I just hope you don't get a Bill at the end of the month!!!
I tried to do some stamps today but number one son phoned from Australia (first time since February). He was on the 'phone for 2 Hours.
AND
have been trying to sort out problems with a supplier. We sent a cheque in February, another one in March and another one in April to their bank in London, complete with the necessary paperwork and information. Their bank never processed any payments to them or took the money from our account. The cheques are "lost".
Now, the chances of Royal Mail losing our cheques and only our cheques sent on three different days over three different months is taking coincidence a bit beyond belief. (I know Royal Mail can be bad but surely not this bad). The supplier never even contacted their bank to investigate, all they want is their money. I can't send a cheque 'cos three are already missing and I will not do it electronically 'cos my bank charges a fortune to do that to Germany, where the supplier is based.
We have agreed that their Sales Rep will pick up a cheque for all outstanding amounts, sometime in the next two or three weeks. (so they cannot be desperate for their money).
I have contacted their bank for an explanation before I report the "lost" cheques to Royal Mail.
Hey! Bloomin'! Ho!
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"StayAlert.......Control The Virus.......Save Lives."
In the USA we can put in a stop payment order against lost checks with our bank. That would render those checks useless if they show up later. Of course the bank charges a fee for that service.
I installed a new air conditioner today. The old one still worked fine but was waking me up at night with the noise. This one is quieter and more energy efficient.
I also need to get a new office chair for my desk. Mine has just about fallen apart.
All the cheques have been stopped, but of course the banks know how to charge for this service.
Of course you cannot speak to the branch concerned, you have to go through their call centre, who then email the branch to phone you back and you'll die of old age before they phone you!!!
So I'll just have to write to them (on a stiff piece of cardboard) using Royal Mails' tracked and signed for service. Hopefully they will respond to that.
Spent the day catching up with the IPL cricket and listening to Englands pathetic batting against Pakistan.
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"StayAlert.......Control The Virus.......Save Lives."
Ah, the holiday weekend! We have a busy one next weekend (a wedding and a christening) so we are staying home and focusing on chores and a bit of relaxing on this one!
I work from home on Fridays, so I handled the few things that were going on, then got to some of my spring outside work. It took me from 3pm until dark to get the pool area cleared of leaves and winter muck. Much of that time pulling wet leaves off the cover. That was a lot of work for my old bones and I still feel it today!
So I've been hanging out this morning, and anticipate going back out there and power washing that same area. Wish me luck!
We are expecting rain on Saturday and Sunday so I want to get the outside done. Maybe the rain will leave me some time for hobby stuff!
Strange coincidence with smauggie, I leaned back in my Hewlett-Packard office chair which I purchased over two decades ago when they discontinued their offerings for office furniture on Thursday night and the back support broke! So I will be on the look-out for a suitable replacement as so far I can't figure out how to disassemble it to determine if it can be repaired.
As I remember the purchase, it was originally listed in their catalog for $550 and I got it when it was discontinued for $50. I have spent far too many hours in it including almost three years of every day, eight hours a day usage while working the remote service desk for a company during one period of my working life.
Finally figured out how to disassemble it and found that where the back brace attaches to the top of the chair inside a back plastic cover has essentially disintegrated so it is not likely to go back together. For now with the back detached it makes an interesting seat only object. Have to see if my posture is good enough to use it as is.
Dialysis, damned if you do...dead if you don't 27 May 2018 07:03:04am
re: Spring-Summer SOR Diner 2018
Last week was a drag; 5 hours of dialysis on Monday, 4 hours of chemo on Tuesday, 5 hours of dialysis on Wednesday, 3 hours of CAT scan imaging and doctor’s appointment on Thursday, 5 hours of dialysis on Friday. It felt like I was sitting in waiting rooms all week long.
I have averaged 200 medical procedures per year for the last 4 years now; I now fill out any 'employment' box on forms with ‘professional patient’. I am thinking about buying a bunch of scrubs so I will fit in better! But on the upside, the handicapped parking is great! So I had these custom t-shirts made up
"There has been off and on rain over this weekend here in NC and southwest VA. We got a few activities (mowing, cleaning gutters) done but not enough."
Tell me about it! This was the one weekend when I had an open window to get as much yard work done as possible. Friday I work from home, so I got outside after 3pm when work died down. I got all the winter leaves out of the pool area, and off the pool cover before I lost daylight.
Yesterday it was 90 degrees! I thought that was good weather for power washing, so I did so until it started to rain in the afternoon. I didn't get too far.
Today it's raining! Oh well, I have covers to put in my albums!
"Strange coincidence with smauggie, I leaned back in my Hewlett-Packard office chair which I purchased over two decades ago when they discontinued their offerings for office furniture on Thursday night and the back support broke! "
In my career I've purchased thousands of sets of office furniture. So here's a bit about chairs. Do not buy one of the "Staples Specials". I cannot tell you how many times in my career I've fended off comments like, "$600 for an office chair, we can get them at Staples for $100!" I actually had a Powerpoint presentation explaining that a $600 chair was cheaper than a $100 chair.
My advise always is that buying a used professional chair is better than buying a new cheapie chair. You can find good chairs at used office furniture stores, flea markets, Craigs's List etc. Look for brand names, Steelcase, Knoll, Herman Miller and Haworth. Steelcase is the best, both quality and ergonomics. My favorite chair is a Steelcase Leap. I sit in one of those at work.
Be aware that good chairs have two different types of casters on them. One for hard floors and one for carpet. Make sure you get the right one. When checking out a used chair, try all the controls, especially the up and down motion. The piston that controls this is the first thing to go. (put it all the way up, then sit in it to see if it sinks) It's easily replaceable, but if there's several chairs to choose from, get a good one!
Yesterday and today, 100 degrees (38C) with full sun. Summer is here.
My office chair broke about a year ago. I went to the Goodwill Outlet (not store), and found a used office chair for $1.99.
Goodwill has opened many outlets in my area. It is great to find many things, if you have the time to do so. You pay for most items by the pound. Large items, like the chair, are usually marked at "move it out of here" prices. Books and videos are 20 cents each, and glassware (I think) is 25 cents each. It is great if you resell at flea markets, antique shops, and hobby shows too. We fill up a couple of shopping carts, then we go through them. We often put back many items that, for various reasons like damage not seen at first, we think is not worth trying to resell. Then we check out. Our average price per item runs around 35 cents to 75 cents.
So I've been taking weekly golf lessons for about two and a half months now and I'm really starting to see some real progress. It's exciting! I have played very little in the past. I was striking the ball very, very well last Saturday. I've only been practicing at this point and haven't gone out on the course yet and all my my work has been with a 7 iron but I've been amazed at what a little bit of instruction has done. Anyone else swing clubs?
Funny you should ask. Played yesterday and had one of the best rounds of my life. Par 71 course. Even par until I got to hole 15 (I call it the Devil hole). Ended up 4 over for a 75. I normally shoot anywhere from high 70s to high 80s. Great exercise, figured if I was any good I would be on TV.
Enjoy the game, but remember that the most important distance is the 6 inches between your ears.
Looks like the WWII weekend at the Reading (PA) Airport is going to be a washout.
Dang.
https://www.maam.org/maamwwii.html
Late Monday afternoon, a C-54 flew right over my house, about 300 feet up, on final. Yes, I'm about 5 miles downwind of runway 31 when the wind is out of the Northwest. That thing sounded like a truck. Made me appreciate its utility in the Berlin Airlift...
Rolled by the airport on Tuesday, and "FIFI" was sitting there.
I lived for several years on the other side of the Panama Canal from Howard Air Force Base. Sometimes those huge cargo planes woke me up, screaming with effort to get up into the sky. At times they sounded like they were about to land on my roof. Thankfully they never did.
Grew up a block away from a floatplane base in Northern Ontario. I don't know much about military cargo planes, but I can tell you a Norduyn Norseman will almost rattle the panes out of the window frames when they take off. 5:30 every morning ... sheesh.
I had the opportunity to get inside a B-24 and a B-17 when there was a fly in a few years ago. I was still amazed how fragile (thin skinned) these planes were. I did not opt for an actual flight that was offered. The B-17 took off but the B-24 aborted the take off.
Yes, angore, I would have panicked when the 20 mike-mike was punching through from the outside.
There were TWO B-29s in the air at the Reading airport this weekend (FIFI and Doc). The wind was in the right direction much of the weekend, so I was under the upwind leg of final approach, so I got several awesome, low-level passes right over my house. My house is about 500 feet in elevation above the airport, 5 miles to the Northwest.
What a RUMBLE!
Got a couple of low B-25 fly overs, too. Interesting how those engines are timed. Completely different sound, a cackle. Saw Mustangs rifling around the sky several times.
From Wikipedia: Gerard Marenghi (January 24, 1920 – May 2018), known as Jerry Maren, was an American actor who was the last surviving Munchkin of the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz, in which he portrayed a member of the Lollipop Guild.
Dialysis, damned if you do...dead if you don't 07 Jul 2018 03:53:54am
re: Spring-Summer SOR Diner 2018
I had an appointment with my oncologist this week and he has now declared me cancer-free. (But since he has only two bladder cancer patients on immunotherapy, he is sending me back to Duke next week to confer with a leading immunotherapy medical oncologist to verify his opinion.)
It is not common for a Stage 4 cancer patient to be declared ‘cancer-free' but these new immunotherapy drugs are truly incredible. Cancer is no longer defined and referred to by organ (i.e. lung cancer, brain cancer, bladder cancer, etc.) but is now being viewed as genomic. This is a gigantic paradigm shift.
It is a truly blessing that there is now some hope for patients, their families; and those who work in oncology now can feel like they can make a significant difference in our lives. And a warm thank you to everyone who offered their support in this community.
Now I have to wait 2 years before I can be considered to be eligible for kidney transplant but even if that fails to happen I am still so blessed.
Don
Did a little shopping today... notice the lightning speed? Order one was shipped in 1:05 minute and the second order was shipped in 1:35? In reality, all they have to do is click on the "shipped" button, but eBay has sellers on such a short leash with threats of cancellation, it's come to this!
Back in the day when I sold on eBay, prior to Paypal when people would mail you checks, I would have all my auctions end on Sunday evening. Then I would send the invoices (you had to do that yourself then) via email. I'd let them know that if received payment by Friday, it would get mailed on Saturday. If not, it would wait until the next Saturday. None of this mail every day within an hour stuff for me!
When I first started working (office administrative stuff) we would snail mail out requests for or responses to the various business items, and patiently wait a couple of weeks for response. Then came Fed Ex. Then came the fax machine. Then came email. Then came downloads. We were under more and more stress and pressure to respond "NOW". It's become an instant gratification world.
Yes! Just today over lunch I was explaining to two young uns what it was like to work in our company in 1986. I described how tasks were done manually, by secretaries (which were actually called secretaries then!) on typewriters with magic carbon paper. How they would type a purchase order on a 5 part form, then you'd sign it, take it to your boss for his signature, then you'd walk the length of the plant down to the purchasing department to hand deliver it!
They sat in awe as if I was describing how Abe Lincoln did his homework on the back of a shovel with a piece of charcoal by the light of the fireplace! I am the department fossil!
Way back when it was described that computerization would be a wonderful thing and in the future we'd all work 20 hrs a week! What they didn't account for was companies eliminating 3 outta 5 employees and working the rest of us to death! It is fast paced today.
Back when a friend got laid off I told him he was the lucky one. The company told him to go home! The rest of us they intended to kill!
And we could still accomplish our tasks without worrying if "the computer is down". Nowadays, if the computer is down, nothing can be done. You can't even buy gas or a candy bar.
Before I retired, I was just about the only one left who could manually process a needed item if the computer was down and a customer needed it urgently. The younger staff didn't know any more than which button to press to get the computer to do it - they had no concept of how to actually figure the work manually. Our boss, also an old-timer, insisted that we keep one typewriter on the premises for just such emergencies, when "corporate" got rid of all the typewriters.
And our typing skills had to be pretty decent too, because correcting all those carbons was not something we wanted to do!
Soon there will be only the younger workers and the value of us old-timers will be lost to history. This subject could go on and on . . . . . .
Typing is the one skill that has gotten me through life. My father was military and I attended a school for dependents in Germany. Some of our classes were rather advanced as I'd learn later on. For instance in seventh grade I saw "Speech" on my schedule and assumed it was for kids who had difficulty speaking. On the contrary it was really "Public Speaking" and I found I was a natural. I won the Extemporaneous Speaking competition in our region.
The other class they assigned was "Typing 101". I was immediately intrigued. I had no idea why as the rest of the guys sat in the back of the class and refused to participate. Something told me I needed to learn this. We had old IBM manual typewriters that had no letters on the keys. We learned the touch typing system. And I learned to type like the wind.
We relocated to the USA for my freshman year. I saw "Typing 101" on my schedule and protested that I already knew how to type. The school administrator said something like, "Yea right." When I attended the first class I demonstrated my typing skills for the teacher and immediately got excused. She told the class, "You may be able to type like that at the conclusion of this class."
Then computers came into vogue and I was really ahead of the game. While my counterparts struggled finding the letters on the keyboard, I concentrated on the software that we were learning. Back in 1986 when I started in the company, I saw the archaic practice of men hand writing out documents and memos, and handing them to a secretary for typing. Sometimes these documents would go two, three rounds of retyping. I asked for a typewriter. I was scolded that I was a Supervisor and secretaries did the typing for me. I replied that I typed faster than I wrote... and often faster than I think.
Interestingly these days, I see my kids applying for jobs that require a typing speed of something like 25 to 40 wpm - and they all type 2-fingered! It's amazing that, as much time as they spend on keyboards these days, kids don't realize the value of the skill, and schools don't teach it. In my day, we would have been laughed out the door if we applied for a job with a typing speed like that.
I will admit that the single most valuable course I took in high school was typing. Of course, it helped a lot that after college I initially had a career in computer programming (to the tune of about 750,000 lines of code over a 15 year period). I got up to 35 words per minute in typing class and up to 90 word per minute doing Cobol and Fortran programming plus PL/1, various assemblers, APL, various BASIC dialects, and some so-called fourth generation languages. Of course none are in common use today for new development.
I am “semi-ambidextrous” too. I throw with my left hand, catch with my right hand, and write with my right hand, but so awkwardly that people have often said, “I didn’t know you were left handed.” I hold forks, spoons, knives, cups, glasses in my right hand, bat from my right shoulder, and kick with my right foot. I shoot a pistol with my right hand, but aim a rifle or bow and arrow from my left shoulder. That caused problems in the Navy when we shot the M1 Garand rifle, because when shells were ejected, they and a blast of hot gas would go past my eyes just inches away. Later, when I was transferred to the Marines, it was the same story, but with the M-14 rifle. Major flinch factor!
My father and my wife's father both insisted that we take typing in high school. My dad had been a journalist who had long made his living with a typewriter, and then bought an office supply store which sold and repaired typewriters. Our teacher was Miss Cerney, and we too used typewriters — manual Underwoods with blank keys. I wasn't a very good student, and stopped paying attention after I'd learned the letter keys; to this day, I have to glance at the keyboard when I'm typing anything that resides on the top row of a keyboard. I'm fairly accurate and fast, but Susan is faster and more accurate. We told our son that he had to take typing in high school; he was already a blindingly fast two-finger typist, and now he uses a combination of two-finger and touch typing. Once, when he was taking typing, he got to class early to the great relief of his teacher. "Paul," she said, "I can't get this typewriter to turn on." He took a look at the typewriter in question, and had this suggestion: "You might consider plugging it in." But here's the best story:
Susan and I had started writing to each other when my battalion was still training in Okinawa, and by the time I was wounded in Vietnam, we had decided that we had a pretty good thing going. I was evacuated to San Diego for a long stay at Balboa Naval Hospital, and Susan decided she wanted to move to San Diego after she graduated from college. During her first visit after I arrived in San Diego, we decided we would get married (although we wouldn't actually have a date until I got out of traction!). But she would have to get a job to be able to afford an apartment in San Diego.
A few years before, my dad had started the American Kitefliers Association (AKA), the world's first adult kite club. One of the early members, who became Dad's friend, was Francis Rogallo, a NASA scientist and inventor of the parawing glider, which NASA was considering to use to return the Apollo 11 astronauts to earth. Ryan Aeronautical of San Diego was working on the project (which was eventually rejected in favour of parachutes). Dad asked Francis if he could get Susan a job at Ryan. No problem!
Susan had to take a typing test at Ryan, which she passed with flying colours. When she completed the test, the Ryan employee administering the test asked her if she knew someone at Ryan, because he had been told to pass her even if she couldn't type!
Susan worked the rest of that summer in the typing pool at Ryan, using a Smith-Corona Selectric typewriter. Her primary job was "correcting" engineering documents by whiting out "Lunar Excursion Module" and "LEM," and retyping them as "Lunar Module" and "LM". It seems that some executive or politician with too much time on his hands decided that the use of the word “Excursion" implied that the lunar astronauts were going to be enjoying holiday jaunt rather than carrying out a scientific expedition!
My father was deployed to the Philippines in late 1944, I think. He would have been approaching his 19th birthday then. He used to tell a rather sparse story about responding to a call for volunteers with typing skills to stay behind in Admin while the rest of his unit went to the front lines, to root out the remaining Japanese presence in the islands, I guess. His unit suffered some heavy casualties, and he always asserted that his typing skills saved his life. The uniform that hung in his closet had the Tech Sergeant rank on the sleeves...He never talked much about his war experiences, but we did find a shoebox full of precious photographs from the Philippines after he died...
My mother worked for Buddy L toys in Chicago, and became a 90 WPM typist...on a manual typewriter. I remember her typing up my history report (on Guadalcanal) for a HS history class...amazing. She did it, because it was due the next day.
Me, I'm a proficient touch typist, having taken typing as a summer school class the summer before HS. There are times now when I want to actually write a letter, but can't bring myself to forgo the editing flexibility of word processing. And, then, I'm stopped, because I think that a typewritten letter is so impersonal. I think part of that attitude comes from receiving letters from my father - If it was typewritten, I knew it was SERIOUS and I was to take its contents as guidance not to be ignored.
I find it amazing how thoroughly I adapt to key placement on computer keyboards, and how difficult I find it to adapt to a new layout.
I was in an engineering group in the 1960s, and we were glad to see one show up in the group. We had to write formal reports with some fairly complex equations, and as you might expect, many of those contained Greek letters as symbols. We'd always had to put those in by hand - with great care. Now the typist could just change the golf ball and type in the Greek letters. We got reports that looked more professional and didn't have to worry about messing up a typed page with our additions.
One day one of the engineers brought his handwritten draft of a memo to the typist with the Selectric and told her it was a rush job. She whipped it out in no time, pulled it from the typewriter, and handed it to him. The only problem was she had just finished a report with several Greek letters, and she forgot to change the golf ball - his memo was in Greek. She redid it with the Latin alphabet and he got it out in time, so no problem.
But he kept the Greek version, and the next day put it up on the wall of his cubicle with a note underneath: IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME. There was no complaint, but after that, somehow his work was always on the bottom of the inbox. The rest of us would generally get our stuff the next day - two or three for a long report. His always seemed to take several days. He finally wised up and took the memo down, and peace and harmony prevailed.
My uncle (father's side) had a genetic test. He was listed as mostly 70% English Irish. I know my great grandmother was a Patterson-Rose so I guess that is no surprise. The path given was from Eastern Africa with the original mother from somewhere in Caucasus and then through Europe. Of course, this contributes to half of me.
I have an interest to be tested but not have done it. I wonder how many other have any interesting in a genetic assessment.
I do have an interest in it, but after reading the fine print of the terms of genetic testing companies, Ancestry, etc., I have seen that they reserve the right to use your info for other research. I'm just paranoid about any company having that kind of info - I don't know why, but I am. Not planning on being genetically connecting to any crimes or anything, but -- the info is just OUT THERE -- I'm weird, I know ....
Someone protesting the sharing policy used the logic that if someone in your family was a serial killer, they could use YOUR DNA to catch them. My response was GOOD, I'd want them to catch him!
Sadness as we start the day here in Jacksonville after the senseless random shooting at the Landing yesterday. It happened less than a mile from my office. I have spent a lot of time at the Landing and have visited Chicago Pizza several times.
I was at an auction last night, best lot in it were two bankers boxes of Japan, described as modern mint and used with minisheets on piece and MNH. Range from 1985 to 1999. Also a stock book of used. Estimate £100.
What the description didn't say was that in the stockbook were a number of "Dragons" and other stamps up to 1875!! OK there were a few forgeries but there were also a number of genuine stamps.
I wasn't the only one that had spotted this page in the accumulation that was two bankers boxes.
The lot sold for £750 plus 10% Buyers Premium!!
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"StayAlert.......Control The Virus.......Save Lives."
Finally got internet back on at home. Catching up with all the Stamporama discussions I have missed while away in UK from June 7th to 2nd August.
House reno still not completed, A/C, siding and minor bits still to be done. Container emptied of house contents but still much to be sorted into place. Stamps seem to be ok, will be a while before before I get back to sorting.
Vegetable patch and flower beds four feet high in weeds, slowly getting cleared but will have seeded, making next years work tougher.
We're avid gardeners, so this summer has been very mixed. Between July 17 and August 22, I had OVER 24 inches of rain in my gauge. That's more than FOUR times normal for that period. We never had more than 2 days in a row without rain over that period.
So, almost all of our squash drowned - patty pan, acorn, zucchini, pumpkins. The gourds hung on the longest. Tomatoes sucked - they set plenty of fruit, but then drowned, and got no sun. We still put up 10 quarts for the winter. Root vegetables did well. Sweet corn has been excellent. Fruit in the area has been mediocre - just not much flavor.
Our honeybees doing OK (3 hives, all captured swarms). The frequent rains wash nectar from the blooms, so the bees have been on the ragged edge of having enough stores to raise brood. Colony size has slowly increased. We need a strong fall flow for them to build up stores for the winter. Goldenrod peaking now, so we're hopeful. It'll rain today, but it hasn't rained since the 22nd, so there are some dry spots. When it rains that much, most of it runs off, so the ground doesn't stay saturated any longer than it would with normal rains.
The pisser is that this is the second year in a row we've had those conditions. Last year, we had more than 10 inches of rain in August. I intentionally put our squash near a natural seep, guarding against typical summer drought, and the gods have chastised me. Two years in a row. Spit.
Oh, yes, we've had LOTS of weeds too. But, when it rains that much/often, they're pretty easy to pull! In late July, I had to wait for the ground to dry out some before I could shake the soil off the weed roots.
I am also in the weed growing business! I have one variety of sticker weed that has overtaken my front garden. I have literally taken it down to dirt, sprayed with weed killer, come back in a week and new weeds are already a foot tall. Three times this summer already! Now if I could sell this crop I’d have stamp money!
Forget growing anything else... that’s just called “feeding the deer”!
I was just thinking about you today and wondering how your garden was growing. Looks like you have your work cut out for you next season!
I gave up on the giant pumpkins this year. Have lots of flowers instead - only the ones the deer don't like. Our hummingbirds have slowed down eating at the feeders and moved to the flowers, Lots of fun to watch and listen to their chirping at each other; had at least 14 this year.
Hi Sally, think this year is a write off, will get it cut down and burned in place, which hopefully will deal with a lot of the seeds but next season will be hard work. Have made a start, large plants in foreground are horseradish and peonies.
Forgot to say, pumpkins can be a lot of work, needing constant moisture and attention.
We still have a few humming birds around but nights are getting cooler so they will be off soon.
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bobgggg President Cortlandt Stamp Club 01 Sep 2018 09:22:42am
Deer love pumpkins! I lured this guy into my yard for a photo session with our Halloween left over. Unscrupulous hunters will do the same, but it's illegal for them to bait deer this way.
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bobgggg President Cortlandt Stamp Club 01 Sep 2018 10:31:52am
re: Spring-Summer SOR Diner 2018
Yes its illegal to bait deer with pumpkin....so I use salt lick
"Sounds like "mile-a-minute" weed. A triangular leaf. It's been luxuriant here too. Impossible to wade through if you don't have long pants on.
-Paul
"
Paul I looked up "mile-a-minute" weed and that's not what I have. See above photo. These have more of a long jagged leaf, you have to wear gloves because they have stickers. Note the fuzzy purple flower/seed. This is about 30 days growth. I've cleared out this garden two times this season and guess what I'll be doing this weekend?
I have patiently pulled each plant out roots and all. I have doused the area with Round Up instant death.. guaranteed no growth formula, and they are back in a week! Areas I cleared last weekend already have a few 6-12" plants.
Since we are about a half hour apart, we have the same weeds. Any advise here?
Looks like a perennial creeping thistle, it will grow from the slightest piece of root, they also go very deep. Just keep using the roundup,(as soon as growth gets to a few inches) it will eventually die out.
If you pull a few stalks, you'll see that you're not getting the root - it propagates by spreading rhizomes as well as seed.
It can be very difficult to eradicate, not so hard to control. Strategic cutting or mowing provides effective control. You must get it before it goes to seed, and it's particularly vulnerable right when it's blooming, like is shown in your photo. Just cut it back (I'd use a scythe), and forget about it until next year, the same time.
If you want to eradicate, you'll have to spray it in consecutive years with 2-4-D. That's best done in the spring, when it's growing rapidly. Inevitably, you'll miss some each year, so "eradication" is a relative term. Round-Up kills everything, 2-4-D only kills broadleaves, and spares the grasses.
Farmers in the Federal CRP (Cropland Reserve Program) are required to mow those acres by July 1 to qualify for the payments they get under that program. This is with an eye to controlling weeds - before they go to seed. July 1 is a good compromise to effectively control most noxious weeds.
A couple of decades ago, I pondered where my interest in meadows, pastures, and crops came from. And, I can pinpoint it, exactly.
In 1967, when I was 10 years old, Dad's dream of owning a farm came to fruition, and we moved to a small 80-acre farm about 3 miles West of town. He grew up on a farm in Collins, Iowa, and so farming was in his blood.
Before we even moved in, Dad tasked me with cutting all the bull thistles and cockleburs while they were still in bloom from the 30 acres of pasture. So, day after day, I patrolled on foot, spade in hand. It was a grind, so it didn't get it done quite as promptly as Dad expected. He admonished me severely, which had a profound impact on my adolescent sense of self-worth. And, had me begin to appreciate management of land resources.
That appreciation has never left me, and has motivated a lifetime of observations.
Thanks Folks! I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon pulling up that crop, one plant at a time. Today I'll get out there and turn all the dirt in that garden and spray it profusely. Then I'll keep an eye out every day...
I find it interesting that the first day covers that I created back in the 1970s still show up in eBay searches nearly every day. I have an eBay search agent that sends me emails.
Probably fine to spray Round-Up in that context, although I'm not sure you'll get much uptake by the roots - it's meant to be a foliar herbicide. You might consider laying some weed barrier over it, and then heaping something on top of that to keep it in place. Just some black 4 mil polyethylene will suffice...
If the plant cannot make carbohydrate (ie, is deprived of sunlight), it will literally, starve to death.
Round-Up (glyphosate) is getting a bad rap in the popular media. Truth is, it's one of the environmentally safest herbicides out there. Because, it has a very short half-life in soil, measured in hours. Within 36 hours, 98% of the active ingredient has been inactivated by soil microbes. Just don't spray it in a rainstorm, and it won't go anywhere that's undesired.
BenFranklin- from experience I can tell you that you have gotten good advice so far.
Use Roundup and keep using it until the thistle doesn't come back. Spray the plants when they are small - it takes less spray and they have less time to store up nutrients in their roots. Hit 'em hard and hit 'em often. Even if you think you have them all, make sure you are vigilant when spring arrives. Get them early, and it is very effective.
Also, if any have gone to seed, collect every seed and either bag them and dispose of them or burn them. They spread easily.
Look around the area where they are growing. Those plants came from somewhere (they travel via wind and animals/people), and if you can figure out the source, you may be able to eliminate any future problems.
Sheepshanks - looks like you are making progress! I didn't know horseradish grew that tall.
I am sure you will have your garden back in fine form next year.
Do you have many monarch butterflies? We just returned from a trip up to northeast Wisconsin and saw lots and lots of monarchs. One of the Wisconsin natives said they don't usually have that many. Just wondering if they were starting their southern migration, maybe some of these came from Canada.
Sally, we have a few Monarch butterflies as we grow some milkweed plants and are currently enjoying a warm spell but down to frost point tonight.
The garden brings to mind the old saying "One years weeds, seven years seeds".
For me, the bugaboo among garden weeds is grass. When pulling crab grass, for example, unless the soil is VERY wet, the roots will tear as you pull the mature plant. Each of these little rootlets will then sprout a new aerial part. I always have a trowel in my hand to loosen the soil before I try to pull.
Wife complains about me refusing to use mulch, but when I balance the effort of moving mulch around to get seeds in the soil, and that of fighting slugs (who thrive on the moist conditions in the mulch) I'd rather spend a few hours pulling weeds. There's something satisfying about committing all that petty murder, too. We get enough rain here that I don't really need the moisture retention that mulch provides. And the garden is small enough (a few hundred SF) that a few hours of watering from the well is easy to do.
We got 1.3 inches here on Friday, and I did not get any time to pull weeds over the weekend, so now the soil is too dry again to effectively pull crab grass. I have a small window still open before it drops seed, and if it gets too close, I'll drag the hose over and saturate the ground that way.
Frequent tillage is my MO...
-P
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bobgggg President Cortlandt Stamp Club 05 Sep 2018 07:05:19am
re: Spring-Summer SOR Diner 2018
Did you hear about the stamp collector who went paper-less ?
AAHHH! Haggis, Neeps and Tatties. I had that for my dinner yesterday.
The taste of haggis differs. It depends on the supplier. The suppliers of haggis are like brewers of beer. Some taste good others taste bloomin' awful.
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"StayAlert.......Control The Virus.......Save Lives."
Our model railroading group is meeting this morning. Then we're taking a moderate-distance field trip to visit the layouts of a couple of the members. Despite the bad weather in the forecast, recreational model railroading is fun! My layout is on the agenda for our November meeting. It's always fun having people over to view and/or operate the layout.
Hurricane Florence's projected path is still making a direct line to NC coast and the governor has declared a state of emergency. We will not feel real effects until Thursday if it stays on course. The local Home Depot sold out of generators once already.
We're watching two storms that could make their way into the Gulf of Mexico. The tropical disturbance in the Caribbean is expected to be in the gulf later this week. Hurricane Isaac is expected to head straight to the Caribbean, and then we'll see where it decides to go from there.
September is the peak month for hurricanes. Looks like this year is no exception. While we haven't had any tropical storms yet here this year, we're in the middle of what will be two week's worth of rain. We certainly needed the wet weather to revitalize things outdoors.
Oh, the people who post on eBay! The auction for this popped up in my New Jersey cover search today. Some bright star came into a handful of 1960s used stamps and has decided to list them all for around a dollar each, plus a dollar postage!
Never mind the artful display of male fingers and some decent carpet!
A group of us should bid these up to maybe a thousand dollars each, just for the fun of it!
According to a 1909 article in the "New York Times", there are only 7 kinds of jokes, and they can all be condensed down into this one joke:
"A snail was mugged by a slug. The police officer asked for a description of the attacker. The snail said "I can't give you one; it all happened so fast."
Seem to recall a science fiction story about jokes that ended somehow in the vein of, like they were created by aliens and the world stopped laughing.
Or something like that.
"I do like the ones that you can alter to suit the circumstances or who you are speaking to"
An example:-
There was a member of Stamporama who while sitting in the sun, drinking a beer was struck by a piece of ice falling from a passing aeroplane and was killed. They ascended to the pearly gates, St Peter said that he would need to sort the paperwork and they should wait on the bench next to the gates.
While they were waiting who should arrive but the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope. (They had been having an interdenominational meeting when some terrorist had blown them up). They were told by St Peter to take a seat on the bench.
Several minutes later St Peter took them into Heaven. The Stamporama member saw that their were caravans, houses and palaces in Heaven.
St peter said to the Archbishop "that caravan on the left is yours" to the Pope he pointed to a small house and said "Pope that house is yours".
He told the Stamporama member to follow him. The Stamporama member thought "Crikey if the Pope and the Archbishop got these places. What am I gonna get? A dog kennel!
St peter stopped and said " that palace over there is yours"
"Hold it. The Archbishop and the Pope got these small places. Why do I get a palace?"
"That's simple" said St Peter. "Archbishops and Popes are ten a penny, BUT we have never had a Stamporama member here!"
You can change it to suit whatever setting you are in.
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"StayAlert.......Control The Virus.......Save Lives."
another St Peter joke... see there are indeed only five jokes!
St Peter is bored sitting as the gate keeper to Heaven so one day he decides he will admit anyone who convinces him they had a very bad day.
A guy approaches and St Peter asks him if he had a bad day. He replies, "A bad day indeed! I knew my wife was cheating on me so I came home early to our 8th floor apartment one afternoon. I stood outside the door and heard cries of passion inside so I burst in only to find my wife naked in bed alone. I knew there was a man here so I looked in all the rooms. I heard a sound out on the balcony and there was the culprit, hanging off the edge of my balcony by his finger tips. He's only wearing gym shorts. So I jump up and down on his fingers until he fell.
He landed in the bushes down below and was just laying there giving me the finger! That infuriated me so I looked for the largest thing I could find.... the refrigerator! And I heaved it over the railing! It landed smack on the guy killing him. That's when I had my heart attack and died!"
Saint Peter was amazed! He agreed the man indeed had a bad day and let him into heaven.
Another man comes along shortly and St Peter asked him the same question. He responded, "Yes I had a very bad day!" There I was on my ninth floor balcony exercising on my mini trampoline. I jumped a bit too high and went right over the balcony railing! I was lucky to catch hold of the balcony below. As I hung there by my finger tips I heard someone coming and thought I was saved. But it was some raving lunatic who jumped on my fingers until I fell. Again I was lucky and landed in soft bushes below. Then the last thing I remember was the lunatic throwing a refrigerator over the balcony hitting me squarely. And here I am!"
St Peter agrees that the man had a very bad day and let him into heaven.
A third man approaches the desk and St Peter asks him the question. The man responds, "I had a horrible day!" Picture this, there I was nude in a refrigerator...
Hurricane Michael came through...power just came back on after 18 hrs. This was the worst I have seen in 20 years. Florence was nothing here.
Of course, broadband internet takes longer as I am at work. Of course the abilty to do a hot spot with smart phone is good to check roads and basic comms.
Sis in law in SC also lost power and inlaws house lost power as it went by.
The nice thing about stamp collecting is along as you have light, natural or otherwise, you can play with your stamps without the temptation of thousands of cable channels or the Internet.
Dialysis, damned if you do...dead if you don't 13 Oct 2018 07:00:32am
re: Spring-Summer SOR Diner 2018
Here in Western NC we also had a significant impact with flooding and wind damage. They ran the school buses Thursday morning but then called schools closed; giving parents a logistical headache.
My local dialysis provider, DaVita, saved on monthly rent cost by establishing a facility in a flood plain. So here is footage of them evacuating patients and nurses after flood waters stranded them all. We all got out safely, big thank you to the first responders.
We finally got broadband back. The neighbors behind us got power back late yesterday and from prior outages our broadband feed is powered by that line. We get power from south and they get from west.
My brother in Dothan, AL said power was out there for 30 hours and there were tree limbs down in the yard but otherwise okay.
My father was pastor of the Port St. Joe United Methodist Church just to the east of Mexico Beach, FL in the late 1980's through mid-1990's but I haven't heard any news from there as yet. The church and parsonage were just across the highway from the beach with very little elevation from the water so I am quite concerned for the people there.
The Mexico Beach area from what pictures I have seen was almost flattened with few if any homes not having major damage.
"The Mexico Beach area from what pictures I have seen was almost flattened with few if any homes not having major damage."
In the Internet coverage I read, there was one house that a doctor had built last year, designed to withstand 250 MPH winds, with open space below for storm surge to pass under it. That house was the only thing left standing.
We got nailed in NJ during Hurricane Sandy. Not only were entire neighborhoods stripped clean, but infrastructure like power, and even underground utilities like water, gas and sewer got ripped up by shifting sands. Our house in NJ, 9 blocks from the bay, was spared but lost roof shingles and the vinyl siding had what appeared to be bullet holes from flying debris. The power was out for two weeks and my daughters, the residents of my house there, both stayed with us in PA.
We went to a wedding there that next weekend. The church had no power and the wedding was by candle light and music by piano instead of the organ. The wedding hall for the reception was closed. They found another hall which had power, where someone had cancelled an event. So we went to a reception like nothing was wrong, except the hall kitchen was cranking at full capacity sending trays of food out to the National Guard.
We had booked a hotel for that evening, but as we were checking in, a middle age guy came in inquiring about rooms. There were none. He looked like he was about to cry, pleading with the hotel that his wife and kids had nowhere to go. I gave him our room and said we could driving home that evening, lest have that on my conscience.
"In the Internet coverage I read, there was one house that a doctor had built last year, designed to withstand 250 MPH winds"
I saw that on the TV news tonight. They interviewed the father and son who built the house. It is still standing for sure, but the open space was the first floor, according to the report, and it was wiped out. The rest of the house, however, is fine.
I didnt want to hijack cougars thread so I moved my post over here. Check out the newest addition to my family! This is Charlie
He is a 7 month old Golden and he is nothing but energy. This is the most affectionate dog I have ever seen. He actually will hug you. We had a family cocker for years but I dont know that much about dogs. People say I need to have him neutered but I hate to have him mutilated and change his personality. Does anyone have any thoughts on that? The vet said he would jump out the window of a car at 75 mph if he detected a female in heat. I'm not sold. Dogs have been doing just fine since time immemorial without this.
Dialysis, damned if you do...dead if you don't 18 Oct 2018 06:37:29am
re: Spring-Summer SOR Diner 2018
"...there was one house that a doctor had built last year, designed to withstand 250 MPH winds, with open space below for storm surge to pass under it. That house was the only thing left standing..."
Not only are most people unwilling to build correctly in natural disaster areas, but we seems like we cannot learn from history.
If aliens were watching earth I am sure they would surmise that humans were stupid when they saw that we rebuilt New Orleans when it is clearly under sea level. Or that we build expensive wood homes on the slopes of hills which historically burn every few years. Or we build stick homes in hurricane areas.
I heard over and over 'this storm is bad'. How can a storm be good or bad? A storm is a storm, they have been occurring for hundreds of thousands of years. The only 'bad' thing is that we live areas where storms occur and then to top it off we build structures which cannot withstand the storms.
The tragedy was not the storm. The tragedy is that people will immediately go back and rebuild the same stick structures in the same place. We really have lucked out lately, hurricane frequency is down 40% since the 19th century.
Don
...and the sensible people have to pay for those rebuilds through higher taxes for disaster recovery, and higher insurance premiums to refill the coffers of the insurance companies.
"Think I will do this to my leaf blowing fanatic neighbor the next time he wakes me up early blowing leaves at sunrise."
I have Gary the leaf fiend living behind me. He chases the few leaves around all summer with this huge noisy apparatus on wheels. He's wearing hearing protection but his machine is loud enough to make the water in my pool tremble.
He is retired and I have suggested to him that he does his leaf duty during the week so as not to disturb those of us who would like to enjoy our properties on the weekends.
"It is Thanksgiving, time to count your blessings....
And if you live in Florida, time to recount them..."
PS: I DO NOT mean this to be in anyway political for 1 side for another, just as a commentary of what I have seen happening. Mods may delete if they feel it is political, I would not be offended.
I got a very nice Scott International binder with complete Part 3B pages for 1949-1955 off eBay this week at an absolutely great price as well. The description was written very poorly indicating only three countries' pages and covering 1949-1953 only so most bidders probably assumed it was a partial set of pages. I mostly bought it for the estimated 100 stamps in the album but the page set and binder are essentially brand new and complete! Hopefully the seller will not be too disappointed as he is one of my favorite vendors with many quality, well-priced items.
On the other hand almost every bid I made for some mint USA stamps for the USA section of my International Part I album was outbid, sometimes very significantly, so hard to generalize on this week's sales.
"One of my to dos is to get a better to do list.."
I use the Amazon Echo (Alexa). Works fine, but there's a catch. The wife has access to Alexa too, and when I check my to do list, it always seems to have gotten longer with tasks that I did not put on the list.
I visited my Dad over the holidays. He showed me his stamp collection but he has also been interested coins in years back to the point of being a part time coin dealer. I was behind the table with him for some shows. I never really enjoyed it.
He still subscribes to Coin World, Numismatic News, etc. I did a quick look and highlights the difference between coins and stamps. Coin mags are mostly about values and little about anything else. I never liked coins as hobby since 98% of the talk is like fishing stories - the big one you got or the one that got away. It was all about money.
Here is an exhibit that ties coin collecting with stamp collecting. It was one of the exhibits on my must see list when I went to Washington 2006. http://www.rfrajola.com/features/coins/coins.htm
Thanks for posting about the exhibit. It is quite a fascinating treatise combining coins, stamps, fractional currency, etc. I would highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the history of commerce at the transaction level in America.
I thought it was interesting. It gives a history lesson and how America handled financial transactions. The eight page summery goes into depth on how business was conducted in The U.S. It must have been quite the task to be able to go from one currency to the other and keep records since the coins of Great Britain, Portugal, France, and Spain were used along with our own coins.
Dialysis, damned if you do...dead if you don't 06 Dec 2018 07:45:41am
re: Spring-Summer SOR Diner 2018
The weather service here in the mountains of western North Carolina are now predicting a “once in a generation winter storm” for this weekend with 24” of snow. Starts on Saturday and goes through Tuesday. Considering that road snow removal in this area consists of two guys with shovels in the back of a dump truck filled with salt, this kind of forecast brings plenty of issues with travel for a number of days. I am thinking that the forecasters are in collusion with the grocery store owners since the stores are already cleaned out.
My list is done;
Hinges and mounts - check
Stamps to work on - check
Watermark fluid - check
Vario and album pages - check
Laptop charged - check
Firewood cut, stacked, and ready to go - check
I have the emergency meds I am supposed to take if I cannot get to dialysis. But it works by 'purging' you of food (Ill leave that to your imagination) and is the worse tasting stuff you can ever imagine. So to avoid dying my choices will be;
1. stop eating and drinking for the duration of the storm
2. go ahead eat/drink but then be violently sick to your stomach
LOL, think I'll be dieting this weekend!
Don
Dialysis, damned if you do...dead if you don't 06 Dec 2018 12:07:45pm
re: Spring-Summer SOR Diner 2018
Hi Al,
No, the drug is sodium polystyrene sulfonate (polystyrene, the stuff they make coffee cups out of!). It binds and reduces potassium in your blood. Potassium removal is one of the things that functioning kidneys do. I call foul on the them saying a ‘side effect’ is nausea…it is not a side effect, it is a certainty.
Don
I really missed an opportunity today to be a part of history. I just didn't make correct plans, plus a couple of family members are under the weather. The weather here is cold and drizzly, and I would have liked to have gone to see the funeral train for President Bush. College Station is not that far away, but the timing just wasn't right.
We have around 9-inches of snow so far and turning into a mix. I do not recall ever having some much snow prior to Christmas.
I swept some snow off the steps and fed the birds. The rest mother nature will end up doing and do expect to get out until Wednesday. I have no urge to drive.
Wow! Be careful with the weather folks! It is very chilly here in the Philadelphia suburbs, the skies are full cloud cover but nothing coming down. I don't see any snow in our forecast.
It snowed again today but temps were rising. The temp drops tonight so now we will have ice tomorrow morning. We lost power several times for a few hours.
We found out yesterday that my daughter Gracie has been accepted by the University of Florida School of Dentistry. My wife and I could not be more proud.
Haha you bet Michael I actually hate going to the dentist oh by the way I was in your neck of the woods all week I was in Houston on Tuesday Fort Worth on Wednesday in San Antonio on Thursday it was a grueling week glad to be home but I have to tell you that I absolutely love Texas. I've never met a nicer bunch of people in all of my life. it's a great place to live
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