This and That from the Farm

Up again at 2:30 AM, but slept in my chair a bit.  This is not unusual for me at all.

Today is a warm day, but cloudy and windy....rain supposed to be moving in tonight.

We made a run into Willard for me to get my hair cut and to pick up a primer bubble for my Stihl trimmer.  Thankfully our local Ace Hardware had one.  Now I just need to get it put on.  I hope Max is just buying high test gas for the cans.  A Stihl serviceman told me  that the cheaper gas destroys the plastic bubbles. 

I got the east end of the kitchen garden tilled a couple of days ago using my trusty little Merry Tiller.  I will have to use the larger one with slasher tines because of dead long grasses on the west end.  I am pleased.  I don't think I have done a fall till in a very long time.

I took this picture a few days ago.  It appealed to me.

I

We have traded out the hummingbird feeder for the winter birds.  It didn't take them long to find it.  They prefer all black oil sunflower seeds!  When that feeder is empty they will come to the song bird mix.....and only then. 



Chickens

I am going to try using a timer in the hen house.  I ordered two very cheap and simple ones......no directions.  I must be mechanically challenged because I had to search the internet to find how to set the blasted thing!  I am using it in the kitchen tonight to check it out.  I am shooting for 15 hours of light.

Max is out feeding hay.

Interim Post for Mama Pea

BTW,  this was not easy to copy and paste!  at least for me.

From Mama Peas Blog.
 

Since I've been sadly lacking in ideas for interesting blog posts lately (maybe it's the visions of sugarplums dancing in my head), I'm resorting to these questions (and my answers to same) that I saw posted on the Internet a few years ago.  Here we go.

1)  Do you like blue cheese?

No!
2)  Have you ever smoked?

 
 Tried it years ago for a few days. Not my thing.

3)  Do you own a gun? 

 Yes.
      We can now say “Property protected by Taurus The Judge. Our Christmas present for us.

4)  What flavor of Kool Aid is your favorite?

 
      Haven't had Koolaid since I was a kid!

 
5)  Do you get nervous before dental appointments?

 
      Yes, but not as much as I used to.

6)  What do you think of hot dogs?

 
      Granddaughter introduced us to Hebrew National Kosher All Beef and we are now hooked.

7)  What's your favorite Christmas movie?

 
     I don't like any Christmas movies (I know I may be stricken dead!).

8)  What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
      Latte, homemade.

 
Plain, strong black coffee.

9)  Can you do push-ups?

 
I haven't tried in years, nor will I start.

10)  What's your favorite piece of jewelry?

 
      I am not a jewelry person at all. I do love my wedding set.

11)  What's your favorite hobby?

 
        Gardening and reading.

 
12)  Do you have A.D.D.?

 
    No, but I am a Type A person. However, I can read for hours.

13)  Do you wear glasses or contacts?

 
        Wear glasses all the time.

 
14)  What's your middle name?
     

Lee, after my paternal Uncle.

 
15)  What are your thoughts at this moment?

I hope I can sleep tonight. I have a horrible sleep problem.

16)  Name 3 drinks you regularly consume.

Black  Coffee, Raw Milk and tea both iced and hot 

 
17)  What is a current worry of yours?
        Terrorism.

18)  What do you currently hate?

 
     No hates. Especially now that the fence rows are nice and tidy. I am pretty content with life these days.

19)  Where is your favorite place to be?
        Home.  I'm definitely a home-body. The same for me.

20)  What do you plan on doing on New Year's Eve this year?

 
Stay at home with my husband of 54 years. I don't even plan to try to stay up.

21)  To where would you like to travel?
     

I am good only for short day trips.

22)  Name three people you think will do this questionnaire on their
        blog.
    Not a clue.

23)  Do you own slippers?

 
        Huh?  Dancing?  Ballet?  Bedroom?  No.  No.  Yes. Same here.

24)  What color shirt are you wearing?

 
     White tee shirt with a blue plaid worn out flannel shirt that I love..

25)  Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?

 
        Never tried, but they sound cold. Same here. I prefer l00% cotton.

26)  Can you whistle?

 
        Yup, I even sing along with I tunes while on the computer.
27)  What is your favorite color?

 
      Not sure I have one. I like tans and browns.

28)  What songs do you sing in the shower?

 
      None. But sing along on the computer while listening to my favorites. But if I did, they would be old-time  country songs

 
29)  Would you be a pirate?

 
        Heck, no.  I'm afraid of big ships. Same here I also am afraid of the water and cannot swim.

30)  What's in your pocket right now?

 
Nothing; I have on sweats.

31)  What's the last thing that made you laugh ?
 

Hubby brought me a small soap size piece of wood that I had cut and sanded to use to level my back porch shelves......he thought it was a bar of my homemade  soap and didn't know why it wouldn't lather up! He should wear his glasses full time but refuses.
     

32)  What vehicle do you drive?

 
        'A 2015 Chevy Silverado that I absolutely love.

33)  What's the worst injury you've ever had?

 
 Car wreck when I was 19, crushed left foot (still bothers me) and broken arm.

34)  Do you love where you live?

 
        Yes! Double that Yes!

35)  Would you change your first name if you could?

 
There was a time I hated my first name but I have outgrown that.

Okay, now all the rest of you out there . . . how about YOU copying and posting these same questions on your blog with your answers.  Come on, I double dare ya. 

OK,  Mama Pea Count Me As one  who did it!

A Few Projects

 The following is just a diary of my days....feel free  to  skip.  I do like having a record for me so I may continue this format.

 

12/1/15

Up at 3:30 am.

Breakfast: english muffin and marmalade, l egg 2 bacon, 6 oz milk

Tidied house

Lunch: Alfredo sauce with chicken and noodles, pineapple slices, small milk

Business:

Canceled AARP supplementary insurance as of 12/31/15

Reconciled bank statement

Paid bills (taxes were high this year)

Next: Go through all insurance new files and see if anything needs doing

Already received membership cards.  This was a task I hated but did.

Max is feeding hay.

Saturday Dec 5,2015

Fencing man finished up south east property line perimeter. Three new wires and three new posts. He now has a permanent (maybe) job laying bricks (or hod carrier) at Nixa.  So we appreciated the work he did for us and maybe he can do some odd now and then things in the future.

Kenny, Lezlie and Kolton brought tiller back (after I called) These are our ex-neighbors who bought our old place but have since bought a bigger farm and moved several miles away.  They still keep cattle across the road on their cousin's acreage.

I made pasta and french bread.  I splurged a little  at Amazon Black Friday Week sale on their  double french bread pans.  Always wondered if they would be better than a cookie sheet.  They are not. They were relatively inexpensive so I don't mind too much.  I will use them. I am such a sucker for kitchen and cooking things.

Sunday, 12/6/15

Up at 3 AM

Read for a while and made coffee, unloaded dishwasher.

Breakfast, sausage gravy, biscuits using diy baking powder (2 cr of tartar, l of soda and l of cornstarch) works beautifully with buttermilk. And scrambled eggs.

Plans:

Clean zinnia and cosmos bed by drive. In middle plant the lilac. Plant three spirea out front by road. I got the bed cleaned and planted the lilac. Also found three more pumpkins. Spirea still waiting.....

I have had a lot of little (and not so little) things pending.....things DH does not do!

First, we have/had a problem when we enclosed the porch because I now keep the screen door latched so people can't peer in my kitchen window from the porch.....this entrance is used by one and all as our main entrance. Our neighbor has been walking around the house to the actual front door which is a nuisance for him and quite a distance through sometimes tall lawn grass.

I discovered a thing called wireless door bells. Who knew! Not me for sure. I bought one and it was a simple plug in receiver and tape push button to door frame and voila! A door bell for the new porch.

The next project also involved the screened  porch. A few months ago the motion detector light blew up. I have been dreading replacing it and it was the simplest thing. The new fixture almost fit the old base.

I just had to drill one hole. The thing holding me off starting was I didn't know which fuse it was on and this old house is a real patch up wiring job. I bought a tester and when I turned off the light switch it was dead and I proceeded safely.

I even traipsed out there this morning at 5AM to see if it was angled correctly for a person on the ground level. It was.

I forgot the project I started with. It was my favorite because I will enjoy it daily in the kitchen.

Gail prompted this one when she posted about the Minn wax stain/varnish gel. That got me interested.

I wanted the chairs to retain their old, beat up look. They had been sanded a long while ago so I just had to clean them up and go. Unfortunately our local Ace Hardware only had quarts of mahogany and cherry gel so I chose the non-gel form in a walnut. I will have Max steel rub the backs and seats to smooth up the finish more. The cushions are new. I now have two extra chairs that I needed and had been looking online.....I saved over $200! These are from our first breakfast set so are probably at least 50 plus years old. I hope the don't collapse. I did glue some of the joints first.

These all went pretty smoothly and then I met my Waterloo! I bought a replacement blind for the back door in the living room thinking I had exactly the same thing that was in place and all I would have to do was hang new one. Wrong! I bought the 2 inch slats and nothing fit the same. It took two days because I had to recharge the drill, dig out the electric drill and pound some starter holes. It is finally up. I still need to remove the excess slats.....that will be for another day.

While working back in that dark corner, I could see all the cobwebs and dirt down on the marble flooring. It was a real eyeopener. I mixed up a gallon of hot water and soap and got down on my poor sore knees and somehow managed to turn the bucket over and flooded the marble. So now it is really clean. Thankfully I was kneeling on a huge bath towel (for said knees) and was able to stop the floating downstream under the wood stove (I hope. )

I even tidied up all the various screws and tools and Max took them back to their proper place.

Here is the next indoor project I bought the spray paint for several years ago. I have hated the brassy look of this since I bought it 24 years ago. I plan to remove all glass and bulbs, take the fixture down and spray paint it a nice creamy color.