Sunday, February 18, 2024

 Sunday, February 18, 2024 

 

   As I tried to fall asleep, I realized that I could have clean mulch free from herbicides if I had my freshly cut trees chipped.   Dan or Darby told me you can get a batch of mulch filled with herbicides. It depends. If the load is from trees, not including the stumps, it is probably free from poisons. But if it’s from a row of hibiscus shrubs, there is a good chance it’s been sprayed repeatedly.  

   Yvette and Josh gave strict orders that no herbicides were to be used on the property. I had thought their concern was for the environment. No, it was to protect the dogs. I told Yvette about the situation. I figured it wouldn’t be a fresh spray, but Yvette remained concerned. She said Little liked to roll in smelly stuff. Sounded like a perfect description of the mulch. Because of their concerns, I wanted to get mulch I knew would be toxins-free. The green waste from my yard would fill that description. Could Dan put that through the chipper and produce mulch for my yard? I was upset thinking I could have saved the cost of the two dumpsters, $680, and the disposal fees, close to $300, and $250 for the mulch from the local transfer station and have guaranteed clean mulch.

   Tanner was supposed to pick up the now full second dumpster. I wanted to get to Dan to ask him about it before that happened. When I spoke to Dan at 7 am after my morning walk, he said that wasn’t a good idea. The refuse in the second dumpster wasn’t ‘clean.’ I trust Dan; I took his word it wasn’t good, but I was curious about what made it not good. It was mostly root balls and covered with soil. No one would put it through their chipper. It would ruin it. 

 The second reason was even more of a surprise. All those trees wouldn’t have provided enough mulch. I spoke about it to Darby later in the day. She confirmed that you may think that a large tree would provide a lot of mulch, but that is not so. She said it’s always surprising how little mulch a large tree produces.

    The other day, I posted links to my reading videos on my blog, which I access through Chrome. The number of hits dropped precipitously, from triple-digit to one-digit. Could this be a response to my posting those videos? Did the teacher have to pull his students out because he thought I was selling something? I am selling something, but not for money. I am selling ideas and ways of teaching reading in alphabetic languages. The drop in hits maybe because it’s the weekend. The total hits on the blog site accessible through Chrome are 79,249; the total hits on the site accessible through Safari is 59,921. There are hits from all over the world, the USA, Europe, and Asia. I don’t see any from Africa or South America.