Cabbage, beets, broccoli, horseradish, and first run of tomatoes are in. The tomatoes are basically the first wave at Omaha Beach. I had enough babies this year that I am putting these out super early and if there are no more frosts and they start producing super early in the summer, great. If not, well, no big deal.
I woke up angry today, btw.
Open Thread and Reminder about the Reading of Mustang Bobby’s Play
J.
Your yard looks great! What are you talking about, Mr. Green Thumb? You’ve done an excellent job back there and with all the veggies. I’m envious.
P.S. I wake up angry every day.
Elizabelle
I woke up thinking it was Monday. Not mad. Just weary.
I think your yard looks splendid. Needs moar Thurston, though. I can see Lily’s dainty little feet.
scav
Some yard-owner-combos would envision the above as a triumph of deviant orderliness. Plus, no mudpits or foot high brambles hiding cinderblocks!
Charluckles
Suggestions for scoring decent quality large pots and planters without breaking the bank?
The local soil is awful so container gardening is an attractive alternative.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
in general I think I’m handling the plague year all right, but my sleep patterns are shot to hell. Doesn’t help that it’s coinciding with warming nights, longer days and pre-existing family stressors.
BroD
Just how I feel! Between the fall of my dead white oak (the “magic bird tree”) the invasion of deer, my busted shoulder, a general ebbing of energy, and invasives from hell, I’m really feeling defeated. I’m scouting for reinforcements but, on this, I need to be picky.
NotMax
@ Charluckles
Any material preference might help narrow it down.
Wood? Metal? Earthenware? Glazed ceramic? Fiberglass? Plastic?
Ohio Mom
A lot of days lately I wake up at the tail end of a bad dream. Then I have a moment or two of sorting it out.
The yard looks gorgeously green and full of life to me. I like slightly wild landscaping though.
Ohio Mom
Charluckles: Up until the pandemic, I would have recommended yard sales. I used to see lots of garden stuff at yard sales, yard sales were a favorite pastime of mine.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Elizabelle:
Yeah, I call fake on this picture. Every previous Cole yard photo has Thurston standing somewhere looking suspiciously at something in front of him that only he can see.
Mai naem mobile
Seriously John just STFU. You can have my fuckong yard if.you think yours is a mess. I’ve managed to kill a bougainvillea and a Jacaranda tree among other things. I’ve planted other really healthy stuff in the wrong area and it looks stupid because it’s the wrong spot. Front yard looks unbalanced. Yours looks like it was done an Extension Master Gardner compared to mine.
wvng
My wife has a BUNCH of tomatoes started, getting tall, and I have to hold her back from putting them out. Because here in WV we WILL have another hard freeze. Patience, John. Also, your yard looks fabulous and I wake up angry every single day, when I manage to sleep at all.
greenergood
Your garden looks great – Steve, OTOH, is going to be a project … A bit like me – I need a haircut, and will probably ask Mr Greenergood, who will do his best, but I sense discord … and then resignation …
Redshift
Disaster, bwahahaha!
Maybe we could have a yard disasters submission, to balance out the garden chats for all us non-gardeners (and for general amusement.) I guarantee yours would not make the top fifty. (I’d say not the top 100, but I doubt there would be that many submissions, out of embarrassment or laziness.)
stinger
I think it looks great. Apple trees in flower, the willow has leafed out, the grass is green, the shed is a nice soft color of yellow, the planting beds are not hidden behind a wall of weeds, and the deck is so inviting.
What’s in the pots on the deck?
JimV
You should see my yard. Not.
Had a mild fever yesterday. Thought, okay, this is it. It was gone this morning. Now I have to self-quarantine and/or put my name into a request-testing link and wait for my turn, which will probably take too long to be meaningful, which it probably isn’t to begin with, right? I mean, what’s the chance that I recover from COVID-19 at my age and with my lungs in one day without any noticeable lung effects? Okay, I had a slight cough, but that is chronic with me.
Asked my doctor if I should get a test. He wouldn’t say yes or no, left it to me. I say no. However, I publish the decision here so that extremely conscientious researchers can find it and factor it into their testing research.
Catherine D.
My gardening consists of my beloved CSA, which won’t start for 5 weeks, and two AeroGardens. Herbs and jalapeños in one and leafy greens in the other. Just snipped tatsoi and bok choy from one and will grab some chives from the other.
FelonyGovt
Your yard looks WONDERFUL. I’m just back from mine. We finally fired our “gardener” a few months ago and I am on an anti-weed campaign, but it will be a never-ending battle.
Heidi Mom
@stinger: Indeed. My initial reaction to any photo of John’s yard is that he chose the perfect shade of yellow for that shed.
HRA
It is a survival knowledge known to whoever is living with me to not engage until she has had her coffee. I have no idea why this is me at that wake up time.
Your yard looks great. I have yet to go out and deal with some of the areas that are beds of perennials and clean them up. In recent past years the family will come to celebrate Mothers Day, eat the food I made and then tackle the yard for us. I will not happen this year.
Stay safe and healthy everyone. Love the picture of Steve!
laura
Where to start, well that’d be the willow. Word on the street is it’s too close to the house. Me, I’m mad and sad. It seems everything I’ve done or not has gotten on the spouse’s nerve and he hurt my feelings. I was hate weeding a bit ago and so will be tipping the greenwaste can on it’s side to root through and retrieve my cell phone and am currently charging the work cell so I can call the phone buried somewhere under the heaping pile. That phone is the very same that has let me down in every attempted call to friends and loved ones – just sudden breaks with no rhyme or reason. Restarted/turned off WiFi/internet connection, all to no avail. Just deeply unsatisfying and beyond my ken. That’s my weekend except for my boiling rage at all things trump bungled pandemic rolling shit show of death and determination to do nothing other than let the whole thing wash over to victory in November.
I can feel my pancreas just spurting bile.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mai naem mobile:
That’s not possible, you must be a wizard.
Steeplejack (phone)
@JimV:
And it will be an amusing anecdote at your memorial service.
NotMax
This word “disaster” that you use….
/Inigo Montoya
Benw
@Elizabelle: we should have more yard pics so we can play “spot the critter”!
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack (phone): I am worried that Thurston is buried IN the yard. John’s been home every day, and we have not heard any more tales of Thurston’s Thurstoness.
Elizabelle
@Benw: One of my Facebook friends does that. “Spot the white dog.” It’s a tiny Jack Russell looking thing that tags along with the Goldens, and can be very hard to find. Always enjoy “where’s doggo?”
Brendan in NC
@NotMax: I was going to say..”That’s my secret Captain. I’m always angry”
Geoboy
John – my greatest complaint and disappointment about home owning is that once you fix your home or yard it doesn’t stay fixed.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
OMG, mine too! Some days I’m in bed and asleep at 6:30 pm, and then wide awake at 1:00 am and through until dawn, when I crash again. Other days I can’t drift off until well after midnight and am visited by the most lurid dreams. Yet other times it’s a bumpy voyage of wake-sleep-wake-sleep. No matter how much actual sleep time I get, I never feel really rested these days.
And from a lot of anecdotal evidence, I’m far from alone. It seems to be an unavoidable side effect of both the pandemic and particular and The Age of Trump more broadly. Whatever it is, I don’t like it.
Nicole
I woke up angry, but it was because the kid woke up early and got on his iPad to play a game with a friend and did not put on headphones and I had two children shouting loudly in my dream and then I woke up and found it out it was no dream; it was really happening.
I really should go to the pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions, but I don’t wanna. I wanna sit inside and do nothing.
raven
@SiubhanDuinne: As I said the other day, what kind of folks would NOT have their sleep alerted by this?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think we’re eternally vigilant, like people with PTSD
Fair Economist
@SiubhanDuinne: I also have crazy sleep pattern. One day I’m up til 2 and another I fall asleep on the couch at 8. One day I sleep 3 hours and another 8 (which for me has been nearly impossible for decades). Mostly the lack of cue and demands, I think.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven: An excellent point. It’s the new shibboleth: if you have normal sleep patterns, you’re not my friend!
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Hadn’t thought of it that way, but there is indeed a sense of wary watchfulness. Even when I’m dead tired, I can feel myself being reluctant to fall asleep, I guess for fear I’ll miss something. Interesting insight. Thanks.
SiubhanDuinne
@Fair Economist: These patterns seem to be the “new normal.”
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It may be something in her soil. We had one spot in our Anaheim garden where nothing would grow, not even weeds. Turns out the previous owner had spilled salt from a water softener there when she was removing it from the garage. We grew stuff in a big pot set on two bricks over that spot.
A neighbor years ago in Riverside was trying to grow a nice little boxwood hedge next to his driveway, but there was a gap where the hedge plants would die slowly. The previous owner of that house had changed his own oil and purposely dumped it right in that spot.
JPL
Down below I posted an article that Stephanie Carter wrote about Joe. Her picture is used on several wingnut sites.. any way read the entire article Medium article
Mai naem mobile
@?BillinGlendaleCA: well, technically I didn’t kill the bougainvillea. We have a bunch of trees trimmed a lot and the tree above the bougainvillea had some branches fall on the bougainvillea doing some traumatic damage. I’ve seen one little green leafy thing growing right at the bottom of the bougainvillea(we haven’t pulled it out hoping it would recover) and I can’t yet figure out if it’s the bush growing back or something else there. The jacaranda was either under or over watered(I’ve gotten both oponions) and also grown in the wrong spot. I just know you were really interested in all this haha.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: Well I’m waiting until after 5 so I can shower and get in my p.j.’s
LuciaMia
Yes! Ill feel dead tired but there’ll be this feeling like I should be doing…something.
opiejeanne
@SiubhanDuinne: My older daughter and I have trouble falling asleep, almost a fear of sleeping. She thinks it’s caused by fear of dying, and I think that might be my problem too.
The funny thing is, I can easily fall asleep sitting up on the couch watching certain programs that lull me to sleep, even if I’m interested.
catclub
What is the pulse oximeter reading?
schrodingers_cat
@opiejeanne: I was like that when Orange T was first elected and I have an occasional relapse at times but I find that if work out or tire myself physically I can get a good night’s sleep.
sherparick
If you are not angry yet, reading the article linked on this LG&M blog post will get you to the “heads on pikes” stage pretty fast. https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/05/fortunate-sons
Trump is just a symptom. The Republican Donor Class just a bunch of rotten selfish bastards with no redeeming qualities.
LuciaMia
One of my fave movies on TCM right now. “I Know Where Im Going.” Roger Livesey. What a dish.
gene108
I ordered hair clippers from Amazon. They came yesterday.
I am wondering, if I should take it out if the box and use it today, after wiping everything down, or wait a few more days, to take it out and wipe it down, before using.
I look forward to a few years from now, when I no longer have to think like this.
This is the exhausting part of Coronavirus for me.
Anonymous At Work
What is it with the Ohio River Valley types that obsess over their green spaces? In Ohio, it was mowing the grass as a big showy deal. You, at least, are invested in the vegetable part of the green spaces, but I see no skeletons, packs of wild boars/wolves, or alligators, so your yard is fine.
MomSense
Boys and I took a beautiful walk today – places I’ve been traipsing since I was a little girl. We walked out to the end of the old wharf and saw the decaying pilings where my ancestors built schooners. Every time I visit, more of the structure has fallen into the harbor.
I’m going to work from here tomorrow and then go back home. Th boys are going to stay and take care of my dad’s house for the summer. Next week I start going into the office once a week which increases my risk. I’ll have to isolate at home and try not come into contact with my mom. I probably won’t be able to see the boys for the rest of the summer so it’s a bittersweet day here.
When we came home from our walk we sat on the porch and they played guitar. Some of the neighbors stopped at the fence to enjoy.
I think there will be a lot of rage gardening for me this season.
JPL
@gene108: Although I spray packages with a disinfectant, I let them sit for 24 hours. I have been stuck in the house so long, that I’m not letting a droplet get me.
JPL
@MomSense: Cherish the day.
trollhattan
This caught my attention because thinking back to winter ’19-20, I can’t recall a single frost. Maybe a little white stuff on cars but not a single time when the leaves and grass crunch underfoot. We used to get them. Promise. OTOH it hit 93 last week, so we have that!
Another Scott
ObEverythingIsAnOpenThread?
Boss Bitch Fight Challenge (5:12)
Note Lucy Lawless in the Wonkette T-shirt.
(via Wonkette)
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
your yard looks great to me, Cole.
I understand about the anger.
Ruckus
I swept the walk to the apt today. That’s the extend of my yard work. I owned a large lot in OH and had to mow it every week, every year from about March 15, till thanksgiving. After about Dec 1 till around the first of March, snow had to be shoveled most weeks. I like apt living, people come every Monday and do all the work, mow, trim rake/sweep, haul away.
@gene108:
When the hair stops growing on top your head it all starts growing in your ears. Gravity works.
WaterGirl
@laura: I’m sorry. Big hugs. tell your spouse that WaterGirl says he needs to give you a big hug, and to do it like me means it. I feel certain that my opinion will hold a lot of sway with him. :-)
Anne Laurie
If you’re planting vegetables, or otherwise not looking for permanent solutions, I’ve had great luck with root pouches from A.M. Leonard. (Other companies refer to them as ‘grow bags’.) If you have enough space and a more permanent arrangement in mind, many companies sell raised bed kits — some with pre-cut resin planking, some just the metal bits needed to turn lumber into good-lucking beds.
If you can afford them, I’ve been very pleased with the self-watering planters from Gardener’s Supply Co. (Keep an eye out for sales, which happen on a regular basis.) The Terrazzo planters we’ve gotten have survived around a decade of New England winters outside without looking particularly battered (although the Spousal Unit did manage to break one by backing into it after an ice storm this January). And the water-holding bases really *do* make a difference in keep plants evenly hydrated during the hottest summer days, not to mention providing a base heavy enough you can use a metal trellis in one without it tipping over.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
That is a HOOT. Glad I watched through the credits because they ID’d so many vaguely familiar faces. All Star cast!
Ruckus
@raven:
I can answer that. People whose sleep patterns have never been regular. Like me. Although I do have to say this has been a worse time than most of my life. I have come to the conclusion that sleep is overrated. I mean who needs to sleep for 1/3 of a day? Hell you might miss something. On the other hand I used to be able to nap for 15-30 minutes and wake up feeling like it had been 8 hrs. Haven’t done that for a few years.
Ksmiami
@Elizabelle: Everything is shit. Needs more cowbell
Another Scott
@Ruckus:
BBC – 8 hours of sleep may be unnatural:
Wikipedia – Biphasic and Polyphasic Sleep
tl;dr – If you need to sleep in short bursts, or wake up in the middle of the night, don’t sweat it – it might be natural.
Cheers,
Scott.
TS (the original)
@JPL:
I keep reading this story from afar – I have just finished Adam’s post & comments – and all I can think of – this is 2016 in repeat. Something comes up, it gets debunked, I breathe again, then a day later there is something else. It doesn’t matter how many times it is debunked, denied, proven to be incorrect, there is a James Comey out there, who come October 29th will reveal all and the NYT will once again depress voting & elect trump. I don’t seem able to stop seeing this whenever there is a mention of Biden in any thread.
As the lady in your story says:
The last part – will continue – the media will continue speaking for her.
Anne Laurie
Unless there’s new info out there I haven’t seen, any coronavirus particles on cardboard won’t survive more than 3 hours — less than that, if the box was left out in the sun.
Any box coming from Amazon was packed at least a day or two ago, so again, even if a coronavirus-carrying shipper sneezed directly on the clipper package, the chance of any virus surviving shipment are vanishingly small. Glove up & wipe the clipper down, if it makes you feel safer, but don’t get into a OCD feedback loop!
I try not to (let the Spousal Unit) get too paranoid. Sensible precautions are one thing; amping up the adrenaline levels for every what if… is, IMO, counterproductive.
WaterGirl
@Anne Laurie: I thought I had read multiple days on cardboard, but it’s been awhile. Not sure what they are saying these days.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl:
https://covid-101.org/science/do-you-need-to-sanitize-your-mail-and-packages/
(See the original for embedded links.)
HTH!!
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
No “John Cole Presents This Fucking Old House” topic? :(
laura
@MomSense: hang on to the Joys of the moments as they occur and rage in the garden as needs must. You. Are. Not. Alone.
She typed out on the phone that was located at the bottom of the green waste bin so I’ve got that going for me.
Another Scott
@laura: You found it! Yay!! :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
SWMBO
@Charluckles: Completely dead thread but have you considered metal hardware cloth, schedule 40 pipe and tie wraps? You can cut the pipe to whatever size you need, tie wrap the hardware cloth to it and add whatever you want after that. If you want it raised, just make pipe legs for it. If you are putting it on a deck or patio, add wheels to make it easier to move.