the little wild kingdom

[flowerbug]

made some progress on the clutter here by shredding a pile of papers yesterday. first i have to go through and make sure there's no plastic, lables, stamps or staples as all that stuff is a pain in the butt to pick out of the gardens afterwards (yes i have years of experience at that too).

today i may get some more done, but i make no promises these days. or i should say i make as few promises as possible...

 

[flowerbug]

i went to sleep about 40 minutes ago, hit REM sleep almost immediately and bounced right out again... i had a few hour nap in the evening so i won't be too bad off if i don't get back to sleep anytime soon, but it would have been nice to stay out until wakeup at 6:30 for trash/recycle day again (i'm always so excited about this! )...

 

[flowerbug]

Friday i was able to get the worms checked on and fed. they're not doing that great this year and they didn't last year either. too many changes and not the right kind of soil for them and pretty much the worms i used to keep that did well are not in the mix any longer. what remains are slower growing earth worms and not the composting worms that went after the organic material better (and they were also not red wrigglers).

so this coming spring after i get the worm buckets emptied into the gardens i have to completely clean out the buckets and then fill them part way with garden soil i want to recharge and then get some replacement worms of the kind i'd like to use again and start over.

when i empty the buckets though i need to set aside some of the small spiders i use for helping to control fungus gnats. they're very helpful and very cute.

at least that's the plan.

 

[Mini Horses]

Worm farmers have their own issues -- like all the various livestock units Starting with new brood stock is good...improve the results.

 

[flowerbug]

mebbe get washing machine fixed tomorrow. not holding my breath... at least parts are in today so if they are the parts that are actually needed then we have a washing machine back tomorrow sometime. on the other hand...

 

[flowerbug]

Worm farmers have their own issues -- like all the various livestock units Starting with new brood stock is good...improve the results.

the biggest mistake i made was to change the chemistry too quickly. in general worms will not like this sort of thing and i also knew that but i did it anyways (added some sulfur - not much, but enough that they didn't like it). so pretty much it was me being dumb and i got what i deserved...

 

[flowerbug]

no fix still for washing machine, yet more parts on order, new suspension and transmission. the tub keeps dropping as it fills and that means the stuff that needs to get together to run isn't and so the grinding noises and not working. Mom commented that it sounds like a car...

as to why this sort of thing would wear out this quick is probably not a very sufficient design for the weight and that means i'm going to have to suggest to Mom that we don't use the bulky setting very often in the future. i don't think we abused it beyond the warranty or anything like that, but we don't really need to press it so hard. if we get it fixed... i'm still not sure how this is still going to go, but my previous guess of three more weeks may be on. or not...

 

[flowerbug]

i was not dreaming of this one but it sure is impressive:

instead i was dreaming of this type:

why was i dreaming of a plant growing in the middle of a gravel dirt road, muddy, it was actually several flowering in a few holes obviously dug out by a shovel of the type that i use quite often? probably because Mom and i were talking about all the daffodils we'd still like to remove. it was certainly not a very realistic dream and probably why i woke up and remembered it as being so odd. they'd have been run over many times and never flowering as nicely as they were.

i did get a few pictures of the few i managed to grow here for a short few years. it was not the kind of climate or soil they did well in and they eventually gave up:

check out all the forms/pics on this page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calochortus

but if you want just pics take scroll through:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=calochortus&t=h_&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

 

[flowerbug]

nada on the washing machine parts yet for this round of fix attempt. need plumber again so this happens tomorrow morning we hope. i got it wrapped with duct tape at the moment but we're ok not using that sink.

too much other stuff up in the air and interrupting me and distracting me from working on projects i'd really like to have done already. it's ok, but still...

i want to finish up going through all my bulk beans from last season so they can get put into their jars for storage. working on that while waiting for other things so at least i'm not being distracted from something that requires more attention and energy so i'm not being as frustrated by all this.

Friday evening i had to run out (i hate shopping, i really hate shopping...) because when i sent Mom off Friday morning with a note about what kind of lights to get at the store to replace the one that burned out - i was very precise about what i wanted. the person who helped her pretty much ignored what i wrote down and gave her less light for more $ and it was also not very efficient light either. so would cost much more to run over the years they would last. grrr! so when she got home i saw what they were and they weren't at all right so off i went and returned them and then got the lights i really wanted. cost a few more $ to get double the amount of light and better efficiency. will make that $12 back within a year or two based upon how much those lights get used. the display at the store was very obnoxious music and i really felt like finding that stupid speaker and ripping it out, but i got the lights i needed and got out of there. i spend as little time in that store as possible. any kind of loud and obnoxious music makes me mad and even worse when it is on repeat of any kind.

ok, to be more positive the good news at least is that so far with several heavy storms is that no leaks in the roof that i could see.

and i have a flower coming out on an amaryllis.

 

[flowerbug]

a lot of rains today, puddles everywhere, but at least no major amount of snow or ice.

and the plumber made it out to fix the sink stopper in the bathroom so we have that back usable again. a bit of fun in that he was already paid and out the door when i found out that it was leaking but i was able to catch him before he drove away so it at least saved a whole nother round of appointment/visit and interrupting things again.