Party in the Garden

Warning, snake photos ahead.

The fuel company was scheduled to come out and move propane tanks yesterday. We bought a new 500-gallon tank for the rental house and planned to have them move that 250-gallon tank over to the greenhouse to replace the 250-gallon tank that was leaking. I got a call that the tech would be there around 9:15, so I headed out to the greenhouse to wait for him. I decided to take a stroll around the garden before he showed up.

I immediately spotted this guy sunning himself on the plastic in this year’s cucumber patch.

I had a short conversation with him and continued on. A bit further down the plastic, I saw these two:

I also counted three juvenile snakes (smaller and without stripes) on the other side of the garden, for a grand total of six. Yay! Happy ecosystem! My only concern is that I don’t want to step on anybody who might be underneath the plastic. I try to make my presence known before I walk over it.

I have seen a couple of ground squirrels running through our yard but none in the garden yet. I am hoping that the presence of these snakes—even if they can’t kill and eat a ground squirrel—will be enough of a deterrent to make the ground squirrels question the wisdom of snacking on my cabbage seedlings.

The propane tanks were moved successfully. The fuel company always has a big sale in July, so we’ll wait until then to get them filled.

Our day of sunshine was short lived. It’s raining again this morning.

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I have been pondering this whole AI issue a lot lately, especially with regard to sewing. I do use ChatGPT on a casual basis and with the understanding that it’s largely a matter of “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” The context of the questions I ask it matters greatly to the quality of the response I get. Even with good input, its answers are often wrong or misguided.

I am aware that some of the fabric companies are putting out completely AI-designed lines. I am trying to spot those lines when I shop, although I know that our local quilt store has made the decision not to order any fabric lines that are AI generated. One of the problems is that the fabric companies are not always forthcoming about the fact that the line has been designed by AI, and I believe that consumers have the right to know.

What I find really troubling, however, is the amount of AI slop that is infiltrating the pattern world. Search on any term like “blouse pattern” and a whole slew of obviously AI-generated patterns for sale on Etsy come up. In most cases, I can tell from looking at the line art that the pattern is not going to result in what’s pictured, but a less experienced sewist may not.

I am curious to see how this plays out. I wonder if AI may be one of the more stupid ideas that humans have embraced over the years.