The 2020s have been bizarre, and they’ve been bad; which might be good. That is, previous years have also been bad, but now it’s being exposed. That’s good, besides, I’ve long said the federal government needs to be scaled way back, maybe this is the beginning of just that.
What -IS- good news is at this link. In Saudi Arabia, they are developing a way to use mirrors and concentrated sunlight to desalinate huge quantities of fresh water. It will make parts of the desert green.
You have to be older to remember this: Tree trunks painted white. I remember seeing lots of them when I was a kid in the 1960s. I’ve looked into it a little recently, but found little information. One theory was that it was done to reduce bugs problems.
At any rate, I was driving north on Chapman highway between Seymour and Knoxville. To my right, very near Lowe’s and John Sevier Highway, I saw a house with white tree trunks. I just had to talk to the owner. It took a couple of tries, but I finally found the owner.
As it turns out, the white is for pests, but this time it’s the mammal variety. There are two Pecan trees in the yard, and if I recall, he said they produce 27 bushels of nuts a year, if the squirrels don’t get them. The white isn’t paint, but aluminum sheet, to keep the squirrels from climbing the trunk.
He said he first tried four feet tall metal, but they got past that, so he went ot six feet tall.
I went into a local convenience store and noticed that the grille where they usually make hot sandwiches and burgers was gone. They took it out completely, and have repaired the sheetrock behind it. I asked the cashier about it, and she said that they can’t find help to work there.
I’m painting the boiler of this steam locomotive. The hardest part is removing loose rust and preparing to paint. I was informed by the boiler repairman that it’s no longer a rush job. Turns out he went to get the insulation for the jacket, and it wasn’t available due to factory closures and shortages. The same day, a painter in a paint store wasn’t able to get the paint he needed to finish a job, for the same reason.
A friend sent me this supplement. I tried it, and definitely noticed increased brain activity.
You see how easy it is to be a reporter? Ill be making some cards to identify myself as associated with this site, so that when people ask why I’m taking pictures and asking questions, they’ll be more at ease. I also want to make some cards that aren’t tied to this site. That way anyone else who wants to have a card, but has no graphics experience can make cards for their site too. YOU CAN DO THIS!!
UPDATE: When I asked to take a picture of the wall where the grille used to be, the store owner asked “why?”. A reasonable question of course; it reminded me that having a card would be nice. I want to make one with the gazette logo on it; but for now, and for others, I made these.
Here’s a link to a page with the file saved and arranged in different ways.
#quillandblade #gazette #seymourtnnews
5’ll get you 10 the squirrel hive-mind eventually solves the 6′ sheeting too.