In the garden, and RAIN!!!! by SIGNYM

We got about 1/10th of an inch of rain last night. Not as much as I was hoping for after putting two normal sized lawns worth of ant poison just around the foundation of my house and garage. Good thing I don't have pets.

I called the neighbor yesterday and let him know not to let his kids play between our houses for a while before we get some good rains.

I should get that other tree quote today. Hopefully it's cheaper than the first one, but I doubt it. My buddy is also going to ask a friend of his who does it what he would charge. When I told him what I was doing and what I would cost he told me he'd do it himself for $1,500 less than my quote.

I said "the hell you would". As handy as he is and as much as he'd rather do things himself, he's in his 40's now too and has never cut down a tree. He doesn't walk around with a 2 million dollar insurance policy if something goes terribly wrong either. He seems to think that this quote is high and he's chastising me, of all people, for not shopping this around. As much as I'd love to get the job done cheaper, I just want his friend to tell him that I'm getting a great price, because the quote came in quite a bit lower than I thought it would after talking to some people who have gotten it done before and reading about it online.

This is a job that I wouldn't do in a million years even if I were still capable of doing it. With all the shady contractors and mechanics out there that will take advantage of anyone if they can make a buck because what they do is largely behind the scenes and almost seems like magic to people who aren't handy, this is so much different. Tree cutters work right out in the open for the entire block to see what they're doing.

A mature maple weighs in the area of 10 to 12 tons. That's up to 24,000 lbs of wood they need to get safely on the ground without smashing cars and houses and ruining your lawn. That's up to 24,000 lbs of wood they need to drag off your property either without trashing the lawn and/or repairing it after they leave. They grind the stump out. They dispose everything.

To get two of them removed completely and a few massive limbs off a third one before they fall on your house for about the price that extractions and dentures cost seems like a great deal to me.

Don't get me wrong. It kills me to have to pay for this. Sure... because you end up with less than you have after forking over the cash it seems like a huge waste of money... but you leave them up too long after their use by date and you just might have them inside your house one day.

And I've had enough nature inside my house for two lifetimes.

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Saturday, February 27, 2021 5:57 PM

Got my walk in after I got my laundry done today.

Sun's out and it's not too chilly.

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Saturday, February 27, 2021 6:07 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Heart rot... that's what our very large silver maple had. It was dropping large (8-10" diameter) limbs and had become a real hazard. It was a shame to remove it. It was so large that three of us together couldn't put our arms around it, but it was a hazard!

We also had an 80' star pine (not a true pine, closest relative is the monkey puzzle tree, but it's pine-shaped) that we had cut to 40' bc it's a weak-wooded tree and every time the wind blew hard I kept thinking... "It's going to take out the cars parked on the street, block the street, take out our neighbor's front-yard wall and maybe even their front door."

No bueno.

Ya gotta do watcha gotta do!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Saturday, February 27, 2021 8:02 PM

I'm not sure what's wrong with them other than the squirrels living inside of one and the carpenter ants living in the other, but even when I first moved in I noticed that those two lost their leaves much sooner than the one I like did. Now a lot of the limbs on them don't even flourish at all and the last two years I've probably cleaned up more fallen debris than the prior 8 years combined.

My buddy was right. I'm glad I called a 2nd place.

They don't do anything after stump grinding... So it will be on me to remove the wood chips, fill in with dirt and plant grass seed, but they came in at $1250 less for the entire job than the first place did.

I don't really care to be doing all of that work where the stumps were myself, but it's safe work on the ground and I sure as hell can get it done a lot cheaper than $1250.

I've decided I'm going to do it. Unfortunately it was too late to get back in touch with them this afternoon, but first thing Monday morning I'm just going to ask them a few more questions and if they answer to my satisfaction they've got the job.

One thing I like is that they don't even ask for a dime until the stumps are ground down. The first place charged a lot more and required a 20% deposit up front.

In happier news, I got my kitchen fan remote today. It didn't work at all out of the box even though I knew for sure the dip switches were right. After a bit of trial and error with the wiring and quite a few trips up and down to the breaker box, I got the fan blowing air down for the first time since I moved here.

It doesn't seem like the receiver controls the lights unfortunately, so I can't just leave the two switches on 24/7 and use the remote for all the functions. If I were able to do that my plan was going to just have one switch for the entire fan instead of two (one for the light and one for the fan, like I have now).

Oh well... At least now I can reverse the fan and do the high, medium and low settings.

The only real problem right now is that the remote only works if you use it around 1 or 2 inches from the lights. The only two 9volt batteries I have though are a dollar store battery that's been in a closet for 2 years, and an old, loose Energizer battery I don't even know why I had and is probably 8 to 10 years old at this point.

Hopefully if I buy a brand new Energizer or Duracell 9 volt it will work anywhere and I can mount the bracket for it on the wall after I finish the kitchen.

I'll get back to finishing the mudding of the ceiling tomorrow so I can get that primered and get the fan blades back up there soon.

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Saturday, February 27, 2021 9:07 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

You'd THINK with all the big deal about all the snow and all the winter storms that there would have been a big bite taken out of the drought. Not so much.

And no rain in sight for the next 10 days ... there goes the rainy season, I think.

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Saturday, February 27, 2021 10:10 PM

Those pictures make me wish I lived 20 miles south of where I do.

Sorry Kiki. Wish I could give you all of the extra crap we get over my way.

:(

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Saturday, February 27, 2021 10:13 PM

Didn't want to go to sleep yet... But I didn't want to do anything huge either.

I went up and sanded down my mud around the ceiling fan, but I didn't hit any of the other areas I'd mudded. I primed the smoothed down mud around the fan and then hit all the areas I'd exposed of adhesive on the floor.

Nothing too huge, but I knew I'd have to give around the fan one more mud treatment before I'm ready to wrap that up, and now that I've got the fan working right I'd like to get that ready to go sooner than later. I'd also like to get everything out from the middle of the kitchen too since it's driving me nuts along with all the other events going on right now.

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Saturday, February 27, 2021 11:09 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

SIX: That's great!

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Saturday, February 27, 2021 11:34 PM

Looks like the rain is back for my area.

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Sunday, February 28, 2021 5:37 PM

Rain's back.

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Sunday, February 28, 2021 5:54 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Hey all - I've not been posting much here because it's just been regular daily stuff, I wanted to concentrate my time on select topics, AND because my time here in general has been limited.

But I HAVE been reading and I appreciate the posts!

Only now I really, truly need to concentrate even more on the things I need to do IRL because deadlines loom. So my time on the board in general is going to be really, really short.

I'll still be reading, and still appreciating your posts!

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Sunday, February 28, 2021 8:21 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Well, I figured out how to manage my joint pain somewhat. I'll post about that later maybe.

But in the meantime, I've managed to pot up all of my purchased plants into bigger pots (so they don't die) and weed/trim up/top up all of the other potted plants, cut back my ornamental grasses, cut back the dead parts of a giant ceanothus (I don't know why it's dying, but I had to cut half of it to the ground), do quite a bit of adventitious weeding, cut down a "trunk" of bird of paradise that a previous trimmer had left standing, and in general tidy up. Three greewaste bins are at the curb!

Also did film recycling with dear daugther.

Tomorrow we are going to Bonhoff lumber to pick out two rough-cut steamed beech boards, the pallet will be loaded with boards roughly 10'12' long X 10" wide X 2" thick. This is for our platform bed. (The previous one was from poplar, which was pretty bc it was spalted.) The lumberyard will cross-cut it for us, so we need to take a tape measure and a marking pen.

But after THAT, it's back to yardwork: finish binning up the ceanothus limbs, raking the palm crap off the back lawn (Did I mention that I HATE palm trees?), edging and mowing (dear daughter will do a lot of that) and sweeping up the driveway because it's full of dead ceanothus leaves and twigs and duff. And after that, another round of weed spraying to get the weeds that I missed the first time, or that sprouted afterwards.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Sunday, February 28, 2021 8:33 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

You'd THINK with all the big deal about all the snow and all the winter storms that there would have been a big bite taken out of the drought. Not so much.

And no rain in sight for the next 10 days ... there goes the rainy season, I think.

Unless we have a Miracle march, or (like last year) an Amazing April, we're due for a very very dry year. I don't expect to see much rain this year bc, according to MAGONS, they're having anice La Nina rainfall, so at this side of the Pacific it will probably continue dry.

I did notice that Utah is doing better, tho. Quite a number of areas have moved from D4 to D3.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Sunday, February 28, 2021 8:35 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Those pictures make me wish I lived 20 miles south of where I do.

Sorry Kiki. Wish I could give you all of the extra crap we get over my way.

:(

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A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

There's one thing I wish they would do to improve the map, and that's showing areas of EXCESS rainfall. It would give a much more balanced and complete picture.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Monday, March 1, 2021 8:51 AM

I was thinking the same thing when I looked at the map.

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Monday, March 1, 2021 9:00 AM

I'll trade you a few Maple trees for a few Palm trees Sigs. They come with carpenter ants and squirrels for free!

Sounds like you're making good progress out there.

Though it was 50 yesterday, it's only 27 right now. It will be another week until we start regularly getting some decent temps around here, and hopefully everything starts drying up soon.

I've got a bajillion branches to clean up, but I'll probably just wait until the tree crew finish and see what they clean up. I'm betting the answer to that is not much. I didn't see the same glowing reviews for them that I did for the outfit that wanted to charge a lot more when it came to lawn clean up.

I can use the exercise and some time out in the sun though for sure.

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Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6

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Monday, March 1, 2021 10:02 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The only one here still talking about Trump is you dummy.

--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6]

T

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Monday, March 1, 2021 10:02 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The only one here still talking about Trump is you dummy.

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Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6]

T

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Monday, March 1, 2021 10:02 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The only one here still talking about Trump is you dummy.

--------------------------------------------------

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Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6]

T

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The only one here still talking about Trump is you dummy.

--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6]

T

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Monday, March 1, 2021 12:49 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Today is lumber day! We get to go and pick out some nice steamed beech for our bed.

I've learned, in my old age and infirmity, not to overschedule my day. That way. I don't get frustrated when I can't checkmark all of the things I had "planned" to do, I just get happy if I do more things than I had hoped.

And bit by bit, progress is being made.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Monday, March 1, 2021 1:16 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
There's one thing I wish they would do to improve the map, and that's showing areas of EXCESS rainfall. It would give a much more balanced and complete picture.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

I thought the same thing too but it's part of a much larger series:

North American Drought Monitor https://nadm-noaa.hub.arcgis.com/
Canada Drought Monitor https://www.agr.gc.ca/atlas/maps_cartes/canadianDroughtMonitor/en/
Europe Drought Monitor https://eldoradoweather.com/current/drought-europe.html
Global Drought Monitor https://gdis-noaa.hub.arcgis.com/pages/drought-monitoring

and I guess it was hard enough to get everyone to standardize on the same forms.

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Monday, March 1, 2021 5:53 PM

Got my walk in before the rain that is trying to come hits.

Also got some nice ground salmon for my supper tonight. No lemon or dill in sight of it.

Don't know how I would react to dill as I've not really eaten it but I know how I would react to lemon.

So fresh unfrilled salmon is a treat.

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Monday, March 1, 2021 7:55 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Today is lumber day! We get to go and pick out some nice steamed beech for our bed.

I've learned, in my old age and infirmity, not to overschedule my day. That way. I don't get frustrated when I can't checkmark all of the things I had "planned" to do, I just get happy if I do more things than I had hoped.

And bit by bit, progress is being made.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

If you want some more, come on over and pick it up before they take the rest away tomorrow.

Got both the trees cut down to stumps today, and 1/2 of the trimming of the good tree.

They were able to make a surprise visit this afternoon after the two scheduled jobs the 2 crews had were on property that was still far too wet to work on. I can't believe what they got done in 4 hours.

My poor lawn is going to need a lot of TLC though. :(

I was working on my soffit project in the kitchen today while they worked. Unfortunately, I won't be removing the entire thing like I wanted to. There is electric running back there because Uncle Bob is an idiot. It's not that I couldn't fix it, but I don't want to put in the effort. Also, who knows what that ridiculous 1950's insulation is made of, and it's a freakin mess that I don't want to deal with any more than I have to.

But once it's done I will have shortened it by around 4" which will be plenty to put a proper frame on the kitchen door when it's all done. I just need to re-box out the end of the soffit, patch the wall and ceiling where it was removed and mud/paint it and we're golden.

--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

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Monday, March 1, 2021 8:05 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I wish we could pick it up; maple of any kind is really pretty woodworking wood. We had a bunch of maple firewood from our silver maple, and hubby took a number of the bigger pieces to learn hand-planing and handsawing, and the figure and colors that he revealed were just gorgeous. At some point, when neither of us has anything else to do (ha!) we could take those pieces and make beautiful wooden boxes.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Monday, March 1, 2021 8:13 PM

There's some HUGE pieces of maple still sitting on the lawn. So big that I couldn't move them. They already loaded up two trucks with the stuff too.

If I didn't have a billion other projects, I probably would have taken a few after cutting them down some to work with, but I don't need to be starting up a new hoard. It already feels like I don't have enough room with my kitchen and living room in disarray with the kitchen project taking up all of my time now.

It turns out they are Silver Maples. I didn't know that until today.

So glad to have them gone. Even more so when I saw just how much of the scariest one was actually completely hollowed out.

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Monday, March 1, 2021 8:13 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Mission accomplished, we picked up three very nice approx 10'X 9"X1 7/8" steamed beech. We wound up shifting a lot of the planks on the pallet because the wider planks were about halfway down. So we made two piles ... a "reject" pile and a "maybe" pile.. So after we had set aside the ones that were too narrow, too bowed, too cupped, too cracked, or the edges had been munged up we found six suitable boards when we only needed three. So we got to select for figure and color as well, and I think the boards are BEAUTIFUL! The ones I selected for the outside frame pieces have speckling and tiger stripes as well as figured grain; once it's oiled it's going to be awesome.

But, between yesterday and today I took the rest of the day off; just dishes and a little bit of food prep and that's it.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Monday, March 1, 2021 8:23 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
There's some HUGE pieces of maple still sitting on the lawn. So big that I couldn't move them. They already loaded up two trucks with the stuff too.

If I didn't have a billion other projects, I probably would have taken a few after cutting them down some to work with, but I don't need to be starting up a new hoard. It already feels like I don't have enough room with my kitchen and living room in disarray with the kitchen project taking up all of my time now.

It turns out they are Silver Maples. I didn't know that until today.

So glad to have them gone. Even more so when I saw just how much of the scariest one was actually completely hollowed out.

--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

Silver maple - as I found out- is considered a "soft" maple, and it doesn't heal well if large limbs are pruned off. Fungus starts eating into the heartwood and works its way down into the tree trunk. But that's what can give it pretty colors; it's called "spalting" and some woodworkers will spalt their wood on purpose. Our tree was also pretty rotted ... not hollow all the way down the trunk, but getting there, it also had a squirrel's nest in a hollow part (sorry Mrs Squirre!) but it has lovely pink and dark streaks thru parts of it. You'd think someone drew on it with a crayon in some parts.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Monday, March 1, 2021 10:34 PM

I can't say for sure, but you're probably right about the Silver Maples not doing well with large limb cuts. The two that had to come down both had several before I moved in, and the one with the squirrels living inside of it had the squirrels burrowing straight down into one and damn near halfway down the tree from it with holes on the sides of the trunk, presumably to let the water out when it rained.

Fortunately, we're not doing any major limb cuts on the last tree, and it hadn't had any before. My only real concern is a few large branches which had jagged edges after they broke during storms.

Any ideas for how to protect it and promote healthy growth. My big lawn is going to look pretty bare if I have to cut that one down in a few years too.

I was thinking of buying a bottle of this fairly expensive insect killer and tree fertilizer I saw last year. Can't recall the name. I think it's around $40.

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Monday, March 1, 2021 10:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Today is lumber day! We get to go and pick out some nice steamed beech for our bed.

I've learned, in my old age and infirmity, not to overschedule my day. That way. I don't get frustrated when I can't checkmark all of the things I had "planned" to do, I just get happy if I do more things than I had hoped.

And bit by bit, progress is being made.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

If you want some more, come on over and pick it up before they take the rest away tomorrow.

Got both the trees cut down to stumps today, and 1/2 of the trimming of the good tree.

They were able to make a surprise visit this afternoon after the two scheduled jobs the 2 crews had were on property that was still far too wet to work on. I can't believe what they got done in 4 hours.

My poor lawn is going to need a lot of TLC though. :(

I was working on my soffit project in the kitchen today while they worked. Unfortunately, I won't be removing the entire thing like I wanted to. There is electric running back there because Uncle Bob is an idiot. It's not that I couldn't fix it, but I don't want to put in the effort. Also, who knows what that ridiculous 1950's insulation is made of, and it's a freakin mess that I don't want to deal with any more than I have to.

But once it's done I will have shortened it by around 4" which will be plenty to put a proper frame on the kitchen door when it's all done. I just need to re-box out the end of the soffit, patch the wall and ceiling where it was removed and mud/paint it and we're golden.

--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Trump will be fine.

--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6]

T

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Monday, March 1, 2021 10:50 PM

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Monday, March 1, 2021 11:34 PM

Looks like we get 2 days of dry in my area. Yipee!!

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Tuesday, March 2, 2021 8:18 AM

Good to hear Brenda. You going to play some Mahjong soon?

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Tuesday, March 2, 2021 5:40 PM

Something happened on the third floor this morning that set off all the smoke detectors in the building.

Lovely way to wake up.

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Tuesday, March 2, 2021 5:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Good to hear Brenda. You going to play some Mahjong soon?

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It is nice. Not sure about that. It depends on when restrictions let up on gatherings.

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Tuesday, March 2, 2021 7:35 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I can't say for sure, but you're probably right about the Silver Maples not doing well with large limb cuts. The two that had to come down both had several before I moved in, and the one with the squirrels living inside of it had the squirrels burrowing straight down into one and damn near halfway down the tree from it with holes on the sides of the trunk, presumably to let the water out when it rained.

Fortunately, we're not doing any major limb cuts on the last tree, and it hadn't had any before. My only real concern is a few large branches which had jagged edges after they broke during storms.

Any ideas for how to protect it and promote healthy growth. My big lawn is going to look pretty bare if I have to cut that one down in a few years too.

I was thinking of buying a bottle of this fairly expensive insect killer and tree fertilizer I saw last year. Can't recall the name. I think it's around $40.

--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

I wish. I did some pretty extensive internet research on "how to treat stumps from which limbs have been removed" bc this is a big issue for fruit growers. Yanno, you see ppl paint the stump white all of the time or coat it with tar, but that doesn't really help. I know they tried a solution of vitamin C and a solution of aspirin (which IIRC helped a little) and a couple of other things, but nothing really promoted faster healing or prevented invasion of fungus except the tree's own healing powers. Which, as you know, aren't particulary robust with silver maples.

I have to have some pretty large limbs cut from one of the avocados soon. Maybe tung oil on the stump would help seal it off, if nothing else.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Tuesday, March 2, 2021 8:30 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

I have the opposite problem with the crape myrtles sprouting suckers and watersrpouts everywhere, even where cut. I'm hoping a painting-over with milk paint - to possibly 'trick' the buds underneath the bark into thinking they're not above ground - will fix the issue.

My neighbor from years ago had a HUGE avocado tree cut down completely at about 6' above ground. And the darn tree resprouted from below the cut line.

Somewhere I remember reading that how well an avocado tolerates significant limb-removal has to do with the age of the the tree compared to their normal lifespan. "avocado trees growing in the wild in Mexico have been known to live as long as 400 years" Also, you might want to try looking up avocado cultivation. iirc the trees are usually pruned to make harvesting easier, so the industry has a large body of info on the topic.

Getting to the topic of silver maples - my neighbor had a very large silver maple street tree - a tree on the parkway. But the city hired some low-bid tree pruning service that hacked away at all the trees in the neighborhood. And the silver maple declined with dead and dying branches over the next 7 or so years or so till there was the trunk and one lonely limb sticking out at an angle with a few tattered leaves trying to come out in spring. It was a sad sight to see over that time. Anyway, the city eventually removed it. I've read that silver maples don't do very well at healing any branch loss, whether it's from a cut or a breakage. The GOOD news is that they're fast growers! So a replacement tree will look substantial over a short period of time.

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Tuesday, March 2, 2021 10:03 PM

The ottoman that came with that chair that I got last year is starting to break from me sitting on it. Don't know if I can fix it or I will have to buy something else to sit on and be able to put my feet up on.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021 2:44 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
The ottoman that came with that chair that I got last year is starting to break from me sitting on it. Don't know if I can fix it or I will have to buy something else to sit on and be able to put my feet up on.

That's weird that the ottoman is giving up before the chair bc you'd think ottomans take less load and get less wear. Are they made the same way?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021 2:52 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Thanks KIKI I'll look into it.

*****

So dd and I cut up the remaining trimmings from the ceanothus, bird of paradise, and c. carpenteria, and swept up the driveway. It doesn't sound like much but it took over 2 hours. With all of the physical activity lately I feel pretty creaky and stiff now.

I found landscaper's cloth under the ceanothus and I wonder if maybe that's what caused it to crater. I've had bad luck with ceanothus, but I'd sure like to figure out what happened with this one because it was doing so well. If it doesn't recover I'll have to come up with a replacement- maybe nothing quite so large. Possibly another hollyleaf cherry, or a bush-sized privet or possibly a c californica, which is narrow and won't sprawl out over the driveway but isn't very pretty. Fairy-duster?

Fortunately, there is a little rain due tomorrow so I'll work inside instead. Still chipping away at

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021 8:48 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Good to hear Brenda. You going to play some Mahjong soon?

--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

It is nice. Not sure about that. It depends on when restrictions let up on gatherings.

Oh. Did they tighten them up again? I know you didn't play too long ago.

--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021 9:01 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I wish. I did some pretty extensive internet research on "how to treat stumps from which limbs have been removed" bc this is a big issue for fruit growers. Yanno, you see ppl paint the stump white all of the time or coat it with tar, but that doesn't really help. I know they tried a solution of vitamin C and a solution of aspirin (which IIRC helped a little) and a couple of other things, but nothing really promoted faster healing or prevented invasion of fungus except the tree's own healing powers. Which, as you know, aren't particulary robust with silver maples.

I'll just have to hope for the best. I'm still going to do a little research and at least buy some treatment and try it out. I really love that tree and my front lawn is going to look naked if they're all torn down.

Fortunately, no massive limbs were cut yesterday, but there was a lot of smallish offshoots cut off of two of them that were hanging over my roof.

Either way, hopefully if it ends up dying it's long after I sell the house. Most of the massive limb cuts up to the trunk on the other two were done before I bought the house and it didn't become apparent to me that they were a problem until 2 years ago.

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Getting to the topic of silver maples - my neighbor had a very large silver maple street tree - a tree on the parkway. But the city hired some low-bid tree pruning service that hacked away at all the trees in the neighborhood. And the silver maple declined with dead and dying branches over the next 7 or so years or so till there was the trunk and one lonely limb sticking out at an angle with a few tattered leaves trying to come out in spring. It was a sad sight to see over that time. Anyway, the city eventually removed it. I've read that silver maples don't do very well at healing any branch loss, whether it's from a cut or a breakage. The GOOD news is that they're fast growers! So a replacement tree will look substantial over a short period of time.

I had made the comment that it's a shame that 60 years ago people just planted these things with no direction... planting trees that aren't very good, and also planting them so close to houses. They did so with no thought of who would be stuck holding the bag long after they're dead or have moved on. This house has had 4 owners that I know of. I'm the one paying for it.

That's when he said "yeah, these Silver Maples are awful. They grow super quick though, so people love planting them so they can see them fully matured before they die. He even said that 60 years ago the towns were giving them to residents for free.

I have no intention at this time to plant anything new to replace them. Too much other stuff to worry about now. Maybe if I get a lot of my other worries off my plate and get a good portion of the remodeling done I'll revisit this issue next year and do some research into some trees that will look good but remain managable for future owners. I'm not going to be irresponsible with this and just plant something that is going to eventually screw somebody else over.

The tree crew completely destroyed my curbside frontage yesterday. I reluctantly was okay with ruts that would have been formed by the taking down of the trees, but I didn't sign up for the catastrophe that awaited me outside yesterday after they apparently didn't even use the boards they put down to get the trucks on the lawn to remove the large pieces that people couldn't carry.

I have tons of before and after pics, as well as pics before and while the guy came on his own to get the boards (and his truck).

Before the job started I was told that they don't do any yard fixing, but this was beyond what should be expected. After making sure he saw me taking pictures while he was there, I said "you guys are going to fix this, right?"

They will. They can't yet because the ground is too frozen, but he's the stump remover and he's the one that will also come back to fix the yard.

I'll even help him when he gets here with the dirt, and hopefully I can get him to give me extra dirt to fill ruts made by the trees being taken down too.

The payment timeline has shifted now though. They don't get paid until the stumps are ground AND the lawn is fixed.

I'm no dummy. I'm not going to give them all the power and then chase them forever to come back and do a job they're never going to do after they get paid.

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A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021 4:51 PM

http://treesplanet.blogspot.com/2014/05/quercus-rubra-red-oak.html

https://web.extension.illinois.edu/treeselector/detail_plant.cfm?Plant
ID=265

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Just a quick comment - if you want a magnificent "skyline" tree that's (by everything I've read) a great tree overall - no root problems, no suckering problems, strong-wooded and wind-resistant, PLUS fast growing! - look into northern red oak (quercus rubra). If they grew well here in SoCal I would have planted one or 2 just to have a tree in the area that was visible above the houses (besides the ridiculous Mexican fan palms).

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021 4:57 PM

Might be worth looking into. I've jotted it down for the future.

My opinion right now is that Silver Maples are nothing more than giant weeds.

Finished mudding the first coat of the soffit reduction in the kitchen. It will be days before I can do anything with it. Going to see if I can find my small turbo fan so at least I can get some extra drying going on. I probably should have bought a bag of quick set for that job. Oh well...

Probably going to call it quits for the day. Really can't get much done in the kitchen right now with everything in such disarray, and I don't feel like sanding down things to get back to my daily painting shifts yet. This whole tree ordeal really knocked me off my schedule.

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A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021 5:16 PM

A dry day here which was nice.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021 5:22 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Good to hear Brenda. You going to play some Mahjong soon?

--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

It is nice. Not sure about that. It depends on when restrictions let up on gatherings.

Oh. Did they tighten them up again? I know you didn't play too long ago.

--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

Not really tightened up again but not loosened enough to let a group of about 20 people gather.

It's been almost a year since I last played mah jong with anyone from my group. BC went into lockdown of March last year and was in it for all of Spring and into Summer of 2020.

The senior centre where I play is open but only for exercise classes which is only allowed about 5 people maybe a couple more.

Vaccines are starting to roll out here in BC but its slow going.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021 5:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
The ottoman that came with that chair that I got last year is starting to break from me sitting on it. Don't know if I can fix it or I will have to buy something else to sit on and be able to put my feet up on.
That's weird that the ottoman is giving up before the chair bc you'd think ottomans take less load and get less wear. Are they made the same way?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

They are made the same way. Both sort of an "S" shape. I just had a better look at the ottoman and it seems to have lost the some of the pieces that hold the connecters together. This chair and ottoman were originally bought at IKEA, which I have generally found to be good but I don't know how long the person had the items before giving them to me.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021 5:32 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

Oh, Signy, I don't know if I mentioned this before but my experience with ceanothus was dismal. I had maybe 9 or so and they were all dead within 5 years. IN THE WILD they're drought-tolerant and long-lived. But, my thinking goes, there are millions of ceanothus seeds scattered about every year. IN THE WILD the one lucky seed that lands in JUST the right spot that has good conditions long-term will definitely be drought tolerant and long-lived. But us humans have no clue as to what's the right spot in terms of soil, temperature, moisture, and timing. So our plantings don't reproduce what nature does. And human plantings tend to be short-lived. The ceanothus may even appear to thrive for a while, but then the wrong combination of something happens at the wrong time, and poof! - there goes the ceanothus. If it was in the wild, it would be just another bare spot that wasn't quite propitious enough long enough.

When I was out hiking in spring once - before I realized how seriously tasty I am to ticks - I came across a grove of ceanothus small trees and bushes blooming on a south-western facing slope of boulders where nothing else was growing. Obviously there was something about that place that was good for them.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2021 6:27 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Just a quick comment - if you want a magnificent "skyline" tree that's (by everything I've read) a great tree overall - no root problems, no suckering problems, strong-wooded and wind-resistant, PLUS fast growing! - look into northern red oak (quercus rubra). If they grew well here in SoCal I would have planted one or 2 just to have a tree in the area that was visible above the houses

Best oak for me was island oak bc it's more garden tolerant and not as wide as some of the others

Quote:
(besides the ridiculous Mexican fan palms).

Um, not a "fan" of fan palms either, I take it? (pun intended!)

Think I'm going to see if I can find a coffeeberry of the right size for that spot. It's wider than I would like but it's very bee friendly early in spring, a nice dark green and everything about it says "here is a nice shrub".

We got a little more rain - 0.5", just a quick storm front breezing thru. But I turned on the sprinklers. My hubby things I'm nuts, but since this was not a soaking rain I figured I'd add an inch to whatever we'd get and get better penetration, instead of just frequently sprinkling the soil surface (definitely not good for plants in general, and especially not good for natives, which are adapted to cold wet/ hot dry soil. Hot damp soil breeds fungus against which natives have no resistance.)

I dug up a beautiful multicolored lantana which had planted itself in a very wrong spot, and planted it in a kitty litter bucket that I got from a friend. Considering that the roots came up with no soil whatsoever (uh oh) and that all of the leaves wilted and fell off, I thought it was a goner, but was glad to see new green shoots popping out. That is one tough plant! It even survived me!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Thursday, March 4, 2021 8:17 AM