Trees And Other Things

We have acres of lawn to mow--former pastures--but my wife loves to sit on her riding mower with her headphones on and sing to the oldies as she mows. I just do the areas she can't or isn't comfortable doing such as rough terrain, orchards, etc. I have a DR walk-behind self-propeller trimmer that does most of it, but I mentioned getting a regular walk-behind mower to supplement that. I changed the oil, changed the plug and the blades, and put Seafoam in the tank, so it runs well now. It is a year 2000 mower, so parts are hard to come by. The self-propelled stuff doesn't work as the belt is gone and I haven't been able to find one. The electric start may or may not work as the battery is shot and I haven't been able to find a replacement for that either. I may jury-rig something if I can't get the parts.

Our season to mow only lasts from June through August, so there is that

 

Don, maybe you need a Billy Goat? (2011)
New Billy Goat 3400 homepro lawn mower

 

And they offer an optional electric starter.

 

That looks like the bigger DR mowers that do similar things. They are not as easy to maneuver as it looks and I don't think I am up to messing with something that big.

 

I liked the name!

 

And beware of slipping belts. Goats don't need belts to self propel. They do need fences and hay to last the whole winter.

 

The frames on my eyeglasses broke almost a year ago. The last pair was still in a drawer with the same prescription (I think). Too easy.

With good intentions I finally got around to dealing with it. Called the optometrist, who I've gone to since 1983. His phone is disconnected. Turns out he retired about the time of Covid.

The last 2 glasses were made through a small local shop. They would at least have the prescription on file. The phone is also disconnected. Turns out the owner closed her shop 6 years ago, after 27 years in business.

Now I have to find a new eye doctor. Maybe I can put this off another year.

 

Did you know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was an ophthalmologist? ( I didn't. )

 

"Though The Narrative of John Smith was written in 1883, it was not published until 2011, 81 years after Doyle’s death. In striking contrast with his later, heavily plot-driven novels, The Narrative of John Smith unfolds as a series of essay-like chapters, each covering a single day, as the eponymous John Smith recovers from rheumatic gout."


Photograph of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Walter Benington, 1914, via BBC Scotland


Here is a sample of the audiobook of Arthur Conan Doyle's very first novel: The Narrative of John Smith, read by Robert Lindsay.

Arthur Conan Doyle - The Narrative of John Smith

 

Trimmed the little section of hedge along the back of the house. The trash filled the truck bed level to the top. Headed out to the country Sunday to unload. Assumed the lawn would have to be mowed also, but the afternoon showers have missed out there completely. Lawns are turning brown. Even the kudzu is wilting. No need to spray the fence so far this season.

The water in the lake is down about 6" and tall pond grass is growing up all around the edge. Stalks look like cattails, but I've never seen a cattail blossom out there. Something from the bulrush family? I suppose it is good for little fish and frogs, but it doesn't look pretty. Tossed a few handfuls of left-over dry cat food in the lake just to see if the fish would show up. No bites. You have to be at the right place at the right time.

 

Voyageurs
National Park Minnesota

Cattail removal to continue

"Voyageurs National Park staff and contractors will resume removing areas of invasive, hybrid cattail in wetlands from July through October within the park.Activities include grinding up mats of floating cattails with a specialized cutting machine and removing the debris using a harvesting barge."

 

I checked how cattail islands form. They grow out from the bank and break off.



Those hybrid cattails have not reached this far south, yet.

It seems the jury is out on cattails in moderation. Some good things, some bad. I still don't think they are cattails. There is something call wild iris that looks like them. It is toxic. Now I'll have to go out and check more closely.

 

Not All Cattails are Created Equal: Typha x glauca the Silent Invader


Figure 1. A stand entirely comprised of invasive hybrid cattail in Voyageurs National Park, MN, USA. Photo Credit: Bryce Olson, NPS

"As with most of the non-native invasive wetland plant species that threaten our native wetland communities (e.g., purple loosestrife [Lythrum salicaria]), narrowleaf cattail (Typha augustifolia) was first reported on the East Coast in the early part of the nineteenth century. Most scientists believe that narrowleaf cattail originated in Europe, and that as the expansion of European settlers went west, so too did the accounts of narrowleaf cattail. As the native broadleaf and non-native narrowleaf cattail overlapped, the two species began to hybridize, creating a new cattail species commonly referred to as “hybrid cattail” (Typha x glauca). Hybridization between native and introduced species is typically one of the primary drivers behind the evolution of invasiveness. Basically, hybrids often express the beneficial attributes of both parental species giving them an edge over their parental counter parts, a phenomenon known as “hybrid vigor”.

"For example, hybrid cattails have been shown to tolerate a greater range of water depths or salinity than their parent species, which in turn allows hybrid cattails to expand into areas neither of the parent species could." READ MORE