I’ve been very much enjoying the right wing freakout today over Trump’s conviction, and it just cracks me up what all these guys are saying. My favorite is the stuff about the trial being rigged, which just boggles my mind. In order to believe it was rigged and Trump is innocent, you have to discount the following:
Michael Cohen, his lawyer, saying it was true and going to jail for it.
Weisselberg, his accountant/ceo, saying it was true and going to jail for it.
Pecker at the National Enquirer saying it was true.
Stormy Daniels having to admit to the world that she slept with Donald Trump said it was true.
Donald Trump says it is true.
The jury says it is true.
So if you discount all of that, then you can go to crazy land and claim the judge is biased and that is why the jury voted that way.
It’s insane.
My favorite is the Republicans who want to prosecute Democrats. Go for it! We’re prosecuting two right now and it is long overdue. If they have done something illegal, knock yourself out. Therein lies the catch.
I have a busy weekend ahead of me. This has to be dealt with:
For reference, that is an 8′ tall fence. The stuff under the tarp is topsoil that was delivered to even out the backyard by the deck, because we removed 2/3 of the god damned thing because I was sick of replacing it. So all the plants around where the deck was had to be moved, and all the uneven land where the deck used to be needs to be addressed.
Here’s a view of the house from the back yard:
And here is the train wreck around the deck:
As you can see, everything in the backyard has been cut back and cleared to the ground where possible, and we are going to fill and then cover with pine mulch on the areas I do not want things to grow.
I got the pine mulch for free from the tree cutters when they cut down the felled pine in my neighbors house, and today I went to Kroger and got about 80 boxes from them from their recycling bin. My plan is to throw the boxes down everywhere I am going to put dirt or mulch, soak em down, and then pile the stuff on and leveling. I don’t like landscape paper, and this was free, so that’s the route I am going. Because I am cheap as hell, that means the only thing I needed to pay for was the dirt, and I splurged and got it screened instead of screening it myself this time. I have a college kid coming down to move most of it while I spread and “supervise,” but it is still going to be a long weekend.
Then, next year, once I have things growing back the way I want, I am going to put some flagstones down and create a little patio on ground level. Or if I hit the powerball, then that will be for the pool.
I want a bumpersticker that says “Trump is a draft dodger and convicted felon.”
geg6
Wow, that is a very, very much smaller back deck! I have pics of the old deck from when we visited with Lovey and Koda. Wow.
zhena gogolia
I’m tired just looking at it.
Our yard is a disaster.
E.
I have been canvassing for a fairly popular dem candidate in a purple district in a very red state. I am struck by how poor our data analysis seems to be. By “our” I mean the dems. For example, there is a limited budget for postcards. Do we send them to most likely voters or less likely voters? We should know this, but do not. We also do not seem to have tested models for voter turnout, only vague guesses. There is so much data available I should have thought it would be Moneyballed to hell and back by now. It’s weird and disappointing.
Adam L Silverman
The pine mulch is too close to the willow.
Adam L Silverman
Someone had to post it.
J. Arthur Crank
Yup, cardboard boxes make a good foundation upon which to put mulch, compost, etc.
The trial was indeed rigged in the sense that the defendant actually did all of the illegal things he was accused of, so the outcome was preordained.
J. Arthur Crank
@Adam L Silverman: It should have been willow mulch, as a warning.
Adam L Silverman
@J. Arthur Crank: I like the willow. Don’t hurt its feelings, it’ll start weeping.
Jackie
You’ll have better luck finding two: one for each charge.
jimmiraybob
I hate to break the flow of contemplating yard work but this has been on my mind all day. Didn’t some of the elements of the crimes for which Felonious Drumph was convicted occur while he was president and inside the White House?
MagdaInBlack
I don’t care what anyone says (except Adam, who also likes the willow) I like the willow.
Jackie
@Adam L Silverman: 🥲🥲🥲🤦🏼♀️
realbtl
Typical Spring weather here in Montana: 40º this morning 70º this afternoon. Layers!
Jackie
@jimmiraybob: BUT did anything fall under “official duties of the President?”
lowtechcyclist
@realbtl:
I hear that sort of spring temperature swing is really good for the dental floss crop.
SW
I want to put a marker down right now regarding the conventional wisdom. You know, the notion from both Republicans and Democrats that this conviction will have little or no impact on the election. I think that is nonsense. It presupposes that because the leaders of these self proclaimed values voters are willing to turn a blind eye to adulterous sex with porn stars, cash pay-offs etc. That the flock is behind them. Yes many of them chose not to believe it when this stuff was in the media. And some will buy the insane argument that it’s all a conspiracy master minded by someone they are trying to portray as senile. But not most of them. The real law and order morality scolds may not vote for Biden but loads of them will sit this out.
jimmiraybob
@Jackie: “official duties of the President?”
Maybe it should be “official felonies of the President.”
Gvg
@jimmiraybob: I didn’t hear of any. However, I think he did that kind of lying with paper all his life. I am sure he did the same type of thing before during and after. He wouldn’t even know how to stop.
Jackie
@jimmiraybob: HA!
You have no idea how many times I’ve gleefully typed CONVICTED FELON where appropriate today!😁🤭😁
Gvg
Drink lots of water while working this weekend. I had a similar load of free tree mulch two weeks ago that I have not gotten all spread yet. It’s just me in the very hot Florida sun and I want it spread and not killing my lawn, so I was pushing myself every evening and all weekends. I got dehydrated and had a couple of sick days. Felt dizzy and exhausted slept 2 days. Be careful.
Jackie
@Gvg: TCFG DID sign those checks to Michael Cohen while in office. But, I doubt that would be “official presidential business.”
Chet Murthy
There’s a bit of conventional wisdom going around, that TFG’s defense team fucked-up big time, that they had a case they could have “won”, but partially b/c TFG was such an obstreperous bastard, they couldn’t do what it took. At first I just skipped past those articles, but then this morning, I decided to read ’em ….. and it seems that “won” means “get a hung jury”. That’s it. That’s it. There’s no sense in which they were aiming for an acquittal — just a hung jury.
It’s more of the same bullshit from TFG and all who ride in him: run out the clock, delay delay and then delay some more. And that’s all they have: that’s it.
Poe Larity
It’s good that the fence is so tall due to all the nude activity.
Chet Murthy
@SW: I agree with you. And furthermore: I remember reading once that a key attribute of Fascists is that they have to be winning. Winning! Winning! So when the Fascist starts …. *losing*, with the big “L” on his fucking forehead, that’s gotta affect their morale. Sure, they’re gonna be screaming bloody murder, screaming that it’ll only make ’em vote harder, manufacture more pipe-bombs, doxx jurors, etc. Sure, they’ll say that. But inside, they’re feeling shitty, b/c their Golden Calf is turning out to be pyrite. And not winning.
They really want the winning, and they’re so, so, so tired of not getting it.
Good.
realbtl
@lowtechcyclist: Only if it happens at the right time of year.
NotMax
It was bound to happen. Moving a part of the house further from the willow, that is.
:)
different-church-lady
Just Saying Shit is now the national pastime.
CaseyL
I try not to join in the willow jokes, because everyone else gets there before I do… but it’s a HUGE freaking tree. Which means its root system should also be huge.
So I wonder if the roots have caused any problems, or if you have some way of managing them so they don’t cause problems.
jimmiraybob
Also too, will citizen convicted felon have to get written permission from his probation officer to go to Milwaukee for the RNC convention?
different-church-lady
@Chet Murthy: In this case a hung jury would have been a victory.
different-church-lady
@jimmiraybob: Sentencing happens a few days before the convention. It would be hilarious if he gets off with a fine and a suspended sentence, but then the judge puts him in the clink for contempt until the day after.
Chet Murthy
@different-church-lady: I get that. What I mean is, in no sense were they aiming for acquittal. To my mind, that means they knew he was guilty, and it was all about gaming the system to delay, delay, delay. B/c enough delay is the same as victory to him. It’s a perversion of our system of justice, is what I’m saying.
geg6
@SW:
From what I saw on the local news, it’s good news for Trump in that no one’s mind has changed in less than 24 hours. So it’s status quo and on with the horse race and Cheetolini is Teflon.
Jay
@CaseyL:
Root pruning.
Once a tree has been pruned to shape, you go around the drip line and cut the roots. The “drip line” is the outer canopy of the tree.
You can root prune with a sharpened shovel, spade type, or the easiest way, is a 24″ heavy duty blade in a sawsall.
Ohio Mom
@realbtl: I’m reminded of my cousin from Great Falls arriving for Ohio Son’s mid-June bar mitzvah in a fleece vest.
She looked a bit out of place in our summer weather but she did start her journey in the very early morning when, as you point out, it’s pretty brisk in Big Sky Country.
Snarki, child of Loki
So I hear that the maximum prison sentence TFG could get is 4 years (+bonus contempt time).
BUT, legal beagles, if TFG gets parole, couldn’t that sentence get ratcheted up from parole violations?
Omnes Omnibus
@Chet Murthy: An acquittal or a hung jury means that the prosecution did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Also, the job of a defense attorney is not to get their client off, but rather to provide the best defense that they can within the ethical rules and to make sure the prosecution doesn’t railroad the defendant.
Splitting Image
@Chet Murthy:
Very true. Mussolini was untouchable in Italy for years, but after only a couple of years of losing a war, the world turned upside-down for him.
Omnes Omnibus
@Splitting Image: I see what you did there.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Their cognitive dissonance is staggering.
On one hand they promote Dump as a “strong” leader who will bend the state to his will, yet at the same time they whine he’s a victim who was robbed, bullied and taken by the big bad system.
Chet Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: I do understand that. But my point is that his defense team knows he did the crime: that is the content of “victory for us is a hung jury”. And specifically, a hung jury due to nullification by a MAGAt juror. That’s what they were counting on.
different-church-lady
@Chet Murthy: Chet, everyone knows he did the crime.
2liberal
that’s only if the sentences are served concurrently. if served consecutively it would be 4 years x 34 counts = 136 years
Chet Murthy
@different-church-lady: Indeed, I agree with you. But again, my point is that their plan was not to refute the prosecution’s case, but rather, to get a MAGAt juror to hang the jury.
Chet Murthy
@2liberal: I read somewhere (either here or LG&M) that the NYS statute under which his conduct was a felony, specifies concurrent sentences explicitly.
different-church-lady
@Chet Murthy: Okay. So what I think is fair is he gets a suspended sentence on 33 of the charges and then only has to serve one of them in prison.
Lyrebird
Big favorite with us, too! It’s possible that landscaping cloth lasts longer… after 2-3 yrs the cardboard doesn’t completely suppress the weeds… but then you don’t have shreds of black plastic stuff years later!
There is far more in the Gaia’s Garden permaculture book than cool tricks with cardboard, but I have gotten a lot of mileage out of only that.
S Cerevisiae
Since it’s an open thread, today I flipped my BJ pet calendar to June and there is Bella with her bucket. It’s been just over a year since we lost her and we really miss that big goofball but that picture never fails to make me smile because it captures her essence so well. She loved playing with a 5 gallon bucket, particularly in the snow, and I have heard that is a common German Shepherd thing. We will never forget you baby girl!
We now return the thread to mocking the felonious former guy…
Ken
That sounds like a lot of work. A simple watering with blood at each dark of the moon will keep the tree satiated.
Bard the Grim
That’s a lot of mulch, dude. 12 cubic yards, I’d guess? I shall spread (part of) my (merely 7 yard) pile in solidarity with you this weekend.
Doug R
Put it this way: That willow ain’t getting any smaller or any further from the house.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Ramalama
@J. Arthur Crank: blah blah Michael Cohen…please say more about using cardboard boxes in your yard. Flattened out plain old cardboard boxes? Like … In a pattern on the ground? Like one layer deep? Any digging involved? Then you put dirt over it and nothing grows on top? Please please more. …
Chet Murthy
@Ramalama: @J. Arthur Crank: You made me look. I’ve never owned property, hence never had a chance to worry about mulching. I see there is a *robust* debate about whether cardboard boxes are good in a mulch. I see The Garden Professors call it the “lasagna mulch method”. *grin
Tony G
@Chet Murthy: I hope that you’re right … but I don’t know. I have a few Trump-cultists in my extended family. (There’s a de-facto agreement that we don’t discuss politics at family gatherings, but I know what they are, and they know what I am.). I suspect that they’ll put these felony convictions into the same memory-hole that they use to hide other unpleasant information — and that they’ll turn around and vote for Trump in November anyway.
Sister Golden Bear
Given the way Republicans are howling for show trials against the judge, the prosecutor and multitudes of Democrats, I’m not surprised. It’s all projection — if we pursue fake prosecutions to harass our political opponents then obviously Demon-rats must be doing the same.
Also, too Republicans believe they should be able to do whatever the fuck they want without consequences, so any system that holds them the slightest bit accountable obviously must be rigged, rigged I tell you, against them.
Ken
@Chet Murthy: I’ve been told, by someone that uses the technique, that cardboard is good if you’re trying to clear an area for later planting.
For example, to turn a section of lawn into a vegetable garden: Spade or rototill the area, cover with a couple layers of cardboard, weight that down (a layer of mulch is good), and let it sit for a season. Then you can either spade everything back into the soil or cut holes for the plants, depending on your use.
Jackie
@2liberal:
TCFG was whining bitterly about 136 years in his garbled statements this morning 😂
NotMax
@Tony G
He’lll probably come away with the nomination at the convention but I expect a rock’em sock’em floor fight (non-physical) first that will leave his stature (such as it is) bruised.
Ken
Spotted somewhere on Bluesky earlier today (but I can’t find it again):
The next month is going to be confusing. People will be chanting “four more years” and we won’t know if it’s for Biden’s presidency or Trump’s sentence.
RaflW
Good blog post up by Ryan Cooper.
What strikes me reading this concise summary of what consequences have stuck is that in the end, squalid little crimes and torts are what are felling a squalid little man who, Oz-like, always seemed like he was too big to fail.
RevRick
@Splitting Image: Fascism is grounded in the belief that there’s an enemy that is simultaneously weak and strong.
HumboldtBlue
different-church-lady
@Tony G:
They’ll vote for Trump harder than ever!
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@Ken: A simple watering with blood at each dark of the moon will keep the tree satiated.
I would very much like to subscribe to your website. You sound like a fun person
sab
@Lyrebird: We rented the poison ivy eating goat herd years ago, then put down cardboard boxes then topsoil, then grass seed. And we have had a lawn ever since instead of the toxic weed patch.
sab
@Ramalama: One layer deep worked for us with dirt and grass on top. We haven’t had much problem with weeds in the grass. Mulch instead of the dirt & grass seed would probably work well.
We put enough dirt on top so that the grass seed would have something to grow in, and also so that the cardboard wouldn’t show.
Lyrebird
@Ramalama: @Chet Murthy:
There’s more than one way to use cardboard! You can do what @Ken: described.
BUT if for instance you don’t have a tiller, or you are renting a place with a tiny yard, or you just don’t have the time or strength to dig, you can just use it as a weed barrier. The Gaia’s Garden book I mentioned has way more detail, but you can use cardboard or several (12??) layers of newsprint and either weigh it down with mulch… voila no weeds for a couple years!
OR you can put some dirt on top and then plant some plants! The lasagne method has specific recommendations like straw plus compost plus dirt, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. Obvs this doesn’t work if you want to plant an oak sapling, but it works fine for adding some irises or strawberry plants or something. Some money out for the dirt, but zero digging. I love it.
Lyrebird
@sab: Awesome!
I got inspired by your story and inquired whether we can hire goats around here. Not yet.
Gloria DryGarden
@Gvg: I learned from camping in the desert, to salt my water. Just a few shakes, can barely taste it, but it makes the water “stick” better. Prevents dehydration, for me. Otherwise, too hot, drinking water, it seems to run through, without hydrating.
RaflW
@Sister Golden Bear: “if we pursue fake prosecutions to harass our political opponents then obviously Demon-rats must be doing the same”
This was functionally the core of Trump saying it was good that he doesn’t pay taxes. He assumes that everyone who is smart cheats wildly on their taxes, so he’s just being the smartest of us all, and who wouldn’t be proud of him for that, right?!
Gloria DryGarden
@Lyrebird: I love using cardboard and free tree mulch for paths and areas where I need a break. After two -five years I need to do it again. The soil is nicer along my paths from all that mulch breaking down. I did lasagna an area for growing veggies, layered on cardboard: free alpaca manure, free week composted horse manure, coffee grounds, greens that would otherwise go into a compost pile. Because I have a terrible perennial weed, bindweed, I did some digging to slow it down, weaken it. And then out cardboard on top.
I’ve seen how landscape fabric gets holes in it, weeds grow down through it. It buys you time, but it’s a mess later. I like the cardboard and mulch better. .Or newsprint, then mulch. In beds, I sometimes put newspaper lates w organic stuff in top: weeds, grass, coffee, trimmings. Just to protect the soil and keep from having to water so much. We get 10-14” rain here, and it’s unevenly timed. Sometimes 2-3 months with no precipitation. So little mulch trucks are great.
pine can make your soul acidic, so it depends on your soil pH, and what you’re growing. I don’t like to use wood mulch in short season veggie beds, because it does pull nitrogen that the veggies need.
Tmi, unless you needed this info for active duty.
sab
@Lyrebird: Goats are beyond cute. Our current neighbor who shares that side lawn grew up in the country in the next county with her own goats. Different neighbor when we rented the goats also loved them and used to help feed them treats.
Gloria DryGarden
In other garden news, I’m happy that the hail last night didn’t trash my planties. All the baby tomatoes and peppers look fine, waiting in their pots. My giant blooming rose bush was not shredded. There is still a marvelous cascade of warm pink from roof edge to ground. The iris that’s blooming for the first time in 5+ years looks the same. All is well. It sounded pretty bad, and a friend 5 miles east sent me a picture of a golf ball piece of ice in her palm, which would have been worse. It must have been much smaller here.
I love this 2 weeks when my shrub roses bloom, and the irises open; the moment when the garden is at peak is not a good time for hail.
Jay
@Gloria DryGarden: Bindweed sucks, same with Himalayan Blackberries and the worst is various Yellow Bamboo’s.
wjca
And that’s how you can be sure that consecutive sentences aren’t an option. Because he is incapable of honesty or accuracy.
Gloria DryGarden
@Gloria DryGarden: little mulch tricks
well composted horse manure.
can’t figure out the other typos/ auto suggest mishaps.
also, in the lasagne layers: straw. You end up w some new weeds, just keep an eye out.
Omnes Omnibus
@wjca: Also because consecutive sentences are not the norm.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: can one grow bamboo in a pot? Just to source some tall straight garden stakes? Blackberry might die here. I tried having raspberries, but didn’t water them much, and there was a really dry year, 10-11”. Stuff dies, even the xeric things.
im so very sorry that you understand about bindweed. It means you *Know.
Ken
Shhh! I’m hoping he’ll offer a deal where he only has to serve ten years.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Wasn’t Mulch one of the detectives on “Homicide, Life on the Streets”
Gloria DryGarden
@RaflW: rich dad poor dad says he doesn’t pay taxes, rich people don’t cuz they know how to arrange and set up their holdings. He referenced djt.
Argh!
Slightly_peeved
@SW:
Seems a bit too close to buying into enemy propaganda for my liking.
Of course Republicans will say it won’t matter! If it matters they’re screwed. Part of the job of the Democratic Party is to try and make it matter. A vote for Republicans is a vote for crime, fraud, and adulterous prostitution. They don’t just support a candidate who does those things, they support those things by their lack of condemnation.
Gloria DryGarden
@Lyrebird: if you have BINDWEED do not, DO NOT ROTOTILL.
every piece of it grows back, each a separate plant, runnering for miles , engulfing everything.
I don’t have kudzu, but I’d guess it’s the same.
my guess about kudzu is it gets used medicinally, because you have to remove it, might as well use it.
Chet Murthy
I made gateau au yaourt (French yogurt cake) tonight. Amazingly easy! Though, the first attempt, I forgot the sugar! D’oh! D’oh! Second attempt, I rechecked the parts list twice!
Gloria DryGarden
@Ken: (see prev comment) I would not rototill unless I had no pernicious perennial weeds.
Brachiator
Oh, yes! I am having a great time listening to the lamentations of the MAGA. I have also been trying to catch up with a lot of the fun comments here in various threads. Definitely a time for celebration.
One thing. I didn’t follow the trial obsessively and I never paid attention to any of the pundit speculation about what the verdict might be. I think that I assumed, or hoped, that the jury would be hard-headed New Yorkers. And I got no complaints with the outcome!
Trump supporters seem to have formed their opinion of the case based on Trump’s microphone appearances and Fox News. I see MAGA people online angrily demanding to know what Trump was guilty of.
It’s worse than denial. They live in an alternate universe where an entirely different set of facts rule.
Brachiator
@Slightly_peeved:
Tough call. I oppose crime and fraud, but I don’t care about adulterous prostitution.
sab
@Brachiator: My own speculation about the Trump verdict was that he got too many of his own fans but none of his minions on the jury. Basically he got a jury of his peers in the Magna Carta sense: fellow barons, not the peasantry.
Apparently they had a lot of normies- basically apolitical people who follow Fox or whatever out of habit. And they passed voir dire jury selection.
So they arrived pretty naive about what Trump has been up to over the years, and the trial educated and informed them. I am sure they all had their “Yikes this is real and he actually did that” moment.
sab
Still thumping along on buying our old people dream house ( this house might delay nursing home for fifteen years, and we can’t afoed nursing homes.
The deal is pretty much done if I can get my mom’s trust department and Vanguard IRA to release money they are obligated to release within the turns of the short contract, since I am buying by cash.
Old people dream house: very nice basement, but we never need to go there down the steps.
More room and space than we are used to. Two full bathrooms. Old people need to pee more than kids. Two people sharing one bathroom is problematic and often embarrassing. Room to put my office somewhere besides our only guestroom.
Big yard with lots of trees minimal landscaping. We are too old to be doing much yardwork. My husband doesn’t know how, plus bad back. I do, but even minor weeding makes my heart race uncomfortably. I have a congenital heart defect that got much worse as I got older, that hopefully and certainly will get worse and will kill me, but meanwhile makes any mild exercise race my heart madly and makes me feel breathless and often fainty.
Full basement, and it’s dry. Husband wants to put a pool table there. Stepdaughter wants to move there. I hope I can finish some ongoing projects down there.
I used to be very physically active. I cannot do that any more. I am climbing the walls when I cannot be active, but my heart goes berserk when I am active.
Nice yard but trees near the railroad, no actual landscaping.
Dog isn’t going to like it at all, and the cats will miss glaring at the chipmuncks they hope to eat.
ETA If only Vanguard will release my inheritance.
Nancy
@lowtechcyclist:
It warms my heart to know that someone else has to think about dental floss at the sight or sound of the word Montana.
I had a friend who moved to Montana. She was forced to endure song and recitation of the lyrics I could remember.
Thank you
slightly_peeved
@Brachiator:
I was tossing up adding “… in a bad way” at the end to make it less ambiguous
Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
@Gloria DryGarden:
Hay has seeds, straw does not, Straw is what is cut after wheat, rye, oat crops have their heads harvested.
Himalayan blackberries are good to zone 6, but they grow massive impenetrable hedges, 12 feet in height, 6 feet thick per plant, grow from roots, berries and suckers. The fruit is very sweet. Birds spread it everywhere.
There are many native blackberries that are not invasive, ground hugging vines, who’s fruit is tart and less soft,
Yellow Bamboos can be grown in containers, but you need to stay on top of it, annually, as it can very quickly grow through 3″ of concrete.
Once it get’s in the dirt, it makes bindweed look like a poser.
Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
Raspberries are regional. They come in everbearing and seasonal strains. They don’t need much, just the right varietal for the region, hard pruning and mulch.
It is always a case of the right plant, right spot.
Jay
@Jay:
Plus, with composted straw, (2nd year straw mulch), you often get Straw Mushrooms as a side crop, which are delicious.
Brachiator
@sab:
There’s a slide and a pole?
sab
Still thumping along on buying our old people dream house ( this house might delay nursing home for fifteen years, and we can’t afford nursing homes.)
The deal is pretty much done if I can get my mom’s trust department and Vanguard IRA to release money they are obligated to release within the terms of the short contract, since I am buying by cash.
Old people dream house: very nice basement, but we never need to go there down the steps.
More room and space than we are used to. Two full bathrooms. Old people need to pee more than kids. Two people sharing one bathroom is problematic and often embarrassing. Room to put my office somewhere besides our only guestroom.
Big yard with lots of trees minimal landscaping. We are too old to be doing much yardwork. My husband doesn’t know how, plus bad back. I do, but even minor weeding makes my heart race uncomfortably. I have a congenital heart defect that got much worse as I got older, that hopefully and certainly will get worse and will kill me, but meanwhile makes any mild exercise race my heart madly and makes me feel breathless and often fainty.
Full basement, and it’s dry. Husband wants to put a pool table there. Stepdaughter wants to move there. I hope I can finish some ongoing projects down there.
I used to be very physically active. I cannot do that any more. I am climbing the walls when I cannot be active, but my heart goes berserk when I am active.
Nice yard but trees near the railroad, no actual landscaping. We now have a creek out back. Hopefully soon we will have freight railroad line. Loud at night, nice tree screen.
Dog isn’t going to like it at all, and the cats will miss glaring at the chipmuncks they hope to eat.
ETA If only Vanguard will release my inheritance. Ditto the trust department. Ditto East Ohio Gas.
sab
@Brachiator: No need to go down there. But it is nice and bright and pleasant, not one of those downstairs caves.
wjca
It very much depends on the dirt. Growing up, we had a small (maybe 4 foot in diameter) stand of bamboo. It never spread. At all. In at least 4 decades.
But then, our “dirt” was basic California adobe — effectively a clay pot of essentially infinite thickness, and yards of depth with bedrock below. Not surprising it didn’t spread.
Brachiator
@sab:
However they were constituted, America got lucky. And they also seemed to be efficient, getting all the counts settled so quickly.
Your old people dream house sounds interesting.
Are you taking any medication for this? Or considered devices or surgery for your issues?
I have some relatives who otherwise are in very good shape, with heart issues. I worry about them ignoring symptoms like fatigue, etc.
Take care.
How big is this basement? Some very divergent requests for using the room.
TS
@sab:
This is a little bit of heaven on earth. First time I ever had my own bathroom was when we bought our retirement home. Being able to ignore the mess someone else makes is an utter delight. Granddaughter decided she liked the Mr’s bathroom more than mine – added joy when she visits.
Gloria DryGarden
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: if it’s worse than bindweed, I’m sure I don’t want it. Straw technically doesn’t have seeds. Mostly. But some seem to be in even the bales of “weed free” straw.
your Himalayan blackberry sounds massive and invasive. It’s Not from Canada, then? Bindweed is from Asia, too.
Denver is technically zone 5, or 5 b, too cold for your Himalayan blackberry..
@Jay: what’s your rainfall up in Edmonton?
Jay
@Gloria DryGarden: Vancouver, not Edmonchuck, dry winter, which sucks, ( we rely on snow pack), wet spring, but already we have water use restrictions and forest fires. Sunday we have a flood warning, but that water doesn’t stick around.
Yeah, Denver is no place for a lot of soft fruit.
Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
My use of straw was to make a compost “box” out of the straw bales, put the rest of the compost inside the box and wait a year. Then harvest the mushrooms, use the straw as mulch, add the compost to the beds.
That was in the Interior, south of Kamloops by a bit, but in the hills. Dryer than Denver, colder than Denver in the winter. Growing season was mid June to mid September, if we didn’t get an August snowfall,
12 8’x3′ beds, a root cellar and a years worth of vedge for a year plus flowers.
WereBear
@lowtechcyclist: Likewise, when DH orders pancakes, there is a chorus.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@wjca: At our rural property, I have a container garden near the house, because everything I have tried planting in the actual, adobe soil has died. (We do have a veggie garden with soil my husband has radically improved over the years). It is interesting to watch what plants will self-seed from one pot to another. I have some oregano and sage which has been quite successful. On the other hand, I have a couple of pots of columbines, which were labeled as “self-seeding” and I can see them really trying (lots of seeds), but the poor things can’t make any progress since there are no other pots nearby and any seeds which fall on the regular soil obviously just die. Also the columbines like a lot of water, and only the containers get water, so sorry, columbines. I do have an oak seedling which is growing out of the ground near some pots that I water and it is flourishing (maybe 5-6″ tall). I’ve been watering it for 2 years at least. My husband warned me it was too close to the house and I told him it was the next owner’s problem. (We are both 73 this year).
It’s also been fun planting more native species. My oldest ceanothus plant is in bloom, and attracting all kinds of insects.
Ramalama
@Lyrebird: great, thanks. We had majority tree canopy everywhere but recently a wicked derecho came and nearly wiped us out. Felled maybe 30 trees. Now with this newfangled sunlight cool shit is growing but also not cool shit. I keep pulling out tree seedlings by the fistful. Last night on our deck I spotted this high school of teen maples in the back corner. I mean Jesus it’s a veritable tree farm on a not very big lot.
Tony G
@NotMax: I hope so!
Jeffg166
Putting cardboard down is a very good idea to suppress what will want to regrow from roots. Once the pine mulch is down stuff will grow in that but the first year shouldn’t be too bad.
Miss Bianca
@S Cerevisiae: My Roxy is there in June as well. Just the gentlest soul that ever lived, been a year and half since she passed and I still miss her so.