What's everybody doing today?

[Tommyice]

• Got up early and did some canning--Chili con Carne. Got 11 pints. Waiting on one jar to seal.
• Put away the corn and pickled banana peppers that I had previously canned. Checked the seals on a good many of the jars in the pantry. Decided some jars of stuff are past their prime and set them aside for "jar reclamation."
• Trimmed the wisteria. Again. Thing grows like it's on steroids, but I do love the flowers in the spring. Might take cuttings to try to root and try growing it up at the cabin.
• Now to clean the apartment and then do nothing.
• Tomorrow is breakfast out and a trip to Lowe's for parts for the two new rain barrels. Then on to Walmart for more jars. I checked their website and the one that's 20 minutes away has the 6pack of 1/2 gallon jars.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Amish,

Actually, it seems like all the extra supervision you are getting can be made to work in your favor, to some extent. They want to help raise the kids, take full advantage of them in situations like this. They can be the tough love while you sit back and say "I told you so."

I know you can't technically record the kids, but you must be able to a install security system inside and out for security purposes. It is a perfectly normal and accepted thing to do and everyone will be aware it's there for insurance purposes. In a pinch, it will be handy if you ever have to go to court for any reason, not just because of the kids.

I have a security system, why can't you?

 

[Amish Heart]

Hey, Goshen, only 309 days.
Yep, good ideas, Clem. We can technically record the kids. They are recording us all the time. It's legal to do in our state, and granddaughter quotes the state law on it all the time. But as the family therapist says, it's not the right thing to do with your family in your home. She does not care. We have new cameras put in the bottom floor of our house...in our office, bedroom, closet, basement. The upstairs where they are is not recorded. It does sound and video to husband's phone. I go into our back bedroom to use the phone, and shut two doors on my way in. It's pretty soundproof.
This instance, where grandson took off an hr away to check out the Wichita nightly riots by BLM (when he was supposed to be down the road playing video games), I put it back on him. Told him that if he gets picked up and we are called, we believe he was down the road. Child Protective Services, the drug enforcement officer, and his many therapists own his butt right now. He has to answer to all of them. He has to call the drug enforcement officer and let her know that he was in Wichita "watching" the riot. Although husband and I saw a video online of a young man looking like him throwing a molotov cocktail in the road. Maybe it wasn't him, maybe it was. I told him all of this is not our problem anymore, it's trouble he is causing for himself and needs to answer for.
Granddaughter got up today, and left...said for work (ha) and will be back by 10pm. Tomorrow the bf comes back in town, so she's bringing him coffee early, hanging out with him, then going to a "friends" house 45 min away to "sleep over". Will return Monday by noon. All on her if she gets into any trouble, Child protective services owns her too, for another 309 days.

 

[Weedygarden]

Trimmed the wisteria. Again. Thing grows like it's on steroids, but I do love the flowers in the spring. Might take cuttings to try to root and try growing it up at the cabin.

I have had a wisteria vine for at least 20 years and it has never bloomed. A friend has one that is a couple years old and it bloomed last year and this year. The blossoms then produced pods, similar to pea pods. I'd bet they could be planted and eventually produce a vine.

 

[Tommyice]

I have had a wisteria vine for at least 20 years and it has never bloomed. A friend has one that is a couple years old and it bloomed last year and this year. The blossoms then produced pods, similar to pea pods. I'd bet they could be planted and eventually produce a vine.

Enjoy Weedygarden

This was dug out of the yard at the barn my horse was kept. It sends out leafy runners along the ground as well as those pods. The runners stand a chance of rooting too.

 

[Spikedriver]

Hitting the rack early tonight. Gotta be up by 4AM to start work by 5. Weather permitting, and dispatcher permitting, we'll install a pair of #11 switches on the main line west of North Platte. That will shut rail traffic down for a few hours, and I expect Corridor to fight us about that. They don't like to be told that they can't run trains. Oh well - their feelings aren't my concern...

 

[Weedygarden]

View attachment 92200

View attachment 92201Enjoy Weedygarden

This was dug out of the yard at the barn my horse was kept. It sends out leafy runners along the ground as well as those pods. The runners stand a chance of rooting too.

I absolutely love it! I think mine has never done well because of the soil.

 

[Wingnut]

Spikedriver, I enjoy reading your posts about work, as I know those towns quite well... I used to hit the Walmart in North Platte on occasion, and I stopped in Sidney to visit Cabela's just about every chance I got, lol. I bought a lot of stuff there, dug the 'Bargain Cave' or whatever it was called... their parking lot sales were also good for heller deals on gear and clothing. The other towns you've mentioned along I-80 and I-70 are familiar to me, as I ran those corridors quite often for trucking companies based in Iowa and Kansas City.

Many folks don't know that when the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System was built, civil engineers used old railroad surveys to help them in their work... that's why so many highways parallel railroad tracks. The rails were there first, the highways came nearly a century later... hey, why waste a perfectly good survey, even if it was made so many decades ago? Lol. Smart thinking, really, makes no sense to survey land again. I learned all this in my 'trucking daze'---funny what ya learn about your country when you're on the road.

The interstate highway system was built with an eye toward national defense: it would simplify the moving of men and military equipment across the continent. Of course, the civil population would also benefit... before the big roads were built, cross-country travelers and truckers might spend 2-3 weeks running those skinny little 2-lane blacktop roads and going through every town on the way, small or large. There were no truck stops or 'travel plazas' in those days, only fuel or service stations, and truckers would often camp in local parks (with Johnny Law cutting them some slack, lol).

 

[Peanut]

Dindo nuffin... today but rest. Well, maybe a few dishes. I'm so proud of how the farm is lookin'. Things were bad here for a few years but a cousin took over just 2 weeks ago. Already the farm is looking better than it has in 4 years. Last time it looked decent I was taking care of it. It has a ways to go yet but hey, only been 2 weeks. It'll take a year to get it back to the way it should look. This is a fantastic start though.

@Weedygarden here the chinese wisteria is a nuisance. The vines grow wild and will kill trees, wreck fences. American wisteria is a bush, not nearly as aggressive.

 

[jishinsjourney]

Had one dead aspen felled, one dead aspen stem felled (the rest of the tree is still good), had someone out to help us deal with the roof, went to the Douglas County fair (that was fun!), came home, got some green beans on the dehydrator — haven’t tried that before — then went to the range. Full day!

 

[Amish Heart]

Walmart shopping with husband and little granddaughter. So school supplies are ready. Hard to fit her in clothes...she's overweight and short for her age. Women's size small tops. Women's shorts. No luck on pants, but she mostly wears dresses. Husband got a new tv for our main room. Doesn't fit on the stand, so it's on the floor. Old one and stand is next to it, what a mess. Watched, "Second Hand Lions" with little granddaughter, and ate soft tacos. She loved it.

 

[Spikedriver]

Spikedriver, I enjoy reading your posts about work, as I know those towns quite well... I used to hit the Walmart in North Platte on occasion, and I stopped in Sidney to visit Cabela's just about every chance I got, lol. I bought a lot of stuff there, dug the 'Bargain Cave' or whatever it was called... their parking lot sales were also good for heller deals on gear and clothing. The other towns you've mentioned along I-80 and I-70 are familiar to me, as I ran those corridors quite often for trucking companies based in Iowa and Kansas City.

Many folks don't know that when the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System was built, civil engineers used old railroad surveys to help them in their work... that's why so many highways parallel railroad tracks. The rails were there first, the highways came nearly a century later... hey, why waste a perfectly good survey, even if it was made so many decades ago? Lol. Smart thinking, really, makes no sense to survey land again. I learned all this in my 'trucking daze'---funny what ya learn about your country when you're on the road.

The interstate highway system was built with an eye toward national defense: it would simplify the moving of men and military equipment across the continent. Of course, the civil population would also benefit... before the big roads were built, cross-country travelers and truckers might spend 2-3 weeks running those skinny little 2-lane blacktop roads and going through every town on the way, small or large. There were no truck stops or 'travel plazas' in those days, only fuel or service stations, and truckers would often camp in local parks (with Johnny Law cutting them some slack, lol).

I didn't know about the surveys, but I did know about the highways following the railroads. You see it everywhere - in my home state, US20 follows the Canadian National, US30 follows the Union Pacific, and US34 follows the BNSF. US65 follows the UP Spine Line somewhat, although it diverges in a lot of places too.

I've driven every mile of I-80 from Sterling/Rock Falls, Illinois to Suisun City, CA for the railroad, every mile of I-70 from Pennsylvania to its western terminus at I-15, and I-40 from OKC to to Flagstaff. I've got a lot of miles on I-35, I-17, I-15, and I-5 as well. We could probably write a book about our experience on those roads, couldn't we?

 

[Bacpacker]

Dindo nuffin... today but rest. Well, maybe a few dishes. I'm so proud of how the farm is lookin'. Things were bad here for a few years but a cousin took over just 2 weeks ago. Already the farm is looking better than it has in 4 years. Last time this pasture looked like this I was taking care of it. It has a ways to go yet but hey, it's only been 2 weeks. It'll take a year to get it back to the way it should look.


View attachment 92206

@Weedygarden here the chinese wisteria is a nuisance. The vines grow wild and will kill trees, wreck fences. American wisteria is a bush, not nearly as aggressive.

View attachment 92208

Pasture looks good.
I agree about the wisteria. Wife planted one cutting and it has taken over a nice arbor we had with some roses. Killed old roses out and is doing its best to take over a big maple. I keep cutting it back and trying to kill it off. When I mow, if a end runner gets cut and touches the ground, it creates another plant. It's beautiful, but I HATE that stuff

Mowed today and about finished the yard when we got .65" of rain in about an hour.

 

[joel]

After lunch, I will be taking wire & conduit from the fram, so we can get an early start Monday morning.

 

[sonya123]

Weather moving in (rain in the forecast), so it's too windy to use the torch, but I pulled another 200 vines by hand... I'm just gonna keep chipping away at the stone, that's the only way this job will ever get done. The goldurned weeds aren't gonna pull themselves, that's for sure... but I'm happy to get rid of that many more puncturevines, lol. Let's do the math: 200 vines multiplied by a potential 500 goatheads per mature vine, that makes 100,000 GOATHEADS!!! Holy Cow!!! That's a whole heap o' goatheads!!! I can see myself walking barefoot across a sea of goatheads, lol...

So you see why it's important to get rid of these goldurned noxious weeds... I'm over halfway there with the eradication program, and I'm SO HAPPY to have caught this problem in time. Oh, yeah, I also discovered a new method of scraping young goathead vines off at ground level, using the sharp edge of my Vibram soles... dunno if it'll kill off each taproot, but it'll certainly cramp its style, lol. Hey, WHATEVER IT TAKES to get rid of these things: pulling, scraping, hoeing, burning, sticks & stones, harsh language---whatever gets the job done. Meh, the tide of battle is turning in my favor...

Sorry but I am laughing about this, it SOOO reminds me of us when we first bought the property and it was full of cockleburs. They are probably just as bad as your goatheads. We pulled them out with double gloves on by the wheelbarrow full and sprayed entire large areas with 2 4 D. It took us 3 yeas to completely get rid of them.
One warning , something ELSE bad is going to replace those goatheads....that's what happened to us. In areas that had the cockleburs now we have ragweed, thistles and dollarweed.
I like the blowtorch idea, have to get one of those.

 

[sonya123]

Pasture looks good.
I agree about the wisteria. Wife planted one cutting and it has taken over a nice arbor we had with some roses. Killed old roses out and is doing its best to take over a big maple. I keep cutting it back and trying to kill it off. When I mow, if a end runner gets cut and touches the ground, it creates another plant. It's beautiful, but I HATE that stuff

Mowed today and about finished the yard when we got .65" of rain in about an hour.

Our goats absolutely love wisteria. We have a few bushes around the house and I have to literally smack them with a stick to keep them from completely destroying them by eating every single leave on them .

 

[sonya123]

Amish Heart: you are a very kind person! If that was me, I would not put up with any of those kids and send them packing.....it would be either behave or get out
My daughter went through a bad phase at around 15 ( she is 30 now) and I just told her behave or go live with your dad ( she is from my ex) . She didn't behave , she got thrown out. She lived with her dad's family for a few months, her step mom and him didn't put up with her crap either, she came back and behaved.....
You have to put your foot down sometimes

It rained again yesterday, poured really bad all afternoon, so we put the animals in the barn, that means lots of cleaning today
I have more tomatoes to can also. The next batch is going to be pizza sauce
Also have a bucket of plums I am not sure about what to do with. Son already baked a cake with some of them but there are lots left.
I hope we get a rain free day, so sick of it.
Puppy is doing well, no accidents in the house yesterday despite the rain

Dreading the yearly vehicle inspections ....especially after the disaster of son's vehicle. I hope nothing major is wrong with the Yukon or the truck, we really need both of those vehicles working at all times .

 

[joel]

"Sorry but I am laughing about this, it SOOO reminds me of us when we first bought the property and it was full of cockleburs."
Now that a word I have not heard in many years, Cockleburs!
We pull cockleburs,coffee weeds,bitter weeds off the property.
They are all gone now, we still have Europe wild garlic, which we call onions.
We have dew berries & wire grass to fight.

 

[goshengirl]

Youngest came down with covid while at a competition, so I've left the house and am camped out at "the farm" (a generous term) to avoid infection. If it were just my husband, myself, and our youngest at home, we'd just suck it up and deal with it. But with our other son having just received a bone marrow transplant and having no immune system, it's a whole different ballgame.

So I'm in an unfinished house and all discombobulated because I don't have my usual stuff to do, or my usual stuff with me. Trying to be productive. I was so excited to see that my old Nesco dehydrator is out here (it was boxed up and put away because I've been using a different dehydrator for the past decade). So even though I don't have a kitchen here, I do have electric in places, and can keep the dehydrator going with bags of frozen veggies from Walmart.

I'll be mowing with a walk-behind brush mower because the ancient rider won't start. Praying the brush mower does, lol. It won't look as good as when hubby does it, but it'll get done.

And I really have to figure out these kitchen cabinets. I've been in over my head on every aspect of this house building project, but I have to keep reminding myself of how well everything has turned out so far (if I do say so myself) - so I've just got to keep at it.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today is a range day, for me it is the last chance to get all my hunting arms dialed in before things get going in earnest.

 

[zannej]

I'm going to go to the grocery store today and try to do more cleaning. Already took my allergy meds. Still feeling so tired. I need to find something to check the air. I have a carbon monoxide detector & it shows nothing, but everyone who comes here always feels very tired so I think here must be *something* in the air.

I'm planing to clean up my desk a bit and velcro the subwoofer to it so it stops sliding, velcro my keyboard cover to the desk as well (same reason) and velcro my smaller speakers to the cover so they stop falling off every time the cats sit on it.

Waiting for my brother to wake up so we can go to the store together. He actually helps with loading and unloading.

Sky still looks like it's 7am so it will probably rain again.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

i am unpacking 12 fragile crates that I haven't seen the contents of in 15 years due to renovations. Here at the new place, it's still renovations but if I don't unpack them, I will probably be dead before I see the contents again. 5 crates unpacked, 7 to go. It's like Christmas. We have some interesting souvenirs. Last night I found the sharks teeth from the Faoum desert and an old electro shock therapy box.

Anyone feeling depressed? The Dr. Is in.

 

[goshengirl]

5 crates unpacked, 7 to go. It's like Christmas.

Oh my gosh, I love boxes like that. They're such a mixed bag - great memories interspersed with "what in the world did I ever see in this?"

 

[Amish Heart]

Not even going to ask about the electro shock box, Clem. Sounds like an interesting party game.
Been outside all morning...animals first, then harvested all the grapes. Got the fruit trees watered well. Cut 7 huge sunflower heads to take the seeds out of. So hot by noontime, came in and washed down, made some lunch for husband, little granddaughter, and I and here we are. Put 4 whole chickens on to cook. Going to my favorite cousin's place for dinner, so I'll make something to bring. The twins have been permanently excused from going over there (for life), so it'll just be us three.

 

[Wingnut]

Clem, I still have several unpacked moving boxes sitting in the mud room and in the shed... once I'm done with the home rehab work, I'll crack 'em open and see what's in there. Whatever I don't need or want will get donated, pronto... but I'll keep whatever might be useful, I have plenty of storage room in the metal shed or shop building.

Just finished a brutal weeding & scorching session, I reckon I killed a couple thousand puncturevines today, many young plants only 2" or 3" high but in a broad carpet. That flamethrower is working wonders with these broad carpeted areas of goathead vines... the burly flame just shrivels the noxious weeds to nothing, lol.

Somehow, this reminds me of a guy I knew in the USA INF, we called him "The Colonel" because he did this comical saluting routine... well, one day "The Colonel" told me how he went fishing back home in Oregon, and when he hooked a live worm as bait, the worm SCREAMED, lol. I told "The Colonel" to go easy on the 'shrooms next time...

This morning, I heard hundreds & hundreds of puncturevines screaming as the flamethrower reduced them to ashes, lol... the scorched earth policy is working, I reckon it'll be hard for the vines to make a comeback after they've gone under the torch. I still have several smaller carpeted areas to burn, but I'm satisfied with my progress so far...

I usually drink fruit juice or a smoothie before I enter the latest battle in the Goathead War, but when I call it a day and I walk into my home drenched with sweat, I drink cold sweet tea straight from the fridge... about a quart of it, followed by a quart of water, lol. I'll tell ya, that tea sure hits the spot after waging war on goatheads... later comes the beer, lol.

I've already showered and I'm looking at an easy afternoon, talking to friends on the phone (long distance) and watching a movie or reading a Western. Gonna take the remaining BBQd tri-tip and make steak & eggs with it, after I sautee some onion & Hatch chiles... add vine-ripened tomato and cheese to the mix as well. I'm thinking it won't suck, lol...

Manana, another thrilling installment (i.e. battle) in the Goathead War!!! Turning point reached today!!!

 

[Magus]

Woke up, posted a bit in here, gamed. took a nap.
Been doing the rinse repeat since 3AM.

 

[jishinsjourney]

Farmer’s market and haircut for me today. FaceTime with the family this evening. Not sure what else but definitely should get the green beans off the dehydrator.

 

[Wingnut]

Holy Toledo!!! I took a bong hit of some dispensary weed called 'Motown Lockdown'---picked up a gram or two the other day on a whim---and now I'm no longer stiff & sore from the friggin' Goathead War, lol. Haven't cooked my custom steak & eggs yet either, that combo (plus some added ingredients) will be cooked later for DINNER, aye? Sometimes I'll do that number: eat breakfast for dinner & dinner for breakfast. Y'all know the old adage:

"HUNGER IS THE BEST SAUCE!!!"

Anyway, I'm about to burn one more hit, then PAR-TAY like it's 1999, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Maybe 1979...

Why would I do this, you possibly ask? Meh, BECAUSE I CAN, LOL. I'm the boss here at the ol' hacienda, ain't no other f#%tard in charge, so if I wanna take a break, then that's what happens. On a more serious note, this blasted Goathead War has given me the fantods, the shivering horrors, PTSD, etc., and I need all the THERAPY that I can get, LOL.

 

[snappy1]

Church first today.
Came home and walked dogs.
Took Ebay photos.
Started pressure canning salsa.
Put mini marshmallows in dehydrator.
PC is cooling down and I'm done.

 

[viking]

Had one dead aspen felled, one dead aspen stem felled (the rest of the tree is still good), had someone out to help us deal with the roof, went to the Douglas County fair (that was fun!), came home, got some green beans on the dehydrator — haven’t tried that before — then went to the range. Full day!

We live in
Douglas County--Oregon and they start having a fair pretty soon, funny thing is that a lot of states have a Douglas County, I seem to remember that Colorado had a Douglas County that was not too far from the Jefferson County that we lived in. Aspen, like many other "conversion" trees, kind of just grow up and die, where I lived in Washington Alder was a conversion tree, they are called conversion tree because when they die and rot down they make good nutrients for the evergreen trees that are planted or start on their own, around here in Oregon, Madrone trees are considered conversion trees and when they don't die and rot, timber companies use helicopters to spray herbicide (really bad stuff) on the Madrones to speed up the process, wish they would just let the firewood cutters get that wood, as it's the best firewood we have around.