Welcome To The Working Class!

Rock on!

I am happy and proud to announce that Ms. Emilie landed herself a job!

We're Officially Open For Business

I opened our pool yesterday.  

Actually, removed the cover, unplugged all the lines, installed the stairs and add the liquid shock, so I guess technically it's not opened (swimmable) yet.

Once the shock kicks in and kills all the algae, I'll fire up the pump with crossed fingers and hopefully in no time it will be swimmable!

New Rhubarb Home

Our Rhubarb is doing fantastic!  The seed pod was close to 6' tall!

This plant came from a clipping of my dads rhubarb plant many years ago.  It's always done terrific too, however, this is the first full year in it's new how in the big vegetable garden.  I was forced to transplant when I relocated the chicken coop and had to adhere to the setback requirements.  The move went well and as you can see this dude is thriving!

Peonies and Ants

We have oodles of flower buds on our Peonies!

Although, the flowers go by too fast, I can't wait for them to open.

As always the relationship between the peonies and ants are in full swing, as captured in the pictures below.  The different species are simply benefiting from the activities on one another. The peony provides food for the ants and in turn, the ants protect the blossoms from other floral-feeding insects.  There is NO truth to, it's a myth, that peonies require ants to bloom - simply NOT true.

Summer is upon us and trees, shrubs and flowers are bursting with blooms and color.  Site back, relax and take them all in, for sadly they don't last very long.

Connecting People & Possibilities My Ass!

Here is another perfect example of shoddy workmanship!

Although, not technically workmanship and not town specific this illustrates how lazy we've become as a society.

The picture above shows (circled in red) where the FedEx delivery person chose to put place the package that my neighbors ordered.  The package was NOT placed by the front door, it was NOT placed on the stone wall next to the stairs and it was NOT placed in front of or near the garage doors!  The package, as you can see, was obscurely placed in the grass along side the driveway about halfway down from the street.  

The other carriers, UPS and Amazon, do NO such thing.  They typically place the packages between the two garage doors.

Now a bit of history, from what I've seen - this one particular FedEx driver is younger, I've NEVER seen him wearing anything FedEx related; certainly NO uniform.  In the warmer months he's in shorts, often time a 'wife-beater' type t-shirt and some sort of brightly colored sneakers. He drives one of the larger FedEx trucks, which he drives like a sports car, super fast and always has the radio blaring some godawful crap music.  I've seen him drop packages off curbside, beneath mailboxes, against trees in front yards, in front yards, as shown above, and sometime where they should be placed. 

On two occasions, with packages for our house, he pulled the same crap.  Package #1 was a mini-fridge we ordered for Emilie's dorm room, so a big box that was awkward and heavy.  He double parked at the end of the driveway and proceeded to attempt to carry this box down the driveway.  Halfway down it slipped out of his grasp, fell to the ground and that is where he left it!  Package #2 was a small package but it was raining, so he drove his truck into our driveway, pulled down to the stone retaining wall where he positioned the truck such that all he had to do was lean out the door and dropped in on the wall AND he failed to put the box in a plastic bag to protect it from the rain.

The person is the epitome of laziness.  It's sadly a reflection of what I see as part of the problem with people today, he doesn't care.  He takes no pride in his job, nor does he care about what he's been hired to do.  How he's still employed is a mystery to me.  He has no business being customer facing.

I try to limit my online purchases from business that deliver via FedEx.

Gerber Daisey 2021

Going with Gerber Daisey's this summer!

Their colors are just too awesome and the blooms just keep coming and coming!

Sadly, the three Gerber's plants I attempted to over-winter didn't make it but these beauties are acceptable replacements and they're doing terrific!

Vegetable Gardening 2021

My veggies have been planted!

I'm changing things up this year, so instead of planting 25 tomato plants in our big garden I opted to go with corn, potatoes and tomatoes.  So, from left to right and working down the garden, I planted my first (50) Silver Queen corn seed, then two rows of about (14) each Yukon Gold potatoes and then (4) Celebrity tomato plants.

Initial planting - May 15 - 

Progress - May 27 -

Here's a closer pic of first (50) corn seeds -

Two weeks later -

In another garden, a raised bed, I planted (8) cucumber plants and (4) California Wonder peppers -

All are doing fine and progressing along.  Fingers crossed it continues!

NO Pride In Ones Work Anymore..

Sadly, this appears how the town of Franklin represent itself these days - shoddy workmanship.  This is one example of many that are evident throughout the town, in my opinion.

I realize it's not snow or freezing temperatures and that it's only grass, however, it's still an obstruction the fire department would need to deal with it in an emergency, god forbid!  

Quite frankly, and again in my opinion, there is NO excuse for this, NONE!  Clearly the person doing the work takes ZERO pride in his\her work, has a terrible work ethic and is obviously LAZY!

What's even more telling, is that the school itself seems to have no issue with this.  These pics show a potential dangerous situation, however, there were plenty of other areas along the front of the school where the grass knee high in areas.

An email to the school principle went unanswered and this grass remains overgrown, taller even since it's been almost two weeks now since I first reported it.  No worries, it'll be dead come the winter...

Cooking Tip

 If you cook your kale with a little bit of coconut oil, it makes it easier to scrape it into the garbage!

Follow me for more cooking tips -

Looking Good!

Our Strawberries look fantastic!  The plants are filling out, getting big and have oodles of flowers.  Fingers crossed the deer and rabbits stay clear, as well as the sneaky chipmunks and Catbirds that steal the fruit...

They Sounds SO Cute And Cuddly, NOT!

We have two Hemlock trees, one nursery bought and one transplanted from Marshfield both years ago. They're both planted along the back corner property line and make a nice fencing to hide the neighbors shed and things. They're beautiful trees, messy too but a favorite of mine, and unfortunately covered with Hemlock Woolly Adelgids.

I'm well aware of the hemlock woolly adelgid, which is literally an invasive sap sucking aphid-like insect that attach Hemlock trees.  Their feeding severely damages the canopy of the host tree by disrupting the flow of nutrients to its twigs and needles. Tree health declines, and mortality usually occurs within 4 to 10 years.

This Sunday I mixed an insect killer and slow release fertilizer by Bioadvanced designed to kill the Hemlock Woolly Adelgids and revitalize the trees and slowly poured it at the base of the tree.  The premise is for the tree to absorb this product, which it will send up and out to it's limbs and needle ultimately killing the sap sucking adelgids.

Deck Vacancies - Update

An update to my Sunday April 25 postings titled "Deck Vacancies"...

Here's a picture taken Saturday of the Robin nest under our deck.

Goodness do little birds grow SO fast!  Of course the mother is constantly on the move foraging for these little mouths and doing a wonderful job.  There just now too big to all fit comfortably, which means they'll be leaving the nest soon.  Hoping they do so on their own terms and not get spooked into a premature maiden flight, as we come and go from the basement.

This pic shows (3), however, Emilie is claiming one of her pics has (4) babies...

Hidden In Plain Sight

You have to get up pretty early in the morning to sneak one by me, when it comes to critters anyway.  A pair of House Finches had been hanging around and eyeing this one particular dogwood-type scrub of ours.  When fully leafed, it's hard to make out the trunk and branches, however, I spied these dudes setting up shop as the leaves were starting to pop.

Anyway, they're tiny birds, that make a tiny nest with equally as tiny little blue eggs.  We're not sure how many eggs are in there now, guessing more than the one shown in the picture.  The mother blends in so well and she doesn't panic and dart off the next, rather she sits tights keeping a close eye.

Hoping well get a glimpse of the babies here soon.

A Successful Yard Sale Was Had!

We've been talking about it for a couple years now and thanks to JoAnne it finally happened this past Saturday - a yard sale!

Yup, we had a yard sale!

We've been piling "stuff" in the basement in anticipation.  We recently pulled a lot of "stuff" down from the attic. Some we kept, some was damaged and tossed and others were put out for the yard sale.

We had everything out well before 9 and was done by noon.  All in all there wasn't too many visitors, at least compared to some of the yard sales we've had in the past, but we sold a number of items, made a couple of bucks and cleaned out the basement.  Guessing about 95% of what was in the yard sale never came back inside, nope!  What didn't see was moved to the end of the driveway with a FREE sign on, and boy-o-boy did most of it go fast.

What was left took a ride in the trash truck today.

We're making progress at organizing things!

Find The Critter

Can you find the critter in the above photo of my niece?!

I'll give you a hint, he's name is "Murray"...