Watcha doing today?

[Jeepers]

Oar fish..you know I'm all over that one.  NOT. the 'kitty' was cute though.

 

I'll need to dig out my dehydrator soon too. I really need to do celery. Mushrooms would be good too. I know the movers didn't move it but I don't remember taking it over either. I know there is an Excalibur out in that garage somewhere. Sigh. 

 

I'm not fretting to much over the curtains but they don't offer any privacy at all. I suppose in comparison to all the other curtains in the house, they stick out like a sore thumb. In person, they look like a pair of panty hose at the window. Not the message I want to send old Jimbo next door. LOL.

 

Littlesister, I know about not wanting to order stuff just to have to move it. I have a couple of things I want to order but they are heavy. Mostly a TV stand. If I send it to sons house he will have to lift it and take it in their house. Or put it in his truck and take it out to my house which would be lifting it twice. Or if I have it sent here, then I'll have to lift it up into the Jeep. They are unassembled so I could put a few pieces at a time in the Jeep but getting it from porch to the garage and in the Jeep would be an issue. And of course my dolly is in Indy. The one I was looking at is 100 pounds. I really need a TV stand to start to get that great room out there in order. Suppose I'll have to wait til I get moved out there to order it. A few other smaller things I want but don't want to move too. I'm hoping I'll be able to get everything in my final move in the Jeep for one last load.

 

A realtor should be calling this coming week. I've put the call out. I just hope it's quick. I'm nosey and from time to time I check my hometown houses for sale on Zillow. Every single one of them have had a price reduction and have been on the market from 20-30 days. I know it's small town USA but I shouldn't have looked. And I got my tax assessment a couple of weeks ago and it was jaw droppingly low. Good for paying taxes but not for selling. Sheesh. Guess it's panic time now. 

 

 

[Jeepers]

Becca-Anne, we were posting at the same time. You are right about the curtains. I really need to stop thinking of this as my house now with my taste. I'm glad it's empty in here so I don't start thinking about redecorating. I did sort of stage the bathrooms and the kitchen will be mostly empty. I've hung up curtains but I did that for my own privacy. 90% of the little things I did was from stuff I already had. I'm gonna drive myself nuts before this is all over. Short trip. 

 

Such pretty flowers. Those pictures are magnificent! You are so lucky to have them. I'm sure you cherish them. And to think they go back to Ben's great grandmother. I couldn't imagine doing a painting at age 5 like that one you did. Or even at age 72. Well, you saw the lamps I painted.  

 

i almost bought a Rav4 but the Jeep was for sale at the same time and i always wanted one. DIL sold her mom's car on....can't think of the name of it but it's really popular and advertised a lot. Shoot. Anyway it was easy and they come and get it and pay right then. No one came around the house looking at it. That's what they were trying to avoid. Strangers coming to their house. 

 

I'm sorry you have to pay for the damages that someone else did to your foundation. Sigh.

 

 

 

It was either Car Max or Carvana. 

 

 

Edited August 19 by Jeepers
Thought of a word.

[Necie]

DH got his *new to him* bicycle today. DD and I drove 6 hrs to get it. Took longer to get there than to get back as we didn’t realize NASCAR was at MIS this weekend.  “Stop and crawl” for nearly an hour to go just a couple miles. 

Yesterday I had my first *barn sale* since cleaning, rearranging, setting up. It was a flop. I need to do new signs, I think. All my signs say Garage Sale or Yard Sale. Nothing in the garage or yard, so nobody stopped I guess. I did get 6 totes of stuff sorted, cleaned and priced. 
Tomorrow I have to wrap soap and make a batch of lotion and generally get things around to take to market this week. 

[Becca_Anne]

Thanks Jeepers  We are hoping we can still recoup some of the cost even though they swear their equipment couldn't have done the damage (I call baloney it wasn't there that morning I walked right by that part and it was not cracked and I could feel the vibration inside for hours). We are hiring a structural engineer to look at it and create a report on what they see. And depending on that report we may need to take further action. We gave them the opportunity to do the right thing and they refused and didn't do what they said they would do and look at it with us. Either way the damage has to be repaired and paid for so we will just do what needs to be done.

[Mt_Rider]

Well....at least I didn't include the picture of the oarfish, Jeepers.    Loved the lynx.  We have bobcat but not lynx....I don't think. 

 

3 hours ago, Jeepers said:

Not the message I want to send old Jimbo next door. LOL.

  

 

Hope you get a good deal when you say g'bye to Jeep and get the next vehicle.  Would you try for another Jeep?  (would you change your name to....VW???) 

 

Really rotten deal, BeccaAnne.  Yeah, they need to claim the problem.  All that didn't just happen with a stray earthquake!    for justice in this.

 

LittleSister....dontcha just hate to order things and but they aren't the right things you ordered?    One and done is a nice goal. 

 

Necie, a big sign saying: BARN SALES - every Friday (or something like that)   Gettin the word out, esp if you're not on a main road.  You'll come up with something.    You sure are busy!!!

 

 ....talked to DD2 tonite.  Ready to take GS18 from Maui to Boston U soon.  That boy will be a long way from home!  Hope it's all he's expecting.  He's adaptable and easy going so I think he'll do fine.  Winter    they do snowboard in WA or CA sometimes.

 

MtRider  ....bedtime

[Jeepers]

I plan to get another Jeep. I had such good luck with this one. A couple of brake jobs, new tires a couple of times and the back window lost its hydrolic something or other. And that's it. Until this year. The AC and CD player both went out. I've run the heck out of it going to and from Indy and I've used it as a dump truck continually for over a year. It's been very good to me. The only issue I have is that they don't make the Liberty model anymore and that's what I fell in love with.

 

If someone starts posting as Camaro you'll know what happened. I caved. 🚘

 

Actually the Bronco isn't looking half bad. 

[Necie]

My DD is looking at Jeeps. It’s an unexpected purchase as something went major wrong with her current vehicle (Buick-suv- can’t recall model). She took it in for a tuneup and oil change and they found metal in her oil filter. Not good. 
She’s liking the Cherokees. Her first choice is the Cherokee X, second is the Cherokee Latitude Lux. She wants something comfortable for everyday driving (she doesn’t like trucks—too big), but with enough power to pull a trailer (side by side) or a bass boat (they want to get in the next couple years).

[euphrasyne]

We are recovering nicely.  DD16 more so than the rest of us.  She was the only one with energy yesterday and she actually did some cleaning around the house  (no one asked her to either--she just did it.)    She was very busy over the summer.  She sewed herself a homecoming dress (white silk empire waist with a red gauze overlay with a gold leaf pattern and a slit up the right side.  She also sewed a stuffed pterodactyl for River, brought us 2 cans of salsa she canned, and half a loaf of banana bread she made right before they left.  There are other things, but we are slowly revealing the summer as we rest.  

 

Thanks to @Littlesister for the fabric for the stuffie!  We love dinosaurs around here.  We also love bananas so we are in heaven.

Edited August 19 by euphrasyne

[Jeepers]

Awww. How cute is that! And yes. Littlesister is very generous!  

 

You need a picture of Rivers profile looking up like that. She really is a beautiful little girl! And a thumb sucker I see.   LOL.  My son sucked his thumb in the womb. I keep feeling a thump, thump, thump. I asked my doctor about it. He said I had a baby in there that was sucking his thumb and giving himself hick-ups. It was driving me crazy. Every time I wanted to rest I would get this knocking on my stomach. It felt like a heartbeat. When he was born until about 10 years old, you couldn't tickle him because he always ended up with the hick-ups. He sucked his thumb until he started school and then just stopped. We didn't care either way. And it didn't damage his teeth like some people say it will. 

[Jeepers]

I ended up at Wal-Mart again today. The shelves looked pretty good. I did see a man and woman together and each had their own cart. Both carts were filled to the brim with nothing but water. Not gallon containers but cases of individual bottles. I'm thinking Preppers. They really stuck out. 

 

I went next door to Lowes and got two more registers (vent covers) that I need. I have a handyman coming out Thursday to give an estimate on replacing 14 of them. Gonna cost but the ones in here are all brown, moldy looking, rusted and dirty. I could clean them but that wouldn't really help their appearance. They look horrible. I'm hoping a few hundred dollars up front will help sell the place. Did I mention I need this place to sell well?  

 

Realtor called and would like to come over tomorrow and have a talk and look at the place. It's still a work in progress a little bit. Just always cleaning and still pitching a few things. But I've come to realize that I'm never going to really be ready. So ready or not...

 

I drove through a sandwich place, not literally. I haven't been there in ages. I had forgotten they have fried breaded mushrooms. Anyway, I ordered a 6 inch sub. I asked them if they would please cut it in half. Easier to eat in the car. They said sure, no problem. I unwrapped it and they had cut it in half...long ways.  I mean, come on people. Who cuts a 6 inch sandwich in half long ways. Of course I would find that place. 

 

The leaves are starting to turn pretty up here. I love autumn. 

[Littlesister]

euphrasyne, that turned out really cute and River seems to love it. She is so adorable. Your DD16 has turned out to be quite the seamstress. Glad all of you are starting to recoup from the trip. That was a long hard trip for sure. 

 

Neice, your trip for that bike sounds like me trying to get somewhere 15 minutes or so away and taking a couple of hours to get there. traffic here is that bad now. Construction has bought us down to one lane each way at certain times of the day and I have to guess on when the best time is to go anywhere now. Last week when out with neighbor we had to find a place to turn around and go back into Churchland and take the back way home. 

 

Those pictures are really good. Glad you have them to now hang in your house. 

 

Went to eye doctor this morning and all is well. I like this new eye doctor. But dilating my eyes is aways the pits. Took over half a day for my eyes to return to normal. Had to close all the curtains in house for a long while.  So not a whole lot got done. I did later go back to store this afternoon to get the onions that were on sale, so will start dehydrating those in the next day or two. The celery turned out great. So, hoping the onions will as well. 

 

 

[Jeepers]

@Necie. I can't decide which model I like now. I like the Gladiator but I need inside hauling room, not an open bed truck. Son has a full size truck if I want to borrow it. Plus a trailer. Hopefully my hauling days are behind me. I really really like the Porkchops but a couple people told me they can be pretty cold driving in our winter. I would love one for summer though. Yeah, me having a summer Jeep and a winter Jeep. 

 

I drove a Dodge Ram truck back in the 70's, for a while. I like trucks, but I hated that one. I inherited it from my FIL. We couldn't keep it running. It would die while I was driving it down the road. I could start it up in the driveway, take my foot off the brake, and it would take me half way to town without touching the gas. We gave it to D-ex's uncle, who was a mechanic. He couldn't keep it running either and got rid of it fast. We were trying to keep it in the family, but it didn't like our family. I love riding up high instead of in a car. I feel big in my Jeep. I had a brand new Buick Skylark. It was falling apart after only a few years. That's what I traded in for the Jeep.

 

I have a feeling getting parts for a 2005 Liberty will become more difficult in the future too. 

 

I looked at my Jeep in the parking lot at Lowes today and felt really sad for a minute. It's not going to be easy parting with it. 

[Jeepers]

Littlesister, I probably asked this before but forgot, did you blanch your celery before you dehydrated it? 

[Littlesister]

Jeepers, no I never blanch celery when I dehydrate it. It does better if you don't blanch it. I will be doing onions in a couple of days, and I won't be blanching those either. Now carrots are another story. I will blanch those before I dehydrate them. 

[Jeepers]

Thanks Littlesister, I couldn't remember. Some people do and some don't. I hate to blanch food so I'll be doing it that way too. 

[Necie]

3 hours ago, Jeepers said:

I really really like the Porkchops but a couple people told me they can be pretty cold driving in our winter.

Porkchops??? Wrangler? 

[Jeepers]

Google Jeep Pork Chop (Porkchop spelled both ways). It's a smaller Wrangler with a small bed in the back. All open. Sorta kinda has a dune buggy feel. Pork chop because they chopped the pork out. Very basic Wrangler with a more sporty feel. 

[Necie]

I love my Dodge Grand Caravan. I’m on my second one. The first (2006) went to 240k miles and still ran great. It was a mess though. I had hit deer on two occasions. It was starting to rust a little— mostly along the tracks of the slider doors. And I was HARD on the suspension— we had to change shocks, struts (broke and I actually drove home— about 2 miles), ball joints, tie rods. More than one person declared me the Queen of Caravan Tetris. DH said that if I broke the leaf springs, that was it— he wasn’t fixing those. So I sold it and bought another. The new one (2013) is at almost 175k and no problems so far. I don’t load it nearly as bad as I did the first one.

 

Soap wrapped and lotion made. 
Dug out stuff to take to market this week. Not much. 
Crocheted. I love burning through yarn. 🧶 (I just took a pic of my *working* area. It’s a mess— needs reorganized.)

Made county fried cubed steak (venison backstrap) for dinner. 

I’m itching to slow down. Wishing for October. We have 2 more weeks of market for August, Labor Day (3 days) and the rest of September. Not that I think October and after will be any slower, but I’ll have an extra 2 days a week to not be able to keep up.  
 

Market has been slow this year. Expected. Election year. I’m not stocking up like other years. Don’t really need to on much. It’s funny that I seem to stock up extra for 3 yrs so that I don’t need to on the 4th year. 
 

I think that I’m not going to the farm this week. Mom will take DS1 up there to work on the yard and garden one day. I’m planning on FISHING!! 🎣 🐟  Then I have to go to DD’s Friday night and spend the weekend to doggy 🐕 sit while her and DSIL go to their annual golf outing/concert with their best friends. 
 

pic of yarn mess

 

 

[Mt_Rider]

Well...today we had a Flash Boom Bang storm go thru in the afternoon.  Quite a bit of rain.....no dry stuff to catch fire!     But that means we're kinda soaked right now til sunshine tomorrow starts to dry it up.  And I planned to snip thistle heads from our own pasture this evening....before dark.

 

So I put on tall (snow) boots as much to protect legs-in-jeans from the OTHER type of thistle that I had to wade thru to get into the spiky ones.  I started to cross the whole WET pasture but decided to go around and enter from close to the road fence line.  Not cross the marshy part with creek ...cuz grasses are so dense and tall, I couldn't balance-couldn't see.  That worked better but had to plow thru the Other type of thistle which is nearly shoulder high.  They have a dozen small flowers/seed potential on each stickery plant.  No way I'm attacking those.  But they're not as spiky as the Nodding (Musk) thistle.  (I have to I.D. that type of thistle)

 

I filled up the small bucket (tied to my belt) several times.  Dan was on the road with the car and dog (who wanted to come out and play).  Gave me a reusable grocery bag and I kept dumping my full bucket into that.  Was starting to get dusk.  I cleared  um...1/3 or 1/4th of what's in our pasture.  Quite easy and the footing is dry over there by road.  The thistles don't want wet feet.  Good, or we'd have a lot more, I'm thinking.  'Course it was wet all over tonite cuz it had dumped rain today.  I feel like I got a good start but whoa...  SO many were fixin' to blow their seeds.  First white wisps coming out.  There's only about 'a thousand' seeds in each flower.  Flower is 2" diameter.....and heavy....is why the stem bends down with the weight, I think.  Nodding.  Yep, right into my bucket.  Either snipping with scissors or pluck it off with my thin leather gloves.  I'll be researching to see if there is ANY good use for the seeds.  Otherwise, we might have a tiny bon fire in the kettle grill.  Don't want to toss them to the trash...to seed somewhere else!      Was easy and satisfying!!!  Get those critters OUT!  

 

Bad news - the plant is still there.  They'll try yet to push more flowers to maturity.  Mother?  Did you say something about the plant absorbing salt to kill to the root?  Or am I dreaming?  Could I do that with the smaller/immature flowers?  I'd definitely like to kill those invasive things.

 

MtRider  ...I'm early tonite but must switch over and get Hawaiian done!

[Jeepers]

Necie, you win in the yarn category. 

 

I have the Canadian thistles. I never let them get tall enough to form heads. Even at that they were around 3 feet tall. I cut them back to keep the city off of me. I think pruning them just caused them to spread out more. They are awful painful. I just took the lopers  that look like huge scissors and took out a big swath of them at a time. I was going for a ground cover look from the street. I saw two more of them pop up today. I got them. 

 

This is what my yard looked like at the beginning of spring after the bed was all cleaned out last fall. 

 

 

What it looks like now. Except the window blinds upstairs are all the same now.

[Mt_Rider]

Very nice, Jeepers!  Our horses used to eat the purple flower off the top of these dratted thistles.  But only now and then....didn't keep up with the proliferation! 

 

That's going to have good curb appeal!!   

 

MtRider  ...nearing bedtime    wow! 

[Jeepers]

The curb appeal was terrible before. A total drive by. That's why I really needed it to be landscaped. Just getting rid of the thistles and adding mulch and a few shrubs made all the difference. I found the chairs and fake plants in the garage. I could have used a horse or a goat or two though. 

[Littlesister]

Jeepers, that curb appeal looks really inviting now. That will definitely help the sale of the house. 

 

Necie, you have enough yarn to keep you busy for a couple of years it looks like. That is a lot of yarn.

 

This morning, I got things ready to start on dehydrating the onions. Just cleaning up a place to set the dehydrator other than in house. Onions will smell up the whole house if I do it inside.  Got a freeze put on all 3 credit bureaus.  Now to go look up my DH's SS no. and freeze his. Though he has passed away, his was also hacked. I guess it would be better safe than sorry. Will do his later today. Though I will have to unfreeze mine in 6 months if the interest rates drop again to make it worth my wild. Then I can refreeze it all back. 

Just working mostly around the house cleaning up bathrooms and things today and getting ready to dehydrate onions tomorrow morning. It is supposed to be more fall like weather this week. So, after I get the onions in the dehydrator in the morning I will start working on the garage again. Working on some plans that I hope will work out. Lots of things going to Goodwill. I am going to get this house emptied of everything I haven't used in a year or more. Got a lot out but still a long way to go. 

[Mother]

14 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

y yet to push more flowers to maturity.  Mother?  Did you say something about the plant absorbing salt to kill to the root? 

Salt and vinegar sprayed on the flowers and leaf might do it but salt kills hat it touches so be cautious. 

[snapshotmiki]

@Mt_Rider. I believe that you can use the milky liquid from some thistles to make rennet for cheese making.  Not sure, but it seems like.

@Jeepers, your house looks great!  I hope you meet with and like your new realtor, today!

@Becca_Anne, I hope you get your foundation fixed by the company that damaged it and for free!

@Littlesister, I am going to start dehydrating onion, bell peppers and celery.  Good plan!

Our blasted cat has chewed through 3 wifi cords and 1 ethernet cord.  A little pricy and very annoying!

I'm back (for now). We think we are smarter than the cat. Time will tell. We found a very heavy fireplace stand up cover--not sure what it's called. So far, so good. If we have another problem, we will use some other tactics. I think I should just let the cat sleep overnight in his crate/ not carrier-this is big enough for 2 pygmy goats to sit in. But DH doesn't want to contain the cat, so...

It's been a wild few days, although quiet in the house. LOL
I have continued to walk and walk dogs.
Worked at Church quite a bit for our 198th anniversary celebration. What a success! We were hoping for 100 to 130 or so folks. We had over 200 come! Parking lots were full, Church was full! I've never seen it like that. Didn't have quite enough seating set up for the potluck. It worked out as by the time the folks at the end of the line got to buffet line, the first ones were done eating. There was so much food, but we are Baptists.
In other news, I finally got my passport app sent off/ book and card.
My neighbor gave us a Powerdrive 1000 watt invertor.
I'm within 8 pounds of my goal weight-135.
And DH is doing well enough with his copd and other issues.

 

Edited August 20 by snapshotmiki