December 2018 - What We're Reading
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December Reading--Last Books Read in 2016
Comments (111)Carolyn, I read a couple some years ago. I must check and see if my library has reprints. I am reading my books slowly at present, there seems to be so many other things to do, like dropping off to sleep! My D gave me a small CD player for Xmas with handy top buttons. Just right for listening to recorded favourite books. I have been accumulating some in case of being confined to bed or having the eye operation for cataracts. I am doing a Scarlett O'Hara on that!...See MoreDecember 2018 New Build Thread
Comments (176)dsnine, we've been so busy with the move then we finally made it month ago, I'm primarily working away hence not much at home and try and make the best of it when I am. I took these pics this morning; I'll wait for tile work to complete, then a few cabinets installed around bar and fireplace, before providing further updates. No it is not zero entry on one side, left side is a bench. The shower is 10'4" x 4'2". Two person? It is certainly large enough for a few but no way, be just one person with choice of 2 rain showers plus 2 large hand showers on rails and 4 jets, just about enough for fun showering. What you see in the view is the sea, its a harbor. We are a shade over a mile from the freeway and 16 miles to the airport....See MoreDecember 2018, Week 3
Comments (21)I really really need to figure out what's going to be happening with winter sowing, because I plan to have some of the stuff ready to go by the 1st. George, I am so thrilled for Jereth. I wish it were me. Oh well. Lifelong learning is a wondrous thing, degree or not, right? I am a huge enormous fan of lifelong learning. It will be interesting to see where this new chapter takes her--and both of you. Good luck, Jennifer, I do hope everything goes smoothly for you with such a busy schedule and your company. I'm sure it will be lovely, but don't be so hard on yourself needing everything to be just right! Some of you saw my FB post about GDW and me seeing the dead feral hog about 2 1/2 miles from our place. That's plenty close. I frankly have believed they're here now for the past month or so. I saw some scat out back--not in the immediate yard, but at the end of the driveway near the back 40 (that seems to be the major highway branch all the lost critters come down on this street/road) that sent shivers up my spine. We raised pigs for 4-H when my boys were young. . .the stuff I spotted, I was SURE either had to be black bear or pig, and I was definitely learning toward pig (since I've never seen black bear scat, partly. Also because I figured it was more likely to be feral pigs than black bears. . .) I am so not happy about this. They could create hell here, with all these loose dogs, chickens, cats, flower beds, yards. . . .and all the foresty areas interspersed throughout this sort of "neighborhood suburban lake area. I'm so glad, however, that we saw it today. In fact, we were coming back from town, I was driving my car. . . and GDW spotted it. He mentioned he saw a dead critter; couldn't tell if it was a calf or large dead dog. I said, "Well. Let's go back and see." (That's my new interest--the area's lost and found pets. A lady lost a black lab last week in our area; GDW and I saw it--a black lab with red collar; and another guy saw it, too. We chimed in and reported where we saw it. . . but before she got back out there, someone had hit and killed the dog on the road. We saw its body, and someone else reported it, too. Sad. Since, as you know, we've had our share of "found" pets in the past year (thankfully no lost ones), I am very good friends of those lost and found sites now.) I wanted to see what it was so I could report it on lost and found. So I turned around and we went back. Pulled over and got out to look after GDW saw that it was a pig. Yep. Knda longish dark brown/black coarse hair. Certainly matched up with the images on Google. Sound right to those of you who know? More animal stuff. People across the street with the undisciplined chocolate lab who raises holy hell chasing cars, and barking at everything; chasing MY cats. I am not happy with this dog. For God knows what reason this dog has been turned outside for parts of the wee hrs of the morning. This morning it was 3:30-5:30. And non-stop barking. It did stop about 5:30 and we were able to go back to sleep. But the dog has gotten me up, this is the 4th time in a month, by 5 am. I'm not a 5 a.m. person, and definitely not a 3:30 a.m. person. So hard to figure out, you know? Like, they don't hear the dog barking? Of course, I'm going to have to say something if it happens again. I'll approach it good-naturedly but firmly. PEOPLE!! So glad those sorts aren't as large in number around us as those who aren't that sort. So, Dawn, you are acquainted with the horrors of feral hogs. . . what's the situation with the rest of you and them? I'm somewhat nervous, not having been exposed to them before. And am glad we've got a shooter here who knows how to shoot. You know, I ended up having so much fun frosting the little sugar cookie figures that I decided I want to get really good at it! Remember I said I either had to get good at it or never do them again? So I made a second batch, but this time, had researched so ordered little squeeze bottles. It was still a pain filling the squeeze bottles with frosting (used funnels, which made it a bit easier), but definitely pretty easy to direct the frosting. SO. I do believe I'm gonna add THAT little thing to my fun stuff. I can't believe I just said that. I HATE baking. And yet the fruitcakes and the sugar cookies and gingerbread men were a blast. Kinda love/hate. I hope you all have a most blessed Christmas, whether it's cozy and tiny or whether it's glitzy and large. May you all be filled with love. And joy. And comfort. And renewed hope for LOVE and PEACE. And God bless all the Tiny's we all have. My Tiny cat is precious. I'm sure you all know how very special I think he is. And he is. BUT. Not more precious than our two gray tabbies or Titan, our flawed but great protector. Not more precious than my wonderful friends. My Wyoming friends, my MN friends, my gardening friends, my Oklahoma friends.My atheist friends, my agnostic friends, my relatives---it's all about LOVE. . LOVE GOD. LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. That's it. Love to you all and Christmas blessings....See MoreDecember 2018, Week 4, Happy Holidays
Comments (30)Megan, I don't really know of any bird feeders that can prevent the issue of dropped seed---it isn't a problem here because our free-ranging chickens scour the ground beneath the feeders searching for dropped seed. I don't suppose you can have free-range chickens there? Actually, there are some seed trays that you can attach beneath feeders that supposedly will catch dropped seed, but I've always wondered what stops birds from kicking seeds out of the dropped seed trays? One year, I put a piece of plywood on the ground all winter beneath the feeders so I could sweep up seed that fell to the ground and landed on the plywood. That works, but it gets tedious.....although I noticed the chickens policed the plywood for me most days. When you live in an area as rural as ours, for the most part, the existing wildlife takes care of the other wildlife. I'm mostly referring to rodents....everything eats them....snakes, owls, coyotes, bobcats, ring-tailed cats, etc., so they are not as big of a problem here as one might imagine. During the day, our own cats will hunt them, especially Pumpkin who is the youngest and considers himself to be the Great Hunter, but our pet cats are locked up indoors at night, because pet cats that stay outdoors at night usually don't last long around here. Jen, I'm laughing about the Indian princess comment. It is so true. dbarron, Your connection to John Ross is fascinating. I've read quite a bit about him. He lived a very interesting life to say the least. Jennifer, You can get bogged down in that genealogy stuff, and I just do not even want to go there and get started on that so I stay away from it. I know if I ever started it, I would be obsessed with it and would drive myself crazy. It is exciting to think about plans for the 2019 garden. Rebecca, I do have some Burpee exclusives that I like to grow , like Brandy Boy tomatoes and Biker Billy peppers, so I have to order from them occasionally, but I try to only order once every 3-5 years and to just be sure I order enough seeds to last a few years. Their seed prices have gotten so ridiculous and before I order anything from them, I make sure they are the sole source for it. (I have found that sometimes a seed company will claim to be the exclusive source for a specific variety and they are not, so I always search for another source to see if they really are the sole source.) I think Jambalaya could be a good one for you, but I haven't grown it myself. It is supposed to bear early and often, so at least on paper it sounds good. Cajun Jewel is fairly dwarf as well but bigger than Baby Bubba, and Jade and Lee are two other varieties suitable for containers. Shumway's has Pink French Quarter and Red French Quarter this year and they both are dwarf, and look good in the photos online, but I haven't grown either of them yet since they are new. Last year my Stewart's Zeebest plants produced so much okra I couldn't keep up with the harvesting, so I want to grow smaller, less productive plants this year. I know that sounds crazy, but not being able to stay caught up on harvesting and using all the okra drove me nuts. Jennifer, It was cold. It felt worse, I think, because it mostly stayed cloudy. We got a little sunshine late in the day. This coming week's weather doesn't look too great. Oh well, it is winter time and I guess we just have to deal with it. To clean chicken (or any sort of bird) poop off anything, you need Poop-Off. You generally can find it in farm supply stores, feed stores, and in most pet stores in the bird section. Or, you can order it online. I'm sure Amazon.com has it. Here is what it looks like: Poop-Off It really does work, but if the poop has been there a while and has dried out long-term, you may have to go through several rounds of spraying and scrubbing to get all of it removed. Wear gloves and a respirator type mask---not because of the Poop Off spray but because of the possible pathogens that can be found in bird poop. I hate buying veggies too. That's why I try to fill up 2 or 3 deep freezes every summer, but still, they are things we don't grow or that cannot be preserved long-term (like lettuce, for example), so I just try to buy organic and still must remind myself that purchased produce never will have the freshness or quality of home-grown. Going to Central Market for produce helps---their produce is superb in quality and quantity and going through the produce section for me is like a trip to Disney. I have a good time. However, being a gardener, I'm always tell Tim when we are there that it still kills me to buy produce, even when it is theirs. We still have fresh onions from the 2018 harvest, but some of them are starting to sprout now so I don't know how much longer they'll last. I do have a ton of them already chopped and frozen. It isn't the same, I agree, but I'd rather take my own frozen produce out of the freezer and cook it in winter than buy it at a store. I have enough frozen tomatoes to last us another year, and they smell garden fresh when I thaw them out and have them cooking away in a pot on the stove so I can make soup or chili or whatever. It is about to be chili type weather again, I believe, based on our forecast. It is time to go start next week's thread for all of us to post on. I cannot decide whether to make it December week 5, or January week 1. lol lol lol. Decisions, decisions, decisions! Dawn...See MoreJ C
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