Cooler and wet today as a followup to yesterday. It did finally rain yesterday. It was about 3pm when it finally hit my neighborhood. Temps dropped 10 degrees and the wind picked up. We had some pretty hard rainfall, and the gutters filled up. My gauge says only 0.43 inches, but it certainly seemed like more.
It was raining cats and dogs by the lake, so countrygirl begged off delivering my crazy thick and heavy fence pipes. I’m ok with that. Whenever they get there, I’m not ready for them anyway. I did spend some time looking over the old victory garden stuff to see if it would help me plan my garden. I have an approach, if not an actual plan… and maybe it will refine itself over time. Still no word from septic or structure guys. At home, we can’t seem to get an HVAC guy to replace our system now. Waited too long maybe, because they aren’t calling back. We’ve got a short window before it gets really hot up in the attic again, so I’d think they would be anxious to get as much done before then as they could. Maybe they are, and I’m just not on their list.
I also did not get anything done with my pickup not starting.
I did play a couple of games of backgammon with D2 before having to pick up D1 from school. She’s got afterschool activities going on, so I get to be the taxi. Looking back, I can’t believe the amount of driving my dad did to pick me up from MY afterschool activities. My high school wasn’t close to our house at all, and there was a lot of snow and ice involved during the winter. It explains why I got a license and a car at 16. Also why I had so many tickets and wrecks.
Today will be some prepping, as I’ve got meat to repack and freeze. Then some auction stuff if it’s dry enough for me to pull stuff out of the storage unit, and if the pickup truck is running to take the stuff to the auctioneer. Then some pickups that are all things for the BOL. Busy day in other words, although some may slip if it’s wet.
I’m trying to stack all the things. For some reason, a bunch of auguson farms 30 day buckets have been in the auctions here. I’ve gotten 2 so far. They are not worth the money as they are very low calorie per day, and pretty much all plant based, and mostly carbs and sugar from what I can see. Still, at the price I paid, they are a decent addition to my long term stores. In other words, half retail or less.
Stack it up, it’s changing fast. And not for the better.
n
Doesn’t the 300 mile battery already require 19.2 kW over eight hours to charge to full from near empty?
Ford is going to take some lumps on this category of battery-powered vehicle while Tony plays with a Twitter re-IPO. Brilliant strategy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6tDea-KaXU
63F and wet, 91%RH this morning. Was 66F when I went to bed. Cold and wet, yuck. But if the rain holds off for a while, I can get things done.
n
45F and it’s a wet cold up here in Brown County this morning. It did not make 60F at our house yesterday. Brrrrr! Supposed to warm up into the 70s today.
Night before last we did get a quarter inch of rain, very welcome and not enough. We’ve been in drought since November. I can count on one hand the number of rains since then, and most have been half an inch or less. La Nina years are always like this and it’s just awful.
Nick, do ya’ll like black eyed peas or green beans? That might be a good crop to try your hand at now that you have the space in the BOL garden, as they don’t need much attention and are edible whether picked green or dried on the vine in case you don’t get back in time to pick. Neither my dad with his green thumb nor me with my learner’s brown thumb can grow green beans here, but his black eyed peas make an amazing crop every year… then after the vines have died from heat and lack of water, once the rains start again, they resurrect and bloom and make peas again.
I ordered more asparagus crowns this year. Apparently the “Jersey” varieties are being discontinued but I found some that are supposed to be harvestable after only a year in the ground. Waiting for them to ship … I ordered them in March.
I am trying to find squash vine borer and squash bug resistant winter squashes , so couple years ago I bought several kinds of C. Moschata (ranging from butternut squash to Seminole pumpkin) and some Korean varieties. I didn’t get a harvest that year so I’m doing a little test patch in a different spot.
Otherwise, due to the drought, the only thing I plan for this summer is a few tomato plants inside the backyard fence so the deer can’t get to them. I bought them the other day and need to put them in the ground within the next couple of days. My neighbor taught me to use yellow-bag Miracle Grow potting soil to mix into the planting hole and to plant them deep, so I bought that too.
The folks at this blog are trying to create a “land race” of squash for their area, and that is kind of what I am hoping to do with winter squash here for our local micro-climate.
However, I probably won’t keep the kind of observation records they do: in my case it will be a matter of whether ANY plants produce fruit that is able to reach maturity. I’ll save seed from those fruits.
One of the biggest challenges with gardening is that each location has so many different variables. My dad was talking about that the other day. He lived and gardened out at Big Spring for many years, and he says the land out there was more fruitful, despite it being hotter, drier, and the water having significant salt in it. So every new garden starts us learning again, and we might have success in one place but not in another or vice versa.
I’ve never had any success with any variety of green bean. I’ll try them at the lake because I have a ton of seeds but I don’t expect success. My dad used to grow bushels of them in the black topsoil over sand at his house in Chicago. Plants there grow like weeds.
I’m hoping that the slightly cooler weather at the BOL will be advantageous for some varieties.
n
(kids hated black eyed peas in “hoppin john” in a can. Don’t know that we’ve ever had them any other way.)
Canned hoppin john is …. well, we don’t like it. And Paul likes hoppin john but it’s not my preferred method of cooking them. Otherwise, black eyed peas are one of our favorite vegetables, whether canned, cooked from dry, or frozen/cooked from fresh. The difference between cooked from dry and cooked fresh green is like two different peas.
I’ve a dish the boys’ Abuelita used to make: Cook and crumble 1 pound of your favorite breakfast sausage in a skillet. Do not drain. The flavor of the sausage is paramount, so at least for the first time be sure to use your very favorite brand. Add 3 or 4 cups of fresh or frozen black eyed peas, and one chopped fresh tomato. Cover with water, put the lid on and simmer for 45 minutes, adding more water as needed. Remove the lid and if there’s excess water, simmer to allow most of the water to steam away. Salt and black pepper to taste.
That is a good start for black eyed peas. For canned ones, which have a completely different taste, my favorite simplest way is just to open two cans and pour them into a saucepan. Cut up a slice of thick bacon and add it, then simmer them for half an hour or so until the bacon is cooked – much like southern style green beans. Some people like some jalapeno in there too but I can’t eat capsicum. I serve these with fresh chopped onion and a bottle of Tabasco at the table.
That time of year….
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/whirlpool-ceo-inflation-challenges-are-real
n
So the new battery from Costco won’t start my truck. 12.8v, and the wipers are super slow, no start at all.
Seems my Expy is too sophisticated to jump a battery, no matter the engine revs, 13.o v, at the battery, and not enough amps to start the pickup or even run the starter motor. I sometimes hear the starter solonoid click but usually not.
I’ve got the battery on my smart charger now, and will see what happens.
n
Doesn’t the 300 mile battery already require 19.2 kW over eight hours to charge to full from near empty?
Ford is going to take some lumps on this category of battery-powered vehicle while Tony plays with a Twitter re-IPO. Brilliant strategy.
I wonder if you can plug the new Ford electric cars and trucks into Tony’s superchargers and mega chargers ?
At home, we can’t seem to get an HVAC guy to replace our system now. Waited too long maybe, because they aren’t calling back.
Me too. I am building a Texas Basement inside the back of my 32.5 foot by 32.5 foot garage. The new room will be 10 foot by 32.5 foot with a front door, a back door, two windows, and a one ton split wall air conditioner. It may also be an emergency hide out for me. Anyway, my A/C guy has gone squirrely on me and his number one helper quit so I may have to find a new a/c guy.
The price of 2×8 by 10 foot ceiling joists and wallboard is taking my breath away. At least 3X or 4X over five years ago.
It’s only transitory.
Seriously I’d get engineered joists.
No. Superchargers are off limits to other brands.
The “destination” Tesla chargers at hotels work with Ford’s EVs via an adapter, but those are much slower chargers.
GM was really hammering dealers for a while over redesigning and remodeling their lots to accomodate customer EVs who don’t have a spare 40 or 60 A service at home to charge their big vehicles in less than 24 hours.
The Hummer charging system is 12.8 kW. I wonder how Ford is doing 19.2 kW at homes without serious electrical serious upgrades being required.
I did a geeky thing on the recommendation of the hosting support guys to try to fix the very occasional 500 errors. It requires a restart of the PHP process, which should happen in the next 15 minutes. (You shouldn’t see any interruption because of that restart.)
Will be interesting to see if that geeky thing will fix the issue. Several sources on the interwebs seemed to indicate that it might.
We shall see……
I use a BASAF Car Jump Start 1500A when my Jeep Grand Cherokee, 5.7L Hemi, fails to start after roughly 3 years. Then I drive to get a new one. Bought jumper from Amazon and always keep it in back of Jeep.
RE: Ebola
If only there was a vaccine. Oh, wait, there is… I wonder how I can get it. Maybe lie and say I’m a healthcare volunteer on my wait to Africa to assist with outbreaks?
A vaccine exists as does a treatment, but both are rare and expensive.
With Ebola, there is no such thing as an “asymptomatic” carrier or people pretending to be well out of FOMO.
Not that there were many *real* asymptomatic cases of Wuxu Flu, but that was the official narrative used to justify the face diapers two years ago.
Others here have occasionally asked if they can help Barbara (RBT’s wife) out with hosting expenses for this place. Here is her response:
I then asked if there was a favorite charity of hers that people could support if they wish. She replied with this link: https://www.dogsindanger.com/ .
A quick look at their mission as they describe it:
If you would like to comment on Barbara’s blog, it’s here: https://www.fritchman.com/journal/ . She posts daily.
According to the CDC, the Ebola vaccine is not commercially available. So, if you want it you have to have your healthcare provider send an email to the CDC to get the process rolling. It’s one of those things that the wealthy with “concierge medicine” can probably easily have done, but the rest of us would never be able to convince our PPO provider to do. Though, I do have an appointment coming up. So, maybe I’ll give it a try.
From the CDC website:
“‘Fully-Vaccinated and Boosted’ Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Beto O’Rourke Announces He Has COVID”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/04/fully-vaccinated-boosted-texas-gubernatorial-candidate-beto-orourke-announces-covid/
Oh the inhumanity !
Concierge wouldn’t have an advantage in this situation. The CDC would want to know why, and, once that door is opened, they aren’t going to easily accept “Just because it might be a good idea.”
The concierge guys I know have flexible moralities, but not that flexible.
For the record, I don’t see a concierge doctor, and the Texas Governor goes to the same office I do with a lot more complex health situation.
Robert Francis probably has a concierge doctor and at-home antibody infusions.
Whether he is a billionare or 100-millionare, Robert Francis’ father-in-law is stinking rich.
I swear I’ve seen LaSalle Partners name in the recent stories about Kohl’s being acquired by JC Penney.
Yeah, that smells like KMart buying a healthier Sears redux.
WRT Barbara’s charity preference: I have been there for several years. Automatic monthly donation from my MasternCard to ASPCA.
Why didn’t you say anything? We could have sent someone over to rehome you.
Back from a couple days in Cincinnati for a funeral of one of my wife’s relatives. The reason for going up was not good, but it was good to see a lot of her family we don’t see often. We’ve been driving up there for over 20 years, and I’ve never seen the roads in as bad a shape as they have been for the last few years. KY is always hit or miss, but 65 and 71 are in really rough shape. Tennessee, however, has them beat. I65 both ways is just garbage. TN always had pretty good roads, but not in the past 5 years or so. You know its bad when my wife and I both comment that Alabama’s roads are better.
Meh. You just have to volunteer to go work with some medical charity headed to fight ebola in Africa and then unvolunteer once you have your shot. Honestly, though, these guys can probably just call their Big Pharma C-suite buddies and say, “Hook me up with one of those shots.” No need for a private doc when you can just call your frat brother at Merck and get it.
(kids hated black eyed peas in “hoppin john” in a can. Don’t know that we’ve ever had them any other way.)
Dadgum it ! 500 Error ate my first reply to this. And no, I am not smart enough to do the select all / copy for each posting.
Start with a can or two of Bush peas. Do not drain, throw the whole can contents into the pan on the stove. Add minced onions and chunked sliced ham (½ by ½ inch to 1 inch by 1 inch). Simmer for ten minutes on the stove. Served with hot cornbread is the best but I am not allowed hot cornbread anymore because it goes straight to my waistline because I eat half of the pan.
https://www.heb.com/product-detail/bush-s-best-blackeye-peas/120096
That time of year….
Have they been unburying and playing with their dead relatives again ?
It’s only transitory.
Seriously I’d get engineered joists.
Don’t you have to sister those engineered joists ? I just need a single joist every sixteen inches to nail the wallboard to and throw insulation on top of. I already have a single joist every 48 inches.
At home, we can’t seem to get an HVAC guy to replace our system now. Waited too long maybe, because they aren’t calling back.
Me too. I am building a Texas Basement inside the back of my 32.5 foot by 32.5 foot garage. The new room will be 10 foot by 32.5 foot with a front door, a back door, two windows, and a one ton split wall air conditioner. It may also be an emergency hide out for me. Anyway, my A/C guy has gone squirrely on me and his number one helper quit so I may have to find a new a/c guy.
The price of 2×8 by 10 foot ceiling joists and wallboard is taking my breath away. At least 3X or 4X over five years ago.
My HVAC guy just told me to buy a one ton (12,000 btu/hr) Daiken Heat pump from https://hvacdirect.com/ with all of the fixings. When I am ready he will send over his guy and install it for $700. My electrician is going to provide the electrical box for the system.
“Microsoft upgraded 190,000 PCs to Windows 11 (but even they couldn’t upgrade everything)”
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-upgraded-190000-pcs-to-windows-11-but-even-they-couldnt-upgrade-everything/
“Five-week project is a big success story, says Microsoft.”
Looks like they are serious about the minimum requirements. Of course, I would have expected Microsoft to upgrade their corporate PCs to Windows 11 before the rollout. You know, eat your own dog food thing.
UEFI and Secure Boot along with TPM 2.0, a real DirectX 12 GPU, and a recent x86_64 instruction set are essential to secure streaming to make Hollywood happy, my guess about the real goal of Windows 11.
Even if the rest went away, Microsoft needs to push the Windows market onto UEFI so the hardware manufacturers can finally get rid of the Legacy BIOS headache.
The next version of Fedora will start deprecating Legacy BIOS. I believe that new installs will require GPT partitioning and UEFI. The rest of the big Linux players will no doubt follow IBM’s lead.
If you really want to run Windows 11, it is possible to install on hardware that runs Windows 10 well. It is on my list to try on the Q6600 I use as my primary desktop once I clean out the Windows 7 Enterprise partition that dates back 12 years.
We definitely “eat our own dog food” where I currently work. My company laptop is a huge change from the $6000 Apple machine I had at the last job.
Still Windows 10, and we just got word that Admin privileges on demand are going away.
>> “‘Fully-Vaccinated and Boosted’ Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Beto O’Rourke Announces He Has COVID”
Okay, page B17, let’s see what else is news…
Dog bites man
Cat stuck in tree
The Kamel has the Crud
Yeah, nothing important here.
>> Still Windows 10, and we just got word that Admin privileges on demand are going away.
Wow, our developers lost theirs like five years ago. Some only kicking and screaming.
At CGI, root access to the servers we installed resided with admins in India. Even the AMS lifers who remained after the merger had to send a ticket to Bangalore to do the simplest task.
I like to install Cygwin so keeping that updated will mean an email to a VP a couple of times a year.
Generally, it isn’t the developers you have to worry about.
Kamala and Robert Francis in the same furpile at the comic book convention in DC over the weekend?
(Don’t Google if you are easily disturbed.)
Here in Texas, it was the final weekend of the “Medieval Millenium Faire” (aka Sherwood Forest Faire) in McDade to keep all the Furries and like minded people busy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2-BrXKoyNM
“Learn the art of cooking with turnips. Yum yum.”
@Greg Norton
Yup, a paltry million or so from his mother directly, and more from other Forbes family trusts. You know, the kind of trusts that the hoi polloi can’t have? If it wasn’t inherited, they’d have had to get by on true love.
Well the issue with the truck is bigger than a battery. Something is shorting across the battery. Cables got hot on a fully charged batt…
Smell of rotten eggs is a bad sign too.
Gonna have to tow and figure out where as my decade long mechanic packed it in a couple of months ago, with no forwarding address.
n
You could pull the fuses on the major circuits, then add them in until the cables get hot again. Or disconnect the starter/solenoid to see if it is the culprit.
Could be the battery – if it overheats or is leaking, it could cause the odor, since there is hydrogen sulfide in there.
Hmm, 40 comments so far and not one joke…
>> Getting as many of these dogs adopted into loving homes as possible, before their time runs out
We have taken in several senior dogs so when the end does come it’s in their ‘forever home’ and not alone in the dog shelter.
And actually our latest adoption is a 7 year old, 45 lb, pittie who has permanent myoclonus (involuntary muscle spasms) from having distemper when he was younger. His legs jerk back and forth almost constantly (except when he’s running) including when he’s asleep. He was at the shelter for six months and no one adopted him. We took him home and he’s the sweetest little guy and so happy to be with a family.
@Nick
Be very careful of that battery.
A couple years ago a friend of mine was in a golf cart when the battery blew up. I heard it from a block away. Sulfuric acid is not your friend.
Something pulling enough current to heat a battery cable would blow a fuse. Unless it is multiple circuits. Highly doubtful. I would guess the starting solenoid. Alternator can be ruled out as heating a battery cable would melt alternator cables. Disconnect the positive wire to the selenoid. If no heating replace the entire starter. Or there is a short in the main cable from the battery to the fuse block.
I’ve been thinking that it must be the alternator. The starter is only in the circuit when the key is in start, and the solenoid activates. I’ve heard the solenoid click so I think it’s disengaging. Tomorrow I’ll disconnect the alternator and see if that does it. I can swap an alternator.
I can change the starter on the ranger too, if I have to.
In fact I have a parts truck I can steal engine parts from easier than going to the store.
n
I see several.
re: jokes
I know several. I mostly don’t tell them well.
I often wish I could do accents. Pat & Mike jokes are hilarious when told well, but you need the brogue.
AOS 4/16/22:
The Saturday Night Joke
An Irishman and a Norwegian apply for the same job.
The job they’re applying for is at an engineering firm in Dublin.
Both the Irishman and the Norwegian do so well in the interview the boss can’t decide who to hire, so he sets up a small aptitude test.
Both men again score the same. 19/20 correct.
After some waiting the boss comes through and says to the Irishman: “I’m sorry but on this occasion we’ve decided to hire the Norwegian”
The Irishman angered by this says “Surely, me being Irish would mean you would give the job to me instead of a foreigner”. He went on a rant about looking after the locals etc.
When he was done the boss replied. He said:
“Well it’s like this. We didn’t make the decision based on how many answers you got right but more on the answers you got wrong”
So the Irishman still angry says, “but we both got one wrong answer.”
Again the boss replies calmly saying, “it’s not how many wrong answers you got but the answer you gave. On question 7 the Norwegian wrote ‘I don’t know’ as his answer.
Your answer was ‘Neither do I'”.
Lynn: I used PTAC heat pumps in my shop. PTAC are through the wall units that you find in hotels. Installation is a breeze for a do-it-your-selfer. You just frame the opening like you would for any window of that size. It needs a dedicated circuit breaker but since it was a new build that was not a problem.
Start with a can or two of Bush peas. Do not drain, throw the whole can contents into the pan on the stove. Add minced onions and chunked sliced ham (½ by ½ inch to 1 inch by 1 inch). Simmer for ten minutes on the stove. Served with hot cornbread is the best but I am not allowed hot cornbread anymore because it goes straight to my waistline because I eat half of the pan.
https://www.heb.com/product-detail/bush-s-best-blackeye-peas/120096
OK, I am eating Hopping John right now. The wife tells me:
I forgot the rice and got the order wrong. And she does not put in minced onions anymore. Obviously, I am not a cook.
Lynn: I used PTAC heat pumps in my shop. PTAC are through the wall units that you find in hotels. Installation is a breeze for a do-it-your-selfer. You just frame the opening like you would for any window of that size. It needs a dedicated circuit breaker but since it was a new build that was not a problem.
Just an EER on 11.7 for this PTAC for $1096.
https://hvacdirect.com/amana-12-000-btu-ptac-heat-pump-with-3-5kw-electric-heater-pth123g35axxx.html
I am putting in a mini split heat pump with a 20 SEER for $2,167 plus $700 in accessories. We use a lot of a/c around here so an efficient unit is very needful.
https://hvacdirect.com/daikin-aurora-series-12000-btu-20-seer-single-zone-ductless-mini-split-system-wall-mounted-id10831.html
“China reports first human case of H3N8 bird flu”
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/china-reports-first-human-case-of-h3n8-bird-flu
“BEIJING (REUTERS) – China has recorded the first human infection with the H3N8 strain of bird flu, the country’s health authority said on Tuesday (April 26), but said the risk of it spreading among people was low.”
“A four-year-old boy from central Henan province was found to have been infected with the variant after developing a fever and other symptoms on April 5.”
Here we go again ?
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Ok a joke….
An old man and his wife are in the Doctor’s office. The man is having a bit of trouble hearing…
Dr- Sir, can you open your shirt?
Man- What?
Wife- yelling- He wants to listen to your heart!
Dr- Sir, can you roll up your sleeve?
Man- what?
Wife- yelling- He wants to check your blood pressure!
Dr- Ok Sir, now I need a stool and urine sample…
Man- What??
Wife – yelling – HE WANTS YOUR SHORTS!
{rimshot}
n