REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

In the garden, and RAIN!!!!

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Tuesday, November 1, 2022 17:55
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Monday, February 22, 2021 11:46 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Nice. It's going to be almost 50 degrees on Sunday. It might rain and turn to snow at night though. :(


I wasn't ready for bed yet and I ended up sanding the face of the first two cabinets up top and inside about half of one of them. I was making a mess though and even with the bag it makes too much dust. As much as I'm itching to do them, I still have to clean off all the wall tiles so I can get plastic up and cover everything, and wash the ceiling so I can get plastic up and block off the kitchen, or I'm going to have a mess all over the house.


But at least I'll be able to paint the sides of two of the end cabinets tomorrow after my regular paint shift and see how they look. I'm not putting any primer on the upper cabinets though until they're sanded and I get a chance to put the wood filler in where it's needed. They need a lot of it.


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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 1:15 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Think there was a brief hail storm in my area at around 5pm then after a bit it turned back into rain.

Hail usually means VERY strong updrafts/wild weather. In the midwest, tornado weather. Good thing nothing worse happened!

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 1:17 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Nice. It's going to be almost 50 degrees on Sunday. It might rain and turn to snow at night though. :(


I wasn't ready for bed yet and I ended up sanding the face of the first two cabinets up top and inside about half of one of them. I was making a mess though and even with the bag it makes too much dust. As much as I'm itching to do them, I still have to clean off all the wall tiles so I can get plastic up and cover everything, and wash the ceiling so I can get plastic up and block off the kitchen, or I'm going to have a mess all over the house.


But at least I'll be able to paint the sides of two of the end cabinets tomorrow after my regular paint shift and see how they look. I'm not putting any primer on the upper cabinets though until they're sanded and I get a chance to put the wood filler in where it's needed. They need a lot of it.


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A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

Sounds like steady progress, SIX! Congrats on the springlike weather, too!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 1:35 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


It's not too often that I get in a snit, but today was the day.

It really started yesterday, when I was having an impossible time dusting bc of all of the crap laying around.

Well, today I needed to email off a form of dd's flu shot for her volunteer position. I was SURE I had seen the form (which the nurse signed) in the mailbasket. So I sorted the mail all the way down to the bottom... no form.

But in the meantime, I find in the mail a notice that my insurance STILL hasn't paid $1000 (denied) for a couple of doctor's visits IN JANUARY 2020. It was a fuckup by Medicare, which I fixed, and then a fuckup (or three, or four, or more...) by the billing office. It's not as if I haven't already called and been bounced from the insurance co to the billing office and back again several times. So that went on my "list of things to do today" and added to the annoyance.

So then I spent a couple of hours looking for that fucking form... throwing trash out, recycling magazines and random pieces of scrap paper, and putting other stuff away as I went ...building up a head of steam because I was cleaning up after everyone else. I even went thru the recycling basket. Still, no form.

Put more things away, stripped and cut up boxes for recycling. Went thru both cars, pulled out all of the crap that dear daughter stuffed into the glove boxes and elsewhere. No form.

So I finally called the volunteer office, and fortunately they didn't need THEIR form, they could use the doctor's office form, which the dr emailed to me.

Called another dr wondering where the Rx for my Epipen was, and was informed that they had sent the fax to the pharmacy on the 18th. Again, I had called the pharmacy THREE TIMES about that missing Rx, so it's not like they weren't aware. The dr office offered to refax the OK, but I called the pharmacy just to be sure that they knew it was coming bc by now I don't trust them not to bobble it.

Checked an order that I received from iHerb, and six items were missing. So I had to contact THEM and get that straightened out.

Finally got around to calling the billing office, and they shunted me from one number to another, and put me on hold just long enough for the clock to strike 5PM, when I got reverted to the general switchboard.

I did kind of blow my stack a little at the general untidyness and notified the family that things.would.change.



-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 10:47 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Geez... That's a rough day. Sorry to hear that Sigs.

Hope you didn't go too rough on them while you were in that state of mind. I tend to get EXTREMELY angry when I can't find something, but fortunately living alone I have no one but myself to blame and to yell at.

After dehoarding, running around and looking in ridiculous places like the refrigerator three times for things had been pretty much eliminated from my life, but now that I've got tons of tools out because I'm doing 10 different jobs at once and all of my kitchen stuff is in boxes on my living room floor, it's happened more than a few times in the last few months.

I can relate.

I hope you got most of it ironed out and you aren't on hold very long today. Might I suggest waiting to call again first thing tomorrow morning when their business hours start if you haven't already? You tend to get on the phone almost immediately instead of waiting on hold for an hour if you're the early bird.


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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 10:52 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


The snow is melting. Yay!

My poor gutters though. I hope they're alright when this is done. Not much snow remains on the front roof, leaving behind only about 18" of ice on top of the gutters that is heavy and will be slow to melt.

No water in the basement at least, and as far as I can tell there's no raccoons where they shouldn't be either.



Today's agenda: Finish the final coat of primer on the microwave nook and teh rest of the 5th batch of things.

Prime the sides of the two cabinets I sanded yesterday to start getting a feel what they'll look like when finished.

Go out to the garage and strip the last two lazy susan discs and the two small drawers so they can air out ofr a few days and I won't loose too many primering days by the time they're sanded and ready to go.

After that I'll probably either try to finish washing the ceiling or go back to scraping off that tile adhesive to throw some more primer down.








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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 1:47 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Think there was a brief hail storm in my area at around 5pm then after a bit it turned back into rain.

Hail usually means VERY strong updrafts/wild weather. In the midwest, tornado weather. Good thing nothing worse happened!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.



I noticed some wind blowing the trees around a bit before it happened. Nah, nothing so dramatic here. Lasted I don't know how long then went back to rain which last a good bit of the evening. Got sun now.

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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 1:50 PM

BRENDA


Sunshine for my walk today.

Then when I get back I have to get the garbage out just because I don't want it to start making a mess.

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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 3:22 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


There's prolly a fix for ice-filled gutters, or a way to prevent it. Or maybe it doesn't matter bc gutters and ice are very common where I grew up, and I don't recall anyone's gutters ever coming down.
I'll look into it.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 3:29 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


https://www.4feldco.com/articles/get-rid-of-gutter-ice-dams/

FWIW

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 4:39 PM

BRENDA


Sun when I went out then on my way back it rained for about 5 minutes and now back to sun.

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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 5:21 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by SignyM:
https://www.4feldco.com/articles/get-rid-of-gutter-ice-dams/

FWIW



Thanks. Raking it is the way to go I think. I didn't even know roof rakes were a thing until this year. By the time I noticed my neighbor used one it was already far too late for me.

Most of it is gone now though. The back roof was completely ice and snow free this morning and teh shingles were bone dry. It's not supposed to dip below freezing tonight and it's supposed to be just as warm and sunny tomorrow as it was today, so it should all be gone on the front and possibly even my garage by the end of the day.

And no water in my basement yet.





Primer shift is done, so the 5th batch is done except for a scuff sand tomorrow.

Primered the sides of those two cabinets I sanded and it looks great.

Stripped everything left to strip in the garage today. (Still need to strip inside about half of the cabinets with the Eco-friendly stuff).

I'll probably wash the ceiling behind the fridge and curio cabinet as well as scrape off all the adhesive from the sub-flooring so I can prime it while they're out.

It's been a good day.




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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 11:09 PM

BRENDA


Snow and rain now expected on Thursday.

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Tuesday, February 23, 2021 11:14 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Almost no precip in the 10 day, and every day except for 2 of them in the 40's. FINALLY!!!!


Sorry about the snow there Brenda. Not too much, I hope?


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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 12:42 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

SIX: It's been a good day.




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A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

It sounds like it!

I'm pleased with today's results too, altho I didn't get anywhere near as much done as you
The best part is that after I did everything I needed to do, I got to potter around in the garden.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 1:06 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



Yesterday I caught up on quite of bit of shopping and errand-running, including doing my 'recipe shopping' for the batch of meals I'm fixing tonight. I still have some heavy-duty shopping to do the weekend coming up at one particular store, but I'm glad I got the scattered stuff done that I did get done.

Around 16:38 (4:38 PM) the power went out - a few lights came back on for about a half-second, then everything went out again. So I quickly called my neighbor just to see if it was my house, or more than that, and indeed it was at least the neighborhood.

I had just enough time to prepare the vegetables for chicken fajitas before I lost all daylight - and right about the time I finished and it got totally dark out 2 hours later, the power came back on.

I've been told that if it goes out for a few minutes it's likely a car-meets-utility-pole problem, and they quickly re-route the juice. But this was almost exactly 2 hours. There's no Santa Ana winds, no fires, no electricity shortage (it's not roasting hot out, or freezing cold), or anything I can point to to say why.

And AS ALWAYS SoCalEd has no information either in their automated phone system or online about the outage.

It would be nice just to have at least an acknowledgement by them that SOMEthing happened! And a bit of info about how geographically widespread, how many people affected, what was the cause, how long did it officially last, would be most appreciated. But they just never do that.

Anyway, since the power's been back on I've been moving along with my chicken fajitas. It's the first time I'm fixing them, so I'll be curious to see how they turn out!

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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 1:08 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Having a hard time sleeping now hearing that sump pump going off so much though. It was weeks without hearing it go off at all, and I had to force it every couple of days just to make sure it was still working. But now it's going off a little more than once per hour and it's freakin me out.

I'm sure it's fine with all the melting going on, and it's going to be above freezing all night, but the whole last day it wasn't going off that quick and it's weird hearing it go off that much when it hasn't rained or snowed in a week.

My mind's just playing tricks on me. If it wasn't going off I'd be worried that I wasn't hearing it.

I think this house is giving me PTSD.


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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 1:44 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



So hey Jack, I just wanted to expound on roof/ eaves/ gutter// snow/ ice/ icicles/ ice dams, which is over for this year, but you might be interested for the future.

FWIW I have never, ever heard or read of anything being damaged by ice in the gutters, though I have heard of people being beaned on the head by falling ice and even people being speared by falling icicles.

That said, sometimes roofs with or without gutters develop ice dams. That's a build-up of ice along the edge of the roof. And ice dams I have read and heard many, many times, do cause damage.

What happens is this: Melting snow and ice flow down the roof and hit the eaves. Because the eaves are far colder than the roof, at lot of time while melting is going on on the roof, freezing is going on along the eaves. And ice builds up along the coldest edge. As you know, shingles are ... shingled. They're installed to shed water flowing top to bottom. However, they're not sealed along the bottom to keep out water from intrusion going UP UNDER the shingles - from bottom to top (or to keep wind-driven rain from going up, either). Roof water intrusion happens when an ice damn keeps melting snow and ice from flowing off the roof - it 'ponds' at its lowest point. And that water can creep upward through the bottom edge of the shingles, to the underlayment, and into the framing space and interior of the house.

Watching This Old House, their favorite fix when re-doing a roof is to put down a self-stick and very elastic layer of waterproof polymer directly on the underlayment along the bottom maybe 8 feet of roof. (Supposedly this stuff is so elastic, when you nail the shingles on, it self-seals around the nails.)


Other than that - the trick is to keep the snow and ice from melting in cold weather. And that can involve venting directly under the roof from soffit to ridge, and/ or lots of insulation to keep the heat from your house escaping up through the roof.

If you're still in your house next winter, take a look around at your neighbors' roofs and yours. If you have lots of snow and they don't, YAY for you! And too bad for them. But if they have snow and you don't, you might possibly want to look into that.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 1:56 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



So hey Jack - I know you worked REALLY HARD to make sure the sump pump wasn't dumping water right at the side of your house foundation, and was directing it reasonably far downslope. As long as it's running I think you'll be OK.

But just in case you see surface-water ponding behind your ice-wall moat, just break the wall at a downslope spot.


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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 10:17 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Thanks for the info, Kiki.

About the roof, I have a fairly unique situation going on with my house. It's a tri-level house with a "finished" attic on the low side (above the 1st floor). It's got 2 layers of plywood on the floor that is carpeted, and painted drywall on the walls and right under the ceiling (I'll assume that it's insulated under that drywall, but knowing how bad everything has been behind the scenes on the first three floors, that's probably not a good assumption). Behind these finished walls is where the raccoon was living... and apparently she had access to the entire front of the roof from here because I'd hear hear all the way from the furthest end of one side, and I finally found her beady eyes staring at me from the completely unfinished attic of the attached 3 season room which I can access through a little door all the way on the other far side.

This is the front of the house where the overhang is above the porch and the roof slope is steep enough that I can't stand on it. It's also where the raccoon ate through the overhang roof last year. The only reason I was able to get up and repair it on my own was because it was close to the top of the overhang and I could shimmy my way up both roofs, get to the end of the overhang, and then remove 4 layers of shingles downward while straddling the overhang.


The back half gets even more interesting. Around 1/2 to 2/3 of it, not including the starway from the 2nd floor, is also drywalled and carpeted. It's almost like a shelf that is carpeted on both far ends of the house, with drywall also on the slope of the back roof. They must have made walls too, because there is about 2 feet of wall that is drywalled off, and I don't have access to the eaves from inside there either.

In the center, it is not finished. Plywood "floor" in there, with just some RJ-15 under the roof. The "walls" were made in there too though, so although they weren't even mudded or finished I'd have to take them down to try to get to the edge of the roof.

But the worst thing is that the furnace is up here. It rests on the floor behind a finished wall at the edge of the larger space above the 1st floor in the front (the wall makes a kind of "hallway" to the far "bedroom". There is access to this unfinished "room" via a high panel on the left of the furnace directly to the 2nd floor height, a small panel on the ground to the right of that to allow access to swap out filters, and a low panel on the right side of the furnace that will let you interact directly with the furnace (this is how I managed to re-wire it to get it to actually work the first year I lived here and quickly discovered I didn't even have a working furnace).

This is a fekkin UPFLOW furnace, that blows air out into ductwork that spans around 30 feet directly under the peak of the barely insulated roof, both in this unfinished area, and part way into both of the "finished" rooms on either end under soffits. From this single piece of duct work branch off 6 stems that are nothing more than cylindrical insulated tubes that reach down to the circular roof vents. 1 in each bedroom and the bathroom on the 2nd floor, and 2 in the livingroom and one in the kitchen on the 1st floor. (Yes. It's the least efficient furnace system ever devised in the history of mankind. I'd probably be better off burning stuff in 55 gallon oil drums in the basement).


Between that and the sun hitting the back of the roof the majority of the day, it's no wonder that when I went out yesterday morning my back roof was completely free of ice and water and the shingles were bone dry, despite a lot still needing to melt on the front including hundreds of pounds of ice on the gutters and easily over 1 foot of heavy, wet, melting snow on the ground everywhere outside.


I'd imagine that this entire furnace system was an afterthought. The OG homeowner probably got tired of replacing the crawl space furnace every other year when this used to be a MAJOR flood plane before the local ditch system was installed and people used to kayak down the street. But until I could ever manage 100% certainty that I'd be able to avoid a basement flood in any situation, I wouldn't even think of investing in a furnace down there. It's already got the slab, the gas pipes and about 1/3 of the ductwork necessary. But I think my roof is destined to just be a snow melter (and probably a beacon for raccoons in a side-effect).





Now the sump pump....

It drains into the storm sewer. As long as that's not blocked by tree roots (which I DID have to clear out around 6 years ago), and as long as the city sewer isn't backed up (which happened just last year during major flooding), then it gets where it needs to go.

But I do want to make a 2nd well that does what you're saying. Or at least leave a pump unplugged in a secondary well... One that is attached to a very long hose that I can feed out a basement window in the back of my house as far away from the foundation as I can before turning it on. That's really the only way I can make sure this place doesn't flood since I discovered last year that even if my power is on and my sump pump is working my place can still flood the way things are set up now. I had to turn the pump off last year at the very worst time because every time it went off it was spitting water out of the toilet on the opposite side of the basement.

Fortunately, the city fixed the problem around 4 hours later, and another 2 hours later I was finally able to turn the pump back on and get rid of the water in the crawl space before it got high enough to make it into the "livable" space. The visqueen was like a waterbed.




So yeah.... praying for a drought this year.

Had three of them in a row after buying this house and was blissfully ignorant of the problems I'd bought. But since then we've had 6 years of increasingly bad spring flood seasons that hopefully hit the apex last year.

I'm hoping for the best with my gutters and the patch job I did on the foundation, but after this winter I'm already mentally exhausted. We haven't even gotten to the part of the year where I usually hit peak stress and I just keep thinking to myself "how many more years can you take this?"


I saw a single tiny ant in my basement yesterday while I was painting. I spent an hour looking around to see if I could find any more (I didn't), but I've been stressing about it ever since. I'm surprised I didn't have ant nightmares again last night after I did finally manage to get to sleep.


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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 1:29 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


SIX: I think it would be weird if with all of that melting snow your sump pump WASN'T going off, altho I can understand the flinch reaction! It would be like seeing snow elt but the creeks not rising. I think KIKI got it right: you have an intermittent underground stream running under your property which really shows up when there's a lot of snowmelt or rain. Your neighbors have it, too.

But you got the problem of water percolating down directly around your foundation fixed by fixing that drain pipe and putting in gutters, so it took a while for the snow to melt and the water to percolate down thru the dirt and move in your direction. Since it took a day or two for the sump pump to start working, it may take a couple more days after the snow has melted for the sump pump to stop working (lag time with drainage) but ... so far, so good.

And that was A LOT of snow!



-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 1:35 PM

BRENDA


Out for a walk in the sun. Allergies waking up.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 5:26 PM

BRENDA


Back and vacuuming done. Though I think vacuum is on its last legs.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 6:37 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SIX: I think it would be weird if with all of that melting snow your sump pump WASN'T going off, altho I can understand the flinch reaction! It would be like seeing snow elt but the creeks not rising. I think KIKI got it right: you have an intermittent underground stream running under your property which really shows up when there's a lot of snowmelt or rain. Your neighbors have it, too.

But you got the problem of water percolating down directly around your foundation fixed by fixing that drain pipe and putting in gutters, so it took a while for the snow to melt and the water to percolate down thru the dirt and move in your direction. Since it took a day or two for the sump pump to start working, it may take a couple more days after the snow has melted for the sump pump to stop working (lag time with drainage) but ... so far, so good.

And that was A LOT of snow!




Yeah. I think it's fine. I'd be freaking out whether it was working or not. That's the state of mind this house has put me in over the years.

Add the single ant I saw in the basement yesterday, and then add the several mouse droppings I saw today behind the stove and one on the kitchen countertop while I was working, and I'm just going batshit right now.

Got my traps out. Hoping I only catch one. I should be getting it early. I've spot checked around the house and in the closets and there doesn't seem to be any other activity so far. I think I'm just going to have to make sure I have traps set 24/7 until I ditch this place.


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A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6

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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 7:45 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Out for a walk in the sun. Allergies waking up.



Hmm. What could be bothering you at this time of year. (It's a puzzle I go through during the year for myself.) Rain does a fantastic job washing allergens and pollution out of the air! (I know that professionally as a well-measured fact.) But when the rain stops all that nice air-cleaning goes away, and the allergens available right now go floating around and wreaking havoc.

So at this time of year, where you are I'm guessing what's 'blooming' right now is mold (sporulating, molds like dampness, and now the rains aren't washing the spores away); and, seasonally, grasses releasing pollen (wind pollinated), and trees releasing pollen (wind pollinated).

Oh, and the rest is just stuff I'm interested, and I like to share things that interest me in case other people are interested as well.

A lot of plants 'bloom' with invisible or nearly invisible 'flowers'. These are the wind-pollinated plants and include grasses and most trees, including conifers. Their flowers are generally small, inconspicuous, and contain no nectar, because they don't depend on attracting pollinators like insects, birds, or mammals (bats). Instead, they release tons and tons of pollen, in the hopes that enough will land on sticky structures to fertilize the eggs and create the seeds for the next generation.

OTOH the showy, nice-smelling, (and nectar-containing), garden flowers we prize so much have such heavy pollen, they need pollinator help to get the pollen from plant to plant.

Interestingly, the showy pollinator-needing plant goldenrod got blamed for the allergies actual caused by the inconspicuous wind-pollinated plant ragweed, that blooms at the same time.



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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 8:02 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



Jack - my area still has a lot of unbuilt, uncultivated land, like the steep hill right across the street, so I'm pretty familiar with vermin and even coyotes and the rare bobcat (though my Argentinian ants are completely different from your ants).

My experience with mice and rats is that population pressure can cause the occasional critter foray into the house. (I guess I'm luckier because I have an avid hunter cat in the house.)

An occasional sign of mice (or rats) isn't necessarily a sign of significant infestation. But if you want to be sure, try to patch up all the holes in the interior envelope of your house first. Mice and juvenile rats can work their way in through holes as small as a dime. But since you've been doing so much work on your place, I think you probably already know where those breaches are. My experience is that unless there's SIGNIFICANT population pressure, simple patches will work and the mice and rats won't gnaw their way in by creating holes where none exist.

You can do the exterior breaches to your outer envelope later.

OH! yeah - small pieces of raw bacon seem to be a universal and foolproof attractant here for both mice and rats.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 11:17 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


I think it's coming in from the attic. That door I mentioned that's on one side of the finished attic that leads into the non finished attic of the 3 season room. It either came in through there, or somehow it's getting in behind the cabinets that I'm not going to take out.

I'm assuming it's only one at this point. It's been about 1 1/2 years since I caught the last one and I haven't seen any evidence of mice in here before today... (those droppings behind the stove could have been a few days old though... I only thought to look because I saw one on the countertop).

I've had an infestation before, and they're anything but quiet. Especially when the lights are out and I'm lying down. If I didn't see that one dropping I would still be ignorant to the fact that it's even in the house.

The trap I put in the attic has been in a dark room for about 3 hours and nothing so far. The one behind the stove hasn't caught anything yet either, but I just finished working in the kitchen now and had a lot of light in there along with all the noise I was making. I expect to find at least one in a trap when I wake up tomorrow.


I don't ever have bacon in the house, but they really can't resist peanut butter either, and I've always got that on hand.





Anyhow... I washed the entire ceiling, the soffit and all of the walls except for about half of the tiles that I didn't already bleach and use the grout marker on. I'm not going to bother wiping the TSP off until I am ready to paint since I'll be doing a lot of cabinet sanding and some wall repair that is going to kick up dust anyhow, but that should all wipe off with some warm water when I get to that point.

I did a few crack repairs, filled a few holes, put some mud up around that ceiling fan outlet. Most of that will need a second application.

I also scraped up about 14 sq ft more of the adhesive off the floor, but didn't finish what I wanted to get done before putting more primer on the floor, so I'll just do that tomorrow night.


--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 11:24 PM

BRENDA


Ignore the post before this. It was an experiment that went wrong.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 11:28 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Out for a walk in the sun. Allergies waking up.



Hmm. What could be bothering you at this time of year. (It's a puzzle I go through during the year for myself.) Rain does a fantastic job washing allergens and pollution out of the air! (I know that professionally as a well-measured fact.) But when the rain stops all that nice air-cleaning goes away, and the allergens available right now go floating around and wreaking havoc.

So at this time of year, where you are I'm guessing what's 'blooming' right now is mold (sporulating, molds like dampness, and now the rains aren't washing the spores away); and, seasonally, grasses releasing pollen (wind pollinated), and trees releasing pollen (wind pollinated).

Oh, and the rest is just stuff I'm interested, and I like to share things that interest me in case other people are interested as well.

A lot of plants 'bloom' with invisible or nearly invisible 'flowers'. These are the wind-pollinated plants and include grasses and most trees, including conifers. Their flowers are generally small, inconspicuous, and contain no nectar, because they don't depend on attracting pollinators like insects, birds, or mammals (bats). Instead, they release tons and tons of pollen, in the hopes that enough will land on sticky structures to fertilize the eggs and create the seeds for the next generation.

OTOH the showy, nice-smelling, (and nectar-containing), garden flowers we prize so much have such heavy pollen, they need pollinator help to get the pollen from plant to plant.

Interestingly, the showy pollinator-needing plant goldenrod got blamed for the allergies actual caused by the inconspicuous wind-pollinated plant ragweed, that blooms at the same time.





I'm also allergic to dust which is why I did a bit of vacuuming today. But pollens and such. I did okay over the last couple of months. Just got to stay a head of them.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 11:33 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Ignore the post before this. It was an experiment that went wrong.



Were you looking for this?






--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2021 11:35 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:

I'm also allergic to dust which is why I did a bit of vacuuming today. But pollens and such. I did okay over the last couple of months. Just got to stay a head of them.



You would not do well in my house right now...

I'm still half convinced that subfloor in my kitchen is made from asbestos.


--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6

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Thursday, February 25, 2021 1:38 PM

BRENDA


Yes, how did you get it to work? I tried to cut and paste it but I couldn't.

I wanted to see if I could post a picture of a totem pole from the West Coast of Canada. It's Haida.

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Thursday, February 25, 2021 1:41 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:

I'm also allergic to dust which is why I did a bit of vacuuming today. But pollens and such. I did okay over the last couple of months. Just got to stay a head of them.



You would not do well in my house right now...

I'm still half convinced that subfloor in my kitchen is made from asbestos.


--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

Collection of links to Second's, Nilbog's and Marcos' death threats: https://cutt.ly/tkCvEX6



If you have serious allergens in your house then no I wouldn't. I've cleaned up mouse droppings. Had one get into an apartment that I lived in once.

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Thursday, February 25, 2021 1:42 PM

BRENDA


Whatever flowers were growing outside got a layer of snow on them last night. But I got a couple of things to do today. So I am out.

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Thursday, February 25, 2021 3:01 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.



Hi Brenda

You can see images on your computer from a google search 'images' from one of 2 locations.

You can see it as a google-link from a google location, whose link you posted here:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
http://www.google.com/search?q=pictures+of+haida+totem+pole&sxsrf=
ALeKk03oD9Dk5qjHFlnEnlqCIoeKVlMPYA:1614226717531&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=jcbQjwYVIQt7VM%252CtGxACi_rrAt2hM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kShRivJEFDC1GkaoK9rkG3O5kOQmg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiK_NaQl4TvAhXJpJ4KHd7SBekQ9QF6BAgHEAE#imgrc=jcbQjwYVIQt7VM



OR

You can go back to to the original picture from the original page. https: //i.ibb.co/QNbLDRB/02a32be200e709035d0d2dac0b5cdabd.jpg


When you do a GOOGLE search 'images', GOOGLE will gather many images for you to look at. But it puts all those images into one single GOOGLE list that answers your search. So while you'll see many images on one page, all of those images are from GOOGLE's one list it made for you, which it stored on its GOOGLE location. And you can tell they're from GOOGLE's list because if you right-click/ "copy link location" and right-click/ "paste" the http address, the link shows that it's from https: // www.google.com ...


Anyway, your thing 'understands' the google link from google is an image and shows the image.

But this website FFF.net doesn't show images from https: // www.google.com ... because the GOOGLE link doesn't have a name FFF.net 'understands'. I think it needs to see a .gif, .jpg, .tif, or .png at the end of the link.

So if you see the location as coming from https: // www.google.com ... your picture won't display here since it lacks the .gif, .jpg, .tif, or .png at the end of the link.


OR

To display the picture you want, you need to go back to the original page with the original picture instead of GOOGLE's list.

To do that you first click on the image you want out of the GOOGLE page(s) of images. That gets you a large image. That image comes directly from the original page. Then right-click on the image. And hopefully your thing will put up a drop-down list, and one choice is "copy image location". If you click on that, you'll get that link put into a computer memory, and you can then "paste" it wherever you want - like for example in an FFF.net post, or on your link bar you'll see on your computer.



BTW, the FFF.net site seems to be picky about what it'll display or not. As you've seen it doesn't display images from a google list link because those links don't have jpg, gif, tif, png at the end of them. But also ... and I've been too lax to check it out completely and remember it ... some links out of the jpg, gif, tif, png selection might not display at here. So you might have to not post a particular image you want if it's got the wrong ending at the end of the link that doesn't display here, but select a different but meaningful image that does display here.



OR

You can post a link that doesn't display on FFF.net, and hope people won't be so lazy they won't click on it to see.



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Thursday, February 25, 2021 3:33 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

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Thursday, February 25, 2021 5:12 PM

BRENDA


Thanks for the info Kiki.

I will have to double check what page I am looking at if I am thinking of posting a picture.

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Thursday, February 25, 2021 6:29 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


So... how was your day?

I was up on my roof risking my life, hanging from the peak of my overhang on a steep slope with my left hand while doing my best to shove sheets of metal up under shingles, jamming a half shingle over the damage and then caulking the hell out of it with roof tar, all with one hand, for a temporary patch until I can pay a roofer to fix it for me.

Got a guy coming to give me a quote to cut down the maple trees tomorrow.

Fucking raccoons.


Somewhere, there is a god laughing at me right now.


--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

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Thursday, February 25, 2021 11:31 PM

BRENDA


The snow went away and tomorrow is wind.

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Friday, February 26, 2021 3:58 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
So... how was your day?

I was up on my roof risking my life, hanging from the peak of my overhang on a steep slope with my left hand while doing my best to shove sheets of metal up under shingles, jamming a half shingle over the damage and then caulking the hell out of it with roof tar, all with one hand, for a temporary patch until I can pay a roofer to fix it for me.

Got a guy coming to give me a quote to cut down the maple trees tomorrow.

Fucking raccoons.


Somewhere, there is a god laughing at me right now.


--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

So ... the 'coons are back and busy pulling things apart with their clever little hands?

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Friday, February 26, 2021 8:26 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Yup. The snow tracks last week was just foreshadowing.

Real dick raccoon though. Instead of putting the damage within any area I could conceivably reach safely, it put it nearly in the center of the overhang about twice as far down as it was the last time. Last year I was just barely able to replace four layers of shingles from the top by straddling the peak of the overhang. This time it's about 7 layers down and impossible to do a real fix... Too far from the front of the house to work from a ladder, and too far from where the overhang meets the main roof to do it while safely perched on both slopes. The first stiff breeze we have is going to take down what I put up there.

It gets worse though... This little prick decided to tear up the shingles, but then didn't finish the job. Didn't even bother tearing the tar paper after it got through the shingles. So there's no hole. Just 2 to 4 shingles that need to be replaced in a spot that I have to pay somebody else to replace them.

If I hadn't had one that burrowed through in nearly the same spot last year, I'd be convinced that a large limb fell on my roof but then somehow landed in another dimension before hitting the ground. There is no tree debris anywhere near the size it would take to cause that damage anywhere on my property.

I'm hoping what happened is that it jumped 15 feet down, had a bad landing, took a few shingles with it while it fell off the roof and broke a few legs when it hit the ground.



So after doing all that work in the mid-30's weather on a roof that still has snow up the banks I usually shimmy up, I did what I should have done the second I saw those tracks leading to the maple a week ago and got my boom box out of the garage and had it at full blast with full bass in the overhang just in case it comes back to finish the job.

I haven't been outside yet to check it today, but after around 11:15 last night it still hadn't tried again.





So I've had one stray ant 3 days ago. 4 mouse droppings spotted 2 days ago and a raccoon trying to get into the roof 2 nights ago, and I've still got ice in the damn gutters.

No mice caught in any traps yet, and no other evidence of them found yet, and no other mice spotted.

Forecast shows no rain for days. So before the tree people come for a quote I'm going to start spraying all around the foundation for ants early this year. I'll probably put a bag of the spreader poison around the foundation too. Way earlier than I usually would, but that ant didn't just come alone.


I'm literally exhausted right now. I'm not getting any real sleep and I'm stressed to the max. The first spring rain hasn't even touched down yet.


--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

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Friday, February 26, 2021 9:18 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Ugggghhhh...

Last night there was zero rain in the forecast for a while. Now it's a 50% chance tonight. Not a ton of rain, but now I can't put the insect poison down today either.

Really hoping my temporary patch job is still up there when I go outside. I'm having a hard time even bringing myself to go out there because I know it's another dangerous trip on the roof if it's not still up there.


--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

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Friday, February 26, 2021 10:02 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Yes, how did you get it to work? I tried to cut and paste it but I couldn't.

I wanted to see if I could post a picture of a totem pole from the West Coast of Canada. It's Haida.



What is Haida?




I missed this post until right now. Sorry Brenda.


I opened your link in another tab, then (hoping that the image which popped up on the right was the specific picture you wanted), I right clicked on the image and clicked "view image".

That pulls the image itself into the window with nothing around it and gives a direct link to the image in the address bar (which you can then copy and paste here).

I almost certainly could have just used that link here without any problems, but I like taking the extra step of uploading images to a site called imgbb.com so fff.net is pulling from that image instead of from whatever random page the image came from, but you usually don't have to do that if you don't care to.


NOTE: This was all done in Firefox. It should be manageable in every browser, although the steps might be slightly different.

NOTE 2: Trying to copy and paste the image inside of Google will give a bad link. They just give a reference link to the image instead of the direct image itself. It didn't always used to be this way, but I believe there was some lawsuit years back against Google Images for the technology to present all of theses pictures across the internet as if they belonged to Google, so the extra step of making the referral links apparently was enough to get the lawyers off their back. (I'm sure there's more too it, but what do I know?)


NOTE 3: That being said, make sure the link you're trying to post with an image ends with ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".bmp" or ".gif". These are the most standard image types uploaded to the internet, and those suffixes on the links should ensure you're posting a direct link to the image instead of some weird referral link.



--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

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Friday, February 26, 2021 12:48 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Yup. The snow tracks last week was just foreshadowing.

Real dick raccoon though. Instead of putting the damage within any area I could conceivably reach safely, it put it nearly in the center of the overhang about twice as far down as it was the last time. Last year I was just barely able to replace four layers of shingles from the top by straddling the peak of the overhang. This time it's about 7 layers down and impossible to do a real fix... Too far from the front of the house to work from a ladder, and too far from where the overhang meets the main roof to do it while safely perched on both slopes. The first stiff breeze we have is going to take down what I put up there.

It gets worse though... This little prick decided to tear up the shingles, but then didn't finish the job. Didn't even bother tearing the tar paper after it got through the shingles. So there's no hole. Just 2 to 4 shingles that need to be replaced in a spot that I have to pay somebody else to replace them.

If I hadn't had one that burrowed through in nearly the same spot last year, I'd be convinced that a large limb fell on my roof but then somehow landed in another dimension before hitting the ground. There is no tree debris anywhere near the size it would take to cause that damage anywhere on my property.

I'm hoping what happened is that it jumped 15 feet down, had a bad landing, took a few shingles with it while it fell off the roof and broke a few legs when it hit the ground.



So after doing all that work in the mid-30's weather on a roof that still has snow up the banks I usually shimmy up, I did what I should have done the second I saw those tracks leading to the maple a week ago and got my boom box out of the garage and had it at full blast with full bass in the overhang just in case it comes back to finish the job.

I haven't been outside yet to check it today, but after around 11:15 last night it still hadn't tried again.





So I've had one stray ant 3 days ago. 4 mouse droppings spotted 2 days ago and a raccoon trying to get into the roof 2 nights ago, and I've still got ice in the damn gutters.

No mice caught in any traps yet, and no other evidence of them found yet, and no other mice spotted.

Forecast shows no rain for days. So before the tree people come for a quote I'm going to start spraying all around the foundation for ants early this year. I'll probably put a bag of the spreader poison around the foundation too. Way earlier than I usually would, but that ant didn't just come alone.


I'm literally exhausted right now. I'm not getting any real sleep and I'm stressed to the max. The first spring rain hasn't even touched down yet.


--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.


Oh dear. The house really IS giving you a case of PTSD, isn't it? A few stray shingles lost, and not even the tar paper torn? A stray ant? A few mouse droppings?

I KNOW that these caused serious heartburn for you before but I would look at it this way:

Is it possible that the shingles were torn off by wind? In any case, the fact that there are no breaches in your roof means no raccoons in your attic, and you can always resort to the ammonia trick (Maybe splash some on your roof?) If that happens. Also, remember, raccoons are good climbers. If your downspouts give them any purchase, they can climb up.

DON'T WATCH THESE BEFORE BEDTIME, THEY MIGHT GIVE YOU NIGHTMARES!





HOW TO RACCOON-PROOF YOUR HOUSE


https://www.thecleverhomeowner.com/stop-raccoons-from-climbing-gutters/

One guy put vaseline on a portion of each downspout. I can think of downsides to doing that ... among other things it would trap dirt and make a dirty band on your gutters ... put that's another idea.

AFA mice and ants ... well, I guess if you had a serious infestation in the past any indication of a return would be enuf to give you the willies. We had rats in our walls and attic, but they aren't as clever as raccoons so simply screening off any possible entrypoints with heavy-mesh screen (Something they can't break with their teeth) and filling any dime-sized holes with steel wool (because rats and mice hate gnawing thru steel wool) was enough to discourage them. We also had something under our house (maybe 'possums) bc plumbers and electricians had breached some of the screening in order to access pipes and install cabling, but ... again ...there is a kind of screen that can be screwed directly on the siding, over the existing screening, and that seems to have solved the problem.

We also had a field nouse in our house, but I bought a mouse trap and baited it with bacon (nothing can resist bacon, not even mice with access to our snack drawer!) and took it to the field across the street, never to be seen again.

We now have a tree rat problem. Our area is filled with fruit and avocado trees, and there is no way to eliminate all of that tempting food, so I have to cut back the camelias so they don't touch the house, put metal sheeting on the (effing) palm trees which also serve as a climbing path, and put "rat guards" on the wires to the house, since they run thru the avocado tree to the house. Those, I'll prolly make from a large plastic bottle-bottoms.

Ants... if you can find the nest and kill the queen, you're good. Ants are prolly looking for dry ground right now, which is why they're exploring your house.

Don't worry ... this is all manageable. I think raccoons are your biggest headache because they're bigger, strong, smart, they climb like the dickens and have clever fingers that can open windows and undo fasteners, but you can manage this. We're lucky: we used to have raccoons in the neighborhood but I think someone called animal control and they were caught and killed.

Don't worry, there are solutions. You got this.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Friday, February 26, 2021 1:48 PM

BRENDA


Quote:

Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:

Originally posted by Brenda:
Yes, how did you get it to work? I tried to cut and paste it but I couldn't.

I wanted to see if I could post a picture of a totem pole from the West Coast of Canada. It's Haida.



What is Haida?




I missed this post until right now. Sorry Brenda.


I opened your link in another tab, then (hoping that the image which popped up on the right was the specific picture you wanted), I right clicked on the image and clicked "view image".

That pulls the image itself into the window with nothing around it and gives a direct link to the image in the address bar (which you can then copy and paste here).

I almost certainly could have just used that link here without any problems, but I like taking the extra step of uploading images to a site called imgbb.com so fff.net is pulling from that image instead of from whatever random page the image came from, but you usually don't have to do that if you don't care to.


NOTE: This was all done in Firefox. It should be manageable in every browser, although the steps might be slightly different.

NOTE 2: Trying to copy and paste the image inside of Google will give a bad link. They just give a reference link to the image instead of the direct image itself. It didn't always used to be this way, but I believe there was some lawsuit years back against Google Images for the technology to present all of theses pictures across the internet as if they belonged to Google, so the extra step of making the referral links apparently was enough to get the lawyers off their back. (I'm sure there's more too it, but what do I know?)


NOTE 3: That being said, make sure the link you're trying to post with an image ends with ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".bmp" or ".gif". These are the most standard image types uploaded to the internet, and those suffixes on the links should ensure you're posting a direct link to the image instead of some weird referral link.



--------------------------------------------------

A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.



The Haida are a people from the West coast of North America. They make totem poles and build huge sea worthy canoes. They are some of the best native carvers.

Don't worry about missing my post. I was trying an experiment but thanks for more information on how to do it. I will read your post later and sort it out in my head for future reference.

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Friday, February 26, 2021 1:50 PM

BRENDA


Out to enjoy the sunshine before it runs away and maybe rains on the weekend.

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Friday, February 26, 2021 4:25 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:

Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Don't worry, there are solutions. You got this.



As stressful as the last three days have been after a full month of too much snow on the roof stress was, I'm surprisingly calm today after resigning myself to the many thousands of dollars I'll be spending to remove the trees soon.

I've got a second highly recommended outfit coming out for a quote for comparison, but as much is this is going to cost me it's on the low end so far when looking at the prices online for removing mature maple trees.

I'm only trimming back the one furthest away from my house to make sure those limbs that branced out over the roof and are completely unreachable are gone, but I'm having the two sick and dying ones taken out and the stumps ground down.

If you remember, I had to remove a 50+ foot limb off of the one that was losing all its bark over the street and had a billion carpenter ants in it after I started cutting it open.

But the one that I think the raccoon got onto my roof from also has many problems. Within 5 seconds the woman who came to give a quote said "that tree is hollow". I told her "you aren't wrong". Last year I would watch squirrels enter it through a very high part of the trunk and then pop their head up 20 feet higher out of what must have been a previously cut off limb that is now completely hollow.

For the second outfit, they wanted me to mark the two trees I want torn out with tape so they can do a drive by and give me a quote without bothering me. While I was out putting tape on that one, I heard a noise over my head and it was a squirrel popping its head out of a hole three feet from my face.

"F#@* YOU SQUIRREL. YOU'RE BEING EVICTED!" I yelled.

This is a huge expense I wasn't planning on, but at this point I think having these dying trees have been shaving years off my life. Now that I've finally made the decision that they're going I actually feel like a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders despite the price tag.



And that's not even taking into consideration how many less times I'll have to clean out my gutters when 1.0 Billion helicopters are reduced to .33 Billion helicopters... most of which should fall harmlessly into my lawn and far away from my roof. Add the fact that I'll probably only have to clear out my gutters 2 or 3 times all year instead of 3 times a week.

And just think of how much less leaves I'll have to take care of in the fall.





ETA: Oh... and some might say that gutter guards would alleviate the helicopter and leaf issues, but to that I say "I'm probably extremely lucky I didn't spend the money last year to have gutter guards screwed into the tops of the gutters last fall right before thousands of pounds of ice developed 2 feet on top of the gutters and blew everything out."



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A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

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Friday, February 26, 2021 4:29 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Oh...

And because I couldn't put down spray poison with the rain tonight, I decided to put 12,500 sq ft worth of Triazicide around the perimeter of the house and garage with the spreader before the rain falls. Probably about 8 times the concentration that it was designed for.


Good luck surviving that ants... or anything, for that matter.

If I had unlimited funds I'd do what Mr. T did and I'd blacktop my entire property at this point.


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A government is a body of people usually, notably, governed by Mark Zuckerborg and Slack Dorsey.

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Friday, February 26, 2021 4:45 PM

BRENDA


Looks like rain clouds are rolling in.

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