What a Deal!

Denise Fiedler Pet Portraits

Denise Fiedler for Paste

Lunch Bunch?

Forbes

It looks pretty ominous outside right now. We’re supposed to have thunderstorms this morning.

DIY Value Picture

We’re supposed to go to Lunch Bunch in about an hour and a half. I haven’t heard from anyone, so that USED to mean we were all planning to come. Since Kay and Linda aren’t good about carrying their phones, it’s like throwing a bottle in the ocean to reach them. I can leave a voice mail on Kay’s phone, but she says she doesn’t get it. The voice mail isn’t set up on Linda’s. I can’t text either of them. So we’re down to smoke signals. :0)

Happily, my husband’s attitude is that we can go anyway, even if we’re ‘stood up’ by the others, eat our lunch, and then run errands or come back home, so that’s what we’ll do.

We aren’t under imminent warnings at the moment, so I’ll just keep an eye on things and we’ll make our decision later.

Stay safe and dry if you can today.

Poor Amber

Quite awhile back we bought a blue spotted pig for Amber. It “oinked” appropriately when squeezed (or bitten) and it was pleasantly fat, made of some type of rubber. We’ve bought scores of toys for Amber in the past 6 years, most of which last 30 seconds or less. Balls get popped, heads are chewed off, squeakers removed, the ‘toy’ becoming trash almost before the tags are off.

The blue pig was different. She loved it, of course, and attacked it with her usual enthusiasm. She would grab it, running around the living room, office, and foyer, biting it to make it squeak, shaking her head to break its neck, bringing it to us over and over to play tug of war (though she cheats, putting her whole body into it, then letting up just a little to see if we’ll relax and then ripping it out of our hands), retrieving it when thrown (though MANY times she doesn’t actually bring it to us and relinquish it, preferring to TEASE us with it, running away again.) It is her favorite.

She has been delighting when the TV is turned off for the night, bringing the pig, and a whole host of other toys that we keep in a basket on the floor beside her bed, to strew them all over the living room floor before she’s finished. She’s great at getting them out and playing with them and us, but she’s not at ALL good about putting the toys back in the basket.

This all came to an end a couple of nights ago when during the tug of war, the pig’s head was partially ripped off the rest of the body. Since Amber immediately started ripping the stuffing out and leaving it all over the floor, I declared “game over” and took the rest of the stuffing out and threw it away. Amber is still getting the pig out of the basket, but it’s not fat anymore (hey – maybe THAT’S the way I can get rid of some of my lard – have someone rip out my ‘stuffing’!) , and it doesn’t squeak anymore.

She is really upset, so I went online to Walmart’s website and searched. Happily, they are still offering these for sale, so I ordered two of them! I can’t wait to see how she reacts when she sees she has a new friend. :0)

Shari Buelt Art 2

Shari Buelt Dog Art

Bleary Thursday 3-30-2023

Unsplash – iStockphoto

I went to bed sleepy last night, but lay there with my eyes closed instead of actually falling asleep. Couldn’t turn my brain off. I wish I could tell you I was bothered with productive thoughts but….

I was still doing that, intermittently dozing, I guess, at around 3am, when my husband started talking. I sat up and leaned over so I could hear him. He was talking about “Pointy scissors poking him.” When I asked him if it was happening NOW and where he was hurting, he was quiet for a minute and then said “no,” and mumbled. I realized he was talking in his sleep.

I tried to sleep again, but couldn’t, so I ended up downstairs reading until around 4:30. I was just dozing off around 5am when he started talking to me again. I determined he didn’t have anything of note to say this time, either, and I have to tell you I said pretty harshly for him to be quiet.

The next thing I knew my alarm was going off. He was downstairs asleep in his chair with a towel on his head. I didn’t feel bad about making a lot of noise in the kitchen. He remembered talking to me, but didn’t remember what he said. He told me he had finally stopped reading about 2am and came up to bed. I don’t know when he got up and came downstairs this morning.

This is one of the many ‘perks’ we have discovered as we age. I have to leave for a haircut this morning in a few minutes, but Michael will be kind if I fall asleep while he’s trying to work a miracle on me. I look like a dandelion gone to seed right now.

iStockphoto

It’s a very good thing I don’t have a job now that requires an excess of alertness…

Premiere Pebble Artist

Erzsebet Szilajka Pebble Artist

Spelling

The mission to quit stuffing my face continues, some days more successful than others, trying to watch my portions really carefully.

I did an experiment a couple of nights ago. I started to bake some chicken breasts and discovered that the seasoning/coating I thought I had in the pantry wasn’t there. I didn’t want to just use flour, but I wanted to use something that would hold the juices in and give the breasts a bit of flavor, too. I did have some seasoning I use for pork chops. I went ahead and used that and my husband raved. :0) I had cooked two chicken breasts, cutting them in half lengthwise and serving each of us 1/2 breast, plus veggies for our dinner.

I used one of the remaining half-breasts for dinner last night. I cut it up and added chopped onion and chopped mushrooms, plus some cream of chicken/mushroom soup. I served this over rice and my husband complimented the dinner – twice.

I’ll cut up the remaining one tomorrow to make a big chef type salad.

Calaca Ceramics Make Me Smile

Nastia Calaca – Calaca Ceramics

Discombobulated Wednesday 3-29-2023

AcidNow – Cheezburger

I’m feeling a bit “discombobulated” at the moment. I just wished a good friend, “Happy Passover” because my desk calendar was turned to the wrong page. Now that I have written and apologized for my stupidity, I’m wondering if I’ve already done anything ELSE wrong….

By the way, “discombobulated” may not be a real word, but it’s been used in my family ever since I can remember. (I just looked it up and it IS a real word – so is ‘cattywampus,’ if you’re wondering)

GrowaGoodLife.com

It’s forecast to get to 70 this afternoon here. It was too cool to be comfortable weeding yesterday, so my garden boxes remain untended. I’m hoping to rectify that today. I would love to have my garden started by the end of the weekend, assuming we aren’t blown off the Earth Friday with the forecast severe thunderstorms.

We don’t have errands today! I’m hoping to have several sessions outside during the afternoon when it warms up. I need to get the weeds out of my garden boxes plus repair some wire ‘separators’ that were broken during the last season. The irrigation system is already in good repair and just needs to be turned on and the timer installed.

I hope that wherever you are today that you are enjoying a beautiful, fun one.

The Dogs of Shari Buelt

Shari Buelt

Said – Didn’t Say

More Calaca Ceramic Art

Nastia Calaca – Calaca Ceramic Art

Tuesday Thoughts 3-28-2023

Claudia Angle – Pinterest

It’s sunny today and is supposed to get to 61. I have an impressive list of things I would like to accomplish. Maybe I’ll actually DO some of them. :0)

First on the list is errand-type-stuff. We’re getting a haircut for my husband soon. We’ll get the mail and then put the hopefully-empty humongous trash can back at the pole, tethered to keep it from blowing away in the storms we’ve been having.

We’re due for more possible severe weather Friday, so Lunch Bunch will be in jeopardy once again. We’ll have to watch closely to see if we can risk getting out or not. I was looking at our local news and weather website and found that Sebastian County here in Arkansas has received 7.41 inches of rain this month. (Average is 1.7 inches) WOW.

I spent a bit of time outside yesterday, but decided it was too cool to try to get the garden weeded. I’ll see how it feels this afternoon. I don’t mind it being a little cool, but when my fingers are cold and my nose is running, I figure it’s Mother Nature telling me to go back inside.

I hope you have an enjoyable day.

Stunning Pebble Art

More pebble art from Erzsebet Szilajka – an artist I think does stunning work, combining the pebble art with painting beautiful backgrounds, telling a whole story, rather than ‘simply’ making a nice design.

Erzsebet Szilajka Pebble Artist

Delight on a Monday

I absolutely LOVE this photo and had to share it with you.

Yesterday I repaired or replaced the neon tape around the fencing of my square foot garden. I was going to get the planters weeded, but my husband decided to burn two piles of ‘stuff’ between the house and the shop that weren’t acceptable at the recycling center. We still have more to do here.

At my insistence, he hooked up the garden hose in case the fires got out of hand (I always insist, even though we’ve had over 7 inches of rain this month!) When he did that, the sprinklers on the garden boxes turned on and drenched the Mel’s Mix.

The mix in the boxes should be dry this afternoon and hopefully I can get the weeds out and get ready to plant.

This is tomato planter #1. As you can see, it needs weeding (and mowing and weed whacking around it), plus setting up of supports.

Tomato planter # 2 just needs a bit of weeding.

I have a quiet day planned – just gathering trash and putting it out for pickup, getting the mail, weeding the garden boxes and tomato planters, and depending on how long I’m outside, I’ll finish things up with a session of yoga stretching this afternoon.

Enjoy your Monday!

Fun Ceramics from Calaca

Calaca Ceramic Art

Celebrating Spring

joyfullearninginkc.blogspot.com

“It’s spring fever…. You don’t quite know what it is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!” Mark Twain

Smileus – Getty Images – iStockphoto

“Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun.” — Kahlil Gibran

Square Foot Garden – Step 1

All About Gardening

I’ve just come in from STEP 1 of prepping our square foot garden for planting.

This is the garden, minus the two brick planters on the other side of the house that we use for tomatoes. There are six 4′ x 4′ wooden planter boxes. You can see that the neon tape I strung to let the deer see there is fencing here need repair.

Here’s a view from one side.

This shows the weed barrier cloth I put in each planter box, held down by a brick in each corner. You can also see the irrigation system for these three boxes, with the pieces of hose strung together running along a piece of wood and the sprinkler in the center of each box. The six boxes are all irrigated with one timer on an agricultural faucet.

I removed the bricks and stored them in two corners of the garden, pulled the weed barrier cloths off, folded them up and stored them.

The results of the weed barrier cloth vary. This is the worst, but it’s still much better than if I hadn’t shielded the Mel’s Mix. As you can see, weeds love this soil alternative just as much, if not more, than the veggies I want to grow!

All the planter boxes were prepped the same way, and yet each is different on how many weeds were prevented.

I’m going to call this experiment a success because, though there are weeds, there aren’t NEAR as many as there were when I just left them from the fall to the spring uncovered.

My experiment with tarps wasn’t as good as this, either, because the tarps didn’t stand up well with the temperature differences, the wind, the snow and ice, etc. I had put buckets in the center of each box to try to keep water from pooling, but that had varying success. The tarps also tore and the bungee cords I used didn’t hold the tarps on as well as I had hoped.

I think that when we finish in the fall and are getting the boxes ready for the winter again, we’ll put TWO layers of the weed barrier cloth in each box.

Playing in the Dirt

This afternoon I’m planning (again) to uncover my gardening boxes in preparation for starting my spring garden. (I got snafued by the weather once and was just plain lazy after doing other things yesterday). I’m hoping that today is the day I can prep to get spring plants going. I just checked the forecast and it looks like we won’t have any freezes in the next 10 days, so maybe it’ll be safe to get things started.

I’m hoping to find several different types of lettuce, plus spinach, and sweet onions to start tomorrow. We’ll plant tomatoes, of course – in fact, we devote two brick planters to those. Otherwise, I’ll plant broccoli maybe, squash, and radish seeds. I’m thinking of playing with some herbs in the kitchen this year just for fun. I’ll plant celery bottoms from the ones I buy at the grocery store.

Everything will depend on what I can find, and I’m excited to get started now that the weather is getting more cooperative.

I’ll take some pictures to share with you.

Enjoy your day – play in the dirt!

A Small Pat on the Head

Giphy

I made it through the day yesterday without stuffing my face the way I have been. I’ll try to do it again today.

Another arrow in my quiver – I’m NOT going to loosen the fastening on my jeans to make myself more comfortable during the day. I’m going to keep them fastened, reminding myself that my overeating has CAUSED this discomfort, and that acting ‘maturely’ might relieve that if I keep it up.

I’m in this fight by myself, since my husband insisted we stock up on a bunch of assorted chips. Maybe a bit of frustration and anger will help me in my goal…

Each person makes a decision – or a series of them – when he or she wants to change, in the effort to STOP a bad habit or START a good one. I’m trying to look at all the excuses for what they are – smoke.

TODAY I will eat healthy meals and try not to eat anything in-between. I will drink a bottle of water if I get hungry, and I will do a good session of yoga this afternoon. Maybe I can earn another small pat. :0)

Tenor

Telepathy

sent by my friend Marsha

Wonderful Quote

James Grashow Bronze

“Dancers”

“Head”

“Monkeys 1”

“Monkeys 2”

“Monkeys 3”

“Monkeys 4”

James Grashow Bronzes

Saturday after All Day Rain

iStock

My husband drove down to get our mail yesterday afternoon during a break in the all night and all day rain we’ve just finished to find that the pipe that goes under the end of the driveway clogged. This caused a ‘lake’ to form on one side of the driveway, flowing out into the street.

We don’t have the equipment to clean out the pipe, so we’re hoping the county will be traveling the roads, making note of people who need help.

We’re about to do errands, getting groceries and stuff, but it sure was nice to have a warm, dry house on top of a ridge line with all the water we’ve gotten. I hope that our town has survived the deluge.

I’ll write more when we get back.

Di Haswell Fibre Art

Di Haswell – Artemis Fibre Art

Orange

Sent to me via email by my friend Marsha

Eating Lead?

Wall Here

I’m not throwing in the towel, but my weight loss efforts seem to be a joke lately. Lunch and dinner remain as usual, but ‘somehow’ I’m eating pretzels in the afternoon and ice cream with chocolate syrup before bed.

I have no one to blame but myself. I had a birthday recently (a wonderfully happy one, even though the numbers are beginning to get pretty impressive) and I have been on this binge ever since.

I’m still doing my yoga practice most afternoons, but I was planning to be active outside, getting my veggie garden set up, and the weather has not been cooperative yet.

Those are my excuses and they’re pretty weak, but they’re the only ones I have right now.

Each day I’m trying to say that “today will be different. “ Hahahahahahah

I’m going to continue to tell myself this and ONE DAY I’ll believe it and hopefully begin to make some improvement. Until then, my scales will be snarky.

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring…

Giphy

It’s pouring here this morning. I looked at the forecast and it showed heavy rain steadily through 7pm this evening! Then we’re also under a Flash Flood Warning… Good day to live on top of a ridge line.

DIY Value Picture

With all of this I contacted everyone and told them we would stay up on our hill today rather than going to Lunch Bunch. I’ve had trouble with Kay and Linda not answering their phones. Kay is set up with voicemail, but she says she doesn’t get them, even though it shows delivered from my end. Linda isn’t set up for messages at all. It’s like throwing a bottle in the ocean or sending smoke signals, but I actually REACHED both of them this morning and got to talk to them a bit. So virtual hugs and we’ll all stay warm and dry where we are.

I haven’t decided how I’ll spend this wet day yet. Even Amber, who bursts from the house barking her head off each morning, yelling, “I’m here, world, and you’d better watch out!” was back in the garage wanting to come back in before I finished feeding Abby, our cat. :0)

I hope the weather is good wherever you are, or that at least you can avoid being out in it as much as possible.

3D Pet Portraits 2

Nata’s Jewelry Pet Portraits

Adoption

Eccopartners

Yesterday my husband and I took a large trash can full of metal leftovers to our local Greenwood Recycling center. We had only been there once before, so we weren’t sure what they accepted or what there hours were.

Ecchopartners 2

Two big, muscular young men came out and not only directed us to the large bin where we should put our metal, but actually came with us, lifting the large can we had so laboriously put in the back of the truck and putting it on the ground. We had some trash, since my husband had been cleaning out the shop and dumped other trashcans into this one, but they accepted about 2/3 of the can and then helped us get it back securely in the truck.

Pinterest

I offered to adopt one of the guys. He had a shirt on, and called me, “Ma’am,” but he laughed long and hard about my offer, saying I had made his day. NICE of me, wasn’t it. :0)