There is a warmth in the air along with the delicious scent of jasmine. Looking around, I see signs that the cold winds of winter have left us. I see blooms and buds on my daily walks. Each day brings something new.
What signs are telling you Spring is in the air? Do you see more birds? Blooming plants?
The saga of the saguaro goes on.
Friday afternoon the doorbell rang. A man stood at the doorstep and said he was a building inspector with the City of Scottsdale.
“What?” I asked confused.
“I’m here to look at your saguaro,” he explained. “Is it the one out front?”
It turns out you have to get a permit from the city to remove or transplant saguaros. I led him to the backyard and pointed out the one with bacteria necrosis that we needed to remove before it spreads in the yard.
He took photos and said he’d approve the permit. He noticed the one on the ground and asked if we were removing it. I told him we wanted to keep it for the skeleton and the same thing for the one in the front yard that was dying.
Saturday the door bell rang and it was the Cactus Doctor. Not the Cactus Biologist who diagnosed our cacti, but the removal team. The Cactus Doctor said the dying saguaro in the front yard was already dead but he explained what we needed to do to “skeletonize” it.
He explained that saguaro may look majestic and strong but they are in fact fragile when it comes to disease and water. He said they like to be left alone with no shade and no watering — preferably on a hill or elevated space.
My husband wasn’t thrilled with the cost to remove the saguaro. He said it was an easy job he could have done himself. But I would have had to been the one tugging on the rope as the cactus fell. See the video below:
There is no way I wanted my husband out there with his chain saw and me at the end of the rope. The Cactus Doctor also disinfected the area and hauled off the infected saguaro. It was a lot of money to hire a biologist, get the permit and hire the Cactus Doctor to remove the saguaro, but I think it was better than doing it ourselves.
What’s your opinion on us hiring experts versus doing it ourselves? Did you ever think it would be so involved to remove a cactus?
Yesterday I attended the first book club of my life. We had one month to read “The Arctic Fury” by Greer MacAllister.
Before I rant about the book, I’ll tell you about the book club. One of our neighbors hosted it in her courtyard. Eight women showed up, three I knew. We are mostly about the same age, all married, and transplants to Arizona — except for one beautiful woman from Moscow who was at least 10 to 15 years younger. One woman grew up in Guyana of Jim Jones fame. She moved to Arizona after living for years in New Jersey. Others were from Oregon, Seattle, Pittsburgh and Boston.
One woman, who took on the role of group leader, asked us for our opinion of the book. Then she asked us more detailed questions like if we felt the protagonist was a failure, what we thought of her leadership, etc. It was an interesting conversation and nice to get out and meet people.
Now about the book itself.
I didn’t like it in the beginning. It was slow and there were 13 women. I found it hard to keep track of characters. Also, they weren’t that well developed. The book jumped between the Arctic rescue and the protagonist’s murder trial in 1850s in Boston for the death of one of the women. Going back and forth wouldn’t have been a problem except it went from the trial to a narrative by a different woman each chapter. It was confusing and I couldn’t remember who was who.
The last third of the book, I was finally into it. It was a quicker pace. I don’t think I would have read the entire book without bookclub.
This was supposed to be historical fiction from the 1850s — based on a true story. It was startling to read about transgenders, lesbians, race and all the buzz words from today. The author even threw in something about chlamydia. That stopped me and I googled it and read it was first discovered in the 1960s. Not quite the right time frame for the 1850s. It was meant to be an empowering woman’s story, but I found all the issues the author mixed in didn’t add to the story, but detracted from it.
What books have you read for book club? Do you have any suggestions for me when it’s my turn to select the book?
The cactus doctor arrived Saturday evening to diagnose our fallen saguaro. He said it had been overwatered, got top heavy and crashed to the ground. Unfortunately, he said because of the trauma it suffered in the fall it wouldn’t survive being replanted.
Then he walked around our yard inspecting our other cacti. He drilled a hole in one saguaro and told us it had to be removed because it has bacterial necrosis. It’s leaning slightly and could crash into the house or damage the patio roof.
More bad news in the front yard. Our tallest saguaro with budding arms was declared dead. He said it died from vascular disease.
We learned that saguaros not only get water from their roots, but they have pores that open up in the day and absorb water from the air.
Another fact we learned was that a saguaro’s root system is twice the size of its height.
The doctor also told us how to spot native saguaro from ones that had been transplanted from other areas by the size of their bases.
Not the news we were hoping for. Now we need to hire someone to take out two saguaros and remove the fallen one. At least the rest are healthy. I’m thankful for all the healthy succulents and cacti in our yard and that the bacteria seems to be only in one saguaro.
What are you thankful for today?
Diid you know that doctors still make house calls? At least the Cactus Doctor does. He’s scheduled to come to our house Saturday to take a look at our fallen saguaro.
A few days ago I was sitting by the window, typing on my laptop when I watched the saguaro quiver, shake and jump three feet and fall in a giant “T-I-M-B-E-R!!!!” I wrote about it HERE.
The doctor is a biologist that studies cacti. He is coming out to diagnose our saguaro. But he doesn’t treat them. He’ll take a look at our other dozen saguaros as well.
After we get a diagnosis from the doctor — we then have to hire someone else to treat what ails them. If it’s a bacteria, we’ll have that treated. If it was too much rain or freezing temps, we may have the saguaro replanted. If it can be replanted we’ll have to invest in a contraption to support the few thousand pounds of weight. If it’s beyond repair we’ll need to hire someone to haul it off. Or maybe we’ll let it deteriorate in the backyard and save it’s “bones.”
The skeletons of saguaros are sold in art galleries for thousands of dollars. I could have my own sculpture in my living room someday — free of charge. (Except for the house call by the Cactus Doctor. And whatever treatment he prescribes.
Who knew you needed to hire a doctor for a diagnosis — and then a technician for the treatment? This is new territory for us. The saguaro are so iconic and majestic I think it’s worth it to save this one.
Have you ever paid a professional to take care of your plants or trees? What was the reason? Would you hire a plant doctor?
A shocking thing happened. I sat down to work at my laptop in the casita when I watched a saguaro quiver, shake and crash to the ground.
My husband called a cactus doctor. We don’t know why this guy fell. Its root system literally broke in half. I’ve googled causes and it could be too cold of temperatures (it was below freezing and snowed in the last two weeks.) Another cause is overwatering. (We’ve had a lot of rain.)
The scarier thought is a bacteria. I read this from a website called Gardening Know How:
What is Bacterial Necrosis? Saguaro cactus can live for 200 years and grow up to 60 feet in height. These monstrous desert dwellers look imposing and impervious but can actually be brought down by a tiny bacteria. Saguaro cactus necrosis can invade the plant in a number of ways. It eventually creates necrotic pockets in the flesh which will spread. These necrotic areas are dead plant tissue and, if left unchecked, can eventually kill these regal plants. Treating bacterial necrosis in saguaro in the early stages can give the plant an 80 percent chance of survival.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/cacti-succulents/saguaro/bacterial-necrosis-of-saguaro.htm
How scary if we have this bacteria in our back yard and our giant saguaro are at risk? I’ll be very cautious walking around the yard regardless what caused its premature death. Can you imagine if a spiny saguaro that weighs a few thousand pounds fell on you? I had no idea I’d have to worry about our cacti’s health.
It feels like we lost a friend.
Have you had anything unexpected happen to you lately? How did you react?
I saw a series of articles from different news sources — from NY Post to CNBC — that said cheating on Wordle is on the rise.
Why? What’s the point?
To be totally honest, I cheated once. I couldn’t figure out the word. I had four of the letters so I googled “Five letter words with R U P E….” rupee came up which I didn’t know was a currency from India — let along a word.
How did I feel after I cheated? Like there was no point in playing the game if I had to look up the answer. I haven’t done that again. I felt like a cheater. We had a t-shirt for our swim team that had this saying on the back: “Cheaters never win. Winners never cheat.”
In the NY Post there’s an article called “‘Everyone is cheating at Wordle’ and these are most guilty states: study” by Ben Cost.
Here’s an excerpt:
These are Wordle’s biggest cheaters.
A recent study by data compiler Wordfinderx found that online answer searches increased 196% since the Times acquired the puzzle, in which players get five attempts to guess a new five-letter word each day.“Cheating for the game is at an all-time high and only growing,” read the study.
Per the research, the US state that most frequently cheated was New Hampshire with the word “swill.” Coincidentally, the Granite State ranked third among US states with the most Wordle prowess, per a study last week by Wordtip.
https://nypost.com/2022/03/07/everyone-is-cheating-at-wordle-and-these-are-most-guilty-states-study/
CNBC’s article about Wordle cheaters by Mikaela Cohen was under the category “SUCCESS” and called “It seems like a lot of you are cheating at Wordle: Study.”
The jig is up — we know you’re cheating on your daily Wordle.
Or, at least, it would certainly appear that a growing number of people have been looking online for answers to the popular five-letter word guessing game — possibly to avoid putting a stop to a winning streak.
That’s according to a recent study by Wordfinderx, a reference website for word games like Wordle and Scrabble, which used Google Trends data to determine that Google searches for the answer to Wordle’s daily puzzle have nearly tripled ever since The New York Times acquired Wordle in January.
The study found that searches for Feb. 15′s “AROMA” and Feb. 19′s “SWILL” daily Wordle solutions reached a 100 out of 100 on Google’s search popularity scale, which compares search results on a topic and then rates them on a scale of 0 to 100 “based on a topic’s proportion to all searches on all topics,” according to Google.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/05/it-seems-like-a-lot-of-you-are-cheating-at-wordle-study.html
Why do you think more people are cheating at Wordle? One theory is that from the end of 2021 to today more people are playing, hence more cheating. But why does the cheating coincide with NY Times buying Wordle?
Have you cheated at Wordle or other games? Have you thought about cheating? Have you noticed a difference in Wordle since the NY Times took over? Do you have a strategy to play?
