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Reading gardening books. Chatting with real people. Writing, planning. Staying inside.
@Spikedriver It's good you could have your girl with you.
@MoBookworm1957 I really do miss that kind of scenery. Miss taking the toboggan down the big hill where we used to live. Then they put in a golf course. It is good they did that tho, people were getting more out of control there every winter with serious injuries.
 
Bing watching the new season of Vikings. We know we should be feverishly doing something but a day of rest feels right. Maybe the calm before the storm. Also we stayed up past 10:00 for first time in a long time.
 
Went to run errands with my dad and took a very bad fall on our way into the wine shop. I don't know what happened and fell straight down. I landed on my left leg and palms. I thought for sure I broke something or injured my knee badly. Once I got on my feet (took awhile for me to be comfortable with the pain to even think of putting weight on it.) I realized I didn't land on my knee but just below it at the head of the bone. No swelling or bruising but it hurts like the Dickens unless I am moving it then I feel pains in the muscles in my left hip and lower buttocks. I really lucked out and can only praised God that He protected me when I fell.
 
So a few days ago the microwave/convection oven gave up after 24 years of good use, it was a KitchenAid and the only thing I've had to repair in all those years was a microswitch on the door, I had been looking for a replacement for a number of years, but for a long time there were very few that had the convection oven combination and the original KitchenAid cost around $800 and I wasn't really looking forward to what a new oven would cost, however in doing research about a week ago I ran across a number of combination ovens that would fit in the same footprint as the old oven. The oven we ended up getting was a Z-Line, it came yesterday and with the help of a friend we got it installed soon after it came, it's excellent, all stainless steel front with a larger interior than the KitchenAid, wife baked an apple coffee cake last night and it turned out beautifully and the cost of the new oven was only $539, funny thing is that I went back on line to check on further information and up pops an add for a KitchenAid
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after we had received the Z-Line, no big deal, the Z-Line seems to have been made with quality in mind.
 
Dang @Grimm , ice it.
Hope it don't cause you any problems.

Had a good day...I'm so glad wife is doing so good. She has better stamina than me it seems.
Great dinner today. Got to see kids open some presents.

Got home to rest.

Wife just told me she was checking bank account for one of my pension checks , and found 2 $600 deposits in our checking account dated 1/4/2021.

Strange .

Jim
 
Reading gardening books. Chatting with real people. Writing, planning. Staying inside.
@Spikedriver It's good you could have your girl with you.
@MoBookworm1957 I really do miss that kind of scenery. Miss taking the toboggan down the big hill where we used to live. Then they put in a golf course. It is good they did that tho, people were getting more out of control there every winter with serious injuries.
Have never taken toboggan down a hill.
I'm poking fun at you Patch.
Have taken inter tube, sled, cardboard.
Watched cars try to get up small inline by my place.
Kids around here used to go down Cemetery Hill.
 
Thank you everyone for the advice and well wishes. It feels fine right now but I am shnockered so that may be a large part of feeling better.

We played Monopoly until K won and everyone owned him or lost their money to the bank. I think we went through 4 bottles of red wine. My mom switched to blush boxed wine after she went bankrupt in the game. The rest of us and Roo continued playing and polished off another 2 bottles of red. Roo did not drink. I need to make that clear since this is me being more than tipsy and the first time the girls have ever seen me drink more than one glass of anything EVER. Not a drinker but I can hold my alcohol better than most.

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Grimm, as others have said, ice and elevation will help. In First Responder course they talked about RICE= Rest Ice Compression Elevation.

Whatever channel my mom was watching when the ball dropped had something on the screen that blocked the view of the ball and she had a full on tantrum and screamed about it like it was the worst thing ever. Sometimes I wonder if she's 7 instead of 70. LOL. There are times when I feel like I'm the parent and not the other way around. It's no anything new though- she's always had a childish streak.

Viking, nice new microwave. Over $500? yikes. That's why we never got a convection one to replace our old one. Had a Montgomery Ward 3cuft one that lasted 22 years. I sometimes wonder if it can still be fixed and maybe upgraded to be more powerful (and covered to get rid of the faux wood look).

Feeling a little better than I was the other day but it's off and on. I start to feel somewhat normal and fine and then I start to feel nauseous and headachey. Nostrils clogged up again and I've been doing the cleansing with simply saline. Woke up because of my bladder so I'm awake at this hour. Buried under cats. LOL.
 
Last night I assembled my last growing station (this one is shorter and has wheels), the grow lights for it were delayed so it is not a lot of help right now.

I cleaned and lubed my old muzzle loader, made my speed loads and replinished my caps. I will take her out for a walk this afternoon.

I noticed that I have a bunch of containers that are getting crowded, need to thin them out. I need to harvest about half of the radishes and lettuce to make room for more. I need to make a support for my snap peas, I am thinking 2 wire clothes hangers, an arrow and some deer netting.

This morning I plan to do as much as I can with the plants, need to stop by 10:00 to go for a walk in the woods.

Well break time is over...

Urban
 
I'm still awake so I actually had breakfast (I'm not a morning person and rarely eat breakfast). I made myself 2 grilled cheese sandwiches and some scrambled eggs.
I watched a little TV with 3 cats on my lap and a dog on my shoulder. The dog heard me say "cuddle" to the cats and climbed on.
 
My leg is much better after some restless sleep. It is now a dull ache like when you bump a bruise. No bruising though and very minor swelling that a little Advil will fix. I do have a bit of spiderwebs from the wine but no real hangover or issues. Just drinking water and coffee.

We are leaving my folks' house soon and it is a zoo getting things cleaned up and packed. The girls are giving K a hard time about it all. I think it is fair since I normally do it all myself every other time we visit.

Once we get home I have to take Bailey to the vet for her last round of vaccines. Last trip to the vet for vaccines until February when I take the dogs for theirs. Then we are good until October. That is when the cats start getting their 3 year vaccines and we are good for 3 years for them and the dogs are the only annual vaccines we have to worry about. I am sure a few of the cats will not need a second 3 year package as they are old. Maybe we will 'luck' out and they will be 20-30 year old cats. :rolleyes:
 
Haven't done a great deal today, we've done some reading, watched it rain, watched a couple old movies. Wife fixed a nice supper, just relaxing the rest of the evening

We watched two Roku movies yesterday,sirst time to use it other than tv web hdmi.
PG 'Signed Sealed,Delovered, it was ok not one agnda in the whole movie. Also watched MoonStruck' Cher, Nicholas Cage first time in 20 yr.s or so.
Hubby not doing good with back so not much going on. We still have awhile to cover GH.
 
Dang @Grimm , ice it.
Hope it don't cause you any problems.

Had a good day...I'm so glad wife is doing so good. She has better stamina than me it seems.
Great dinner today. Got to see kids open some presents.

Got home to rest.

Wife just told me she was checking bank account for one of my pension checks , and found 2 $600 deposits in our checking account dated 1/4/2021.

Strange .

Jim

Jim yall had two Christmase\'s, bet you loved that.
 
Strawberry got stuck this morning.
Dealt with that for a half hour.
We came back inside so I could warm up.
Dishes are done.
Lunch is over.
Refrig is cleaned out.
Let Strawberry back out to take care of business.
She got stuck for the second time.
Got her unstuck for the second time.
She had to go to bed(kennel).
While I took care of her getting stuck constantly.
She might get stuck in the future,but........
It will only be by rose bushes.
Moved everything else by myself.
Sipping coffee, reading forums, maybe nap.
 
Working on food repackaging for longer bulk storage: grits, unicorn chocolate chips (don't ask), dehydrated potatoes and cheese powder, Jiffy baking mixes, Bisquick, and 5 types of beans. The kitchen is a mess now so I'll deal with that after my coffee. My favorite cousin is freaking out because her son that lives north of here is on day 7 of covid and having breathing issues. The herbalist recommended coloidal silver in a nebulizer. I had some words to say about that. She is calling him back to see if his wife will hire a driver and take him in to ER. so he can get some albuterol, antibiotic, maybe some predisone. He did a sermon at a funeral last week (he's an Amish minister) and my cousin noticed he wasn't his spry self, and has had a worse time since. Going to finish with this food storage mess, and go work in the greenhouse.
 
I’m going to clean up my closet today. It’s gotten way to overcrowded, yet everything in the closet still fits and is functional. I told the wife we can easily make 4 clothe cache’s out of our excess. So that’s what we will do.
 
Today I got to visit our private forest we call The Ridge to tend to the small orchard we started maybe 7 years ago.

Disclaimer time!

I am a retired engineer/physist/software architect and The Princess is an IT manager so... we don't know what we are doing when it comes to trees. All of my misinformation came from the internet.

We put in 20 trees, apples, pears, and peaches. The peaches all died so they got replaced with cherry trees. Then Ben got all excited by how well the apples were doing that he removed the wire fencing around the trunks. Then the deer that decided the orchard would be their rutting grounds started using the trees to remove the felt from their antlers and girdled some more trees.

So 10 of the original 20 are doing ok considering I have been learning as I go. In my clumsy attempts to shape the trees I THINK I have made at least 2 big mistakes. The first mistake was I was over pruning them taking off more than 30% of the branches. The second was I didn't know the difference between a bud and a fruiting spur. Both can explain why I have had poor fruit production.

Today I took a more subtle strategic approach. The pear tree I was most interested in taming was starting to reach for the stars. Here is the before picture.

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The previous pruning had given me the sideways structure I wanted. Here is a closer look at the branch structure.

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After removing the tallest 4 branches.

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I had a nice spreading branch structure and a bunch of branches covered with fruiting spurs... I THINK.

I similarly to all of the other pear trees and did very little to the apples since had the bowl shape I was looking to achieve. I also have an apple and a pear tree that may date back to my mother's day when she and her sisters used to steal apples from when they were young. The fruit from them is decent but because they have grown unattended for decades, the fruit is out of reach.

Last year I trimmed away many small suckers and preserved the ones that I thought could form good branch structure about 5 feet off the ground. I was pleased to find the selected branches had developed well. For the apple tree I just notched the tree above the branches I want to develop. The pear tree which is about 50 feet tall got a more drastic approah and I girdled 3/4 around the trunk above where the select branches are located to encourage their growth and inhibiting growth at the top and hopefully not killing it completely. If things go well with those tree I return in a year or two with a ladder and a chainsaw.

Before I got involved with buying and fixing up houses I used to visit The Ridge 5 or more days a week. It is my happy place. So I took a couple of pictures to share with y'all.


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Above is the view looking up to the orchard. The fence posts to the left is were I had planted seeded grapes for a walk through Arbor. They will be getting replaced with seedless grapes I have been cloning. At the top there are huegelcultures.

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From the top you can see the hueggalcultures terraced into the hill side. The green patch to the left is the garlic patch that I left go wild last year.

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One of my few indulgences this past year was to plant Egyptian Walking onions in one of the boxes.

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As shown above it looks a good bit of them took. My hopes are that they will propagate and take care of themselves.


I should also mention that I have learned to only grow stuff on The Ridge that can take care of itself. Potatoes, onions,galic leeks. There is simply too much wildlife to contend with. Even the onions are not safe from the wild turkeys. They like the garden boxes to build nests. It gives them good cover while also offering a good view of the surroundings.

I final story to close out this lengthy post.

I challenged the eldest granddaughter to see which of us could grow the biggest pumpkin. She grew hers in a patch we dug in her front yard. I planted dozens and the orchard was covered with pumpkin plants. It was beautiful and I thought I had her beat until... the deer and groundhogs destroyed them all. She won the game and I learned that The Ridge was a place to grow sweet stuff.

As always try to behave until we meet again.

Ben
 

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My mother and brother went over to check on our friend to see how he's holding up and remind him not to take his gf back. Found out his grandfather died of Covid pneumonia yesterday. His exgf was back over at the house packing some of her stuff. He gave a formal statement to the police and sheriff to let them know that she is violent when off her meds and detailed how she had physically assaulted him on numerous occasions. He got an emergency custody order. She is not allowed to touch their son without my friend present. She can't take him anywhere without permission and if she tries to she can be arrested. She was crying and wanting my friend to take her back but he refused. They went to the store to use her WIC before it expired to buy supplies for the baby. He messaged that she kept asking him to buy her things and he got to happily say "No" to her. He described it as "magical". Telling her "no" is empowering.

Another friend was in a wreck and his truck is totaled. He had just finished fixing up a bunch of stuff on it but hadn't been able to afford new tires. His tires were bald so he lost traction and spun on the wet road. He's ok, but now he needs a new vehicle to get to work.

I pretty much stayed in bed feeling blech. Mom and brother brought me a sandwich and some cookies from Subway though.

I'm hoping this crud will clear up soon so I'll be able to go over and help my friend with his cabinets.
 
My mother and brother went over to check on our friend to see how he's holding up and remind him not to take his gf back. Found out his grandfather died of Covid pneumonia yesterday. His exgf was back over at the house packing some of her stuff. He gave a formal statement to the police and sheriff to let them know that she is violent when off her meds and detailed how she had physically assaulted him on numerous occasions. He got an emergency custody order. She is not allowed to touch their son without my friend present. She can't take him anywhere without permission and if she tries to she can be arrested. She was crying and wanting my friend to take her back but he refused. They went to the store to use her WIC before it expired to buy supplies for the baby. He messaged that she kept asking him to buy her things and he got to happily say "No" to her. He described it as "magical". Telling her "no" is empowering.

Another friend was in a wreck and his truck is totaled. He had just finished fixing up a bunch of stuff on it but hadn't been able to afford new tires. His tires were bald so he lost traction and spun on the wet road. He's ok, but now he needs a new vehicle to get to work.

I pretty much stayed in bed feeling blech. Mom and brother brought me a sandwich and some cookies from Subway though.

I'm hoping this crud will clear up soon so I'll be able to go over and help my friend with his cabinets.


Ben
 
LOL! I love Andy Serkis! Loved the Lord of the Rings movies.

I forgot to mention that I went outside to get some fresh air and was petting my cow and singing her favorite lullaby. Her winter coat is in and it's so soft! She liked when I was rubbing between her ears and horns. She used to like it when I stroked the front of her face, but she wanted me to rub the sides and behind her ears this time. When she was little after she finished her bottle I would rub both sides of her face at the same time and sing a lullaby to her. She followed me around like a puppy and always wanted cuddles-- got a bit more difficult when she grew in her horns though.
 
Daughter and I slept in again. It's the last time I'll get to do that for a while. We fiddle farted around a while then went to her mother's neighbor's goat farm. There were twin kids born early this morning and my daughter wanted to see them. The owner encourages it, these are show goats worth several thousand dollars each and the gentle human interaction in their first few days is good for them. Daughter had the little buck sleeping in her lap. I told her she was absolutely not allowed to have any baby goats...😁

Tonight I made big ol' juicy cheese burgers and I'm packing for Arizona while she reads. We'll do dishes in a little bit and do some cleaning before bed...
 
Amish, Prayers for your cousins son.
Grimm Prayers for you to that you heal quickly
Zanni, glad your friend got rid of the ball and chain. No one should have to put up with that.
Spike, sounds like a nice day with your daughter. I know you both enjoyed that before your upcoming trip.
Neb, I love the ridge area. That is so cool. It's always great to have a area to get in the woods. No matter how large or small.

Today I took a load of trash to the dump, much needed, but wasn't near as much as I thought. I have a large box I've been filling with broken down cardboard that I will put down first in my new raised beds as I build them. It'll kill off the grass and hopefully keep it and any other stuff beat down.
Also had to redo the the screws in the hinges that hold the sideboards together on a 5-10 trailer I have. After that I grubbed some more brush. Working on an area in a fence row near where I am gonna build the new beds. I want to open it up to get as much sun light and wind thru the area that I can. This is an area I haven't touched in 20 years or more and is just a mess. Hoping to cut it back where I can just mow it in the future. Been setting aside the larger logs, braches, etc to use as hugelkulture in the raised beds when I build them. Rest of the brush went on the brush pile to get burned this winter.
Came inside about o dark 30. My butt is dragging now.
 
@Neb

I’m no help with your other trees but dad and I had a 200-tree commercial peach orchard until 2016. Here are how peach trees should look. A warning about fruit trees and a herd of does. They will demolish an orchard in the spring before they drop their fawns. Minerals concentrate near where fruit will appear in the limbs… minerals the does love and need!

Just before I moved back to the farm dad had already set out the orchard but hadn’t gotten fruit yet. A herd of does descended on it and almost destroyed it. Dad got a special license from the state to kill 20 deer in 30 days. He ended up inviting kin folk to take all the deer they needed or wanted.

I’ve just been resting this week, been especially tired so I haven’t done much but putter around the house.

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@Neb

I’m no help with your other trees but dad and I had a 200-tree commercial peach orchard until 2016. Here are how peach trees should look. A warning about fruit trees and a herd of does. They will demolish an orchard in the spring before they drop their fawns. Minerals concentrate near where fruit will appear in the limbs… minerals the does love and need!

Just before I moved back to the farm dad had already set out the orchard but hadn’t gotten fruit yet. A herd of does descended on it and almost destroyed it. Dad got a special license from the state to kill 20 deer in 30 days. He ended up inviting kin folk to take all the deer they needed or wanted.

I’ve just been resting this week, been especially tired so I haven’t done much but putter around the house.

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Bambi

Four foot tall rats with horns.

If they weren't a backup protein source I would hate them.

Ben
 
One of my neighbors said he goes to the local barber shops and asks for the hair clippings. He scatters them around the perimeter of his fenceline and near his garden. It is supposed to deter deer. Haven't asked him if it actually works or not.

When our pear tree still bore fruit, we had a few deer that would come in and eat pears that fell on the ground.

I miss having goats. Baby goats are adorable. I also miss having pigs. We had a couple 400lb pigs when I was a kid. They were living garbage disposals and they loved to have their bellies rubbed. They used to swim in the pond during summer to keep cool and fortunately they never turned their pen into a mud pit-- but we rarely penned them up. They roamed free in the yard. They got into the garden a few times.

I wish I still had the energy to maintain farm animals.

My friend needs to go back to U-Pullit for some parts & I want to help him. I've offered to help pack up some of his ex's stuff (once I'm out of quarantine) but he said he's leaving that to her so she can't claim someone took something or lost something. When the police came and took her away, he said to her and to them she had 30 days to get all of her stuff out or it's getting dumped. Not sure what she's going to do with all of her clothes, but that's her problem at this point. She's claiming she won't date the guy she left him for (could be lying on that), but if she doesn't, it will only be a matter of time before that guy gets tired of her and kicks her out.

Woke up sneezing. I took allergy meds last night (supposed to last 24hrs) and used nasal spray, but my sinuses are not wanting to clear up just yet. I know I need to be patient and give it more time. I'm about to go get some soup. I'm ready for this crud to go away. I've had worse though, so I'm grateful for that.
 

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