rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
Posts: 12,694
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Post by rebeccad on Apr 14, 2020 19:18:30 GMT -8
autumnmist & jazzmom, it occurs to me that I *know* what’s under the grass. Horrid red clay-like soil between the rocks. I remember when my in-laws moved in (when the house was brand new), and that’s what was in the yard (it’s also what makes up the trails just a short distance away, so no surprise). Now I think about it, that’s why all their garden stuff is in raised beds. Beds it is.
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zeke
Trail Wise!
Peekaboo slot 2023
Posts: 9,891
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Post by zeke on Apr 15, 2020 4:54:13 GMT -8
recommended at least 6 inches. OOC worthy, but too easy. rebeccad About that back yard planting, would it be possible to get a dump truck back there? A load of good soil in a rolling drop would add your required depth, and possibly make it easier to create a bigger raised bed.
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texasbb
Trail Wise!
Hates chicken
Posts: 1,223
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Post by texasbb on Apr 15, 2020 6:26:18 GMT -8
my master gardener friend told me to just lay down some newsprint over the grass and fill with dirt. He recommended at least 6 inches. Since zeke took the OOC heat off, I'll quip: Of newsprint?
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rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
Posts: 12,694
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Post by rebeccad on Apr 15, 2020 7:57:32 GMT -8
zeke: nope, no dump trucks. I think that’s how they got the original soil in there, but that was before there was a house behind us. I remember we sneaked over and took down a section of fence so they could dump dirt for the garden . I’ll have to haul it in one bag at a time, so for this season I may just start with a small additional planter. For the front yard, of course, we can dump what we want, but the kind of plants we are thinking of probably won’t care. Looking for some true xeriscaping.
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Post by hikingtiger on Apr 15, 2020 11:37:16 GMT -8
still working, even though I'm home. Though not having the morning/evening commutes means I've got more time to work on projects here (and occasionally during lunch.)
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Post by hikerjer on Apr 17, 2020 7:49:37 GMT -8
I’ve been spending lots of time getting things done around the house that I’ve been putting off for a long time - sometimes for years. Yesterday I spent the entire day sorting sockets for my various sets, you know, putting them in the right order. That was pretty exciting. Man, I’ll tell you, it’s a sure a whole lot easier with the metric ones. The standard system we use in this country is really ridiculous. Why can’t we join the rest of the world on that?
I do have to say though, that I’m anything but bored. Having been retired for some time now has helped me enjoy a slower life style. Between working around the house, taking long walks and reading as well as watching movies in the evenings, something I rarely used to do, I find the days pass by fairly quickly. I do miss getting out of town though.
Tomorrow I’ll take on the garage. Who knows what I’ll find in there.
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Post by hikingtiger on Apr 17, 2020 8:30:20 GMT -8
I've had my boys working on that in the evenings. Mother moved out of her house of 53 years recently, so three toolboxes and other boxes of tools, etc., left the shop and came to my house. I had the boys spread everything out downstairs and make a kit for each. It's neat to hand off a socket set to a kid that his grandfather or great-grandfather bought/used, knowing it'll last for many more years.
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bcpete
Trail Wise!
There's cool, and then there's me.
Posts: 489
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Post by bcpete on Apr 17, 2020 8:31:09 GMT -8
Man, I’ll tell you, it’s a sure a whole lot easier with the metric ones. I find that's pretty much the case for everything metric ... except elevation & weights. I still have a hard time with elevation of a mountain in metres instead of feet. I think this is because Canada switched to metric when I was in grade 6 or 7, and it kind of messed up my generational cohort. The weird thing is that I prefer distances in metric, weights in pounds, and volume in litres. Totally messed up. My one big wish for GPS is that they will someday have it so you can set your elevation in feet, and your distances in kms. Then my hiking life will be complete. HELLO GARMIN, it's a couple of lines of simple code ... throw a poor Canuck a bone!
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davesenesac
Trail Wise!
Our precious life is short within eternity, don't waste it!
Posts: 1,710
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Post by davesenesac on Apr 17, 2020 19:41:17 GMT -8
After a month just walking from home for exercise drove the for the first time up into the eastern flanks of our Santa Cruz Mountains where there are serpentine geology landscapes that have lots of dense annuals given good conditions.
Today with weather turning windy cool foul, stayed home recuperating. Previous 2 days drove to a local open space hiking area and did 4 to 5 miles and less than 800 feet of vertical each day carrying maybe 25 pounds of gear. First drive to day trips in 6 weeks. With the dry February, many early germinating plants withered and grasses remained short. With the wet recent 2 weeks in narrow zones the storms favored most, annuals have exploded in good numbers. It would help greatly if the Sunday night storm adds even a quarter inch of rain as any water during this growth and flowering phase goes right into more tissue growth, larger plants, more flowers.
Yellow hued goldfields and white hued popcorn flower below serpentine outcrops with lichen. Mixed in are other species that at this early point since the storms are just green herbs. I did shoot a beautiful pink-rose hued bitterroot flower but have not post processed that yet. As a senior when everyday I wake up is Saturday, I pick my days for calmest breezes and for these type of subjects, sunshine. And that is looking like a return next Tuesday when the goldfields are certain to be more prominent. (select to enlarge)
Very fragrant bees and butterflies, mid size lupine common in dense patches in the central California Coast Range. Mixed in are fiddleneck and other species that at this early point since the storms are just green herbs. A6000, originals are 6000x4000 pixels. Focus stacking, given moments of near calm for adequate registration, allows this extreme oblique depth of field view from 18 individual locked exposure manual spot focused shots.
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daveg
Trail Wise!
Michigan
Posts: 565
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Post by daveg on Apr 19, 2020 12:47:56 GMT -8
All done. A shoe rack -- or small coffee table or plant stand. And hope I'm not jumping the gun, but I took the snow thrower off the lawn tractor today. The tools I used included S-K sockets I inherited from my dad.
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Post by autumnmist on Apr 19, 2020 12:57:35 GMT -8
daveg , your table/stand is beautiful. What stain tone did you use? It has a nice mellow appearance. It complements the tile, and the tile complements the table.
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daveg
Trail Wise!
Michigan
Posts: 565
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Post by daveg on Apr 19, 2020 15:38:00 GMT -8
daveg , your table/stand is beautiful. What stain tone did you use? It has a nice mellow appearance. It complements the tile, and the tile complements the table. Glad you like it. The wood is red oak. The stain is Minwax Early American 230. The finish is three coats (first coat thinned) of Minwax Polyurethane Clear Satin.
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davesenesac
Trail Wise!
Our precious life is short within eternity, don't waste it!
Posts: 1,710
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Post by davesenesac on Apr 19, 2020 17:01:07 GMT -8
If a person with a modest science background can effectively read Scientific American articles, they should be able to get somethings out of the first couple podcast hours of this virolgy course that I've just spent the last couple hours listening to. The course has many more podcasts.
First half hour of the hour long podcast are amazing facts about viruses, much of which have only come to light recently.
His definition of a virus: An infectious, obligate intracellular parasite comprising genetic material surrounded by a protein coat and/or membrane.
A million viruses per spoonful of seawater. There are more viruses in a liter of seawater than there are people on Earth. 500 million rhinoviruses could fit on the head of a pin that reflects how many might be within sneezed common cold micro-droplets. There are 10 times as many viruses on the earth as all the rest of life cells. Whales excrete out in each gram of feces 10,000,000,000,000 viruses. Each serving of cole slaw regardless of how well washed, contains about 100,000,000 baculoviruses that got there from infected cabbage looper insects crawling about on the plants. At 27:00 his low opinion of how the press media (2 years ago) has consistently mis-characterized virus information especially regarding past viral outbreaks.
Second podcast is about current lab technologies that have vastly improved how we work with viruses in recent years. Starts with much on plack assay cultures. At 50:00 summarizes 2 diagnostic methods for how antibodies are detected. Also at 53:40 new use of fluorescent jellyfish proteins injected into viruses to track where viruses are moving about on/in cells. 57:00 polmerase chain reaction aka PCR DNA use that can multiply a single DNA chain of interest into large numbers that can then be used for many lab processes. 1:00:00 shows an example of how simple PCR test for detecting a piece of DNA for viruses can be misinterpreted.
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mk
Trail Wise!
North Texas
Posts: 1,217
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Post by mk on Apr 20, 2020 9:01:01 GMT -8
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daveg
Trail Wise!
Michigan
Posts: 565
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Post by daveg on Apr 20, 2020 18:14:58 GMT -8
Looks simple enough and I have some scraps of western red cedar that might work. Give me a week to play around. I'll post pics of what I end up with. If you like what you see, cost of shipping will be good enough.
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