stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

more rain. we've had a few day break so most of the rain before has soaked in but it is still very soggy out there in all the gardens.

i've been spending a lot of time learning more about how my website gizmos work. in the past i've had very little interest in all things internet software related and have gone from hand writing HTML code to using what is called a static web site generator. for years i've just used it without digging too much into it because it just never appealed to me to get into the details.

as time has gone on the old theme i used for my website had changed a lot and i didn't like how the theme developer was trying to lock people into "branding" and hosting websites that he was using so i stopped updating the theme and have been using it since then as it is. it does most of what i want, but it is very overcomplicated for what i am doing so now i've gotten back to this and am learning more and starting to simplify and reduce complexity. mainly because i want to figure out why something isn't working but also to figure out how all of this even manages to work at all to begin with. keywords here are (hugo, css, scss, sass, html, markdown, javascript, images, react, responsive, bootstrap, seo, etc... - you can spend days on each of these - no i don't want to but i'll probably end up doing it anyways if i have time).

this is all because i got rather stuck in the pages where i was trying to get my bean history down and that was getting to be too tedious and blah so instead of finishing that i decided to do something else instead for a while. it's great to be king.

back to reality though, we do need to get the end of the drive fixed and that means i somehow have to get out there rain or shine to move a bunch of bricks out of the way. the small four pronger rake might be what gets used. too wet too much lately for me to stand in the ditch and move them up. call the contractor tomorrow to see what his schedule and estimate are like so i can figure out when i have to put in the call to the MISS DIG marker peoples.

 

[AMKuska]

Is it "Ant Hive?" I just took a look at it and it looks okay, but when I clicked the "About" "Projects" etc. nothing happened.

 

[flowerbug]

Is it "Ant Hive?" I just took a look at it and it looks okay, but when I clicked the "About" "Projects" etc. nothing happened.

yes, and that is one of the problems i was trying to figure out. my efforts last night i finally got that figured out but now i have to make sure i have all of my other changes moved and test it out before updating the on-line version. i'm also changing the order of the main menu so that the projects/tags come first and the about stuff comes last with the few posts in the middle. that's also now working so getting there...

to get rid of things that were on the site that weren't being used any more i deleted the whole site and reuploaded everything. my connection upload speed isn't fast so it takes a while for everything to get back in place when i do this - i don't do it very often. all done now. still have plenty more things to work on but at least the basics are working now as they should.

 

[flowerbug]

the spring peepers are out now in force tonight, with a warm day and now it is raining i can hear the froggies calling even through my closed double paned patio door and six inch walls with insulation. i hearts froggies and am so glad to hear them and anytime they visit up here near the house (which is not very close to them or very hospitable because of all of the gravel and not too much cover for them). i try to take them back to a nicer place with more green stuff, hopefully more bugs to eat and someone of their own kind to hang out with. i can't speak frogese very well. *ribbet*

 

[digitS']

What is a frog ... What is a ribbet???

Just checked and it has been 3 years since I said anything about a frog in my gardens. It was fairly unusual to have them show up but, a frog or two were around for a few years. Northern Leopard Frogs. This far from the river and any wetlands must just not be to their liking.

The recent drought couldn't have been froggy helpful. Maybe, if we stay out of "exceptional" and drift towards the better end of "severe," frogs will be back.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

the killdeer have chosen the front gardens for their nesting site this season. i'm still not sure if these are a different pair or not than the ones that normally nest in the back. the ones that are usually out back are very tame and make very little noise when i'm working in the gardens. some ways of moving will get them agitated but not too bad. last year the other pair of birds out front were more noisy so i'm hoping it is the other pair instead out front. the other good news though is that i don't have a lot of time involved in the out front gardens so i shouldn't be around them that much anyways.

 

[flowerbug]

second garden club meeting did happen yesterday afternoon. one of the previous people did send a note that they could not attend due to partner having covid and not wanting to risk giving others the crud. still there were four of us and we talked about various topics for an hour.

i then used the nice table to spread out and get some things figured out for planting this coming season and organised my give-away beans.

for fun i took some garlic and onions i'd wrapped in towels and had stored in the garage to unwrap and see how they were doing - all were in good condition.

the garlic i've brought in so i can peel it and use it for cooking or grind it up and drench it with lemon juice and put it in the freezer packed in small jars.

the onions i hope i can plant this week sometime.

 

[flowerbug]

spring is coming along. the crocuses are mostly done. as you can see this pic of the North Garden from standing at the patio door looking that ways (N-NE) shows plenty of the daffodils have bloomed the past few days. there's a rather large number that look alike so i could give away most of them in the picture and still have a lot more to also give away that i've not yet moved (from further uphill and around the edge that all need to be divided).

the daffodils more in the foreground with the hyacinths will have more variety as the spring goes on, but i see some of those are duplicates that could be given away to make room for others so i have a more unique collection up front (with a longer flowering season). one of the whole reasons for arranging them as i have was so i could do all this figuring out and winnowing down. i'll get more markers out tomorrow...

 

[flowerbug]

another pair of killdeer put a nest inside the fenced garden. at least this time it is up high and out of the way instead of inside a pathway.

 

[flowerbug]

this morning we had a visit by a pheasant. it isn't often any more that they'll wander through the yard. i don't have a good telephoto lens so getting a good shot is difficult - they do know to keep their distance. this is the first one i've seen here in the yard in a few years. last fall we heard one off in the distance around the place but after that i'd not heard them again until last week one day. i always enjoy when i do hear them. they're such a pretty bird and so big compared to almost all of the other ground birds here (other than the wild turkeys). it is hard to imagine that at one time they were not even native to the USoA but get along well if they are not over-hunted. they were introduced in 1773. some negative effects on other ground nesting natives, but i think the larger effect on ground nesting birds is the loss of habitat overall.