In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 160 of 1154
Quote:I was quite young - less than 5 years old - and our family was vacationing up in Canada (Wasaga Beach to be exact). That was the first time I ever had vinegar on fries, or even knew about it! I personally think it's too strong and overwhelms the delicate potato-fry taste; but imo so does pretty much everything else I've seen on them - gravy, ketsup, tartar sauce etc. I too enjoy them with just a touch of salt. :)
Originally posted by rue:Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I don't like vinegar. I just use a little salt on my fries.
Two other ladies I was with and one was eating ketchup. Another thing I don't like and the other is originally from Scotland and likes her vinegar.
I don't know the name of that beach, so I will hazard a guess that you were in Ontario. I like gravy on my chips.
Don't eat that all the time but once in a while.
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Raining here today. All day. Yuck!
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So...
In more positive news, I'm getting back into rehabbing my house after a 5 or 6 year hiatus! :)
I'm not sure if I had mentioned the fact that I had taken in water in my 3 season room and some of the floor joists had rotted out. Have I told that story before?
Anyhow, the porch was an addition to the house around 20 years after it was originally constructed, and the more I pull it apart, the more I realize that this wasn't a professional job. It was just hard to notice that from the inside where they had put large heavy 4'x 8' cedar paneling to cover up the hack job.
Outside of building garages from the ground up when I was a teenager, this will be the first time I do any structural work. I do hope that the only structural work I need to do is to replace the two joists that had rotted and fallen underneath the floor, but I won't know that until the demo work is done, and everything is revealed.
The windows are the cheapest things I've ever seen in my life. Little more than some aluminum runners nailed into wooden planks nailed up around them on the inside and then covered with those cedar boards. Single pane garbage from the late 70's. Leaks abound. The porch has probably been taking in water for the last 40 years the way it was constructed, but it only became critical when I had re-used the carpet from the master bedroom and covered the porch with it because it was a perfect fit. The carpet was holding in all of the moisture, and on the extremely hot and humid days the crawl space underneath was a pressure cooker.
I wasn't aware of how bad the water issue was until I used a pressure washer a few summers ago to clean my entire house and afterward came into the porch and smelled it. The carpet was soaked. The damage was done. I immediately ripped out the carpet after that, and several months later when my brother came over he asked me about my sagging floor after he came in the house. He's a big guy, but he's not that heavy. Something was wrong...
So I'm going to be gutting the room, installing a new floor and windows and once it's all buttoned up I'll put in some drywall and a nice coat of fresh paint. Since there will be no heat source directly to the room, it would still be considered just a porch for tax purposes, but otherwise, it will function and look like a large additional room to the house.
It's where I do my smoking now. I'm almost afraid that when it's done I'm going to be forcing myself out to my own garage every time I light up. 
Some interesting stuff has been revealed. I'll be taking pictures with my crappy camera and it should be a good laugh.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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So, fwiw, I had a screen door put in that's supposedly break-in proof (the name of the company is Wynstan - "Wynstan, with a 'y'!" - in case anybody wants to look it up). And I've been leaving the front door cracked open so the cat can sit behind the screen door and watch the world go by.
Last nite he scooted away from the door about 8 feet and sat facing it looking very alerted. So I peeked out and saw the fattest coon I've EVER seen in my life waddle as fast as it could go carrying something large and furry in its mouth. Coons do hunt and kill rats, but they also carry babies around with their mouths, so ...
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Careful.
Somebody here is liable to take part of your post out of context and claim you're a racist.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
Speaking of In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
It looks like our rainy season is over, and we're not going to get any more until November (if we're lucky and it starts on time). It was a good rainy season, not phenomenally exceptional. One thing that was nice about it is that the rain came in regularly-spaced waves, which - I think - allowed it to soak in rather than run off.
The rain was enough to end our drought listing on the drought monitor, except for down by San Diego which is listed as exceptionally dry at the end of the rainy season. The last storm, which missed SoCal entirely by tracking east, brought some needed relief to the Four Corners area, which preciously had large areas listed under exceptional drought.
Even though the rain removed our drought listing, I do wonder about the 2011-2017 drought damage already done to huge swathes of forest. Hundreds of thousands of trees are already dead, and many are damaged.
Bark beetles have moved in and killed large swaths of forests in the wake of drought.
Will the rain allow many trees to recover their health, or will they continue to decline?
Also, there are a few quarries nearby, which are good indicators of groundwater supply in the area. Since I've been in SoCal (over 30 years), the lake levels at the bottom look like they've dropped about 30', and haven't recovered.
The fire forecast for SoCal is predicted to be fewer / smaller than normal - UNLESS there are unusual conditions like the "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridiculously_Resilient_Ridge, in which case, as the fire marshal said on the broadcast, all bets are off!
The north American drought monitor does indicate areas of up to severe drought in Canada. So it'll be interesting to see how the rainy season progresses, and how the fire season turns out.
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring-content/temp-and-precip/drought/n
adm/maps/pdf/nadm-201903.pdf
Hey thanks (or as JO says, xanks) for checking up with the drought monitor. I think this is THE BEST I've ever seen it in the 15 years or so that I've been looking at it. If the drought monitor has taught me one thing, it's that there's always extreme drought in theUSA somewhere ... except now! I wish it would show water surplus as well as deficit: The midwest from Nebraska south would be awash.
Now that we have a reprieve, this would be a good time to crank up that "create wide firebreaks in the forest" project, by taking down dead and small trees and preferably turning them into biochar in situ. OF COURSE, we will use this reprieve to do ... nothing.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:Wow, that's a big job SIX. We're doing similar work on our house, but due to age and debility much of it is going to conractors. In fact, we just has three very large single pane windows replaced ... actually one of those was a sliding glass door converted to a window. It made a huge difference in the comfort of the house and the heat load on the A/C. Hubby has the idea that we're going to renovate he bathrooms ourselves. Boy, I dunno. I have just enough energy to do the three things I have to do every day (walk the dog for a half hour, yardwork for an hour and cooking for two hours plus whatever errands I have to run and finances I need to take care of) and then I have maybe another hour in me, and then I'm done. I guess because I'm limited by energy and my knees I kinda peck away at things, but big jobs .... ?
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
So...
In more positive news, I'm getting back into rehabbing my house after a 5 or 6 year hiatus! :)
I'm not sure if I had mentioned the fact that I had taken in water in my 3 season room and some of the floor joists had rotted out. Have I told that story before?
Anyhow, the porch was an addition to the house around 20 years after it was originally constructed, and the more I pull it apart, the more I realize that this wasn't a professional job. It was just hard to notice that from the inside where they had put large heavy 4'x 8' cedar paneling to cover up the hack job.
Outside of building garages from the ground up when I was a teenager, this will be the first time I do any structural work. I do hope that the only structural work I need to do is to replace the two joists that had rotted and fallen underneath the floor, but I won't know that until the demo work is done, and everything is revealed.
The windows are the cheapest things I've ever seen in my life. Little more than some aluminum runners nailed into wooden planks nailed up around them on the inside and then covered with those cedar boards. Single pane garbage from the late 70's. Leaks abound. The porch has probably been taking in water for the last 40 years the way it was constructed, but it only became critical when I had re-used the carpet from the master bedroom and covered the porch with it because it was a perfect fit. The carpet was holding in all of the moisture, and on the extremely hot and humid days the crawl space underneath was a pressure cooker.
I wasn't aware of how bad the water issue was until I used a pressure washer a few summers ago to clean my entire house and afterward came into the porch and smelled it. The carpet was soaked. The damage was done. I immediately ripped out the carpet after that, and several months later when my brother came over he asked me about my sagging floor after he came in the house. He's a big guy, but he's not that heavy. Something was wrong...
So I'm going to be gutting the room, installing a new floor and windows and once it's all buttoned up I'll put in some drywall and a nice coat of fresh paint. Since there will be no heat source directly to the room, it would still be considered just a porch for tax purposes, but otherwise, it will function and look like a large additional room to the house.
It's where I do my smoking now. I'm almost afraid that when it's done I'm going to be forcing myself out to my own garage every time I light up.
Some interesting stuff has been revealed. I'll be taking pictures with my crappy camera and it should be a good laugh.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
Now, hubby likes to do big jobs in one fell swwop. Difference in work style... gets us bolloxed up sometimes.
Are you sure you know where the water is coming in? It might be coming in from more than one place ... windows and roof, for example. It would be a shame to do all of that repair and then have it get all wet again with the next thunderstorm! What kind of flooring? Carpeting or something else? (Thats another
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Quote:Oh my! Too funny!!!!
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Careful.
Somebody here is liable to take part of your post out of context and claim you're a racist.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:Well, if being a virtual ear is at all useful, then I'm prepared!
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Hmmm ... your landlady and her husband, your boss and HER husband, the person that you sometimes work alongside ... seem like exceptionally uncaring people, if not downright nasty. Maybe you feel that way because you're surrounded by uncaring people?
Originally posted by Brenda:
Trying to rain which is adding to my feeling of no one cares.
I care, and I think other people here care, but we're, like, virtual carers. Not much use in real life. But here's a virtual hug anyway.
*****
Winning at mahjong?
WOOHOO!
I NEVER win at mahjong, and I just play a computer game that lets me cheat and take back moves! I hope I never play against you.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
That is why.
Virtual caring is good as it allows me to vent my feelings and I can sort of get back on track.
I learned how to play mah-jong first on the computer. Still play on the computer and I can even beat the computer, sometimes. :)
I've actually won 3 times this week. Monday, Wednesday and today(Thursday). So a very good week for me.
Winning three times at mahjong? Damn, girl! I'll never challenge you on that!
How's the move coming? Everything more or less on track? Life has a way of throwing curveballs at us, and I"m kind of a pessimist I guess so I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Well, if being a virtual ear is at all useful, then I'm prepared!
Originally posted by Brenda:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Hmmm ... your landlady and her husband, your boss and HER husband, the person that you sometimes work alongside ... seem like exceptionally uncaring people, if not downright nasty. Maybe you feel that way because you're surrounded by uncaring people?
Originally posted by Brenda:
Trying to rain which is adding to my feeling of no one cares.
I care, and I think other people here care, but we're, like, virtual carers. Not much use in real life. But here's a virtual hug anyway.
*****
Winning at mahjong?
WOOHOO!
I NEVER win at mahjong, and I just play a computer game that lets me cheat and take back moves! I hope I never play against you.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
That is why.
Virtual caring is good as it allows me to vent my feelings and I can sort of get back on track.
I learned how to play mah-jong first on the computer. Still play on the computer and I can even beat the computer, sometimes. :)
I've actually won 3 times this week. Monday, Wednesday and today(Thursday). So a very good week for me.
Winning three times at mahjong? Damn, girl! I'll never challenge you on that!
How's the move coming? Everything more or less on track? Life has a way of throwing curveballs at us, and I"m kind of a pessimist I guess so I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
"The messy American environment, where most people don't agree, is perfect for people like me. I CAN DO AS I PLEASE." - SECOND
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876 .
Like I said sometimes I just need to vent my feelings.
Yup, it was a real good week.
Monday I got all four flowers then had a really good score. Wednesday, in the final hand I got all winds and dragons along with both of my own flowers, so I wound up with over 15,000 points in that hand. Thursday again I got one decent hand and just beat 1 lady I was playing with by 2oo points I think it was. But still it was enough to make the highest out of 16 players. I finished with over 3,000points on Thursday.Move is still on track for next Saturday the 26. I am stressed out thinking about how I am going to get things sorted out and all that. Got an offer of help from one of the ladies in my mah jong group. So I will be giving her a call next week. This long weekend is making things awkward to get any more boxes and stuff because places are closed today.
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