What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread) Showing 7,301-7,350 of 8,509

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Feel better, Jim.

[Jim]

I am, Joy. I laid around & mostly read yesterday. Much better today.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

That's good, Jim.

[Nina]

Take Care and hope for better days.

[Linda]

Jim, just saw your post from a few days ago. Hope you are up and "running" again.

[Linda]

We just got back from being in Clayton - the 1000 Island area. Nice to relax along the St. Lawrence River. Browse through some shops. Get an ice cream and gaze at the river, watching the boaters, birds and enjoy the good weather.

[Jim]

Pretty much, Linda. Thanks. Not riding again yet, though. Nice day for it today, too.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Linda wrote: "We just got back from being in Clayton - the 1000 Island area. Nice to relax along the St. Lawrence River. Browse through some shops. Get an ice cream and gaze at the river, watching the boaters, b..."

Sounds like fun.

[Nina]

Hope your "misery" abates soon, Jim. Good time was had by all, am I right Linda? We had perfect fun at our neighbor's impromtu eclipse
party in her front yard. Fascinating, even more than I had anticipated.

[Jim]

My misery is pretty much gone, but haven't tried riding yet. Maybe this morning. It's 55 out! Super dry.

[Nina]

Good luck.

[Jim]

The ride went well, although the flies are still out in force. I killed 2 big horse flies & spent far too much time shooing away others. Then I had a big brunch of bacon, fried tomatoes (red), eggs, & toast with strawberry jam. It was wonderful.

The tomatoes are starting to slow down now. I've brought almost 100 large ones in to work over the past few weeks & I only have 2 plants. I'm also getting a lot of cherry tomatoes, all volunteers from one I had last year. I wash them & put about 15 into a sandwich bag. I think I've brought in a couple of dozen bags of those & will probably bring in another 8 or 10 bags on Monday. It's been a really good year for tomatoes, although I have to water them every few days. It's dry as a bone here.

[Nina]

One can never have too many home grown tomatoes. As for dry conditions I am surprised as we've had record setting rains all month. Not hurricanes, thank goodness. Interesting and sad to read about the eye of the hurricane landing at Rockport as many years ago we stayed at a motel there with our sailboat parked at the dock right outside of our room. And it was a nice friendly town. Now it is devastated.

[Nina]

Just finished reading, "Notes From a Small Island," by Bill Bryson and if any of you ever spent time in the British Isles this is a fun read.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Notes from a Small Island BY Bill Bryson

[Nina]

It was a fun read as I said but did check and it was written twenty years ago so many places he mentioned may not be as they once were so take that into consideration as you read it.

[Jim]

I spent a couple of hours making up a double batch of scrapple, a Pennsylvania Dutch dish. It's basically pork & corn meal made into a loaf & then sliced. The slices are fried & served as the meat side of a breakfast. Typically it's made with all the leftovers from the hog, but I made mine with ground pork. One batch had some sage, the other savory seasoning.

In some ways it came out better this time, not as sloppy, since I made sure to keep the fat to the minimum. Unfortunately, it doesn't have the flavor of the last batch, either. Making it sure makes me appreciate prepackaged food. No one around here has even heard of it so it takes me a few hours to make up a batch & package it for myself. Luckily, no one else likes it so I probably only have to make one a year. I don't particularly care for cooking, especially not standing over the stove stirring it for the last half hour. I had an audio book to listen to, but even so it's boring.

[Nina]

I've heard of it but probably never have eaten it but actually might like it.

[Jim]

Rough night. At 1am, a possum got into a cinder block against the house, partially protected by a fence post. Neither Pip nor I could get him out. He was a small one since he managed to mostly fit into one of the 2 holes in the 12"x16" block, but when he opened his mouth, those needle sharp teeth seemed to cover the entire opening.

After some poking, prodding, & attempts to lever the block out of the corner, I gave up & brought Pip in the house. I put the cover on the dog door, but Pip removed it later that night. I think the possum was gone by then. I did a quick look around this morning & didn't see it. Pip was patrolling that side of the fence glancing at me with disgust occasionally.

[Nina]

Oh the joys of living in the country.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina wrote: "Oh the joys of living in the country."

Amen! :)

[Linda]

Jim did you get any sleep at all?!! Woken up at 1am and then you posted at 5am. Lots of excitement on the farm.

[Linda]

Happy September 1st everyone.

We are going back to the cottage on the pond - same place we rented for a week in June and hit the highest temp of the summer at 95 (place has no a/c and no heat - but beautiful setting). This time we are renting for 3 days and the weather will be cooler than normal. We have to pack our winter bathrobes!!

There is a fire pit outside - we plan on putting our chairs around the pit - look at the pond - have a hot beverage and relax.

Hmmmm maybe I should bring gloves. :)

[Jim]

Linda wrote: "Jim did you get any sleep at all?!! Woken up at 1am and then you posted at 5am. Lots of excitement on the farm."

I did, but I probably posted at 6am since I didn't get to work until almost 5:30am. As I've aged, I found I don't sleep for as long, but want naps. I go to bed between 9-10pm & usually wake up sometime after 4am & my alarm is set for 4:30am during the week. I generally nap for 15 minutes when I get home from work & take a longer one after lunch on the weekends.

[Jim]

Have a great time. It's chilly here today for this time of year. The remnants of Hugo blowing through so we're supposed to get from 2"-8" of rain, likely about 4"-5", with a high of 65°. The low was 60°. It's been raining all day pretty steadily & is supposed to continue into tomorrow.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Have a good time, Linda.

[Nina]

Better take something warm just in case. Have a nice holiday.

[Jim]

3.5" of rain so far when Marg dumped the rain gauge. No sign of it slackening, but it's been a good rain; steady, no downpours. Should soak in well & fill the ponds.

[Jim]

Another 1.5" of rain last night, so we're up to 5" in 24 hours. Again, no downpours or bad winds that I heard. Chilly, though. The high yesterday was 60 & that was first thing in the morning. It was 56 last evening & still is this morning. Chilly for this time of year.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Our local weather report says it went down to 35 F degrees last night!

[Linda]

Glad to have been ignorant about the 35 F degrees!! I feel cold just hearing a number in the 30's.

Beautiful out now. A sunny 61 degrees at 12:49 pm.

Got my books, some warm clothing, a bottle of wine, drawing pencils (like to practice drawing birds) and Adult coloring books. Probably do some kayaking. Take a ride and get ice cream which still tastes good in cooler temps.

Have a good weekend everyone. Jim, I hope you don't get woken up in the early a.m. to take care of any critters.

Relax all.

[Jim]

35! Wow, that's cold.

No, I just woke up at 4am & kind of dozed for 30 minutes or so, but finally got up. I took a nap later, though.

With all the rain & the chill, I wondered why the hummingbirds weren't attacking the feeder. Marg said the back one had more in it than when we went to bed last night & she had read they could be filled by rain. I wouldn't have believed it, but it was so. I refilled it & they flocked around immediately.

[Nina]

It's been in the low eighties this week and sixties at night but tomorrow is up to eighty nine and ninety four on Monday but then back to the seventies in the daytime the rest of the week. My daughter is happy to have a couple of warm days before the put the pool to bed for the winter.

[Nina]

Hope everyone has a nice holiday. Very nice weather here. Glad we aren't in Houston. Not as much chores as you have, Jim, but happy my watering for the day is over and glad today I am not having a huge party like I did a year ago on Labor Day. It actually was fun but still lots of work. Today is just peaceful doings..

[Jim]

Poor Marg! I left for work at 4:45am this morning & Marg was woken up at 4:50am by 2 skunked Jack Russells. We seem to live in skunk alley & our stupid Jack Russells can't seem to learn. We think this morning was the fourth time this year, but we've lost count.
:(

How to wash a skunked dog:
- Rinse them with water
- Wash with Dawn dishwash soap (It's the strongest.)
- Rinse
- Rub in baking soda & let sit about a minute.
- Slowly rinse with vinegar so the baking soda foams well. Keep scrubbing & rinsing slowly until no more foam.
- Water rinse again
- Wash once more with Dawn & rinse.
- Wash their faces a time or 2 with no-tears baby shampoo.

We've tried store-bought remedies, peroxide, & other methods, but none work as well as the above.

[Nina]

Thanks Jim, I passed this info on to my daughter who no longer has a Jack Russel but does have two rat terriers and she hopefully won't have to use it.

[Nina]

We almost feel guilty with our perfect weather and are sorry for those most unfortunate ones dealing with the aftermath of Harvey and now another hurricane looming toward FL. We too have had bad times but possibly not quite as much as them. Today I went out in our fifty degree weather and bought five mums. Did I think it was already fall? They were on sale.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Feels very much like fall here.

[Nina]

That is probably not unusual for your part of the country. Here every day they say lower than average temps. Once in 1956 on October 5th is was 105 as that was the day my fifth baby was born but that too was unusual as it wasn't ordinarily that hot in the fall; yet in September not really unusual to have temps in the nineties. So we glow in our unusual temps this time. Our fall colors are at their peak around the last week in October or first of November.

[Jim]

The hummingbirds are leaving. Up until Tuesday, they were drinking about 30 oz of food per day. The past 2 days they were down to half that & I expect it will be less today. It's that time of year & kind of chilly, but they're heading south into bad weather. I wonder how many will make it back next year.

[Nina]

My hummingbirds aren't leaving as they never appeared in the first place. They like my neighbor's hibiscus but not mine. when we lived on the eighth floor of our condo building they came every day to drink from the hibiscus trees. Maybe they like them better than my bushes.

[Linda]

Hummingbirds have left. None spotted in the last few days. Racoons came last night and drank from both feeders. Time to put the feeders away. Bye bye raccoons.

[Linda]

Our Labor Day weekend trip was nice. On the rainy day we went to a nearby town and browsed the small shops and ate out.

On the sun shiny days I went out on a kayak and my husband fished from shore. Enjoyed the kayak so much we went out today and purchased one of my own. We have a canoe but hubby has difficulty getting in and out - I love the canoe. I would paddle and he would fish. Hubby thought I should have a kayak.
Tomorrow will go out and buy the paddle. Maybe kayak Sunday and if not Monday - when the weather is more stable (raining on and off).

Here's info on my kayak: https://fishingpicks.com/pelican-summ...

Mine is red (top) white (bottom). Perfect for beginners. That's me.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Enjoy your kayak, Linda!

[Jim]

I haven't seen many hummingbirds this afternoon. I try to leave feeders out until it starts freezing out, but I don't put much in them & make small batches. Birds flying south will drop by & grab a bite.

[Nina]

I have never been on a kayak but wonder if you have Joy.

[Jim]

I FINALLY got a splinter out from under my fingernail, so life is good. I got 14 fence boards yesterday. While I was unloading the third board, it slipped & I got a splinter under my right ring finger that went in all the way up to the cuticle. The end broke off & I couldn't get it out, so I finished stacking the wood before coming into the house to see if I could dig it out with a needle. No go.

I'd put 2 coats of polyurethane on Erin's new stool - a 32" three-legged stool that I made out of oak temporary dance floor pieces & stained with my rust stain. (Same as our coffee table.) I sanded it & put one more light coat on. One more light sanding & a spray coat of poly was all that was left this morning. It's drying now.

I spent the rest of the evening soaking my finger & managed to get a hold on the splinter, but only the front half came out. I can't get the rest. Soaking it this morning felt really good. It kept waking me up after the early morning hours.

I finally found the solution & used the Dremel tool to cut out the fingernail over the splinter, then I could get to the rest. I soaked it again & then super glued it shut. All fixed! So much nicer not having that splinter there. A very good form of torture.

[Nina]

Glad your solution worked, JIm but never would have thought of doing all of that. Sounds dreadful but the end result was worth the temporary misery.. I hope that never happens to me.

[Nina]

I am reading a classic, "Daniel Deronda," by George Elliot and it is seven hundred pages long. Wish me luck. She also wrote "Middlemarch."

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina wrote: "I am reading a classic, "Daniel Deronda," by George Elliot and it is seven hundred pages long. Wish me luck. She also wrote "Middlemarch.""

I found "Middlemarch" too dense and too wordy. So I never finished reading it. See my review at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...