Moon and other ramblings....,

 

Not the best photo, as I should have been up at 5am for a better photo.

Half the living room floor remains to be removed.  Sigh.  I though it would go much faster and it's driving me nutso.

We believe the original part of the house was built in the 30's.  Apparently this is what was typical to support the center of the floor in each room.  In the living room it's a random stack of wood.  There may be a rock or two as well.  Just one more of those "what in the heck" moments of doing repairs and remodeling.

I ordered a crochet hook from Amazon, and the carrier lost the package.  It was one I did not have either, and I need to keep my sanity during all of this chaos in the house right now. 

I typically find myself baking, but even with the plastic sheeting up to block dust out of the kitchen, that's not going to happen. 

 I have to be super strict with my husband's diet anyway.  His last doctor appt. was not good.  He admitted to eating donuts at work of all things.  He has since promised not to eat them, and today....

...he's getting homemade hummus and celery sticks.  He is well supplied with healthy snacking.  I know work has been stressful, so I have to stay on task with having healthy snacks and his meals packed now.

Chores and memories and other ramblings....

 While tying up the tomatoes I thought of Mom.  It didn't matter who brought her home grown tomatoes, she always told me that my tomatoes tasted the absolute best.

Also, bandaids and travel toilet paper brought Mom to my mind.  While cleaning her house, she had a good supply of travel toilet paper and bandaids.  I didn't think I would need them, but lately....found myself in a bathroom stall in a store and no toilet paper, and scratched the heck out of my arm removing hay from upstairs and have no bandaids.  I'm heading to the camper this morning in hopes to find more bandaids.

I don't want to waste gas for just one thing today, so I surely hope I find extras out there.  I have a travel tote we use when we go on car trips and camping trips, but I have yet to find it in this maze of a mess house right now.

In regards to the entire bale of hay I found upstairs, Daughter K left it in a tote.  When I inquired on the oddity of it, she said she "left it because Rosemary (her rabbit) didn't like it". Sigh....why an entire bale?  I have no idea.  Kids!

Daughter K called.  She wanted some zucchini.  Mom used to fry her sliced zucchini when they stayed over as kids.  Heck, she used to make it for us as kids.  So good too.

While cleaning green beans I thought of Dad.  He always told me I snapped the beans too big.  He said I needed to snap them in smaller bite size pieces.  Guess who snaps them in smaller pieces to this day?  Yep.  Me.

While searching for a new crochet pattern, I thought of Mom.  She was the one who always gave me an idea that ended up selling very well at craft shows.  The last item she asked me to make was the jar openers, and the first dozen sold completely.  I've since then made more, and have them for sale now at the museum gift shop.

The moon was very visible the other night.  Last night it was too cloudy.

My husband keeps reminding me that the flower beds need weeded.  I keep telling him, "yeah, and so do the hot peppers, kale, bell peppers, squash, cucumbers, and the herb garden..."  I'm only one person, and I have to paint to keep up with the bathroom project.

Speaking of the bathroom, we decided that it was best to change out the pvc water lines for the shower and put in a new shower handle/shower head.  We have no access if they bust down the road, so to ensure a good re-build, that was done before the last piece of drywall goes up (hopefully today).  One more thing to delay the finish, but better to do it, than to not.

The water was shut off for that last repair, so I am running the dishwasher very early, as it is completely full.

I cleaned out a 2 drawer filing cabinet, and gave the cabinet to a friend who is in the process of moving.  One more thing out of the living room maze of a mess (used to be in my kitchen under the desk).  We don't need that much file space anymore.

I brought down one more bag of trash from upstairs, as well as the tote with the remaining hay (why oh why??!!). More purged, and another box for donation.  I am also saving the very large cardboard from the vanity etc. and storing it for the garden next year.  I put it under my grow bags to keep the weeds down.

I purchased sun-block curtains for the west facing window and north and south in the smaller bedroom upstairs.  It made a huge difference in temperature up there.  It's cooler, although we are not running AC up there this year.

Moon ~ Weekend Work

Kingsley is an early riser, and when I took the dogs out I snapped some photos of the moon yesterday morning.

After hearing suggestions to put the website on my scrubbie packaging, I came up with an idea.  I have address labels.  I'll print the contact info on them and slap them on the backside of the cardstock.

It's another weekend of working on the hallway.  We are praying for no interruptions this weekend.  We'd like a full weekend to finish up as much as we can.

We will have to split wood, because we need restocked before the snow storm rolls in too.

I already have 3 more purge areas to dive into next.  One being a top shelf in a kitchen cupboard.  Two is back to the utility room, and three is the entryway from hallway to garage (I still have a tote of goat milking stuff in there).

Ideas for revitalizing and energizing yourself:

6. Make use of helping professions

7. Keep track of our lonely periods

8. Find out what is controllable in your life

9. Be honest with yourself

10. Read about human growth.

 

Frozen Cucumbers Update ~ Breakfast and other tidbits

 

Picture of the moon this morning.  I was up at 3:45am, because I had no body heat to snuggle up with (and because Tiger was also meowing at my bedroom door).  My husband worked midnight shift, and will be working morning day shift today.  Sigh...

I thawed some cucumbers I froze last August, so that's about 4 months in the freezer.  I did not peel them.  When thawed, they are not fresh crisp, but not as soft as a canned pickle. 

 I used them to go in our Tex Mex Macaroni (one dish meal - cold).  It tasted the same as using fresh cucumber. Oh, and when I opened the bag of frozen cucumbers, it smelled amazing, as if I had sliced a fresh one.

A breakfast I made - sweet potatoes, zucchini, red onion (needed to use some up), garlic, oregano, swiss chard and farm fresh eggs.

It was a day to clean up and tidy up.  I needed to do that badly in my bedroom (gulp).  I had crafting supplies all over the place.  No wonder I can't find things, ha ha!

Carpet cleaning resumes today.  I need to get it done before it gets too cold to dry the carpets.  Unless one of the girls are off today.  Then I will be going out to restock some items.

Well, there is a threat of a lockdown for our state (again).  Our Gov. is threatening to close restaurants now.  He's formed agents to do compliance checks regarding mask wearing in all businesses with fines and threat to close them down.  I'm so sick of it.   I am really am.  Truckers are talking about a strike this month.  I don't blame them.  They are our life line and need food on the road.  They are sick of the restrictions more so than all of us in this state.

I'm on my second pot of coffee already this morning and it's 6am as of posting this.  Have a great day!

Random Tidbits

 

More beautiful fall colors at our homestead.  The colors seem to be more vibrant than the last few years.

The moon this morning.

My online pampered chef show closed last night.  I had over $1,000 in sales and earned $240 in free product, 2 - 60% off items, 5 - half off items and 30% off anything else I order.  I'm pretty sure after this, I won't need to have a party for years to come ha ha!  I never in my life thought I would be that successful.

Cross your fingers for me.  My car, after a long year, is to be towed to the repair guy for a new engine tonight.  I think my husband forgot, but will remind him.  It's been a long time waiting for this to happen.

We have a mix of weather going on.  It was pretty nice in the low 70's yesterday, we got a downpour of rain last night, and woke up to 45°F this morning.  Thankful for the rain, so I can dig up the remaining sweet potatoes (hopefully tomorrow).

Many businesses have closed permanently due to the pandemic shutdowns.  My magazine subscription to Capper's Farmer is now having issues.  They sent an email saying I won't be getting the remainder of my subscription, and they will be sending me Grit for the remaining time.

I have a few more things to can this year. I'm putting off one jelly, because it was technically for Christmas presents.  I may not can it.

I didn't get my ginger root in the dehydrator yesterday, so it's on today's list, but we'll see if I get the time to do it.  There is so much going on right now.  Yikes.  I have several sticky notes with reminders to keep me on track as much as possible.

The stink bugs are back in full force.  It's impossible to hang laundry out and not have a few come in with me.  I'm thinking (gulp!) of using the dryer for big things for a while.

1:30am Moom ~ Small Day Adventures ~ Barn Cat ~ Crochet/knit Socks of Another Kind

The things I do when I cannot sleep.  Take photos of the moon.  This was, I think, from last Thursday early in the morning.

I am being very bad at eating breakfast at all.  I have a light lunch and come dinner, I don't want to eat either.  The stress has been over the moon bad.  Just lots of things going on.

The chance for rain on Saturday (60%) went off the radar as fast as it went on.  However, we thankfully got a nice pour down last night.  

My 21 year-old and I went on a small day adventure and visited an antique store in the Big City.  

I've been wanting one of these for a long time.  First, I thought I might paint it red, but I may leave it yellow.  I kind of like it.

We also went to a thrift store, which I sort of thought was not stocked by much (oddly).  I snatched up this green pepper dish for $1.00 and it now holds my vegetable scrubber.

Picked up this wine bottle stand for a few bucks as well.

I picked up a few books as well, and a beat up metal strainer the antique guy gave me free.  I wanted it for a table center piece for the fall holidays.  I have battery operated lights (rechargeable batteries), and will top with some holiday colored something or other to pretty it up.

More tomatoes are turning red, but as you can see the drought has not helped with the size of most of them.

Looks like a raccoon right?  It's our barn cat.  I brought the pool out to clean for the grandkids, and it filled with rain water the last time it rained and it still has some oddly.  Anyway, she loves to go in the water and give herself a bath and get a drink, even though her water bowl is filled.  Silly cat.

My socks finally arrived in the mail.  I thought I deserved to buy myself something special.

Red Moon ~ Lunar Eclipse

Thanks to my older brother, I was able to get photos of the moon this morning.  Did you know today (Oct. 8, 2014) it would be red and there would be a total lunar eclipse?

Canning it Up

I canned more pints of pizza sauce.  There was no voting on what to can, considering we had just made pizzas the night before.  I'm exhausted this morning.  I was sealing jars way past 7pm, and still had laundry that needed to come off the line.  On a Sunday no less. 

After getting the laundry down. . .

Soap Making Day ~ Beautiful Sunset

Just a regular day for me.  Make a 5 gallon bucket of laundry detergent, and a container of dishwasher detergent. I now make it with grated goat's milk soap (unscented) that my daughter makes here.

Had to drive to the vet for Jesse again.  That infection is back in his paw again.  We are pretty sure it never completely healed.  We have no idea what happened to it, and the vet recommended another prescription.  Thankfully, it was only $7.20, and we didn't need a vet visit this time.

Nursed a day of the sniffles, and downed some elderberry extract.  Jesse and I spent some time on the couch together.

I'm sharing a snapshot of a recent sunset here the other day. 

And one of the moon, on the same night.