stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

interesting plant.

The World's Weirdest "Alien" Plant Can Survive For Over 1,000 Years

This odd plant hidden in the Namib Desert looks like it belongs in a Sci-Fi movie, but it's actually one of Earth's longest-living residents.

www.thetravel.com

 

[flowerbug]

nice day outside, redoing an edge of a pathway while i get a chance before i need to do other things. feels good to move, but i also know i'll feel it in other ways even more later.

oh, and i called washing machine repair people again and they said that they finally got the parts in and since it needs two people they'll be able to come out this Friday.

 

[flowerbug]

i did get a lot of the pathway edge redone, still have the end left to do which will be a real booger to do because there's a lot of quack grass along there.

also saw a groundhog den in a spot where they've been before and i've gotten rid of them a few times, but they keep wanting to use that location for some reason. wastes so much time and effort to deal with them. thinking fondly of cement bags and barbed wire...

 

[flowerbug]

oh this is so dumb, i'm not surprised, but it sure is sad:

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/17/nx-s1-5366814/endangered-species-act-change-harm-trump-rule

 

[flowerbug]

i was not wrong about the end of the pathway being a real booger.

but first today i went out and took the loppers and a cultivator with me to see if i could get the chunk of dead tree leaning against the maple tree to finish coming down. nope. it's wedged by the stump it came from and also gravity so i need a bigger lever to move it and i have to see if i have a t-post somewhere i can use. gotta be careful, don't want to get smooshed.

then i went back to where the bee hives normally are sitting but they are not there yet. i had the loppers so i could cut back some things that were growing across the gap in the trees we would use if we could drive back there with anything. there's another dead tree that fell across the road. and two others that fell sort of in the road, but i was able to get most of those two off the road. and then i finished lopping off what i wanted to get done. last time i was back there i noticed the dirt was piled up and grown over where others had dug it out to give them better drainage. i wish people would have actually said something to me more as i'd have mentioned that yes, we do need to drive through there at times to do maintenance... i haven't heard from the bee keeper or his guy.

and then i came back to the house and used the cultivator to pull plastic trash out of the ditch.

then i went back to work on the pathway out back and all the quackgrass but i also took some stinky joooce with me so i could put it down the groundhog hole and then i filled that in and packed the dirt down and then i put all sorts of rocks, sticks, stakes, poles, and anything else i could find to make it tougher for them to start up again. i also used some of the stinky joooce to scatter around so if the groundhog comes back it won't smell very nice for a while back there.

the good part is that the groundhog did not come in under the fence but the burrow it was starting was angled off to the side.

then i went back to work on what i really should have been out there to do to begin with which is dealing with the quackgrass and that end of the pathway. the grass was growing about 12 feet along the edge and under the various layers of black plastic and weed barrier we have under the gravel. which meant i had to move more gravel to get at more of the roots, but i'm sure i didn't get them all. i just hope i got enough of them so that they don't have an easy time of growing further. without any green parts showing those roots can't live that long under there... i hope...

any chunks of roots i could find plus more chunks from the garden end i'm clearing (again!) back there i would take and hold over the fence and let them drop down to where i'd put down the stinky stuff and all the other debris, and barriers to perhaps get something growing there again. and then towards the end i dropped some bigger clumps with more dirt on them to give at least some of those roots a chance to survive. rain in the forecast for tonight i think so something is likely to survive and grow. i probably will have to get back there and pile some big rocks in that area though... this is probably about the sixth time we've had groundhogs want to put a den there...

 

[flowerbug]

once Mom settled in last night to watch her dvds i was out like a light. slept until she said good night and then i went back to sleep.

looks like the rain missed us this morning but likely some on the way later by what the radar is showing - never know for sure until it gets here as it can fizzle out. we did have a rather dark and stormy morning to the north of us but it didn't reach down this far.

 

[flowerbug]

washer still not working... still making grinding noise and stopping part-way through a load. they'll be back Monday.

 

[flowerbug]

another storm today. i'm shutting down... don't need any more fry babies...

 

[flowerbug]

trip 5 (or is it 6 now? i've lost count) from washing machine repair people. at least he was here and saw what was happening. at first i was worried because we went through a cycle and it worked without a problem, but we then did another and it had the same issue as all along. just stops part way through a load and also the grinding noise. he thinks it may be that the actuator is just not the right kind and will try again with a different part once he can verify it, but also says he'll get control board just in case...

they've pretty much replaced everything else.

he did put the metal brackets back on...

 

[flowerbug]

i survived mowing, not bad but i am out of shape. the exercise today mowing will help me get back into shape.

also it will be a nice surprise for Mom when she gets home. i did not mention it to her this morning at all and i'm pretty sure she has plans to do it sometime soon, so i headed her off at the pass.

she normally mows part of it and then i finish the hard stuff and the edge along the south side, but since that was turned under and tilled there is much less for me to do and so i decided i'm going to just do it all. i can go faster and get it done - she can rest up and do other things if she wants.

a nap would be nice...