Happy Arbor day! Last week we celebrated smoking trees, now let's plant a tree. Last year I planted a couple peach trees, and I haven't figured out where another good spot for a tree would be. Did you plant something this year? Here's a naked tree Spoiler There, @Rush-O-Matic . Happy?! I hope you all had a lovely Friday. I had a super productive one (also why this thread is so late. Sorry!) Plant a tree and have a drink. Maybe an Angry Orchard?
The wifey has some friends over so I'm irritated that I can't watch Bill Maher. He has Scott Galloway on who I have a major man crush on. So I'm downing IPAs until I can sleep hard enough to sleep through their cackling laughs
Yes! Glorious, thank you so much! I have planted several trees on my property - one cherry blossom, one willow oak, one long leaf pine, 6 Leyland cypress, 2 loblolly pines (though, those were transplants), a bradford pear, and a dogwood - over the years. But, none this year. I'm eat up with trees and actually need to cut down several this year. I only have one place in the "yard" area that I need to plant one. I had a Dogwood there, but it died. I tried to plant a replacement several years ago, alas, it also died. The end.
My property is already heavily wooded (Google Earth shots show my driveway and nothing but canopy), so I almost never plant anything. “Almost never “ because I transplanted a Japanese maple from the woods behind my house to my front yard, and I’ve been trying for years to get it to grow. Deer have devastated it twice, among other things. Finally it reached about 7 feet tall ( from about 2 feet) - and we had to dig up my front yard to replace the water main, as I posted about previously. I think that was the last straw and my poor tree has just given up.
I very enthusiastically used my arbor press in the shop today. I also stacked up a dado blade set in the table saw. and swapped out a flap disc on the grinder. So, go me, using all the arbors!
Are any of y'all getting the overlapping cicada broods this year? The map(s) I saw earlier didn't show my area as having 13 and 17 emergence overlapping, but good grief they're loud today. They started getting louder a couple days ago, but are really loud today. I don't think they peak for another week or so. So, if this is a light turnout, I can't imagine how loud it is in the overlap zones.
We’re out of a major brood zone. This year. Maybe 6 or 7 years ago we had a major emergence and the noise was truly astounding. At a distance, when you can’t really distinguish the sounds of individual insects, it sounded like hundreds of gas powered weed wackers or leaf blowers, all going at once.
finally back home after the world's longest travel day yesterday. Yes, @dixiebandit69 I did break something during the London Marathon, or at least that's the going theory until I visit the doctor on monday and find out what the fuck I fully did to my foot at mile 18 when I fell over a water bottle on course. Heard a crack and my foot felt broke, and from the feel and looks of it after the race it was in two spots -- bit toe, then further back at the base. Still finished the 26.2 miles, was on pace for under 5 hours at the time of the boo boo but ended up with 5:26 which wasn't bad since I was hobbling the last 8 miles. That was a week ago though, and I now believe that I might have done some tendon damage as well. Whatever, cost of doing business. I saw some absolutely gnarly injuries that race, though the event itself was incredible beyond my wildest expectations. Shout out to everyone who gave me recommendations in the World Travel Thread. Went to many of the places suggested. The Wolseley for afternoon tea was absolutely amazing. Totally fell in love with London overall, just the entire community, the vibe, the restaurants, the people we met, overall cleanliness and just safe feeling wherever we went. I would go back tomorrow if I could, and we have plans to take our boys once they get a bit older. Also, France can fuck right off. Spent two days there, great food, went to the Eiffel Tower and Louvre, hotel on the Champs-Elysees. Hotel was amazing, but even though they were cleaning up the place for the Olympics, the people were still miserable and it still smelled so bad that even I could smell it (with my general lack of smell from covid). Taking the train there was badass though.
Nebraska did. The US holiday at least. we planted all those trees so they’d cause maximum damage during tornadoes, I guess. Jesus.
I just wrapped up a garage sale, actually at my house this time, and it went great! Made about $250 and cleaned some space out. I'm ready to do it again tomorrow. I still have so much crap to get rid of. We might actually be able to properly set up the home gym now though, which is something that has been delayed for years.
We actually did yard maintenance stuff today and I pulled up some garlic mustard. So naturally I had to turn it into pesto and put it on pasta for dinner. With grilled chicken thighs and asparagus and a generous amount of ricotta. Very spring, very yum.
Glad you enjoyed London so much. We loved it also. Just a really cool city. Our experience in Paris wasn’t as bad as yours, but I have no desire to go back. I have to say though, I saw some of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen in my life in Paris.
I took a 4 day weekend this weekend. Yesterday was an amazing day here... nice and warm, no rain... it was just beautiful. For the first time in a long time I was able to do a ton of yard work without having any health issues. The cardiac and sleep apnea issues I've had for a few years has meant I have had next to no endurance or strength... everything was just fucking painful and exhausting, and I couldn't get anything done. This weekend was non stop doing productive shit without any impact, other than sleeping like a log. You have no idea just how much that has impacted my quality of life. Things are so much better now that I almost cried last night... no joke. So this weekend I've been trimming a ton of trees/shrubs, cut and edged the grass, seeded and fertilized all the things, sprayed everything (both Agent Orange grade Roundup only available from the States, and amazing weed killer Par III that I bought from a farmer friend). The battery powered Dewalt sprayer I have works really well. Also got the automatic watering system spun up for when it stops raining next week. I'm now welding up a way overkill wheeled wood rack so I can get my utility trailer (full of a shit-ton of rough lumber) out of the garage. 3" square tube, 1/4" wall... I almost need a fucking crane to build it. So much fun burning a ton of rods for the first time in a long time. Next step is to get the Airstream out of winter storage week after next and get the new battery system installed. I picked up a bunch of high end Victron electronics in order to upgrade the shitty default systems... 10kw inverters, 300amp charging of the onboard batteries from the idling truck thanks to 2 very high output alternators that put out almost 1k amps. Before long I'll be fucking off into the Great White North with just me, the dog, and starlink, to enjoy working very remotely. That, and work is going fucking gangbusters. Life is good, my dudes... I hope it's going well for all of you as well. @malisbad , Zoe misses her nap partner... so let me know if you're breaking free of the Yakuza any time soon...
yeah on the whole it was still cool. Just different. Same as you though -- glad I saw it, no desire to return. Saw some beautiful women, but that was drowned out by the number of people I was just amazed at. Like who puts all that metal in their face by choice? I'm sure some were really pretty underneath all the stainless steel and such.
Since you brought me up, I was wondering: who died during the race? I was curious about that, and no internet search came up with a name or news report of anyone dying during the 2024 London Marathon.
With the flight prices and the effectively dogshit yen, I think it might be a little while! I'd love to come home for a month, but it's looking pricy. Flights are packed as well with tourism gone off the rocker here. So far tourists have been tossed out of the geisha district in Kyoto, and the Lawson with the view of Fuji is going to erect a 2.5m barrier that will block out the view of Fuji because they were so disruptive.
one person died of heat related illness/heat stroke in the second tunnel, another of heat illness while en route to the hospital. This year set a record for the LM for the number of both applicants and runners, and as a result also set a record for the number of dumbasses on course. Combine that with the whole social media "run a marathon without training" trend, and A LOT of people got fucked up. I personally saw quite a few absolutely horrible injuries. And reports just came out that the record for applicants has been set again for next year, and while one of their title sponsors is pushing to set the world record for most marathon runners at one time. Surely this will end well. From the belly of the beast and talking with other runners who had done that race many times over, apparently London Marathon is quite good at suppressing news which puts them in a negative light. Even historical events like the record heat wave they had a few years back during the marathon -- high was 78F lol -- and killed a few people and sent hundreds to the hospital, only reports I ever saw indicated either 1 or 2 dead as a result and all the hospitalization numbers were under 100. Absolutely loved the race itself, every single person I met and interacted with, and all the support from the city and communities. The race org at large though can fuck right off.