Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
They're one of my favorites. I have 2 varieties; yellow & Indian Blanket. I'm not much for annuals, but these keep volunteering every year & bloom from May through September. I wait for a nice damp day & split the volunteers all around the place, just like the marigolds. A bit of watering over the next week or so & then they're care free the rest of the year. Got to love them!
True, Jim, "got to love them". I discovered Gaillardia when we were vacationing at Old Orchard Beach in Maine. They were blooming in front of a house across the street from our motel. I asked the lady about them and she said they were taking over her garden and she was going to pull them out. Imagine!She also had straw flowers. I picked a couple as samples and began to grow those too, in pots. When they dry out, the last forever.
http://www.burpee.com/flowers/strawfl...
I loved my flowers in pots for a long time, but then even watering them got to be too much like work. So I cut back on the amount of potted plants we had.
Joy, glad I could help! :-)Jim, as you know (since I know that you're much more knowledgable about trees in general than I am!), there are several different breeds of maple --I don't think they're actually different species, though maybe they are? They make syrup from sugar maples, and that's something mostly done in New England; I don't actually know of anyone in Virginia who's done it, so I'm not very well versed in the timing or the process. This particular tree is a red maple (if I'm not mistaken), and probably wouldn't have syrup-quality sap at any time of year.
I don't know anything about maple syrup, although I did skim through a pamphlet that the KY Extension Service had on it. Apparently some do it here because we have a lot of sugar maples. I seem to recall the trees should be tapped in Feb & done by April. I believe that Sugar Maples have the most sugar in their sap, but I seem to recall that any of the genus Acer can be used. That would include Red maples & even Box Elders, so I might be remembering that wrong. Can't imagine tapping a Box Elder, AKA Swamp Maple, the weakest wood of the family. They seem so different from the other maples anyway.Anyway, it was a while ago that I skimmed it & I didn't pay a lot of attention after finding out how much sap it took to make the syrup & how long it had to cook down. Something like 40 or 50 to 1, I think. A horrible amount of time & energy, at any rate.
All trees get a rush of sap in the spring. That's why you can see rings on some trees like oaks. They're ring porous & have really big tubes in the spring when it is wet & smaller ones later in the year when they're not growing as much. Maples are diffusely porous, though. They don't have as readily identifiable rings.
Anyway, spring is the best time to prune some. I seem to recall that for fruit trees because the sap kept rot & bugs out. It gave them time to heal naturally. It is no longer suggested that you put tar or anything on. That pulls off & traps moisture in causing more problems than it solves. Some suggest fall, but then you usually get some extra die-off on the ends, I think. Personally, I tend to cut them when I have time.
P.S. I was curious about it & looked it up on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_syrup
I didn't see the ratio of sap to syrup, but they do say they use the Box Elder & it has a different flavor. They don't mention that about any of the other maples, though. They do specifically mention the Red Maple for syrup. Interesting.
Our temps on St. Patrick's Day was 79 degrees. I am planting my pansies, Joy. April is supposed to be warmer than usual We'll see. I did get, "Gone With the Wind," and there is a preface by Pat Conroy. He is one of my favorite authors so I am already enjoying the book. Thanks for recommending it. I can't imagine why I didn't read it years ago. nina
Nina, I can't imagine why I didn't read GWTW years ago either. Better late than never! :)
Jim wrote: "... Anyway, it was a while ago that I skimmed it & I didn't pay a lot of attention after finding out how much sap it took to make the syrup & how long it had to cook down. Something like 40 or 50 to 1, I think. A horrible amount of time & energy, at any rate. ..."Jim, that IS an unbelievable ratio of sap to syrup. And I don't even like the syrup! Give me Mrs. Butterworth's! :)
BTW, guess what Mrs. Butterworth's first name is. See the links below: (g)
http://www.mrsbutterworthsyrup.com/na...
http://www.slashfood.com/2009/10/01/m...
Jim, thanks for the information! I see we could tap this tree for making maple syrup after all --though for the amount of work involved, and as little as we use syrup, I think buying it in the store is a better bet for us. :-)I evidently misunderstood something Barb (who's my resident expert on all things tree-related) said, so I reported it incorrectly above. She says the sap IS now running, full-force, so it would hurt other trees to prune them now --but with a maple, it doesn't hurt because they have oodles of sap to spare. (I didn't probe the explanation too closely earlier this weekend; after all, when his queen commands, a loyal subject just obeys. :-) )
I love maple syrup, which was why I read the pamphlet. I have a lot of Sugar Maples & thought it might be interesting to make some of my own. Then I found out the time & cost for doing it. Wow.Here's an informative article on making syrup.
http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/for/fo...
Today I'm hoping the weather report is wrong and it really IS an April Fool's Joke (we are expecting several inches of snow tonight into tomorrow morning).
Linda, I think it WAS an April Fool's joke. Eddie and I were just remarking on that! The snow melted as it hit the ground. Whew! What a relief!BTW, GR never notified me that you posted the message above. I can't understand it. I'm lucky that I happened to click on "unread" at the top of the discussions. That's how I found your message here.
PS - Was anyone else notified about Linda's post, #1912, in this thread?
Joy, I got a notification about it. So whatever the problem was, my notifications weren't impacted by it.I'm back online here at home, at least for now (yay!). We're going to try the computer out this weekend to see if the malware that was removed makes enough difference in the speed of boot-ups, webcam reception, etc. It still has one piece of rogueware that's proved prohibitively hard to remove, but which may not pose a serious threat (since we don't store or send out credit card numbers on this computer). Obviously, some people in this world (who create malware) have WAY too much time on their hands! :-)
Werner, thanks for answering my question about Linda's post. I can't imagine what the problem was.As for malware, even the word sounds evil! Hope your computer will be OK.
Thanks, Joy! We're already happy with its improved speed and performance, now that 75% of the invasive software has been removed, so yes, I think it'll be okay. The kind of rogueware we're dealing with isn't actually designed to sabotage the computer as such; it's just designed to spy, mostly on one's interests and demographic characteristics so the rogueware perp can sell your mailing address to vendors who want to send you junk mail. We may have it removed later by re-installing Windows; but that's expensive and a nuisance, so we'll tolerate it for now. The main thing, from our viewpoint, is that now I know the virus protection is active and up-to-date, and the computer boots up fast enough to suit Barb when she plays Solitaire on it. :-)
Werner, glad to hear you're happy with the results of your computer repair.BTW, Eddie also spends time playing solitaire on his computer. He plays Free Cell Solitaire. I don't know how that type of solitaire works but he certainly likes it. He says that there's a certain strategy to it.
Barb plays both the Free Cell and Spider varieties, and agrees that there's definitely a strategy to it. (It's all Greek to me; I prefer games played with another person. :-) )
I had a productive day. I cut up 3 fence boards into enough parts for 10 bird houses. 4 will be just for blue birds using a rectangular opening that supposedly will keep the sparrows out. The other 6 will have the regular hole & they seem to work well for the tree swallows, although they also like to live with the purple martins. Did I mention I put up another purple martin house? Marg got it for my birthday. I also got all the fields harrowed while Marg got most of the lawn cut. She won't do along the road because it's too hilly, so I'll get that tomorrow. We must have made quite a pair, both on John Deer tractors - a matching pair.
;-)
Lily had a blast. She ran circles around the tractor & the fields half the time. Then she took a break to go into the back yard & play with Pixie. I wish I had her energy. Glad I have a bit more sense, though. Twice she stopped to pee right in front of the tractor! I had to stop quickly.
When I got up around the barn, the horses & goats decided that it was too exciting & charged off to run around the north field, then back past the barn & off into the south field. They were all bucking & carrying on, having a blast. It was in the mid 50's & windy, so they were feeling good. Fun to watch.
Jim, it's funny how animals love to run. Romeo, our Maltese, dashes around indoors and out. Yes, it's fun to watch.A few years ago, we put up a bluebird house but all we got were swallows. We don't see many bluebirds here even though they're the state bird in NY. I've see only a few. You're lucky to have a lot around. They're such a beautiful blue!
Eastern Bluebird: http://www.ejphoto.com/images_AZ/AZ_E...
I've seen one indigo bunting in my life. The color is spectacular!
Indigo Bunting: http://springvalleypark.org/assets/im...
Unfortunately, we don't have many blue birds, a couple of pairs each year, although I have about 15 houses they could occupy. We have a LOT of sparrows & starlings which compete harshly with blue birds. They'll raid their nests & kill their young.Years ago, I copied an article about a 'sparrow-free' blue bird house. It's the one I mentioned in my previous post. It's all the same, except that there is a 1-1/8" slot at the top for them to get in rather than a 1-1/2" hole. According to the biologist that wrote it, sparrows & starlings don't like that sort of entry. We'll see. As I recall, I made them before & didn't notice much difference, but this time will be a more scientific test. I'll be alternating them in very similar terrain.
Good luck with your blue bird houses, Jim. Snap a picture for us if blue birds take up residence.We have at least one pair of cardinals here. I love them. Today I saw some black-capped chickadees. I love them too.
Will do. Marg & I started listing the bird houses we have now. It's a lot. I made 19 the first year we were here out of wood from the old barn we tore down & I've added houses almost every year. Counting the 10 that aren't put together yet (hopefully today) we have:2 Purple Martin houses with a total of 38 nesting spots, including 6 plastic gourds I rigged under one, in the back yard.
4 home grown gourd houses in trees & one ceramic one on the porch.
4 large bird houses, sized for woodpeckers & such evenly spaced across the farm & up high, about 15'.
26 blue bird sized houses on all the fence lines. Blue birds like their houses to be at least 100' apart & 3 - 5' off the ground. Most of mine are 5' - 7' since they're on fence lines.
I have to keep an eye on them, clear the sparrows out frequently & fix them occasionally, so I think that's enough!
;-)
Wow, Jim. That's a lot of bird houses! You are truly remarkable! I guess they keep down the insect population.
What am I doing today? I just went to a Monet exibit at our Art Museum of the Monet triptec of the Lilly Pond at Giverny. It is awesome; as is the original pond which I had the pleasure of visiting a few years ago. En route home we drove past so many many flowering magnolias, tulip trees and all sorts of other flowering trees too numerous to count. Also, can you believe we had to turn the air conditoning on; eighty five degrees. Phew! nina
Sounds like a beautiful day, Nina, with everything flowering. Magnolias remind me of my dad. He had a beautiful magnolia tree and was able to create another magnolia tree from that one by grafting. He gave the baby tree to my sister and now it has grown to a good size. We always think of Dad when we think of magnolias. Same for forsythias and roses. He passed sprouts on to our gardens when we bought homes. Fond memories. A nice way to leave a legacy.
That is truly a wonderful legacy your father left you. Tonight on NBC news with Brian Williams, they had a man on in their "Making a Difference," segment that also will leave a legacy. Because it is about him being able to mend/preserve damaged or worn out children's books. He works in the Princeton Library. His work is truly amazine. It showed children enjoying his work; reading his repaired books in delight. nina
That's cool, Joy.Only 2 of the bird houses got put together today, none put up. I wound up doing other chores; fence, mowing, etc... I also took some time to read, hopped on Speedy to ride along with Marg (on Cutter) for a while & chatted with 2 neighbors. It hit 75 here today.
Marg was really sick last week, late Wednesday-early Thursday morning she spent in the bathroom, sleeping on the floor in between bouts. It was short lived & violent, starting with an upset stomach & a headache. I hadn't realized it started with a headache until I complained of one tonight & a queasy stomach. Ugh. I really don't want to be sick.
Sorry about your wife. It is so hard to be that miserable. I was once but ended up in the hospital. Hope she is much improved very soon. nina
There's some of the same sort of violent 24-hour flu going around here, too. Jim, you have my sympathy; hope you throw this off quickly, and glad to hear Marg is over it!
Jim wrote: "Will do. Marg & I started listing the bird houses we have now. It's a lot. I made 19 the first year we were here out of wood from the old barn we tore down & I've added houses almost every year...."Jim, I've been waiting 2 years to see an Eastern Bluebird. Some of my clients have blue bird boxes and have several blue birds. I haven't seen one yet. I have a bird book that I mark with date, time, year, location of my bird sightings.
Hope you didn't get Marg's bug.
Today and tomorrow work. Then Wed, Th, Fr going to Atlanic City. A little gambling, walk the boardwalk (weather is expected to be near 60 in NJ), go to the Pier and the shops, eat some fish. On Friday, we'll leave early in a.m. to head home. Unpack and repack for 2 days in Ottawa! Going to 2 museums in Ottawa: Flight Aviation Museum and the Canadian Museum of Nature. Home to brand-new exhibitions and galleries, a 100- year-old stone “castle”, and Canada's natural history collection. Here's the link: www.nature.ca/en/home
We've been to both museums but they are certainly worth another trip.
I've got something, but if it what Marg had, it's hitting me differently. I feel terrible & achy, but can't seem to get it out of my system. I almost wish I'd throw up, just to get it over with. I'm at work now, but will be leaving early - possibly soon.--------
That's a shame, Linda. I know what it's like making habitat for a bird & never seeing it. We waited 2 years for purple martins & finally got some last year. We've never had any luck attracting orioles, although we saw a couple in the woods.
I love having killdeer & meadow larks around, although I worry about them when I mow. Last year we had dozens of meadow larks & one kill deer nesting in the field. This year we won't have any. Lily is seeing to that.
Ah, never seen that many meadow larks at once. Usually, just one here and there. I'm determined to see an Eastern Bluebird this year. Will let you know how I make out. :)
Considering what we do for food, water & housing, we should see a lot of birds. Besides regular houses, I've built a lot of brush piles & we make sure water is available even in the driest & coldest weather. We feed a lot of different types of feed & ways, too.A lot of fields around here are really good for meadow larks. Folks don't seem to mow as often as I do, although I notice some mowing more often. I've had a few people ask me how I keep them looking so good & that's one of the ways - by knocking down the weeds before they can seed. I also go around with a backpack sprayer & spray a lot of weeds. Mowing & the dogs, especially Lily, are very hard on the meadow larks, kill deer & other ground nesters, but 2 neighbors make it easy for them, so we still have a lot around.
I just checked this group and found that I was never notified about the nine previous messages in this thread. I guess I'll have to come to the group regularly to check for messages. Funny, but I've received notifications for the other threads. Another mystery. :)
Hope everyone if feeling better now.Have a good time on your trips, Linda.
I took my 2nd bike ride of the year today! First one was Jan 6, and it's been winter ever since. (How can I get those guys to plow the bike path!?!?.):) Temp was early 50s but I dressed in my full winter finery anyway. I didn't quite make Hannaford's when I ran into snow, < 3 miles round trip. But, anyway, I found all my bike clothes and assured myself the bike, and most of me still worked.An ominous-looking letter in my mailbox from NYS Attorney General. Turned out to be good news! That bogus claim from Hollywood Video I referenced on GoodReads a while ago has been completely dismissed! Now if I could just get the barely-English-speaking guy who keeps calling me and threatening 'Candace' with something-or-other to quit bugging me. Someone suggested I call Verizon, but maybe I'll again be returning to Attorney General with another complaint.
Excellent news, Earl. Good luck with the bill collector. You might try telling them that you heard she died. I was getting calls at work for a gal that worked there years previously & told them that. The calls stopped.Careful about calling back the number that's on your phone. You can try that, but they often put a fake number in. A friend of mine had to change her number that she'd had for years because bill collectors did that to her. The phone company shrugged. They're no help at all. They tell you to call the cops.
If you do get the collection agency, start hitting buttons to get into the voice mail system. Get the name of the moron calling for Candace first & then leave lots of irate voice mails throughout the company. That worked on one guy that was calling here for the previous owner of our phone number. He called up the next day & was furious. Apparently one of the extensions where I'd left a message burned his butt for him. Never heard from him after that.
;-)
I guess I will be building a fence around our fish pond over the weekend. I put the filter in yesterday & found it tipped over today. I thought I'd goofed. Lily just came in & was wet. The filter is knocked over again. Our first Purple Martins showed up today!!! Saw 3 of them on the first house I put up. Very cool. I marked it on my calendar.
Jim wrote: "Excellent news, Earl. Good luck with the bill collector. You might try telling them that you heard she died. I was getting calls at work for a gal that worked there years previously & told them that. The calls stopped. ..."LOL! I had to laugh at that one!
Jim wrote: "I guess I will be building a fence around our fish pond over the weekend. I put the filter in yesterday & found it tipped over today. I thought I'd goofed. Lily just came in & was wet. The filt..."Lily sounds like a very frisky dog! :)
Enjoy your Purple Martins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcVsMw...
Earl wrote: "I took my 2nd bike ride of the year today! First one was Jan 6, and it's been winter ever since. (How can I get those guys to plow the bike path!?!?.):) Temp was early 50s but I dressed in my full ..."Enjoy your bike rides, Earl. I used to enjoy bike riding but now I'm afraid of falling and breaking a bone or two. Never thought about it until the doctor kept warning me about osteoporosis. :-(
Joy, Lily has more energy than she (or anyone else) knows what to do with. It took me about 4 hours to harrow the fields the other day. She ran around the tractor & all over the fields the entire time, except when she took a break to go play with Pixie or run through the woods. Seriously, the dog went non-stop for hours & wasn't even tired afterward. She's a year old this month & an English Pointer, so I guess that comes with the breeding.Marg is taking the horse trailer down to Murray today. Erin broke a young stud, Junior, last year for class. He's been gelded & Marg is thinking of buying him. (Yes, we need another freaking horse... ...) Anyway, she'll be gone until tomorrow afternoon/evening. I'll bet the dogs, especially Lily, will be off the wall when I get home from work today. Having full run of the house & a mere 1/2 acre back yard just isn't interesting or big enough to wear them out during the day, the poor things. They need to get out to stretch their legs at least twice a day or they go bananas.
;-)
Speaking of birds (above), Barb and I aren't as avid bird watchers as some group members here are, and we don't currently have any houses or feeders. But even living here in town, we see various birds from time to time, from the window or when we're outside. The other day we spotted a bluejay, and our first robin of the season. A pair of cardinals (our state bird) nest near here. Woodpeckers are around occasionally; and of course there's a flock of crows that live on the ridge between the BC campus and the city park (the adults are pretty good-sized). They're handily located to visit the McDonald's and Wendy's dumpsters every day, so they're probably the first crows in the world with fat and cholesterol problems. :-) Our favorite birds, though, are the flocks of mallard ducks that spend the warm weather on the Bluestone River, which runs close to our house and along the route I follow to go to work. And I shouldn't forget to mention that downtown Bluefield, WV (which is a very run-down, half-deserted backwater area) is home to gazillions of pigeons; they find the abandoned, decrepit tall buildings to be perfect rookeries!
Oh boy, Jim. A new horse. I'll be waiting to hear all about him and how his personality is different from that of the others.
Werner, that's amazing about the abandoned tall buildings being used by the pigeons as rookeries.Here's a page for you:
"Bird Songs and Sound of the Mallard" (and a photo):
http://www.birdjam.com/birdsong.php?i...
I recently discovered the above website which gives the sounds and photos of many birds. (Strangely, I couldn't find a purple martin.) Our dog, Romeo finds the sounds interesting. :)
Here's the Robin:
http://www.birdjam.com/birdsong.php?id=1
"Call: Whinny call is a rapid outburst of notes that drop in pitch, likened to the whinny of a tiny horse. Peek and tut calls, roughly alternated, are given in alarm situations. Other calls include a high penetrating seee (probably an aerial predator alarm note), and a buzzy tzeeup (often heard on migration)."
Imagine! A robin sounding like a horse! :)
Thanks for the links, Joy! Pigeons like high roosting places with easy ingress and egress (like a lot of broken windows), so the buildings are a natural, from their viewpoint. Unfortunately, they're not housebroken (and tend not to care what's below them when they're relieving themselves in flight, either :-) ), so not all Bluefielders enthusiastically welcome their presence. I'm not one of their critics, though!
Werner, they do make a mess! So do the Geese at Lake George. It's a problem at the beaches and parks on the shores of the lake. One has to watch where one is stepping because of the doo-doo. They try to keep it under control by raking or stringing string lines along the shore in the spring to discourage the geese from trespassing onto the private beaches. The geese are almost as bad as small dogs when it comes to this problem... and there are many more geese than there are small dogs!
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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Since the gardening season is approaching, you might be interested in this very hardy, colorful flower which blooms all summer and comes back each year by itself.
The flower was named after M. Gaillard, a French botany patron.
See the link below:
http://www.floridata.com/ref/G/gailla...
(Scroll down at the above link for a close-up photo of the bright flower.)
The Gaillardia flower is also known as "Indian Blanket" or "Firewheel", and there is a hybrid called "Goblin". Gaillardia are very hardy and are also salt tolerant. This is important for us because in the winter they salt the roads here to melt the snow and ice. Then the salt drains down into the soil around the flowers which are near the road. I love the fact that they are low maintenance, so easy to grow. They come up every year by themselves (perennials) and bloom all summer long with very bright flowers. They have been a great discovery for me.
I'm always amazed when I see them pop up each year because we absolutely neglect them!
Perky little things!