Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
What am I doing these days at 88 years of aga? I walk every day, I am still immersed in memoir writing, I garden, I feed the birds and watch, I cook for us and verious others, I read books obivously and do belong to a book club and sometimes go to Jane Austion Book Society meetings, I ueed to bend my knee to God and floors but now only God gets my adoration. However, I do still do my own housework. Including our downstairs finished basement and that means I must take care of 6,200 square feet. Now that our pine tree must be removed i am in contact with a landscape architect to see hat he suggest to put in it's place..Sometimes I get weary.
PS I no longer babysit some of my eighteen grandchildren or thirteen great grandchildren or go sailing or horseback riding. But, I am not giving up living every day the best way I am able. So far.
Good, Nina. Sounds like you're busy enough without watching the little monsters.;)
Nina, that is so great!
Kudos, Nina! I hope I'm still as active at 88 as you are.
So far this morning; shower head broke and as a result sprayed water everywhere and then after my husband tried fixing it and finally was able to do so. But it took so long I tried to take the shower in another bathroom but first he had to kill a huge spider. Later on things calmed down and we were off to Trader Joe's and that is always a fun trip. Now, I have already taken a walk because it is going to be ninety today. I am currently reading a memoir by Deborah Mitford. Her sister is the well known author, Nancy Mitford. Deborah's husband;s brother was married to Jack Kennedy's sister, Kip. It is an interesting book. "Duchess of Devonshire.
Here's the link: Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman.Or is it: All in One Basket by Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire
???
Joy, it is neither of those books. But it is the second one's author's name; Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Davonshire. However, the book I am reading is "Wait For Me." Memoirs is beneath the title on the book cover.
I am wondering if Georgiana is the forerunner of Deborah Mitford...
Nina wrote: "Joy, it is neither of those books. But it is the second one's author's name; Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Davonshire. However, the book I am reading is "Wait For Me." Memoirs is beneath the title on the book cover."I found this: Wait for Me! by Deborah Cavendish.
FROM THE GR DESCRIPTION:
=======================================
"Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, is the youngest of the famously witty brood of six daughters and one son that included the writers Jessica and Nancy... Deborah’s effervescent memoir Wait for Me! chronicles her remarkable life, from an eccentric but happy childhood ... to her marriage to Andrew Cavendish, the second son of the Duke of Devonshire."
==============================
Nina wrote: "I am wondering if Georgiana is the forerunner of Deborah Mitford..."All those names and titles are too confusing for me! LOL
My phone rang so don't know if my last comment got in or not. I am about to pick up from the library my latest reading assignment from my book club/ "The Unlikely Pigrimage of Harold Fry," by Rachel Joyce. I read a sample and it seemed intriguing. Takes place in England. You might like it Joy.
Actually, Jim I did my share of babysitting or should I say child sitting in the past. My sister in law had eight children and added to my six when they came to visit I cared for fourteen kids for a week. Sometimes others left their children with me and I'd have about thirteen for a week. Once a child was staying at our house when we were out of town;my older son was at home then. The boy told his mother I said he could stay with us while they were visiting their grandparents.. But, after the first great grandchild I haven't been sitting any more. I am resting on my laurels, so to speak.
The other day I was talking to someone whose horses got ran away from their stable and I was reminded when my daughter's horse and about six others broke through the fence and helicopters were out looking for them. Finally, they did find them in a potato patch miles from their home. Jim, did you ever have any runaways?
Not often. Speedy has gotten out a couple of times. Hard to believe he can open a double ended snap hook with his lips, but he managed it once. Another time a neighbor incorrectly locked a gate. The first time he went over to the neighbor's because they have pony mares. It was the first place Marg looked. He was prancing up & down outside their fence being studly. The other time he just chowed down on the grass on the front lawn. Easy to catch both times. The various neighbor horses can be another matter. Since ours are generally in, we get quite a few strays dropping by. Doug's mule was tough to catch & drag back home, but the little rig he had was hilarious. All of 8h & he was challenging our Thoroughbreds through the fence one time. Marg snatched him up & marched him home. Any mares always come by our place because of the boys, but they're usually easy to catch.
I've had some times catching horses, though. The worst is usually when there's a wreck on the hunt field & they go haring off across roads. Cars & storm sometimes take out fences, so I've spent some time catching them. We almost always have a lead shank & some rope in the vehicles, so are generally prepared.
A couple of years ago, I came on a bull in the middle of the road. I didn't try to catch him, just flagged down the truck behind me & then drove down to wake up the people in the nearest house. They figured out who the owner was & got him back home.
My fruebd who was talking about escaped horses said he and his mother were on the highway headed south out of town when they came across two horses on the road. Because they were both "horse people" they were most concerned. Then my friend took off his belt and his mother was able to catch one with it sort of like a halter. Because this was before cell phones they had t find a place to make a call and finally got to a filing station/one of them stayed with the horses. The other horse was caught with a bit of rope. They finally were able to contact the police. After an hour one policeman came and said he had no idea what to do with the horses. Finally my friend told him to contact a vet. This he did and a couple of hours later here came a vet and he did contact the owner of the horses. When that man finally showed up all he did was load them in the van and holler at them and never even thanked my friend and his mother for catching them. My friend said all in all they were on the highway for 8 hours.
Amazing, Nina. I've heard of lost dogs but not lost horses! :)
Ugh, that's a long wait to get a couple of horses taken care of. I often use a stirrup leather as a belt. It's pretty common when out hunting as a replacement, but I find it handy as a lead shank. A regular belt is only 3' long & that's too short for leading a horse well, but a leather is over 4' (wraps around my waist 1.5 times). I seem to have acquired another daughter & project. Funny how that works. My daughter & her husband are spending the long weekend with us, so I get a call from one of their friends. It went something like this?
"Hi, Dad. If Erin brings it up, could you fix my sewing box for me, please? It's an antique from my grandmother & the joints are coming apart. Oh, the hingey thing is coming off the inside drawer thing & one leg is loose."
"Yes, dear.... Who are you?" I mean, what else could I say?
;)
Jim, I guess you are known as "Mr. Fixit". :)
Finished playing dominoes with the kids & the dogs went out only to get into a skunk. I WAS going to go to bed, but wound up washing my practically perfect puppy instead. She didn't get sprayed too badly, but Pip got nailed. Not too bad since there are 5 dogs here now. We have the wash stall for Lily & the tack room sink for Pip. Hot & cold water in both, so clean up wasn't bad, but Pip still smells a lot. His thick coat isn't giving it up even with multiple washings with dishwashing liquid, vinegar, baking soda, & shampoo. I guess I'm not too old to have a wild time on a Saturday night.
;)
Jim wrote: "Finished playing dominoes with the kids & the dogs went out only to get into a skunk...."Our dog once got sprayed by a skunk. The odor clung to everyone... even when we went to church! LOL
We all know where the term, "skunk" originated don't we? How often have we heard, "he's a skunk.?"
Oh well, not a flattering comment. Does tomato juice still do the trick of eiliminating the smell?
Tomato juice is too expensive & messy. Skunk spray is an oil, so we use dish washing liquid, rinse, rub in baking soda & let stand a bit, then rinse with vinegar. That foams the oil off with the baking soda. Finally wash with either dish washing liquid or shampoo. Works really well, although Pip was banished to a crate last night since the smell lingers when wet & will even come back. When he's dry, he's fine. Lily doesn't have much fur & dries quickly, so she slept with me as usual last night.
I think I'll save your instructions for my daughter Jim as my daughter hsa had a dog sprayed by a skunk in the past. Thanks.
Joy, I am reading, "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry," and in it came across the word "spiraea" and wondered if you ever called the blossoms of that plant, "bridal wreath?"
Nina wrote: "Joy, I am reading, "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry," and in it came across the word "spiraea" and wondered if you ever called the blossoms of that plant, "bridal wreath?""Nina, here's a link about that: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/bridal-w...
When I was a kid, we had a bridal wreath shrub in our yard. I loved it.
My 1 year old $400 mower deck cracked at the same point - where one of the rear hangers attaches to the deck. Luckily, I caught it before it tore free completely, so I'll weld it back tomorrow. What a PITA! Wish I'd found it earlier in the weekend. As usual, my plans & what I could actually get done diverged far too much. I still didn't get to spraying the fence line or getting the last of the mulch down. And the gardens are just awful. No sense trying to weed. We've been dry too long so the ground is like concrete. Of course. Breck's had to deliver the lilies. There is no way I'm putting them in the ground right now.
Interesting and besides that I wondered about the spelling in the book. It was mispelled/spiraea is how it was spelled.
Jim, Not a good day but could be worse. My daughter was scheduled to come visit from ID next week and she called and said she couldn't make it as she had just had three hour aurgery to remove a tumor on her salivatory gland and is in extreme pain and excessive bleeding but the good news is that the tumor was benign. This is a particular worry for her as she had breast cancer/very bad some years ago. I will miss her coming but she can come later and so relieved the news isn't worse. She had the breast cancer for eight years before they discovered/even mamogram didn't show it. Life goes on here for better or worse.
Glad things aren't worse, Nina. Hope she's out of pain soon.Machinery is a constant source of maintenance & frustration for me. I spent 2 evenings last week fixing my old S10 pickup. Then we dropped $600 on Marg's pickup on Thursday. We could have spent a lot more. The ABS (anti-lock brakes) relays in the front hubs are bad. The units are sealed, so instead of replacing a cheap little sensor, the entire hub assembly has to be replaced - $525 each without labor. Instead, I pulled the fuse for the ABS & the brakes are fine.
Unfortunately, that Chevy work truck has the dinger from hell. It dings every few minutes if the seat belts aren't buckled. If you open a door while its in drive, it has a panic attack. The ABS system being out caused a 30 second symphony of lament that was enough to drive anyone insane, so I had my SIL pull the radio & we cut the wire to the dinger's speaker. Have to leave the box in there or the radio won't play & we were prepared to solder a resistor across the speaker wires, but apparently they didn't go that far. I'm a bit surprised.
I really hate a lot of the new safety systems. They make using so many tools a pain or even dangerous. Some of the new circular saws are practically impossible to use & it took me hours to circumvent all of them on my lawn tractor until it was usable. Believe it or not, but they wanted me to push a button to back up with the mower on! That seems more dangerous to me. Ridiculous!
:(
Nina, I wish good health to your daughter.
Nina, I'll be keeping your daughter in prayer.
Thanks to all for you wishes for my daughter. Werner she is my librarian daughter in Post Falls ID. Jim, maybe you will be like my husband when and if you reach his age/89 years. He was on his hand and knees repairing one side of our cement garage floor this morning. He climbs ladders to clean gutters and to trim high reaching bushes. He no longer has to repair tractors but he did that in the past. I can't think of anything that needed fixing around the house he didn't do/electrical/plumbing etc. I would miss him. He is also my computer guru.
Keep us posted on my fellow librarian, Nina!
Nina, what a wonderful husband you have!
I know. When my children were young and my then nine yeer old daughter spent the night at her friend's hmoe she came back and said, "Did you know real people can come to your house and fix dishwashers?" She had never seen anyone but her father fix anything around our house.
Nina, I know what you mean. We have a sign in our house which reads: "Dad's Fix-it Shop".
I love that sign. Now we have a hot water heater problem that is very difficult to solve even for mr fix it. It is an exra one someone else put in our kitchen so it wouldn't take so long for hot water to get to that faucet and now no hot water is ocming and it involves electricity, plumbing etc and even if we get a new heater it is massive undertaking accord to the fix it man.
Nina wrote: "I love that sign. Now we have a hot water heater problem that is very difficult to solve even for mr fix it. It is an exra one someone else put in our kitchen so it wouldn't take so long for hot wa..."Hope they can fix it soon, Nina.
Hot water heaters are a pain. I just replaced ours a few months ago. Luckily the blacksmith was here as I needed help getting the new one in to its cramped quarters. They're not very complicated, but heavy & awkward.
This one is quite complicated with the electrical wiring and plumbing connected to the crazy wiring etc in our house. We have a hot tub in our solarium and the pipes are under it and the wiring is somehow connected strangely to the reat of the house and that is one problem with this water heater. Even if we got someone to install a new heater the plumbing under the house and electrical system would have to be disturbed. My husband is still trying to figure it all out. wish us luck.
Good luck! Generally there is just one pipe in & another out of a water heater plus the vent. The hard part is often trying to find a heater of a similar size so you don't have to change the pipes. Plumbing technology has come a long way & that makes life a lot easier now. Back in the bad old days when we had to deal with galvanized pipe, it could be a nightmare sizing, threading, & joining. Half the time old rusted pipes would break further up the line. Copper pipe was easier, but still unforgiving & it could be a pain to get in there to sweat joints. CPVC made it easier. Easier to move around, but joints dried fast.
Today, it's a snap! PEX pipe & Shark Bites are awesome. PEX bends somewhat, can handle both hot & cold water, so connect directly to the water heater. Shark Bites are compression joints that let you connect copper, CPVC, &/or PEX together by just pushing them together. They come in angles or straight, even cut-off valves. They're a bit pricey, but worth every penny. I've heard they can be reused, but never had to try it.
Every Sunday morning I have the same routine. I call Mom & then do bills. Part of that is checking my wallet. I found a sticky note on it this morning: "I stole $20 and gave you $7. Love you - M"
Who can't love a thief like that?
;)
At least she left a note. :)
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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