Crane Fly

A quick celebration of nature – a crane fly was resting on the garage door frame as I came back from an early morning trip to Home Depot for the last boxes I need. I took some quick pictures with my phone…pleased with the quality of the 8x magnification.

Another intrusion of nature into my laser focus on getting ready to move - the birdsong in the morning is at its peak this time of year and happens just as I am ready to get up. There is a phoebe that is almost always contributing to the symphony and sometimes I hear it in the evening as well.

Are we ready for the movers?

We have another day before the movers arrive to load the truck. Are we ready? Other than the short list of things to do tomorrow – I think we are. We packed 3 boxes today with 2 of them still open to receive the small items (mostly light bulbs) still in use.

We’re in the mode now of cleaning up – getting extra packing materials carted away and vacuuming. I am beginning to put painters’ tape to indicate ‘do no move.’ Most items we are not moving are small and in closets out of the way so I can close the door and put the tape on the outside of the closet but there are some other items like metal shelves in the garage and basement that are larger….and the television which will be on the hearth….ready to go into my car shortly after the movers are done; I’ll be leaving for Missouri the following day.

My husband is going to make a video of the rooms to document the contents (just in case something arrives damaged)…and also as a keepsake.

The list for tomorrow includes putting our computers into a closet (since they will be going in our cars)…folding up tables. We already prepped the floor lamps – a day before I had that task on my schedule.

 I also have a list for the morning of the day the movers are due (mainly removing bedding)!

Goodbye to the Wheelbarrow

We made the decision to not move our wheelbarrow to Missouri over a month ago. It was rusting and the tire had never managed the heavier loads very well. We took it to scrap metal collection at our county landfill after we finished using it for the yard work and moving other items headed for trash/recycling from the basement around to the front of the house.  

The wheelbarrow was a legacy from my mother-in-law…one of the items that continued to remind me of her through the over 30 years since her death. I don’t remember her buying it during the year or so she lived with us, so it must have been something she moved from Texas to Maryland. She did a lot of gardening that year, but it seems improbable that she could handle the wheelbarrow physically. We still have miniature daffodils and day lilies in our yard from the bulbs she bought/planted; I moved them with us from our previous house. I’ve decided not to dig up bulbs to take to Missouri…concerned about introducing some invasive insect or worm that is common in Maryland but not in Missouri. I’m going to buy some new bulbs next fall and when they bloom – I’ll still be reminded of her.

Plans and more plans

As it gets closer to the time the movers will arrive at our Maryland house, I find myself making detailed plans for just about everything: food, clothing, how the cars will be loaded, internet service.

I’ve managed to use up things like protein powder and eggs. I have the milk planned to be gone before I leave for Missouri and the closing of our new house. I have one leftover that will go with me as my ‘meal in the hotel’ but otherwise the refrigerator will be mostly empty except for items my husband will need for the time he will be here monitoring the re-carpeting and the house being listed for sale. We may or may not come back for when this house closes so all the food in the house will be gone when he leaves.

The weather has gotten hot and is likely to stay that way. I have one light weight jacket…otherwise I am wearing summer clothes and flip flops (although just in case I am taking a few pairs of socks and a pair of regular shoes). I’ll do laundry a day or so after closing on our Missouri house. With the warm weather…the space needed for clothes is reduced; most will be on the truck.

Space in the car is at a premium because we are minimizing the driving between Maryland and Missouri. I will do it twice but my husband will only make the drive once…..unless be both decide to come back for a last goodbye to the house as it transitions to a new owner. My Prius Prime is small so I have mapped out where items will go in the car…how I will organize the loading. I’ve already made adjustments to my plan by delaying the loading of my car somewhat to avoid 90-degree temperatures!

My husband is handling the utilities; both of us are keen to minimize the time we are without internet service in both locations! Doing everything on our phones at a time when so much is happening makes us anxious.

Overall – the planning has reassured us that everything that needs to be done….is on track (so far).

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 4, 2022

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Under Water and Under Pressure – 100 national parks are coastal…and are already taking action to mitigate sea level rise.

Where do ‘Hawaiian box jellies’ come from? – Evidently the box jellies appear close to shore like clockwork 8-10 days after full moon. This research reveal that the jellies are spawning during that time…and where they are when they not close to shore. This is important for providing better information to ocean swimmers and beach goers…trying to avoid stings. Another benefit…learning to keep the food web balanced to control box jelly numbers in Hawaii and other tropical localities.

Stirring up a mid-Atlantic bloom – Lots of nutrients flowing into the water from the coastal watersheds during spring rainstorms.

Vancouver requires gas stations & parking lots without EV chargers to pay $10,000 per year – Interesting idea…hope it increases the number of chargers and the trend to EVs!

Photography In The National Parks: More Favorite Places For Photography - We’re not going to be traveling to any of the western parks near term….so I enjoyed them through these photographs: Crater Lake, Redwood, Yosemite, Great Basin, and Lewis and Clark (Washington state portion).

Maya tooth treatments may have prevented infection – In the Mayan world - holes were drilled to attach stones to teeth; an analysis of the sealant used for 8 teeth from across the Maya empire (AD 200-900) revealed that most sealants included ingredients from pine trees that have been shown to fight the bacteria that cause tooth decay.

Top 25 birds of the week: Forest Birds – I always like bird pictures….

Scientists recreate Cleopatra’s favorite perfume – Recreating Mendesian perfume…the result so far has been a strong, spicy, faintly musty scent that tended to linger longer than modern fragrances…with ingredients like desert date oil, myrrh, cinnamon, and pine resin.

Grand Canyon of Texas – I remember (tent) camping in Palo Duro Canyon in the 1970s on the way to Colorado…being very hot and worried that our tent was too close to a red ant bed! At the time, I didn’t realize that it is the second largest canyon in the US (behind Arizona’s Grand Canyon).

Why humans get less sleep than other primates – A different type of sleep research…teasing out the differences in sleep of humans and other primates….and between non-industrial human populations and industrial human populations. It turns out that in the human populations…the hours of sleep are about the same but the perception of getting enough sleep is higher in the non-industrial populations than the industrial ones!

eBotanical Prints – May 2022

The 20 botanical books in May included 4 series:

  • Oakes Ames’ orchids (continued from April) from the early 1900s

  • Flora of the Lesser Antilles from the 1970s and 1980s

  • 2 issues of a magazine about rural art and taste from the 1800s

There were also two themes:

  • Pines

  • Oaks

The whole list of 2,390 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the May 2022 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the May eBotanical Prints!

Orchidaceae: illustrations and studies of the family Orchidaceae - fascicle 3 * Ames, Oakes * sample image * 1908

Orchidaceae: illustrations and studies of the family Orchidaceae - fascicle 4 * Ames, Oakes * sample image * 1910

Orchidaceae: illustrations and studies of the family Orchidaceae - fascicle 6 * Ames, Oakes * sample image * 1920

Orchidaceae: illustrations and studies of the family Orchidaceae - fascicle 7 * Ames, Oakes * sample image * 1920

Flora of the Lesser Antilles : Leeward and Windward Islands V1 - Orchidaceae * Howard, Richard A.; Garay, Lesley A.; Sweet; Herman R. * sample image * 1974

Flora of the Lesser Antilles : Leeward and Windward Islands V2 - Pteridophyta * Howard, Richard A.; Proctor, George R.  * sample image * 1977

Flora of the Lesser Antilles : Leeward and Windward Islands V3 - Monocotyledoneae * Howard, Richard A.; Gould, Frank W.; Koyama, Tetsuo; Maas, Paul J. M.; Read, Robert W.; Thompson-Mills, Brooke (editor) * sample image * 1979

Flora of the Lesser Antilles : Leeward and Windward Islands V4 - Dicotyledoneae (1) * Howard, Richard A.; Kellogg, Elizabeth S.; Staples, George W.; Al-Shehbaz, Ihsan; Anderson, William R.; Plowman, Timothy * sample image * 1988

Flora of the Lesser Antilles : Leeward and Windward Islands V5 - Dicotyledoneae (2) * Howard, Richard A.; Bornstein, Allan J.  * sample image * 1988

Flora of the Lesser Antilles : Leeward and Windward Islands V6 - Dicotyledoneae (3) * Howard, Richard A. * sample image * 1989

The Complete Library of the Garden, V 3 * Bloom, Alan * sample image * 1963

The family herbal * Hill, John * sample image * 1812

How to find and name wild flowers being a new method of observing and identifying upwards of 1,200 species of flowering plants in the British isles * Fox, Thomas * sample image * 1906

The Horticulturist and journal of rural art and rural taste V28, 1873 * Williams, Henry T. * sample image * 1873

The Horticulturist and journal of rural art and rural taste V29, 1874 * Williams, Henry T. * sample image * 1874

The Pines of Mexico * Shaw, George Russell * sample image * 1909

The Genus Pinus * Shaw, George Russell * sample image * 1914

Historic American Trees * Nicholson, Katharine Stanley * sample image * 1922

British oak galls * Connold, Edward T.  * sample image * 1908

The oak : a popular introduction to forest botany * Ward, Harry Marshall * sample image * 1892

Ten Little Celebrations – May 2022

May was a month of preparation to move…but there were plenty of little celebrations along the way.

12 boxes packed in one day. In April I had a few days that I got to 20 boxes…but that included some that all I had to do was tape (i.e. they were already packed). Doing a good job packing a box takes some thought…and gets harder after there are fewer items left to go in boxes. I celebrated that I managed a 12-box day!

Another load to the landfill/recycle center. Every time we take a load, I celebrate that we have a little less to move!

Getting the pile out for curbside pickup. It was a significant effort – requiring the wheelbarrow to get the heavier items up the hill. But we did it – more easily than I anticipated!

Getting the pile out for curbside pickup. It was a significant effort – requiring the wheelbarrow to get the heavier items up the hill. But we did it – more easily than I anticipated!

Finding boxes to pack larger items. I am packing larger items now…that are generally light weight too. I like the Home Depot’s ‘large’ boxes and celebrate how many odd items they hold gracefully.

Drawing down refrigerator items. I’ve been trying to eat things from the freezer/refrig so that I don’t have to move them. So far so good. The refrigerator is not entirely empty, but we’ll have less to move in an ice chest when we move. Celebrating that my strategy is working!

Reservations made for the trip to close on the house in Missouri. I’m celebrating that the further along we get…the more we do toward moving…the more ‘real’ it becomes. There will be a big celebration once we close but the steps leading to that milestone are worth celebrating too!

Birth of my niece’s child…the first of the next generation of our family. Celebrating the birth of child…mixed with relief that all is well with the mother and child.

A phoebe in the backyard in the morning (on almost every morning). The bird has become a normal early morning sound for me…not loud enough to be an alarm clock…but reminds me to celebrate the new day.

A timely appointment to get a crown on a broken molar. I was worried that my mouth would become painful before I could get an appointment with my dentist…but it happened quickly…and 2 hours later I went home with a temporary crown! I’m also celebrating that it is (so far) my best experience ever getting a crown.

A fox in the backyard…passing through. I happened to look out my office window to see a fox stop by the base of our feeder in the back yard….and then continue its way into the forest. It was transitioning from winter to summer coat. Celebrating that there is wildlife in our forest…and sometimes we get to see it in our backyard.

Brookside Gardens – May 2022 (1)

My daughter and I took a stroll through Brookside Gardens when she was here last week; we both savored it – anticipating that it would be a long time before we were back…or maybe it would be the last time. There was plenty to see…starting with the spring bulbs in the parking lot rain gardens. I noticed that the new growth in the stand of horsetails near the visitor center is a lighter green.

The new growth of ferns contrasts with the greens around it. The glossy green bushes in the background are camellias that are completely done with their blooms.

The rhododendron blooms are past their peak. There were some flowers that had been knocked off by the rains of the previous day.

The spiral walk in the 2009 anniversary garden is less distinct with the spring growth than it was in the winter.

The new sculpture made from the trunk of the sycamore that had to be cut down (uphill from the conservatory) is well done – representing some of the trees that are prevalent in our area: oaks, pines, maples.

My daughter hadn’t seen the other more recent sculpture…liked it as much as I did.

It’s easy to like flowers – big and small…lots of them to enjoy this time of year.

We didn’t go into the Tea House since there was a yoga class in progress. I settled for a cypress (with reflection) picture from the path.

Another new-to-me feature of the garden…that I photographed near the visitor center: mobile sculptures. They stand out now…will even more in the winter!

More about our visit to Brookside tomorrow….

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 28, 2022

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Major infrared breakthrough could lead to solar power at night – A very small amount of energy was produced in the test…more research required for practical application.

Restoration Reveals Engravings in Egypt’s Temple of Esna – Follow the link at the top of the post to see a few more pictures of the restored engravings.

What we are still learning about how trees grow – A new study finds that tree growth is limited by cell growth rather than photosynthesis which has been assumed to be the limiting factor previously. The models that predict how much carbon forests can absorb need to be updated.

Spring Flowers are Blooming Earlier in Greater Yellowstone – The recovery of detailed records made in the 1970s by Frank Craighead of when flowers bloomed is helping document changes…help restoration planners determine the best seed mixes for native plants…try to mitigate the impact of climate change.

Cutting air pollution emissions would save 50,000 US lives, $600 billion each year – Yet another reason to take actions to dramatically reduce air pollution.

Traces of an ancient watery world in Capital Reef – Satellite views of Capitol Reef National Park…and the story in the rocks.

Prehistoric feces reveal parasites from feasting at Stonehenge – A piece of trivia: beef and pork were spit-roasted or boiled in clay pots but the evidence of particular parasites in coprolites reveals that liver and lungs from an infected animal were consumed raw or undercooked.

Vangelis, famed film composer and synth pioneer, dead at 79 – I remember going to see Chariots of Fire when it first came out in the early ‘80s….and the unforgettable music. This obituary post includes a link to a YouTube video with the music.

How cranberries could improve memory and ward off dementia – I like cranberries…but eating a cup (equivalent) per day is a lot. In the study they used cranberry powder.

More heat, more drought: New analyses offer grim outlook for the US west – The latest seasonal outlook projects the drought to continue across virtually the entire American west through the summer. New research suggests that Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming will increasingly look like the Southwest as temperatures continue to rise.

Frederick Catherwood’s Lithographs of Maya Art

I enjoyed browsing 2 publications available via Internet Archive by John L. Stephens with Frederick Catherwood engravings earlier this year. When they were published in the mid1800s, these publications were best sellers and introduced the ancient Maya to the rest of the world. The Wikipedia entry for Catherwood  indicates that he died in 1854 when the ship he was on from Liverpool to New York sank after colliding with another ship. He was 55 years old.

Incidents Of Travel In Central America, Chiapas, And Yucatan V1 and Incidents Of Travel In Central America, Chiapas, And Yucatan V2 from 1841

Another resource for Catherwood lithographs is an online exhibit created in the fall of 2005 with interpretive text by students of a Smith College seminar (“Making Sense of the Pre-Columbian”) for 25 lithographs.

Curbside Pickup

Our county offers curbside pickup of large items on ‘trash day.’ It requires a call to make sure they have enough room on the truck…and the items must be in pieces easily lifted by two people.

My husband made the call, and the pickup was scheduled for the next week. We had:

  • A ping pong table that had to be taken apart since it was too heavy/awkward to lift otherwise.

  • A karate kicking bag (we made a big opening in the base to get the sand out…reducing the weight)

  • A lawn mower (emptied of oil and gas)

  • A glider exercise machine

These were all things that we didn’t want to move and were too big to easily get to the landfill/recycling on our own! It made quite a pile….and we are relieved that they are all gone!

Macro Photography in our Maryland Yard – May 2022

I made a last macro photography foray around our yard in Maryland --- enjoying the fullness of spring. I started with the usual moss and lichen on the trees in front.

In the front flower beds, the nine-bark bush was in bloom and the pyracantha that I thought had died several years ago has come back from the roots/is blooming.

In the chaos garden, the irises are thriving along with Virginia creeper. Under the deck, there is a fiddlehead of a Christmas fern unfurling.

I decided to not move the dried flowers from daughter’s birth over 30 years ago. They are now in a hollow of the brush pile since I have already cleaned out the compost bin. They have more color in the macro views than I expected!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 21, 2022

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Amazing Photo of Wisteria Trees Looks Like a Fireworks Display – Pictures from Japan’s Ashikaga Flower Park.

New Mexico Wildfire Spawns Fire Cloud – A pyrocumulonimbus cloud formed; the vertical plume reached the tropopause….an altitude of about 12 kilometers.

Heatwaves are altering our everyday lives – The new normal but we aren’t very well prepared for it; there are some obvious adaptations that are needed – particularly to electrical networks. No one wants infrastructure to fail at a critical time.

Well-preserved iron age arrow discovered in Norway – The arrow was recovered from a glacier…iron arrowhead, sinew, tar, thread, shaft, and feather fletching was preserved. It is about 30 inches long.

Rigid waterproof coating for paper aims to reduce our dependence on plastic – Interesting…would be great if it could speed the transition away from plastic for food packaging particularly. The article said the chemicals break down over time into harmless components…but didn’t say how long that took.

Chemicals that linger for decades in your blood – So many chemicals introduced in my lifetime are probably still in my blood. I can remember the spraying of DDT for mosquitoes in the ‘60s….one instance particularly of the straying truck going down the farm road near my grandparents house as we played in the back yard. How much of my exposure do I still have…did I pass along to my daughter?

Ultraviolet light reveals radiant hidden beauty of flowers – A project during the COVID-19 pandemic…beautiful results.

Archaeologists Unearth 3,000-Year-Old Giant Statues in Sardinian Necropolis – Over 7 foot tall…with almost emotionless expression, blocky nose and deep-set eyes. The two found most recently were boxers but about two dozen others have been found since the mid-1970s: 16 boxers, 4 archers, and 5 warriors.

Top 25 birds of the week: May 2022! – Bird appreciation….a source of beauty in the world.

Disparities in natural gas leak prevalence in US urban areas – Why can’t pipeline companies do better…not wait around until regulation requires them to do it? We should be more critical of the companies that they are not actively reducing leaks in their pipelines.

Milne and LeMair

I discovered an edition of A.A. Milne’s A Gallery of Children with illustrations by Henriette Willibeek LeMair (Saida) – one of my favorite illustrators of the era. It was published in 1925 and is available from Project Gutenberg. I picked three illustrations from the book to include with this post…but follow the link to the book to find many more.

She was most active as an illustrator in the early 1900s. I posted about 4 books she illustrated back in August 2021.  It was a thrill to find another. According to her entry in Wikipedia, in 1920 she married and converted to Sufism…publishing sporadically thereafter.

Preparing to move (2) – May 2022

A lot has happened since my last post about preparing to move back on 5/5.

We have packed a lot more boxes, of course. Our goal is to minimize items to go in the cars (precious/high value things, liquids, key documents, and whatever we need while the truck in enroute).

There is still some ‘messiness’ around the stacks of boxes but it is gradually being cleared away…with the rooms beginning to look ‘all packed.’ The very last will probably be the kitchen since we continue enjoying cooking/eating at home; about half the kitchen is already packed.

The boxes have been cleared from around the grand piano to make it easier for the crew that will prepare it to go on the truck. The box move was hard work since they were filled with books…the heaviest of our boxes. We managed to remove the humidifier box (which stuck out from the bottom of the piano).

I have developed a lot of skill in reusing packaging material like Styrofoam, foam squiggles, bubble/pillow wrap and paper. For example, I cut up a foam board yard sign to pad the top of a box, disconnected strips of Styrofoam from a larger piece/bent them to fill an odd space in a larger box and used squiggles to fill small spaces around paper wrapped breakable items to keep them from moving too much. I’m also realizing that plastic hangers work well to fill the top of a box without adding more weight.

The last ‘rooms’ to get packed (and the ones we are still working on are my husband’s office and the garage. We’ve made a good start and they will be packed more fully before this weekend. The before and after picture of my first round of garage packing is shown below.

We are getting rid of things we don’t want to move:

We’ve taken multiple loads of recycle and trash to our local facility.

Almost all the hazardous waste has been taken for disposal.

My husband called the county for curbside pickup of a ping pong table, glide, lawn mower, and karate punching bag for later this week – stay tune for pictures of the pile!

And I’ve scheduled another donation a few days before the movers come

Maintenance

The radon remediation has been completed.

The screens that were damaged/worn in the screened deck were replaced.

A light new bulb was put in the light fixture over the basement stairs (with some trickly ladder work).

Carpet replacement has been scheduled for after the movers are done (i.e the house is almost empty).

Overall – the progress we are making appears to be on track to be ready for the movers…and to be almost totally focused on our house in Missouri rather than the one in Maryland by mid-June!

A New Family Member

Adding to the overall drama of the month….

My niece had her baby! It was a milestone in our family – the first great-grandchild for my parents. One of my sisters became a grandmother. I became a great aunt as did my two other sisters. There has been a flurry in recent weeks to get pertussis vaccinations to safely visit the newborn. I was far from the event – in Maryland rather than Texas – but my sister provided enough texts for me to feel included. And I’ll get a pertussis shot in preparation for seeing the baby sometime in June.

The event was a good prompt to think about motherhood…how it has changed since my sister and I had children….how it has stayed the same. The basics are the same. Now there is more concern for the impacts of pollutants from the environment and potential COVID-19 infection on the developing fetus and newborn. The political climate that could impact care during pregnancy and delivery has degraded overtime and got much worse very recently. Still – the birth of a healthy baby is a time of hope for the future…a motivation for the adults of the family to lean into the actions necessary to enable this new family member opportunities on par with those we had…or better.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 14, 2022

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Why human brains were bigger 3,000 years ago – Some possible explanation: human populations reached a large enough size to share/divide labor and knowledge with others, writing….however, brain size/IQ relationship is not deterministic.

Operating rooms are the climate change contributor no one’s talking about – The health care industry accounts for 8.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the US. Operating rooms represent 70% of waste in hospitals and 3 to 6 times as much carbon as the rest of health systems.

Where tornadoes strike most frequently is changing – More erratic tornado activity and the broad impacts of climate change.

Do you have a lost twin? - The rate of twins among live births is only about 1.3%. But as many as 12% of all naturally conceived pregnancies may begin as twin pregnancies.

Wild fox kills 25 flamingos and a duck at National Zoo – We see foxes in our neighborhood. They seem to have adapted to the suburban environment. This one was very efficient to kill 25 birds, though.

A 10,000-year history of geo-ecological change in Yellowstone’s lower geyser basin – A study using a 26.5-foot core from Goose Lake.

US could cut transport emissions by 34% b 2030 – The current trend will reduce emissions by 19% but a bit more focus would provide a bigger reduction.

Garbology: How to spot patterns in people's waste – We’ve been getting rid of a lot as we prepare to move. I try to do as much as possible via donations and recycling…but there is still a lot going in the trash. Some of it came from Texas with us back in 1983…and was still in the same box!

6,000-Year-Old Slate Rings May Have Symbolized Relationships – Friendship rings? Careful analysis revealed the rings had been intentionally broken…and shared (i.e. pieces of a ring were found in two separate burial sites).

How Taipei discovered an active volcano on its doorstep – Disconcerting. Even of there is some ability to provide early warning of an eruption…could the city be abandoned quickly enough?

Tenants of an Old Farm (eBook)

I enjoyed Henry Christopher McCook’s books available on Internet Archive this past winter. My favorite is Tenants of an Old Farm first published in 1884 (the version in Internet Archive was a revised version published in 1902 so it must have been a relatively popular book during his lifetime). I’ve selected three illustrations from the book – there are more in the book…worth browsing.

McCook was a Presbyterian clergyman that ‘spent his summers studying ants and spiders’ according to his Wikipedia entry. Evidently many of McCook’s nature books were illustrated but Daniel Carter Beard (founder of the Boy Scouts of America); he is mentioned in the author’s preface as providing the ‘comical adaptations’ for the book but the illustrators were Edward Shepard and Frank Stout.

House Maintenance

My husband has taken the lead in getting our existing house ready to go on the market. We are enjoying a new refrigerator as a result because the old one’s ice maker was expensive/time consuming (a special order) to replace. We bought another black, side-by-side. It is the same size on the outside, but the inside seems to have more room and there is no ‘handle’ that sticks out from the door so the area in front of the refrigerator seems larger. I like it….and I hope a new owner will as well.

He also did a radon test; the sump pump (that wasn’t working) replaced by a plumber when the result was a little high. Now he has done another test. If it isn’t low enough, he’ll have a specialist in radon remediation decide the best approach.

We are getting rid of our lawn mower before we leave so he has already hired a yard mowing service to mow the yard every 2 weeks. Right now he is leaving it to me to clean out the flower beds and we’ll put down mulch in some of them.

Last weekend we started the process to get the house recarpeted shortly after our belongs are out of the house.

Since we already did one round of interior and exterior painting touch up back in March – we are hoping that we won’t have more to do after the furniture is gone.

Hopefully we have identified the most significant maintenance items…we’re primed to contact a realtor!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 7, 2022

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

A Watershed Moment: Key Findings About Potential Drinking Water Contamination – The sources of contamination are varied….but the list of primary sources is relatively short.

Better residents’ health after switch to electric buses – A study from Sweden. Improved health is a benefit of electrification of transportation!

Should people get rid of their yards? – Somewhat depressing conclusion: “Most people would rather make an aesthetic choice with their lawns than an environmental one.” My plan is not to eliminate the yard in my new house but to minimize it over time with the addition of bushes along the fence and extending beds around trees and around the house.

We talk the fastest growing green jobs with LinkedIn Sr. Editor – The “job vs the environment” is changing. The “green economy’s ability to expand job opportunities is too significant to ignore.” This growth in green jobs is like the 1970s for computer related jobs – a lot of new types of jobs and many of them will extend for the duration of a career starting now.

Discover the Microscopic Wonders of Olympus’ 2021 Image of the Year Awards – Taken with light microscopes…lots of finesse preparing the specimens.

Known to be toxic for a century, lead still poisons thousands of Midwestern kids – Two things I learned from this article about the state I am moving to: Missouri is one of the four states in the Midwest that is struggling to alleviate lead poisoning in children…and it is the number one producer of lead in the US. Hope they are making progress.

Top 25 birds of the week: terrestrial birds – Always enjoy the bird photographs! This group includes a roadrunner….a bird I always associate with Texas but the photograph was taken in California!

Tests indicate bronze age daggers had a practical purpose – Evidently the daggers were thought to be ceremonial objects prior to this analysis.

Should we be eating three meals a day? – The number of meals may not be as important as consistency….and giving the body a long enough ‘fast’ time to rest.

The Great Barrier Reef through Time – Landsat Images used to illustrate recent research on the growth of the reefs as the ocean changes. Evidently the reef has been more resilient to past sea-level and temperature fluctuations than previously thought….but increased sediment input has been a bigger problem.