What did you do in the garden today?

[AllenK RGV]

I have a serious rant about the USPS but I was a big fan until a few months ago.
People have often been critical of the post office, especially on this forum when it comes to shipping eggs and chicks. However, lots of problems with shipped eggs are more related to packaging rather than handling enroute. I once thought some chicks I was expecting were lost in the mail but they arrived alive and well - a day late.
There is normally no tracking information available because in order to keep costs in line they use secondary vendors so shortly after one drops the package off, they are passed on to other shipping companies for the flight/s and no scan happens till they arrive at the destination distribution facility and back in the hands of USPS personnel.
Now, my rant is this. Last week, I had no mail service for 3 days in a row. No postman on my road from Wednesday till Monday. This is the third time this has happened in the last couple months. I put outgoing mail in the box with the flag up and it was still there by Sunday. How could that be unless someone was purposely slowing mail service for reasons unknown.
Whatever happened to the motto, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. "
The erosion of service isn't the fault of the USPS, it lies with congress. The postal service is the only government agency that is required to self fund pensions.
In 2006, Congress passed a law to require the USPS to prefund 75 years worth of retiree health benefits in the span of ten years—a cost of approximately $110 billion. Although the money is intended to be set aside for future Post Office retirees, the funds are instead being diverted to help pay down the national debt.
So instead of making the service more streamlined and relatively inexpensive, congress requires the USPS to become a profitable enterprise and turn the funds over to support less well run and prudent agencies.
For the first time in our history, our current Postmaster General has zero prior postal service experience.

If the USPS goes away, how else would we get live animals across the country, drive them there?

Exactly, those are my concerns and I understand the complexities placed upon them. I didn't want to be so verbose the problems aren't with USPS. It is our political class red or blue it never mattered.

 

[littledog]

Thanks for a good suggestion, but those are pretty pricey - I think we'll just do the work needed to haul water to our trees when we need to.

 

[AllenK RGV]

Thanks for a good suggestion, but those are pretty pricey - I think we'll just do the work needed to haul water to our trees when we need to.

I PM'd ya about it and was thinking an empty feed bag would serve the same function for free. Without a need to hole it.

 

[littledog]

thanks. I have noticed over several years less and less quality service at USPS. So, I think there is something systemic within that system in particular. Many anecdotes I could relate, just like a lot of people. I’m hoping for a good outcome, but my realistic side says otherwise.

Let’s keep this thread non-political.

The erosion of service isn't the fault of the USPS, it lies with congress. The postal service is the only government agency that is required to self fund pensions.
In 2006, Congress passed a law to require the USPS to prefund 75 years worth of retiree health benefits in the span of ten years—a cost of approximately $110 billion. Although the money is intended to be set aside for future Post Office retirees, the funds are instead being diverted to help pay down the national debt.

Yes. thank you for mentioning that. The USPS as well as many other government agencies, could and should be self-funded for their workers' retirements. But requiring self-funding 75 years of pensions for the PO, means destruction for that agency. Not to mention, reduction of retirement pension funding for our military service people, while our government hires private-company mercenaries to wage war against our own citizens for protesting , is big waste or us taxpayers.
Sorry for being so political.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. I hope your storm clean-up goes well @Sueby. I think the worst part of that Tropical Storm were the rapid fire tornado warnings. It was all moving so fast the rotational cell was already overhead when you got the warning and gone by the time you could react. That was so stressful. The garden survived pretty much unscathed. I picked 3 hungarian peppers, a zucchini, 4 big green beans, two okra and a cherry tomato. Knock on wood, but I do think I can get the weed whacking done in the big garden today. There are some more blooms on my pole beans so I should be getting them in soon. I will keep my remarks about the USPS brief. They are just ordinary people, government workers doing the best job they can with what they have to work with. They have dealt with a lot of changes and hardships over the past 10 to 15 years and just keep on doing the best they can to hang onto their jobs to feed their families. I'm sure they recognize the problems with their "organization" but they have no power to make changes and just have to suck it up to remain employed. So please be kind and be glad you don't have to work under those conditions. Have a great day everyone.

 

[WthrLady]

Yeah, it wasn't leaking steam, the pop up had popped (which according to the instruction means it was at or close to 15) but the gauge never budged from 0. But the fact is I'm still pretty new to canning so who knows?

is this a canner or cooker? Cookers have a switch over knob to shut off the steam flow.
Take it to your local extension, they'll figure it out.

 

[Backyard Hencam]

I've been reading what you all are doing in your gardens and feel ashamed at my meager dabbling. As I meander through my garden this morning, coffee in hand, I see that some things need attending too. Lack of water has been an issue, so much of the squash has been stunted.
Tomatoes look great but are still green. Cool weather along the ocean here makes tomatoes arrive late.
Soon as I get my gardening digs on, I'll be out with the hose. Thanks for inspiring me!

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I've been reading what you all are doing in your gardens and feel ashamed at my meager dabbling. As I meander through my garden this morning, coffee in hand, I see that some things need attending too. Lack of water has been an issue, so much of the squash has been stunted.
Tomatoes look great but are still green. Cool weather along the ocean here makes tomatoes arrive late.
Soon as I get my gardening digs on, I'll be out with the hose. Thanks for inspiring me!

Welcome to the thread. You have nothing to be ashamed of. Gardens come in all sizes. You work with what you have.

 

[WthrLady]

Lol and this was before my time but you could mail order houses from the Sears catalog I once heard!

TOTALLY could! I have an 1880s catalog here....and a home ordering book as well.....hang on....brb.
BTW my great aunt mailed an orange to her other neice in the early 1900s. glued a stamp on and a label and off it went. No box, no anything. Just an orange. LOL.
This is from my 1908 catalog. My late 1800s one is Monkey/Ward.
I also have a reprint book of all the mail order houses available from over the years, but it wasn't obvious on my shelves this morning (ie I didn't put it away in the right spot) and every time I bent over to look harder, my sinus' tried to explode. You could also buy just the plans for $100 and source the materials locally. I love looking for these old houses on my travels. They were usually within a few miles of the old rail lines as that's how they were delivered.

 

[WthrLady]

Good morning gardeners. I hope your storm clean-up goes well @Sueby. I think the worst part of that Tropical Storm were the rapid fire tornado warnings. It was all moving so fast the rotational cell was already overhead when you got the warning and gone by the time you could react. That was so stressful. The garden survived pretty much unscathed. I picked 3 hungarian peppers, a zucchini, 4 big green beans, two okra and a cherry tomato. Knock on wood, but I do think I can get the weed whacking done in the big garden today. There are some more blooms on my pole beans so I should be getting them in soon. I will keep my remarks about the USPS brief. They are just ordinary people, government workers doing the best job they can with what they have to work with. They have dealt with a lot of changes and hardships over the past 10 to 15 years and just keep on doing the best they can to hang onto their jobs to feed their families. I'm sure they recognize the problems with their "organization" but they have no power to make changes and just have to suck it up to remain employed. So please be kind and be glad you don't have to work under those conditions. Have a great day everyone.

Just for future reference, in a tropical system, never wait on the tornado warnings. They can't come fast enough. Always expect quickly developing and moving spin ups in the NW side of a tropical system.

Soapbox away.... LOL.