Jane: More scale

Robbie discovered more magnolia scale on the big saucer magnolia in our front yard.

:-(

Of course you know, this means war!

I looked at more information on imidicloprid, and it's fairly non-toxic to people and other warm-blooded creatures . . . still, I don't think I want it in our back yard, near our vegetable and herb gardens.

So here's my plan. I'll get some granular imidicloprid for the front-yard magnolia. You just dig it into the soil around the tree and water it in. Then I'll wait on the back yard magnolia and spray it with insecticidal soap once the baby scale bugs emerge. They're called crawlers--just thinking about it makes me say "ew."

More later.

And for those of you east of us: relief from the horrible humidity and heat is coming! Today we have clear skies, low humidity, and temps of about 80!

Jane: Horticultural Advice

I was on a radio call-in show today.

No, not Rush Limbaugh! It was "Talk at Twelve," the local NPR show. Friday is Horticulture day, and I called in with a question about my star magnolia. Eli and I noticed these odd white dusty blobs on the underside of some of its branches the other day.
And below them, sticky black goo coated some of the leaves.
The entomologist knew what it was immediately.

"You have something any entomologist would love!" he said. "Do you want it?" I asked.

These blobs are Magnolia Scale, an odd insect that is Iowa's only native scale. It looks like a fungus, but it's some kind of insect. These blobs are sucking the sap from my magnolia. The sticky goo is the remnants of the sap that they excrete, which turns black with a fungus.

Ew.

Anyway, they suggested I begin by pruning the branches that have the most scale on them. Scale won't kill the tree immediately, but if they get it year after year, it will kill them.

I can also apply a systemic herbicide called imidacloprid that gets into the tree's sap and kills the scale. I may try that as the tree does seem to have a lot of scale on it, even after I trimmed the worst parts.

I blame it all on the hot and humid and rainy weather we've been having! One of my (non-fancy) hostas seems to have an aphid infestation as well. Ugh!

Eli: Front Yard ravine

These huge ruts in our yard were caused by very large equipment.
They're digging up an old fire hydrant next door, and had to drive onto our yard.
We hope the city will fix them.

Jane: Interesting article

I just read an interesting and well-written article in the New Yorker (which I get from the library--I think I'm the only one who reads it!) called "The Cost Conundrum," and it's about the cost of health care. The author, regular New Yorker reporter and physician Atul Gawande, goes to a town in Texas that has the nation's highest health care costs. This is what he says:

In 2006, Medicare spent fifteen thousand dollars per enrollee here, almost twice as much as the national average. The income per captia is twelve thousand dollars. In other words, Medicare spends three thousand dollars more per person than the average person earns.

Why is it so high? Gawande finds out, from much research in town and from studies, it's because the doctors in the town operate like individual entrepreneurs, who are looking to "increase their high-margin work and decrease their low-margin work." The "high-margin" work--stuff that makes them the most money--is things like expensive tests and surgery. It doesn't necessarily lead to healthier people. So the town is less healthy than other towns, and it's paying more.

Gawande points out much better models, like the way things are run in Rochester MN, where Mayo's located. There, doctors work together to provide the best care, rather than working as individuals to make the best money. Those two models are two ways our country might go in the future--which would you like??

I hope you'll look at the article. It's very readable, and gives you some idea of what would make a successful health care approach.

Jane: Robbie's Black Belt

Here are some pictures from last night. I will have some video footage soon, too.


This one's actually from test day--Master Hughes giving everyone a pep talk before the test.

I am so proud of Robbie for his progress in Tae Kwon Do! Passing the black belt test is a sign that he's worked hard to achieve the best qualities of a martial artist. I think he'll continue to become better and better.

Robbie: Black Belt!

The belt ceremony was today and I passed! Now I'm a black belt! 

Some people think that getting a black belt is like getting a diploma in the way that once you get to this point you're done. It is completely different. When you get your black belt, it is like a new beginning instead of an end. You get to learn more abstract forms and improve on previous ones. There are also some responsibilities involved such as teaching and maintenence (eg. turning on the air conditioning) 

Despite the responsibilities, this is a very important milestone in my life and in Tae Kwon Do.

Jane: rescued yarn; beautiful sweater

About a year ago, I rescued this lovely chenille yarn from a thrift shop.

There were 4 large balls of it in a bag with some other blue and green yarns, beautiful. I used some of the others for amigurumi, sent some to my niece Gabi (she may have used some to make this very attractive hat)

But I didn't know what to do with the chenille. I wanted to make a chenille cardigan, but didn't know if I'd have enough yarn to do it in crochet.

When I visited my friend Judi a couple weeks ago, she encouraged me to just try. If I didn't have enough yarn to finish, I could have a vest!

Well, I did have enough! I think it came out very nice.

The pattern's very easy--it's a top-down sweater, crocheted in a chevron lace stitch, all double crochet and chains. You can find it at milobo's website, along with many other pretty free patterns. She made it with one button at the top, but I liked the way the top "lapels" curled under, so will put a button midway and have a v-neck look. You can see it a bit better in this (slightly blurry) photo.

Milobo always takes photos of her stuff this way, in a mirror with the head cut off! (oops, better weave in that yarn end)

I also made the sleeves longer (I don't like 3/4 sleeves) and shaped them so they come in, then bell out the slightest bit at the bottom.