WHATCHA DOING TODAY?

[snapshotmiki]

WE2, I got dried organic elderberry powder last year. Ebay, I think.  Seems to work just as well and lots easier than picking out a gazillion tiny stems.  LOL  Don't recall the price, but was not unreasonable.

 

Today is cleaning day.  Be back later!

[Jeepers]

Whoa! I almost missed your canning pictures. When the site changes pages, it takes me to the next comment instead of the last comment I viewed. Anyhoo, I always love looking at your canning projects. I think a canning jar is a work of art. Especially one full of food. So pretty.

 

Herbs are another thing I'm very behind on. Actually, the only ones I have, I bought for cooking like basil, sage and parsley etc. I'm not big on herbs and essential oils because they really don't work too well on me and it's easy to rely on OTC and big pharma.    BIG MISTAKE ON MY PART!!!

 

I need to get more serious and stick to giving herbs a longer try. I need to learn more about them. Even if I don't get relief from them (not saying I won't if given an honest try), maybe a family member will. I've seen lots of free ebooks that I've passed by. Time to start downloading them and making a 'Natural Medicine" chapter in my medical folder. Thanks for the kick in the pants We 2 and Miki.

 

Oh, and my DIL is really into essential oils. She has Rheumatoid Arthritis pretty bad. She had been taking 20mg of prednisone a day from her GP. Her arthritis doctor about had a fit. According to him, that is an illegal dosage now. She is down to 5mg. now and using the oils and feels almost as good as she did on all of that prednisone. Bless her, she made me a balm to use on my neck. It felt good but didn't help the pain. I'll use it more often now that I'm home to give it an honest try. It is greasy from coconut oil and my hair stuck to it but I can clip my hair up at home and use an old rag to cover it if I have to. The back of the neck is not a convenient place to treat.

[Mt_Rider]

Just be very sure to get a good education about herbs and natural health products.  I always remind folks that "Natural" does not mean "can't harm you".....cuz y'know,  hemlock is 'natural'.      Use of some herbals are quite mild and some are very potent....and then there are the infinite combinations.  Using herbs and nutritional products is very complex....tho some of it is quite simple, especially if not using combinations.  Obviously it's the reactions to other things that can be very important.  Refer to knowledgeable sources for your data.  But it's worth the effort and doubly so in a post-hooey situation when modern 'Western' health care options won't be readily available.  Best to know renewable sources in your own regions.  It's so very tragic that we've lost the folks who knew these old ways specific to the regions.  But...new folks are learning again from scratch, in most cases.

 

MtRider 

 

 

[Jeepers]

Yes, yes, yes. Herbs are medicine too!  They can also counteract with other medications you might have to take too.

 

I'd like to store some rose hips for vitamin C and some dried peppermint for upset stomach. Also something for a sore throat. Maybe lemon balm?

[kappydell]

Yippee!  We are now the proud owners of 1.2 acres of Georgia land.  We also got our 'pre-approval' notice.  But its hard to get too excited when tired out from packing, packing, packing.  Our mobile home is also ready to go, just waiting on permits, land title search, septic inspection, and such stuff.  In my dreams I am planting peach trees, muscadine grapes, and Chickasaw plums.  When we are not packing inside, we are digging up bulbs outside - packing up the fountains, and yard stuff.  

We want to take some strawberries, the elderberry planting, my Jerusalem artichokes (they are delicious!), and I want to put in a rhubarb patch and raspberries.  That way we will have some fruits to harvest while we wait another six years for the trees to start fruiting.   It is ironic, that the ones I planted here are just starting to bear fruit, and now we have to start over again.  Oh well.....

Today I also got the news when my surgery on Mon will be.....7:00 AM, so we have to  be there at 6:00 AM.  We have a friend coming up from Alabama to stay with Mary, so she will have some moral support, as she has the hard part....the worrying!

[Ambergris]

What part of Georgia?  If you have any sour soil, don't forget your rabbiteyes.

[snapshotmiki]

Congratulations on how quickly everything is moving forward now!  I will be praying for a good outcome and a quick recovery from your surgery.

 

 

 

Giving one dog a bath and pressure canning chili today for the first time.  That should be enough.

Edited October 7, 2017 by snapshotmiki

[Annarchy]

Cleaned house, in a rush, customers showed up around 11am.   Still running laundry... 

 

Tired.....

 

Now, time to figure out, "...what's for dinner..."

 

Hope everyone is having a fantastic day.

[Homesteader]

Congrats on the land. We stuffed so much into a one-acre plot that the neighbors kept shaking their heads. We went with dwarf and semi-dwarf fruit trees so they wouldn't be shaded by taller trees. We also moved all kinds of perennial fruits/veggies (about 150 pots) so we could hit the ground running last October. Most of the berries, rhubarb, etc will be very productive next year. 

 

If you can, graph out everything you plant. I found after a crazy selling, packing, buying, and moving schedule I would have forgotten some of the varieties of perennials I had planted.  After being gone for 15 years, I can't remember all the varieties that grow well in this climate. The graph, and diary, are extremely valuable this coming winter as I order more plants.  

[Jeepers]

CONGRATS KAPPY!!!

Love your new home. I just know you are going to be so happy.

[Mt_Rider]

Wed....run around catching up on stuff like laundry, and house stuff....a "million little things"day.

Thurs....still some stuff here, bunch of business phone calls [3 hrs on one] and then go into town and we got tarps/ visited my folks.  Come home/do chores.

Friday......     Absolutely.......even tho I reallllly wanted to see how the new tarp fit......Positively.... could only BARELY get outta bed.  Ate, read.... 

 

Saturday.....        I LOVE the satisfaction of getting a HUGE NECESSARY project done.  OK....not EXACTLY done.       Not....after hours of working so hard that DH had to keep going to breath on his O2 tanks and I just had to SIT a bit.  Aiiieeee, moved all leftover bales into the 3-sided shed the horses use in winter/rain.  Hay and Horse shed are identical building except a tarp hangs as door/wall for hay shed.  Then we laid pallets down in horse shed and temporarily stuffed 10 bales in there.  Then took up all the pallets [there is no flooring] from the hay shed.....then raked out all the debris hay...bunnzie wabbits, etc.  Leaving that open to dry.  Pallets on hillside [have almost ZERO flat land and the tiny sheds fit there] to also dry.  Then tackled the Donkey Palace....so named for one irrepressible Maggie who was not getting along with her horse companion in the horse shed. Remember her?

 

So we set up tubular supports for Miz Maggie [like what is used for craft fair booths] that a neighbor gave me years ago and tarped it over.  They're wonderful and versatile.  Way better than tents for long-term emergency camping, btw.  Fits just in the small space between the horse and hay sheds....thus making use of their outer walls.  But a larger building would have the county code officers down our necks so we can't just connect them with anything that looks permanent.  That's how that space came to be in the first place....didn't know code law when we began that construction 20+ yrs ago. 

 

A year ago, the tarp needed to be changed AGAIN....UV destroys to many things here at high altitude.....as much as on Maui!  But whatever was happening last fall, I don't remember but ....it didn't happen.  So stuff stored got buried under snow as the tarp gave way..no matter how we kept knocking the the inches off of it.  Sometimes you can only do what you can do.....     About half of what's in there is now prepared to go off to the dump.  The rest is fine tho needed repackaging.  Boxes are ruined and garbage bags are 'broken' in the UV.  Easily replaced.  A lot of it was recycled food/drink/bleach containers that I use in gardening so nothing was a big loss.  Just work to sort and package again.  

 

By the time we raked out the debris on that dirt floor and secured the new tarp, we were getting close to collapse.  Pallets from there not ready to come back in so we just shuffled the Junk Stuff and the Keeping Stuff back in the New and Improved Donkey Palace.  [Horses were on the other pasture now...]  This tarp is longer by 6' on one side....allowing for better coverage.  We have a back wall.....windward side.  That will help but it will have to be better secured against our WINDS.  ...one reason yesterday it would have been impossible to do this anyway.  Had VERY high winds and today was only a cooling breeze.  More work needed but WOW.....we are ready for hay delivery any time now.  That was pressing.  .........

 

In Colorado, SNOW is pressing.  Did ya all see our high ski areas got 18" or so?  Nada here yet but ......

 

MtRider ....winter cometh 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mt_Rider]

for Kappy and Mary!!!!  It sounds so exciting to plan a food producing 1.2 acre plot. 

 

MtRider  ..... for the surgery!!

[Mt_Rider]

We thot we were almost done......        DH is doing so much better BUT......NOT to be doing this labor for hours yesterday AND today. 

 

Snowstorm hitting the Rockies tomorrow....or even late tonite.  Not a real big one but things just get WAY more complicated with even a few inches of snow AND massive drop in temp.  I've been overly warm in a tank top and jeans these past 2 days.  High tomorrow is supposed to be less than 32 degrees.....the HIGH. 

 

So DH and I plunged on.....  He still had to pound the stakes in the ground to anchor the back "wall" of the tarp.  I can't physically DO that.....and he physically SHOULDN'T!!!   He had to go in the car for a while .....recover.....get more oxygen.  He's scheduled to work tomorrow and we THOT we were leaving today free for him to rest.      However, once he helped to .....get this:  flip the 16X20' HEAVY tarp over     cuz somehow yesterday I didn't even notice that the UV resistent coating was facing ground.....      And he helped to anchor and HANG ON cuz the wind was really UP today.     That gets frustrating in a big hurry.  I'm INVENTING ways to hold down this tarp onto the tubular frame....for the rest of winter.  I'm good at inventing like that but not if the 'roof' is lifting and billowing with each blast of wind.  And it's NOISY! 

 

Once we got it basically secured, he went up to the house and I took a break to eat.......and cuz the drill battery apparently doesn't hold the charge.  It gave me 3 screws taken out and 2 drilled back in before it died.  So we had to wait for that too.

 

My wonderful neighbor stopped by on the way home from church.  I was trying to give her back her containers from the last meal she sent over to us during our difficult times this season.  AND she brings me more food today.  Well, it was potluck Sunday at church so she filled us each a BIG {paper} plate and a desert plate too!  {cute bitty CHOCOLATE cupcakes!}   DH ate some food right away since he wasn't feeling well.....      So we both went up to house.  He lay down , resting for quite a while.  Yesssss..... please!

 

When drill was charged, I told him to rest more cuz I'd just be fiddling and inventing anyway.  It was a little more challenging cuz of no help to hand me things, etc but better he rests.  Finally got the tarp secured.  I honestly could have fiddled with it more but literally, God impressed upon me to stop....it will hold!  By then I had three splinters....one under the nail of my little finger.  Oddly, it doesn't hurt but it will have to work it's way out....got the other two out tonite.  

 

Clean up...picking up all the tools all around our work site.  Hauling to truck and car....I had both down there.  We'd taken time also to put goop over the rivets that poke up on the top of the horse trailer......wearing/ripping tarps we use over that.  I got up on the top and applied the adhesive goop....to round out the sharpness.  Hopefully that dried today tho we don't have that tarp yet.

 

Faithful ducks came up early so I fed them and put them in.  Horses decided they needed attention.  Koa and DH were just bringing down Old Horse's extra rations.  We did the last of 'battening down' for possible wind with snow.  I'm pleased with how it came out...splinters and all.      We'll still have to move the hay...and the new hay...into the hay shed AFTER this storm.  But it's totally ready with dry ground and pallets in place.    Donkey palace is secured.  Pallets in place and stuff organized.    Moving the hay.....post snow storm...will be a piece of cake compared to all this hoohah! 

 

Also, I wasn't in so much pain tonite cuz remembered to wear the support sock for my heel.  And we had ready-made lovely meal...plenty for both our lunch and supper.    and thanks to good neighbors!  ...Must call property manager...our water pressure tank is going out.  Took forEVER to wash hair and shower tonite! 

 

I hope this is the end of this saga.....   

 

MtRider     

[Mt_Rider]

Hey Miki....are you getting any 'weather' from H. Nate??????   ..saw it clipped MS and thru Alabama .....but not sure how wide the RAIN/WIND might reach.

 

MtRider 

[snapshotmiki]

Quote

 

Quote

 

 

Hi Mt. Rider.  Not sure what happened with the quotes but they won't leave.  We got 10 minutes of wind maybe 35 mph and 3 hours of rain.  That's it!  Nothing compared to what you are getting soon!  I saw it was snowing in Cheyenne but didn't realize it would make it down to you all!  Hope your dh gets through work easily today and home safely!  Then stay home if you can!

[Mt_Rider]

Sounds like what's left of Nate continues to bring a load of rain....up in NE now. 

 

Seems to be pockets of snow in the Rockies.  We did get a few inches...still filtering down in tiny bits.  The drop in temps was drastic however!  I was out working in tank/jeans for past two days and today...high was 24 degrees.  Now dropping below 20.  Our area's first hard freeze.  Makes me glad I'm not gardening.  Forecast is for a distinct increase in temps tomorrow tho.    So all this will be melting.  Might have to use table salt on our steps tonite for DH to come home from work late.  Last thing we need is a slip-fall on stairway with him on blood thinners..  I'll sprinkle them lightly after Koa and I are in from feeding.  Roads are ok but will be getting icy as temp drops.  Clear of snow but slushy-wet so far.

 

With all the other things going on, we've been ignoring the water pressure dropping in our plumbing.  But.....called property manager today and have to have area around pressure tank cleared by....noon tomorrow.  Uh oh!     It's in the middle of the garage/basement.  Of COURSE there's a lotta stuff around that....not touching or close but around it. 

 

MtRider  ...ugh!

[Jeepers]

Ugh, Mt. Rider. I hope this winter will be easier on you guys.   

 

I haven't done one single thing outside to get ready for winter. We didn't really have a summer this year so hopefully winter will be a lite one too. I like winter...when I'm prepared for it.

 

It is so humid today. It's only 67 degrees right now but it feels like 80. We had rain the last 2 days and it's so humid you can almost feel the mist on your body. I just came from the store and there is fog all over the ground. Looks like the clouds have landed.  

[Mt_Rider]

"feels like 80" she says...... 

 

We woke up in a totallllly different universe today.  Tonite temperatures were predicted to plummet........ it's 5 [above] degrees at midnight.   Aiyiyi....the change from yesterday is just so stark.     Today outside looked like a black and white photo....and then there would be the blaze gold of an aspen that still had leaves.  Quite remarkable, really.   Tomorrow we head back into more normal [if that's even up word up here in high country] October weather.  I have experienced more than one late Oct blizzard.  One was deadly....people died because they were not prepared and did not adapt.  DH and I were not all that prepared and were traveling after dark from my folks to where we lived ...further than this cabin.  Were caretakers at the horse program....and needed to reach there to care for the horses, actually.   

 

We survived literally because we ADAPTED constantly to whatever the weather threw at us.  One long icy hill in 'town', DH got out in his "wet crepe paper office pants" with my hat and his own gloves.  He had to push to get little car with front wheel drive going again.  Once it was going, I had to keep going till the top of the long hill.  DH was hoping I wouldn't try to stop to pick him up.  LOL  He walked to the top.  Almost home on one ICE road.... the cross wind was so strong, we had to go faster than visibility JUST TO KEEP from being blown sideways into the opposite ditch.  We had the side window open to see where the ditch was.  Certainly would have missed our turn if others [too afraid to continue] were not parked at that intersection.  About 5 cars wondering how to continue up that next hill....their headlights showed us our turn.

 

Didn't reach the ranch tho. A mile later, drove car flat into a 4 foot wall of snow across the road.  It was a surprise cuz you can't see a 4 foot drift in white-out conditions!  So we walked the last half mile - after very careful considerations.  But we knew every inch of that road and ours....and everyone living on those roads.   We practically knew every fence post or we might have made it to the next house and just stayed there.   I'd borrowed my mom's boots.  We had one hat between us and whoever went outside to clear the constantly clogging windshield got the hat.  I wrapped something ...T-shirt maybe...around my head when we walked..climbed...floundered thru 3 more huge drifts.  We'd left nearly everything in the car....unlocked.  Yes, scared the neighbors when the whiteout ended 24 hrs later...and they saw a mostly buried car.  Checked and we weren't dead in there.  [my survival motto, don't be there!]   Some did die in their vehicles ....    Lot of livestock too.

 

We got home and spent the next 24 hrs trying to keep the dozen horses alive with tons of hay.....spent hours doing that.  And trying to keep our furnace running cuz the severe wind kept blowing out the pilot light.  DH boosted me up on top of that half-wrecked trailer they gave us for living, in exchange for horse care.  I covered the roof jack [metal chimney to furnace...which wasn't high enough!] with a garbage bag and wrapped arms and legs around it to keep the howling wind out.  Then from inside, DH could re-light the pilot and try to heat that metal box!  I was hoping he did everything right with the propane and matches and all!!!    

 

We crawled on hands/knees up snow drifts so high they buried the top of the fencing.....dragging entire bales of hay on a nylon horse blanket behind us like a sled.  As long as the horses had some windbreak and hay, they go into a somnolent state and survive.  By the end, we had to take tubular fencing apart to free two geldings that were near to getting engulfed by a growing snow drift higher than they were.  It made a nice cave for them up against the wall tho.  We were keeping an eye on that pair and the snowdrift in the 2 days of that nasty blizzard.  We literally had to use snowshoes to get back to our car to shovel it out of the drift.  Wind drove an unbelievable amount of snow into the car thru the closed back hatch.....and into our tack room ...and feed room....and swirled around on the hay in the huge shed.  Oye...I've been in a lot of blizzards, before and since.  That was the worst because we were traveling and the animal care!

 

Small wonder I constantly increase preps every time I remember what I've already survived.  I have always kept a few things in our current hay shed...and loose hay/straw has insulation.  I pre-position things down there...in case I can't get back up the hill to house.  But now I have the van down there.  No alternator unless battery is plugged in....which I could do with charger/extension cord in van.  But it's a '71 and no heat.  However, one of my super-winter sleeping bags is in there.  And super-winter outer wear too.  I just know my life and its ALWAYS NICE TO HAVE OPTIONS! 

 

MtRider ....brrrrr, just remembering that long-ago blizzard makes me shiver.   

[Annarchy]

Wow Mt_Rider, makes me remember winters in MI.  The most snow I remember, we had a door on the 2nd floor we used to exit the house.  My siblings & I had tunnels in the snow, from the house to the barn.

 

We have been being visited by flying predators.  Probably after the neighbors rats, rabbits and other small animals that I see in his yard.

 

The kestrel/sparrow hawk (?) visited Sunday morning and the owl visited Sunday evening.

[Mt_Rider]

I think the owls and hawks are really neat to look at/watch.  We've got red-tailed hawks in our valley.  Haven't seen an owl since Maui where they are called 'pueo"  [I think that spelling is right]  Pronounced:  poo AYE oh....all vowels slurred together.  Thanks for pics!

 

I don't think we dropped to zero.  But 3* is certainly a harbinger of   The thermometer at 11:30 A.M. reads 50* .....thirty degrees higher than we got yesterday.    I've already been out to let out goat and dump the snow off the tarp up here.  Not much cuz it's under porch deck.  Ready for the water pressure tank guys to arrive.....still have water but pressure is very poor.  Loss of water pressure was so gradual that, with all the other things pressing, I just didn't take it into the frontal lobe of brain.    KWIM? 

 

MtRider  ..hoping for a low-energy use day.....  Sunshine is wonderful! 

Edited October 10, 2017 by Mt_Rider

[Jeepers]

Nice pictures Annarchy. It reminded me...we had new little service puppies born this weekend. One is just cuter than the other.

 

I finally went to the doctor today for my back, neck and shoulder. Sigh. She got all sidetracked on my blood pressure. It's high. I know. That wasn't my issue. She is pretty sure my neck has arthritis in it. I think so too. She did all kinds of testing on my range of motion on my shoulder and at first thought it might be rotator cuff problems but later concluded I probably have a severe case of tendonitis. She gave me a script for an anti-inflamitory but most of them will probably be squirreled away for Y3K.  She printed out some exercised and said I might have to go physical therapy.

 

Then she sent me to a hospital to have an x-ray done on my neck. I'm glad to get that because it is really giving me fits. One good thing about my area is there are major hospitals and satellite hospitals all over the place. I just walked in and got an x-ray. The doctor's office have an x-ray machine there but the battery died!    We had a little convo about me waiting a month to get my mammogram results back and of course she looked up the dates on the computer. She said it was unacceptable. I agreed. I SHOULD get the neck results back this week. We'll see.

 

I wanted to have my back x-rayed at the same time but she said it was too much radiation at one time. I disagree because I really want to know what is going on back there but she is the one with the final say so I didn't argue.

[Annarchy]

1 hour ago, Jeepers said:

Y3K

 

 

I like that......

[Ambergris]

[Mt_Rider]

(((Jeepers)))  Hope you get some relief ....know you've been struggling.     

 

 

So in our latest saga.....water pressure tank guy came and said...you have a leak somewhere:  A)  down the well ...the pipes down there or B )  in the lines between house and the well head. 

 

THIS is when it's good to be a renter.  Tho we have ZERO water right now [but hey, I'm a prepper and filled  a bunch of containers before he came]  .....and DH and I had to dismantle and move the dog's 10x20 playpen so they can get a truck to the well head in that narrow space of flat ground.........and who knows what else will happen.....  We're not paying for it.  THANKFUL FOR THAT!!!!!  Whew!

 

A second very strange thing happened, the outlet down in garage stopped working when he plugged in his air compressor.  Was working moments before.  PLUS....2 outlets in the bedroom above that location also lost power.  What connection is that?  We tried popping circuit breakers on/off...twice... but no affect.    Always a bit nerve-wracking when you live in a crispy log cabin and you have electrical MYSTERIES..... 

 

So he comes back tomorrow morning to lift out the well pump and check that [new about 6 yrs ago and they last 20-25 yrs...usually] and check those pipes.  I don't remember them changing them out when they put in the pump.  IF THE LEAK'S NOT THERE....then they have to excavate the pipe line between house and well head.  And that will take time to hire that done and fix.  .....I mentioned we have ZERO water right now. 

 

Another HooeyHitsFan dress rehearsal.    

 

MtRider  ....pray all is well with the electrical and they fix the water issues, please.   

Edited October 11, 2017 by Mt_Rider

[Annarchy]

  for everyone.....