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Praying for you and your family, Connie! Praise God Bill didn't get hurt when he fell. Every time Mom fell she broke something, so am so glad he was alright. God knows and because He is always good, He has a good purpose in all of this.
Wade is doing good. He had his cataract surgery on Monday. They will do the other eye this Monday. He's been nearsighted most of his life and after the surgery, he could see far without glasses for the first time since he was a boy. Boy, what fun with just one eye done. The eye doctor removed the lens from his glasses on the eye with the new lens. He had to look at something in just the right spot for both eyes to see it clearly. Praise the Lord! He has been reading without his glasses for a while, but he has to hold the book or his phone up close to his face. Now he will need glasses for reading only.
Praying for y'all. Love you0 -
Cindy - I really need to have a sale, but don't know how to really do it with Bill. One of the girls was talking about having one this year. If she does, I think I will see if she will let us bring some stuff to her. I don't even care if we get anything out of it....just want it gone.0
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How is Bill doing, Connie? Hope no residual effects from his fall.
The garden is producing pretty good. No zucchini, but then again, I don't like it anyway - so... I actually don't eat most of what we are growing, but it's fun to see it produce and be able to give it to my friends. Now, the watermelon, that I can't wait to get a taste of!
Hope y'all have a great day. God bless.0 -
Funny. I thought I was the only one growing something I don't actually eat. I grow tomatoes for Dave, but I don't like the texture myself. I have recently learned to like cucumbers, so I'm excited to eat some of those from my container garden.0
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I used to grow tomatoes that I won't eat raw, but I did can or freeze quite a few and used in spaghetti sauce, chili, etc.
I've tried container gardening, but I just have a black thumb. I had a pretty good garden when it was planted in the ground, but that is a lot of work.
Bill is doing fairly well since the fall, but he just doesn't communicate well and I am having a hard time knowing what he needs. And he complains about "it" hurting but he can't tell me where or what hurts. He had been kind of afraid to walk and has been wanting to use the wheelchair... There's hardly enough room to get the wheelchair around all of our corners and narrow doors. And I got one of the smallest chairs they had. We are getting by, though.0 -
You continue to be in my prayers, Connie. You are doing an awesome job taking care of him!
Woke with one of those across-the-forehead headaches this morning and my ears were really clogged. Gotta remember to take my allergy meds! I forgot last night and again this morning. I need to refill my pill keepers and they will definitely go in this time!
Hope y'all are able to stay cool. Love you0 -
It's raining here now... definitely cooling things off.0
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Hurray! My husband is flying home right now and should land in another hour or so. It's very different being the one alone at home instead of the one on the road traveling. While I missed him a lot, I will say - I did get a lot done around the house.0
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Wow, we had some serious storms Friday evening. In the KC area, there were over 130,000 homes without power. They are still trying to get power up and running. There were 85 mile an hour winds. Luckily our immediate neighborhood didn't lose power or have bad damage, but less than a mile from us north and south, they were without power until this morning. I told my Mom that it was because I had everything ready, in case of need.
Bill is finally walking with his walker again. WooHoo! The nurses wanted him to use one with a seat. I bought him a really good one with a seat and very large wheels to use outside, so I brought it in out of the car. I ordered a smaller rollator walker with a seat on Amazon Prime that I had intended on using inside after it gets here on Wednesday, but I think it will go in the car, because I remembered one of the reasons I bought the other, you can make it narrower to get it through a narrow door. Boy, that makes it easier to get him in the main bathroom. I had a fairly narrow walker in the bathroom, but he had to change walkers. This way the narrow walker goes by his bed and when he gets up in the morning it goes into our bathroom very easily, and the big walker gets adjusted when he goes in the other one. That makes it SO MUCH EASIER for both of us.0 -
I'm glad you were able to avoid the power outage in your area, Connie. And way to go on solving the wheelchair issue.
I'm off to meet my sister for coffee, then I'm headed over to work on a project with a woman I work with quite frequently. She's a graphic artist who's very "crafty" and has refinished a lot of furniture. She's going to help me refinish a very girly step stool. Since I have a grandson now, I'd like to make it more neutral. It's a small project that I could probably do on my own, but it'll be more fun this way and I imagine she'll stop me from making any serious mistakes.0 -
I wish we had kept using Mom's Rollator, but after a fall when the rollator got away from the rehab people said she should use one with just wheels in the back. We ended up having to stand behind her a push it for her, she couldn't think to push it and walk at the same time! We just as easily could have walked beside her and put on the brake on the Rollator! We did the same thing, had one in the bathroom and one for her wandering around the house, but it didn't take long for her to just use the porta potty in her room, it was higher and much easier for her to use. So glad that Bill is able to function on his own at this point - praise the Lord, such a blessing!
We had a storm Saturday night, but nothing like you are describing, Connie. Just thunder, lightening, and heavy rain. It didn't last super long either.
Wade is having his second cataract removed this morning, so will be heading out in a few minutes. His first eye was awesome and his vision turned around - he can see far now out of that eye but not near, which is opposite to what it was before - strange but miraculous! He's worn glasses since the third grade and this is the best his vision has been since then! God is good!
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Bill did furniture refinishing as part of his living for several years. Then, we he decided to get a 40hr a week position (and retired later), he did furniture refinishing and we put the money in a vacation account. That income sent us to a lot of fun places. We still have a lot of "junk" furniture in the garage and a building that needed TLC and glue! I wish I knew of someone that would come in and just clean all of it out.0
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Hope Wade is doing well after his surgery.
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Took my 2016 Outback in for scheduled maintenance yesterday and got hit with unexpected needed repairs as well. Apparently both my front axels have "failed" and I need a new bushing for the rear sway bar. That doubled my expected charges. 😑
They gave me a loaner vehicle because they weren't going to complete everything yesterday and I needed to go to my daughter's an hour away to watch my grandson.
My plan was to look for a replacement car next March, but the '23 Outback I drove yesterday was really nice. Hope I don't give in and buy sooner.0 -
I can't believe the price of cars these days! We talked about getting a new truck but the one we have is just going to have to do right now, even if we traded in Mom's car (which we both struggle to get in and out of) it would just be too much. We are debt free right now and not wanting to get anything that will add another payment to the bills we have. Our truck is older but running well and Mom's car is nice, so right now we will make do!
I can't believe the heat we are having in July, I'm hoping August will surprise us and not be as hot! One can dream! LOL!
The watermelons are growing well. The leaves are dying back on the potatoes so pretty soon we should be able to dump them out of their grow bags and see how we did. The vines are long and healthy looking on the sweet potatoes, so hopefully there are some growing in there too! The tomatoes, peppers and okra are dying back now too. My potted flowers are a jungle, but they are starting to slow down on flowering. It's not as pretty as it had been just a couple weeks ago but will let them be until they die back too. I think I'll put some mums in those pots this Fall!0 -
Ugh. I discovered a good number of my forming tomatoes have blossom rot. I cut off 9 tomatoes, hoping the rest on the vines will get more nutrients and that more new ones will form yet this growing season. Very disappointing
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Today I was very glad that I didn't have to get out for anything! First day over 100 this year. we never had any luck with container tomatoes. Hopefully you will still get some good ones. I have a friend that told me the key to container tomatoes is to grow cherry or grape tomatoes. I never tried them.0
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I've had good luck growing Roma tomatoes the last 3 years, but I read that blossom rot is most often caused by inconsistent watering. That fits with my being gone for a week earlier in the month and my tomato plants possibly having no water for 2 or 3 days.
I'm next out in mid August (and my husband will be gone during that time too) and I talked to my son and daughter-in-law about coming over to water things the Sunday that I'm gone. Fingers crossed that that will work out better0 -
What a Bummer! We got some tomato plants from a Church friend and they are growing and producing like crazy - the small ones. We've gotten three big bowls full of them so far - and given them all away since we don't like tomatoes! LOL! We want to do Roma and Beefsteak next year. Wade doesn't mind a thin slice on a burger or chopped up in a taco. I wouldn't mind stewing some or making some sauce out of them. The okra has also gone to friends. I stopped using it in my smoothies, I could kind of taste it and it made the smoothie have a slimy texture (at least to me).
Went to the NP this morning. Basically, because of my sensitivity to N-saids and anti-inflammatories, there isn't much she can do for my arthritis pain. She wants me to have an endoscopy when I get my Medicare and an MRI of my back to get for an up-to-date picture of what is going on with my arthritis there. My right SI has gotten very painful and it is making my right leg weak.
I have almost 2500 steps today, just about the limit I can handle with my back!
We ordered a couple of resin rockers for our front porch. Lowe's is having a sale on their white ones until the end of the month. I have my wooden one on the front porch, but the rain it's been out in has weakened it and it's probably not much good any more. At least we got it at the Thrift Store and got our money's worth from it. We have gray resin ones on the back porch which is where we spend most of our time.
Oh, Oh, Oh. Our pastor (next door) and our neighbor on the other side both have trail cams in the woods behind the house. They both caught the very big bear that passed through here the other night. Oh my! We knew that there was the occasional bear, but this is a big guy - eeek. There were three deer shortly after he passed through, and one just before he passed through that took off quickly just before the bear showed up. Just stay in the woods!
Love y'all.
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Oh my! Bears scare me....unless they are outside and I am inside looking at them.0
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Heard some thunder out there, but not sure that the storm is going to hit us, although the rain is nice!
We ate one of our watermelons this week. Probably should have kept it on the vine a wee bit longer, but the signs that it was ripe were there. They are small, pretty much a two person melon! We have five or six more out there. They will have a better chance at getting big without there big brother hanging about. One of them is hanging off of the fence which is right behind where we planted them. The vine went up the fence and made a watermelon. Wade put it in some netting and supported it on the fence. The potatoes are almost ready to be harvested - I just hope there are some in there! LOL!0 -
I've harvested three cucumbers so far. Still getting the knack of determining when to pick them. I'm sometimes not sure if the yellow is early yellow going to green or the cucumber yellowing because I've left it on the vine too long. Does that make sense?0
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Oatmeal with berries for brunch. Got invited to our son and daughter-in-law's house for dinner. He's smoking ribs and grilling veggies. I brought honey cornbread muffins. Doesn't sound too unhealthy, does it?0
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Going to pick the last of the season's healthy wild black raspberries with my oldest daughter today. She's coming over in a couple of hours and we'll take the utility vehicle to the Edison easement that runs along our property. I don't know if I mentioned it, but she came a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday when Dave and I were both out of town and picked by herself and ran into several ticks(!) while picking. I don't recall ever seeing them here, but apparently the winter was so mild it didn't kill them off like it normally would. We're prepared with two kinds of tick repellent: one for your clothes and shoes and another kind for your skin. Also - long sleeves, pants and boots. I even bought a pair of socks that contain a repellent in them and I'm planning on pulling those over my pants. Hair up in a baseball cap is a must. And she's asked if she can shower after we're done picking. 🤣 It seems like a lot, doesn't it? BUT - those berries are so full of antioxidants and they're SO good, we decided to be really careful and go for it.1
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Well, we picked as many black raspberries as we could find and discovered that a lot of the blackberries had fully ripened in that field. The ones along my driveway are in partial shade, so they're not quite ready.
We braved the ticks with our preventative measures and only saw one. Unfortunately I saw it on the inside of my sports bra! I must've felt something... I unbuttoned 2 buttons on my flannel shirt and saw it at the top, just in the inside of my sports bra. Yikes! I stretched it out and flicked that tick away... then buttoned my shirt all the way up to the top!
We came away with a good haul. One of the patches had a lot of berries and they were enormous! I'll post a picture in a few minutes from my computer. Can't do it from my phone anymore.
We made gf scones with berries last night, but the all purpose gf flour blend wasn't a great one. The scones were a little gritty or like sand - as my husband likes to say. Oh well. I froze a bunch of blackberries for later to make muffins or pancakes0 -
Wow, amazing how that tick got past all of the precautions and found that one vulnerable spot! Smart little buggers!
I had one tick bite about 15 years ago, and that spot will still swell and itch on occasion - very strange! Wade had to dig it out because it just wouldn't let go. It was on my back at the waistband. Of course, I freaked!
Oh, all those blackberries, how awesome! Are you just going to eat them as they are or make some jam too? We have just the one blackberry bush, got about 10 berries off of it this year - LOL! The blueberries didn't produce that much this year, so hopefully next year they will do well. The figs hardly produced at all last year but gave us a bounty this year! So who knows!
Our resin rocking chairs are in at Lowes. These will go on the front porch, and we will actually sit out there when the weather cools down. We are mostly using the screened in porch in the back of the house right now, mostly shaded all day, so much nicer. We have a set of resin chairs back there that we found at the thrift store. We actually paid about the same for each pair! $30 each at the thrift store and $35 each at Lowe's! Lord willing they will last us for as long as we are here!
We are going to dump the potato bags today or tomorrow, depending on the weather. Can't wait to see how they did.0 -
I'm back to work this week after having the last 10 days or so off. Yesterday I worked a one-day job from 11:30 - 4 and today I'm just setting up equipment for the next job. That's a longer project: 7 days in town and then 7 days in Las Vegas. Dave is on a longer project starting tomorrow, so I have to make arrangements for mail pickup and getting my container garden watered for the 4 days we'll both be gone0
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What a jet-setter life you lead, Cindy! LOL! I'm excited when I get the opportunity for a ride out to one of our water pots! We haven't even gone to the ocean and we've been here more than two years! Wade's been busy getting our building fixed up for get-togethers and worship and then working on getting stuff done on the house (like a roof that was about to collapse over the back part of the house. All of the decks were in very poor condition too, and when he got under there he was surprised they were still holding us up - so those had to be done. The front deck is a "luxury" item! LOL! Now we're working on the kitchen and bathroom. The kitchen faucet is stuck in one place and the bathroom faucet is tiny and you can barely get your hands under it, not much water power either. Since I don't like the kitchen sink (white porcelain) we are changing that out - but of course, you don't change out the sink and keep the probably 50-year-old countertop! So we will change that out. Not a lot of counter space, so it shouldn't be too expensive. We found a butcher block on sale at Lowes and want to find a used table that we could switch out the tops and use as a place to keep our appliances. Wade is going to cut out a part of the tub so I can safely get into it and get a shower. I have mostly been just washing up with bath wipes, but my skin would love some hot water coursing over it! Even with a handle, I sometimes can't get my leg up high enough to clear the edge of the tub, so I can't get in/out without help. He has everything ready to do that, but when looking over the instructions found it will be easier with a couple more tools! I really like my house, but it will make doing things so much easier! Wow, that was a lot!
Hope y'all are doing well. Praise the Lord we have a cool-down. Feels so good to sit outside right now.
God be with you!
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We have had some dandy storms here. I was wishing for Cindy's generator the other night when our power went out. We have a generator that we used camping several years ago, but it probably hasn't been used in 15 years.and Bill and my dad were the ones that used it...dad is gone now and Bill doesn't remember even having it. It would run the fridge and maybe some lights, but not all the power. Anyway, the power went off about 8pm and came back on sometime between 3 and 4:30am. If power has to go out, that was the right time. One of Bills daughters had to get a new roof from hail damage. We didn't have damaging hail here , thank goodness. We have a friend that lives about a mile away that lost power during two storms less than a week apart (16 hours and 4 hours) and then the power company turned the power off again to permanently fix an issue. 3 Outages in 8 days. We have only had one bad outage since we have been married (33 years) so this is very rare.
I hate ticks and they are thick in the country by where my Mom lives. She's in town, so no issues, but we had some major tick issues when I was a kid running around on my grandparents farm. It makes me itch to think about them. When they lived at the lake, my dad treated the yard with Seven to get rid of them.0 -
We're talking about having our yard sprayed for ticks - although we haven't seen any out of the fields.0
