What did you do in the garden today?

[igorsMistress]

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.

My sister worked for USPS. In some places the people are working in bad conditions, ie no a/c or heat, etc. They are out in inclement weather and while they get paid pretty well, it's a tough job if you're a carrier.

 

[igorsMistress]

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.

There's protesting and then there's criminal behavior. Those not protesting have the right to be protected from those doing damage and no recourse through their insurance for damage to their property. Riot and civil commotion is an exclusion.

 

[reddogmaster2]

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.
In my teens my close friend's uncle was Postmaster General. He worked his way up through the ranks to attain that position gaining relevant knowledge of the process - he didn't achieve it by being a political donor without a single day of public service experience.
If the USPS goes away, how else would we get live animals across the country, drive them there?
A recent Fortune Magazine article states from internal USPS memos that 20% of mail is being delivered by postal workers on overtime. By eliminating overtime, 20% of mail isn't delivered or drastically delayed.
Last week and on another event last month, I had bills to pay sitting in my mailbox for days and last week I was expecting a large check on Thursday. It wasn't delivered till Monday. I couldn't get the check deposited when it needed to be.

The USPS-Another failed government program that was once a great institution. Very sad.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good afternoon gardeners, welcome newbies! Nothing done in the garden today except let the flock out. I think Lucy is broody; she was a bit clucky for a few days and was in a nest over night. I'm going to let her sit and if she's still serious in a couple of weeks I'm going to give her any chicks that hatch from the eggs in my incubator. I looked and listened for her when everyone else came out this morning; when she didn't appear I looked in the coop afraid that I'd find her dead from the heat. I'm having to water even the drought tolerant plants every other day right now. I'm hoping to plan out the planting schedule for seeds this weekend, gather pots and prep for seed starting mid September. We have about 2 months when frost is likely here so putting up the greenhouse can be done later. That's kind of a pain, I use it for such a short period of time and then it just sits there. Can't use it for shade cuz it gets too hot inside. Anyway, gotta put ice out for the gang and get ready to pick up my car. Finally! It has been over a month since the accident. Have a good night all!

 

[MrLeeHo]

Just walked thru for the evening after talking to the girls, took some pics to share.

 

[WthrLady]

took 4 pounds of orange tomatoes out of the garden as rain is causing splitting. I's rather NOT toss any more split ant covered tomatoes to the hens.

May have lost another hive to those darn wax moths. Weather is just brutal this year. The hive was fine 7 days ago, half full of comb and honey. Today. Most bees are gone, moth cocoons everywhere, comb a disaster and I couldn't find the queen. ARGH! I even treated that hive!

 

[Compost King]

Picked 9 tomatoes, I didn't even know I had that many! 5 Cucumbers, 4 of them were hiding on me. I only showed up to pick one. I believe I hit Peak harvest for me as far as Tomatoes go, I may have more large picking days of Cucumbers if Pickle Worms do not return. I chased a loose CX out of my fall garden where I have some sprouts, doesn't look like the CX found them. He was just trying to get back on the other side of the low fence he accidentally stumbled over. I didn't pick and Peppers or water them. Tomorrow some will go limp unless it rains or I water them. They recover from going Limp and the peppers end up having more flavor and heat if I let them go limp (or so I am told). I posted earlier about my Green Onion Build planting incident... kinda gross but funny. Most of my work today was in the nursery where I found Crop Circles, unfortunately a reasonable explanation was found and I won't be featured on Ancient Aliens any time soon. Made a silly thread about it in this section.

 

[NewBoots]

Morning all. Just a quick check in after the hurricane - we have no power or internet & I have no good cell service to speak of.

Thank you so much for checking in with us. We used to lose power a lot when I was a kid and it was an adventure then but not so much now. Hope you get power and internet back soon.

LOL! I'm a mow first/weed-eat afterwards person, also a vacuum first/dust later (or almost never if I'm being honest) person. Bottom line though, they're all necessary chores that take away time from the projects/chores I'd rather be doing, but things I don't mind doing once I get myself motivated. And feel a sense of achievement when they're done, when I look around at how nice everything looks.

Logically, I believe that weeding or dusting first is more efficient and tidier but it just doesn't ever work out that way.

Oh well, at least getting soaked cooled us off!

OMG it's too bad it couldn't have been videoed!

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

Yup, that's where the term "Craftsman House" came from. The house we sold in Portland predated those but it was also a house that a bunch of guys just got together and built. In our case, that meant no two doors were the same size.

is this a canner or cooker? Cookers have a switch over knob to shut off the steam flow.

It's a canner and the problem was user error. Just finishing reprocessing right now. What a relief, I was afraid I'd lose all that work. And I've got so much more canning ahead of me,

AMAZING! Chicks are here! All alive!

YAY!

No gardening today, reprocessed the beets and went fishing!

 

[WthrLady]

OH I'm so glad you figured it out!

 

[pennyJo1960]

You lost your hive @WthrLady and that was not the first to Moths?