August 28, 2013 - Wind, Weather, Wilt, and a Cranky Old Woman!

Sunday evening we had another windstorm, with gusts up to 50 MPH.  Oh, the mess!  You would think, after all the storms we've experienced this year, that our pine trees would be nude by now!  But the aren't.  I spent half the day Monday cleaning up boughs, branches and pine cones.

The wind flattened the new stand of fall corn, but it seems to have uprighted itself now.  I'm glad, as it is already tasseling, which means I'm probably assured of actually getting a harvest from it before our autumn frost.

 The fall planting of corn is tasseling.

It's also beginning to form ears!

We did have one calamity out in the garden.  A large branch fell out of the neighbor's walnut tree, landed on my net covered garden in the kennel, and ripped a big hole.  That netting was protecting my fall cabbages and keeping the leaf miners out of the beets and spinach.  I won't be replacing it this late in the year, but I might have to see if I can round up enough to patch it and get the crops through to maturity.

I may have "accidentally" dropped the limb back over the fence and into their yard.

Even though our daytime temperatures are still in the mid-nineties, the garden seems to have slowed in production.  I'm rather glad the pole and bush beans are taking a bit of rest, as I'm getting really tired of beans!  It seems like nearly every day I am either eating them or freezing them.   Freezer space is really tight now, and there are still a lot of peppers and, hopefully, some snap peas later on.  Many of the tomato plants have succumbed already.  I still have 3 healthy plants, 2 sickly but still producing plants, and 3 cherry tomato plants.  All of the others have been removed.

Even with only a few plants left, I'm getting 4 or 5 quarts of tomato juice each week, plus plenty for fresh eating.

The fall planting of cucumbers is beginning to blossom, but unfortunately they are also beginning to show powdery mildew.  So many of the squash and cucumber plants get so ugly this time of the year, but I hate to tear them out as long as they are producing.

I tried moving a few strawberry plants this week, but it looks like all but one died.  It's just so hot!  

The ones I planted a couple of weeks ago fared better.  It looks like I'll only have to replace two of these.

I have plans to tear down the raised beds that now hold the strawberries and raspberries, and moving the plants into narrower beds (for the strawberries) and directly in ground, with room on each side of the row to keep suckers tilled out (for the raspberries).   The new strawberry bed must be established before I tear out all of the plants and remove the boards.  I'm not looking forward to the job, mainly because I'm still getting over a pound of strawberries each week.  I'm quite sure they will bear right into November if given the chance.

My next job will be trying to remove this giant broccoli plant.  It's so big, it is falling over from its own weight, and it is also trying its darndest to bolt to seed.  Since I have several others that are giving me nice side shoots, I've decided getting this thing out of the garden will be the best plan of attack.  It's almost falling into the strawberry bed!  That's a 4' high fence behind the broccoli plants, so you can just imagine how tall it would be if it were standing straight.

Its stem is bigger around than my lower leg!

!!Rant Time!!  

This past week has been rather interesting, to say the least.  I've been a customer of Charter Cable for a few years now, receiving my phone, internet and TV service from them.  I have never been late paying my bill.  In fact, I always pay it before it is due.  Last week, in the mail, I got the following from them:

We're sorry to lose you as a customer.  It was a pleasure to serve you. Please pay the balance due immediately (the balance was ZERO) and return any Charter owned digital TV, Internet and Phone Equipment.  This statement may not reflect equipment already returned.  We look forward to serving you in the future.

I called the number on the statement for an explanation.  I was informed I have moved.  Uh....I've lived here for nearly 25 years.  I haven't gone anywhere, and they sent the statement to this address.  That was the only explanation I was given, even after informing them I would be changing providers, as I didn't want to lose those services.  I then contacted DISH for our TV, and Century Link for phone and internet.  DISH was installed on Monday, Century Link ran into a problem with our phone line today and won't get the installation completed until tomorrow or Friday.

A couple of days after receiving the Charter statement, I got a postcard from Charter Cable in the mail:  

Your postal address and email on file have changed.

Uh....you sent the postcard to the same address where you've always sent written communications.  The same address that has not changed.  

The next day, I got my email statement for next month.  Emailed to the email address that has not changed.  With another price raise.  The third since December.

As soon as Century Link gets my internet going, all of Charter's equipment will be promptly returned to them, as they have requested.  Granny is feeling cranky over the entire ordeal.  And Granny will probably be even crankier with internet speeds that are 1/10 of what I've been getting with cable internet.





20 comments:

  1. I remember getting so tired of wind in Moses Lake, and in Vancouver, WA, those east gorge winds were terrible at times.
    I can appreciate your ranting about those services. Sometimes I think one couldn't provide poorer customer service if one tried! We were in a restaurant last week and asked for some "fresh, HOT" coffee....it was lukewarm. We asked again for "fresh, HOT" coffee. The waiter argued with us for a bit, that it was "just made"...when he returned with a second try he said "I added some 140 degree hot water to it!!!!" Well now, that will make it all better.

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    1. Ray, I hear you! We went out to dinner last week, and my "medium" steak came back so well done I couldn't even choke it down. I brought the entire sirloin, minus about two bites, back home for the dogs. My complaint brought an offer to cook another steak, but it had taken half an hour to get that one, so I sure didn't want to wait for another one and have to eat it while my husband sat and waited for me. We'll just never go back to that restaurant.

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  2. That broccoli plant sure is a monster! I hope it gave you a crop in proportion to its size.

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    1. Mark, it has probably been the least generous with the side shoots. The smaller plants, even the 52" giant next to it, have given me more, with tighter buds.

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  3. That's crazy! I'm shocked that they didn't bend over backwards to keep you when you called them, too. If you don't like your new services, my advice is to call the old company back and ask them what kind of new and LOWER rate they can give you to return. I actually just did this with my current cable/internet company. I asked for a lower rate and asked what new customer sale rates they had available. If I had been more savvy, I would have researched it before I called and probably gotten an even lower rate. But I got to keep the same service, gain seven movie channels (that I will probably never watch because I never sit down long enough to watch a movie but whatever), get a second box for my bedroom and my bill was lowered by @$30. Just because I asked. I plan to do this every six months. The worst they can say is no and leave my bill the same.

    KK

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    1. KK, That's what I did last December, when my monthly bill suddenly doubled. They dropped it down and gave me a year of free movies (I don't watch them either, but the Mr. does). Then, every three months they began increasing the amount of the bill by over $5. I'm just tired of always having to second guess when they are going to double it again.

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  4. Love your monster broccoli plant. And here I thought I had a big one. I hang my head in shame. You'll need a machete for that one-LOL!

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  5. I'm lucky since I have choices here. I have go with cable or fios for fast internet. Of course we go with fios since it is the fastest. My husband keeps thinking of upgrading the system to be even faster. I'm not sure what the point is to that. It is fairly fast right now. I'm sort of assuming you are getting DSL. I hope it works out for you. At least the American internet is pretty good. My daughter is up in Canada and their internet is just not as good. Plus she also only had DSL. But she is coming home for a while so will be using our internet. She will get spoiled again.

    And I had to laugh about throwing the branch over the fence. I do that with my neighbor's viney weeds. Their weeds grow through the gaps in my fence and I hate those weeds so much. they have something on the stem that grabs you. It sticks to your clothing and rips at your skin. And it grows so fast. I think it is a bur cucumber, but not 100% sure. I always clip them and toss the clippings over. I'm afraid of having any of the seed land on my side of the fence as it is an annual and even the seedlings I don't like to touch.

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    1. Daphne, DSL is even slower where we live than they advertise. It will be almost as bad as going back to dial up! It's a lot less expensive than my cable service (by $25 per month), but it's costing me $100 for them to run a new line for it.

      I'm a firm believer in sending the weeds and branches back to the source. Except the leaves. I do like getting their leaves to chop up for my garden!

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  6. Annie, that business w/ the cable company may be a sign of a serious problem.
    Identity theft.
    Not only should you check all your bank accounts, but if it were ME, I'd take the time to make a trip to the post office to make sure nothing is 'amiss' over there.

    I hope it's nothing. Maybe it's nothing. Couldn't hurt to check. Good Luck.

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    1. Barbee, I keep close tabs on all of that, so that isn't the problem. Charter recently updated their billing system with new account numbers. That was when my problem started, so I am assuming there was a glitch somewhere.

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  7. Wow that's some broccoli plant! Sorry I've been a stranger - stuff going on around here, sometimes I can't see past my nose. Your production is impressive as usual.

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    1. That's OK, David. It is a very busy time of the year! I'm glad I don't have a job and can devote all of my time to house, yard and garden!

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  8. My, that's a large broccoli plant.
    You'd think we live on the moon because we can ONLY get Centurylink here for our phone and internet. And it REALLY ticks me off that we HAVE to have the land line in order to get internet. So I pay $35 for a phone I don't ever use (which only included LOCAL calls) and then another $25 for slower-than-molassas-in-February internet speed. I've thought about satellite, but it seems that EVERYONE complains how bad it is. That's my rant for the day. Hope you fair better with Centurylink than we do :)

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    1. Carolyn, I'm sure my internet speed will be slower than molasses. If it gets too bad, my only other option is to give up the home phone, go strictly cell, and use Clearwire/Clear for internet. I had them several years ago, and their customer service is even worse than the cable company, so I hope I don't have to go that route. At least I'm getting basic phone from Century Link for $19.95, internet for the same price plus modem rental. I also thought about DISH for internet, but have lived through that fiasco in AZ. It might be better here, our TV signal is excellent. Much better than cable! Anyway, our phone line has so much background noise, that will have to change or I won't be using Century Link. The guy is supposed to be here today or tomorrow to run a new line for the internet, I assume that will also be the line for the phone.

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  9. Bah Humbug! Sorry about your storm damage. Glad your corn popped up and is looking good tho. That is some broccoli plant! Good luck with your new service. I think Annie*s Granny needs cheering up! Hope all goes better tomorrow! Nancy

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    1. Bah Humbug is right, Nancy....They still don't have my internet service up and running (I'm still hooked up to Charter), my telephones have a loud ringing background noise, even after I installed a line filter, and now my 3-year-old Bosch dishwasher won't run! I REALLY need cheering up!

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  10. You must have the best soil in the country the way your plants grow! That is some broccoli plant! I'm glad your corn wasn't damaged and hope you get that harvest. We quit Charter years ago because of poor service, switched to DirectTV. Then this year quit regular tv altogether. It's taken some getting used to, but we watch what we want from Netflix and other streaming services. Of course, our son hates it when he's here now because he can't watch his sports!

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    1. Nutmeg, my daughter went Netflix too. I'd be perfectly happy with an antenna and local channels myself, but Mr. Granny has to have his sports. We had DISH before, for many years. In fact, we had it when it was EchoStar and used the huge dish antenna. Oh, the stories I could tell about those days, when we had to change the dish, by hand, to aim it at different satellites. In the winter it would freeze up and not move, so we'd have to go out with a teakettle full of boiling water to pour on it!

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