WHATCHA DOING TODAY?

[The WE2's]

Moisture alarm went off under kitchen sink :-( Pulled everything out and careless me...let a spray bottle nozzle drape over side of plastic bin, and vinegar water dripped. Cleaned up the little spot and took the time to replace the battery in it. Love that thing! When it goes off you WILL know it!

[Annarchy]

Designing an addition to my chicken condo. Calculating the supplies necessary to make it. Trying not to have to buy anything, just reusing/recycling scrap pieces. De-constructed an old old wooden ladder to use the side boards.

 

Watered the lawn and garden really good, anticipating the afternoon heat. I will have to pull the rest of the beats planted in January. Yesterday, mid afternoon, they withered badly.

 

Been babysitting a friends house, chickens, peacocks, ducks, quail and dog. They are having an addition added on to their house, so, we also have to make sure the generator stays on to keep the refrigerator and freezer running. The contractors have been pretty good about keeping it running - they need it too for their tools and equipment.

 

Getting a head start on tomorrows cleaning by trying to get all the laundry done today.

 

Time to get back at it.

[Jeepers]

I did a little mowing today. I was going to wait until Monday but the neighbors on both sides were gone so I went ahead and did it. I figured I'd run over some sticks (I did) and didn't want to get 'the look'.

 

I've still been working on getting my documents and PDF's printed out and updated for my binders. I got a little side tracked when son came over. No big deal though. I should have it all done by the end of the weekend. One thing taking me so long is I'm copy/pasting some of the PDF's onto a Word doc. then printing it so I can edit out some of the info I don't want. Some of them are so long with too much filler.

 

I noticed a little mouse in my driveway today...flat. 'Someone' must have run over him. Kind of sad. Kind of not.

[Mt_Rider]

DH battling crud again...he was unwillingly exposed 3 days ago.... We're both taking the Immune/C's again. I'm fine so far.

 

Packing. Filling air in wheelchair wheels...always go flat. Feeding DH kim chee ramen. RODE horse ...get nervous system as good as possible. Checking my list....twice! PB&J ready. Got sunburn on shoulders.....first day warm enough to wear a tank.

 

Water bed is FINALLY all back together. Cold so there are a lot of blankets, pads, etc between occupant and the chilly water. Heater will warm it up ...eventually. All related items washed and put away.

 

 

MtRider

[Homesteader]

Yesterday, I had all of these items on my 'to do' list and hopped on my motorcycle to keep the errands interesting.

 

I was within a mile of my hair appointment when I heard a loud noise behind me. I thought it might have been my muffler letting go until the bike started losing its great balance. I pulled off onto a side street and had a FLAT TIRE!! Stupid bike. Same thing happened within several blocks last year :frying pan:

 

After losing half-a-day and a very loving husband arriving with a tilt-bed trailer, we made our way to the bike shop. Love those young men with muscles and tattoos. After seeing about 50 bikes ahead of me in the repair shop, I played the damsel in distress. I didn't have to because they like to get flat tires fixed ASAP and back on the road. I chose a nice tire 'in stock' and should go back and pick up the bike today. I sure hope it's before the rain comes. Either way, I'm riding in the rain if I have to in order to show appreciation for all their attentiveness.

[Jeepers]

You sound like a great customer, Homesteader. I'm sure they wish they had more like you!

 

We often talk about rude employees/service people but don't stop to think about all of the rude customers they have had to put up with before they got to us.

[Homesteader]

I picked up the bike yesterday afternoon in the RAIN. I'm glad I wore my rain gear. The new back tire performed great on the wet and greasy roads.

 

Monday or Tuesday, I'll pop back in with a dozen Dunkin Donuts for the guys. They're all young, skinny and can probably eat half a steer each for lunch break.

[The WE2's]

Got laundry finished, made a batch of dishwashing liquid, cooked a speghetti squash for supper and drug out my knitting needles. Been YEARS since I knitted :-( Alway preferred crochet...and still do.

[Annarchy]

Me too WE2. Haven't figured out knitting, but, crocheting and tatting I can do with no problem.

Cut the frame for the addition, around 7 am and quit at 8 due to the heat, already up above 100.

Did the monthly books for the company and got the taxes done.

Took care of the house we are babysitting and refilled their generator. Had to refill all the gas cans to keep their frig and freezer going.

DH was craving Big Macs tonight, so that is what was for dinner.

Time to get some sleep.

[kappydell]

Sheesh! I had to go in for an mri of my back - unpleasant as usual. And it does not even do anything for cellulite! Too bad, it would certainly help make that 30 min of feeling like Im lying underneath a running semi less bothersome.

 

About the time I starting asking 'NOW what?' after finding one of our roof vent covers torn asunder, we discovered loud noises coming from the attic. Too darn big for squirrels....sounded like raccoons. I took estimates on professional removal and it was way out of budget. Soooooo.....time to put my trapping license to work!

 

We put out a large live trap which got visited, and the bait stolen, but no critter. Hmmmmm. So we wired an empty cat food can at the far rear of the trap, raised up so the raccoon would have to reach up to remove the spoonfuls of 'stinkyfish' bait, also known as cat food. Raccoons in our area loooooove cat food.

 

Today Mary went out for the paper and reported we had a raccoon in the trap. A really upset and angry one too, looking daggers at us and growling. No problem...critter euthanized. (My nickname is no longer 'general' it is 'terminator', lol.) The trap is reset now, after replacing the cat food can 'dish' with more wire, since our catch tore the other can loose.

 

Soooo, tomorrow we will go up to attic to look for any babies. If a litter was born early in the season (April) they should climb down and into the trap by themselves....if they were a late batch we will have to go hand pick them up.

 

We are grateful for the sale on live traps at the local farmer store - bought a big one and a squirrel sized one for free. My dear brother thinks it is hilarious - he asked if I made a coon skin cap from it; or what recipe I was going to cook it with. He was relieved to not have to climb into the attic to help us, though. (Actually, it is rather funny....another exciting (to us) episode of the "adventures of two old broads on the loose" show. The highlight of the show was the finding of a gorgeous Luna moth while at the gas station. Nobody I pointed it out to had ever heard of them.

 

So Im just sayin'...no more wondering out loud about what could possibly happen next for me, because what will happen will be a surprise you never would have thought of!

 

We did get some positive things done though - a sale at Menards with a 11% rebate on all purchases caused us to go out on an umplanned purchasing expedition for our garage shelving lumber. Remember those swell shelves in the basement my brother made? More going into the garage! Mary fired up the boat, it wintered over well, and then she amazed me by trading a 12 pack of Coor light beer for a used riding lawn mower in operating condition with a PTO and everything. She sure knows how to horse trade!!!

 

Tomorrows agenda include picking fresh strawberries, moving the 'stuff' in the garage (always a cross between heavy lifting and a scavenger hunt) and trying out our 'new' lawn mower. Hope we have a surprise-free day....we need the rest.

Edited June 7, 2016 by kappydell

[snapshotmiki]

I love your adventures, Kappydell! Too funny!

 

I have just stayed home and worked on ebay stuff and in garden some. Our tomatoes are just starting to come in. Did laundry, made a cake and that's about it. Have to have the local computer guy out as my computer won't recognize the new printer. DH's does so we can wait a short time (money), but we need them both to work in case of problems with one computer. You know--back up!

[kappydell]

The raccoon adventures continues.....Last night our big trap had the bait stolen. We decided to re-bait it, but were wondering if it was a smaller raccoon that was able to reach through the trap mesh to steal the bait. We decided if it happened again, we would have to try a smaller trap and a different bait attachment. Well, around 10:30 tonight one of the dogs started alerting and would NOT simmer down. Sure enough, there were young raccoons sitting just outside the front door, twp on the mailbox trying to climb back up into the hole in the soffit, while a third encouraged them. Mary thought we should shoot them, but I was not too eager to put holes in the house, trying to dispatch them cleanly. And they were not in the trap, but climbing all over the front of the house, so what to do??

 

I said we needed a way to hold them down to dispatch them. Mary says, "Fishing net! If our net will hold a 30 lb salmon it should hold a (relatively) small raccoon long enough to work!" So she went out and got the salmon net, I grabbed the .22, and we went, er.....coon fishing.

 

It took a couple tries, but we netted them, one at a time, and Mary stood on the handle to hold the net flat on the ground while I finished the job up close. We have at least one more up in the attic, but tomorrow we re-bait the big trap they cleaned out, and set a couple smaller live traps as well. We are relieved that they are big enough to come outside and be captured, as neither one of us wants to face a raccoon big as a cat in the crawl space of our attic! They are NOT friendly critters and are known to harbor lot of nasty diseases.

 

On the lighter side, I made a batch of my high-fiber half-whole wheat bread and Mary killed half a loaf all by herself. It did taste pretty good and it was full of oat bran, flax seed meal, and other tasty additions....plus a whiff of cinnamon to give it that certain 'something'.

[Jeepers]

"coon fishing"

[The WE2's]

"coon fishing"

 

[The WE2's]

Busy...hot day! In the low 90's :-( so we tried to get an early start on some garden work. Went to $Tree and bought some silver "stringers" that they use to decorate (about 5' long) and ran them through our blackberries. Then bought a couple of "flashy" garland things and ran them along the top of the fence. THEN...yes, we're serious about trying to keep the birds from stealing our blackberry harvest...we strapped up four plastic windmill things to the top of the fence...AND moved Mr.Hoot's pole right smack dab in the middle of our blackberries! We've got a really good harvest coming on and I want them! Also re-planted some more Okra (something ate about 3/4 of what we planted) in the one long bed. Dusted the cabbage and broccoli with Sevin food grade because the cabbage is startng to form head and I want them! Clipped off several heads of broccoli because it started to bolt, and pulled some radishes and had them in with our salad tonight for supper. Still need to go to Menards to pick up about 3 bags of rock to put in the bottom of our new containers that we bought for the garden (about 20-25 gallon size?). We've still got one long bed we'll be working up to put the pole beans in and some speghetti squash in. I want to put a canteloup vine along Abby-girl's fence/our garden side and putting it in a container will be easier. Knocked off working about 2:00 because of heat...and did some other shopping. We were just about out of yogurt and I just didn't feel like making any. One of the Amish stores we shop at had it for $1.99 for 48 little cups. Just our size and just our price :-) We eat yogurt every morning with our breakfast. Making plans to take some camping time in a week or so and then probably an extended trip around the middle of July...to celebrate our anniversary :-)

[Jeepers]

I ran a lot of errands today. Got all of the bills up to date and went to the fruit/veggie market. I bought my first mango. A little tangy and tart with a hint of kumquat. Think I'll stick with cantaloupe. I also got the yard mowed.

 

I went last week to get my hair cut but I mostly just got a trim. So I got a real cut today. It's just to the top of my shoulders and layered a little bit. It will look better in about a month. It's going to get hot soon and I don't want it hanging on my back and neck. Speaking of neck, I'm sure the arthritis will thank me for removing all of that weight. Also, I take a lot more showers in the summer so I wanted short hair because I can't seem to shower without getting my hair soaked. It felt better as soon as she cut it. My hair is thick and the floor was covered with it.

 

My cutter was a real beauty. Her hair was plastered to her head. In the front it was light green and as it went back, it gradually got darker. Her ponytail was about 2 inches long and dark blue. I get the blue, green, red and pink hair but this was really awful. It looked like she had a tub of Crisco plastering it down. Not a good look for a hairdresser. She made a comment that she wished she had hair like mine. I thought some shampoo and leave the chemicals alone and you can. I didn't say it but I sure thought it. Guess I was kinda grumpy today.

[kappydell]

a good day to garden....we put down newspapers around the bases of our vine crops today to deter vine borers (very bad here). We buried last nights' raccoon casualties. Mary mowed lawn, I re-set and re-baited traps (up to three now) and planted some sunflower plants one of our neighbors gave us. It was quite hot & muggy so we worked in small bites. Tonight we have a few storms rolling thru, but they are expected to be pretty tame according to the weather man. We have hatches battened anyway, since we all know how accurate those predictions can be (ooooooor mebbe not.....LOL). Having fun getting used to my baofeng radio - just got a cool book on portable antennas when I joined the American Radio Relay League (got that ham lic, might as well use it.) Thinking about joining ARES to help keep coms going in emergencies....

Edited June 11, 2016 by kappydell

[kappydell]

WOW! Just after the last post, we heard raccoon trilling. We went out and looked and there were raccoons in two side by side traps talking back and forth. We changed our bait - used marshmallows this time, trying to avoid catching the neighborhood cats. We will leave traps another day or two, then venture into the attic to see if we spot eyes. Generally litter size is four, but can be as many as 7. I think we are winning our war....

[carr]

Made a quick trip to see the grands and get all those hugs and kisses. While I was there, stocked up on some herbs I need for our ailing Old Man, Red Dog. Hope to get a remedy under way that helps soon. DH and I are heading out to meet with his ham radio club for a few minutes this afternoon and stop off at the farmers market. We are depending on other people's gardens until we get back into full gardening swing. But it really has helped us find out what is available locally and create those relationships with like minded folk here. We were able to buy a product in bulk that is not available fresh here, so we've sold some and bartered some. Made enough to cover the cost of a year's supply for us, the kids and grands. So it worked out well. Hopefully we will have enough interest to do it again next year. I hope to get my "pantry" aka large cabinet, cleaned and reorganized this evening.

[sassenach]

Just busy writing, temps dropped and its almost chilly during the day..... I can't keep up with this strange weather any more . Deeply overcast, rain coming in later I believe. So staying cozy, just overcooked boiled eggs .sigh, got distracted and forgot.... can possibly salvage. We shall see, Need to go get more eggs any way.

[sassenach]

Just 'one of those days!' --- actually doing a little better now after what happened in apartments next door , still upset but trying to just do my thing.

Have music on daily, it helps. Pandora helps because I can at least choose what I want to hear. Right now its Lisa Kelly and Celtic Woman , both similar? She would fit right in with their band, other than that country music mostly or beach boys stuff /era which is just what I grew up with.

 

I am using the music to help me write, it flows better and I can set the mood for the scenes as I go, with Pandora. Unfortunately its a very adult book so I would have to condense it to post it here on the site ,maybe in time I can, but I do mean to publish it through Kindle. TMC is cheering me on, its very long, will be sequel'd as well. Great story line, more genres than I meant at first so it's complex which adds length and content and character development.... so spending many hours on it as long as this ole laptop holds up enough....... do put it on flash drive though so can save it.

[kappydell]

Hot & muggy here today. Buried euthanized raccoons, then picked strawberries. They (berries) are coming on strong now. I stem and freeze them until I have enough to make jam. EVERYBODY seems to like homemade jam, so I hope those berries keep a-comin'.

Edited June 11, 2016 by kappydell

[sassenach]

Kind of stunned with the terror attack last night in Orlando Florida at nightclub. 50 lost their lives and 53 wounded, our EMS, police responders were putting people in their trucks to get them to the hospitals fast, other nightclub clients were carrying them out by hand as soon as the shooter was finally dead. Many witness accounts. I'd say alot of them were pretty heroic, and they helped save lives if they could., wrapping heavy bleeding arms and packing wounds with shirts and stuff trying to maybe stay alive at the same time. Afterwards many helped carry them out to get them to vehicles responding to take to hospital, there just were not enough ambulances.

.

It can happen in any venue.

Valid reports on intel received say more will happen during Ramadan.

Last night it targeted the LGBT community, but it can be any type of public venue.

 

Im trying to just relax tonight. Maybe write some more of my book if I feel like it. Got some music on, so just kicking back. Its actually cool enough outside all day and little rain but it was forecast seriously .......where is it???? but my hands got cold walking to the store.....

[Ambergris]

Woke up to the sound of what I thought was a bird screaming in the back yard, outside my window. Scream....few minutes later, scream....on the third scream, I realized it was inside the house. Without giving you my nightmares, let me just ask you all to please be quick to respond to screams in the night. Especially if you have cats that are big enough to catch young rabbits but not big enough to kill them.

[Jeepers]

I've been watching the Orlando shooting most of the day. So devastating.