July, Julips, Jollies and Jaberwoks 2021

I will start this with the announcement that my grandson was born today at 1:47. 8 lb. 5oz. He is healthy, but in the NICU because he isn't breathing quite as well on his own as they would like. He was taken 2 weeks early. I won't be able to visit until Tuesday, but happily we can have phone conferences, etc.

I am not announcing on FB until his mom and dad announce.

>1 MrsLee: Woot! Hope the little guy picks up quickly! Excellent size! My first was 8lbs 2 oz., and 4 weeks early and he did just fine. You know we want pictures as soon as you can get some!

Our temps have gone down a bit, although the humidity is up, so it doesn't make as much difference as I would like. The grass and bits of the garden are kind of crispy, but I expect it will all recover as things cool down, and especially if we get some rain. I went to visit a friend this afternoon, and as I stepped out of her house afterwards I got a face full of heat, humidity, and the smell of cedars and it took me right back to visiting my grandmother in Ontario when I was a kid.

>1 MrsLee: Congrats to the whole family. Hoping he just needs a little practice breathing and that he'll be out of the NICU quickly.

>1 MrsLee: Congratulations! Exciting news!

Planted out my brassicas last weekend, and have to replace half of them this weekend because something has been digging them up despite the netting. We suspect sparrows, blackbirds and starlings have been able to get in. Very frustrating and expensive - I've had to invest in more netting and a set of hoops.

I also survived the 3 days of PowerBI training from last week. Interesting, but I'm not sure how much use I will get out of it given I mostly work in Business Objects. I guess I will see when the consultants build the link to the database. It had the usual problems of most training as it focuses on financial analysis not population analysis.

>1 MrsLee: Congratulations! And good wishes to the medical staff as well.

>5 Maddz: Always the blackbirds. Sneaky, conniving little blighters. They sound nice though.

Edited to fix an autocorrect (originally posted from the iPad).

>6 haydninvienna: Went out to the patio yesterday afternoon - flutter, flutter - something shot out from under the table and hid under the stack of chairs. A young blackbird deciding I wasn't carrying food.

Also, somebody has been digging in the pot of Greek Basil and the two pots of bean seeds I planted. That's probably the sparrows (the beans might be field mice though); the holes were too small for blackbirds. The beans are now covered with fleece, not sure what to do with the basil - might put a bell cloche on top.

Another weekend of gardening beckons - but first a trip to the Farmer's Market and Morrisons this morning.

This is why blackbirds get baked in pies.

Went out on the patio this morning:

Zoom ! Sparrow #1
Zoom ! Sparrow #2
Zoom ! Blackbird #1
Zoom ! Blackbird #2
Zoom ! Blackbird #3

I can’t win…

Oh congratulations grandma! That is a nice summer gift. Hope he gets to breathing on his own and can get all the cuddles he deserves.

>1 MrsLee: Oh, congratulations - to you and the proud mum and dad!

>1 MrsLee: I am so happy for you, and I'll be keeping the little one in my thoughts that his lungs are perfect soon. (There were some similar breathing issues with my son and after some panicky X-rays it turned out that he was born with a cold and had sinus and lung congestion. Which cleared up quickly!)

>9 Maddz: Might be time for a small water cannon! It won't hurt them, but they won't like it one bit.

>12 clamairy: Or a cat... But Paul's allergic and is a keen birder.

Maybe a small terrier, but it will have to wait until I retire as it's not fair to leave it cooped up in the house all day.

I've been muttering about a motion-activated dinosaur, except I don't want one stomping through the veggies.

Thank you all for the well wishes. No news yet this morning on the baby front, but mamma says she is doing better. Had a rough night. Pictures will probably wait until I get to see the little fella in person. The only pictures I have yet, he looks like a little scuba diver with his mask on.

>9 Maddz: I walked in my garden today. The deet have stripped all the roses, and eaten the few volunteer hollyhocks. The skunks digg up our plants looking for something or other and if it isn't them, it's the wild turkeys. There are a thousand other things that want my plants more than I do, so we quit trying.

>1 MrsLee: Baby! Hurrayby!

I have nothing but bad news, so I think I'll sit on it a little longer and let the baby have the field. Time enough for gloom later.

I now have 40 "babies" and some more on the way. I've had a white amaryllis in my kitchen for over 10 years; it didn't do very well in the kitchen in Cambridge (east-facing so too dark I think), but still managed to flower 2 or 3 times. After we moved, it went on the south-facing window sill and loves it. It flowers every 9 months or so, and produced an offset the year after we moved.

The offset flowered this year, and the original bulb has produced a second offset. It also set seed, and I made the mistake of germinating them. There were at least 50 seeds, and I popped them into a glass bowl to see if any were viable. Well, I've just planted up 2 seed trays with 40 of the sprouted seeds, and there's some more on the way.

I need to make plans on who to farm them out to in 2-3 years time...

>1 MrsLee: Many congratulations! I hope you can snuggle that baby soon!

>16 Maddz: I have an amaryllis (new to me last fall) that has seemingly put out several offsets. Any words of wisdom? Do you unpot it and separate them?

>15 Meredy: ((((((((Meredy))))))))

>15 Meredy: Bad news needs someone to tell it to too.

Although it is always great to hear good news, please don't feel that you have to suffer in silence.

>17 Marissa_Doyle: Last time, I let it grow on the original bulb for a couple of years before splitting it off and planting in another pot. If I recall correctly, I waited until the tip of the bulb was above soil level before planting it on.

Don't forget to feed it; I use some slow release pellets or heavily diluted houseplant food and I keep watering weekly until the foliage dies back. Then I let it dry out between waterings until it starts sprouting.

My amaryllises live on the windowsill with my succulents - some of which have vicious spikes so I pity anyone trying to get in the house that way. (My mother had pyracantha around her boundaries and growing up the front of the house - the police said it was perfectly acceptable to have things with 1" thorns as an intruder deterrent, it was unacceptable to have things like metal spikes or broken glass on top of the wall.)

>15 Meredy: as >18 -pilgrim-: said, life consists of all the good, bad, ugly, beautiful and everything in between. The main thing is that we are here to support one another in every stage. ((hug))

I'm going to share a photo of Geoffrey here if I can figure out how.

>20 MrsLee: Upload it to your member gallery and then post it using the link there.

>21 Meredy: I can't seem to do that on my phone, and I rarely visit when on my laptop. One of these days...

just mail them out. Messaging you my address now.

We are home from the Paradise that is a new grandson. He and his mother were released from the hospital on Tuesday and we were able to visit that evening. Needless to say, his grandfather and I are quite smitten.

>24 MrsLee: And hello to you too, little fella!

>24 MrsLee: Pictures! Hurray. Congratulations all around.

Great news! Enjoy your time together!

Fantastic pictures. Congratulations all round.

Once again, congratulations to all concerned.

Hurrah for a new grandbaby--someone else to love! Very happy for you and your family. :)

>24 MrsLee: He's soooo cute! Thank you for the pictures and congratulations again.

>24 MrsLee: So cute! Congratulations! Love the pictures.

>24 MrsLee: So cute! I am very very happy for you and your family.

I have finally managed to organise a crew to deal with the jungle at the bottom of the garden and replace the grotty fencing. I've lost count of the number of people I've had in who have given me a verbal quote, and when I say, fine, give me a written quote, never get back to me.

They start tomorrow week, so fingers crossed! There's a patio at the end which is badly overgrown.

>24 MrsLee: welcome home, little man! He’s adorable!

Yesterday The Husband and I took part in an annual cancer fundraising cycling event. He rode the 75 mile route. I rode the 50 mile route. It was limited in-person participation this year. Only 500 people. It’s usually around 1500 people. And no after party. It was great to have the event again! My legs are doing ok today, but I definitely didn’t have enough time on my bike; I’m super saddle sore!

Two new fires in my area and one in “the valley” near a city.

We’ve had quite a few fires in the state already. One is considered a “mega fire” because it has grown so large. It doubled in size the other night which made it close to 150,000 acres. Mrs.Lee, are you getting smoke from that one?

One of the ones near me is bringing smoke into my city. All of them have needed evacuations. I haven’t heard any updates on them this morning.

>24 MrsLee: What a handsome fellow! He's already curious about the world!

>36 catzteach: Oh no. I hope you can manage to avoid the worst of the smoke and stay safe.

Definite first-world problem: dishwasher packed up. Booked a service call for Thursday. Oh well.

And I should have already added some wishes for the north-west US and south-western Canada and their heatwave and fires. Really, really awful, and our best to everyone there.

>38 haydninvienna: When mine went wrong last year, I was able to fix it myself. Just a matter of replacing a pipe in the main cavity as the connection for the rotating arm had worn off and the arm kept falling off.

Otherwise it would have been a right faff to get someone in during lockdown.

>40 Maddz: The error message translates to “problem with the heat exchanger”. I didn’t even know it had a heat exchanger.

Has anyone here ever taken a vacation trip through Amtrak? We are considering a train trip that goes to Glacier National Park in Montana, and the user reviews are very mixed.

>41 haydninvienna: Oo-err, missus! I wonder if it's to do with the drying cycle...

>42 Darth-Heather: Glacier is wonderful, and railway trips are wonderful. I've loved my Amtrak experiences. I don't know about that particular route, but watching the scenery change from the window of an Amtrak "roomette" was one of the most serene and I would even say blissful experiences I can recall.

I would also praise the pleasures of dining on a fine meal served over white linen tablecloths with cut flowers in a vase, making genial conversation with genteel strangers while the sun sets and the train rolls on through the night.

Going to the Sun Road, though: once was more than enough for me.

>36 catzteach: Not bad here yet. Although there are several fires around.

>42 Darth-Heather: My experience with Amtrack was over 30 years ago. Sacramento to Denver. We were young and didn't get a sleeper, which I would never do again. Also, back then there were no tablecloths and the food was served in plastic trays, microwaved. Not a dining experience to recall with pleasure. Perhaps that has changed?

We took a train from Anchorage to Fairbanks Alaska a year later and it was delightful. That one had the tablecloths, waiters, real food, etc. But it wasn't Amtrack.

>44 Meredy: Lovely description. However I was waiting for a dead body to appear, and perhaps a small Belgian detective.

>44 Meredy: the trip we are looking at involves a shuttle bus up the Going To The Sun Road. Did you drive it yourself?

>45 MrsLee: that seems to be the gist of the negative reviews - apparently some trains don't have full service dining or better amenities. I'm not sure how to tell whether the one we would take does have that. Maybe I need to consult a travel agent...

>47 Darth-Heather: A ticket for a time to travel Going to the Sun Road is now required, unless one takes the shuttle or enters the park very early or very late in the day.

>36 catzteach: glad the smoke isn’t bad there.

We had two more fires pop up yesterday. One is near the mega fire. I’m guessing it’ll be consumed by the mega fire in a day or two. :( the other is in an area that is not easy to access and could endanger a small town I frequently drive through if it gets big enough. The one nearish me is growing and causing more evacuations. I’m going to work on getting a few more supplies into our “go bags” today. I’m not in any danger of the current fires, but I want to be prepared if needed.

>48 catzteach: Thinking of you.

>49 -pilgrim-: thanks. I feel for all the people losing their houses.

The mega fire is now the biggest fire in the US. :( and another one popped up about 40 miles south of us. It’s already 500 acres and it’s only 4 hours old. It, too, is threatening houses. This is just so scary. It’s only mid-July. We usually don’t see fire activity like this until August. We need rain so badly!

Hugs to everyone who need one.

I expected being off from work - vacation, yay! - should give me some free time for catching up with the pub, but instead this is the first time in 10 days that I fire up the laptop. Main reason for this is that my MIL, or really - husband's step mum - has taken a turn for the worse. About five weeks ago she fell and broke a collarbone. Then, two weeks later, she fell again and this time she fractured a hip. She's 83.
Then, ten days ago, she went to the hospital again, this time with undisclosed (to us) "stomach problems".

She lives in the town outside of which we have our cabin, and so as we stood in the grocery shop stocking up, fresh from the train (or not, it was a super hot train journey as the a/c broke down in 30 deg C temps: it certainly was closer to 40 on the train) she calls my husband asking him to come meet her up as she arrives home, released from the hospital.

Since then we have tried to assist her, doing her laundry, fixing lunch and dinner, and so on, all the while watching her deteriorate. At last we arranged to see the head RN at the clinic, because it was clear to us that she mismanaged both food and meds. With the RN behind us we managed to get her to accept to go back to the hospital, which is where she is now.
After she went we found her medical files, and now we're even more thankful that we got her into hospital. Given what was in her files she would have a good prognosis IF she followed the regimen given her regarding food, exercise/physio, and meds. And she managed to miss on all points.

Now we're just holding our thumbs for her staying put. And we also need to get her mobile phone to her: she left home with a lot of stuff but managed to miss that one. As she went without her phone she had no way to tell us which ward she was in, and so we spent all day trying to find her. Patient security regulations means no hospital is allowed to give out any information on who's committed and where, but now we're through and so tomorrow we'll go give her the phone.

There's even more going on, but I leave it there.

Also, we need to get a coat of paint on the house, plus the flower beds are entirely overgrown.

Vacation?! I'm not so sure, yet. But at least it's not the usual office stuff ;-)

>51 Busifer:
I think you need a hug. ((((()))))

I hope her being in hospital will get her back on the mend. Thinking of you and yours.

>51 Busifer: Oh dear. Offering more hugs. It sounds as if you and your husband will need a vacation after going through all this. Hope your MIL gets everything sorted so she can get home again.

>51 Busifer: sending virtual hugs. Sounds like it might be hard to follow up once you head home.

>51 Busifer: Ack! :o( Hope everything settles down and she rebounds quickly.

>50 catzteach: Best of luck to you and your whole corner of the country.

>51 Busifer: And hugs to you.

>51 Busifer: Yet more hugs. Some holiday!

>51 Busifer: And more hugs and good wishes from me. I hope being in hospital will start the mending process for your MIL. And good luck with the house projects!

Thank you, all. One do what needs be done, but an extra vacation on top of this one would not be amiss.

>54 NorthernStar: Yes, it will be very difficult. But we hope that she'll be on her way to recovery by then, plus, if needed and if she's eligible, get the process to get her into assisted living going.
ETA: >58 Sakerfalcon: Thanks. Hopefully the weather will hold. Painting requires a dry environment, and rains can be persistent at this time of year. So far so good, though (knock on wood).

Strength to you from here, too. And may the rain hold off until the paint is dry.

So, life has been moderately crazy with the ongoing supply issues at work of what product is available at any time, especially paper and cleaning products. We've had three part timers hired and then fired on nite crew since the beginning of the year. At some point in the future we're going to have a change in how we deal with backstock that's going to involve making changes to the shelving in the aisles.

But, a jolly has come my way. I have to check the details, but my lease is up for renewal, so I don't have to worry about finding a new place to live and all that entails. I had been worried about the possibility because some of the apartments that have been vacated in the past few months have undergone major renovations, and others got at least some minor upgrades. Also, considering NEW rentals for apartments like mine are priced at over $250 US more than what I pay, I was waiting to get the boot after ten years. (DAMN! Ten years since I moved here. Time flies.)

So, for at least another year I can throw that worry to the subbasement of my mind.

I've had a stressful week or two. First, at the end of June my elderly friend who was our museum curator (and instigator) passed away. Both he and his wife have been like a second family to me.

We've been working on building an addition to the museum for several years, and when it first went to tender last year we found costs were much higher than anticipated, and the funds held for us by the town, due to a change in their accounting practices (all legal, they assure us) are less than anticipated. We had to put it on hold and apply for grants. We were successful with one good-sized grant, retendered, and can just do it. Final approvals are in the works. If anything goes wrong, we could still have problems. Construction should start shortly.

My dog Duncan has been limping off and on on his right front leg since last year. We have a vet that visits town about once a month, but he is pretty limited in what he can do. Last fall when we saw him, he wasn't sure what was wrong (no x-ray machine) but that Duncan should just "take it easy for a while" and should be fine. This spring, the limp has gotten worse. I blame the squirrels - they run along the fence and Duncan charges across the deck, down the stairs, across the lower deck and along the fence. Of course he never catches them. So, once I was fully vaccinated, I decided we had to go to the vet. Took a week and a half to get an appointment, and after Marl died, it turned out to be the day before the funeral. It's an eight hour round trip, so it makes for a long day. Turns out, he's been doing damage to his shoulder/elbow joint, needs to be very restricted for two weeks, and on a leash for 4-6 more.

I'm also finishing up work for the census, mostly trying to catch the people who really don't want to do it. That can be frustrating!

And a camping trip with friends this weekend was cancelled die to the weather forecast. As it turns out, that is probably a good thing.

Then, on Wednesday, Duncan's back right leg was hugely swollen. I suspected a bite or sting of some kind. Called the vet, they suggested Benadryl. Tried that, didn't seem to be working much. I checked with a friend and the lady who works with the vet who comes up here. Suggested I see how it looks in the morning. I thought it looked a bit better, but he wasn't eating, and I couldn't get him to take any more of the Benadryl, even in cheese. And he'd licked one spot raw. So, by noon I decided we needed to go to the vet again. Made it before they closed, and by then it was really a mess. Looks like it abscessed, and was starting to open up. Possibly from a spider bite. So - drain it, antibiotics, and keep it open and draining with epsom salt baths. Made it home after midnight. I have some friends I could have stayed with, but Duncan was dripping bloody goo, and that wouldn't work well with their carpets. Today he has a nasty hole in his leg, but the leg is much less swollen.

Ugh. Sorry for dumping all that.

>61 rastaphrog: Good news regarding the lease. Worrying over where to stay is a real energy thief.

>62 NorthernStar: (((hugs))) Holding my thumbs for Duncan.

>62 NorthernStar: Oh, poor Duncan. Hope his appetite improves and that the antibiotics do the trick.

>62 NorthernStar: My sympathy. Wishing a quick recovery for Duncan.

>62 NorthernStar: Do not feel guilty for "dumping". That is a lot to hit at once; you need to let it out.

Hang in there.

>63 Busifer:, >64 Taphophile13:, >65 pgmcc:, >66 -pilgrim-: Thanks for the sympathy for Duncan and me. I think he's on the mend but is still feeling pretty rough.

On a related note, I have a live trap and have been trapping the squirrels in my yard. They get an all-expenses-paid trip with the opportunity to start an exciting new life on the other side of the river. I'm not even using bait anymore, and the trap is set between my front window ledge and the railings beside my front door. I'm up to 20 so far.

Ouch. Hope Duncan continues to improve. When dog lose their appetite you just know it's gotten serious!

Re: Amtrak.
We've taken Amtrak several times and have enjoyed each trip. My advice is that if you are a stickler for timelines, don't do it. Stuff happens and they don't always run on time. We went from St. Louis to Washington (state) last year and it was fine. We got a roomette, dining was limited, and masks required when not in your room.
We are leaving on Monday from St. Louis to Grand Canyon, and on to San Francisco. Mask mandate is still in effect. Dining is back to good meals (rather than the prepackaged we experienced last year). We are traveling with my 84 year old mother and two sisters. Mom qualified for a handicap accessible room, the rest of us got roomettes. We got a call 2 days ago that for our trip back home (SF to StL), our car was being removed. We were planning to take the middle route back home (thru Denver, etc). MrExiled was on the phone for 1 1/2 hours with Amtrack Customer Service. He said they were very nice. Long story short: we are taking the southern route back home (a little disappointing as we wanted to view scenery the other way, but oh well), and they upgraded our accommodations from roomettes to rooms and gave Mom a family room, at no extra charge.

Looking forward to seeing my mom experience this as she's never taken the train, been to the Grand Canyon or SF.

>69 theretiredlibrarian: thanks for this - it's exactly what i wanted to know about Amtrak vacations. Did you book through Amtrak Vacations or Vacations by Rail? I've gotten quotes from both and there are a few differences in amenities offered.

>51 Busifer: I hope your MIL is doing better.

>62 NorthernStar: I hope Duncan is doing ok.

>69 theretiredlibrarian: that sounds like a fun trip!

The Bootleg fire is 20% contained! This is great news! This is the fire that is the largest in the US right now. They don’t expect full containment till November. There are crews from all over fighting it. The other day it was creating pyrocumulonimbus clouds. They had to evacuate the fire fighters! Although it’s in a part of Oregon that isn’t super populated, it has destroyed 64 houses and many more outbuildings.

The fires closer to me are not contained but aren’t growing much, which is good.

>67 NorthernStar: I am glad to hear that Duncan is improving.

And curious: what makes your house so fascinating to squirrels?

>71 catzteach: That is good news. Coming from a country that is too wet, and too deforested, to experience such fires, I have been watching the news coverage with horror.

Thanks for all the good wishes for Duncan. The swelling in his leg has come down a lot, and he is looking a lot more lively. He also ate more than just treats today, although not a lot. We went for several short walks, and he is walking much better. The mosquitoes were horrendous, though, and neither of us wanted to stay out too long.

>71 catzteach: Glad to hear the fire situation seems to be getting better. Southern BC is still pretty bad, but we just had another 2 days of rain.

>72 -pilgrim-: I live on the edge of town, but have never had so many squirrels around. When they get too bold I've trapped them before, but never had to transport more than 4 or 5.

>74 NorthernStar: Delighted to hear Duncan is on the mend.

>67 NorthernStar: I can't even imagine 20 squirrels!
>74 NorthernStar: Good to hear that things are looking up for Duncan. (And I can well imagine the mosquitoes...)

>71 catzteach: Good to hear, re the fires.

I'm from a place were forest fires used to be extremely unusual, and comparably small. Then, a couple of years ago, practically the whole country were on fire, one summer. We got volunteer firefighters coming in from northern Europe, and got help from firefighting aircraft all the way from Italy. Since we've mobilised against fires on a national level and now when a fire starts it is contained relatively fast.
That said forest fires are becoming more frequent, which is worrying.

On the situation with my MIL... She's still at the hospital but they want to send her home, as fast as possible. And, ten years ago she had not needed to be there: all she needs to do is eat right, take her meds, do some simple exercises, and go to her check-up appointments. However. In her current state she's not even able to take her meds, not to mention actually follow a prescribed diet. She just doesn't get why how you eat, and what, might be significant for recovery.
In all this she has also managed to lock herself out of her digital bank. And the only way for her to unlock it is to actually go to the bank, in person, and sign the appropriate papers. Which she is in no condition to do. Which in turn means there's a risk for her not being able to pay her bills. She had some foresight and arranged for most bills to be payed automatically, some years ago: most, but not all. We've found some ways to mitigate this risk, but it takes time to do so.

In other news the heatwave is over, we've managed to fix some of the garden-related stuff, made plans for next years gardening adventures, painted two of four walls, plus a garden shed, and drove to an annual flea market (a 70 km drive), taking the slow but scenic route home and so we managed to do some local touristing ;-)
Hopefully we'll be able to get some more of that!

>76 Busifer: I was listening to an interesting podcast about forest fires. One (certainly not the ONLY) reason they're so bad is that we've been fighting them for so many years. Especially in North America, many ecosystems actually NEEDED fire to renew themselves, clear out underbrush, etc. Indigenous peoples set controlled burns to make better habitat for the berries they collected and to make hunting easier. So fires didn't usually get too bad, because there was less tinder to fuel them. Now, we've been fighting fires for so long that large amounts of flammable material have built up, so they get hotter and faster. That's a big simplification of a very interesting discussion. I think the podcast was How To Save A Planet, but I listen to so many that I might have it wrong.

I live in the middle of a city, albeit not far from river valley and ravines, so wildfires are not a big concern, but we have terrible air quality right now (11 out of 10 on the air quality scale!) because of smoke blowing in from distant fires. The smell of smoke is everywhere, and you can see it even between our house and the ones across the street. It's quite eerie.

>77 tardis: When I was still a student I was shown a portion of the Jonkershoek valley behind Stellenbosch where the forestry department had excluded fires totally for the preceding 40 to 50 years. The vegetation was a mess, dominated by one ugly shrub. The natural vegetation in the next valley (never mind the rest of the Western Cape) had more different species than the whole of Sweden! However it was Nature Conservation (now Cape Nature) c. 1960 that put a fence and firebreak around the last three surviving plants of the Marsh Rose (Orothamnus zeyheri), and then discovered that seedlings of this rarity were sprouting happily, but only in the firebreak that was burnt regularly! In the last decade or so Kirstenbosch has shown that our Proteas actually need a compound in wood smoke in order to germinate. We now know that Cape fynbos needs to be burned about every 15 years to stay healthy. Many kinds of grassland and woodland in the summer-rainfall area need both fire and large herbivores (elephants, rhinos, buffalo and the like) to maintain them.

In reference to the comments above about some places needing regular fires, it comes down to whats referred to as "The Smokey The Bear Effect". What started out as a campaign to keep people from starting fires by mistake turned into an all out war against ANY fires. There's a bunch of articles and videos about it online if you do a search on the phrase.

>77 tardis:, >78 hfglen: In Sweden we have a long tradition of forestry (and clearing land for farming) by fire. I'm not so sure about the south, but up here in the absolute north of the country it is a continuing tradition, though burning is not allowed when it is very dry.
Here in the north we also have the reindeer that clears some of the undergrowth. As a consequence forest fires are not that common, and when they happen they are quickly contained.
90% of our population lives in the lower 1/3 of the country, though, and much of the remaining forests are owned by large landowners who largely lets the forest go untouched between logging. When fires starts it affects lots of people, and because there's so much undergrowth (and such a high density forests) fires are wild and threatens lots of people.

As a small side fires are sometimes started by sparks from bad brakes on freight trains. Passenger cars have digital couplings between them, linking them to the engine and the driver. Freight cars haven't (yet: digital couplings are introduced as we speak but the engines need to be adjusted too and it's quite an expensive process) and so a driver can't know if they run with a car somewhere that has its brakes locked. Or even worse: a derailed car. It happens that a train runs for a couple of kilometres before the driver realizes that the drag is due to a derailing, meanwhile both setting off sparks and destroying the track.
In earlier times the owner of the track - the state/government - had people all over the network, patrolling for fires, damaged tracks, and so on. The infrastructure is still nationally owned but the agency that has to maintain it aren't given enough means to actually keep it in shape.
And so, forest fires along the tracks.

>78 hfglen: >79 rastaphrog: >80 Busifer: Same problem in Australia, for the same reasons. It's said that the aboriginal people used to burn every so often to encourage grassland which was favourable for the kangaroos they hunted. The flora of Australia pre-human might have been much different--I have a vague idea that there was extensive temperate rainforest, nearly all of which is gone now, replaced by acacia and other sclerophyll plants that have adapted to periodic fire. And again, there are seeds that don't germinate well unless scorched.

>80 Busifer: That rail story sounds horribly familiar. Explosives for the Reef mines used to be railed up from the factory in Somerset West (about 1600 km away) in a long train once a week. There were stringent regulations to prevent accidents, but human laziness meant that sometimes they weren't adhered to as closely as they might have been. And so one day in 1932 a dynamite truck developed a "hot box" that wasn't noticed when it should have been, and got worse until the sparks set fire to the contents. 32 trucks exploded, and the roar was heard up to 500 km away. This was the worst accidental explosion ever in South Africa, but rather surprisingly it only claimed five human lives (and a herd of cattle).

>82 hfglen: That must have been quite an explosion. As you say, lucky that not more were killed.

For you guys who don't read my thread (and really, why not?? lol)

I almost missed my ThingAversary -



Holy.
Crap.

>84 Bookmarque: Congrats!

>84 Bookmarque: Congratulations!

>84 Bookmarque: HAPPY THINGAVERSARY!

>74 NorthernStar: Sending hugs to Duncan and wishes for a speedy recovery. Hope you are having a less stressful time yourself now, NorthernStar.

>71 catzteach: Keeping you and all those in the areas affected by wildfires in my thoughts. The scenes we see on the news here are horrific.

>76 Busifer: I hope you are able to get your MIL's financial situation sorted out quickly. And I'm very glad you have had some enjoyable adventures amid all your hard work!

>84 Bookmarque: Happy Thingaversary! I hope you celebrate in style!

All the comments about fires are relevant to the forests in Oregon. The forests here are very “cluttered” with downed trees and such. We have prescribed burns in my area that help clean that up, but still…

>76 Busifer: I hope your MIL’s situation is able to improve quickly.

>84 Bookmarque: Congratulations!

I was looking at your 15 years graphic and wondering how many other sites on the internet have lasted this long? Not darned many, I bet. And I'm very grateful to have LibraryThing and all of you!

Better Half and I got our Pfizer part 2 shots this afternoon, yay! The vaccination site we should have gone to is still out of action, so we had to go to a nearby (11 km instead of 4) hospital. Where they gave everybody in the line numbers that were called in sequence. We weren't encouraged to hear them calling no. 84 as we were given 507 and 508. But fortunately there were no numbers in the range 200 to 499, so things moved eventually.

Thanks everyone for well-wishes re my MIL. The hospital will release her tomorrow and she has decided to accept only minimal help. It is heavily subsidized, and capped, and she can afford it. It's just her stubbornness talking.
The good news is next week there will be a joint planning session between her, the home services organisation, and the clinic, and because we're still here we'll be there, too. This is the key meeting because it is then we'll hopefully secure appropriate help for her, seeing to that she can get in and out of her flat (ramp needed), help with meds, help with physio (hip farcture), help with food, and so on.

>84 Bookmarque: Happy thingaversary! Who knew we'd still be here, 15 years on? I'm due in September.
It feels weird, but also entirely not-weird, and like >90 tardis: I am grateful both for LibraryThing and all of you :-)

>91 hfglen: Congrats on the shots!

>92 Busifer: Wishing you and her well, and hoping that the current package works out.

>91 hfglen: Congratulations on your vaccination! I hope the process of normality being restored continues.

>84 Bookmarque: A most happy thingaversary to you!

>92 Busifer: The best best of luck with all of that.

>93 -pilgrim-:, >95 clamairy: Thanks. We do as well as we can, with what we have.
I certainly feel like I would need an extra vacation after this one.

>91 hfglen: Awesome! I feel like everyone who gets vaccinated is one more step in the return to a more normal life. And I don't want any of my friends to get seriously ill, either.

>92 Busifer: Hope all goes well.

>84 Bookmarque: Congrats!

Not July anymore but a kind of update on everything I offloaded here: The very last thing we did before returning home/south was having a meeting with the various parties responsible for various parts of MIL's care. She now gets the help that she need, which is good.
When we now speak with her on the phone she seems reasonably put together, all things considered.

>99 Busifer:
That is very reassuring. Now all you have to do is have a holiday.

>99 Busifer: I am very glad for you all.