In the garden, and RAIN!!!!

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
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BRENDA

Wednesday, January 19, 2022 9:49 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Sounds funny! I'll see if we can find them!

I used to have to call Quebec from time to time, tracking down specialty chemical suppliers. It was a trip, hearing "Vous avez telephoner xxxx. Pour Anglais presser nombre xxx"

I hope I've translated that correctly! I took French way back when in high school, so I could follow along, but it was a head-spin, being treated as the "foreign language" speaker! I can imagine a lot of humor along those lines!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

I should think you should be able to find them.

It looks right to me.

Been a long time since I've tried writing any French, not since high school either. I'm used to reading it as in Canada everything that is prepackaged has to have French and English on it.

Basically that plays a lot into the films.

ETA: Your spelling of Newfoundland is correct. You write it just as you say it.

SIGNYM

Wednesday, January 19, 2022 10:53 PM

So yesterday I managed to do a ginormous "kitchen cleanup" -two drain trays and a stovetop of drying dishes, pots, and pans.

Dear daughter and I also picked some late beets out of the garden and they had Swedish meatballs with sauce on no-calorie fettucini garnished with chopped parsley, creamed spinach and sweet-pickled beets (instead of lingonberries) for dinner.

Also set up the "grow lamp" for my herb windowsill (I got a "grow bulb" with a standard base and grabbed a spare desk lamp, so I didn't have to buy a whole lamp).

Had a 2.5 hour phone call "triennial meeting" with our daughter's service provider ... not that they provide a whole lot of service, but her continued eligibility is important for other benefits.

Today I think it's going to be beef and vegetable soup, but tomorrow the weather is warming up a bit so I have some leftover roast pork that I'm going to turn into pulled pork with salad for dear daughter (can't eat crucifers) and cole slaw for hubby - an easy fix.

Today also I hope to dust the house and plant the rest of my herb seeds (parsley, cilantro, and two kinds of basil) and if I manage to get that done, I'll be happy. Also need to plan out a menu and come up with a grocery list so hubby and daughter can do the shopping.

Tomorrow would be sweeping and vacuuming if my energy holds up, and back to cooler weather so maybe chicken and dumpling soup.

Not sure if I posted this already, but I had someone get me some tays of chicken feet for the dog. They were supposed to be the "meaty bone" part of her new diet, but she's not a big fan ... mouths them and drops them, not much of a chewer... and cutting them into swallow-whole-sized pieces was a royal pain. Well I had three trays, wasn't sure what to do with, but confirmed online that you can, indeed, make a decent broth from them (country cooks know this!) so I made an experimental broth from one tray, and it turned into a rich gelatinous broth that I can add to regular boxed broth to punch up the flavor, and it works very well. Not that I would bother to get more chicken feet ("Paws", they call them) but at least I can use up the remaining trays and free up some freezer space, as time goes on.

Dog is doing extremely well on her new "raw food" diet. I don't know if it's the new diet (raw meat, organ meat, veggies, egg/cheese) or the calcium supplement and vitamin she's been getting every day, but she's running around like a puppy again, doing donuts in the backyard, picking up her toy and pestering us to play, and pogoing thru the goundcover looking for lizards. Her fur is soft and her eyes are bright! It's good to see!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

BRENDA

Wednesday, January 19, 2022 11:24 PM

Out for my walk in a bit and it can't make up its mind if it wants to sun or rain.

SIGNYM

Wednesday, January 19, 2022 11:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Out for my walk in a bit and it can't make up its mind if it wants to sun or rain.

Our weather's been like that! Yesterday it started out mostly sunny, but clouded over by noon and got a tad drizzly. Today cool and cloudy, tomorrow mostly sunny (they say).

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

1KIKI

Thursday, January 20, 2022 12:06 AM

It sounds like your dog is a puppy again!

Today, I'm continuing to slog through end of year routine filing.

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Thursday, January 20, 2022 12:07 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Dog is doing extremely well on her new "raw food" diet. I don't know if it's the new diet (raw meat, organ meat, veggies, egg/cheese) or the calcium supplement and vitamin she's been getting every day, but she's running around like a puppy again, doing donuts in the backyard, picking up her toy and pestering us to play, and pogoing thru the goundcover looking for lizards. Her fur is soft and her eyes are bright! It's good to see!

all of your descriptions of your dog are exactly the same as my friends dog, after I recommended the dog get Boost. It is a toy dog, several years past life expectancy, which had teeth removed without owners permission, and had stopped eating and had been wasting. I had suggested vanilla Boost, 1/3 of a 8oz bottle per day, or per meal (I forget which now). Delivered with plastic syringe (baster) into the mouth. After a few days, dog would then go to the doggy bowl and eat some again.

SIGNYM

Thursday, January 20, 2022 1:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

It sounds like your dog is a puppy again!

Today, I'm continuing to slog through end of year routine filing.

Haven't gotten to that yet. Oy!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

BRENDA

Thursday, January 20, 2022 5:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Out for my walk in a bit and it can't make up its mind if it wants to sun or rain.
Our weather's been like that! Yesterday it started out mostly sunny, but clouded over by noon and got a tad drizzly. Today cool and cloudy, tomorrow mostly sunny (they say).

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

It was okay when I went out and was still okay when I came back. It was raining a bit around 4pm but has since stopped. Might rain again this evening.

1KIKI

Thursday, January 20, 2022 5:40 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

It sounds like your dog is a puppy again!

Today, I'm continuing to slog through end of year routine filing.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Haven't gotten to that yet. Oy!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Well, that and doing the stuff still left undone from last year - of which there is a LOT! But going through everything category by category and finishing each is the only way I can think of to keep myself organized at this point. Doing a bit of one and a bit of another is just too much for my organizationally-challenged brain to manage.

1KIKI

Thursday, January 20, 2022 5:42 AM

If only the west coast through the mountains could just get a few more inches of rain.

BRENDA

Thursday, January 20, 2022 8:53 AM

Rain right now.

Could be wet for my walk over to play mah jong in the morning.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thursday, January 20, 2022 9:59 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Getting the fridge back on the temporary boards was a bit tricky, but I managed it without doing any damage. I pulled it far enough away to install and caulk/paint the baseboard trim behind it, and I'm getting ready to roll it out onto the 2nd set of temporary boards so I can cut out and lay the permanant protective platform for the fridge and get it rolled back onto it.
That was some good work you posted!

Thanks.

Quote:
Have you thought of permanently putting any heavy appliances onto locking rollers? (Obviously with the locks in front, where you can reach them! And maybe you won't need locks, but here is SoCal I don't want things dancing around in an earthquakes.) That's something I'll be doing when I eventually gut and remodel my kitchen.

I have thought about it, although with the solution I came up with I don't think I need them anymore. I was able to manage to move everything in place on my own and tell my old man he didn't have to come out and help me after he offered. With the boards I'm even able to shimmy the fridge from side to side without damaging the floor and the way they're cut nobody is ever even going to see that they're under the appliances.

Since you've done some research, do you have any links for any products that you've been considering? It's still something I might consider in the future once I've completely finished the kitchen and resurfaced the countertop.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hubby has his drill press, table saw and bandsaw on locking/rolling platforms. They allow him to reconfigure his (small) shop to accommodate various sized projects and they work great.

Don't frigs comes with wheels already, tho?

Yeah. The fridge has wheels. But this new flooring, although very easy to lay, is more of a floating floor and it has about 8mm of insulation-foam type backing. It's actually quite comfortable to walk on in bare feet because of this.

But my friend's dad helped him install one in his kitchen a little over a year ago and forgot to bring his boards. My friend was too impatient to wait for is dad to go get them and tried using cardboard to move the fridge back into place and he ended up ripping a "V" shape tear in the brand new floor that hadn't even been down for 15 minutes.

Also, without anything under the fridge (like my boards or a rolling setup), I think with some prolonged time sitting in place the wheels would end up creating ruts in the floor. It was there about 10 days and hadn't done that (to my surprise), but I think with months or years in the same spot it would flatten out around the fridge wheels and the stove's legs.

Moving everything will be easy now, but I'm still strong and relatively young-ish. I think because of the fridge wheels I wouldn't ever have any trouble moving that out again unless I was trying to move it to the side, but moving that stove on my own probably wouldn't be so easy a decade or three from now.

I basically finished the closet before I went to my brothers, but I have a few touchups I still want to make. I'll have some before/after pics when I get those done, then it's onto the pantry.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

SIGNYM

Thursday, January 20, 2022 11:24 AM

Well, I manged to do the dusting today. It wasn't a "dust the tops of the door frames" kind of dusting (I did that last time) but I did the big stuff, and it's good enuf.

Also spent quite a bit if time trimming a particularly difficult chuck roast for beef + vegetable soup. Out of 2.7 lbs I managed to trim 1.5 pounds of meat and about 0.2 pounds of scrapings for the dog. There was a lot of fat and gristle on that piece! I try to get dear daughter to pick meatier cuts, but she's not very good at finding them.

Didn't get to plant my herbs today, hopefully tomorrow, along with the sweeping and vacuuming

Dear daughter is helping hubby with the yardwork but there's still a lot to go. But nw that hubby has had to deal with the continual mess that the palm trees make, he's given me the go-ahead to have them taken down. I'll double check with him tho to make sure he hasn't changed his mind.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

SIGNYM

Thursday, January 20, 2022 11:32 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

If only the west coast through the mountains could just get a few more inches of rain.

Climatestations says their LA location got 11 inches so far this year. WOW!

Looking at https://dpw.lacounty.gov/wrd/rainfall/ yearly total, that's actually pretty reflective of central LA northward, and more in the foothills (less towards Long Beach). So the catchment areas were pretty full I'm sure and the aquifer got recharged to some extent.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thursday, January 20, 2022 12:14 PM

Sounds like you've been quite a bit more active since I was gone. Good to hear Sigs.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

BRENDA

Friday, January 21, 2022 2:59 AM

Back from mah jong and no luck. Got my walk and a bit of grocery shopping done. Haven't checked my email yet to see if I am working tomorrow. I will.

Have to drum up the will to vacuum. I will.

SIGNYM

Friday, January 21, 2022 6:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Back from mah jong and no luck. Got my walk and a bit of grocery shopping done. Haven't checked my email yet to see if I am working tomorrow. I will.

Have to drum up the will to vacuum. I will.

I know the feeling!

Early in the day, when everyone was asleep. made that pulled pork from leftover frozen roast, and cole slaw for hubby, and found some leftover frozen stir fry pork and cooked rice and made S/F pork and "fried rice" for daughter. Also managed a kitchen cleanup which seems to happen every other day, but that's 6 meals and who-know how many snacks (three people X 2 days) so it tends to pile up. Took puppy-wuppy out for two SHORT walks - to the corner and back is all I could manage, and made up a grocery list for their shopping.

So they went shopping. and I thougt I might have 2 hours of free time to get other stuff done.

But dear daughter texts me, I swear to god, every 5 minutes when shopping ... they don't have this, they don't have that ... when I have CLEARLY gone over the list with her and given her options (if they don't have XXX try the other store, and if not available THEN let me know bc it's on the menu! Or- skip it bc it's not necessary) so its impossible to do ANYthing if I have to drop it every few minutes to answer her texts!! Can't she decide ANYthing on her own, or at least follow instructions?

Then sis, who generously watches daughter while hubby also generously stays with me during treatment, got an ear infection and needed a pickup bc when she gets those infections she gets unpredictable, intense bouts of vertigo which literally send her reeling and would be NO BUENO! to get while driving! Since daughter went with hubby to read street signs I thought I had about 1.5 hours of free time but, once again, daughter was texting me every five minutes.

WTF????

I finally told her i would be reading but NOT ANSWERING her texts bc it takes too long to tap out answers every five minutes!

Anyway, I did manage to plant those herbs which was on my to-do list, and do a quick-sweep around the edges of a couple of rooms where dust really builds up.

But today is treatment day which is an all-day thing, and side effects will kick in in a couple of days once the steroids wear off, and then I'm down for the count for two weeks. so I have two days to get stuff done. Such has been my life lately which is why the extended, frustrated gripe. Not frustrated with them so much as the situation.

At least this is the last one.

Well, better use this wakefulness to get my "go bag" ready so I can grab it and go in the early AM.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

SIGNYM

Friday, January 21, 2022 9:53 PM

Meh, I did more kitchen cleanup instead, putting away the dry dishes and rinse-scrubbing and stacking the dirty ones so sis wouldn't be greeted with two full drying racks and a countertop of filthy dishes.

I have to say the kitchen looks lot better!

Also tossed out peanuts hoping to attract the scrub jays back, altho what I'm seeing are squirrels. I try not to put out too many, bc I want them gone b4 night time and the tree rats, possums, skunks, and raccoons come out!

Hubby did a manly job of pruning the cape honeysuckle, feijoa, and Canary Island pine from overhanging the driveway, and dear daughter helped him cut up/ bin up the trimmings. The driveway is so much more useful now! But still so much more to do weeding, sweeping, and re-landscaping.

He hates gardening, I love it (when I'm not in pain or sick) so I'm really looking forward to recovering. In the meantime, I'm going to try to learn GIMP (Gnu image processor). Bc I have SUCH a hard time imagining how things will look I took a landscape series of photos and hope to manipulate them into a single "plain Jane" image, with many of the plants edited out and the yard leveled, and overlay a series of properly-scaled plant images on top. I hope to make a plan from that.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

BRENDA

Friday, January 21, 2022 11:21 PM

*Hugs* SIG and I am glad you are almost finished with your treatments. I remember sitting there with my mom as she went through them. They were hard on her too.

BRENDA

Friday, January 21, 2022 11:23 PM

Off for my walk in a bit and since no email or phone call last night from my boss, today is for doing my own stuff. Have to remember to pick up sugar and maybe coffee. Will see about anything else. At least it is dry and sitting at around 5C right now which is 40F.

SIGNYM

Saturday, January 22, 2022 12:48 AM

Hemoglobin was 7 when it should be 13, which is why I could barely make it to the street corner and back. Getting two units of blood this time.

I have a rare-ish blood type. There are all kinds of " factors" on red blood cells, not just ABO and Rh but hundreds of antigens and 30 blood group systems.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061611/

The main groups are ABO,H, and Lewis.

I have no AB, H or Lewis factors, and until I was 30, no exposure to cyromegalovirus (CMV) so my blood was the plainest ofplain vanilla- suitable for everyone including sick babies. For the longest time I was a constant blood donor and have donated gallons, in my day. But being a universal donor means I would react to anyone else's non-plain vanilla blood. Now that I'm a blood receiver, makes me feel like good karma is coming back to me!

Last treatment, glory be!!!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

BRENDA

Saturday, January 22, 2022 2:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hemoglobin was 7 when it should be 13, which is why I could barely make it to the street corner and back. Getting two units of blood this time.

I have a rare-ish blood type. There are all kinds of " factors" on red blood cells, not just ABO and Rh but hundreds of antigens and 30 blood group systems.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061611/

The main groups are ABO,H, and Lewis.

I have no AB, H or Lewis factors, and until I was 30, no exposure to cyromegalovirus (CMV) so my blood was the plainest ofplain vanilla- suitable for everyone including sick babies. For the longest time I was a constant blood donor and have donated gallons, in my day. But being a universal donor means I would react to anyone else's non-plain vanilla blood. Now that I'm a blood receiver, makes me feel like good karma is coming back to me!

Last treatment, glory be!!!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

My mom was O negative too which I didn't find out until her second bout of cancer, which was lung.

Her white cell count took a couple of dips during her chemo treatments and they would be put off until the numbers were better.

BRENDA

Saturday, January 22, 2022 2:39 AM

Back from my walk and just having a sit down.

Also found out that starting next Monday the elevator that goes down to the garage where the recycling and garbage bins are will be out for six weeks. Upgrades. So that means I will have to do everything like that in smaller pieces as I will have to take the stairs from the lobby down to that area. Oh the fun.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Saturday, January 22, 2022 6:06 AM

Wow Sigs, you must be feeling better. Congrats on the clean kitchen.

Haven't done much here since I got back from my bro's. Think I got the Cobid, since that's been making the rounds in my family. Not going to bother trying to get tested for it.

Nowhere near as bad as the flu, if that's what it is. I'm probably suffering worse from the winter blah's and living through the halfway point of another frigid cold snap that should be ending sometime by early next week.

I gotta get back to getting indoor projects done soon though. I don't want to still be working on them when it's warm out like last year. At least I don't have a huge 5 month project like that kitchen looming over me anymore, and until I have the place ready to tackle the basement (see: watertight), I won't have anything left indoors that will tie me up for more than a week or two at most.

Man... It will be nice to have a beautiful, functional pantry though. I'm excited to see what I can do with it after seeing how the coat closet turned out.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

BRENDA

Saturday, January 22, 2022 11:27 PM

Out for my walk on a bright sunny day.

BRENDA

Sunday, January 23, 2022 5:58 AM

Beautiful day where I am.

SIGNYM

Sunday, January 23, 2022 6:18 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Wow Sigs, you must be feeling better. Congrats on the clean kitchen.

Haven't done much here since I got back from my bro's. Think I got the Cobid, since that's been making the rounds in my family. Not going to bother trying to get tested for it.

Nowhere near as bad as the flu, if that's what it is. I'm probably suffering worse from the winter blah's and living through the halfway point of another frigid cold snap that should be ending sometime by early next week.

I gotta get back to getting indoor projects done soon though. I don't want to still be working on them when it's warm out like last year. At least I don't have a huge 5 month project like that kitchen looming over me anymore, and until I have the place ready to tackle the basement (see: watertight), I won't have anything left indoors that will tie me up for more than a week or two at most.

Man... It will be nice to have a beautiful, functional pantry though. I'm excited to see what I can do with it after seeing how the coat closet turned out.

Whatever you have I hope you get better soon, SIX. Sickness feeds into winter blahs, not a good combo!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

SIGNYM

Sunday, January 23, 2022 6:19 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Beautiful day where I am.

Enjoy your day!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

BRENDA

Sunday, January 23, 2022 10:02 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Beautiful day where I am.
Enjoy your day!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

I did. Had a nice walk while I was out. Sunshine good even if there was some fog.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Sunday, January 23, 2022 9:55 PM

Blizzard out there right now.

Entire forecast for the week went to shit overnight. Looked like all next week was going to be above freezing, now we don't even get a day in the 30's until next Sunday after three days of snow ending tomorrow, with a low of -8 Tuesday night not including the wind chill.

I see my neighbor out there shoveling now. It looks light, so the blower shouldn't have a problem when I get to it. I'm not going to do it in the middle of the blizzard though. I don't have anything in particular I think I'd even need to do outside the house over the next week, but no reason to box myself in. If there isn't a break in the snow today, I'm sure there will be one tomorrow and I'll blow it then.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

BRENDA

Sunday, January 23, 2022 11:34 PM

Good dose of fog sitting over me but I don't need to go out in it. Got an actual hand written letter to finish so I can get it into the post tomorrow along with an birthday card to go to Alberta.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Monday, January 24, 2022 6:41 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Whatever you have I hope you get better soon, SIX. Sickness feeds into winter blahs, not a good combo!

Yeah. I don't know what I got. It's still hanging on.

Probably didn't do it any good by snowblowing today, but it actually stopped snowing completely around 4PM and I managed to shovel and get the driveway cleared right before it got dark.

Maybe I get lucky and the snow won't be as bad as they predicted through tomorrow and I can get away without having to do it again.

I also managed to clear out my pantry and get all the shelving out.

Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to go shopping for some wood for new shelves. I thought I'd just be able to remove the contact paper, paint them all and put new paper on top, but some of those boards are in really bad shape and are warped as hell. I didn't notice that while they were in for 10 years, but I'm not about to put all this work into something using inferior products.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

BRENDA

Monday, January 24, 2022 8:23 AM

More fog for my area tomorrow morning.

SIGNYM

Monday, January 24, 2022 4:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Blizzard out there right now.

Entire forecast for the week went to shit overnight. Looked like all next week was going to be above freezing, now we don't even get a day in the 30's until next Sunday after three days of snow ending tomorrow, with a low of -8 Tuesday night not including the wind chill.

I see my neighbor out there shoveling now. It looks light, so the blower shouldn't have a problem when I get to it. I'm not going to do it in the middle of the blizzard though. I don't have anything in particular I think I'd even need to do outside the house over the next week, but no reason to box myself in. If there isn't a break in the snow today, I'm sure there will be one tomorrow and I'll blow it then.

Hmmm... gonna check the forecast for people downwind of you. See what might be heading their way. Doesn't sound good.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

SIGNYM

Monday, January 24, 2022 4:44 PM

Quote:
SIGNYM:
Whatever you have I hope you get better soon, SIX. Sickness feeds into winter blahs, not a good combo!

SIX: Yeah. I don't know what I got. It's still hanging on.

Probably didn't do it any good by snowblowing today, but it actually stopped snowing completely around 4PM and I managed to shovel and get the driveway cleared right before it got dark.

Maybe I get lucky and the snow won't be as bad as they predicted through tomorrow and I can get away without having to do it again.

I also managed to clear out my pantry and get all the shelving out.

Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to go shopping for some wood for new shelves. I thought I'd just be able to remove the contact paper, paint them all and put new paper on top, but some of those boards are in really bad shape and are warped as hell. I didn't notice that while they were in for 10 years, but I'm not about to put all this work into something using inferior products.

Maybe you'll get lucky and your hard work won't be undone by falling//blowing/ drifting snow. Then you'll be able to get that wood that you need without having to clear stuff all over again

But then, even if your driveway is clear, you can't go anywhere until the plows come thru. I hope you have good plow service!

What kind of wood would you get? If it were me, seeing how well they're holding up, I would get 3/4 Baltic birch plywood, especially if you're going to be putting heavy items into the pantry. But that's the high-priced stuff. So, if not that- what? Seems like sooner or later, unless you get good strong stuff it will sag and warp. I'd hate to see a lot of hard work go to waste! Your time is more important than that!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

SIGNYM

Monday, January 24, 2022 4:47 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
More fog for my area tomorrow morning.

Fog means moderate-ish temps and no wind, correct? If so, at least it won't be cold and windy!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

6IXSTRINGJACK

Monday, January 24, 2022 7:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Hmmm... gonna check the forecast for people downwind of you. See what might be heading their way. Doesn't sound good.

Did you hear anything?

It probably isn't really that bad. We got around 7 to 8" yesterday, but that apparently was lake effect snow. It was also very powdery snow, so even though it stuck to my warmer house roof, the garage roof is bare after the wind apparently pushed it all off.

Our snow ended around 4PM so I had just enough time to clear it out before it got dark. When I called my old man last night he said they had to shovel in the morning yesterday, but the show had ended by them around 9AM and there wasn't any all day after that. We're all relatively close to the lake, but I'm a bit down-wind from it and if one of us is going to get lake-effect, it's usually me.

They're saying another 1-3" by 1PM today and I woke up to it snowing lightly. Looks like we already got 1" of that overnight.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

6IXSTRINGJACK

Monday, January 24, 2022 8:05 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
SIGNYM:
Whatever you have I hope you get better soon, SIX. Sickness feeds into winter blahs, not a good combo!

SIX: Yeah. I don't know what I got. It's still hanging on.

Probably didn't do it any good by snowblowing today, but it actually stopped snowing completely around 4PM and I managed to shovel and get the driveway cleared right before it got dark.

Maybe I get lucky and the snow won't be as bad as they predicted through tomorrow and I can get away without having to do it again.

I also managed to clear out my pantry and get all the shelving out.

Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to go shopping for some wood for new shelves. I thought I'd just be able to remove the contact paper, paint them all and put new paper on top, but some of those boards are in really bad shape and are warped as hell. I didn't notice that while they were in for 10 years, but I'm not about to put all this work into something using inferior products.

Maybe you'll get lucky and your hard work won't be undone by falling//blowing/ drifting snow. Then you'll be able to get that wood that you need without having to clear stuff all over again.

So far, so good. A few inches isn't going to keep me from driving my car right over it. I'm only a bit more concerned about clearing snow than I used to be because I have those long plastic drain tubes off of 3 of my gutters. They were completely under snow yesterday and I had to dig them out. An unintended consequence of them appears to be putting a large sheet of ice on my driveway under fallen snow.

FUN!

Quote:
But then, even if your driveway is clear, you can't go anywhere until the plows come thru. I hope you have good plow service!

Oh... They're great around here. Second time this year that I had to be really careful using my blower once I got by the street because I didn't want to be "that guy" who blows his driveway snow all over the freshly plowed streets.

I'm actually glad that they started plowing further away from the curbs over the last few years. We have VERY wide streets around here and I'd get so annoyed that two years in a row they destroyed my frontage just over the curb (the city did come by and fix it both times in the spring). Now it looks like they're playing it safe and staying at least 1 foot away from the curb. My snowblower is a beast though, and even though it was all slush and ice down there it was no match for the blower.

Quote:
What kind of wood would you get?

I don't know yet...

I'm not doing what I did in the closets... yanno, the routing, staining and 5 coats of poly. They're going to be painted with the white enamel I used on the kitchen cabinets and the curio cabinet in and out, and then I'm going to use the same white contact paper for the tops of them.

When I did my coat closet, I just reused the piece of MDF that had a white veneer on it that I bought 1.5 years ago when my brother was in town during the summer. But I did have to install a shelf bracket for the center of that because it bowed in heavy in the middle even though there was only around 15 lbs up there, and not all in the center. Granted, that's a very wide coat closet and the shelf was 47" long.

The pantry is right next to the coat closet, but you enter in from the other side of it, so instead of being a very wide closet, it's a very deep closet. The shelves will only be 26.5" wide. My old man mentioned maybe just getting those cheap MDF boards, but I told him about my problem in the coat closet.

I'm still trying to figure out if I want to do anything else with the pantry other than putting the shelves back up. Taking them down or re-doing things will require some demo since they're held up with small baseboard upside down that runs all the way to the inside door trim at varying heights. But it does seem like quite a

6IXSTRINGJACK

Monday, January 24, 2022 8:34 PM

Before/After Coat Closet Pics:

First, I should probably mention that mirror to the right of the closet. That thing has been with me forever since I got it for a steal at $6 from Goodwill. I loved where I've had it hanging since I got this place and didn't want to see it go, but the dark brown stain wasn't going to match the new look, so I had taken it outside on some horses to sand down during the summer and painted it the same white enamel I've been painting everything else. I don't think I ever showed any pictures of the living room or that mirror before.

Just a basic coat closet here, and I didn't really do any upgrades except for beautifying it and installing a shelf bracket in the center so the shelf doesn't bow anymore.

Filthy, filthy, filthy. Yes... this was ground zero for mouse activity back when I had the problem and probably many years before that as well. Although I did deep scrub everything in my house a few years back after the de-hoard, this just stayed yellow at the baseboard trim and above it. It was only now that I realized it was because of the horrible caulk job they had done. There was half wiped up caulk residue all over the baseboard and quarter round and at some points up the walls 2 or 3 inches. Gross.

LOTS of prep went into filling holes and fixing damage on the walls and the baseboard as well as sanding off all that bad caulk. I also removed the quarter round while doing my best to not damage it in case I wanted to put it back up. Or... needed to more accurately. I never want to use it. I think everything looks so much better without it.

That damaged tile ended up causing me a lot more grief than I thought it would. In retrospect, I probably should have just bought a tile at the store and cut out a rectangle on the floor and with the new tile and just stuck it down there to go under the new flooring. At least my friend's dad told me to try using a hair dryer to get the front two pieces up since it would have taken me hours to get them up without gouging the hell out of the hard wood.

You can also see a lot more of the yellowing around the baseboard in this pic, as well as all of the gaps. So much caulk everywhere, but they didn't caulk the baseboard to the wall???? What they did caulk the hell out of was the floor in between the tiles and the quarter round.

Why on earth would you do that!!!!! Quarter round is there to hide your amateur work, not accentuate it!!!!

Here's a pic of the inside after I used wood putty on the various holes and damage on the baseboard used to hold the shelf and the pole. I even caulked around the pole fixture so you won't see any gaps or shadows where you don't want to see them. The board up there is just that cheap piece of veneered MDF I was talking about.

Rather than just use flat ceiling paint all over like most people do, I used my white enamel on the trim both up high and down low, and then I cut in some color using one of the gallons of paint I had bought back in 2019 but decided I didn't want to use in the kitchen and living room. It's got an eggshell finish, so along with the high-gloss trim, it will be really easy to wash if I ever need to.

That flooring is awesome. I'm so lucky I got that remnant with two extra feet on it so I can do the floors in both of these closets.

NOW THAT'S HOW YOU DO FLOORS, UNCLE BOB!!!!!

No quarter-round necessary to hide anything.

I left a little extra outside that I'll cut to size once I figure out a threshold solution after I decide if I'm going to resurface the livingroom floor or not.

Much better.

I even took down the pole, sanded the crap out of it, stained it and put about 5 coats of wipe on poly before putting it back in. It's a little bowed and still nicked up because of heavy coats with metal hanger damage,

BRENDA

Monday, January 24, 2022 11:30 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
More fog for my area tomorrow morning.
Fog means moderate-ish temps and no wind, correct? If so, at least it won't be cold and windy!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Fog does and if it burns off I might get to see some sun on my walk. This is Monday and there is more fog sitting on top of me.

BRENDA

Monday, January 24, 2022 11:32 PM

Nice job on the closet 6Six.

BRENDA

Monday, January 24, 2022 11:33 PM

More fog for my walk today. Hope it burns off at some point. Have to wait and see.

SIGNYM

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 1:07 AM

Nice job, SIX! Very classy!!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

SIGNYM

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 1:16 AM

So at this end, I've been chipping away at cooking, cleanup, and regular weekly chores (that have turned into every three-week chores.)

Well, yesterday I took the dog for a slightly longer walk, sorted the mail, binned up all the recycling, watered and trimmed the houseplants, wrote up a new menu to account for the fact that I can cook for two more days than expected, and made Philly cheese steak and salad for dinner.

Still not eating meat, it tastes too terrible to choke down, but I'm going to add bland veggies (green beans, corn, carrots, cucumber, zucchini... that kind of stuff) to my dinner.

Today the plan is to vacuum around the edges of all of the rooms/ under furniture and then tomorrow probably get the big vacuum cleaner and do everything else.

Dinner today for hubby is sauerkraut, sausage, onion, carrot, and potato, a simple on-pot meal.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

SIGNYM

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 1:17 AM

So, how're things on the home front, KIKI?

Going well, I trust?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

6IXSTRINGJACK

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 2:49 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Nice job on the closet 6Six.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Nice job, SIX! Very classy!!

Thanks.

I know it's just a closet, but I can't help myself doing more than needs to be done with things like this and the interior of the kitchen cabinets.

I'm hoping that down the road when it comes time to sell that people will see the little things like this and realize that a lot of craftsmanship went into this place.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

BRENDA

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 3:08 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Nice job on the closet 6Six.

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Nice job, SIX! Very classy!!

Thanks.

I know it's just a closet, but I can't help myself doing more than needs to be done with things like this and the interior of the kitchen cabinets.

I'm hoping that down the road when it comes time to sell that people will see the little things like this and realize that a lot of craftsmanship went into this place.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

People do appreciate things like that. A good closet is a very useful thing.

BRENDA

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 3:10 AM

Some of the fog has burned off and there is some sun now that I am home. Still nice to see.

Got the garbage out and for a bit I could hear the guys working on the elevator.

Also had an ambulance in front of the building when I got in today. Don't know what happened.

1KIKI

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 6:47 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, how're things on the home front, KIKI?

Going well, I trust?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Well, thanks to help from a tall person with strong hands I got my front light bulbs replaced. I'd been trying to get the glass shades off for literally months, trying with my hands, using rust-remover, WD40 then thicker oil, and two oil-filter wrenches (one for the fitting and one for the glass). My last effort before calling someone in was going to be heating the outer metal bands up that have the bayonet fittings, that hold the glass in place. But that VERY helpful person was able to take them off by hand for me!

Anyway, I super-cleaned everything up and put some teflon tape around the glass shades where the bayonet fittings are, so with any luck I won't have that problem again.

But there's some other problem I may need to deal with tonight or very early tomorrow. Wait and see.

1KIKI

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 6:53 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Also had an ambulance in front of the building when I got in today. Don't know what happened.

I live on the top street that goes side to side across a hill. Maybe because it's the only through street from one end of the hill to the other, idk, but it seems like it gets a lot of police/ ambulance/ rescue/ fire traffic. Every 3 weeks or so I see flashing red lights shining through the curtains when I'm watching TV as the whatever goes quietly by. I always wonder what's going on, and where.

SIGNYM

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 7:40 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So, how're things on the home front, KIKI?

Going well, I trust?

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Well, thanks to help from a tall person with strong hands I got my front light bulbs replaced. I'd been trying to get the glass shades off for literally months, trying with my hands, using rust-remover, WD40 then thicker oil, and two oil-filter wrenches (one for the fitting and one for the glass). My last effort before calling someone in was going to be heating the outer metal bands up that have the bayonet fittings, that hold the glass in place. But that VERY helpful person was able to take them off by hand for me!

Anyway, I super-cleaned everything up and put some teflon tape around the glass shades where the bayonet fittings are, so with any luck I won't have that problem again.

But there's some other problem I may need to deal with tonight or very early tomorrow. Wait and see.

Glad it got fixed!

Over at this end, I switched my plan and did the big vacuuming first bc I figured if I didn't get most of the dust we'd just wind up kicking it around.

Got about 1/4 of the way thru, went to flick the switch off... well, the switch flicked but the vacuum stayed on! Flicked it again but I noticed the switch was VERY hot, do I yanked the cord (big spark) and called Mr Fixit... er, hubby.... and he bypassed the switch with some wire ties and electrical tape, and attached an extension cord with its own switch at the plug end.

Not the most convenient, but at least I could finish the vacuuming and the floor doesn't disgust me anymore!

So I accomplished something today!

I hope that other problem, whatever it is, resolves itself.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

1KIKI

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 7:46 AM

Good for you!!! I still hope to get something completely done by the end of the day here!

It's a wall outlet controlled by wall switch? How's the switch doing?

BRENDA

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 9:37 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Also had an ambulance in front of the building when I got in today. Don't know what happened.
I live on the top street that goes side to side across a hill. Maybe because it's the only through street from one end of the hill to the other, idk, but it seems like it gets a lot of police/ ambulance/ rescue/ fire traffic. Every 3 weeks or so I see flashing red lights shining through the curtains when I'm watching TV as the whatever goes quietly by. I always wonder what's going on, and where.

The building I am in is on a main street and a paramedic got off the working elevator as I was waiting to get on.

BRENDA

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 9:39 AM

More fog this evening.

SIGNYM

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 10:17 AM

No, there is a rocker switch on the vacuum cleaner that fried. Hubby took that part of the housing off, pulled out/ clipped out the switch and literally bypassed it b

But on the plug end of the vacuum cleaner cord, he plugged it up into one of those short multi- outlet surge protectors - the kind with it's own on/off switch. So I have to practically go all the way back to the wall outlet to get to the switch, but at least I got to finish the job!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

SIGNYM

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 10:19 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
More fog this evening.

Quiet night then.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

BRENDA

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 11:31 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
More fog this evening.
Quiet night then.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Yup, by the time I went to bed could hardly see anything out my balcony windows.

BRENDA

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 11:32 PM

And more fog caused by an inversion pattern up here. All week and if we are lucky some will burn off and we'll get sun.

BRENDA

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 2:46 AM

Back and I managed to get the vacuuming done.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 4:57 AM

So cold... 8 degrees right now.

Negative 10 tonight. Negative 20+ with the wind chill...

Think I'll be leaving the sinks running just in case.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

SIGNYM

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 6:59 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
So cold... 8 degrees right now.

Negative 10 tonight. Negative 20+ with the wind chill...

Think I'll be leaving the sinks running just in case.

]

I checked on WNY, they've got the same thing today/tomorrow. I think they call it an "Alberta clipper"... a big swoop from the north. Bitterly cold, but not much snow.

Pipes run thru the basement, and house is well- insulated so I guess the pipes don't freeze. How fast do you have to run the water? Drips?

We're going to get a significant change in terms of dryness; dew point set to fall by 20F and stay dry thru Saturday. My sinuses are going to take a beating. Setting up the humidifier tonight.

*****

Anyone heard from JSF or JO lately? I hope they're ok

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

6IXSTRINGJACK

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 7:23 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
So cold... 8 degrees right now.

Negative 10 tonight. Negative 20+ with the wind chill...

Think I'll be leaving the sinks running just in case.

]

I checked on WNY, they've got the same thing today/tomorrow. I think they call it an "Alberta clipper"... a big swoop from the north. Bitterly cold, but not much snow.

Not a fan of the cold. I'll take the lack of snow gladly though.

Quote:
Pipes run thru the basement, and house is well- insulated so I guess the pipes don't freeze.

I have no heat in the basement, due to a 2 duct system HVAC solution Uncle Bob put together, and I still haven't put a furnace on the slab for it in the crawl space. Only heat I have comes from the attic and through 6 ceiling vents in the two bedrooms, the bathroom, the kitchen and the living room and pushes downward. The 2nd duct system would push through 5 vents... One from the lower half of the wall in each large room in the basement, two from the livingroom floor and one from the livingroom kitchen.

My pipes have only froze on me once since I've been here, on a night that was probably a little colder than this one was. Back then though, I kept the thermostat on the 2nd floor 7 degrees colder than I've been keeping it for the last 3 or so winters. These pipes run right along the side of the foundation where it's exposed above the dirt in the front of the house, so sadly except for the foundation itself and the foam I put around them, there is no insulation for them.

Quote:
How fast do you have to run the water? Drips?

I could probably get away with drips, but water is so cheap around here that I leave a trickle going down. About as little as I can get it to go without breaking the stream of water. Fortunately, my pipes didn't burst that one night they froze, but after having to do two emergency sump pump replacements while naked in bitter cold water, I'd rather just pay $1 or $2 more on my water bill just to be safe.

Quote:
We're going to get a significant change in terms of dryness; dew point set to fall by 20F and stay dry thru Saturday. My sinuses are going to take a beating. Setting up the humidifier tonight.

Sorry to hear that. I wish there were a way that we could trade a bit of each other's situations. I get way too much water and you never get enough of it. :(

Quote:
Anyone heard from JSF or JO lately? I hope they're ok

I saw JSF respond to a post just a day or two ago I think. He's no stranger to the cold weather up in Wisconsin, and he's perfectly capable of dealing with anything out of the ordinary. I think he's going to be fine.

I haven't heard from JO though. I hope he's doing alright.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

6IXSTRINGJACK

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 7:30 AM

Ugggghhh...

I've got to find my mojo.

I've been back from my brother's a week tomorrow, and all I've accomplished since then is snowblowing/shoveling twice and clearing out my pantry. Nothing is getting done.

I hate winter. :(

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

BRENDA

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 9:12 AM

Heading for a rain by the weekend. Only good thing about that is it will clear out all this fog.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 9:16 AM

I'm glad it's warm enough to rain by you Brenda.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

SIGNYM

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 10:03 AM

This really belongs in the "recipes" thread, but today I made "chicken and dumpling soup" without chicken OR dumplings bc the family wanted something really light.

I DID start out with a good chicken stock tho! Made it from 1lb chicken feet simmered for 3 hours in about 4c water with about 1/2T peppercorns and 3 bay leaves.

Lightly brown 2c onions in a big pot in a little oil

Add
3c carrot slices
2c zucchini chunks [or 1c frozen peas -add peas later if using]
2c celery slices

Sautee carrots, celery, and zucchini (if using) with stirring on medium heat in a little oil until lightly softened, about 10 minutes

Add 3-4T flour, stir thru the veggies.

Add 3T sherry (optional)

Add 2c good chicken stock plus 1 box (4c) commercial lo salt chix broth, stir to mix flour

Add 1-2 bay leaves, 1/4t dried thyme, 1/2 t salt

Bring to a simmer, and simmer covered until veggies are almost tender (about 20 minutes)

Add peas [if using] and simmer an additional 10 minutes

Add 1/4 c cream or canned milk

Serve over noodles if desired (I used no-calorie noodles), garnish with a fresh grinding of black pepper and fresh chopped parsley

Family liked it, a lot!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

SIGNYM

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 10:13 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
Ugggghhh...

I've got to find my mojo.

I've been back from my brother's a week tomorrow, and all I've accomplished since then is snowblowing/shoveling twice and clearing out my pantry. Nothing is getting done.

I hate winter. :(

--------------------------------------------------

Good to know JSF is hanging in there. I know he was sick and I worry if he goes absent.

Sounds like you've done a lot, SIX!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

1KIKI

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 4:34 PM

I'm just popping in to say hey all! And that I was able to solve what was looking like a problem before it needed professional intervention. So far, so good!

SIGNYM

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 11:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

I'm just popping in to say hey all! And that I was able to solve what was looking like a problem before it needed professional intervention. So far, so good!

Good deal!!

*****

Yes BRENDA, a occasional weather-swap would be appreciated!

I got the humidifier going last night... lay in bed thinking about it for a while but decided it was worth getting out from under the covers. It's just an el-cheapo water-boiler, and it ran out of water partway thru the night, but there was enuf moisture in the air for the night and it made for comfortable sleeping. I'm glad I bothered with it!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

BRENDA

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 11:21 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
I'm glad it's warm enough to rain by you Brenda.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

Fingers crossed that it will. Should be here by late Friday into Saturday if it does.

BRENDA

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 11:23 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

I'm just popping in to say hey all! And that I was able to solve what was looking like a problem before it needed professional intervention. So far, so good!
Good deal!!

*****

Yes BRENDA, a occasional weather-swap would be appreciated!

I got the humidifier going last night... lay in bed thinking about it for a while but decided it was worth getting out from under the covers. It's just an el-cheapo water-boiler, and it ran out of water partway thru the night, but there was enuf moisture in the air for the night and it made for comfortable sleeping. I'm glad I bothered with it!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

It would be good SIG.

BRENDA

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 11:24 PM

Out for my walk in a bit in the fog as I mentioned. Need a couple of things.

Hey KIKI.

SIGNYM

Thursday, January 27, 2022 12:48 AM

One of my formerly veggie beds has been taken over by nasturtiums, which bloom and reseed prolifically! This is what they look like

I don't mind bc they keep noxious weeds from growing.

But one thing about the flowers... they're edible! They taste like radish. I just put some on hubby's ham/Swiss/lettuce/tomato/onion/mayo sandwich, and not only do they add flavor and healthy colors, they look pretty!

Also great to garnish salads and dinner plates.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

BRENDA

Thursday, January 27, 2022 2:41 AM

Back in from my walk and got a bit of sun breaking through the fog. Bit cold when I was out and wished I had put on my scarf.

BRENDA

Thursday, January 27, 2022 5:16 AM

The sun is out now at 4:15pm. *L* Fog is all burned off.

BRENDA

Thursday, January 27, 2022 9:14 AM

Fog went away and there were mountains again before supper. Then when I sat down to eat my supper the fog was back.

BRENDA

Thursday, January 27, 2022 9:14 AM

Off to mah jong in the morning.

BRENDA

Friday, January 28, 2022 3:02 AM

Managed 3rd place today at mah jong. Horrible morning for everyone except 1 lady who had 10,000 points in the first hand.

Sun is out now and burned off a portion of the fog. Have to see what happens later.

BRENDA

Friday, January 28, 2022 10:04 AM

Off to work for me tomorrow.

1KIKI

Friday, January 28, 2022 12:08 PM

Brenda, OMG you are having a foggy time of it!

SIGNYM

Friday, January 28, 2022 12:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Managed 3rd place today at mah jong. Horrible morning for everyone except 1 lady who had 10,000 points in the first hand.

Sun is out now and burned off a portion of the fog. Have to see what happens later.

Congrats! Sounds like one person had most of the luck, but at least you had some!

Usually when we have an inversion there's bad air quality to go with it. I hope that doesn't happen where you live.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

1KIKI

Friday, January 28, 2022 12:23 PM

I mentioned a while back that after we got so much rain in such a short period of time I was wondering about the stability of the hill I live on.

And believe it or not, my yard is STILL wet. And I live near the top of the hill's ridge, not near the bottom. (The only people who live uphill from me are the houses across the street, which runs along the length of the ridge.)

Since my water main runs under that low side of the yard, I figured I'd check for water main and plumbing leaks by reading my meter and NOT using any water for 5 hours. And, no major leaks. If there's a leak keeping my yard wet, it's uphill from me.

Anyway, it was most certainly a very abnormal rain event! I got roughly 9" of rain - roughly 6" above normal, most of it over just a few days. In all my time here, I've never seen something like that. So this may be just unusual conditions because of an unusual event. So I'll just see how things are going forward.

The other thing I've been doing is shopping for a new mattress. My old one is SO old I'm embarrassed to say just how old it is. It's definitely time for a new one!

This graph is from a station that's not near me, it's in downtown Los Angeles. But it gives an idea just how extreme the atmospheric river was that came through.

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Friday, January 28, 2022 3:55 PM

Hot week here. It was okay to start as I was at the beach but arrived home and the house was like a furnace. Sadly, I currently have no air con, waiting to be installed.

Then the storms hit again, flash flooding and loads of lightening and thunder, huge claps of thunger, sounded like a bomb going off.

It's still warm but much cooler and the humidity is high, which gives everything a tropical holiday feel.

1KIKI

Saturday, January 29, 2022 1:36 AM

As much as I dislike the day-after-day unrelenting heat for most of the year here, right now your weather sounds warm and cozy.

With your thunderstorm, where your clouds WAY up high and all the action WAY up there? Or was everything low and seriously threatening? Because I used to enjoy extreme weather until I had a (small) tornado pass low directly overhead. And that was truly frightening. So I'm curious what your t-storm was like.

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Saturday, January 29, 2022 2:48 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

As much as I dislike the day-after-day unrelenting heat for most of the year here, right now your weather sounds warm and cozy.

With your thunderstorm, where your clouds WAY up high and all the action WAY up there? Or was everything low and seriously threatening? Because I used to enjoy extreme weather until I had a (small) tornado pass low directly overhead. And that was truly frightening. So I'm curious what your t-storm was like.

I appreciate our mild winters when I read the posts here, notwithstanding I love the snow, but want it when I am on holidays, at some resort, not navigating it in day to day life.

The heat wasn't cosy, it was oppressive but I understand where you are coming from.

I'm not sure about the clouds, I was actually in the office, first time this year as we are back to working from home. It got pitch black, then some enormous cracks of thunder and then the deluge. By the time I was driving home the rain had eased to something more gentle.

I'm glad I dont live where there are hurricanes or cyclones - too far south for that. Terrifying. We had massive wind storms mid last year which were the worst I could remember. Parts of the forest were annihalated - we are talking mountain ash here, enormous trees. Luckily and unbelievably really, no one was killed.

BRENDA

Saturday, January 29, 2022 4:29 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

Brenda, OMG you are having a foggy time of it!

We surely have been Kiki. Been beautiful this Friday. No fog at all. The sun is out and I can see the mountains again.

BRENDA

Saturday, January 29, 2022 4:31 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Managed 3rd place today at mah jong. Horrible morning for everyone except 1 lady who had 10,000 points in the first hand.

Sun is out now and burned off a portion of the fog. Have to see what happens later.
Congrats! Sounds like one person had most of the luck, but at least you had some!

Usually when we have an inversion there's bad air quality to go with it. I hope that doesn't happen where you live.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

That can happen with mah jong. Just one of those mornings.

I was surprised that I got 3rd.

We got lucky SIG. No weather advisories.

BRENDA

Saturday, January 29, 2022 4:37 AM

Back home from work. My boss's husband decided today to play around with the fireplace that is in the house. He had a fireplace company come by and talked to the guys in person then after they left, he lit it.

Well, long story short even after talking to the guys he still doesn't know what he is doing. He almost smoked out the living room. They were in 2 separate rooms not far from the living room but they couldn't smell the smoke. I had to TELL him what was happening.

The whole idea behind this is to use the fireplace in the winter as they have a pile of firewood in the yard. They brought it in about 3 winters ago. The last time he tried the fire place, he said he smoked out the living room and their guests had to leave.

ETA: I think I smell a bit like smoke.

SIGNYM

Saturday, January 29, 2022 5:37 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Back home from work. My boss's husband decided today to play around with the fireplace that is in the house. He had a fireplace company come by and talked to the guys in person then after they left, he lit it.

Well, long story short even after talking to the guys he still doesn't know what he is doing. He almost smoked out the living room. They were in 2 separate rooms not far from the living room but they couldn't smell the smoke. I had to TELL him what was happening.

The whole idea behind this is to use the fireplace in the winter as they have a pile of firewood in the yard. They brought it in about 3 winters ago. The last time he tried the fire place, he said he smoked out the living room and their guests had to leave.

ETA: I think I smell a bit like smoke.

There is a lever-activated damper in the top of the fireplace. Normally it is closed to keep cold air from swooping down the flue. It needs to be opened to let the hot air and smoke rise and escape out the chimney. Sounds like he didn't open it.

Another possibility is that the flue is partially blocked with creosote. When a fire is started in the fireplace and wood begins to burn, the oils in the wood volatilize and rise up the flue, but then they meet the still-cold flue surface and condense there. It's like tar. It can create quite a plug! So either you have your flue cleaned or you build a hot enough fire to catch the creosote on fire, creating what is called a 'chimney fire' to burn off the creosote. Small chimney fires are goodvthings.

I did THAT once, accidentally, only it wasn't a small chimney fire, it was loud like a fast-moving freight train, and scary, with flames shooting out the top of the chimney and burning chunks of creosote landing on the roof! But by the time my sis and i got it under control, by god the flue was clean!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

6IXSTRINGJACK

Saturday, January 29, 2022 7:49 AM

We missed the 5"-6" that was supposed to hit us last night. My old man and Grandma/Aunt got it instead, so we're about even now for snowfall this year so far. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 to 15" so far.

That coming off of a record winter where we went longer than ever since they started keeping track without any snowfall.

They're saying next week that Midway (the airport, where they track these things) is supposed to get 21" to 25" inches!

That's not too far from me.

Right now the forecast is only showing around 6"-8" next week, with 5" of them on one day. If things don't change, my family back west is going to get slammed. If they do, I might be the one getting slammed.

I hate winter.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

SIGNYM

Saturday, January 29, 2022 8:16 AM

So I wandered into the backyard to see how things were faring without attention.

The grass is tall in some spots and the weeds are taking over but- dang!- wouldn't you know but I spotted a few red, ripe tomatoes on my one tomato bush, and some green ones as well!

I had two tomato bushes last year, both Early Girl, and they grew spectacularly (taller than hubby) and bore prolifically. One bush does what Early Girl tomatoes do in the winter: it died down to the ground. The other, a mere 4' away, is still green and producing. I have no idea what's with that one plant, I'm very happy to be able to harvest garden tomatoes in the dead of winter, but why it wants to be a perennial is beyond me! Maybe I can save some seeds and see if new plants would come true to the original.

Gotta water, tho. Last significant rainfall was late Dec IIRC, and altho we got a good soaking the ground is probably dried out by now.

As usual I over planned my day, assuming I could accomplish more than I was capable of, but I did manage to walk the dog, roast a pork picnic roast, do a kitchen cleanup (the kind I hate the most, a couple of sinksful of cups, containers, caps, jars, utensils, pots, pans... took me almost 2 hours washing!, tidy up the house and make dinner

Have some bills pending in my email, need to unbox a bunch of stuff, freeze the pork, make dig food, fix a sprinkler head, water the property, sort the mail... make dinner tomorrow and Sunday, and... that'll be the weekend. Doesn't sound like much, but I bet I don't get ALLA if that done, either!

Hubby and daughter are working on finishing the platform bed. He just oiled it today with Tung oil, and it is a thing of beauty!!

Most of it is Euro steamed beech. We spent a HUGE amt of time picking out planks at the lumberyard looking for boards that were straight and with good figure and... OMG it's amazing! I'll try and post pix when I get a chance.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

BRENDA

Saturday, January 29, 2022 9:13 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Back home from work. My boss's husband decided today to play around with the fireplace that is in the house. He had a fireplace company come by and talked to the guys in person then after they left, he lit it.

Well, long story short even after talking to the guys he still doesn't know what he is doing. He almost smoked out the living room. They were in 2 separate rooms not far from the living room but they couldn't smell the smoke. I had to TELL him what was happening.

The whole idea behind this is to use the fireplace in the winter as they have a pile of firewood in the yard. They brought it in about 3 winters ago. The last time he tried the fire place, he said he smoked out the living room and their guests had to leave.

ETA: I think I smell a bit like smoke.
There is a lever-activated damper in the top of the fireplace. Normally it is closed to keep cold air from swooping down the flue. It needs to be opened to let the hot air and smoke rise and escape out the chimney. Sounds like he didn't open it.

Another possibility is that the flue is partially blocked with creosote. When a fire is started in the fireplace and wood begins to burn, the oils in the wood volatilize and rise up the flue, but then they meet the still-cold flue surface and condense there. It's like tar. It can create quite a plug! So either you have your flue cleaned or you build a hot enough fire to catch the creosote on fire, creating what is called a 'chimney fire' to burn off the creosote. Small chimney fires are goodvthings.

I did THAT once, accidentally, only it wasn't a small chimney fire, it was loud like a fast-moving freight train, and scary, with flames shooting out the top of the chimney and burning chunks of creosote landing on the roof! But by the time my sis and i got it under control, by god the flue was clean!

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

He was told about the lever and about cold air getting trapped and such but I still don't think he understood. That and he just ignored the fireplace after he lit it and as the fire burned down that was when the smoke was starting to collect.

You can't ignore things like that after you start them.

BRENDA

Saturday, January 29, 2022 9:15 AM

According to the weather people my area of BC got 51.8cm of snow between last December and this January.

Rain over the weekend with a slim chance of snow and rain by next Wednesday.

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Saturday, January 29, 2022 11:26 AM

The other day weatherguessers said it was the coldest temps in 3 years. That Global Warming must be attacking here, thanks to algore inventing it.

The only Nobel Laureate I actually know has his certificate for Global Warming, and he very clearly tells folk that all that Global Warming creation is complete bunk.

Here we have not gotten more than a couple inches of snow at a time, and then mostly melted. Has been too cold for snow a bit lately. Undisturbed depths are a few inches. If not for roadways, can barely call it winter. When it warms in March, Feb, we usually get a bunch. But normally by now we would have a foot or 2.

BRENDA

Saturday, January 29, 2022 11:16 PM

Laundry day and my boss is an idiot.

BRENDA

Sunday, January 30, 2022 2:58 AM

Laundry done, walk in and now waiting on my boss to call to say she is coming by to drop something off for me.

Suppose to rain tonight.

BRENDA

Sunday, January 30, 2022 9:30 AM

Rain right now.

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Sunday, January 30, 2022 10:33 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
my boss is an idiot.

I don't think that is news.

What revealed it this time?

BRENDA

Sunday, January 30, 2022 11:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
my boss is an idiot.
I don't think that is news.

What revealed it this time?

She had to deliver my check to me on Friday then I got a call Saturday morning that she had made a mistake on it. Told her I had some stuff to do and that I would be home by 2pm and she should call and leave a message and I would get back to her. Well, she didn't call by 2:30 so I called her and she asked me if I was calling her while I was out or if I was home. She knows I don't have a cell phone. Anyways she got her by about 3pm to bring me a new check with her correction to my pay.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Sunday, January 30, 2022 7:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
So I wandered into the backyard to see how things were faring without attention.

The grass is tall in some spots and the weeds are taking over but- dang!- wouldn't you know but I spotted a few red, ripe tomatoes on my one tomato bush, and some green ones as well!

I had two tomato bushes last year, both Early Girl, and they grew spectacularly (taller than hubby) and bore prolifically. One bush does what Early Girl tomatoes do in the winter: it died down to the ground. The other, a mere 4' away, is still green and producing. I have no idea what's with that one plant, I'm very happy to be able to harvest garden tomatoes in the dead of winter, but why it wants to be a perennial is beyond me! Maybe I can save some seeds and see if new plants would come true to the original.

Gotta water, tho. Last significant rainfall was late Dec IIRC, and altho we got a good soaking the ground is probably dried out by now.

As usual I over planned my day, assuming I could accomplish more than I was capable of, but I did manage to walk the dog, roast a pork picnic roast, do a kitchen cleanup (the kind I hate the most, a couple of sinksful of cups, containers, caps, jars, utensils, pots, pans... took me almost 2 hours washing!, tidy up the house and make dinner

Have some bills pending in my email, need to unbox a bunch of stuff, freeze the pork, make dig food, fix a sprinkler head, water the property, sort the mail... make dinner tomorrow and Sunday, and... that'll be the weekend. Doesn't sound like much, but I bet I don't get ALLA if that done, either!

Hubby and daughter are working on finishing the platform bed. He just oiled it today with Tung oil, and it is a thing of beauty!!

Most of it is Euro steamed beech. We spent a HUGE amt of time picking out planks at the lumberyard looking for boards that were straight and with good figure and... OMG it's amazing! I'll try and post pix when I get a chance.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

Is this a new bed or the one you were talking about quite a while ago?

I've never actually seen any pictures of this. Looking forward to it.

--------------------------------------------------

Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."

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