Tales of Home [8]

I could be wrong, but those look suspiciously like Willapa oysters...

The roasted oysters were definitely gulf oysters. They save the imports for raw consumption, if requested, and at a premium price.

Looks like your having a good time

It's now snowing for the third time in the past week and is layering even more than it did the first time. I think this might be the most pre-Christmas snow we've received in my neck of the woods since 2009. The winter of 2015-16 was pretty heavy (possibly the longest continuous period I can remember of snow being on the ground without completely melting) but didn't really start until January.

Eldorion wrote:It's now snowing for the third time in the past week and is layering even more than it did the first time. I think this might be the most pre-Christmas snow we've received in my neck of the woods since 2009. The winter of 2015-16 was pretty heavy (possibly the longest continuous period I can remember of snow being on the ground without completely melting) but IIRC didn't really pick up until January.

The last Xmas snow we got must have been about 15 year ago, occasionally get a brief flurry of sleet, but snow is quite rare in winter down here in Hampshire though we had a very hard forst/lots of ice one day last week, more likely to get snow in March these days.

Actually I think heavy rain is more traditional Christmas Day weather for England.

Its either peeing down freezing rain or, a bright sunny day on Christmas Day. I cant remember when we had a snowy Christmas ? We've had some sleet, its been utterly cold &, windy ( and I haven't even had the sprouts yet ! )

It's been cold and windy here. Haven't had a snowy Christmas, ever.

There's certainly no lack of Christmas lighting down south though, if you're into the whole fire-side Christmas evening thing...

Forest Shepherd wrote:It's been cold and windy here. Haven't had a snowy Christmas, ever.

There's certainly no lack of Christmas lighting down south though, if you're into the whole fire-side Christmas evening thing...

I didn't know you lived bear mordor

That is gruesome What about the wildlife ?

"Flee, FLEE FOR YOUR LIIIVES!"

We've been planting a new cranberry bog, cutting and broadcasting vines which are then disc'd down about an inch into the soil, which needs to be not too dry (in which case the vines don't penetrate ) and not too wet (in which case everything gets churned into a giant pool of muck ). We just finished today, except for the fiddly bits around the edges!!!

Also still working on defending the shoreline from what's been called the fastest erosion on the Pacific Coast. http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/coast/erosion/washaway.html
So far we're beating the odds! The next major challenge will be the 11 1/2 foot tides around New Years. No partying for me this year. I'll be out on the beach trying to hold back the sea!

How does one do that exactly?

Am I understanding it correctly that you make a bunch of cranberry vine cuttings, and then spread them over a field and use a tractor to disc them into the soil? I would have imagined that you just walk along sticking the vine cuttings into the soil, like planting rice in a paddy.

Well done on the new cranberry site Dave Sit back & wait now isn't it ? Good luck with holding back the tide ! I wish you the very best on that ! We've got coastal erosion here also, lost a whole village to the sea & now the cliffs are diminishing at a scary rate. I don't actually feel very confident living on chalk. It gives up too easily.

{{{Hope you have more luck than King Canute did! }}}

Canute was an amateur Relax, I've got this!

I've been corresponding with the engineers and professors, and we're going with something they call "dynamic revetment" which basically mimics a natural cobble beach, absorbing the wave's energy before it can collide with a vertical bank (which not only undercuts the bank but causes a reflected wave to strip the beach away below ). Very few places have tried this because everybody seems to want to pay tens of millions of dollars for a guarantee that nothing will move for 50 years. With cobbles they're supposed to move, so that doesn't work!

So once I got the idea I decided Nature was the best engineer so I drove up and looked at the shapes of the natural cobble beaches 50 miles north of us and tried to copy their angles and shapes. So far it seems to be working, and costing about a penny on $10 compared to professional projects. That's the Farmer Way!

We need diagrams!

And pictures!

It's fascinating to hear about your work countering erosion, Dave. I remember the news video you shared some time ago. I'm glad to hear that it seems to be going well right now!

I'd be happy to put some stuff up when I have time. Unfortunately it's never been easy for me to post pictures, even before Photobucket bolted its doors .  
Does anybody have suggestions on an easy way to post pictures that doesn't involve selling your soul to Google?

I use Imgur.com most of the time. It's not a great service especially as they compress higher resolution images but it's usually good enough for me. I hear a lot of good things about Abload.de; their interface is in German but it's fairly intuitive IIRC. We have our own built-in image host if you click on the photo icon above the post box but TBH I almost never use it myself.

What's wrong with using the one-two punch we have in the tool bar? Drag and drop, then paste. Lemme make sure it still works:



Sure, it doesn't have unlimited residency, but it lasts long enough.

Forest Shepherd wrote:

halfwise wrote:We need diagrams!

And pictures!

I'll take your diagrams and pictures and raise you the need of an academic paper

Thanks Eldo. I may try that later.
In the mean time, here's a FB page a neighbor just started a few days ago. "Erosion" has been spelled to rhyme with "emotion", but I'm OK with that
https://www.facebook.com/washawaynomore/

And here's a video she took of me yakking, with  some of the cobbles we placed rattling in the waves behind me.
I've never liked seeing/hearing myself talk, but others seem to expect it of me...

That's not me.

This is me (I hope..)