Watcha doing today?

[Littlesister]

Necie, I am so sorry about the pups. Hopefully the rest of them will make it through. 

 

I do watch a few of the foreign movies but I don't really watch that much TV anymore. Maybe I need to turn the TV on more often.

 

Got a few of my phone calls made today. One was my finical planner.  He didn't get a copy of the paper I got. That didn't make much sense as it seems the company is changing to another company supposedly within the same company. I don't want to move money around into something I know nothing about. So, he is checking into it and will call me tomorrow. Got my eye doctor appt. and was surprised I was able to get in on the 19th. Usually, it takes about 4 to 6 months to get an appointment. Got the bills paid and found out I have a bill lost in the mail. So made the payment by phone and if they get that payment that is lost, that's fine as it just lowers the payments even more. Still waiting on the loan company to send the person over to house to sign the closing papers and the house is done. At least for 6 months when I find out if the interest rates are going to go down even more. 

GS finished getting one of the raised beds put together. Not the best job so hope it will hold up good. Still have 2 more to go. 

[Jeepers]

I heard interest rates are supposed to go down again in September. Hope so. 

[Littlesister]

I just refinanced, so have to wait 6 months to do it again. I need to run to the federal credit union as I want to open a CD. They have a good interest rate on them, 13 months at 5.5%. I am going to check out other places this evening but don't think I will get a percentage any better than that. Just need to tie up enough money into it to make it worth my wild. 

[themartianchick]

1 hour ago, Littlesister said:

I just refinanced, so have to wait 6 months to do it again. I need to run to the federal credit union as I want to open a CD. They have a good interest rate on them, 13 months at 5.5%. I am going to check out other places this evening but don't think I will get a percentage any better than that. Just need to tie up enough money into it to make it worth my wild. 

That is a fantastic rate! I doubt that you will be able to top it anyplace else.

[Jeepers]

I got a CD about 6 months ago and it was 5.?? For 13 months too. I can't remember the exact rate but it was 5. something. I was surprised that the longer months didn't have a better rate than the 13 month one. I was willing to go the 24 months for a better rate but it was only 4. something. 

 

I'm hoping by the time I re-fi the rate will drop again. 

[Mt_Rider]

  Midnight!  I assume you've retracted your offer?    I did actually figure out/remember one of the mysteries by typing all that out tho.  Jeepers, I would not do well with tonal.    I don't think I'd do well watching movies with subtitles either.  Too much work.  I don't really watch movies anymore.  DH likes it and has things on DVDs ....many he gets from our library.  I think visual and audio might be a bit too much on my nervous system now.  I used to....   but rarely now.  I prefer books.  I had to dig out an old favorite series from Anne McCaffrey in paperback....until my Kindle decided it was done having fits.   

 

Yeah, I did 'Olelo Hawai'i again tonite.  Wow...they really made me work...reviewing some earlier stuff.  Which I don't remember, or at least not well enough.  So I was paging thru my copied sentences.  I can piece together the required sentence if I can find a similar one.  Knowing the adjective comes after the noun, etc - opposite of English.   I spent about an hour on 2 lessons.  Sure hope it's working my brain cuz ....the best I can hope for resulting from all these hours/years of study is to be able to read it.  To get a whole sentence out....oye!  And when I hear SIL speaking 'Olelo Hawai'i, it all blends together.  Generally, it pleases me to strive for this and am mostly successful with the lessons.  Still......brain work is my primary goal.  

 

We had a very sudden storm hit with a downpour this afternoon.  DH was driving on highway and someone coming from the direction of our village flashed his lights at him.  Confused him until he rounded the bend and entered The Downpour!  He turned his lights on quick.  It didn't last long but sure cooled things down.  Ducks and geese don't even notice on the pond.  If it hails, they duck under some of the bushes that overhang the water.  I've seen them jump and squawk if they get hit by bigger hail.  If it's blown with strong wind, it'll take the siding off the house!  No hail today.  Mostly sunny tho. 

 

MtRider 

[Midnightmom]

1 hour ago, Mt_Rider said:

Knowing the adjective comes after the noun

I think that's the same way Spanish works.

 

 

Ex: Piso Mojado (Floor Wet)

 

 

 

 

[Jeepers]

I'm not a huge movie fan either. But I do like the unusual ones. I think I'm more into the lifestyles and cultures of other people. I love period pieces. England has a lot of those. I also like the old Hollywood 1950's film noir movies. I couldn't tell you about most action adventure movies today unless they are dystopia or disaster based. I do like those. I have way over a 100 movies and collections. Most of them other people wouldn't be interested in. I recently put together 3 DVD bookcases and by the time I round up all of my DVD's, I might need another one. They are small. I should have gone bigger. I'm thinking of stacking them. 

 

Sons have a projector and a sound bar. It's like being at the movies. They can stream Youtube through it too. That I'd like. 

 

My goal is to go through all my movies  and put a round sticker on them to rate them N for nudity and L for language. I don't like those surprises. I have a couple of R rated ones. They always seem to throw one f-bomb or flash a breast. I hate that. Especially watching with family. I try to run a clean ship. Back in the day you could block out certain words on a DVD player. Wonder if that's still an option? I need to check into that again. 

 

I also have some out of country movies that need a multi regional DVD player. I need to label those so sons dosen't borrow them. Most of those come from England and are a lot cheaper to buy. Some are about half the price of US ones. And a multi region player is less than $50.00. I've been collecting movies for decades. 

 

I want to sort them into genres too because, you know... OCD. 

[euphrasyne]

6 years of Latin, 2 years of Spanish, 1 year of Japanese and 20+ years of ASL.  I can understand medical and biological terminology, order beer and find out where the bathroom is.  You'd think I'd have picked up more of it over the years, but not so much.  Not having to look at every subtitle on foreign shows is about the best I have.  I actually think I've learned more as an adult than I ever did as a kid.  When someone cusses in Spanish, I understand almost all of it.  I'm sorry to say that my book yesterday went off in a  tangent where one character was severely cussing in Spanish for 10 pages and I knew every single word of it without having to to break out google translate.  Life choices heh?

[Jeepers]

5 hours ago, euphrasyne said:

 Life choices heh?

I only know some in Chinese. The really bad ones. And some body parts.

 

But I can cuss like a sailor in English. The angrier I get, the more I can string them all together in one long sentence. It's a gift I rarely use. But I can if provoked. It goes from => to  =>   pretty quickly.

 

 

[Littlesister]

Today has been a busy day.  went through a pile of papers and trashed them. Cleaned kitchen and then took all the baby equipment to garage to clean up and get them ready to go to DD and DGD and the couple of things that I am keeping. Cleaned off desk and looking for the papers on my printer. If I can find them, I want to try to reconnect the printer to computer to see if I can get it to work again. I hope so because right now I am not buying a new one till GS is out of house. He messes up a lot of things around here and now wants to use my Kindle to watch movies and play games on. Nope not going to happen. I also have to change all my passwords on phone, computer and some other things. Don't ask. It's not from a hack job but needs to be changed. 

Going to GD's house tomorrow to keep the baby. Moma is getting tired. Baby is teething and she won't sleep through the night and her DH is on Duty right now. So, on her own with the baby. Her DH comes home from work and gives GD a break but when he is on duty he is gone for about 3 to 5 days at a time. I think being Preg. again, is taking a toll on her in these early weeks. I think she might be between 10 and 12 weeks somewhere now. 

[Mother]

2 hours ago, Jeepers said:

But I can if provoked. It goes from => to  =>   pretty quickly.

🙊🙉.   

[Jeepers]

Today I was able to safely deliver my poop test to the doctors office. Just in case anyone was wondering.   

 

As soon as I got home, there was another test kit in my mail box. What do you want to bet they come back and tell me I never turned in a test for this year. That test kit makes 3. 

 

Then I swung in to the ATM just because...I don't know why. Then across the street to Arby's cause it was right there too. The French dip sandwich was good but not so much the dip. I ate the other half of the sandwich with Arby sauce and it was better. Bet mayo on it instead would have worked well too. I ordered it with onion and there was one little sliver on it. I should have just gone home and made a BOTM. (bacon, onion, tomato, mayo)

 

I had to go to the schools to dump off a load of paper and boxes to recycle. Their dumpsters are huge. The regular size two dumpsters up the street were over flowing again. They never empty them often enough. It doesn't help that some people won't flatten their boxes that take up a lot of room. It says right on the dumpsters to please flatten all boxes. I wouldn't blame them if they took the dumpsters away. They sit in our local pharmacy parking lot. People 

 

That's all I got done today. That's all I planned to do so I reached my goals for today. 

 

Low standards = high success. They should put that in a fortune cookie. 

 

 

[Littlesister]

I have loaded up both the trash can and the recycle bin.  Got 2 boxes ready to go to Goodwill. I put a small dent in the office but really need to get back out to garage and go through a lot out there. I need to move some things around and going to put the medal rack that's in office in the garage to use. I only set that up to put my sewing stuff on there to go through and all the material on it temporarily. Most of the material I made more baby blankets and took those to the church. Som mostly now just flannel material. 

 

My next-door neighbor had been dealing with a rat on her back screened in porch for a long while. Not sure if it is gone again or not, but my yardman said there is a rash of rats all over both my neighborhood and his which is the neighborhood next to mine.  He said there was one in his attic that he had to deal with. Told me what to buy to kill them just in case. So far, I haven't had the issue, but he said one of the ladies down the street from me is now dealing with them. He saw several of them running across a yard that he cuts. Wondering what is going on as we have never had this issue. I have been in the attic a couple of times and no signs of rats or anything. Just hope I don't have that issue but will get the block poison he was talking about for just in case. I plan on dumping the attic right after I get the garage cleaned out and organized. Then going through all of that and getting rid of most of it. 

 

Will be at DGD's all day tomorrow taking care of the baby. She's not in a very good mood these days. She's teething and having a hard time of it. Temperature and not sleeping much. GD has been up and down with her all night now for 2 nights. So, I am keeping her so GD can get some sleep. She and her DH and the baby are going to DD's house this weekend to take care of 8 opossums, a squirrel and a hedgehog, so DD and SIL can go to the beach for DD's birthday. They haven't been anywhere together in a few years. So hopefully they will enjoy themselves. Then they are coming here in a couple of weeks, and I am going to take her to lunch and just mess around in some stores or something for her birthday though it will be a couple of weeks after. But when everyone is living all over the place you do what you have to do. 

[Jeepers]

Rats. Yikes! 

 

I still put new glue traps out everytime I go to Indiana. I put out 6 in the kitchen along the baseboards and one in each bathroom. So far I haven't caught any but I'm not chancing it either. I still have half a box of them left but I ordered another box of 72 last week. I was stunned to see there had been mice up in the garage attic. Even a dead nests of them. Ugh. I don't know how they got up there. The ladder was never down and there was no food up there. I do not like like mice and rats! Dirty filthy stinking hantavirus carrying rodents. 

[Mt_Rider]

I totally agree with you, Jeepers.  Rodents. 

 

We had a quiet rain while the sun was getting ready to disappear over the western ridge.  I was talking with mom and looking for a rainbow against the dark sky to the east.  Yep...it was faint...then a bit stronger.    Then the clouds got in the way of the sun and it was over.    Tiny happy things.  Walked dog after that. 

 

I have NOT been whacking the mega thistle flower heads off with my aluminum ski pole for the past couple weeks.  Instead, I'm employing my chiro DH to repair my neck damage resulting from that rather efficient method of weed control.  So tonite as dog and I walked, I had a scissors and was cutting off the heads.  Cheap scissors?  Dunno but they BIT ME!  Not the blade - the handles when I'm pressing hard and suddenly it snips.  One handle slips over the other and catches my middle fingertip.  OW!  I've got kind of a blood blister, almost.  Very tender.  Rats!  I was making progress without so much oomph.  Not wrecking my neck.  There are a gazzilion of those very pretty purple flower heads bobbing at me as we walk the road.  But they are so invasive.  Huge greenery with thorns.  Maybe a better pair of scissors?  The loppers are rather too heavy.  

 

Worse:  After I've been lopping off the heads with the ski pole, then I'd beat down the leaves on each side with the ski pole.  .....then they grow back but now they are split into 3X more flower heads sprouting to become seeds.  My efforts only multiplied my problem by 3-5X more!    So now, not whacking them...  That's why I've got a gazzilion of the flowers ---fluff ----seeds.     Score:  Thistles: 1,000,000,000    Me:  one sore neck and pinched finger.   

 

MtRider  ...gotta find time  MAKE time for my cognitive homework too.   

[Jeepers]

I've had scissors pinch me too. It hurts! Sounds like you cutting them back is encouraging them to grow more. That happens. I'd like to have a thing that looks sort of like a golf club. The bottom is sort of L shape. But it has sharp teeth on it. You swing it back and forth and it cuts the weeds down. It works very well. It isn't exactly a sythe or sickle. Sort of like a flat nose golf club. I really want one of those but wouldn't know what to ask for. They are light weight too. 

[Mother]

9 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

So tonite as dog and I walked, I had a scissors and was cutting off the heads.

If you can afford to buy it, vinegar sprayed directly on the flower heads and plants will kill the plants but you have to be careful not to spray on pants you want to keep.  Regular 5% household vinegar works but cleaning 20% or more vinegar works faster.  You need to spray it before the seeds form and the dead plants don’t lend themselves to beautiful landscape. 

[Jeepers]

For two years I had an entire bed of those things in the bed in front of my house where shrubs should have been. They were awful. They got over knee high. I took the lopers to them just to get them down to ankle size to keep the city off of me. Pruning them back just encouraged them to fill out and keep going but I didn't have much choice then. Landscapers finally got rid of most of them but I still do weed patrol once a week to stay on top of them. 

 

"Grass Whip"  is what that tool is called. I just looked it up on Google and Amazon has them for less than $30.00. We had one at our old house and it worked great. Especially on tall grass. Small and light weight too. I guess it got left behind. I'm definitely going to get another one. Glad this subject came up. 

[Littlesister]

Went to GD's house this morning and when I got there, she was almost in tears. Harmone's play on you bad when you are pregnant.  She was holding the baby and baby was crying. So, the baby held her arms out to me, and I got her quieted down and playing with her toys. Then got mom calmed down and sent her to her room to take a nap after she ate some breakfast. Gave the baby a bottle and then got her down for a nap. So, all was good. Baby woke up first and I fed her lunch. And about an hour later mom woke up and was feeling much better but still looked very tired. I think the baby is going through another growth spirt. She is just fussy and cranky, but I did take care of cranky fast. So, we played most of the day after she ate her lunch. She was a happy camper when I left so hoping the evening hours go well for GD. 

 

Came home thinking I would have the house to myself. Nope GS is off work today. Getting ready to do a little bit of work in office before I start dinner. 

[Mt_Rider]

Thanks, Mother.  That might be something to try.  I'm sure it's Musk Thistle - aka Nodding Thistle cuz their heavy flower bends it's head at an angle.

 

MORE INVASIVE THAN THE 'HORDES OF MONGOLS' under Genghis Khan!!!!   

=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=

https://extension.umn.edu/identify-invasive-species/musk-thistle

 

It says livestock don't eat it.  Well, I do know that my horses and the ones at the riding stable DO carefully nip off the blossom to munch!   

 

https://a-z-animals.com/blog/amazing-thistle-plants-and-how-to-tell-them-apart/

[QUOTE]  Growing from 1 to 7 feet high, the musk thistle produces purple flowers that droop at a 90-degree angle when mature. Because of this, many people call it the “nodding thistle”. Musk thistles may have one or several branching stems covered with spiny wings and dark green leaves. The leaves have light green or silver edges and sharp spines.

[END QUOTE]

 

 

Yeah, I don't have to bend over to lop off their heads.  Even battered down all summer, they're about 4feet tall.  They can get as wide as they are tall...got an example of that too in the next property north.  The flower part is on a very long spiny stem.  I let two plants grow on the edge - where the gravel road meets the wide ditch area.  Where I walk the dog daily.  They were 3' wide and probably at least 4' tall before someone ran them over - squashing them down on purpose with a vehicle.  So much for my experiment.    But I'm pretty sure that lopping off the seed head - leaving the rest of the plant alone, is a better idea.  So I don't MULTIPLY the problem.   I used our better scissors tonite and they didn't bite my finger. 

 

These are not on our property ( well, yes, a few which I haven't even gotten to yet)  but are fixin' to INVADE...AGAIN!!  Took us 3 years to DIG them out of the large berm that holds back our pond. That was when we first moved here.   I'm not digging any ditch ones -- at this age!  Bad enough over 20 yrs ago on this property.  Huge root system.  Re-dig every summer and finally got rid of them.  These have suddenly arrived again and are in the ditch and blowing over the barb wire fence into our pasture.  To my horror, the pasture/willow trees in the next property has exploded with them this year too.  Wish the dumb beavers had them in their diet.  That's where they chose to rebuild their dam last year when we evicted them from blocking the outlet to our pond. 

 

The worst of it is - they are such a gorgeous color of purple!     The Minn. link says they bolt in late May.  Pffft!  We had three feet of SNOW in late May.  They are just beginning to bolt now.  Which is why I want to get the pretty flowers ON THE GROUND ...so it doesn't blow into our pasture.  If they fill that ditch, dog won't even be able to run thru them as she does now on our walks.  How did they come up so fast?  I've been walking this way for years.   

 

Anyone know of an herbal or other use for THIS type of thistle.  Too bad they aren't something helpful like Milk Thistle.  We do have another type taking over too.  They are not as heavy/tough as these.  DH can weed-wack them...as far as the electric cords will stretch.  But they're wimpy so they can't be decapitated like the Musk variety.   They just bend away from the force.  Hmph!  Not pleased with those either tho their spikes won't go thru jeans like Musk variety does - easily.  Wimpy.   

 

MtRider  ...my excitement for the day - more eradication. 

[Littlesister]

I finally have a free day today. So, working on house and going through more stuff to either trash or going to Goodwill.  I am putting a good-sized dent in the house now and getting ready to move the den furniture into the living room. I decided to sell the full dining room suit and going to go ahead and buy a farm table for the den making that all an eat in kitchen. I make more sense for this house and much easier for me. As they say make the house, work for you and not you to work for the house. 

 

Need to make a couple of phone calls and then get back to work. 

[Jeepers]

I turned in my fecal test in on the 13th. and the I already have the results back in the 15th.  Negative thank God. Amazing what happens when the post office isn't involved. 

 

My lawn people know a realtor that they like and gave me her number. I called today she is retiring and not taking on any new clients. Of course. Back to the drawing board. She said she'd look into finding me someone. 

 

GS started back to school today. Kinda early IMO. There's still a lot of summer left. I'm assuming his school has AC. He was excited to go back and see his friends though. He has a lot of friends which makes me happy since he's an only child. This old granny was getting tired of being his soccer opponent and basketball rebounder. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. 

 

I went to Meijers for some fruit and veg. I walked through the store and was pleasantly surprised. The place was packed with boxes of stuff ready to be shelved. I'm not sure what all of it was. I wasn't really in the food aisles. 

 

I got a box of 24 bottles of Butane delivered...finally. It took over a month. Now if I will only be able to find the little stove in the garage they go to.   I'm trying to get cooking alternatives squared away. I want butane, gas grill, gas camp stove, solar box and a fire pit. And one of those straw boxes. That's all I can think of where I'll be. I'd love a Franklin stove but no where to put one in that open floor plan house. I'd have to build on. Too many other pressing repairs to do to even think about that.  $$$$

 

Paying bills and cleaning out my bathtub is the only thing left on my agenda today. And maybe getting up enough nerve to try to put a vacuum cleaner together. I haven't vacuumed since I moved back in the house. 

[Mother]

19 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

Anyone know of an herbal or other use for THIS type of thistle.

This thistle does have medicinal properties for the liver just like milk thistle though perhaps not as well known.  It has also been used for arthritis and joint issues though I didn’t find any of the thistles especially helpful for that.  

[Mother]

5 hours ago, Jeepers said:

And one of those straw boxes.

Straw boxes are easy to make but……I much refer my modern insulated cooker.  Cleaner, more compact, and stores nicely.   
BTW, I also like my wide mouth thermos for cooking serving sized portions and they are great for dehydrated meals.