WHATCHA DOING TODAY?

[Mt_Rider]

WE2s....Praying that God will provide all that you need to see this cousin soon.     And that HE will bring her and family comfort.

 

We'll be having car repair bills....when ever we can get in....during double holidays.  Steering fluid leaking.... Long story.  Hitched to town with DH when took it in to be looked at.  He dropped me off to see folks for a while.  Didn't get to do any of the holiday plans with my mom today.      

 

Hoping we either get it IN and Fix Completed tomorrow  {not likely} OR soon after 2020 arrives.  DH works Sun/Mon/Tues...and then it's New Year's Day.  Praying the system will work thru this holiday/working time just by pouring the fluid in.  Seems to be dripping, not pouring but....who knows.  Can be quite expensive, apparently. 

 

While we were gone, the ladies came to fetch our duckies.  Didn't know they were coming today.  A relief....with all the stuff that we're trying to deal with at once.  But...sad.    Only Koa now.

 

MtRider  ....I hate learning about vehicles - means there's been something wrong. 

[Annarchy]

 for everyone.

 

Home safe.  It rained a lot here, at least 2 inches.  
 

Unpacked and have been busy getting laundry done, all day.
 

Our hen lady fell, doing a face plant on the sidewalk going home. She says I owe her. No problem. She’ll get a dozen homemade cinnamon rolls and... I’ll think of something else...  

 

Dark clouds are moving in.  I hope to get one more load done & cover the washer & dryer before it hits. It’s been off and on, cold windy, between spaces of sunshine. Supposed to drop close to freezing tonight. Cabbage, beets & carrots seem to have loved the rain and cold.  The spices are hanging in there.  Camomile is growing like a weed in the spice garden and all around the outside area...  a weed in the lawn I will let grow.  Mmmmmm, camomile tea. 

 

[Littlesister]

Ann, glad to hear you are home safe and sound. So sorry to hear your hen lady fell. Hope she is ok.  going out for her.

WE2,   going out for your cousin as well and that you have gotten there to see him. Stay safe.

 

I went this morning to Lowe's to buy a few plastic boxes as I am reoranizing all the Christmas stuff. I am tired of having to retape boxes together. So went through a lot of things and tightened up. Next year it will only be the tree going up and nothing else. I have spent the day taking down all the things I had sitting on tables like candles, flower arrangements, etc. The tree will come down New years day. But all the rest is getting packed up and in garage to go back out to shed. I have to do some work in shed to get things reorangized so I can find things. 

 

We have passed the batton to my daughter that is 15 minutes away from us. So next year no cooking, just head to daughter's house. My step daughter is not happy about it but will have to get over it. She will be going there next year as we are not going though tunnels and fight that traffic.  Though it has been a rough 4 or 5 months we really did have a wonderful time.  Now it is back to doctor appts.

DH's liver counts are way up, Don't know why yet. Mine did that and it was medication. Hoping and praying that is all his is. That can be fixed.  So on Jan. 17th he will be having a CT scan and on Jan 6th the barium swallow. He is getting weaker, so please keep him in prayer.  I will have to tell my daughter in law what is going on with him after we find out and I know when she does she will try to take over his care.  Thank you HIPPA. They can't talk to her. She will have to go through me and her father. She has always given me issues.  And you don't want to know what she put her step father through when her mother passed away. Never in my life have I heard such a mess. I am not going through that.  We have a trust, so she is out of luck.  Seems all he does these days is sleep. I need to go wake him up for dinner soon.

 

But in light of everything going on, I hope everyone has a wonderful NEW YEAR. May it be a wonderful blessing for all that is here on this forum.   And I thank everyone for the prayers for DH. 

[The WE2's]

22 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

Only Koa now.

 

Just think of how spoiled you're going to make her!  She'll love it!

[The WE2's]

4 hours ago, Annarchy said:

a face plant on the sidewalk

 

That's happened to me twice...absolutely scarey!  The first one I thought for sure I'd knocked out all my front teeth.  Second one not quite so bad, but still hurt like the dickens.  I've finally figured out that as we age we have a tendency to "drag" our feet (shuffle?) and steps up or steps down are dangerous if we don't consciously lift our feet ... and ... hold onto a rail if it's steps!

 

[The WE2's]

4 hours ago, Littlesister said:

there to see him

 

She...so far we haven't heard any more...so will just wait to see what the doctors are suggesting.

[The WE2's]

4 hours ago, Littlesister said:

We have a trust

 

Everything we own (even our bank account) is in a Revocable Living Trust.  Good management!

[The WE2's]

Been raining most of the day...some areas around us have had some pretty heavy storms and even tornado watches.  Made up some more dessicant packettes and re-jarred my Nido Instant Powdered Milk (100%).  That stuff is so rich!  Love it!  Hubby (as usual) worked on the homestead project.  Did have to re-distribute some put back dollars to renew his cell phone minutes.  NOT a good time to have to do that, but if we didn't he'd lose his accumulated minutes and probably even lose his current plan.  They've been trying to get us off our plans for a very long time.  We have a pre-paid card...no monthly fee.  We just buy 1000 minutes for 100$ and that's it.  If we renew before the expiration date (or the minutes are used up) we get a bonus of roll over minutes.  We never use all our minutes.  We only call and receive calls...and sometimes I text.  All we need.  We have desktop pc's that take care of everything else...even this site! LOL

[Jeepers]

Praying for your cousin We2 and also for your husband Littlesister. I found out one of my cousins who has diabetes is now in stage 3 kidney failure. She seems to be doing fine but is tired of the whole ordeal. My other cousin who died from kidney disease got to be the same way and pretty much have up.  

 

I had the time of my life in Indiana over Christmas. Will report the good the bad and the ugly later. I'm so tired. 

 

One thing though, my DIL has arthritis really bad and found a cream that seems to be helping her. She gave me the name of the place where she ordered it from and I went on line to look at it. I put in my zip code to if there is a shop near me and it asked me if I wanted to block my location or something to that effect. I said yes. There is a shop about 15 minutes from me. BUT, when it showed the store it gave my town (I expected that since I put my zip code in) but it also have my full name. How in the world did it get my name just from my zip code? I've never used their product nor have I ever searched it on line. Creeped me out. 

[Homesteader]

On 12/26/2019 at 7:43 PM, The WE2's said:

 I'll still have a four-plug receptacle where the dishwasher will set, and I can use that since I'll be using the top of the DW for my microwave anyway. Got caught up on vacuuming, sweeping etc. this afternoon. Got clothes folded and put away. Still got supper bowls (fixed spaghetti) in the sink to wash.  Used up the rest of my beer bread to make garlic toast to go with supper.  Made a regular load of bread.  I have love my breadmaker ...

 

Your place sounds like ours.  I do let the breadmaker do all the work. We're building walls and ceilings around the stove and don't need the extra heat right now. The woodstove about cooks us out in the lower level right now. We send the heat upstairs and open the kitchen door for fresh air. December in Wisconsin is SO WARM. I love it.

 

Right now we're sweeping and vacuuming daily. It's that bad.  

[Mt_Rider]

It was still down at MINUS 10* .....with the sunshine...this morning at 9AM.     Don't want to ask how LOW it got.     Clear sunny day only made it up to 25* above and now at sunset...5PM....it's dropped down to 10* .  So we'll be SUBZERO again tonite.  Unless we get cloud cover?    That keeps us warmer.  

 

Even without animals, I'm SO exhausted and sore.  Clearing out snow....clearing off my truck and warming it up.  Driving it out of the way...down in barnyard so the snowplow guy can clear up here.  Koa and I went for a walk on road after driving down there.  But still the snowplow guy hadn't come, so we WALKED up.  Koa was supporting me with her body harness.  I had a ski pole support on other side.     I had JUST gotten out of the snow clothes and ...here he comes.  So when he was done, I got dressed again and we walked down to bring truck up here.    Just took Nuprin and my muscles are vibrating.  Tooo much.  I think I really hate snow.     

 

DH is at work today and the next two.  It will help if the car runs ok and we don't have any more snow....     One of these weeks, we'd like to take my mom out for Christmas....   

 

The good news was that by knocking over a pile of stuff today     I finally located the IntaPot instructions.  Oye!

 

MtRider.....good to see Jeepers and Annarchy are home safe.   

[The WE2's]

Still eating out of our pantry's and freezers.  Just a few more days and we'll at least have one ss check and breath a bit easier...even though we still plan to let our pantry's etc. feed us until we get the rest of the RE taxes paid on the Roost property.  Pulled out a Knorr Quinoa mix and put it in my rice steamer, on the stove I put some turkey, some bell peppers (from the freezer), and a can of mixed veggies in my big skillet and then added the Quinoa mixture.  Very nice supper! Dessert was Raspberry gelatin with whipped topping. and a couple of Brazil nuts  Total cost for supper tonight...about 2$  The Knorr mix we bought from a Mennonite store for 50 cents...bought a whole bunch of them.  REALLY tastey. Wanna see?

[The WE2's]

Weather was much cooler but dry and not much wind so it wasn't really that cold.  Hubby spent the afternoon at the homestead and I pittled around here. Still haven't heard anything about my cousin...if she's still in hospital or ???

[out_of_the_ordinary]

LittleSister, praying for your DH.  

Ann and Jeepers, I'm glad you're both safely home.

Mt Rider, praying you get a break from the snow and get to get out with your mom. 

We2's posts look delicious.

Homesteader, we're having the same warm weather.  We're in the 50s now, but it's supposed to drop sometime today and snow tomorrow. 

[snapshotmiki]

Praying for Littlesister's DH and WE2's cousin!  It's a rough time of year!

 

I have all Christmas down and packed away and all eBay and personal folders ready for 2020--not switched yet, of course.

 

Today, laundry is about half done, already walked, about to start a crockpot of black eyed peas with ham and then go outside and look at concrete black building in back of house--used as shed.  I want to start organizing and have a young man coming to help me later this month.

 

Mustard greens are looking great as are collards.  I have tiny little heads of cauliflower and broccoli now!

[Littlesister]

Thank you for the prayers for DH.  I have been researching about cong. heart failure and there is nothing we can do. Keeping it under control and watching his liquids, weight, BP, and diet.  He had a hard time last night with loosing his breath. So we had a long night. I am very concerned about him as now if he does anything at all he gets out of breath. Though he is also a bit on the lazy side and we went through this when he had the stroke and had to do exerizes to get his muscles back. He got the idea that he better do it then and now I am struggling with trying to get him to take short walks just to keep his heart pumping blood a bit better.  He seems to do better when he does short walks. though it does tire him out. 

 

I am learning how to do like I did when I lived on my own 35 years ago.  DH never liked me doing yard work nor any heavy lifting. He always said yard work is a man's job. But he can't do it and I hired a man to cut the grass and do the edging 2 years ago. I am thinking about this spring turning the whole yard over to him and letting him deal with the flower beds as well. I really think I will have my hands full for the next year.  We are going to have an easy Christmas next year without having to do all that work to get ready. We really do need that break.  I have been doing all of Christmas cooking, decorating the whole house, etc. now for the past 50 years with the last 35 years with DH. So a much needed break next year.  I might still make the sweet potato casserole for my middle granddaughter as she swears her mother doesn't make it right. It taste the same to me but she just likes mine better. 

 

So early this morning I went out to garden shed that DH has not done anything with in 2 years. He parked the tiller just inside the door and left it this past summer. That was the last time he was able to do much of anything in yard. So I moved it and cleaned out his shed. We have an extra gas hot water tank that was in my shed past 3 years. It was like an elephant in the room. So I moved it out of my shed into the garden shed. That gave me so much more room in my shed that I use as my attic. I reorganized a lot of things in there and made better room for the Christmas things. I found all kinds of things I had forgotten about that I have bought over the years in case of SHTF situation. life straws, extra parts for my berkey water filter. etc. So going to get all that into one box as I go through things and have it where I can get right to it. They are scattered in boxes everywhere out there. 

 

I am feeling my muscles from all the lifting today. So going to go fix dinner shortly and then take a nice hot bath with epsonsalt. Hopefully I won't be hurting after that.  

 

WE2 wish we could use the knorr,s products. They are really good but way to much salt for DH.  

 

My engine light came on again, so got to find the time to get car looked at. Don't need car problems now. 

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful NEW YEAR.  God bless.

 

 

 

 

[Mt_Rider]

Yay, WE2s.  You're getting thru your slim time just fine with all your preps! 

 

LittleSister ...sounded very ambitious today.  Isn't it fun to see your spaces organized?  I love it!  for your dh.

 

Miki are your goats gone yet?     I'm missing my critters but.....obviously a good choice.   

 

Took Dog and me down the hill in old truck....then walked the flat road....then drove truck UP the driveway.  Also put pellet stove ashes in a gallon milk jug cut off to have a wide opening...retain the handle.  Scattered the ashes in horizontal ribbons across the tire tracks up our snow-pack driveway.  Right at the top....gets STEEP and doesn't melt without help.  All the dirt/grit is FROZEN solid like concrete right now.  So I can't use that.  Used up all the ashes we've had so far.  We'll make more but since the stove now burns WAY more efficiently than it used to .....[before they actually installed the chimney flue]...we don't have so much for ashes.     December is often our coldest month then it gets a bit less on the SUBZERO!

 

MtRider       Same temps as yesterday and night.  

 

 

[kappydell]

Doing more dehydrating today.  Took the bok choy out of dehydrator and jarred it; now have a huge armload of mustard greens to cut up, blanch, dry and powder.  Glad I stopped at 6 plants, they are prolific enough for me to handle without getting overloaded. 

 

I discovered a litter of 3 kitties in the carpot/shed from the outside mama when I went out with the morning food.  Mama is a smart cookie....I had put a tall tote out there with an old wool coat on the bottom for insulation then lined it with a big fluffy (old and holey, too) blanket nice & thick.  That is where she chose to have the babies  and they are nice and warm in there.  She sits on top and snuggles them - she is an excellent mama.  I will have to make sure she gets a little extra chow (and keep the water well supplied) so she will have plenty of milk for nursing. 

 

Mary & I are putting away the rest of the Christmas decorations today.  Tomorrow I have a pre-op meet with my neurologist then a pre-op exam from my internist so she will clear me for surgery.  Time to start doing all that stuff that needs doing....getting Mary a list of life insurance companies I have accounts with, dig out my living will and power of attorney, etc, etc (just in case) and pre-make vitamin packets for her to bring me during recovery since most docs do not do much with vitamins except to hand out the occasional multi-vite.  In between the to-dos I will keep dehydrating winter veggies as much as I can.      

[snapshotmiki]

14 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

Miki are your goats gone yet?   

 

 

They came and loaded them up last Monday.  It is sad but was a good decision, anyway.

[out_of_the_ordinary]

5 minutes ago, snapshotmiki said:

 

 

They came and loaded them up last Monday.  It is sad but was a good decision, anyway.

[Jeepers]

THE GOOD:

I had a wonderful Christmas with the family and Santa! It was just son, DIL and her parents so no anxiety. Whew. DIL has a tradition of making lasagna on Christmas Eve. She doesn't know where it started but still keeps it up. It was very good and we had ham for Christmas. She's a good cook. Santa came to the house on Christmas Eve for a visit with g-son and again sometime in the middle of the night. 

 

There was hardly any traffic going over or coming back. Even the rest areas were nearly empty. Odd. I do have to remember to head back home earlier though. It gets dark so early that I'm not comfortable with my vision at night on long stretches. 

 

I did some shopping for the house when I got there. All I got was a vacuum cleaner. It says it's designed for pet hair so I figure it might have good suction.

 

 

THE BAD:

I didn't accomplish anything. I spent 99% of my time at son's house. I didn't get the cubby hole bookcase thing put together. I did bring the instruction manual home to look at and hopefully they might have a "Video For Idiots" online for the bookcases. Sigh. I didn't even get the vacuum cleaner assembled. I did get everything carried in from the garage though. And I didn't get the frozen food bought. It seemed like a waste of time to go to town and back home and then back to town to son's house. Part of the problem was because of holiday store hours. Not really a problem. I have my list so I'll get it next time when the stores are open 24/7.

 

Along with the bad was my 'bed'. Old Bronco Billy (air mattress that I couldn't stay on top of) was as flat as a fritter. I aired it back up and got on it but it went flat right away again. Really fast. I tried again with the same results. So, I ended up sleeping in the floor each night. Ugh. I could have gone back to son's house but I'm starting to get used to being out there and I know they have the upstairs blocked off for winter and quite frankly, I wanted my space. I'll have a regular mattress next time, I hope. I'm stalling on that because I want a plywood bottom on the rails of the bed first and son's truck is put away for the winter because he has a company van. I don't know how many pieces I'd have to get it cut to fit in the Jeep. Probably a lot but doable if I can get the width of the bed size. Or maybe rent a U-Haul trailer over there for a couple of hours? I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud. 

 

 

THE UGLY:

And boy is it ugly! Guess who has mice. Oh Lawsy. I didn't see any but I sure saw 'traces' of them. I am so upset. Country living I guess. Son said the farmers were harvesting the last couple of weeks so they probably made a mad dash into some place warm for the winter. They only tore open one bag of an assortment of chips. I threw them away and also another bag that they didn't get into. I threw that one away too though. They probably walked on it. Shiver. Now I have to contend with that mess. Not gonna be easy from Ohio. I told D-Ex about it and he said that they can have litters every 3-4 weeks. And they chew up your house and wiring etc. DIL's mom said she had them once and they even ate the coating off of her kitchen utensils! Crimony. I'm going to have to figure something out. I stored all of the food, not in tin cans, in the fridge. Ugh, I want them gone! I'm going to buy one of the cheapest handheld vacuum cleaners I can find to suck up the 'droppings' use it only for that and then throw it away. 

 

Now I'm pretty sure a mouse killed Bronco Billy. Gnawed him to death.  

[Mt_Rider]

Hmmm.....I WONDERED where my dratted varmints moved to......all the way over to INDY!     Get some poison for the garage...and know where it is so little one doesn't get it.  We do poison in here now too.  USUALLY they go off somewhere else to die.  You don't want snap traps or glue boards....and come back to mummies.  ICK! 

 

But yes, you do want to give them an eviction notice.  They are opportunistic little critters.....they figure, hey - no one home!  PAR-TEEEEE!    

 

GOOD idea to use fridge for any edibles.  We do that in garage/basement too...in a small, non-functioning fridge.  Did you put any bar soap in there too.  They eat that cuz of the fat.  Irish Spring is their favorite flavor...here in CO.   

 

But other than UGLY.....BAD isn't so bad.  You had fun with family!!!!    That was the main purpose!!!  Mission Accomplished!  

 

MtRider   .....yeah, Miki.  With all this snow, no livestock was SUCH a good idea!!!!    Yet.....   

[Jeepers]

Thanks for my new pets Mt. Rider. You are so generous. 

I thought about you when I was there. I know your struggles with the dirty bas%@+#$ too. All I could think about was Hanta Virus.

 

I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of things. I ended up in the vitamin aisle. One of the bottles was slightly turned on the shelf. I read B-A-C-O...holy crap! They have bacon vitamins! I knew that stuff was healthy. Oh joy. I grabbed up the bottle and read the rest of the label they had hidden from me. P-A. It was BACOPA. I hate you Wal-Mart. 

[snapshotmiki]

Had to go to the store for dog food ingredients and then to Verizon so they could apparently delete all my photos. Really, just trying to get an issue fixed and they reset it and deleted everything.

It's really been a day off for me which is nice! Tonight, I'm listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Louie Armstrong on Pandora and talking to you folks! Great way to spend a New Years Eve! Happy New Year!

[Mt_Rider]

3 hours ago, Jeepers said:

Thanks for my new pets Mt. Rider. You are so generous. 

 

I call No Givebacks! 

 

2 hours ago, snapshotmiki said:

then to Verizon so they could apparently delete all my photos.

 

    That's AWFUL!   IDIOTS!  No magic button sequence that says:  Ooops, I didn't want to do that?  Like Annarchy taught me on computer:  Cntrl Z   I LOVE that trick....saves my bacon every time! 

 

MtRider  .....  Bacon IS a vitamin, isn't it?