Useless Conversation

[Musashi]

My theory is you've got to figure out what the pretty "weeds" are and get them established so they choke out the ugly ones. 

I scattered some native poppy seeds in my front yard last year just before the fall rains started, and they grew so fast that none of the ugly foreign weeds could get a foothold.  When I finally had to clear the poppies out to do some grading, the ugly weeds immediately started reasserting themselves and yanking them out has become a constant chore.  Now that all the hardscaping and grading is done, I'm hoping I can repeat the "impenetrable carpet of wildflowers" effect this next fall and keep it going throughout the year.

You can get a whole box full of random wildflower seeds for like 99c.  I put them on the back 40, and they are a huge improvement over weeds.  Varied, there's always something blooming.

[RhyssaFireheart]

"The deficit wants to skullfuck your mother!"

Watching Daily Show clips is so rewarding. 
 

[Paelos]

Chipper Jones tore up his knee last this week and may be forced into retirement before the end of the season. Very sad as the last part of my childhood baseball team may be gone after this season.

[Ingmar]

And good riddance to them.

No I'm not still bitter about 1993. 

[Paelos]

Giants fan I take it? 

[Ingmar]

103 wins 

[Soln]

and so spurred on by complaints from the HOA to my landlord I've been doing a far amount of yard work lately.  I don't totally mind it, but I seemed to have poisoned a nice chunk of my lawn with fertilizer.  Any advice on better lawn care and how to rehab a lawn reasonably quickly?  Is there a spray-on-lawn for homes like you sometimes see on highway shoulders?

[Viin]

If its really hot, you can't use fertilizer.

Best course is just to water the bitch as much as possible, preferably during the coolest hours. If you have bare spots, you need to get grass patch and keep it moist (ie: water the bitch as much as possible).

of course, if you are not in a hot area, you can be more reasonable on the watering.

Edit: a little spray-with-water fertilizer may help, but it needs to be done after dinner so it can soak up without the sun burning it into the grass.

[lac]

You could spray paint it. Apparently painting brown lawns green is becoming quite the trend now that hoa's/individuals are trying to up property values everywhere. It's the spray on tan for your grass!

[Chimpy]

So I live within a mile of a large college campus.

I am driving home tonight and an electronic sign has been set up to say that move ins for the dorms are coming up and to look out for traffic delays.

It said: "Move ins March 19th Expect Delays"

[schild]

There's a great ides of march joke that wasn't made right there.

[bhodi]

I don't get it.

Also, march 19th is my birthday 

[Xuri]

Woke up today to discover that I've travelled through time (forward) and space to end up in Montreal, Canada. Thoughts after spending 1 1/2 day here? It's all very... French. Thoughts at the prospect of staying here for an entire year (or three)? I really need to start learning French...

[Ironwood]

I'm back.

[WayAbvPar]

Do we need to alert the authorities? 

[HaemishM]

No, the spell from his trunk boot will let them know eventually.

[WayAbvPar]

I always assumed he was a Muggle.

[Ironwood]

"Me mam was a witch."


/shudderattheirishaccent

[lac]

Hah, the Irish.
No really.

Hah.

[Arthur_Parker]

Some kids asked me if I was American the other day, I've been in England for twenty years and still have the accent.

[lac]

Some kids asked me if I was American the other day, I've been in England for twenty years and still have the accent.

That's the problem with foreigners these days. They just fail to integrate.

[IainC]

IIRC Arthur is from NI which means he's not very foreign at all.

[lac]

Get your man

[Chimpy]

So they changed the sign to "Move ins 8/19/10" today.

While it was late, and I had been out drinking, I am certain I was not hallucinating as I sat at that stop light.

One of the few instances where I wish I had a phone with a camera. (to prove my sanity).

[Sky]

Anyone see the Perseids last week? I stayed up on the roof watching for a few hours but the clouds were coming and going. Saw a few dozen, with a couple really nice fireballs. It slipped my mind until friday night or I'd have headed up to the camp in the adirondacks to watch.

I think I got spoiled for life by watching a peak Leonids shower from the Tughill Plateau. Hundreds of the big fireballs, nothing can come close to that, I probably won't be around for the next Halley's comet pass. Bleh.

[Samwise]

I looked out my window and the fog was so thick that I could barely see to the end of the block.  Considered trying to drive up to Twin Peaks or someplace to see if I could get above it, but figured the odds were against me.  We've been having an exceptionally foggy summer, though, so maybe next year.

[K9]

Wow, I just read up on HoAs, am I glad as fuck that we don't have these so much over here.

This shit is just pure evil

[Samwise]

Wow, I just read up on HoAs, am I glad as fuck that we don't have these so much over here.

This shit is just pure evil

Bah, that guy and his family are obviously hippies who hate America and honest good-hearted housing developers and busybodies.  They probably don't even keep their lawn at the regulation 2.75".

[Ironwood]

You know, a lot occurred to me while reading that.  I literally can't believe it, but I've given up trying to keep up with the nutjob capitalist shit you have over there.

Let me just mention this, which is in the forefront of my mind.

If I was an Iraq Vet and my government had just passed laws that said even homeless people were allowed to carry weapons and some twisted fucks just sold my paid for house out from under me.... well, I'd be tempted to go pay a visit with Mr M16.

The board of that particular HoA all need shot.  In the head.

The insult heaped atop that injury is absolutely staggering.  3k ?  125k ?  for a 300k house ?

What ?

 

[Mrbloodworth]

Wow, I just read up on HoAs, am I glad as fuck that we don't have these so much over here.

This shit is just pure evil

Texas.

[WayAbvPar]

I would have burned the place to the fucking ground before they could flip it.

As for the Perseids- went to visit my brother who lives out in the country about 15 miles from the Canadian border. Drank beer all day in preparation for watching the meteor showers  Went out about 10:30 and watched for a little over an hour...saw about 5, with one really spectacular long trail. I have heard they are better in the wee hours just before dawn, but I didn't want to stay up/get up that early. It was still pretty fun.

[Sky]

Actually this year they seemed better early on than later. Saw the first big one in my driveway around 12am and the second big one around 2am.

[Ironwood]

I am having lots of fun burning stuff.  I'm utterly amazed how quickly wood burns.  I had what seemed like 3 years worth of logs and they went up in one night.

One night.

[Minvaren]

Wow, I just read up on HoAs, am I glad as fuck that we don't have these so much over here.

This shit is just pure evil

Texas.

 

Even so, this HOA fucked up BADLY by ignoring SSRA.  I would love to be a fly on the wall pre-trial when the judge asks, "just what the hell were you thinking?"  Shame the judge couldn't deed the HOA board members' houses over to this family as a penalty for sheer stupidity.

(edit: clarity and whatnot)

[Sky]

I'm utterly amazed how quickly wood burns.

Depends on the kind of wood and the moisture content. And then there's the kind of fire and the appliance you are burning in. Lots of air + dry non-dense wood = fast burn.

With wood about 15-20% MC, in a stove burning as a fireplace (open doors), only burning after work until bed in temps under 40ºF, I used four face cords last year. That includes a week of downtime when my chimney got too gunked because the wood was wet and I was a wood stove newbie and the end of the season was spotty because the last face cord was about 25%+ MC.

So I estimate this year to burn a full two cords, if it dries properly. If not, next year I'll be ahead and definitely burn at least two cords, as with fully dried wood (15%MC), I feel safer burning unattended and overnight. That could push me into 5 cord territory pretty easily, and I'd need to get a system to dissipate the heat better because it gets hot as fuck in my living room (easily 85ºF burning in stove mode).

Anyway, last year I put the wood directly in the garage, stacked deep and high, so you really couldn't tell straight on how much was there. When I got in this year's wood, my fiancee was  , but it's actually less than the two cords I estimate (I have the one face cord left in the garage at 15%MC). The image I posted earlier was five face cords, roughly, add another eight feet and you've got what I estimate for one winter of light evening burns.


Sorry, I'm becoming a wood geek.