Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
Let's compare weather!
>
Weather - What's YOUR weather today? (Part ONE - Started Sat., March 14, 2009) (Let's keep this going.)
message 501:
by
Nina
(new)
May 19, 2011 01:16PM
You're right Cheddar is better but if you go that far try Gruyere. It is fabulous.
reply
|
flag
Nina wrote: "You're right Cheddar is better but if you go that far try Gruyere. It is fabulous."The recipe I use is one from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network. She calls for Gruyere, but I use the Cheddar instead. maybe someday I'll splurge.
Nina wrote: "You can't make mac and cheese for one dollar but I think you can easily do it for less than five dollars from scratch. You don't need an entire pkg of dried mac(therefore you can make it again); on..."Sounds delicious, Nina, but I'd never go to all that trouble. My cooking days are over!
What do you do when your family comes? Do they do the cooking?
Nina wrote: "What do you do when your family comes? Do they do the cooking?"Nina, my husband does the cooking and food shopping. When I went to work full-time we divided up the chores. He chose cooking and I chose clean-up. And that's the way it's been for many years. When the family comes, I get the house ready for them and manage all the logistics... except for the cooking and food shopping. We never interfere in each others "realm". We each take full responsibility for our sphere of the work. I don't help when he cooks; he doesn't help with the clean-up. We like it that way. It works for us.
Sounds good.Much better than when one does all the chores which I don't do now but once upon a time did; like when my in laws came with eight children and added to my six, it was quite a bit of work. The kids had fun and fond memories. I remember the fun but also the work. nina
We had more energy when we were younger, Nina. That's how we managed to do so much. I look back at photos in which we were entertaining a lot of people and I wonder how I did it. Energy and Youth!
We've had storms rolling through in heavy bursts. We picked up another 1-3/4" in 3 such bursts yesterday & the day before, each lasting less than 30 minutes. It was fine, then suddenly raining so hard I couldn't see the yellow line at 20 mph.This morning, we had another boomer roll through at about 3am with high winds & lots of rain. We had another inch when I got up. It's happened a couple more times today so far. Ugh.
Lots of branches to pick up, but so far no trees down on the fence that I know of. I'll have to walk the fences again this evening.
Jim, you're having bad weather, but we're having good weather here today. It's like summer! It's sunny and the temperature is in the 80s!
Speaking of bad weather; my husband and I spent a tense couple of hours yesterday from eleven o'clock to 1:00 PM, hovering in the basement as a funnel cloud went from, close by, to overhead. After Joplin's tornado, we,in our metro area, were even more cautious. Even the newsmen were urging us to seek shelter. The tornados, there were three, finally disapated but one went on to Sedalia and caused a lot of damage there. We were spared, as I said, but my children were in basements all over town and my son in law left work to drive home to see if his house was still standing. Thankfully, it was. My daughter says her field is like a swamp and she is looking for herons. nina
Nina, that must have been a frightening ordeal! Glad you're all safe.
I feel so sorry for all those people hit by tornadoes. Glad you & yours got through safely, Nina. We're just getting straight winds, hard gusts & they're a pain in the neck, but nothing deadly, thank goodness. We were on a tornado alert last night, too. Just on the edge & never saw anything dangerous, though.
I had to move one big, dead limb off the fence, but it didn't break anything. The limb was big enough that I couldn't pick it up, just flip it over & into the woods. There wasn't too much small stuff today. Most of it has come down already.
Creeks are rising, though. Everything is saturated. I had to dodge & drive on the wrong side of the road in places coming home today.
I hope better weather is coming both our ways. We'll see. In the meantime I am starting, "The Lord of Misrule." It is our book club selection for July. I am reading it early as I will be gone to ID last of June and first Part of July. I will let you know what I think. First off, I wished the first and second chapters were switched. nina
This extreme weather!! Damn that Al Gore!!
Poor Al gets all the blame.
Today we were at our local Costco and talking to one of the workers she told us they had to go into the freezers Wednesday; also the customers. The funnell was directly overhead swirling but didn't touch down. She said they were plenty scared. I am glad I was in my own basement and not a freezer. nina
Nina wrote: "Today we were at our local Costco and talking to one of the workers she told us they had to go into the freezers Wednesday; also the customers. The funnell was directly overhead swirling but didn't..."Incredible! I wonder how safe the freezers would be in a tornado.
They would probably still be standing while everything else would be blown away. It is also wise if you don't have a basement to go to a bathtub. Sad story; in Joplin a young married couple laid in their tub; the husband laying on top of his wife to protect her. She was saved; he wasn't as a flying object went into he back and he bled to death. She kept trying to get help for him but it was too late.
Oh, my goodness, Nina. One wonders how people endure such tragedies.
We're hot & sunny now. It was 85 yesterday & today we're supposed to top 90. After all the rain, this sun is making the grass grow even faster, which I hadn't thought was possible. I'm mowing the fields again already & I just mowed them 2 weeks ago! I got a swale dug behind the barn so hopefully the stalls won't flood again, even if we do have as much rain as we did this spring. While the tractor did most of the work, there was enough raking & shoveling to wear me out. It's not completely done. As usual, I'll have to let it age a little & touch it up over the next year or so. Still, the worst is done.
I spent the day in shorts with my shirt off in the hot sun & didn't get sun burned. Yay! I love it when I get to that point.
Yes, Jim. It was hot here too. We were sweltering in the heat and humidity.The big old maple tree in our front yard gave up the ghost. A huge portion of it, a thick branch, split from the rest of the tree and crashed to the ground. There was no wind or rain. The tree was rotten inside and dangerous. So we had the entire tree removed yesterday. That was expensive! The front yard looks bare without the tree there. I hated to see it go.
They say that this happens to old maple trees. They just get rotten inside after all those years and they split. We'll probably have to have another one removed as well. A few years ago, the same thing happened to another old maple tree. That time, the big branch almost just missed our car in the driveway. In a way, we've been lucky in that respect.
Well, now we'll have less leaves to clean up in the fall. There's always a silver lining.
It's been so hot & dry the past couple of weeks that even the weeds were wilting. I've been spraying for weeds through the fields & it's been killing them practically immediately. Walking around with 40 lbs of sprayer on my back in 90 degree weather has been wearing me out, too. Anyway, today the temps dropped into the mid 60's & it's raining!!! Not much so far, but we have all morning. Keep your fingers crossed for us. We went from drowning to drought. It was so dry the Galardia & other flowers were losing their blooms. Just sad.
Jim wrote: "... Anyway, today the temps dropped into the mid 60's & it's raining!!! Not much so far, but we have all morning. Keep your fingers crossed for us. We went from drowning to drought. ..."Jim, I hope you get some good rain to counter-act the dryness you've had. Today it's raining here and the temp is in the 50s... after several days of sweltering weather. It's hard to decide what to wear. We're either dying of the heat or shivering from the chilliness.
To tell the truth, I was enjoying the heat and the sweating while I did some minor gardening. We had the fans on and the breeze from the fans felt so good. It's a small pleasure but it means so much!
We went to Garden Time again and bought more pink begonias ($2.89 for a six-pack of tiny starters)... after I had sworn off having more flowers! I also bought a pretty Gerber Daisy ($8.99). Couldn't resist the bright fusia color. We'll see how it fares this summer on the deck.
We didn't get much rain, not even 1/8". Just enough to settle the dust & let Lily get muddy feet. I'd forgotten to fully make the bed - Amber & Pixie were sleeping in a bit - so, of course, Lily made a bee line for the bed & got my sheets & pillows all muddy. Oh well, it needed to be washed, I guess. ;-)
Jim, you've mentioned a depressing subject... changing the bed-sheets. It's the most boring and laborious job in a household. And if you suffer from a bad back, it's painful too! Nobody talks about it, but it has to be done... sooner or later. ;-)
Speaking of weather; ours is the strangest. Like, you Jim, here abouts we are suffering from drought; however, just north of the city, out by the airport they are sandbagging because they expect the MO river to go out of it's banks and cause lots of damage unless they can get it stopped before it reaches the small towns and cities along it's path. This problem is only fifteen to twenty miles north of us; Floods adn Drought don't usually go together. We did have one and three quarters rain fall in the night and that caused havoc up north. Oh well, mother nature isn't always a grand old lady.she confuses us mortals.
I hate cleaning, Joy. It is boring & tiresome. I don't have a bad back, but a low tolerance.;-)
Nina, that just sounds ugly. Good luck with it. I didn't water today, but will tomorrow. I have to mow the lawn, too. Another repetitive chore I could do without. It's supposed to be cooler, so I really wanted to get a lot of weedeating done. I haven't gotten to most of the paths in the woods.
I really miss Marg. It doesn't take me a lot of time to get the extra chores done, maybe a couple of hours a day, but it's that extra bit I really don't have the energy for.
I did get a lot done today - all the barn chores that have been piling up. A big one was putting burlap on all the doorways. We have a 3' wide roll of it & I put strips running vertically from the top of the door to about belt high, overlapping a few inches on each side. That keeps the flies down, sun out & yet lets the breeze through. Makes the barn a lot nicer for the horses. Of course that means a few extra minutes picking up after them a couple of times a day.
Jim, are the horses free to go in and out of the barn as they please or do you have to lead them to a fenced-in area?
They can go in & out of most of it at will, Joy. Marg designed the barn to do all the jobs she needed & did a great job of it, IMO. It's 36' square. A 12'x36' strip on the north is concrete. The NW corner is a 12'x12' tack room, enclosed & insulated with hot & cold water. The rest is used for grooming & storage. The center of the northern wall has a 6' opening that can be closed off with a sliding door. Opposite it, leading into the run-in shed area, is a 4' gate. The rest of the barn has a stone dust floor. The western end has 2 - 12' stalls. That leaves a 24'x24' run-in shed for the entire SE corner. The eastern end is completely open, a big opening 12' high & 24' wide. No doors for it. In the center of the southern wall is a door that is 8' wide & can be closed off with a sliding door.
There are windows in each stall & the tack room. They have screens, but I hang the burlap over all the other openings/doors. That lends a lot of shade & while some flies get in, an amazing number don't. The horses often will stand with their faces in the burlap so it wipes over them to keep the flies off.
Unfortunately, they often like to play with the burlap. They'll chew on it & tear it. It also unravels. By the end of the summer, it will be several feet shorter. The goats are the worst, though. They'll stand on their hind legs to 'taste' it. Buggers.
It must be fun to watch the animals make use of the burlap. I have to smile at Romeo. He's such a baby. He's getting a bit spoiled and wants us to go out into the fenced in yard (we call it "the compound") with him. He doesn't want to go alone; he wants company. If I don't go down the stairs into the compound, he'll go down the stairs and onto the grass, but then he turns around and looks up, just to make sure I'm still there on the deck watching him. Just like a little kid.
Ours will go out in the backyard & play by themselves, but really like us with them out in the fields. Except Lily. She just has to run, but even she won't spend much time without one of us out there.While we were out in the woods today, I saw a foot long garter snake curled along a branch. He laid there as both Pixie & Amber almost touched him running & sniffing underneath. They didn't notice him, thank goodness. I took a few pictures & then we left the area so he survived the experience.
Oooh, I hate snakes. There are rattlesnakes on the mountains near us. Sometimes they're seen out on the Lake George islands. I hate to think about it.Years ago one was found sunning itself near a coiled up water-ski rope out on the camping islands. They are a protected species. What would YOU do in that case (especially if your kids were camping with you)? The ranger keeps a snake-bite kit in his island office. That makes me nervous too.
I don't have a problem with non-poisonous snakes, especially if I see them first. I don't like to be surprised by them. I'll kill a poisonous snake immediately, any laws to the contrary be damned, kids or not. I have no more use for them than a coyote or a weasel.I've had some funny run-ins with snakes over the years. My step father, Rip, was terrified of any kind of snake. He'd scream like a little girl at the sight of one. When Erin was about 4, I found a big black snake (over 6' long) on the retaining wall at the farm. Erin had it looped around her shoulders & its tail dragged on the ground. I got a picture & then Rip drove up. Erin ran up to show him the snake & he almost died on the spot. He jumped back in the truck & was completely freaked out.
There was a steep area to mow by the pond when I was a kid, so I had to sit way out over the up hill wheel & lean over. That put my body parallel to the ground with my head just a couple of feet up. A water snake was sunning itself & we startled each other. Rip was furious when he came home & found the mower in the pond until I told him what happened. Then he just shuddered & nodded. Apparently it had happened to him once before, too.
I've heard there are copperheads, rattlers & the occasional water moccasin around here, but haven't seen any yet. I've seen mostly garter snakes plus a few hog-nosed & rat snakes. I leave them alone as best I can. Occasionally I'll hit one with the weedeater, though. I try not to & feel bad when I do. They really do a great job of keeping mice & bugs down.
Great stories, Jim. You could probably write a good book.We have black flies here, usually they're around from Mother's Day to Father's day. They leave a very itchy bite; so you have reminders of them for weeks afterwards . The black fly problem is worse in the northern part of the Adirondacks. Fortunately, we're at the southern end. Even so, they can leave red welts all over your body, ITCHY red welts. :-( One year I actually had to wear a hat with a face net while I was working in the garden.)
One time a gnat or fly flew in my ear while I was gardening. I slapped my ear without thinking. Had to go to the emergency room at the hospital because I thought the bug was stuck in my ear. As it turned out, it had only left a red and irritated ear canal. Lesson: Don't slap your ear!
Glad you like the stories, Joy. I wish I had the time & talent to write.Black flies! Yuck. My summers in Maine were full of bugs. Deer flies, No-seeums & mosquitoes in clouds. I remember the last coming in such numbers while we were out fishing one time that they landed on my uncle's lit cigar. Horrible.
We have some flies here & they're worse when it is dry, but nothing like up there, thank goodness. Ticks are heavier this year, but still not as bad as they were in MD. We had tons of them there & everything got Lyme's disease; kids, dogs & horses. The last were the worst for medicating. They don't make a horse size pill (They do make a bird sized one, though.) so poor Marg was giving horses 40 human pills twice a day for 3 weeks at a time. She had to grind them up in my coffee bean grinder, put them in water & squirt it down the horse's throat since the pills are so bitter. One horse jerked her shoulder very badly & she was in pain for months. No fun!
Did you ever say,"Bug Off," Jim. Sorry,I couldn't resist. It really sounds horrible and I am quite familiar with ticks. I used to spend hours picking them off of our Irish Setter after she came running from our Ozark woods. As you said, "No, fun." nina
Another tick story: At one time I was thought to have a biopsy as I had a lump next to my breast on a lymph node. When the surgeon examined me he noticed a red line from my back to that spot and decided it could actually be an infection from a tick bite. He gave me anti-biotics and they worked. The lump disappeared. For once I was glad it was a tick bite and not possible cancer.
Gee, Jim, that's frightening about the Lyme's disease being so common in MD. I admire Marg for being so devoted to her horses. All pet owners should be as devoted as she is.One thing we love about the strong winds off the lake is that the bugs can't bother you as much. They get blown away. Gnats can be very annoying at dusk.
I remember when we stayed at a campsite with our trailer in Disney World in FL years ago, there were no bugs because the place was sprayed against insects. But they had an artificial beach and lake there, and in the water there were tiny little fish that bit at my legs. It felt like pin pricks. Not everyone was bothered by them. It was very strange.
Gee, Nina and Jim, we're really getting some "buggy" stories tonight!
One time I thought my son had a mole growing under his armpit. Turned out to be a tick! LOL
Your reply made me smile. Speaking of bugs as we were; we were once in western Canada on a wheat farm and it was noon and hot and we were surrounded by huge mosquitoes. And did they bite. It surprised us as we thought they mostly came out at dusk.
Nina, mosquitoes are bad enough when they're small. They must be horrible when they're huge! Bigger bites! LOL
Nina, I always thought (perhaps wrongly) that the large mosqitoes are the males, who don't bite---the smaller ones, the females, do, but I'll leave my ex out of this!
I don't like it when they spray against bugs in general. They kill too many good ones, not to mention what those insecticides do to everything else. Has anyone else ever read Silent Spring? Carson practically started the environmental movement with that book & the stories about what 'experts' in our government allowed are just scary. If anyone thinks those days are behind us, think again. Appointed officials can bring an amazing amount of idiocy & lunacy to their jobs.Still, I can understand why folks would be for it sometimes. Like the clouds of mosquitoes in Maine, sometimes certain insects go wild & wreak havoc. Gypsy moths denuded whole sections of forest in MD in the 80's & 90's. The caterpillars literally coated the side of a neighbor's 2 story house! There was also the West Nile virus panic, to name a couple of recent examples.
Ticks are nasty & I saw them go wild once. Back just before we got married, Marg & I took a walk through the woods. She sat down on a log for some reason. A few minutes later, she jumped up & ran for the house tearing off her clothes as she went. I followed behind picking up her clothes without a clue as to what was going on, although we were young & in lust, so... ;-)
I was almost at the house when I found my arm crawling with ticks from her jeans which I had picked up last. Apparently she'd sat in a nest of ticks. I'd never seen the like before or since, but it certainly ruined the mood. She still shudders when she thinks about it, although no harm was done.
;-)
Will read and reply when I return. See you later. Gotta run.
We were in Saskatchewan in the middle of a wheat field and it was noon and the mosquitoes were huge and so were the bites. I didn't bother to notice if they were male or female, I was too busy itching.
Jim wrote: "I don't like it when they spray against bugs in general. They kill too many good ones, not to mention what those insecticides do to everything else. Has anyone else ever read [book:Silent Spring|..."Ouch Marge must have almost died with misery from those ticks.
Yeah, she wasn't in 'the mood' for quite some time after that, as I recall. Any little thing made her skin jump because she thought a tick was crawling on her. It really was nasty. I don't think she got bit at all then, though. None of them had to a chance to settle in before she hit the shower.
Wow, Jim, that "tick" story gives me the creeps! Glad no harm was done.
For the past two days I have not gotten any goodread e-mails and when I fill out the HELP and send it they tell me to check all the things I have already checked and they are all right. I did read the instructions Joy sent me last time this happened but I couldn't get to MY Account as I can't find MY Profile. Can any of you help me? nina
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
Books mentioned in this topic
The Glassblower (other topics)The Paradise of Glass (other topics)
The American Lady (other topics)
Heavens to Betsy!: And Other Curious Sayings (other topics)
The Green Road (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Louise Penny (other topics)Petra Durst-Benning (other topics)
Anne Enright (other topics)
Anne Tyler (other topics)
Jane Gardam (other topics)
More...
