What's everybody doing today?

[zannej]

Clem, I really hate wasps. There's a group of them congregating on the outside of Mom's bedroom window right over a crack in the window and I can't for the life of me find the wasp spray I just bought. It is making her nervous. She knows its irrational but she had nightmares about them breaking through the crack and swarming into her room.

Goshen, glad son #3 is over Covid and that son #2 will be coming home soon. Also glad you'll be able to get home. And very glad to hear the staff took good care of him.

Spike and Magus, I wish I knew what was going on in other people's minds but I can't help with dating stuff at all. I had a friend ask me for advice and what a woman meant by something. I really don't know. I've always been a tomboy & my friends joke that I don't count as a woman. LOL. I don't think any harm is intended by the "let's be friends" thing though. I think it was "I like you enough to hang out with you but I'm not attracted to you" maybe? I dunno. I do know that women are taught to try to let guys down lightly bc some guys will turn violent when rejected. But others can't make up their mind. Wish I had more insight on it.

Ben, those look great!

I sauteed the mushrooms, pulled the trash bag out of the can, grabbed new trash bags from the truck, and put a new trash bag in the can. My brother is supposed to do it and haul the bags out, but I'm lucky if I can get him to haul them out. I found a popcorn packet while moving stuff so I just had some popcorn.

As an aside, anyone have suggestions for a good blade trimmer/weedeater that can cut saplings and thick weeds? I need something battery powered to mow down the weeds in my yard and trim up some of those small trees growing near the house.

 

[Patchouli]

@Chaosdawn thanks for the reminder, I've been around the block many times with kids and wisdom teeth. When I ask her the pain level she is zero to .5 on a scale of zero to 10, 10 being the worst pain in her life. Got prednisone in her early on too. She is doing really well compared to the other kids.
@goshengirl so relieved to hear things are going well enough.

 

[LadyLocust]

@goshengirl I would call it a Cinderella Party! Yep - clean and celebrate that he's coming home all at the same time. Yay! You might even blow up balloons for when he comes home - something bright and cheery. Not that you will have any air left for balloons after whirl wind cleaning.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Zannej

I don't know if you already have a weed eater, but you can buy a blade/mount and replace the string head with it. You don't need another weed eater unless yours is too weak for the job you want to do.

A heavy duty weed eater of the variety not sold at home depot is expensive, right up there with the cost of a good chainsaw.

 

[Spikedriver]

Just got settled into my room at the Quality Inn at Sidney, Nebraska. I've got seven days of work around here. Hopefully, the bigwigs dont shuffle us off to another location. I want to get done with west Nebraska and spend the fall ccloser to home. I'm looking to transfer to a different work gang. The boss treats us well here, but switch gangs can be brutally hard work. I'm going to be 50 years old next month, and all the years of hard living and physical labor are catching up with me. It's time to get my hind end back into an operator's seat on a tie gang...

 

[sonya123]

My vehicle is fixed...over $2000 later everything failed inspection on top of the busted coolant hose ( which was a tiny minor part of the repair cost). Ball joints, motor mount, brakes nothing passed inspection. I had to type this 3 times to avoid cussing....

Son is driving me to town to pick it up and do some shopping. Plan on going to Aldi to see how much butter costs there ( for my market baking)

Still raining here. It poured off and on all day yesterday again. Our road is washing out again, no wonder we have all these vehicle problems driving over it

Hope everyone else is having a better week than me

 

[sonya123]

trying to catch up on here

Amish Heart: happy belated anniversary

Goshengirl : hope your sons gets better soon and out of the hospital , that must be hard

weed eating: ( no, not the brownies) : we just rented a Billy Goat mower from the hardware store and it worked great, might want to try something like that if you are physically able to do it. It's self propelled, but turning it was hard.

 

[jishinsjourney]

I get to see the allergist today, a month early! That’s the good news.

The bad news is that we had so much rain, so hard yesterday that we got the fun of filing another insurance claim. It came in through the tops of the windows in the basement and through the master bedroom door.

 

[Pearl]

I get to see the allergist today, a month early! That’s the good news.

The bad news is that we had so much rain, so hard yesterday that we got the fun of filing another insurance claim. It came in through the tops of the windows in the basement and through the master bedroom door.

Sorry about the water disaster!! Hope the Allergist can do something good for you!!

 

[jishinsjourney]

Sorry about the water disaster!! Hope the Allergist can do something good for you!!

Thank you! Man, me too. Being stuck inside 80% of the time is the pits!

 

[Peanut]

I survived a week of The Princess on vacation. Since she is still in the work force vacations become

I also collected some of the ripe elderberries.

View attachment 92640

There are plenty more still ripening.

View attachment 92641

My hopes are 5hat there will be enough to try make a bottle of elderberry wine. If not maybe a couple of pies.

Counting my blessings!

Ben

Ben, I don't know cause I don't harvest elderberries... I have a friend that harvests the whole seed head and puts them in white plastic market bags. Then she freezes the berries, stems, bags and all.

Once frozen take the bags and hit them on a table or other flat surface. It knocks all the berries off the stems. Then open the bags, take out and throw away the stem parts and any trash. Nothing left but berries.

Me... just waiting on a phone call from the tree guy. I need to get those trees on the ground.

 

[Magus]

Going for a walk, maybe work on my ride a bit, we'll see.

 

[Wingnut]

Possible store run today... also gotta call the cycle shop and set up an appointment for putting the new Dunlop front tire on the thumper. Can't wait for that to be swapped out, the recalled Continental dual sport cr@p has put a damper on my riding lately. Soon that piece o' junk will be gone, and I'll be back on two Dunlops... pics of primo trail riding to follow!

Still working on cat introductions... last night, while I was surfing the web, the kittens ventured out of the bedroom. Made it to the living room/home theater area before startling a sleeping Tiger, who leapt up and shot out the cat door, with that dummy Crackhead hot on his heels. Do they think an angry mother cat is around? Dunno why they're acting this way...

 

[Peanut]

Organized some tinctures in my herb rm this morning. I've put up 20+ quarts in the last month. There are several plants I still need to harvest before winter. I want my herb rm filled to cap, got a feeling I'm gonna need it.

 

[Plainflatlander]

My vehicle is fixed...over $2000 later everything failed inspection on top of the busted coolant hose ( which was a tiny minor part of the repair cost). Ball joints, motor mount, brakes nothing passed inspection. I had to type this 3 times to avoid cussing....

Son is driving me to town to pick it up and do some shopping. Plan on going to Aldi to see how much butter costs there ( for my market baking)

Still raining here. It poured off and on all day yesterday again. Our road is washing out again, no wonder we have all these vehicle problems driving over it

Hope everyone else is having a better week than me

2K for all those repairs, you made out ok. Parts have gotten crazy priced.

 

[snappy1]

Then she freezes the berries, stems, bags and all.

I use a metal comb and comb off any berries left on stems.

Walked first.
Walked dogs.
Picked okra and figs and put away.
Will prep pears and get them cooking down in roaster.
Still have to get jars for tomorrow out of shed.
Going to make tomato soup with last bag of frozen tomatoes and broth (no milk for now) and pressure can that today.
Will clean oil filters over stove.
Call senior club members about meeting Thursday if I have the ambition.
That's enough!

 

[Amish Heart]

Only in the 80's today, and what a wonderful relief! I spent all morning out with the animals and garden. Came in at lunch and showed little granddaughter how to cook up shrimp. It's the last day of summer vacation and she wanted a treat, so she's now able to do it by herself. Granddaughter was asked to mow a bit by husband, instead went off to get her hair done first thing this morning. Bet she doesn't come home till the family therapist arrives, which is 2:30. Grandson went to work, called husband and complained about his sinuses, husband picked him up and took him to walk in care. They will be out till 2:30....doc, pharmacy, husband's allergy shots, getting lunch. So little granddaughter is happy enough with shrimp and Pirates of the Carribean.

 

[LadyLocust]

Last night when I got home, I watered, loaded up the dehydrator with more apricots, made supper, and we made a small batch of salsa (5 qts.) and did up all the dishes. I am beginning to find the kitchen. Peaches will probably be ready to process tomorrow so need to get all that ready. Have to rotate/process all these things into and out of the kitchen which has been teetering on the edge of chaos.

 

[snappy1]

Peaches are not my favorite to process @LadyLocust .

And it's a lot easier to type "Will prep pears and put in roaster" than it is to do it!
On the brighter side, the tomato soup is cooking and almost ready to PC.

Next week will have a big canning session with stewed okra, squash and onions. Then I need a break!

 

[dademoss]

Morning cleaning at the community cat rescue, then the day went downhill. Replaced the 3 speed switch in Lori's craft room ceiling fan, it worked till I put it back together. Reverse switch fell apart . it had a good run though, 25 years. Lori is picking up a a new fan, and I got the small problem:

Sawzall took care of that little issue

Maybe tomorrow I can put the new fan up.

 

[Amish Heart]

I hear you ladies on the processing in the kitchen stuff. I did finish off all of the sunflower heads yesterday, those are pretty messy. And little granddaughter and I finished the bushel box of green beans. I have a half bushel of peaches in a box on the floor, two bowls of peppers, two bowls of tomatoes, and a bucket of apples. And I was able to wash the kitchen counter yesterday, so there's that. I had the freeze dryer trays up this morning, but filled three trays with blanched green beans, and one tray with cooked stew meat. Trying to use up some freezer stuff, needing the space for meat chickens. I'll be bringing a couple dozen to my favorite cousin's house Friday morning for butchering. She wants to help and it's hard for her to leave her husband or find someone to sit with him. So the chickens and I are coming to her. So they'll sit in an ice packed ice chest for awhile, then be rewashed and food savered, then frozen. Probably be skinning and piecing them.

 

[LadyLocust]

I hear you ladies on the processing in the kitchen stuff. I did finish off all of the sunflower heads yesterday, those are pretty messy. And little granddaughter and I finished the bushel box of green beans. I have a half bushel of peaches in a box on the floor, two bowls of peppers, two bowls of tomatoes, and a bucket of apples. And I was able to wash the kitchen counter yesterday, so there's that. I had the freeze dryer trays up this morning, but filled three trays with blanched green beans, and one tray with cooked stew meat. Trying to use up some freezer stuff, needing the space for meat chickens. I'll be bringing a couple dozen to my favorite cousin's house Friday morning for butchering. She wants to help and it's hard for her to leave her husband or find someone to sit with him. So the chickens and I are coming to her. So they'll sit in an ice packed ice chest for awhile, then be rewashed and food savered, then frozen. Probably be skinning and piecing them.

Why would you skin them? That's the best part

 

[Neb]

Today was a day of garden related tasks. Weeded and watered grape vines. Then I took some cuttings from the fig tree to see if I can them to root. Then I started another experiment.

I had some left over onion sprouts that were stunted due to being crammed into a 4" square pot. I separated them and planted each into individual 2" square pots. The intent is to grow my own onion sets. If the get about 1" in diameter I will stop watering them and let them fo dormant. Time will tell.

Take care

Ben

 

[zannej]

@ClemKadiddlehopper I don't currently have any weedeaters. The guy we paid to do the yardwork (who still owes us over $800 worth of work but refuses to pay us back or do the work) stole all of the weedeaters. I went to the store to get something & came back and found out that while I was gone he loaded up a bunch of tools into his truck & he left almost immediately after I came back. I need to see what tools I can find to work on stuff.

Racked out last night and didn't wake up until after 3pm. Got up and cleaned some but need to do more thorough cleaning later. At least I got the lights in the kitchen working again so I can see.

My brother was supposed to come home and go somewhere with me yesterday but he got wrapped up in redneck drama and forgot.

I'm waiting for my mother to communicate what she wants for dinner but she's too busy playing computer games. LOL.

 

[sonya123]

2K for all those repairs, you made out ok. Parts have gotten crazy priced.

They told me their prices go up when everyone else's goes up , parts where a big part of the bill but then I don't get why they charge so much more for a part than what I could buy it for at the autoparts store. I used to work on my own cars ( LONG time ago like in the 80s and 90s) but then everything got more complicated and I made enough money to not have to do that anymore and now I just plain old don't want to. I hate working on vehicles or other equipment. My husband is no better. We were both engineers but that doesn't mean we can or want to change brakes on cars or know how to replace ball joints.....
Even the things I do know how to do ( like design a proper road) doesn't help me here. I know how to build a highway, but that doesn't help our steep crappy dirt road from washing out. I don't have the construction equipment or work crew either.

Oh well, I did buy some good German beer at Aldies and drinking 2 of them today

 

[Amish Heart]

Hey LadyL....I usually skin meat chickens because their skin and feathering is so gross. Not so with regular chickens.

 

[Hooch]

Stayed home today..caught some sorta cold n I was pretty worthless monday. I used to have to feel half dead to call out sick. As I age..I'm allowing myself to rest. Plus being sloppy, foggy headed n tired with my job is not safe.
I still had to tell myself to not dive into chores too much tho..but I did get my truck bed cleaned out n went through some clothes to donate.

 

[LadyLocust]

Hey LadyL....I usually skin meat chickens because their skin and feathering is so gross. Not so with regular chickens.

I didn't know there was a difference - interesting.

 

[winds-of-change]

At this very moment I’m enjoying a cup of coffee in the waiting room after finishing a round of my bi-weekly physical therapy.
Exactly 6 weeks ago today I had total knee replacement surgery.
I’m walking without a cane, have been for almost two weeks.
This is my second such surgery, I had the other one done in 2014.

The best thing is I’ve lost 29 pounds in those 6 weeks.
Not being at work for my 3-days-a-week job, I haven’t been supplementing my bag lunches with Taco Bell or Hardee’s.
Plus, I’ve cut back on portion size. This, combined with pt at rehab plus pt at home is working wonders.

I’m hoping to have both knees done 6 weeks apart. We’ll see what the Doctor says. I’m tired of being crippled up. We just bought a ranch house on 7.5 acres. I’d like to enjoy my land.

Yesterday morning as I sat reading my "Morning Message" I saw this critter heading to the right which is where they are harvesting onions so he/she headed right back to the left and gave me the opportunity to grab my phone. Glad I'm not trying to keep small critters on the place. Fox are pretty but not nice.
View attachment 92392

Fix kits my friend and I saw not far from her house. They were really cute.

 

[goshengirl]

Son had a setback, so his homecoming is on hold for now. It’s hard to see stuff pile up on him, but I’m glad the setback occurred before he left the hospital rather than after. I’m not new to this caretaker business, but I know when things are out of my league - he’s where he needs to be right now.

Spent the day in my son’s hospital room, just binging a Netflix series. Sometimes you just need a little company.

We’re also working on a low-tech, discount bathroom re-do. So that when our son does come home, the pretty awful bathroom will be decent for him. Stripping old stained wallpaper, using some scrap flooring, and we sprang for a new toilet. I’ll paint the walls and vanity with scrap paint, too. It won’t be fancy, but it will be nicer than it is now.

I’ve also got some canning to do - got some decent discounts on beef and turkey. The shelves were packed at the store - gotta get while the getting is good.

Also working on our seed inventory and ordering the items we don’t have. I’m not taking chances.