and under the timber
retaining walls of one garden bed and I have the scars to prove it.Â* I
don't use any "chemicals" in the garden and I know of no predators or
pathology that'll take the little *******s out so I just deal with
****ed off ants injecting fire into my feet and lower legs several
times
each year.Â* I can't guess whether or for how long the toxin remains in
an AWG's body but I'm sure to be loaded.Â* It is possible to use the
ants' behavior pattern and tribal reaction to threats to minimize the
damage to ones self but I'm not telling.

I was raised in Orange County, Texas, where so it is said, that foreign
fire ants first came ashore. They finally found us after several years
at the old home place, right after I got out of the USN and married,
about 1961 if memory, very old memory, works. Here we have five feet of
gumbo clay under two inches of sand for our front and back yards. The
fire ants come up sporadically in the spring, usually by our raised bed
gardens. Right where, if you're working the garden, you get bitten.
Don't want the amdro or other things there as the plants pick it up too.
The boiling water, two pots full, are to kill the queens, generally the
rest of the ants, less queens, generally just die off as I have seen
before. Now we're waiting for two things, if the ants all die we got the
queens; if they start moving out, they've still got at least one queen
and they're all moving next door. Suits me.
Our poor dog has been covered up with fleas this summer.Â* We've treated
the yard where she roams, treated her with Advantax several times, and
evidently it has quit working altogether.Â* Next, we tried flea baths
with a flea collar, and no luck, either.Â* She ended up scratching and
biting herself so much she has very little fur on her tail, butt, and
parts of her legs.Â* We finally called the vet. He had a stronger flea
killer that is a pill. One was to kill all the fleas on her in 24 hours,
and the other is one pill a month. We have 3 months worth of it.

Our son suggested we bath her in dawn dish soap because it is gentle and
also kills fleas, so he did that this past Saturday.Â* He also suggested
we put out bowls of dawn water around the house as a trap for any indoor
fleas.Â* Speaking of which, we also treated the indoors for fleas too.

A week later from her original vet treatment, I don't see any fleas on
her body now, just the occasionally one that gets on her paws when being
outside.Â* Evidently, the indoor treatment is working, too, because we've
caught some fleas in the bowls, but really not too many. Initially, we
caught like 4 or 5 fleas in different parts of the house, and now we're
only catching 1 or 2 new fleas a day.

The vet said that everyone is having horrible problems with fleas around
here.Â* We didn't have much of a cold winter last year, so I guess that's
why.Â* Is anyone else having flea problems?


Â* It's been a bad summer for fleas and ticks both out here in The Holler
. I use frontline plus on Max , he still has a few fleas but not nearly
as bad as it could be . I spray his blanket (actually a handmade afghan
but I won't tell if you don't ...) regularly to keep it from getting
infested . Our house doesn't have carpet for them to hide in , a bonus .

AH! I can finally post again. (holds breath)

We are still battling the fleas, but it's not too bad, now. The dog is
still scratching from her skin healing up, so she has to wear the cone
of shame until her skin stops driving her bonkers. I have been giving
her benedryl tablets, like her vet recommended, and it seems to help some.


Many moons ago we had a dog who got loaded with fleas when a cur came up
the driveway (1/2 mile) and wanted to stay. Had to deflea both dogs and
then take them both to the vet. Both dogs turned out to be good dogs,
the new one even brought the cow up each morning to be milked. Figured
from that that some local farmer didn't want to mess with De-fleaing the
dog. The dog lasted a bit longer than the cow. As long as Miss Tilly
gets her flea and tick pill we haven't had a problem, once a month and
she's fine, even thinks her pill is a treat. G

George

the storm (was: Today's due diligence
 

Derald wrote:
....

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

*whew*


songbird

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

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

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!

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.

the storm
 

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

the storm
 

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

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

the storm
 

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

the storm
 

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

the storm
 

On 9/23/2017 3:44 PM, George Shirley wrote:
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.

Â*Â* 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.

Â*Â* 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.Â* i don't wear them outside often as
i prefer to keep the direct sun off my skin most
of the time.Â* just a few minutes here or there for
Vit D and that's it.Â* t-shirt is a few years old
but a work shirt so it has a life span of another
five to ten years.Â* my shoes, i just added a good
layer of rubber to the gardening crocs so they
should last another 10-15 years.Â* i don't spend
money on clothes that often.Â* the used goods
stores are places i will go first.Â* i do need a
replacement pair of jeans for my old ones which
have lasted about 10yrs.Â* i only wear them when
we go out and about.Â* 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).Â* 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!

Â*Â* :)Â* congrats and all that on the BD and being
around and still kicking.Â* :)


Â*Â* 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

I'll be 78 in a couple of months. Went to an all boys Catholic high
school and for past 10 years there have been reunions for just the guys
but our 60th a couple of months ago included wives. It is bitter sweet
to go their and last one, a classmate I recall jogging in the park about
a year ago was wheeled in by his wife now suffering from dementia and
Parkinson's. Everybody now looks old which means I look old too.
The guys that look best are those still working or very active.

The class jock, who is really a nice guy, now suffers dementia. I
recalled him telling me that when he played college football, the whole
season he was in a fog. His dementia may be due to that.

the storm
 

On 9/24/2017 7:41 PM, Frank wrote:
On 9/23/2017 3:44 PM, George Shirley wrote:
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.

Â*Â* 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.

Â*Â* 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.Â* i don't wear them outside often as
i prefer to keep the direct sun off my skin most
of the time.Â* just a few minutes here or there for
Vit D and that's it.Â* t-shirt is a few years old
but a work shirt so it has a life span of another
five to ten years.Â* my shoes, i just added a good
layer of rubber to the gardening crocs so they
should last another 10-15 years.Â* i don't spend
money on clothes that often.Â* the used goods
stores are places i will go first.Â* i do need a
replacement pair of jeans for my old ones which
have lasted about 10yrs.Â* i only wear them when
we go out and about.Â* 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).Â* 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!

Â*Â* :)Â* congrats and all that on the BD and being
around and still kicking.Â* :)


Â*Â* 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

I'll be 78 in a couple of months.Â* Went to an all boys Catholic high
school and for past 10 years there have been reunions for just the guys
but our 60th a couple of months ago included wives.Â* It is bitter sweet
to go their and last one, a classmate I recall jogging in the park about
a year ago was wheeled in by his wife now suffering from dementia and
Parkinson's.Â* Everybody now looks old which means I look old too.
The guys that look best are those still working or very active.

The class jock, who is really a nice guy, now suffers dementia.Â* I
recalled him telling me that when he played college football, the whole
season he was in a fog.Â* His dementia may be due to that.
Pro football players are trying to get something to help out the older
players who are having lots of problems. I never watch football,
basketball, etc. with the exception of baseball, which I dropped a few
years ago when I found that they, too, were getting lots and lots of
money for playing a game. My Dad and I played in the same league for
folks that just liked to play baseball. Dad had played baseball for
money when he was in his teens. Lots of small teams in Louisiana and
Texas charge a a buck to watch the game and the winner got the loot. Dad
says in the twenties that was really a good thing as he made less than a
dollar an hour working in an oil refinery and then go play baseball
somewhere and get a bucket of money. He told me that many times they had
to run for their transportation to not get beat up by the bystanders
that cheered the other side. Then I went to a high school that didn't
have baseball. Boo hoo. I played first base with the team from my first
ship as we sailors mostly liked baseball over anything else. That was
fun and I was also having fun going to the pistol and rifle ranges and
doing stunts with weapons. Got my first .22 rifle at 5 years of age and
a .45 Auto and a 12 gauge shotgun at 7. Got a whole rack of weapons here
in my office and the only loaded one is beside my bed, a .40 Glock, fine
weapon and somewhat lighter than my old Colt .45ACP. I can't hunt
anymore unless I'm in a vehicle due to problems from strokes years ago,
runs in the family and I've got 20 good years so far from the time of
the strokes. Now my legs are starting to give out due to damage to the
nerves.

the storm
 

On 9/24/2017 7:41 PM, Frank wrote:
On 9/23/2017 3:44 PM, George Shirley wrote:
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.

Â*Â* 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.

Â*Â* 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.Â* i don't wear them outside often as
i prefer to keep the direct sun off my skin most
of the time.Â* just a few minutes here or there for
Vit D and that's it.Â* t-shirt is a few years old
but a work shirt so it has a life span of another
five to ten years.Â* my shoes, i just added a good
layer of rubber to the gardening crocs so they
should last another 10-15 years.Â* i don't spend
money on clothes that often.Â* the used goods
stores are places i will go first.Â* i do need a
replacement pair of jeans for my old ones which
have lasted about 10yrs.Â* i only wear them when
we go out and about.Â* 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).Â* 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!

Â*Â* :)Â* congrats and all that on the BD and being
around and still kicking.Â* :)


Â*Â* 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

I'll be 78 in a couple of months.Â* Went to an all boys Catholic high
school and for past 10 years there have been reunions for just the guys
but our 60th a couple of months ago included wives.Â* It is bitter sweet
to go their and last one, a classmate I recall jogging in the park about
a year ago was wheeled in by his wife now suffering from dementia and
Parkinson's.Â* Everybody now looks old which means I look old too.
The guys that look best are those still working or very active.

The class jock, who is really a nice guy, now suffers dementia.Â* I
recalled him telling me that when he played college football, the whole
season he was in a fog.Â* His dementia may be due to that.

Hi Frank! In case I miss the up and coming date, happy birthday ahead of
time!

--
Maggie

the storm
 

On 9/24/2017 9:26 PM, George Shirley wrote:
On 9/24/2017 7:41 PM, Frank wrote:
On 9/23/2017 3:44 PM, George Shirley wrote:
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.

Â*Â* 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.

Â*Â* 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.Â* i don't wear them outside often as
i prefer to keep the direct sun off my skin most
of the time.Â* just a few minutes here or there for
Vit D and that's it.Â* t-shirt is a few years old
but a work shirt so it has a life span of another
five to ten years.Â* my shoes, i just added a good
layer of rubber to the gardening crocs so they
should last another 10-15 years.Â* i don't spend
money on clothes that often.Â* the used goods
stores are places i will go first.Â* i do need a
replacement pair of jeans for my old ones which
have lasted about 10yrs.Â* i only wear them when
we go out and about.Â* 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).Â* 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!

Â*Â* :)Â* congrats and all that on the BD and being
around and still kicking.Â* :)


Â*Â* 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

I'll be 78 in a couple of months.Â* Went to an all boys Catholic high
school and for past 10 years there have been reunions for just the
guys but our 60th a couple of months ago included wives.Â* It is bitter
sweet to go their and last one, a classmate I recall jogging in the
park about a year ago was wheeled in by his wife now suffering from
dementia and Parkinson's.Â* Everybody now looks old which means I look
old too.
The guys that look best are those still working or very active.

The class jock, who is really a nice guy, now suffers dementia.Â* I
recalled him telling me that when he played college football, the
whole season he was in a fog.Â* His dementia may be due to that.
Pro football players are trying to get something to help out the older
players who are having lots of problems. I never watch football,
basketball, etc. with the exception of baseball, which I dropped a few
years ago when I found that they, too, were getting lots and lots of
money for playing a game. My Dad and I played in the same league for
folks that just liked to play baseball. Dad had played baseball for
money when he was in his teens. Lots of small teams in Louisiana and
Texas charge a a buck to watch the game and the winner got the loot. Dad
says in the twenties that was really a good thing as he made less than a
dollar an hour working in an oil refinery and then go play baseball
somewhere and get a bucket of money. He told me that many times they had
to run for their transportation to not get beat up by the bystanders
that cheered the other side. Then I went to a high school that didn't
have baseball. Boo hoo. I played first base with the team from my first
ship as we sailors mostly liked baseball over anything else. That was
fun and I was also having fun going to the pistol and rifle ranges and
doing stunts with weapons. Got my first .22 rifle at 5 years of age and
a .45 Auto and a 12 gauge shotgun at 7. Got a whole rack of weapons here
in my office and the only loaded one is beside my bed, a .40 Glock, fine
weapon and somewhat lighter than my old Colt .45ACP. I can't hunt
anymore unless I'm in a vehicle due to problems from strokes years ago,
runs in the family and I've got 20 good years so far from the time of
the strokes. Now my legs are starting to give out due to damage to the
nerves.

Gave up on following pro sports years ago. Commercialization has ruined
them. Back when I was a kid, we would go to church, Dad would drive to
Philly, we'd see a double header and be home in time for dinner. Today
it takes that long to play one game.

I like to hunt and shoot but am giving up hunting as all I have access
to is public land and not being handicapped the easy stands to access
are for handicapped only. I have use of all my facilities but as one
friend puts it, if it don't hurt, it don't work.

I have a Glock 23, .40 cal, and it is also hidden away, loaded if I need
it. I hunted deer with a variety of weapons and only one that I never
got a deer with was a pistol. I really liked to bow hunt and season is
on now and lasts til the end of January but park I hunt does not open
until next month and I may try a day or two. Also applied for a managed
hunt in another park which I get in on every 3 years or so. They drive
you to the stand, pick you up for lunch and take you back at end and
even find deer and take them out for you.

the storm (was: Today's due diligence
 

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