New House Blog: Episode LXXXVI - Pears, Pruning, Produce, Pests, And Portals

The New House Blog is back from summer vacation, and we've got a packed Episode for you today.  We'll start off with a pear update, move into a pruning project at the Parents' House, proceed to some pests, peruse a portal, and maybe throw in a cute cat picture.

Before we get to all of that, however, we have a brief 'hood update.  And it begins with this photo that I took on my way in to work one morning.  It's not exactly in our New House's local 'hood, but it is someone's 'hood.

While waiting for a light to turn green one morning I spotted this interesting individual, presumably on his way to work, too.

I'm guessing that the colorful decorations are mainly to increase his visibility so that cars are less likely to run him over.

There was an apartment fire just down the street from us recently.  I was made aware of it as I drove home from a local Fatburger, or maybe home from work.

The action was pretty much over when I drove by, but the other side of the street was blocked off for several blocks.

I believe that no one was seriously hurt, but there was some serious property damage.

We wrap up our 'hood update with this scene, viewed just 15 minutes away, by bike, from our New House.

What you don't see is the shopping cart just outside the right edge of the frame.

Pear Update

We harvested our first harvest of pears in July, as seen in the previous Episode. Those pears were joined by two more from the tree.  The first batch of 6 pears was left in the reefer for too long, resulting in wrinkly pears that tasted delicious but were not juicy or soft.  The two additional pears were left chilling for less time and they turned out to be both juicy and delicious.  We may have figured out the ripening formula for our pears.  And we have 6 or 7 new pears on the tree at this time.  So far the slimy squirrels haven't bothered our pear tree this year, but we're remaining vigilant, just in case.

Pruning

My dad recently asked for some help in pruning a tall evergreen tree, and I was happy to help.  I was so happy to help that I went out and bought a new tool just for this pruning job.  

Meet Pinchy.

Pinchy is a 60" (5-foot, or 6.1-metric foot) pruner, and I was able to accomplish some truly amazing pruning with Pinchy.  

Pinchy is one of those tools that you just love to use - that you want to just keep using long after the job is officially done.  I found myself looking for more branches to prune, even if they were not on the official pruning list.


Pinchy has since helped with pruning of our ever-growing oleanders.

As you can see, Pinchy and me (or is it Pinchy and I? They keep changing the rules) make a pretty good team.  Much of the pruned wood will end up in our fireplace.

Produce

We have been enjoying fresh produce from our food and pottery gardens.  Here is a picture of an intriguing potato.  Note the star pattern in the center.

We don't know what it means, but it must mean something.

We are still looking forward to enjoying our melons.  This Christmas melon is developing nicely.

As are these honeydews.

Note the fresh catnip near the little baby asian melon.

Cute Cat Interlude

As hinted at above, we have cute cat interlude, just because we can.

Here is an action shot of Edgar stretching his jaw muscles.

And here he is relaxed.

Pests

The particular pests in question are members of the spider family, possibly the same spider family.  If you are squeamish you may want to skip to the next section, as there will be several close-ups.  

>><<  Mactans montage ahead! You've been warned! >><<

We had not seen any black widows (latrodectus mactans) at all this calendar year, and then suddenly I found, and killed of course, the first widow of the season, of the entire year.  It was a dark night, and I was outside preparing to water the back yard trees (on a day other than a designated watering day, too) when I came upon the foul fiend.  She was...  But first things first, and all in order. The spider I first spotted is seen below.

It might not be clear in the picture, but this is a brown spider with a distinctive, roughly hourglass, mark on her abdomen. She's shaped like a black widow, but she's brown.  My first thought was that she might be one of the infamous brown widows (latrodectus geometricus).  My second thought was that she needed to die.  However, this latrodectus was more clever than some, and she ran away and hid before I could dispose of her.

Here you can see some distinctive markings on her abdomen as she flees in terror.  

I did a little research, and discovered two pertinent and important facts regarding this brown 'widow. Fact one:  brown widows are not known to be anywhere near our part of California.  Fact two: black widows are brown until they fully mature, and they have whitish markings on their abdomens while immature (okay, that's three facts).

Logically, I concluded that this freak of nature was a not-yet-fully-mature black widow.  She eluded me for a few nights, but I won: she is no more.

Not so clever was this fully mature black widow (Perhaps they get more complacent as they get older). This is how she looked just moments before being squished by falling brick.

Not far away was this other juvenile 'widow, just hanging out upside-down. She's dead, but I don't remember precisely how I dispatched her.  

This final latrodectus mactans was found on another night, in the front of the house near the hose hookup.  Here you can clearly see her distinctive white markings and brown base color.  

Now you know: black widows are not black until they are mature.  They do, however, have an hourglassish mark on their evil underbellies.

>><< End of mactans montage! >><<

Not Pests

To counter the pests above we also have some non-pests to share with you.

Seen patronizing our hedgerow sweetpeas was this big, black, beautiful carpenter bee.

Here is another beautiful, big, black carpenter bee.  They are good pollinators, and they are quite friendly.  We enjoy having them around.  

This is a friendly bumblebee sipping nectar from one of our poppies.  Note the yellow markings and the slightly smaller size of the bumblebee. Until recently I mistakenly thought that these two types of bees were all the same type - bumblebees.  It's on ly recently that I learned to distinguish between the two.  

Portals

Our New House came with a lot of door knobs - a lot of old-style gold-chrome door knobs.  We decided to upgrade them all - 9 in total.  Below you see the sequence for a typical door.  We took pictures of all 9 replacements, but we thought it would be really boring to post all of those pictures.  If you really want to see all 9 door knob replacements, contact me and I will gladly share the pictures with you.

Our 1/2 bath had a typical, old-style door knob.  Note that the screws are on the inside of the door, which could be a problem if someone ever got locked inside.

Typical door striker plate.

 Typical striker plate cutout, with an atypical artifact.  Buried below the striker plate was an ancient 1/2 striker plate.

Yes folks, the pre-Bishopians had left this 1/2 striker plate in the door jamb.

We are quite baffled as to why they would do this.  It's not like it's a hard thing to remove. Did it maybe have some religious or cultural meaning to them?

Typical replaced door striker plate.

Typical replaced door knob.  Note the more modern look, and the screws are on the outside of the door.

If you're interested, we have 9 slightly used golden door knobs for sale - cheap!

Flying Farewell

And finally, we bid you adieu with this friendly flying farewell.

The bees are buzzing in the trees to make some honey just for

    bIsh