3 out of 7 isn't bad

 Out of the last seven days we have been at the clinic's, ER and hospital four days.  One day we did a clinic and the hospital, one day we did a clinic and the ER for blood work because his heart rate was high and his blood pressure was really low and he was dizzy, one day was Infusion and an Echo, one day was in the hospital. So three days we got to be at home...Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday were the free days.  It could have been worse.  ( His Echo was good!) His hospital Doctor stopped by the ER  to tell him that good news. 

Next week I know he has appointments for two days...so we will see what happens next...always an adventure. 

I am mostly done with the big sort upstairs.  Big sigh of relief...I have some organizing to do up there and some putting away, dusting and cleaning.  I have "stuff" for my siblings to pick up.  Progress has been slow but the rainy days helped...not much to do outside yet. 

My new stove is still not hooked up...I need an HVAC guy to hook up the downdraft fan...the duct work will be different from my last Jenn-air.  We have not used the stove, it still sits where the delivery people set it... JUST in case the stove has to be returned.  I have called the HVAC guy twice....the last time I left a message saying if you cannot come let me know.  We are making do with the crock pot, air fryer and the microwave.  Last night we went to town for supper...it was prom night so lots of good looking kids eating in the same place. 

A photo of the clouds one day coming home from town. 

I took photos of two lost dogs, one of the dogs was listed on facebook as missing...apparently they are runners.  One was quite fierce, the other friendly with one blue eye and one brown eye.  Someone isn't taking very good care of their dogs...just saying. 

Far Side

Summer stuff

Now that summer is officially here.  The lettuce harvest has begun.

Far Guy's garden; pear tomato plants and lettuce.  So far the deer and the rabbits have left it alone.

I harvested about half of the lettuce and will get the other half in a few days.  Then it will regrow a bit, we will see how it goes...I have more seed to replant.

We enjoyed it, it has so much more flavor than store bought lettuce.  I am thankful that I have a salad spinner as it really helps with the washing of the lettuce!

Our days are pretty much same old same old.  We wood carve on the Christmas Ornaments, and do household chores.  Yesterday I sprayed some Poison Ivy...it is what I do for fun.  It grew gang busters after the last couple of rains.  I worked on the big sort upstairs...and worked on the milk can project...it all keeps me out of trouble.  I am watching Alone: The Arctic on Netflix and I am really enjoying it!

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tsundoku

I encountered  a new to me word yesterday tsundoku.  The art of buying books and never reading them.  I suppose I qualify as I can never pass up books at garage sales...and at the thrift shop I have to give the book section a wide birth.  During the big sort upstairs I ran into several books that I had not read....I recall some from 25 years ago.  I packed them up and they will go on the garage sale I intend to have sometime in the Spring when and if it ever warms up.

I looked to see if I could find a word to describe my magazine hoarding problem...no such luck...no fancy word...Yes I have been hoarding magazines.

In the living room we have an old copper boiler that was overflowing with magazines.  All ones that we had read and MAY or MAY NOT read again someday.  I sat on the floor and sorted through them only keeping The Minnesota Conservation Volunteer and Woodcarving Illustrated.   Good bye to Martha Stewart Living, Rachael Ray, Food and Family, Reminisce, Farm and Ranch Living, House Beautiful, Country Living, Woman's Day, Car and Driver...six grocery sacks full that were really heavy...off we went to recycle them.

On the way home Far Guy said "I have a few Train Magazines upstairs...I replied "I have a bunch of Farm and Ranch and Martha Stewart Living in the huge file cabinet upstairs."

In the old copper boiler I also found two small rice bags that I had been looking for and a blue ball that Little Elvis or Miss Miney must have dropped in there.

I emptied out the stainless steel boiler that stores all our extra "throws"  and I washed them all.

It felt good to have the boilers all cleaned up again!

Far Side

Brrrr

It was cold out...at 10 PM Wednesday night we have -23 F or -30 C  eh! and it will probably get colder.  Time for the  full length down  parka.  We didn't get much snow a little fell and blew away.  The Wind Chill temperatures are brutal.

We stayed busy all day.

A Pileated Woodpecker came in for a snack at the suet feeder. 

We stopped by the accountants office on Monday and had our taxes sent electronically...good to have that done for another year.  I asked them how long do you keep tax returns and the substantiating paperwork.  The reply was three years.  I had returns in my file cabinet from the 1970's.  AND I was keeping returns and substantiating papers for seven years.  Many papers were shredded.

I finished the last eight squares for the Crochet Along Project.  These squares are all going into a box until I get the proper board and dowels to  block them all to exactly the same size before I join them.   I have eighty squares all together.   It was a project...but I was ready to be done with it and move onto something else.

The something else was finished also and sent off in the mail today. 

Afghan yarn was packed away for now.  I kept all small bits of yarn to make hearts for The Peyton Project.  Yarn to crochet wildlife nests is still around to work on as are socks to knit.

 More stuff was rounded up for the big sort...my table is full to overflowing.

There is no lack of projects around here.
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Shredding

We cleaned up our file mess and shredded everything.  We resorted to cutting off names and account numbers and just shredded those parts.   Our shredder got a work out and overheated a few times.  Far Guy has a system he puts the shredder in reverse when he leaves it to cool off, then when it makes noise you know you can go back to work.

We took nine bags of shred and three bags of non shred paper to recycle.

I missed a couple of years of cleaning out files...so I was behind.  I still have more to do...one file cabinet at a time.

I guess I keep lots of stuff I shouldn't .

Far Side

No list day

I flitted from project to project and got nothing completely done except a nap which could have been longer!

I sorted files upstairs...I have lots of paper to shred.  I filled another box with books.  I put some stuff on my work table, when it is full to overflowing I will go back to that again.  Far Guy even sorted through some of his crap treasures.

We have three trunks to go through...one was accomplished, we did it together and decided what to do with some of it.  Things were discussed...that is a beginning...and it helps that we are mostly on the same page.

I did some laundry, dusted part of the house, crocheted for awhile and worked on the old Farm Diaries from 1926 and shoveled.

It was a day.  This week I would have picked these orange roses for myself.
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Not much new

I sorted a long time yesterday.  Filled a couple more boxes.  Made it through the roll top desk and it is almost empty.   It still has some Auction Bills and a few extra large photographs of flowers I had forgotten about and Eli Wheel decals....that old desk is a perfect place to store extra large items. 

Today will be my last day working upstairs for a bit.  We are getting company.  I should make it all look presentable again.  I tend to have piles of stuff here and there when I am sorting.

I watched a movie called Cowgirls N Angels  a really fun movie I give it a 9 out of 10 stars. My kind of movie...no murder and mayhem.
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The sun almost came out yesterday...it got real bright for a while.  If it ever comes out I am certain it will blind us.

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Big Sort Continues

I worked all afternoon on the "big sort."  I was running out of space...so I cleaned out a small corner  upstairs and began to stack totes and boxes.   Now I can at least move around in my work area up there. 

I made a fair amount of progress.  Books...good gracious I had enough books up there to start my own library.  Three boxes of books later they are all stacked up.  I know there are some more books in a couple more drawers up there.   I had some three ring binders that I made back in 1996...all about annuals and perennials...all that crap is being recycled.  Seasonal decorations were sorted...not much is being kept...I allowed myself one drawer of "stuff" to decorate the outside wreath. If I didn't love it...it went in a box to be sold.  Many fancy boxes and tins were boxed up....only a few were kept.

I finished up my squares for the Crochet A Long that I am working on.   These were fun squares to do...the pattern is called Aster.

Here are the squares I finished.

We have only three medical appointments this week...practically a week off. 
Far Side

Dresser Scarf

I unearthed a very old project.  I used to embroider quite a bit.  I wanted to perfect my chain stitch.
So I began a dresser scarf. 

One end is completely finished.

The other end not so much.

Now I have to find the right embroidery floss to finish this project.  It is J & P Coats floss.  This was way before  DMC was even an embroidery floss company.  Needless to say the numbers on my one bit of floss are no longer used....apparently they started a new numbering system.  I must have antique floss!

So I shall be looking for floss to finish this project that is about 40 years old.   I can match some of the colors quite well to DMC floss but I used a shades of red only made by J & P Coats, the floss is variegated goes from pink to red.

I will have to look around a bit to see what I can find.

Does anyone even use dresser scarfs anymore?   I used to use them...I would switch them out every month.  The dirty ones would be washed...sprinkled and put inside a plastic bag to condition before  spraying them with starch and ironing them smooth.  Then folding them just right creasing the fold with an iron and putting them in the drawer that was specially reserved for dresser scarfs and doilies.

I have quite a collection of old dresser scarfs.  So if I cannot find the right floss I will probably toss it.

In other news I finally got the naked Christmas tree upstairs put properly away.   However the Nativity Set is still out.   I inventoried the deep freeze and the fridge freezer...now we know exactly what we have...our trouble is that when we take something out of the freezer we don't always take it off the list.

Far Side

Piled high and deeper

It snowed again ...we got about 5 inches of the white stuff.  I shoveled and power shoveled again.  My Nephew Josh came by with the skidsteer today and moved more snow.

The snowbank named June is getting larger.

We have 21 inches at the snowstick now.

The snow is piled up on the roofs. This is the snow curl on the west side of the house. It will eventually come down and then we won't be able to see out the window!

After shoveling I worked upstairs on the big sort.  I sure am finding some interesting "stuff."

We are plunging into the deep freeze again today. Wind chills will be horrible. We probably won't get above zero today.  We have to go out for appointments for Far Guy and the vehicle needs an oil change and tires rotated....so I will handle that while Far Guy entertains all the Nurses that he sees several times a week.  After a quick stop for a few groceries we will come back home and hunker down for the storm that is supposed to arrive on Friday.

Far Side

Stuff

My word for the year was time.

Time to go through and sort "stuff".   I continued on where I was a week ago before I was struck down by the cold from Snotsville USA.  Yesterday I got through the Christmas sort that I left in a big mess...I worried about that...if the cold from Snotsville ended in my demise my youngest daughter would have to deal with it and she would be very unhappy.  All no longer used Christmas items were marked and packaged for sale.   I sorted through another misc tote that I had up there...and began a craft sort.  At least you can walk through the back storage area now..  Sorting will continue. 

I have to admit I opened a few drawers up there...peered in and quickly shut them again.  Maybe in a few days...

When we had a snow over Christmas my favorite and only son in law Andy got out the snowblower that I cannot start by myself.   It started for him and he moved a bunch of snow.   Then we had a big snow and people were looking for used snowblowers.  I took a photo and within a few minutes it was sold on Marketplace.  Then other fellows offered me more money if I would sell it to them...of course I didn't...and the snowblower left the next morning.   I am just happy to be rid of the hunk of junk that I could not start....we originally bought it because it had an electric start...well that worked a time or two...and was replaced several times and still did not work more than a time maybe two.

So it was the right TIME to get top dollar for an old snowblower with a broken electric start!

Flowers from Miami...no I did not go there...but blog reader Kay did!

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