WHATCHA DOING TODAY?

[Jeepers]

Sorry to hear about little Cindi. You give them a good life then let them sleep. 

 

Glad your newest fur-kid is fitting in though. He must feel like he's won the lottery.

[Ambergris]

[Midnightmom]

On 3/1/2018 at 10:31 PM, Mt_Rider said:

Wow...I've got to copy that data!!!!

 

MtRider 

 

 

 

[Mt_Rider]

Sorry about your dog friend, Kappy.  It's soooo hard to lose them but yes!  So much better to be with you at their time to go.   

 

I'm still not sure if my cat is improving or dying.  She's eating a lot now....but still much thinner than her "I'm very old and thin" weight from the past couple years.  But she's being a lot more active.    We're just feeding her pretty much as she wants it.  Mincing it up fine and keeping a lot of water/broth with it.  Side dish of yogurt which she likes.  By now, about third-to-half of the combination is her usual softened/minced dry cat food.  Trying to make sure she's getting all the nutrients.  But also giving the pouches of soft food and baked fish.  She seems a lot more normal now but ....at well over 17 yrs old, it is only a matter of time.  

 

Please pray that my dad's Monday appointments  [2 appointments....have to wait 4 hrs to check his functioning] will go supernaturally well.     DH is driving them, of course.  Then has to go to work.  Loooong day for him but they are short of empoyees at his job right now too.  [...might be real short if the guy who did a no call/no show recently got dumped.]

 

And added to all this......Koa just went into heat.  Ayiyiyi...  That's such a pain and she gets grumpy!  If we have good weather, she's outside as much as possible. 

 

MtRider ....I'm so very tired...and trying to NOT get congested bronchial tubes.  Mostly winning that battle so far...   

 

 

[Jeepers]

   For Mt. Rider's family. 

 

Poor Koa. Is there a reason why she isn't fixed? Planning on puppies in the future? 

[kappydell]

Loved the cartoon Ambergis!  I was thinking of drawing one like it; now I don't have to!  I'll just print this one!  ROFL

 

Prayers for your dad, Mt.Rider.

 

Today we got our first garden workout - pruning the overgrown & jungly crape myrtles and removing the smilax trying to climb all over it (nasty thorny interloper that it is!!).   Laid out garden, redrew our master planting plan (so we don't have to move things around later), & cut down several pine trees. Whew!  We're both sore & tired, but happy for some positive work.  We were getting discouraged with all the hurdles we have been dealing with lately, so we needed to do things to turn the momentum from negative to positive.  Tomorrow we build raised beds...and plant some hardy perennials.   It's worth every ache, twinge and neuropathy-tingle!!

Edited March 4, 2018 by kappydell

[Ambergris]

Smilax tips are good--treat them like asparagus.

 

[The WE2's]

On 3/1/2018 at 5:07 PM, Jeepers said:

Sorry to hear your doggy had to have surgery. Vet bills cost as much as human medical bills. Except they get much better care. My dog had allergies too and the vet always prescribed prednisone. If all else fails you might try OTC Benadryl. The dosage chart is listed in the link below. If you can't open it let me know and I'll copy/paste it.

 

http://www.anydogrescue.org/benadryl-for-dogs/

Vet put our girl on OTC allergy meds a long time ago when she had allergies.  She only needs them when she starts huffing and hacking and we know she's needing some help with allergies...which isn't very often.  She seems to have outgrown most of it.

[The WE2's]

Yesterday was the day to pull all the blueberries that were in one of the freezers out and get them jarred up.  Ended up with 32 half pints and one pint of syrup (from what was left).  They'll taste so good over ... lots of stuff!

[The WE2's]

Weather today was chilly, cloudy, misty and even blew in a few snow flakes...never know do ya! LOL  Bathroom remodel is still in progress.  My van is still in progress...5 months!  We went to check on it and the mechanic had left the doghouse cover off and CATS WERE CAMPED OUT IN MY VAN!  Hubby had a fit and let the fella know we were very unhappy.  Maybe he'll get off his duiff and get the rebuilt transmission back in my vehicle!  He's got my van and 1000$ of my money (deposit) and 5 months of me being without my transportation, and Mr's backup transportation.  Got into this mess because he was a "friend" of hubby's....sound familiar?

[kappydell]

On ‎3‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 8:50 PM, Ambergris said:

Smilax tips are good--treat them like asparagus.

 

I was hoping we could eat them, we have lots of shoots.  This place was vacant land for quite a few years.

 

[The WE2's]

Jarred up 5 half pints of raspberries that have been stored in one of my freezers.   I'll remove rings, rash jars and label in the morning. 

 

Edited March 8, 2018 by The WE2's
Forgot pic!

[The WE2's]

Breakfast was served...scrambled eggs, bacon and pancakes with our own homemade blueberry syrup.  Oh my what a taste treat! No waffle house gonna match this! 

[Jeepers]

That looks yummy! At first I thought it was a happy smiley face puppy.

[kappydell]

Today M said we would have a do-nothing day.  She was sore after we were lifting those large 2x12x12 boards and positioning them for making our raised bed garden.

(I'm never going to believe THAT again!!)  After a nap, she was raring to go again, so we wrestled those boards into place and put together one bed and half the other before we got too tired to move.  It will be interesting to see how sore we are tomorrow. 

I wonder how many days physical labor it takes to 'adapt' to it?  It used to take about a week, in my younger days, to get used to the physicality of summer after the winter doldrums.  Methinks it will take longer this year.  Meanwhile....we are using the hot tub....a lot!    

 

But I'm never going to believe her when she says we are having a 'rest day' again!  

[Mt_Rider]

3 hours ago, Jeepers said:

That looks yummy! At first I thought it was a happy smiley face puppy.

 

SOMEbody had puppies on the brain right now. 

 

 

DH is home now....hopefully my folks won't need him again for a while.  He's spent several nights and days with them as my dad dealt with a medical issue.  He got their mail.  He bought groceries/sundries.  He ordered food delivered to save my exhausted mom from feeding the 3 of them.  Today my dad was cleared [by a slim margin!].  The medication is doing what needs doin'.  All other 'stuff' can stop and he can go back to normal with just another medication!!    

 

       

 

And that's just the pary Koa is throwing to have her other person back home.  She's in heat and nuthin' has been right. 

Actually she's been less problem than my sick cat....  who seems to be far better IF her digestion tract eating/eliminating would work right. 

 

The four of us are truly thankful for prayers to keep us all going during this latest strain!!!!   

 

MtRider  .....now to get everything back to normal....wait  ....normal has been pretty straining too lately.    

 

 

[Jeepers]

Yeah, Mt. Rider, I've pretty much gone to the dogs. LOL

 

I was just wondering, would your parents qualify for an assistant (can't think of the proper name) for 1-2 days a week? Someone to do light housework like dusting and vacuuming and linen change and laundry?

[Mt_Rider]

4 hours ago, Jeepers said:

Yeah, Mt. Rider, I've pretty much gone to the dogs. LOL

 

 

Actually, for the first time, they are thinking about it.  My college friend in MN has good things to say about Visiting Angels.  Her mom achieved her 103 Bday in Feb.  Whoooeee!  Still in their home with D.  Her mom gets around ok....no walker or anything.  But D doesn't want her alone for a whole day when she commutes to work on the other side of a large metro area.  So between telecommuting for D's job one day a week and Visiting Angels, her mom is able to stay in their home.   

 

My folks are just starting to need some help....more than we can provide full time.  We're all so glad this episode is over.  They assisted us last summer by providing $ so DH could take a month off his work to heal from blood clot in lung.  Now he's helped them in many ways for the past 2wks.  It's what family does, if they can. 

 

MtRider  .....now we've got to get some of our immediate things attended to.... need to fetch hay again on Sat -ugh!

Edited March 9, 2018 by Mt_Rider

[kappydell]

Went to doc for follow up on sleep test.  my apnea has gotten worse, so I'm getting a larger (nose & mouth) mask, and another test to tweak the machine, IF it ever gets here.  

 

The repair person from Fleetwood mobile homes came today (after 1 hrs notice) and fixed the crack in the ceiling, and the front door (huge gap underneath letting in cold air).  

 

Another trip to Lowe's (more parts for raised bed garden) turned into a budget pinching spree in the garden area - we bought two hibiscus bushes, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprout & kale starts, tomato starts (those have to wait to go in though, still not warm enough) and more seeds.  Mary kept looking for sweet potato seeds, and asking me where to find those.  She did not know they were started from slips, which I will probably want to order since I want bush types, not spreading ones.  The garden is a mere 432 square feet this year, we need to save space.  

 

We even looked at Lowes' fruiting trees, but those were all full sized, and what would I do with 4-6 bushels each, of 8 different fruits besides go canning- crazy?  We want dwarfs, as they tend to produce 1-2 bushels each, which is much more manageable, and no climbing on ladders to harvest & tend.  So what if they only produce 20 years or so?  If we're still spry by then we will phase in new ones as the old ones fail.  The plan (ideally) is for two apple, one pear, one peach, one plum, an Asian pear, a crabapple (for jelly pectin), 2 elderberries (down by the creek to grow 'wild') and grapes (bunch AND at least one muscadine).  That will set us back a bit, hence the budgeting spread.  It will take a couple years for them to get big enough to produce anyway.  Along with the raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, and a couple service berry bushes we certainly will not be short of fruit to eat!  

 

We picked up three blueberry bushes (this is big time blueberry country, so have to at least try those) and soil to fill  the strawberry raised bed plot - we already have plants to put it - 50 or so.  We have to set up our asparagus, raspberry and rhubarb patches, too.  (Now you can guess why we bought over an acre, instead of a single 6/10 acre lot.....to cram it full of edibles!)

 

Tomorrow we have no appointments....so we will work on garden set-up some more.  The neighbors all are driving by to look and tell us the deer will eat us out of all our work (they never heard of the peanut butter on foil electric fence thing?)

 

The shrubs (camellias, including a tea plant) and trees (fruiting, and magnolias) will have to wait for next pension check cycle.  So glad we already have some very pretty redbud trees blooming!   Such  lovely sign of spring!  I've never seen crape myrtles, I'm looking forward to seeing those bloom, too.

[out_of_the_ordinary]

everyone!

 

Kappy, try checking back at Lowes near the end of (what they consider to be) the planting season.  It's hit or miss, but  I've gotten good deals on clearance stuff there.  The clearance $1 raspberry bushes we bought several years ago are still good producers.    I've seen fruit trees highly discounted then, too.  

 

Trying to stay warm here.   We've had more spring-like than winter-like weather for the past couple of weeks.   Now it's down in the 20s again and my body needs to adjust.  Brr!

 

I bought a set of Foxfire books.   I haven't read any yet as I'm working through a big stack of books I bought for our home/homeschool library.   I see there are 2 more books that are anniversary ones.   Are those worthwhile as well?

 

Has anyone read the Little Britches series by Ralph Moody?   I've read the first 2 so far: Little Britches: Father and I Were Ranchers,  and Man of the Family.  They were EXCELLENT!!  There's 8 in the series.  I've ordered the next two.   

 

 

 

[Annarchy]

It's been a long week.

 

 I had planted a Palo Verde hedge, from sprouts around the yard, years ago, because a nursery had asked if I would save the trees for them.  Only, they went out of business before the got the trees, so the trees had grown up.  Our landscaper friend cut them down, a couple of weeks ago, and I worked on digging out the roots this week.  DH tried to pull them out with his truck, but they wouldn't budge.  I dug a couple feet down, cut them off, applied root killer and filled in the area.  We need the extra room to park our trailer, in order to park the car on the car port.  Along with that, we gathered all the paint cans from the neighbors house for the HazMat collection tomorrow.  We've continued to help out the family as they try to re-model the house.  They also gave me 28 cinderblocks with capstones.  I used my hand truck with 2 per load.  Yes, kappydell, I will agree, it takes longer to recover from stressed muscles, than it did years ago.  LOL

 

We cleaned out our shed yesterday, in order to collect all the HazMat materials, old paint, oils, batteries, etc. that can't be thrown in the dumpster.  I took a truck load of boxes and 40 years of National Geographic magazines to the recycle bin.  The magazines were a heartbreaker to throw away.  Every issue with inserts kept in pristine condition, no body wanted them, not the libraries, not the bookstores, and I certainly was not going to ship them, the cost would have been horrible.  So....  they are gone and we have space in the shed again.

 

Grrr went to the vet for arthritis pain meds, but he reacted badly to the pill.  He's back on low dose aspirin and seems to be doing a little better.  Grumpy 'ole dog.  Growls at everyone, grumbles when he sits down and generally grumps at Gunny.

 

The ferrets caught our crud and we almost lost 2.  Found them sprawled out on the floor, first thing in the morning, and had to make "duck soup" for them 4-6 times a day & night to bring them out of it.

 

MIL's meetings are happening a week early this year.  So, I am rushing around trying to get everything prepared for my trip.  Mom asked for 'bean soup' - basically, bean juice.  I usually strain the beans out and make refried beans for us and she gets the juice.  She loves it and goes through about 4-5 packages a month.  I package it 1-2 cups per bag and freeze it.  This month, I will also include a couple cinnamon rolls I made for DH earlier this week.  I still need to make his apple crumble pie before the apples I bought go bad.  In other words, before I leave on Wednesday.

 

DH wants to take the Dee-Oh-Geez to the lake on Monday.  Tuesday will be packing and cleaning out the car so I can chauffer the Ladies to the CoC meeting on Thursday.    

 

My garden is growing like a weed, PTL.  The tomatoes transplanted great and are already showing height and new leaves, the jalapenos are flowering, beets are getting huge, even with constantly harvesting beet greens for meals.  The zucchini plants are recovering from the cold and are beginning to flower.  A few of the tomatillo plants survived the bird attack and are beginning to get some extra leave.  And celery has sprouted in the carrot area.  I did harvest a carrot to make a Dutch oven chicken soup, it was 8 inches long and 2 inches in diameter.  Wow was I surprised.  

 

Spent several hours here, reading old posts, collecting recipes.  Funny how a conversation can go from one thing to another in one thread.  

 

Well, time to get the next item taken care of on my ToDo list.

 

Hope everyone is having a blessed day.

 

[Jeepers]

Annarchy said -------->  "Dee-Oh-Geez " 

 

I thought I was the only one who spelled in front of the d-o-g. T-R-E-A-T  and  V-E-T  and  O-U-T being my most used.

[Mt_Rider]

Sheesh, Annarchy.  Makes me tired just reading all you do.  Good you still can.....carefully!!!   

 

Neat how so many have learned how to adapt gardens to specific ecosystems/climates. 

 

MtRider  .....still really warmer winter than normal.  {Some exceptions apply.}        

 

 

[Annarchy]

7 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

Sheesh, Annarchy.  Makes me tired just reading all you do.  Good you still can.....carefully!!!   

 

 

Carefully IS the right word. My last dentist visit revealed the bone loss from osteoporosis has progressed a lot. My jaw bones used to look like a sponge, now, the look like a loofah sponge.   They told me ‘don’t fall’. Ya think?

 

Time to get at it. The birds are singing, the sun is shining and I need to load the truck up and take it to the Collection center. 

[snapshotmiki]

I ordered a green metal garden cart off eBay yesterday. Holds 660 pounds. EBay had a 20% off coupon for anything over $25.00 for one day. Only paid $55.45 including shipping. Probably pay a kid something to help put it together, but now the kid can clean out the goat shed (more money). And I can haul bags of dirt and mix around for my lick tub garden. Won't get it in until about the fist of April, but that is fine. 

This morning I have already vacuumed and done the one load of laundry that needed doing. Still have to make white chocolate chip cookies for DH and a Chicken Pot Pie for dinner. And list a couple of pairs of jeans on eBay.