So the camera store I work for sometimes (half-time in the summer, full-time at Christmas) used to..

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So the camera store I work for sometimes (half-time in the summer, full-time at Christmas) used to sell drones– you know, the annoying miniature quadcopters with a camera on a gimbal hanging off the base, that everyone was flying everywhere for a hot minute, sounding like leafblowers in the sky but taking kind of cool videos— and then we stopped selling drones because they’re a nightmare to sell and the manufacturer is a fucking pile of disaster and the customer relationships are *thumbs down*. (Think about it fundamentally: you take an expensive camera and then throw it into the sky and rely on some amateur’s video-game skills to keep from dropping it? How often does that go well? I mean, more often than it should, but there’s gonna be a high failure rate and then they’re gonna want to blame somebody for them having just literally thrown $1500 at the ground from a great height.)

But we were cleaning the store and found one. ( (Readmore: me vs a Phantom III Standard from DJI, with bloodshed. But, tl;dr, maybe I’ll make a video!) )

i gave myself the day off

I gave myself the day off. I'll go to the farm tomorrow. I get to have a Saturday, sometimes.
So I'm gardening, and trying to get all the plants into the ground, and trying to get the house slightly tidied and all my stuff at least somewhat located, and I've done four loads of laundry so far. It's a perfect day for drying laundry-- breezy, but not gusty, and sunny. I hung out a set of full sheets 15 minutes ago and I'm thinking of taking them down, they're dry.
(I won't, I want them to get a little sun and some good odors.)

I've finally identified the two trees impinging on our fence as buckthorns, which are Bad Trees. But that got Dude to look them up and figure out what to do, so. (We're going to try herbicides and occultation. Listen, we're not an organic farm.)

I managed to get four garden beds squared away. I have a lot of plants left over. But I have a tentative plan for the rest. I'm going to wait until after 2 to resume, though, because of So Much Sun. :(

I just brewed some tea and have got it in the fridge. I'm so excited that it's iced tea weather. The thing I like best at the farm is to make herbal tisanes and then cool them, sweetened with honey. I have some herbs planted here, now, so maybe I could use those eventually. My favorites at the farm are lemon balm, anise hyssop, lemon basil, red basil, thyme, and mint, but they don't have a good wintergreen mint at the farm, they're all spearmints which I don't prefer.
I have anise hyssop, basil, and thyme here, so maybe among all that I'll find something I like. It's less important here; the sweetened teas are great when you've been sweating, not so much when you're stuck in an air-conditioned office.

I had just been reflecting on my forearms after a week away from the farm, and noted that the eczema that showed up last Tuesday is not abated on my inner arms. I showered this morning and applied various topical things, and afterward there was a small constellation of hives on my wrist too. I don't think it's the farm, I think it's just my body. Bastard.
I had been complaining of various small health matters to Dude yesterday, and when he was like bummer what's your deal, I jokingly said that it was a lack of adequate sex, which is surely not the case, but we did try to remedy that. I really mustn't complain, though sometimes complaints have a good outcome.

Oh, and last night I asked Dude if he wanted to watch Good Omens with me, and he said sure. He's actually read the book; he's not a big reader of books, but I talked this one up enough that he bothered. So we watched two episodes, and quite enjoyed it.
I do wonder whether people who haven't read the book would enjoy it so much. It's not exactly super deep or obscure, Dude pointed out, but I said, you know, they never did explain why the car radio is always playing Queen. So like. I mean, if you don't know the backstory, it's just a detail that semi-works, and it's not nearly so hilarious.

Wow Dude nearly has this buckthorn down. One of two. Plus there's a maple that's far too close to the garage. I remember noticing it when it was very tiny, and thinking "I need to pull that," and then not getting to it, and that must have been five years ago. Whoops. I'd let it stay but it'll pull the garage down in about ten years, and I don't want that. We don't have a single tree on our property, but none of these can stay.
I'd like a plum tree or something cute, someday, but it would tangle in the power lines and mean I couldn't have a clothesline, or it'd be out front and wreck the sewer lines, so. IDK, I think the lilac bush is already kind of pushing it. (This afternoon I should really prune it.)

I'm thinking somewhat of cramming the brush into my car to throw into the compost pile at the farm but it is probably not practical. there is rather a lot. it won't fit into my compost pile here. I guess I'll have to look up whether the town takes garden waste. (I think they do?)

I'm feeling guilty now for not helping but he has not helped with any of the gardening and I think that it's acceptable for me to stick with my not going outdoors in the peak of sunlight resolution? I have given some assistance. Argh, I gotta go help. Oh well.

torrilin replied to your post “So the camera

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torrilin replied to your post “So the camera store I work for sometimes (half-time in the summer,…”

*incoherent terrified screeching* my dear, do you want me to dig up regs, your local AMA affiliate, and all the other people you need to do this safely? Because the regs changed and aaaaaaaaaaugh

… I looked it up already and there are only specific areas in New York State where camera drones are not permitted, so I don’t know what you’re talking about, but feel free to prove me wrong? My sources were from January of this year.

A person is guilty of unlawful use of a drone when during the personal use of such drone, except as otherwise provided by federal law, he or she knowingly operates a drone:

1. more than four hundred feet above ground level; or
2. weighing more than ten pounds; or
3. without a visual line of sight of such aircraft; or
4. within a restricted airspace; or
5. in a reckless manner wherein such operation creates a risk of harm to the public; or
6. with the intent to harass or annoy an individual or individuals; or
7. below one hundred feet above ground level on private property with-
out the owner’s consent.

Seeing as I’m planning on doing this on private property at low altitudes I can’t see how anyone would even know to file a complaint, and if they did, what I’d possibly be in contravention of?

plugging away

I should've taken before and after pics, but honestly the 'before' was so embarrassing i don't think I regret not photographing it.
I've now cleared a giant pile of brush out of six different areas of my garden, including one huge hunk where we dug out jerusalem artichokes two years ago and then just left it as a hole and a lump.
And I've planted five of the areas, including all of the shade plants, a few perennials, and just a few flowers.
The bed that's left to go, I'm so exhausted from digging-- it was the hole and lump one, the largest area of the garden with the best soil and the best light-- that I'm going to plant it tomorrow morning. I damn near killed myself getting it dug, and then I mixed in a garbage can worth of other garden soil, and soaked it well, and then covered it over with sheets of cardboard and wetted those down. Now I've got heavy objects sitting there to hold the cardboard overnight, and I'll water it again in the morning and then shove holes into it and plant all of the rest of the plants I have.
I have shasta daisies, bee balm, echinacea, liatris, rudbeckia, and lavender left. Then I just need to throw the verbena, rosemary, and catnip into pots, and I will have actually planted everything I stole from the plant sale.

I haven't had a garden at all in about six years. I still have more cleaning up to do, but it's better than nothing. If I don't touch it again for a few years, at least the cardboard, with the mulch over the top, will degrade somewhat genteelly. If I do want to get back into gardening it, I've got a head start, as a lot of the plants I put in are perennials.

(Some of the reason I refused to do any gardening was the horrible foul-mouthed old woman next door, who would shout at me about my having a compost pile, and the like. I wouldn't go out in my yard for years. I think she's dead. Nobody's living in that house, currently. So I've tided up that verge and put in some nice flowers. I hope I don't see her again, that would quite ruin it. What a terrible person she was.)

So. We'll see. I'm so exhausted.

It's my core muscles, IDK, I should probably be doing crunches or something-- they're what get tired first, my stomach and back. Gosh I'm so tired.

Off to the farm tomorrow, once I've finished planting and have washed the sheets and hung them out.