Littlesister

I almost forgot to post my miles. But not sure if this counts because my Fitbit counted in my stacking of wood. 33.9 miles.

Jeepers, we will be thinking about you. You will be up and running soon. Just takes time to get things back together again.

Mt. Rider, I hope you can get that ride in before snow. They keep saying snow here tonight, but I am still thinking Northern VA. But will believe it when I see it. Taking it easy with my neck today. But working in bedroom closet still but doing much lighter stuff. Trying to organize emergency things right now. I have baskets for all the flashlights and those battery holders for the batteries which I need to refill again with some I am low on. I also have some rechargeable batteries that I need to finish charging. I am looking around for a really good solar battery charger. I want to have all batteries charged and ready to go. I did finally find some size C & D rechargeable batteries but need to get those charged up as well. I keep both onetime use and the rechargeable ones on hand. I have those scattered everywhere. So, putting the rechargeable ones in a basket with the charger which is electric. But all I have right now. I do have a few AA & AAA that charge by way of USB. I have those covered. It is a lot of things like this I am trying to organize all in one place. So today is just gathering things into one place and putting them in baskets on shelves.

Miki, are we tiring you out? I have times I tell myself I need to take a day and rest. Then later I am back at it again. I will take short breaks and sometimes a couple of hours then it's back to work. Got dinner done and GS's is in fridge for him when he gets home from work. Just heat and eat. He gets off at 2am so he will eat, shower and hit the car and go to bed. I think he has 2 doctor appointments tomorrow morning but don't know yet if he's off work or not. Pending weather, I will have him helping me with wood stacking again. Hopefully we can get it all done but it will be a late start and still a lot of wood to stack. I'm on the 3ed rack and it is halfway filled. So, it will take the 4th rack and enough to fill that also. I'm good for a couple of years. This wood is not seasoned yet.

I thought I logged out, guess not. GS left for work a couple hours ago. So, all is now quiet around here right now. He will be working until 2am tomorrow. Long day for him. Got several boxes of things out of the way and done. Not many to go through now. So, working on the clothes situation now. Once everything is out of closet, I might go ahead and paint it while it is empty. that one is a tossup. I don't really feel like painting. Necie, I know how you feel about having a lazy day. I have those also. I just do-little things on those days just so I can say I did something even if it's wrong. Thinking of cooking pepper steak for dinner tonight. That moves another bag of peppers out of freezer. Slowly but surely those bags of peppers are going down. I have a huge ham in the bottom of freezer, I thought I had used those up. So now I need to figure out what I want to do with it. Maybe use it at Easter depending on what family is going to do. This family thing gets hard when everyone lives so far away from everyone. Which everyone could move in closer again. It was so much easier. But, one day.

Started back going through things in my bedroom. Had to slow down a bit as my shoulder blade started hurting again. Lifting to many heavy boxes. I am not supposed to be lifting over 25Lbs due to my neck But I want my bedroom closet organized in a way it works for me. Alot of my supplies are in that closet but not organized where I can find things I need. So, working on a system and it seems to be taking forever. It's not easy moving stuff and going through it all, getting it all separated and making piles of what to keep and what goes out the door. I keep my extra batteries in there that I think I will move to a shelve in office. I can never find them when I need new batteries. Going through clothes is something I hate to do but working on it. If I only keep one set of clothes and a couple sets of clothes for church and a few extra shirts, I think I would be fine with that. But like Jeepers on t-shirts, I do mess them up bad cleaning house and doing a lot of stuff outside. So, I also keep a lot of extra t-shirts. But now have separated the bad from the good. I am going to cut up the old t-shirts for rags as they are 100% cotton. I even have an old pair of pants and one of my old uniform tops that I use when I am painting. I think they have every color on them this house has ever been painted with. Though I am no longer going to paint other than closets as I can't keep a straight line at ceiling and wall, and it hurts my neck to try it. I will get rid of those also. For closets I said white ceilings don't matter and painted the ceiling and walls the same color in the office. My bedroom I will just paint that closet white after everything is out of it. It will be bright and clean. It's a walk-in closet so that would work.

I have chicken in fridge that I will cook for dinner tonight. Just going to be a chicken breast and a salad for me tonight. GS is working so he can fend for himself. Though I will fix an extra chicken breast for him. He's not much on veggies or salad. So, he can fix what he wants as long as I don't have a mess left in kitchen in the morning. He's not one for cleaning up behind himself. Was working on end of month stuff this morning and then started going though things for end of year stuff for taxes. Getting ready soon to clean up the front end of house and mop floors right after GS leaves for work. Will do floors as soon as he leaves so, he won't track up the wet floors when he comes in from car to get ready for work. I don't always catch him before he walks on a wet floor. Then I am starting back on my bedroom and getting that finished in hopes there won't be any more interruptions. After I get that done, then I start on the office. Going to go ahead and get my GD to help me list my dining room suit on her site she uses to sell things. Once that is sold, I will hire someone to paint the hall, foyer, living room and dining room. Then will sell the furniture in den as soon as I order my new furniture. The way this house is set up, I am turning my den into the dining room, but not a formal one. It is part of the kitchen with a bar between kitchen and den. All just one big room. I am going to get a farmhouse table and a buffet cabinet for that room. Then in the living room and dining room, I will get the den furniture and then put 2 swivel rockers and a small table for in between the 2 chairs in dining room. The living room and dining room are one big room. I am going to move my sewing machine table into the dining room where I will get more use out of it. Then I can redo the office/craft and sewing room to better fit my needs. I am not a formal person, and I really don't need 2 rooms I don't use any longer. So going to make better use of this house. It has been a long time coming, but once done it will work much better for me. Figure with the housing market like it is and even though interest rates are starting to come down, it is not down enough. So will make the best of where I am to suit me much better.

Didn't do much today. Tomorrow I will dig in and get things going again. I cut down some boxes that I had emptied while the guy was working on dryer. So those are out of the way. He was telling me about his FIL passing away a few months ago and now his MIL is going through what I am. She is downsizing the house and having things done to it that needed to be done. Said her house right now is a total disaster. So now I don't feel so bad about mine. I wanted to go over to see how my next-door neighbor is doing but can't catch her home. She has been on the road for most of the time since her DH passed. I figured she is still taking care of things. Banks, and such. I know I had to do all of that. I heard today that stamps went up or is going up to 70 cents now. So now I will start paying my bills by phone. I have some I can do that with. Helps save postage. Then I can just use the stamps when I have to. Tomorrow, I hope to get the end of month stuff done and then start on the end of year stuff for taxes. Tax stuff is starting to come in the mail now. I hate that time of year. Found out where I can take my car to get it painted. He said they do a great job. He had his done there and he said it looked like it came straight off the showroom floor. So might take it there. And they have enterprise car rental across the street from them. I need to get the back of car done as whomever was kind enough to slam a grocery cart into the back of my car, really messed it up. Water got behind the paint and is bubbling. I didn't need that expense.

Went to Church this morning and then later a neighbor that I found on the Nansemond shores app. Though he lives in Western Branch and not my neighborhood. Texted me and said he could replace my dryer vent. So, I let him come over and look at it. The outside part of the vent was an antique. Where it came in from outside wall to the inside of wall to hook up the hose part, He pulled it out and it was full of huge holes. I had a lot of lent that was in the wall instead of being blown out through the vent. So, all of that is now replaced. Another small job done. Little by little I am getting some things like that taken care of. The neighbor said he does things for people on the side. He is a homeowner inspector for when you sale your house. And termite inspector as well. I think now I will just sit back and relax with a heating pad on my neck. The Nansemond Shores app they were saying it was time to clean dryer vents. They remind you it needs to be done twice a year. So, I asked if anyone knew of someone that could replace mine. And he answered back and said he could do it. It reminded me I had not cleaned it out in 3 years. That could cause a fire if lent gets built up in there and I had noticed that my dryer wasn't drying the clothes like it should have been. So now I have great air flow, and all is good. Now back to just cleaning it out twice a year without worrying if the vent is going to fall off.

Jeepers, you have done really well for what you have been through. I will more than likely be 76 years old by the time I am able to find a house and move. Unless my SIL buys a new truck, I am not sure how dependable his will be at this point. It is a diesel though, and those hold up much better. But it has a lot of miles on it, and he is no spring chicken himself now. Health is not the best. That's what smoking can do to you. He has now been diagnosed with COPD from his smoking. And NO, he still won't quit. Mother, I know the stuff you are talking about. When the time comes, I will get that instead of bubble wrap. I think that would be cheaper also. I would take those over to the new house in my car and DD's car if I can't get it all in mine. But hoping to have a lot of it used up by that time. A lot of the store-bought food I will just give to the church. I could box it up and let my deacon pick it up as he also works in the food pantry. Anyway, my moving will depend on how the housing market is going. Not so good right now. But interest rates are starting to drop just a tad. I did manage to get the last wood log holder put together. GS helped with this one. We moved it to the back of yard till I can get the cinder blocks and things I need for it. I ran out. If I don't use those the racks will sink into ground with all the weight. And yes, stacking wood will warm you up fast. And you get exercise.

I also prepare in order to keep ahead of inflation but that is getting a bit harder to do. Hurricanes where food is concerned not so much. I have plenty. But will fill my car with gas if a hurricane is coming. You never know. Right now, the reason my pantry is so full of store bought can goods is because of our Church having to close its doors during 2020 and part of 2021. I have been slowly taking food to the Church now that we have started the Church pantry back up again. DH and I near the end of 2019 and early January of 2020 about 3 months before he got sick, we had bought 4 cases each of corn, peas, green beans, butter beans, etc. There were other things as well. So that has filled my pantry on one side to the brim. I mostly eat from the other side which is my home canned foods. But have used some of the foods we bought for the church. GS eats some things from there. Will be taking more food again tomorrow morning when I go to church. I still have a lot of frozen green peppers so haven't checked the prices of them. $1.25 for a green pepper is crazy, even for wintertime. The stores I use are: Food Lion (the most) Aldi sometimes when I am down in that area. Lidle's (maybe once a month Harris Teeter only when I need to pick up an RX. I never do Walmart. BJ's maybe 4 or 5 times a year but more so in spring for garden items and other things. Not doing food there now. Sam's club I still haven't been there to renew my membership and just being me now. Not sure if I will. Kroger a couple of times a year. We are about to get a Publix store. They have opened the one now that is past Obici Hospital. But I have not been there. Waiting for the one they are building in Carrollton. Then I will check it out, though I have heard people say they are very expensive. If that is the case it will be go check it out and not buy anything.

Necie, I know that has got to be hard on both you and your family. But you will get through it. Praying that God will give you the strength to get the things done you need to do without getting overly tired. Weather was against me today for doing things outside. So, working inside today. Washed a load of towels early this morning and put a few things away. Going to start back in bedroom again to go through some boxes of stuff. Getting another load for Goodwill drop off. We are supposed to have heavy rain sometime this afternoon. It is in 60* now but feels a bit cooler and dampness in the air. And on top of everything else I slept wrong and can't turn my neck to the left. That's going to hurt for a couple of days. I hate when I do that. Jeepers, you will be in your new house before you know it. Just reading about all you have gone through makes me wonder about moving to another state. The flooding of the house made it much harder for you. Whereas I just need to finish painting the house and debate on refinishing the hardwood floors or selling with floors as is. I am trying hard to downsize the house plus try to use up a lot of the food I already have. Packing up canned food in a way the jars won't break will be a challenge, but bubble wrap hopefully will take care of that. Not sure if I will even have much help with moving or not as DD and SIL would have to come here with his truck, and it is just that a truck. Though I think he does have a trailer he can attach to the truck but not sure of that. I would have to depend on a moving van for the most part and that won't be cheap.

OOTO, we are taxed for everything around here. Even our cars. We pay taxes on them when we buy them and then also pay a personal property tax yearly on them for as long as we have that car, boat, truck or whatever it may be. I know on each trip the tax might be a small amount or depending on how much you spend it could be a good amount of tax, but that little bit of taxes will help if we didn't have to pay it. It is one of a few reasons I want to move out of VA. Right now, my grocery challenge is to use up what I already have in both pantry and freezers. With it being just me and only my GS on his days off. That challenge is slow going as I can't use up that food that fast. So, I only go to store for bread, (which I can make at home) but I don't eat much bread anymore. eggs, and milk. That is about every couple of weeks now. My GS likes French fries. It is cheaper for me to buy a 5lb bag of potatoes and make my own fries. So, a savings there compared to the price of frozen fries. I find doing things like this saves me money in the long run. That little bit of doing it yourself instead of buying already made products is a huge savings. I don't buy things readymade. I make my own salads as those readymade salads are huge in price, also, making my own chicken, egg and tuna salad is much cheaper, and better than store bought. These are some of the ways I save at the store. For what I buy now if I stick to just the eggs, milk, bread and coffee creamer, I only spend about $15.00 every two weeks. The coffee creamer I only buy when on sell. Otherwise, it is powered coffee creamer that I have for a standby when I run out.

OOTO, you are right about government interference. I didn't mean government regulation. Guess I really didn't explain that well. I am thinking more of the stores seeing where they can cut cost to help lower the price of food. There are ways to do that. Both Aldi's and Lidle's do it and I think in NC most stores are doing this. They don't furnish bags for groceries; you bring your own bags to use. That will cut the cost of stores buying bags also bag your own groceries and you won't need to pay baggers to do that for you. Right now, the cashiers here for the most part ring you up and bag your groceries. But things like this are some ways the stores can reduce prices by saving money in other ways that reduce the cost of running the store and that cost could be passed on to the consumer. I don't think they would be able to reduce the price on everything but at least on enough items that it would help us to lower our grocery bill a bit. It would also help if we didn't have to pay taxes on food.

False alarm on the dishwasher, not one plug on that wall would work. And I didn't know that till this morning when I went to make coffee. After checking all the outlets in kitchen and found none of them would work. I checked the fuse box. Yep, do not use dishwasher and the Ninja grill at the same time or switch to a plug that is not connected to the dishwasher. All I can say is thank you Lord that I didn't have to buy a new dishwasher. Had I checked plugs last night I would have known then what was going on. It is nice outside today but still a bit wet from the rain last night. Sun is shining. So will be stacking wood again today. GS is working today so won't be much help. He thinks he is off tomorrow, so hoping the weather will hold out. With 2 of us stacking, it will go by much faster. Then I can turn back to the house and work inside again. Maybe one day this house will be like I want it. Now I see my next-door neighbor is doing what I have been doing. She cut down all the bushes around her front yard and starting on the end side of house cleaning out stuff. Don't know if she is going to remodel anything or not yet. But said she is starting to get rid of a lot of things. Seems her DH didn't like to get rid of things either. Though my DH's parents lived through the depression, and he grew up and saw how things were and how tight money got. His father pulled up all the bushes and flowers around the house and grew sweet potatoes all the way around the house to help feed neighbors. They had a huge back yard and had gardens back there also. I did pull up all the azalea bushes in my front yard because they were diseased. But I have grown tomatoes and peppers in the front flower beds. There is nothing growing in there now, so thinking it would give me more garden space but need to do something about the rabbits first.

Please tell me this will not come in 3's. Loaded dishwasher and started it like always. Halfway through the cycle it died. As in no current going through it. I told DD my dishwasher died, and she needed to come here and wash my dishes. Yep, she told me this is an emergency. Get to Lowe's as fast as you can I don't do dishes. Oh! well guess I'm going to Lowe's tomorrow. Only issue is, my oven and stove top are over 30 years old. Yes, I am crossing my fingers that nothing else happens.

I think the price of groceries at some point need to be regulated. It's almost like a free for all, Ok groceries cost this much today so let's up the price some more. Starting to feel like it is like the gas stations. They do like to milk it sometimes. Rising prices are every week and no end in site. What I bought today will be higher in price next week.

Got back from Harris Teeter and did look around. Still had areas that were empty with signs saying sorry for the inconvenience on items. Meat was not as plentiful. And very expensive. Can goods were stocked but spread out and some items were not stocked all the way to back of shelves. The things they were low on was spices, frozen food in certain areas. But overall, not too bad. Dollar tree on the other hand. They were in process of stocking but lots of isles were very low. Food isles not to good. But then the only thing left in food is one isle food and drinks and the second isle is nothing but junk food. Medical was not much of anything. Lots of empty spaces and the hand sanitizer had none of the brands you guys listed on here. Maybe they just haven't gotten that type of stock in or they are not going to get it. Will just have to keep checking. No milk.

Seems a lot of people are having sleep issues these days. I was having them for a while but after buying that infuser and using the sleepy time drops in it beside the bed, I started sleeping again. And a much deeper sleep than I have had in a long time. I was going to work on wood pile today, but we had rain, and it is too wet outside now. Getting ready to run to Harris Teeter in a few to pick up RX's. Then take a look around the store to see how things are and how bad the prices have gone up since I was there over a week ago. Seems everything goes up on a weekly basis and on some things biweekly. When I get back home if it hasn't rained anymore, I will get the other wood rack put together and moved next to the other ones. At least I will have that much done. At least I am ready for the next cold snap. After I get done at Harris Teeter will run over to the Dollar Tree. Wanting to see how things are in there on stock. Will check the milk dates also. Jeepers, I never thought about the smaller boxes of milk. I think that is a great idea as I don't use a lot of milk either. But with GS here I have been using the quarts. If I use a half gallon, neither of us use it fast enough and then it goes bad. Butter Milk is an option from it though. I haven't done that in a long while.

That is true Ambergris. There are a few different types of cocoa around here. Some are better for baking than others. I am heading to Harris Teeter in a bit to pick up RX's. And will look around store for bargains on things. And to see how low things are today. The new sales started yesterday, and they got a truck in on Tuesday or Wednesday so will see how the shelves look. Though Food Lion when I went in there last had some empty spaces or very low on some things but overall it was full. Fresh veggies in there had more than I had seen in a long time.

Now I think I will make a trip to the dollar tree tomorrow when I pick up my RX's, they are right next door to each other. Hopefully I will find some things I can use. Will check the dates of the shelve stable milk also. Right now, the milk I have is good till 12/24. So, unless I can get dates going into 2025, I won't buy anymore. But will check other things out.

I still hear about shortages here as well. GS said they got in a double load of food to stock up on the shelves. Don't know if they are emptying the warehouses or if the stores are ordering more. Still a lot of shortages and a couple of stores had the sorry for the delay we are unable to get this product in at this time. All so when I went to Kohl's the other day the place was packed with people. Two of the cashiers were talking and said something is going on to have all these people in there like that. I did notice they were buying up clothes and especially baby clothes. I saw 2 people that had carts overflowing with clothes. I haven't heard anything about a clothing shortage. So not sure what all that was about. When I go to pick up my RX tomorrow at Harris Teeter, I am going to walk around the store to see how the shelves look in there. Today I got one of the wood racks put together and moved it next to the other ones. Then started stacking wood. No help today as GS had a doctor appt. and then off to work. Don't think he's off again till Friday. And he is getting that other promotion to team leader which is about the same as being an assistant manager. He just got moved from part time to full time with a hefty raise and now he will get another one as soon as they move him up. They have already told him he was moving up the ladder. This next raise will be more than double than the last one and that last one wasn't bad. Got 3 loads of clothes washed also. So, a very productive day today. But I am going to pay for all the wood stacking. Starting to get a bit sore now. But hoping to finish up tomorrow pending weather. I didn't even put a dent in that wood pile and GS said he is not sure if the two racks will be enough. They are the triple ones that each hold a cord so it should work out. If not, I will make it work. I only have about a cord and a half left to stack. The tree company I bought the wood from was not kidding when he said he was giving me extra as I have already stacked well over a cord. I think I will use them again when I am ready. All red oak and really nicely cut to fit my wood stove. They sell it by the size you need.

Those are some huge peppers. Great find. I haven't made any more of the unstuffed peppers yet. Canning is again on hold for these warm days as I need to get the rest of that wood stacked and the last wood holder put together. Canning will start again on the next cold spell.

Much warmer today. Didn't get racks put together yesterday. Weather was damp feeling and colder than I thought it would be. Thinking a wind chill factor in the 50+ weather yesterday. Today is in low 70's. Nice outside already. Got the cement blocks down for the racks. So will finish putting them together after my coffee break. Went straight outside early this morning and no coffee. Yeah, I needed some caffeine. Hoping to get all the wood stacked today, but not counting on it as GS is working this evening. So, will only be me later this afternoon to finish stacking wood.

Started early on bedroom going through a lot of stuff. GS is still asleep in his car but when he wakes up, he will be cleaning off the driveway and then helping me outside. He is off today so I am putting him to work on the heavy stuff. He is going to help me get those wood racks put together and then we will finish stacking wood if it doesn't get too cold. Weather right now is 43* and going up into the 50's starting at 1 pm and then dropping back down at 5 pm. So, we will have a small window to work in. About 4 hours if it don't rain or anything. I have some chicken thighs to cook and thinking about cooking them in slow cooker. Not sure yet how I want to fix them for dinner yet. I also have some peanuts to cook up also. I fry those up like they did at the Bennett's Creek market. Break over and need to get back to the bedroom and go through a few more things while waiting for weather to warm up. Miki, you need to take a nap today. That was not enough sleep.