No need to be sorry. I'm a misplaced Texan.
What's everybody doing today?
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No need to be sorry. I'm a misplaced Texan.
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I got up early and talked to the Daughter on the last leg of her trip (She is home now after 40 hours on the road). While I was talking to her I picked a little spinach and lettuce (see gardening 2022 thread). I need to finish cleaning the salad and then get ready for Church. I have a lot of yard work I need to do, but I just don't know if I have the energy or the will to go out and work in the 95F/90% humidity this afternoon.
Hope everyone has a blessed day.
Hope everyone has a blessed day.
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Glad your daughter made it safe and sound, Urban.
We've got a cool weather day today...47 right now, not getting up very high. Had to bring the potted begonias from the porch in last night.
Need to get busy on the morning chores. Family luncheon at my favorite cousin's place today, not sure what I'm bringing yet. I've heard there will be taco salad and a rhubarb dessert. We are meeting little granddaughter's mom and the boyfriend at a burger place this evening. Hopefully it doesn't get too weird.
We've got a cool weather day today...47 right now, not getting up very high. Had to bring the potted begonias from the porch in last night.
Need to get busy on the morning chores. Family luncheon at my favorite cousin's place today, not sure what I'm bringing yet. I've heard there will be taco salad and a rhubarb dessert. We are meeting little granddaughter's mom and the boyfriend at a burger place this evening. Hopefully it doesn't get too weird.
@UrbanHunter, I'm glad your daughter is home and that burden of worry is lifted from your shoulders. No matter how old our children get, we never stop worrying about their safety - and some more than others. 
@Hooch, that is so cool! I can't eat mushrooms (allergy), but I can certainly appreciate the bounty of your find! AND your resourcefulness in knowing what to find and how to make a meal out of it. I know there are other foragers on this forum - we should all develop that skill.
@Hooch, that is so cool! I can't eat mushrooms (allergy), but I can certainly appreciate the bounty of your find! AND your resourcefulness in knowing what to find and how to make a meal out of it. I know there are other foragers on this forum - we should all develop that skill.
Thanks for letting us know your daughter made it home safely Urban!! Made breakfast and heading to work shortly. Couldn't go as early as usual, new renter in the building moving office furniture in this morning. Already got the text they were done, main entrance no longer blocked! Chilly today so I have some inside jobs when I get home!
Mass, then watered potted plants. Then I will do nothing much for the rest of the day, hope to excel at it!
Since I fiddled around yesterday all day, today i will take the dog on a little walk, hit the store, fuel up n get some gardening done. Then time to chill for the evening ..
Yesterday was soup day. Made about 3 gallons of ham soup and canned most of it. Boy I need a bigger pressure canner, mine only fits 4 jars at a time, so canning that much soup took forever. Got a couple of chickens in the fridge and I tomorrow we'll crank out some chicken broth and soup. Also wish I had more room in the freezer - I could freeze it in plastic containers for about $4 vs the $20 a flat of jars is going for these days.
Glad she made it home safely Urban. Prayers answered.
Nice score Hooch, pretty area too.
Niece graduates with her Masters in Architecture today. We're all going to see that, then go eat somewhere. Should be a fun day
Nice score Hooch, pretty area too.
Niece graduates with her Masters in Architecture today. We're all going to see that, then go eat somewhere. Should be a fun day
Slept great last night. I had the house to myself so watched YouTube for a few hours, had a few drinks of bourbon, locked the chickens away when it got dark, had a night cap, hit the bed and was out. I think I put on a movie to watch but as soon as I put down the remote my eyes were closed. That rarely happens.
Took trash to the dump. Used the new weed whacker around the yard yesterday. Both the electric ones I brought here last summer from the house in Vegas were junk. One worked for about a half hour until a plastic part that controls the auto feed broke. Not even worth looking for a replacement part. Decided I have plenty of Dewalt batteries so just got a cheap ($150) new one. It is nice not dragging an electric cord around but it is annoying putting new line on the spool. Oh well.
Begrudgingly used the week whacker to trim the cover crop and grasses we have growing for the birds to graze. They have to wait until the new seeds sprout and root better before we can let them in there but the stuff that was growing last year was up to 18" already so I had to cut that down to allow the sprinklers to, well, sprinkle everywhere.
Hopefully today I get around to running the last water lines for drip irrigation. I just need to cut the 1/2" black tubing to length and put hose ends on it, not a difficult job but I am lacking motivation. We shall see what happens.
Took trash to the dump. Used the new weed whacker around the yard yesterday. Both the electric ones I brought here last summer from the house in Vegas were junk. One worked for about a half hour until a plastic part that controls the auto feed broke. Not even worth looking for a replacement part. Decided I have plenty of Dewalt batteries so just got a cheap ($150) new one. It is nice not dragging an electric cord around but it is annoying putting new line on the spool. Oh well.
Begrudgingly used the week whacker to trim the cover crop and grasses we have growing for the birds to graze. They have to wait until the new seeds sprout and root better before we can let them in there but the stuff that was growing last year was up to 18" already so I had to cut that down to allow the sprinklers to, well, sprinkle everywhere.
Hopefully today I get around to running the last water lines for drip irrigation. I just need to cut the 1/2" black tubing to length and put hose ends on it, not a difficult job but I am lacking motivation. We shall see what happens.
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Taking time ro straighten out the end of the trimmer line helps with getting Reh string to feed through on my DeWalt sting trimmer. It eats batteries. I can fo through 16 AH worth of batteries in under 3 hours.
One tip to extend battery life is to keep it spinning and don't stop and start. Getting the head upto speed takes a lot of work.
Ben
Thanks for the tip. And yes, it does drain the battery pretty quick. Luckily I have 5 batteries.
We let the weeds grow far too long this year, and not being able to get free woods chips anymore allowed more weeds to sprout that we were used to dealing with. Now that I have the trimmer I can cut the foxtail grass before it gets to seed so hopefully by next year less stuff sprouts up. Unfortunately all the foxtail came to seed so now those seeds are on the ground waiting for the next rain. If we ever get rain again I will be out there 2 weeks later cutting everything before they sprout seeds.
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I jinxed it. Fan only ran about an hour. I tried to get it to to go again but it wouldn't. Don't know if it has insufficient power to run or if the fan itself is bad or something its connected to. Spent the night sweating again. But I turned off the outside unit and kept the internal fans running to see if it would help any.
May have to see if the AC guy who is not in jail can come out Monday if we can't figure it out.
Urban, glad your daughter made it back safely.
Goshengirl, sorry to hear you're allergic to mushrooms. I wish food allergies didn't exist.
I'm trying to stay cool in this house. Coolest it got was 87°. I'm about to see if the pups want out. The were out most of the night (in my room). Mewlatto is still chilling in front of the fans. I finally got to sleep last night and Sir Hammington jumped in the air to pounce directly on my gut with all of his weight while doing his "pounce announce". The announcement woke me up halfway. The pounce woke me up more. I had a stomachache for about 30min after that. I fed him and the other kitties so they would let me sleep.
May have to see if the AC guy who is not in jail can come out Monday if we can't figure it out.
Urban, glad your daughter made it back safely.
Goshengirl, sorry to hear you're allergic to mushrooms. I wish food allergies didn't exist.
I'm trying to stay cool in this house. Coolest it got was 87°. I'm about to see if the pups want out. The were out most of the night (in my room). Mewlatto is still chilling in front of the fans. I finally got to sleep last night and Sir Hammington jumped in the air to pounce directly on my gut with all of his weight while doing his "pounce announce". The announcement woke me up halfway. The pounce woke me up more. I had a stomachache for about 30min after that. I fed him and the other kitties so they would let me sleep.
They even get you online!
Every time we go to Costco, we end up buying a ton of stuff and end up with an enormous bill.
So today, I only wanted to buy a pack of LED lightbulbs, which were on sale. Free shipping. I though, why not do it online and save the gas money from driving over there, as well as my time. I'm in no hurry for the bulbs. Should have been $19 for the order.
While I was ordering the bulbs, the wife looked over my shoulder. Uh oh. Final order total after that? $361 About half of that was a Husqvarna Power Washer that I never knew we needed. But it was on sale. So now we have one coming. I'll have to go search for something to wash now.
Costco is soooo bad for your bank account - whether you go there in person, or online.
Every time we go to Costco, we end up buying a ton of stuff and end up with an enormous bill.
So today, I only wanted to buy a pack of LED lightbulbs, which were on sale. Free shipping. I though, why not do it online and save the gas money from driving over there, as well as my time. I'm in no hurry for the bulbs. Should have been $19 for the order.
While I was ordering the bulbs, the wife looked over my shoulder. Uh oh. Final order total after that? $361 About half of that was a Husqvarna Power Washer that I never knew we needed. But it was on sale. So now we have one coming. I'll have to go search for something to wash now.
Costco is soooo bad for your bank account - whether you go there in person, or online.
I went grocery shopping this morning and then over to my parents' to visit/check on them/help out with laundry, etc. Mom isn't doing great, she hasn't been eating enough and has lost so much weight she's so shaky she can barely walk to the bathroom and back to couch even with the walker. It's tough to see, I keep telling her to eat more or she'll end up in the hospital.
I didn't do much outside today, it was in the 90s and humid, so I just did some cleaning & organizing. Back to work tomorrow.
I didn't do much outside today, it was in the 90s and humid, so I just did some cleaning & organizing. Back to work tomorrow.
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The youngest granddaughter came to visit and my sister gave her a bunch of beanie babies she received from her best friends daughter. The daughter is lawyer as is her husband. They are downsizing from their 15 bedroom place to something smaller and was just going to throw away the beanie babies. My sister like my fairly are always looking to take someones trash and put it to good use.
When I saw that many of the babies still had the ear tag and were in good shape I did some digging and found a unicorn was actually rare because there were some unique flaws lime spelling and date mismatches between the tag and the tag sewn in. At that point I had the granddaughter give me all that still had ear tags (the tags that clearly state the tags should be removed before letting children play with them). Here is an example.
https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...508956_0,prmr:1,pid:11380125585614508956,cs:1
And another
https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...5421496_0,prmr:1,pid:4946694132425421496,cs:1
From what I saw maybe $250k at the crazy asking prices. So I put all or the rare ones in Ziploc bags and turned the lot to my son to research and learn how to sell them.
I suggested he do the research and start with lowest value babie. Try to sell it at half the crazy price and see if it will sell. If not cut the cost until it sells. Then decide if it is worth the effort. I have no experience buying or selling on Ebay or Etsy.
Q
Do any of you have advice I can give my son?
My sister has 2 more garbage bags waiting.
Ben
When I saw that many of the babies still had the ear tag and were in good shape I did some digging and found a unicorn was actually rare because there were some unique flaws lime spelling and date mismatches between the tag and the tag sewn in. At that point I had the granddaughter give me all that still had ear tags (the tags that clearly state the tags should be removed before letting children play with them). Here is an example.
https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...508956_0,prmr:1,pid:11380125585614508956,cs:1
And another
https://www.google.com/shopping/pro...5421496_0,prmr:1,pid:4946694132425421496,cs:1
From what I saw maybe $250k at the crazy asking prices. So I put all or the rare ones in Ziploc bags and turned the lot to my son to research and learn how to sell them.
I suggested he do the research and start with lowest value babie. Try to sell it at half the crazy price and see if it will sell. If not cut the cost until it sells. Then decide if it is worth the effort. I have no experience buying or selling on Ebay or Etsy.
Q
Do any of you have advice I can give my son?
My sister has 2 more garbage bags waiting.
Ben
My daughter and I went up to visit mom and pops again last night. We had a nice time playing Jokers and Pegs with mom at the nursing home, then went out to the farm with Pops for a couple hours. While I was there the sun started doing funky things through the clouds so I had to get a picture.
Seems like every time I go out there, the Good Lord shows off a little bit. I'm always glad I get to see it...
Seems like every time I go out there, the Good Lord shows off a little bit. I'm always glad I get to see it...
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We love the light show that God puts many nights with some more spectacular than others. The Princess took on an extra job to fund enclosing our front porch with big double insulated windows so we can witness...
Sunsets.
Ben
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I finally dragged my new heavy duty 3 tri wheel removalist trolley out of the back of the car!
WOW. They weren't kidding about the heavy duty bit at all!
This thing is a beast.
I'm completely winded I had to go sit down for a long time after that effort.
I still have to remove the protective wrap and fit the tri-wheels to it but I think it's def worth the money I spent.
For a horrible moment I thought it was going to be too wide for the 8 foot wheelchair ramp I have coming.
I had to get out my tape measure and THANK GOODNESS the trolley will fit with plently of room on both sides.
Like I said I'm still waiting on the delivery of the ramp but we've had some major flooding and it's still raining with more predicted so it looks like I'm in for a decent wait.
WOW. They weren't kidding about the heavy duty bit at all!
This thing is a beast.
I'm completely winded I had to go sit down for a long time after that effort.
I still have to remove the protective wrap and fit the tri-wheels to it but I think it's def worth the money I spent.
For a horrible moment I thought it was going to be too wide for the 8 foot wheelchair ramp I have coming.
I had to get out my tape measure and THANK GOODNESS the trolley will fit with plently of room on both sides.
Like I said I'm still waiting on the delivery of the ramp but we've had some major flooding and it's still raining with more predicted so it looks like I'm in for a decent wait.
Today I was increasing my world geography knowledge. I'm going continent by continent. I learned Africa this afternoon. Given a blank map of Africa with country lines drawn in, and random prompts saying "click on XYZ country", I was able to identify everything on the continent in 2 minutes 15 seconds (on my best run - not the one shown below). The next harder step was to take that blank map and label each country with no prompts. Well, I did set it on auto-complete so I could type the start of the country name and it would fill in the rest (I said I could identify the countries, not spell them!) Next I'll go for Asia or Europe. After that, everything is pretty trivial. I think I can get all of South and Central America. Maybe I'll need a little practice on those, but not much.
Here's the Africa one with the popup prompts: Africa: Countries The prompts are what they call "Pin" game mode, which you can choose on the webpage. You can also choose the game mode of "Type, with auto-complete" for the labeling mode. There are other modes as well - below is a picture of the "Place the labels" game mode.
This is the one I'm working on now - identifying each country by it's outline, but standalone, not in context with the rest of the continent. This is more difficult, complicated because you can't tell the relative size of the countries with respect to each other. Africa: Country Outlines
Why do I want to increase my world geography knowledge? Because my daughter has been challenging me to this other game, where it pops up a country outline from anywhere in the world, and you have only a few guesses to figure out which country it is. Once you guess a country incorrectly, it does tell you which direction (via a compass arrow) and distance the correct country lies.
Below is that game. Note it's called "worldle" (two of the letter ell in the name), not to be confused with the current rage game "wordle" (only one letter ell in the name).
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/
Here's today's Worldle (sorry to spoil it for anyone who is currently playing it!) You get one puzzle per day (maybe more if you actually create an account on their website, I don't know). I guessed Israel. I knew it wasn't Israel, but my technique is to just start somewhere that might be remotely close in shape, and then see which direction/distance I need to go for a more intelligent guess. After that first guess, I could see I needed to go southwest, and almost half way across the globe. So I jumped to the southern part of South America. If I had put more thought into it I should have gotten the correct answer on the second guess. But I screwed up. Your mistakes are easy to spot after the fact, not as easy before the fact.
Here's the Africa one with the popup prompts: Africa: Countries The prompts are what they call "Pin" game mode, which you can choose on the webpage. You can also choose the game mode of "Type, with auto-complete" for the labeling mode. There are other modes as well - below is a picture of the "Place the labels" game mode.
This is the one I'm working on now - identifying each country by it's outline, but standalone, not in context with the rest of the continent. This is more difficult, complicated because you can't tell the relative size of the countries with respect to each other. Africa: Country Outlines
Why do I want to increase my world geography knowledge? Because my daughter has been challenging me to this other game, where it pops up a country outline from anywhere in the world, and you have only a few guesses to figure out which country it is. Once you guess a country incorrectly, it does tell you which direction (via a compass arrow) and distance the correct country lies.
Below is that game. Note it's called "worldle" (two of the letter ell in the name), not to be confused with the current rage game "wordle" (only one letter ell in the name).
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/
Here's today's Worldle (sorry to spoil it for anyone who is currently playing it!) You get one puzzle per day (maybe more if you actually create an account on their website, I don't know). I guessed Israel. I knew it wasn't Israel, but my technique is to just start somewhere that might be remotely close in shape, and then see which direction/distance I need to go for a more intelligent guess. After that first guess, I could see I needed to go southwest, and almost half way across the globe. So I jumped to the southern part of South America. If I had put more thought into it I should have gotten the correct answer on the second guess. But I screwed up. Your mistakes are easy to spot after the fact, not as easy before the fact.
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Boy is that a worthy and challenging goal!
In context I could pass a test.
Not good with the "-stans".
But with shape alone... D- at best.
Go for it!
Ben
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Yeah, I did a pre-test of my knowledge a week or so ago - for each continent - and the "-stans" got me too. Most of them, I couldn't even say if they were a real -stan or a made up bogus -stan. So I've got some learning to do there. Most of Europe I have in my brain, but not 100% for sure. More training on that. There are only a few countries in South America, and I probably wouldn't insult too many citizens there. Unless they care if I mistakenly think they're from Paraguay or Uruguay. Or forget that Suriname even exists.
My opinion: It's not worth the time to list anything for less than $20. Then let them bid. Even if you sell one for $300, it's been worth the investment. I see things listed for ridiculous prices, but they stay listed for ages - not selling. You can put a min. bid or reserve on an item.
@UrbanHunter So glad your daughter made it home safely. I'm guessing both you and Mrs. Urban enjoyed the visit.
Watch craigslist and thrift shops. I scored a new box of 1/2 pnt jars (I like them for tomato sauce) last weekend for $4. I don't pay more than 50 c. per jar up to quarts. 1/2 gals are more.
Sounds like you can use the rest.
We went hiking for mushrooms today too. Didn't find any morels, but found 7-8 lbs. of calf brains. We hiked 9 miles and equivalent of 74 flights of stairs. I will post a pix of the area tomorrow. My phone is in the other room and I'm too whooped to go get it. I found 2-3 times what Hubby found. Now I know why he wants me to go with him. I don't even eat them.
