Jeepers

Woo-Hoo. Those babies are huge! Another good find. 12 quarts is a lot.

We warmed up to the 40's today. We have been getting a lot of rain this week. That's a good thing as between the temperature and the rain, the snow is melting nicely. We also had a lot of low lying fog that looked eerie. Cold rain and fog looked more like October than January. I went to Wal-Mart yesterday and they hit the mother lode on bath stuff like bath towels and hand towels and wash cloths. The place was packed with it. Some (probably most) of it was cheap but that's what I wanted to hang up on the towel racks in the bathrooms. Made in India. I didn't check out anything else. Today I stopped in the Dollar Tree. They were loaded down in the health aisle. Very well stocked! I hurried on by because I don't want to buy more stuff that I have to move. But if it wasn't for that, I would have shopped for some more gauze and bandages. They had some Absorbine Jr. patches that sounded good for a backache or other aches but I passed. It would have been a good place to 'med supply stock up' today. But I needed other things. It seems like a few things are making a comeback since C-19. Dollar Tree was well stocked and I noticed over in the baby shampoo and stuff aisle they had Purell and GermX back on the shelf. I haven't seen either one of those brands since the lockdown. It wasn't over in the baby section but by the soaps and shampoos. I'm not holding my breath on anything though because I still hear a lot of people talking about the food shortages they are seeing.

I have bought the canned cabbage but I don't think it was that brand. I think it had the word Glory in it. Anyway, it wasn't horrible but I put regular vinegar on my cabbage and leafy greens so that might have helped. I plan to can a couple of jars of cabbage (not kraut) to see if I like it. I've always heard it doesn't can well because the flavor gets too strong. I don't think that would bother me because I really like cabbage. We2 canned cabbage but I don't remember if she reported back on it.

You are right Miki. I really need to get over myself. I went to the house again. I got most of the downstairs bathroom all done. It's a very small half bath. But The vanity is all lined and I have cleaning supplies and personal stuff in there. I'm not really decorating. I am going to change that clear calk though. Never use that stuff because it's CLEAR and you can see every thing through it including every tiny imperfection. In my case, some pretty big ones. I keep meaning to take a picture but forget. Repeat, don't use clear calk unless what you are calking over is perfect! AND...the sink leaks underneath. Sigh. Not much but still. I'll call them when I check the sinks upstairs. We are in another storm warning. This time freezing rain. I do not do ice so if it happens, I'll be staying put! It's supposed to get to 40 Wednesday so it shouldn't last long. I have a few small things I want to order from Amazon but my walkway to the front door is snowed under. It's too heavy for me to shovel it. I really need some rug tape for the throw rugs at the front door and garage door entry. I don't want to chance ruining the floors. They don't lie flat and I don't want to trip on them. A couple of other really small things. Why do stores sell throw rugs folded up? There is always a hump in the middle.

Mt. Rider, I thought the same thing. Falling asleep all alone might not be safe if you start to swell.

OUCH Ambergris.

Awesome find!!!

I spent the day at the house again. It's so dirty in there it's really disheartening. D-ex told me to hire a cleaning company. Easy for him to say. I guess like Merry Maids or something. I don't want to because I'd feel lazy and I don't want to pay someone else to do my work. But after looking around today, I think I might have too. I start working and then start coughing. I'm just not sure if I'm up to doing it all or not. I'm going to give it til the first of February and see how I'm progressing. I need a vacuum cleaner to suck up some of the dirt too. I'm going through all the bedroom closets and getting each room cleared out one by one. I want to get everything left upstairs, into one room. Not counting the bathrooms. I can't believe how many clothes I still have. That's the first thing I'm going to do. Go through them all and make two piles. One keep and one to donate. I did that a few months ago but I'm not sure where all of these came from. I thought I was done with that. But I saw bags and bags of them in one closet. I'd didn't even look in the other closets. Time to get ruthless again. I did find a couple of blankets so I don't have to buy another one now. I think I got the fridge door units figured out. Now I have an extra shelf. If I use all of them then they are too close together. And there were two plastic stick like things that I have no idea what they are for. At first I thought they were some sort of a divider for the door shelves but they don't fit inside those. Anyway, I have an extra shelf and two long plastic things. I still haven't tried the ice maker. I still need to line some of the drawers. I got side tracked with those darn clothes. I got a notice at the hotel that the hot water will be off from 9:00am til 4:00pm for maintenance. Seems like a long time. Maybe they had pipe issues too? It won't bother me though. I'll shower tonight. I plan to go to the house again in the morning anyway. If it was my hotel, I'd hire maintenance to do the work in the middle of the night when most people are asleep. But for some reason they didn't consult me. It's only 14* here. I thought we were going to warm up today. My bones are cold. I can't get warm. I think it is causing my sciatic nerve to scream. At least Advil and a heating pad helps so I am very thankful for that!

Necie proudly proclaiming: Dad loves me best. Dad: D*mn right I do girl! Now get back in that corner and start puffing!

Poor Necie. I feel your pain girl. I laid in the bed all day and...ate. After I did that, I ate some more. I watched the computer and I watched the snow fall. I started to read the Kindle book I started but fell asleep. Food coma. I can not be trusted with extra food around. I will eat it all every time. Every. Single. Time. I'm okay with pantry stored food because it looks nice on the shelves. But when I buy food in anticipation of a storm, I eat it all within two days. Right now I'm full to the brim with Pizza, Ho-Ho's, Popcorn, two ice cream sandwiches (all I had left) and Panera broccoli cheese soup. There was a tomato, green onion, cucumber salad-ish mix in there this morning. I'm looking at a left over Olive Garden bread stick. Yesterday they gave me an extra little cup of meat sauce just perfect for bread dipping. I'm a hog left to my own devices.

I know. It's just every time I get in the car it heads right for Meijers. Before I know it, I'm in there shopping with their cute little carts that I always over fill. I do love their little carts. Every one else must too because they have just as many small ones as they have big ones.

I wonder if nicotine gum would store longer than the patches? Freezer?

At both Ohio and Indiana my grocery shopping is very limited. Neither place have any chain grocery stores except for Wal-Mart, Meijers and Aldi's. Indy will have two local stores that I suppose I'll eventually check out. So far I really like Meijers, especially their fresh fruit/veg but I heard Meijers were about to raise their prices? And they don't have a lot of sales. I need to start checking out Aldi's. Their shopping cart 'rental' always intimidated me. When son and husband were at home I always made out a supper menu and I went by it. I would check out sons school menu that was published in the local paper just to make sure I wasn't duplicating it for the same night. I found that you only needed to have a limited number of different combinations. We all love spaghetti so we had that about every 10th day. Same with meat loaf. Then I threw in chicken and pork chops and maybe a casserole etc. And just kept rotating the dinners around. There were enough of them that there was never two weeks in a row the same. Weekends were a free for all. In the thread Freezer Meal Combinations, you will find some combinations that work for me. Except for some I add garlic bread, salad, slaw or corn bread at the table with a meal.

It is snowing like crazy here this morning. At least it is the light fluffy stuff and easy to brush off of the cars. Of course this is the day I chose to go to the doctor. I just bit the bullet and went to 'that' clinic. At 8:15 I was the only one in there. Good timing. Also thankful for the 4 wheel drive as the clinic sets up on a big hill and I could feel the Jeep start to slide coming down it. I pulled up on the lever and it straightened right out. Second time I had to use it this year. As suspected I have bronchitis again. She ordered some cough medicine and some Doxycycline. The Doxy is one of the meds that is hard to get ahold of right now. But I just got a notice that my pharmacy has filled it and it's ready for pick up. It is snowing so hard that I'll wait a few hours to go get it. I've waited this long that a little while longer won't hurt. In the end, it's good to know that Doxycycline is recommended for bronchitis because I have a feeling I'm going to go through the same thing every winter from now on. Whether or not it works is another question. I'll see I guess. And I have a stash of the stuff from you know where.

Oh my Miki, I'm sorry about your pipes! No hot water isn't fun but no water at all is awful. I'm glad they got them fixed. Hope they stay that way! Spring can't come soon enough. Best of luck on getting a part time job!

What a great idea Mother. I'm going to do that! You know I have stories. LOL I think I'll get a tambourine to hang on the side of the shelf. G-son will love that. I do have the card things to put under the strings. I have about 40 of them. I bought them the same place I bought the zither in Shipshewana. They sell them in packets. I have two packets that are Christmas songs, two that are children's songs and two that are hymns. I bought a cheaper one for G-son to play with and when I get a printer going, I'm going to copy them and give him a copy of the sets. They are done on card stock so it should be easy. I got the dulcimer about 30 years ago at the same place I bought the zither. They offer free tuning for the life of the instruments they sell. Fun story, Shipshe has a K-9 police officer named Yogi. The music store (Simple Sounds) fell in love with him and bought him his first bulletproof vest. Son always wanted a Mandolin. About 20 years ago he was going through a tough time and I told him I'd get him one. We looked on line and found an inexpensive one. I ordered it. A couple weeks later we received 6 of them! I called the company and told them if they would send me a return label I'd send 5 of them back. They told me to just keep them. So I have one, he has two, he gave one away and I sold two. Again, I've been collecting things for decades. The dulcimer is 30 years old, the mandolin is 20 years old. the zither is about 10 years old and the guitar is a couple of months old. Tambourine...to be announced.

Thanks. That's my favorite room. Except for the table and chairs, I have been collecting everything in there for up to 50 years. One piece at a time. Even the pottery was bought 1-2 pieces at a time over the years in Pennsylvania. It probably took 10 years to get the hats I wanted. They are all different and I remember where I got each one of them. Lots of memories in that room. Another Amish story. I always wanted a brown bonnet because there is only one place where the women wear the brown ones. I took a few trips over there and I looked all over to find one. Finally, I was in a little Amish quilt store and I asked a woman where I could possibly buy one. She asked a couple of girls in the shop and they had no idea either. So, I told the woman that I'd gladly buy hers. I told her the truth. It was because I collected bonnets from other states and areas but I couldn't find a brown one. She was concerned because hers was old and used. I told her I'd pay her what ever it was worth to her. She didn't want to say. Finally she sort of whispered $10.00? I knew what new bonnets cost in stores at the time. I gave her $30.00 and we were both very happy. It's the one in the lower picture kind of under the picture sitting on the little cabinet. When I get a bigger stand I'll move it over to the honey hutch where the black Indiana bonnet is. BTW, the rest of the house doesn't look like that. I will be about 2 hours from Shipshewana. But it won't be the same. Over here there are more and better Amish stores and I have a couple of Amish friends down there that I visit. Sigh. And I won't be able to make it to Pennsylvania in one day. I don't romanticize about the Amish. I know their dirt from infidelity, alcoholism, drugs and even murder. I took a picture for my cousin of my half finished music area. I'm moving my grandpa's flag over to an end table and putting my stereo there. And when I can pry my guitar from my son's house, it will sit in the stand.

Not any meds to cause this. The last time I looked it up on line it said if it didn't clear up in about 6 months it probably wouldn't. It's been a year for me. I haven't checked lately though. I will do that tomorrow. It's that long haul covid stuff.

All of the rooms are small except for my bedroom. And the great room which is one big open room.

I took three out of the freezer in Indy and brought them over here and put them in the freezer right away at the house. They were still frozen but not as solid. So, I have three meals over here. My taste buds are still messed up from covid and since I've had whatever this crud is, they have gotten worse. Now my sense of smell is going bad too. Next time I see my doctor I'm going to tell him that if there is a test program (can't think what it's called) for this, then sign me up. It's pretty bad. My luck there will be one...in downtown Cleveland.

I finally got two pictures off the phone. My new phone takes lousy pictures! Everything is so dark. The floor isn't nearly that dark and neither is the table. The table has one leaf in it and another one in the garage. I think I might need another chair or two. Much later. Other than curtains, the dining room is mostly done. I need to get a quilt on the quilt rack by the window yet. That thing in the corner is a quilt stand for a quilt to loop in. But, the hat and shawl fit nicely on it so I'm just going to leave it that way. And I'm running out of walls. The thing behind the spinning wheel is fake cotton bolls. I have a basket of real cotton, some thread spindles and a little shelf sitting lamb for that corner...someplace. Looking the other direction. I'm not sold on the way those bonnets look up there. Sigh. Probably more holes in the wall I'll need to fix. I'm debating on whether to hang that picture up over the bench in the foyer or to hang a quilt on that wall. I'm leaning toward the picture because I'm running out of walls.

That looks so good Annarchy! That is on one of my to-do lists too.

I don't think of them as really long term food storage. My plan is to eat them over the course of a year. Purely convenience food for me. Cooking for one isn't always easy. When I do cook, I tend to over do it. Freezer cooking for me is like canning. I'd rather do a lot at one time than a little bit, often. In other words, I'm a lazy cook. Do it once and get it over with.

Usually when you see the Amish out like that they are traveling someplace quite a distance away. Especially when you see them in a group. There were 4-5 more ladies behind me. They hire vans to take them places. Sometimes funerals and this time of year...weddings. I imagine the driver had to stop for gas and potty breaks. I was on the toll road but I don't remember if I was in Ohio or Indiana. The first rest stop I came to after leaving Indiana is called Knute Rockne. Anyway, that isn't important. I mention it because there were flashing signs when approaching it that said. "The diesel pumps are down. Please find an alternative route." Glad I wasn't a trucker. I assume they were helping each other out on their CB's to find diesel. I don't know if the pumps were frozen or if they were out of diesel. Not good either way. At least I wasn't seeing the "Limited food" signs like I saw all last summer. Also coming back I noticed gas signs. Someplace in Indiana closer to Ohio, I saw a gas sign as I was going east. It said regular $2.99. Right directly across the road going west it said regular $3.39. Right across the road.

I think it's going to take me longer to get caught back up than I thought. I'm really not ignoring anyone! I tried to load a couple of pictures of my dinning room from the phone but since it's new, it says I need to 'update my devise settings' and I don't know how to do that. I hate new things. I did happen to find this one so I think I'm getting close to finding the others. The Amish seem to follow me everywhere. I spotted a herd them in a rest stop. I think I was in Ohio.