Electrics and Hybrids are all the rage, but most are not affordable, which leaves you with the slightly older compacts.

Who else is thinking of purchasing a small compact this summer in order to save on gas?

Like a scene out of "That 70's Show" when Red was forced to buy a "foreign car" because of the gas crunch.  I have found myself doing the same.

I put away the old trusty family wagon for the summer.  (Early 2000's GMC Yukon SUV).  It is super reliable, Super comfortable, lots of Torque, goes fast and built like a tank.. and drinks gas like one too😳

Don't take the picture displayed serious as that car is not practical, but fully illustrates my feelings when shopping for these "compacts".

I didn't want to spend a lot of money and it had to be practical, seat at least 4 and be able to go across state for a short road trip.

I tried several compacts and settled with a 2nd generation Nissan Versa hatchback (not the cvt transmission one!) for the "extra leg room" which is very relative when it comes to these kind of cars.

It's been a hoot so far... I guess.  The little car is kind of fun to drive in town but has no real power and you really have to make a judgement call before attempting to pass someone on the highway.

However, it has AC, it holds all of us with enough room for some luggage or a grocery  run, but not much more.  It is cramp, but doable and got it cheap$$. 

Best of all, it's giving us between 30-34 mpg.  This may just save some of our road trip plans for this year!  (I had calculated one of our trips to $1000 in fuel alone with the SUV!)

My wife has been using it to run our kids all over the city, (parks, library, meet-ups) something she had stopped doing with our SUV, but very important for the kids during summer.

Have you found yourself in the same boat?? Do you already have a little gas saver?  Are you looking for one?

Please tell me about your compact or the compact you may be looking for and why?

Spokane police seek $1.9 million Axon contract expansion

"Spokane police also said the contract changes would update records interfaces as the city moves to a standalone 911 department. The agenda sheet said that work would help keep the records system aligned with new integration needs."

https://www.khq.com/news/spokane-police-seek-1-9-million-axon-contract-expansion/article_37daccef-37bd-4177-a83a-9cfb6c28e2f9.html

US government classifying "data centers" as "military infrastructure" in order to defeat dissent.

" NATO’s multi-cloud strategy and the US Department of War’s $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract reflect the same recognition: hyperscalers are no longer vendors to the military. They are structural components of it "

-- Datacenter Dynamics "Data centers are war infrastructure now" March 27, 2026 By Gaby Carrasco https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/analysis/data-centers-are-war-infrastructure-now/

If you were to search for "data centers classified as military installations" you will notice a very unsettling pattern 😔

ALL of the Flock cameras are on and fully operational despite what our city and local police have said!

Local agencies stopped accessing the data, but the contract is still in place and the data is still being collected!

The ONLY reasons local agencies stopped collected is because by law they would have to share that data with us... the public. That SCARED THEM!!.. so they have stopped, temporarily until they find some work around... or loop hole to our rights. (let that sink in for a bit)

Until then, it is still being collected by FLOCK and being stored at their private server farms. All of it. Since they are a private company, we have no right to that data. It belongs to them.

Did you consent to this? Did you give FLOCK your permission to track you where ever you are? I did not. Most of us did not!

We are still living in a constant surveillance state. I rather not live this way. Our founding fathers never intended us to live this way!

Call your reps and have these cameras SHUT DOWN!!

Soooo what ever happened to this place?

I remember they had to change their name or sign or something, but I thought they stayed open.

The best hotdog I ever had in Spokane was from Wild Dawgs.

I tried looking them up but google said it was permanently closed😔

Looks like they have been closed for awhile not, which shows you how often I get out lol

But what happened? Was it covid? Or did they just ran out of business??

While we are at it... Any good hot dog places you may recommend??

This was the first year of my honeyberry plants producing for us.

You can read more about them here.. https://www.reddit.com/r/Berries/comments/1ucxdgh/first_true_harvest_of_our_honeyberries/

Some folks may not like Honeyberries for they are a bit more on the sour/bitter/tart side compared to say blueberries. I didn't mind them as I like tart berries.

However, making Honeyberry Jam is the ticket! 👍

It came out way better than expected with deep, rich and sweet berry tones. I highly highly recommend making Honeyberry Jam and we look forward to making this every year form now on.

A few weeks back I posted about our first Huneyberries after 3 years of growth.

They were sour/bitter, but many of you informed us to wait awhile AFTER they change color, not right after they change color.

So we waited, and sure enough, the longer you wait after they changed from green to blue, the sweeter they get👍

We really didn't harvest any of them as we just picked and ate straight from the plant as we are in the garden.  They are great garden snacks.

However, we noticed the birds were having a field day and 2 of our bushes have already stopped producing

We decided to do our official harvest.  This is from the last 2 plants.  Nearly or just over 2 cups of berries.  Who knows how much the birds had, but we are happy with this first years worth of berries.  We will be better prepared for the birds come next year.

We will be making Huneyberry Jam with these 😁

Are they suppose to be that sour/tart?? 😳

I may have picked them too early out of excitement, but boy it was like licking a lemon tart... I probably picked them too early lol

So I crushed a handful and put them in my water. I normally have lemon-water for lower ph, but a few crushed honeyberries did the trick too 😅

These are my first honeyberries from these plants that I planted 3 years ago.

2 of Indigo Treat

1 Honey Bee

1 Boreal Blizzard

They had suffered a transplant to a new place which stunted their fruit bearing time to this year. I was sooo excited to see the first dark berries. I'll be keeping and eye on them and taste testing as they continue to ripen...

But... what is your experience with the taste of honeyberries??

Planted this small tree guild last year.. now being choked by weeds and encroaching grass 🤦‍♂️

Dwarf Mulberry Tree (About to wake up)

Red Clover Nitrogen fixer (Re-sprouted)

Native Lupine Nitrogen fixer (Re-sprouted)

Baby Cakes Dwarf Blackberry (Just started waking up)

3 Strawberry plants (Crowded by grass)

Rhubarb (Fully awake)

Lets do something about it...

Dug and pulled and pulled and dug and dug some some more...

This took way longer than I thought. Grass root mats were strong. 😒

Shook all the dirt and dirt ball clusters (worm castings) from all the pieces of sod I removed and put it back in the bed.

Made a simple raised bed with some extra fence boards I had laying around.

I placed the bed frame a couple of inches into the soil, added some fresh top soil, a bit of garden-tone fertilizer and soaked the entire bed for a few minutes before covering everything in pine mulch.

I'm hoping between the boards and mulch, that will keep the weeds and grass at bay.

A few weeks later, and all the plants are looking much much better now!

The strawberries are even putting out their first flowers 😁👍

Wife added some perennial flowers (   to attract pollinators and will be adding some Marigolds in the corners as well.

Now... I know this spot is small for a "tree guild" (about a 5ft x 5ft bed) but this is a "dwarf Mulberry" and "dwarf blackberry" we are talking about here.

I'm a bit more concerned about that Rhubarb getting too big but I'm sure the kids will keep that from happening 😅 

So my question to you all...

What else should we plant in this small (dwarf) spot???🤔

This spot sits on the north western side of two big spruce trees that shade it at noon but gets 6 or more hours of direct morning and early noon sun followed by dappled light in the evening.

Ph is 6.5 and we are at zone 6B in Eastern Washington state.

I spotted this little guy about 2 feet away from my young Mulberry tree

I was going to pull it thinking it was a weed... but those leaves looked familiar. Is that a baby Mulberry tree?? It couldn't be..

So I took a picture of it an asked Grok. Grok says that it is.

But how can this be... this tree has never had fruit yet! I'm expecting fruit this year, but had no fruit last year. Could it be a root runner that popped up??

Grok insists that it is not a root runner, but an actual seedling. 😳

Soooooo... either this is one heck of a coincidence?🤔

OR..

My young tree DID fruit last year.. but the birds ate all the fruit before I noticed and deposited this little guy near the tree, where it the seed popped up this spring?? 🤷‍♂️

Honestly I have no idea.. but I'm going to let it do it's thing for now and will transplant it into a pot after it gets a few more leaves on it.

What are your thoughts??

P.S....

I just found another seedling identical to this little guy a few yards away!

I have a total of 2 mysterious mulberry seedlings in my garden now 😳

Cool 😁👍

This is what is left of my Patriot Blueberry plant 😔

Squirrel came and just bit off a few branches and left... like wtf🤦‍♂️