Bleg

Categories Bleg, Gardening

Rhubarb in containers? Bleg

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So, my rhubarb isn’t happy.  The stalks are barely 6 inches tall.  I know what rhubarb is supposed to look like when its happy and this isn’t it.  I suspect that its because the area where its planted tends towards being either REALLY wet or REALLY dry (yah, it wasn’t a good choice of spots, unfortunetly there isn’t much of a better one the way my yard is set up, there’s a reason I set up this year’s garden in containers).

I was considering transplanting it to a container, the (fake) half barrels I’m using for the rest of the garden this year are 25″ in diamater and about that tall…..so I hit Google.  It looks like the big concern would be keeping it from freezing solid in the winter while still getting cold enough to go dormant.  But I’m going to be looking at the same thing with the herbs I just planted, so thats ok…..I think I’ve come up with a solution for them, so whats one more container?

Any one out there have any experience trying it?

Categories Bleg, Gardening

The bugs in the garden: Bleg

6 Comments by

My poor broccoli.  All the leaves have been chewed on, and several are half gone.  So far the bugs haven’t touched anything else but I assume its just a matter of time.  And no, I’ve not caught sight of the bug in question.

I don’t really want to use outright pesticides, but if I have to I will.

I have DE, and if the weather would stop raining on us every day I’ll get out there and dust everything including the garden with it (it helps with the ticks and the like, but things have to dry out at least a bit before it’ll do any good).

I don’t mind having to wash things before we eat, but we do like raw broccoli and peppers  so it would be nice if we didn’t have to use an outright pesticide on it….Any ideas or suggestions??

Categories Bleg

Software bleg

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I need a mail client for my desktop that I can use to download email from my @scaryyankeechick address so I can start actually USING it instead of gmail. 

Not a huge fan of Outlook, though I’ve used it so I could again.

Currently running XP (sp3), though I suppose I need to upgrade to 7 before long (eeeeewwwww)

Any ideas?

Categories Bleg, Trail Cameras

Game/Trail camera Bleg

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We bought a really cheap trail camera the spring after we moved in after seeing deer and turkey prints all winter in the snow.  Of course, its cheap.  Its reaction time from motion trigger to actual photo is at LEAST 1 second if not 2.  Which doesn’t sound like much till you realize how quickly wildlife moves.

The problem: as we look at trail cameras things like trigger speed often aren’t mentioned, at least in the price range we’re looking at.  I’d really like to keep this at not much more than $100 per camera cause we’re looking to buy 3 or 4 for the rest of the trails off the back of the property, and we’re not exactly made of money.

I’d kinda narrowed down my choices over the winter only to have the ones I was looking at either go up in price or no longer be availible.

I know there’s some hunter type people who read this, I’m hoping one or more of you has some experience with trail cameras, or can point me to a really good review site that has the information I’m looking at.  I’ve already hit Cabelas, Dicks, Bass Pro, and Amazon looking at cameras and reading reviews.

Wants:

A faster trigger speed.  I realize really fast is probly the realm of the $400+ cameras, but something faster than what we’ve got would be really nice.

Price preferably not much more than $100.  $120 would probly be ok if the camera was perfect, but $150 isn’t going to happen unless I can find it on sale.

Taking D batteries would be nice as we already have a setup to recharge them, but a different battery type wouldn’t be a deal breaker. 

A camera that would accept a solar panel would be a plus.  Probly not going to buy the solar panels NOW, but in the future I can totally see that in the future.

I don’t need video, but infrared flash for night time would be nice, the one we haven’t doesn’t have that.

Categories Bleg

Anybody out there know CSS?

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I’m trying, again, to create a set of child theme .css files so that the NEXT time they update the theme I don’t have to drive myself nuts fixing things again.  I want to over ride the font-family code, the problem is that font-family is designated in at least 10 different spots in 3 different files.  Now I know I have to create seperate child.css files for each of the individual files, but I don’t want to have to do 10 sets of code for each one either.  In theory:

font{
    font-family:Book Antiqua!important;
}

at the top of the child file will override the rest of the font-family designations.  Is that correct?

Categories Bleg, Dog

David Hunt, stationed (possibly formerly) in Fort Benning GA, we found Maggie

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Saw this on my local news last night.  Maggie is a Golden Retriever found wandering in the Oswego NY area last week.  She had no collar, but her microchip IDed her as Maggie, owned by one David Hunt, stationed in Fort Benning GA.  Attempts to contact Mr Hunt have been without any luck.  The article doesn’t give any details, but it makes me wonder if Maggie was fostered while her owner was overseas and has escaped.  I know some of you who read this are former military, and maybe have some connections to people or places who might be able to help track down Maggie’s owner.  Lets see if we can help reunite a service person with their dog, shall we?

 

 

Update:  Mr Hunt’s wife has contacted the Granby ACO, Maggie was his service dog, unfortunetly he died a couple months ago.

Categories Bleg

I need….

5 Comments by

So, I’ve been using Google Reader to keep up with the blogs I read, the problem: I’d really like to ditch Google (not sure the email’s going to go, I’ll try, but I’ve been using it so long its EVERYWHERE, anyway….).  So as part of my switch off Blogger I need something else.  Either an equivilent software or site that’ll keep track of new posts for me, or a widget for the WordPress blog that’ll at least tell me how recently the blogs on my blogroll have been updated.  Not sure I care WHICH, but one or the other, or maybe all of the above…..

Anyway, any suggestions or recommendations?  Preferably something you’ve used, or at least have seen used….

Categories Bleg

Bleg….or: HELP IT BROKE *sniffle*

7 Comments by

So, most women reading this and at least some of the men are going to know what a hair clip is (they’re sometimes called ‘hair claw clips’ if that helps).  Link picked at random as the best first example I found.

The problem: 99% of the ones available in stores by me are PLASTIC, which means that they break in short order (don’t ask me how I manage it, most other women I know who use the things don’t have that problem).  The few that are metal are HUGE DECORATIVE, and heavy, and not really functional.  (on an interesting note, when they first started being popular they were made out of a different plastic that was softer and held up better, oh well).

The solution:

yes, that’s a plain metal hair clip.  I’ve had it for years (4? 5? something like that).  Its AWESOME.

Till tonight.  Tonight the spring finally broke as I was putting my hair up.  I think I actually cried a tear or two.  I’ve tried for the last 3 years to find more of these clips, but the place where I got it doesn’t carry ANY metal clips any more (except for the big heavy gaudy things….).  Now this was a pretty simple piece, looks like it was stamped out of a piece of stainless, bent into shape, and a spring and pin added.  But I’ve not the skills to do that even if I had the tools (which I don’t).  So….anyone know someone who CAN?  Or know of a place where I can order a couple of these things?  Please?

Categories Bleg

Meat Grinder Bleg

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So….Husband and I have been debating getting a meat grinder.  The dogs are fed almost entirely raw, and it would be cheaper if we could do any meat grinding ourselves instead of buying it pre-ground (they get lots thats not ground, but you know….).  Plus we could grind our own hamburger for ourselves….Did some looking around, my local Tractor Supply has one for less than $50 (their site’s wonky today so I can’t link), lots and lots more for varying sums more than that.  But neither of us has ever really used one before, so…..

What we NEED:
a grinder that will grind beef, chicken, and possibly sundry other meats

What we think we’d LIKE:
a grinder that will not only do the above mentioned meats, but also light bones (ie chicken bones, rabbit, maybe turkey)

What we’re not sure on:
hand powered vs electrical.  As much as I’d like to stay with hand powered I’m less than confident that I have the hand strength to manage it should an extended grinding be needed, but then I’ve never used one to try either.  But electrical things always seem to break down….

We’d like to keep it under the $100 mark, but thats not set in stone, cost is an issue though.

Thoughts?  Things to watch out for?  Suggestions?

Categories Bleg, Food

Dehydrator Bleg

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So, I keep saying I ought to buy a food dehydrator, I actually tried to make one last spring, with rather poor results (mostly thanks to my having no clue than the plans I found online I think).  So I’ve had my eye on a few different ones for a while.  And now the family is asking what I want for Christmas, I’m thinking of telling them to all get together and pitch in a few bucks to buy me a decent one.

Bogie mentioned on her blog that she’s got an Excalibur 9tray, but had previously had a Ronco and liked it.  I linked there two the two models I found online that caught my eye (no idea of they’re the same models Bogie had).

Course, there’s some huge differences there, not the least of which in size.  Potentially I’d use it quite a bit.  I’ve played around with making fruit leather, using the oven set on the lowest setting, and although I liked the results using the oven for it was rather frustrating.  But we LOVED the homemade fruit leather.  Home dried fruits?  Heck yah, we didn’t spray the apple trees last spring resulting in some really nasty looking apples, but the pears were awesome, and if we DO spray the apples…the quantities those trees produced was huge.  And thats not even taking into account any other gardening I might (would like to!) do.  And unit size isn’t actually THAT big a deal, I’m thinking of consolidating fish tanks anyway (did I mention I have fish? I don’t think I ever mentioned my fish….how in heck did I not mention my fish??) so the dehydrator could go one of those shelves no problem.  Money’s a bit of an issue, no-body in the group is exactly rich, so even with a bunch of folks to pitch in I’m gonna put an upper limit of $200 (and would like to keep it way less than that) on this, at least for the moment.

Anyone else have input on sizes, models, things to watch out for?