What's everybody doing today?

[snappy1]

Did video yesterday and helped a friend.

Up at 5 this morning, cleaned bathrooms, dusted house and did video.

Will feed dogs, go to Church, then do my and DH's meds and vitamins for the month, hard boil some eggs and the rest is just puttering around stuff. Actually, the above is puttering too.

Have a good day, you all!

 

[phideaux]

My middle finger is not good...think I broke it.

Daughter called and wanted us to come over for chicken dinner today.
Wife is not up to it.
So they are gonna bring us a plate.

Just going to relax today.

Prayers there for your mom @Bacpacker . Sure hope she gets to feeling better.

Jim

 

[LadyLocust]

I forgot to quote, but Viking, I haven't heard of the other types of thyroid meds other than synthroid. I don't have too many side effects- although they changed the brand/type of synthroid I take. It now comes in blister packets (which I hate). I've managed to slice my finger on the foil before. Only side effects seem to be kidney stones if I don't drink enough water and a random muscle spasm near my eyes/in my eyelids. It's minor but annoying. It had completely gone away with the first medicine but it started up again with the new stuff. Not sure why they changed it.

Teri, I hated when people would open my gate and leave it open! We had a padlock on it for a long time but neighbor cut the chain to get in. We currently don't have a gate bc it got blown down in the hurricane.

Census people left a bag with a pamphlet/paperwork on our inner fence a few times but we already filled out the paperwork online. We never saw them in person-- I'd like to think my cows scared them off. The yard looking pretty derelict probably didn't help. We really need to get stuff cleaned up.


Does your modem connect to a coaxial cable? You might need to do a static discharge of the coax cables (basically you unplug them and touch the little pins at the ends while the power is off). We had to do that with our Hughesnet modem constantly.


It looks great!!

My kitchen is in need of an update. Not changing the cabinets, but will be cleaning them up (covered in cobwebs & dust right now on the higher ones). I need to see if I can fix a drawer that doesn't want to slide properly. They don't have actual metal drawer guides- they use the old style where they are on a wood track I think. I could be mistaken though. Need to take a better look.

Kitchen is still a disaster. I got hit with major fatigue & haven't done more cleaning. Raccoons have come back in and mucked things up again. Replaced the motor on the piston pump that fills the cistern (we didn't have water for a few days) & it turns out it was the wiring from the float switch to the motor that was bad, not the motor. But we have a new Dayton motor anyway.

Raccoons knocked a bunch of stuff into the sink, all over the floor (again), and dumped out all the dish detergent. I suppose I could try to figure out how to operate the dishwasher that has been sitting around & used as an island for the past few years. I always have to wash stuff before I put it in and rinse it when I take it out. It's mostly only good for a drying rack-- if we can actually fit stuff in it. I hate bending and loading/unloading though. I'd rather just wash stuff by hand (bc I end up having to anyway).

Need to hit the store to get some food & dish soap. Maybe some laundry soap too. also need a hook to secure the pantry door.

I'm about to see if my brother is awake and not busy with computer games so he can go with me to the store to help me focus & lift stuff. My guts were not cooperating with me today. I also forgot to take my meds for several days & that makes me exhausted. The progesterone and synthroid are the most important ones for keeping things balanced for me. I do wonder if I need a higher dose of progesterone though.

My aunt saw me post about the raccoons on facebook & has been calling to check. She called local pest control places & confirmed what I'd already told her- they don't do raccoons. She's trying to help us find contractors but found nothing when she researched. I explained to her the licensed residential ones for our area died years ago (there were only 2 of them). But I did get the name of the guy who did work on my friend's grandfather's house. I want to inspect the work before I try to hire them though. My aunt is convincing my mom to hire people to do some work, which will help me if I can just get the place cleaned up enough for people to get in. We need to have a lot of junk hauled off. I hate to throw stuff away so I want things donated or given to someone who can repurpose it. I know I'm eventually going to have to just suck it up and toss stuff.

I moved the pet food bowls back out of the pantry (raccoons had dragged some in there), moved dog food back to the living room, & got the dog's waterer set up in the living room again. The cats drag dirt & other stuff into their water so I need to find a better water system for them. I think the cats are trying to bury their water for later or something. They do this with food sometimes.

My friend said his new toilet is leaking- it couldn't fit as far back as it should bc there's a 2x4 on the wall as a base molding to cover holes. We can get it covered with a 1x4 or something else once the toilet gets pulled.

Ate MRE's for dinner last night & it gave me digestive issues.

Jim, I hope your wife's health improves. The brittle bones are awful. A friend of mine's mother had brittle bones & Parkinson's. She couldn't hold still & people could hear her bones crumbling. It was awful. Poor thing passed I think last year or the year before. My friend was devastated but also relieved that her mother was no longer suffering.

Gonna go see if my brother is awake.

Might try calling local Fish and Wildlife - they have trapped and “relocated” opossum for me when I lived in town.

 

[LadyLocust]

@Weedygarden Hope your back gets to feeling better. And Hubby would add one more vote to the heat for 20 cold for 20 - helps him when he’s had back issues.
@Bacpacker Sending up more prayers for your mom
Jim an epsom salt solution- tepid water, soak your finger for 40 minutes in it. Sounds counter intuitive but soaks the “sore” out of it. ( and don’t you be goin’ and gettin’ hurt.)
@Amish Heart I bet that was good for your mom to get out and see things.

 

[phideaux]

Soaking finger in epsom salt water.

Thanks @LadyLocust .

Jim

 

[Grimm]

Soaking finger in epsom salt water.

Thanks @LadyLocust .

Jim

Get a finger splint from the pharmacy. That is all a doctor will do anyway. I have broken most of my fingers over the years that I have splints and tape for when I do it again. My fingers are mostly straight.

 

[Haertig]

Today is day three of my sisters visit. Kind of like when a squirrel on meth visits a sloth on quaaludes. But we're getting by. Tomorrow she wants to go on a 20 mile run, followed by some BASE jumping, and rounding out the evening with a clogging marathon competition. We'll try to squeeze in a few hours of bull riding after lunch.

 

[Grimm]

Shredding papers and decluttering. I have a mild headache that is medication resistant right now so I am trying a few things to get it to go away so I can tackle the chore of organizing Juju's toys.

 

[Peanut]

I went out after lunch and killed a couple of million fireants. They were encroaching on the yard and around the shop. Fireants in the south can easily number 30-40 million per acre, nasty little insects.

Ant beds give useful information if you know what to look for. In summer fireant beds are flat, very little surface area to absorb heat. In winter they build vertical, more of the mound in the sun to absorb heat. I'm afraid were in for a nasty winter here in the south. Fireant beds have already gone vertical and it's still September.

I haven't seen it happen this early in about a decade. It usually happens early to mid-November. If its bad in the south you folks up north better go through your winter gear now, shake the moth balls out of the blankets and get the car ready.

 

[Weedygarden]

I went out after lunch and killed a couple of million fireants. They were encroaching on the yard and around the shop. Fireants in the south can easily number 30-40 million per acre, nasty little insects.

Ant beds give useful information if you know what to look for. In summer fireant beds are flat, very little surface area to absorb heat. In winter they build vertical, more of the mound in the sun to absorb heat. I'm afraid were in for a nasty winter here in the south. Fireant beds have already gone vertical and it's still September.

I haven't seen it happen this early in about a decade. It usually happens early to mid-November. If its bad in the south you folks up north better go through your winter gear now, shake the moth balls out of the blankets and get the car ready.

Farmer's Almanac has predicted a cold and snowy winter.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Strawberry has been walked several times in the last several days.
It's raining right now.
We went to the country to my cousin's house yesterday.
Grand daughter got up close and personal with goats and chickens yesterday.
Resting today.

 

[phideaux]

Farmer's Almanac has predicted a cold and snowy winter.

Jim

 

[Bacpacker]

Replaced the thresholds on the Front door and the door going to the basement. Not a lot else.

 

[phideaux]

I do believe in epsom salts soaking.

BEFORE

AFTER

Soaked twice today , 40 minutes each time.

Jim

 

[Weedygarden]

Back is doing okay today. Not going on any long walks or hikes, but can stand up without waiting to figure out how I can move after I get on my feet. Taking it easy, working on some genealogy research.

Did some calculating of anemone plants, and decided to get a few more. They are not bulbs, but called corms. Had to do a little searching for them. I drove around, and since I've really been somewhat house bound for a couple weeks, it was good to get out and drive around. Now the corms have to soak for abut 24 hours before planting. I'll plant them in the morning.

 

[Bacpacker]

I do believe in epsom salts soaking.

BEFORE
View attachment 51008

AFTER
View attachment 51009

Soaked twice today , 40 minutes each time.

Jim

We swear by epsom salts for soaking in. Few years ago I was helping a buddy re roof his house and I went thru the old decking up above the knee in one spot. Pulled my leg out took 2 steps and went thru again. Peeled the hide off my shin and knee pretty good. This was about 1pm, we worked till 7pm that night and by the time I got home I was hurting and stiff. Wife ran me a tub of water and loaded it with salts. I got in it when I cooled enough I could stand to sit down. Stayed in it about an hour. Felt better by the time I got out. Assumed I would feel really bad next day, but when I woke up really wasn't very stiff and not much sore at all. Went back and finished the roof up.

 

[LadyLocust]

Jim and @Bacpacker Hubby doesn’t like baths at all - likes showers so he’d never taken an epsom salt bath until I came along. Now every once in a while when he’s hurting or dinged up for whatever reason he will ask for one. They do help. Jim glad your finger is feeling better.
I’m dragging a little today- only about 5 hours sleep last night. I did get ironing done, dishes, and made hubby a batch of oatmeal monsters.

 

[Terri9630]

made hubby a batch of oatmeal monsters.

Hubby is jealous. He LOVED those!
The kid had a good day yesterday and a good night. The first in almost 2 weeks.

 

[LadyLocust]

Hubby is jealous. He LOVED those!
The kid had a good day yesterday and a good night. The first in almost 2 weeks.

He might need to talk to Santa huh?
Glad Kid had a good night. Hopefully another tonight

 

[Terri9630]

He might need to Santa huh?
Glad Kid had a good night. Hopefully another tonight

He said to update our a address with "Santa".

 

[Amish Heart]

Mmmm. Monster cookies are great! Got another side of the milkhouse painted today and went to my favorite cousins for dinner.
Epsom salts are great to draw out bad stuff. Swear by them.

 

[zannej]

Weedy, glad your back is doing better. Hope it continues to improve. I still need to do back stretches. I keep forgetting.

My chronic fatigue has been hitting hard. I have a hard time waking up & when I do I just want to go back to sleep. I suspect I have sleep apnea but I don't have insurance so I can't afford the tests or the treatment for it.

You know a good pellet gun can be very quiet and fixed right racoons tast like chicken No, that's not true, but at my grandma's house everything that wasn't beef, ham, or turkey was called chicken; I have had little green chicken legs, long chicken with lots of little bones, and some chicken with four little legs.... Yep, there were a lot of strange chickens at grandma's house... Anyway, even racoons don't come back from the stove top...

Then again you could use a have-a-heart trap to catch them and transport them away from your area. Your local Humaine Society may be able to provide you with something, they may even pick up and deliver....

No local Humane Society here. :-(

Might try calling local Fish and Wildlife - they have trapped and “relocated” opossum for me when I lived in town.

I'm out in the woods & they said I'm on my own. The late veterinarian's son *might* to trapping, but I haven't been able to get in touch with him. They no longer give out paper phone books & the whitepages online are behind a paywall to see people's phone numbers now.

Brother chased two raccoons out of the pantry last night. They knocked over the trash can again.

Earlier he helped me clean out the fridge (motivated by wanting to have more food in the house). Pulled the drawers and shelves, I scrubbed them & rinsed, he dried them and put them away. While I was scrubbing he cleaned the seals & upper parts of the fridge. I cleaned lower (I had to sit on the floor) half. Together we got it done. Freezer wasn't bad so I just wiped down the wire shelves. Still have more cleaning to do and need to locate dishes that the raccoons moved. Might need to replace stuff they outright pilfered. I had a nice set of silicone spatulas and ladles.

Hoping to get my friend over sometime to help with cleaning up and getting things organized. Need to clean out the pantry again bc of the buggers throwing everything on the floor and tearing everything open. I got a latch I need to put on it- just need to make sure I'm landing the screws into something solid and not hitting any electrical next to the door. I'd get up and go do it right now but I have a dog and two cats lying on me.

Mom fell down but landed on a soft laundry basket so she was OK. I couldn't get behind her to lift her up so had to call my brother to come help. She laughed about how the laundry broke her fall so she wasn't hurt. Hopefully she's still up for going to the bank, post office, and store today. She needs to pick out some food for herself. We might need to go to a bigger grocery store to get better options. They were out of eggs here.

Editing to comment about census info: I understand the desire for privacy, but I am glad that my ancestors answered questions because I got to see what their jobs were. One of my ancestors (a 14-yr old immigrant) was listed as a box maker. Others worked in a silk factory. It was kind of cool to see that. But, I won't have any descendants so there won't be any need for that kind of info.

 

[Amish Heart]

How are the raccoons getting in your house every night? I think I missed that part.
Grandkids off to get on the schoolbus. Husband going to get lab work done today, and I'm popping in to Aldi to get some of their squash that's on sale. Butternut, acorn, and spaghetti store nicely in the basement. Maybe another wall of the milkhouse if it's not too windy. Dirt in white paint isn't fun.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I have been a little quiet for the past couple of days.

We are now about 85% done with moving the kitchen utensils back into the kitchen (The wife is an Old Time Cook and she had a bankers box full of just spatula’s, wooden spoons, and whisks; don’t worry she had plenty of other boxes ), we are washing everything before putting it up so the dishwasher is pooped.

It’s funny how as we get older we remember what our great grandparents told us, I remember my GGPa saying, when I was learn’n to shoot I'd shot 1 or 2 shots a day at a target, ventually I got pretty good…. I find that to be pretty good advice, now that I have my indoor range up and a pellet rifle that is consistent I am doing the same, 5 shots once a day. To that end I did get in a 2 year supply of pellets and have scanned and reduced a set of targets, 6 targets to an 8 1/2 x 11 page. So now I can quietly plink on my 20 yard indoor range…

As the working pantry is getting near full, we are identifying things we need to add and finding things that were duplicated it the old system… The wife plans to do an inventory by vertical row and place them on the inside of the doors (It will also give her a map of… ?Now where did I put that?? )

I did get part of the lid frames for my raised beds painted, so I may get them installed this week…

Yesterday I harvested the last harvest of okra, last night we had venison stew with fried Okra. It was fun, most of the veggies in the stew came out of the garden. So other than the flavor bases, the ½ cup of red wine, and the breading mix for the Okra it was a free meal

Last night, we had a 5 way zoom visit with all the kids and grand kids, it was fun to see everyone. The youngest boy was so excited he kept running up to the screen pointing and saying gapa. We have decided that the cost and risks of inperson visits are not worth it this year, so we a trying to learn how to do a good virtual visit.

Today is our 36th anniversary so I took off, we will be having grilled steak medallions with shrimp cocktail and avocado green salad. I plan to make grocery run at lunch time to pick up supplies (I need to keep my eye out for a Boston cream pie)

 

[Amish Heart]

Happy Anniversary, Mr and Mrs Urban
Have a great evening!

 

[phideaux]

Happy 36 the anniversary , hope you have many more.

Today was almost a disaster. I got to thinking about how much the soaking finger in epsom salt helped my finger , I asked the wife if she thought she could soak in a tub.
Well, we did a dry run. Got in the tub ok.
We spent 30 minutes trying to get her back up and out. Finally I slid a pillow under her, then another then a third. After resting 5 minutes between each one.
Got her high enough to slide over on the edge of tub , then swing around and stand up.
Now she's done in for the day .

She's down to only 1/2 pain pill in am , then Tylenol , then 1/2 at bedtime.

We keep trying to engineer a way .
I believe an hour soak would help her.

Now I got to go for more labs Friday then liver ultrasound next week.my liver enzymes are too high.

Geeeeeze I'm falling apart.

Too much meds.

Jim

 

[UrbanHunter]

Happy 36 the anniversary , hope you have many more.

Today was almost a disaster. I got to thinking about how much the soaking finger in epsom salt helped my finger , I asked the wife if she thought she could soak in a tub.
Well, we did a dry run. Got in the tub ok.
We spent 30 minutes trying to get her back up and out. Finally I slid a pillow under her, then another then a third. After resting 5 minutes between each one.
Got her high enough to slide over on the edge of tub , then swing around and stand up.
Now she's done in for the day .

She's down to only 1/2 pain pill in am , then Tylenol , then 1/2 at bedtime.

We keep trying to engineer a way .
I believe an hour soak would help her.

Now I got to go for more labs Friday then liver ultrasound next week.my liver enzymes are too high.

Geeeeeze I'm falling apart.

Too much meds.

Jim

Have you tried one of those shower chairs, a warm shower my help a little.... Assuming that you have a low step in shower....

 

[phideaux]

Have you tried one of those shower chairs, a warm shower my help a little.... Assuming that you have a low step in shower....

Yes have 2 of them , she showers everyday,
The hot moist steam negatively affects he breathing. I think it's the lung blood clot .

The epsom salt soak is different.
We may have figured out a way.

Not today , maybe tomorrow.
She is spent for today.

Jim

 

[Bacpacker]

Jim maybe even try hot compresses soaked in Epsom salts water might help.

 

[Meerkat]

I went out after lunch and killed a couple of million fireants. They were encroaching on the yard and around the shop. Fireants in the south can easily number 30-40 million per acre, nasty little insects.

Ant beds give useful information if you know what to look for. In summer fireant beds are flat, very little surface area to absorb heat. In winter they build vertical, more of the mound in the sun to absorb heat. I'm afraid were in for a nasty winter here in the south. Fireant beds have already gone vertical and it's still September.

I haven't seen it happen this early in about a decade. It usually happens early to mid-November. If its bad in the south you folks up north better go through your winter gear now, shake the moth balls out of the blankets and get the car ready.

If close to house and not too many I shovel a pile of one ant colony into antoher and they kill each other off, or put borax with sugar. on top of mound. We have never used chemicals but that doesn't mean we won't if nothing else works.So far natural has worked for us.

Cleaning house and porch bathing dogs and whatever else comes along.