Steev's stuff

[steev]

I enjoy possums; they're just furry lizards; funny to see one running, with it's tongue hanging out, they look so freaked, buggy black eyes; I trapped a boar that was coming in the cat-door for kibble and took it up the hill to release; it scampered off ~8', smelled some chow, and stopped to scarf it; not perhaps the best survival strategy, but they do OK.

Once I trapped one and my neighbor came over, so I cradled it on my arm and rubbed its belly; it was all hissing, so he was all "it's gonna bite you" and I was "chill, it's a possum"; I wouldn't do that with an old boar; they get cranky, as do many of us.

So I'll get more tomato transplants, but I'll put them under cloches.

[reed]

I find possums extremely amusing and I don't even think they are ugly as most people do. They are primarily carnivorous, I think and I have in the past had them attack my chickens but my coop and pen are now critter proof, except for snakes of course but they don't eat too much and I like them too except when they get in my bird houses but most of them are also pretty secure. Put them on a wall instead of a claimable post or tree.

Tally just went up one squirrel and one chipmunk.

[steev]

I also don't find them ugly, geeky though.

They may be primarily carnivorous, but they're very opportunistic; cat kibble is a fave. I've caught three sows and a boar coming in the cat door to raid the kibble pan.

I once needed some drip parts from the basement; they weren't in the low box but prolly in an upper box too high to see into, so I just put my hand up to feel around; hell! One of my cats was in the box, so I pulled it down; oops, possum!

A housemate rooms in the garage (shades of Berkeley in the 60's); one night he'd left that door open when he came into the house; going back out he saw a possum entering; he didn't know what to do, so I got a flashlight and went in, lots of stuff in the garage, of course, so I looked until I found it behind a box; caught its tail in the approved safe grip and put it out the gate.

Just occurred to me that both those guys are from Philly; don't they have possums in Philly? They're prolly just not-critter city guys; there wouldn't be any possums in Cali, coming from South America; in the 20's 2 or 3 guys imported them from back East to raise for food and/or furs; the possums escaped or were released when it didn't make money. Possums would likely never have got here on their own, too much desert in the way. Spose they could have hitched on trains or trucks; anyway, I'm glad they're here although their shit's worse than cat-shit, and they don't bury it; nobody's perfect, even if they are funnier than a rubber crutch.

Say, my keyboard has started having sticking keys; anybody know what that's about? Is it dying, or just in need of cleaning; if that, how so?

[xdrix]

The contacts are wear.
When you press a key it formed an electric arc.
When the contact is wear this electric arc is more tall and could paste the key.
Or he could be a componant with sugar overturn in the keyboard.

The dust is consider as a conductor a little cleaning maybe could repared a lot of problem.

[steev]

Thanks.

[philagardener]

Jun 18, 2020 19:15:11 GMT -5 steev said:

Just occurred to me that both those guys are from Philly; don't they have possums in Philly?
I'm glad they're here although their shit's worse than cat-shit, and they don't bury it; nobody's perfect, even if they are funnier than a rubber crutch.

Yup, and yup. 

[flowerbug]

lol, only thing i know about possums is that they have a lot of teeth and that the love french fries. i had a few friends who kept them as pets. an odd choice i thought as the creature mostly slept all day, but it did indeed love french fries...

as for sticky keys, it really depends upon why type of keyboard you have, if you can get it apart to clean it and if after that you can get it put back together again. i have two partially dead keyboards in the closet i'd love to figure out how to fix but the connection for getting them back together is very tricky and i never figured out how to do it correctly. since they were not working well to begin with it wasn't a huge loss, but i did like the feel of them. clicky-click keyboards somewhat like the old IBM-PC keyboards which i really did like when i owned one.

[steev]

Possums literally have more teeth than any other mammal; I wonder why that is; other marsupials don't ; raccoons are also mostly nocturnal; I'm a night-bird, too, so it's all good, IMHO. I find both very attractive and amusing.

The french fries would seem to refute the "mostly carnivorous" verdict on possums; so many critters are really opportunistic; granted, this doesn't fit so much for herbivores, but the rest of us tend to eat what we can, including the herbivores, if we can catch them. They're harvesting the plants that have harvested the sun's energy and we're harvesting them.

[steev]

So we hauled a Japanese maple I've had for ~20 years to the farm; my landlady wanted it out; it'd only been potted in her yard for ten years; its second move; I potted it when I lost my house in 2009; dropped it in a hole pre-dug and watered it well; it may survive, as may we all; this is coming into the hottest weather and there is always dry wind.

The drainage rock under the house had a lot of star thistle seed, so we got that weeded.

I've got diddly growing; Sukie's still at the shop; the parts place is shut down; no matter; I'll not need her until the rain comes late October.

[flowerbug]

i'm not ready for it to be July yet! but this is the way it is going this year. i.e. too quickly... thistle is pesky stuff. too bad it can't be trained to grow in just a single place or a line like a hedge/fence.

[steev]

If it's milk thistle, it's edible.

Yes, July; I expect the hottest temps of the year.

[steev]

William kindly determined that feral grain A is rye; B is still iffy. Good; A grows with no care and if it's too hard to thresh, it's poultry chow; rye-fed chooks; prolly yummers.

Went 100F OTF last week, so dry.

My white p'up is getting brown; don't expect a car-wash before late October. It would be embarrassing if I gave a husky f**k, but I don't.

[steev]

I don't think the maple is gonna survive. Even a four/five year-old stone pine has croaked recently; so dry, hot and windy.

Coming home, I passed a wild-fire by Fairfield; radio said there were also fires active near San Jose and Crockett.

[reed]

Many native trees have been dying off for years here. What I know as hard maple or sugar maple is about gone. The woods are unpleasant places now, no clear ground under a canopy, just low growing scrubby stuff and weeds, full of chiggers and ticks. Not at all the cool shady environment I used to enjoy so much.

Setting up, I'm afraid for eventual California style fires as the one in the Smoky Mountains a few years back was described.

On a side note a snake invaded my little garden pond and before I was able to relocate her, she ate most of my frogs. On the upside I'm now losing far fewer butterflies to frogs and I have a really nice assortment of dragon flies, I think I like them better than the frogs.

[flowerbug]

how fire proof is your place there? it has been hot and dry here too for too long. only way i'm keeping the gardens going is watering every several days.

some frogs can be pests, especially if they are the invasive kind from other countries.  they can make some good eating.