Cleaning the Roof as a House Routine Maintaining – Gardening and Hobby 10

Fig 01- Dirty roof, just for illustration

Roof is one of important parts of our house. People do cleaning house roof for many purposes, from just to make look beautiful to prevent from destroying to get good bargain when selling it.

Many of my neighbors call a cleaning roof company to do the cleaning, but few did by themselves.

These chemicals are favorite to clean roof in my neighborhood:

- bleach (Sodium Hypochlorite).

- Sodium Hydroxide.

- or Sodium Percarbonate

Bleach not only clean the roof, but also kill the organisms (micro plants) which attached on shingles.

Two important “micro plants” may destroy our roofs are:

- algae

- mold

Fig 02- Clean roof after washed by bleach

What is different between algae and mold?

Both are living organism. Algae need sunlight to live and grow, while mold does not require sun to survive.

Mold eats material on the roofs, and our roofs to be infected by molds. thus can make shingles rotten over times.

Fig 03- A house roof looks black in color, before cleaned

Our roofs may look “ugly,” because mold produces colors, include:

- black

- gray

- brown

- green

- white 

Fig 04 – Roofs of a house look pretty after cleaning

Many brands of roof cleaners are available in the market, some of them are:

- Thetford

- Dicor

- Propack

- Wet and forget

- Eterna

- Spray and forget

It is easy to clean the roof, first, just spray the shingles with bleach or other brand cleaners, let the solution on the surface for 30 minutes. Then rinse with pressure water.

The result is amazing. Roof looks shining. Please see Figure 02 and 04. Our neighbors did clean their roof every other year.

Do You Like to Grill Fish? - Food Variety 4

Marinated fish with certain seasoning, ready to grill

We prefer to fry fish than to grill it. We sometimes make curry with fish, one of our favorites.

Very rare, we grill fish, usually in the Summer season. From internet, top five favorite fish to grill in the USA are:

- Salmon

- Swordfish

- Tuna

- Snapper

- Mahi mahi

We might wonder: what is Mahi mahi?

It is a fish from Hawaii with scientific name Coryphaena hippurus. Another name is Dorado in Spanish.

In fact, Mahi mahi not only found in Hawaii, but also in tropical and subtropical oceans all over the world.

One of fish, live fish is good for grill.

Favorite fish is not big deal for us. We tried to consume many species of fish as mentioned in previous posts such as:

- Do You Know these by Catching Fish Species?

- Why Consuming Trash Fish could Help Environmental Protection?

To grill fish, we need fish to be seasoned. We just have simple ones or combination of:

- garlic

- olives

- lemon zest

- soy sauce

- chili flakes.

- parmesan cheese

Do you like to grill or barbecue fish? Do you have any favor of fish species?

A Possible Weapon to Kill Coronavirus was Found by a Teenager – Virus 25

 

Pumpkins in front the house, just for illustration

We have talked about possible drugs and vaccines to contain coronavirus (Sars Cov 2) at previous posts, some are:

- What is a Monoclonal Antibody to Treat Donald Trump? - Virus 22

- What is mRNA Covid-19 Vaccine? - Virus 15

- Updates of Vaccines to Combat Covid-19 – Virus 12

- Is Remdesivir a Potential Drug Against Covid-19? - Virus 11

A 14 years old teenager, Anika Chebrolu from Texas, proposed a new weapon, a kind of “specific” molecule to fight virus.

She was the winner of “2020 3M Young Scientist Challenge,” and got US$ 25,000 prize.

As we know that “Hemaglutinin” is an important “protein” in influenza vaccines. What is the Hemaglutinin?

One of the street in the neighborhood, just for illustration

Hemaglutinin is “antigen glycoprotein” found on the virus surface, in this case is the influenza virus.

The antigen glycoprotein to bind virus and infected cells, while this happening, then viral RNA genome penetrates into cytoplasm of cells.

They are replicating in the host (human) by using DNA polymerase of host cell. Replicating from one to thousands over time.

Why Hemaglutinin (antigen glycoprotein) is important in vaccines?

Vaccines such as an influenza vaccine is designed to trigger immune system to produce antibody to fight Hemaglutinin, then control virus.

Moreover, by using a method, namely “in silico methodology,” Anika Chebrolu found a “specific molecule” to bind spike protein on the corona virus, covid 19, SARS CoV 2 virus.

This “specific molecule” may be used to develop Covid 19 vaccine or drugs in the near future. Hence, we will have a lot of weapons to contain Coronavirus.  

Raising Chickens as Pets in the Backyard – Gardening and Hobby 9

Few growing chickens in the playing area

We know people raising chickens in their backyard for many reasons. Few of them are:

- as pets

- fresh eggs

- meats

- just for fun (without clear reasons)

A long time ago, we have less than 10 chickens as pets at our backyard. Morning crowing sounds from roosters make us happy.

Off course, we have daily fresh eggs as a source of healthy protein. We love soft boiled (half cooked) eggs.

It is said that we should wash our hand with water and soap after handling raw (uncooked) eggs to prevent transmission of microorganism from egg shells to other items, especially other foods.

Little baby chickens, just for illustration

Other advantages to have chickens are:

- control bugs and weed on lawn

- source of fertilizers.

- in addition to eggs, chicken is a source of meat (home grown meat).

Chickens does not require a big space, a chicken need only:

- 1 square meter to grow and play

- 0.3 square meter for nesting and hatching eggs

People love certain chicken breed, these are 5 favorite breeds in the America, just for examples:

- Rhode Island red

- Wyandotte.

- Silkies

- Cochin

- Easter Eggers

Have you ever raised chicken in your backyard? What is your purpose?

Harvest Fresh Chili from the Pot Routinely - Food Variety 3

Fig 01- A Chili tree in the wood box

We may not able to avoid chili in daily live, it is because chilis are every where whether we aware or not.

Chili could be consumed in fresh form (chopped or sliced) or in many other forms such as:

- sauces

- seasoning

- dressing

- spice powder

Quite surprising for me that there are 4,000 chili varieties in the world. The plant is native to South America region.

These spices are fruit, not vegetable. They are grown and traded since 6,000 years ago.

Fig 02- Green chili

People have grown chili in almost all part of the world today. Top countries to produce chili are following:

- China, produces about 16.1 million tonnes per year.

- Mexico, 2.7 million tonnes

- Turkey, 2.1 million tonnes.

- Indonesia, 1.9 tonnes.  

Fig 03- Red chili, just for illustration

In term of scientific name, chili includes in genus Capsicum with five main species:

- Capsicum annuum.

- Capsicum baccatum.

- Capsicum chinense.

- Capsicum frutescens.

- Capsicum pubescens.

We have chili trees in our backyard. Easy to maintain or take care. We harvest its almost every day and use its as food seasonings. Very fresh.

Do you love chili? What kind of chili do you like?

Have Animals Practiced Social Distance in Nature? - Virus 24

Fish practice social distance, just for illustration

We know that social distance is one of useful methods to avoid spreading of diseases, especially in pandemic seasons.

Unfortunately, human seems have problems to practice this method in recent corona virus infection.

Surprisingly, animals have practiced social distance naturally to avoid diseases which may reduce their population or kill themselves.

Social distance are pursued by many animals, they are including:

- fish

- crabs

- lobsters

- frogs (toadpoles)

- mammals

- insects (ants)

- birds

Blue crab on the table, just for illustration

How do animals know that their friend infected by diseases?

Important indicators of infected animals are (varied from one species to others):

- body of sicked animals emits certain chemical to their environment (into nature)

- infected animals produce urine which can be easily detected by healthy ones.

In respond, the healthy animals will stay away or keep their social distance from infected animals. They never close to each other.

Changing their behavior in addition to social distance is another way to avoid themselves to get sick and to stop spreading the diseases to their own community.

Why we as human do not want (less eager) to follow the animals or nature? What do you think?

What Causes of Unhealthy Lawn? – Gardening and Hobby 8

Fig 01- Moth caused lawn damages

I was familiar with large number of moths in my lawn about two years ago. They flew away when I walked on the grass. Their size is small around 0.75 inches (1.95 cm)

I have no ideas about relationship between moth influx and lawn healthiness on that time.

After reading from several articles, these moths may damage our lawn. At least there are three species of lawn moths:

- Nomophila noctuella.

- Tehama bonifatella.

- Crambus sperryellus.

Adult moths take nutrition directly from grass leaves. They love juice from leaves interior.

Fig 02- A webworm is a worm stage of the moths

The abundance of moths may lead to damage of lawn permanently, but harmless if they are in lower numbers.

Female moths lay eggs on grass leaves, the eggs then hatch after several days or a week.

Fig 03- A house with beautiful lawn, just for illustration

Larvae or worm stage is veracious stage, dangerous pests for grass. These larvae may destroy grass significantly, especially turf grass.

The signs of our lawn has been damages and infected are:

- appearing of dead brown patches on the grass

- growing of weed

- present of vine grasses

- growing of moss around the house.

- number of birds feeding on lawn, because a lot of worms.

How to control the larvae?

Using soapy water is one of good ways to get rid off Webworms from lawn. We may mix proper amount of liquid dish soap water.

People usually use 2 table spoon liquid soap per gallon of water, then spray on the infected grass.

Have you got problem with your lawn? What problem?