Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  This time, with photos :)

My brother Scott and I spent a good part of yesterday planting sumac on the north and west sides of my barn (the result is in the photo at right).  These are just barely starting to bud, but hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll have lots of green around the barn, the weeds will be at least slightly suppressed, and they'll start spreading.  These have a beautiful red fall color, too.  Scott's coming over again today, and we'll put down a bit of fertilizer and then some wood chips as mulch.

Yesterday evening we helped my neighbor Alan L. move some trees: a couple of maple saplings, and several clumps of choke cherries.  We're going to finish that job by moving the last of the choke cherries on Saturday.

The little Husqvarna rototiller that I used to break up the dirt for the sumacs is at left.  Aside from breaking a shear pin, it worked without any problems for the entire job.  One thing surprised me in a pleasant way: the last time I had used it was in June of 2014 – close to two years ago.  It had been in our garage ever since.  Yesterday it started on the second pull of the rope.  Love those Honda engines!  It's sitting outside now until the mud dries completely – then I can chisel all that mud off and put it back in the garage.

Our yard is starting to get some flowers, and color!  Spring is springing!  From left to right: a flowering plum (I think) near our garage, daffodils out in our “garden”, periwinkles right next to the daffodils, some pretty new growth that I have no clue what it is, and something we have a lot of around the front of our house that my brother Scott tells me is spurge.  From that linked article you can see that Euphorbia comes in lots of flavors, some of which look nothing whatsoever like the stuff in our yard – but some of them, if you drank enough, might have some resemblance...

Prayers in Paradise...

Prayers in Paradise...  My friend and neighbor Tim D. was out in his field this morning, scratching up and reseeding areas where there was no alfalfa.  He told me he was also offering up a prayer for the alfalfa to grow.  He's envious of my field (which abuts his); for reasons neither of us understand the alfalfa is much more vigorous there.  His little dogs (Lexy, the white one, and Marley, the brown and black one) accompanied him all morning.  Most of the time his cat Trouble did as well...

Paradise reservoir...

Paradise reservoir ... is full, as expected given the recent rains and its already high level.  Debbie and I wandered up that way yesterday afternoon, looking in vain for some interesting wildlife.  The reservoir's overflow is impressively voluminous, and right now isn't being diverted for irrigation at all.  That means the entire overflow is going straight into the Little Bear River.  The lower reaches of Cinnamon Creek (the major feeder to Porcupine Reservoir, and the place where its overflow goes) are near flood stage just from this overflow. 

We're going to have plenty of water this year!

Mom-goose in Paradise...

Mom-goose in Paradise...  For those who wrote to ask about her: yup, she's still faithfully sitting on the nest.  We often see the male in the alfalfa field below her and to the west.  He's pretty good at guarding against smaller predators (especially cats), and at leading larger ones (like me!) away from the nest.

Lupper-time in Paradise...

Lupper-time in Paradise...  Our ready-to-eat lupper is at right.  I managed (though just barely) to eat everything on my plate; Debbie had some leftovers.  After we had finished, all three dogs had a chance to share in the feast: they got to lick the plates.  They were not offended by this in the slightest :)

From the left, that's Mo'i, Miki, and Race.  They each have a different plate-licking style.  Mo'i is methodical: slow, steady licking in the same spot until every molecule of goodness is gone.  Miki is the mad sprinter: he licks at turbo speed, in every direction, jumping all over the place.  He also growls at the other two while not missing a lick.  Race is fast and methodical.  He goes cross-eyed when he hits something tasty :)

Earlier, when we were preparing this feast, the dogs were particularly attentive to us.   They know that something good might slip from our grasp at any moment – and when it does, the probability of it hitting the ground is vanishingly small.  The photo of Race at right shows the typical concentration that all three dogs show during any activity involving food in the kitchen...

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  This morning's tutoring session with Abby S. went very well indeed.  She is absorbing this material like a sponge, at a very rapid pace.  Debbie, observing the two of us working, was struck by just how eager and excited she looks.  Whatever the reason, Miss Abby is intensely interested in learning to program.  It's fun to be the teacher when you have a pupil who so badly wants to learn...

Debbie and I took a walk this morning after Abby and I were done, as the weather was fine (though a tad chilly) and the views beautiful.  Debbie's walking gait is now oh-so-close to appearing normal, both uphill (easier for her) and downhill.  It's a big relief to me to see that.  At the moment her need is more for strength and endurance than anything else.  Regular walks will help with that.

The photo at right above is the view from the fields above our home toward Logan Peak (map), a roughly 9700' high peak in the Wellsville Mountains.  The panoramas below were taken along our walk; each of them is about a 225° view (and the road is a straight road!).  The dark area in the top panorama is caused by a cloud shadow over us.

The goose is still in the tree, still sitting on her eggs.  We frequently see her mate below her in the field, standing guard and leading potential predators away from her.

We had something happen in our yard yesterday that seems really odd.  Mo'i, our ancient field spaniel, was wandering around our back yard (he loves that back yard!).  After he'd been out there for a while, a spectacular male pheasant wandered from our front yard, through the fence, and into the back yard – with Mo'i.  I poked my head out our back door to see what would happen.  Mo'i picked up on the pheasant's presence in just a minute or two, and started ambling over toward the pheasant.  That's Mo'i's highest speed today, about like a slow walk for a person.  The pheasant clearly saw Mo'i approaching – but did nothing.  It just stood there in one place while Mo'i walked over to it.  I thought for sure that was the end of the pheasant – Mo'i is a bird dog, after all.  Instead of lunging for the pheasant, though, Mo'i just went up do it, snuffled it, turned around and walked off.  And the pheasant still just stood there.  Very weird!

“Lupper” underway...

“Lupper” underway...  We eat a late lunch or early dinner most days, generally around 2 or 3 pm; we call this “lupper”.  This is a two-meals-in-one sort of thing for us; we usually just eat a light breakfast and lupper.  We just got done the preparations for one of my favorite meals: baked salmon in a sauce of mayonnaise, dill, and Peppadew peppers, accompanied by roast vegetables (today we're having Brussels sprouts, parsnips, carrots, and potatoes).  Below are the two dishes just before going into the oven.  When they come out, our lupper will commence!

Optometry is a really weird business...

Optometry is a really weird business...  Some of my readers know that I was once part of that business – not as an optometrist myself, but as a software provider for them.  Veronique de Rugy has an (characteristically) excellent piece at Reason.

One weirdness she doesn't mention, as it wasn't relevant to her point, is that optometrists routinely under-price or even give away their exam services.  This is unlike any other medical provider that I know of.  It's as if all their training, experience, and specialized equipment was worth almost nothing.  Why?  Because their business model typically depends on giving away their services in order to attract customers for the “dispensing” side of their business: selling glasses and contact lenses.  This makes them particularly sensitive to competition from discount sources for glasses and contacts, of course.

The solution would seem to be obvious: the optometrists should start charging a fair price for their services, and stop selling glasses and contacts at high markups.  The problem is that many optometrists have tried exactly that – and failed miserably.  Why?  Because not all optometrists (even in a particular area) have switched models, and as long as there's even a single optometrist offering discount (or free) exams, that's of course where patients will go.  Then they'll buy their glasses and contacts from a discount source.

As de Rugy points out, this is difficult today for contacts.  It's not difficult at all for glasses, though: there are about 50 sources for discounted glasses on the Internet.  I've used two of them myself.  The glasses I got certainly aren't the best ones I've ever purchased – but – they are both properly constructed, the prescription was accurate, and they work fine.  And they cost about a tenth of what I'd pay for the equivalent glasses at an optometrist ($76 vs. $850 for my last pair).  They're made in China (of course!), and took about a week to get here.  That's not really much different than the optometrist!  I had occasion to use one of those glasses (which I purchased as spares) a few weeks ago when I had to get my prescription re-done for the glasses I purchased from an optometrist (as that pair had been mis-manufactured).  The cheap spare worked fine...

I'm an irrelevant clown...

I'm an irrelevant clown ... and projected to be a meat processor at Trump Steaks.  The Trump Score, via friend and former colleague Simon M...

Two reset buttons...

Two reset buttons...  Remy, on it again :)

More snow in Paradise...

More snow in Paradise...  We got even more snow last night; it just stopped a few minutes ago.  The radar looks fairly clear at the moment, so maybe this is finally over.  Looks like our storm total is just under 1" (including the snow equivalent)...

Your government at work...

Your government at work...  Sometimes I wonder whether it's worth preserving this mess we've got.  It might be better just to start over...

Morning chuckle...

Morning chuckle...  This is from the inimitable Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope:

But, as the existence of Pumpkin Spice Oreos teaches us, just because one can do something doesn’t mean one should.

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  While I was working out in the barn, I glanced out the window – and saw that it was snowing.  Snowing!  Dang it!  As I write, the fields outside are turning white.  It's sticking.  We can scarcely believe it.

Meanwhile, the great office heating project is making progress.  Today I got all the holes on the fan mounting plate done, got the hole cut in the first floor ceiling, and got the first coat of white paint on the mounting plate.

The first two photos show the hole in the ceiling.  The second is looking straight up, through the blown-in insulation.  The bottom of the second-floor floor is visible there, though you can't see it in the photo.  That's where I have to cut a hole that matches the ceiling hole precisely.  I haven't figured out how to do that yet :)  The last two photos show the mounting plate just after I finished drilling all the holes, and the same plate after a coat of paint.

Snow.  This makes me wonder what god I have offended...

Photo of the day...

Photo of the day...  What a gorgeous plant!  It's part of the collection in the National Arboretum...

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  I started on a long-delayed project yesterday: installing a system to prevent my new office (on the second floor of the shed) from ever going below freezing.  Actually, I'll probably set it so that it never goes below about 50°F.

This little heating system will work by blowing warm air from the first floor (which is nicely heated by an in-floor heating system) up into the office, and exhaust cold air from the office back down to the first floor.  This will require two registers in my office (one near the ceiling for the warm air to come out of, and one near the floor for the cold air to leave).  These will be as far apart as I can arrange.

The first step I'm taking is to mount the “squirrel cage” fan I bought to the ceiling in the first floor.  That ceiling is covered with 1/2" OSB, with joists on 14.5" centers.  The fan's outlet is rectangular, 4 1/8" x 3 3/4", and the fan weighs about 6 pounds.  That means I need sturdy wood to mount it to, and the OSB isn't sturdy enough to satisfy me.  So ... I fabricated a mounting plate by cutting a section of Douglas fir 2x12 long enough to cover two joists, with a nice square hole (at right, below) to match the fan outlet.  I cut out the hole by drilling four holes inside the part I needed to cut out, then threaded my scroll saw blade through one of these holes.  The rest was just straight-forward sawing, with lots of turning the work round-and-round to maneuver the blade both ways along each side so that I ended up with nice square corners.

Today I'm going to drill some holes for mounting screws and wiring, then paint that plate to match my ceiling.  Then I'll cut a hole the same size in my ceiling, then mount the plate over it.  The next step will be sawing a matching hole in the floor above, which ought to be fun to get exactly right :)  The joists are 14" tall (engineered wood), so I'll need to make a 14" long “tunnel” (of 1/2" OSB) between the two holes.  After I've got all that done, I can mount the fan to the plate.  We'll see how far I get on this today :)

To work!

Rain in Paradise...

Rain in Paradise...  We had 0.2" yesterday, and 0.21" last night, for a storm total of 0.41" so far.  More rain is still forecast for today (though nothing is visible on the radar coming this way), but the skies are blue at the moment.  The forecast for 7 days from now calls for a high of 76°F – that's pretty hard to believe at the moment :)!

Seen on the Internet today...

Seen on the Internet today...

Good question!

Life in Paradise...

Life in Paradise...  We woke up to rain this morning, and it's supposed to continue through Friday morning.  No working outside for Scott and I today...

Debbie and I went out to Angie's for breakfast today, and we each had a giant meal even though it was billed as simply “two eggs and ...”.  Mine included about a pound of hash browns, a thick slab of ham, and two (delicious!) biscuits and butter.  Debbie had cottage potatoes, Canadian bacon (two big pieces), and rye toast.  Stuffed to the point of near-immobility, we were.

Two tables away from us was an extra large booth intended for large parties.  Nine girls who appeared to be high school age were there, laughing, giggling, and generally having a great time.  With them was one adult woman, who looked a bit frazzled by the experience.  Those girls were very cute, though – especially when their “scones” arrived.  What Angie's calls a scone is a giant pancake-shaped confection about 14" in diameter, made of something similar to donut batter and covered with honey, cinnamon, and butter.  They are delicious, but they're ridiculously huge and quite evil.  These girls ordered three of them, with great excitement, and the managed to eat most of them.

After we left Angie's, I stopped at the Logan IFA to pick up some bird seed and spray for our lawn.  The fellow who rang me up struck up a conversation, and asked how my morning was going.  I said “Oh, great!  I just got finished having breakfast at Angie’s!”  Without missing a beat, he said “Oh, then I’ll carry those bags out for you.”, all very matter-of-factly, as though it was common knowledge that anyone who has just eaten at Angie's would be incapable of carrying something heavy.  And you know what?  I think that actually is common knowledge here :)

My mother, she sends me things...

My mother, she sends me things...  Like this:

Butch The Rooster...

Sarah was in the fertilized egg business. She had several hundred young pullets and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs.

She kept records and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced.

This took a lot of time, so she bought some tiny bells and attached them to her roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so she could tell from a distance which rooster was performing. Now, she could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells.

Sarah's favorite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen but, this morning she noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all! When she went to investigate, she saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.

To Sarah's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job, and walk on to the next one.

Sarah was so proud of old Butch, she entered him in a Show and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The result was the judges not only awarded old Butch the "No Bell Peace Prize" they also awarded him the "Pulletsurprise" as well. Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making. Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the unsuspecting populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention?

Vote carefully in the next election. You can't always hear the bells.

I don't even know what to say :)