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@phideaux Prayers going up!
@Bacpacker My SIL is in the same situation. I told her let them fire her so she can collect unemployment. They won't be able to replace her. There are zero applicants to choose from. She said she hadn't thought of that, but regardless I don't expect she will get jabbed. Will certainly say a prayer for you in making your decision.
 
I worked in the backyard nursery in an attempt to find the stuff I want to grow. I did get a chance to taste elder berries for the first time!

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Not bad. I can handle consuming them. I had started growing them last year. He neighborhood is a retired chef that worked at a 5-star restaraunt. When he asked what I was growing he offered to make us an elderberry pie. But before that happened Bambi wiped out all of the berries. Bummer.

Last winter I cut them back to 24 inches tall and put a chicken wire fence around them. They came back strong and are about 6 foot tall and baring fruit. Maybe get to try elderberry pie this year. The Princess claims elder berry wine is another project we will try out.

I did get 2 of the 4x4 raised beds cleaned out. The seedless grapes have stopped producing so I SHOULD try clone via air layering. I am still a bit of a hack when it comes to cloning.

The good news is there is a bunch of stuff that is looking good for transplanting to the orchard and the planned nut tree grove.

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The bad news is I have at least two weeks of hard labor waiting for me in late December.

;)

Ben
 
I think I created a monster. When the butcher said he had some meat scraps, he didn't indicate a pickup load a week.

I just chunked up and froze 40 lbs of liver and kidneys for the dogs. I am rendering down 8 lbs of beef leaf lard. I have the back fat of 4 pigs to prep and render and I need to get my meat bandsaw set up somewhere to cut down beef bones for stock. He just threw whole bones in the tubs I left him.

I still have a big fresh liver from the neighbors down the road to slice and freeze for liver and onions this winter.

The dogs are turning up their noses at more meat. I don't think I have to worry about them being poisoned any more. They have had all their cravings taken care of. Now they will just get a measured ration every day to supplement the dry fog food. I think I won't have any problem stocking up 2 years of food for them now. But boy, am I getting sick of this already.

I also get about a gallon of meat and bone shavings every week, and the laying hens are going nuts with the eggs again.
 
ClemKadiddlehopper said:
I think I created a monster. When the butcher said he had some meat scraps, he didn't indicate a pickup load a week.

I just chunked up and froze 40 lbs of liver and kidneys for the dogs. I am rendering down 8 lbs of beef leaf lard. I have the back fat of 4 pigs to prep and render and I need to get my meat bandsaw set up somewhere to cut down beef bones for stock. He just threw whole bones in the tubs I left him.

I still have a big fresh liver from the neighbors down the road to slice and freeze for liver and onions this winter.

The dogs are turning up their noses at more meat. I don't think I have to worry about them being poisoned any more. They have had all their cravings taken care of. Now they will just get a measured ration every day to supplement the dry fog food. I think I won't have any problem stocking up 2 years of food for them now. But boy, am I getting sick of this already.

I also get about a gallon of meat and bone shavings every week, and the laying hens are going nuts with the eggs again.
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Mmmmm

Liver and onions!

Ben
 
Sheesh, @Neb you scare me. I hope you do okay with your ingestion of elderberries. Have you eaten them before? I thought it was only cooked berries and flowers used in tinctures or tea etc etc.
@Bacpacker it is a hard decision, IMO. I would be struggling with getting the vaccine if I were still in child-bearing age. A dear friend died from cv a couple of months ago. He was maybe 4 yrs older than us, didn't think he was unhealthy otherwise. Actually, I have found out that quite a few other people I used to run with have passed from cv this past 12 months.
 
zannej said:
I'm glad you got it taken care of before it could get worse or rupture, Inresponse. I know that I was feeling really run down. I had passed out on the weekend, had a fever, and generally felt crappy. When I looked back on old photos I had lost a lot of weight and looked very pale. I am normally pale, but my skin had an unhealthy shade. I hope you recover quickly.
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Thank you. That night in the bathroom I looked in the mirror and looked grey. Felt terrible, stomach hurt more than earlier, and made the expensive decision to go to the ER. I did not think it was the appendix, didn't know what it was but the appendix was the second best possible outcome. F.O.S., Full Of Poop, would have been the least expensive because an industrial strength laxative would have been cheaper.

I relaxed and rested Tuesday and Wednesday and felt better. Yesterday and today I built a awning type roof off the side of the storage container for the horse to have some shelter. Two honest days of work and I actually feel pretty good tonight. I think I am mostly healed.
 
Bacpacker said:
Easy morning at work and got a fair amount done. Then at 230 our supervisor meeting started. First thing out of the bosses mouth, most likely DOE is gonna push down mandate for taking the VAX as a condition of employment. Looks like I'm gonna have a BIG decision to make.
After work went and picked up some food and dropped off with my parents. Mom had a bad day today. Hope tomorrow is much better. She goes back to Dr on Friday
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My sister is a Home Healthcare Nurse and her employer is mandating the shot by September 1st. She turned in her retirement papers a couple weeks ago. Social Security will be a bit cheaper than her weakly pay but with less travel and wear and tare on her car she will break even and when she gets a part time job she will be better off than working full time.

The end of May Home Depot did away with the mask mandate, I went back to work and made it 2 months before they started the mask BS again. They couldn't ask about our vaccine status but they had said if you had the vaccine you didn't need a mask, so everyone stopped wearing the mask and the rest of us came back to work, no questions asked about the shot status. Soooo, assuming all of us were fully vaccinated they are still requiring every employee to wear a cloth mask over their nose and mouth. Soo, I have been out of work about 5 weeks now. Today I asked if they would allow the clear plastic face shield like other corporate stores are allowing their employees, they said No. I can shop there without a mask, but I can't work there. I bought the bare minimum today, only because I was there. I think I will be applying to Lowes in a few weeks. Lowes allows the clear plastic face shield.

When I was in the hospital for my appendix they wanted me to wear a mask, OK, understandable. But everytime someone came in the room my O-2 levels were rather low and they would say take off your mask and my levels would go up to reasonable levels. Then they would ask me to put the mask back on and the next person would see the low O-2 levels and tell me to take off my mask and my levels would rise. After about 4 times of this they finally wrote on my chart No Mask Required. I dunno, maybe I am just weird but wearing a mask makes me lightheaded and very uncomfortable. Must be due to the low oxygen saturation in my blood when wearing a mask. They had me on Morphine and I was rather relaxed so it probably was not a mental thing because a couple times I was in happy land when they walked into the room.

I only need a few more months of employment to get past my current hurdle, sadly life wont give me a break.
 
Sooooo, tomorrow I am driving to Vegas with a car hauler trailer and a tow dolly to pick up my 1964 Chevelle (4 door wagon but it is still a 1964) and the 2002 Dale Earnhardt edition Monte Carlo. Monte Carlo needs the clearcoat refreshed and the inside thoroughly cleaned but it has very low mileage for the year as I didn't let the ex drive it much the first 3 years and it has been parked the last 6 years while she drove her new rides. Definitely gonna keep the Chevelle, probably gonna refresh the Monte Carlo and sell it later this year or early next year. Only 3333 made, should still catch a decent price.
While trying to search for the weight for the Chevelle I found a few web sites for information on the car, low retail for the 4 door wagon is listed as $24K. What the heck? Really? I paid $300 and have less than $2k invested. The inside is very clean, the outside needs to be repainted as it has been "repainted" already. The body is not perfect but has no rust and only a few minor dents. I can make it sweet again within a few months.
https://www.nadaguides.com/Cars/1964/Chevrolet/Chevelle-Malibu/4-Door-Station-Wagon/Values
Vegas forecast is about 108 tomorrow, leaving early to hopefully get out of Vegas and headed back to Utah by noon. I hate Vegas.
 
INresponse said:
I relaxed and rested Tuesday and Wednesday and felt better. Yesterday and today... Two honest days of work and I actually feel pretty good tonight. I think I am mostly healed.
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Glad you’re feeling better. Don't follow my example, I over did it. I flew to Bama to heal up. On day 4 I tried to rake a field of hay so my dad could bale it. I lasted a couple of hrs but finally stopped. I wasn’t up for running a tractor all day.

So take it easy... A surgeon I once knew explained "Where your body is concerned, even minor surgery is no different than getting stabbed in a knife fight. It takes a lot for the body to heal after such an event."


Didn’t do much today but I drove a lot, errands in 2 towns many miles apart. Most of it was a bust! 2 businesses closed in one town, busted fuel pump in the other. But I did get the most important items done.
 
Landshark gets fed in the morning and lately I've been trying to explore the extent of her food allergies by giving her a new food to try in the late afternoon.
Eggs one day and no reactions.
White long grain Rice - no reactions.
I just gave her a tin of sardines in spring water this afternoon and we'll see what happens.

I'm starting to suspect that the crackheads next door are feeding her treats that are setting off the allergies.
Ear medication and heartworm tablets should be here on Monday.

This dog has cost me a fortune and there'll be no puppies to sell to try and cover some of the losses.
 
Today, I am up early trying to get ready for a big canning day, hope to get all my BEEF dishes canned in one day... That being said I have to make the "cups" requirement list for the wife. We have learned if I can tell her how many cups of each item go into a canning run she can make them with very little waste. What complicates things is that she has "special" recipes that she wants to use that have to be converted for canning.....

While pulling out jars for canning I found a "stash" of empty jars (above and beyond) what we are going to be canning this year, so I think I will "can" the 150# of rice I just got and a few extra bags of egg noodles. The only bad part is the seal-a-meal adapter that I was given for use with the canning jars only fits wide mouth jars (I have a lot of old regular mouth jars).

If I can get all this done today I can relax tomorrow... That would be nice. :)
 
Yesterday I went to my doctor to check out the fact that my feet and ankles keep swelling. Probably due to the heat but I have had this problem for years now and usually it will go away but this time it hasn't. I was afraid this would be my first prescribed medication and was resolved to that. But no, compression stockings, keep elevating my feet and I can used my Legexercise machine. My bp was very good and she checked my legs for clots. So now she is setting up an appointment for me to go to a lymphatic clinic to learn how to deal with edema. I am happy with that. I did not want a prescription.

So now I have my compression stockings on and having coffee. I think I will work on doing my laundry since I ignored it all week due to not feeling so good. Today sine I feel good I want to start working on my storage locker since I will be downstairs in the laundry room. I am going to be cleaning it out and get rid of anything I don't really need or use. Then I will be storing my extra supplies and canned foods in the Rubbermaid plastic containers. As soon as I figure out what kind of extra supplies and foods I should be storing. I eat low carbs so not the normal type of emergency foods.

That's my thoughts on today for now. Now to see if I actually do them.
 
Covid report.

Still very weak very sick.

But not getting any worse.
Cruising along about the same.

I actually didn't return to bed yesterday ,2 or 3 times and didn't sleep 13 hours thru the night. Improvement ?

Doing nothing, going nowhere.
I have to stop and rest just to go to bathroom ,10 ft away.

Talked to my VA primary, she said , continue what I'm doing. Tylenol, Mucinex, steam vapor breathing treatments, if I worsen go to ER.

God is in control.

Jim
 
Patchouli said:
Sheesh, @Neb you scare me. I hope you do okay with your ingestion of elderberries. Have you eaten them before? I thought it was only cooked berries and flowers used in tinctures or tea etc etc.
@Bacpacker it is a hard decision, IMO. I would be struggling with getting the vaccine if I were still in child-bearing age. A dear friend died from cv a couple of months ago. He was maybe 4 yrs older than us, didn't think he was unhealthy otherwise. Actually, I have found out that quite a few other people I used to run with have passed from cv this past 12 months.
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I only tasted one with no ill effects.

I am going to talk to The Princess to let her know not to eat the raw berries.

Thanks!

Ben
 
Busy morning... but gawd is it hot! And there isn't a breeze to be found anywhere. I'm officially in the "calm before the storm" phase. It'll be after midnight Sunday night when the "storm proper" gets here.

I got all my stored fuel rotated this week and topped off all the cans this morning. I now have 75g of fresh gasoline on hand. Over the last year I increased my storage capacity by 30g. Every time I saw gas cans on sale I got a couple.

I did some work on my parking pad, moved a few scoops of gravel to other areas on the farm. I fixed a few spots that needed it. Got a little more to do but had to get out of the heat for a while.
 
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Our entire moving experience has been at a screeching halt since Monday.
My good friend , does plumbing , he went to farmhouse yesterday and got the new toilet all plumbed in for me.

He said he'd go lay all the flooring in both upstairs bedrooms next Friday.
That's a good friend. He's 40 years old, ex-military , airborne . We connect very well. Swap war stories , VietNam vs Iraq.

May be seeing a 1% improvement today.

Jim
 
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I hope you and your wife recover quickly, Jim. I'm glad you have a friend who was able to help you. I've heard sometimes people with Covid will feel kinda crappy, then feel better, and then get suddenly worse again. Roller coaster ride. Hopefully you will only continue to improve though.

The most recent projections for Ida show it coming my way-- but I'm on the outskirts on the western side of it. No evacuation orders or recommendations have been given. We are only under "preparedness warning". I still need to fill some more bottles with tap water. Sky is a pink/purple shade right now. It was gray and rainy most of the day. I have friends who are in the direct path of the storm. I'm hoping they will be OK.

If I'm not on for a bit it will be because I've lost internet/power.
 
Yesterday's canning session went well... we canned all the beef products and used up all the stock we had... By the time we finished last night we were both so tired and sore that the though of starting another batch of chicken stock was just out of the question...

We need the day of rest....

We will make our plans for the week, we still have about 5 things on our canning list, but 9 are done... The garden is loaded with green tomatoes so that may create some work in a couple of weeks.
 
The Lazy L said:
Sunday school and worship service.
Hosting a Birthday party dinner for a family member.
Wash dishes.
Take a nap during a TV baseball game.
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I put baseball or golf on when I need a nap.

Just on the same schedule today as yesterday. Rest , recover , rest.

Actually feeling a smidgen better today.

Too dang weak to do anything.

Jim
 
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