Today's due diligence

[songbird]

Derald wrote: ...

they are completely non-destructive here as far as i can tell. it helps that we do not plant sweet corn and have the onion starts inside the fenced gardens. before when we planted those outside the fence the raccoons would sometimes pull some of those up (fish ferts in the potting mix attracts them is my guess) - they'd not eat or damage the onions themselves, but leave them on the ground nearby.

by far the deer, chipmunks and groundhogs do a lot more damage to gardens but i try to get along with them before engaging lethal methods. if we'd done a better fence i think that would have helped, but i'm not willing to redo the fence, yet... more likely i will fence a new area if i get frustrated enough. we'll see... :)

songbird

[songbird]

George Shirley wrote: ...

i rarely ever hear them (i keep the patio door closed at night because i can't sleep with night time noises from birds, animals and bugs), but i have had them climb the screen door a few times (youngsters playing)... i've never seen them in the daytime.

we don't keep animals outside (i keep my worm farm in this room). so nothing is set up to attract them as best i can manage and they seem to leave things alone other than flipping some pieces of wood over once in a while. i'm ok with that as they help break it down that ways scratching for goodies.

songbird

[songbird]

Derald wrote: ...

they and the possums go for eggs in some of the bird nests, they also eat quite a bit of the hornet/ wasps/bees nests that are wedged behind a lot of the larger rocks we have around.

i rarely see them during the day. i'm not outside at night or in the early morning. the last animal that tried to attack me was a very tiny snake in the palm of my hand it was trying to bite me and would bounce off my skin. good laugh. :) a few spider bites or mosquitoes. nothing major. oh, except the stupid dogs that barked and one that actually nipped. those were potentially serious but i didn't escalate.

the air rifle gets some use once in a while but i try to keep it to deterring animals instead of killing. not always possible, but i try...

songbird

[Derald]

These raccoons dig holes in great number that resemble squirrel holes except for size, which relates directly to the size of the beast. Fill them and the 'coons'll just dig more, often in the same places. Not a problem for me but causes neighbor great anquish, primarily because, at age 73, he has yet to master the practice of looking where he places his feet outdoors.

[Frank]

I'll be 78 in a couple of months. Went to an all boys Catholic high school and for past 10 years there have been reunions for just the guys but our 60th a couple of months ago included wives. It is bitter sweet to go their and last one, a classmate I recall jogging in the park about a year ago was wheeled in by his wife now suffering from dementia and Parkinson's. Everybody now looks old which means I look old too. The guys that look best are those still working or very active.

The class jock, who is really a nice guy, now suffers dementia. I recalled him telling me that when he played college football, the whole season he was in a fog. His dementia may be due to that.

[George Shirley]

Pro football players are trying to get something to help out the older players who are having lots of problems. I never watch football, basketball, etc. with the exception of baseball, which I dropped a few years ago when I found that they, too, were getting lots and lots of money for playing a game. My Dad and I played in the same league for folks that just liked to play baseball. Dad had played baseball for money when he was in his teens. Lots of small teams in Louisiana and Texas charge a a buck to watch the game and the winner got the loot. Dad says in the twenties that was really a good thing as he made less than a dollar an hour working in an oil refinery and then go play baseball somewhere and get a bucket of money. He told me that many times they had to run for their transportation to not get beat up by the bystanders that cheered the other side. Then I went to a high school that didn't have baseball. Boo hoo. I played first base with the team from my first ship as we sailors mostly liked baseball over anything else. That was fun and I was also having fun going to the pistol and rifle ranges and doing stunts with weapons. Got my first .22 rifle at 5 years of age and a .45 Auto and a 12 gauge shotgun at 7. Got a whole rack of weapons here in my office and the only loaded one is beside my bed, a .40 Glock, fine weapon and somewhat lighter than my old Colt .45ACP. I can't hunt anymore unless I'm in a vehicle due to problems from strokes years ago, runs in the family and I've got 20 good years so far from the time of the strokes. Now my legs are starting to give out due to damage to the nerves.

[Muggles]

Hi Frank! In case I miss the up and coming date, happy birthday ahead of time!

[Frank]

Gave up on following pro sports years ago. Commercialization has ruined them. Back when I was a kid, we would go to church, Dad would drive to Philly, we'd see a double header and be home in time for dinner. Today it takes that long to play one game.

I like to hunt and shoot but am giving up hunting as all I have access to is public land and not being handicapped the easy stands to access are for handicapped only. I have use of all my facilities but as one friend puts it, if it don't hurt, it don't work.

I have a Glock 23, .40 cal, and it is also hidden away, loaded if I need it. I hunted deer with a variety of weapons and only one that I never got a deer with was a pistol. I really liked to bow hunt and season is on now and lasts til the end of January but park I hunt does not open until next month and I may try a day or two. Also applied for a managed hunt in another park which I get in on every 3 years or so. They drive you to the stand, pick you up for lunch and take you back at end and even find deer and take them out for you.

[songbird]

lol - i often have the other layer of that problem where i'll be watching where i'm stepping and get poked by something up top (wind chime crossbar in one garden is the worst).

at the moment the ground here is fried so hard that not much is getting dug up anywheres.

setting records for highs the past three days and probably tomorrow too.

i shall have to get out to water this morning, get red peppers done sometime, give dad a call and see if i can visit today or tomorrow.

sorting beans, of course, found one cross i'd been aiming for for many years. roughly. it is of two of the varieties that have consistently done well here because they are both early and small, but very prolific. two seeds, i will have to scan closely for more, but i have to do it in sunlight because the pattern is a series of dark red lines on a dark red bean. not at all easy to see. usually if there are two there are a few more in the batch, but it is like finding the needle in the haystack because there's several thousand. :)

a good hot day activity if i don't go visiting.

cheers, gotta run,

songbird

[George Shirley]

Texas has a lengthy deer season, and, if I remember, hunters can take several deer a season. It is not unusual to see deer grazing along highways and we have deer come up to our back fence here in Houston area. Seems a lot of Texan's no longer hunt deer, one of my grandson's still hunts, the other never did hunt. My granddaughter's husband does hunt and fish so some of that is still in the family. Grandson that hunts is planning a trip for he and I as I have had a lifetime hunting and fishing license since they first came out years ago. I will have to go to the range and do some shooting before I can go as I haven't fired a firearm in at least fifteen years, lived in cities to much I guess. Grandson does give us a couple of packages of venison. We still like the wild meat. My Glock is a 23, bought it used but it shoots okay. I'm training my left hand to use the pistol as the right hand is partially paralyzed, strokes again from years ago. I do miss my Colt .45 ACP, had it since childhood and then gave it to my son. Many male Texan's got their first guns in early childhood and were taught by their father's like my Dad. Nowadays the schools are trying to keep guns from anyone for some ungodly reason. I'm glad we old people and their older kids went to a different school system.

[George Shirley]

We don't have soil in our yard, it's five feet of clay covered with a couple of inches of sand so we have raised beds for gardening.

[Muggles]

My daughters father-in-law also hunts, and he makes venison sausage! She is usually given a generous amount of it, and she passes on some samples to us. That stuff is yummy!

[Frank]

When my father was a kid in the city, he would take his shotgun, get on the bus, get off at the end of the line and hunt rabbits. Would not happen today.

Deer drive me nuts. I can't hunt the ones in the yard as houses are too close. A couple of years ago, one fall I was eating lunch to look out and see 4 bucks in my back yard just coming out of velvet. I've counted as many as 17 in the yard. My Chinese chestnuts are starting to drop and if the wife is not around I'll pop them in a non-vital area with my pellet gun. Year before last I shot 6 this way. I've thrown fire crackers at them, they leave and come back a little latter and I need more than one fire cracker to chase them.

Seniors in Delaware can hunt and fish free but need to get an exempt license every year. Hunting license allows 5 deer with only a single buck but you can buy a second buck permit and as many doe permits as you want. I heard of one guy that works on an estate that gets 50 deer a year. Another cook at a golf course got 18 one year.

I could not get our sons interested in hunting. Told a hunting buddy he was lucky to have a son as addicted to hunting as he was. He said I was much luckier because all my sons went to college and have good high paying jobs. They do have interest in guns though. Oldest sons father in law has a nice holster business and buys guns tax deductible for the business using them to mold holsters.

[Frank]

Thanks. I know seniors my age that tell me they no longer buy green bananas.

Frank

[George Shirley]

From 1963 until 1982, when my Dad died, I was a gunsmith for most of those years until a job overseas made me blink my eyes and smile when I saw the salary I made. Beat being a gunsmith but Dad kept it going when I left until the day he died in his sleep. Came home, sold out all the tools, etc. gave the money to Mom, went back overseas. Worked in two foreign countries and several US states and I'm still not rich. I'm fairly happy with my long career in industrial safety, wife was an art teacher and still paints. I sell the occasional safety manual for small companies and still get enough buy groceries. I think we've done well, come December 26th we will be married 57 years and have a lot of memories from our travels and expeditions to here and there.

[George Shirley]

I'm still laughing, I buy green bananas, is that okay at my age.

[Muggles]

awe! Buy them anyway, I say. :)

[Frank]

I worked in R&D, fibers and plastics research but ended up as a chemical regulatory affairs consultant but forced into early retirement. I still do consulting on the side and that includes writing SDS sheets. Government regulations have improved that type business. New GHS has had me updating MSDS to SDS. Next door neighbor does the same and has taken a job in Arizona.

We're married 55 years now. Should have traveled more 10 years ago. I got plenty from the company and sometimes took my wife. No real fun when you are in a nice place but stuck in a meeting. Traveling is a hassle today with airport security.

[Frank]

I'm getting a new Trex deck and Trex has 30 year warranty. Next year I may get a new roof and warranties now are even longer. It would be nice to be around when these warranties run out. I don't buy extended warranties as the normal 1-3 year warranties could be lifetime warranties.

[songbird]

George Shirley wrote: ...

clay and a little sand is underneath what has been brought in here. keep piling on the organic materials and it gets very very nice. :)

songbird