Bogieblog

We Has Greens

Today I took some of the stuff out of the greenhouse so it can be used thru the week for salads:

 
I also did some yard clean up, I beleive the before and after pictures will explain everything.

 
We have been very happy to have the sun out for the last two days. It seems as if all of April was cold, cloudy, rainy and dark. Having sun 2 days in the week, much less in a row, has been very welcome!

How We Get To Work

Friday was the first day in almost 2 weeks that the weather cooperated enough for me to ride to work. Evidently several other people thought that was a fine idea as this is a pic I took of the spaces in front of where I work. See if you can pick out my bike:

 
And just for car buffs - here is an old Firebird that one of my coworkers drives to work when it is nice:

 
And that is your motorhead post of the week.

Work Week Recap

Tuesday I got a call from the shop where I took the Suzuki for recall work. Seems that the parts are back-ordered and won't be in until maybe May 20th. They said I could come get it if I wanted. Um, no, that was a safety recall - you just keep it right there. I did go to Concord after work and pick up my rain gear that I had mistakenly left in the saddlebags.

*           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *

Apparently I followed a HAM radio operator the other day - the car they were driving had 8 antenna and the license plate looked like call letters to me.

*           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *

On the morning of the 27th, I saw my first egret or small crane of the season. It landed in a pond that was created by a beaver dam. Don't usually see birds there (not water birds anyway), they are usually down by the bigger water at the dam in Weare.

And that is pretty much what happened during the week (exciting - no?)

 

Drinking and Driving and Working

The other morning, I started the morning like any other. I worked out, took a shower, got my lunch together, put the dogs out, grabbed a drink from the fridge and left. Some days I only have to grab a drink from the fridge, some days I have to make my cold tea drink. On that day, I had some left over energy drink that I ahd poured into a plastic bottle, so I just grabbed and went.

About half way to work, I took a drink and realized my mistake - it was wine, not my energy drink. I make wine spritzers for my evening drink and also put that in a plastic bottle - I had not finished my drink the night before, so I had put it in the fridge.

So, I was drinking and driving about 6:30 AM - and drinking before I went to work. Wasn't the way I had planned on starting out the day!

Complaint Follies

One of the women at work was exclaiming that she needed to go home for lunch, but she hadn’t made it yet (at 3 PM - an understandable complaint). When asked what the big deal was, she said she needed to let her dogs out so they didn’t leave a puddle on her nice new tile that had been installed on Friday.

Then, she complained that she had contractors there, and "you would think they could let the dogs out, but no, they won’t."

Excuse me? Was a condition of getting the contract? Was that in the contract? Are you paying them extra to do it? If not, there is no room for complaint. Then she went on to say that the contractors complained that the dogs were in the way.

Evidently she has no contingency plan on locating the dogs elsewhere while the new floor is being laid – no kennel, no outdoor pen, no dog sitter, no nothing. Even I, a dog-lover and owner, would probably be put out if I was hired for a job spelled out in a contract, asked to let the dogs in and out (which, by the way, there is no fence or cable, so you have to go out and watch the dogs and hope they don’t go into the street and get run over), and the dogs were constantly in the way (out of curiosity, but still in the way).

I find it incredible that this woman actually has the gall to complain!

Just Full of Cute

Found this over at Parkway Rest Stop and figured a couple of my readers would enjoy. There is music, but it is delightful to watch even without the sound on. Most people can see when a dog is happy, and can tell when the dog is "smiling". The slow motion allows you to see the "smiles" of the cat and it is evident he is having a great deal of fun.

You are welcome for your Zen of the day.

More NH Birding

So, speaking of birds (a couple of posts down), I took a couple of shots of our feeders yesterday afternoon:

 
  
The 1st pic is of a chickadee, with others in the background. The 2nd pic is of juncos under the deck. I didn't realize that both birds in the 3rd pic were tufted titmice until I downloaded the picture onto the computer. Usually, there is one chickadee and one titmouse up there.

That's all, just wanted to share the pictures.

Re-Potting

Yesterday morning, Mother Nature decided to rescind spring (what little we have had - it has been cold, rainy, windy and cloudy - except Friday):

 
The snow is WS's fault because he had set up the greenhouse Friday evening so I could put the salad greens out there in preparation for repotting the tomatoes (guess that makes me complicit in the fault). See, my seedling rack has two banks of lights, one under which I had the grow cells containing peppers and tomatoes, the other which contained the baskets of salad green sprouts. Once I repotted seedlings, I would have 4 more trays that needed lighting, so something had to give.

I figured the salad greens could take colder temps since they had sprouted about 10 days ago, so threw them out into the greenhouse right after WS got it set up. The forcast had been for a wintery mix, with highs iaround 48. That would have been fine, if we ever got close to that temp, but it stayed in the low 30's and about noon I decided that the greenhouse needed heat (if nothing else, to melt the snow off the top to keep it from collapsing.

Last weekend, WS had put the summer water bucket out in the dog pen, so I figured I would use the extension cord from the winter water bucket. Unfortunately, parts of it had still been under a snow mound last weekend, so he had left it coiled by the roses. So now, noon on Saturday, there was no snow bank, but, the ends of the electrical cord were packed with snow, so that was no good. I called WS to find out where more long extension cords were, but got his voicemail (he was at work).

I thought I would have to run into town, but then found extension cords in the shed (imagine that, right where a resonalbe person might expect to find one). After banging my head on the underside of the porch several times getting the cord plugged in, I ran it to the greenhouse, set up the space heater and buttoned it back up. I was now ready to repot tomato seedlings as soon as I set up the kitchen.

  

I got the tomatoes repotted (after running to Agway for more organic mulch mixture to add to the peat moss and vermiculite of the Pro-Mix), and set them under the second bank of lights. Plugged in the lights, and voila, 3 out of 4 of the lights lit. I took down the light ballast and fiddled around, but the 4th light would not light. Well, being the Camp Fire Girl I am, I was prepared. I replaced the light bulb and plugged it in, and voila, 3 out of 4 of the lights lit.

Crap, I'm out of light bulbs and don't have any more ballasts. Agway has them, but they have to be assembled - who buys lights that actually have to be assembled? I mean wire it up and everything, it's just a box of parts - I am leaving Cop Car out of this question, because doubtless she has done so in her lifetime - and intentionally!

So, I gave up and put the tomatoes out in the green house, I had wanted to let them settle down for a couple of days in the house, to recover from the stress of the repotting, before sending them outside, but that was not to be. I know that they will be fine soon, but it sure looks funny to see this:

 
The second pic is lilac leaf buds and the third pic is leaf buds of Renshaw's Rose.

Hope your gardening season is starting out better than ours!

Birding in NH

Friday on my way to work, I found out it was turkey day. No, I'm not talking about people, or hunting, but a rather unusual phenomena - tom turkeys were infesting the roadway.

Now, "infesting" might be a rather strong word to use. Rather, there were a lot of them trying to make it to the other side of the road and one seemed to be around every corner (which around here, is about every 500 feet). I managed to miss every one of them, although they tried their best to be road pizza. I watched in the rearview mirror as one, that had run in front of me to cross the road, ran in front of a car going the opposite direction - evidently deciding the side of the road he had previously been on was better (kind of like the cats, they always want to be on the other side of the slider- regardless of when they had gotten on the side they are presently on).

One sad note is that I did manage to hit a bird. It exploded off the side of the road (on my side) and I just had time to see the blur of its wings before feathers exploded all over (I watched the feathers in the rear view mirror too). I believe it was a grouse, as it was bigger than a blue jay but smaller than a turkey.

Fortunately, I didn't have to dodge turkeys on my way home.

Catching Up

Last Saturday was really busy. It was a cold and cloudy day, but we had already committed to moving bikes around, so we just had to deal with it. We got up early, did the dump run and other normal Saturday chores, and about 11:30 were ready to tackle the rode.

It was 37 degrees when we left for Concord. I was riding the Suzuki as I had to take it in for recall work (to replace the rectifier). I was bundled up in my warmest gear, which was needed as the trip to Concord is all highway. They had to order the part (which I alreadey knew they wouldn't do until I took the bike in), so I left it there, hopped in the truck with WS, and we went down the street to the Harley dealer. That is where WS stores his bike for the winter so it is in climate control and they can perform winter maintenance while it is there.

We dropped his bike off at the shop where WS works, and both took the truck to Merideth. I was supposed to pick up something there, but for some reason they didnt' have it ready (even though it had been arranged the previous Wednesday). We had a time crunch on our hands, so after a bit of panic on their part, we asked them to deliver it to WS's work on Monday (which they agreed to) - went back to the shop to pick up WS's bike and went home (where it had warmed up to a balmy 42 degrees - the high for the day).

After about half an hour, Jimmy and one of his friends showed up, ready to leave for dinner and a show. We stopped at Carrabba's in Manchester, had a fine dinner and desert, then headed to the Verizon Wireless Arena for the show; Larry the Cable Guy, Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Ingval.

After laughing so much our stomachs hurt, we finally trekked home and got to bed really late (about 12:30 AM), so we slept in on Sunday - hence, the reason for my not posting last Sunday.

And, to end the suspense, yes, the item was delivered to WS's work (although that almost didn't happen - a couple of additional phone calls from me finally got the ball rolling), he got it home safely and it will be in use soon.

It was a non-stop weekend (except for the sleepin in late thing), but for the most part, we had a good time.