Random crap with Uno.

[Unorthodox]

Oh, I have the money, it's just set aside for Halloween.  It's not even going to be spent this year, it's most of my set-aside for a skulltronix.  It's a question of which do I want to do more: robotics or bugs.  I'm leaning bugs at the moment.  It's a much older hobby than Halloween, and has a lot less equipment requirement than robotics. 

[Unorthodox]

My daughter's impression of how the latest project is coming.
First shot with new camera shop work, inside, no flash.  It's overexposing on it's own, going to have to reign that back.
 

[Unorthodox]

Ok, we gots the squash bugs.  Saw a mating pair the other night, and just stomped em.  Saw a bunch of nymphs this morning though, given the levels and neighbors spraying, I'm going to have to resort to taking action and break out the neem oil tonight. 

[Rusty Edge]

Ok, we gots the squash bugs.  Saw a mating pair the other night, and just stomped em.

  What an instructive name!

[Unorthodox]

I....

I need to put up and lock the gate, apparantly. 

So, long story short, my neighbor to the NW, the one who in the past has sprayed bees living near the shed, sprayed weedkiller on that 'nasty' milkweed I had growing, and various other "helpful" things over the years took it on himself to come spray the garden last week.  "All those little flies and bees" obviously were not good, and he hadn't seen me, so thought I was out of town again, so he came over to 'help'. 

Well, he decimated my trichogramma (and put a good dent in the squash bees) and now I have squash bugs running rampant as a result.  We're giving the neem oil a chance, and I manually disposed of a few hundred eggs, but I have some real nasty stuff in storage if it comes right down to it.   

[Geo]

Can't you sue him for intruding?

[Unorthodox]

Maybe.  To what end?  Pissing off another neighbor? 

[Geo]

I assume he's pissing you off with spraying your garden. Surely you must have told him before his pesticide isn't welcome on your property?

[Unorthodox]

We've had some disagreements on the fenceline, with the milkweed, and a few other plants that he promtly weedkilled, but the raven grass on that corner has been a mutually agreed planting.   

Yes, he sprayed the bees before, but the hive was between my shed and the fenceline.  He's raising 2 granddaughters, and I really couldn't blame him for that with the common perception of bees, especially if the girls are allergic.  It's one thing to spray something through/over the fence, I never considered someon bringing a sprayer and coating my property, though. 

Thing is, in his mind he's helping me.  Gardening is a thing in Utah.  LDS members believe in being self sufficient, and some in Utah take it to an extreme.  If you're buying vegetables, you're doing it wrong.  My methods are not kosher with the accepted norm around here, having learned from a much older heathen farmer, I don't use the modern methods being taught by the church organizations (yes, really) add in mixing my own entomology interests, and thus I'm doing it "wrong" and need to be taught, fellowshipped, and converted.  My parents have done similar to me over the years, coming to "help" and show me the error of my ways through example.  I did explain I had been trying to go organic, and what the bees and 'flies' were actually beneficial.  Will it stick?  I don't know.  I'm still a little flabergasted at the though of someone going to someone else's property to spray poison. 

[Geo]

We've had some disagreements on the fenceline, with the milkweed, and a few other plants that he promtly weedkilled, but the raven grass on that corner has been a mutually agreed planting.   

Yes, he sprayed the bees before, but the hive was between my shed and the fenceline.  He's raising 2 granddaughters, and I really couldn't blame him for that with the common perception of bees, especially if the girls are allergic.  It's one thing to spray something through/over the fence, I never considered someon bringing a sprayer and coating my property, though. 

Thing is, in his mind he's helping me.  Gardening is a thing in Utah.  LDS members believe in being self sufficient, and some in Utah take it to an extreme.  If you're buying vegetables, you're doing it wrong.  My methods are not kosher with the accepted norm around here, having learned from a much older heathen farmer, I don't use the modern methods being taught by the church organizations (yes, really) add in mixing my own entomology interests, and thus I'm doing it "wrong" and need to be taught, fellowshipped, and converted.  My parents have done similar to me over the years, coming to "help" and show me the error of my ways through example.  I did explain I had been trying to go organic, and what the bees and 'flies' were actually beneficial.  Will it stick?  I don't know.  I'm still a little flabergasted at the though of someone going to someone else's property to spray poison.

Okay. I do hope you somehow get the message across it's a huge no-no to not only enter your property unannounced (thinking you're not home), but physically forcing his way of life on your garden. It sounds borderline fundamentalistic to me.

[Unorthodox]

It's Utah.  Of course it's fundamentalistic.  There's so many little side things, no one could do them all, so you get fanatics for all kinds of little aspects of the faith.  Church tells their members to be prepared and have food storage, you got the fanatics that have a year's supply of MRE's for the end of the world. 

The Word of Wisdom is a perfect example.  People happily ignore the whole part about eating little meat and getting to bed on time, but fanatically embrace things like no coffee, alcohol, or smoking.  The whole circus that is Utah drinking laws reflect that.   

They are pushing the gardens again recently, at least at the local level.  Guess the younger generation has lost it's way there.  Hence the neighbor's across the street trying to do beehives.  The church told them to make a garden, thus God wants them to be beekeepers.  In fact, they are in charge of the big church run farm.  I was offered space there, as they have extra, haven't decided whether it's worth being hassled every time I head over or not. 

[Buster's Uncle]

You'd definitely get sprayed behind your back there.

[Rusty Edge]

You'd definitely get sprayed behind your back there.

True. On the other hand, if you just wanted to plant pumpkins to undersell that nearby stand...

[Buster's Uncle]

Hey Uno - something I've wondered about for a while, but didn't want to ask because any answer was sure to upset Alex; if I may be so bold as to ask, there's clearly a story behind your excommunication from LDS.  Would you care to share?

[Unorthodox]

Not much of one, honestly. 

I was ostricized early on in the neighborhood.  12 boys my age in the ward.  Various things led the boys to believe I was evil.  My best friend in the neighborhood had his dad go all murder suicide while we were in school one day, I walked in on it with him, called the cops, age 5.  Since then, anything bad was my fault more or less, a view I come to share.  The whole Halloween thing probably didn't help, even though at the youngest age, a lot of it was my means of coping with the above.  Not that Halloween is frowned upon by the church, not at all.  But, I was quite gruesome early on. 

Worked on the farm in the summers while I could, while the other boys were being kids.  That didn't lead to any teasing at all...

The farmer fell down his stairs and died, I found him, age 14.  I fell into depression shortly after amidst more 'cursed Cole' talk from the boys (shocking, I know), and my wonderful bishop at the time (who I now work with) councelled all these boys to keep away from me as a bad influence in my depression, so I found new friends and a mixture of drugs and various forms of witchcraft.  This scared a number of people, someone notified the church.  This prompted the bishop to 'council' me, I told him where he could stick it, this led to formal discipline where I refused to repent, Mom standing by my decision, thus out I go. 

That summer I was sent to a medicine man of the Sioux nation which formed the basis of where I'm at now, religiously speaking, and come home to get involved in the haunt industry from a mentor I've spoke of before, which got me out of the drug circuit.  We recreated the deaths I'd witnessed in the house that year.   Also had the hunting incident, had to wrestle a deer down and slit it's throat that year, after it had gored me and broke a shoulder blade...  The medicine man would say I have some of the deer's soul in me now.   

Took me a couple years to exorcise all the demons of the whole drugs/witchcraft timeframe, and some not-so-smart decisions that followed, and finally worked through the whole 'curse' thing with myself in the process. 

I come to realize I don't really have a problem with the CHURCH.  I have issues with how some of the members interpret things.  Same can be said for many a religion.