... the sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves ...

Latest Articles

... the sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves ...
Page Previous 1, 2, 3 ... 356, 357, 358 ... 423, 424, 425 Next

Downsizer Forum Index -> Grow Your Own

Author

Message

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15575

Posted: Sun Mar 03, 19 8:27 am Post subject:

They say that work expands to fill the available space Gregotyn. Also, if your hours at work are less, people think you have the time to 'just do this'. Your work for the childrens group is different from the kindling anyway, and it sounds an excellent idea to get the thick stuff cut for you. I have enough trouble preparing kindling from thin bits, but ours are hardwood, and all shapes, so rather more difficult. The main reason we don't do much kindling.

We had our volunteer group in the woods yesterday. Not many of them, and not the best group for working, but we got a lot of brash clearance done in spite of that. Normally, two of them would have been in the 'less active' group, but they were very good and did a lot for us. We were lucky with the weather, which has now turned wet and windy; it was just rather breezy yesterday, but dry. A few more flowers out, and have seen two celandines in the wood now.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2506
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Sun Mar 03, 19 10:50 pm Post subject:

There's that curse, "May you live in interesting times." Mine got more interesting last week when I dropped my camera. Too old, Canon no longer supports repairs. Ordered new camera and lens. Steep learning curve. So far using it on automatic. Tuesday is an outing to the Philadelphia flower show with friends - if, that is, tonight's 8 inches of snow can be cleared on Monday afternoon before freezing to a solid sheet of ice when temperatures drop to 13 degrees Fahrenheit Monday night. Interesting times indeed.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15575

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 19 8:11 am Post subject:

I always think of that curse too Jam Lady, and as you say, not only the weather, but so many other things. Sorry to hear you broke your camera. I was brought up with a fully manual camera that I used a little circular calculator to work out all the settings. I find modern cameras very difficult because it does part of it for you and then you have to remember which buttons to press to get it to do what you want. I much prefer the old way.

Hope your weather lets you get to the show. We are currently about normal temperature, but Cassandra has been having very variable weather, including very hot. Her feral kitted somehow got into the roofspace and was in there for a couple of days, but fortunately it has now emerged and apart from being a bit thinner, seems none the worse for the experience. Hopefully now a slightly wiser cat.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2506
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 19 7:01 pm Post subject:

Sunny but cold. Temperature just above freezing. Six inches of heavy wet snow last night, that Mr Jam Lord would not be able to shift.

Happy to pay "our guy" to do it. Then we went out and tidied up the edges, cleaned off the cars, etc. I tried to get snow off shrubs like pieris, flattened down with heavy wet snow. When temperatures drop to the lower teens tonight and wet snow turns to ice everything will freeze up solid. And there's more snow coming on the weekend. Oh joy. Not.

At least the driveway is looking good. Until it gets a skin of ice tonight.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45460
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 19 9:12 pm Post subject:
re cameras, i have killed a few etc i like canon, the auto stuff is often good enough but the user settings do work better for some things. the high end stuff my film one does is amazing . focus and exposure via a look is pretty neat. i sort of want a digi one of that quality but i cant be bothered with hauling a big package for "whenever " use .

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15575

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 19 7:42 am Post subject:

Not good Jam Lady. Hope your plants survive. Stay safe, and hope it melts for you soon.

We had virtually everything but snow yesterday. Got soaking wet twice, and had to give up working a couple of times as we were getting so wet. Cooler than in has been, so got rather chilled in my thin trousers. It went over, but not until we had let son go home to look at a sick (new) washing machine, so ended up doing some brash clearance and moving logs between husband and me.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2506
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 19 11:53 am Post subject:
Temperature currently 6.6 degrees Fahrenheit. It will not "warm" to reach the freezing point until Friday, and then only for an hour or so in the afternoon. Off to escape to the flower show.

gregotyn

Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 19 3:21 pm Post subject:

I have done several cameras in, in my time, and so now, with the flippant answer to-"Oh you haven't got a camera?" I say, "I've seen it once why would I want to see it again?". Me and technology don't go, my limit in tractors is my Massy 35, 3 cylinders and of 1959 vintage, I have an old trailer to fetch the logs in and do the rolling and harrowing. I don't do fertiliser-the grass grows on its own-and feeds my graziers horses. It is a simple system which works for me.
I hope all your plants survive Jam Lady. My mother said we get snow 3 weeks after you, as that is how long it takes to cross the big pond. I like the snow plough; I would like to fit that to my Shogun. I am very lucky where I live, it is a small slope down to the road-about 20 yards and then I go uphill, but the local council gritting lorry has been out and ploughed the snow if a lot or gritted if ice or not much snow. I don't have snow tyres, been very lucky so far this year with only 2 snows and neither time much of it.

Yes I am lucky too with my "kindling cutting man's children" and his machine. It comes out all shapes which is a nuisance for netting, so whatever he sends I check it out, but the time saved for me-and my arm-chopping is massive, I have to trim a lot of it up and cut a few 2 or 3 afterwards. The waste from the chopping machine is the same for my hand cutting, at about 20%. This time the wood was wet, after cutting as they didn't sheet the trailer very well after completing the job, so I am having to dry it out before sale, so also lucky that I have been chopping some myself to keep the shop going.

We are having another warm day today-and no rain since 5am this morning when I went to work. I guess that the next snow will arrive as soon as I decide it is time to do the early grass cultivations. It has got to the point where I think it is time to thin my beard down...a lot!

I have tried the aloe vera at my friend's house and I don't seem to have a problem with it, so will be asking for a cutting from her, and have my own plant all being well. I hope it will survive without heat, I don't do heat.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15575

Posted: Wed Mar 06, 19 6:49 am Post subject:
That is the trouble. So far we have had a fairly mild winter, but it is certainly not unknown for us to have snow in March, even here.

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Wed Mar 06, 19 1:15 pm Post subject:
The leaves are unfurling now here. Just hoping they aren't too optimistic

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2506
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Wed Mar 06, 19 1:18 pm Post subject:

gregotyn, did you notice that the plow truck is a dually - it has a set of double tires in the rear.

Free train ride to flower show - SEPTA is free to their senior residents. And offers courtesy to senior New Jersey residents. That's me. Just had to show my driver's license and the hour plus ride was free both ways.

This year's theme was flower power. Age of Aquarius. Don't think we can generate electricity with flowers, at least not yet. It's a huge space. Know I didn't see everything, not by a long shot. What I did see was good, colorful, floriferous. By the time we left, mid-afternoon, it was so crowded it was like Brownian movement, a scrum of people in close proximity. Often walking in front of me as I tried to frame a shot.

Here's one image, just to entertain you.

Off to my knitting group this morning. Such a social butterfly!

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45460
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Mar 06, 19 10:12 pm Post subject:

gregotyn wrote:

I have tried the aloe vera at my friend's house and I don't seem to have a problem with it, so will be asking for a cutting from her, and have my own plant all being well. I hope it will survive without heat, I don't do heat.

so long as it has good sun it can cope with temps people can quite well .
below minus 5 c is fatal but cool is ok so long as it is not cool and wet.

over care in terms of water is more harmful than a few chilly weeks, the best light you can give it is good, warm is nice, not frozen is vital but light level is important.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15575

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 19 8:13 am Post subject:

I don't think I have ever seen a truck like that Jam Lady. I did see an American truck that would be the equivalent to ours the other week and it was huge. Far larger than our British version.

The flower show looks good, and added bonus you travelled free. Having got the 'a certain age' we now get a free bus pass that we have to apply for to the local council, but it does make it easier if we don't know where we want to get off the bus, and a lot cheaper with bus journeys.

gregotyn

Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 19 2:30 pm Post subject:

We do have a sort of equivalent truck over here Jam Lady, the Ford Transit is very similar, but not as chunky, and some have twin rear wheels, equally not as chunky as your version, which really is a pickup. I guess go anywhere with a suitable weight on the rear driving wheels, which is useful even if 4 wheel drive. My van is a rear wheel drive for normal weather, so not much weight for grip, so I use 4wd in winter, where nothing seems to phase it-it just keeps going. I could do with chunky tyres for when I want to go up to my top fields, but they are not worth the money-very expensive-for they are an unusual size only needing them 2 or 3 times a year; I just use the tractor then instead.

I too have a bus pass, but even though the bus passes my house I would have to walk 2 miles in order to catch it-they don't stop on request. The depot is 4 miles from the first pickup point.

With the aloe vera, dpack, I will have to go to my friend's house if I need it. My house has no heating-by choice-as I spend so little time there, I am either in bed, in the wood shed or at work. My only concession to heat is 3 hot water bottles in very cold weather and 1 now that the weather has got so much warmer. Our leaves, Blue Sky, are not even thinking of showing a leg yet let alone breaking through their stems, all that seems to be stopping the frosts in the mornings is rain and just at present plenty of it.

Last edited by gregotyn on Fri Mar 08, 19 2:34 pm; edited 1 time in total

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2506
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 19 6:27 pm Post subject:
First flower show linky here

	Downsizer Forum Index -> Grow Your Own	All times are GMT Page Previous 1, 2, 3 ... 356, 357, 358 ... 423, 424, 425 Next
Page 357 of 425

View Latest Posts