COLD DARK ROOM

[Kristoff]

I got the name of my TORTOISE recipient. MUAHAHA!!! [emoji23]

 

[Kristoff]

Good evening all. Son has been successfully moved into his new flat. We took him and his flatmate out to lunch and then to IKEA (a big furniture chain that sells flat pack furniture) to buy some bits and then finished at the supermarket so they could stock up... always easier with a car!

It only took us an hour to get home which was a pleasant surprise. So now JoesDad and I are winding down and contemplating opening a bottle of red wine (purely for recovery purposes you understand )

Medicinal purposes of red wine have been known since the Classical Period. And many ancient peoples were known as wine enthusiasts. The more they drank, the more enthusiastic they got. [emoji6]

I’m surprised you didn’t take JoesBro and the flatmate to lunch to Ikea — Swedish meatballs! Yum. [emoji39]

 

[Kristoff]

Totally understand. Enjoy your rest. Because if I know you it won't be long.

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

 

[Kristoff]

I need advice from those who are good with plants.
My Hibiscus tree has been slowly dying and I cannot figure out why. Today I have cleared all the ivy growing around it and i cut off all the dead branches off the tree. There were two branches all the way into the ground which was dead. The branches looked like this. Can you see from these pictures what could be the problem?
And how do I fix it?View attachment 254836View attachment 254837View attachment 254838

Don’t let me try to help you could be a good first step. That usually produces slightly better results than if you did otherwise.
Sorry to hear about the problem.

 

[Kristoff]

You need @Iochroma to take a look. Maybe post in the plant id forum?

Your prolonged drought may be the problem though. It will have weakened many plants

Hmm. Is there also a plant ego and plant superego forum?

 

[Kristoff]

Now that the weather is cooling off, George can spend some days riding with me.. Doesn’t he just look thrilled??
View attachment 254874

As thrilled as one gets about a soft pillow. Yaaaaawwwwn

 

[Kristoff]

Here is the FIRST NAME DRAWING for 2018 T.O.R.T.O.I.S.E. !!!

Elsa was asleep- she's started trying to brumate, but I woke her up, gave her a soak and her lunch, so she's wide awake now!

Elsa: "I'll pick THIS one..."

Me: And that's ELENA!!!!! I will pm you the name and address of the person you are to send the package to!

View attachment 254892

Thank you, Lady Elsa! Sorry we disturbed your beauty sleep. [emoji173]️

 

[Kristoff]

There was a break of about 3 hours in the drawing because we had friends over to watch the football game. Happily, our New Orleans Saints football team WON!
So now we are on to drawing the SECOND T.O.R.T.O.I.S.E. participant!!!

Oh, dear... during the time I was gone, Elsa dug herself back in and went to sleep!

Me: "Elsa! ELSA!!! Wake UP, baby! You've got to draw the rest of the names for TORTOISE!!!!"
Elsa: "...zzz...ZZZ...zzz..."

Never fear, Roomies: I HAVE A CUNNING PLAN!!!

View attachment 254893

Oh dear. I’m glad you have a backup plan.

 

[Kristoff]

Me: "Jacques, for the drawing of the THIRD TORTOISE participant, why don't you stick your nose out of the water and point that way?"
Jacques: "Ok: then I want THAT one!"
Me: "Which one, again?"
Jacques: "The one I'm pointing at!"
Me: "I still can't tell- do you mean THIS one?"
Jacques: "NO! The one RIGHT NEXT to it..."
Me: "Then THIS one?"
Jacques: "YES! THAT one!"

The THIRD TORTOISE participant is KATHY W! Kathy, I will pm you the name of your TORTOISE recipient, and their address.

View attachment 254898

That’s complicated!

 

[Kristoff]

Ok, It became pretty obvious that trying to get Jacques to pick the names was going to take forever, so I have THREE other volunteers to help!

This is Monty:

View attachment 254899


Monty: "Oh, goodie! GOODIE!! I pick THIS ONE!!!"
Me: "DON'T EAT IT!!!!! Spit that out this minute!!!!"

OK: SABINE is our FOURTH participant!!! I will pm you the name and address of the person to send your TORTOISE package to! (Sorry about Monty mangling your name- he gets over excited..."

View attachment 254900

[emoji23][emoji33][emoji23][emoji33][emoji23][emoji33][emoji23][emoji76]

 

[Kristoff]

TORTOISE participants: I will finish posting the drawing tomorrow morning...I'm hoping Elsa will wake up tomorrow...She's much easier to work with than Jacques or Monty!!!!

Oh, just tell us the truth, Bea. Monty ate the rest of the names, didn’t he? [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

 

[Kristoff]

Good morning all. It's Monday, the first load of laundry is whirring away in the machine, and I shall be heading off for my swim shortly to exercise my shoulder.

I hope you all have a good week

Oh no! It is the Second Law of Domesticology that laundry is always followed by, gulp, ironing.

Enjoy your swim, Linda!

 

[Kristoff]

Good Morning all.
The work week has started. [emoji26][emoji26]
And I arrived at work to see this.
Enjoy your Monday.View attachment 254922View attachment 254923

Can you braai them? [emoji39]
Good morning!

 

[Kristoff]

Good morning, roommates! Just caught up with the last two pages. Will get back to it as soon as I locate Montgomery with the coffee. Was somebody asking about the Snow Leopard lately? Something soft just brushed against my back.

 

[Kristoff]

Choose a CDR post. Go into web view (ios) or open in browser (android) and use the web form to do it

Of course, Linda would have a hack for that!

 

[Kristoff]

To keep the feral hogs out, long term, the fence has to be strong and deep (bottom part buried). Fencing that would contain a full size male Sulcata, prone to digging, would probably work great!

Was someone talking about me?

 

[Kristoff]

Florida has (or has had) self-sustaining feral populations of all sort of interesting critters. Even peacocks.

As if wildlife in the States wasn’t enough...

 

[Kristoff]

Just stopped by our local Agricultural Farm complex where they mow the field grass a few times per year. They don’t bale it up, but mow more for field maintenance and making the complex look good. Anyhow, they cut last week, so plenty of nice orchard grass just yelling out to be gathered. Ive done this plenty of times, nice soft dried orchard grass - it forms the base layer for Sullys dinner plate.

Lucky Mr Sully!

 

[Kristoff]

Thank you Linda. I really appreciate your kind words. My cats love sneaking around. In the background you can see the enclosure of Ma & Mo.

That looked new.

 

[Kristoff]

Thank you very much Lena. My cats want to be on YouTube too me thinks.

[emoji23]