Weekly Chat Thread Feb. 18 - 24

[Emerald_Door]

Here's a snowshoe hare, blending in with its surroundings. 

[staytuned]

[val2525]

LOVE the snow bunny, Emerald!

Sunny and 54 here today. Back to the high 60s tomorrow, then the high 70s the next 10 days, with one day possibly hitting the high 80s. High 80s in FEBRUARY? UGH.

[staytuned]

Currently feels like about 23 now with windchill, which is better than around 5 degrees this morning. At least the sun's out and sky is blue. Haven't been outside since I came home Friday right before it started snowing (only got about 2").

If it ever hit 80 here in February, Val, you'd probably hear us whooping it up here in Ohio.

Reminder, no mail tomorrow.

[kritter]

Back to the high 60s tomorrow, then the high 70s the next 10 days, with one day possibly hitting the high 80s. High 80s in FEBRUARY? UGH.

YAY!  Counting the minutes.  I don't see high 80s on KSAT.  Just one day at 80 and one day at 82 with the other 6 days in the 70s.  I like your forecast for high 80s better.

Lots of days out in the yards for me.

[val2525]

That's what my Weatherbug phone app has, Kritter. Stay, the problem with a lot of unusually warm days in spring is that it's often followed by a very, very, very hot summer


weather.com/forecast/national/news/2024-02-15-spring-temperature-outlook

[staytuned]

There's still one month to go til official spring. Since it's technically still winter, any warm days now til then don't count as they're abnormalities.

[Desire]

I went out earlier to fill the bird feeders, they are so hungry and flocking to the feeders. It's like a party out there with them. When I'm on the couch I can see them through the wide window of the family room and DH can see them from the opposite side of the room from his recliner. It's a "look at that one" over and over when a different bird flies in. Yesterday we had juncos, woodpeckers, sparrows, cardinals, and several others, and a very rare occasion a week ago when a bluebird came in. He sat on one of the feeder trays, flew to the nearby shrubs, and then back to the feeder. Emerald posted a pic of a bluebird a few weeks ago, and I posted that we never had any bluebirds visit, that they are rare around here. I mentioned the pic of the bluebird to DH and it developed into a discussion of them, so it was a surprise to then see the bluebird and it made me feel good for some reason.

We're battling cold weather here and the snow is frozen from the low night temps. We shoveled a path on the deck after the first snowfall last Tuesday and never finished it. Now it's frozen and impossible to remove. Hoping for the warmer weather to start melting it off.

[labbypaws]

Feb 18, 2024 20:26:15 GMT staytuned said:

Currently feels like about 23 now with windchill, which is better than around 5 degrees this morning. At least the sun's out and sky is blue. Haven't been outside since I came home Friday right before it started snowing (only got about 2").

Winds have been 12-20 mph with the colder temps it has felt too cold to go out the door.  I had to go to training early Friday morning for an hour and then met a friend at Dunkin.  Saturday I was going to stay home but another friend wanted to meet at Dunkin.  I needed to go to BJ Wholesale anyway so I went out again.  

I made the mistake of asking hubby if we needed anything at BJs and he rattles off a list so I ended up there longer than planned.  

Then I went home and relaxed.  Saturday is hubby’s day to stay up with the dogs.  He lets me go to bed early.  But then he asked me to feed the dogs this morning🤬 at 6.  

[val2525]

Woo hoo! I think I finally have my various monitors at the right height. Shoulder hurts a lot less than it did before after a few hours on the computer. I was going to work tomorrow even though we're closed, but I don't think I will. A day off of the computer would be good.

[chapeaunoir]

We're up in Whatcom Cty hiking. Today we did the Chanterelle loop Trail which winds a few thousand feet up on single track. Then returns on a steep logging road- about 9 miles. Due to the stiff grades, particularly going down, our legs were trashed at the finish. I saw some mountain bikers climbing the 5 miles up to at last hit the summit and longed for the days, long gone, when I could do that - but that was 20 years ago and even then I had exceeded the lifespan of that kind of strenuous, technical climbing and fast, exhilarating dangerous downhill. I just kept slogging along thinking "fukk being 70."

But then after we cleaned up, we did a little thrifting and then walked to a Mexican brewpub with excellent food and their own brews, which improved my mood.

Thrifting pretty much anywhere up here sucks zip but I found about 10 decent items altogether in the three places we shopped. The DH dud well, but he partially shops for himself.

[kritter]

[val2525]

Not a good day for tech Tried to disconnect my Spectrum internet, found out I have to talk to a live person to do that (probably so they can try to sell me on staying). I call the number, all reps are busy and wait is 45 minutes. I have to leave for a PT appointment in 30 minutes. So I select a call back time of 6:00 pm, I should be home by then. Should be a fun call I've been trying to connect my printer to my new wifi for over an hour and finally discover after a lot of Googling that Google Nest Wifi doesn't support WPS, so the only way I can use my wifi printer is to connect it the old fashioned way, by a printer cable. Not a big deal though, at least by doing that I won't be bothered with the printer going off line, which it was constantly doing At least the Google wifi was fairly easy to connect yesterday and there's only one piece of equipment - the Nest wifi router that is plugged into the Google Fiber power box. Power box was installed when Google came thru and set up the complex for wifi. I just had to walk around the apartment and find it. Spectrum internet has two ugly, clunky black boxes and a bunch of cables.

Sunny and 63 right now. Unfortunately the tech crap shot most of the day so no patio work for me. Oh well, I'm still waiting on some outdoor floral stems I got on Temu, so fixing up the patio next weekend will be better than today anyway. Plus it will be low 70s on Saturday. Works for me.

[labbypaws]

Great day today! Sun is shiny. Winds are down. Got out walking. 31 degrees this morning.

www.npr.org/2024/02/19/1232488622/cougar-attack-mountain-bikers-washington-state

Washington State bikers attacked by mountain lion. Tackled it until help could come.

[chapeaunoir]

I've ridden off-road many times in that area - we're always wary for cougars and, in other places, coyotes. Coyotes for the most part don't want trouble (though we had a couple of big ones in my neighbourhood that DID take down prey larger than themselves - they worked together) so we just made sure we rode in peace with them - I had one follow me in the woods as I went along a trail in the high mountains - I even talked to it. Fortunately, never saw a cougar though, again, we kept our eyes open. Worst danger was hobby hunters with too much beer and too few brains. Regular hunters were never a problem - we wore danger orange and paid attention to hunting season.

[kritter]

Desire   I bought my Roundup with the Comfort spray thingie this afternoon.  Full on assault on weeds this week.  Taking no prisoners.

[Desire]

Kritter - Isn't that comfort wand so much easier to use than the pump container? I gave up on the pump a few summers ago. The comfort wand containers never seem to be on sale around here, but I started to buy the large refills to pour into them.  I won't be using any of it for quite a while as we have about 6-8 inches of snow - none of it is melting off either, too cold.

[kritter]

Isn't that comfort wand so much easier to use than the pump container?

I haven't used it yet.  Today was errands and picking up donated kitten food.  I kept looking at my yards and thought that if there was a time to splurge on weed killer, it is now.  I have a couple of those hand sprayer weed killers in the gallon containers plus some concentrated weed killer that I will transfer to this one after I use the Roundup.  

My plan is to do some massive zeroscaping this spring/summer including moving one side of the fence to increase my backyard and decrease my front yard plus doing some kind of something to decrease the grass/weed areas.  Professional assistance is definitely indicated.

[denise15601]

My daughter's BF and my grandson both have the flu. Neither one had gotten the flu shot. BF went back to work yesterday and was only down for one day, although still coughing.

Grandson is worse and when he runs a fever, he folds his clothing items and puts them into a bucket. Then he throws his shoes into another bucket. No idea how/why he is doing this.

Healthy grandson is usually a slob.

I object to my daughter's theory that he has the right to refuse a flu shot. I think that he has been influenced by BF's anti-vaccine idiocy.

[labbypaws]

Another nice day. A bit breezy and cool but still nice. Sun is shining. Haven’t seen much of the usual crew the past few weeks. Assume they have treadmills or mall walk.

[frakinfashion]

Feb 19, 2024 23:38:35 GMT kritter said:

Isn't that comfort wand so much easier to use than the pump container?

I haven't used it yet.  Today was errands and picking up donated kitten food.  I kept looking at my yards and thought that if there was a time to splurge on weed killer, it is now.  I have a couple of those hand sprayer weed killers in the gallon containers plus some concentrated weed killer that I will transfer to this one after I use the Roundup.  

My plan is to do some massive zeroscaping this spring/summer including moving one side of the fence to increase my backyard and decrease my front yard plus doing some kind of something to decrease the grass/weed areas.  Professional assistance is definitely indicated.

Rock garden? Gigantic litter box? Outdoor kitty playground/themepark?

[val2525]

Feb 19, 2024 23:38:35 GMT kritter said:

My plan is to do some massive zeroscaping this spring/summer including moving one side of the fence to increase my backyard and decrease my front yard plus doing some kind of something to decrease the grass/weed areas.  Professional assistance is definitely indicated.

Do you use weed block fabric (aka landscaping fabric)? The heavier the better, but even the cheapest fabric will work (just not as many seasons).

[val2525]

Feb 20, 2024 17:51:23 GMT frakinfashion said:

Outdoor kitty playground/themepark?

Kritter has the kitty playground/theme park in her front room.  My cats are jealous.

[kritter]

Do you use weed block fabric (aka landscaping fabric)?

The current beds don't have it because it really wasn't a "thing" back when I switched over from grass back in the early 90s.  This year has been really bad for weeds because El Nino brought so much rain and warm weather earlier than usual.  I realize that I am not getting any younger and while the will is there, the body is saying "nope, not happening at your usual pace".  I noticed that temu has several options for weed blocking fabric but haven't ordered any yet.

Rock garden? Gigantic litter box? Outdoor kitty playground/themepark?

Leaning more to the rock garden option.  No outdoor kitties except for the three that go out to the cat enclosure and they already have cat trees there.  The backyard is all zeroscaped with flower beds, pathways, and terraces.  It is the front yard that is a hot mess.

[denise15601]

Feb 20, 2024 17:55:39 GMT val2525 said:

Feb 19, 2024 23:38:35 GMT kritter said:

My plan is to do some massive zeroscaping this spring/summer including moving one side of the fence to increase my backyard and decrease my front yard plus doing some kind of something to decrease the grass/weed areas.  Professional assistance is definitely indicated.

Do you use weed block fabric (aka landscaping fabric)? The heavier the better, but even the cheapest fabric will work (just not as many seasons).

When I had my landscaping done 5 years ago, they used heavy duty landscaping fabric.  However, the weeds grow on top of the fabric!  Especially the darned wild violets.

[val2525]

The weed block fabric really works. You can skip it if your rock layer will be heavy and thick enough. My complex didn't use the fabric but they do have a really thick layer of heavy rock landscaping and I don't see weeds all that often in the rock parts. Nor have I seen an employee spraying for weeds. You do have to prep the ground first though. The random weed does grow, but it's easily removed and the quantity of weeds is pretty low, or has been in my experience.

My cats are so funny when I'm doing my floor exercises and stretches. Twila sits on the back of the chair, supervising me. Trixie wanders by for a scratch on the chin and then wanders off. Simon sticks around and likes to swat at my hands. Silly cats.

[val2525]

Did all of you Rakuten users know you can also get cash back at brick & mortor stores? You just have to pay with a credit card that you have on file with Rakuten. I just signed up. I usually go for Rapid Rewards points, but I have plenty of those now. Time for real cash back

[Desire]

Feb 20, 2024 18:50:35 GMT val2525 said:

The weed block fabric really works. You can skip it if your rock layer will be heavy and thick enough. My complex didn't use the fabric but they do have a really thick layer of heavy rock landscaping and I don't see weeds all that often in the rock parts. Nor have I seen an employee spraying for weeds. You do have to prep the ground first though. The random weed does grow, but it's easily removed and the quantity of weeds is pretty low, or has been in my experience.

The black fabric here did work to keep weeds at bay for a time.  But after several years what happens is that runoff dirt, leaf remnants, small seedlings, etc. start to build up on TOP of the fabric paper under the mulch in different areas, creating a new dirt base for the weeds to germinate.  It's worse with the wood mulch vs stone as the wood mulch disintegrates quickly over time, helping to contribute to the "new base" of dirt over the fabric paper.  I'm always wondering where the mulch goes as every few years we need to replenish it.  It just disappears by breaking down.

I'm wondering if that dyed plastic mulch would work better than the standard wood mulch that most of us use.  I think it's 2-3 times the price.  At this stage, we wouldn't switch over to rocks as it would be a major, major redo.  We do have the white rocks on one side of the pool shrubbery and it does do a better job than the wood mulch on the weeds. 

[allikat]

Hi all, it's been so busy over here. Just returned from a 3 day bowling tournament that BF's daughter bowled in, her team came in 5th out of 17th teams. It was a long long weekend.

Val, Spectrum made me go in to cancel a few years ago when my MIL died, I had to go in person to cancel it. Aggravating company. Also, thought you would get a kick out of this. Today I received my MIL's Federal tax refund from 2020, I have fought with them for 4 years to prove that I am entitled to receive her refund. I have provided the exact same forms to them over and over then finally with this last faxed set of documents in November they decided they had what they needed. So that is one more frustration off my list.

I am headed to Rakuten to see about the brick and mortar option, thanks for the heads up.

[Emerald_Door]

Speaking of bowling, I went bowling last week at the Truman Bowling Alley in the basement of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is next door to the White House, near the West Wing. A college friend of mine is a Senior Policy Analyst in the Executive Office of the President, and she was able to get the reservation for the bowling alley. It was just four of us: her, another college friend, me, and my 27 year old son. You can guess who won. It was great to see these friends who I haven't seen in years. The Eisenhower Executive Office Building has amazing architecture inside.

We also toured the East Wing of the White House. The rooms are magnificent. Seeing them in person was amazing.