What's everybody doing today?

[Patchouli]

Weedy, I keep forgetting that we used to have the fam over for breakfast on Christmas a.m. but now there are little kids involved at another household. So, maybe we'll have a nice breakyfast here without all the noise and commotion. Oh, look, I'm remembering how to think. lol
That's sweet of you to share your tamales.
Amish, what do you use on the juice containers and lids to get them really clean? That's a great idea.

 

[Haertig]

My day was boring, but my daughter and some of her coworkers drove/hiked for two hours after work to go sit around the campfire. Uhhh, I mean erupting volcano. After getting home late, I hope they don't all fall asleep at work tomorrow. Which would be kind of bad, since they work underwater.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Yesterday we did our annual family news letter, there was a time when we called it our Christmas letter, but we were always late.... I will need to get them mailed today.

I dug out an old roasting pan last night and am going to start attacking the soil on my concrete and pavers that has been supporting weeds, I figure I can process about 5 gallons per batch in about 4 hours each. I have a number of places that have become un-usable due to silt, sludge, and weeds; but I couldn't figure out how to dispose of all that material. Now the plan is to steam it to kill the bugs, weeds and seeds, then screen it for reuse as soil (ammended of course). I think I can recover about 200 gallons that way.... So I figure it will take me about 20 days (10 weekends/2 months) to complete the project, add in the 30% schedule buffer and I should be done by the end of April. It just hit me, my screen/sifter gave up the ghost this year so I will have to make a new one as part of the project.

It has been 30 days since I started my indoor garden and potatoes, the potatoes have grown about 2' and we are now harvesting herbs, green onions, lettuce and radishes, not a full meal yet, but progress. I estimate that things are growing just a little slower than what they would do in the summer, maybe 20% slower. I have started the second rotation of the faster growing crops, but I don't have enough space to have 2 full rotations growing at 1 time. Having a bin of spinach and lettuce slowly growing outside in the covered raised beds is providing me with starter plants on an as needed basis, so that part of the plan has worked very well. Based on everything I have seen so far, I think that between the in-door garden and the covered beds outside I should be able to get 5 crops per year, which would be bloody awsome.

 

[Bacpacker]

@Bacpacker , hope your test is negative.
I should know tomorrow.

The lady that did mine was merciless.

She rooted around each side for 10 full seconds.

Jim

Thats just crazy. Non of my test have been 5 seconds, more like 2 to 3. One side only.
Hope your test is negative

 

[Amish Heart]

Urban, how are you steaming the dirt in the roasting pan? Are you sterilizing soil, or using heat to kill the weeds before you pull? Our son the nurseryman and I were just talking about sterilizing soil.
Hey Patch...I just soak the juice bottles overnight in hot soapy water, and then rinse them well, I stick them upside down in a cardboard box in the basement to dry. Good to store beans, rice, sugar, lots of stuff.
Have no clue what is up today. Waiting to see how husband is feeling. I put the fold out bed next to the recliner with another mattress on top to make it taller, and all of that was next to the medical equipment. So I think he slept part of the night in that. Looking forward to this add on to be finished and to get a king size medical bed in there and a recliner next to it. Maybe Aldi today or some Christmas wrapping. The twins are planning a bike ride into our little town here, a visit to the thrift store, and lunch at the burger place (where granddaughter works).

 

[LadyLocust]

Yesterday we did our annual family news letter, there was a time when we called it our Christmas letter, but we were always late.... I will need to get them mailed today.

I dug out an old roasting pan last night and am going to start attacking the soil on my concrete and pavers that has been supporting weeds, I figure I can process about 5 gallons per batch in about 4 hours each. I have a number of places that have become un-usable due to silt, sludge, and weeds; but I couldn't figure out how to dispose of all that material. Now the plan is to steam it to kill the bugs, weeds and seeds, then screen it for reuse as soil (ammended of course). I think I can recover about 200 gallons that way.... So I figure it will take me about 20 days (10 weekends/2 months) to complete the project, add in the 30% schedule buffer and I should be done by the end of April. It just hit me, my screen/sifter gave up the ghost this year so I will have to make a new one as part of the project.

It has been 30 days since I started my indoor garden and potatoes, the potatoes have grown about 2' and we are now harvesting herbs, green onions, lettuce and radishes, not a full meal yet, but progress. I estimate that things are growing just a little slower than what they would do in the summer, maybe 20% slower. I have started the second rotation of the faster growing crops, but I don't have enough space to have 2 full rotations growing at 1 time. Having a bin of spinach and lettuce slowly growing outside in the covered raised beds is providing me with starter plants on an as needed basis, so that part of the plan has worked very well. Based on everything I have seen so far, I think that between the in-door garden and the covered beds outside I should be able to get 5 crops per year, which would be bloody awsome.

@PopPopT mentioned growing peanuts. I'm curious if you've ever grown them and if you think they might work in a similar fashion to your spud buckets?

 

[snappy1]

I forgot all about the astronomical event until it was too late. I'm glad yall saw it, LadyL and Bacp.

I was too late, also.

Today, I am doing laundry already.

Will sweep.

Maybe do eBay photos.

Catch up on some paperwork.

Definitely walk at some point as it is supposed to get up to 69 degrees today!

 

[UrbanHunter]

@PopPopT mentioned growing peanuts. I'm curious if you've ever grown them and if you think they might work in a similar fashion to your spud buckets?

I think my MIL did before she passed away, but then she was just nuts. I imagine that you could grow peanuts in a bucket.

 

[phideaux]

Looks like today is just gonna be a quarantine day for us .
5th day since wife's + covid test, still no symptoms.

My friend the Doctor has both of us doing the hot vapor breathing treatment every day , 4 times for her a day , 2 times a day for me.
Her dry cough , after 5 days is all but gone. He don't want our lungs to be dry. Winter , wood heat is hard on lungs, even with 2 big humidifiers running 24/7.

Waiting to hear results from my covid test yesterday. If it's negative , I know the wife was a false positive. If not , then she is positive.

Y'all have a blessed Day. Christmas is near.

Jim

 

[UrbanHunter]

Urban, how are you steaming the dirt in the roasting pan? Are you sterilizing soil, or using heat to kill the weeds before you pull? Our son the nurseryman and I were just talking about sterilizing soil.
Hey Patch...I just soak the juice bottles overnight in hot soapy water, and then rinse them well, I stick them upside down in a cardboard box in the basement to dry. Good to store beans, rice, sugar, lots of stuff.
Have no clue what is up today. Waiting to see how husband is feeling. I put the fold out bed next to the recliner with another mattress on top to make it taller, and all of that was next to the medical equipment. So I think he slept part of the night in that. Looking forward to this add on to be finished and to get a king size medical bed in there and a recliner next to it. Maybe Aldi today or some Christmas wrapping. The twins are planning a bike ride into our little town here, a visit to the thrift store, and lunch at the burger place (where granddaughter works).

Honestly, I'm Flying Blind: I have an old Big Electric Roaster that we don't use and I have a lot of weedy soil that I don't want. I have read about sterilizing soil in ovens, with chemicals, and boiling water, but the wife says "NOT MY OVEN" and I don't like chemicals much, so I'm Left with boil or steam. So I plan to fill the removable pan (it can hold a 26 pound turkey so it should hold 5 gallons or so) with bad soil, add a gallon or so of water, turn it on for a few hours, dump, sift, and repeat. I have a 30Amp outlet on the back porch so I can do everything in one location (I don't want to carry a lot of boiling water or dirt on Ice). As you know, I love an experiment and that is what this is, I will track where this new "Soil" goes so I can judge if it was actually clean or not.

 

[Patchouli]

We were chatting last night, me n offspring. Overall, we have been very blessed this year and have done the best we could. Might not have things in place like the rest of you, but I'm sometimes feeling like I've got angels at every turn, on foot and on the wing.
Work today, at least I have a job.
@snappy1 I went outside around 1 a.m. and it was clear and beautiful. A little chilly. Got to see some alignments I never noticed before.
@UrbanHunter your garden know-how is encouraging. I'm glad you keep us posted.
@phideaux you're doing great!

 

[phideaux]

@Patchouli , your doing just as great.


Jim :swingstocking:

 

[Bacpacker]

@PopPopT mentioned growing peanuts. I'm curious if you've ever grown them and if you think they might work in a similar fashion to your spud buckets?

I've grown peanuts before. Very easy to grow IMO. I'd bet they would do good in buckets.
I haven't given them a thought in years. Will grow them next year and will try a couple buckets just to see how they do.

 

[PopPopT]

@PopPopT mentioned growing peanuts. I'm curious if you've ever grown them and if you think they might work in a similar fashion to your spud buckets?

Dunno, never tried a whole lot in containers that was successful. I would imagine if you took care of 'em, they oughta grow in buckets. When I grew them, I just had a short garden row and planted them directly. I had no clue what I was doing or what I was looking for but this was in southeastern Pennsylvania, just out in the regular summer garden, and I was amazed at how many I got. I think I planted maybe 20 or 30 seeds and ended up with one of the large paper grocery bags about 3/4 full. I then proceeded to over-roast them so they weren't as good as they shoulda been... (live and learn)...

So, when I was ordering seeds for this coming year, I decided to get a few peanuts to try again. Why not?!! Plus, we LOVE peanut butter. Maybe?!

P.S., now, if I am able to grow a nice crop, I'll have competition with my wife over whether we have "boiled peanuts" or whether we'll have roasted peanuts. LOL! She's an Alabama girl and they love their boiled peanuts.

 

[LadyLocust]

I might try also - will be interesting to compare as I think we are all in various areas/climates.
Edited to add - definitely roasted!

 

[phideaux]

I grew peanuts over the years in my garden.. A 50 ft row produced a 5 gal bucket full every year.
But that was in very loose (no clay) rich soil in Wisconsin.
i doubt they would do well in my KY clay soil.

Jim

 

[Haertig]

The snow finally melted in our backyard, so I got to go out and do a little cleanup. And I was able to answer the age-old question, "How many times can a dog poop in a two week period?"

The answer is, "Just shy of infinite." You might want to keep that one in the back of your mind, in case it shows up on Jeopardy sometime.

 

[BadgerLandHunter]

Time to do some last LAST minute Christmas shopping....and all the wrapping.


Everyone!

 

[Meerkat]

Yesterday we did our annual family news letter, there was a time when we called it our Christmas letter, but we were always late.... I will need to get them mailed today.

I dug out an old roasting pan last night and am going to start attacking the soil on my concrete and pavers that has been supporting weeds, I figure I can process about 5 gallons per batch in about 4 hours each. I have a number of places that have become un-usable due to silt, sludge, and weeds; but I couldn't figure out how to dispose of all that material. Now the plan is to steam it to kill the bugs, weeds and seeds, then screen it for reuse as soil (ammended of course). I think I can recover about 200 gallons that way.... So I figure it will take me about 20 days (10 weekends/2 months) to complete the project, add in the 30% schedule buffer and I should be done by the end of April. It just hit me, my screen/sifter gave up the ghost this year so I will have to make a new one as part of the project.

It has been 30 days since I started my indoor garden and potatoes, the potatoes have grown about 2' and we are now harvesting herbs, green onions, lettuce and radishes, not a full meal yet, but progress. I estimate that things are growing just a little slower than what they would do in the summer, maybe 20% slower. I have started the second rotation of the faster growing crops, but I don't have enough space to have 2 full rotations growing at 1 time. Having a bin of spinach and lettuce slowly growing outside in the covered raised beds is providing me with starter plants on an as needed basis, so that part of the plan has worked very well. Based on everything I have seen so far, I think that between the in-door garden and the covered beds outside I should be able to get 5 crops per year, which would be bloody awsome.

That is great!

 

[Meerkat]

@Patchouli , your doing just as great.


Jim :swingstocking:

Well thats .

 

[LadyLocust]

I am officially in Christmas mode. I have to be at work another day or two try (& failing) to concentrate when I'd rather be home baking or stitching or something cozy and not "official."

 

[Meerkat]

And the family circus beat goes on,whoops.

Daughters has her grands 2,4,6 and 8year olds for holidays since our grand daughter has to work.
The 2 and 4 yr olds like to talk to us on phone now,they named us grandmaw and grandpaw,we were Nana and pappa to granskids.Daughter said all begged for a beating this morning and she abliged them.
2yr Zane hit 4 y.o. in face with toy, 8 y.o. was sassing and stuck foot out and tripped the 4yo. She said they all feel much better now. But 15 y.o. son is still being a teen. I rold her to climb up on a ladder and knock him out,lol.He is a good kid really just going thru teen years and of course bored. He told his other grandmother to use money for his gift for poor kids.
Waiting for answer back from other daughters kid in prison on lockdown on JPal.She ask for pictures of me and her pappa last JPal stamp so we sent her one.
Son is in London till late January. All 4 Texans and their 9 kids are doing ok .
Hubby and I are still here and waiting on greenhouse film to cover it.
I've bee ncleaning and Mr.Meer baked a double chocolate cake fro us yesterday. Put half in freezer.
Hope all here are well.

 

[Grimm]

Juju fell yesterday and had a large egg on her head. (More like she jumped off the back of the toilet because Roo told her to) It freaked me out most of the evening. We iced it and kept her awake. I even tucked her into bed with me so I could keep an eye on her. She is fine now and the egg is almost gone.

I am almost finished wrapping. It will not be a Christmas filled with lots of gifts but with a few special ones instead. I just have stocking stuffers to wrap. Looks like the gifts I got K will not be here in time. Oh well. He can deal.

 

[Meerkat]

Juju fell yesterday and had a large egg on her head. (More like she jumped off the back of the toilet because Roo told her to) It freaked me out most of the evening. We iced it and kept her awake. I even tucked her into bed with me so I could keep an eye on her. She is fine now and the egg is almost gone.

I am almost finished wrapping. It will not be a Christmas filled with lots of gifts but with a few special ones instead. I just have stocking stuffers to wrap. Looks like the gifts I got K will not be here in time. Oh well. He can deal.

Glad she is ok now.

 

[LadyLocust]

Juju fell yesterday and had a large egg on her head. (More like she jumped off the back of the toilet because Roo told her to) It freaked me out most of the evening. We iced it and kept her awake. I even tucked her into bed with me so I could keep an eye on her. She is fine now and the egg is almost gone.

I am almost finished wrapping. It will not be a Christmas filled with lots of gifts but with a few special ones instead. I just have stocking stuffers to wrap. Looks like the gifts I got K will not be here in time. Oh well. He can deal.

Kids! One time when my kids were about 2 & 4 (ish) 2 yr old son came to me with a bean in his nose. "How did you get a bean in your nose?" "I put it there." "Why did you put a bean in your nose?" "Because big sister told me too." (Beat head here!!!!!!) Oh, he learned how to plug one side and blow his nose that day.
Glad Juju is okay.

 

[Grimm]

Kids! One time when my kids were about 2 & 4 (ish) 2 yr old son came to me with a bean in his nose. "How did you get a bean in your nose?" "I put it there." "Why did you put a bean in your nose?" "Because big sister told me too." (Beat head here!!!!!!) Oh, he learned how to plug one side and blow his nose that day.
Glad Juju is okay.

She wanted to go to sleep moments after she hit her head. I sugared her up so she was too hyper to sleep.

 

[Meerkat]

.

 

[Neb]

The granddaughters visited on Sunday and we did the divide and conquer thing. Youngest and I did Disney+ while the older worked to make piles of chocolate chip cookies. The eldest did notice I was up to some secret project in the lego lounge and started asking questions. She had to settle for" it's a secret".

I did work on the secret yesterday and I may have the lids for the wand storage boxes figured out. I may find out later today. I had to gather up all evidence becaus the eldest joined with Gramma for a vitual tae kwon do class in the library via a zoom meeting.

Earlier today I visited the kids to help my son put a dryer back together agian. He had trouble shot an issue with the door switch that prevented the dryer from running. He sourced the part and replaced same BUT the control panel fell off the back and pulled 5 wires and he had no idea where they should connect.

THANK GOD for wiring diagrams! We traced out the loose wires and found which fast-on tabs were missing wires and the dryer started. I complied with his request that I stick around to make sure it went back together right. He was very happy as I departed because he had been taking some heat for the dryer being out of service for 3 weeks.

My brother's household is going through the Kung-flu. They are managing ok but it is real for them now. He is feeling under the weather but no severe issues yet. Our house rebuilding project is on hold until the new year. I can do a lot of the carpentry work but I don't have experience lifting houses off their foundation and he does.

Nuff for now

Ben

 

[sonya123]

Kids! One time when my kids were about 2 & 4 (ish) 2 yr old son came to me with a bean in his nose. "How did you get a bean in your nose?" "I put it there." "Why did you put a bean in your nose?" "Because big sister told me too." (Beat head here!!!!!!) Oh, he learned how to plug one side and blow his nose that day.
Glad Juju is okay.

Our son stuck an acorn in his ear one time and we had to take him to the ER to get it out ....kids!

 

[sonya123]

Cleaned the house today, and got depressed. Looked at the nearest ski area, mostly open, nice slopes, not crowded, and cried for probably about 5 minutes :-( I have decided to do something really drastic, to see if I can somehow manage to ski again. I am going on a diet and getting down to the bottom of my acceptable weight limit ( the lowest I can be without being underweight) . This should put less stress on my foot and maybe it will get better. I know many of you on here have serious health problems and this probably sounds silly , but sports and exercise have always been a huge part of my life, and now that I can't do it, it really is making me depressed. I spent a lot of time watching stupid Netflix now when I used to do things like step aerobics, or take the dog for a run. I am out of crap to watch I like. Can you believe that? Any suggestions? I seem to have watched it all. I like soap operas , crime type stuff, science fiction , horror, action. I don't like disease movies, hospital stuff or reality tv.
thanks for listening. I need to find some Christmas spirit somewhere. This is especially hard since we used to always go skiing on Christmas day. Last time was 2018.