If the caption doesn’t come through, that picture up there is Agua Caliente Park, not far from our house.
Since the unusually hot summers and weak monsoons over the last few years have pretty much wrecked a lot of our landscaping (I particularly miss the climbing roses we had on the wall around our backyard), I decided to go with the flow and start backfilling with cactus. There is a pretty amazing cactus nursery not far from our house, where I learned that there are an astounding variety of them, and many of them have incredible flowers.
Our favorite so far is the Big Bertha, which comes in a number of colors. I’ll be planting more of these this fall:
This little guy has been in our front yard for years, and just this year flowered:
It was good year for the saguaros to flower:
A barrel cactus:
This is some kind of wild cactus, not sure what it’s called. We have a clump in our front yard that I am going to transplant to a pot this fall. Note the obligatory Sonoran Desert thorns on the tree.
This is a succulent that we have on our back porch, called a desert rose. It blooms every year in the late winter/spring. This is a big specimen – they aren’t cold hardy, and its gotten too big to fit into the house when it freezes, so I have to cover it whenever the temp is likely to get below about 35 Americanheit.
On the landscaping front, we have Texas sage that blooms after a decent rain and adds a lot of color:
And what would the desert be without wildlife? This was the biggest Gila Monster I have seen – probably 18 inches at a minimum (think, your forearm from elbow to fingertips). And stout, too. We see them rarely, probably less than once a year.
Because tiki cocktails and summer go together like, uhh, two things that go together, I will leave you with a recipe for the classic Jungle Bird.
The original was too sweet for me, so I cut back on the pineapple juice and the syrup. This makes about a 16 ounce batch. The alcohol content isn’t high enough to keep it in the freezer, so I keep it in the fridge between deployments. Rum and lime juice are kind of your tiki foundation, and the Campari and the pineapple juice are a nice sweet/bitter combo/offset. Getting the sweet/bitter balance has been tricky; I’ve tried some different amounts of simple syrup, and this seems to work for me.
Jungle Bird
7 oz dark rum (I like Pusser’s)
2 oz Campari
4.5 oz pineapple juice (I use canned, we found some 6 oz cans that work well for this)
2 oz lime juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
Mix all ingredients, pour into a jar or bottle, put in fridge. That’s it. Serve over rocks (or in my case, one big ice cube). You can garnish with a pineapple wedge, if you’re fancy like that.
Heck yea, I just discovered Pusser’s and love it. Smith & Cross is another good one. They must be new offerings in my area because I’ve never seen them until the past ~2 years. All they ever had was Bacardi, Ronrico, and a bunch of spiced rums (of which I’m not a fan).
My neighbor (here in Ohio) has cactus plants somehow. There’s one right near the sidewalk. I’ll see it covered in ice and snow during our sub-zero weeks, then every spring it’s all perked up again.
Rum seems to expanded in recent years. Or at least availability. Not just Captain Morgan.
Been a Pussers fan (even if some of the lore is a bit fake) ever since a buddy picked up a bottle outside of Portsmouth Dockyard.
The cactus pictures are great.
We had another crap monsoon this year. I actually lost some cacti. I was worried about overwatering them. Instead, they baked to death. Well, at least they were small. Most of the new ones seem to be doing well.
I also transplanted some staghorn chollas that were growing wild in the front yard. I was pretty sure they weren’t going to make it, as I wasn’t able to get much roots at all out of the rocks they were growing in, but they’ve got new growth and seem to be fine.
fuck cholla
that is all
Kinnath, Staghorn Cholla are fine and their skeletons make a nice Sonoran Desert XMAS tree. I agree with you on Jumping Cholla, especially if you have a dog.
What dbl said. Other than trying to encourage the jumping cholla to spread along the road in front of our house as a natural hedge (its already raw desert), I pretty much take them down anywhere close to our house. Staghorn cholla is actually a nice plant, and has pretty flowers ranging from red to yellow.
Our favorite so far is the Big Bertha
I have a Big Bertha at home, too.
Can’t get rid of her, in fact — not after thirty-one years of marriage.
Nice cacti rc, , it is a great year for blooms, my succulent garden is very colorful
Love the camo beasts.
That thing was a beast, too. Seriously, the size of your forearm.
The Big Dumb One killed one in their yard years ago. I so badly wanted to get some watch bands made from it, but I knew better than to even ask anyone if they could do it, on account of they’re endangered.
The brilliance of whoever came up with the idea of ‘protecting’ species by making possession of, or trade in, any product of the species a felony, and preventing the use of any land on which the species is reported to live, sometimes overwhelms me.
@ Jarflax:
Another great achievement was totally obfuscating the fact that nature adapts and species very often just move to another habitat when the original one is disrupted somehow.
No! Every species is in perfect static balance, only mankind moves around and disrupts the perfect harmony of nature!
And you’re a lawyer.
Fucking puppy ate a ping pong ball size amount of rubber from a chew toy when someone else was watching him. Second time he’s done it. Last time he just threw it up and was fine.
I think he’s defective in general. I want a new one.
That sounds like working as designed.
Shoulda bought two, in case one fails.
Obligatory
Did ya keep the receipt?
Cats are less trouble.
/recalls beasts, doubts statement
Hair bands.
So this is the First time he’s swallowed it?
We were pet sitting a 55-pound pit bull (a real sweatheart by the way), who managed to get the plastic handle off the top of the kennel and eat part of it — a L-shaped piece 2 X 2 inches. We were afraid it would hurt her (wouldn’t go through system) so we took her to the vet and had her stomach pumped. $300 later we found out that she had chewed the part of a handle into small enough pieces that they would have gone through her just fine. Better safe than sorry, I guess.
Fucking dogs.
(Current one is curled up next to my leg)
Nice photos. Thanks for sharing.
Flowers are beautiful. Too bad they grow in the hot spot. There are always trade offs.
If we cut the trees down we could see MikeS out in his yard. I’m leaving the trees and thinking about planting some more.
Thanks RC. We get so used to seeing only those things in our own environment we forget that there’s so much that we never experience.
MikeS is dead, you liar. He died of great jealousy of my Firsting long ago.
Note the obligatory Sonoran Desert thorns on the tree.
I hate those trees.
Why the hate?
RC, the photo of the cacti by your Palo Verde look like Pincushion (Genus Mammillaria).
Well over 90% of every species that ever lived on this planet is gone. Not due to us, but mother nature is a cunt.
After the next Ice Age Minnesoda will be the Land of 20,000 Lakes.
I like explainin’ to those save the Earth types the fate of the Earth as the Sun goes through transition to a red giant and eventual nova. Tis fun also to discuss the K/T event, the Deccan Traps, the “Great Die Off” at the Permian/Triassic boundary, and the current Juan de Fuca Plate suture events.
The universe game is rigged- life will always lose.
“*WE* didn’t kill them all!” –George Carlin
Amazing bit, an explosion of comedic truth, beautifully delivered: Saving the Planet
https://www.google.com/search?q=george+carlin+environmentalism&rlz=1CATSMI_enUS1160US1160&oq=carlin+environmenalism&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCggBEAAYBRgNGB4yBggAEEUYOTIKCAEQABgFGA0YHjIKCAIQABgFGA0YHjINCAMQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAQQABiGAxiABBiKBTIKCAUQABiiBBiJBTIKCAYQABiABBiiBDIHCAcQABjvBdIBCTEyMjIyajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:be5d0e45,vid:7W33HRc1A6c,st:0
I love that bit of his. And I often (unsolicited) explain to my lefty acquaintances that when it comes to man-made global warming that where we are in Dayton (and you’re just due west of me) the landscape is flat as a pancake for a reason. Until about 20-50,000 years ago a mile thick sheet of ice was on top of us but then it melted. Who caused that? All the SUVs and fossil fuel plants?
Why is there all that oil in the Permian Basin in west Texas? Oil is made from decomposed algae and other things. Gee, that desert was once under water. Same with the mid east.
Earth is gonna do what earth wants to do regardless of how we try to change our environment.
@Tres: BOOM! Thanks for that. I’m absolutely gonna use that. They can’t respond, otherwise they destroy their Narrative.
*mwah*
I like your photos, especially of the Gila Monster. I worked as a park ranger for several years at Oracle State Park and we had one that liked to den up near one of our stops with the student tours. Maybe 20% of the time (in season) it would be around this one cleft in some granite. I would point it out and it was always a hit because for most of those kids and parents that would be the only one they ever would see.
Do you get javalina rooting around? On a recent house hunting trip, one of the places I checked out had javalina/coyote resistant garbage cans in the subdivision.
Fucking javalina. Fuck those fucking fucks. They tear up my front yard and shit everywhere. I’d shoot them all if it wasn’t for (a) law enforcement and (b) corpse disposal.
LOL. Yep. You got ’em.
Good stuff RC.
Also what a difference in the US Men’s team tonight against Japan.
It didn’t seem like an away game, either.
I know US Soccer usually prioritizes eyeballs over winning so that was a notable difference.
Great pics and I love the desert ‘feel’ and look. I also love cacti flowers. An unexpected explosion of color in the desert. Such sturdy creatures, they are.
I was in Arizona in ~’98 on a trip with Dad to see Cactus League games. Out walking, I got a 3″ cactus spike shoved through my ankle. Even Dad knew it was a Big Boy Boo-Boo. That fucker *hurt.*
Was talking with him, and he wants (and actively does and is good at) to give my three nephews “Experiences.” Niagara Falls and the Sonoran were his two Biggies he wishes to show them. Goals.
So, Israel promised Qatar not to attack Hamas leadership in the country while negotiating a peace deal, and then attacked anyway.
It’s getting real hard for me to not hate Israel at this point. Even if they had killed the leadership in Qatar, what the hell would that have accomplished? Do they think Hamas fighters on the front lines, seeing their leadership lied to and betrayed, would lay down their arms? Who the hell is going to help them broker any peace deal here after this? How does America continue to stick its dick into this mess and try to get Hamas to the table?
Dissenting views are welcome. Please help me understand the grand plan here.
Israel is at war with an army that attacked them. Why would its leadership be off limits just because it is enjoying the friendly support of Qatar?
And yes, killing the enemy’s leaders is often a goal.
I can’t speak to the US sticking its dick in there. I’d rather we didn’t but that is what we do, everywhere and every time.
Because Israel promised Qatar and through Qataris Hamas’s leadership that they would be safe while negotiations were ongoing? Because Israel has done irreparable harm to its ability to negotiate now?
The issue isn’t that Hamas’s leadership should be off limits. It’s how Israel went about this. They pissed in the face of the US yet again (not that Trump will do anything about it) as well as Qatar who was being an honest broker of peace negotiations here.
There is now no safe line of communication between Israel and Hamas. How the fuck does this end now? Israel says they don’t want to occupy and take over Gaza, but what other option is there if they can’t negotiate a peace settlement now?
They’ve already said what the plan is. They said it way back when: every single Hamas member who invaded will be killed. Everybody seems to have forgotten that. Every coupla days, Israel announces by name that they nailed some particular person. It will keep on happening until there are no more. Anybody assuming the negotiations negate that promise is nuts.
Dude, they literally “promised” not to attack Hamas in Qatar while negotiating with their only real ally backing them up.
Hamas’ goal is to destroy Israel – they have stated this openly.
Any “promise” from Israel to keep their enemy “safe” should not be taken seriously.
Wars end when one side loses the will to fight. Having a whole big chunk of the leadership living large in Qatar, managing the funding and international image-building, while never actually having to fear anything, and being confident that their international gravy train was secure, means that it would go on forever. Hurting them there, or at least making them actually afraid of losing their comfy lifestyles (or lives) is key to getting a real end.
I don’t know if the peace negotiations were anything more than a waste of time anyway.
I was assured by Trump just this morning that Israel had agreed to the peace settlement and we were just waiting on Hamas to do the same!
So was Trump misled, in on the serious breach of diplomatic protocols, or is he just a moron? Or is the answer just yes.
If Trump is supporting a fantasy “two-state” solution, yes, he is an idiot.
And as far as the Hamas fighters on the front lines: the point of this is to make them figure out that their leaders (fat and happy in Qatar) will screw them every which way as soon as there’s a chance that they (leaders) will suffer. Mo in Gaza will see his supply of rockets disappear, and find himself abandoned like a mangy dog, as soon as Mo in Doha is moderately uncomfortable. Or even better, as soon as Mo in Doha’s spa membership gets cancelled if the international sponsorships dry up.
If the average Palestinian hasn’t realized that their leadership are corrupt pieces of shit feeding at the trough of national “aid” while leaving them poor and hungry, nothing is going to change that now. This has been the case for my entire life and I’m sure well before my birth as well.
But are you seriously arguing that Hamas’s leadership is going to just throw their hands up and abandon the cause against Israel now that they’ve been attacked directly?
I think the leadership is going to protect themselves. They’ll be happy to abandon the guys in Gaza and “keep up the cause” in ways that are still remunerative and less dangerous.
They might not have that out that they think they have, though. That is, Israel may very well not let a single one off the hook.
nothing is going to change that now
Then kill them all.
My maternal grandparents lived in Flagstaff for awhile. All I remember from visiting them when I was 11 is that fire ants bite after you stomp on their mounds, tarantulas are everywhere, and the cacti are beautiful.
Flagstaff is a very different environment than Tucson. Very different.
My Tiki Foundation is associated with The Human Fund.
Tips are glorious (untaxed) money for the people.
It gives money to people!
Desert.
https://d1ain0ixpn4hqh.archive.is/5AYq5/05ebabef7bd7e6c2799edf2b0c0739226a022704.jpg
NSFW.
https://dgavxvzj656y2p.archive.is/8IXta/3d136fa5b33dc21142aa1731bc4b6457a981c11b.jpg
NSFW.
https://ddspas1mmsn884.archive.is/CwVVi/7496d4bff8e7fe50f57951e0b2ed6ec19bb0680a.jpg
NSFW.
https://ddm3kldybqzhrf.archive.is/ZMdeU/19161463e6238dc85adc5aceacd74901374beabc.jpg
NSFW.
Three. Three. DAMN. (Then 1. But Yes. And yes.. I’m not in my car, right now, but.. my bunk is nearby… *eyes pillow lustily..*)
But a damn good ballgame on in San Diego. Me can wait. *further leers, but withholds*
I love the desert.
Moi aussi. It has an austere beauty like the badlands of Wyoming and the Dakotas.
Country roads take me home to Klendathu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o6Tsx53reA
I crawled under the fence to explore that alien “planet”. The place to go do that is shown in the video.
My bad, it’s at the 4:57 mark of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tLUshb20vA
Cactus is garbled Greek for artichoke, which is garbled Arabic for what they called it (al-harshuf).
Cool cactus plant parasite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myy8qO20o38
Israel at this point is the most screwed up blue state possible in terms of cost/benefit to the US. At least California doesn’t get hit with periodic invasions, suicide bombings, and rocket attacks.
So long as Israel refuses to take meaningful action to stop settler land grabs in the West Bank or allow Gaza to have access to international travel and trade, I see no end to the conflict.
I had two Arabic teachers at DLI from Gaza. Surely they have friends at relatives who have been killed in the current war. They will probably be the last DLI teachers from that place.
stop settler land grabs in the West Bank or allow Gaza to have access to international travel and trade, I see no end to the conflict.
Neither would end the conflict either.
Maybe, but the heat would get turned down. In tribal warfare, there are pauses after each death.
It’s mostly about shouting, dancing, and trying to impress women.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjZCTGnrjf4
sci-fi comedy treatment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaDzRyKlEuk
That international trade seems to have been mostly used to build tunnels and fortifications and buy weapons, so I kinda see why Israel isn’t big on it. Besides, blockading your enemies is a time honored tactic.
The settlements can be rationalized in a couple of ways, but yeah, that’s just dumb.
If you press and enemy just enough to stop them, you just fill them with rage.
In Hamas propaganda, a common image at the end is a rude child throwing rocks at a lion in a cage. So what happens when the lion gets out of the cage?
ISIS had a child soldier program called Cubs of the Caliphate. They were thinking ahead. Lions start as cubs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCZudinqzCk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpkQfyLnO8s
Don’t forget that Israel provided Gaza will at their electricity and over 90% of their potable water until the current war. Up until HAMAS attacked on 07Oct23 between 10-20,000 Gazans worked in Israel daily. Now 0 Gazans and only a handful of West Bank Palis work in Israel. Despite what I think, Israel is still providing electricity and water to Gaza. (I would have shut all that down by noon on 07Oct23.)
Israel may have a sea blockade. That blockade could easily be beat by Egypt opening their border to Gaza. Egypt won’t do that because they feel they already have too many Palis and are determined to keep that population at the current levels because Palis have proven time and time again they are a cancer to any society they enter in any number. Ask Jordan or Kuwait. Until August 1990 the largest number of foreign workers there were Palis. They sent home millions of Kuwait Dinar (the good stuff) every month. Arafat backed Saddam. After we bounced the Iraqi army out Kuwait has steadfastly refused to accept Pali workers. (Bangladesh is happy.)
In HAMAS Israel is fighting a proto-state and not trying to win hearts and minds like in an insurgency. Gazans are owed no more consideration that German or Italian citizens were during WWII. Only when a critical mass of Gazans say “Fuck it. We’ll live with Israel just stop killing us and breaking stuff.” is there a chance for peace for a couple of generations. History strongly suggests a whole bunch more Gazans need to die and to lose all they possess to get to that place in their minds. War always drives a harsh calculus, and Bibi made it clear on the day HAMAS attacked Israel that Israel recognized it was at war with Gaza and their political leadeadership-HAMAS.
Jews have been driven out of many more countries than Palestinians. Does that mean countries should keep out Jews because they are troublesome?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsions_and_exoduses_of_Jews#/media/File:Expulsion_judios-en.svg
There’s a whole neo-Nazi parable about troublesome Jews showing up and seeking refuge:
https://heretical.com/pubs/fabledh.html
Here again I will note that I spent a few years at NSA doing military intel work (airstrike battle damage assessments) for the benefit of Israel against Hezbollah.
No country has an obligation to accept any foreign individual or population. Hence the outrage over the biden policy of no effective border for our country. The US should accept individuals who have a good chance of improving our country in the whole as a result of their improved individual lives. But we don’t have to accept anybody on their terms vice our terms.
Recent experience has shown that the near unrestricted entry of large numbers of Muslims (especially military aged males) has not been good for any country that has tried it. The US being larger than the Euro states means we can accept a larger number of Muslims than they can before we reach a point of social instability. But US citizens should control who gets in and in what numbers. Can Muslims, or even Palis, become good US citizens? Of course, but they must do as every other citizen must have done before them. They must accept the American compact that the fights and slights of the old world have no place in the new world, and that all are equal here.
I absolutely think that our Nation needs to make good on the promises we made to those Iraqis and Afghans who risked all to work for us during those two wars. We made promises to accept them and should honor that promise. That we haven’t is a stain on GW Bush, Obama, Trump 1.0, and whomever was in charge during biden.
But it is telling concerning the Palis that the nations of their co-religionists want nothing to do with concentrations of them. Before the Arab States decided to use the Pali cause to wage a proxy war against Israel the Palis were not such an issue for them. But after encouraging and financing the Pali cause for decades those same states realize that they have made a rabid animal that is dangerous to them as well. Those States, unlike the West, know not to let them in. But those same elites have an internal problem as well since decades of supporting the Pali’s propaganda has influenced their own societies to support the Pali cause- as long as it stays in the near abroad.
Again, the major wars of the 20th century inform us on how WAR is actually conducted. The pious treaties of the post WWII era are piffle. The idealists of the West thought the old, failed dream that the last war was too terrible and man would never fight again and that if a small conflict started among the unenlightened States these pieces of paper would protect “the innocent.” The gimlet-eyed realists of the major states never intended the words on those pieces of foolscap would apply to them. And for the most part they haven’t. Even the US will readily turn away from those pieces of paper if they prove to be too much of an inconvenience. These treaties are just another weapon to be used on the second or third tiered States by the major powers.
Israel has used great restraint during this war. Far more restraint than what the US would have done if we suffered an attack of the same relative scale. Hell, they are feeding their enemy in Gaza, as well as providing access to medical supplies, electricity and water. They even facilitated a multi-month polio vaccination campaign during the war.
***
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
…
The strong do what they want, and the weak suffer what they must.
…
When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
***
What about Sri Lanka? Don’t you know the Sekhs are killing tons of Israelis there?
[polite applause]
I know more about these things than most Americans, so it is hard to resist the urge to speak up. Sorry.
My prediction is that Israel will fail to defeat Hamas for the same reasons the US failed against the Taliban. Israel frets about Wikipedia and the US cheered on Afghanistan’s girl robot team.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpSlwGGTIow
That one time Rambo was fairly realistic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkZq52nqb_Q
Afghanistan’s girl robot team – the future of robotics is Afghan female.
Skip the pineapple entirely and that might be drinkable.
Also the desert is no place for civilized folk to live.
Tanzanian prisoners and guards demonstrate riots and fights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06h1t8LmHYg
Eh, kinda tame compared to the school riot I saw. Saw lots of mean looking guys with AKs around then.
Hey homies! Happy hump day!
🙃🥐🐫
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR9AlcgL6_0
🎶🎶
I miss the days of the eraserhead haircuts and massive gold chains…good times.
*upvotes*
Darwin Award wannabes.
There’s a reason I don’t wear earphones when I go hiking or even use trails like this.
Reading incident reports for my area I’ve learned it is dangerous to cross in the middle of the night in a dark area while wearing dark clothing.
Or take them out and look both ways before crossing the street. Pretty basic stuff there and if they don’t get it a sign and some cones are not going to help.
suh’ fam
whats goody
Good morning, homey, Stinky, Roat, Ted’S., Sean, and (maybe?) Derpy!
Morning.
BD 🙂
Good morning, GT, TC, Stinky, Roat, Ted”s, lurkers et al
Fine day, up since 5:15, fulla coffee and ready to face whatever comes my way, hopefully it’s slow and not too big.
Got snow tires on order, should be here on Monday. Salesman said they’ll be noisy but since I never wear my hearing aids why should I care?
NATO Planes Shoot Down Russian Drones Deep Inside Poland
Polish and Dutch warplanes are involved in downing of unmanned vehicles far from Russian border
https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/poland-shoots-down-drones-deep-inside-nato-members-territory-692452e8?st=citiLU&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Deep Inside Poland 3 was hot.