Random crap with Uno.

[Geo]

I was going to post a " ", at the price tag, but it seems there are grills for sale over $1,000!

[Unorthodox]

Yeah, you can get a good charcoal grill for dirt cheap.  Propane gets pricey.  Prior to this we were rockin' a $20 aussie grill. 

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Aussie-Walk-A-Bout-Portable-Charcoal-Grill-4200-0A236/100164850

(which appears to be $50 now, wtf?) 

This grill was part of my payment for consulting/prop building for the professional haunt in 2011.  Owner was a dealer, so probably was a lot cheaper for him than retail. 

[Unorthodox]

80's today, 100's slated for the rest of the forecast. 

Only about half the pumpkins are ready for that kind of heat.  I expect increased water restrictions before too long.  Might accelerate a Halloween plan that would double as a shade for the garden for just such circumstance...

[Geo]

Yeah, you can get a good charcoal grill for dirt cheap.  Propane gets pricey.  Prior to this we were rockin' a $20 aussie grill. 

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Aussie-Walk-A-Bout-Portable-Charcoal-Grill-4200-0A236/100164850

(which appears to be $50 now, wtf?) 

Part of decreasing the budget deficit? Doubling import taxes of foreign goods? 

[Unorthodox]

Due to schedules, won't have time to accelerate the halloween plan, will just have to mulch around the pumpkins in an attempt to keep their roots cooled. 

[Unorthodox]

Ok...trouble brewing. 

Time to have the car renewed.  Left at the shop a mile away and walked home. 

First thing to catch my eye was an ungodly amount of honeydew ALL OVER the trees near the shop.  On inspection, I HAVE NEVER SEEN SO MANY APHIDS IN MY LIFE!!!

I monitored plants as I walked, aphids are normally a minor cosmetic annoyance at worst, but they are KILLING plants by sheer number, and the mold that potentially forms from excessive honeydew could be problematic as well.  Low lying plants are doing ok likely thanks to pesticides, but people are not spraying the TREES, and it's clear the aphids are spreading down the mature elms that line the streets here. 

The plague level is presently about a block from my place, and the mummies start appearing from there (leftovers from trichogramma wasps).  This explains why I have several new species of the wasps set up shop in the garden as the best habitat in the vicinity, and in general they should keep aphids in check, but I've never seen this level.  Will be interesting. 

[Rusty Edge]

So do  these aphids have ant guardians ?

[Unorthodox]

Doesn't appear so, but there were a couple boils of ants along the sidewalk on the way back.  Also noted a comparatively few ladybugs up in the trees.  Today was one of those I wish I had a macro lens for the camera. 

[Unorthodox]

I'm currently a little flush in the Halloween budget department, and have decided it's time to buy a new point and shoot camera. 

Those of you who have followed me a bit may recall my present point and shoot (known affectionately as string camera) is falling apart.  After being abused for 10 years, it is presently held together by a string, and is now suffering from some focus issues that come and go.  10 year old camera technology is not that great, no, but for a point and shoot in the shop, it is a wonderful little device.  I want a new one, but google only brings up spare parts on the thing.  No used, no refurbished...nothin'. 

New point and shoots are severe overkill for my needs.  I have bertha for when I want a nice picture. 

My last road trip showed me my lovely 2nd? genreation ipod is struggling with capacity as well, for when I load up audiobooks...


I'm noticing the cameras on an ipod touch exceed my 10 year old point and shoot in capability, and such a device would be in the shop blaring music anyway, so handy.  My question that google seems to be having trouble answering:

How easy is it to transfer said pics to the PC for editting?  Is it a 'normal' file format, or proprietary? 

Anyone with any real experience taking photos with one? 


Or, any recommendations on a good, cheap, camera? 

[Unorthodox]

The Hearse Song (the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out) Performed by Harley Poe

[Buster's Uncle]

Ahh.  Can you find a recording of "Hot Snot and Booger Rolls" too?

[Unorthodox]

Not familiar with that one. 

Watching goosebumps with the kids, it featured intelligent worms uh, threatening?, a town, so I started singing that song.  Kids didn't believe it was a real song, so googled it for em, thought I'd share the results. 

[Unorthodox]

The Aphid plague is now on my trees. 

Releasing a few thousand ladybugs tonight in response.  I'm well aware of 1976 UK ladybug 'plague' brought on by increased aphids following a similar hot spell there, ran out of aphids and reportedly bit people).  I'll take the ladybug plague later, thanks. 

[Unorthodox]

I'm not fond of most the pests.  I just believe that your standard practice of chemical warfare does more harm than good.  Virtually all your predators recover from such methods at a much slower rate than the pests. 

My war against the squash bugs last year was not pretty.  Tachinid flies are not commercially available and the native ladybugs aren't fond of squash bugs.  Had to deal with the first brood by hand, inspecting and squashing eggs.  Rounded up and released a few hundred tachinid flies (from the farmer I typically sell the water to, he was going to spray, so I rounded up the flies first) to deal with the second brood.  There's a certain satisfaction with watching the fly crawl it's way out of the squash bug Alien style. 



And silverfish.  they creep me out for no logical reason. 

Fortunately, we're typically too dry for them here.

Yeah...about that...

This new building is apparantly infested with them.  Makes some sense, the leaky roof has this a nice humid habitat.  I'm severely tempted to drop a couple bug bombs and come back next week.  They spawn a reaction in me similar to most people with spiders.  First time I've had to really confront them, however. 

[Unorthodox]

Wondering why the Musquee pumpkins are not grown locally at the moment.  A little hard to get started, granted, but they are THRIVING despite 100+ temps all week.   

The Cinderellas that were exposed have died, but the ones shaded by the corn are growing well, so the experiment there has done well.  The mini pumpkins are a lot less vigorous than I had hoped so far.


The 15ft tall corn had fantastic emergence from the seed the farmer sold me.  We've been having rather high winds with this heat wave, though, so if it gets too tall before the roots take hold, could be trouble.  Winds have knocked down half of the "Ambrosia" corn I planted.  "King Kool" seems to be doing better with the wind (was also in the ground 3 weeks longer), but did not seem to handle the early planting as well as advertised.  Found a supplier for the old hybrid we grew on the farm anyway, going to switch to that next year.