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I hope that you are having a wonderful Sunday.
It was 45 degrees here when we got up! It’s hard to believe that we have been trying NOT to turn on the a/c to sustain life up until just a week or so ago. Thankfully, even though it’s too cool to open doors now, later on today we will open up so that we can enjoy the glorious breezes flowing through the house.
I made keto chili in the crock pot yesterday morning. It tasted quite comforting when we ate dinner last night, having had to close the doors again. :0)
I told you yesterday that I am filling up our raised bed, square foot planter boxes with Mel’s Mix, a wonderful soil alternative. The level of the planting medium has really gotten low. I still don’t know what ‘happens’ to the soil. I know that it settles, but this is as if it simply disappeared. It has been two years since I made a serious effort to replenish the boxes, though, so I guess it’s definitely time. I mix up the loads of ingredients, dumping them into the used cement mixer we bought several years ago. I’ve been mixing double loads, and it took THREE double loads to fill up ONE of the planters. I ordered new ingredients from our local co-op, and they should be ready for us to pick up Monday or Tuesday. We will be spending lots of time mixing and dumping over the coming weeks!
When we started this, I thought we would put a new wood strip down the middle of each row of three boxes and reattach the hoses and sprinklers. I now think it would be better to wait until spring to do that, since the wood would begin deteriorating in the sun and precipitation right away. I will start covering the boxes with tarps, using bungie cords, as we fill them.
The other big project I’m continuing is de-cluttering my house. I did this a couple of years ago, feeling quite ruthless, but everywhere I look now needs another purge. I’m working my way through each room – sometimes only one area at a time, pulling everything out, deciding whether to keep it, donate it, or pitch it, and then cleaning and re-organizing the area. It’s amazing how much STUFF you accumulate when you live somewhere over 33 years! The first area is our master bed room and bath. This includes floor-to-ceiling bookshelves (one for me and several for my husband), closets, plus floor to ceiling shelves in the bathroom and a full medicine cabinet. I’m trying to go through a bit at a time…
Enjoy your day!
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These are our cats, Abby on the left of the picture and Smoke on the right. They were obviously in accord about how to spend the day today.
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My husband joined me in the garden while I was mixing up a double load of Mel’s Mix. We dumped that and then were able to mix up one more double load before we ran out of most of the ingredients, with the exception of vermiculite.
We filled up one of the six planter boxes. It took 3 double loads of Mel’s Mix to fill the one planter, so we have a lot of work ahead of us to fill up all six planter boxes.
I ordered ingredients and the co-op will have our order Monday or Tuesday. We have decided that we will cover the boxes with tarps and wait until spring to replace the wooden strips that hold up the hoses and sprinklers. My husband thinks we should let it rain on the filled box at least once before we cover it up to help the new mix ‘settle’ a bit.
The picture above gives you an idea of what we’re working on. We are now using wire instead of the string you see in this picture to demarcate the ‘squares’ for planting. The string deteriorated way too fast, and the wire lasted the whole season.
I ordered one big bag of vermiculite, 2 ‘rectangles’ of peat moss, and 2 bags each of mushroom compost, cotton burr compost, and barnyard compost. It will be interesting to see how far the ingredients go in filling up the planter boxes.
We got a lot of good exercise, feel that we got a good start on the project, and are glad to have a day of rest from it tomorrow.
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I love it when people can paw through a box of ‘stuff’ and create things that make us smile. It’s the old cliche’ ‘one man’s trash…’ but some folks are adept at bringing it to an art form.
I want ALL of these.
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We are having a beautiful day today. It’s actually too cool to have our doors open right now! Imagine that!
It has taken me an hour or so to FINALLY get the beautiful image above to show and start writing this blog post. I kept getting a, “You’re not authorized to edit this post,” or similar aggravating messages. Did I tell you I HATE it when websites change all the parameters?
One really NICE thing has happened this morning –
My husband and I got online last night after dinner and ordered some frozen food from Stu’s Clean Cookin’ in Greenwood. This will be our second order.
This morning I got an email from Keith Dake, a co-owner of Stu’s. He asked if he could meet us after 11:15 to pick up our order today, telling us he had our order ready, but that the store would not be open the rest of the week. He offered for us to be able to set the time of pickup.
This is only one of the reasons we will continue as a customer. The food is delicious. The nutrition information is on the website, so you can choose meals that fit your needs. You order when you want, and the food can be picked up the next day after 10am. The store is clean. The people are friendly. We spent about 2 minutes or less picking up our order last time. This is definitely a place that deserves your business.
Have a wonderful day!
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I LOVE seeing how creative people can be – in this case in carving a pumpkin or baking holiday cookies. I wish the result of their imagination and talent could live forever.
Come to think of it, though, maybe there IS a bit of permanence here because we can share their creations.
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I just published my first blog post of the day. The WordPress people decided to change the entire way one writes a post, show images, credit image sources, categorize posts, etc. No notice – at least none that I saw – and very UN-intuitive. I was told several times that I was not ‘authorized to edit or update my post.’ I finally left it to go to Lunch Bunch and errands, and tackled it again when I got back.
I’m under the distinct impression that people are paid extra when they change things. They don’t have to be GOOD changes, just have everything look different. I have found that as I age, I appreciate things that stay the same. It really irritates me when I have to ‘reinvent the wheel’ in order to post on my blog, save something to my computer, access websites, etc.
Enough of my griping (I guess) but I feel almost as if confetti should be dropping from the ceiling to help me celebrate being able to publish a post or two today. I still can’t figure out how to put my posts in the categories I set up…
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This COULD be our dog, Amber. She’s a 3-year-old yellow lab who didn’t get the memo about calming down once she hit the 2-year-old mark. To say she is ‘quite a handful for two old folks’ is the greatest of all understatements.
She is a good-hearted dog, but definitely wants ALL of our attention. If you get up to go to the kitchen, for example, she rouses from what appeared to be a sound sleep and is either running into the back of your legs, causes your leg to collapse, or pushed past you to race in front, then change directions suddenly to come back to see why you’re moving so slowly, over and over until you hopefully reach the kitchen in one piece. We are trying to discourage this, but she is the eternal optimist, thinking that if she surrounds you. only good things will happen.
She wants to GO. She doesn’t care where, when, or why. If we take her with us for errands, she plays ‘trampoline,’ jumping up and down in place beside the truck, waiting for us to open the back door for her so she can jump in. We open the back windows for her so she can go from side to side, looking out the windows.
If we say, “Go to bed,” when we get up, she hangs her head and dejectedly walks slowly to her bed in the utility room, waiting until we return.
Poor Amber. We are about to leave for Lunch Bunch, and this will be a ‘Go to bed’ moment….
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Animal Wallpapers-Desktop Nexus
Earlier today my husband came out to help in the garden. I turned off the water to the irrigation system. We removed the hoses and sprinkler heads from the narrow wooden strips that went down the middle of each group of three planter boxes. We then removed the broken wooden strips. We stretched wire in two directions on the last planter, making the planting ‘squares’ we inadvertently forgot to do this year.
(This is a pic from the beginning of the season.)
I went back out about an hour ago to start the process of mixing Mel’s Mix and filling up the planters.
Mel’s Mix is a soil alternative made from
I keep the ingredients in large lidded trash cans we keep along the back of our shop. We also have a used cement mixer. I measure out the ingredients into the cement mixer. I usually mix a double load each time. I mix the ingredients for about 3 minutes, and then empty the mixer into a big plastic yard bucket with handles. I then carry the bucket to one of the garden planter boxes and dump it.
This is kind of a laborious process, but I only have to do this once every few years. Usually, when you pull out a plant and plant something else during the seasons, you add a bit of mix. (I usually keep a small trash can of pre-mixed Mel’s Mix so this is quick and easy.)
Today was hard because the trash cans are getting empty, so I was kind of having to stand on my head to reach in and fill up the measuring bucket in each trash can. I also found a humongous ant hill that was in my way as I was going back and forth. I had to go back to the garage to get the EIGHT bug killer spray so I could hose them down before I got bitten or stung. I decided after mixing and distributing the one double load, that was it for the day. I think I can do one more double load tomorrow, but then I’ll have to replenish supplies.
I just finished calling the Greenwood Co-Op, the wonderful outfit that provides my ingredients. Sometimes they have everything I need. This time they had to order some of it, so it should be ready for us to pick up Monday or Tuesday of next week. (After mixing up another double load tomorrow, it’ll probably take this old lady that long to rest up… :0) )
When the planter boxes are all full of Mel’s Mix, my husband and I will replace the wooden strips, tying the hoses and sprinkler heads onto them. Then I’ll take some pics before we cover the planter boxes with tarps for the winter.
Britannica
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.
When I was a child – back in 1492 or so – things were much simpler. My brother and I scrounged around, looking for a way to ‘dress up’ for Halloween, creating costumes. We didn’t buy any costumes. Sometimes we bought masks, but they were generic type masks, not a particular character. My parents would get set up to hand out candy. My brother would head out the door to find his friends, disappearing until the time my parents said for us to be home. I went out to find MY friends and we headed for the neighborhood next to ours, where the houses were nice and close together and LOTS of porch lights were on, welcoming all comers.
We walked and walked, happily filling up our Halloween bags and eating at the same time, having the time of our lives. The only parents we saw on the streets had super young children who were obviously out for their FIRST Halloween. Very few cars. Kids of all ages everywhere. When our bags were full, or we were too tired to go any farther, we would finally head home.
My brother and I each took our Halloween bags to our rooms, to be hidden until we had each eaten all we wanted over the next days. Stomach aches were a part of it. Only a HINT of warnings that maybe we should look at what we got carefully before throwing whatever it was into our mouths. The only one I remember was the possibility of razor blades in apples. As I said, life was simpler then. And GLORIOUS.
The world has changed, and the holiday and celebrations have been forced to change with it. Now there are subsidized Haunted Houses and group parties. Kids are still going Trick-or-Treating, but mommies accompany them, or follow in cars. Only occasionally will you see a costume a child has created. Most of them are purchased. No one stays out late. Everyone checks every piece of candy to be as sure as possible that all is okay. The kids don’t know any differently, but it makes me a bit sad. Things will really be different this year, with the pandemic. I hope they still look forward to the celebration and eat too much candy!
Giphy
I can’t quit smiling over this. I hope you get a kick out of it, too.
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Australian Firefighters Fund-Raising Calender – Cameron and Biscuit
Ah. A happy start to a new month. I’m assuming that “Biscuit” is the dog, but I’ll say “Hi,” to the man, whatever his name is, with a huge smile.
We have a bunch of errands this morning. I’ll write more when we return.
Have a great first day of October. I hope this is a good month for all of us.
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Arlene Schulman
Beans & Seeds Art
cre-art.blog.hu
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Cheezburger-“just-going-for-a-leaf-swim”
I’m still smiling from finding this! I LOVE this cat!
It’s gorgeous, sunny, and 64 degrees F. here in Arkansas today.
I’m still patting myself on the head because I was able to figure out why our yard irrigation system was failing to come on. I don’t know what got it ‘wonky,’ but I was giving it a last-ditch-effort, having tried everything I could figure out to do on reprogramming the thing, and it FINALLY came on as it was supposed to. My husband was impressed. I just smiled – as if it were no big thing – but INSIDE I was jumping up and down. :0)
I will try to spend some time working on my garden boxes today.
Enjoy your day.
My husband introduced me to the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. I’m reading this book, which is the 8th in the series. I think there are 6 more.
I love series involving strong women as the central character. Though David Weber is very thorough about describing military details and physics (things I can appreciate only in a vague way and can’t really follow) there is a strong story line and characters you won’t forget. He describes a world and situations that will envelop you and keep you mentally jumping to keep up.
“Harrington, the heroine of the eponymous “Honorverse”, is an officer in the Royal Manticoran Navy (RMN), the space navy of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. She has a genius for tactical command, often overcoming significant odds (and sometimes significant loss of life), which results in her receiving numerous awards and promotions. She is also a martial artist of note.” ~ Good Reads.
Strong women characters make me proud to even imagine sharing the same world. They act as I wish I were able.
This is a good series that you might like.
Nongkran_ch – iStock – Getty Images
LiveAbout
The Virtual Instructor
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“Caught Red-Pawed” – Audrius P. – Bored Panda
I have been trying to get as healthy as I can so that I can continue to do what I love for as long as possible. This means losing as much of my lard as I can and trying to move more.
Since my lardiest, I have lost 40 pounds and there is 34.7 inches less of me than there was at one time. My goal is to lose another 30 lbs. and to continue exercising. As we age, we tend to move more hesitantly. That might not be the best descriptive word, but it’s the one that comes to mind. The feet start to shuffle, the movements become more tentative, as if we’re testing the waters before diving in. I am hoping that my efforts on the elliptical trainer and my yoga stretches will delay that for several more years.
My husband and I are very happy with our new eating plan. We ate “Pork, Black Beans, Brown Rice, and BBQ Sauce” from Stu’s Clean Cookin’ last night and it was YUMMY! Otherwise, I ate tuna fish salad and green olives for lunch and some cottage cheese as a snack. I’m drinking enough water to float a boat. (or at least it SEEMS that much…)
This seems to be working for us. My husband looks forward to his meals again (we were cringing for awhile with the prepared plans we were on). He is basically at his goal weight and is mainly trying to hold the line on sugar and hold the new weight. I can’t get him to exercise, but I will continue to ‘try to set a good example’ and hope he’ll want to do it, too. I can’t really talk very loudly since he was never as overweight as I and can still outlast me on stamina when we’re working on a project together.
I have set my goals for the next month, hoping to be able to report more progress to you at the end of October. In the meantime, I have finished a cup of coffee, so it’s time to replace my cup with a bottle of water…
taolife.com
Filed under aging, DIET!, exercise, getting the lard off
dogspotting-Bored Panda
Today is cool, sunny, and beautiful.
Today is a two-outing day for us.
We’re leaving in a couple of minutes to take out our trash in the truck, get our mail, then run errands. Later today I’ll go out again for a hair cut. Exciting life we lead!
Actually, I can use a BUNCH of ‘ordinary,’ ‘quiet,’ ‘normal,’ and ‘peaceful.’ All really beautiful words and much appreciated. I plan to do a bunch of relaxing between outings.
Last night we tried our first frozen dinner from Stu’s Clean Cookin’ in Greenwood. 1435 West Center St., Greenwood, AR 72936. 479.597.3242. the meal was “Chicken, Brown Rice, and BBQ Sauce.” The chicken was excellent. The rice, not so much for me. I got one mouthful of really HOT (to me – a real wuss) BBQ sauce. My husband loved the dinner and said it was one of his favorites since we’ve been eaten food from the two new places in Greenwood. He didn’t have anything hot. He said he could have easily eaten twice as much of the chicken – but that has been our problem – reasonable portions for a human. We were both satisfied, so that was good. I’ll make sure we order this again for my husband next time. Tonight we will try “Pork, Black Beans, Brown Rice and BBQ Sauce.” Their store was clean. There were two really friendly guys who greeted us, had our order ready, and we were out the door in under 3 minutes flat. Impressive. I also like the fact that they print the nutrition information on their website, on the packages, etc. so you know what you’re ordering and eating. I am feeling SUPER lucky that we have TWO new places that BOTH offer good, convenient frozen foods for us to plan our dieting around. :0)
I seem to be in an ‘advertising-frame-of-mind’ today. I have awful hair – thin, fine, yucky. I’m lucky to have a wonderful hair stylist, Michael Remillard in Greenwood at Tangles, 40 Town Square, Greenwood AR 72936. 479-996-6636 who understands this. I’m going for a haircut today. He knows that my hair doesn’t do anything good on its own. The best thing I can do for it is keep it clean and go to Michael for good hair cuts. I wash it every morning and blow it dry. He cuts it so that it looks like there is a PLAN. Mine is very short now, kind of like a pixie cut. It’s easy to take care of.
I have found a shampoo that I REALLY like. It’s called “Herbal Essences Bio:renew, Blue Ginger & Micellar Water Refresh.” Quite a mouthful, isn’t it! I like it because
I looked for it at Walgreens today. They had Herbal Essences, but not this flavor. I just ordered it online. It comes in a nice twin-pack. :0)
I harvested these sweet little bitty tomatoes yesterday. This may be the last of the year. I’m continuing to work in my raised bed, square foot garden. I’ll show you pics when things get a bit farther along. The tomatoes come from two brick planters on the opposite side of our house from the garden. We converted them from regular planters, filling them up with Mel’s Mix. Even with the weird growing season we have had this year, we had a nice crop.
While we were out doing errands, we saw our plumber, Travis Hawkins. 479-461-8347. He helped us recently with a water pressure problem, and then with a follow-up problem with our master bedroom shower. He told us that when we called about the shower, he tried to get to us himself, but got covered up in work, so sent his co-worker, Josh. He said he MEANT to just stop by and not charge us. Since Josh DID, he said he ‘owed us a service call and won’t charge us for the call the next time he comes.’ To say we feel lucky to have found him is a HUGE understatement. He is a really first-class person.
I hope that your Tuesday is a fun one.
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BoredArt
ContemporaryArtandArtist-WordPress.com
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Giphy
A cold front came through overnight. Our temperature right now (9:45 a.m.) is 53! The sun is shining and it’s beautiful outside. This is the first morning in a LONG time we haven’t opened our doors first thing when we come downstairs. It was actually TOO COOL to do that! We’ll probably do it later as the day warms up, but it looks like summer is finally waving goodbye.
I got my six 4 foot x 4 foot raised bed, square foot planters weeded yesterday. I managed to harvest the remainder of the onions and finish the weeding without getting stung or bitten by the fire ants that had taken up residence in a couple of the planters. We live on about 8 acres. I have no clue why they would climb up the legs of the planters and live in my veggies, but it really has been a problem for me.
Today I’ll remove the broken wooden strips that support the irrigation hoses and sprinkler heads for the garden, plus I’ll string wire on the one box we forgot to prep this season. I’m not sure if I’ll start the process of mixing Mel’s mix for the boxes today or not.
Mel’s Mix is the wonderful soil alternative that allows me to have a garden at about my chest height so I don’t have to worry about the quality (or lack of) of my soil, and can have a garden where I can plant, weed, and harvest without having to bend over double or get up and down on my knees. Mel Bartholomew of Square Foot Gardening is the man who came up with the process. Mel’s Mix is a combination of vermiculite, peat moss, and as many different kinds of compost as you can find. It makes a really rich medium in which to grow plants.
I keep the ingredients in big trash cans along the back of our shop, just next to the garden. We got a used cement mixer that I use in preparation. I put the components in the proper ratio into the mixer, mix it for awhile, then dump it into a big plastic container and dump it into one of my planters over and over until the planters are all filled up. Though a bit laborious, it works very well.
When this is all done, I have a tarp to put on each planter that I’ll secure with bungie cords. This should keep the growth of weeds down until I’m ready to plant in the spring.
I’m doing a bit on this each day Mother Nature is feeling cooperative. I’ll take pics of the garden prep soon.
Filed under Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
My husband is basically at his goal weight now. He is very happy about that, and is determined to keep the weight off. We have been really trying to avoid sugar, and his blood sugar numbers are stellar. :0) He really likes the Real Food frozen dinners we have been getting. (We pick up our newest order this afternoon.) He has not been throwing much extra bad stuff into our grocery cart, and is encouraging about MY efforts to lose the lard. He told me this morning he was very happy with our eating plan. :0) Our main source for food is Real Food in Greenwood. We did get some food from Stu’s Clean Cookin’ this past week and put it in the freezer. Since the weather is cooling off, we try to stock up. Living on the top of a ridge line has taught us that having extra supplies in the winter is a very good thing… We will try some of the newest offerings soon.
I have to admit that I’m a bit teed off that my husband has a so much easier time losing weight than I do. He comes in and nukes our dinner, but I’m the one who keeps up with all of the details, makes lunches and snacks, figures out and cooks a keto meal when indicated, cleans up, etc. He does not exercise and has no inclination to. He eats things he shouldn’t, and yet – he has met his goal!
“I” am eating right and exercising (in one form or another) on a daily basis and still have about 30 pounds of lard to lose. I am drinking so much water my eyeballs float. I am making progress, but V E R R R Y slowly. Since I am definitely not getting any taller, I will just have to continue my efforts and celebrate each pound that finally leaves.
I feel very lucky that we FINALLY found food that tastes good and have figured out a way to plan our eating for the day around the frozen meal we get from the newest good places in Greenwood.
One of these days I’ll be able to tell you I have finally met my goal!
123RF.com
Filed under DIET!, Healthy Eating
creativeartworksblog 