WHATCHA DOING TODAY?

[euphrasyne]

We had a plethora of apples, so got a batch of apple butter started yesterday and I'll cook it down and can it today.   I'm really proud of myself because DH suggested we get take out pizza last night, but I made one instead and made chicken bites to go with it.   I overcame the temptation to be lazy and easy and used what I had.  Yea!  

 

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the crazy, so I'm distracting myself with inventory tetris.  I'm actively dumping Zee Zee cereal bars and whole wheat poptarts into the trash as they come in.  It hurts my soul to waste food, but they are so nasty even the birds and squirrels will not eat them.  

[snapshotmiki]

The state of our country is distracting and disappointing to me.  My diet is not going well.  Not gaining but not losing either.  It's like being on a roller coaster that won't stop and let you off.

 

Going to visit with a friend this weekend.

Getting ready to do a shorter exercise video so I have done something today.

 

Hope you all have a calm and good weekend!

Edited January 15, 2021 by snapshotmiki

[Daylily]

I know! I am having trouble focusing on my decluttering projects this winter. So many issues all at the same time!

 

Yay for you euphrasyne!!

[Annarchy]

Today, I am trying to get ready for a trip to Montana to visit my little brother. Scheduled to leave Sunday morning,  headed to Flagstaff. God willing, all will go well with clear roads.  I am hoping to take pics & document the trip. This will be the 2nd trip I have made in the last 30 years.  Storm is going with me.  Ack!  After 40+ years in the desert, I need to plan & dress  for sub 0° weather. 
 

DH’s non-adoptive son came down & surprised us with news, we have another ‘grandchild’ on the way.  OMGoodness, that makes 5!  3 girls and a boy, and a new one on the way.  

 

So I will post a new thread of my trip.  Hopefully, I will be able to get here & post my progress.  AZ to MT. Lol.  Grand Canyon, Colorado, ....hey Mt_Rider, need an overnight guest?  Gotta go through Denver & head up to MT. Mother, are you in the area?  IDK, Storm needs to trust me , and I think this trip will help. 

[Mother]

Annarchy, I wish I were close enough for you to visit but we are hours away from your route.  Please, stay safe and stay out of crowded areas if possible.  Of course, it goes without saying that you are prepared with winter gear in the car. Congratulations on your upcoming grandchild.  We have our 16th great grand coming any day now so I know the joys.   

 

Have a GREAT trip. 

[kappydell]

I FINALLY got the last of the ham canned up.  We got 10 quarts from the 2 hams, plus 5 pints of split pea soup with ham with the schnibbles from the ham bone.  The little ham left over went into some jars of yellow-eye peas.  I had never seen them before but they taste similar to navy beans but cook up nicer.  No navy beans around so I canned yellow eyed peas,LOL.  I do love me somew legumes....all kinds..  That particular store chain I got them from is a southern chain, so they have many dried southern peas I had never tried before....crowder peas, lady peas, field peas, black eye peas, zipper peas, and the yellow eyes, of course.  The speckled butterpeas were tasty too.  I am having a bean blowout! 

We spent our stimulus checks on more preps, of course.  We ordered that adult trike (it will be good for getting around if gas prices go bananas).  We also purchased an electric dog fence - the kind you bury - because our dogs have taken to leaving the yard while we are outside working because they see something interesting on the other side of the road.  So we will teach them the yard borders again, using the fencing for reinforcement.  It came today.

Our garden was not so hot this winter.  I thought the cabbages had been killed by frost but they bounced back.  The collards are matutring nicely so it is time to pick and dehydrate those. I'm keeping my canning jars for things that do not dehydrate so well and for meats. The last 2 days I canned that ham, plus dehydrated 12 pounds of hash brown otatoes.  So the kitchen has been humming.  But I am getting tired, so I am glad to slow down a bit 

Tomorrow we put up the electronic fence, then, I guess some yard clean up, and after that start on those collards, because we will need to clean up the garden, put in some new compost, and start planting for spring soon.  Who said retirement was boring?  Aint got time for boring, LOL.  Physical therapy is working - my hip and back are getting stronger.  In time I hope to be nice and straight again, but I will take improvemewnt of any amount as long as it keeps coming.  

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by kappydell

[Littlesister]

Annarchy, have a safe trip and congratulations on a new grandchild.  Enjoy your time with your brother. Stay safe.

 

Congratulations Mother on your upcoming 16th great grandchild. That is wonderful.  We are still waiting for one of our grandchildren to have children. So no grands yet.

 

I had a rough night tonight. Will be up for most of the night. Can't let DH go to sleep for a long while. DH decided to go to bed late at 11:30 tonight. He got up and use rollator to go down hall to bedroom. When he turned the corner from Den to hall. He fell backward and hit his head hard. he is on blood thinners still. Lots of blood as when you bleed from the head it is always more blood and looks worse than it is. He also scraped his arm in 2 places and with that thin skin it doesn't take much to scrape it. So bleeding there as well. Had to call the rescue squad to get him off floor. They checked him over and he is ok but will be very sore by morning.  Can't let him go to sleep for a bit longer. His head was not cut but he did scrape it. Got it to stop bleeding before the rescue squad got here. They got him in the bed and checked him out. DH did not want to go to ER. So I am watching him for any signs. I really wanted him to get a CT scan just in case of internal bleeding due to blood thinners. i am taking him off of them for a couple of days and calling our family doctor on Monday to have him checked over. I have a new rule. You do not get up and walk anywhere without me being right there.  I had ordered a lift to help get him up that came today but I have to put it together. The wheelchair is on the way. The lift is more for me than for him as my back is hurting now just trying to get DH up to a sitting position in order to better check his head. I have a heating pad on his back and an ice pack on back of his head. Just hope there won't be any swelling but he will have a very sore head by morning.  

 

Kappy, sounds like you and Mary have been really busy.  I have been trying to figure out how to take care of DH and have a garden. I am going to get a couple of grow lights and try to grow some things in the living room. Don't have any room in the den. I may just be doing container garden this summer for tomatoes, peppers and things. I want to plant squash but that won't work in a container garden. So might could just plant in flowerbeds now that all the bushes have been removed.  I could handle that much. But was hoping to go full force with a garden. So will depend on DH's, cousins farm market to buy me some things by the bushel to put up. At least that way I will be in the house with DH so I can keep an eye on him. 

 

[snapshotmiki]

I'm so sorry about your DH's fall, Littlesister!  Glad the lift showed up and the wheelchair soon!

 

Good morning! Already did video!
Church first.
Set my vitamins for the next month
Measure a board for a shelf support.
Take eBay photos.
Do insurance project on computer.
Maybe wash dogs, maybe not.

You all have a good day!

[Annarchy]

Trip postponed....

[Jeepers]

Sorry your trip was postponed Anarchy. 

 

I'm having intestinal issues today. Severe pain. I've got a pain in the gut and a pain in the butt.   

Makes me feel so so sorry for babies who have diaper rash. 

 

Anyway, I watched an old movie free on Tubi.  I think it came out in the 80's. Gruesome. Remember Threads? About nuclear war and its effect on England. They talked about food...or rather lack of it a number of times. That perked my ears up. One guy said that food would be used as a weapon. Withheld as a punishment and given as a reward. Especially a reward for work. They blamed people for not stocking up but when they went to the store the shelves were empty. Sounds familiar. Also, they need to start rationing it and not wasting it on people who were going to die sooner rather later. They also said no help would be coming soon because there was precious little fuel left. Plus most of the infrastructure was gone. That included removing the dead. No fuel to dig a grave or even a pit. If you had a body in the house for five days you were to tag it, wrap it up, take it out and put dirt on top of it. I have body bags but it might be prudent to have some of those contractor bags. Those things are huge. Just saying. There was a lot more but I can't think of it right off the bat. It was fiction but still gave me things to think about.

 

There was another older movie about nuclear war but I can't remember the name of it. It seems like Jason Robards was in it. If I can find it and it's free I'll watch it later tonight. I might even have it...somewhere. 

 

 

 

The Day After. That was the other movie. Jason Roberts was in it. I always thought he was handsome.

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by Jeepers
Wikied A Title

[dogmom4]

I just caught up on the past several months. Lots happening in everyone’s lives. Congratulations euphrasyne on your beautiful baby girl! We2’s so sorry to hear about your grandson. Hoping that all of you are well and safe. I love coming here to read about all the everyday things...it’s wonderful to get a peek into your lives.

We’ve been fortunate that my close family have all stayed healthy these past few months (although we are getting ragged around the edges mentally with the stress from the never ending lockdowns and the events happening in our country. I’m still teaching online because the cases in our county are out of control...that was...unexpected. 
I have a small winter garden going with broccoli, kale and peas doing well and am getting ready to start seeds for spring. I am so ready for spring.

 

I need to tell you all how glad I am for this forum...I can come here for calm...and wisdom.

[Ambergris]

Happy to see you, Dogmom.  Lots going on in the news.  A friend who drove near the state capitol building here said the demonstrators were out in force yesterday.  We filled the gas tank Friday and don't plan to go anywhere this week.  

 

The girls got three of the pomegranates planted yesterday before my back seized up.  I wasn't digging, but I had to be out there bending over and pointing, explaining why this hole was not deep enough yet and how she could tell, and that was enough I barely made it back to the house.  It's time for planting seeds too, but we have been unable to find soilless mix to test against peat pellets as recommended this year.  Also, it's a good thing I was not looking to buy peat pellets.

 

Did I mention our volunteer rooster?  He showed up out of nowhere a couple of weeks ago.  Tame as anything.  If you go on Murray McMurray, he is the Speckled Sussex rooster.  Crows day and night, around the clock.  He sleeps about three hours at most, then goes to crowing again.  He showed up with no tail feathers, then grew one that was broken, then grew a second one.  So he has two long black tail feathers, one of them broken, draped over a white rump.  He's going to be a handsome fellow, if he lives long enough.  He had a close encounter with a fox this past week, and the housemate knew to run help him only because the hen was squalling too.  So much for crying wolf.  Or fox, as the case may be.  I am waiting for the broody hen to raise her dinky brood of two chicks and let this guy sire another clutch so we can get another big meaty rooster--a quieter one--to replace him.  We have a very quiet rooster on the place, apparently spawned by the neighbor's cheeky bantam rooster, but he has no meat on him and has unknown genetics as far as egg-laying goes.

[dogmom4]

Jeepers, I remember watching The Day After when it came out. My son was just a couple weeks old and I remember holding him while watching it and bawling my eyes out...it was too realistic for a new mama.

[Jeepers]

I remember too Dogmom. I think both movies came out on T.V. first. I remember they were the 'talk of the town' back then. I remember news people reminding viewers to not panic. It's just a work of fiction. I guess they didn't want a repeat of Orson Wells' War of the Worlds fiasco. 

[snapshotmiki]

Good morning!

Already took eBay photos
Have done 2 loads of laundry
Have 14 quarts of dog food in the PCs--more to come after.
When the first PCs start their hour cool down, I'll walk.
Then re-load PCs for second round.
Cut up cheese for dog treats- when it thaws.
That has got to be about all!

[Annarchy]

Clean up day.  Replaced our water heater yesterday, it sprung a leak...

 

[out_of_the_ordinary]

Strolling around the house with a yardstick.  Trying to figure out where I could fit another bookcase in. 

Edited January 20, 2021 by out_of_the_ordinary

[Annarchy]

Sounds like fun OOTO.  I enjoy figuring stuff like that out.

 

One time, when we had to bring in 3 huge safes, I measured every single room, drew it out on graph paper, then, measured every single thing in our house, drew each thing out, cut the items out, to scale.  I was able to move furniture, rearrange, and re design, without moving anything.  I still have my floor plans in a folder with all the little pieces in a small ziplock, JIC, I need to do it again.  
 

I need to get a couple 2x4’s & make a door frame for our water closet.  We kinda got a water heater bigger than the old one.  Space is limited in our house too.

[kappydell]

Today was an interesting day. We watched the swearing in and listened dto the speeches.  The usual....we must unite, I will represent every body, same old stuff as usual.  Baked 1 loaf of bread today.  The other loaf is frozen, waiting its turn.  Fed the yard cats, petted the friendly onoes and in general made sure everybody got something to eat.  Our across the street neighbor, an older lady named Doris, stopped by.  Her son in law is making repairs on her place (it is a summer cottage for them, she does not live there full time).  She saw our yard cats, and Mary told her they patrolled her yard too, hunting mice, squirrels and keeping snakes away.  She liked that, said she had a deep fear of mice so their presence was a good thing.  Heck, they even caught one of those pesky squirrels, leaving the tasty bits on the porch for us to sample (the head and tail).  We thanked them for their polite offer and declined the snack, LOL.  

 

Mary is out tilling the garden in the empty spots.  She came in with 4 huge sweet potatoes she discovered - there are always 1 or two we miss when we dig.  I told her to let me know when she was ready to till the greens patches, and I would pick all the greens and dehydrate them.  She does not eat them, but I have come to like them seasoned in what I am told is "southern style" with ham, a bit of vinegar, a bit of honey, chopped onions, garlic and a dash of hot sauce if I am in that kind of mood for an extra kick.  I like them fine without the hot sauce, so I usually omit it. I am saving the canning jars for meats, so dehydrating works fine for me.  Just simmer them extra time while they rehydrate and then cook soft.  I am a fan of the traditional southern cooking (soul food) and am fortunate to have a soul food restaurant in town for those days I want some collard greens (properly seasoned, of course), cornbread, fried chicken livers, and the like.  It was there I finally got to try fried green tomatoes.  I never met anybody that considered mac & cheese a vegetable til I moved to the deep south, LOL.  That and bacon as an extra food group (I kid you not). Bacon infused EVERYTHING including bourbon. Of ham.  I do like the ham flavored bouillon powder though. it really jazzes up a pot of beans when you have no ham or bacon on hand.   

 

I am trying to work more vegetables into our diet but Mary is content with just meat and potatoes/mac and cheese/cheesy rice, scalloped potatoes,.  Occasionally green beans and peas, but she has terrible gas pains which she has trouble expelling when she eats many of her lifelong favorites now.  Creamed cabbage, broccoli, caulilflower and other brassic require copious amounts of Gas-X on stand by.  Usually she declines them when they are on the menu.  I feel bad but she wont budge, saying the pain is too much for the short time of pleasure involved.  

 

Im digging thru my recipes to find the rolled ginger cookie one.  I want to make some valentine cookies for friends...I figure I can frost them with pink frosting, stick on a large conversation heart, and voila!  a fancy-pants cookie without having to get out the frosting piping tools.  Im saving my russian piping tips for easter cupcakes....

[Littlesister]

Fixed breakfast for DH and I this morning, fed the grand fish, Ha Ha. yes I have my DD's fish till they find a house. We are enjoying them and she may not get her fish tank back. So I now have grand fish. Got DH settled so I could run to store for milk, eggs and a few sell items. Not much. DH was on that ice cream kick so got his ice cream. It was on sale so got 2 gals for him. He's a happy camper. Tried to get back into going through all our vitamins and prescription meds. There are a lot of them we can't take any longer as doctors have pulled us off of some of them. So got to figure out the safest way to dispose of them. I have a shelving unit that I am putting all the vitamins we take in. Then I can go right to what I need without having to dig for it. We take a lot of different vitamins, C, D, Q10, and others on a daily bases. So those will be the ones going into the shelving unit along with the aspirin, Advil and a few things we only take if needed. The rest are the cold and allergy meds that will go into a box and marked so I can get them when needed much easier than just thrown into a box. All will be labeled as to what is in the boxes. Don't have a lot but need to get it all organized as to what is what. Going to use one of my larger canning jars for the cough drops. Want to keep them all together in one place and easy to get to when we need one. Don't need to go anywhere tomorrow, so going to work on taxes and wash clothes. Normally I would wash clothes every Monday, but that is no longer working out for me depending on how DH is feeling that day. Good days and bad days. He had a good day yesterday and a fair day today. He is already in bed asleep. He needs it. I have been having to stop what I am doing at times as he would be in his chair asleep and calling me in his sleep. Today was funny. He woke up and called me, so I went to den to see what he needed and he was looking for a pill he said he dropped. He didn't drop one as he was asleep and was not time for him to take any pills. He was dreaming he was taken his medicine. Gets rough when you have to take so much medicine that you are dreaming you are taken it. I have 15 more pounds of flour in freezer to get out and put in Mylar bags. Going to try to do that tomorrow. Need to get them out of freezer and let sit to dry out first. So those will sit on dinning room table for a few days before I put them in the Mylar bags. Trying to get things together for long term use as well as for using now. Got to get my make shift pantry tightened up again. Have used a lot of the foods I have canned from 5 to 7 years ago. Need to use those up first. DH's cousin is going to let us know when the fresh produce comes in this spring. They will be making their trips to NC for produce. I will be buying from them but will be doing container garden instead of a big garden in the back yard. Though I am going to till up the garden for potatoes and squash. Don't think the squash will work in buckets though potatoes will. But I will have the room in garden anyway. So that will be about it for garden this year. Things like butter beans and green beans I will get from market to can up as those are time consuming to pick and with DH, I won't be able to spend the amount of time outside that I would need for that. Need to make things easier for both of us right now. DH is not going to get any better and I have been trying to come to terms with that. So I would rather spend the time with him than out in garden working. He has recovered from his fall and not hurting anymore. Seems the heating pad and a couple of Tylenol worked. Still healing from the abrasions though. But they don't bother him now. 

 

[snapshotmiki]

Will walk first--after dog feeding.
Make a few phone calls.
Wash dogs.
Clean baths.
Low key day!

 

I have such boring days to report.  For now, I'm happy with boring!

[Jeepers]

Annarchy, I use graph paper to rearrange furniture too! 

 

Kappy, I didn't realize I was a southern cook. Seasoning greens with bacon and a splash of vinegar was a normal staple in my house. That includes cabbage and brussel sprouts. I cook like my grandmother did. Her relations came from Kentucky. I guess that's how we came to land in southern Indiana. 

[Littlesister]

Good idea about the graft paper. I have done that before but a lot of times I just move furniture to the places I want it to be. Works sometimes and sometimes I have to try something different. Graft paper does make it easier.  I have been washing clothes today and looking at both my office and makeshift small bedroom pantry. Both rooms are bedrooms. I am thinking of moving 2 bookcases out of the office as I use those for storing food. I would like to move the double bed into the office, I have been looking at that situation for a long while now. But have to get rid of a lot of stuff to do it. Still going through the medications and vitamins and now deciding rather or not to get rid of things like a lot of store bought herbal vitamins. We don't use them but got them on sells thinking they might come in handy one day when and if SHTF. Any suggestions on that would be very helpful. Everything is in pill form such as Burdock Root, Pueraria Mirifica with B6 and B12, and Holy Basil Extract. I have several different ones and a book on what each one is for. But I am feeling a bit overwhelmed  by so much of this type of things with all the prescriptions, and regular vitamins we take on a daily bases. Not sure rather to get rid of this stuff or to box it up and put in a corner of the closet or something.  So much to do and getting over whelmed is not a good mix. So wondering what you all would do. Ditch it or box it up for possible need if things go south.

[Jeepers]

Littlesister, just be careful with OTC vitamins and herbs. Natural herbs are 'drugs' too and can do more harm than good if it's something your body doesn't need. They can also interact with any Rx you might take. I learned the hard way when I figured some potassium would add to my heart health. It didnt. Fainting became an issue.    They might also become stronger or less potent over time too. 

 

Obviously, I didn't know what I was doing though. In my case a little knowledge was a dangerous thing. 

 

I'd probably sort through them and keep one or two bottles of each and pitch the duplicates. 

[Littlesister]

Have gone through most of the herbal meds and they are being dumped. I am only keeping a very few of them. Jeepers on some of the herbal meds, I don't think I knew about some of them either. But we learn and move on. I do not give any herbal meds to DH do to the amount of prescriptions he takes. I still have the old prescriptions we no longer take to go through. So that job is almost done. Got everything together for the taxes and getting ready to get things together for that. Still waiting on the banks and such before they can be done. Picked up DH's RX today and got a list of all meds for tax purposes for us. Wow. I have spend a small fortune on RX's. That should be a good tax break for us though we can only claim a portion of it. Cleaning out all the meds will give me much needed room in closet. I have 2 cubbies in there that houses our vitamins, and as we get our prescriptions for 3 months supply, 2 of the cubbies holds the extra. One for me and one for DH. 

Could not resist temptation today. I went to Lidi's and bought 2 turkeys today. Both weighing almost 12lbs. I paid $3.32 for each turkey. They were butterball turkeys. At 29 cents a pound, I couldn't go wrong. So next week I will be canning turkey. Not sure yet how I want to do it. Might make some turkey soup, just can the meat for pot pies and such, or maybe something else as well. I will have it figured out before I start the canning. With all going on right now, it's good to have that meat on my shelves. Also while I was there I bought a case of canned sliced potatoes, a couple of pounds of hamburger and some hamburger patties, going to make hamburger steaks tonight for dinner. Will be starting that soon. All of it on sale today. I mainly wanted those turkeys. 

The new TV came in this morning so granddaughter and her boyfriend are going to come over this weekend to help get it set up in the bedroom for DH. He also has been pigging out on his ice cream. At the rate he is going, I will have to buy more and I bought 2 gals. Might have to think about going back to making it again. Though I really have to much going right now to start that process. Maybe when things settle down again. Nothing like homemade ice cream.