![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
We spent a good chunk of the weekend in Maynooth, getting to know the place, moving over a few boxes of stuff, and rather usefully, unpacking them at the other end so that they can go back and get refilled. We also bought a lawnmower - the self-propelled kind for reasons of environment, exercise, and not having to buy fuel for it - and some gardening tools. And we got a microwave, which will make the process of eating while we move more stuff a lot easier.
I dug a sort of test vegetable bed, which I think totals about four square feet, but it'll be enough to get some planting done - more can follow. I'm starting to give some more consideration to raised beds, since there are trees in the hedge whose roots come a long way out, and one tree in the middle of the back garden. I had to use an axe for some particularly tough roots in my test bed. It looks like good soil, though I'm no expert, neither sand or clay, and a good few earthworms and such.
We also mowed some lawn. It should be easier next time; there were some patches of grass long enough to choke up the blades. The back lawn is full of daisies, and I can't bring myself to be bothered about that. I'm leaving a stretch at the back long, and will see about getting some more wild flowers into it at some stage, although some of it will be sacrificed to more vegetable beds.
It's very noticable that it's Not In A City - you can hear birds all the time, even inside with the windows closed, and there's a definite difference in air quality. The cats are going to love it when we move them, once they finish sulking.
Today, I've managed to contact Eircom and the ESB, and am trying to get onto Bord Gáis to get everything changed over and hooked up. Their phone system seems to be lightly b0rked, and the options which should let me talk to them about it keep cutting me off, or on one occasion, announcing in Very British Tones that the "specified number has redirections active", before cutting me off.
We don't really know yet when we'll be Moving Properly - at the moment that's dependent on things like broadband, transport, time, whim and chance.
I dug a sort of test vegetable bed, which I think totals about four square feet, but it'll be enough to get some planting done - more can follow. I'm starting to give some more consideration to raised beds, since there are trees in the hedge whose roots come a long way out, and one tree in the middle of the back garden. I had to use an axe for some particularly tough roots in my test bed. It looks like good soil, though I'm no expert, neither sand or clay, and a good few earthworms and such.
We also mowed some lawn. It should be easier next time; there were some patches of grass long enough to choke up the blades. The back lawn is full of daisies, and I can't bring myself to be bothered about that. I'm leaving a stretch at the back long, and will see about getting some more wild flowers into it at some stage, although some of it will be sacrificed to more vegetable beds.
It's very noticable that it's Not In A City - you can hear birds all the time, even inside with the windows closed, and there's a definite difference in air quality. The cats are going to love it when we move them, once they finish sulking.
Today, I've managed to contact Eircom and the ESB, and am trying to get onto Bord Gáis to get everything changed over and hooked up. Their phone system seems to be lightly b0rked, and the options which should let me talk to them about it keep cutting me off, or on one occasion, announcing in Very British Tones that the "specified number has redirections active", before cutting me off.
We don't really know yet when we'll be Moving Properly - at the moment that's dependent on things like broadband, transport, time, whim and chance.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
if you find a wayward american camping in your backyard and in the middle of constructing a workshop/smithy and growing a plot of vegetables, well... umm... don't be too alarmed, it's just me.
congratulations again.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
The cats are just going to sulk because it is their way. You should know that you are being unfair and interrupting their daily routines and generally being all hooman. Hiss.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I hear you are a fairly influential LJer, so I wanted to get ahold of you.
For a long, long time now, many at LiveJournal, including people like myself who helped create it long ago, have been extremely frustrated at the management of the site, their policies, their occasional censorship, their weak response to the Russian government's prosecution of a LJer (http://www.theotherrussia.org/2008/03/13/russian-blogger-heads-to-court-after-fiery-comment/) for leaving a comment suggesting that corrupt cops should be publically burned at the stake, etc.
Well, I've created an LJ community called
Specifically, our goal is to work towards defending and restoring the original promises made to LiveJournal's members (http://web.archive.org/web/20040401175244/http://www.livejournal.com/site/contract.bml) by LiveJournal itself.
We want to stand up for the free speech of ALL of LiveJournal's members, restore LJ's original strong support for community-based Open Source Software development, and restore community participation in the successful operations of LiveJournal... because frankly, the people managing the site are also slowly killing it (http://community.livejournal.com/no_lj_ads/48335.html) due to their poor policies.
The site is shrinking in activity about 1% a month currently, and it's within the management's power to do something about this trend, rather than contribute to it by further alienating its members.
In the past week or so, I have attracted about 150 fairly motivated people to help out. We're also working with helping candidates for the upcoming LJ advisory council elections who embrace our views.
We've endorsed
We've also attracted several LJers in the Open Source community, who have their own issues relating to the open source side of LJ that need to be addressed, because LJ has turned its back on working with the open source community for its development over the years, shutting out needed improvements to the software. We want to make the case that they should reverse this policy.
Despite current crap Russian management at LJ's parent company SUP, we have some reasons for hope. Recently, they brought in someone who previously oversaw the internet development at ITV to be their general manager, so there seems to be some recognition that they need a bit of a change. Our job is to basically do a far better job in making the case for it, and to lay out where they're going wrong and what the better alternatives would be.
I'd be curious what your concerns are regarding LiveJournal and its future, because it's our goal to bring people into our group and have them positively effect our policies and ideas.
Sure, it would be a wonderful thing to have you join our community, to have your support for LJ United, its goals, and its candidate... but failing that, I invite you to find out more about us.
Thanks,
Mark