30 May 2008

Real, Live, Snails!

The first place I remember noticing the shells is along a slope deep into the motorized side of Gibson Jack. They were just empty shells, there in the dirt beside the trail. I figure that they probably live when there's enough moisture, say as the snow starts melting, lay eggs, and hope that enough water comes to revive the eggs. Anyway, I'd never seen them alive before yesterday. ^/^



Look! You can even see their cute little feelers! Before I found the mushrooms, I figured these little guys would be the highlight of the foray. They're still pretty awesome, even with the mushrooms. Oh, for reference, the shells are usually about an inch in diameter. A couple more pics below the fold.



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29 May 2008

Corral Creek

This is the first time I've gone up Corral Creek since I first started my hiking forays two years ago. It looked quite unfamiliar, in fact, except for one detail that I vividly remember: the massive ruts in the trail. I don't know if it's plain old erosion or too much bike traffic or what, but for most of the trail there's a two foot trench in the middle, just wide enough for a hiking boot to settle into. Add that to the mud from all the rain we've been having and there were some rather treacherous places. Anyway, here's an excerpt from the Map of the area:


I turned around when I got to a good view back over where I'd come, after some pretty heinous switchbacks, so I'm pretty sure my dot is in the right general area. I might have continued on, except that I'd promised to go with my mom to the dietitian this afternoon, and had no idea what time it actually was... I got back to my house with just enough time for a shower and some lunch, so that was about the right spot to turn around.

Anyway, I was hoping that the recent rains might have resulted in a wildflower bonanza, but methinks we need some more sunshine before that happens. I did see more larkspur in bloom over a single area than I can remember seeing before, but otherwise nothing spectacular on the flower front. However, I did find some rather remarkable mushrooms. The best one's just under this paragraph; the rest are below the fold.



I know next to nothing about mushrooms, except that they prefer moist, shaded areas, and that even experts sometimes misidentify them. If I happen to find a decent guide somewhere, I might attempt to put labels on them. Take them with a grain of salt. Oh, and never, ever eat wild mushrooms unless you're absobloodlutely certain what it is and know that there are no poisonous lookalikes.

As for the fifth and sixth pictures, that has to be the biggest mushroom I've ever seen (fifth one's a front view; sixth is a back view). It was at least a foot across, maybe closer to eighteen inches. I had to get closer to it to convince myself that it was a mushroom. ^/^ As for the rest, just enjoy the pictures.













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27 May 2008

Critters at City Creek

This little lizard was my favorite. There was another like her nearby, but this one stayed still long enough for me to get several good shots. I think I scared her off this ledge when I came by, but I held still long enough that she decided to come back (and was probably scared off by the next hiker to come through; there were lots of people up there that day). Oh, click for larger versions.




And the same lizard, before returning to the sunny ledge. Btw, this gal was quite small, 2-3 inches long including tail. And I don't know that she's female; I just needed a pronoun and picked one.




A strangely immobile hummingbird. I thought they had to fly around constantly looking for food. I suppose it could be a fledgling, but if so, its mom was nowhere to be seen.




Lastly, a few butterflies. The top one looks vaguely like a greenish blue (Blue is a noun there; it's a grouping of butterflies). The bottom one... maybe a clouded sulphur? I do think that the top one is a blue and the bottom one is a sulphur, but I'm not really sure. *shrugs* I also saw a mourning cloak and some sort of swallowtail, but they didn't stick around long enough for me to capture them via camera.



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Gluten Free Restaurant: Pier 49

Pocatello now has a pizza place that offers a gluten-free crust: Pier 49: San Francisco Style Sour-dough. Quite recently, they put a notice on their sign that read, "Gluten free crust available". Last night my mom and I tried it. It is quite good crust, better than what Beau-Jo's offers as a gluten free crust. It is slightly pricier than their "normal" (read: poisonous) crusts, but that's to be expected. My only real complaint is that they were rather chintzy with the toppings. I don't know if that's usual or if we just had a chintzy person putting our pizza together. *shrugs* But it tasted good. I should mention that there is nothing about "gluten free" listed on the menu, so you'll have to ask. There is only one size available, 12-inch.

Despite the name, the chain seems to have its roots in Utah, with most of its locations therein. You can also find sample menus from some of the restaurants on that page, which seem fairly similar to the Pocatello menu. As for location, it's in the same plaza as Chang's Garden and Sizzler, just off of Pocatello Creek, and thus easily accesible to people coming through on I-15. Here is a map linked to from the main Pier-49 site. Just get off at the Pocatello Creek exit and go west, then look for a middling shopping center on the right. Fair warning, the Pocatello Pier 49 is closed on Sundays.

Gluten Free Tips Index
Gluten Free Restaurants, Southeast Idaho

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Gluten Free Tips: Restaurants (Southeast Idaho) (UPDATED 27 May)

I'll do a more generic restaurant post at some point, but at the moment I'm just going to focus on restaurants in my area that have been good for my GF needs, primarily for any visitors who might be in the Pocatello/Idaho Falls area with similar needs.

Sizzler: Excellent salad bar. Avoid, of course, the croutons, rolls, breadsticks, breaded chicken things and so-called "macaroni salads". But there's always a good selection of fruits and vegetables. For the one in Pocatello, get off at the Pocatello Creek exit, go west, and just past a small hill, you'll see Sizzler on the right. I've also ordered their ribs without incident. I used to order their broiled shrimp, but it's nearly impossible to get it through the employees' thick skulls that they CANNOT put it over the rice pilaf garbage, so I gave up on that.

Chang's Garden: Chinese place. Good buffet for the non-gluten-challenged. Very accommodating staff for those of us who need GF. Pretty much, so long as it's not breaded, it can be made GF. I go there often enough that the owner greets me with "No soy sauce! No MSG!" in a fairly thick Chinese accent. Soy sauce has "wheat" as its second ingredient, so make sure to ask them to leave it off. MSG can sometimes be made for wheat, and tends to give me a headache anyway, so I also ask them to leave it off. Good dishes: Curry Chicken in Coconut Cream, Chicken Almond Ding, Cashew Chicken, Chicken with Peapods (most of these can also be made with pork), Pad Thai, Wor Bar. Again, always ask for "no soy sauce; no MSG". For reference, the "House Special" sauce does contain soy sauce, as does the hot and sour soup. The last time I asked, the egg drop soup did NOT...but I generally ask them not to bring me soup, so I haven't asked about it in a while.

And Chang's is in the same plaza as Sizzler. Just get in the rightmost lane and go around the corner at the light. Turn right just past the Dairy Queen and you should see it on the left.

Oliver's: A good selection of salads. As I don't use dressing, I have no idea if the dressings are GF or not. This one's on 5th street, and it's probably better if you look up your own directions.

Canton Place: The one in Idaho Falls is very accommodating as well. It's another Chinese restaurant. They won't meet every request, but "no soy sauce; no MSG" has never been a problem. Also, they will make at least some of their breaded goods with a corn starch batter. One waitress told me that that's all they ever use, but I am not 100% convinced of this yet, so ask. If you can find the mall in IF, Canton place is almost straight across 17th from it, in the same plaza as Tuesday Morning. There's also a Canton Place in Blackfoot, which made food I could eat, but I was only there once and have no memory of how to get there. It may be near the hospital.

Chili's: Decent selection of gluten free items on their allergen menu. If you say "gluten free" the waitress may or may not know what you mean, but if you ask for the "allergen menu" she should be able to find it for you. I quite liked the Guilt-Free salmon, but didn't care for the Guilt-Free Chicken -- tasted of way too much black pepper for my taste. The link to the menu should work until 30 April; I'm not sure if it will work beyond that.


Pier 49: Gluten free crust available for their 12 inch pizza. Quite good texture and flavor. For the Pocatello one, it's in the same plaza as Chang's Garden and Sizzler, so get off I-15 at the Pocatello Creek exit and head west, looking for a middling shopping center on the right, just past the hill. Pier 49 is in the cornermost building, where Pocatello Creek meets Hi-Line/Jefferson and becomes Alameda. Map. Pier 49's Site.


Anyway, those are my regular restaurants around here, and the ones I trust most. More generic advice about restaurants later.

GF Tips Index

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26 May 2008

Flowers at City Creek

Below the fold, a whole bunch of flowers from my Sunday hike. Click on pictures for full size.



Many-flowered Stickseed, or a very close relative. Somewhere recently I read that, should you get the seeds from this in your sock, it was probably simpler just to plant the sock and enjoy the flowers rather than try to dig the seeds out of the sock. (Can't remember the exact source, unfortunately)






These are both likely some sort of phlox ... unless the top one is another of those mysterious apparent carnations that I came across two summers ago, but I think that was later in the summer, and the phlox was blooming almost everywhere! I guess it really liked our recent rains. Me? I'm hoping they subside enough for another foray tomorrow morning.



I think this is bitterbrush (a bit more than halfway down the page). Despite the name, the flowers had a strong, sweet scent.



This seems to be a variety of false Solomon's seal. It doesn't look quite like either of the pictures at the link, but based on Plants of the Rocky Mountans' description, "large, puffy pyramidal flower clusters," it's probably Maianthemum racemosum.


I'm pronouncing myself stumped on this one. Judging by the flowers, it's probably in the pea family, but these were rather large shrubs. *one Google search later* I found a page describing shrubs in the pea family, then I had to hunt for images of the ones with yellow flowers. The closest match is Colutea arborescens, except the flowers don't quite look right.



I think this is Lemonweed aka Yellow Puccoon. It looks a lot like a yellow version of stickseed, and Lemonweed is in the same family (Borage). However, my example picture has shorter leaves. So...either Lemonweed or a close relative, methinks. Most interesting use: Shoshoni women made a tea of the root and drank it as a contraceptive. Laboratory tests in mice have found that exracts from the plant eliminate the estrous cycle. (Plants of the Rocky Mountains)



Larkspur! Closest match I've got is "Low Larkspur", which grows on dry slopes. It could also be Nelson's Larkspur... The descriptions given contradict the supposedly matching pictures, so I'm not really sure.



Last but not least, an early-blooming geranium. Most books have at most one or two varieties of geranium in them, so I'm not going to speculate as to which geranium this is.




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25 May 2008

City Creek




petals like snow
along the valley path
perfume each step





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23 May 2008

Dreams and Aspirations



I've always found the "USE CAUTION" construction signs to be a bit, well, redundant. Shouldn't people be "using caution" anyway? Now, if they want you to be reckless, that would be an unusual event, worthy of requiring a sign.

Construction Sign Generator
Source for the base image

Made using Printmaster Gold, then saved as a .jpeg in Paint

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22 May 2008

Maps and Gardens

I discovered the coolest weather map a week or so back. It shows me exactly what the conditions are in the Gibson Jack/Scout Mountain area before I decide to hike up. I can't remember if I saw the reporting station near Wild Horse Divide (near the upper turn of the Gibson Jack trail) or not. I have a visual image...that could just as easily come from other weather reporting stations I've seen. The one at the Arco rest area comes to mind.

Still weird weather here. We had a solid week of 80-90° weather, then a cold front moved in and it hasn't gotten above 60° since Tuesday. It's also been raining off and on through most of it. So we had some July followed by April. *shakes head* At any rate, I now have my garden roughly 75% planted. I would like some orange bell pepper plants, but otherwise all the peppers are in. I still need to find a tomato plant. I might buy some herbs that have already been started, especially if most of them don't come up. Last year, only the basil came up. And I suspect that one of the seed packets I had was contaminated with some weed seed. Cutleaf Nightshade, to be precise. I wasn't sure what it was, but then it bloomed. Its flower was quite similar to that of a tomato plant, which told me it was probably in the nightshade family, and then I was able to find it. This has the best picture I was able to find quickly. It produces fruit that looks vaguely like a small, green tomato, but that is poisonous. As soon as I figured out what it was, I pulled it up.

Anyway, I've got the peas, peppers, corn, radishes, carrots and zucchini planted, with a few herbs keeping them company. I hope it stays relatively cool for the next few weeks, as the peas will do better then. I may plant another row of corn, and I'll probably plant a few more herbs. If I get cutleaf nightshade again, I'll know that I have some contaminated seeds. I think it grew where I thought I planted rosemary...

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21 May 2008

Postal Idiocy

Okay, the price of stamps just went up by one cent. At this time, the local post offices both have their stamp vending machine out of order, and at least one is being replaced by a supposedly "better" machine ... which takes only debit or credit cards. Now, no one is likely to want more than, say, five dollars worth of one cent stamps. More than likely, they'll want maybe fifty cents or even twenty five cents worth. With a debit card, afaik, there's no fee to the vendor, but with a credit card there is. Unless there's a minimum amount to require said fee (I'm no expert), this guarantees that the post office loses money.

Now, all that assumes that the post office was sensible enough to let people type in the exact number of one cent stamps that they need. Er, no. There were five options. If the options had been 5-10-15-20-25, it might have been passable. But, no. The options were 1-2-3-4-5. So they're requiring a debit or credit card be used for a five cent purchase, or less. Now, the whole purpose of having a stamp vending machine is to make it easy and convenient for after hours customers to get their stamps. This machine does just the opposite. My mom opted to wait until morning, when she could get the actual number of stamps she needed and not make a five cent charge to a card.

I hope that this machine is still in beta-mode, and can be modified once the complaints start rolling in. If it's in its final stage ... er, the post office is already losing money, and this will not help.

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20 May 2008

Maple Wasp

Yesterday, I spritzed a bit of water on my maple tree during the hottest part of the day, and a few minutes later I saw a wasp land on a leaf, pause for a few moments, and take off. My best guess is that it was stopping to get a drink. Since I don't have a picture of that, I found a very nice picture (from here):



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18 May 2008

Flowers from Gibson Jack

Below the fold are a few things blooming at Gibson Jack. Some of them were also blooming at Slate Mountain, but they're pretty anyway. I'm not going to try and identify them at the moment as today has been roughly 3 days long, and I'm a bit out of it.


Definitely in the carrot family. Beyond that, I don't know.



Another milkvetch.



I'm still going to call this one Spring Beauty, until I find a better match.



Something in the sunflower family. A lot of them grow like this one, so they're a bit hard to tell apart.



The common name for this is "pussytoes", which might be better parsed as "kitty toes" these days.


Lastly, more yellowbells. I'd never seen these at Gibson Jack before, but we had a slightly weird spring with late freezes and snowfall, so I suspect that they're usually just done blooming by the time I make it out there.

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16 May 2008

Dragon Winds Around the Pillar

Very good discussion going on about the nature of being and Being, and which, if any, might apply to any notion of deity. As I've said before, though probably in different words, the only honest answer to whether or not I "believe in God" is "category mismatch error." Similarly, "does God exist?" is best answered by sprinkling rice grains around on the sidewalk. "Is God real?" More likely complex. `/^ One of the reasons I tend to avoid using the term "God" for the Divine is because it just leads to confusion. People tend to think they know what "God" means, which means they haven't the foggiest idea what it means, or they'd know that they have no clue what it means. As soon as you apply any descriptive term to the Divine, you've placed a limit on it. How presumptuous of you.

There's a common bit of taiji wisdom, that somewhere between 2 and 5 years in, students generally start to think they know everything there is to know about taiji. A year or two later, they usually come to the realization that they really don't know much at all, and that there's more to it than most people can learn in a single lifetime. I never went through a long phase like that, mainly because at push hands practice, Don has always been able to make me feel like a green novice. Maybe not quite so much lately. More of a yellow novice, that might turn orange or red in another ten years. And I've meandered a bit, but taiji is only a small piece of the Divine, and it takes years and years to really start to get a glimmer of a shard of an idea of what it's really about. How much more so for that-which-is?

There's (at least) one frustrated atheist commenting at the post I linked to. As far as I can tell, his objection follows the pattern: (1) you haven't actually made any testable claims; (2) therefore, what you've said is meaningless. Right. So, non-testable claims. Celtic music sounds green and gold to me. This is, in fact, a true statement; I'm synesthetic. All music and sounds have color associations for me. But how could that statement ever be tested by an outside observer? To someone who does not experience color/sound blurring, it's meaningless. Possibly if someone strapped electrodes to my brain, they'd see stuff light up in the "color" section of the brain when music was played, and the pattern might shift depending on the type of music, but as far as I know, we can't point to a brainscan and say, "Aha! She's experiencing gold and green right now!" I'd be surprised if that ever became possible.

How about "The number 5 is brown." Not the numeral 5; the numeral can be just about any color. The number itself. 5, for me, is brown. Again, that statement will be meaningless to non-synesthetics, and most synesthetics will have a different color assignment for items. All an outside observer can use as "evidence" for these associations is self-reporting and neural scans. I find it highly amusing that Synesthesia used to be classified as a disease, probably because the first doctor to document it found it bizarre and "meaningless."

Back to the topic at hand, the "evidence" for the mystic's god is rather similar to the evidence for synesthesia. Self-reporting of very similar mental phenomenon (more overlap than most synesthetics' experiences, in fact) and neural scans of people going through "mystical experiences." Now, there's the purely materialistic response, that the brain just happens to be wired in such a way that these experiences are possible. The mystical response is that there's something out there to respond to, whether you call it "God", "that-which-is", "Tao", "the Absolute", "the Divine", "Fred," etc.

The fact that these experiences span traditions says that, if there is a "being" behind them, it must not care overly much what religious label you slap on yourself. I think of myself as a Taoist, for quite similar reasons to those given here, towards the end of the post. I ran across the Tao te Ching, and it spoke to me in a way that no text ever had. It made sense, and it felt like there was actual meaning to be had. Perhaps more importantly, I was not the only one who saw the world in this fashion.

I reject Christianity precisely because most forms of it do put limits on deity, to what it can and cannot do/will/be/allow. They put limits on what that deity is capable of while calling it "omnipotent." They claim its primary attribute is "love" yet maintain that it also created a torturous hell. They claim that certain actions on the part of humans require certain actions on the part of deity, as if it were a common merchant to barter with, or a police officer to regulate behavior. They attribute every possible good to the deity but blame every possible ill on humanity—making them, of necessity, equally powerful, in this essentially neutral world. If they would embrace these contradictions and take them to their zenalogical conclusion, there would at least be something useful there. As is, they simply try to deny that there is any paradox, or ignore any that is presented to them clearly.

The first step to knowledge is to know that you do not know. I reject any tradition that fails this basic test. Further, I reject any tradition that claims that only the mystical experiences of its own believers are valid, and the rest are some sort of sham. Finally, I reject any tradition which attributes specific properties or their negations to that-which-is. Yes, this means that I am making no testable claims about it. That is simply because there are no testable claims to be made, and that is as it should be.

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14 May 2008

Gibson Jack, with dog

I hiked partway up Gibson Jack yesterday afternoon, and brought Buster along. The last time I tried to hike with him, it was a disaster. He still wasn't very well-behaved, and it was too much work to both hike and keep him in line. A year of working with him, however, has made a vast difference. He was very well-behaved. When he started pulling too much (which didn't happen often), I'd just say his name, and he'd look around and wait for me to catch up. When I stopped to dig stuff out of my backpack, he did have a tendency to wander around me in circles, thus wrapping his leash around me, but that was easily fixed. He really liked the Gibson Jack hike as there were many paths down to the creek, and he loves playing in water. Plus he could drink it. I had originally planned to go to Corral Creek instead, but then I remembered that the water there was supposed to be high in arsenic, and Buster wouldn't have understood why I wouldn't let him go near it. Anyway, I thought I'd post a few pictures of Buster and some scenery shots (and save flowers for a separate post).

Here's Buster looking happy.



Here is one of many places where Buster got to play in the water. He was still nervous of the water down by the parking lot, because of the loud noise it makes from the little falls there, but I finally coaxed him down to it by standing on one of the rocks at the edge. I used the same trick at a smaller stream further up the trail, when I knew he definitely needed a drink.


Scenery.


A fortuitous shot, where I just happened to notice that the moon was visible through the branches and so zoomed in to see if it would show up. It does, though not quite as well as I would have liked.

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12 May 2008

The Dark One's Eyes



There's some rather disturbing news about ravens coming from Great Britain. Remember the ravens in The Eye of the World? Seems that attacks like that are really happening. So far as we know, there are no myrdraal or trollocs involved. Oh, and for anyone else looking for the Wheel of Time chapter heading icons, go here. It took me longer than it reasonably should have to find them, so I thought I'd share.

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Flower Finding


Okay, this one is some sort of milkvetch (towards the bottom of the page). It looks a lot like the Canadian milkvetch, so that might be what it is. Definitely a milkvetch though.

And I still think that the other flower m=is most likely some variety of spring beauty. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but there are some varieties with wider leaves.

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Maps and Rambling



I found this map after I got back from the Slate Mountain hike. The red dot on the blue trail is where I think I got to on that attempt. Guesstimating from the map, I was maybe 1-1.5 miles of the way in, certainly no more than 2.




Here I've inverted the colors on the map, which I think makes it easier to read, and I've marked out the route that I took the time I got lost. I'm not sure where, exactly, I turned around on Crystal Summit Road. I got a ride partway back. Bare minimum estimate from the map: 12 miles - approx. 1 mile ride = 11 miles. It's a bit hard to judge switchbacks, etc, on a map this small, so it could certainly have been further than that. On the plus side, if I'd made it all the way down Crystal Summit Road, I probably would have had cell phone reception to call my mom to come get me, as I would have recognized Bannock County Highway when I got down to it.

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11 May 2008

Zyrtec

Zyrtec just recently came off prescription-only-status. I finally found a small sampler package to try it, not really expecting much, as generally I get the side effects from antihistamines with none of the benefits. Results? My breathing is better than it has been for about a month, but I'm experiencing mild dizziness with a touch of paranoia and minor...I don't know if hallucination is the right word, so I'll try to describe it. There's a sense that there's someone in the room with me, someone for whom there is a visual in my mind, but I do not actually see someone in the room. I have had this before on occasion, usually when I am extremely tired, so it's possible that the Zyrtec is not to blame...but a bit of research turned up lots of mental side effects on this order or worse. Also, vivid dreams and night terrors were commonly reported, which makes me a bit leery of sleeping. More in the morning. This stuff is supposed to last 24 hours...which means until about 6:00 pm tomorrow night. Assuming it doesn't get any worse, Zyrtec seems like a possible option if my allergies get ridiculously bad, but not otherwise.

AM UPDATE: It's clearly starting to wear off, about 12 hours later. Side effects are mostly gone as well. Thus the claim that it lasts 24 hours seems to be an exaggeration, but this does suggest it as a "use at night only" remedy, when it may help me sleep and I can thus sleep through the side effects as well. No night terrors or odd dreams from it.

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Dandelions

When I bought my house, the backyard had obviously been badly neglected for many, many years. Every spring, the dandelions would crop up: more dandelions than grass in many places. I tried, somewhat half-heartedly, to put a dent in them, using a so-called "dandelion digger" and herbicides mainly. The herbicides didn't seem to do anything at all, likely because I didn't want (and couldn't afford) to use them in large quantities. Using a dandelion digger actually made it worse, as it left multiple pieces of root in the ground for each dandelion. I didn't know this at the time, unfortunately.

So last year I took a different tack. I got out a good, solid shovel, and just started digging in an area that I thought might be good for a garden. I dug and dug, and got all of the root at least 75% of the time. This spring, for the first time, I see a reduction in dandelions over an entire area. There are still plenty—more than I care to count—but that one area was largely clear. There is a downside, however. Digging in this manner also disrupts the grass. Now, in the garden area, that's fine. I'm thinking that I may as well cover the rest of it with black plastic and just start over, if that's what it's going to take to clear out the dandelions. They are quite pretty little flowers... but a bit too much like tribbles in some regards.

For the moment, I'm taking the "if it's near or in the garden, dig it" approach. Also if it's near or on the walkway I made last year, though I'm hoping vinegar will be sufficient to discourage them on the walkway itself. When I rototill the garden plot, hopefully tomorrow, I'll also dig up the area next to it and put weedmat on it, and keep prioritizing by nearness to the garden and walkway for digging. I already covered the area next to the elm tree in weedmat, partially because mowing there is such a ruddy pain, and it's rather refreshing to see a nice, empty spot. I ought to dig down a bit there and fill it in with bark or something over the weedmat...or maybe build a bench around the tree. That would be fun.

The interesting bit is all the stuff I've found back there whilst digging. Rocks, of course, and I pull them out for later use whenever I find them. Bits of trash that have gotten buried in the dirt. Old toys from residents of decades past. Lots and lots of charcoal; that might have come from the time this house caught fire due to Christmas lights shorting out, some years before I bought it. Broken glass. Most annoying, loads and loads of rusty spikes. They're generally 4-6 inches long, and about a foot down in the earth. It seems strange that there's so many of them, and they don't do the shovel a whole lot of good.

I think that's why the thought of digging up the whole back yard doesn't bother me all that much. I'm curious as to what else might be buried back there. Oh, I also found a paving stone that I put in, buried under about two inches of dirt and forgotten. As I'll likely use paving stones to hold the weedmat next to the garden down, I call that a nice score. And the kittens (now nearly cats) seem to like the dug-up areas better than the grassy ones; more places to hide, dig and play. ^/^

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10 May 2008

Timing is Everything

On the way to Idaho Falls this morning, I stuck in my CD of Metallica songs (mixed from various albums). In the right mood, I find Metallica soothing. In the wrong mood, it just gives me a headache. This morning, it was soothing. Also, just as I hit a rather thick fog bank, the opening chords from For Whom the Bell Tolls were playing. It was quite apropros, and just a touch eerie. So listen to the opening chords if nothing else, and imagine them playing as you drive straight into this:







Sadly, the fog did not end just as the song ended. My life wasn't QUITE that much like a music video this morning. `/^

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