Month: April 2019

Probably cool and dry-ish? I’m hopefully sleeping in and putting this up last night… [yep, finally my back woke me, and it is 67F and 57%RH]

I’ve got work to do at our rec association today, and gardening to do. Kids can play outside at the association while I’m working. That means my wife can get some holiday shopping done.

That is the plan, we’ll see if it works out that way.

Had a nice campfire in our pit last night. Roasted marshmallows and made s’mores. Don’t know how many nights we have left before it’s too hot for that to be comfortable. It was a beautiful day and a bit chilly at night.

Regarding the garden, I’ve decided on cukes for the side bed, carrots and beans for the bed under the grapevines, and possibly some more beans for the bed behind the house. I’ll probably put a couple of peppers and tomatoes in pots while I’m at it, and trim a couple of trees. Might harvest some kumquats with small child and see where that takes us. Maybe into jelly making land…

We’ll also see if it’s too late to get turnips, radishes, and beets into somewhere, possibly the ‘window boxes’ on the fence..

I’m so late….

n

Sunny and cool. I have a list of ToDo, I hope I can get to it.

Better get the zoo fed…..

n

[61F and 50%RH, a PERFECT day for outdoor work.]

63F and raining. Rain gauge says 1.11 inches since midnight. Yesterday stayed overcast until mid-afternoon, when it poured for a short while.

Some of my planning for today will have to shift… can’t do it in the rain.

There’s a saying about what wipes you out, bankrupts your company, ends you civilization. It’s not what you know, it’s what you don’t know that will get you. This was not on my planning horizon. I don’t think this ends well.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-17/watch-wolf-pack-robot-dogs-pulls-box-truck-across-parking-lot

Maybe an EMP is the best defense we have!!??!

n

71F? and damp. Maybe. I gotta figure out what is going on with my weather station. How am I going to pretend I’m in control when I don’t even know how hot it is?

I can’t control the puns though, and can’t resist one of my own. The DWI presentation was sobering.

It’s also the only crime where you are actually going to be tried in court by a ‘jury of your peers.’ Practically every adult in the US has made a poor decision and driven when they shouldn’t. Subsequently, people get off that objectively shouldn’t.

This is an especially big problem in TX and in Houston, and I’m mentioning it here because it’s very much a “don’t be there” dangerous situation. You can decrease your chances of injury or death by simply “not being there”. Don’t do it. On the flip side, as the officer pointed out, DUI/DWI deaths happen at all hours of the day or night, but some times are worse than others. Avoid those times, avoid those places.

Over one half week in the last month, with 4 major events in town at the same time, there were about 300 DWI crashes with 19 fatalities JUST IN HOUSTON. Those are entirely preventable deaths.

—

Busy day, in and out all day, although if it rains, who knows….

n

Possibly 60F and damp. Awaiting confirmation (and better batteries for the weather station.)

There is nothing but crazy in the news. A man uses a crossbow hidden in a package to attempt an assassination (I bet it is a woman trying to eliminate a love rival.)

A stranger grabs a kid and throws him off a 3rd floor balcony at the mall.

And on and on. Not much coverage of Brexit, the Italian bank crisis, failing banks throughout the EU, “migrants” fighting in Greece, or the 100k that continue to pour across our border… Nor anything about pedophile Epstein, crooked Hillarity, or the Ukraine or Syria.

Hmm, almost like it’s on purpose.

n

Probably cool and damp [weather station says 75F with 41%RH at 6am]. [actually 54F] Yesterday was beautiful by the afternoon. Clear and sunny with a cool breeze. Cold breeze in the shade. No rain forecast for the next two days. We’ll see about that…

Between softball practice, cleaning the house before the wife’s return, and other chores, I didn’t get much done.

Once the chicks were back in the nest, I had a chance to do a bit of garden and yard work. I got two beds weeded and topped up with soil. I got the blueberry bushes under the bird netting. Total crop is small, so I have to save every berry… we’ll see how it goes this year. I got the yard mowed.

I’ve got auction pickups in Austin, San Marcos, and San Antonio. I don’t think I’ll get to SA, but I’m going to try for San Marcos and Austin today. Which means getting on the road first thing in the morning, hence this gets written Sunday night.

Now I’m actually off to bed, but Monday morning, I’m driving to San Marcos….

I’ll check in when I get a chance.

n

Cool and damp, I’m pretty sure….

I’m hoping I’m still asleep, as I went to bed dead tired. Wife and older daughter still at camp, youngest is as sneaky and quiet as a ninja when she wants to watch tv in the morning…which hopefully results in me getting some extra sleep.

If not, well, I’ve got a ton of stuff to do today.

n

72F and wet.

Yesterday was mostly overcast with some spotty rain, which was not the forecast. Forecast was for T storms. I ended up running all over town, driving both vehicles, and barely making it to school to get the kids on time.

I’ve got smallest child home with me, while wife and older child got to Girl Scout sleepover camp. LOTS of stuff packed into the car and the add on trailer hitch carrier thing.

My non-prepping hobby meets this morning and I’ll be taking smallest child. She’s got cookies to deliver, and she can sit with a tablet or book for a short while… then we’ll find something to do in between sportsball and an Easter egg hunt at our rec association. It’s gonna be a long day and I won’t be getting much done.

Maybe I’ll get her to help me put the bird netting over the blueberries. Or help getting the beds ready for planting….

Right.

BTW, does anyone else think the whole caterpillar to butterfly thing is INSANE? It’s like an alien species here on earth. No one seems to give it much thought, but DANG that’s weird. One creature enters, and another emerges. What would it mean for us if we could harness whatever that process is to change ourselves or refresh our bodies without changing our dna. And how in the heck can two creatures so different be the same, with the same DNA? Legs, mouth, feeding, wings, skin- everything changes.

There are some really weird things about radio and electromagnetism too that I’m seeing with new eyes as I study more about radio and electronics. I’ve got lots of questions that I don’t even know where to ask…. like ‘why does an em wave continue at the same speed, basically forever, even though it interacts with the environment it passes thru? What EXACTLY restricts the speed of EM waves, but doesn’t cause them to run down? What are they moving thru when all the other waves we know about need a medium? There seems to be a lot of arm waving involved…. (how can light be a particle and wave? Where does the energy come from to keep the oscillations happening?) How does light (a discrete particle traveling in a straight line) emanate from a POINT SOURCE, yet completely fill the volume in an ever expanding cone? The more I learn about it, the more it doesn’t make sense (and forget the ‘lightfield camera’ that thing is just magic.)

Anyway, talk amongst yourselves….

n

61F and 70%RH in the swamp this morning. It stayed overcast most of yesterday everywhere I went. Got some rain too.

I’m hoping for a dry weekend, despite the forecast, as I have Girl Scouts at sleepaway camp this weekend…

Didn’t get much done this week on the prepping front.

I did get 8 bags of soil for the raised beds that is still sitting in front of one bed.

The grapevines have a foot or more of new growth. The blueberry bushes are mostly in fruit, that is a very pale blue. Time to get the bird net out. The Meyer Lemon has multiple lemons started on every branch. It looks like a bumper crop of lemon this year. The potted lime has some fruit starting. The potted orange is still flowering. The mature orange and grapefruit never flowered. The apple trees continue to struggle to put out leaves, and the peach has finally got some leaves and a few flowers. Lots of kumquat ready to pick in the neighborhood, and second daughter wants to pick and eat it all. I may have to find out what the heck you do with kumquat, and ask for some.

I did start taking things to the auction house. This is a big step and hopefully broke the mental logjam….

I haven’t been to any civic meetings this last month, but the CPA and ham networking lunch are both getting me out of the house and my comfort zone. That’s good, right? Speaking of ham radio, the wind blew over my new eggbeater antenna. I knew the mount was weak for one with that weight, but gave it a try. I’ll be trying something else I guess. And speaking of ham, the grocery store was blowing out home curing salt, so I’ve got a lot ready for the next time the ‘country’ hams go on sale. It’s cheap, lasts forever, and doesn’t take up too much space. Perfect for the prepper.

With that, breakfast and tired moppets call. What did you get done this week to get ready for whatever is ahead??

N

69F and 97%RH. Yesterday stayed dry and even got sunny depending on where you were in town. It wasn’t stinking hot, so I guess it’s still spring.

I look around and people in power are riding roughshod over the laws of the land. This sort of thing has been more widespread and less widespread throughout history, but it doesn’t bode well for the future. This nation, the United States of America, was supposed to be different from what came before. It was to be a land ruled by LAW and not by MEN (specifically a King.) The Constitution establishes the basis for all the laws of the land, and mainly LIMITS what the federal government can do, and reserving all else for the people themselves and the States.

Our form of government is specifically meant to limit capriciousness, arbitrariness, and the power of any INDIVIDUAL in government. Things like “I’ve got a phone and a pen” are the opposite of that. Trump’s personal call for a bump stock ban, and the resulting changes to regulation that AT THEIR HEART twist language and re-write the meaning of words (literally) should scare everyone. This is the action of a King. “I want this thing, and you will do it, if I have to declare that black is now white and white is black.” This is what the ATF did with the regulation change. They redefined the meaning of words. Bureaucratically.

The most basic ideas of the American experiment are under attack. Fairness. Impartiality. Rule of law. The value of individualism. Merit. These are cultural things that made the experiment possible, and allowed it to continue, but have been under concerted attack for decades.

The attackers know that if you break the culture, you will break the experiment.

And they have largely succeeded.

Way past time to fight back, but our only other choice is surrender.

n