Category: Uncategorized
Fixing the steps
The steps off the back deck get a lot of use, like many many times a day. They have gotten wobblier over the years, and finally something broke and we decided we’d better do something about it. So we pulled them apart and to our surprise, the only thing holding up the step on one side seemed to be a rusty old coffee can! Not too surprising, considering all the deck piers are stacks of scrap 4×4 piled on top of paver blocks, instead of concrete piers property supporting the deck. Luckily if it falls you’ll only fall about a foot and a half. And It’s stayed up since 1994 so I guess it must be pretty good.
So I measured the old pieces and Dave went to the hardware store and picked up some pressure treated lumber, and we whipped up new stairs. No coffee cans in our plan. They came out nice and solid. I hope they last as long as the last set. Now I need to finish cleaning and re-treating the decks – something we’ve been putting off for years. They are on the must-do list for this summer. I’m afraid any more neglect and it will really cost us.
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Nigerian Email Scam
I got an email scam today
How’s everything on your end? This has had to come in a hurry and it has left me in a devastating state. I travelled to Wales for a volunteer Training Program (UTP), and unfortunately for me all my money was stolen at the hotel where I lodged by robbers. The Embassy only cleared me of my travelling documents and ticketing since I came in on unofficial purposes. I didn’t bring my phones here and the hotel telephone lines were disconnected during the robbery incident,so I have access to only emails.
Please can you lend me £1160 ($1,750 USD for me to relocate to another hotel and also get another flight ticket. As soon as I get home I would refund it immediately.
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Oh how terrible, my poor friend is trapped in Wales, and the robbers have cut the phone lines at her hotel and so there is nothing but email access. Thank goodness their didn’t cut her broadband connection! Though I suspect if the hotel’s phone was out, there would probably be another phone somewhere. After all, it’s not like Wales is some undeveloped country, they do have cities there – in Fact Dr Who is almost entirely filmed in Wales! but ok. Oh, wait a minute, I don’t know anyone who’s visiting Wales. Most telling, if it was someone who knew me, they’d know I wouldn’t have $1700 to send to anybody (as if)!
The slightly creepy part is that it was signed and had a somewhat local address, which makes me wonder if it was actually targetted somehow, though it didn’t have my name on it. The funniest part is that I found the originating IP address on the email header, and it went right back to Nigeria. I know some people have been acting like it’s unfair to refer to these email scams as ‘Nigerian Scams’, but there you go, the IP address is pointing right there. Hard to deny it is indeed a Nigerian behind it.
Planting apple trees
We took advantage of the break in the weather today to plant some of our apple trees. The new orchard will be out in the front pasture, near the end of the driveway. I spent quite a bit of time hauling tools and waterhose out there (had to find the hose, untangle it, run it out there), and then Dave came out to help with the hard part.
As you can see, the dogs were a LOT of help!
Dave and I shared hole-digging duty. Because our pasture is heavy clay, we have had problems with trees not growing well and surviving out there. The latest thing I’ve read is to dig a hole that is shallow and wide. This is supposed to break up soil to let the roots have a better chance of digging in. Also, it keeps the tree high up so nutrients can get to the roots easily. I’ll go back and mulch on top of the planting area.
It is tough digging out there! Five trees was enough to wear both of us out!
Just as we finished the storms rolled in and it rained the rest of the day.
rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain,
We just set a record for 20 straight days of rain, had one nice sunny day, and today it’s back to the downpour. I think we’d call this the great storm of ’10, except it doesn’t sound nearly as impressive as a hurricane or an ice storm – it’s just sort of.. damp.
Our swale is filled up and spread wide across the field, and the pond at the bottom is as big as I’ve ever seen it. The poor sheep are limping around because their feet are sore from being wet so much. Our neighbor is taking them home today so they can dry out in his barn, get sheared and have their feet treated.
What the field can’t hold overflows down into the drainage ditches along the road. Unfortunately they are full too, so the water is just running over the road and the driveway.
Enough already! We call ‘uncle’! Everyone is sick and tired of being wet all day!
Please?
Baby trees/garden update
I temporarily planted my baby apple trees in pots until I can get out and dig holes for them in the pasture. I also need to wait until those apple-tree-eating sheep leave, which will be Sunday.
I have 5 Haralson apples, 3 Snow Famuse apples, and 2 Yellow Newtons. The Newtons were a mistake, they were mixed in with the Snows and I didn’t check all my tags carefully enough! Oh well, I’m sure they will be fine. Sounds like they all pollinate at the same time, which is what I was looking for. The Snows and Haralsons are all-around (cooking, eating, saucing) apples, and the Newton sounds more like a tart cooking apple, which is fine.
Out in the garden the lettuce is doing well. It seems to be enjoying the cool weather.
I have lettuce, onions, and beets coming up in this bed, with a second planting of lettuce and spinach just poking up in the bed further back, along with a few herbs, and just planted a third planting of lettuce past that.I also got my yellow wax beans, but they were bush beans, not pole beans. Either way, I planted them on the other side of the bed form the pole beans. Should be plenty of beans by the end of summer!
The tomatoes are still wearing their shrouds and looking like a troop of lost ghosts! We’re still having downpours (I heard someone today speculating it was because of the Iceland volcano), so I won’t be uncovering them quite yet.
Damaged car
Not ours, luckily. Yesterday morning I looked out the window to see this car parked at the foot of our road. It looks like they hit a deer, and it just demolished that car. Hope the people inside were ok. I suppose we would have heard sirens if they had called emergency services. By the afternoon it had been towed away.
Lee the HorseLogger
Today Barclay and I were coming back form the dog park, and as I’m driving up the highway towards home, I see ‘road apples’. Although we live in a very ‘horsey’ area, road apples on the highway is still a pretty unusual thing! So as I’m approaching the next light I look ahead and see what appears to be a wagon. I missed my turn so I could keep going and get a closer look…
Yup, a horsedrawn wagon!
Wish I could have gotten a better look, the horses harnesses were pretty impressive.
What an unusual sight to see in our little town! A sign on the back of the wagon indicated to check out this website Lee the HorseLogger. Apparently he is a simple man, living a simple life and traveling the country in his wagon with his beloved horses and dogs. I’m sure it’s a life of hardship, but a living life your own way has it’s own rewards as well. Good journey to him!
Community Theater
My husband volunteers with a local community theater (that’s him getting ready to play the wolf in ‘Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe’ 2 years ago. He acts, directs, and designs and builds sets (not all at once, for different productions). And of course I get roped into helping build things, ushering, anything that doesn’t require being the center of attention.
Last night the theater had their first annual end-of-year awards. It was a celebration of their first year in their own location. Prior to this year the theater had performed in various locations, ending in a big baptist church near downtown Vancouver. Now they have their own theater right downtown, and it was paid for with both money, and sweat equity. Although it had been a theater, there was a lot of work to do when they arrived to turn it into what they wanted and needed. They ended up with a beautiful little theater, and have put on a variety of great productions in it for their first year.
The amazing thing about the theater is that it is a ‘community’ theater. Which means the workers are all volunteers (there are very few paid positions), and all members of the community who just want to be involved in their spare time. The result is incredible. Brilliant musicians and singers who are engineers or stay-at-home moms by day, and light up the stage by night. Policemen who are actors, tech writers who do props, teachers who handle video production or sew costumes, and many many others who show up whenever needed and do what they can. And the result is this pool of talent that really pulls off putting on great shows and look good and are entertaining to watch. Behind it all is Jaynie, a wonderful British lady who uses her accent and +1 charm to get people to do what needs to be done – and works tirelessly at it herself!
So last night as they handed out awards and everyone had a laugh watching retrospective videos of the year, it really was amazing to realize the auditorium was full of regular joes you would run into through your day, a cashier at Home Depot or the guy who owns the local toy store, and yet here they all were coming together to make this wonderful thing happen. Pretty amazing!
Steff Does Stuff! 