End of the World. Beginning of a new one. The Life of Amberwolf.

[amberwolf]

I've been trying to grow more lantana sprouts to get enough of them to fill in the gaps along the fences, and cover the walls of the house, etc., and a few weeks ago planted all the seeds I could gather off the mature lantana at the time--mostly in two planters, others along the norht and west walls of the house along with the more mature lantana sprouts, since I have to keep watering that area a lot anyway, it keeps those seeds watered, too, and so they are now sprouting by the dozens.

I didnt' get a pic of those, but did get pics of the planters:
View attachment 6

By the time they're large enough to move, I think it's going to be too hot to do that, but I will ahve to split them out to more planters really soon; they're growing really fast now, and if left much longer wll have roots entangled too much to separate without risk of damage.


The center-of-yard mulberry tree is growing fast; it's already half the ehight of hte "windmill".
View attachment 4


The one from the neighbor is recovering well, leafing out big and fast.

View attachment 3


and the lantana on the bedroom's west wall is growing pretty well, though not nearly big enugh to do any shade for some weeks yet, at best (probably months).



Yogi and Tiny are still doing fine:

 

[amberwolf]

So...for the last several weeks, somethign other than mosquitos have been biting me while I sleep, and I've been trying to catch one, or at least sight of it, to see what it is and figure out how to get rid of them. Whatever it is must be a lot of them, because there are far too many bites too often to be a single one. They look like flea bites but larger, and there definitely aren't any fleas. Those I would see, and feel hopping around (had an infestation of those at a different house more than 25 years ago, but I remember them very well). Not ticks, they're too slow and couldn't hide. Mites, same thing. Spiders, ants, etc., eliminated simply because there are none and no signs or dead bodies, etc.

I've tried a number of non- or less- toxic things and been unable to make any difference to the problem, whcih points more and more to a nasty kind of problem.

Unfortunately, my suspicions of bedbugs weren't confirmed last night when I did finally catch one...it doesnt' look anything like what I've found in the various trustable guides on the subject. Maybe it's just too immature to tell? Either way, it's definitely a bloodsucker, as it's clear abdomen is full of red and I caught it right next to my arm on the pillow after I saw some new bites on it.

I have some pics of it but dunno where I put the card reader or cable for the camera, when I moved stuff around to do the cleanup. :/ I'll post them once I do.


I also think I squished several more while trying to get the flashlight close enough to see anythign, moving stuff around, because there were red smears there, too.

It doesn't really look like any of the images of any bugs I found, exactly, but it sort of looks like a few of the images of nymph stages of bedbugs...maybe. :?

Whatever they are, I never had them before, and haven't gotten anything "new" from anywhere that they could come in or on, so best bet is taht one took up residence inside the mattress I used at the apartments (since the plastic cover over it was damaged by Tiny while we were there), and has since then been breeding inside it, only finally coming out now, more than a year later, once it got warm enough long enough or whatever. Or that eggs finally hatched, etc. I dunno.

With no certain way to know the source or place of infestation, or even exactly what they are, and the ineffectiveness of everythign tried so far, I had to resort to drastic measures to start getting rid of them.

First up was to just get rid of the mattress itself, as I have no good way to enclose it that won't be damaged by the dogs eventually, probably sooner rather than later.

Vaccuming thoroughly, bagging up clothes/etc so I can leave them out in the sun (it'll get hot enough in the bags that I can't imagine any bugs surviving, here). A really hot dryer cycle would do the same thing, but it's easier to use the bags, and a lot cheaper since I have the bags and don't have to pay for the huge amount of electricity this would waste.

Pillows...I have lots of stuffed pillows/etc that I can't / don't want to replace, so I decided to put them in the wash with lots of bleach...at least half a bottle per load. I don't care how it affects the colors/etc of the things, as long as it eliminates any bugs of whatever kind that might be living int ehs tuffing. So I put filled the washer tub with partial load of water, added the bleach, then put whatever would fit in the washer tub for sheets/blankets, soaked for a long time, swapped with the next set, etc etc. Some thigns won't fit in ther so I used a large rubbermaid trashcan that's usually for outdoor yard work/etc, and pumped the wastewater from the washing of those other laods into it, so as not to waste taht water.

Then sun-dried things, piled on teh trike, chairs, up on the clothesline, etc.

Whiel all that was in process, I also bug-bombed the room itself, sealed up so the dogs couldn't get in there. I know it's not very effective against bedbugs, but it should get some of them, and anythign else that's loose in the room.

I am planning on going out to get diatomaceous earth to help deal with this, too, but didn't have time today to do it. There's other things I can try, too, but will just have to wait and see what happens, as I don't have a whole buncha money to spend on it.

 

[1JohnFoster]

Let me know if this does turn out to be bed bugs. I've cleared up dozens of cases, including 3 in our own apartment.

Rule #1: Stay calm. No need to freak out and fire all weapons. They are just dumb little insects, you're a very smart human. Internet is stuffed with whacky exaggerated and complicated info on BB's. They do not live inside mattresses, they do not live 4ever. And just like all wild species, their infant and adult mortality and lack of ability to find food prevents them from following their potentially exponential population curves.

My solutions takes no money. I just isolate the bed, vacuum and launder. Bugs gone! If you can't even afford to operate the dryer for 10min per load, just put stuff far away from you in storage for a year and they will all die.

They hide as close as possible to your head; 99% of the time they will be within 4 feet of your head. On the underside of the mattress in a seam, under the bed boards or squeezed in a crack in a wooden bed frame.
They are almost never _inside_ a mattress unless it's got great big holes. Mattress bags are great, but do not even have to be 100% impervious. And you can patch holes with packing tape.

 

[amberwolf]

Let me know if this does turn out to be bed bugs. I've cleared up dozens of cases, including 3 in our own apartment.

So far I've not found any more or been bitten since doing the stuff already done. I should be able to upload the pics later today of the one I did catch; maybe you can tell me if it is or isn't one.

I definitely appreciate any help on the issue, whatever it turns out to be.

I also checked the dogs carefully and found nothing on them (this takes quite a while given their size and shagginess. :lol: ). As they've exhibited no itching/scratching/chewing, I didnt' expect to find anything, but you never know.



Everything I had in the room that could've had bugs of any kind in it (that wouldnt' be destroyed by heat) I bagged up and put outside on teh roofs of the sheds, where it's been for the last few days of 110F-115F+ heat. The heat in the bags gets well over 150F according to the BBQ thermometer I've checked a couple with, so that should kill just about anythign that might've been in there. It is probably ready to come back inside by tonight.


The bleachwashing I did on all the pillows/bedding appears to have taken care of anything else.

After a thorough vacuuming (with an ancient original B&D shopvac) I did further checks with dental picks and other tools to scrape under baseboards/etc., and found nothing in there except dog hair, which was expected. :lol:

I also left the shopvac out in that sun, so anything it picked up ought to be dead, too.

Rule #1: Stay calm. No need to freak out and fire all weapons. They are just dumb little insects, you're a very smart human. Internet is stuffed with whacky exaggerated and complicated info on BB's. They do not live inside mattresses, they do not live 4ever. And just like all wild species, their infant and adult mortality and lack of ability to find food prevents them from following their potentially exponential population curves.

I didn't exactly freak out, but the problem of being awakened to being "eaten" got so bad that I had to do something drastic to ensure it would not continue. I already get too littel sleep as it is, from all the other problems I have (mostly nightmares/stress), so something had to be done right then.

Whiel they dont' live isnide mattresses normally, then aside from all the seams/edging ribs, this one has plenty of little holes and tears from the dogs, and it is very old (from a time when the entire queen set of Sealy or whatever brand it was only cost $200, according to it's faded label), inherited from my mom after she died a decade ago, as it was the only mattress not destroyed in the housefire. It already had urine and food spillage damage from when she was sick before she died, and though I cleaned it well enough from that, it has acquired a lot more from Tiny since she leaks sometimes (used to a lot, not nearly so much these days as she drinks a lot less water since her MG/ME started and I have to restrict it's availability). The plastic covers / etc don't last so I stopped bothering with them, as both of the dogs tend to "dig a nest" on the bed, and that doesn't do those ciovers any good even with blankets and sheets over them. :/

My solutions takes no money. I just isolate the bed, vacuum and launder. Bugs gone! If you can't even afford to operate the dryer for 10min per load, just put stuff far away from you in storage for a year and they will all die.

it's not so much not affording to operate it as it's just wasteful of energy and heat, when there is plenty of free heat right outside.

They hide as close as possible to your head; 99% of the time they will be within 4 feet of your head. On the underside of the mattress in a seam, under the bed boards or squeezed in a crack in a wooden bed frame.
They are almost never _inside_ a mattress unless it's got great big holes. Mattress bags are great, but do not even have to be 100% impervious. And you can patch holes with packing tape.

I don't have a frame; mattress was directly on the floor (no box spring either), cuz Tiny couldn't climb any higher when I first got her (she can now, but it's also cooler the closer to the floor we are.

Baseboards the mattress was right up against have big gaps between the floor and their bottoms, though tyey are sealed to the wall at the top with paint for the most part. Then the floor itself is deliberately spaced away from the concrete for whatever weird reason, by the rebuilders, with little strips of squishy foam (whcih makes it annoying to walk on as you can feel it move under you, and it clacks as you walk around). So there is plenty of completely inaccessible space (to me) that bugs of many kinds could hide in.


So far sleep has been peaceful (physically) the last several days. It's not as comfortable without the mattress, but I've got a fairly tough air mattress that I just need to find the pinhole leak in and patch it up, assuming I can keep the dogs from puncturing it. More likely is I will borrow the couch cushions and lay them out inside a zipperable completely enclosing "canvas like" cotton cover I have (that wasnt' big enough by far for the queen mattress), and sleep on those, at least until a cheap enough new mattress solution comes along.

 

[1JohnFoster]

Sounds like you have a really good plan, and better use of solar power than me- thanks for the inspiration! Next time I treat an apartment I'll try to haul the bags to the roof out the window. Dogs are a new complicating factor to me. I thought teenagers were complicated enough. At least they don't make holes in mattresses!

I did freak out the first time we had BB's, so do most people I know! Most never stop.
> I already get too littel sleep as it is, from all the other problems I have (mostly nightmares/stress), so something had to be done right then.
Yes, from all your posts that I've lurked, you clearly have a very active mind. A blessing and curse. I'm the opposite which is a blessing for sleeping, curse for thinking!

Mattress on the floor is always a tough one - people of all walks of life are way more prone to bugs if the mattress/futon etc is on the floor. I always recommend a metal bed with no wood slats. Can be really hard to get a "full metal bed" cheap, box springs are a really dumb design, I hate them. Without a bed, just dragging your mattress around and vacuuming is a good idea. A perimiter barrier is a good idea. They can't climb a 1/2" vertical barrier of smooth metal or even packing tape... these are really pathetic insects. The idea of "bed bugs hiding everywhere" is really overblown. They normally just crawl 4ft from your head then go to sleep. The odds of a tiny baby even finding your are very low unless they're right in the bed. It's only if you do absolutely nothing for a year, then you get an infestation of thousands, they start roosting everywhere.

I've been told by the best pest guy I know that bed bugs are almost never ever on hairy pets. Fleas are tall & skinny to weave in & out of the hair forest. BB's are smooth skin specialists - they're flat to squeeze thru bedding & clothes, & cracks in wood.

 

[amberwolf]

Sounds like you have a really good plan, and better use of solar power than me- thanks for the inspiration! Next time I treat an apartment I'll try to haul the bags to the roof out the window.

I got the idea from a Texas A&M university page on bedbug treatment (so far it seems one of the most complete, logical and reasonable pages on the subject).
http://citybugs.tamu.edu/factsheets/biting-stinging/others/ent-3012/

I still haven't found what the little things are. And I forgot to upload the pics, and don'thave time right now (about to go to work).

Dogs are a new complicating factor to me. I thought teenagers were complicated enough. At least they don't make holes in mattresses!

Some of them do...some even hide their "stash" of whatever stuff inside. :/

Small dogs wouldn't be much of an issue...mine however are more like people-sized, so their weight alone can be a problem--especially when focused on a single paw coming down on an area the size of the palm of your hand as they run and jump onto something at umpteen zillion miles a second. :lol:

I did freak out the first time we had BB's, so do most people I know! Most never stop.

Can't blame them. But I've dealt with bug problems of various kinds before, including ticks and fleas and roaches and whatnot, thankfully not at this house. I really get squicked by bugs of many kinds, but the only ones that superduper freak me out are crickets/grasshoppers and the like cuz they can jump on me (and when I was a kid in Texas we would have "storms" of them sometimes and I never got over that)...and spiders. Some spiders I can live with, like daddy long legs, as long as I can avoid them and their webs..but most of them I just can't be anywhere around.

I leave them all alone whenever possible because they all have a purpose of one sort or another, but there are times I can't.

Mattress on the floor is always a tough one - people of all walks of life are way more prone to bugs if the mattress/futon etc is on the floor. I always recommend a metal bed with no wood slats. Can be really hard to get a "full metal bed" cheap, box springs are a really dumb design, I hate them.

I can *make* a frame out of metal, to hold up just a mattress, pretty easily. At the moment, I don't have a mattress, though, so it'll have to be more like a complete support for the couch cushions, and will need to have boards in there to support them.

For now, I'll just keep things as they are and see what happens.

I *had* a rusty old rollaway bedframe with it's own spring supports on it, but unfortunately figured I would never have a use for it so it was cut up to make the framework for my solar water heater enclosure. I no longer have the spring stuff for it.

Without a bed, just dragging your mattress around and vacuuming is a good idea. A perimiter barrier is a good idea. They can't climb a 1/2" vertical barrier of smooth metal or even packing tape... these are really pathetic insects. The idea of "bed bugs hiding everywhere" is really overblown. They normally just crawl 4ft from your head then go to sleep. The odds of a tiny baby even finding your are very low unless they're right in the bed. It's only if you do absolutely nothing for a year, then you get an infestation of thousands, they start roosting everywhere.

Ok. That's good. Then most likely my cleaning will have gotten almost anything around here.

I've been told by the best pest guy I know that bed bugs are almost never ever on hairy pets. Fleas are tall & skinny to weave in & out of the hair forest. BB's are smooth skin specialists - they're flat to squeeze thru bedding & clothes, & cracks in wood.

[/quote]
Make sense--almost: Ticks are shaped like bedbugs, and THEY are common on hairy pets.

 

[amberwolf]

Ok, finally got the pics. Because I could not get the camera to focus on it when really zoomed in or close, I couldn't get a good closeup, so the best I could do with these three pics was to crop it down to just a bit more than the bug itself, then enlarge that. The actual bug is only...maybe 2mm wide? Also, it looks different in teh pics than what my eyes saw--to me it looked mostly clear with just a little red "tube" inside the back end/abdomen, where teh pics show it all red in that area, and only clear around the head/thorax/legs.
View attachment 6




BTW, this is how I set the pillows out to dry after soaking them in the bleachwater solution (rather than having them beat up and ripped open by the washing machine). The trike is pretty useful for more than just transportation. :lol:

 

[Voltron]

I moved into a place that was infested... steaming really did the trick. I found a good clothes steamer at the thrift store ($10.99) meant for clothes..its non toxic, no residue. Kills the eggs that stay behind. Nothing like the feeling of settling in after you know theyre all dead. They hide in baseboards, and the underside of drawers near the bed too.

 

[Voltron]

It doesn't hurt when you have a gf that gets turned on by cleaning and the smell of Fabreeze either...sure makes exterminating more fun.

 

[striider]

Those things are frikking nasty. I know you said only crickets and such freak you out. Only bugs that suck my blood freak me out. By freak out, I mean I want to kill all of them and their species every time I see them.

I wish you nothing but great success in your genocide attempt.

 

[amberwolf]

So far, nothing's started eating me again yet.

The bagged stuff is still being solar-cooked, along with the couch cushions to be used as mattress (might as well make sure, right?). Been too tired to deal with it so far this week, can't hurt to cook longer.



Tiny's doing a lot better (notes on her recent illness in the Tiny's Wheelchair Project thread), pretty much back to normal again. Had been taking her to work with me last week using the SB Cruiser trike, this week I've been riding alone with CrazyBike2.


Has been staying a few degrees cooler, but it is more humid, so it feels even hotter. And worse, becuase it's more humid, more heat stays trapped at night, so the *average* temperature is significantly higher, as it never really cools off enough at night, only down to the 80sF. It doesnt' even get below 100F sometimes until after 10-11pm. Doesnt' get below 90F until about 2am.

Typically between 1-2am it gets cooler outside than inside, so I can open up the house and start ventilating it for the next day...then about 3-4 hours later, just past dawn as it starts warming up again, I have to close it all up, so it only drops about 5-7F in the house depending on the room, and each day it gets a little warmer inside. Presently it's never below about 87F inside at the coolest, and reaches about 94-96F in the daytime.

The only room that is an exception to that is the bedroom, with the window A/C unit, which is kept at ~80F in daytime (best the little thing can manage with the heat outside) and can get down to around 75F just before dawn when the air is cool enough outside to let it work better.

It's on "energy saver" mode to turn the fan off between cycles, so it doesn't pump heated air inside as the unit's external portion heat migrates back into it's internal portion, though it doens't matter much since it runs most of the time now anyway. :/

So, while we're comfy enough, we stay in the bedroom a lot.

Yogi doesnt' even leave it until he really has to pee or whatever, or if he hears something he just HAS to check out. Then he dashes thru the blankets in the doorway and scrabbles and slides thru teh house, for whatever reason going around the mats laid out for Tiny (and him), sometimes sliding into the walls before changing direction fully. :lol: Then thru teh blankets over the backdoorway and ZOOOM he's off.

For about a minute and then he's had enough of the heat and goes back inside.

Tiny...well, she's up to much longer periods in the heat though she shouldn't, she doesnt' care as much I guess. Plus she gets thirsty and stands or sits under the waterer on the tree, licking away at it for minutes at a time (it's set to a very low dribble so she won't cause herself a problem with it).

 

[1JohnFoster]

That's crazed heat, old Yeller.
I would just dry up and die like the bed bugs.
I remember the "hippy AC"; you dig a trench under the house, opening in the coolest side (North), and suck air up through the trench with a (solar DC) fan. But I guess your AC beats that.
Around here I see so much fiberglass pink insulation in dumpsters, if I had a house I could fill the whole attic solid.

 

[striider]

Our central A/C went out a few years ago. I had a swamp cooler sitting in the backyard waiting for HOA approval to put in because I hated pouring money into electricity to feed the A/C. Never heard from the HOA, but you can bet I installed that swamp cooler and BAM, $100 bucks a month less for electricity the first month. We love evaporative cooling, and definitely the way to go in AZ too from what I hear. You can get used swamp coolers on craigslist for cheap usually. My used one has served us for 4 or 5 years now. I will have to fix the A/C unit before I sell, but for now, perfect. YOU, and the puppies would LOVE it.

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/for/5089518105.html

 

[amberwolf]

We love evaporative cooling, and definitely the way to go in AZ too from what I hear. You can get used swamp coolers on craigslist for cheap usually. My used one has served us for 4 or 5 years now. I will have to fix the A/C unit before I sell, but for now, perfect. YOU, and the puppies would LOVE it.

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/for/5089518105.html

I used to have a house swamp cooler, and it was great (except for the humid days/nights when it didn't do a very good job). But they took it out when the house was rebuilt after the fire, leaving me with a miswired (or defective?), misducted, fuseless central A/C that can't be used. (which probably costs too much to run anyway, but won't know till I someday fix the swapped intake/output at the roof unit, and then figure out what's not wired right to keep the compressor from coming on (only the fan does), and fix that.

Another ES member pointed me to a few resources on swamp coolers, but I didn't jump on them in time and lost out. I wouldn't pay the $125 for that used CL unit--I could build my own for much less than that. My present window AC unit didn't even cost maybe a quarter of that, (a fifth, I think), though it does add significant cost to the electric each month I have to use it (about $60-70 on the two hottest months last year, effectively tripling the electric bill from the lowest I can keep it at).


A "cheap" unit to me would be $10 to $20...cuz past that I think I have enough parts to build a small one easily enough.

 

[amberwolf]

That's crazed heat, old Yeller.
I would just dry up and die like the bed bugs.

I'd probably do that too, if I had no cooling.

Today it's hot enough to go past my mechanical thermometer's 110F limit, which is around 111-112F or so at the stop I think (110F is the last mark). The digital one that reads within a degree of that one says it's 116F out there, in the shade in the backyard where I have had the trees' berms filling up with water slowly all day long. (so that's *after* whatever evaporative cooling effect there is).

Just now I checked and the "official" temperature wasn't even 108F, but the valley temperatures can vary widely.


But I've been here 30 years and I guess I've grown *some* tolerance for it; I can stay out in it for long enough to get dehydrated enough to almost pass out if I get distracted and forget to keep drinking water. If I had my druthers I'd have temperatures in the 60sF and just dress warmer if I needed to...but that doesn't happen for most of the year. And it doesn't really help my joints at those temps, either. So, I can't really have what I want, regardless. :/



I remember the "hippy AC"; you dig a trench under the house, opening in the coolest side (North), and suck air up through the trench with a (solar DC) fan. But I guess your AC beats that.
Around here I see so much fiberglass pink insulation in dumpsters, if I had a house I could fill the whole attic solid.[/quote]

Mmm...wish I had that here, to use for the sheds, and some other things.



Speaking of insulation....

Since bulk trash pickup is not for quite a while, I decided to strip the mattress down and use it for parts. It's been in the direct sun a couple weeks now, so I opened it up and took off the top and bottom layers of foam and batting, rinsed them over the clothes line with the hose pressure nozzle (the runoff waters the big mulberry tree), and they've now been drying dark-side up (batting) in the sun on top of the sheds all day.

The edges/sides were just torn cloth, and not salvageable, so they went into the dumpster.

But the biggest areas will now make nice wraps for the water heater (storage) tank inside the house.


Am also considering using some of the batting part as part of a swamp cooler. Need to build a frame to trap it in, and keep it wet, then air should pull thru it enough to cool the bedroom, at least, perhaps even the whole house, if I can use the squirrel-cage blowers I already have to pull the air thru it. We'll see.

(I still have to get the solar water heater project actually rebuilt and running again...stuff just keeps happening and I keep putting it off when I do have time cuz I'm tired).



Then I'm left with the bare metal spring box. Hmmm. I think I am going to put it under the couch cushion "mattress" I made, with some tough plastic "computer chair mats" meant to make it easy to roll those on carpets, between teh springs and the floor so it doesn't rust or scratch the floor up.

This will both give me a little more cushioning, and also leave an air gap underneath for cooling the bed a little more (and helping prevent any mildew/etc from having a place to take root, cuz while Tiny doesn't have a big leakage problem anymore, now that she can't have water avialble to gulp down all day, she does still leak a little from time to time).

But first i have to cut and reweld it into a narrower form, because I don't have nearly enough stuff to cover it (and keep teh dogs from getting caught/hurt on the springs/etc) in it's full queensize form. Maybe down to around a little bigger than full or twin size; the bed is not exactly standard now. I'll have to mark it all off along one edge, so I can basically cut off an edge along one side, then a section out, then weld the edge back onto the larger remainder of the cut section.




In other insulation news, I also finished the "box wall" around much of the bedroom. The large white styrofoam boxes I collect from the fish shipments at work take a while to add up to enough to do things with, at only one or two a week most weeks. Some weeks there are none. So now I have stacked them up (on end some places, on sides others, as the cieling height is not exactly the same everywhere) against the walls to help keep heat coming thru the walls from getting into the room as quickly or easily. It's nto really a lot of insulation, but it does have another effect of "shrinking" the air volume of the room, so there is less of it to have to cool.

Unfortunately I can't tell much if this really affects the runtime of the window A/C unit for the same temperature, as it is now humid enough often enough to cause the unit to start to freeze it's intake /cooling grille up with the temperature sensor where it is supposed to be on it's little plastic holder. So I had to take it off the holder and stick it down at the base of the grille/heat exchanger fins itself, so that it will shut it off if ice begins to form there, instead of freezing up the whole exchanger surface so no air flows past, and just runs forever never doing any cooling of the room anymore. :/

That happens this time of year; so for these times I do that, then otherwise run it in it's normal position. But when I have to do this, I also have to set it's thermostat at least 10-15F lower than usual to compensate for the sensor placement, so it does not compare any longer to the settings/usage before; it doesn't run the same pattern, etc.

Also, since the average temperature nigth and day is higher now, becuase it doens't cool off at night nearly as much, that makes the unit run more to acheive teh same average room cooling.

Since this coincides with my insulation change, I won't know which affected the usage changes (if any). :/

 

[amberwolf]

Well, those lantana sprouts in the boxes aren't lantana...they're all mulberry.




And so are all of the ones over along the lantana planted by the west/north end of the house. Not all that surprising given that the lantana I'd harvested to fill those areas and the boxes came from under mulberries, so the dirt they came with also had those seeds, but is a little surprising that *none* of the several pounds of lantana seeds gathered from various plants sprouted.

Only the lantana sprouts harvested and surviving (not all make it thru the transplant) are in those planters, though all of the ones planted by the house are doing well (some much better than others). The trees are all doing well over there, too



I had to move the planters in the front yard to teh back, cuz the neighborhood cats like the cool dampness of them for naps.


Was crushing the plants, so....

I also had to move the swingseat from the front porch, cuz somebody had been undoing the nuts on it and must've got interrupted, probably trying to steal the metal frame, so I moved it to the back where with teh dogs around it's unlikely they'll try again.
View attachment 8



A few days ago I needed to make more stew, but it had been cloudy teh day before and that day, and breezy enough to carry away what heat there was from the cookers/glass case, so I had to go ahead and cook it indoors. To save power and to keep the heat in the house minimized, I enclosed teh crockpots inside some layers of styrofoam sheets as a big box around them, to allow them to reach and maintain the same ~170F+ they would in teh solar cooker, without as much electric power as they'd need normally.





I set them on low, enclosed in there, and as I did other stuff during the day I turned the power strip on and off whiel monitoring the air temperature with the bbq thermometer. Approximately 1/8 of the time I had to have it on, in total, so the insulation saved a LOT of power. (normally on low, it just stays on drawing power all the time sitting in the open...on high it'll shut off and come on for a total of more than 3/4% on-time).

I forgot to measure the actual stew temperature though. :/

But it's still nommy.


A few days back, Yogi ran outside to chase a cat he saw, which did it's usual leap over the "fence" between teh sheds (which is just leaning there, to keep Yogi and Tiny out of that area), but because the blue recycle bin wasn't behind the fence Yogi just leapt right over it and tried to continue the chase...the cat of course got away, but then Yogi was 'trapped" because he can't figure out how to get back over the fence.




I waited, then called and encouraged and even offered treats, etc, but he would not jump over the fence, or try to push against it (which would've knocked it over letting him out), so eventually I just had to move it to let him out.

I guess it's good that he doesn't want to go over barriers when he's thinking about it, but it'd be helpful if he'd still do it on command. :/ And wouldn't do it when he's just lost in the moment.



Below are some pics of the various trees/etc that are growing; the one by the windmill is now almost to my chest; I guess it's almost 3x the height it was a couple months ago? I forget exactly how long it's been. The two in the front yard (not pictured here) by the walkway are almost as tall as I am now, and growing quickly, but take a fair bit of water to keep going this fast. Another that was only about a foot tall is at least 3x that now, betweent he palm tree and the pine tree, in front (also not pictured here).

 

[marty]

bug-bombed

Careful with the bug bombs. I know someone who set off some bug bombs and left the house. Pilot from furnace made a explosion. No more bugs. House all burned up.

 

[amberwolf]

Thanks--thankfully no gas here at all, so no worries about that. Plus I am paranoid about that sort of thing, so everything was unplugged anyway as I don't leave stuff plugged in when I am not present to monitor it, except when I have no other option (like the window AC for the dogs).


Speaking of which:

Tiny and Yogi were so worried about the noises from fireworks that they were still napping on top of each other on the bed when i came home; didn't come out to greet me (was worrying till I got into the bedroom and saw them). As the camera was on the table next to them I didn't get any pics of them actually napping, but just these as they woke up, just before they got up to see me:


View attachment 18



View attachment 16


They didn't like last night at all, as people were setting off large loud stuff every few minutes until well past dawn. Probably lots of other stuff going off, too, much more often, but couldn't be heard over the HEPA fan and A/C unit, inside the bedroom, unlike the larger louder stuff. So they both slept fitfully, and gassily :/ because neither would go outside to go poopy; Tiny went out to go pee, with my encouragement, but someone set something loud off in hte middle of that so she trailed it all the way back from her spot near the house back into the bedroom as she ran.

Yogi wouldn't even leave the bedroom at all, and had to be fed in there. Tiny ate most of her stuff on the couch feedign station in the livingroom with a fan near her to block a lot fo noises, but she got spooked by a big one near the end, and we had to finish up in the bedroom with her propped up by a bunch of pillows.

Then we all just stayed in there with teh door shut (usually it's open but with the blankets in the doorway), blocking out a little more of the noises, and they dozed and woke and worried all night long.

By the time it was full sun out there, the noises had stopped, and we all went out for their potty trips, which took a while, cuz Yogi kept running back inside and having to be encouraged to stay out there.

Eventually they finished all that then we went back to bed to actually *sleep* a few hours, till feeding time. We've gone out a few times since then, as the day has been partly cloudy and cooler by a few degrees than otherwise. No rain yet, probably wont' get any (hasn't been any for several days, other than a literal sprinkle a few days back).

Didn't even break 100F today, here in the backyard, 98F was the hottest i've seen so far...but last night never cooled below 94F, adn the house itself never got below 96F with the ventilation, and it was also very humid (relatively) with no wind, so it feels even hotter. It's still humid but breezy out there now, but probably will die down as night comes and then just be cloudy and humid to keep the heat from escaping, bringing the average temperature up.




More pics of stuff growing. I put some seeds I've saved from from pumpkin and squash of a few kinds under the big mulberry, where it gets sun for part of the late morning and early midday, then is shaded thru the hotter part of the day, but always gets water each day (is right at the output of the shower greywater pipe, and is at the lowest point of the dugout inside the berm, so whenever rain happens it will also flow there, including runoff from the roof and whatnot.

I don't know if it'll grow well, but it's certainly started quickly--it's only been three days, and some of the sprouts are already over 6 inches tall, with leaves bigger than my thumb.

There are a few kinds of sprouts, though I don't know which are which yet.

I've got a wire rack over them at the moment to keep them from being trampled by Tiny and Yogi. As they get taller I may have to make more of a fence around it instead.

I still have some unplanted area in that dugout, and still more dugout to make under that tree to the west of that spot, where I can plant more stuff.

Around the corner, there's a bunch of amaranth sprouting from seeds from the stuff from last year. I've been pulling the stuff that would shade the growing lantana/etc., but leaving the stuff that just shades the otherwise bare ground, and just breaking it off as it gets taller than my waist to keep it about that height for shading the ground to lower water evaporation and temperatures in the side yard there (which also lowers the wall temperature of teh house, including that of the bedroom that is behind the little "shed" and gray tarp thingy).



Those planters:


The frontyard is doing pretty well, with the two walkway mulberries about my own height already, though the lantana along the eastern half of the housefront is still not growing tall like the western half did, probably because of the tall pine tree shading it for most of the midday time, and part of the late morning and afternoon.















Of the new-planted ones, none of the eucalyptus or whatever they are are really growing well/tall, except for the two that I don't need to grow like that, out by the back fence. :/ I'd been hoping to make them as year-round shade and boundary bushes, but for whatever reason they just don't wanna grow like they normally would.

The recovering ones that had been cut back into the ground in front (seen in the pics above) are doing fine, and are taller than I am by a good margin, one is taller than the edge of the roof by a teeny bit, which is good shade for the little area they cover so far, but the newer stuff isn't.


I've been considering moving a bunch of the little mulberry sprouts in those planters to the edges of teh yard front and back and using THOSE as boundary bushes, just keeping them trimmed and with branches bent downward and twisted among each other, so they dont' become big tall trees. I have enough of them in the planters and around the western end of the house that if all of them survived the process, I could have them every couple of feet around the edge of the yard. But I can't transplant them out into the direct sun in the current weather, so they'll have to stay in sheltered areas till they're bigger and the weather is a little cooler, probably a couple of months.

 

[amberwolf]

Oh, almost forgot:

Bad news: the clothes washer broke today, as I was doing my weekly small load, just after starting the first agitation cycle, before anything was actually cleaned. Just like before, a few years back, it's the little plastic-rubber-plastic coupler between motor and gearbox, where the half of the plastic on the motor end broke apart on the D-shaft so the motor just spins inside it, and doesn't transfer power to anything. Back then, I had a spare off a freecycled washer, but now I don't, so I have to look up the part and order it, or go into the Sears inside the mall nearby and have them order it, depending on which is cheaper. No idea what it costs yet.

I considered welding one up out of metal, but I can't find anything I already have that would serve as the D-shaft mount part of it, though the rest of it would be fairly simple to make.

The problem from 5 years ago is here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15570&p=268579&hilit=washer+coupl%2A#p268579
in the old dayglo avenger thread. I guess the used coupler lasting 5 years isn't too bad (well, 4 years, cuz after the fire I wasn't here to use it for almost a whole year). some pics of that time:

 

[bowlofsalad]

I did some searching for 'fsp motor coupling 3364002' and plenty of options pop up, some claiming to be OEM. Have you looked around much? Ebay and amazon seem to have this part or at least replacements for it in no short supply for under 10 dollars.

 

[amberwolf]

I haven't looked around at all just yet. I wanted to see if someone local has the part first, and how much it would cost, before I looked it up online. If any of the places you saw it at are free shipping for that <$10, then I might as well just order one of them.


FWIW, temperautres dropped to <90F by about 5pm outside, so I opened up the house for the nice winds to blow thru and air it out, cooling the house off by ~10F in minutes. As I finished setting up for dinner and came back in here to sit down with the dogs (smart enough to stay in teh cooled room), it had dropped to 86F, but the wind had died down. Storm clouds all went around us, so no rain today. Is clear overhead right now, and if it stays taht way it'll cool off a lot, but it probably wont', and so the temperature will go back up again to over 90F most likely, before the night is over.

edit: couple hours later and it's still about 85F but it feels hotter cuz humidity has gone up, though it's still sparkling clear overhead. Clear enough I took the camera and telescope out to see if I could get pics of Jupiter and Venus together, cuz they're really close (~thumb's width at arm's length?) but I still haven't been able to get the camera to actually manually focus on anything, even when it's set to total manual mode including manual focus.

 

[bowlofsalad]

I haven't looked around at all just yet. I wanted to see if someone local has the part first, and how much it would cost, before I looked it up online. If any of the places you saw it at are free shipping for that <$10, then I might as well just order one of them.

I don't 100% know these parts will work with your washer. Sounds like they do, but I am no expert in this subject.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/285753-for-Whirlpool-Kenmore-Washer-Washing-Machine-Motor-Coupling-Coupler-/161737914486 $2.75, plastic and rubber like your current broken part.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I1IDCEO/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00I1IDCEO&linkCode=as2&tag=xbnijgbr-20&linkId=DJMIKNAKXPUFFAKX $8.40, has a metal bushing. Some reviews for similar products claim the metal bushings give them problems, one review mentioned something to the effect of the axle getting rounded. You might play it safe and see how long the new purely plastic coupling works, both parts are insanely low cost, but the reviews for the most part imply that the metal bushing version is superior for obvious reasons, is the metal bushing version twice as good for twice the price? Who knows.

 

[Eskimo]

We have had three hours of warm (above +25C) this far during this summer. Three hours, combined heat peaks of three days. +30C is highly exceptional emergency situation.
Above +25C is here considered as a heatwave.
Time spent above +25C this summer might stay under 24 hours total.
Two days ago in went under +0C during the night in middle country.
Some have it too much, others not enough.

 

[amberwolf]

I can't imagine only 86F (30C) being emergency conditions. :lol: My house is often hotter than that *inside* for the summer (often even at night right now), except for the bedroom with the window A/C.

Thankfully last night it got a lot cooler cuz it stayed really clear all night, and inside is even now only about 84-85F (29c)

100-105F (37-40C) are typical midday outdoor temperatures (in the shade!) for right now, and during these summer months, though it may get a little below that 86F before dawn. It can get a lot hotter than that by a lot, with 120F+ (49C) highs sometimes.

I don't like to think about the temperatures in the direct sunlight, or worse, on the roads in traffic. But it lets me use solar cooking for stews and other slow-cookable stuff, without much of a collector. (just a metal pot with a glass lid inside an upside down aquarium, essentially, on top of the dark shed roof (though mostly that's to ensure the dogs don't get curious about it :lol




On plants: I got more planters out of the shed, and filled them up with compost, dirt, and what little of the garden soil from the neighbor I had left. I soaked them well with water, then moved as many of the mulberry sprouts from the clumps in the original planter as i could to them, in rows about 3" apart. This will give them some weeks, maybe months, before I have to separate them further, assuming all survive. By then they should be big enough and weather cool enough to put them into the "fence" area, to turn them into mulberry bushes (rather than let them become big trees).


So now I have several planters of stuff (all on chairs to keep them out from under doggie toes) under the mulberry near the northeast middle of the yard, so it's shaded during the worst heat of the day, but gets morning and afternoon sun, and stuff grows well there, as long as I water it well enough (usually just before midday, each day, so it doesn't dry out by afternoon; generally unless there's a constant hot wind it'll even not dry out on the surface of the planters there). The excess water helps the mulberrry itself, and the lantana and a younger mulberry nearby.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/285753-for-Whirlpool-Kenmore-Washer-Washing-Machine-Motor-Coupling-Coupler-/161737914486 $2.75, plastic and rubber like your current broken part.

I poked around from there, and the other link, and some other searches, and looks like this one is probably as good as any other. I'll try it and see what happens.

 

[The fingers]

I'm surprised that any cat comes within 100 yards of your house. :lol: