dogmom4

Love it!

Hey everyone! I just spent the last hour catching up....haven’t read posts on this thread since May. So many things happening in everyone’s lives. Ann, so sorry to hear about Grrr. And MtRider...sorry to hear about your goat. Its really interesting to read how lives are changing for the core group on here. I turned 59 today and I am feeling it on some days. I have decided one more year teaching and I’m done. I just hope I have the stamina to make it one more year. I have a much smaller garden and I was looking at my canner and realized I haven’t pulled it out in over two years! If I do any preserving it’s only small batch water bath or dehydrating....heavy things are getting harder to handle and I can’t do any long hours of preserving. I am harvesting daily from my garden...but I just don’t have the energy to do anything ‘big’ anymore, ya know? I’ve been on summer vacation for 3 weeks and enjoying our unseasonably cooler weather. People in my area (Northern Ca) had pool waves from the 7.1 quake down south. I didn’t feel anything that day...but this morning I had vertigo while laying in bed...this has happened to me before....usually not while in bed...but if my feet are on the ground. I really hope there isn’t another bigger one. My mom is going in for hip replacement surgery on Tuesday...after 8 different appointments over the past two weeks...I was beginning to wonder if it was a good idea with all of the tests they did on her because she is higher risk at 84. But...her pain is so bad even while sitting that I hope this will help her. After she comes out of rehab her doctor will be trying a med to see if it will help with confusion...I think I said something about it a few months back....I was getting 10 or more calls a day (and night!) where she was trying to find or was seeing dead family members or thought my kids were little and lost....then found out she was calling others too. Her doctor has tried changing some meds and she had a UTI...it helped a bit...but she seems to get lost more everyday. And some days she just snaps...my mom never yelled at me...now once or twice a week she just goes off over something I said or did. It’s difficult to stay calm, ya know? Anyways, I know I don’t post a lot but I do try to keep up. I wish we could all live closer so we could age in place together...

The original notice several weeks back did include my county...but my city was taken off the list the night before. I don’t know why. However, the smaller city that’s a 15 minute drive away was included. Their power was off for 6 or 7 hours. People in my city are buying or discussing buying generators (on a parent FB page)...many moms are concerned because they have freezers filled with breast milk. Another notice was recently on the news for the city of Manteca. It feels like the language in the notice is a bit stronger.... https://www.mantecabulletin.com/news/local-news/be-ready-survive-2-5-days-without-electricity/ https://www.abc10.com/article/news/people-in-this-town-are-pissed-manteca-mayor-rips-into-pge-rep-at-meeting/103-abddbf57-af39-4492-842f-f44fbb59c936

Happy belated birthday!!

I’m so sorry Wormie.

I got the Social Security voicemail on my cell last week. I get robo voicemails in Chinese regularly as well....

I’m so sorry to hear this Wormguy. Praying for a peaceful passing and peace in your heart.

I just saw something briefly on the news yesterday that some toxin (benzene?) was found in some parts of the water system in Paradise...not surprising at all. We have friends who are still trying to decide if they want to go back.

So this came in the mail today. Notice the line that says ‘...your power may be shut off, even if you do not live or work in an area experiencing high winds or other extreme weather conditions.’ They suggest customers prepare for outages that could last longer than 48 hours...and there is a section on being prepared. Seems like they’re covering their collective behinds..... Also wanted to add that I don’t live in a rural area....population here is over 65,000...but we are surrounded by a lot of ag land....

Good luck zzelle!

You have a hilarious sense of humor...

Pretty much everything is being grown in pots or growbags here. The soil is like brick. I put in a small grapevine when we moved in two years ago and it’s just now starting to take off...I add as much compost as I can around it. Things are just now beginning to take off because we’ve had abnormally cool weather for us...we just started getting into the 80’s and 90’s about two weeks ago and still have some mornings in the 50’s. My cabbages and broccoli all bolted at the same time so they have been pulled up. I dried the leaves and made them into a powder to be added to soups or whatever. We only got a small harvest of peas so they were just eaten fresh. Strawberries are beginning to happen and my first tomato showed up on a plant that I overwintered. Sunflowers have been a huge disappointment because we got so much rain this year that there are slugs everywhere. I usually put seeds along the fence and get a bunch....every single plant (planted close to a hundred) were wiped out by slugs as soon as they popped up. I have two that are coming up in the middle of the yard that were probably dropped by birds. I’m trying growing them in pots to see if I can transplant when they’re bigger.

Thank you dear. I wasn’t able to use that image...but was able to figure out a different one.

I’m in love with my Instant Pot...it’s made life so much easier. My mom got me one of these for Christmas...I asked for an air fryer and got a NuWave oven. I wasn’t sure about it but it’s the best little appliance I’ve ever had. Everything I’ve made in it has come out good and I can plug it in outside when it’s hot and use it like an oven.