Altivo Overo's Blog, page 12
August 6, 2015
Garden of Eating
Meant to post these yesterday, but stuff got in the way. Like, getting them out of my cell phone to somewhere I could post them from.
This year's vegetable garden is smaller, squeezed in between the barn and the arena. We have not done well with a larger garden out behind the woodlot because it is so far from the house and requires us to run about 400 feet of hose to get water out there for the dry months of July and August. Also, the deer, rabbits, and woodchucks are less reticent to visit out there.
I decided to set up some containers and raised beds in the spot where a gap in the oak canopy allows sunlight for several hours on clear days. In spite of excessive rain until the end of June, it looks promising. In the photo above, from left: cucumbers and miniature sweet peppers in the red "growbox," potatoes in three blue plastic tubs, okra (not easy to see) behind the potatoes, tomatoes (back) and melons and eggplant (front,) and at the extreme right section of the raised beds, more cucumbers, Brussels sprouts, and peppers.
This view shows to the left of the previous, or a bit farther west. These are pole beans that got a late start and are trying to make up for it now. The soil is about 8 inches of aged sheep manure from when the sheep pen was located here. It was spongy and loaded with water until late June, so the beans didn't go in until a month later than usual. If the frost holds off, I still expect a good crop. The purple pods are heavy bearers, and I'm trying a couple of other varieties. The larger leaves at the right end of the trellis are scarlet runners. Not only do those have tasty pods, but they have beautiful red blossoms. Zucchini and butternut squash are between this trellis and the other photo, and the hot frame (uncovered) in the background will get a planting with kale, kohlrabi, and lettuce for the fall. I had lettuce in it for spring but the insects were voracious and devoured it all.
And this bonus photo shows today's baking. I made the peach and blueberry pie using blueberries from out in the old garden. Gary made the sourdough bread with dried sour cherries and chopped pecans.
In other news, after much teeth grinding I have mostly beaten Gentoo into submission. I still haven't managed to create a custom kernel that will boot, but I figured out how to make the generic kernel from the installation CD do my bidding for now. Only the basic command line system is installed, but it's all working and I can even run backups to another drive from the console if I boot into the proper model. I figured out the boot configurations and can boot from either data partition that I created, with or without an intermediate ramdisk image. Next: get X11 installed and working. But I'm taking a break for a day or two to do other things first.
comments
This year's vegetable garden is smaller, squeezed in between the barn and the arena. We have not done well with a larger garden out behind the woodlot because it is so far from the house and requires us to run about 400 feet of hose to get water out there for the dry months of July and August. Also, the deer, rabbits, and woodchucks are less reticent to visit out there.
I decided to set up some containers and raised beds in the spot where a gap in the oak canopy allows sunlight for several hours on clear days. In spite of excessive rain until the end of June, it looks promising. In the photo above, from left: cucumbers and miniature sweet peppers in the red "growbox," potatoes in three blue plastic tubs, okra (not easy to see) behind the potatoes, tomatoes (back) and melons and eggplant (front,) and at the extreme right section of the raised beds, more cucumbers, Brussels sprouts, and peppers.
This view shows to the left of the previous, or a bit farther west. These are pole beans that got a late start and are trying to make up for it now. The soil is about 8 inches of aged sheep manure from when the sheep pen was located here. It was spongy and loaded with water until late June, so the beans didn't go in until a month later than usual. If the frost holds off, I still expect a good crop. The purple pods are heavy bearers, and I'm trying a couple of other varieties. The larger leaves at the right end of the trellis are scarlet runners. Not only do those have tasty pods, but they have beautiful red blossoms. Zucchini and butternut squash are between this trellis and the other photo, and the hot frame (uncovered) in the background will get a planting with kale, kohlrabi, and lettuce for the fall. I had lettuce in it for spring but the insects were voracious and devoured it all.
And this bonus photo shows today's baking. I made the peach and blueberry pie using blueberries from out in the old garden. Gary made the sourdough bread with dried sour cherries and chopped pecans.
In other news, after much teeth grinding I have mostly beaten Gentoo into submission. I still haven't managed to create a custom kernel that will boot, but I figured out how to make the generic kernel from the installation CD do my bidding for now. Only the basic command line system is installed, but it's all working and I can even run backups to another drive from the console if I boot into the proper model. I figured out the boot configurations and can boot from either data partition that I created, with or without an intermediate ramdisk image. Next: get X11 installed and working. But I'm taking a break for a day or two to do other things first.
comments
August 4, 2015
Gentoo...
On the Alpha, Gentoo is only slightly less frustrating than OpenBSD. While it's clear that the system is (or can be) much more functional and usable than OpenBSD, the documentation is about equally poor.
( Review/critique under cut )
Not giving up yet, because I really do want this to work. But: I've been managing UNIX and Linux systems since 1989 or so. I used Slackware, which is almost as geeky a distro as Gentoo, on my own desktop for many years. If I'm having this much trouble getting Gentoo running, there's definitely something wrong and it isn't just with me.
comments
( Review/critique under cut )
Not giving up yet, because I really do want this to work. But: I've been managing UNIX and Linux systems since 1989 or so. I used Slackware, which is almost as geeky a distro as Gentoo, on my own desktop for many years. If I'm having this much trouble getting Gentoo running, there's definitely something wrong and it isn't just with me.
comments
July 30, 2015
A month later
Well, the change is not dramatic. I can't complain that I'm busier than before, nor that I'm bored. I finally reached the point today where I was confused about the day of the week. (I changed the calendar page in the dim pre-dawn light, as always, so I didn't see it to remind me.)
( Status report under cut )
So... it's beginning to look a lot like Gentoo here. After all, I have endless time on my hands, right? [not]
comments
( Status report under cut )
So... it's beginning to look a lot like Gentoo here. After all, I have endless time on my hands, right? [not]
comments
June 29, 2015
Today is the first day...
...of the rest of my life. Or so the saying goes. The weather is gloomy looking but hummingbirds and woodpeckers are busy outside the window. Classical guitar in my ears, I've been awake for three hours already and have not had any coffee. The horses are becoming restive and must be fed soon, but someone else will have to do the interlibrary shipment and catalog yet another James Patterson.
It is also the 33rd anniversary of my first meeting Gary, who is still asleep in the bedroom. He never sleeps well, so I hate to awaken him. Guess I'll go feed critters and bring in eggs without disturbing him. Maybe the impending rain will hold off until after that's done. I should spend the day reconstructing and reorganizing here to clear up the clutter of books and oddments that came home as I cleared out my desk and shelves at the library. The deep gloom of the sky, however, suggests a day spent reading or perhaps sitting at the piano or organ. We shall see. At least there's no hurry...
Or is there? Another imperious whinny suggests that there is. I may no longer have a schedule, but the children do.
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It is also the 33rd anniversary of my first meeting Gary, who is still asleep in the bedroom. He never sleeps well, so I hate to awaken him. Guess I'll go feed critters and bring in eggs without disturbing him. Maybe the impending rain will hold off until after that's done. I should spend the day reconstructing and reorganizing here to clear up the clutter of books and oddments that came home as I cleared out my desk and shelves at the library. The deep gloom of the sky, however, suggests a day spent reading or perhaps sitting at the piano or organ. We shall see. At least there's no hurry...
Or is there? Another imperious whinny suggests that there is. I may no longer have a schedule, but the children do.
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April 26, 2015
Sunny Sunday Funday Sorta
So there are five days left in CampNano and I have about 4900 3023 words left to reach my quota. Should be easy, one would think, for someone who has completed the full Nano several times and that requires a rate of 1667 words per day for 30 days straight. I'm up to the easy part of my story, where I know what comes next and how to say it.
But. There's always one of those isn't there. It's a nice sunny day outside and I want to start garden work. Keeping myself from doing that doesn't hurry the other stuff along.
Another but. Many weeks ago I ordered the newest model of Raspberry Pi single board computer, an amazing little power pack of a machine on a single card about 6x9 cm in size. It finally arrived yesterday and of course the US Mail had flattened the package so I had to make sure it is undamaged. Fortunately, it remained unscathed and I am writing this post on it without difficulty. Unlike the original Pi, of which I also have one, this tiny machine pretty much measures up to my standards for a usable laptop or desktop computer. Other than a bit of difficulty getting my cheap wifi dongle to work (something I never did achieve with the older Pi) there have been no real glitches. The wifi does work, the printer works, web browsing and sound are fine, too.
Husband is working on a term paper for a graduate school class. All of six pages. And he's making it sound like it's just killing him to do it. Of course, it's due tomorrow apparently. Six pages? I don't remember anything that short even being called a "term paper." Those were more often 20 pages in high school and longer in college.
Meanwhile, I'm still not getting my own writing quota done.
The maple trees are finished blooming and starting to produce those little winged seeds. Oaks and wild cherry haven't started yet, but I think the willows and birches are blooming now. Daffodils are just passing their peak. And I have 44 working days left until retirement, which means I also need to do some paperwork for insurance and stuff. Can't put that off much longer.
Right now, though, I need to stop watching birds outside the window and work on this CampNano project.
comments
But. There's always one of those isn't there. It's a nice sunny day outside and I want to start garden work. Keeping myself from doing that doesn't hurry the other stuff along.
Another but. Many weeks ago I ordered the newest model of Raspberry Pi single board computer, an amazing little power pack of a machine on a single card about 6x9 cm in size. It finally arrived yesterday and of course the US Mail had flattened the package so I had to make sure it is undamaged. Fortunately, it remained unscathed and I am writing this post on it without difficulty. Unlike the original Pi, of which I also have one, this tiny machine pretty much measures up to my standards for a usable laptop or desktop computer. Other than a bit of difficulty getting my cheap wifi dongle to work (something I never did achieve with the older Pi) there have been no real glitches. The wifi does work, the printer works, web browsing and sound are fine, too.
Husband is working on a term paper for a graduate school class. All of six pages. And he's making it sound like it's just killing him to do it. Of course, it's due tomorrow apparently. Six pages? I don't remember anything that short even being called a "term paper." Those were more often 20 pages in high school and longer in college.
Meanwhile, I'm still not getting my own writing quota done.
The maple trees are finished blooming and starting to produce those little winged seeds. Oaks and wild cherry haven't started yet, but I think the willows and birches are blooming now. Daffodils are just passing their peak. And I have 44 working days left until retirement, which means I also need to do some paperwork for insurance and stuff. Can't put that off much longer.
Right now, though, I need to stop watching birds outside the window and work on this CampNano project.
comments
April 12, 2015
Spring at last and thoughts of ketchup
Well, the tornado-spawning thunderstorms on Thursday seem to have brought spring with them. Blue scylla and white daffodils are opening. I was able to let Tess out into her pasture for the first time yesterday. She only gets about 45 minutes to start with since she has had grass founder in the past and needs to be exposed gradually, but she was excited to go out and behaved well when I made her come back in. The pasture is green now but very wet from the flood of rain earlier in the week. The farrier will approve, as her feet tend to dry out and getting them wet helps.
We have used the charcoal grill a couple of times already, but yesterday we really went in for it big with barbecue slathered chicken breasts, some brats, and fresh asparagus on the grill. Also sweet corn, not the first of the year but probably the best so far.
We had a discussion back at Easter about ketchup. Gary's family always had to have two ketchup bottles, because his dad and one brother liked Brooks and everyone else preferred Heinz. I remembered Brooks ketchup but didn't think I'd seen it anywhere for a while. We went looking and failed to find it at any of the supermarkets we normally visit. Looked for it online and found Amazon selling it for about $8 a bottle. That seemed pretty ridiculous to me. Then yesterday I stopped into Sullivan's, the second supermarket in town and one we usually skip because their prices are on the high side. Sure enough, they had Brooks ketchup for $2.19 a bottle, which isn't outrageous and is only about 25 cents higher than Heinz or Hunts.
Brought one home to surprise Gary, and he was indeed surprised. So, I did a little more research and learned that Brooks started in 1907 with canned chili beans. Ding! Though I remembered seeing the ketchup occasionally, my mom always used Brooks chili beans in her chili. The trademark is the same, and the beans are easier to find. Nearly every grocer around here has them. The ketchup came later in the company's history. According to Wikipedia, the ketchup was manufactured in Collinsville, Illinois, and marketed mostly in the midwest. They have (or had) a water tower there in the shape of a giant ketchup bottle in fact. The Brooks trademark and business has apparently been sold to Birdseye. The factory in Collinsville was shut down, and the ketchup is made in Canada now. However, it still is the same recipe or very close to it. The spicy flavor is unlike the other ketchups even though it now has the dreaded high fructose corn syrup in place of the cane sugar that was once used.
Now I have a craving for chili made with Brooks chili beans too. Also a quest for proper cheddar cheese curds to put into poutine. Anyone know where to get those around Chicago?
comments
We have used the charcoal grill a couple of times already, but yesterday we really went in for it big with barbecue slathered chicken breasts, some brats, and fresh asparagus on the grill. Also sweet corn, not the first of the year but probably the best so far.
We had a discussion back at Easter about ketchup. Gary's family always had to have two ketchup bottles, because his dad and one brother liked Brooks and everyone else preferred Heinz. I remembered Brooks ketchup but didn't think I'd seen it anywhere for a while. We went looking and failed to find it at any of the supermarkets we normally visit. Looked for it online and found Amazon selling it for about $8 a bottle. That seemed pretty ridiculous to me. Then yesterday I stopped into Sullivan's, the second supermarket in town and one we usually skip because their prices are on the high side. Sure enough, they had Brooks ketchup for $2.19 a bottle, which isn't outrageous and is only about 25 cents higher than Heinz or Hunts.
Brought one home to surprise Gary, and he was indeed surprised. So, I did a little more research and learned that Brooks started in 1907 with canned chili beans. Ding! Though I remembered seeing the ketchup occasionally, my mom always used Brooks chili beans in her chili. The trademark is the same, and the beans are easier to find. Nearly every grocer around here has them. The ketchup came later in the company's history. According to Wikipedia, the ketchup was manufactured in Collinsville, Illinois, and marketed mostly in the midwest. They have (or had) a water tower there in the shape of a giant ketchup bottle in fact. The Brooks trademark and business has apparently been sold to Birdseye. The factory in Collinsville was shut down, and the ketchup is made in Canada now. However, it still is the same recipe or very close to it. The spicy flavor is unlike the other ketchups even though it now has the dreaded high fructose corn syrup in place of the cane sugar that was once used.
Now I have a craving for chili made with Brooks chili beans too. Also a quest for proper cheddar cheese curds to put into poutine. Anyone know where to get those around Chicago?
comments
April 9, 2015
Various news
Once again I've taken too long a break from posting here. The winter has been made busy by several events, not the least of which is my planned retirement from full time library work. After June, I will be a greymuzzle pensioner, with more time for writing, music, gardening, and my pets. Of course that means helping to find and train my replacement. After twelve years in one job, there is a lot of stuff to organize and document and I've been kept very busy getting that done while keeping up with my regular responsibilities.
Meanwhile, my husband is getting near the end of his five year quest for the Ph.D. degree, which has also kept us pretty busy. Next week he will be presenting a paper at a conference, while I cover the animal care tasks he normally handles here at home.
Also some announcements on the writing front. First, I have two poems recently published. One gives a tortoise's view of history, and can be found at QuarterReads. The title is "Thoughts Chelonian." The second appears in a curated selection of furry poems at Adjective Species. The title is "Procyon Prowling" and the subject is a raccoon. I recommend the poems in that collection. They represent a wide variety of styles and formats, and an equally diverse viewpoints on furry subjects. Lunostophiles did a fine job of selecting them from the submitted works.
My story "Coyote's Voice" will appear in ROAR volume 6, to be released in July at Anthrocon if all goes according to plan. The publisher is Bad Dog Books, and the very competent editor for this issue is Mary E. Lowd, also known as Ryffnah.
I'm also currently engaged in writing the completing chapters of Oh, Ricky, the parody on Richard the Lion(heart) that some of you may remember from NanoWrimo 2011. I'm doing that in connection with this month's Camp NanoWrimo where I'm one of a dozen folks working together to prompt and encourage each other.
More as events develop. Thanks for reading.
comments
Meanwhile, my husband is getting near the end of his five year quest for the Ph.D. degree, which has also kept us pretty busy. Next week he will be presenting a paper at a conference, while I cover the animal care tasks he normally handles here at home.
Also some announcements on the writing front. First, I have two poems recently published. One gives a tortoise's view of history, and can be found at QuarterReads. The title is "Thoughts Chelonian." The second appears in a curated selection of furry poems at Adjective Species. The title is "Procyon Prowling" and the subject is a raccoon. I recommend the poems in that collection. They represent a wide variety of styles and formats, and an equally diverse viewpoints on furry subjects. Lunostophiles did a fine job of selecting them from the submitted works.
My story "Coyote's Voice" will appear in ROAR volume 6, to be released in July at Anthrocon if all goes according to plan. The publisher is Bad Dog Books, and the very competent editor for this issue is Mary E. Lowd, also known as Ryffnah.
I'm also currently engaged in writing the completing chapters of Oh, Ricky, the parody on Richard the Lion(heart) that some of you may remember from NanoWrimo 2011. I'm doing that in connection with this month's Camp NanoWrimo where I'm one of a dozen folks working together to prompt and encourage each other.
More as events develop. Thanks for reading.
comments
December 25, 2014
Happy Christmas to all
Grey dawn here, though the NWS promises temperature above freezing and a little sunlight today. For the moment, all is peaceful even if it looks a bit bleak.
Whatever you celebrate, be it Yule, Midwinter, Christmas, or just a day with family and friends or one of peace and quiet: I wish you warmth, happiness, and health in the year to come.
We had the few remaining local family here for dinner yesterday, and have exchanged gifts, cards, and messages with the more scattered siblings. Today will be a day of quiet relaxation, I hope. Time edges ever onward, and I have quite a bit more grey hair today than I did even just a year ago. Even our dog Red is more grey than rufous now.
Know that I hold you all dear in my heart, friends. Be happy and be safe, please.
comments
Whatever you celebrate, be it Yule, Midwinter, Christmas, or just a day with family and friends or one of peace and quiet: I wish you warmth, happiness, and health in the year to come.
We had the few remaining local family here for dinner yesterday, and have exchanged gifts, cards, and messages with the more scattered siblings. Today will be a day of quiet relaxation, I hope. Time edges ever onward, and I have quite a bit more grey hair today than I did even just a year ago. Even our dog Red is more grey than rufous now.
Know that I hold you all dear in my heart, friends. Be happy and be safe, please.
comments
November 5, 2014
Why democracy is failing
It seems to be the same in most of the Western developed nations. Fewer voters actually exercise their right to vote, and those who do are making shallow choices driven by negative campaigns rather than candidates who tackle real issues.
The real problem, I say, is the fact that elections have been co-opted by wealth. What we have is no longer democracy, but plutocracy. It's an environment in which candidates who have huge sums of money to spend usually prevail by shouting down their opponents and beating the voters to death with strident (content-free) television advertising and clever slogans and posters that say nothing about commitment to ideals or practical solutions. In the US, the long standing controls designed to keep factions from "buying" elections with huge amounts of cash are breaking down.
The collapse of our educational systems continues as both ends of the political spectrum continue to peck away at the funding that built them and kept them going for the last century or so. Declines in literacy, driven by poor educational methods and standards and the ubiquitous pablum supplied by television and Hollywood have developed into a feedback loop that may be very difficult to break.
Unfortunately, this feedback produces a disinterested electorate that doesn't vote, or that is easily swayed by loud single issue publicity campaigns. The frightening success of xenophobic policies presented by the GOP in the US and the UKIP in the UK are good examples of this.
In my own county, voters who turn out seem to vote for the GOP without even investigating policies or candidates. It's an automatic, unthinking act. When asked, they can't really tell you why they do it, or even what the difference is between two candidates (when there actually are two... far too many are running unopposed.)
Is it any wonder that voters don't turn out when they are faced with a ballot that really offers no choices?
Illinois offered two candidates for governor, neither of whom is stellar. One inherited the office from a previous incumbent who was convicted of corruption. The other is an out of touch millionaire businessman who doesn't give a shit about working people, but has lots of money to back him. Such disheartening choices do little to energize reluctant voters.
The results are schizoid. Illinois voters backed (by about 2 to 1 margins) liberal ballot propositions (most of them non-binding) to raise the minimum wage, increase the tax rate for millionaires, strengthen protection for minorities, etc. Yet they voted into office a slate of candidates who oppose every one of those propositions, often in no uncertain terms. This doesn't suggest to me that there is much rational thought being put into how ballots are cast.
comments
The real problem, I say, is the fact that elections have been co-opted by wealth. What we have is no longer democracy, but plutocracy. It's an environment in which candidates who have huge sums of money to spend usually prevail by shouting down their opponents and beating the voters to death with strident (content-free) television advertising and clever slogans and posters that say nothing about commitment to ideals or practical solutions. In the US, the long standing controls designed to keep factions from "buying" elections with huge amounts of cash are breaking down.
The collapse of our educational systems continues as both ends of the political spectrum continue to peck away at the funding that built them and kept them going for the last century or so. Declines in literacy, driven by poor educational methods and standards and the ubiquitous pablum supplied by television and Hollywood have developed into a feedback loop that may be very difficult to break.
Unfortunately, this feedback produces a disinterested electorate that doesn't vote, or that is easily swayed by loud single issue publicity campaigns. The frightening success of xenophobic policies presented by the GOP in the US and the UKIP in the UK are good examples of this.
In my own county, voters who turn out seem to vote for the GOP without even investigating policies or candidates. It's an automatic, unthinking act. When asked, they can't really tell you why they do it, or even what the difference is between two candidates (when there actually are two... far too many are running unopposed.)
Is it any wonder that voters don't turn out when they are faced with a ballot that really offers no choices?
Illinois offered two candidates for governor, neither of whom is stellar. One inherited the office from a previous incumbent who was convicted of corruption. The other is an out of touch millionaire businessman who doesn't give a shit about working people, but has lots of money to back him. Such disheartening choices do little to energize reluctant voters.
The results are schizoid. Illinois voters backed (by about 2 to 1 margins) liberal ballot propositions (most of them non-binding) to raise the minimum wage, increase the tax rate for millionaires, strengthen protection for minorities, etc. Yet they voted into office a slate of candidates who oppose every one of those propositions, often in no uncertain terms. This doesn't suggest to me that there is much rational thought being put into how ballots are cast.
comments
