Observations From Working At Amazon

I thought I'd try something new with this post - sharing some observations I have made while working at the local Amazon warehouse.  My specific job is not relevant here; let's just say that I'm not yet the general manager.  I won't be giving out much Amazon-specific information - this is more about sharing general observations that I have observed while working for Amazon.  I may do more such posts if I come up with enough additional observations.  Here goes, in no particular order.

1. Water Spider is a cool job name.
2. There are officially too many variations/versions of Monopoly.
3. The pod system is pretty smart, but it could be a bit smarter.
4. It is very nice to have Mondays off work.
5. I used to think I could stand for long periods of time: now I can stand for LONG periods of time.
6. The LEGO company is still going strong.
7. Printed, paper books ARE NOT going away any time soon.
8. Playmobile is still around and putting out new play-sets.
9. Melissa & Doug puts out some cool toys.
10. There are A Lot of supplements out there.
11. I have been handling Christmas merchandise since August.
12. There are A Lot of bulking-up powders out there.
13. It is very nice to have Tuesdays off work.
14. The Harry Potter brand is still going strong.
15. People spend A Lot of money on pet food, pet supplements, pet clothes, pet leashes, pet harnesses, pet medicines, etc.
16. Bobble Heads seem to be making a comeback in a big way.
17. A human being has to stow every single item by hand into the warehouse's inventory.
18. Solar-powered automatic soap dispensers are pretty cool.

I guess that's it for now.

    bIsh

New House Blog: Episode CCXI - Wildlife Fences

On our street we don't have a lot of fences, but we do have a fair amount of wildlife.  Most yards are open and allow the free flow of wildlife (and escaped dogs).  For the most part this situation is not problematic, but sometimes you need to build a fence to keep the wildlife out, or in, or away from something specific.  In this Episode we will discuss some of the wildlife, fences, and a big bonanza of Back Yard Archaeological artifacts.

Wildlife 1 - Gecko

We start with this adorable Mediterranean house gecko (hemidactylus turcicus) hiding in our mailbox.

How he got into our mailbox, or back out, I shall never know.  It's not a great picture, but you can see the distinctive bumpy skin and dark splotches that identify him as a Mediterranean house gecko, one of two common house geckos in our area.












New Tree

You may recall that in the previous Episode we had a mostly-dead elm tree removed by Rosebrock Tree Services. A few weeks ago they came back and planted a new elm tree - a cedar elm (ulmus crassifolia), to be more specific.

Here you can see the new elm relative to the old elm.  Yes, the old stump is still there.  As before, Rosebrock Tree Services did a great job, and we are happy with their service.





Fence 1

Do you recall the aloe we planted in this Episode?  For a couple of months the deer did not bother it, and we thought it was probably safe, but one day, while doing my regular watering, I noticed that something/someone had taken a couple of nibbles out of it.  I applied some fresh Liquid Fence around the area and did not think it would be a problem.  A few days later I noticed some serious deer-induced damage to our aloe (thanks for nothing, Liquid Fence), and we knew it would take a physical barrier to keep our aloe safe.

A trip to Home Depot provided the required material, and we commenced to fence.  In this photo you can see that the deer have eaten back quite a bit of our aloe.

Here you can see the full fence from a different angle.  It looks a bit like cage, so I will refer to it as such.  We chose green instead of black or bare metal because we thought it would blend in a little better.  The aloe cage turned out just about as planned, and it is pretty sturdy.  So far no new deer-induced damage has been observed.

Wildlife 2 - Insects

Next up we have two visually interesting insects.

First up is this green dragonfly.  We like dragonflies, so we did not bother this dude.

This is an ironclad beetle (zopherus nodulosus haldemani).  According to multiple sources on the interwebs, it has a very hard exoskelton, and it feeds on fungus and dead matter, not on living plant matter, and is not considered a pest.  We mostly see them on one of our oak trees, and we generally leave these guys alone.










Fence 2

Surely, we thought, deer won't bother our sunburst cactus - because it's a cactus, and it's planted amid a bunch of other cactus; but the deer apparently don't share our logic, and so I was mildly ticked off when I discovered that not only did they eat most of the sunburst, but they then flipped over the remaining portion so that it was completely upside-down, and the root portion was sticking up into the air.  This was discovered at the start of the the aloe cage construction (see above), and we knew that our sunburst needed its own cage.  D'oh!

As you can see, this cage is not quite as neat or orderly as the aloe cage (see above).  Mainly this is because we had time to plan the aloe cage, but the sunburst cage was built on impulse, with no prior planning.  It is kind of ugly, but it works.  We were able to incorporate some of the native rock to help hold down and stabilize the cage.  The sunburst cactus seems to be doing very well since the deer-eating incident, and there is obvious new growth.

Wildlife 3 - Mammals

We present this majestic 8-point buck for your consideration.

I found him on our front lawn one morning after returning from work.  It was still dark out, so this photo doesn't quite show how majestic and muscular he is.  So far he's the biggest, most-pointed buck I have seen in our neighborhood.  Yes, I chased him off our lawn, despite his majesticity.

This is one of the neighbor's outdoor cats, sitting on the hood of my car.  He's a tame domestic cat, and not truly wild, but he roams outside and sits on my car, and presumably hunts for some of his food, so he can be included as wildlife.

Fence 3

The majestic buck above leads us to the next fence.  Do you remember our new cedar elm, mentioned above?

When it was planted it had all of its bark intact and undamaged.  But look at it now.  Some young buck has used his antlers on our young tree and torn it up a bit.

We don't know if it was the majestic buck above, but we are fairly certain that a doe does not cause this type of antler damage.  We did not anticipate this when we had the tree planted, and we have not seen this damage on any of our other trees (possibly because they are mostly mature and have thicker bark).

We had plenty of fencing left over from fences 1 and 2, but we had to run to Home Depot for a couple of new fence posts.  To the left is the result - a brand new anti-deer fence for our new cedar elm.  It is quite sturdy, and so far there is no new deer damage.  Rosebrock Tree Services (also mentioned above) came by and sealed up the tree's wounds (with regular black primer).  They believe the tree is not seriously damaged, and it should recover and continue to grow, and so far it seems healthy.





Wildlife 4 - Reptiles

Yes, I could have included the gecko (mentioned toward the beginning of this Episode) in this reptiles section, but I wanted to lead off with him, so he got his own section.

For your viewing pleasure we present this Texas spiny lizard (sceloporus olivaceus).  He was apparently just hanging out on our rock, warming himself, and he let me get quite close to take this picture.

Here's another Texas spiny on one of our oak trees.  He didn't let me get very close before he ran off.  According to the interwebs, the males have blue patches on their bellies.  I did not handle either of these two lizards, so I don't actually know if they were male or female.  However, I know that we like lizards, so I didin't bother these guys.

Our final wildlife example for this Episode is this beautiful Texas coral snake (micrurus tener).

Yes, the coral snake is the venomous one.  As you can see, this fellow is heading away from me, and his head is probably somewheres in the top right of the photo, beneath the plant detrius.  I was recovering artifacts in our back yard (see below for Back Yard Archaeology, or BYA), when I unwittingly disturbed him.  He was already slithering away when I spotted him, and and I know enough to not bother venomous snakes in the wild, so I did not pursue.  One handy rhyme for differentiating between coral snakes and harmless snakes in the USA (not in other parts of the world) is: Black and white, you're alright; red and yellow, you're dead fellow.  The important part is that second part - red and yellow.  There is plenty of information on the interwebs about coral snakes, other snakes that mimic them, and helpful rhymes, so feel free to do some research and scare yourself silly.

Back Yard Archaeology

Recently I conducted a massive archaeological survey and excavation in our back yard, and I returned with a treasure trove of artifacts.

First up is this bit o' trash buried among the cactus.  How to tell trash from actual artifacts?  It takes years of experience and a trained eye.  Fortunately, I have two trained eyes.

Next up we have this concrete slab that was partially buried in the main path down through the back yard.  It appears to have the imprints of wooden boards, but we have not yet discovered its true function.  Perhaps it was just some extra concrete left over from our Texas House's foundation?

We come now to this bone.  The ends of this bone have been cut with a tool, and it may have originally been used in some type of cooking, or as some kind of dog bone.  It was resting on the surface less than two feet from the back of our Texas House.

A second bone was found farther out in the yard, in the dry riverbed area.  this one appears to be naturally removed from some animal and naturally deposited.  It is also quite weathered, which indicates it had been there for a while.  Possibly this bone is a natural artifact from some animal killing and eating another.  The glove is there for size reference.

Also unearthed, or simply picked up off the surface, were these metal bits, and a brick fragment.  The rusted metal disks may have been attempts by the Fist Ones to mint their own coins, but we're not sure what the metal mesh and bricks were used for.  An alternate, radical theory might be that these were leftover materials used in the building of our Texas House.  But that would not explain the brick fragment.  There were no bricks used in our Texas House (as far as we know), but it does match the style and material of the brick showcased in the previous Episode.

This metal strapping was found partially buried beneath some large bushes in our back yard, near a spot where deer often hang out.  Could this be the remnants of some crude deer trap/snare?  Dating on these metal artifacts is not yet settled.

Out in the brush we found this discarded Gatorade bottle.  We have not yet determined which flavour of Gatorade it is.

Also found out among the brush was this smashed Coke bottle.  The label is worn away, so we can't be 100% certain of which variety of Coke this contained, but it has the red cap of Coke Classic.  A second smashed Coke bottle has since been found, also with a red cap.

This glass bottle appears to be from a certain brand of "hard" lemonade that we will not advertise here.  The label is partially worn off, but we can make out enough to be pretty certain of its origin.

All of these bottles appear to have been sitting out in the open for quite a while, and some were partially buried.  This leads us to believe that they pre-date the building of our Texas House.  What kind of happenings happened way back when this was just wild open country?

Found much closer to our Texas House, along the side of the house (the side that has the external AC unit), is this Coke can.  It was partially buried near a tree root.

The paint is still crisp and clear, and dating is much more obvious for this artifact.  If you click on the picture to enlarge it you will see that the promo on the can dates to late 2009, so it may be from one of the builders of our Texas House.

Found near the above Coke can, and at approximately the same level of partial-buriedness is this Mountain Dew can.  The paint is crisp and clear, but there are no obvious indicators of date on the can itself.

What is obvious, however, is that someone of great intelligence and high intellect was in the area, and possibly contributed to the building of our Texas House.






Do the Dew!
    bIsh

New House Blog: Episode CCX - Addition And Subtraction

Welcome back, y'all, to the New House Blog.  We are continuing to enjoy our Texas House, and to gradually shape and mold the little details as we see fit.  In this Episode we will add some new things, subtract some old things, perform some minor repair work, and start a new edition of Back Yard Archaeology (BYA).

Addition One: The Hose Reel

At our California House we were able to use a ground-based hose reel in front, and it worked great.  At our Texas House, however, the hose bib location, and the lush vegetation, precludes the use of a ground-based hose reel in the front.  So we decided to add a wall-mounted hose reel (some might call it a hose caddy).

We chose a location immediately above the hose bib, on the left-hand side of the garage, and we went to the local Lowes and purchased the appropriate hose reel.  Next we went to the local Home Depot to purchase the appropriate mounting bolts and drill bit (which turned out to be a very small hole saw).  Once home we marked out the mounting area with our handy chalk snap line.

The remaining holes were drilled, bolts and hose reel hardware were loosely installed, silicone was squeezed into the holes, and everything was tightened up.  Next, the bright red, 100' hose was installed on the reel.  Why red?  Well, I was at Lowes, and while looking at the 100' hoses I was having a hard time deciding which grade of hose would be best, so I chose the contractor's grade, which turns out to the be heaviest and reddest.




Subtraction One: Old Elm

In the previous Episode we mentioned some of our New House traditions.  Another tradition we have is removing at least one mostly-dead tree from in front of our house.  At our California House it was the mostly-dead Thornless Honey Locust tree in the parking strip.  At our Texas House it was a mostly-dead elm tree in our front yard.

This is the old Elm in question.  And it's interesting how this came about.  We had called a certain local tree service to inquire about removing a limb from a different (Oak) tree (more on that below), and we were waiting to hear back from them when Rosebrock Tree Services showed up unexpectedly on our front step.  They were out canvasing the neighborhood, looking for business, and the timing was right, so we decided to use Rosebrock instead of the other service (which has still not gotten back to us).  It seems that even here in Texas some services will just show up on our doorstep (so far we have not seen any door-to-door meat salesemen).

This old Elm tree was mostly dead, and potentially interfering with another tree's growth, so we decided to have it removed.  Rosebrock Tree Service was on time and they were very professional.

Can you tell where the human(s) were edited out of this picture?

The tree continues to get smaller.

Almost done.

Done.  We decided to keep a few pieces of the larger limbs for use as landscaping logs in our back yard, and possibly as firewood.












Addition Two: Entryway Plants

You may recall that our Texas House has two large planters by the front door.  Said planters contained dead plants when we moved in, and after removing said dead plants we decided to add some live plants to said planters.

To the left-hand planter was added this T-Rex Aloe (aloe hybrid).  Yes, that is its real name.

To the right-hand planter was added this Variegated Soft Agave (agave desmetiana variegata).

Here you can see both new plants in the entryway.  They are both doing well so far.











Interlude: BYA

We had to close down the California Back Yard Archaeology site, but we continue with the project at our new  Texas excavation site.  Even though our Texas House is much younger than our California House, and only lived in by one family, we have been finding ancient artifacts - some, or all, of which seem to pre-date the previous owners, whom I shall refer to as the First Ones (because they were the first occupants of the house (not to be confused with the Old Ones, who were a completely separate people living in California)).

First up we have these two fine artifacts - the concrete slab and the segment of wire on said slab.  The hand spade is there for size reference.  Yes, folks, in our back yard is this random slab of concrete.  As far as we know, our Texas House is the only house that has ever been on the property, so it's kind of a mystery why this chunk of cement is in our back yard.  And where did the wire come from?

Also found in our back yard is this brick.  It appears to be an ordinary house brick, but our house is not brick, nor are the neighbors' houses, as far as I know.  Where did it come from?  Why was a random brick in our back yard?

These old cans initially caused me some concern about wild parties held by strangers late at night on our property, but a closer inspection shows them to be very sun-bleached, and to pre-date the construction of our Texas House by several years (the dates printed on the cans range from 2003 to 2005, and our Texas House was built in 2010), so they seem to be ancient artifacts, and not recent party remnants.  We're leaving the cans in situ for the time being, because they are a good marker for the border of our property.

Next up is this brightly-colored Top Flite Super Range golf ball, also found in our back yard.  It's about 4/5 of a mile to the nearest golf course, so that must have been a world-record whack to get it all the way into our back yard (uphill, too).

A pattern of artifacts does seem to be emerging, but it is too early to discuss in more detail.

Addition Three: Euphorbia

Normally we don't go for the new-fangled, tacky grafted succulents and cactus, but when we saw this one we instantly loved it.

Meet our Euphorbia Lactea Crest Grafted (Euphorbia Lactea Cristata).  You can see why we fell in love with this beauty.  Look at all of that pretty purple foliage.  And it's large enough that you can't really see the root stock onto which it was grafted.  We found a prominent place for it in front of our Texas House.  It seems to be thriving in its new home.

Subtraction Two: Old Oak Limb

There was a large, dead Oak Limb protruding almost into our deck/balcony area, and we decided early on to remove it.  Initially I was planning to do the work, but due to the rough, sloping terrain, and my inexperience with large Oak Limbs, we decided to reach out to professionals to remove the offending Limb.

 As you can see, this Oak Limb was perilously close to intruding upon our deck/porch.  Being mostly dead, it was likely to fall on its own one day and possibly hit a deer.

It also would have provided a relatively easy path of escape should one of our little cats get out onto the deck/porch unsupervised.

Rosebrock Tree Service safely removed the old, dead Oak Limb the same day they removed the old, mostly dead Elm Tree.

Unrelated to Rosebrock Tree Service, or limb removal, check out this real, live cactus growing on the same Oak Tree.  The most likely scenario is that a bird carried a cactus seed up into the tree and it sprouted there.


More PVC Repair

Our tradition of repairing/replacing broken or damaged PVC pipes continues.

This particular break (inside the black circle) was discovered while observing a waterspout shooting up from the front lawn in a place where there is no sprinkler, during a test run of our irrigation system.  A little digging revealed the damaged pipe.

No, the camera did not add that curve to the PVC pipe - it actually curves, and it is very thin-walled.  Both of these factors probably contributed to the breakage.

This repair was pretty simple - I simply cut out the damaged section and inserted a length of flexible PVC to accommodate the curve.  As is tradition, I left some of the damaged PVC in the ground when I filled in the hole.  So far there have been no other water spouts observed.

Local Wildlife

We finish up this Episode with some of the local wildlife.

The focus of this picture is the praying mantis, not the gnome-eating cat.  Mantises are our friends, so we did not disturb this guy.

This is one of the many cicadas we have seen around our Texas House.  They are usually dead within a couple of days of emerging from the ground.  We are neutral regarding the cicadas, so we left this guy alone.

I had never before seen a lizard mid-molt, but that is what you are seeing here.  We have several lizards, and A LOT of geckos, at our Texas House.  Lizards and geckos are our friends, so we let them be.

Yes, this wildebeest is a local.  No, he doesn't roam the neighborhood, and no, he's not in a zoo.  Can you guess where he lives?







Bonus Final Photo

This colourful pole was photographed recently at the Oktoberfest celebration in Fredericksburg.  What does it mean?  Is it a tradition on Texas, or Germany?  Are the various images significant somehow?














Now, where can I get me a pole like that for our front
    bIsh