Cop Car's Beat

Week in Review - 2019Nov22

Hunky Husband's new desktop computer and monitor have been set up at his computer desk and the data from his old computer has been migrated. My new computer was delivered Tuesday afternoon while I was in the far back yard "supervising" the planting of two gingko trees. Fortunately, HH was at home to hear the doorbell ring and sign for the delivery. After carrying 10 gallons of water to each of the new trees, I was too pooped to worry about setting up my new computer and monitor (delivered 10 days ago) until after dinner.

As I had played "musical desks" with the old computer, setting it up on my non-computer desk where I had previously set up HH's old computer while draining it of data, I was able to install the new equipment on my computer desk without much fuss (photo, below). Having now transferred the data from the old computer to the new, the old computer now resides at the downstairs desk. Since, unlike HH's old computer, my old computer has no problem with the new cheapie speakers, it will do to play exercise videos for me.

INSERTION OF 11/26/2019 6:12PM - Only 7 days later

As expected, and much like HH's new computer, this computer processes lickety-split! I'm trying out using the new, flat-layout keyboard that came with the computer. It seems very strange and it is harder for me to work with the keyboard under the desktop - where I cannot see it. If, after a couple of months, I don't adjust well to the new keyboard, I shall re-install the old keyboard. It came with a computer that I purchased at least 10 years ago...perhaps 15. I do OK, already, in plain text inputting. It's the numbers and special keys that are hard for me to find - especially since the layout is slightly different from that to which I was accustomed. (Comparison of keyboards in photo, below - older keyboard at top of photo.)

Wednesday, since I was supposed to give the new gingko trees 20 gallons of water, each, I strung all three of our watering hoses together to stretch into the far back yard to complete the watering. While I was at it, I watered the walnut tree that was transplanted into the woods about three years ago, a couple of walnut saplings that I had planted in the near woods a few years ago (which have reached an astounding height of about 12" - yes, that is inches), a volunteer redbud, and the umbrella catalpa and pink dogwood trees that have been planted in what is now the edge of the woods within the past two years. Dragging around and coiling up 150' of watering hose made me as pooped as had the carrying buckets of water the 100+ feet from the house to the new gingko trees!

Woods cleanup - Fall 2019

Benny and his crew, of JoJac's  Lawn & Tree Service, did their usual fine job, yesterday. I took "before" photos, but they were all blurred. I had thought the shutter speed fast enough that my shakiness wouldn't matter. Boy! Was I wrong! More activity in our woods shows Benny and his crew in action last April. I have them come out nearly every spring and fall.

Below is a photo that is the best I can give as a "before" shot. It was 31 days ago. It is before the cold snap made the trees lose their leaves and, indeed, before I had completed cutting down the trees that I sawed down, myself. There were only four or five trees left for Benny.

Below is a photo of Benny and his crew at work. The man at the left is grinding out the stumps of the trees that they and I had cut down. That is Benny lugging the cart full of logs up to the trailer. Shortly after this photo, Benny took over grinding stumps and sent his two guys to the dump - one with the truck full of chips, the other with a flat trailer full of logs. They ran out of space to put things - not unusual when they work here.

Below is the "after" photo that I took a few minutes ago.

As I told Benny, I'm already planning what I'll ask them to do next spring. My long-range plan is to get trees farther from our house - for fire safety. Some of those efforts were chronicled in Love it when a plan comes together, 18 months ago. I have a couple of gingko trees on order to be planted back about 40 feet beyond the bluebird nesting box (left side of photo). I also want to get some choke cherries back there. During the past couple of years I've transplanted a walnut and a catalpa tree back in the area closer to the creek.

It's not supposed to be that way

The photo, below, was taken at about 8:30am, yesterday, October 30, 2019. The sky was overcast and the temperature was 25 degrees Fahrenheit. What is wrong with this scene?

Zooming in on a portion of the scene, below, gives a huge clue.

Yes, that's a male ruby-throated hummingbird sitting on the frozen nectar feeder. Why is the feeder out? Because we get migrants coming through here, normally through the first week of October. In this case, the little guy showed up three or four weeks ago - and stayed.

When we first moved here, I stopped feeding hummingbirds in mid-September. However, the migrating birds were having none of that. I noticed a female ruby-throated hummingbird hovering just outside our glass-sliding doors onto the back porch, beak to glass. It was on the 9th of October, and it was cold and miserable outside. Hurriedly, I boiled up some fresh nectar to put out for her. Whether she availed herself of the nectar, I never knew. That experience caused me to keep a "last feeder" of nectar out for the hummers a bit later - until mid-October.

I don't know what the current hummer's plans are for the winter. Can't you see me replacing the feeder of nectar every hour throughout the winter? This guy has a history of coming to the door to beg - previously, when I've allowed the heat to evaporate the nectar.

At 8:00am, this morning, it's being 18-20 degrees Fahrenheit outside (depending upon the side of the house consulted), I  replaced the frozen feeder with the feeder that I had brought in yesterday morning. He showed up (photo, below).

Yes, we had sleet and snow and freezing rain, yesterday - off-and-on, all day. I was glad that I had used the warmish weather that we had Sunday to winterize the back-flow valve of the lawn irrigation system. The system is scheduled to be drained and blown out next Tuesday or later in next week. Next year, I've decided to ask that the system be serviced for the winter by October 20. I'm tired of the work of winterizing the darned thing - then worrying about it as the temperatures plunge.

A different kind of critter in the window well

Continuing my change-of-season chores, I moved the big pot with the little oak seedling in it, today. A big hairy spider jumped out from under it and quailed in the corner allowing me to photograph it. Sorry, I'm not a handler of spiders so I photographed only the top surface of the spider. Excluding the legs, it is about 1" long. Can anyone identify it?

ADDITION of 10/8/2019 8:26am

Stu gave me a good laugh, this morning, by sending me the link to the following photo.

I'm not quite that bad; but, I don't handle spiders. I recall that, at a very young age, I became "covered in" tiny spiders when I delved into a sac of spiders hidden in the bark at the base of a walnut tree in my great-grandparents' side yard. I did not grow up to study Arachnida!

Another project in the woods

For the past few years I've become increasingly aware of fire hazards in our neighborhood and have been struggling to get large masses of vegetation away from our house. Some of this effort has been chronicled in  More tree work done; So far, so good; Final chapter; & Love it when a plan comes together. Further effort in our woods has me removing trees that are relatively near to our house and replacing them with trees farther from the house. After the great flood of May 2019, this (photo, below) is what a grouping of trees that I wanted to remove looked like.

I got out my trusty bow saws (below), oiled them up, and bit-by-bit went to work removing the grouping.

By early September, I had removed a total of about 20 trees - none of which was over 12" diameter. Since I am cowardly and don't care to have a tree, even a small one, fall on me, I stand while sawing; thus, each felled tree leaves a "stump" that is about four feet tall. The top of each stump gets sprayed with bright pink paint to, hopefully, prevent others (and me) from being skewered.

This past Wednesday, I sawed through the trunk of an ash tree that had grown up through the canopy in the shape of a corkscrew, more or less. It surprised me when the tree stopped toppling nearly immediately. It stood there with the edge of the trunk balanced on the "stump" but completely supported by the trees in which it had become entwined at the 30'-50' height. At this point, I don't feel very smart. (The photo below shows the above photo with the corkscrew ash indicated.)

After scratching my head a bit, I fetched a 2" by 4" board and gave the lower end of the trunk a few good whacks - to no avail. I eventually broke the 2" by 4" board (I had noted that it had a knot, so wasn't terribly surprised), but moved the tree trunk nary an inch.

Thinking further on the subject, and deciding that having the tree dangling in mid-air would be a dangerous result if I was able to move the tree off of the stump without also felling the tree, I went to the local hardware store to buy 50' of rope. Managing to throw the end of the rope over a portion of the tree trunk that was at about 45 degrees to horizontal, I was able to form a loop of rope around the tree trunk. Running the rope around a nearby tree, I was able to pull on the rope, getting the tree trunk to sway back-and-forth until it finally fell - just where I wanted it, missing the catalpa that had been planted in Spring 2018. Yay! The tree is down and everyone is safe!

Below is the scene with the corkscrewing ash felled.

And another photo, below (annotated), showing the felled tree (better seen by clicking on photo to enlarge it).

On my way back to the house, I pulled the banana pepper plant and hung it to dry. The season for growing peppers is over. (The weather turned cool, Thursday, so I brought in the house plants from their summer home on the front porch.)

In the first week of November, "my" tree crew from JoJac's will be here and, while hauling off the flotsam from the flooding and the huge limbs downed by storms, they can cut off the stumps that I've left, drill out the roots, and haul everything away for me. The total number of trees on which I've committed carnage approaches 30, now. Such carnage has become part of my fitness program.

I nearly forgot to show you the free food that I harvested, today. I bury our green garbage; thus, we sometimes get free produce. This cantaloupe (about the size of a large grapefruit) was among our free food, this year. Unlike the melons of last year which had crossbred with squash, this melon is delicious!

 

PSA (Public Service Announcement)

Although I cannot find it, I recall that sometime within the past two years I have grumbled about being unable to decipher what is meant by various pictograms. At the time, I was struggling with a "care tag" on a new piece of clothing. Today, in a magazine sent out by the grocery store chain that we frequent was included the following legend. Aren't you glad to know?

Ice Plants

For the past 10 years or so, I've purchased several ice plants which I've planted in one section of the planting bed between our driveway and neighbor Fred's yard. Some of the ice plants thrived, growing into rather large patches over a few years. Others died during the winter. However, of the ice plants that were planted prior to 2018, none are now alive and only one that was planted in 2018, has survived - and it looks straggly.

I think ice plants have not loved the rains that we've been having during the past two or three years. The planting bed provides natural drainage running from the street to the woods/creek; and, During heavy bouts of rain, standing water graces the far edge of the planting bed. This year, I put in four new ice plants, placing them a short distance up-hill from that far edge of the planting bed to allow them to escape the most likely standing water pools.

Straggly ice plant - planted in 2018

Four ice plants from 2019 - planted a bit uphill from the 2018 plant

Yesterday, I went to the nursery outlet up the street from us, intent upon buying a basket of flowering plants to solve a newly-made problem. I came home empty-handed. Hunky Husband was appalled when I told him I bought no flowers because they were too expensive. When I told him the price, he handed me the money and told me, "Go buy your flowers!" Awww...isn't he sweet? (As if I had thought that a $21 bunch of flowering plants would keep me from eating for the rest of the week!)

Actually, it was difficult for me to pick out a basket. They had so many kinds of plants from which to choose - some with multiple colors of blossoms, others with fewer. I instantly fell in love when I spotted hanging baskets of ice plant!

Ice plants in hanging basket - nearly heart-shaped

Ice plants have such lovely foliage - especially the kinds that were in the baskets. I found a leaf in the house and it took me a couple of seconds to realize what it was. It looked and felt like a blob of wax!

Closeup of ice plant - in hanging basket

So...what was the problem I was solving? The heavy rains had weighted down the multitudinous new canes on the white crepe myrtle so badly that most of them lay on the ground. I used a bird feeder support pole to stake up the crepe myrtle canes. Since the pole is black, I might be prone to walk into it while pulling weeds - and - HH, being about 7" taller than am I might poke his eye on an arm sticking out from the pole, should he ever be in its vicinity. OTOH: Neither of us is apt to be injured in a collision with ice plants! The basket of ice plants acts as a stand-off from the post and its arms.

Street view - crepe myrtles screening hanging basket of ice plants

The basket isn't seen and the pole isn't noticeable (it's at the corner of the garage/garage door); but, I enjoy viewing the ice plant from the back side.

While taking photos, I snapped one of the two "dividers" I placed in the planting bed using the masonry blocks that I removed from the approach end of the driveway the other day.

Note the hole at the bottom of the fence at the right-hand end of the nearer divider (may require enlarging photo by clicking on it). Fred's dogs like to peer through it. In addition, they like to peer and bark through a similar hole in the fence that parallels the street.

Rosie at her peering hole - may require enlargement for visibility

The past week or so at Casa CC - 7/27/2019

We have basked in a few days of "reasonable" temperatures and humidities after a mini-heat wave that moved on to afflict those in the Old World. I survived the horrible heat by not attempting to do any yard work and cutting down on errands. Since I was getting no yard work done, I finally got back to working on Bogie's quilt on which I had not worked since March. I am now working on getting the borders made and sewn on.

Measuring for border strips

In Spring of 2002, I purchased and planted a dwarf crepe myrtle from my favored nursery. That fall, I found a couple of crepe myrtles on sale at our local Walmart. They were not dwarf, but I placed them (in relationship to the dwarf crepe myrtle) to provide a fill toward the garage/house. All were supposed to be fuchsia.

Three crepe myrtles aligned - June 2006 (The photo is poor, but the good one is off in color and I can't seem to remedy it.)

 

It turned out that one of the Walmart-sourced plants (the one that I had planted between the other two bushes) was actually from at least two root stocks. It isn't visible in the above photo, but one or two of the sproutings from the roots produced white blossoms. A few years ago, I decided that I really liked the white. I began trimming out the fuchsia-blossomed sprouts. This year, I am amazed to see that I achieved my goal. All of the sproutings now produce white blossoms. Unfortunately, the extreme heat faded the fuchsia blossoms on the bush farthest from the camera in the photo, below.

Yesterday and today I've been moving more masonry around. Years ago I had lined the approach end of our driveway, on the side away from the house, with concrete blocks. As the Blue Chip Junipers have taken over and spread to cover them, I saw no reason for that placement. I'm using them to emplace a couple more stone "fences" along the planting beds to that side of the driveway. I had brought a bunch of stone over from our previous home; but, did not have enough to put as many "fences" as I wanted separating those planting beds.

New masonry  "fence" for Planting Bed #6

I'll close by sharing a video that featured on Ronni Bennett's blog, Time Goes By, this morning. It tells the story of a grueling experience inflicted upon a United States Marine pilot, Lt Col William Rankin.

 

What in the hail?

For the past several days I've been getting myself out into the yard to do yard work at about 6:30am - avoiding the heat and the sun that come later - to work for one to three hours. My primary activities have been centered on the planting bed that resides between our driveway (to the southwest of our house) and Fred's yard. Since taking out the overgrown junipers in about one-third of that planting bed (More tree work done), it is a lot more work for me - mostly pulling weeds and mulching. Each morning I've weeded enough to allow spreading four to eight bags of mulch (my car trunk easily accommodates eight 3-cubic-foot bags, when they are dry). This means I've had to work around our spates of rain (about 5 inches so far in June) to buy mulch that hasn't been drenched, letting the mulch "dry out" in our garage for a day or two, and laying the mulch.

This (below photo) is what six bags of mulch look like while drying out in the garage. The garage accommodates about a baker's dozen of the bags (without their being in Hunky Husband's way and my catching an earful of swearing). That configuration includes another six bags between HH's car and mine, leaning against two more ladders plus one or two bags in the garden cart.

As of this morning, I've completed pulling weeds and mulching about 2/3 of the planting bed, having spread 40+ bags of mulch.

            

 

 

             

 

              

Notice the white on the ground of the above photos? The next photo shows the white stuff coming down.

Below is a closeup of the white stuff on the ground.

As one may plainly see in the closeup, the white stuff is not hail but cotton from cottonwood trees (the dead leaf in the above photo is from a cottonwood). For the past few days, when the wind has blown, it has looked like a snow storm around our neighborhood. Since we live on a creek, cottonwood trees abound. When the cotton catches on fennel plants, it resembles Liz's Cuckoo Spit (and a yellow-billed cuckoo was calling while I took the photo, below!)

Addition of 6/20/2019 4:07pm:

OMG - this is the day of the cuckoos. While reading "Ball Lightning" a few minutes ago, I was startled by a thump on a nearby window. Peering outside through the vertical blinds, I spied a yellow-billed cuckoo in an Audubon-esque, inverted pose in a chokeberry bush. After a couple of seconds, the cuckoo shook its head, uprighted itself, and flew to another chokeberry bush where it hesitated but a moment before taking flight. It reminded me that, while this house was under construction, I found a dead yellow-billed cuckoo that had flown into one of the dining room windows - a window but about 15 feet from the window today's cuckoo hit. So sad. 

Tale of an Acrosonic, by Baldwin

About six months before my parents moved our nuclear family from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Kansas City, Missouri, my widowed maternal grandmother married a widower who lived in Kansas City - she, living in Nevada, Missouri, 100 miles south of Kansas City. Within a short time, my Step-Grandfather (SGF) decided to sell his home and furnishings. Mom and Dad bought his dining room suite, a bedroom suite, and his piano. This would have been in about 1947 or 1948. Up until that time, we three kids had played on an old upright, the source of which I never knew.

Mother with the piano in 1949

At some point, in the early 1960s, Mom asked if I would like to have the piano. I said "Yes!" and, as I recall, paid her and Dad $200 for it, which is probably about what they had paid SGF for the piano. Shortly thereafter, Hunky Husband, our daughters, and I moved to the Seattle, Washington, area. Not wanting the piano to be exposed to the rigors of crossing the mountains, I sent the piano back to Mom and Dad. In 1967, HH, our daughters, and I moved back to Kansas. When we completed building a new house in May 1968, I had Mom and Dad ship the piano back to me. Since that time, the piano has stayed with me, wherever I have lived - Derby, Kansas; Wichita, Kansas; Panama City, Florida; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and back to Derby, Kansas.

HH and I have entered the serious stages of downsizing to fit our age. We wish to minimize the hassle our progeny (three generations) experience in distributing our belongings after our deaths. Over the years, I've asked family members if they wanted the piano. The answer has always been "No." (I hasten to add that, by then, Dudette and WichiDude had long-since purchased a very nice spinet piano - on which Dudette taught children as a sideline.)

When Elder Brother was in town in May (Family Week), we sat around our dining table discussing many topics. I don't recall how the conversation went, but the subject of music came up - perhaps because Next Generation 1 and Next Generation 2, our great-grandsons, had asked if they might play on our piano - a first! Something that Rachie said caught my attention and I asked if she wanted the piano. Shockingly, she said, "Yes!" Thus, our piano will be moving within the next few weeks.

The piano is not large, but it is heavy. I struggle to move it by lifting one end and pivoting about the other. Thus, I suspect the cartage fee for moving it up to Rachie and Wonderful GrandDaughter's home will exceed the monetary value of the piano. I see offerings of similar pianos for sale, online, in the order of $200-$300. It is certainly worth the fee, to me, to see that the piano remains with our family.

The piano is an Acrosonic, by Baldwin, which was one of the most popular home piano models ever sold in the USA. According to the Serial Number Block on the back of the piano, it was probably manufactured in 1939 when I was but one year old.

It's too bad I cannot foresee whether the piano will remain in the family in future years and for how many more generations, if it does. Use the piano in good health for at least as long as I've owned it, Rachie. Although I've played on that piano, off and on for 71 or 72 years, now, I've owned it for but 57 years! My mother would be pleased.