Getting Things Done

It was tough going for awhile with a new puppy, but she is doing great.  Ciara is getting close to fifty pounds now, she is almost as tall as Gretchen my smallest dog who we rescued a bit over two years ago.  Ciara is close to six months old now, so not done growing yet.  She is however potty trained…so I can leave her unattended for a few hours to work on the house, on nice days the dogs go outside while I have loud tools going in the house…otherwise they go into their kennels.

We had a strange thing happen.  We haven’t had company since the pandemic lockdowns, so about two years.  We don’t normally use the quest bathroom, but…do you know if you don’t use a bathroom the water in the toilet dries up and sewer gases escape?  It happened and did not smell great.  So, we have been trying to remember to go flush that toilet at least once a week.  Well, sometime between the last time we flushed it and my trip in there to clean it for company coming…small piles of what looked like sawdust or sandy dirt appeared behind the toilet.  We were afraid of maybe termites in the wall, or carpenter ants.  I talked my husband into removing the toilet so we could cut and look into the wall to see what was happening.  I got the bright idea of repainting and tiling the floor since the toilet was out of the bathroom, and had him remove the vanity too.  There were no ants or termites in the wall that I could see, I cut a good sized section open too.  I drilled holes in the bottom of the wall in several spots too, no bugs or sawdust/sand came out.  I did put some powdered termite and carpenter ant killer in the wall, I sprayed a foam termite and ant killer in the holes I drilled, just in case.

Anyway, after I repaired the sheetrock and textured it… I pulled up the nasty vinyl that has been bugging me for over 8 years.  It didn’t matter how much I scrubbed it, or bleached it…it would not come clean.  Lol…I had also splashed bleach on the wall and it ruined the paint, several years ago.  White spots on Amethyst Smoke (purplish gray) paint is not attractive.  It took me a few weeks because of other chores and having to get some materials, but I got the bathroom painted, tiled baseboards painted and installed, then my husband got the toilet installed and plumbing all hooked back up in time for company.  I am still working on decorating it, but it looks tons better.  No more nicotine stained floor!  No more white splotched too dark of paint.  We will probably do a more extensive renovation one of these days and replace the bathtub and surround, and the vanity…but with a new faucet and cleaned up well, it will do for awhile longer.  I kind of like the Industrial Farmhouse look, so eventually I would like that look in the guest bath.  We did what we use as our office bathroom during the lockdowns, it looks pretty nice too…I still need to do the backsplash on that one…but not bad doing two bathrooms in about a years time.

I am working on my pantry too, and what was once used as an office because it is only a 9’x9’ room…it is going to be a walk in pantry eventually.  I just have to learn a bit more carpentry, I want to move the door from the living room to the kitchen though…so framing and sheetrock will have to happen as will floor repair.  I may decide to tile the room…if I can still do it when I am ready.  For now, I am adding shelving…since I can fruits and veggies, I need storage.  My garden was pretty much a bust last year, so I have a bunch of empty jars from using what I canned the year before.

My husband and I cut the plywood for a kitchen island today.  It is my next project.  I need to figure out the size of shelves I need for the pantry room and order them.  I am so far behind on normal chores too.  I don’t think I have completely cleaned my back porch for two years with all the projects, then my brothers illness and death…and my injuries and sicknesses too.  But, still getting things done…it is just taking longer than I like.

Cooler Weather at Last!

This past year has been rather hot.  Me being 62 and on blood pressure medication has made it seem worse, I sweat every time I exert myself…even cooking.  I have been so far behind on my chores because of this and from jumping off a ladder that was breaking and hurting my shoulder…I feel overwhelmed at times, trying to get things accomplished.  I kept trying to do heavy manual labor and my shoulder didn’t get much better, so I quit for about six weeks.  My shoulder is much better now and I am trying to get things done now, in the mornings when it is in the 70’s.  

I purchased six 8’x4’x12” metal raised bed planters that I am slowly trying to get put together…so far four are assembled.  We have a lot of rain during the first part of spring when planting normally occurs.  If I don’t till early, I can’t till during that time.  I just use a gas powered tiller that I have to manually control, it is getting harder and harder to do.  I didn’t have much of a garden this year, cucumbers and some green beans, I have yet to get a tomato out of it!   I am hoping these beds will help some, since I won’t have to till them. I am putting down a weed block, then cardboard,  before filling with soil.  The paths between them will also have weed block and wood chips so weeds should be controlled around them too…hopefully!

We also found an abandoned puppy in our side yard.  It was pretty bad off when we found it.  It was dehydrated, starving, tons of fleas covered it, so many that her skin was crusty and after washing her you could see sores and bald patches that seeped for the first two weeks we had her.  She also had a horrible case of round worms, her poor belly was huge…after the first worming, she pooped out large quantities of worms for days.  She was barely able to walk and her eyes seemed cloudy, but now I think it was because of the dehydration.  A friend brought goats milk to me, the puppy existed on goats milk the first week.  I started soaking food in goats milk and she didn’t seem too interested in it in the beginning, but slowly she started eating it.  I kept her in a laundry basket in the beginning, but the stronger she got the more I would take her outside to interact with the other dogs.  I cleaned her poop up every time and checked for worms. After she was worm free, she could roam the house with the other dogs and play.  We have now had her about 35 days, she is fully healed up, has doubled in size, weighs about 25 pounds now, her coat is sleek and shiny, she is crate trained, but potty training has not been great. I need to work on potty training  more…I wait and watch her go when I take her outside, but many times she will run in the house and go again!  She does spend a lot of time outside because of this, I do a lot of work outside and encourage her to go again before we go inside.  She does good during the day, when I am paying attention and taking her out regularly…but, not so much at night before bed.  It is making my husband mad…she pooped or peed in the house at least five times in a three hour window.  Hey, I gotta cook after spending all day doing things outside…so I am not paying attention to her, not much anyway.  I named her Ciara.  She is smart, she will learn, she already sits for treats and knows no biting and no.

Too Much To Handle

 I don’t like death.  With the pandemic it just made things so much more depressing.  My brother passed away in October.  He tried an immunotherapy drug as a last ditch effort when chemotherapy stopped working and he went down hill fast after that.  He was in and out of the hospital several times prior to that.  I spent several weeks with him during his end days.  He was younger than me by five years.  Watching your baby brother die from brain cancer is tough.  It was the hardest thing I ever did.  I went to help him and to give his wife a break.  They care for their great-grandson Moe too, so I learned how to help Moe too.  Moe is severely disabled, but his smile brought me joy.  I haven’t had any more contact with Moe or my brothers wife.  I will just say things did not add up and I questioned them and ended up being deleted, it is alright, I just worry about Moe.  

I was trying to make another big batch of food for Moe, but things keep happening and I only have four cases made, and I am not sure that those jars are sealed well.  Canning lids are scarce, they have been since the pandemic really took hold.  I purchased reusable lids and have had issues with them sealing.  Between those lids and my freezer going out and both mini fridges now.  I have had a tough time keeping the food to make the jars of food for Moe.  I had planted a fall garden, but I spent so much time away from home, I wasn’t home to take care of it and got very little out of it.  I didn’t plant a garden in the spring this year either.  Between trying to get caught up, injuries and lots of rain, I never could till it.  Even now trying to get a fall garden going it has been hard.  I did finally get maybe a third of my garden tilled, but all I have planted so far is cucumbers and green beans.  I have tomato plants in pots on my porch I need to get into the ground, but while pounding t-posts I had a bit of an accident and hurt my right arm and shoulder.  

I forgot snowmageddon too.  Yep, we had a late deep freeze and 14-1/2 inches of snow here...temperatures got down to -4 degrees too.  I still have not figured out what is really dead out in my orchard.  It hit as my blueberries, peaches, pears, plums and apples were in full bloom.  I lost some young trees and it through the growing season off big time.  The only good crop I have had is plums from my oldest plum tree.  Only a handful of blueberries came on the bushes too.  I do have two trees with a decent amount of apples, but even the pear trees only have a few pears on them and one peach tree has two peaches.  I lost an Almond and at least two peach trees.  Lost all but two Chickasaw Plums that I transplanted, and one of them is half dead.  Grapes too...I only have two grapevines left out of 8.  Some fruit trees have growth coming up from the bottom, but since they were grafted, I don’t know what they might produce...if anything.  One good thing, my pecan trees look really good this year...lol, maybe they will start producing in the next year or two?

This past year was tough, but we got through it.