Quiet

I spent a quiet Memorial Day at home.  The weather has been very unsettled the past week and continues into this week.  There has been MUCH flooding in this part of Texas, although our area has dodged most of the flooding we are getting a lot of rain.  As saturated as the ground is, we could easily have flooding also.  We have had some creeks flowing pretty well that don't flow much at all.  This period is very similar to this time last year.  But after at least three straight years of harsh drought, not many are complaining about the wet weather.  In fact, I have have not heard a single negative word.

I spent time looking for a new book or two to occupy my mind and watching Saving Pvt. Ryan.

 

The weekend and holiday weren't so quiet for my bride.  This was the first weekend without working at the resort she has been at the last few years.  However, work at the other resort has taken up the slack, at least for this weekend.  She was even requested to come an additional day, Sunday, which she never does.  She has been feeling a bit of pressure to accept any other work from them to try and 'make up' for the other 'lost' resort.  She puts too much pressure on herself in that regard, trying to keep me in my customary lavish lifestyle.

Hope your weekend was great.

Happy Trails

 

Memorial Day

While trying to come up with a post worthy of this Memorial Day, I would see a lot of 'meme's on the book of faces in regard to it.  While the meme's seem to be getting more and more cliche' some do actually make me think.  I have seen several over the weekend about thanking a veteran for their service during this holiday.  I also recall this seems to have become a practice for this holiday for a few years now.  While it is a worthy thing to do, I think it also does a bit of disservice to the actual meaning of the day.  While I don't think those that have served get confused about this day, I do think much of the general public doesn't distinguish between Memorial Day and Veteran's Day.  They both have their special meanings and neither one is to taken lightly, however I think that not distinguishing between the two trivializes Memorial Day somewhat, or detracts from it's meaning, maybe that is a better description than 'trivializes.'  In our rush to honor our military we seem to forget that this day is much different from Veteran's Day.  

Memorial Day is set aside as a day to remember, remember those that have made the ultimate sacrifice.  Those that died in or from combat, fighting for their/our country. 

I read one current member of the military's (who has seen more than his share of combat the last few years) post on Facebook about being thanked for his service.  He didn't want thanks for his service, he didn't do it for that person, he did it for his country.  It would irritate him, and he thought they were doing it only as an empty gesture to ease their own conscience.  His post went on a little longer but that was the gist of it.  He may be right to an extent.  I am not quite sure I understand where he is coming from entirely.  I always believed that our 'Country' was the people that made it up.  It's not just a piece of geography or a spot on a map.  Maybe he is just a but more cynical due to his experiences, or maybe he had a bad day or experience with that recently, I don't know.  I would agree that a flippant or less than meaningful 'thanks' would upset a veteran.  It made me question all the times I did thank a veteran or any member of the military for their service.  However, I have never received a negative response from any of them, ever.  I doubt I will stop.  I do find it difficult to do at times, it is very emotional for me.  I have to cut it short or I will embarrass myself.

Memorial Day has been an official holiday only since 1971.  This really surprised me.  I know it had been observed over the years since the War Between the States.  Both North and South had their own Memorial Days.  When it was made into a National holiday it was supposed to honor the dead on both sides along with every other war in our history.  Yes, Southern soldiers were officially recognized as American Veterans and thus were and have been honored in similar fashion though with much less fanfare, as any other American Veteran.  Now that is about to change.  The mass graves of Southern soldiers will no longer have the flag they fought under flying over them in National Parks or cemeteries.  I won't go into the why's of this current thinking.  I just think it is sad that there are those that sit in judgement of a different time and way of life and thinking.  They put their PC mind to work on every little issue and go out of their way to condemn others they never knew and really have no inkling of their mindset.  

I see them all as Americans.

If you are a veteran, I salute you and am more than grateful for what you did, whether it was for your country, your family of just yourself.  Thank You from Patriot.

Can't Figure It Out

Which is worse, the relentless high humidity along with the higher temps or the REALLY high temps of June through August with semi-high humidity?  Neither is good for someone that is much too sensitive to heat.  Grateful for AC.

Happy Trails

Garden Update

FYI I am not an expert gardener by any means, everything I do is hit or miss basically.  I guess a lot, some guesses turn out great, other times, not so much.  I have gotten ideas from a gardening friend on occasion.  I am trying the organic route, I don't use pesticides or chemical fertilizers.  The only pesticide I have used is a Liquid Seaweed I mix with water and spray on.   Seems to work pretty well.  I need to get some more soon.

The rains have been plentiful and they have helped the garden tremendously.  While I haven't harvested any tomatoes yet, the plants themselves have done amazingly well.  I only have six plants.  I planted three different strains, two of the strains being the same as last year, German Striper and Mortgage Lifter.  I wanted a repeat of those as they were some really big a juicy ones, although not very prolific.  I thought giving them more space would help with production.  The other strain is something I was not at all familiar with but chose them randomly.  They are a Florida something, I don't remember the correct name and can't see the tag.  They are much shorter but put on fruit much earlier.  I will harvest from them first.  Click on each photo for a better view.

The Florida somethings.

Each strain has displayed different characteristics early on.  They are each of differing heights in the garden, with the Mortgage Lifter outstripping the other two in height by quite a lot, and the Florida strain is much much shorter but is producing much more fruit earlier.  As you can see in this photo the tallest are well over six feet.  They are so large it is hard to even find green tomatoes in all the foliage.  I expect to harvest the first batch of tomatoes in a couple weeks. 

You can just make out the onions on the right.  These were planted last Spring.  The just withered away by Summer.  This past Winter they started spouting and I have been pulling one or two as needed for cooking.  They are great.

I also have a couple Jalapeno plants and some Bell Pepper.  The Jalapenos are starting to produce but I don't see much action with the Bells.  Lots of blooms but no little peppers.  They may be getting lost in the tomato foliage and not getting enough sun.  Still have strawberries from last year and have picked a few, but evidently I don't know what I'm doing with them.  I don't pick more than one or two every week or so.  Not enough to do any good compared to how Kim likes to use them.  

I have seen a rabbit near the garden a couple times but my small fence is evidently deterrent enough.  We have other critters I worry about too, like squirrels and coons that my fence won't keep out.  They haven't shown an interest, yet.  But they have hit the bird feeder pretty hard of late.

Something heavy enough to break the baling wire I use to hang it with has been around.  I have seen the squirrels on it but the glass tube in the middle that holds the feed, had been pried up and and almost out of the cage the day before this.  It has to be coons.  Don't think the squirrels could do that.

I just hope they don't like veggies.

Happy Trails

Not a Lot

The brain box is not working well enough to come up with worthy post.  Take a moment and visit those in the sidebar.  They have some good stuff.


Happy Trails

Busy Friday

After a week of quite a bit of rain, Friday is supposed to be somewhat dry.  We will attack the garage and the fleas that just won't die after at least a half dozen flea bombs.  We will haul everything outside and then clean the floor and I will spray with an insecticide.  I also have a flea trap on it's way.  Hopefully this will take care of most of the issue.  I have been reading about fleas, it seems they are almost indestructible as far as their life cycle is concerned.  An infestation can take months to get rid of.  Buster is still mostly flea free.  If this doesn't work I guess we will have to call in a professional.  

Warning: going to get something off my chest about Kim's business and how poorly she has been treated.

Kim got an email from the resort she has been plying her trade at for the last 6-7 years.  After this Saturday they will no longer require her services.  (FYI-she is an independent contractor not an employee)  This is the resort she has worked at the longest and has been very good to her.  That is until the last two years with a huge turnover on personnel she deals with.  In short they did a lot of things to make her less and less successful.  The main one being that they moved her from a very good location that had much foot traffic to one that was secluded, you had to be looking for her to find her.  Consequently her business dropped off considerably.  They also limited the amount of time she could be there, regardless of how busy she was, guests be damned.  They would actually stand around waiting to take her tables when she finished, urging her to shut it down.  The lack of business is the main reason they dropped her.  So, stymieing her business as best they could at their guests expense, they let her go for lack of making enough money.  SMH.  She only made 20$ last week, which was a low.  Previous years it was much much more lucrative, well into the hundreds and more at this time of year.  That's a lot of child's crafts and jewelry/leather being sold.

Why did they move her?  Some other vendor asked for her spot.  No idea why the preference.  Kim had always gotten glowing reports from the guests.  

They also would constantly fail to pay her on time.  The last being over two months late.  That's another long story.  New personnel that didn't know what they are doing despite Kim trying to help them from previous experience.  While we had considered just dropping them, she couldn't replace the income that would be lost.  However with all the crap she has had to endure, I'm glad she is done with them.  Now she can focus on the other resort this summer, they have added an extra day for her to come over there.  They are very happy with what she brings to the resort.  Just like the other one used to, when they had people with brains running it.  

All good things do come to an end.  Good riddance as far as I'm concerned.  I thin there will be times that they miss her, until the new crop of folks come in, which happens annually.  Lots of turnover/transfers in that resort/hotel business.

Happy Trails

Replacement

Our microwave oven went out.  Kim wanted to call a repairman rather than getting a new one.  It appears these things seem to have issues after just 5 years.  This one was 6.  

I looked around online for the issues we were having with this model.  The circuit board is probably what needed to be replaced.  You get one for about $100.  I know nothing about these things and after looking at ours I really couldn't even see an access panel to replace it if I decided I wanted to tackle it.  Kim still wanted to call a serviceman, her faith in my abilities not withstanding.

I told her we should just replace the whole thing, the board's price and the service call would probably be more or close to the cost of a replacement.  Did a little search online and found our model is no longer produced.  That could be an issue since it is an over head model, above the stove and attached by a special bracket on the wall.  I was hoping to just pull the old one and slide a new one in the same spot.  No such luck.  While the new ones are very similar the bracket attachment has been changed.  

Against Kim's (better) judgement I opted to install it myself and save some $$.  We worked together (well as best we could with our different ways of approaching things) and got that thing in.  I only sliced my thumb once.  No, the other one this time.  

Hope this one lasts a little longer.  The other one was 6 years old.

Happy Trails.