We have real cedars here and they aren't exactly flame retardant either. But guess nothing is in a forest fire.
AKA Red Cedar, although don't know if it is the real cedar they use in shavings? Thanks for the link.
I had it once as a very young child, and only recall biting into shot. If I hunted now, I would run my metal detector over the thing before cooking it.
The driveway turnaround ... I was picking up the cat from the vet and missed the gravel delivery and spreading. It may not be laid out the best way, or maybe I'm doing it wrong. I'm just happy there is gravel there. Unless I get hit by a bus in the next year or two, there should be a permanent concrete turnaround one day. (Still haven't given up on asphalt.) This was a perfect solution to get through this year. The gravel is not wasted. It will help build a good base. Not hard to rearrange right now while it's loose. I can keep moving it around and have it just right when the time comes. You can barely see this from the deck. It is an extension of a short asphalt driveway. It looks neat from the street also.
I like the way it's laid out. I guess that little extra leg is so you can back into it and head out straight. Would you use it to access a rear entrance? And you're right about the gravel building a good base. My neighbors and I had our right-of-way regraded and regravelled a few years ago. They did it all the way up to my garage. One of my neighbors directed the project and told the guy to install a little parking area for me. At first I was upset because I has asked for no such thing (I love my control issues), but now that it's done I appreciate the extra out-of-the-way spot to put my utility trailer and my truck. Funny you should mention asphalt...I was thinking of having an asphalt apron put in front of my garage. The grass & weeds grow up through the gravel something fierce, and it would be nice to have the hard surface to work on things.
Whatever is done permanently to this turnaround will go all the way to the street. The main reason I don't like concrete? I don't want this. They look like this all over town. I don't want to have to pressure wash the driveway. They can dye concrete black mildew color, but it eventually fades. Or this Asphalt cracks also, but it's easier to repair without noticing. Unfortunately all the asphalt pavers here only do big parking lots and/or highways now.
Not sure where you are but there are a lot of small companies that do small to fairly large jobs around here. If you have businesses around you that have asphalt parking lots, those same companies would probably be happy quoting you a driveway job.
Hi Thomas. I suppose they might consider. Some state in the advertising only commercial. Maybe check back during a recession. I suppose everyone has heard of "Gypsy Pavers." Asphalt driveway installers who go door to door looking for customers. Most are probably legit, but the job is prone to attracting con artists. The most common opening line is, "I have some left-over asphalt from another job. I can give it to you real cheap." One showed up out at the mobile home once, using that very line. He may have been telling the truth. Who knows. But I wasn't looking at the time. My old neighbor a block away in town contracted with some folks who came to his door to do his driveway (scheduled at a later date). I joined in to have mine done, since it was so easy to arrange. I figured the neighbor had checked them out already. There was a good solid base for mine. The previous owner of the house must have had a friend in the concrete business. Looked like they had dumped all their left over concrete from various jobs in the driveway over time. The pavers poured the asphalt plenty thick. I thought they did a good job. It lasted over 30 years, without much care at all on my part. OTOH, the neighbor complained all the time about his driveway. He had tree roots from several huge oaks growing underneath and it kept bulging up. He really didn't have a good set up for a driveway with so many trees in his yard in the first place. They probably should have told him a driveway wouldn't work out well there, before they agreed to do the job.
Note on 2023 Hummingbirds This year I waited until July to put out a feeder. On purpose. ..No, let me rephrase that. This year I reluctantly put out a feeder in July because the hummers kept swarming around the red jar lids with water for the friendly birds. Two males duked it out for about a month before they left for Costa Rica and other points south. Then 3 females began to participate regularly. One stood guard most of the day on top of the feeder. Those 3 fought it out for the rest of September. All gone by October 1st. No passers through that I noticed.
(10/12/23) Thursday Vet Visit (long) The cat had been doing great, but a few days earlier she started strong repeated sneezing fits and also throwing up undigested food. Scheduled the follow-up appointment so they could check her mouth. A different, eccentric, defensive, small animal vet saw her this time. The cat was growling and hissing, like cats do sometimes. All for show. She has never bitten or scratched anyone before, but I suppose there's always a first time. The vet talked and talked about how she should handle this cat. Will she bite? Will she scratch? Would she get upset with her head covered in a towel? Is it safe to pull her out of the carrier, or should we take the top off? Would you rather not watch us examine her? (Huh?) . They took her temp under an armpit because... who knows why. Are they afraid of a 7.5 lb cat? I get the feeling this is all for show, for my benefit. That if they took the cat behind closed doors they could do everything in 5 minutes. Otherwise, this woman will never make it as a vet. Do they take a course in vet school on how to handle crazy cat owners? She had several theories about why the cat would sneeze and regurgitate food. All very carefully designed to not have anything to do with surgery. I don't care if it was caused by surgery. I'm sure they did the best they could. I just want to know why, and how to fix it. Talk, talk, talk,.... (Check her mouth, Woman!!! ) Twenty minutes into the session, she finally looked in the cat's mouth. "One stitch left and some redness on the upper left side." "An infection that requires an antibiotic?" "No. Do you want to look at her mouth?" "Yes. " I noticed a second stitch up front, and the stitch in the very back had a tail about an inch long dangling down the back of her throat. Puzzle solved, in my opinion. Gag reflex. That would cause the regurgitation and what appeared to be sneezing. Trying to get that string out of the back of her throat. Vet assured me that couldn't possibly be the reason. (Why not?) "Besides we would have to put her under general anesthesia to cut that stitch off." "How much longer before that stitch dissolves?" "Could be another week." Poor cat. Then she started to give the rabies shot in the back right leg. Stop! Explained about the cat limping for 2 days on right back leg after surgery. Then she spent 5 minutes going through the records to try and prove the cat didn't get a shot in the right leg before, to no avail. The new method is to give shots as low as possible in the back leg. She absolutely insisted on that. So that puzzle is solved also. How in the world would you find enough skin on a tiny cat leg to pull up to give a sub-Q shot without hitting meat? What a stupid idea. This was very similar to the visit with the vet school last December. Talk, talk, talk.... Couldn't find the source for this other than vet practices: "Cats have a well-developed gag reflex. This means, unlike humans, cats are well adapted to immediately reject things they just ate. A cat can be perfectly healthy and vomit. . .