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ctw1949
Certified organic poultry farmer in SE Mass

I'm hoping!
I think I have sold my camper!!! YEA! As soon as it's empty, I can sell it to the new "buyer", then I don't have to pay monthly rent on that. I'm hoping to have everything out by next weekend, then I don't have November's rent. I have promised the guy who helped me make the connection a $50.00 finder's fee...and that will cushion the blow of not having my camper rent as a monthly income.

I hope to stash all of the stuff from the camper in my cousin's garage (yes, the same cousin who has the 150# Rotti). The challenge will be to figure out how to keep the dog from pissing on my stuff in her garage! Maybe some cayenne pepper? That might work.

She has a ton of metal in her garage, I have contacted another friend of mine who scrap metal hunts and we will get together this coming week so he can relieve her of the scrap metal. He will be very happy to have the metal, she will be happy to have it gone! Best of both worlds!

With COVID-19, nothing much is selling on CL or FB market place. I am still reluctant to sell on eBay, since they are making a lot of policy changes, so many I can't keep up!

So, this week looks good for emptying and selling the camper...and I have to measure my client's yard for lime application...and do some dividing and transplanting for her as this season winds down.

Fortunately, we have had some rain fall here. Not enough to make up for the summer's lack of any rain, but at least a dent. The soil in my garden is wet all the way down, first time since they shut the outside spigot off for the gardens. Not many have anything going on in their gardens now. Such narrow-seeing people! They want to grow only hot weather crops...when they can grow such nice greens this time of the year if they plant at the proper time.

OK...I am checking often to see if there is any robot spam in my comments. I haven't found any new spam...and I did send an email to support@copper.net...and have had no reply from them!

Enjoy this fall weather...and thanks for reading!
Posted: Sunday, October 18, 2020 with 12 comment(s).
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Searching for SPAM
I'm checking my comments to see how many spam bots left messages for me...none which I have prompted by using their services or products. I did notice that on the main page at copper.net, there are some strange typing in the headlines. Some look like a foreign language typewriter...so I suspect that any hacking is done by countries across the big pond.

Meanwhile, I have sent several messages to support@copper.net without any response...regarding the excessive spam on my blog comments. I know they got hacked a week or ten days ago, since there was porn on the home page (under the blog setting). That has been cleaned up...but there is still the strange typing in the text and headlines...

We had about 1 1/2 inches of rain on Tuesday. Badly needed, we are still about 9 inches short for the summer. My garden is doing well, happy for the rain! Today, I picked some dill for freezing, catnip for drying and basil for seasoning. Spinach is close to harvesting. Swill chard is growing as is the kale.

Today was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and a very light breeze, temps in the mid 60's.Tomorrow it will be warmer but I think windy. More rain coming on Friday afternoon into Saturday. We need all the rain we can get!!!

Today, the apartment maintenance man continued cutting off the dead branches on the pine trees! There are many pine trees on the grounds. Most are probably 10 - 15 years old. There has been no pruning done on these pine trees (that shade the garden plots) and the lower portion of the trunks support about 4-5 feet of dead branches. The regular landscrapers are such jerks...they haven't cut the dead branches away, even though they have to mow around the trees! They have to get slapped in the face every time they mow! The landscrapers (that's what I call them) always cut live growth from the shrubs and trees...and always incorrectly, but they leave the dead branches on the pine trees! For instance, they use hedge trimmers on the rhodendrons in August. This cuts off all of next spring's buds. All flowering shrubs should be pruned immediately after they are finished blooming...that's when next year's buds are forming. To prune with hedge trimmers in August should be a hanging offense! Last year, in July, just as the hydrangeas were coming into full bloom, they cut off all the blooms. Idiots! These men are seasonal employees, most don't speak English, none are familiar with gardening practices. But they can run the lawnmowers and leaf blowers around! I'm sure they are glad for the work, but the employers are greatly mistaken to call them landscapers! They are just fools with tools! Or maybe just tools?

I'm done writing for today...thanks for reading!
Posted: Wednesday, October 14, 2020 with 1 comment(s).
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Rain, finally! And spam in this blog?
Rain has finally arrived here on the south coast of Mass! Too late for the trees but not too late for my fall crops. The leaf color is less dramatic than usual due to the extreme drought. This topic is not on the news much, but the eastern part of the state is in an extreme drought situation. I feel bad for local growers, for many don't have the ability to irrigate crops, never mind the cost of the systems to set up irrigation. When I gardened, I was lucky to have water close enough to invest in drip and soaker irrigation. I had to be careful with irrigation times, we had a well but the risk of running out of water was real.

I combated the moisture situation in multiple ways. I planted clover in the aisles to retain moisture. I mowed the clover with a bagger mower and used the cuttings as a mulch around the plants. Soaker hoses worked best for crops such as lettuce, kale, swiss chard and other row greens. For plants like tomatoes & peppers, I used point irrigation...drip irrigation. This took money and a lot of time to plan the layout. I grew pole beans, melons and cucumbers vertically and they needed extra water. These crops needed extra irrigation, so these lines had to be set up differently so extra water could be applied.To add to the mulch, which preserves water and deters weeds, I used hay, thickly applied to the base of every plant. I seldom used overhead watering since the loss of water was huge. And putting water on plant leaves opens up the plant to mildew. Not a happy thing for any crop.

I was a successful gardener for several years, but found moving the crops from the garden to the farmers markets to be such a job! The probability of selling all I harvested, washed, bagged and packed into coolers with ice along with all the necessary equipment for the market to be more than I could manage alone. The fees for each market took away any profit made from each market. There were some nights before each market that I didn't sleep since I had so much to do...always by myself.

In 2002, I was struck with extreme pain in my right thigh. The pain ran down my thigh, through my calf and into my foot. The pain was constant and enduring. There seemed to be no relief. I was unable to walk for three months. During this time, I attempted to find a diagnosis of what was happening. I had to find the answers in Boston, since the local doctors were unable or unwilling to be straight with me and offered me large quantities of pain killers as the answer to my pain.

It took me a year to recover, but at least the Boston doctor explained my situation. I had to make an extreme life-style change, that didn't come easily. I gave up the market garden and took up chickens as a hobby, then poultry became my newest interest.

I'm not sure if this website has any moderators...but this blog has been hacked repeatedly with "comments" made by what appear to be robot spammers. I don't get any notices in my email that there are comments to my blogs and I can't figure out why this is! At one time, I got a notice in my email so I could check the comments. But not anymore.

To my few readers, thanks for staying with me. I will enjoy the rain today and watch my fall crops grow.
Posted: Tuesday, October 13, 2020 with 1 comment(s).
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Life in General
October has arrived and with it the full moon. And a conjunction of the moon & Jupiter. It was spectacular...I was walking BB and saw it, even in the industrial lights of the city. Covid-19 is still present and on the rise, probably b/c many things have reopened and folks are feeling more secure. I still walk sans mask, but keep my distance from others since the CDC said contaminated droplets can stay suspended for hours or possibly days indoors. Group meetings must be discontinued and I wonder about closing schools! This apartment complex is Covid-19 free and I don't know anyone who has contracted the virus.

The use of antibacterial hand washes & body soaps still continues. Covid-19 is a virus...so antibacterial soaps will not kill it. Too bad that isn't part of an advertising campaign! Many are convinced that using those products will erase the virus.

On a different subject, I have found many interesting things out about my internet provider...pcsforpeople. They are a third party vendor of internet service. The internet is provided by Sprint, then sold to a company known as Mobile Beacon, then sold to pcsforpeople. Even tho' they (all) advertise "UNLIMITED" data, Mobil Beacon sets a cap on use!!! After 23 somethings...they start to limit your use towards the end of the billing cycle! To me, 'UNLIMITED" means just that. There is a "magic box" that Sprint provides (for free) to it's subscribers who have problems with their internet service. However, pcsforpeople do not provide this box. I also think their customer service is horrible!!! It took almost ten months for pcsforpeople to issue me a replacement WiFi device. I think I previously said they wanted me to buy a new one...and after I complained to BBB in Milwaukee, MN, I finally got a response from pcsforpeople. 

Some months back, I went into the pcsforpeople's website. I noticed a big change in their website, including a lot more information on available services, how these services are provided, including a link for Mobil Beacon. I hadn't seen this before. However, I was assured by Phoebe Pederson, customer service rep, that the information was available on the old website. If it was, it sure was pretty impossible to find since I had searched extensively. I think the changes came after there was a lot of complaints about the service.

I have been working on my shower surround...the grout started to fall out some time ago and the maintenance guy has used caulk to close up the gaps. Some people shouldn't be allowed to apply caulking!!! Messy corners, caulk all over the tiles and the mold has started to grow through the caulk since the caulk used wasn't the best but the cheapest. There is some old Phenoseal (a brand of caulk offered 20+ years ago) that is harder than cement. I have had to use a putty knife and rubber hammer to remove it...and need to take care to not crack or chip the tiles. One tile fell out (it was barely glued) and I have been soaking it in vinegar in hopes to soften the old adhesive. Going is slow, my wrist will suffer if I go at it for too long. I removed the safety hand rail and discovered who ever put it in, didn't bother to caulk the screw holes...and water leaked behind the tiles. You can see how the grout has failed directly under the screw holes. I will go back to working on the hard caulking soon.

B B has had a hard time with skin issues, weight loss, itchy and scratchy all the time. And LICKING constantly...I did some research online and discovered several side effects of the Seresto collar (Bayer). I removed the collar three weeks ago today. Since then, his skin has stopped flaking, the insides of his thighs are healing, the rash under both of his front legs and his chest have healed. He has stopped the constant licking and scratching. He still does some scratching, but that's natural. He has put on some weight and sleeps peacefully now. He isn't so lethargic. I may have my dog back!!!

We did have some rain Sunday night and Monday morning. My neighbor and I watered our gardens on Sunday afternoon. We had to haul water outside in jugs in our rolling carts. This primed the garden dirt for the expected rain. We pulled up the tomato plant since it had finished making tomatoes. My neighbor was impressed at the size of the root system. We applied another round of organic fertilizer prior to watering and the rain. We have Swiss chard, spinach, kale, dill, parsley, rosemary, alfalfa, lavender, horseradish, catnip & Borage growing now. Most others have cleared out their tomato plants and the garden dirt is bare. If only they would plant a cover crop to add organic matter and nitrogen! But my gardening class was cancelled last spring as were all classes and meetings. I wish I could post pix on this blog!

Speaking of Blog...I see Copper.net home page was hacked recently! I have had a lot of strange comments on my blog, I believe this was the first attempt at hacking Copper.net. I sent a message to support but never got a response. I'm hoping all is OK with them and I won't find more strange comments attached to my blog.

Thanks to Gem for all her information and my readers for staying with me. Stay safe...and thanks for reading!
Posted: Tuesday, October 6, 2020 with 0 comment(s).
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Life in General
September is coming to a close...and Saturn is still chasing Jupiter across the sky. There will be two full moons in October...called a Blue Moon month. December 21 brings a conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and the moon. The "must see" of 2020.

AC was shut off on Sept. 14, no notice to residents. The garden water was shut off, also. This means I have to haul jugs out to water my fall crops!!! Kale, Swiss Chard, spinach & dill, growing nicely but need watering in this drought. We are probably 10 inches below normal rainfall for this summer. The inches are not told on the weather as a total, but as monthly shortages...and flashed quickly off screen! And there is no climate change!!! Fires rage out west, southern states are flooding! What a mess!

It has been pretty warm the past few days after a nice spell of fall-like weather. Temps got down into the mid-40's on one or two nights. Some residents had their heat turned on...and the heat is on in the lobby and hallways!!! So warm for the heat to be on! But seems that the upper management doesn't realize how much energy is wasted with unnecessary heating and cooling. The windows are never opened in the hallways for circulation of fresh air...and that is one thing that the CDC says will help with keeping the virus at bay. No cleaning of door handles anymore...and I know the hand carts are not cleaned regularly anymore.

I called the upper management about why the outside water was shut off when some of us still have active gardens. I first asked the manager of the building, she said it was her bosses boss who said to shut water off...irrigation was shut off, the annual plants are being pulled out and tossed into a dump truck. What a waste! Composting those plants would give us a wonderful soil mixture to add to our gardens in spring. But NO!!! Such wasteful "management"!

So, I called the bosses boss and left a message. He called me when I was in the bank with Sam...setting him up a checking account, so I couldn't answer his call. When I returned his call, his secretary asked me if this was a "complaint", I said it was for a discussion. I got no call from the bosses boss. I'm sure the manager here let him know I wasn't happy about the water shut off for gardens.

So, I fill 7 gallon jugs with water and roll them out in my "old lady" cart to the garden. Thursday, I took 14 gallons of water out. Today, I will take that much and more out. And this is a place for disabled persons! There are more than tomatoes to grow, seems they are not educated at all about rotational planting and don't want to know about it.

I'm not sure what I will do...I have written letters to the management, several months in a row about several things going on here. I don't know if she shows them to her superiors or not...maybe I should print these letters out and send them to upper management? But I fear for retaliatory eviction!!! The money spent on useless things here is just amazing!

Yesterday at about 1:30 pm, I saw this guy Mark...who's mother was a resident until last fall...come into the gate here. I was taking Sam home after another aborted attempt at filing for his stimulus check online...this guy Mark broke the elevator last fall after he got all his mother's stuff out of her apartment (she went to live with her daughter)...and the elevator was not working right for at least six months!!! The building manager said to call the cops if he is seen on the property...but I was dropping Sam off after working online with him...and wasn't going to wait for the cops to show up. This guy Mark was leaving the property when I got back from dropping Sam at his house. Sam lives a few minutes away. I saw the guy Mark counting pills in his hand when he was walking out. I will let the building manager know he was here again. Of course, there aren't enough cameras to follow him to discover who is selling him drugs, so it's pointless...and the manager will say to call the cops...and then wait for them to show up!

Yesterday & today the internet is on and off...right now it's off. Lots of fog this am, but yesterday it was clear and calm. No reason for buffering...and no internet! I think I relayed that the Sprint tower is only .3 miles away from me, but there is an elevated highway between the tower and me...plus the cement building. Right now, there is NO INTERNET!!! I will have to wait till internet comes back before I can send this post.

Friday, Sam and I worked at my client's in Rochester. He planted Vinca, I planted spring bulbs. We both weeded, I found a lot of small poison ivy plants under her suet feeder. I'm sure the birds have deposited seeds from the poison ivy as they are feeding off the suet! We both weeded oxalis and other weeds out of several beds. We discovered a nice stand of Foxglove plants. This year they give off leaves, next summer they will bloom! This will be so exciting!!! The spring bulbs will come up in March under a huge Black Walnut tree, the vinca went into her flower bed, we removed them early this spring and renovated that section of garden. But it was too dry to replant them, so we waited till now. Rain is scarce, so Sam watered heavily before replacing the mulch...and we hope for rain on Wednesday.

Internet is back now, so I will sent this off. Thanks for reading!!!


Posted: Sunday, September 27, 2020 with 2 comment(s).
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