Plant Challenge and Other Random Stuff

 I bought a tiny sedum Sedum spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco' (Creeping Stonecrop) and now the challenge will be to grow it. I think it's harder than Lithops, unless you live in California, where it grows on rocks and sandy cliffs.

Cape Blanco. It is very tiny.

Cape Blanco growing on a rock overhanging the beach in California

Cape Blanco and Dudleya (the rosettes) on a seaside cliff in California., where it rains all winter and not in summer.

No one in my succulent group knows how to grow it, well, one person bought one 2 months ago and bottom waters it. 

Wish me luck!

Other random stuff. We asked the apartment manager if we could move to a different apartment if one becomes available. We asked for the first building, facing the fields. There would be no garage blocking the view and no parking on the west side under the window, so no privacy issue, and a normal bathtub. It's a lot to hope for, since who knows when someone might move. I just don't see this apartment as my "forever" home. The place at Oriole Ponds was going to be my forever home but you see how fast that fell apart. Are there other apartments with a view? Not within a reasonable price range, at least in the foreseeable future.

The one on the far left.

I still miss Hartford, Delafield, West Bend, Oconomowoc. 

I'm making myself go through boxes. Too many saved papers that I don't need anymore.

We are still waiting for parts for our truck so we can get the work done. Hubby has to disconnect and reconnect the negative battery terminal every time he drives, otherwise the lights don't turn off.

We bought the most delicious strawberries at Woodman's, and they were from Canada. Imported before the tariffs? 

Because of you, Judge Susan Crawford will become the next Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, standing up for the fundamental rights and freedoms of all Wisconsinites, standing up for truth and justice, and applying the law fairly and impartially.

The impact of this win cannot be overstated. Today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections, and our Supreme Court.

We all stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price – our Courts are not for sale.

We could not have done it without the strength of this grassroots team. Hundreds of thousands of people chipped in to fight back against the billionaires and right-wing special interest groups who sought to buy this election. And we succeeded.

We are in an unprecedented moment in this country, and this is not the end of the work we must do to safeguard our rights, our democracy, and our future.

But together, we will face and overcome the challenges ahead of us. As Wisconsin’s motto says, “Forward!”

Thank you for being in this fight. It made all the difference.

– Team Crawford

 This makes me incredibly happy, because elon musk poured millions into the state and tried to buy votes, even going to the point of paying a million dollars to two people in Green Bay and hundreds of dollars to many others in an attempt to gain a win for Schimel. I'm happy to report that Crawford won in Green Bay!

Sunday Update

 Moved the lights to the white shelves on the south wall, moved the plants. The big gray shelf is now empty and I can use it for storage. This is a short post, it's late.

West window. Several cars parked out there, plants on window sill, doing ok.

Moved the lights and plants.

Next project, finish putting stuff away.

That's all for tonight. Stuff to do tomorrow. Hope there isn't too much ice on the roads.

Shuffling Plants AGAIN

 The privacy issues and vertical blinds caused me to rethink shelf placement and plant placement over and over and over again. My Haworthia and Haworthiopsis are relatively easy, as long as you don't put them in full sun. They are fine under lights, and forgiving about most anything except overwatering.

My Adromischus are a whole new story. Some of them are fussy, meaning they need certain conditions. They need sunny days (or partial shade and protection from the heat of the day) and cool nights. They were not getting that. The shelf was right above the heat. This was happening:

The insert on the lower right is how my favorite Adromischus Little Spheroid is supposed to look. 

I decided that the west window was a poor location for a plant stand, especially since there is a privacy issue. I am going to try to put plants right on the window sill and move the stand so I can reach the whole width of the sill for watering.

I also figured out how to place a whole shelf in the south window. Aside from some re-potting I need to do, I would say placement is ok for now. I need to watch the plants on the west window sill this summer to make sure they aren't getting too hot.

This how things are looking now:

West window, the one with the least privacy, you just don't see it in my pictures. I needed to move the shelves because the plants were staying too warm at night (baseboard heat below) and not getting enough light because of the blinds needing to stay mostly closed.

Same west window. I keep the blinds partially closed. Yes, that's a State Police car out there. He lives in the complex somewhere.

South window, with shelf in window. The round planted bowls will be redone. I want to put all the Adromischus in pots that fit on the window sill and the Haworthia in pots that fit on another shelf.

From outside the shelf is not too evident. I haven't checked at night. 

Two of the hoya. The third is on the window shelf for now.

For now this is the Haworthia and others shelf. I might need to hang more lights, but before I do that, I just realized it's on a wall right in line with the air conditioner, so it will need to move...again. Can you understand why I'm so frustrated?

That's all with the plants today. We shopped today in the pouring rain, Hubby is working Sunday, too, and then Monday we need to see about the windshield.

The rain is supposed to change to sleet/snow. 

Till next time, stay dry and warm.

The Move

Was this move good for us? 

It depends who you ask. My hubby seems to be happy. He likes his job. He's kind of a city person. I tell him I'm a country girl and he's a city boy.

Do I hate it here? No. Am I happy? I can't answer that. The sting of losses are still upon me. The view, the quiet little town that was so easy to drive around in, my doctor, the close proximity of beautiful State Parks with HILLS. Great windows for my plants. Hartford Utilities which was FAR more affordable than WE Energies. I am making a great deal of adjustments to make this new life fit into my comfort zone.

This apartment..."spacious" 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 970 sq. feet, not enough closet space, vertical blinds which make the windows nearly unusable for plants, no view, is only $45 cheaper than the 1110 sq. foot roomy apartment we left in Hartford, with a view. What do I like better about this one? The water is softened and the windows aren't drafty.

The utilities. The highest bill I had in Hartford was $144 in July of last year. Hartford Utilities combines water, sewer and electric all on one bill. Only people who use gas need WE Energies.

Here the city water and sewer was $58 and next month the WE Energies electric bill will be $105. So that is $165 for wintertime utilities. I dread summer, add two window airs to that bill. I'm sure utilities will be close to $200 per month. 

This apartment is old. It's ok, but not like what we had in Hartford. Rent is highway robbery in most places, even Hartford is getting that way. Our rent was reasonable because we were the first tenants in that building and stayed there 7 years. I wanted to live there for the rest of my life. Here, anything newer and nicer than where we are now is going to be in the $1200 to $1400 range at the lowest.

Maintenance. The maintenance at the apartment in Hartford was Awesome. Here it is mediocre to non-existent. We have resorted to doing some of it ourselves...gluing wood strips back that were loose, washing things that were dirty (and we didn't notice when we moved in), etc.

I guess the two main things in all this mess is (1) hubby's job has a fair wage and lots of overtime, meaning bigger checks, and (2) the airport is only blocks away, meaning he can fly home more easily. Note...I will be flying down to visit my daughter. Around $300 round trip to South Bend. She will pick me up!

My plants? Some have suffered. I am still working on moving them around AGAIN. Some might not make the cut. In fact, I need to get back to that project. I promise I will share pictures when I'm done.

The future? We are still waiting for spring, for things to green up. There are lots of awesome photos on the Internet of autumn colors along the river and in the parks. Fall colors are the best. Now if this apartment only had a real bathtub and a view...

What Now? Burn The Truck? Oh....Thank God We Have a Service Plan

That's what was going through my mind when our service advisor called us over to his computer so he could show us the pictures on his screen and the two page printout of all the codes the diagnostic spit out. I think it was the PCM (Powertrain Control Module), but don't quote me on that. It's a box under the hood and it has an electrical harness attached to it. The plug inside it, a complicated plug with lots of connectors, is corroded. The only way it can be corroded is by water leaking in. The box and the electrical harness needs to be replaced.

Cost: $4,000.00

Plus car rental at $40 per day, time needed, two days.

We have a Ford maintenance plan. Can you run it through the insurance? 

Oh, great news! It's covered!

But it doesn't end there. We need to address the leak. 

"The windshield has been replaced," he said. 

Yes, but that was before we bought it (it's listed in the CARFAX records). 

"I would like you to take it somewhere to have it re-sealed. Call around, try a local place, not a chain."

In the meantime, we were told it's safe to drive like we have been doing, disconnect the battery to turn off the lights. So we came home and started making phone calls.

Safelight and other national chains will not re-seal a windshield, only replace it. We finally found a local company that will carefully remove it (hopefully it doesn't break) and re-seal it. Price, just under $150. However, if it breaks during the removal process, they are not liable for that and we will need to have a new one installed, for $658. Having a new windshield installed is close to the same price. We are scheduled for that service on Monday, March 31st. 

The parts for the $4,000 repair are on backorder, so maybe that will be done during the first half of April.

Our Ford Protect Service Plan is active until the end of this year. We bought 3 years and paid it off in two at the rate of $156 per month. We have used it several times. Two wheel bearing replacements ($100 co-pay on each), other stuff I can't remember right now, and this, so it paid for itself and then some.

That's all for today. I have been working on my plant shelves. Will update soon.

Oh Blinkin' Lights and Blaring Horns

Our truck's electrical system must have gone haywire. Friday hubby called me from work. He was on break and notice the blinkers were on. Then he noticed the horn was honking. He rushed over to the truck to find that the doors were locking and unlocking by themselves, ALL the warning signals were flashing on and off and the ear-splitting horn wouldn't shut the f up. He was kind of freaked out, and going deaf from the horn. By now I was freaked too. He disconnected the battery and all the noise shut off. Of course he had to leave the truck unlocked, because now the key fob had no effect. 

He was able to drive home without the horn going off again. He disconnected the battery and left it as is for the rest of the night. Saturday morning I called Service. I called Ford Service everywhere and NOTHING was open until Monday. 

Hubby watched YouTube videos, consulted the manual, and decided to pull the fuse for the horn, because who wants a horn loud enough to wake the dead honking continuously. We decided to stop at Auto Zone so they could diagnose it. Battery was ok. No codes were picked up by the handheld tester they use. The Alternator seemed to be questionable.

We have a service plan with excellent coverage, but service must be performed at a Ford Dealership. I was able to make an early appointment for Wednesday.

In the meantime, hubby figured out that it was fine to drive, but when parked, he had to disconnect the battery in order to shut off the lights. If we were only going to be walking around for a few minutes, we figured it was fine. For any extended time the battery would need to be disconnected and the truck would be unlocked. That was ok for work (parking is fenced in) or here at the apartment (nothing so far has happened).

We did drive around over the weekend and checked out some parks. They will be pretty once they start the green up.

We got as far as Kaukauna before the rain and sleet started. What an interesting town. They have preserved many old buildings and factories and converted them. We want to go back when the library is open. It used to be a paper mill. Here is a picture.

The Ahlstrom-Munksjo Thilmany paper mill is down river, in this picture. 

The river is wide and swift in Kaukauna. I looked it up. There is a 50 foot drop as the water races toward Green Bay. So the water runs north out of Lake Winnebago and into the Fox River. For some reason I thought it flowed the other way. Kaukauna generates electricity from the river.

On the way home I started to smell something. It smelled like dog poo. Just then hubby asked, what's that smell? Just then I noticed he had opened his window slightly. I also noticed we were downwind of the paper mill. 

It's the Paper Mill!!!! Your window is open. He promptly closed it. After we were down the road more, hubby opened his window again to let in some fresh air. Honestly, it was like sticking your nose into a bag of dog sh*t.

I always heard people say, don't live downwind of a paper mill. Sometimes the wind shifts and there's nothing you can do.

I looked up the paper mill's page, out of curiosity. Headquarters are in Finland, the mill has Swedish owners. They have quite an operation. The smell is explained, and they try to vent it out away from town, but sometimes the wind shifts. 

We got home just as it started to snow furiously.

I will update Wednesday, after we find out what's wrong with the truck.