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The big dumpster is right outside her door! Took an allergy pill! The mom said a lot of the stuff came from the dumpster, we'll be sending it back home!!😁
My youngest (son#3) just moved down into the basement to make room for son#2 moving back home. He unearthed so much stuff he hadn’t used for years, but couldn’t bear to throw out because it was “still usable” (in his mind). So I made a deal with him that if he brought me what he didn’t need/want anymore, I’d sort through it all and donate what was donatable and throw away the rest, and never tell him which was which. He was good with that, and I never told him I ended up tossing darn near everything.

It’s definitely best if people learn how to purge their own stuff. But there are a lot of various reasons why they can’t, so having someone else do it is a great start. Hopefully the work you and her mom do today will help her get started!
 
When it comes to reducing clutter, sentiment often gets in the way... I've noticed that recently in my efforts to decorate my home. Some of the 'clutter' is actually pretty nice too, good quality stuff that I have reason to remember... but I also realize that some of it has to go, and I frequently ask myself, "Do I really need this?" 🤔

What I'd REALLY like to do with some of it is donate it DIRECTLY to poor folks, without going through a middleman of any sort. I'm not talking about homeless folks on the street, they'd have no use for it, I'm talking about folks who are on the edge financially and can't afford stuff for their kids. Cool one-of-a-kind items to use for decorating their rooms, ya know? 😕

Maybe Pastor Rick at the Cowboy Church knows some folks who are struggling... even though he'd technically be a "middleman" I wouldn't mind donating in that cause. I also need to call the animal shelters and ask whether they have any sponsors like thrift shops or whatever. Maybe check Alamogordo charities online, that's another option to consider... 🙄

I even thought of donating stuff to the Mescalero Apache Tribe, but then I realized that they have casinos up there in the mountains... and I don't hold with gambling, money's hard enough to come by for those who work down here. Besides, Casino Indians drive around in Mercedes sedans & brand-new pickup trucks... no point in donating there, I reckon. 😐

I guess I'll look into the donation scene later today, since I already have some stuff that can go. I'm throwing in my large music cassette collection & VHS tape collection, I don't even have players for those anymore, but SOMEBODY might have a player, lol. Those can go to any old thrift shop, might even have somebody pick 'em up later (along with other stuff). 😏

Anyway, that's my plan... y'all know I don't like seeing stuff go to waste, not when it still has 'service life' in it. Some stuff will stay, like the glass bottle collection, it has too much sentimental value for me to simply let it go. And it doesn't take up THAT much room, sitting on that shelf unit the way it does. It's a balancing act, choosing what stays and what goes, aye? 😉

I'M OFF TO REPLENISH THE BIRDBATHS, THEY NEED TO BE REFILLED EVERY MORNING, RAIN OR SHINE! 😎
 
Went to the post office this morning to pick up the new babies 17 speckled Sussex and 3 khaki Campbells. The smallest one had a cut on its leg so I put some Vicks Salve on it. I was dripping with sweat already after getting them settled in and the big chickens fed.

Went to a local restaurant salvage place and picked up some good deals. I’m on the couch trying to find the motivation to get back out in the heat and water the garden. 🥵
 
1 power lunch Mimosa.
3 parts OJ/ 1 part vodka/ big dropper of vitamin B served on crushed ice.
you'll hit it like a hammer!
 
Cooking 45 pounds chicken so I can can them. Went to kubota dealer to get new drawbar for my tractor. Mine disappeared in move. Picked up PTO cable so it can be turn off and on. Noticed husband has done som serious damage to my bottled water. Down to 2.5 cases. While I was out stopped at DG and bought only 5 cases on shelf. Used to be 1.45 a case or something. Now they cost $17.00 for the 5.
 
Inresponse, it always makes me happy when I read about people getting good deals. Very nice of your neighbor to sell you some plywood for cheap.
Also, awesome that you got the mats for $1 each. That pathway sounds pretty cool. I'd love to see pics when it is done.

Magus, sorry to hear about the dead kitten and difficulty walking.

Dademoss, a pool for the dogs sounds like a good idea. But then they would come in soakin wet and climb on my bed. LOL. Plus they prefer being inside all the time.

Ben, if it is cold in the basement and hot elsewhere, I think I would move into the basement. LOL. I loved our basement in Virginia.

Amish_Heart, its sad that the 99c stuff more than doubled in price. I'm not surprised. Dollar Tree was saying they will start marking things up to $5 now.

Spikedriver, I think I'm on board with a nap as well. Kept tossing and turning last night because I knew I had to wake up early.

Pearl, the hoarder stuff is tough. My mother and I are mild hoarders. I hate to throw things away. I'd rather donate them than have them trashed but a lot of stuff I still like to keep. I get sentimental attachment to things.

Goshengirl, your son sounds a bit like me. But it will bug me if I don't know what happens to stuff. Items help me remember things. One of the reasons I had problems when my sister came out & brought her rude friend to "help" us clean after our dad died was that her friend wanted to throw everything away and wanted to take stuff that we wanted to keep. She straight up stole stuff from us & my sister was too upset to see what was happening. Having had stuff stolen sort of triggered the hoarder mentality I think. Plus, I have no idea where to start when I go through things.

Tsrwivey, I hope the babies (chickens?) are all doing OK now. I feel you on trying to get motivation. It is so hot outside!

txcatlady, wow! That is a major price hike!

Urbanhunter, good luck on the cleaning!

I'm trying to think cool thoughts so I'm visualizing the pics Havasu posted on another forum of his vacation. Beautiful blue skies, cool beverages, and some cheezits. LOL.

I had to get up early to wake my friend up via phone call (well, fb messenger call) so he could come move the satellite to the tower. Had to take some breaks bc the heat was unbearable. Weather said "feels like 99°". I sweated so much my clothes were entirely soaked through. We got it up, got the cable into the house, and its working thus far.

I'm going to nap and then make some food. Got 5 cats and a dog sitting around in the AC relaxing. Dog has his head on my sweaty shirt that I took off.
 
I was just getting going when the power went out. The Princess was concerned since internet was out and she had meeting starting soon. Turns out the fiber converter didn't have a battery backup. Genius! The old system did have battery backup.

Ran an extension cord from the UPS and she was and running with 153 minutes of backup power.

I was planning to work outside so it didn't affect me much. I found a large syringe to water 5he clone globes on the grape vines. Looks like they didn't need much water but better safe. Then I started the dangerous work of weeding the blackberries. Thorns are nasty. Got thay done and came back inside to a cool house with power.

Good day

Ben
 
Dr appt today got good blood work numbers across the board except for my HDL, which has been low for as long as anyone has looked at it.
Busy week at work and so much coming in it seems I get nothing finished. But that ain't gonna change anytime soon.
Cooled down about 10 degrees today, very cloudy. But so humid you could cut the air with a knife.
Gonna check the garden in a bit. Pick blueberries, and hopefully some elderberry blooms. If I get those ill start up a tinqure.
 
Lawn mower repair.
My cousin gave me his old Craftsman riding mower.
It had sat by his barn for over a year.
4 flat tires, wouldn't start, but it did turn over. No spark. The coil had rust around the mounting holes.
I inflated the tires, charged the battery, replaced the gas lines and cleaned the rust off the coil. It started and ran good.
I also tightened the bolt that holds the steering wheel on, it was about to fall off.
So for less than $5 and about 2 hours time I have a mower to mow the pasture.
I will change the oil and filters and sharpen the blades.
The best deal I have gotten in a long time.
If you ever have a gas engine that runs fine till it hots hot replace the coil.
 
Been dragging all day, woke up just after midnight to flashing police lights outside my bedroom window (looked like some sort of traffic stop that escalated to sitting on the curb in handcuffs). Took over two hours to them to clear off, and another couple for me to get back to sleep which isn't good when the alarm is set for 5am. Tonight I'll drain my IBC water storage onto some dry areas of the yard and fill them back up with fresh water & a little bleach. Tomorrow will be re-building my chicken coop doors which are starting to fall apart & cleaning the house for the kid's visit on Sunday. Maybe install a little trim in otherwise completed renovations if it gets too hot outside!
 
@Bacpacker hope you can get that HDL number up higher. They say that's the one you want to have higher than LDL. Those cholesterol meds scare me so I'll watch everyone else's reactions and just keep on eating oatmeal for breakfast. I was "borderline." Last cardiologist appointment I had the doc asked me how my cholesterol was. Really. He had access to the numbers since I had a blood workup done a couple months ago. Why'd he ask me?
 
At work handing out the happy pills. And some not so happy pills. Went to one of those beef steak dinners tonight they had back to back magicians. They sucked. I just wanted to come home. I think I’ve had my fill of humanity.

oh well, tomorrow is another day with a big to do list.
 
I was just getting going when the power went out. The Princess was concerned since internet was out and she had meeting starting soon. Turns out the fiber converter didn't have a battery backup. Genius! The old system did have battery backup.

Ran an extension cord from the UPS and she was and running with 153 minutes of backup power.

I was planning to work outside so it didn't affect me much. I found a large syringe to water 5he clone globes on the grape vines. Looks like they didn't need much water but better safe. Then I started the dangerous work of weeding the blackberries. Thorns are nasty. Got thay done and came back inside to a cool house with power.

Good day

Ben
Ugh. I hate power outages. Glad you had some backup power. I hate dealing with blackberry bushes. The blackberries on mine are all sour and don't have much juice in them. I think the heat has been making them wither. There was a snake hiding among them this morning (friend said it was brown colored).

Dr appt today got good blood work numbers across the board except for my HDL, which has been low for as long as anyone has looked at it.
Busy week at work and so much coming in it seems I get nothing finished. But that ain't gonna change anytime soon.
Cooled down about 10 degrees today, very cloudy. But so humid you could cut the air with a knife.
Gonna check the garden in a bit. Pick blueberries, and hopefully some elderberry blooms. If I get those ill start up a tinqure.
Do you take Krill Oil vitamins? That might help with your HDL. Its supposed to bring the "good" levels up and "bad" levels down. It works for my mother. We genetically have high bad cholesterol and krill oil along with statins helps.

Internet has been working well. Only a couple of outages and minor obstruction. Very tops of the trees are getting in the way. Bumping the satellite up a little more might help. Although, my friend did duct tape the begeezus out of it to make sure it was on tight. I only got disconnected twice in several hours vs getting disconnected every 30 seconds to 5 minutes.

From the pictures thread, I now think the hounds are actually Rhodesian ridgebacks without ridges. Although, the male's fur on his back has gotten more rough and the female has a stripe down her back. I compared pics of the redbone hounds vs ridgebacks & the pups have the same facial markings as ridgebacks. Whatever they are mixed with, they are very gentle. They play with each other and growl/snap/snarl playfully and they argue over food, but they don't harm any of the other animals (except for flies). I hope they stay gentle.

I just took my thyroid meds and am waiting until I can eat (about an hour).
 
Catching up again.
@zannej thank you! Yes she signed to play volleyball at a college in Northern CA, we just took her down there and moved her into the dorms Monday, got back last night.
Worked on the property today, drilled some holes in some rock to try and break it up. Pretty cool compound my hubs found, you have to drill 6-8 inches into the rock, mix up this compound and pour it into the hole, let it sit for 24 hours and then supposedly the rock is easier to break up.
I'll keep ya'll posted.
Moved into the RV park full time. Already some drama with the bikers across the way. They parked their truck super close to where we were parking ours and when we opened the door it hit theirs, and they freaked out (like we did it on purpose).
Now we are working like crazy to get that road done to where we can move the RV out to the property and boondock there. If we can't we are trying to get into another place. This spot is super ghetto.
 
Catching up again.
@zannej thank you! Yes she signed to play volleyball at a college in Northern CA, we just took her down there and moved her into the dorms Monday, got back last night.
Worked on the property today, drilled some holes in some rock to try and break it up. Pretty cool compound my hubs found, you have to drill 6-8 inches into the rock, mix up this compound and pour it into the hole, let it sit for 24 hours and then supposedly the rock is easier to break up.
I'll keep ya'll posted.
Moved into the RV park full time. Already some drama with the bikers across the way. They parked their truck super close to where we were parking ours and when we opened the door it hit theirs, and they freaked out (like we did it on purpose).
Now we are working like crazy to get that road done to where we can move the RV out to the property and boondock there. If we can't we are trying to get into another place. This spot is super ghetto.
So sorry, good luck, get the heck out of there!!
 
So sorry, good luck, get the heck out of there!!
Thanks, yes these are the people that partied Memorial day weekend til 1-2 am when I had to be at work at 5 am, no regard for the other neighbors here. Most selfish people I have ever met in my life.
 
My only day off!! Have a list a mile long!! Started laundry, need to do some house cleaning, going to cut up peppers, onions, celery for later use. Also going to cook some ground beef and chicken for later meals. Going to be a well into the 100's next week so I won't need to spend so much time in the kitchen! Need to sit down with my schedule book at some point today, and take a nap!!
 
When it comes to reducing clutter, sentiment often gets in the way... I've noticed that recently in my efforts to decorate my home. Some of the 'clutter' is actually pretty nice too, good quality stuff that I have reason to remember... but I also realize that some of it has to go, and I frequently ask myself, "Do I really need this?" 🤔

What I'd REALLY like to do with some of it is donate it DIRECTLY to poor folks, without going through a middleman of any sort. I'm not talking about homeless folks on the street, they'd have no use for it, I'm talking about folks who are on the edge financially and can't afford stuff for their kids. Cool one-of-a-kind items to use for decorating their rooms, ya know? 😕

Maybe Pastor Rick at the Cowboy Church knows some folks who are struggling... even though he'd technically be a "middleman" I wouldn't mind donating in that cause. I also need to call the animal shelters and ask whether they have any sponsors like thrift shops or whatever. Maybe check Alamogordo charities online, that's another option to consider... 🙄

I even thought of donating stuff to the Mescalero Apache Tribe, but then I realized that they have casinos up there in the mountains... and I don't hold with gambling, money's hard enough to come by for those who work down here. Besides, Casino Indians drive around in Mercedes sedans & brand-new pickup trucks... no point in donating there, I reckon. 😐

I guess I'll look into the donation scene later today, since I already have some stuff that can go. I'm throwing in my large music cassette collection & VHS tape collection, I don't even have players for those anymore, but SOMEBODY might have a player, lol. Those can go to any old thrift shop, might even have somebody pick 'em up later (along with other stuff). 😏

Anyway, that's my plan... y'all know I don't like seeing stuff go to waste, not when it still has 'service life' in it. Some stuff will stay, like the glass bottle collection, it has too much sentimental value for me to simply let it go. And it doesn't take up THAT much room, sitting on that shelf unit the way it does. It's a balancing act, choosing what stays and what goes, aye? 😉

I'M OFF TO REPLENISH THE BIRDBATHS, THEY NEED TO BE REFILLED EVERY MORNING, RAIN OR SHINE! 😎
Many thrift shops no longer take cassette tapes or VHS movies. Might be better to snap a pix and put "free" on craigslist.
Ugh. I hate power outages. Glad you had some backup power. I hate dealing with blackberry bushes. The blackberries on mine are all sour and don't have much juice in them. I think the heat has been making them wither. There was a snake hiding among them this morning (friend said it was brown colored).


Do you take Krill Oil vitamins? That might help with your HDL. Its supposed to bring the "good" levels up and "bad" levels down. It works for my mother. We genetically have high bad cholesterol and krill oil along with statins helps.

Internet has been working well. Only a couple of outages and minor obstruction. Very tops of the trees are getting in the way. Bumping the satellite up a little more might help. Although, my friend did duct tape the begeezus out of it to make sure it was on tight. I only got disconnected twice in several hours vs getting disconnected every 30 seconds to 5 minutes.

From the pictures thread, I now think the hounds are actually Rhodesian ridgebacks without ridges. Although, the male's fur on his back has gotten more rough and the female has a stripe down her back. I compared pics of the redbone hounds vs ridgebacks & the pups have the same facial markings as ridgebacks. Whatever they are mixed with, they are very gentle. They play with each other and growl/snap/snarl playfully and they argue over food, but they don't harm any of the other animals (except for flies). I hope they stay gentle.

I just took my thyroid meds and am waiting until I can eat (about an hour).
Ridgebacks are good dogs.
At work handing out the happy pills. And some not so happy pills. Went to one of those beef steak dinners tonight they had back to back magicians. They sucked. I just wanted to come home. I think I’ve had my fill of humanity.

oh well, tomorrow is another day with a big to do list.
This is how I've felt for a while now.
Dr appt today got good blood work numbers across the board except for my HDL, which has been low for as long as anyone has looked at it.
Busy week at work and so much coming in it seems I get nothing finished. But that ain't gonna change anytime soon.
Cooled down about 10 degrees today, very cloudy. But so humid you could cut the air with a knife.
Gonna check the garden in a bit. Pick blueberries, and hopefully some elderberry blooms. If I get those ill start up a tinqure.
According to my research, cholesterol is genetic and has little/no indication of heart health. A ploy to sell drugs. That said don't listen to me, I'm not a doc. ;)
 
I got 8.5 hr. sleep last night :dancing: I awoke to an odd sound I couldn't place - windows open all night. I lifted the shade and a small flock of wild turkeys was right outside the window. Hopefully they ate bugs and fertilized the lawn ;)
Like Pearl, have a list of things on the docket today. Will head to Wmart here in about an hour when the service desk opens so I can return an item and pick up some DEF assuming they have it. Had some spuds in the fridge sprouting so am going to plant those. Need to generally just get some things in order.
 
Spinach, egg, and dressing mix, touch of onion. still working the mix up in my head.
Mostly the amount of liquid and to use water or beer?
I'll likely put them on the George foreman and make kraut and wieners for a side.

I love my grill, I have lost so much weight since I started using it!
 
Today is a catch up day, mow the lawn, pull weeds, work in the garden. This morning I was pulling weeds and I found a hidden patch of volunteer tomatoes, I wish I knew what kind they are.. Oh well, today is just going to be a merry-go-round day, work outside till soaked, come in drink and surf the web till cooled, go back outside, work till soaked.... and repeat.
 
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