She left me in charge!

Posted on by hollyfrostgoldportpress

Well, hold onto your hats, Huns and Hoydens.

First off, a brief housekeeping note. Some of y’all are really tasty according to WordPress, and it keeps tossing you in spam, or scary and it throws you in trash. If I am sure I recognize the handle, I’ll fish you out. If I am not sure I recognize the handle, the usual procedure is to ping our hostess with “Hey is so-n-so okay?” and she goes and looks. Since she’s a bit away right now, newcomers or very occasional posters will be languishing a bit longer: it’s not because you aren’t wanted: it’s because I respect this isn’t my blog and the hostess is gone. If you’re a regular and you know how to ping me about a strayed comment, please feel free to do so, but realize that I may be away from a computer for quite a while at a stretch and WordPress and smartphone do not play well together, so I can’t get you out til I’m back at a computer. I have a medium size and fairly busy family, so it’s really not you, it’s having to get kids to stuff in town.

Here locally up in the high desert mountains, we’ve had a long and warm summer. It’s now early October, and we’ve had no frosts (should have happened in late August) and no snows. In some ways this is good: a friend gave me all her extra peaches (which is most of what I’m doing this week, canning peaches, by all I mean nine boxes), but of course we didn’t know we’d have two months extra of growing season so didn’t plant for it. The garden in general didn’t do so well, but my husband has now put up deer fence which will help in the future. I’d guess in milder climates, that is, most of the USA, various harvests are underway. Potato is going on out on the plains below here. May you all have a good season and fill your root cellars and pantries, because looking at current news, we’re going to need it.

I urge you to check your snow shovels and winter prep, if you are so fortunate as to have battery operated fire and CO alarms check those, etc. If you’re on the other side of the world I guess you’re swapping to summer emergency gear. Do you have what you need, do you need to restock anything? Check your medicine cabinet, too. We can’t do all that much about a Hurricane Helene, but we can do quite a lot about a tire blow-out at -20F. Remember you are your own first responder.

And now, back to canning peaches by the quart jars. Things I have learned: Children cannot recognize a wide-mouthed jar in the dark of the pantry, the kittens think they are peaches or would like to be peaches or would like to eat peaches or possibly be canned, they do not like sugar syrup spills on the floor and are very, very funny when their paws stick. I have done forty-nine quarts with only two failures to seal, I have as many more peaches to go, and I’m racing spoilage. Also I’m down to one remaining wide-mouth quart so the rest will have to be quartered, or get more jars. And if you hear me yell “Get out of my kitchen!” scoot now, ask questions later, because everything’s boiling right now.

See you all in a few hours in the comments, if the internet stays up and the creek don’t rise.

169 thoughts on “She left me in charge!”

  1. “If you’re a regular and you know how to ping me about a strayed comment, please feel free to do so …”

    It would help to know whom to ping; I don’t see a signature on the post. :-)

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I haven’t had any problems with WP (which, DE) in months, but that would be a nice piece of info to have…😉

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    2. Holly the Assistant. Some of the regulars have various contact info for me, some don’t. I’ll get everyone out at the same time anyway when I check. I . . . don’t think I actually have you anywhere except way, way back, on the Bar, back when . . . maybe MeWe?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yeah, maybe. Haven’t looked at MeWe in ages, though. (And the Bar in, oh goodness, even longer). These days I’m mostly on email (my first name dot my last name at gmail) and Signal (my username there is my first initial followed by my last name, all lowercase. Then a dot and the digits four and two). If you contact me on Signal, make sure there’s something in your first message that lets me know who it is, because I might otherwise think it’s spam.

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      2. Holly the Assistant? Surely we can do better than that! Holly el Assistente? el or un or something else?

        And I now feel compelled to watch several episodes of Red Dwarf.

        Rgrds,

        RES

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        1. Holly Temporary Blog Goddess?
          Yes I am trying to suck up.
          Don’t worry old and decrepit and you can get away. And I am too tall to hide, to slow to stalk. Besides I live in a van down by the river, not your river, a far away river.

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            1. Holly, Holly, Holly, get your bloginess here.

              Holly, Holly, Holly, got some blogs to do here.

              Come on down to Holly’s, get the blogs and your beer.

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              1. (guitar)

                Wait for it to come around again….

                (guitar)

                (guitar)

                (singing) You can get anything you want, from Holly’s blog substitute.

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    1. She lets me ban people. I don’t know about dragons, tho, are you people?
      (Ok, it was that one guy, you know, who was probably a bot anyway. Still.)

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        1. Fluffy’s doing it. No self-respecting dragon would get his BBQ from somewhere else.

          As for any of us doing it, he lets the aardvark procure the ingredients. For the rest, he gets as possessive as if it were his hoard, until it comes to eating.

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  3. What zucchini we had came out before Labor Day (FYI: Miracle Grow Moisture Control soil came out way too heavily fertilized this year. Two of our three tomato varieties loved it, the Romas didn’t do well, and it killed every zucchini seed it saw.)

    Tomatoes came out of the greenhouse a couple weeks ago (we’re above 4000′ and have had a few freezes already, including one or two in the mid-20s). What’s left of the green ones are in a box trying to ripen. Only a couple dozen tiny ones left. We did have a bumper crop of Siletz (Oregon hybrid) and Siberian (heirloom) tomatoes, and dehydrated what we didn’t eat fresh.

    $SPOUSE doesn’t like to can, and home-grown fruit here is a unicorn. I’ve heard about a couple of orchards, but they’re in a microclimate several degrees warmer than us. We cheer when the lilac bushes bother to bloom–maybe once a decade.

    Good luck with the peaches!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Our zucchini and squash were ruined by fungus, but the tomatoes are coming in. We don’t can so we are using some and turning others into sauce we can freeze.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Everyone else has okra, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, green beans, and other squash coming out of their ears. My tomatoes produced a dozen fruits suitable for use in a doll house, then died. Shrugs It’s been that kind of summer. I think the ground was too cool when I planted the ‘maters.

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          1. If only, for us. This is the first year in a while that we had no surplus, and I had to buy 10 pounds of zucchini so we could dehydrate it. ($SPOUSE uses it along with bread for home-made salmon cakes. Better texture and better flavor, for the win.) The price was good, $1.00 a pound. (SIL in Nevada thought that we lucked out.)

            The failed starts were replaced with plants from Bonnie (via Home Depot) and the local nursery. Would have been fine except for the un-forecasted freeze in August. Forecasted freezes, I can cover the beds, either with frost cloth, or if it’s going to get really cold, I can cover them with 6 mil plastic. There’s framing to keep the plastic from squashing the plants. We use that system at least once every June. August, that was a shock.

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          2. “TxRed’s car doors are unlocked? Must be a trap… she couldn’t be short of veggies???” 😸😸

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        2. Being “gifted” squash (don’t care for it) and zucchini (ditto) would be bad enough, but okra? I might need to start enriching uranium. As if tomatoes weren’t slimy enough.

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        3. I got 15 cantaloupes and have another 9 in the garden bed. The cantaloupes killed/overran everything else in the bed. Next year, ONE cantaloupe plant, and let’s see what else I can maybe grow.

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    2. There is very little we eat that is canned, fruit or veggies, so I do not bother. Same with frozen fruit. Grew up with home canned goods. But the fruit was purchased with U-Pick.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. K.

    Yeah, the mountains of NC were hit hard and have totally knocked Florida and Georgia—to say nothing of Tennessee and South Carolina—off the news, as I far as I can tell. Everyone is working together to help out. One local church (I’m on the drier side of the state) has already sent a truck that included 8,000 pounds of water on Tuesday with more to follow.

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      1. The current word is that FEMA (and TEMA; don’t know about NCEM) will happily confiscate anything but what’s in churches. NC apparently is only letting “approved” semis through. One suspects money and kickbacks are part of this, plus there’s the “they support EVIL BAD ORANGE MAN, so let them die” effect.

        I’ve learned that I have to check my blood pressure before I look at Insty or other news sources. Not sure I want to check it later.

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        1. I suspect it has more to do with power plays by petty officials who want to be seen acting as Lady Bountiful. (And perhaps some honest concerns about goods not being needed or that might not be needed for an extended period of time. Perhaps. Being generous.)

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        2. I’m hearing third-hand claims that Gov. Cooper in NC hasn’t made the request that allows the DoD to provide assistance in his state. No one’s sure why.

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          2. Substantiated video rumors of power plays in other jurisdictions?

            (I’d link it but FB/Instagram and WP doesn’t work with those links when I copy them in.) A video referring to has a guy, actually a member of Florida state guard, self deployed with his crew before Desantis activated them (since officially activated) riding in a private helicopter, owner pilot, owner fueled. Delivering supplies. Looking for SOS markings. They rescued a mother with an 11 day old infant, and an elderly woman whose O2 was < 24 hours from depletion. The supply and rescues were reported as being done by national authorities as haven been done by FEMA. This is just one example. Worse, reality is, while they have seen other private helicopters, mules, ATV’s, etc., about, they’ve seen no official help doing anything. Meanwhile volunteers are rescuing people, pets left stranded (either because their people weren’t home, or worse), supplying hay and insuring safe water supply for livestock left stranded with fields now covered with mud and debris.

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        3. Please cite actual sources of such confiscations.

          Otherwise, you appear to be spreading unsubstantiated rumors. And that is decidedly unhelpful.

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        4. This is apparently not true, at least not in Tennessee. NC is another story, and already people are floating the idea that the govt is slow walking aid to block voting.

          The really lurid story has the Feds telling townsfolk their town is to be bulldozed, bodies and all, and they’d better just get used to it. I truly hope that one is wrong.

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    2. The FEMA gaggle seems to be in extra disfunction mode.

      My personal experience is that Salvation Army and Baptists on Mission -way- overperform versus the “official” folks.

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      1. The stories about “official” folks literally forbidding unofficial helpers to go in and help, if true (and I believe they are true, I just don’t have any certain knowledge), almost certainly stem from a desire not to be shown up. What they don’t realize is that the forbidding itself is showing them up.

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          1. Voting both.

            I’ve been see a lot of videos grabbed from Instagram posted on FB, not even sites I follow. It is absolutely horrible.

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        2. Plus I wonder if they’re worrying about lawsuits, if a volunteer gets whacked on the job and his grieving kin decide it’s the Feds’ fault. That seems really dumb, and I have no idea if it’s really a factor. But if you’re a bureaucrat from the Northeast or the Left Coast…

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        3. I’m honestly wondering whether people are angry enough yet to stuff the “officials” in an out of the way supply closet and get on with business.

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          2. The post I saw was wondering just how soon the Fed/State “helpers” found themselves getting shot.

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            1. Well, there’s word already gotten out about a South Carolina helicopter pilot who flew his personal Robinson R44 up into Lake Lure, NC to help people out…after he had left his son (copilot) up a mountain and brought out a gentleman’s wife back down, somebody high up in the Lake Lure VFD (apparently) told him if he didn’t get the hell out of “his” operation, he’d have the local law arrest him. And the local law was right there. The other first responders at the LZ were so embarrassed, they told him that if he went up the mountain to get that old man out and bring him back, they’d make sure the chief wasn’t around. But the guy couldn’t risk it so he flew up there, picked up his son, and left that husband cut off and separated from his wife. Haven’t heard anything about backlash yet but the implication was that this was not a FEMA or NCEM official, just a small-town VFD chief who was probably overwhelmed and felt like he couldn’t risk having “outsiders” in the middle of “his” operation. Something tells me he may not be in that department any more after this blows over.

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              1. The good news is that the husband got out.

                The bad news is that he had to sit on a river cliff for a day longer, until the fire department officially got him roped up and dragged through river water to safety.

                And then the town manager did a smug interview, and halfway through, the bad asst fire chief poked his head into the Zoom call through a house door. Very weird.

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                1. I had to turn the town manager interview off because I couldn’t afford to buy a new monitor if I put my fist through this one. Dear Lord, I can’t believe that woman would double down on defending that guy.

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              2. Later the restriction was lifted (said official removed?), < 24 hours later, and the pilot returned to what he was doing. No statement on whether he returned with his (son a minor) copilot. No news on the elderly man left behind.

                Yes. All over the news (at least on FOX News), and have seen linked on FB videos.

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            2. Some years back, while visiting Mt Mitchell State Park (highest point point East of the Missip at jus over 6K ft above Sea (sneer all you like you Rockies dwellers, you shouldda seen it before it eroded) I engaged in conversation with one of the park rangers, who alluded to the tendency of state and federal officials to avoid interacting with locals of that region as hazardous to their health. As in: copter in, cut the ribbon and copter immediately out.

              The Western Carolina/Eastern Tennessee mountains are generally populated by folks of Scots-Irish (genetic and/or philosophical) descent and those Cherokee who escaped the Trail of Tears … so not prone to trusting government offers of “help.” The [damnfools] in the state capital, Raleigh, have been trying for generations to tame the deplorables and thus are resistant to permitting any assistance not bearing their brand.

              The people here are, with the exception of the People’s Republic of Asheville, about evenly divided between Trump supporters and those who believe Trump coddled the Commies too much, so efforts to ensure they get to cast ballots this year may be a trifle lax, although I would not be surprised if many ballots in their names are not received, especially if postmarks are not carefully examined.

              As for charitable donations, try Samaritan’s Purse, directed by Billy’s son, Franklin Graham. It passes through about 85% of funds, with 8% spent on fundraising and 6% administrative costs. They are headquartered in Boone, NC, so pretty much port-a-johnny-on-the-spot for this disaster.

              Their ministry reaches world-wide, even to putting up a portable hospital in Central Park for the heathen New Yorkers during the first crush of the COVID Panic (not that De Balsio made use of them, preferring to deposit the infected in nursing homes. Sheesh – New Yorkers were worse about accepting Christian aid than Gazans are about Israeli help.)

              Rgrds,

              RES

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              1. Looks at handful of 6700+ mountains visible from house, smiles.

                Attitudes towards TPTB around here are similar, though the Modoc War had something to do with some of the attitudes.

                Change names for [damnfools] and [deplorables] and this part of the PacNW fits right in. No hurricanes, but wildfires taking out large stands of dead-tree pines on federal land fits right in.

                I’d be cautious about asking anybody from Brookings, OR for their opinion of federal firefighting. If NIMO or the Greenies come up, be very, very cautious.

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                1. “I’d be cautious about asking anybody from Brookings, OR for their
                  opinion of federal firefighting. If NIMO or the Greenies come up, be
                  very, very cautious.”

                  Duh. Being generous (yea I realize your take on Brookings is greenies) Brookings is surrounded by mountains and trees. But that is about the only commonality. The timber fire ecology is 180 different that eastern Oregon. OTOH while the ecology of mid-southern timber (Umpqua basins) is different still, the fire ecology won’t differ that much (it’s dry, it’ll gleefully run away on you).

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                  1. What set a lot of Brookings people off was two things: The 2002 Biscuit fire left a lot of dead trees standing, all ripe for salvage logging. The greenies applied enough lawfare so that eventually, there was no salvage value of the trees, so a bunch of ready fuel was there.

                    A couple years ago, another large fire (lightning, as memory serves) hit. TPTB set a NIMO team in place, with the usual mandate to “let it burn”. And it did, taking houses and such. Then the fire got to the Biscuit burn scar and whee! Big fire gets bigger.

                    There were also reports of USFS firefighters calmly ignoring and/or laughing at houses burning. Granted, they don’t do structure protection, but that’s putting a lot of salt in wounds.

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                    1. Sounds like what we are headed for closer to home with McKenzie basin, 2020 Holiday Fire. Weyerhouser scraped their 2021/2022 logging plans. Went in and logged everything they could get before salvaging made no sense. They’ve replanted. USFS? Not one dead and standing cut. It is one thing to do this up on the summit around Big Lake, and Hoodoo ski resort from the 2003 fire. That is mostly wilderness land. Top now has trees down, naturally, and regrowth. Another fire happens and it is going to get hot, hot, hot! But no housing there (infrastructure for Hoodo, Big Lake campgrounds, other campgrounds, Suttle Lake resort).

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                    2. That’s mindful of what happened to the Chestnut trees in Western NC about a century ago. Chestnut Blight set in and the only choice was to clear-cut before it was worth nothing except a fire hazard.

                      It’s a pity, for the Chestnut was an incredible tree, strong wood spreading wide cover and producing a fruit that was healthy for man and animal. Every dozen or so years I read about a promising new effort to cross-breed a blight resistant strain and re-establish the trees, and have been reading that since the Reagan Administration.

                      Contra Mayor Bloomberg, you don’t just poke a sapling in the dirt, piss on it, and come back in twenty years.

                      Rgrds,

                      RES

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            3. I was wondering that too. Doesn’t N. Carolina have alligators? Not in the mountains, but where they are staging?

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              1. The East Coast range for alligators doesn’t extend to North Carolina, except maybe to the area around Wilmington on the coast. The Reader notes that there are plenty of other (presumably) hungry predators in that neck of the woods.

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        4. Yes. Forbidding non-official source options, that ship sailed days ago.

          Heard rumors that donated supplies are being confiscated by FEMA. Me thinks the volunteers ferrying the donated supplies by mule, ATV’s, boats, private helicopters, all with their own donated fuel, and some cases have seen surf and paddle boards, might get a bit testy.

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            4. Another one from Stephen Green of Insty:

              https://instapundit.com/675962/#disqus_thread

              This is a NOTAM shutting down “non-approved” flights. See the X statement in full.

              This is just what’s made it onto Instapundit, largely from Stephen Green. I don’t think they’re false rumors. People are naming themselves and telling their stories.

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              1. “I don’t think they’re false rumors. People are naming themselves and telling their stories.”

                Neither do I. Not a single word of “I heard”. Every word: “this is what happened”, “this is the order”, “this is what I saw”, “this is what I know”, “this is how I was threatened”, “this is what I was told by national guard”. Those are NOT rumors. Those are facts. Not a single mention of witnessing the volunteers getting in the way of official sources or each other. As you said “people are naming themselves”, they are screaming out, they are daring to be slapped down to bring more attention to what is and is not happening. They are putting themselves at risk, personally, and professionally. They are putting their family member’s future at risk (although the one pilot did not mention whether he brought his minor co-pilot back when he returned, would not bet either way).

                FYI Jon Howard and his pilot, and the video on baby rescue, are hitting FOX News – Fox News at Night.

                Sources cited. (Again, Thank you!)

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                1. No mass-confiscations, or did I miss one?

                  Lots of “authorities” arguing over who can do what. Which is fairly normal. Lots of “Mountain” folk getting really annoyed with the “flatlanders”/”back East-ers”/”those a-holes” showing up and bossing, like they have a clue in the mountains, or any real say. Lots of incompetence, especially from larger .gov, which is fairly normal. Katrina was a goat-rope, too, folks may recall.

                  What I caution against, is all the BS rumors of actual malice, confiscations, “time to start shooting (whatevers)”, etc. Stuff that is clearly calculated to set off fracas and even more conflict than we already have.

                  And if folks don’t believe that outside hostile powers are sh!t-post/stirring this mess, you might want to reconsider. And -plenty- of alleged Americans are playing along.

                  Because this one time they dont stir? C’mon.

                  And some of our own citizens would like noting more than to set off some yahoos with guns. Because Revolution! Because Boog!

                  Because (HONK!)ing imbeciles. Because (HONK!)ing Evil.

                  So stop helping. Cite real sh!t that really needs fixed. Shame the dingbats until they stroke-out from blushing. But no more of these third-hand second-rate “I heard somewhere I cant remember that they are issuing jackboots to all Feds and concentrating on getting enough boxcars in to remove the entire population so it can be replaced with Grays from Space.”

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                  1. What I caution against, is all the BS rumors of actual malice, confiscations, “time to start shooting (whatevers)”, etc. Stuff that is clearly calculated to set off fracas and even more conflict than we already have.

                    And if folks don’t believe that outside hostile powers are sh!t-post/stirring this mess, you might want to reconsider. And -plenty- of alleged Americans are playing along.

                    And the folks who are now at risk of having folks asking questions like “Hey, the records say you spent $Gobs on this, this and that. Where is it? Why wasn’t it used in the emergency we’ve been preparing for?” — they are echoing/magnifying the “Look at Ukraine, pretend that sending them the ammo we’d be destroying as it ages out was taken from emergency relief, ignore the money that was SUPPOSEDLY spent on emergency relief and SOMEHOW VANISHED!”

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                  2. Stop “this is rumor” cr**. The video I referenced (but did not link because FB videos just make a big blank, but RCPete referenced an article) was a first hand account of what they directly experienced. RCPete linked 4 other articles by others.

                    The point about flatlanders VS mountain rescues is a valid one. Except for the fact that one of the reasons explicitly stated by the small helicopter owner/pilots first account statements is they are there BECAUSE they are aware their small personal copters can land in the type of washed/flooded out, lots of debris and downed power lines, narrow terrain. where the bigger national guard copters cannot. Explicit accounts and examples of rescues where that happened. All these pilots are asking for local coordination. These pilots know they are not locals. They aren’t dictating, they are asking for direction. No direction? Fine. They’ll do it anyway.

                    The fact that the elderly individual, eventually rescued by dragging him through flood waters, after 3 days, when he could have been already out? Is appalling. Guessing that happened because the “official” helicopter couldn’t land. Yet a smaller private one already had. That is NOT a rumor. That happened. That is a first hand account.

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                    1. He is doing the “or rumor” crap because THERE ARE ACTUAL STUPID FREAKING RUMORS GOING AROUND BY PEOPLE TRYING TO START CRUD– and/or distract from where there are actual issues.

                      The a-holes do this EVERY FREAKING TIME.

                      They get CAUGHT doing stupid stuff, so they start throwing out all kinds of mud and dust that can then be debunked and the friendlies in the news will go “oh ho h o, see, that didn’t actually happen!”

                      The ones on twitter from some account that is posting about every four minutes, but claims to be on the ground responding? And has been doing this all week?
                      Probably not real.

                      The guys who give specific stuff we can check, which means we can go, get the paperwork, and make sure these asses never do this again?

                      THAT we need to get spread around.

                      Glen Beck came up with something freakin’ brilliant– he’s heading a supply run in, with some ludicrous amount of food. So the jerks are either going to have to do their jobs, and people will GET their help, or he’s going to get a lot of show material.

                      Elon Musk is also doing a heck of a job, sending in his company’s folks, and being really noisey about how they’re paying attention to who is shutting stuff down.

                      Which, hm, I wonder how that’s going to line up with Booty-whatzit shutting down flights. Won’t that be interesting.

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                    2. “THERE ARE ACTUAL STUPID FREAKING RUMORS GOING AROUND BY PEOPLE TRYING TO START CRUD”

                      Yes. Those I ignore.

                      The ones I can’t dismiss are the small helicopter pilots, those working with them, and those who were on the ground, being coordinated with search and rescue locals, before the ones apparently screaming at the volunteers took over. Their personal accounts I cannot dismiss as rumors. Since there hasn’t been a lot of new videos from them, I can suspect that the wrinkles have been worked out, now, days later. (Or presume they’d be screaming even more.)

                      If it come out later the answer is “we had a very rough start but got better”, fine. That happens. Right now? IDK.

                      Closest I’ve been to a disaster is St Helen blowing up and resulting mud flows. Even Holiday Fire, actual fire lines, wasn’t that close (for all that our air had warm ash in it).

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                    3. Yes. Those I ignore.

                      Good!

                      So let other folks make dang sure that enough of everyone else is aware of the danger, too, so the SOBs won’t be able to hide!

                      I grew up in forest fire areas, for several years there they set the dang place on fire every two or three years, including several where it was coming down the mountain side to the house, I have LOTS of experience or second hand explanations of watching-the-cover-up with disaster areas and the kind of nonsense folks come up with to hide when they should be in jail.

                      Real “fun,” if the a-holes do it right, they can make it so the guys who actually did their job are the ones fired– because “Everyone Knows” that it’s [BIG GROUP] that caused the problem.
                      It’s a two-fer!

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                    4. “I have LOTS of experience or second hand explanations of
                      watching-the-cover-up with disaster areas and the kind of nonsense folks
                      come up with to hide when they should be in jail.                      “

                      Real time video is making it harder, not impossible, but harder, for them to hide.

                      What is getting me are the comments of “why weren’t you prepared?” WTH? Didn’t you see the side of the mountain that came down on them? (More than one family’s video.) OMG the idiots! Who expects a mountain to come down on you? Sure, flooded basement, trees across the road, power out. Who expects their entire preparation to disappear? Who expects roads, not just part of it, entire roads, to disappear? Bridges? Some pictures and videos, there is no indication that a bridge even existed. Implied because road stops and starts on the other side, but the bridge structures are gone.

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                    5. Real time video is making it harder, not impossible, but harder, for them to hide.

                      Thank God.

                      Now we have to make dang sure the ones we have proof on don’t get away with shifting stuff.

                      And yeah– this is, if one is being super charitable, on par with ’69.

                      So… the parents or grandparents of the median American have a chance of having seen it, and even having seen it won’t fix “the side of the mountain is gone.”

                      Liked by 1 person

                    6. Oh, take it from somebody who, while too young to have actually seen Camille’s aftermath in Virginia (I was 2), grew up one county south of where it happened and grew up both on hearing stories of it and seeing the landslide scars on the hills even decades later…this is their Camille. This is exactly what Camille did, except over slightly more time, rougher terrain, and a MUCH larger area.

                      Camille dumped about 24-25″ of rain over Nelson County, VA in 5 to 8 hours, at night. It was a highly localized event. The highest estimated rain totals for the whole multi-day Helene event were 33″ in some tiny spot in NC and 23″ in TN. The other big difference was that Nelson County was in a bad drought when Camille hit, while most of the mountains were already fairly saturated with rain.

                      I’m no hydrologist or meteorologist, but the damage from the pictures I’ve seen doesn’t look like a regular lowland flood. This is battering-ram damage from all that water coming down slopes at high speed and picking up rocks, trees, earth, shacks, cars and pushing in front. The first shot I saw of Lake Lure, choked with thousands of trees, I didn’t think flood. I thought “last time I saw something like that was pictures from Mount St. Helens” where the lahars just picked up uncountable numbers of trees and choked the rivers with them.

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                    7. Same with Helen’s and floods. Spirit Lake is still full of logs. The visible ones are maybe 1/2 to 1/3 of what is in there.

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                    8. The area my folks are from in the high desert got a roughly 50 year mud-slide event.

                      It looks horrifyingly familiar, and all the worse because there’s more of it, and way more people than the ones I saw.

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                    9. I saw another Mark Huneycutt video on Youtoob today…he had some motorized paragliding stuff in a hangar at the small Hendersonville Airport (0A7) and the CCTV footage showed that hangar flooded to a depth of NINE FEET. Miraculously he was able to save most of the stuff including engines.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    10. Plenty of real to cite, eh, versus “i heard” rumor crap that helps nothing.

                      And those helpful private pilots are sometimes arrogant noob voidsphincters with 10 hours of solo time and no training in rough terrain rescue work.

                      It’s a real skill set. It’s not taught in helicopter 101.

                      And NG/Army Blackhawks can get in -very- tight places. It’s an -Infantry- carrier for Air Assault ops. They have smaller scout birds, too. And they train like crazy for difficult work. And most of the non-noobs are combat vets with hundreds of hours, if not thousands.

                      Not every person “helping” does.

                      A significant part of any realistic disaster planning is keeping busy or away well-meaning idiots. I do DR stuff professionally. I routinely wreck corporate exercises. Folks bet serous money on my … creative input.

                      If you think -I- am harsh, you should hear the pro pilots I know. Sheesh…

                      Folks may not like coordinating with local authorities, but it’s really effing stupid not to do so. If only so -their- nincompoops don’t wreck your day.

                      Deconflicting airspace prevents aluminum showers. And it is absurdly easy for several well meaning folks on incompatible radios, or just the wrong channel, to play scatter the airframes by testing physics.

                      Kemp and Trump are best buds for Disaster Recovery purposes. Was shocked to see it. Folks, take the example, put aside the “those a-holes suck” stuff, and help. Plenty of time for critiques in a week or two.

                      Throw money at Samaritans Purse. Find a church collecting stuff and help load their truck. Pray.

                      Please consider “is this -helping-?” before posting flammables.

                      Be the better man/woman/whatever.

                      One team. One Country. At least until the immediate crisis is over. We can all go back to righteous indignant howling and poo flinging later. It seems of late to be the National sport.

                      Gah.

                      Like

                    11. Problem is, not now, but early in the game, the “official” helicopters and active crew were grounded and couldn’t move without the correct clearances/orders. The original video I was citing, and the one RCPete linked article to was crew chief of a trained response emergency crew that was onsite doing stuff, registering with locals, and someone, higher in the authority chain, tried to shut them down, after they were officially activated. Blink? What? Part of the emergency responses need to deal with these pilots, not shut them down. If they need training? Offer it (obviously not in the middle of an emergency). Certify them. Then if they show up to help? No certification? Shut them down, send them home. No different than sending home people for lost searches in areas where they become part of the problem because they get lost. But you don’t send home people who volunteer who work in those same areas trained or not. You spread out your trained personnel among them to spread out the trained personnel.

                      Now the videos are all about how to get around FEMA. That isn’t good. Not on any front.

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                2. Neither do I. Not a single word of “I heard”.

                  I’m noticing there are some of the usual style of “I heard” type stuff.

                  And claims of vague rephrasing and stuff.

                  They are getting drowned out by the folks who have evidence, and provide it!

                  Given the choice, folks are choosing to emphasize the stuff that has names, things you can check– AND THAT MEANS THE SOBS WHO BREAK THE LAW CAN BE CHARGED.

                  This stuff happens any time there’s enough chaos, folks use power they don’t have because they’re in a panic– this needs to get fixed, and this naming with evidence makes it so they can.

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                  1. I looked for, but could not find the X post claiming confiscation. (I don’t do twitter, and the extract I saw was on a site that’s gone sideways.) Memory says the poster claimed second hand info (ie, his informant was where confiscation occurred.) So yeah, no confirmation on this.

                    The arrest threats, the NOTAM, the drone banning, that’s verifiable, either from first hand or official statements.

                    (Biden visiting the site and forcing a 30 mile no-fly zone for 4 hours didn’t seem to go over well, either. OTOH, one recalls the Donks going after W for not flying to NOLA for Katrina. As I recall, he did an overflight via AF-1.)

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                    1. The arrest threats, the NOTAM, the drone banning, that’s verifiable, either from first hand or official statements.

                      :grins like a wolf:
                      And there’s a reason the most dangerous phrase is “may I have that order in writing, sir?”

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                    2. The NOTAM is almost automatic whenever a disaster is declared. They tend to start with “No one and nothing but military flies” then “military and some emergency stuff flies” then “OK, here’s what’s still off limits, yes drone/UAV dudes this does mean you too, and here’s who to talk to to coordinate everyone else.”

                      If you want to learn new adult vocabulary, ask a fire-fighting pilot or EMS pilot what they think about people who sneak in with drones to get “cool pictures.” Or who “just want to see if my house is OK, you meanie!,” and everyone else has to stop flying to avoid colliding with the drone.

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                    3. Regarding the earlier article about the pilot who defied orders to retrieve his son after taking out the elderly woman leaving son and her husband behind.

                      https://www.facebook.com/reel/889815732732745

                      “Dustin Waycaster, the official denying access, threatening arrest, has been relieved of duty. Let’s move on.”

                      Yes, agree. Those using drones to take video or pictures shouldn’t be, and need to be kicked out. However drone operators, in flight coordination with officials, taking in supplies, where helicopters can’t land, that is different. Smaller loads, more trips, but less fuel. The drones can’t take people out. But they can deliver supplies a lot faster than by mule.

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                    4. Understood about the drone lookie-lous causing problems. I’ve witnessed a few (too many) fires where very large aircraft down to single-engine air tankers have had to do retardant dumps to ignore the dangers from stupid drone operators.

                      Where it seemed to be going south was where drones were being used to look for survivors and SOS signs to supplement those independent helicopter operators. That got shut down, too.

                      I was under the impression that while the NOTAM went into effect, there still weren’t officially certified flights running. Given the situation, I don’t think that FEMA/FAA/DOT are going to get the benefit of the doubt.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    5. Incidentally, the route I tracked was a Sumdood, to a guy who claimed to be in the area, to “the truth about vaccines [visit our sister site, the truth about cancer!]”, to a guy who claimed to be in the area *but* was also posting many times an hour, including reposting screenshots of his own post with the claim of confiscation which had been edited to remove that it was from the 28th.

                      I did find one other route that petered out at the standard “donations made to BIG EMERGENCY CHARITY will not necessarily to to the current big emergency, they go into general funds” announcement.

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                    7. I eventually found a post that had a screenshot of the claim (though the screenshot included yet another repost). I tried to get to the X post, but it had been taken down. Hmm.

                      Elsewhere, I saw stuff about Musk and Starlink, with the headline claiming FEMA seizing units. Reading the text that Musk included, “seizing” gets mentioned, but it seems to be nth-hand word, with n > 2.

                      I haven’t seen any posts with “I’m Joe Blow and they seized my shipment”, or even “Joe Blow told me that they…”

                      Can’t land, yeah, that’s a scandal. When it’s a headline in Gateway Pundit with no details, I have to say, “is it true? Can I verify?”

                      Like

            5. Oh. Volunteers ferrying donated supplies in by whatever means works, that I’ve seen by video. Reporting of only private helicopters looking for SOS, that I’ve seen video of. Statements of official sources not visible that has been stated in video by volunteers on the ground, and in the air, yet they have seen unofficial volunteers every time they venture forth. Rumor of confiscated donated supplies elsewhere, is just that rumor. Obviously their donated supplies were not confiscated before they could distribute. OTOH a definite video of incorrect reporting of who is responsible for big rescues has happened to (stolen credit). A mistake? It upset those rescued. Are survivors frustrated? Oh, hell yes. Are survivors grateful for what help they do get regardless of source. Again, oh, hell yes.

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              1. Not a rumor. Any supplies not specifically brought to churches are being held for “Inventorying” and delayed indefinitely from getting to the victims. FEMA supervising, Red Cross doing.

                https://twitchy.com/samj/2024/10/06/mike-vansteuben-thread-fema-n2401831

                Analysis: Prior to this incident, FEMA had only been observed in an administrative role, but the results of that role are now coming into effect. They are attempting to centralize control of supplies and are allowing bureaucratic red tape to interfere with distribution.

                Recommendations: -Drop off supplies at churches only. FEMA has no authority to seize anything from a church, for now. -Send a route recon ahead of planned convoys to check for roadblocks and verify that supplies will not be rejected at the destination. Motorcycles are ideal.

                But they aren’t using that “c word” that our local Orwellians seem to require, so it’s not happening, right?

                Liked by 1 person

                1. I saw that video too.

                  Kind of tired of being told “you aren’t an expert stop listening to the rumors”. Not by most, just one commenter. Not an expert, true. Not there, true. But also not an idiot. (Might be a bit sensitive. Hate being “patted on the head” syndrome.) FEMA and Biden/Kamala “can’t stop the message”.

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                  1. Well, the propaganda folks who lied to us about Covid, the clotshot, Afghanistan, etc. are real fond of slinging around “disinformation” / “misinformation”. That line of argument has been pretty well exposed as just another form of “shut up, serf.”

                    I have no reason to automatically disregard any claim of govt malfeasance, because malfeasance gets proven daily.

                    Liked by 1 person

          2. Folks, the very last thing we need in the hurricane disaster area is false rumors that make folks mad at each other. Plenty of time for recriminations later. Recovery first.

            If you have actual sources reporting actual malfeasance, post the sources. If you are a firsthand witness, post the report to the proper local authorities. Cite the case #, sheriff report, etc.

            What the folks helping do -not- need is us-versus-them shitposting.

            C’mon. Y’all are better than this.

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            3. I think part of the problem is that the various NC agencies (TN as well) are not trying to get ahead of the rumors. I went hunting on the NCDPS website for clarification of some things they are accused of, and there were no press releases contradicting or clarifying why [whatever] needed to be done by charitable groups seeking to provide assistance to the people of the state.

              I realize that the various agencies in NC and TN are up to their elbows in dealing with the problems on the ground. I also think that if they don’t at least say, “We’re aware of claims that X and Y are happening, and that people are being denied access to [whatever]. This is not correct, and updated information about the situation will be released on [date in the near future],” the rumors will grow worse. It would also help if the charitable groups could respond to some of the rumors, but again, they’re very preoccupied at the moment.

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              1. Very true. Communication really is important — not just inside the emergency response, but with the public too. That’s why several of us in the university relations department got ICS training (or whatever…I remember exactly none of it now) back when I was in the higher-ed gulag.

                People want to know what’s going on, and the public needs to know that people are working on it. And public communication is also part of how you get volunteers who actually know what they’re doing; by publicizing organized work is happening and that you need people to do thing X and thing Y with resources B and C, you not only have a better chance of getting what you need, but also get fewer well-meaning people who *can’t* actually help and will only hinder.

                This emergency response stuff is really, really hard. People can sometimes make it look easier than it is, but only if they’ve trained very, very hard at being very, very good at it and probably also had prior experience. Unfortunately, it looks like most of the people who should be managing things at the state and national level are nowhere near as competent as they ought to be. But I haven’t been following it very closely, so this is more of an opinion driveby than an informed assessment. All we can really do is wait and see how it all shakes out.

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      2. The Baptists specialize in first-in missions, with portable kitchens. The Methodists tend to go in later, but are pretty good with supplies and disaster rebuild.

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  5. What I need is somebody who *wants* to take care of fruit trees. Previous resident of the house I’m in planted a bunch, but I don’t really know how to maintain them properly and don’t want to. I guess if it was grow a garden or starve…but it is not. They’ve been growing wild for years. Didn’t get any pears this year (sad; it’s the one fruit we grow that I *want* to eat), but there’s plums and granny smith apples everywhere. The raccoons and skunks are having a feast right now, and the deer will come in and eat the remainder later on, so there’s that, I guess…

    Ideal situation would be a neighbor who would maintain the trees in return for getting all the fruit, and maybe they’d also give us a bit after they canned it if they wanted to. But this is a college town and the neighborhood is 90% duplexes, and I only know one neighbor anymore. They cycle in and out so fast.

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    1. FWIW, a lot of fruit trees (especially stone fruit, the ones with the big pits) have an expiration that’s only a couple of decades. My mom thought she was killing the peach tree and the apricot, but it turns out they’d just aged out.

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      1. Oh, interesting! I grew with mostly apple trees, and they can soldier on forever. Ours should still be in production age…probably… Even if not, it still has beautiful blossoms and would be worth keeping for that anyway. Unless they go away, too (perish the thought).

        Liked by 1 person

        1. More that they start to die off entirely. Apricots and peaches live less than thirty years in most cases, and those awful “decorative pears” have a similar lifespan, though their descendants will plague us forever.

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          1. When we moved to our home here in Mordor West, we found among many plants in our new back yard, a spindly stick, We left it alone, and over the next years it grew into a full fledged peach tree. We figured the root stock when the grafted tree died sent up a “new” peach tree 2.0. It got branch rot, (which seems to kill fruit trees in our area). We cut it down.

            The next year, another stick, another peach tree from the roots. We are now on peach tree 5.0, the roots tried to send up 6,0 this year, but workers broke the “branch”. 5 is still living, the squirrel got most of the peaches, but we had a dozen. So this “tree” is at least 45 years old. When 5 dies, we expect the roots will send us another tree.

            Liked by 1 person

            1. That’s coppicing, and that does that. Ashes normally live two centuries, but there’s a coppiced ash in England that’s twelve centuries old.

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    2. If the college has an agriculture or forestry program, you might be able to contact them or the student clubs associated with them and see what stuff they’d be willing to do for practice.

      I know the student forestry club at my local university will go out and do fire mitigation and controlled burns for local homeowners.

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      1. My local college has a harvesting program for those who have fruit trees but can’t handle the amount of produce. Students and volunteers from the community get a third of the produce, a third goes to the local food pantry, and a third is given back to whoever the trees, etc. belong to. Dunno if that would exist where you live, but I’ll bet someone has thought of something similar!

        I’ll bet you could look up a local extension program or a Master Gardener for help on pruning/tree care. They could also probably hook you up with people hoping to get experience pruning and tree care!

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  6. “…it’s having to get kids to stuff in town”.

    *sigh I read this and the first thought I had was, she’s headed to town to get kids to stuff? Hansel and Gretel time? It’s been a Monday all week and the brain is starting to skate like it’s on greased ice.

    The English language, starts at confusing and then goes pro.

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    1. Usually the kids want to be stuffed with food . . . but I have some serious Brothers Grimm fans, so they’ll be amused at your misreading.

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  7. Interesting reason for the whole world to be watching the Charlie Foxtrot in Western NC.

    Turns out that the one-and-only source of ultra-pure silicon for crucibles for semiconductor wafer manufacturing is located in the middle of nowhere, Spruce Pine NC. That location is rather badly hit, so the mine is offline.

    Ouch.

    Like

        2. Yeah, when I first saw it, it was “free to read”. Here’s the critical bit.

          The devastation at the small town could have a global impact as it is the only known source of the purest natural quartz in the world, a key mineral used in producing semiconductors and solar panels.

          Writing in his book “The World in a Grain,” published in 2018, Vince Beiser explains that the mineral at Spruce Pine is “the source of the purest natural quartz — a species of pristine sand — ever found on Earth.”

          The quartz found in this part of North Carolina is used in crucibles to melt down polysilicon to make the base of semiconductors. Spruce Pine quartz is key to the process because it can withstand the heat needed to melt the polysilicon and has a molecular structure that will not adversely react with it.

          Other parts of the world, such as Russia and Brazil, have high-quality quartz, but not as pure as that found at Spruce Pine and the town is believed to have the largest supply in the world of the crucial mineral. 

          Like

    3. Apparently there are some other sources, but they aren’t as pure and/or plentiful. AFAIK, it’s still the dominant technology, though “There is another”. Silicon-on-sapphire has been around, and a very quick search says it’s more-or-less mainstream. It would force a lot of changes in how Circuit X is made.

      My guess is that if the operation is out for an extended length of time, they’d go with lesser sources and suffer the consequences (I assume lower yields, thus higher costs per circuit). If it’s out for good, look at sapphire wafers (or whatever else is usable), and new fabs to accommodate the changes. Got billions?

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  9. you can blanch/peel/freeze quartered reached in gallon bags with a scoop of sugar if you can’t get them canned. They taste just like summer if you warm them up and use them as ice cream topping.

    Like

    2. If you happen to have a turkey roaster or slow cooker and pint jars and lots of peaches that are too soft for canning in slices, peach butter is also a delicious option that can be made overnight, and takes up less space in freezers. I did that last night with the last of my purchased peaches, got three pints from about 5 lbs peaches, and it tastes like concentrated summer. I always forget how amazing peach butter is until I taste it again.

      It’s super simple: you peel and pit the peaches, get them boiling in a little water until they’re somewhat soft, blitz or mash them until smooth, then let it cook down with a little lemon juice and/or zest to keep the nice bright peach color. I usually add the sugar after it’s boiled down enough. It often doesn’t need more than a tad as all fruit butters are often quite sweet without, and that way it doesn’t burn. I put it on the lowest setting at which it will simmer, then let it go overnight.

      The Ball canning book says to can pints of peach butter for 10 minutes water bath (of course adjusting for altitude), assuming you’ve added citrus.

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  10. Ing,

    About finding tree minders. Contact your local Extension Office. There should be contact information on your county website. Ask them about how to find the local Master Gardeners group. They may even have that group’s information in their website. I guarantee that they will be able to find someone to help you out.

    If you don’t find that information on the county site, go to your state’s agricultural university/college and look there.

    Good luck!

    Like

  11. “newcomers or very occasional posters will be languishing>”

    As this is a G-rated blog (for certain values of General) blog, newcomers and intermittent posters are advised to mind their languish when commenting here.

    “husband has now put up deer fence“

    When deer fence is their preference foil, sabre or epee? Where is Gary Larsen when important questions arise???

    I think I best retire in confusion before speculating about whether you give two weeks notice before canning peaches.

    Although I doubt anyone worries, in my part of North Carolina (Piedmont Triad) Helene barely brushed, dropping several inches of rain and a few minor branches off the more ecdysiast inclined trees.

    Rgrds,

    RES

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    1. I messaged Sarah wee hours of the morning her time to tell her you’d reported in alive and kicking, Mr. “I doubt anyone worries”! And you aren’t the only one on the worry list.

      The deer seem to prefer antlers for fencing, and the peaches got only two days notice before canning. Such is life.

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  12. I have not (yet) put up fruit, but MomRed used to do tomatoes and beans back when we had a huuuuuge garden in Omaha. And I froze sweet corn when I lived where I could get it 2 hours after it was picked. Yes, I got spoiled!

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    1. I’ve talked to my sister about a garden, but she does not remember our days of bean picking (string and butter) with fondness and has declared that store bought is good enough. Well, it ain’t like I haven’t got enough to do nor energy to spare either.

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    1. The Reader believe you are an optimist. The Democratic party couldn’t stand the optics of an extended strike with the election a month away so they left it for the next administration. Pretty sure the union boss was told ‘nice mansion you have there – it would be a shame for you to lose it in a DOJ raid’. See Eric Adams for what happens when a member of the party steps off the reservation.

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      1. I have had some doubts about the leaders of most unions since the TWA-American merger. I got an earful from a working union member about the disaster that was for them (she and her husband were both TWA employees), and the boon for the top tier of the TWA union leaders. Stuff with the Teamsters and UAW’s leadership hasn’t improved my opinion.

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        2. Do not get my husband started. He (we both did, mine went away in ’82) was a member of a small union, single employer. That union was not the problem. None of the leadership was paid, regardless of the position they had. Got compensated by the union for leave without pay days when they had to take a day off for union business, but that was it. Then the union was forced to join a bigger regional multi-employer union because of single employer pension plan funding requirements changes. Went from “funded %” to “not funded %”, note the actual % number never changed, and no way to make up to the new required percentage. Combining with the larger union, which then merged in the pension, it was then again “properly funded”. Irritating. Again, not the problem. But now their union dues paid the salaries of union officials. Not to mention they were now required to join in any strikes of the larger union. Not good for the employees of the smaller union. They’d been busted on strikes after the one in ’76 or ’77 (don’t remember, I didn’t see the results because I was working further south) before we started working for the company. Small 3rd party service union VS USFS and major timber companies. You bet the companies figured out how to prevent that again.

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          1. One of my first “jobs,” after finishing the formal intern training in the Department of the Army was, technically, to “assist,” the local union rep. Which turned into, “doing his work for him while he did….I dunno.” As it happened his workload wasn’t bad and I managed. But I finally realized he was having a nervous breakdown when he started posting rants on the union bulletin board about management. Saying the director wore, “Coke bottle glasses,” and “had a face like a mashed potato,” was what finally got him removed. And of course, he eventually grieved for back pay. But at least I got a better job.

            That was one reason I had no desire to join the union. Though my dad’s rabid dislike of the railroad union contributed.

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      2. Also note DeSantis announced the FL National Guard and Florida State Guard would be keeping Florida ports open, plus waiving fees for some types of truckers and providing Highway Patrol escorts. There was a suggestion that may have also factored in to the union/Democrats decision.

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      3. I don’t give a flying (HONK!) about the optics.

        Win-win. The ports are open. The economy didn’t crash-stop.

        Are you -really- at the point where any potential societal benefit must wreck your designated foe, or mutual wreck is preferred?

        Really?

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        1. The Reader is not. He is glad that the strike has been ended for the moment. But the evidence of the last 3+ years indicates that the Democratic party is.

          “The new offer, up from an earlier proposed raise of 50%, came after the White House privately and publicly pressed the large shipping lines and cargo terminal operators who employ the longshore workers to make a new offer to the union.”

          “The International Longshoremen’s Association and port operators, in a joint statement, said they had reached a tentative agreement on wages and union members would return to work. They said the agreement would extend the prior contract, which expired at the start of this week, through Jan. 15, 2025 while the two sides negotiate on other issues, including automation on the docks.” From https://www.wsj.com/business/logistics/port-operators-to-offer-62-raises-to-end-dockworkers-strike-a6032db5?st=CkhX94&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

          Note the expiration date of the contract extension. The union has taken a very strong position with regard to port automation and its leadership won’t survive a new contract that doesn’t give the union a lot of what it wants in that regard.

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          1. And as much as we all throw rocks at the deserving, it is very, very important to throw Kudos when folks manage To Do The Right Thing.

            Especially when they do so in spite of all the usual patterns of fail.

            Kudos to the cooler heads who decided we didn’t need flaming turdstorms in the muddle of everything else.

            Yay, sanity. See? Not so bad.

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            1. Sorry, I’m confused. Who exactly “Did the Right Thing” here? The side that threatened to “cripple” the economy, or the side that gave them most of what they wanted?

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    2. Yesterday Boss Daggett went viral with “I will cripple you!” Trade Unions are Progressive, and acting like a cartoon mafioso threw bad light on the Democrat Partei. I’d bet a beer that whoever handled that sort of thing for Hillary gave him some suicide prevention counseling. Hours later, the strike is off, huzzah! Until after the “election” anyway.

      Seeing that spun as “Bipartisan patriotism” almost lost me my lunch.

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  16. Hoo, boy, has my harvest been crazy this year. We got a late start, but I’ve done peach salsa and red salsa and (today) salsa verde; pickled beets, peaches (not in the quantities described above, to be sure), many gallons of applesauce, various jams and jellies, green beans, whole tomatoes, freeze dried cherry tomatoes, freeze dried zucchini, etc. I’ve frozen peppers and jalapeno poppers and made cowboy candy and pepper jelly. Dad did cider – as usual. This not counting long-storage crops still in the ground!

    Still to do: pick the squashes, the powdery mildew having killed back all the vines, and make a giant batch of tomato soup, probably more than 10 gallons – I’ve been making tomato puree and freezing it to prep for a big ol’ batch. Also need to pick the Glass Gem popcorn, which is fixing to be truly stunning this year, and dig the sweet potatoes, for which I have high hopes this year, and finish with the dry beans, and pick the pears and quinces at the neighbor’s place and freeze some raspberries for smoothies. Oh, yeah, and probably I’ll also make some roasted red pepper spread, because why not – I like it with hummus and in pasta sauce. Yep, the harvest is still on, and I am grateful for a couple extra weeks of warmth to get it all done!

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  17. Empty Pockets Garage, one of the main Springfield guys, did a collaboration a couple days ago with an indie journalist. It turns out that besides the mayor, the whole city council and a lot of county officials are in this scam of “housing” the Haitians, and have cornered the real estate market while having their homes undervalued for tax purposes. The elected clerk of courts is running real estate while having a conflict of interest, too.

    I could not even get thru the whole video, I was so disgusted.

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  18. In the news today: Tina Peters sentenced to 9 years for investigating ‘false claims’ about election machine fraud in Colorado.

    If they throw you in jail for saying there’s election fraud…there IS election fraud.

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      1. Having seen one of the (in)famous Death-by-Powerpoint DoD presentations (it was over 450 slides, it might have been up to 500+), I believe that one. Especially given the rent for commercial versions of Office!

        Like

  20. 450? That’s 3X the largest presentation the Reader ever gave the government when he was at the Great Big Defense Contractor. The Reader is in awe that anyone could keep a train of thought through 450 slides.

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  21. Sarah/Holly, WP just answered my comment with a request for email confirmation. I started this account with a Mailinator address, and access ATH with the TorBrowser. Since the post-2020 War on Privacy, Mailinator rejects Tor IPs, so that door is closed. If you’re willing to allow me what little privacy we still have, here in the country that continues to be called America, I’d appreciate it. I’m contentious, but not vandalous. If not…. well, your blog, your rules. Your call. Either way, thanks for keeping the light on.

    “I wouldn’t be paranoid if They weren’t out to get me!”

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    1. If there’s one saving grate it is that Milton seems on a track to go straight across Florida and back out to sea, rather than loitering and drowning even the fish. Thus far.

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