Where did everybody go ? Missing you all...
Jenny
Where are you?
H Jenny
I'm here
I've been out working on the hill. Watching to see if the little gourd I moved here the other day is going to make it. So far it's hanging in.
Katiebear
Aloha KatieB !
Do you have plenty of rainfall or do you have to hand water the baby gourd ? Your work on the hill leaves me awestruck ! It's going to be beautiful - such dedication, my hat's off to you....
When you live on a small island in the middle of the Pacific and no-one else is posting you begin to think that something might have happened to the rest of the world that you know nothing about yet....
Hi Mom,
We don't get much rain here, so Ii'm handwatering but I can take water from my outdoor bathtub and pour it over the fence on the gourd so iti's no big deal. Ii've learned hard that I have to make it easy cause I tend to space out and forget anything that's not right under my nose.
I have several hoses for now and have soaker hoses to intall when the tires are in place.
I have to take my time because it tends to be one step forward and two back. I have visions of multiple tires filled with rock sliding down the hill - and me along with them! I love the feel when they are settled and level. And it's easier to redo early on than several levels down the road. So there's a lot of time spent doing it right - not just getting it done. When Hurrican John went by - two years ago,m I think , we didn't get the hurricane but we got 28" of rain in about 12 hours. I'm landscaping with that kind of possibility in mind.
I sometimes get the same feeling that the rest of the world has gone off somepllace without. Then I chaeck CNN and I know I'm OK.
katiebear
I've been wondering the same thing. since I am not an islander (yet) I don't have much to contribute about the tropicals so I am the kibitzer (?)
This is my favorite forum and everyone seems to be laying low for some reason.
It was in the 50's here this morning so I am getting really anxious about getting all my tropicals inside.
Chrissy?Shari?Sylvain?John?Carol? I'm leaving someone out, I know I am and just wish everybody would get with it.
KatieB - we need pics of your hill !
Christi, glad to see you have your "ears" on ! This is my favorite forum too ! I think Shari said she was very busy with a wedding and a few other projects....
Yes, that's right. She will be coming to the states in about 3 weeks and the wedding is the weekend she gets back to Kwaj so she's cooking up a storm.
I'm praying that John's hand/arm is healing and he is able to get back in the water. Think his gills may be dried out by now and that probably hurts.
It is almost noon, Friday here and I get very confused with who is sleeping and who is awake. About the time I am winding down others are just getting up. Between 6-10pm my time I notice a lot of posting from the islands.
Currently 7.15 am my time....having my last cup of tea before heading out to work, I guess you are 5 hours ahead of me Christi....
Just potted up 5 baby Brugs cuttings this morning, they had been sitting in water for so long I thought they may start to rot...have been meaning to do this all week but time just ran away from me ! You might wonder at the sense of some people who have already showered and are dressed for work choosing to pot up....I acually managed to stay clean!
Lot's to do in the garden. Later
Awake here...just! Buried with 'stuff' to do before my trip. HiAg. folks found FireAnts around my greenhouse so I am busy putting out bait and poison!!!! Man...they are tiny little buggers!!! I have never been bitten...surprised me that they were found!
Shari...Your little cuttings stolen from WalMart parking lot of the Carisa are rooting!!!! You will have a nice box of stuff to take back!!!
Cheeries to all!!! We are having rain at the moment...who knows what will happen in the next 10 minutes!!!
Aloha,
Carol
Hi everyone! Our island computer connection has been pretty much down for over two days now. Can't get on, can't stay on when I do manage to get on. So, never feel like I am ignoring anyone...just pooter problems.
Been swamped busy anyway...last night gave a talk on the Micronesian Handicraft Shop at an island newcomers welcome party. Met a super interesting lady - former Secretary of Internal Affairs for the RMI. She was just visiting, but I could have talked with her for hours!
Got some wedding cooking, some writing, some ordering...oh...and life stuff! to do, hope all of you are doing great. Carol - have a great trip! and watch out for those ants!
Got Jenny, Braveheart and Candy all potted up....hopefully they don't get too much rain !
Right now I have to go spread some dirt around! When they got done laying out the part of the patio that got mangled from the pipe problems, the had torn up all the grass we had around that part of the yard, and it was just sand. So they brought me some dirt to spread around to plant some grass seed in...but just dumped the pile of dirt right in front of the patio...blocking access in or out! Back later when I get that sorted out!
Yokwe!
Fire ants - oh Carol! I heard that they had got to the islands...how on earth did you identify them, there are so many ants here, I don't know one from another (unless I was bitten and then it might go through my thick head that I had a problem!)
Hope your trip is wonderful, take good care....
Shari, you're just busy, busy, busy! Time is getting close now... Can't believe it's almost November!
Aloha!
Jenny...much to my chagrin it was Hawaiian Ag who came out with peanutbutton on little sticks and baited the little monsters!!! They are MUCH MUCH smaller than any other ant in the place...really tiny!!! And peanutbutter attactsthem within 15 mins. I got the poison called AMBRO and rebaited....not a one within 24 hours. Hope I have seen the last...will rebait when I get back. Many folks have them...they must have come in on a plant buy....
Whoa...if it isn't one thing it's your mother!!!
Carol
LOL!
Hope you are rid of the little beasts, I will remember the tip about PB, did they put poison into the PB? Sorry, its just me wondering if the little devils just got stuck or was the bait taken back to the nest - inquiring minds want to know....
Years ago we had terrible trouble here in Australia with Argentine ants........ very tiny ants that nothing could stop!......they seemed to prefer things like meat and peanut butter to anything else.Best of luck with the little rogues........I remember talcum powder deterred them.....but looks messy.
You were asking where everyone has gone....I think it is a very busy time of the year no matter what part of the World you are in ......speaking for myself we have fire problems.....when the hot winds howl and there are fires around you must stay alert for burning embers......I will be posting some pics soon as the fires stop they almost took the old churches up the road (everyone jumped in to stop them) ......we must keep vigil.So a big hello from me.....from a warm and smoky down under ......back soon I hope!
Have a good one every one!
Good to hear from you, Chrissy - but so sorry to hear of the fires, very frightening. So glad the old church was saved it would have been a terrible shame for that to have gone up.
Looking forward to some more of your pics and chat.
Texas and the south has been plagued with fire ants for years. They kill newborn livestock and have destroyed many native frogs and such. The ones we have are VERY LARGE and red. They make mounds12"-18" high. Just read in our paper recently that they have as many as 15 queens to a mound and that is why they are so difficult to eradicate. Every female has the ability to become a queen if the mound is threatened. There is a smaller black ant that I have been personally battling. I have whelps all over my feet and arms where they got me earlier this week. Itches like the dickens and leaves a purple spot when it finally heals.. Going to the bugfiles to see if I can find the ones we have.
LouC
This message was edited Oct 20, 2007 10:32 AM
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~gilbert/research/fireants/faqans.html
The BugFiles didn't go into much detail. I hope you can access the above link.
Texas University, Texas A&M, Texas Tech are working jointly to find a solution. They will get into the house, under the house, in the air conditioner. Lots of times when people here have a malfunction with the condenser......fire ants have set up housekeeping. Sure hope this is not what you are dealing with, Carol. They came in with plant stock from Argentina and Brazil.
I have read horror stories about the fire ants in the south, it make me sick to think about newborn animals being killed by them. I understand they are on the march too. When we lived in Arizona we had hoped that the desert would stop their spread but last I heard it hasn't fazed them a bit. We had also thought (hoped) that killer bees would not make it across the desert, but they also made it quite safely through and nests had been found in the greater Phoenix area.
The world seems to have changed so much since I was a kid and it almost makes you cry for some of the things that have been lost and will never be the same again....On the other hand, who would think we could all be talking to each other all over the world from a key board! I guess we have to take the good with the bad - Golly! Just realized I am starting to sound like my Grandmother - I think my age is showing!
Worse, I look like my grandmother.
Ha ha ha ha noooooo ladies please our grandmothers were little old ladies sitting in a corner knitting!
We have just been told that it is we older folk that are taking over the computer thing with a vengence.......65% of the computer users in Australia are we "mature" ones learning the joys of companionship never afforded to our nanns and pops.Now that is a good thing!
We have some nasty ants too .....we have the fireants in QLD.....gov is trying very hard to stop the spread.We have the big Bull Ants......very nasty big red aggressive ones with huge nests.
Really the most annoying ones are the ones that make their homes in garden pots.....often killing the plants because their roots are exposed......these are the same ones that make life a misery if you can't stop them invading your home. I use boiling water if I am desperate.......pouring it down the nests....I feel guilty doing that but sometimes you have to.You have green heads? they are a fairly large ant that has a nasty bite that leaves a big stinging itchy lump
they are black with a green head.......luckily for us they don't seem to like living in red clay......but where ever I lived in sandy areas they are a menace
I never feel guilty about pouring boiling water down an ant mound. In fact I stand there and cackle with glee.
Things are busy here. Should slow down next month but right now pretty busy. Last night was Spooktacular, and event where we dress up as characters from fairy tales and entertain kids and their parents,grandparents. It is going on tonight too and I will be there for it.
Pepper - the Denver Botanical Gardens always did something similar, and I loved taking my Grandkids to it....so much fun and plants too! Our island is getting all geared up for Halloween...there are ice cream socials planned and costume parties and of course houses all decorated up....we all sponsor a family with kids to come over from the outer islands for trick or treating. Its fun. We sit outside our houses with "cauldrons" and buckets of treats and watch the parade of costumed little ones. Trade jokes and stories across the street - some parents dress up too and the kids love that. On the 28th we are having the big Costume Party for Adults...that is always fun. Because we are so remote, people get very creative with their costumes. Last year a guy came as a shower!
Ants - the bane of my existense! I just get one batch under control, and a different species shows up! Ugh!!
I don't knit - I crochet - and I don't sit in the corner! and except for Pepper and a few others, I think we all pretty much qualify for the "mature" designation....so let's give a big whoop for joy that we have this marvelous tool to let us all be friends~!
Okay Chrissy - a one and a two and a...♫Why can't we be friends, why can't we be friends...The color of your skin don't matter to me...As long as we can live in harmony
♫
Shari, I will post a pic of me in my costume from last night when I get a copy of it. I didn't get a pic with my camera. Forgot. lol
Hard for me to say about my grandmother. She left us at 69 and could run circles around all of us. She was before the multiple heart operations that seem so routine now. I'm still pretty busy myself it but everywhere I go that same old lady is right in step. Any window reflection or mirror, there she is. She is getting greyer and fluffier all the time.
Shari, I don't knit, but I crochet up a storm.
Gee we don't do the Halloween thing much.........some people have a party but it really is no big thing here....a shame really as I love spooky stuff!
Well I took a couple of snaps this morning of the churches.....they were fairly safe but people stood between the fires and the churches.....looks like it was controlled pretty quickly but they watched all night because just one ember is all it takes!
And LouC there is something beautiful at every age of our lives....look at a beautiful young sapling........look at an old tree with it's furrows and gnarls......how beautiful are they? .....when I look into an"older' face I see their story written in the lines and furrows and I find humbleness in seeing this long life crammed with the joys and sorrows all written there.Wisdom brings lines.We earn them every one.:)
here is another shot
Thank you, Chrissy. I needed that at this very moment. God is blessing me a longer life and I enjoy it more everyday. May He continue to bless you.
Will pray that the fires are over.
Personally, I'd much rather read the furrows and knarls on someone else's face than the one in the mirror. Oh well, given the alternative, I'm happy where I'm at.
So glad to hear that the church's are safe.
Prayers for the safety of you and all of yours, Chrissy. We're having dry breezy weather right now, so always on the lookout, too. Just the sniff of smoke makes you shiver, doesn't it?
Oh, those Argentine ants! We've got them here, too. In fact, I think I read somewhere recently that they've just about replaced our native ants, which were no big deal. We had to break down and hire a service to spray regularly because there is just no controlling them (also black widow spiders). The house was under constant invasion. Luckily we found someone who does what is necessary and no more. We still have our beneficial insects, ladybugs, butterflies, etc., so I think he is doing a good job.
k
Some tv show had a special on ants. There are more ants than all other species on the earth combined. Scarey.
Here in North Central Texas it is 9:16 PM and 70 degrees on Saturday night 10/20/2007
This message was edited Oct 20, 2007 9:17 PM
We need a time stamp! It's 7:42pm here in SoCalif. Birdies just went to bed and we're watching some telly. DH was in Minnesota this week so he's catching up. Tomorrow is his birthday, so it's a lazy day. I'll fix him a leg of lamb for lunch, but that's easy. He took next week off, too and is building a veranda on our house, so will be in his element and happy as can be.
Cheers all.
k
My ideal house is one big verandah...roof/floor/screens all around...
Whoa,
Carol
Let the termites have their way Carol - you would soon have your perfect house!