Who Was I Then?

Today we went through some of the stuff in the shed looking for things to discard. We ran across a box with some of my old clothes in it. These clothes have been in the shed for sixteen years. It still made me sad remembering wearing them and now I'm tossing them. Larry asked if I felt bad. No. So his second question showed he understood I was sad about the clothes. I wasn't exactly, completely sad about the clothes. It's more like I'm not the person who wore those clothes anymore.

Brunch

Low-carb bread forms the basis of this pile of food. I had corned beef and cabbage from a previous meal so after toasting the bread I microwaved the corned beef and cabbage for that layer, sprinkled shredded Parmesan cheese on top of that and then two medium-fried eggs. It was tasty and healthy on my low-carb diet...and filling, too.

Neighbor's Dog

We were working on some cedar limbs beside the road when the neighbor's pit bull decided to defend the road. She had evidently recently produced pups. The owner was slowly walking to pull her back into her yard. I wonder why she would think it would be a good thing to have her dog attack us.

Preparing for Christmas

The sticky hooks we've been using to fasten Christmas lights along the porch aren't great for outside. I've seen an outdoor variety advertised, but I told Larry we should just put cup hooks up and they would be a permanent solution to the problem of hanging Christmas lights. So Larry has installed a couple of boards painted to go with our trim on the inside edge of the porch and put cup hooks along them. He's done two so far. I think he'll need to do about five more. But we will be ready for next Christmas:)

Media

I thought the problem with Mr. Trump and Ms. Kelly was funny. She somehow thought that it was fine to attack Mr. Trump even though the debates were supposed to give the candidates a chance to express their positions on important issues. Her tone of voice was disrespectful. Doesn't she realize that she was showing disrespect to the people who actually like Mr. Trump? I guess not.

Boiled Peanuts

In the south, boiled peanuts are pretty easy to find. In the grocery store they are available canned. But Larry bought a 25 pound bag of raw peanuts and boiled them with salt. He has eaten so many of them his stomach has rebelled. I didn't know it was possible to eat too many. So he said I can help him eat them. I mainly don't eat them because I like them but he LOVES them. So obviously, he should have all he wants. I was just eating the little nubs that had one or two nuts in them. But since he's pretty much topped off on them, I can have an entire bowl and not worry that I'm shorting him on his treat.

Spring Rolls

I bought the spring roll wrappers, a package of hot ground sausage, green onions, and a bag of shredded cabbage and carrots. I browned the shredded cabbage and carrots, green onions, soy sauce, cornstarch and the sausage. I wrapped three tablespoons of the mixture in each wrapper and deep fried the little packages in peanut oil in the turkey fryer. If not turned immediately, they won't turn at all. So to brown both sides, be sure to turn them as soon as you drop them in the hot oil.

I thought they turned out good. Larry ate a bunch of them and said I'd shaped them square instead of cylindrical so they were greasy. Too bad he didn't like them:)

I don't guess this is low carb because of the wrappers and cornstarch. But a lot of the ingredients are fine so I guess I'll just have to check my blood sugar later to see the effect.

Volunteering

Today a woman came in and told me a bunch of stuff that was pretty sad. She evidently knows some real losers. She kind of hinted around that she would like for me to drive her about an hour so she could visit her mother in the hospital.
I suggested she talk to her pastor. She said she hadn't been to church in a long time. I said she should find one and go. It would provide a support group. She should find a way to be helpful. If she wants to feel good about herself, she should find a way to contribute, not just take. She said she feeds her neighbor who spends his money on alcohol. I said that just lets him not be responsible for using his money wisely. She could tell him to buy food and she would cook it.
Last week a woman tried to bum a cigarette from me. She was very pregnant. I said we can't smoke in the hospital or on the grounds so I don't bring cigarettes in with me. I also told her that if her baby is born with something wrong with it, she'll blame herself. She should try to live so that she doesn't feel guilty.
Both of those people left expressing thanks, but I'll bet they wished I'd just done what they wanted and kept my philosophy to myself. Oh well.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

When I was growing up, we had corned beef and cabbage sometimes and corned beef hash sometimes. The corned beef came from a can.

I've been cooking different things from one of my slow-cooker recipe books. I've been pretty well pleased with the results.

The recipe called for a corned beef about 3 and a half pounds, onions, cooked on low for 8 hours and then a cabbage cut into wedges added for three more hours on high.

The cabbage wasn't cooked to rags. The whole thing is low-carb and not bad. I'd make it again.

A Good Life

One of the ladies I volunteered with passed away on Saturday. She was in her late 80's and walked kind of bent over. She talked me into volunteering and was a good person. She never came and complained or whined about anything. She referred to her volunteer time as "therapy." She hated being sick and missing her "therapy." So many people have time and energy to spare, but we are running out of volunteers. I miss her already.

More Snow Time

We still have a lot of snow outside though it has started to melt in high-traffic areas. So today I spent some time going through seed catalogs. I usually order a few packets of vegetable seeds and a bunch of flower seeds. This year I added plants that produce nectar for bees. It is pretty boring, but I like to plant the seeds toward the end of February so it is necessary to pick out what I want and order it.

Cardinals

Larry puts black oil sunflower seeds out. The cardinals love them and flock to the feeders when it's cold.

Not Waffles

Larry had waffles and bacon for breakfast. He saved me some so I put the bacon back in the skillet and scrambled a couple of eggs. I tossed the waffles...not on my diet and not chocolate.

Snow Day

It's a wet snow. We have several inches. It dusted down all day. I swept concrete and wood places so the mashed down snow wouldn't turn into ice. I brushed the snow off my car. It was under the carport but still had snow on all sides, all windows. It didn't completely brush off because it was wet and started to ice as soon as it hit. Tomorrow is supposed to be cold but sunny so I plan to try to shovel from the carport to the road. It is a rocky driveway so I won't be able to get all the snow and ice, but I may get it shallow enough that it will melt through pretty quickly if it ever warms up.

Weather Aggravation

I made arrangements to go to a bee class Saturday. The leader of the group called me today to tell me the class has been delayed a week due to projected snow storm. I had talked to another bee beginner about it and she was going to go, too. But I only know her first name and town where she lives so I can't pass the information on to her. Larry brought me a bee magazine home today and looked at it some. I hope he'll be interested, too.

Preparing Bee Setup

It was icy outside today so I mostly spent the day making a list of materials to prepare the site for my bees. I gathered information from the bee keeping books, checked my permaculture book, and reread the notes from the class I took. As I examined the information I found, I listed what I wanted to do and the materials it would take to do it. Some of the information said to put the hive in an open area with full sun. Some says to give it some shelter. Some said away from buildings, one said right next to the house is all right. I guess I'm going to have to look at some bees that have been established for a while. It sounds like people have their opinions. I like that because it sounds like there's some leeway in what works. I really thought since bees can live in the wild, whatever they get is probably going to be better than them just finding a place.

Waiting for Bad Weather

When we lived in south Alabama, a couple of times we had to prepare for hurricanes. Here we have tornadoes. I don't know much to do if we have a tornado warning. But right now we are expecting ice and snow. I worry about that because ice can take down power lines and getting onto a road that is maintained isn't easy for us. So, we are expecting ice and snow, and I'm wondering what else we should have done.

Sauerbraten

I found a recipe for sauerbraten in the slow-cooker cookbook. I use recipes for entertainment sometimes. This is one of those times. I had no idea what it would taste like, but it called for a beef rump roast, water, vinegar, lemon (sliced), cloves, onion, 4 bay leaves, 6 peppercorns, 2 T salt, and 2 T sugar marinaded for 24-36 hours. Then put in the slow cooker for 6 to 8 hours (I left it in for eight hours). Then it said to remove the meat, turn the crockpot to high and put in 12 gingersnaps pulverized. Leave it on high for 10-14 minutes.
That sounded so interesting, I had to try it. Thickening the sauce with gingersnaps instead of flour almost made the whole thing worthwhile. While it thickened, I sliced the meat and put it in the sauce. Then I made cauliflower "mashed potatoes" to put the meat and sauce on. It was different, but pretty good.

Spaghetti

Spaghetti is one of my favorite meals. A friend of mine likes the box of spaghetti Kraft makes but couldn't find it in time for her daughter's visit at Christmas. I ordered twenty-four boxes from Amazon, gave her four boxes and kept the rest. Today I made a couple of boxes to try. It was all right, but I think next time I'll doctor it up some. I thought about just giving the rest to her since she likes it, but it's food. We'll eat it. But I don't see why anybody would buy a box of stuff instead of just cooking their own. This plate is on the small table in my greenhouse.

Open Carry

Tennessee's law recently changed so that open gun carry is permitted although a class and license is still required. Today was the first time I've seen anybody other than a law enforcement person wearing a gun and holster in public. She was probably in her 30's. It was very strange.

Bee Class

 I paid my dues for the bee group, ordered a hive, ordered starter bees, and a used bee suit. I'm going to take a couple of classes about bees and read a book or two. I'm pretty excited about this project.

Glider

Larry's most recent project is this glider. It is seriously heavy to move around, but it's finished and in place on our front porch. He's making another one, too; so when we have company, seating won't be an issue.

Postal Service

Today Larry was talking to the mailman. Something beeped. He has a scanner with a gps in his car. If he stays still for ten minutes, it beeps. He clicks it and it stops beeping. If it beeps a second time ten minutes later, they call and ask if he is all right. If he scans the mail while moving, they complain. He is supposed to be stopped when he scans the mail. And they know where he is. If he doesn't get back to the post office by a certain time, he has to take the mail to the next drop-off point. If he misses that deadline, he has to take it to the next one. I had no idea that they had them under so much supervision.

Volunteer Meeting

Our volunteers are discouraged. We talked about disbanding if we don't get more volunteers. We have so few that we can't keep the gift shop open long enough to allow people to buy things from the gift shop. So we talked to the head of the facility and she had some really good ideas. We'll try passing flyers out at churches and she directed one of the other workers to put out a call on facebook. I felt a little encouraged after talking to them. We've got three months before we reevaluate the situation.

Bees

A neighbor came over today to talk to me about bees. I'm interested in having at least one hive. He said the guy who has a blueberry field has about seventy hives and is willing to share his knowledge. That's good news. I know where that is because we bought blueberries there before ours started producing. I don't especially want to visit until it warms up a little. But I want to see producing hives before I decide for sure that I want some. My neighbor found a swarm and his son-in-law bought a hive to put them in. I'm guessing I'll have to buy the hive as well as the bees, well, and the other stuff.

Miserably Cold

This morning there was a dusting of snow on the ground. It didn't get warm enough to melt it today. I know there are parts of the country that habitually get lower temperatures and snow, but I'm really fine with this not being one of them. We are fortunate that we have a warm house and warm clothing. But I'm not that wild about needing them.

Appointments

My hair dresser works during certain days and times only. Trying to make an appointment on a particular day is not always easy. I finally managed to call for an appointment on a day I knew she would be there. I've tried calling when she wasn't at work. That didn't work all that well because her appointment book is at work. So today she was at work and I have an appointment:)

Boring Day

For the second time this week I waited and watched for the UPS truck to come pick up an article we were returning. On Monday, he came at 2:30. Today it was dusk. So I didn't do anything that required me to be somewhere I couldn't see the driveway. When he pulled up, he honked. That was useful.

A Very Good Day

Larry had an appointment with a specialist today concerning blockage in an artery going down his right arm. The doctor said the best action is no action as the body had solved the problem on its own, rerouting the blood. The doctor said he knows Larry is retired, but what does he do? Larry told him he gardens, does woodwork, and uses the chainsaw to cut trees up that are leaning or have fallen. The doctor said to keep doing what he is doing.
Then Larry took down the lights in my art room, sprayed expanding foam around the wires, and put everything back together. I was hoping they would work when he put them back together. One did, then he fiddled with the other two and they worked. Hopefully the expanding foam around the wires will prevent wasps from getting into the room.
I'm really glad the doctor didn't tell him to stop doing stuff! I'm also glad surgery isn't required:)

Volunteer Stuff

Today I did my little chores at the hospital, hunted up a 2016 calendar for the gift shop, met the new liaison between the hospital and the volunteers, and called our list of active members to remind them of our upcoming quarterly meeting. 

UPS

I don't usually return things. But Larry's Christmas present was defective so I decided to find out if I could return something I'd bought from Amazon. It was easy. I selected UPS and was very uneasy about being available when they came. It turned out they didn't work on New Year's Eve or Saturday. I didn't know that so I hung close to the driveway. I worried about them coming when I was in the restroom or anywhere except at the front of the house.
But today they came in the middle of the day, gave me my tracking sticker, put the prepaid label on, and all was well.

Political Thrillers

I like the Tom Clancy books. He passed away and others are continuing his Jack Ryan series. I found a new author, Vince Flynn who wrote in the same genre. I looked him up for the order of his books and discovered he's dead, too. He wrote thirteen and then died in his 40's of prostate cancer. Somebody else, Kyle Mills, finished the fourteenth book and is evidently intending to continue the series.

Vacuum Bags

I changed two vacuum cleaners' bags today. One was full of lady bugs and the other was full of wasps. Right now it's too cold for wasps, plus I had pest control come out and spray for wasps. They were creepy, but I got both of them changed.
Larry was howling with laughter at a commercial on television. He backed it up for me to see. Some poor woman was trying to do a boxing swing for exercise. She punched the woman next to her. I said, "You know that's what would happen if I were taking that exercise class, right?" He said that's why he thought I would like it. Really? I don't enjoy being a klutz.

New Year's Resolution

I usually make New Year's Resolutions. Sometimes I make resolutions at other times, too. I'm a pretty big fan of trying to decide what will improve my life. This year, I have no plans at all. I guess I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and make my resolutions one day at a time.
Last year I decided that I'd have a trellis with climbing roses by this time. Well, I don't. So maybe when I figure out how to get a trellis, I'll have the room for another resolution in my mind. I've done other major projects, but not the trellis.