Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
Jim wrote: "I think "Sheep to Shawl" is a fairly common name. Catchy. Yes, horses mating is quite graphic, even ponies are. Our kids used to watch in fascination, but thought the rabbits were more entertaini..."
Poor little buck bunny!
Yesterday was quite busy & interesting as I went to my first SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) event called Candlemas. My daughter was in charge of the event which was one of the Shires getting together for several competitions. The best attended & obvious were the heavy fighters in their armor whacking each other with heavy swords of rattan. Their section smelled like a locker room as they were all sweating bullets in their heavy armor for hours. There was also a rapier competition. I didn't get to see much of that, though.
There was an Arts & Science table where we entered the Speedy pony that I crocheted out of his fur. I think he came in third to a woven woolen blanket & a box. I think the box won, which I found surprising. It wasn't very good, IMO. I voted for a cap that was nalebinded (nalebound?). Nalebinding is a predecessor of knitting & crochet that is sort of like sewing circles with yarn. Mary, the A&S coordinator, showed me how it was done. Very interesting, although not something I'm interested in doing.
I had a lot of fun & informative conversations with a number of the members. One of the fighters expounded on Japanese history & his armor as we discussed repairing his helmet which had one side weld broken by a blow. (Yes, they hit hard. One gal broke her 'sword' over a guy's head to win her match.) His area of interest was late 16th century feudal Japan, so his armor reflected that & he described various innovations & how he'd tried to make his replicas of the pieces comply historically while meeting current safety standards & modern materials.
I met an anthropologist & an archaeologist who did this for fun plus an enthusiastic amateur historian who's son was now an archaeologist. He mostly discussed his son's current project at a Cornish castle.
My classes on "Sheep to Shawl" & "Inkle Loom Construction" each garnered half a dozen enthusiastic participants. That was more than most & the last class ran way over as there was a lot of discussion by weavers. While I learned more, I actually wowed a couple of them as I pointed out some issues & design changes, so I was tickled to find that my research was solid & on target. I also found that my pricing on looms needs to double & it will still be low. So it was a good day.
Today will be spent getting my shop back in order & a guy is supposed to be coming to look at the kids' backyard to grade it & expose the septic tank. He was supposed to come earlier this week, but that didn't work out. Hopefully he'll come today & we can get that project done so the kids can get the septic pumped & we can work on getting a fence up for them. That will also let us put in a dog door.
The weather might cooperate today. Yesterday it was 6 degrees & this morning it's 40. We might hit 60 today, but we're supposed to have some fairly violent storms Monday into Tuesday along with more rain.
That will be a day in your memory, Jim. No wonder some were impressed with your projects. I would be.
Jim wrote: "Yesterday was quite busy & interesting as I went to my first SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) event called Candlemas. My daughter was in charge of the event which was one of the Shires gettin..."Jim, I had never heard of such a society. A perfect place for your looms! Good luck with the septic tank and the fence. I'm sure the dog will like his door. Does your daughter have more than one dog?
Erin & Josh have 2 dogs & 2 cats that use a dog door, so they're really looking forward to getting it, Joy.
Jim wrote: "Erin & Josh have 2 dogs & 2 cats that use a dog door, so they're really looking forward to getting it, Joy."We've never had a dog door. I suppose you can't have a storm door if you use a dog door. Am I right?
It would be tough, Joy. With the way they make exterior doors now, that's not a problem, though. Another option is having 2 dog doors when there is an enclosed porch or mud room. We had that at one of our houses. None of the exterior doors were that good, but having the enclosed, unheated porch kept the wind & worst extremes of the temperature away. The door we have the dog door in now is a steel clad insulated door that fits perfectly. The dog door itself is 'insulated' being made up of 3 flaps that took the dogs some getting used to. It has strong magnets & tight fitting flaps with a layer of cloth in between, so it's not too much of a heat exchanger. We do have to close it with a cap when the wind comes in from the west over 45 mph or so, but other than that it's pretty good.
Hmmm. Thanks, Jim. I'll have to check out dog doors just to see what they look like. But I'd be afraid to trust our dog in the yard without supervision. He always manages to get into something out there.
PS-Can unwanted critters enter thru a dog door? What stops them?
Sure, anything can get through the door. My kids used to use it & my grandson does now. As for other animals, unless they get along with our dogs & cat, they tend to stay out of our backyard entirely or they wind up dead. The kids' cats still drop by & come in when they feel like it. They're allowed since they're family.
Jim, I'm surprised that mice and squirrels don't invade through the dog door. Your dogs must be very good sentries. :)
Oh, mice come through the dog door all the time, but only in the mouth of one of the cats so far as I know. Orion (Josh's cat) brought so many mice in that Amber (our smallest Jack Russell) started getting fat. He'd meow & she'd wander over. He'd drop the mouse & she'd scarf it down. Chipmunks, too. He brought in half a dozen treats for her one day. She doesn't appreciate the frogs, though. No one does. I don't know why Orion insists on catching them.The squirrels won't come near the back yard. It's only 100 yards or so to the woods, but the yard is dangerous as is the crossing. We have a couple of hawks around besides the cats & dogs. We have over a dozen big fox squirrels in the woods. The dogs rarely get them, though.
Jim wrote: "Oh, mice come through the dog door all the time, but only in the mouth of one of the cats so far as I know. Orion (Josh's cat) brought so many mice in that Amber (our smallest Jack Russell) started..."EW! :) I don't think I could tolerate all of the things the cat brings in.
I'm not particularly fond of cats nor their habit of bringing in their play toys. A couple of weeks ago I was napping when Amber woke me up with her barking. I found Raven, Marg's cat, in her closet (behind the baby gate that guards his food from the dogs) playing with his latest, a red-breasted woodpecker. He was releasing it & catching it again as it flew up into her shirts & stuff. He was quite put out when I took it away from him & released it outside. The dogs were bewildered wondering why I didn't give it to them.Ugh. We spend a lot of money feeding the birds. Doing that & keeping a predator around seems weird. Well, we didn't buy him, just took him in when he was hungry & then spent close to $300 getting him vetted properly, the ungrateful wretch.
:(
Glad you helped the little woodpecker, Jim.
We once had a cottage in the Ozarks and woodpeckers that continually pecked holes in our stucco until a neighbor shot them after he tried to shoo them off repeatedly. It was quite difficult to repair our outside after they did their damage.
Raven woke Marg up this morning by running across her when his latest bird escaped & flew over her. Pip got it & ate it. She thinks it was a sparrow, but didn't have her glasses on nor eyes open enough to be sure. Sigh.If woodpeckers attack walls, there's generally a reason such as bugs, but they'll also do it just to make noise & sometimes we just weren't sure. Shooting them makes sense, but we have so many around here that I doubt it would work for long. We didn't have nearly as many in MD & there were still some log cabins & cedar sided houses they'd tear holes into. Seemed like once one did it, they just kept it up until we replaced the pieces. Sometimes a new oil-based finish & shooting the offender at the same time would keep them off from then on, sometimes not. Exasperating.
Stucco was a terribly easy finish for them to break up, but I only heard about a couple of cases. There were few stucco houses in our area & while I repaired a couple, I never ran into one with woodpecker damage. I said 'was' because about 25 years ago I first ran into a vinyl stucco that is incredibly tough. An 1/4" layer on top of styrofoam blocks took a hard hammer blow to break - a really hard one. Chemists are my heroes.
Jim wrote: "... If woodpeckers attack walls, there's generally a reason such as bugs, but they'll also do it just to make noise & sometimes we just weren't sure. ... We didn't have nearly as many in MD & there were still some log cabins & cedar sided houses they'd tear holes into. ... Stucco was a terribly easy finish for them to break up ..."Woodpeckers! If it's not one thing, it's another!
That's home ownership. Always something...
Jim wrote: "That's home ownership. Always something..."Today the trouble is the snow and needing to clear it. We have about 4 inches so far but further south in NJ they have about a foot of snow so far today.
ouch. Glad you didn't get the foot. We didn't even get a dusting, thankfully.
So far we have had four inches of snow this winter. If no more comes it will be the second driest winter on record since the 1800's. A few years ago we had three inches all winter.
Jim wrote: "ouch. Glad you didn't get the foot. We didn't even get a dusting, thankfully."In a way I was glad it snowed. It gave me an excuse not to have to go out in the cold today. We had to cancel a couple of plans but it feels nice to be warm and cozy inside.
An hour ago we had a telephone call from our son who put our 3 year old granddaughter on the line. I asked her what book she was reading. She said she was reading about Heffalumps. (A Heffalump is a type of fictional elephant in the Winnie the Pooh stories.) Piglet Meets a Heffalump
https://www.amazon.com/Poohs-Heffalum...
I asked her if a Heffalump was an elephant. She replied:
"No, it's a Heffalump."
Squelched by a 3 year old! LOL
I know the feeling. At Easter our Plaza is adorned with statue bunnies and other Easter goodies. Once when my three year old great grandson was in the car with us driving through the Plaza after Easter he asked where the bunnies were and when I answered, "They hopped away," He looked at me and said, "How could they, they are concrete."
Nina wrote: "... my three year old great grandson ... asked where the bunnies were and when I answered, "They hopped away," He looked at me and said, "How could they, they are concrete." ."LOL - We can't fool these 3-year-olds anymore! Wait until they become judges! LOLOL
A belated but heartfelt "happy Valentine's Day" to Joy, Jim, Nina and all the rest of you. I have been absent a while but now I'm back and hope to get some reviews out soon.
Mary JL wrote: "A belated but heartfelt "happy Valentine's Day" to Joy, Jim, Nina and all the rest of you. I have been absent a while but now I'm back and hope to get some reviews out soon."Hi, Mary JL. Good to hear from you. Thanks for the greetings.
Welcome "home" Mary. Now as to my weather report/it's going to be in the seventies for at least the next week and we are under a high fire alert. Our weather man says we are having CA weather and they have much rain so they have ours.
Enjoy your mild weather, Nina! --- We have 36°F."Tonight A chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a low around 24."
Trouble is we are in a drought. It is going to be seventy five on Sunday and my poor husband with a painful shoulder carried twelve gallons of water out to our tree this morning.
Hope you get a lot of rain soon, Nina. A gallon of water is very heavy!
Our normal temp for February is forty degrees and we are now into our second week of seventies. Supposed to be seventy five on Sunday. Today we had to put the car window down it was so warm inside of it. And so far no snow and I am attaching an old picture of me enjoying the February in a normal way. Take Care, nina
I just got a FB memory showing most of a foot of snow covering the backyard 2 years ago. We're supposed to be in the 50s today. I've been sick all week (Still am, although better.) so I'm dying to get out & do something. Hopefully I'm up to harrowing the fields. Not physically hard, but the drugs have ruined my gut & a handy bathroom is often a necessity.I plan to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count this year. It started yesterday & ends tomorrow. It's quick & easy to sign up & do through the Audubon Society who also shares the data with Cornell. Here's a link to get started:
http://www.audubon.org/content/about-...
Anyone can do it & all it takes is counting the birds you see in as little as 15 minutes. They have lists for each zip code to help out & all sorts of good things. Seems like a fun & worthwhile project.
Nina wrote: "Our normal temp for February is forty degrees and we are now into our second week of seventies. Supposed to be seventy five on Sunday. Today we had to put the car window down it was so warm inside ..."70 degrees sounds like music to my ears, Nina!
Jim wrote: "I just got a FB memory showing most of a foot of snow covering the backyard 2 years ago. We're supposed to be in the 50s today. I've been sick all week (Still am, although better.) so I'm dying to ..."I haven't seen many birds in our yard lately. Our yard is covered with snow. I'll keep my eye out for birds. Thanks, Jim.
Sorry you are ill as are my two daughters and one son in law. Guess this is a bad winter. Hope you are well soon and can count your birds. I will check it out. Thanks for the tip.But mostly my birds are out before this time so I probably can't do the count.
I'm still pretty punk, but did count birds this morning for 15 minutes. 16 different species in that time just on the back yard feeders. Including 3 different woodpecker species. I also saw a white-crowned sparrow. Marg & I have just recently noticed it. It's a little bigger than a house sparrow, but has dramatic stripes on its head.
Jim wrote: "I'm still pretty punk, but did count birds this morning for 15 minutes. 16 different species in that time just on the back yard feeders. Including 3 different woodpecker species. I also saw a white..."Sorry that you aren't feeling well, Jim. Feel better soon.
I'm impressed by the number of birds you've seen.
Jim wrote: "I'm still pretty punk, but did count birds this morning for 15 minutes. 16 different species in that time just on the back yard feeders. Including 3 different woodpecker species. I also saw a white..."That is so interesting. I have never heard of that bird. We have lots of sparrows but none with that description. Sorry you are ill. Hope you get better soon and aren't too worn out from being sick.
Thanks, Nina. It is really interesting catching these odd birds. I plan to do it again today a few times. Today is the last day.Apparently there's a really bad sinus infection going around that I've been fighting for some time. It turned into bronchitis & a sinus infection. The first round of antibiotics didn't kill it & while the antibiotics I'm on now are, they're also killing my gut with some help from the cough medicine I have to take or a I can't sleep. Unfortunately, I'm very sensitive to the active ingredients in that & they've always given me gut trouble, too. I can take a child's portion once a day without too much trouble, but twice is too much.
No advice needed on fixing that. I've been trying, but it's just rough. Still, I'm getting better. 4 more days of antibiotics & I didn't have to take cough medicine last night for the first time.
Good news! I inspected the fields & the Star of Bethlehem infestation has been knocked back on its heels!!! http://www.hortmag.com/blogs/editors-...
I don't know if anyone remembers, but we noticed this cute little bulb when we first got here 9 years ago growing wild here & there. Then we noticed it was taking over parts of the field & it is poisonous to the livestock. I tried spot spraying it with 2,4-D & Round Up, but that didn't stop it at all. Just browned the top.
I read up on it & found I'd need to use Grammoxone to kill it. The active ingredient in that is paraquat, a deadly poison, so I had to get a license to buy & apply it. By the time I had, the season for spraying it was gone, so I finally could do it last year. That meant temporarily fencing off areas of the pasture for 40 days from the animals & spraying in full hazard gear. I did it & those areas are almost completely clear now!!!
It is still coming up in other areas, but not in masses that carpet main grazing areas. I'm going to harrow as soon as I can & keep an eye on it. There's a lot of work to do with the kids' house this year, so I may not have the time to deal with it this year, but it doesn't look as if I have to, either.
Jim wrote: "Good news! I inspected the fields & the Star of Bethlehem infestation has been knocked back on its heels!!! http://www.hortmag.com/blogs/editors-... ... I don't know if..."
Star of Bethlehem! Such an innocent-looking flower:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&a...
It's amazing to read how it proliferates itself!
You can't judge a flower by it's title.
It was absolutely gorgeous out yesterday & is supposed to be nice for the next week or so. Josh & I are going to rent a backhoe over the weekend so we can grade behind their house & dig up the septic tank & stumps. I cleaned up the road-side gardens & flowers around the north field last night. Daffodils are coming up, but only about half of what I should have. I wonder if the weird weather we had last year killed some of them off or if it is just the area they're in. I'm going to flag those that do come up so I can fill in the gaps with bulbs this fall.
Sunday morning I didn't have too many birds for the count, but I saw a pileated woodpecker land in the big, dead ash tree out on the edge of the wood closest to the house. Very cool. We hear them, but don't see them that often. Then a second one came & landed on the tree just above the first. I tried taking pictures, but it was through a door & pretty far away. It's a shame because one caught both of them on the side of the trunk in identical poses. Could have been a really neat shot if it was better.
Jim, sounds like you're feeling better. That's good. I googled for images of the pileated woodpecker. Here's a link:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&a...
They are the ones that poked holes in our house. Many many holes causing my husband much work replastering.
Predicting eighty degrees tomorrow. Unbelievable for Feb. Next week Feb weather returns. We have buds on our maple tree. Hope they don't freeze.
WOW! 80 degrees in February! Are you sure you aren't in Brazil? LOL
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
Books mentioned in this topic
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Tara Westover (other topics)Ann Howard Creel (other topics)
Ann Howard Creel (other topics)
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Yes, horses mating is quite graphic, even ponies are. Our kids used to watch in fascination, but thought the rabbits were more entertaining. One little buck would pump away really fast for a few seconds, squeak, & fall over on his back then lie on his side for a few seconds recovering. They barely paid any attention to dogs or various fowl mating unless the poor dog was getting dragged around. Then they'd hold the bitch still until things relaxed. Usually they'd complain loudly & try to get someone else to take over after a few minutes. It is boring.