'Tivo and the very bad day

[altivo]

It was going to be an unpleasant day, with more than half the library staff all off at once.

But wait, I forgot, Summer Reading is OVER. Door count = 309 for the whole day. Other than a couple of screaming infants, it was a quiet day. I got things done.

Most fun thing: Vendor convinced us to upgrade their product two weeks ago because it would be "easier to update and maintain." Wrong. All sorts of stuff busted, took a week of cage-rattling to get the obvious problems fixed. The last one, a show-stopper, lingered for days. On the twelfth day they told us we'd have to wait for the next release. I pointed out that we'd already had the feature for three years and this new improved release took it away. They countered that the "improved" print management software couldn't handle what we wanted.

This morning at 8 am I told them we would revert to the old version if the issue wasn't fixed by Monday. They had it working by noon.

I need to move the Japanese beetle trap. Probably to the far end of the pasture, as far from the vegetable garden as I can get it. Beetles are munching my salad greens, and worse, my apple trees. Some apple varieties have skin that's too tough for them. There are some perfect Cox's Orange Pippins just starting to redden up, and the bugs are showing no interest. But the Winter Banana is a different matter. It's a thin skinned variety and they have eaten the half-ripe fruit all the way to the core. The Dolgo crab apple, they haven't touched the fruit but they're gradually defoliating it. Not good. The bag on the trap is full now, and more beetles keep arriving. The organic gardeners recommend picking the beetles off by hand and dropping them into alcohol or soapy water. I don't think so.

Comments

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

*hugs softly* I'm sorry to hear the horsie is losing his apples...

[aureth.livejournal.com]

Have you considered using some Sevin, especially for the apple trees?

I understand not wanting to use what is essentially an insect WMD, but Japanese beetles can be hellaciously destructive.

[cozycabbage.livejournal.com]

Just what IS summer reading?

Also, how big are the bags? I'm imagining something about the size of... ice-cream.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*snuggles* As long as I don't lose my marbles I'll be fine. This is the first bearing year for most of our trees, which means just one or two apples from each anyway, so I had no large expectation.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Japanese beetles are the pits. Fortunately, I don't depend on this for a livelihood or for any kind of income, so I can hold firm on my decision not to use chemical pesticides. I'm more concerned about the collapse of the bee population, which some researchers now believe may be related to the use of new pesticides that turned out to be much longer lasting than originally believed.

The county's master gardener organization has issued a bulletin about the Japanese beetles. Apparently they have been a real problem this year for whatever reason.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

"Summer Reading" is a program that is supposed to promote reading among school kids during the summer when school is out. In theory it works by handing out prizes for reading a certain amount each week. In actuality it teaches them to lie about how much they are actually reading instead of playing video games or watching television. That's my take on it.

The plastic bag on the beetle trap holds somewhere between half a liter and a liter.

[cozycabbage.livejournal.com]

Hm, I wonder if you could rig up one of those small kitchen garbage bags?

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Hmm... Spray the tree with alcohol or soap water? :)

Well, the beetles wouldn't like the taste of soap and would probably leave, ot get drunk off the alcohol.

I hope you will have some nice apples in the end. :)

*hugs tight*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Um, no? The bag is a special shape and size. It's actually part of the trap mechanism. I suppose you could empty and reuse it, but eewww. They give you spare bags in the package.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, we'll have nice apples from the orchard down the road in any case. :) They're nice people who know what they are doing so I doubt they had much trouble with beetles. We always try to buy some from them each year.

Now I need to go pick some lettuce for supper before it all gets eaten by slugs and beetles. ;p