WHATCHA DOING TODAY?

[Ambergris]

Go for it. When I could still write, it was the most fun I'd ever had. My sons would help with the plotting sometimes.

[kappydell]

Welcome to Wisconsin, Honesteader! Looks good, congratulations on the new place! If you get a snow blower for the winter, be sure to get a medium to large one, Wis. winter snow in the countryside is just murder on the little ones....

Edited August 2, 2016 by kappydell

[The WE2's]

Darn daughter-in-law. :frying pan:

 

When I was at their house a couple of weeks ago I used the shampoo that was in the shower. My goodness it smelled good. I didn't think any more about it but it just kept smelling good. Two days later...my hair still smelled good. I asked her what it was. Big mistake. It might smell good but boy is it expensive! I couldn't take it any more. I went out today and bought a bottle. Sigh.

 

But. but, but it's a shampoo, bath AND shower gel all in one.

 

I won't be using it every day that's for sure. But when I do, I'm gonna be stinkin' purdy.

 

treating ourselves now and again is a good thing!

[The WE2's]

Thank you all, he's rather lovely in personality and that matters most.

Annarchy, it's a longhaired German Shepherd, they are slightly bigger and a bit more relaxed than regular GSD.

 

Today cleaned rest of the house and for the first time ever it looks like a house and not just a building where my things are kept.

Getting ready for guests tomorrow from Utah. I know her from Facebook and she mentioned they were travelling Germany and I invited her here.

So today in last preparation of that, mowed lawn a bit,moved the caravan on my own through overgrown garden and hoisted 140 rooftiles to the barn.

Still tons of work to do such as sewing curtains for my old timer caravan but I can do that tomorrow while waiting for them to arrive.

They'll sleep in a bedroom and me in caravan cos they need to get rid of their jetlag.

Next weekend will also bring a few more guests for a small party I'm having.

Didn't celebrate anything for years as I was doing so badly but it's much better now and we'll have a bbq and salads and the works.

 

 

Pic is Juval ready to pick up his canine friends for a night out on the town

 

 

What a handsome fella ya got there!

[The WE2's]

Closed on a house and some acreage in the countryside in Wisconsin. Lots of places for gardens and DH can tinker away his retirement in his rather large garage. I get to design and build gardens for us and our honey bees. In my spare time, I can go fishing in our stocked pond. Every day is a gift from God. Will be so thankful when we finally settle there in several months.

 

Every guy's gotta have his garage! I can feel your excitement coming through to all of us! What a treat to have a pond! We're still looking for our 20+ acres "someplace".

[dogmom4]

That's a beautiful house Homesteader!

[The WE2's]

Playing a bit lazy today. Supposed to rain some so I haven't went to the garden. There wasn't anything that looked like it needed picking real soon. Did get the rings off the okra-mix that I canned yesterday and they're washed and ready to label.

[snapshotmiki]

We lost our Lucy schnauzer yesterday! She had congestive heart failure and we couldn't keep the fluid out even with large doses of Lasix and an added shot once a month. Anytime she got excited or ran in the yard, she would collapse. Yesterday she was chasing a cricket and went down, rolled on her side and couldn't get up at all. I picked her up and got her in the house and then to the vet. DH met me there. Vet said it was time to let her go. That is so hard to do! So she is with Buddy now! The house is much quieter even though we still have 2 pups here! I know it will just take time, but that doesn't fly by when one is grieving. So we are loving the ones we have and going on as best we can.

 

Tomorrow will be another day!

[Jeepers]

(((((((Snapshotmiki)))))))

 

I'm so very sorry for your loss. It is so hard to lose a member of the family.

 

As we say at the dog place, "You give them a good life and then you let them sleep." Still hard though.

[Annarchy]

(((((Miki))))))

 

I'm so sorry.

 

It is so very hard to loose a pet.

 

Poor Temporance is showing signs of cancer. After all the years, since the '80's, we're going to let nature take its course. Surgery kills them in no time. Sad but true. But, it's already breaking my heart.

 

Prayers sent for your comfort...

[The WE2's]

Have had to say goodbye to some pets of our own, but that's the price we pay for loving them and sharing our lives with them. I cringe when the subject even comes up because of my Abby-girl. One her last vet visit to get her nails clipped, she said "Abby-girl you're getting grizzled". She'll be 5 in December and in my heart she's still my little red-head puppy. Sorry for your loss Miki and I can sense your tears.

[Mt_Rider]

(((((Miki and Annarchy soon too)))))

 

Yeah, seems like Abby was a puppy only last year, wasn't she? Koa is 4 yrs now too.

 

 

MtRider

[kappydell]

well, my latest financial um, adjustments are coming through. picked up my newer (and less costly) RV and finally got the clear title on the old one sent to the proper person for the trade in. Also got my cleared title for the van, which will be collateral for a bill consolidation (and credit score raising) loan thru the credit union. They are helping me clean things up a bit financially....looking to dump as much debt as possible.

 

The new RV is very nice....Im quite pleased at the lower payments and interest rate. It will serve us well when we go south to avoid the snow this winter.

 

Then we took advantage of an especially good meat sale at my local grocery store with the decent butcher shop. If you can, you should always chat up the butcher dept folks and be extra nice (say good things to the boss for them) because they can give you a heads up when good sales are planned. We had a weeks notice about this sale, so today the freezer is packed full of lovely porterhouse and NY strips steaks (the only way we can afford them is on sale anyway, so we stock up like crazy); 97% lean ground round, and 85% lean ground chuck. Add in last weeks' special of boneless & skinless chicken (both thighs and breasts) and pork tenderloins and we are stocked up for quite a while now. Now I feel free to start canning up those tough T-bones we bought down south to make room in the freezer and fill up shelves in the pantry. After all, I need to make more room for the next sale, as our southern friends have pretty much told us all they want for Christmas are some of our porterhouse steaks (they had some with us last winter). Yes they are that good, and so was the sale - we saved over 30% over the regular price thanks to our friends in the butcher dept.

Big Smilies all around as we start planning our salmon fishing trip in a couple months......

Edited August 6, 2016 by kappydell

[snapshotmiki]

That's a nice RV, Kappydell! Have you ever been to Quartzsite, AZ for the winter?

 

 

Thank you all for the lovely thoughts and condolences! It has been about 18 years since we have not had a schnauzer in our life. Always rescues and always with lots of attitude! Going to help out a friend today. Keeping busy helps right now.

 

I hope you have more time with your little one, Annarchy!

[dogmom4]

Sorry for your loss Miki!

[Jeepers]

That sure is a beauty Kappy! I hope she gives you many years of enjoyment.

I keep an eye on my credit score too.

[Ambergris]

(((Dogs)))

[Mt_Rider]

Recovering from 2 days running in town to see my folks. My dad had a passing-out incident so we went back in yesterday too. DH did a quick neurological exam and ....LOW blood pressure, but it was coming up to normal later. Didn't get hurt cuz he just crumpled down. No chance to stick an arm out and break a wrist. He was probably out only momentarily. He'll be seeing some docs this week. Getting quite old, they are.

 

Whew...me too. All this 'gadding about' wears me out. Their house was getting TOO hot for me yesterday so we left. Missed nasty storm by leaving when we did. RAIN/Hail/Lightning. That one missed our place.

 

Right now, being up doing anything makes my hands tremble so badly. Argh! Good thing I'm not trying to take care of garden.

 

MtRider

Edited August 7, 2016 by Mt_Rider
dumb typos ARGH

[Jeepers]

Don't go by hours of operation listed on websites. A couple of months ago Arby's site said the one closest to me was open until midnight on Fri.-Sat. Wrong. They closed at 11:00pm. Today I looked up my pharmacy hours for Sunday and they said they were open until 7:00pm. I got there at 6:00pm and guess who was closed. Another wasted trip. They were the ones who didn't refill on time. I got all of my other meds refilled last week and I just noticed they didn't fill the thyroid one. Sigh. Not earth shattering but I'm just not in the mood.

 

I'm kind of in the mood to go someplace so I think I'll take a load of trash away and dump off my paper to the recycle bin. I have quite a lot again plus two big boxes. Might just swing by Wal-Mart and see what 'school supplies' I can use while the tax holiday is still on.

[Annarchy]

Caught another "pet" rat trying to hide out behind the chicken coop last weekend. Then was trying to catch the creature that was making dirt mounds in the yard. I declared "war" when it got into the garden. Its mounds were on either side of the carrot patch. I dug up half the patch trying to get it. Nothing doing. Then, yesterday morning I noticed a small mound on one side. I got the garden hose and stuffed it into it. After 3-5 minutes of no water bubbling out, I walked around to the black eyed peas patch and saw a bigger mound. I pulled the hose and moved it to the other mound. Within a minute, it popped its head out trying to get air. With heavy leather gloves I grabbed it and put it in my rodent cage. It was a pocket gopher. Little brat was chewing the pea plants like beavers cut down trees. At least it only killed a couple plants. She now lives 5 miles away, on the other side of the canal. She went into a hole under a creasole bush and by the time I got in the car, she had closed the hole opening. She can live, just not in my garden.

 

Had to put a belt clip on my phone holder. I've been stuffing my phone in my bra when I don't have pockets (TMI). However, I have an acidic system and the camera lens on the life proof box was etched causing badly fuzzy pics. While cleaning the box I thought it was something on it, then the lens popped out!? Now I have to be more careful because the box is no longer waterproof. The clip will let me put my phone on my hip instead of shoved in my pockets or bra.

 

Had a wolf spider jump at me while cleaning. I wouldn't have minded if it was little, but it was the size of a silver dollar. Eek!!!!! It was by the front door so we are assuming it came in when company came in.

 

Resting today. Tomorrow I will get back to my chores.

[The WE2's]

Paid bills and then mowed the rest of the property at the Homestead. It had rained a little this morning but not enough to keep from mowing. Had to be done.

[dogmom4]

After being at dmil's for a week I'm realizing how much she's slowed down at 86.

[Mt_Rider]

((((Dogmom)))) I know! My brother and I had one of THOSE talks today after my dad's incident yesterday.

 

There is no good solution to this oncoming problem. Even worse when the next generation, namely me, is disabled/not driving much/can hardly be in their house cuz toooooo hot (even in winter).

 

MtRider

[carr]

Bless y'all and your parents. Tough issues to deal with. I had a leisure weekend with hubby. Should've been a working weekend, but oh well. He's had a tough row to hoe at work lately and I've been busy too. So we just took it easy. Now, time to make up for it.

[Mt_Rider]

 

RATFINK AGAIN.........

 

 

MtRider takes a calming breath. The GOOOOOOD NEWS: It's DEAD! Caught in the wonderful, marvelous, 5-gallon bucket trap. It's always at the ready in the basement. Change water occasionally and always glance inside to see if there are any new VICTIMS!

 

The GOOD NEWS is it's dead. The BAAAAD NEWS IS IT GOT INTO THE BASEMENT AT ALL.

 

 

 

 

Property managers spent quality time here working on a closing-tight mechanism for the big garage door. OBVIOUSLY it isn't working. I had forgotten to look at the bottom from the inside and see if I could see daylight. If you can see daylight, rodents can get in. Well after DH found and dumped RATFINK this morning, I checked. Lotsa daylight.

 

 

So I lined up every cement block we own along the obviously faulty rubber gasket. It helped but DH has one thing on the shopping list....BIG BAGS OF STEEL WOOL!

 

What I REALLY want to do is pour cement along that crack in the garage door... SEAL IT COMPLETELY!

 

 

Actually, he heard of a ONE-GENERATION poison for rodents. "One-Generation" means it kills the rodent but not the cat or red-tailed hawk that might eat the poisoned rodent. DH has been researching cuz the voles are eating up ALL this potatoes. {MtR had bloody lips from trying not to say: I told you so!} What we were trying to figure out is how to keep my sorta free-range goat from eating the poisoned grain [being 1st Gen and dead then]. Goat is NOT an issue in the garage tho.

 

Anyway, secondary poisoning of my cat and the valley's red tailed hawks were the reason we've never used poisons. THIS might be a possibility for the garage! Might have rodent-ran-off-and-died-somewhere-STINK..... But I can live with that.

 

 

This specimen was NOT the curious, easily-caught pack rat. It was the same kind as RATFINK a year ago. Much smaller tho. We'd seen it's evidence on the porch and planned to set traps there.....but....we'll see it there is more than one.

 

WE'VE NEVER HAD THIS TROUBLE WITH THIS MAGNITUDE. Mice yes! Rats....rare in all these years.

 

 

MtRider ...shivering in HORROR at the thot of another 6 wks like last year. Thank YOU, God!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited August 8, 2016 by Mt_Rider