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did a bunch of annoying little stuff today like take everything out from under sink to find what smelled bad, dead mouse.
Colored my hair, making cannabis oil for salve ( not sure this will work but will try, I make great gummies out of the oil)
Husband hooked up 2 of the new solar panels and they work but battery was not enough to run freezer , but it might be because there was only a few hours of sun on them left after he hooked them up , or the batteries are not great anymore. They are about 6 years old now.
Going to buy new batteries tomorrow and not looking forward to it because we have to drive all the way to Roanoke for those. That's a long way. Will go to Sams while there , been wanting to go there anyway. It will be a very expensive trip too, those batteries cost more than the solar panels
I guess we will have to get food on the way too , no time to cook . I truly hate going out to eat. Maybe we;ll just take sandwiches along
 
What did I do today? Well the day started normal. Then the internet failed. Then my phone hotspot failed, then gmail said my account was hacked, because of using my wife's phone and I still can't get in.

Then the POWER failed! For about 6 hours, just got it back 1/2 hr ago. So what did we do? Well...

We waited about 15 min. I heard my neighbor's Generac 6 houses away on the next street, turn on. Her husband is on a lung machine. Then we rolled the generator out, fired 'er up, plugged in the refers and freezer and a fan. Thankfully temps peaked at 78 today, our first cool day.

I started our backup Honda to be sure it would run if needed. It's only a 2,000 watt, but will run a refer and fan, we'd rotate freezers on 2 hr turns if we had to use it.

This was right at our winter fuel change over, I've been drawing down our spring fuel and only had 5 gal in a jug, plus about 5 hrs in the big genny. So about 3pm when it looked like this might go into the night, I put 4 jugs in the truck. Had to manually open the garage door - how 1960's. And trundled off to the gas station on the Res. They have a separate power plant. The station across the street from theirs had no power.

Of course the power was on 5 min before I got home. Good practice run.

Of major concern. Us and my friend with the generac are STILL the only people with generators out of 150 homes. Stuff's gonna get real I fear, if there's an extended issue. And both generators are waaay too loud. Next project, welding a car muffler on the genny and build an insulated sound barrier of some sort.

Anyway, survived again.
 
finally got piece of equipment back up and running that broke the other day....late this afternoon my torso was doing weird cramp/spasms so i didnt go hike...i failed.
 
My day sucked. Started with getting some things together for quick trip up north for closing the cabin. Dad forgot to tell me his Good Chop meat delivery was for a day we aren’t going to be here. Decided to come back upstairs and call to see if I could get it postponed. Apartment was cold. Hmmm. Went over to the basement and furnace not running. Call for service. Call and got delivery postponed until the end of November.

Furnace repair tech comes out and right off tells me he won’t be doing any repair work if there is water in the tank. We had a situation last year when either the delivery person didn’t replace the fill cap properly or the landscaper “knocked it with the lawnmower.” My money was on the delivery guy not paying attention and replacing the lid correctly. Had the water pumped out and just about a month ago, a friend of mine (hvac guy) stuck the tank and not a drop of water. No water just some air in the line. He bled it out and showed my how to reset it if this happens again.

Took dad to the cancer specialist for his mouth. Next step is ct scan when we get back to see how big the tumor is. He did mention that the pathology report stated it is well defined which is good.also said the oral surgeon did a great job of getting it cleanly. This means best case is small surgery to remove a bit more.
 
My friend who goes plant hunting with me sometimes, I've posted pictures… born and raised 2 miles down the road, both her bothers still live there. Until tonight… one brother was killed coming home from work, a mile from home, just got the news. Saw him friday afternoon coming home from work on his Harley. I’ve known the family my whole life… in fact some of my cousins are also their cousins… His grand daughter is at my cousin’s house now… doesn’t know yet that her pawpaw is dead… she’s only 7. 😢
 
My day sucked. Started with getting some things together for quick trip up north for closing the cabin. Dad forgot to tell me his Good Chop meat delivery was for a day we aren’t going to be here. Decided to come back upstairs and call to see if I could get it postponed. Apartment was cold. Hmmm. Went over to the basement and furnace not running. Call for service. Call and got delivery postponed until the end of November.

Furnace repair tech comes out and right off tells me he won’t be doing any repair work if there is water in the tank. We had a situation last year when either the delivery person didn’t replace the fill cap properly or the landscaper “knocked it with the lawnmower.” My money was on the delivery guy not paying attention and replacing the lid correctly. Had the water pumped out and just about a month ago, a friend of mine (hvac guy) stuck the tank and not a drop of water. No water just some air in the line. He bled it out and showed my how to reset it if this happens again.

Took dad to the cancer specialist for his mouth. Next step is ct scan when we get back to see how big the tumor is. He did mention that the pathology report stated it is well defined which is good.also said the oral surgeon did a great job of getting it cleanly. This means best case is small surgery to remove a bit more.

Looks like bad news for us tonight... I'm so sorry about you're dad.
 
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Planted the garlic. Roasted a couple pumpkins and puréed it- going to dehydrate it. Have sourdough started so will bake it off tomorrow. Also, cleaned and unplugged chz fridge and will plug in freezer (already cleaned) in the morning before I go get beef. Put all the chz in the “beer fridge.” 😂
 
Planted the garlic. Roasted a couple pumpkins and puréed it- going to dehydrate it. Have sourdough started so will bake it off tomorrow. Also, cleaned and unplugged chz fridge and will plug in freezer (already cleaned) in the morning before I go get beef. Put all the chz in the “beer fridge.” 😂
And here I thought I was the only weirdo with a cheese fridge. Our son thinks it's so cool when he visits. We don't have a beer fridge, husband stopped drinking pretty much a few years back, except an occasional scotch. But we do have a mini drink fridge in our bedroom that he likes for his drinks: coco water, V8, prune juice, bottled water, and premium protein. So that's kinda like a beer fridge. On our porch is an electric ice chest that is always full of greens.
 
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A fairly quiet and easy Wednesday ducked into Mount Gambier to get some presents for mum as her birthday is next Tuesday the main gift that will stand out is the new John Farnham autobiography titled 'The Voice Inside' which came in-stock I'd assume last night at Big W of which is the equivalent to Walmart over there in the states

Next stop was Bunnings of which is conveniently located just across the carpark to purchase a auto first aid kit for mums car this idea came about as result of a 3 car collision Sunday arvo on the riddoch highway which claimed 2 young lives the last gift is a Ozito brand wet/dry vacuum cleaner of which she has always wanted all 3 gifts are carefully wrapped up and hidden till next Tuesday morning

Incase everyone asks about close proximity of Bunnings to Big W I'll explain Mount Gambier is second largest city outside of Adelaide the major capital of South Australia it has a shopping complex located at entrance to town the main building houses Woolworths, food court, reject shop, phone shop, butcher a handful of other stores along with a chemist and Big W

On the outside just across the carpark there's a servo (petrol station), KFC and Bunnings so pretty much a open plan designed shopping complex
 
well wishes for your friends, Peanut, and you dad Tommyice

I feel bad for my dad sometimes, he is mostly by himself now and can't do much anymore. I just called him a few days ago for his birthday and my brother and family are on vacation, so he spent it by himself and he was complaining that most of the restaurants were closed and he had to make a packaged soup for his birthday. Plus he had to kick 2 renters our of his rental apartments. I told him he really needs to sell those and not have to deal with this stuff anymore.
 
so I ended up making food last night for the trip ( pasta and egg salad) . It's really sometimes a lot of work to make your own food from scratch ALL the time! I need to make some more freezer meals for days like this. I could cook when we get home but I don't like eating late.

PLus I hate driving that far. I always worry the vehicle will break down. We are taking the Traverse, hopefully nothing going wrong. I would like to take the Yukon but it might not start again once we get there. Debating on just having the stupid starter replaced but we really need to stop spending what's left of our savings. The solar stuff is costing more than expected. I forgot how expensive the batteries are

Hope everyone has a better day today !
 
Got my little CNC mill going. The darn limit switch plugs kept coming out of the board sockets. Building an enclosure for it out of the crate my mini lathe came in then insulate it for sound. Will be working on an intake muffler for my airbrush compressor. It's just way too loud in my apt. Reworking my resistance soldering rig I made to be a bench power supply as well. Then will test out the electronics for my gennie. Instead of making the electromagnets I bought some to save time and money. Only 55 lbs of force but if it looks good can always upgrade later. Humm...3 shop tools and 5 hobby projects should keep me going for some time.
 
Coffee, planning to make improvements to my firewood logging stuff so it is easier on my back
 
I'm up earlier because of husbands new hours, so as much as I hate it, I'm putting it to good use. This morning managed to catch up with overseas relations that I don't ring much because of the time zone. Got some writing work done, made a few loaves of banana bread from the bag of overripe bananas I picked up for 40c, and some yogurt bark (frozen yogurt with fruit in a sheet that we break off),made a chicken pie. Helped 2nd son move his furniture, argued with the post office about a missing parcel, and cleaned the fridge - both equally tedious! Have a late meeting, its gone 6pm here and then I'm done.
 
Got up stupid early, watched the lady get ready, got some hugs and kisses, carried her luggage and stuff to the car, said goodbye, went to the fitness center, worked out, went back upstairs, locked up the valuables, started my laundry, set out some Halloween cupcakes for the staff, took out the trash and checked on Charlene, received the grocery order, gave them each a cupcake, put the groceries away, let in the cleaning crew, gave them each a cupcake & bottle of water as they took a break and chatted, was told this was not a normal thing - I am weird - and everyone wants to clean this apartment because of it, watched as they cleaned the place, continued doing my laundry, talked to the lady on the phone, finished my laundry, made lunch and now I am watching another marvel movie with the girl.
 
Fall clean up continues, clearing brush and metal around the old shed. Need to take several trailer loads to the scrap metal dealer. Have two old mil surplus generators. The diesel engines were pulled out years ago. They are over at the old barn. Anyway, betting there's 20lbs of copper in each generator, wondering the best method for stripping it out. Days away from that, just need to pull them out of the brush then moved to the new and growing scrap pile for now... Oh, found a peach tree i didn't know i had, can see it, just can't get to it yet, more brush to clear.
 

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