What's everybody doing today?

[MoBookworm1957]

I'm teaching the grand daughter the old ways.
How to crochet, even though it's always a big tangled mess right now.
But we keep trying.
Cause it's hand,eye exercise, and eventually it will keep her warm.
We cook, she is learning slicing,dicing, cutting up vegetable with dull plastic lime green knife.
She learning to make bread, biscuits so will have full little belly.
Eventually I will teach her how to sew on toy sewing machine.
Practical skills, just as my Gram(grandmother), and Granny(great grandmother) taught me.

 

[Patchouli]

@MoBookworm1957 I also do not like to shop for anything, except in the gardening section or plant nurseries.
Buy a beautiful perennial for yourself. Rosemary or lavender.
Or some marigolds. Or petunias.

 

[WVDragonlady]

Dreary day here. Rainy all day and now freeze warning for tonight and tomorrow morning.
Made cookies
Had the first "telemedicine" visit with my doc this morning. That was weird lol Phones kept cutting us off so we had to keep recalling each other.
Have another set of tests to do in 6 weeks. yuk. Then another video visit.
Sheets are a pain in the tukus to fold. lol
Don't feel like cooking so told the hubby to bring supper home

 

[phideaux]

Dreary day here. Rainy all day and now freeze warning for tonight and tomorrow morning.

Yep , same here.

Nothing day.

Bummer day .

Jim

 

[Meerkat]

@MoBookworm1957 I also do not like to shop for anything, except in the gardening section or plant nurseries.
Buy a beautiful perennial for yourself. Rosemary or lavender.
Or some marigolds. Or petunias.

We have rosemary that doesn't mind a little neglect. Its foing great.

 

[Meerkat]

Dreary day here. Rainy all day and now freeze warning for tonight and tomorrow morning.

Yep , same here.

Nothing day.

Bummer day .

Jim

We have forest fires from no rain to speak of. And its still early.
Most recent one

https://www.news4jax.com/news/natio...continue-battling-fires-in-florida-panhandle/

 

[Meerkat]

Got 2 10X16 ' chicken pens cleaned out,plus took up the netting we had on bottom that leaf rake kept getting stuck in. Had snake problem so I we put nettig on bottom, hubby tried to tll me that was a bad idea. .

 

[phideaux]

I'm about to give up.

I replanted my beans and peas last Sunday afternoon, after a week of warm weather...Monday it turned cool and we're talking frost or even a freeze tonight.

No, they are not up yet...may not ever come up...need warmth.

My tomatoes and peppers are just not growing either...too cold.

I'ma bout to give up for this year.

Frustrated.

Jim

 

[MoBookworm1957]

@MoBookworm1957 I also do not like to shop for anything, except in the gardening section or plant nurseries.
Buy a beautiful perennial for yourself. Rosemary or lavender.
Or some marigolds. Or petunias.

I bought Spanish Lavender.
Several pepper plants, sage.
Still have $ 35 to spend.
Also bought Ergo Crochet Hook Set.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

We have rosemary that doesn't mind a little neglect. Its foing great.

My rosemary looks dead.
But it's not brittle.

 

[Meerkat]

My rosemary looks dead.
But it's not brittle.

Mine is not brittle but it is fighting this heat and intense sun .

 

[Meerkat]

I'm about to give up.

I replanted my beans and peas last Sunday afternoon, after a week of warm weather...Monday it turned cool and we're talking frost or even a freeze tonight.

No, they are not up yet...may not ever come up...need warmth.

My tomatoes and peppers are just not growing either...too cold.

I'ma bout to give up for this year.

Frustrated.

Jim

Jim we pretty much have given up till fall.

 

[Weedygarden]

Today my wife planted many things in starter containers. Then she went through all our seeds and 4 packages were so old she told me to throw them out. So I planted them down by the apple trees where they will get some water. I doubt of any will grow but it hurt nothing to plant them.

You never know, but there is some predictability about how long they will last.
I buy too many seeds each year. I use a Sharpie marker and write the year they were for on the top of the front. This year, I planted some Beefsteak tomato seeds from 2015. Now I have lots of Beefsteak tomato plants growing.

Patch this whole week is been 'testing' for me. I can't get use to losing part of my sight and seeing blank spots or judge distance so bang into things and it really peeves me off. Iy makes everything a challenge. One minute I was outside tending to garden,next I was on my knees in the floor disoriented and bad eye sight with hubby sayin 'I/m calling ambulance, me saying no just take me to hospital!All because the dr dropped my BP 100 points too fast and it caused a stroke,which led to more unnecessary BS because o my weakened state of mind or I never would have let them do any more damage to me!'Rant over!!!

What happened with your eye sight is terrible, Meerkat!

I'm teaching the grand daughter the old ways.
How to crochet, even though it's always a big tangled mess right now.
But we keep trying.
Cause it's hand,eye exercise, and eventually it will keep her warm.
We cook, she is learning slicing,dicing, cutting up vegetable with dull plastic lime green knife.
She learning to make bread, biscuits so will have full little belly.
Eventually I will teach her how to sew on toy sewing machine.
Practical skills, just as my Gram(grandmother), and Granny(great grandmother) taught me.

My teaching background is in Montessori. I took 3 - 6 year old training first and years later, elementary training. When I taught pre-school, 3, 4, and 5 year old's, we had many activities that were called practical life. These activities have many purposes and eye - hand coordination is one. Building hand strength. Independence. It is pretty amazing to watch a group of preschool children work independently on a variety of activities at the same time and be focused on their work. One group of activities we had for a period of time was vegetable preparation. We had units set up on trays that the children could choose either potato, carrots, or celery preparation. This was a great group of activities for children during the winter. After they washed, peeled, and cut up their vegetables, we would save them for the next morning and put them in a crock pot for snack option. This was a very loved activity by many children. In all of my years of doing this, I don't think I had one child cut themselves with a peeler or paring knife. And certain faces come to mind of children who would ask first thing in the morning if there was going to be vegetable soup for snack.

I'm about to give up.

I replanted my beans and peas last Sunday afternoon, after a week of warm weather...Monday it turned cool and we're talking frost or even a freeze tonight.

No, they are not up yet...may not ever come up...need warmth.

My tomatoes and peppers are just not growing either...too cold.

I'ma bout to give up for this year.

Frustrated.

Jim

I planted some onion seeds in early March, one of my science experiments. I kept them watered and in a window. A couple weeks ago, I decided they were not going to grow, so I planted some lettuce in the planter box, that is now outside on the porch. Gosh darn! This morning I am seeing onions growing from the seeds I planted about two months ago! I had a similar experience when I planted my old tomato seeds. I had given up and one day I saw a bunch of sprouted tomatoes.

 

[hiwall]

Nice day here. Finished the knife I was working on. Added it to the pile of others.
My apple trees have Bacterial blossom blast. I ordered some copper spray.

 

[Weedygarden]

Another day of yard work. I continue reworking one raised bed, about 3 by 20 feet long. I hadn't touched it in about 15 years, so it was a mess. So for a week or more I have been digging out weeds, sage gone crazy, holly gone crazy, pulling up weed block that was buried deep under debris. I had to rebuild the back wall of the bed and I used bricks I salvaged more than a decade ago. That alone took me a few days. The bricks were salvaged from a garage that was demolished and had mortar on many that I had to knock off. Today I pulled out debris that filled my 55 gallon trash bin and now I am amending and preparing to plant. I put a large bag of spagnum peat moss on top and have been digging it in. I will make several digging passes across the bed before I smooth it out and plant. I want to get the moss well incorporated. My back has been a little sore from all the lifting, pulling and digging, so I have to be careful not to overdue it or I will be on the couch for a while, unable to get things done.

 

[Meerkat]

You never know, but there is some predictability about how long they will last.
I buy too many seeds each year. I use a Sharpie marker and write the year they were for on the top of the front. This year, I planted some Beefsteak tomato seeds from 2015. Now I have lots of Beefsteak tomato plants growing.

What happened with your eye sight is terrible, Meerkat!

My teaching background is in Montessori. I took 3 - 6 year old training first and years later, elementary training. When I taught pre-school, 3, 4, and 5 year old's, we had many activities that were called practical life. These activities have many purposes and eye - hand coordination is one. Building hand strength. Independence. It is pretty amazing to watch a group of preschool children work independently on a variety of activities at the same time and be focused on their work. One group of activities we had for a period of time was vegetable preparation. We had units set up on trays that the children could choose either potato, carrots, or celery preparation. This was a great group of activities for children during the winter. After they washed, peeled, and cut up their vegetables, we would save them for the next morning and put them in a crock pot for snack option. This was a very loved activity by many children. In all of my years of doing this, I don't think I had one child cut themselves with a peeler or paring knife. And certain faces come to mind of children who would ask first thing in the morning if there was going to be vegetable soup for snack.

I planted some onion seeds in early March, one of my science experiments. I kept them watered and in a window. A couple weeks ago, I decided they were not going to grow, so I planted some lettuce in the planter box, that is now outside on the porch. Gosh darn! This morning I am seeing onions growing from the seeds I planted about two months ago! I had a similar experience when I planted my old tomato seeds. I had given up and one day I saw a bunch of sprouted tomatoes.

Weedy ,what happened to my eye sight is actually ' criminal '. But nobody will ever be as much as even dissaplined much less prosecuted or reprimined.

 

[Peanut]

Exhausting day but fruitful. Couldn’t sleep, last time I looked at the clock it was 4am. I had to be up at 7am. I followed the ambulance that took dad to the big hospital in the big town. They removed his Groshong line and the stomach tube. Now he is on his own, no more drugs or feedings.

The managing nurse of the clinic lived a mile from the church my dad pastored. Dad even did the nurses’ dads funeral. He wasn’t supposed to but the nurse let me in the back to sit with dad, dad was nervous.

When the doc came to remove the lines he said his name and asked if I had any questions. His name was Doctor Kumar so I asked if he was going to take us to White Castle afterwards. I was really tired, besides, he didn’t get the joke anyway.

I had several errands to run after the ambulance left to take dad home. I didn’t get home until after 2pm.

Then I crashed for 3 hours, had dinner, just watching the tube tonight.

Has Sewing posted in the last few days? If she did I missed it.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Haven't seen Sewing for several days.

 

[Bacpacker]

Had a sorry day at work yesterday. First thing the climber that installed the ropes for us to work from went up first to inspect them and make sure nothing happened overnight. On his way back down he said something just felt wierd at the 60' level. He went around the tower and found 2 bolts were loose holding the stabilzer braces in place. He came on down and we met up to talk about it and form a plan. I called the contractor and told him and asked to get the tower inspected. I also called off the work for the day. I wasn't about to send my guys up not knowing what all had failed to be inspected. So I had 2 wasted days for 6-12 people. Once we got all our gear loaded up, went back to the office and started notifying everyone involved. No telling now when we'll get to do our work, but the August 1st deadline still exists. I was in a foul mood the rest of the day and didn't sleep much last night.
This morning alarm went off and I just couldn't get motivated. Sent the boss a text that I was going to be late. Wife got up and left for work. Before she left she told me I should just take the day off and get my compost for the raised beds. All I needed to hear. Told the boss today was just going to be a vacation day. Went and got a load of some good mushroom compost, got home and backed into place next to the beds. By this point it started raining, but I went ahead and filled one bed. Went back and got 3 more bobcat scoops and used the tractor to back it in next to the second bed. Ground was muddy by that point and it started raining harder. I just left it till tomorrow and went to sit in my shop and listen to the rain for a while.

 

[Patchouli]

From everything I've ever heard about good guys, you are one, @Bacpacker . You did everything right. Next week will be better. Your wife is a wise woman.
Gardening...well, things might be a little wet. Mushroom compost, wish I had some.
I think a lot of people are getting a little frustrated lately. I know I am.
Edited to try to add...you had it inspected and thank Goodness loose bolts were found instead of not found and catastrophe happens.

 

[Meerkat]

From everything I've ever heard about good guys, you are one, @Bacpacker . You did everything right. Next week will be better. Your wife is a wise woman.
Gardening...well, things might be a little wet. Mushroom compost, wish I had some.
I think a lot of people are getting a little frustrated lately. I know I am.
Edited to try to add...you had it inspected and thank Goodness loose bolts were found instead of not found and catastrophe happens.

Patch I think many of us are in a foul mood lately.Every time I read the news I get worse too, guess I need to dtop reading the news,huh?Still have to hear about both sides of family being tormented by gangsters.Hubbys brother in another state is being terrorized by the family of 20 living next door to him with at least 10 bull dogs that run after his little grandkids. Not a one speaks english that he knows of. Then the lockup has them even more depressed.
Same thing for some on my side, robbing the mnd threatening their kids.
Its one of those "First They Came" kinda things.
Hope Sewing is ok and she returns soon.

 

[Meerkat]

Good night all .

 

[Amish Heart]

OK, now I'm worrying about Sewing.
We had a busy day celebrating and helping in daughter's graduation. She is now the first doctor on both sides of our family. Had the ceremony online, and it went well. Then a big meal. Then gifts, dessert and champagne. A friend drove in the driveway, and put a big screen in the back of his pickup, with large speakers. He then showed a film he did congratulating daughter, and it was great! Another friend came through the driveway with a banner on her car congratulating her and left a gift basket there. We had family members on zoom to wish her well, her aunts and uncles, and a few great ones. Then we went out back, had a campfire and made jiffy pop, smores, and lit sparklers.

 

[zannej]

I hope Sewing shows up soon.
Meerkat, I'm so sorry to hear about your eyesight going like that. I have a good friend who had a bp spike so high that it blew his retinas. He's had eye surgery & can see somewhat in one eye, but the other eye couldn't be helped much. He's now legally blind. He's a really nice guy who was teaching martial arts to kids at a local gym & was one of my brother's favorite co-workers. Now he's on disability & he's only in his 30s. The good news is, he's at least in good spirits. But he can't get online to chat with us & we can't go visit him.
Jim, sorry to hear about the garden getting ruined by the weather.
Mo, I think it's great that you are teaching your granddaughter to sew. My cousin taught her daughter to sew at a pretty young age and she makes amazing outfits, dresses, & costumes now (she just turned 20). I wish my mom had taught me to sew & cook but she didn't have the patience. Anytime she'd try to teach us stuff she'd start to show us, let us try, and then get mad that we weren't doing it perfectly, take it away & tell us to go away. She helped with our homework & did flash cards and such, but for some reason the sewing, cooking, & cleaning stuff she had no patience with. But then, she hates cleaning & didn't do it much. Probably why our house is a wreck & looks like a hoarder house right now.
Amish, congrats to your daughter!
I had a day of exhaustion again. I woke up early in the morning, had breakfast, cleaned a little, watched Midsomer Murders on DVR, then went back to sleep. I'd had trouble sleeping that night because one of the cats got in & kept waking me up every time I was almost asleep. Not sure what his deal was, but he didn't want me to sleep. He gets a pass because he's the one who woke me up when I was having a heart attack. Mom called at almost 5pm & wanted me to cook. I sat up, bile rose up and almost came out my nose, and then I sat there choking for a few minutes followed by belching repeatedly until my airway was clear & I could breathe again. Went & cooked but was still tired so for the first time I forgot an ingredient. I cooked the meat, strained out the grease, switched to the larger pan, put the meat in it, seasoned it, added the noodles, added the cream, added the milk, added the hot water, turned the heat up, stirred. I forgot to add the stroganoff seasoning packet. I kept noticing the texture didn't look right & I couldn't figure out why, then when I was putting the sour cream in at the end I saw the packet. Fortunately, it stirred right in just fine & my mother actually liked the flavor better. LOL. It was just more runny than usual bc it didn't thicken the sauce up. Had a bowl of the stroganoff & then back to bed. Mom called again wanting pudding about 20 min later. I got her the pudding & looked at the TV to see if I could find buttons/controls on it anywhere to change station, source mode, volume. No buttons. I also saw that one of my brother's cats had sprayed the back of the TV right over the sensor for the remote. That's probably why it will only turn the TV on and off but won't change anything else. I'm going to clean it up a bit and see if I can get it working again. If not, we'll have to get a new TV. My brother really should pay for it bc it was his cat & he was supposed to get him neutered. Getting his cats neutered will probably be more expensive than a TV with what the vet charges here. He's got 5 males to get neutered. Fortunately, he already had the females spayed.
Mom was supposed to call me when she was done clearing off her desk so I could take her monitor out to put in a box to ship it to viewsonic for RMA, but she never did. I'll check on her in a bit.
It rained most of the day & there were tornado watch warnings in the area earlier. Fortunately, it cleared.

 

[Patchouli]

Big congratulations to your daughter, @Amish Heart and her smart momma and family!!
Looks like I'm awake, and Sewing is back!!

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Thank you everyone and I am fine we have been trying to catch up with things on the farm as we have the perfect opportunity with the lockdown happening . DH was also due to go in for another pain reducing neck pain operation on the 8th but it was cancelled due to paperwork not getting there on time. I am glad it didn't go through as he was not strong enough for another operation just yet in my opinion.

DH had taken a turn for the worse after his back operation and was really weak so had to keep an eye on him constantly for the last near week. He was shaking and sitting on the ground a lot so as to not fall and was really weak and I had to help him to bed/chair a number of times.

Because they have burnt the nerves that send the pain messages to his brain the area of his back that was being held together I would say with muscle knots is no longer so. The physio has given him exercises to do to strengthen up the muscles surrounding the injury and we have been walking and doing activities in the yard for physiotherapy for him each day.

I am glad to say he is now back to where he was before the operation and is a lot stronger . He also had a bout of Q Fever before the last operation too which lengthened his recovery time.

The last few days we have been working on filling holes in the yard from past dogs digging on the property, planting broad beans, staking capsicum plants, building pea trellises and tying plants to them and cutting up firewood from 3 large branches that have fallen from an Ironbark tree on our back property boundary. The slope we are working on is about 30 o and it goes up in layers to our back boundary fence and the tree trunk is sitting on the creek bank so it is difficult terrain.

Here is a picture of where we are working and since that photo today we have moved the firewood DH cut from one of the large branches to the top near the fence and 3/4's of the smaller branches .

The pea trellises we built from more heavy duty chicken wire left over from our vineyard enclosure demolition -

And firewood we split recently and stacked from wood we got free in December from helping a friend clear trees on her property she no longer wanted -

I was instructed by DH's pain management specialist for him to exercise so the earlier gardening was when he was feeling weak so we took things easy. We then moved to heavier things like filling in holes a couple of barrow loads at a time in a day, to firewood stacking first and then cutting and moving it.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Thank you @Patchouli for your message and above is what we have been up to and been a bit of a roller coaster ride health wise for DH but we have triumphed slowly but surely

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Congratulations to your daughter and no doubt she worked very hard to get there and qualify as a doctor . Family celebrations still went ahead but in a far different way from normal.

 

[Patchouli]

I'm amazed he keeps on forging ahead, which is better than sitting around bemoaning his fate. Sounds like ongoing prayers are in order for you two.

 

[Sentry18]

Just hanging out acting like nothing is happening, until the wife heads to the spa. She is getting her hair cut, highlight, styled, and who knows what else. Plus a manicure & pedicure I'm sure since she scheduled a 4 hour block of time. It's funny because the salon opened back up a week or so back and immediately called my wife to let her know and see if she wanted an immediate appointment. She must be a preferred customer (aka big spender) or something. Anyway they got rid of every other hair stylist station and all employees have to wear gloves and masks. When my wife arrives she has to sit in her car and call in. They will come out, take her temp, ask her some questions, then bring her inside. She also has to wear a mask, which is fine because we have plenty.

Anyway, when she is at the spa the kids and I are going to put the patio together. We have to wash it down and set out the flower pots, then dig out, wash, dry, and set up all the patio furniture, then put up the sail awning and the little solar lights. Finally I need to get the LP fire pit ready to go and set up our "cook station", which is a stainless steel table that goes between the patio outlet and the water spout. The only thing missing will be the grill but that's not coming until Wednesday or Thursday. She planned on doing this all today before the appointment popped up, so we are going to do it for her. It's the first part of Mother's Day weekend. Part two is this afternoon when she comes home to find a gift card to her favorite greenhouse on the patio table. I am sure she will turn right around and go there so she can go buy a bunch of flowers to fill all her big flower pots and planters with.

Otherwise the only other thing I have on the schedule is that I promised my youngest I would help him build a diorama all about the arctic fox.