The Daily Rave

[rosarugosa]

Here's a rave to balance my rants: Showy goldenrod (Solidago speciosa). This is our second year with this plant blooming in our garden, and it is such a pollinator magnet! Yesterday, I counted approximately 40 bumblebees on our one plant! I say "approximately" because the bees kept moving around, making it hard to get a precise headcount. It's such a wonderful plant.

[catherine]

Here's a rave to balance my rants: Showy goldenrod (Solidago speciosa). This is our second year with this plant blooming in our garden, and it is such a pollinator magnet! Yesterday, I counted approximately 40 bumblebees on our one plant! I say "approximately" because the bees kept moving around, making it hard to get a precise headcount. It's such a wonderful plant.

That is awesome!! I love watching the bees on the pollinator plants! My fall pollinator plants are a New England Aster and a Montauk daisy (it's huge--I really need to cut it back). They are both nice to have when all the other summer flowers are fading and wilting.

Here is my rave--related to gardening. I hand-screened my compost yesterday because we had to migrate my bin from one side of the yard to the other. So bagged the finished stuff and put the rest back in the relocated bin. That compost is beautiful stuff. I think composting is pure magic.

IMG_1203.jpg

[rosarugosa]

Very nice, Catherine! We are pretty lazy composters.

[iris lilies]

That is awesome!! I love watching the bees on the pollinator plants! My fall pollinator plants are a New England Aster and a Montauk daisy (it's huge--I really need to cut it back). They are both nice to have when all the other summer flowers are fading and wilting.

Here is my rave--related to gardening. I hand-screened my compost yesterday because we had to migrate my bin from one side of the yard to the other. So bagged the finished stuff and put the rest back in the relocated bin. That compost is beautiful stuff. I think composting is pure magic.

IMG_1203.jpg

i love compost. Smells heavenly.

in our current place we have to buy it although certainly DH has his own composting operation, but I don’t pay attention to it. I want fully rotted compost and his stuff was always not quite composing enough for me. It was slimy.

but oh man, I miss the days of living in the city of St. Louis, where I could go to the city’s composite and load up my truck with as much compost as I want for free.

[catherine]

A long time ago when I was still driving beater cars to work, I got in my car to go home at 5pm, and my crappy Nissan Sentra didn't start. The battery was dead. So I went back to the office, where I knew a couple of my colleagues were still working, and I asked Bart if he could help me jump my car. He declined, saying he didn't know how. This was amazing to me, because all the men in my life could jump a car as easily as brush their teeth.

Today my neighbor across the road is here. Three ash trees on the land between us need to come down due to the emerald ash borer. We've been talking about it for a couple of years. They own the property, and I figured they'd have a tree company come out. But no, my neighbor brought a friend and a cherry picker today, and they're at it themselves right now, felling three trees.

In the book I'm reading, the author talks about how the culture is leaving behind the multi-skilled people that usually live in more rural areas and villages. Since I've moved here I've marveled at the ingenuity and know-how of my rural neighbors. I guess there are people who are raised to be multi-skilled so that they don't have to pay people to do these things and they can remain self-reliant. In my more cosmopolitan neck of the woods where I grew up, parents were more likely to teach their kids how to make money so that they could afford to pay people like my neighbor.

In this regard, I have so much greater respect for my Vermonter neighbors than people like Bart and many of the people I have worked with my whole life. And I'm not just thinking about the "manly" skills--the same holds true for traditionally female skills. I wish that "home arts" was more of a thing these days. I think we've lost something when we're all "specialists" in one thing.

So my rave is basically just a shout out to the generalists, the multi-skilled, and the resourceful.

[sweetana3]

Agree with you Catherine. A friend taught all his sons to cook and now they all are familiar with the kitchen and equal partners with working wives. (something I learned from my mom and Home Ec). Another man we knew taught his daughter's all about cars and household repair. Gave them more independence.

Habitat for Humanity makes each homeowner take a class in home maintenance (as well as home finance) so they are able to handle many home issues.

Back when (Dark Ages) when my husband was hired by a Fortune 100 company, they hired for a lifetime. He spent no more than 3 years in any department learning all about their unique needs and with each move became more generalized. He ended up in a corporate planning and strategy group. Of course, it did not help with layoffs since his whole group was dismantled. Management did not want any input from strategy groups. Now they hire for specific positions and the general education is gone. Same thing happened in the scientific groups.

[iris lilies]

A long time ago when I was still driving beater cars to work, I got in my car to go home at 5pm, and my crappy Nissan Sentra didn't start. The battery was dead. So I went back to the office, where I knew a couple of my colleagues were still working, and I asked Bart if he could help me jump my car. He declined, saying he didn't know how. This was amazing to me, because all the men in my life could jump a car as easily as brush their teeth.

Today my neighbor across the road is here. Three ash trees on the land between us need to come down due to the emerald ash borer. We've been talking about it for a couple of years. They own the property, and I figured they'd have a tree company come out. But no, my neighbor brought a friend and a cherry picker today, and they're at it themselves right now, felling three trees.

In the book I'm reading, the author talks about how the culture is leaving behind the multi-skilled people that usually live in more rural areas and villages. Since I've moved here I've marveled at the ingenuity and know-how of my rural neighbors. I guess there are people who are raised to be multi-skilled so that they don't have to pay people to do these things and they can remain self-reliant. In my more cosmopolitan neck of the woods where I grew up, parents were more likely to teach their kids how to make money so that they could afford to pay people like my neighbor.

In this regard, I have so much greater respect for my Vermonter neighbors than people like Bart and many of the people I have worked with my whole life. And I'm not just thinking about the "manly" skills--the same holds true for traditionally female skills. I wish that "home arts" was more of a thing these days. I think we've lost something when we're all "specialists" in one thing.

So my rave is basically just a shout out to the generalists, the multi-skilled, and the resourceful.

Real men know how to fell trees. Just sayin’

DH took down the small grove behind our Hermann house with no heavy equipment, using physics.

I purposely stayed away the day he felled the 40’ tree, it scared the Bejesus outta me.


But yeah, the country boys who know how to do things are invaluable.

[catherine]

Real men know how to fell trees. Just sayin’

Well, then there's precious few real men in NJ, as far as I know.

But, yeah, Vermont men (and women) know a lot about trees.

[iris lilies]

Agree with you Catherine. A friend taught all his sons to cook and now they all are familiar with the kitchen and equal partners with working wives. (something I learned from my mom and Home Ec). Another man we knew taught his daughter's all about cars and household repair. Gave them more independence.

Habitat for Humanity makes each homeowner take a class in home maintenance (as well as home finance) so they are able to handle many home issues.

Back when (Dark Ages) when my husband was hired by a Fortune 100 company, they hired for a lifetime. He spent no more than 3 years in any department learning all about their unique needs and with each move became more generalized. He ended up in a corporate planning and strategy group. Of course, it did not help with layoffs since his whole group was dismantled. Management did not want any input from strategy groups. Now they hire for specific positions and the general education is gone. Same thing happened in the scientific groups.

Yes, compartmentalization is the thing these days.

House building skills was a BIG social divide in my old neighborhood of
Victorian houses. Some of it was generational, some not. We unkindly called the other tribe “checkbook rehabbers” but of course they were strong employers of DH so…good for us!

There were several men in our age group who could build and repair anything in their house, tho perhaps their carpentry skills weren’t up to par. But we had a number of GREAT carpenters as well.

I have to say these were generally heterosexual men. The gay men of which we had many weren’t so great as a group with old house fixit skills with one exception I can think of. Of course with home decor they were steller, so shoot me if I am generalizing but I’m confident gay friends would agree with me.

And then our neighborhood became more posh and the youngsters with big jobs moved in and they can’t fix anything. They are accustomed to a compartmentalized world. They are the Big Check rehabbers.

I still shake my head at the lack of confidence I ran into with a few of these folks when gardening. They needed instruction, handholding.

for God’s sake, scratch up some dirt, throw in some seeds and water them It’s not that difficult.

[Klunick]

For the last several weeks I have been getting bombarded with ads for Halloween decor. I had resisted every one. I decorated for Halloween on Saturday and was happy with what was left after the big declutter back in July.

Last night my husband and oldest commented on how little decor there was on the mantle. They said I needed more. Today I caved and ordered some stuff from Amazon. I then decided to cancel it and go to Michael's and get some stuff in person.

In the end, I didn't stop at Michael's and won't be buying any decor. I am going to resist.