Trees And Other Things

Discussion in 'Personal Diaries' started by Nancy Hart, Jun 21, 2018.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    The old formula would. I have done it more than once. Twenty years ago, when I was in Texas, they were still selling the old formula Coca Cola in Mexico, which I thought tasted better, and it would still take the rust off of nails. I don't think the new formula works as well for that, though, if at all.
     
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  2. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Years ago I had a Ford Mustang ('67). Fingernail polish remover (acetone) was great for removing road tar from the paint. Then I got a Chevy Camaro ('75) and tried it, and it removed the paint. I think I read back then that Ford used enamel paint, and GM used acrylic. Don't know if it's still that way.
     
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  3. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Nancy Hart
    Fingernail polish remover is Acetone, which is used to thin many paints, as it's relatively non-toxic. Flammable, though.

    Had you kept your Mustang, today it would be worth a small fortune! Mine, ordered brand new, is one of the rarest today (but long-gone) as I ordered it with the High Performance Option, which made it a "K" car.
    Frank
     
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  4. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Out to the farm late today. Among other things, washed the truck, because there are so many changing water restrictions in town I can't keep track of them. It took a long time. Even used a toothbrush to dig the pollen out of some cracks.;) Not too bad for 22 years old and 140K miles. :rolleyes:

    [​IMG]

    Just put some spray wax on it and quit. I think I need to go over it with something stronger than Dawn before waxing it well. Paste wax just seems to build up in the scratches and leaves ugly white stains, especially on the hood. Maybe the clear coat has been damaged?

    Is polishing compound a good idea?
     
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  5. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Nancy Hart
    22 years old? Nice longevity! Looks like a Ford, of course. Sounds like possible clear-coat damage, but little you can do about that. IMO, when one of my vehicles no longer remains cosmetically "presentable", I concentrate on efforts to keep it running with maximum reliability. The prettiest vehicle stranded along the roadway due to mechanical failure will provide little support to sanction being kept "pretty", rather than reliably roadworthy.
    Frank
     
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  6. Pam Sellers

    Pam Sellers Veteran Member
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    Well, thanks alot Nancy, I listened to the song about the trees and suddenly felt guilty about having nine cut down this past April! LOL But they were mostly pines and I got tired of watching them "sway" in the wind when a storm came through and praying they would not fall on the house! Our neighbor across the street planted a peach tree and it was loaded last year with very small peaches but the squirrels attacked it and I don't think they were able to pick any big enough to eat. I kept finding peach pits in my driveway and flowerbeds for months! LOL
     
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  7. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Maybe that is what happened with ours last year, too , @Pam Sellers !
    We do have an abundance of squirrels, and they eat anything that they like to eat. Last year, the little peach tree out back was covered in tiny little peaches, but before they could get much bigger than a Bing cherry, they all disappeared.
    This year, we had a few, and somehow one peach escaped. Maybe it will last long enough to get ripe, it is still pretty green looking; but at least it encourages me to see some thing still on the tree.

    We had a bad frost this spring, and it sounds like it got the fig trees here in northern Alabama. Ours is still small, but growing, and I was hopeful for at least a few figs this year.
    The tree is growing good though, and should be close to 5’ tall by next spring, so maybe we will get figs next year.
    We bought another small one from Home Depot, and it has a few figs (so it obviously as grown elsewhere, or inside, and missed the frost), and it is still in the planting tub.
    I am not sure if I should try to plant it now, or if moving it into the ground might make it lose its little green figs.
     
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  8. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    @Yvonne Smith, my house had a fig tree right in the middle of the back yard when I bought it. It was more like a huge droopy bush, maybe froze out at one time, and came back bushy. It covered half way across the yard. I kept trying to train it to be like a tree but it just wouldn't cooperate. :( The squirrels always got all of the figs before they ripened, so I finally removed it. My neighbor had a similar fig that took up half her yard. I got a few from her. They are really good.

    Lots of volunteer peaches pop up in the hedge. I think the squirrels bury the pits they collect from various places. I believe nursery peach trees are usually grafted. The trees that spring up from the pits from their fruit are no good for producing edible peaches. Little tiny things. But the trees are pretty for their blossoms in the spring.
     
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  9. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    The Over 55+ Meetup group is going on a hike at the Botanical Gardens tonight, 8-9 pm, 2 miles. They are suppose to look at the full moon. :rolleyes: I decided last night, to force myself to go, but didn't commit.

    Thunderstorms this morning, power just went out briefly, and a 15% chance of rain this evening. I think I'll decide at 7:30 pm. I don't like people who do that, but I suspect there might be a lot of last minute cancellations. A storm could pop up even at 15% chance.

    I've never been to the Botanical Gardens, and it's only 5 miles away.

    The main reason the power goes out in town here? Trees.
     
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  10. Chrissy Cross

    Chrissy Cross Supreme Member
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    That sounds like something I'd like to do but not here in Fresno, lol.


    I love the Botanical gardens in St. Louis and go almost every time I visit my son.

    Last visit was at Christmas time and they had everything lit up...so pretty!

    I love that place....I think my son and daughter in law are members because they go so often that it's cheaper that way, especially with 3 boys.
     
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  11. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    We have a Botanical Gardens here, too, and it is probaby within 5 miles of where we live; but it had been a very long time since I was there, and that was at the Christmas exhibit, which is expensive to drive through and look at.
    Except for the Christmas exhibit, you can’t drive through the gardens, so only people who can hike all of the way through can actually go there and see the gardens. I am not sure that I could walk through it in any case; but definitely not with the summertime heat and humidity, which is when all of the pretty flowers are blooming.
    You would think that they would make it more accessible to seniors who might be confined to a walker, or just can’t hike through the whole garden anymore.
     
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  12. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    When we moved in here, it was dense birch forest with a few spruce and poplar trees. I never liked cutting down live trees, so I did little thinning. We got goats and dogs and the trees started dying, as the goats stripped the bark if they could get to it, and the dogs seemed to kill trees just living under them. I did start cutting trees was they died, both for firewood and garden space. We no longer have the livestock, but we have pretty good garden space, orhards and what used to be pasture is now lawn that has to be mowed. We still have forest over most of the property, but there are some clear spaces now. A beetle infestation is killing many of the spruce trees in this part of Alaska, so I will have to take those down to mitigate the wildfire danger to the house and outbuildings. Trees are occasionally blown down in storms. Often they hit buildings or block the driveway and roadway, so I have to watch for that as well.
     
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  13. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    @Don Alaska, when I bought the land out in the country, I immediately started planting improved Loblolly pines on the open areas. Over the years we planted at least 7500 seedlings. Most didn't make it because we went through several years of serious droughts. One small patch was stripped by our goats.:rolleyes: Those near the pond were cut by beavers.

    Only a 3 acre patch of one of the first plantings survived. Then pine bark beetles wiped all of them out when they were about 20 years old. This was a couple of years afterwards. I was sick.

    [​IMG]

    All that's left of that entire effort are two little patches of about a dozen trees each---including two rows up along the main road in front of the house.

    [​IMG]

    At one time I thought of clear cutting the entire place and planting it in pine. That would have been a BIG mistake. lol
     
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    Last edited: Jun 28, 2018
  14. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Yvonne Smith "We have a Botanical Gardens here, too....."

    There is a wonderful Botanical Garden named Boyce Thompson Arboretum just outside Superior, AZ. It was there that we saw for the first time ever a Boojum tree! Strangest-looking tree we've ever seen, hard to forget what one looks like, and now, many years later, surprise! A house near ours has one in the front yard!

    "The boojums are native to only two sites, both in Mexico. But those whose lives will not be complete until they see some will find a few at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior and the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix."
    [​IMG]
     
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  15. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    Wow, those boojums are beautiful, @Frank Sanoica. Seriously though, they are strange looking things. :confused:
     
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