Miscellaneous Discussion Thread
I'm not a dendrologist, however, I am from the Pacific north-west and I can spot and name a few different kinds of trees(-;Quote: GWAEQuote: AxelWolfDon't you have slaves, I mean kids to do that stuff for you? Let's play a game called rake the yard, kids.Quote: GWAEQuote: AxelWolfWhy is that, does your county run out of soda pop?Quote: GWAEUgg fml, this time of year is rough
NO those stupid yellow and green things end up all over my yard for the next 3 weeks. Spent 3 hours yesterday raking them and today I get home from work and it looks like I havent touched my yard yet. 2 years ago I decided to wait until they all fell and I have piles about 8 feet tall.
I have a big ass tree over the courtyard and it fills it up with leaves. Its a pain in the ass. since its walled and fenced in. A leave blower doesn't work that great. Can't really rake it or it will mess up my plants.
Serious question, does vegas has trees with leaves? Thought most of them were palm type without leaves. The trees with leaves, do the leaves fall off during fall? Or do they just fall off after a certain "life cycle" of a leaf?
I actully don't know exactly what kind of tree is hovering over my place. I assume its some subspecies of an oak tree. We have many different trees in my area, such as pine trees oak trees, fruit trees, They are spread out and mostly scattered. obviously, they were probably planted by someome, so its nothing like the dense trees in your area. I certainly don't think they randomly started growing. I doubt palms trees are native to LV either.
The trees outside my place still have most of their leaves and they are mostly all still green. I'm fairly certain last year they were not green at this time. I have a feeling it won't be long before they turn yellow and brown and then start falling off.
And my botany suffers from disuse and is covered with LSD stains, but I do believe mass shedding is a product of light, specifically length of time as well as wavelength reaching it. I reckon if you got one of them poles from Heinz Field and aluminum foiled your yard up nice and ran the wattage 24/7, you could likely keep that front row green until all the snow and ice convinces it to check out your new deck.
I'd rather hear a chainsaw, than a pretty girl sing.Quote: RSTrees are evil. They are literally terrible and good for absolutely nothing. Only evil-doers hold anything but contempt towards trees, and you can take that to the bank.
?????Quote: petroglyphI'd rather hear a chainsaw, than a pretty girl sing.
trees are kewl, trees are neat, may a tree fall and crush your feet.Quote: RSTrees are evil. They are literally terrible and good for absolutely nothing. Only evil-doers hold anything but contempt towards trees, and you can take that to the bank.
And no one is around to hear it..
We grew up in logging country. Hearing a jonsered or Husqvarna rapped up to 13k rpm, was music, lol.Quote: AxelWolf?????
I was kidding a little, I still like hearing pretty girls sing. That was an old work joke.
https://www.google.com/search?q=jonsered+chainsaw&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS787US787&oq=jonsered&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.6461j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Never mind those cheesy Stihl's.
added; Do you know where Battleground/Amboy are?
My botany suffers from disuse also and my lsd (and other chemical assaults) were the work of others. No blotter paper for me. However you are quite correct, light. It also affects your pets fur, their hormones and it even affects your fish. Now the colors in those leaves is there all the time, its merely the absence of the green that changes.Quote: Face
And my botany suffers from disuse and is covered with LSD stains, but I do believe mass shedding is a product of light, specifically length of time as well as wavelength reaching it.
Some palm trees sell for eight grand each show some respect.
all trees are a major component of the water cycle so flooding, erosion, humidity, etc are related to trees.
Headlines about elderly motorists getting car jacked all over the place.
When are the casinos going to read the riot act to lv metro?
If rich old geezers can't drive to golf courses or casinos, Nevada will have an income tax and a sales tax.
Eh, yeah right, whatever, nobody is really into any warmed over hippie religion about that stuff around here. Which is probably why we've been specially blessed with one of the most profoundly useless and conspicuously strange life forms that somehow inexplicably manages to exist, and even sort of thrive in a special unique almost apocalyptic desert desolation kind of way, here and only here in this particular desert, and nowhere else on the planet: the so-called "Joshua Tree." It does none of those virtuous hippy dippy things you just listed, and it almost seems like some kind of thieving infringement that it wears the word "tree" in its name, since it isn't really any good for even a bit of useful wood and won't even throw enough shade for a decent size rattlesnake.Quote: FleaStiff...<SNIP>....all trees are a major component of the water cycle so flooding, erosion, humidity, etc are related to trees.
These totally pointless chip on their shoulders "whachoo lookin' at me for?" almost beast-like things would make Thoreau just shake his poetic proto-hippy nature-freak head muttering "why?" and go take up a useful vocation like accounting. Each is so starkly aggressively independently & proudly ugly and stands defiantly apart uninterested in any pretension to harmony, like every thing else native to the desert that all wants to sting, bite, or poison you or drop your bleached bones from the sky to peck & suck out the marrow to commemorate your demise. They become beautiful that way to those who like the desert, and I'm much more fond of them than any of that leafy or piney stuff that's constantly posing for pics & paintings of insipid mediocre snooze inducing "landscape" drivel.
And I suppose maybe once in a while they can occasionally manage to provide a little company for some suitably rugged wildlife...
Or maybe rarely even adapt to harmonize with a local center of culture & commerce to mark the location of basic lubrication services for emergency hydration seekers...
Or not, and just be, in all their magnificently barren weirdness...
Which do you prefer?Quote: petroglyphWe grew up in logging country. Hearing a jonsered or Husqvarna rapped up to 13k rpm, was music, lol.
I was kidding a little, I still like hearing pretty girls sing. That was an old work joke.
https://www.google.com/search?q=jonsered+chainsaw&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS787US787&oq=jonsered&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.6461j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Never mind those cheesy Stihl's.
added; Do you know where Battleground/Amboy are?
Oh, never mind, here you go.
Quote: gordonm888I own a 3600 sq ft house in a nice neighborhood and my property taxes are $2,300. And there is no state income tax here.
Quote: FinsRuleI don’t know how you guys can afford good schools, police, fire, parks, libraries with taxes that low.
My house is 2500 square feet.
I live in a town with no town property tax but I pay a county property tax. The county pays for schools, police and libraries through the county property tax and its share of a local sales tax. Fire is a service that is paid for (reimbursed) by the homeowner if they respond to an emergency call at your house (actual fires are pretty rare now, especially in our town where almost every house is relatively new and has a brick exterior.) Parks and road upgrades/repairs are paid for by our town, which is funded primarily by their fraction of the local sales tax.
Fire. This is a service that is a holdover from the 1800s and early 1900s when every house was heated by multiple fireplaces or stoves and, in the 1900s, electrical wiring was in its infancy and was unsafe. I have lived in a town of 20,000 people for over 20 years and I can't remember a single house fire in all that time. I think fire insurance and firehouses/firemen are a very low value proposition - we have institutionalized them but should phase them out.
An attitude shared by everyone except the firemen and their unions. Many departments morph into ambulance companies and don't even train for structure fires. There is always the division between rural and metropolitan departments. Rural companies fight forest fires and consider structure fires a diversion of resources. Metropolitan departments consider structure fires to be an anachronism until the whole town is threatened and then it is too late.Quote: gordonm888I have lived in a town of 20,000 people for over 20 years and I can't remember a single house fire in all that time. I think fire insurance and firehouses/firemen are a very low value proposition - we have institutionalized them but should phase them out.
Quote: gordonm888I live in a town with no town property tax but I pay a county property tax. The county pays for schools, police and libraries through the county property tax and its share of a local sales tax. Fire is a service that is paid for (reimbursed) by the homeowner if they respond to an emergency call at your house (actual fires are pretty rare now, especially in our town where almost every house is relatively new and has a brick exterior.) Parks and road upgrades/repairs are paid for by our town, which is funded primarily by their fraction of the local sales tax.
Fire. This is a service that is a holdover from the 1800s and early 1900s when every house was heated by multiple fireplaces or stoves and, in the 1900s, electrical wiring was in its infancy and was unsafe. I have lived in a town of 20,000 people for over 20 years and I can't remember a single house fire in all that time. I think fire insurance and firehouses/firemen are a very low value proposition - we have institutionalized them but should phase them out.
Tell that to Paradise, CA this morning. Then duck.
Nobody wants to pay for emergency services. Then they wonder what's taking so long when every second counts.
Quote: gordonm888Fire. This is a service that is a holdover from the 1800s and early 1900s when every house was heated by multiple fireplaces or stoves and, in the 1900s, electrical wiring was in its infancy and was unsafe. I have lived in a town of 20,000 people for over 20 years and I can't remember a single house fire in all that time. I think fire insurance and firehouses/firemen are a very low value proposition - we have institutionalized them but should phase them out.
A very short sighted opinion.
The fire department I’m with is in a smallish suburban area. We see an actual working structure fire about every 2-3 weeks.
What do you suggest we do when there is a fire? Just let it burn itself out? What about fires in multi-unit dwellings? Just let the entire block burn down?
During the winter, chimney fires are almost a daily occurance. Same with brush fires in the summer.
You are correct that actual fully involved house fires are a small percentage of our calls. Most of our calls are rescue and EMS. Car accidents requiring rescue and cardiac arrests are a daily occurrence for us. Do you want to phase those services out too?
Quote: gordonm888
Fire. This is a service that is a holdover from the 1800s and early 1900s when every house was heated by multiple fireplaces or stoves and, in the 1900s, electrical wiring was in its infancy and was unsafe. I have lived in a town of 20,000 people for over 20 years and I can't remember a single house fire in all that time. I think fire insurance and firehouses/firemen are a very low value proposition - we have institutionalized them but should phase them out.
I imagine there is some correlation to the reduction in smoking rates and house fires.
When I was growing up, used to hear about house fire caused by cigarettes. Also, not as likely that matches are available for kids to play with. with fewer smokers.
The solution is Grants Pass, Oregon. TWO competing fire departments, each one of them a profit making company with no tax revenue whatsoever.Quote: beachbumbabs
Nobody wants to pay for emergency services. Then they wonder what's taking so long when every second counts.
Quote: FleaStiffThe solution is Grants Pass, Oregon. TWO competing fire departments, each one of them a profit making company with no tax revenue whatsoever.
Are rules different in different states about fees? If I have a house fire, does my home owners get billed for fire service? Does that happen in some states but not others?
I personally think that the person needing the service should pay, or their insurance. Problem is, if the person doesnt have insurance they are never going to be able to pay so then what happens.
Quote: FleaStiffThe solution is Grants Pass, Oregon. TWO competing fire departments, each one of them a profit making company with no tax revenue whatsoever.
A majority of the US, suburban and rural areas, are covered by volunteer fire departments that are private non-profit organizations.
We get a very small amount of local tax revenue, around $150k each year. The rest of our budget is funded by donations.
The firefighters and EMT’s are paid zero.
This is how the most of PA operates. I know many other areas of the country are similar. Big metropolitan cities obviously have paid departments due to the call volume.
In NY, volunteers get free state college tuition and a decent pension. I'm not sure how the pension works or who funds it, and it's a supplemental pension, not something to live on.
Most of the volunteers start as teenagers and it is a problem as most have to move away as housing on the Island is ridiculously expensive.
Quote: GWAEAre rules different in different states about fees? If I have a house fire, does my home owners get billed for fire service? Does that happen in some states but not others?
I personally think that the person needing the service should pay, or their insurance. Problem is, if the person doesnt have insurance they are never going to be able to pay so then what happens.
It's different by county, city, unincorporated area. There are dozens if not hundreds of fire districts in each state.
Nearly all are budgeted out of property taxes, which are usually paid to the county, or at least collected by the county. They generally break out how much of your Mille rate is for this, that, or the other, but it's not like you can pick and choose which to pay.
The worst fire systems I've seen are those that allow people to opt out. Not only is it sickening to watch a non-participant burn to the ground, fire could GAS about property lines. You don't want to let the neighbors burn just because they didn't pay, cuz the fire will be on you next, well-fed and scary.
Petro was asking about Battleground. I lived right near there on a mini-farm for a while in 1989. Unincorporated, patchwork of volunteers, owners, township agreements. Didn't work too well.
Quote: petroglyphadded; Do you know where Battleground/Amboy are?
Hell yeah, I for one happen to be VERY familiar with both places; why do you ask?
Anyone attempting to buy coverage when he has a fire is politely informed that the law does not permit entering into contracts under duress of circumstance.
I lived in Amboy from 78-90, was in Chelatchie prairie watching St. Helens blow east, 5/18/1980.Quote: MrVHell yeah, I for one happen to be VERY familiar with both places; why do you ask?
My grandmother lived on a narrow gauge railway between Yacolt and the Gifford Pinchot for a couple years as a kid, the company car, paid in scrip...all that. Grand dad worked on Swift dam,
I joined Ancestry.com a few months back, found a bunch of my relatives are buried in Brush Prairie that I never knew about growing up.
Quote: billryanAny of you guys remember the other Harry Truman? The one who disappeared on Mt. Helana?
Quote: petroglyph
One day three different groups came by my house in the same day. Keep in mind, I lived on 5 acres as well did all my neighbors, so it wasn't easy to do that. It was totally wasteful in an uncoordinated effort. They are good at laying on the guilt trip.
By the time I answered the door for the third time, I was pretty pissed. I listened to the BS spiel again, then looked the two in the face and said, "I'm not going to give any additional money other than taxes but I am going to give you a tip worth 1000's." They seemed interested and I made them wait a moment for it. I finally told them, "Get rid of the chrome and just use black metal. You won't even have to polish it."
Fire departments are monstrous time wasters and spend a lot of money on non essential feel good junk that has no practicality.
Quote: RSQuote: petroglyph
IDK what happened, It worked when I previewed prior to posting?
https://youtu.be/9ChDYaeUtoQ
The volunteer departments who have parades like all that chrome so they can issue each other prizes, etc. at fire department fairs where they have 'line of march' awards and ladder competitions. American LaFrance, the primary manufacturer, knows that chrome is what sells, not pumping capacity or something.
Round here there are 'boot days' where firemen at intersections pass the boot to motorists to get donations.
Quote: petroglyphQuote: RSQuote: petroglyph
IDK what happened, It worked when I previewed prior to posting?
https://youtu.be/9ChDYaeUtoQ
Because your post was something like:
[youtube=/asdfasdf]
instead of
[youtube=asdfasdf]
Here's how to get it to show. Won't play on other sites though because owner not allowing. You left off "&feature"
Quote: MaxPen
Here's how to get it to show. Won't play on other sites though because owner not allowing. You left off "&feature"
The &feature or any other variables in the URL don't matter and don't change anything. Regardless, it works fine on youtube.com but it doesn't work on WOV. Apparently there's a setting on YouTube (for the uploaders) to disable the video being seen on other sites, such as WOV.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ChDYaeUtoQ
my favorite time suck that I just had. Best one was at 6.18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XFzT9GMmw8
Quote: FleaStiffChrome?
The volunteer departments who have parades like all that chrome so they can issue each other prizes, etc. at fire department fairs where they have 'line of march' awards and ladder competitions. American LaFrance, the primary manufacturer, knows that chrome is what sells, not pumping capacity or something.
Round here there are 'boot days' where firemen at intersections pass the boot to motorists to get donations.
American LaFrance has been out of business for years.
But the NFPA now requires all bumpers on new Fire Trucks to be painted for safety reasons.
Quote: MaxPenWhen I lived in Virginia the fire department was funded thru our property taxes. They all had bingo halls and all kinds of fundraising on top of that. Every year they would hound people door to door for more money. It was so annoying.
One day three different groups came by my house in the same day. Keep in mind, I lived on 5 acres as well did all my neighbors, so it wasn't easy to do that. It was totally wasteful in an uncoordinated effort. They are good at laying on the guilt trip.
By the time I answered the door for the third time, I was pretty pissed. I listened to the BS spiel again, then looked the two in the face and said, "I'm not going to give any additional money other than taxes but I am going to give you a tip worth 1000's." They seemed interested and I made them wait a moment for it. I finally told them, "Get rid of the chrome and just use black metal. You won't even have to polish it."
Fire departments are monstrous time wasters and spend a lot of money on non essential feel good junk that has no practicality.
Your taxes would be 3x if it wasn’t a volunteer department.
Everything in the fire service is expensive. A truck is around $1mil depending on the specs. Everything a single firefighter wears and carries is around $25k.
Some departments are annoying though. I’d be pissed if they knocked on my door 3 times. I hate it when anyone knocks on my door. I got a video doorbell so I can just tell them to f$&k off right from my phone.
Quote: GWAEAre rules different in different states about fees? If I have a house fire, does my home owners get billed for fire service? Does that happen in some states but not others?
I personally think that the person needing the service should pay, or their insurance. Problem is, if the person doesnt have insurance they are never going to be able to pay so then what happens.
I really LOL'd at this! Welcome to my world! A patient is brought in with a broken leg which he got slipping down the stairs at his crack house. I take care of him, send him a bill (waste of postage, actually), and then he doesn't pay, of course. So what happens? NOTHING!!!!! So in reality I became a hospital employee so the 'risk' is shifted to the hospital (owned by the county), so county taxpayers basically subsidize this guy. Same will happen with any municipal non payers. The only difference is that the municipality might be able to confiscate the non payers property. For non payment of medical bills I have little to no recourse.
Fire services are not even uniform throughout a state, by the way. NYC has paid professionals. My town has volunteers. Buffalo a paid group.
Quote: SOOPOOI really LOL'd at this! Welcome to my world! A patient is brought in with a broken leg which he got slipping down the stairs at his crack house. I take care of him, send him a bill (waste of postage, actually), and then he doesn't pay, of course. So what happens? NOTHING!!!!! So in reality I became a hospital employee so the 'risk' is shifted to the hospital (owned by the county), so county taxpayers basically subsidize this guy. Same will happen with any municipal non payers. The only difference is that the municipality might be able to confiscate the non payers property. For non payment of medical bills I have little to no recourse.
Fire services are not even uniform throughout a state, by the way. NYC has paid professionals. My town has volunteers. Buffalo a paid group.
I typed out a long rebuttal to that but I dont want to start an argument. The gist of it is, I see your point.
Quote: SOOPOOI really LOL'd at this! Welcome to my world! A patient is brought in with a broken leg which he got slipping down the stairs at his crack house. I take care of him, send him a bill (waste of postage, actually), and then he doesn't pay, of course. So what happens? NOTHING!!!!! So in reality I became a hospital employee so the 'risk' is shifted to the hospital (owned by the county), so county taxpayers basically subsidize this guy. Same will happen with any municipal non payers. The only difference is that the municipality might be able to confiscate the non payers property. For non payment of medical bills I have little to no recourse.
Fire services are not even uniform throughout a state, by the way. NYC has paid professionals. My town has volunteers. Buffalo a paid group.
Is your pay affected by a non-paying patient?
If you happened to do nothing but dead.beat non insured people one day, do you not get paid for the day? I'd like to get hospitals and doctors out of the medical billing and collections business and have them focus on actually providing medicine. Crazy, right?
Quote: billryanIs your pay affected by a non-paying patient?
If you happened to do nothing but dead.beat non insured people one day, do you not get paid for the day? I'd like to get hospitals and doctors out of the medical billing and collections business and have them focus on actually providing medicine. Crazy, right?
If that happens can you give me a job :-(
Your re post doesn't play either?Quote: MaxPen
Here's how to get it to show. Won't play on other sites though because owner not allowing. You left off "&feature"
Quote: petroglyphI lived in Amboy from 78-90, was in Chelatchie prairie watching St. Helens blow east, 5/18/1980.
My first wife was from Chelatchie Prairie; I was an outsider but got to know quite a few of the locals.
Nick's Tavern was popular but I never did enjoy hanging out there.
There was a liquor bar for awhile in Amboy, a rough joint, I think it might have been called "Hard Times:" a guy I knew (I'd heard that he was later murdered and dismembered by the Gypsy Jokers, his remains strewn in Forest Park, Portland) walked in the bar one day and yelled "You guys from Amboy are a bunch of pussies!"
In response a local pulled his pistol and fired at him.
Yeah, I know Amboy.
Nick's is still there, and Amboy still puts on Territorial Days in early July (the logging events are cool).
I remember when the mountain blew; we went to her parent's place on the prairie and watched the ash belching out for hours, not realizing that a shift in the wind's direction could have sealed our doom.
Those were the daze.
Amboy is still rural but without the IP Mill running there are no longer jobs for locals.
Lots of out of staters have moved there, first selling their California homes for a profit then buying and retiring to acreage on top of the hills, building their mcmansion, then looking down on the locals, both literally and figuratively: hello, cultural divide.
I was there and witnessed the cultural hardships after the spotted owl. There were generational logging family's that were raised believing in hard work, getting up early, and honesty. Used to be, you could leave your wallet laying on the bar at Nicks and go take a leak or dance and come back, and nothing would be missing.Quote: MrVAmboy is still rural but without the IP Mill running there are no longer jobs for locals.
It took a few years to be accepted, but once you were 'in', you were in. They really looked out for their own and didn't appreciate rich folk back then. As you said, definitely a cultural divide.Quote:Lots of out of staters have moved there, first selling their California homes for a profit then buying and retiring to acreage on top of the hills, building their mcmansion, then looking down on the locals, both literally and figuratively: hello, cultural divide.
The rich folk then, were the people that had rv's up at Campers hideaway.
Nick was an urban legend of his day. He'd cash about anyone's personal check after looking you over, or let anyone run a bar tab. Jimmy seemed to carry on the tradition, at least while I was there.
Yep, territorial days were cool. Ruth Ham, Grand Marshall was a friend.
One of my wife's brothers had a built Chevy that he'd take to Woodland and drive like a maniac til the cops started chasing him.
Then he'd head toward Amboy on Co. Rd. 16, outracing and ultimately losing his pursuers.
