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.

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!

 

Balsams and other stuff for the week - 9/20/2019

Some weeks ago, I was going through packets of seeds that had accumulated in the garage when I happened upon a packet of Bachelor's Button (AKA Cornflower or Centaurea cyanus) seeds. I flung them out in a vacant space in the planting area to the far side (away from the house) of the driveway. A bunch of little seedlings sprang up! Most of the seedlings did, indeed, look like Bachelor's Button plants - a bit short, but what the hey, it is late in the season. However, there were two strangers in the pack: 1) one plant of leaf lettuce and 2) one plant of Touch-Me-Nots (AKA Balsams, Jumping Betty, Lady's Slipper, or Impatiens balsamina.) In the photo, below, the Touch-Me-Not is the plant with the pink blossoms. The Bachelor's Buttons are the little plants between it and the lettuce plant.

A couple of days ago, while watering the potted tree seedlings in the window well outside my sewing room, I noted the little critter previously shown in Amphibian Day 2019 was sitting within a drainage hole of one of the pots, facing outward. This morning, I checked to see if it was still there. Nope! However, there were two tiny frogs sitting atop the mulch around an oak seedling that I had added to the collection, yesterday. The oak seedling had come up in the corner of the strawberry bed/rose bed.

Bogie's quilt is back from the quilter's!

There are still three steps needed for quilt completion: 1) binding the edges; 2) embroidering the name of the quilter, my initials, and 2019 in a corner on the back of the quilt; and 3) washing and ironing the quilt. The quilting doesn't really show on the front and I've shown enough photos of the front (for instance in The past week or so at Casa CC - 7/27/2019); so, I shall post only a photo of the back, below.

Well, I lied. Having just realized that the last posted photo of the quilt top was from before the borders were added, I'll include a photo of the front of the quilt, below.

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.

 

Our daughters rock!

Unfortunately for me, our elder daughter Dudette has not taken up blogging. She does hang out on FB; but, I am no longer on FB (didn't like when they changed their privacy policy several years ago) and even when I was did not friend our daughters. They need to have online space that is not accessed by their parental units, after all. It's called intergenerational privacy. (I recall how I felt a tiny bit spied upon knowing that my parents, 150 miles away, listened in on my amateur radio conversations when I was in college! Not that they ever gave me any grief over whatever they may have heard!) The point is: I probably have more week-to-week news from younger daughter Bogie than from Dudette. We are privileged to see Dudette and her daughter's family, every several weeks; but, we don't get the photos and comments that would be contained in a blog.

I'd like to point out a couple of blog postings that Bogie has made in the past few weeks of yard work that she has been doing. She proves, over and over, that an understanding of basic mechanical principles enables one to do more than can reasonably be expected. For example, below is one photo that I stole from Bogie's latest posting Roadside Garden Progress. Although there is a little explanation of Bogie's placement of the rocks/wall in the comments to that posting, more explanation is in an earlier posting Rocking it.

And who is Bogie that she was able to do that hard work? The 300-pound bruiser in the photo, below, that I stole from Bogie's posting about her trip to Ellis Island a few weeks ago. Well...that's my humorous take on it. As you can see, she's a very fit, light-weight person (ignoring the 40 pounds of equipment that she carried on her belt for that tour!!)

In closing, I would clarify that Bogie has always been one to do things for herself - making soap, growing and canning foods, re-furbishing/improving her home, building walls and gardens, and getting out on her Harley. As I recall, she even took some training in landscaping (some of it as far back as high school, maybe?) Obviously, HH and I take great pride in Bogie and her endeavors. Well done, Bogie!

Sharing HH's roses with Bogie -

ADDITION of 7/21/2019 - Another rose bouquet

 

It's going to be a good year for tomatoes

For the past few years, my tomato plants have produced either zero tomatoes or very few. This year will be different if today's harvest is any indication. What is different this year? As usual, I planted four tomato plants: one Jet Star, one larger tomato, and two pear or cherry tomato. One big difference is that I placed two of the tomato plants where they are the only things planted in the bed and they are surrounded on all sides by house or concrete. Today's harvest came from one of those plants, the Jet Star tomatoes not having yet ripened. Another large difference is that I waited a couple of weeks longer before setting them out and there was no late freeze to nip them. Finally, all of the rains that we had in May and June were to their liking.

Today's harvest of Juliet tomatoes (I did not intentionally pick the green ones. They fell from the plant!)

Jet Star plant shortly after wind storm (6/23/2019)

Juliet plant shortly after wind storm (6/23/2019)

To be precise, I picked two tomatoes from one of the tomato plants that is in another bed, Friday. The plant didn't look like much, but it is producing a few fruits. The photo, below, shows the tomato plant, and other plants in the bed, the day after the neighbor's fence had been blown over onto it and stayed there for about 12 hours. The maple tree has since been staked and much of the fennel dug up.

 

Rude awakening

Not since 1976 have I set an alarm to waken me. That rude awakening I can live without - especially since I have an internal alarm that wakes me at the "correct" time, no matter whether that is 3:00am or 6:00am. You can imagine my surprise, this morning, when a voice woke me at about 5:30am. Hunky Husband was my alarm. His phone had awakened him with a tornado warning and the emergency warning sirens were blaring in our neighborhood.

Quickly, I arose; donned my gardening clothes (old jeans cut off below the knees and an old tee shirt); put on a pair of eye glasses; put our valuables in their emergency hidey-hole; and put my jump boots, a hatchet, and two large screwdrivers (1 blade, 1 Phillips) into our own emergency hidey-hole. Only then did I join HH in the living room to watch the radar returns being shown on television.

By the exterior lighting on our house, we could see cottonwood limbs strewn all over the back yard - including our patio. The television reports soon indicated that the tornado danger that had been indicated for our area had moved on to terrorize other areas east of us; but, evaluation of the damage would need to be made nearer to sun-up when there was sufficient light. By 6:40am, I went outside to the serenade of chain saws, up and down our street, wielded by neighbors whose trees had sustained more damage than had ours.

The sun is not yet up; but, I'll post a few photos of our yard. Our damage was due to straight-line winds that probably gusted to about 70mph.

Our gingko tree in the front yard, planted in 2001, stands tall, straight, and proud. It shed but one small limb.

CORRECTION of 6/23/2019 4:03pm

So far, no one has corrected me (including the family members to whom I emailed a copy of this posting) in saying that our gingko tree had lost a branch. As anyone who looks at the photo can tell: that is no gingko branch, but another of the hundreds of cottonwood branches. It had to have flown over or around our house to end in that position! Sorry if I mislead you.

But two limbs were broken from the cluster of small redbud trees in our front yard, planted in about 2004.

The sugar maple tree in our front yard, planted in 2001, may be sick but it shed no limbs! The large cottonwood which, in any weather, is prone to shedding hundreds of small branches per month, shed all over the back yard. You can also probably see in the background that the creek is up - not out of its banks, but high. (The creek is visible to the right of the table, on which I note that the rain gage was knocked over by the wind.)

Fred's fence took a beating. Since the fence had already met its life expectancy before Fred moved in three years ago, and since one of the connections between sections has repeatedly failed, it wasn't a surprise to see a section of the fence down - plus another couple of boards a foot or so to the right of that section. The only thing on which it fell that I care about is a small red maple tree that I've been cultivating for Dudette.

I came in from taking the photos, without doing any yard work, because I was getting rained upon. I think it has stopped, so it's time for me to get back to work. Below is the section of the Planting Bed along the driveway in which I weeded and spread mulch, yesterday - with leaves added by the storm. Guess what yard work I'll be doing, today? HH has volunteered to help. Yay! Real muscle to apply to the task of cleanup.

ADDITION of 6/24/2019 9:30am - Information from the county emergency management office (excerpts)

The NWS [National Weather Service] determined that straight-line winds hit Derby early Sunday morning on June 23, 2019.  The damage was caused by 75 to 90 mph straight-line winds and damaged primarily softwood trees across southern and southeast Sedgwick County.  The path of the storm was about half a mile to a mile wide that stretched along a nearly 11-mile path from northwest of Peck to Derby.  Public Work crews in Derby are working on clearing debris and restoring power to the residences in the area.

....

Rainfall over the weekend totaled about 1.5 to 3 inches and the current warnings affecting Sedgwick County Rivers are as follows: 

....  

Big Ark[ansas] at Derby:  From early this morning until Tuesday evening.  At 3:00 AM Monday the stage was 11.6 feet.  Flood stage is 12.0 feet and Minor flooding is forecast.  Forecast - Rise above flood stage by early this morning and continue to rise to near 13.0 feet by this evening. The river will fall below flood stage by late Tuesday morning.  Impact - At 12.0 feet, the river will be out of its main channel and expand to a width near 600 feet wide. Expect flooding of low-lying areas around the river.  The Derby Park facility on downstream east bank of the Market St bridge is inundated.

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.