WHATCHA DOING TODAY?

[Jeepers]

Tree/fence guy returned my email and called me today. Butter wouldn't melt. He always sounds so sweet though. I gave very curt,  "Um-hums, okays and a goodbye." He said he sent someone out to look at it this morning and he was soooo sorry. He thought it was already taken care of. Said someone would be out either last thing of today or first thing tomorrow. I've heard it all before from him.

 

The email I sent was a reply on all of the emails we have sent back and forth so he could see all of our correspondences. And that I have them saved. Here is the last email I sent yesterday. Except I had the name of our town in it:

 

"Glenn Anderson,

Please return and complete the work I contracted and paid for in October, 2017. My back yard is still a mess and it needs mowed. The city will flag me if it isn't taken care of soon. Unfortunately, I did pay you in full before the job was completed. I do not want to leave a negative review on your web site, the Better Business Bureau and the city of (my town). Please make my back yard mowable and fill in the post holes and underneath the sidewalk with the soil that I paid an extra $50.00 for and level the raised areas toward the back where the fence corners were."

 

When I talked to the city last year about getting my fence removed, they told me this company does a lot of work for them so that little threat probably lit a fire under him. I've been told "I'll send someone out in the morning" before.

[snapshotmiki]

Fertilized veggie plants, picked up bits of trash near road, cleaned bathrooms and dusted house. Still need to make the pie from yesterday but I did get the ice cream topping made. Going to take a nap when I get off computer!

[Mt_Rider]

Hopefully this guy's crew will show up soooon.      (((Jeepers)))

 

Annarchy....we once had to buy a bright orange Herbie. We had the VW only cuz some drunk ran a red and smashed/destroyed into my beloved truck.   Worse, DH was driving and he will always have two crushed vertebrae from that collision. Ugh!  VW's are easy to drive but a bit claustrophobic in them.  They hold nearly nothing in back seat/truck.....and ....no heat or defrost in winter.   We had to open driver's window and stick hand out to use scraper on outside of windshield.   Then it blew something in engine and DH had to rebuild it.....while in back brace from the accident.     We have less-than-fond memories of that time period. 

 

  for the right job for TheCG!

 

MtRider 

[Annarchy]

Mt_R, sorry about your experience.  An accident crushed 3 vertebrae in the middle of my back, wore a body cast for over a year. Yucky experience. I really enjoyed the challenge of owning my VW. Anything that quite working, I could fix.  Mostly everything. Lol. As a 6 volt, it didn’t like to run at night with the lights on. I carried a charger with me on trips over 60 miles, and would pull into a gas station and plug in.   One time, I made my brother shine a flashlight out the window on the white line so we could get through a reservation in our area. We got pulled over 10 miles from home. The officer was my next door neighbor. He followed us home and told me, if he caught me out after dark again before I fixed my lights, he’d make sure I got a ticket. Lol. It turned out to be a 12 volt headlight. Lol. 

 

Today, one Lady met us at the house, we picked up the next Lady and met up with the other 3 Ladies. We split up into 3 per car and headed for our meeting at the cities Rescue Mission. 

 

They gave us a presentation of all the things they do and their projections for the near future. They are doing some great things for the people down on their luck here. The Mission is faith based.  They have another location on the next block for walk ins. They provide showers, food and clean clothes for those folks. The ones who are serious about getting back on their feet, they provide services, housing, and programs, designed to help them. They also have an area that receives people who come out of the hospital and have no place to go. The local hospitals pay the full salary of the nurses that work in that program.  They also are training a lot of the people in food service, to give them job skills. Of which, we enjoyed, smoked brisket and turkey for our lunch. They have a food truck that goes around, that brings in revenue for the Mission. The CoC donated a chunck of $$$ today, trying to help them make a matching donation of $50,000, another donator has offered. They rent rooms, similar to college dorm rooms to people that need the assistance, but, they include job training to incourage people to be able to become independent again. There is a lot more, I won’t bore you with. Having had to utilize a shelter, when I was young, that place is a beautiful facility compared to what I experienced. Such is life. 

 

Got home and worked on Mom’s sprinkler system. It was missing the center of the front yard. Not any more. 

 

Tomorrow, I will be setting up the back yard sprinklers. I am using Hunter PGJ sprinklers, water hoses, risers on the metal spikes. They are usually installed underground, but, most lawn care people mow the sprinkler heads off, creating an additional expense to replace them. By putting them above ground, it’s their fault if they hit them. 

 

Here’s the before/after pics of the front yard. 

 

 

[kappydell]

Today I spent much of the day drawing little scenes on 2 inch wood rounds.  My artist friend is getting ready to hit the flea market on Sat and needs extra hands.  Good thing I can draw!

I also painted 50 stars apiece on her distressed wood flags, 13 stars in a circle on one of them (that was interesting to lay out) and when I left for dinner I left her my brainstorming sketches in case she needed more ideas.  Tonight I brainstormed with a "lodge" theme...bears, mooses, animal tracks, fish and pine trees...I will be dreaming that stuff tonight! 

 

Picked lettuce & chard for dinner.  Oh! how nice the fresh stuff tastes!  I'm sprouting celery "bottoms" in the kitchen  to slip into empty spots as they occur.  Its quicker than seeds & I can dehydrate it for seasoning.  The fox was screaming again tonight; with the coyotes howling and some unidentified critter sounding off this place sounds like a ZOO!  I didn't know Zoolander was an adjective until tonight.

[Jeepers]

Guess who came to my house early this morning and fixed my yard? And they did a great job too. I have a lot of yard work that needs to be done this year but not by them.

 

I'm speechless Annarchy. That is beautiful!  And way to go CoC. Awesome work!

[Mt_Rider]

Excellent, Jeepers.  Knock off another project from the list. 

 

Kappy...I used to paint Christmas scenes on small pine rounds.  I tend to paint very tiny scenes and if I didn't sand down the wood smooth, it was awful hard to paint up and down the lumps and grooves with tiny pictues.  I haven't done such things in decades...but it sure is fun to create!

 

Green grass.....prettttty!   

 

Heading into the village for skin doc follow-up.  See if any other 'patches' have shown up.  Better to catch it early....like I didn't the first one.  Didn't sleep well so I'm hardly moving yet..... 

 

MtRider     

[Midnightmom]

Mt Rider-

 

Every once in a while my DH would decide to take the "scenic" road home from the valley to the ridge where we lived.  It too was a narrow winding road with granite on one side and a drop off to the valley on the other.  In Calif traffic driving UPhill has right-of-way so every time we would approach one of the blind turns he would slow down to almost a stop and beep the horn to "warn" others we were coming. Not everybody "got the message." I was sooooooooooooooo glad HE was the one that was driving!

Edited May 11, 2018 by Midnightmom
ETA pic of road

[snapshotmiki]

Not sure if I said this in an earlier post but DH does have COPD and some kind of bacteria colonizing in his lungs.  Antibiotics for now and maybe oxygen down the road.  Great diagnosis as far as we are concerned!

 

Today, I finally made the mango pie, made mashed potatoes to go with the meatloaf I thawed, cooked corn on the cob, ran to the grocery store and the hardware store.  Took some eBay photos.  Now, taking it easy!

[Mt_Rider]

Oh wow, Midnight!    Yep, that's a dooozy!  Ours would merely be an axle-threatening drop into the creek...but not a mountain drop. 

LOL...definition of the Scenic Route:  Driver has white-knuckle focus on the few feet ahead of vehicle.  Passengers have their eyes covered. 

 

So Miki...is that a complete diagnosis for all he's been experiencing????  Bacteria colonizing....  eh, they need an immediate eviction notice!    Did anyone say what might have caused the COPD? 

 

Got a pretty much all-clear from skin doc.  Site of that awful surgery last Nov was pleasing to him.  I do have 2 scars on face but they aren't too bad.  He sprayed that super-chill on two spots on my face that were a bit granular.  And it took us 4X as long to travel as it did to be in the appt.  Neither DH or I am feeling well today.  Not microbe illness....just our stuff.  I think we're both doing a bit better now. 

 

MtRider 

[snapshotmiki]

5 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

Did anyone say what might have caused the COPD? 

 

 

They keep saying it is from when he smoked.  Smoked for about 15 years and quit 30 years ago.  I don't know.  Just glad to have a diagnosis to start with!

[kappydell]

Tonight it was LOL at my friends' house - the fish sketches drew much comment.  She saw my new sketches and we made up a couple hangings: one was "Lake Life" one was "Lets go Fishing" and one was a nautical theme (I never sketched a sloop before).  Her husband liked the lodge sketches, they are 'guy' oriented.  We will be prepping those for Fathers' Day sales, for tonight they were pricing & packing in preparation to the flea market tomorrow.  I painted another 50 starts on another flag - I'm getting pretty good at free-handing those with the paint pen.  A lot of the merchandise this trip was family & mom oriented.  

 

I was astonished at the prices they showed me on line for the wooden American Flags - $60 and up - they figure they will prices theirs for $40.  I hope they do well - obody had such things at the flea market when she did their recon.  Mary & I will feed & check on the dogs for them while they are gone.  

 

My safety glasses' frame snapped on me today.  They were less than 1 year old, so Walmart replace them for free.  When we bought we got a pair and a spare apiece.  So no problem - just wore the spares until they originals were done.  Nice...

 

It was 90 degrees here today and humid.  Normal summer weather.  A neighbor dropped off his wood splitter for us to use, so tomorrow we will get started in the morning, break around noon, siesta until around 3:00 PM then split more before dinner.  We have the splitter for the weekend.  Trying now to think of something to gift him with (he has plenty of wood, so a share of that won't work) in thanks.  Our neighbors are somewhat rough-hewn but they have the proverbial hearts of gold, and their children are far better behaved than others because they still believe in that old time child training tool....discipline!  It is refreshing.   

[Annarchy]

Woof, this dog is tired. 

 

Woke up around 5am, listening to a mockingbird singing outside my window. Got a cup of coffee and did my reading. In the back of my mind, trying to figure out how to make Mom’s sprinkler system work. 

 

Decided to start it from the front yard spigot, because it has the pressure needed.  I’d need another 50’ section of hose and another spigot divider. Went out and measured, by footsteps. I needed another 2 50’ sections. Drank another cup of coffee and headed out to WM. Got there and decided I’d pick up a couple of steaks and asparagus for dinner, we had leftover mashed potatoes to go with, my plan to not let Mom spend money taking me out for dinner, was set in motion. 

 

Headed home, and stopped to fill the car for tomorrow’s trip home. The news said 7-11 and Avalon gas stations were out of gas. I’d noticed the signs, but didn’t realize that was what they were for. Gas was $2.99/gal. before taxes. Ouch!  

Got home before Mom got up. “Perfect”, I thought.  She wouldn’t know about dinner plans until she had her morning cereal. 

 

Went out and connected the hose to the front, added the next section of hose and tossed it over the rock wall. Walked around the house, through the gate and over to the hose, only to discover I had it set up to go clockwise and using the other spigot would make it go counter clockwise. Ok, I thought, just turn the hoses around. 50’ by 50’ sections were changed, time to test it. To my frustration, the water sprayed only 10’. Crud!  I said a few prayers, asking for help to fix it and get it working. In the end, I had to change my plan of having it go around the perimeter, and change several sections of hoses, several times, and change the spray nozzles, and move the back sprinklers into the center of the yard. Not my ideal plan, but now it covers 98% of the backyard. (Thank you God for helping me find the solution.   )

 

By that time, 3 pm, Mom came out to see it and had me leave it running for a while. I was able to make several adjustments to the spray radius to cover a little more area, then took a break. While sitting and watching a marathon of “Last Man Standing”, I put together the LED solar starburst lights, DH had gotten her for Mother’s Day, to replace the old ones we got her over 10 years ago. Only one of them was still working. The sun had fried the solar panels. 

 

Pulled out the grill and cooked. Mom seemed to enjoy dinner, then I did dishes and turned on the front sprinklers, triple checking, that they cover all of her yard without over spraying  on to the cement, road, or the neighbors yard. Even with the wind blowing!

 

To end the day, Mom turned on Live PD, and DH & I texted quirky comments about the show. ? 

 

Now, it’s time to get some sleep. I have to go home tomorrow. 

 

Here’s a picture I took to compare with next month. And a pic of her solar lights. 

And, just for fun, one of her turtles was already loving the sprinklers. 

[kappydell]

On behalf of the turtles....thank you, Friend to Turtles.  Mary likes to joke with our friend about eating her pet turtle....her husband keeps calling us 'cooter-eaters' which we all giggle about.  He get fed some fresh Romaine lettuce leaves when we go visit, with the admonition to 'eat up, you need to put on weight!  Fred the turtle seems to take it in good stride, I guess he is a good sport.  

 

Today M & I split wood on the wood splitter the neighbor loaned us.  It worked good.  He came over after about an hour (it was 98 degrees today) and shoed us that the splitter could be tipped to work vertically.  YIPPEE!  Now instead of lifting 40-50 lb logs up to split them, we can ROLL those babies on, and SIT to split them and stay sitting while we tossed onto a pile, and put on another log.  I think we got about 1 cord split before we got too hot (we were monitoring ourselves and each other carefully).  The dogs stayed in the air conditioned house (they pouted) and we took a gallon of water along.  We drank it...and wore it....and mopped our heads with it.  

M refused sun block and got a burn.  I (experienced pale person) put on +50 sun block along with my wide brimmed hat.  I will sleep tonight more easily than she will.  

Tomorrow, after church more wood splitting, picking of more romaine lettuce (we are taking some to our friends).  I was astounded to see the grocery store selling one 'head' (if you can call it that) for $1.85.  Now I really appreciate that garden!!!  M also watered the new grass seed lightly, and our fruit plantings.  The Asian pear tree has not leafed out nor shown signs of life yet, but it is still green/in-dead so we are hoping it is a slow starter.   When we looked into one of our hollow stumps while discussing cutting them flat to the ground, we found an baby (pinky sized) black and orange snake.  We instituted a look before you touch (or step) protocol since finding out how much snakes like woodpiles (and our first scorpion nest) so its a good thing, I guess.  I have to google the snakes around here, since I don't know yet the local poisonous from non-poisonous ones yet.  (Though I do know the black snake is protected and not to harm one.)  

 

Our friends went to the flea market to sell their wares.  They made over $100, which was very good considering they were outdoors under a tin roof, no fan, in the back and the temperatures where they were sitting got to over 100 degrees.  Compared to the others around them they were selling well.  People seemed to take a shine to the picture frames, and her wooden wind chimes (those are what I drew scenes on the little rounds for) and her motto boards (as she calls them). They sold a couple of the American flags, and were commissioned to make a custom rustic frame.  They sold most of their motto boards, which pleased them because they are very easy and quick to make.  They are thinking of making some in Spanish for next week,  because there were quite a few Hispanics there looking but not buying.  Quite a few people took their cards, and said they were out of money (spent it all before they got to them, that is) and would return next week.  It was an interesting trial run.  Next week, they will o in two cars - one with the merchandise one with their 'comfort factor' items, such as box fans, chairs, a cooler full of ice and sodas, and lunch.  So all in all they were gratified with todays market experience, learning a lot, and I am excited for them on their new venture.  A couple evenings I will go over and draw on more wood for them to create with.  It's gratifying to see them make something out of wood we would otherwise simply burn.

 

Our doggie 'community' continues to evolve.  Jack the energetic aussie has decided to be the guardian and big brother to the Chihuahua pups.  He is so gentle when he brings the tug toy over to play tug of war with mini-sized (compared to him) Missy.  He even lets her win once in a while!  And when one of the little guys yelps because they wrestling got a little wild, he dashes over and checks for injuries on "his'' babies!  Duke the min-pin plays with them too, but sometimes gets a little crabby when they get overly rambunctious (trying to filch his food, or toys for example).  So we are kept hopping supervising the doggy horse-play.  

 

 

[TheCG]

I think I need to start getting my shopping done early, when it's cool out.  Once it gets over 95F or so, it's just too hot to be traipsing across the parking lot and going in and out of cool buildings.  When we left a friend's place around 8:30 last night, the truck still said it was 90F out.

 

Today, I slept all the way until about 8:45 and sent hubby off to church on his own.  I'm tired.

[Ambergris]

The beau gave me an electric chainsaw for Mother's Day, and DS2 gave me a promise of labor hours. 

[Mt_Rider]

Grabbed lunch from our favorite restaurant....take out.  Ate with my folks.  I'd gotten my mom a prequel to her favorite N.Dakota homesteading seriies [which I've also read...Red River of the North/Lorainne Snelling]  My mom didn't even know there was a prequel book....and I've been sitting on this surprise for several months.    Nice day with them.  I slept the whole time DH drove us home.    I didn't get much sleep last nite - woke and didn't get back to sleep.  Hmph!  Bad timing.  Any other day I could have slept in.

 

My DDs called and left messages.  Will likely call again later now that we're home.  They sent a bunch of roses to their Grma.    I got a box of goodies.   

 

DH hauled a recliner chair [in two pieces, fortunately] from upstairs at my folks to the living room.  My dad needs to keep his feet elevated and this will help a lot.  He didn't use it up in the 'loft' area.  Fortunately, DH was having a good energy day.  Couldn't have done that on Friday.  ......we're all wearing out. 

 

Our weather is very very nice.  Cool enough and sunny. 

 

MtRider  ....Happy Mother's day to all

Edited May 14, 2018 by Mt_Rider

[TheCG]

I've read 20 or 30 of the Red River books and enjoyed them a lot.  The library had them where I could download them on Kindle for a few weeks instead of hauling the whole stack of them home. 

[Becca_Anne]

Relaxing day, calls and flowers from the kids and my hubby made dinner. Reading is on my agenda for the rest of the evening

[Jeepers]

I slept nearly all weekend. I got up and ate a little bit on Saturday then turned on the MP3 player and I didn't wake up until son called wishing me happy Mother's Day. I went back to sleep and the phone woke me up with D-ex wishing me a happy Mother's Day. I rolled back over and didn't get up until midnight Monday morning. Talk about getting your days and nights mixed up! Now I need to stay awake until tonight so I can get back on track again.

 

I think part of the problem was the books on CD. Actually, it's Old Time Radio programs. They can put me to sleep. Plus the fan blowing in my face and it was raining some of the time.  I think I comatized myself. 

[snapshotmiki]

Easy day yesterday!  Church in the morning and not much else. Italian subs and potato salad for dinner.  Today, I've been messing around in the garden area already, have to run to the post office and to get one more bag of top soil and ice.  I need to google and find a you tube video on how to fix my ice maker.  Probably easy and it hasn't worked since we bought the house.  I have to do a little eBay today and that's about it, I think.

[Mt_Rider]

Our first THUNDER STORM with RAIN hit last nite at 2am.  Fortunately, I was just getting ready to sleep.  Unfortunately the first loud thunder woke and startled Koa.  She BARKED like someone stuck a pin in her.......which woke DH like someone stuck a pin in him.     ....took a while for everyone to calm back down and sleep. 

 

MtRider  ...glad for the rain  

[TheCG]

Our 50% chance of rain for today has been downgraded to 20%.

 

I sprayed the inside of the first 2 drawers from the camper with Kilz.  And ran out.  Hubby had this strange idea that 1 spray can would cover 5 drawers.  Pfffffft.  Going to bring them in once I'm sure they're dry (just in case it does rain...), then go get more paint.

[TheCG]

Other important things happening today: I ordered a new hand fan.  'cause melting is bad.

[Momo]

Hope everyone had a great Mothers Day!

 

DS forgot about Mothers Day it until 8 pm last night when I got a frantic phone call.  To tell the truth I didn't care.  I'm just so wore out with DH's health issues. We spent every day last week with appt's and tests.  He isn't having any pain but he is still weak and his blood pressure is way too low.  His oxygen is getting better and his blood cancer is getting worse.  We put out 1 fire and another one pops up. At least he hasn' t had to go back to the hospital.

 

I still have a UTI that I can't shake..they have tried several antibiotics but it never goes away 100%.  Maybe stress has something to do with it?? 

 

Summer arrived this weekend.  We hit 90 degrees.  So far it isn't humid but that's a comin' soon.

 

Snapshotmiki, my DH was a heavy smoker for 50 years and now has COPD.  He finally quit last February (2017) but he's still using nicotine patches. For some reason his oxygen is getting better but he'll never be "cured"