You might already know this Peanut, but what ticks spit into you to keep your blood from coagulating as they suck it is a paralysis. I know you'll take care of them, but drink lots of water also.
What's everybody doing today?
- Thread starter Grimm
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That is when I like the saying, "Does it count as saving someone's life if I refrain from killing them?"
Sorry you had such an encounter.
So Monday I traveled 2.5 hrs. to take a 3 hr. brutal test then got to drive 2.5 hrs. back home. Have been playing catch up since then but think I am getting caught up which is good heading into end of month stuff.
We've had rain and relatively mild temps so am hoping to play in the garden this weekend. They finally came and finished the summer kitchen roof yesterday so now I can uncover everything and get back in there to work and finish cleaning up and putting things away. Looking forward to having that done - it's become such an extension of our home (or of the kitchen anyhoo).
@Amish Heart How is your mom doing? Prayers the move-out of the twins is uneventful.
We've had rain and relatively mild temps so am hoping to play in the garden this weekend. They finally came and finished the summer kitchen roof yesterday so now I can uncover everything and get back in there to work and finish cleaning up and putting things away. Looking forward to having that done - it's become such an extension of our home (or of the kitchen anyhoo).
@Amish Heart How is your mom doing? Prayers the move-out of the twins is uneventful.
Drove 30 miles to pickup a family member and take them to their doctor appointment. On the way a truck threw a stone and put a 12” crack in my windshield. Doctor’s receptionist was a bit confused at first why we were there. Turns out the appointment is for TOMORROW. Family member was sure it was today.
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I finally fot to good breaking point with the crazy 3 water heater adventure but nit until after The Princess had some giggles about my challenges.
She decided to five each water heater a proper name instead of by number. She decided "Tom, Dick, and Harry" being inspired by a song in the musical "Kiss me Kate".
Well the central manifold came in handy because a few issues were uncovered. First was the pressure regulating valve for the alternate side house was bad reading 140 psi instead of 50-60 psi. Shut off the supply for that side and ran both sides of the house from the primary side of the house. Fine as temporary fix.
Started working on re-plumbing the lines for Dick. I was cleaning up the build up for the T&P relief valve. As I was diddling with the threads the question crossed my mind "if the pressure was 140 psi, why was the relief valve actuating?" Yup! Bad relief valve. That was a disaster waiting to happen!
Continuing to rehab Dick I cleaned up the threads for the input and output nipples and installed the new stainless steel flex lines and was excited to turn on the valves. Then the drama kicked in. Very tiny leak on the output nipple. No tightening didn't help nor piles of teflon tape. It was about then The Princess started kidding me about having trouble with a "leaky Dick".
Wire brushes by hand drill or Dremel tool still leaking. Used a 3/4 NPT die to clean threads. Nope. Used a sharpening stone to dress the rip of the nipple. Nope. It was then that I discovered the nipple had funky threads!
Ordered another flex line set and turned my attention to the pressure regulating valve. I was feeling good about that until the water meter rotated about the input coupling to same. That is the side with the tamper seal. Bummer. Fixed that but now I have bring in the water company for new seal. I was happy with that task completed but it did give The Princess another evening of asking if I still have a "leaky Dick".
The new flex line did fix the leak. Ben was happy. I still have to decide how to deal with Tom. The valves and pipes are in a hard to access area. If I leave them as is and something goes bad after I complete The Hobbit Hole remodel it would be catastrophic getting at those valves. Rerunning the lines and moving the valves now would make things easier in the future. Still deciding.
Both sides if the house are running off the water meter for the alternate side of the house with Harry supplying the hot water. Tom and Dick are set for vacation mode. This will give us a handle on the cost of heating the water with electricity and gas.
All of that has entertained me for a week of rain. It cleared today so I finished clearing the garden boxes that will be upgraded to galvanized this year. Collected about 4 gallons of walking onions while I was at it.
Tomorrow may be assembling the garden box.
Behave!
Ben
She decided to five each water heater a proper name instead of by number. She decided "Tom, Dick, and Harry" being inspired by a song in the musical "Kiss me Kate".
Well the central manifold came in handy because a few issues were uncovered. First was the pressure regulating valve for the alternate side house was bad reading 140 psi instead of 50-60 psi. Shut off the supply for that side and ran both sides of the house from the primary side of the house. Fine as temporary fix.
Started working on re-plumbing the lines for Dick. I was cleaning up the build up for the T&P relief valve. As I was diddling with the threads the question crossed my mind "if the pressure was 140 psi, why was the relief valve actuating?" Yup! Bad relief valve. That was a disaster waiting to happen!
Continuing to rehab Dick I cleaned up the threads for the input and output nipples and installed the new stainless steel flex lines and was excited to turn on the valves. Then the drama kicked in. Very tiny leak on the output nipple. No tightening didn't help nor piles of teflon tape. It was about then The Princess started kidding me about having trouble with a "leaky Dick".
Wire brushes by hand drill or Dremel tool still leaking. Used a 3/4 NPT die to clean threads. Nope. Used a sharpening stone to dress the rip of the nipple. Nope. It was then that I discovered the nipple had funky threads!
Ordered another flex line set and turned my attention to the pressure regulating valve. I was feeling good about that until the water meter rotated about the input coupling to same. That is the side with the tamper seal. Bummer. Fixed that but now I have bring in the water company for new seal. I was happy with that task completed but it did give The Princess another evening of asking if I still have a "leaky Dick".
The new flex line did fix the leak. Ben was happy. I still have to decide how to deal with Tom. The valves and pipes are in a hard to access area. If I leave them as is and something goes bad after I complete The Hobbit Hole remodel it would be catastrophic getting at those valves. Rerunning the lines and moving the valves now would make things easier in the future. Still deciding.
Both sides if the house are running off the water meter for the alternate side of the house with Harry supplying the hot water. Tom and Dick are set for vacation mode. This will give us a handle on the cost of heating the water with electricity and gas.
All of that has entertained me for a week of rain. It cleared today so I finished clearing the garden boxes that will be upgraded to galvanized this year. Collected about 4 gallons of walking onions while I was at it.
Tomorrow may be assembling the garden box.
Behave!
Ben
These two in particular still drive and can do pretty much anything they want to do. Both have sons that live close and are good to them. It's such a pleasure being around both of them!
Hope they got to see the Dr. today?!
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Ugh! I think I would want to be able to find a way to confirm this in the future. I know, HIPAA and what not, but did you get an apology of any sort? Pay for gas? Buy you lunch?
Took another vacation day. Hauled my 3rd load of compost this spring. Got my last bed topped off. Hope to build number 10 later this week and fill it up. Planted a nice Bartlett pear tree. Gives us 3 pears total now. The other 2 are in bloom. Planted taters and lettuce. Wife had a couple friends she grew up with come to town so she took off with them for a couple days.
Time for a good cigar and a quite evening on the porch
Time for a good cigar and a quite evening on the porch
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Bless you. Now that they are playing their being abused game, it is better to say and do nothing that can be reported as you already know. I know I'd want to throw their things out, but it will come back and bite you in the end. The kids want this. They want to prove that you are abusive. Everything makes her wheels turn and gives her something to work with to create new lies.
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Town run burned 4 hours and now my feet are tired, so the clutch cable will wait for another day. I dunno where the time goes on these town runs, but then again, I stopped at Dollar General, Tractor Supply Co., the library & Walmart, so I guess those stops rack up the time. Bought several 50-lb. bags of cracked corn at TSC, and filled a cart at Walmart, so now I'm poorer by a few hundred bucks, lol. Meh, I stocked up on cat food too, several 16-lb. bags of Friskies (the cats like variety, so I offer some of each flavor), plus 4 flats of canned cat food (48 cans). The Dollar General stop was merely for 6 gallons of bottled water plus a foil pan for chicken & rice... however, I'm not baking the chicken & rice yet, I'm having an "aged" Angus London Broil which was marked down, gonna roast that tonight but leave it rare-to-medium-rare for sandwiches on Italian loaf bread. I have that delicious horseradish sauce to put on it, along with fresh lettuce, tomato, sweet onion, two kinds of cheese, etc. Everything else gets put on hold till tomorrow, these town runs sure sap my energy... must have made a dozen trips into the house with my hands & arms full o' merchandise, like a mini-workout, lol. Those 50-lb. sacks of cracked corn from TSC are the heaviest objects to haul from car to house... I'm always tempted to break out the handcart from Harbor Freight, but that would be more trouble than it's worth, better to just man up and haul the sacks one at a time. In my youth, I'd haul two at a time, but I don't need the aggravation as I climb the front steps, lol. My banged-up left knee is giving me a bit of grief as well, so I'll chill out for the rest of the afternoon... 
P.S. Didn't see the Castrol Oil I want at WallyWorld, though I've seen it there before, so I'll probably hit O'Reilly Auto Parts tomorrow, our forecast is calling for very high winds so it won't be a good day to replace the clutch cable... but Friday and the weekend look better, so no worries. I need to top off the Camry too, meant to do that today but got sidetracked. Saw two wrecks on the main drag today (White Sands Blvd.), one was a full-dress touring motorcyle laid over on its side up on the parking strip, dunno what happened there. Didn't really see the second wreck, just all the emergency vehicles, I was turning the other way after I bailed from Walmart. Must have been more fooliots than usual on the road today, good thing I was driving defensively in 'The Mighty Camry!'
P.S. Didn't see the Castrol Oil I want at WallyWorld, though I've seen it there before, so I'll probably hit O'Reilly Auto Parts tomorrow, our forecast is calling for very high winds so it won't be a good day to replace the clutch cable... but Friday and the weekend look better, so no worries. I need to top off the Camry too, meant to do that today but got sidetracked. Saw two wrecks on the main drag today (White Sands Blvd.), one was a full-dress touring motorcyle laid over on its side up on the parking strip, dunno what happened there. Didn't really see the second wreck, just all the emergency vehicles, I was turning the other way after I bailed from Walmart. Must have been more fooliots than usual on the road today, good thing I was driving defensively in 'The Mighty Camry!'
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I did some minor cleaning, fed kitties, broke up some kitty fights, and worked on shimming out the side walls in my bathroom. Ran out of paint stirring sticks (ok, I have 1 left but I need a lot more). My new mini hot glue gun works well. Just the right size for my hand and easy to use. I'm going to try it out on the drawer thingy I have bc the super glue didn't take. I'll probably have to bring the whole drawer thing into the bathroom though. Safest place to use the glue gun. The glue comes right off the sink.
I'm waiting for curbside order because there are items I can't for the life of me find inside the store whenever I go in. Rupert is currently curled up with me, resting his head on my chest. Ginger is curled up against my side. I'm a bit worried about Sir Hammington because I haven't seen him today. I worry bc the neighbor's big dogs keep coming into my yard. Boo came and climbed on my lap for awhile and I got a big chunk of wax out of his crumpled ear.
I hope everyone is having a good day.
I'm waiting for curbside order because there are items I can't for the life of me find inside the store whenever I go in. Rupert is currently curled up with me, resting his head on my chest. Ginger is curled up against my side. I'm a bit worried about Sir Hammington because I haven't seen him today. I worry bc the neighbor's big dogs keep coming into my yard. Boo came and climbed on my lap for awhile and I got a big chunk of wax out of his crumpled ear.
I hope everyone is having a good day.
Ran over to the next town over for some errands. While there, my daughter wanted to eat so I asked "Where should we go?" Of course she wouldn't make up her mind because it's apparently in the US constitution that 16 year old girls are exempt from making up their minds about anything important. I made her Google all the restaurants in a town of 15,000 people. Didn't think there were any I hadn't tried, but a new Mexican joint popped up so we headed over there. I had Chile Colorado, and Lawd have mercy! It was spicy! We got out of there for $30, so it was pretty reasonable.
I'm tired from all that food. I think I'll take a nap before going to bed...
I'm tired from all that food. I think I'll take a nap before going to bed...
Congrats to Jake and the rest of the team. I know you and Alex are so proud of him.
Not sure if he's gave it any thought, but forestry can be a very rewarding career. Good friend of mine retired after 40+ years work for the state forestry division. My cousin is married to a guy that works for a paper company. His job is cruising timber looking for areas to log. He also does planning on replanting the areas after they are cut.
Spent an hour and a half at the bank today, setting up new accounts for our nieces. Their grandfather (my wife's dad) did not trust his son (my wife's brother) to manage their money, so I got picked for the job. So we routinely get checks for dividends from their stock holdings. Except these are "custodial checks", whatever the heck that is. I have to sign them to deposit them, no big deal. Except a few months ago the credit union where the girl's bank accounts used to be stopped accepting these "custodial checks". Many credit unions and smaller banks stopped accepting them too. I have no idea why. They are coming from Computershare - one of the big players in stock management for companies. I do not know what is so special about a custodial check. Somehow they are tied in to an "UTMA account". Another thing that I do not know what it is. But it means that I am the only person who can get into their money.
Anyway, Wells Fargo is one bank that will set up a UMTA account and accept custodial checks. So we opened new accounts for the girl's there. That took a while.
Came home and air fried me up some Tyson's chicken strips. Probably not healthy, but quick and quite good IMHO for a frozen processed food. I wanted a fast lunch so I could eat early so I'd be ready for the pot roast dinner tonight! I just got that into the Instant Pot a bit ago. Comes out great, but it takes a bit of time to prep it - with all the seasoning time, browning time, chopping up of garlic, veges and all. But it's pressure cooking away at the moment and we will be enjoying it soon enough. You set the pressure cooker for only 60 minutes - pretty fast to cook a 3lb chunk of roast. But you have to remember thta in addition to that 60 minutes, you have to allow 20 minutes for the cooker to pressurize itself, then 10 minutes of "natural pressure release" (i.e., just let the cooker sit there and leak slowly), then 5 more minutes of pressure release when you push the button to dump out the steam. So 1-1/2 hours total AFTER you have done the chopping, browning, etc. The roast comes out so tender though. I just shred it (like pulled pork) with two large meat forks.
Anyway, Wells Fargo is one bank that will set up a UMTA account and accept custodial checks. So we opened new accounts for the girl's there. That took a while.
Came home and air fried me up some Tyson's chicken strips. Probably not healthy, but quick and quite good IMHO for a frozen processed food. I wanted a fast lunch so I could eat early so I'd be ready for the pot roast dinner tonight! I just got that into the Instant Pot a bit ago. Comes out great, but it takes a bit of time to prep it - with all the seasoning time, browning time, chopping up of garlic, veges and all. But it's pressure cooking away at the moment and we will be enjoying it soon enough. You set the pressure cooker for only 60 minutes - pretty fast to cook a 3lb chunk of roast. But you have to remember thta in addition to that 60 minutes, you have to allow 20 minutes for the cooker to pressurize itself, then 10 minutes of "natural pressure release" (i.e., just let the cooker sit there and leak slowly), then 5 more minutes of pressure release when you push the button to dump out the steam. So 1-1/2 hours total AFTER you have done the chopping, browning, etc. The roast comes out so tender though. I just shred it (like pulled pork) with two large meat forks.
Reading up on Purple Dead Nettle, I just realized I have a fantastic bed of it growing next to my driveway 
https://www.growforagecookferment.com/foraging-purple-dead-nettle/
https://www.growforagecookferment.com/foraging-purple-dead-nettle/
Might try an epoxy or even jbweld.
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Cleaned all day, got sis from the airport and went out to dinner. They are moving out as we speak. Teenagers up and down the stairs. Thank God
Custodial checks are a clause that he (your FIL?) put on the payment so that you actually have control usually until a certain age. Common age is 25 or sometimes 30. It’s often done “for their own good”. If they develop bad habits (ie drugs) they aren’t getting funding. You should be able to call as the custodian and find out what the age is when the checks will be sent directly to them. Also I don’t think banks are allowed not to accept them with the proper endorsement- I would call a home office or HQ if you have any issues. In branch, they probably have standard public IQ. Sorry for how that sounds.
Reading up on Purple Dead Nettle, I just realized I have a fantastic bed of it growing next to my driveway
https://www.growforagecookferment.com/foraging-purple-dead-nettle/
Munched on some earlier today. Posted about it last year...
https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/early-spring-wild-plants.15211/
Today was a much better day than the last two. Felt a lot better, brain was sort of working again. Anyway, went back to town and ordered the freezer I need. Even bought a couple items at the market I forgot. Got the oil changed in the truck and topped off the gas tank.
I'd run out of energy and started home. Stopped at a spot I found last summer with medicinals, they always cheer me up. Only 30yrds from the road so I had a very short walk. I saw a neat little plant in the middle of a patch of yellowroot. Pretty sure it's one of the cinqefoil species, several of those. The one's out west seemed to be used more. It's the little plant with 5 leaves, not 3.
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I went for Walmart curbside pickup and spent 10min trying to get my stupid phone to work. It was charging all night but it was low battery. Said it was 40% and I had it on a charger while trying to use it (which normally is not a problem). But it was not responding to my touch or to button presses. I wanted to smash the stupid thing. I ended up taking the back off and removing the battery because it locked up and wouldn't do anything at all and it was heating up. Put it back in and the piece of garbage still wouldn't work. So I had to go into the store and ask for my curbside order & explain that my phone sucks. Got the order and brought it home.
I need to get to sleep but one of my cats is missing and I'm worried about him.
I need to get to sleep but one of my cats is missing and I'm worried about him.
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Not enough sleep, but we had a late night last night. Will be taking the girls to school, then home for all the morning chores. My Florida sis, who is visiting, is going to get mom's taxes done, and then going to visit with mom. My favorite cousin's daughter is coming over after lunch to help me scrub grandson's room, and see if we can get it usable for my nephew and his wife, who are arriving Friday night. She knew it was going to be alot of work, she's such a sweet lady to insist on helping.
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Tilling the garden today and transplanting some stuff in little pots. It did freeze last night but we put blankets on the plants, which is usually enough to keep the alive. It gives us a head start on the farmers market which starts end of April
Well, it is bed time. Quick shower and I am done. Sweet dreams and Good mroning.
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Work til 6. Got a project that will take all morning. Should be fun and loud.
If I hear any strange noises in the distance I won't be alarmed, it's just Patch!
Heading to work as always!! Looks like the bad storms will miss us! Wooohooo, just a nice day in my rut!!
