Just need to talk to my friends (202)

ronald71111 · January 29

Lorita, your making me hungry! Who knows, I might get the cooking fever again and get back the 10 lbs I lost.

Cajun Red Beans and Rice:

1 lbs. Dried kidney beans

1/2lb salt pork

3 cups chopped onions

1 cup chopped green onions

1 cup chopped parsley

1 T. Garlic salt

1/4 t. Dried oregano

1 t. Red pepper

1 t. Pepper

1 T. Worcester sauce

1 lbs. Smoked sausage, cut into 1/ pieces

Hot cooked rice

Sort and wash beans; place in large Dutch oven. Cover with water 3 inches above beans; soak overnight. Add salt pork to beans; cover and simmer 45 minutes. Stir in next 10 ingredients and continue to cook 1 hour.

Brown sausage and drain-add to bean mixture. Cover and simmer 45 minutes or until real tender adding more water if needed. Serve over rice. Ham hocks can be added to other ingredients if you want

Ron

Lorita · January 29

Thanks, Judith and Ron. So you serve the beans over the rice. Ron, you need to make some or some gumbo and get that weight back on. I know from your previous posts you were quite the cook. Reminds me of Darwin who does all their cooking.

Got the potatoes and carrots in with the beans and have cornbread frozen from a couple.of weeks ago. I like them the second day so may wait until tomorrow and cook some rice to serve them.over or crumble cornbread in the beans.

Got the.laundry done and folded but not put away yet. Filled both water tanks because girls may come to the barn when the rain starts. Really feels like rain now. I looked and looked while most of the girls were down here but could never see the baby.

Had a good visit with Carol this afternoon. She reminded me where we were March 16, 2001- having lunch with four other friends at Harmony House. All of them are gone except the two of us. She had been going through a.lot.of papers she had kept from years ago. I have a letter daddy wrote to mother in 1949. We, mother, daddy, grandma and I had gone to McAlister when Lorit, my sister, had Cheryl. Mother and grandma stayed with her a few days and daddy and I came home. We rode with the mail carrier to within a mile of home and we walked home across fields and pastures in the snow. I remember sitting with my feel on the Warm Morning, pot bellied, stove while daddy made the fire to warm us. I remember that so vividly and it was almost 76 years ago! Isn't it strange to remember something that.long ago and.not remember things from a week ago?

Sorry, didn't mean to get into that - I know that was during the depression but were happy times for people. Watching The Waltons, one of my favorite shows. Better go check the beans. Wish you all were here for supper.

Iris L. · January 29

I am back from my trip but I lost my smartphone, so I could not post earlier. I am using a public computer. I'll post more when I have better access.

Iris

Sandyshe · January 30

Carl , had to laugh at your comment, I said exactly the same (only lady) when I had my 80th birthday party last year. How did that happen. No Lorita, you can’t get close to the kangaroos, as soon as they see you they take off. I have been trying to get a photo of them moving, but I never seem to have the camera handy when they do. As my husband says, they are "poetry in motion ", especially when there’s a lot of them together.

Glad you got your approval for the oxygen Ron, that will make it much easier for you , hope your busy day goes well.

Carl46 · January 30

Beautiful day here, about 65 degrees and sunny. Raining tonight and tomorrow, expect about an inch which we can certainly use.

The Waltons was a great show. I remember watching it with my mother when it was new and asking "Wasn't the Depression depressing? These people live happy lives." She reminded me that the Waltons were the rich people who owned the sawmill. I have always liked Ralph Waite (John Walton). He played L. J. Gibbs' father on NCIS for several years, until the end of his life. The show wrote an episode in which Gibbs' father had a stroke and died.

I'm going to plant some veggies this Spring if I have time. I like to garden and love to eat fresh food, and I certainly can use the exercise. I saw on TV that 44% of US agricultural laborers are undocumented migrants from other countries. Without them this summer, growing some veggies might be a good idea. I'll need to build a fence if I do. My yard sometimes looks like that one Sandyshe pictured, with whitetail deer instead of kangaroos.

I have seen film of kangaroos on TV. Poetry in motion describes their grace very well. Lovely animals.

Carl46 · January 30

Lorita, I vaguely remember 1949. We had a snowball tree in the yard, and my father held me up to see the clusters of white flowers. I could stand to look at the peonies. They were as tall as I was, and the blooms were as large as my head. Good times.

Mint · January 30

Good morning

They are giving a high of 44° today. Looks like it still is going to be windy so may not feel that warm we’ll see

I want to try to get my grocery shopping done this morning and then go see my mom this afternoon

Carl, there is a saying cut off your nose to spite your face.

jfkoc · January 30

Off to try to solve the rollater problem. The on I go is too light and the plastic wheels slip on my wood floors.

Good point about the vegies. Perhaps a mix of them with flowers will go in my front bed. What are the easiest to grow?

Lorita · January 30

Morning, rained all night and wss very foggy this morning. The guys just fed and the sound of their truck tires on the road and pastures says we had a lot of rain. I stayed in bed until 10, unheard of but couldn't think of a reason I should get up. I was asleep when Darwin called at 7:30. He said about 3" of rain. I don't have my rain gauge up right now

. I wasn't around during the depression but I think people who lived in the country were almost self sufficient so had it a little better. I know when I was growing up there weren't many things we had to buy. We had cows for milk, butter and cottage cheese, hogs for bacon, chickens for eggs and Sunday dinner and vegetables. Lots of work but well worth it.

Judith, vegetables aren't hard to grow, but getting the ground ready is another story. When I was little everyone had gardens and I imagine this will be true again. Start with tomatoes and zucchini, radishes grow by themselves if you drop the seeds.

I heard there were no survivors from the plane and helicopter collision. Awful news.

Back later.

JeriLynn66 · January 30

Judith, yellow squash, peppers of any/all kinds, cucumbers (keep cukes/squash/zuchini separate.

David1946 · January 30

Sorry I haven't posted lately but the VA keeps us so busy with kinds of activities it's unbelievable.

jfkoc · January 30

Busy sounds good, David.

I think I will do cherry tomatoes and zuchini (sp). Maybe pots in the driveway. Oh, and some potatoes. A freshly dug potato is really tasty. No, I will not start with seeds.

Lorita · January 30

Judith, did you get a new rollator? Charles had a really nice, heavy one and after he passed away I sent it to Scarlet.

Did you know I have seen , on tv, potatoes growing in loose hay. That would be easier than growing them in the ground which entails digging a deep trench, planting them, then digging them. But, you are right, they are really good. We always dug potatoes on my.birthday, June 21, and would put them and Bermuda onions in the cellar. We would have both all winter. Didn't freeze below ground. I think I may order caladiums from Florida Boys this year and it's about time to do so.

HB, my tablet corrected? caladiums to salad oils and Galatians. Does not like that word!

jfkoc · January 31

No new rollater but did learn that Medicare might pay for one like the one I have downstairs.

Dick and I tried growing tomatoes in hay. We failed!

Lorita · January 31

Judith, if you could get that one, you could have one upstairs and one downstairs. Is that what you're thinking?

Very, very hobby here. When I open the front door r I can normally see the security light of a house one and a quarter mile east of us and Darwin's security light a mile awsy. We have a neighbor a mile south and I can't see his light either. Normally I can from the bedroom. I can hardly see the barn about 200 yards from the house. Have you all ever noticed how quiet it is when it's foggy? We had 2.5" of rain. Roads are muddy.

Sleep well.

Lorita · January 31

Carl46 · January 31

Lorita, my parents and my wife's parents lived on farms during the Great Depression, so they ate well even if they didn't have any money. People in town were less fortunate. Those bread lines and soup kitchens would prevent starvation, but they didn't provide a healthy diet. When the Army started staffing up for WWII, they found a lot of young men from cities had vitamin deficiency diseases like rickets and scurvy. I guess that's why they called it the Hard Times.

After sleeping on it, I don't think I will have much of a vegetable garden. I might grow cherry tomatoes and basil in pots, but my back isn't up to a lot of spading and hoeing. I use a cane on long walks, and I don't even mow my yard. Besides, I would truly miss the view out my back door of the trees and deer if I fenced the back yard.

I tried growing potatoes in loose hay once, but I used a couple of old black tires for frames and they absorbed so much heat that it cooked the plants. A wooden box or a hoop of chicken wire would have worked a lot better.

Mint · January 31

good morning

Judith, I like your enthusiasm for doing new things.

David, I’m glad they keep you busy there David I’m glad they keep you busy there. Where my mom is at they have activities, but it seems like not very many people are willing to participate, including my mother.

My mom raised stuff in hay bales one year I remember. I really can’t remember how it worked out and she never did it again.

I use grow bags for a lot of things. I’ve had really good luck with them and they last a very long time. I’ve lived here about seven years and I’ve never thrown one away yet. I have never tried to raise potatoes, but I know you can raise potatoes in them. My sister has and she says fresh potatoes are very tasty too. We’ll see if I have the energy to try that this year. I did order my seeds the other day. I mainly bought tomato, herb and flower seeds. I hope to buy pepper plants and the herb plants that I can’t start from seed. I don’t start things inside anymore it was too much mess and too much work I had no time for it anymore. But I do like to start things from seeds outside. My back is also a factor in my gardening.

Good Lord‘s will going to go to Amish country today and get a few things. Then this afternoon I hopefully I’ll be able to go see my mom

Hope you are doing OK this morning Ron

ronald71111 · January 31

Good morning

BethL · January 31

Good morning everyone

harshedbuzz · January 31

Good morning. Rain here today, but temperatures are on the rise.

I'm reading along but haven't much time to post. Thanks for all the positive wishes for mom. They're much appreciated.

Between entertaining mom and pushing her meds and running home to see DH and DS for a couple hours, I have no real time to myself. The pneumonia aspect of this illness seems to be resolving with the O2 improving. She has a target of 88-92% on room air and she's starting to maintain that so long as she's not really exerting herself or agitated. My deadbeat niece called yesterday and by the end of the call mom's O2 was at 83 sitting down.

We have 2 appointments today, pulmo at 11am and then derm at 3:30pm. This'll give us time to scoot home for the 3:00pm Ancef push. I considered rescheduling the derm, but given her recent high doses of steroids, it's best to be proactive about her skin check as she's had basal and squamous cell lesions after using steroids.

The post-hospitalization appointment with her PCP was great. He was able to explain to her exactly what happened to her over the last couple weeks and how the staph infection was impacting her lungs. He also suspects aspiration and feels it might be a related to side effects from her Fosamax, so it was discontinued. He'd put her on it in 2023 based on bone density testing. She'd taken it for 5 years back in Florida which is interesting as that was when she was diagnosed with GERD; which she forgot about when talking to her SLP. I'm kind of pissed that the gastro who she saw while in the hospital didn't make note of the risk of Fosamax. I double-checked her chart and it was included on her inpatient medication list as well as the one on file on My Chart.

TBH, I wasn't dazzled by the gastro when I met him; I got a whiff of ageism in discouraging gastroscopy and ascribing her esophageal motility solely to old age. I'm not one to be super-aggressive in testing at 87, but I've run into this before. We ditched mom's original pulmo after I expressed a concern about her breathing and he blew me off saying "this is what 80 looks like— get over it". A month later she was hospitalized with a COPD exacerbation under the care of a new guy.

I need to run. The shower is calling. Be safe out there.

HB

eaglemom · January 31

Morning.

Nothing aggravates me more than a physician being condescending. We know our bodies and our LO's as well, we know when something is 'off.' Sadly I used to put up with a doc like that because I didn't want to leave and hurt his feelings. How crazy is that? He didn't give a flying flip about my feelings or anything else. It certainly felt good when I left that practice.

We've had two days of sunshine. It feels so good. I was looking in the garden beds and I'm going to have a fulltime job with weeds. One day nothing and the next weeds, ugh. I'm thinking we'll have more cold weather and that should zap them, I hope.

Time to get busy. As my mom used to say - off one and on two! Let's everyone be safe.

Lorita · January 31

Morning, it was foggy when I got uo, then sunny and.now cloudy but pretty warm. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 70, and the sane Śunday and 72 Monday. I can get used to that. Hard to believe we're almost finished with January.

A couple of guys are trying to fix my landline. They've been up to the house four times and have been driving Stormy nuts. .Someone tried to fix it a couple o f weeks ago but something went wrong. I wss out of service for a Couple of months and didn't know it. I don't use it or answer it but have kept it in case I lose my cellphone and needed it.

They gave me credit tor two months so when that is over will cancel it and activate a new cellphone I have, just in case. Two cell.lines will be cheaper. They just came back and told me a cable had been cut half a mile away. How, I don't know. Their PU is white and.now brown on the bottom half. They said the roads are muddy.

Darwin plans on going to town this afternoon. He goes twice a week. Guess it gets him out of the house along with cutting wood.

I really like my doctor, an Osteopath my family has used forever, well this one along with two others in the same clinic, over the years. If he ever retires I don't know what the town will do since he is the only doctor there. And, he is in his late 70s. I have worked with a couple of doctors who thought they were above everyone else but all in all the VA doctors were great.

Those guys are back again. I hate they are driving over my road so much.

jfkoc · January 31

inspector's report on the new bid is not good. More negotiating…ugh

ladyzetta · January 31

Good afternoon, Hugs Zetta

Lorita · January 31

Beautiful day after the sun came out. Telephone is fixed, for.now. Tried to take a nap.but couldn't go to sleep. Everyone else is still asleep.

Had some of the beans , potatoes and carrots with cottage cheese. Really good. The pound of beans and veggies made three containers so froze two and kept one to eat.

Judith, sorry it didn't work out for now.

Ron, have you gotten the report on the tests yet? Zetta, how is the weather out there? How tall do those cacti grow to.be. They are protected, aren't they? We dug up a.couple if cacti when we were out there years ago and planted them. Pretty blooms.but awfully sticky, as bad as prickly pesrs, almist. Still have a few of those living. Should h ave listened to my sister when she advised against planting them. We started out with a plant with two paddles, or whatever they're called and they multiplied rapidly.

How much are eggs out there? If there is a shortage of eggs, what about wings? News just said they have had to kill over two million chickens. Eggs are about $8.00 a dozen in WM. That is $7.50 more than we sold ours for. I buy cage free ones, otherwise the hens are kept in cages and are never out or see daylight. I think that is cruel. When I buy a dozen I only eat maybe four before they're old enough I have to.boil the rest for the GPs. Stormy likes the yolks so eats them first. Enjoy the rest of the day and next week if you're in the southern part of our Country.

harshedbuzz · February 1

@Lorita I bought eggs at the beer store Saturday for $5/dozen. He's got s local hobby farm with a small flock. My Giant was getting almost $20 for 3-dozen small eggs. Extra-large organic free range were about $12.

HB

eaglemom · February 1

I hope this works. It will end your week with a smile.

https://www.facebook.cm/share/r/1AB8CdBPiH/

Lorita · February 1

It worked, Eagle. What a cute little guy! Wish I had a quarter of his energy. Good night, everyone. Sleep tight!

Carl46 · February 1

Thanks, Eaglemom. That is one cute kid!

Another plane went down, this time in Philadelphia. It was apparently a medivac equipped Lear jet and was heading to an airport about 5 miles from my house. Speculation is that it was carrying organs for transplant, plus the pilot and the person escorting the organs. There was quite a fire, as you would expect from a plane taking off with enough fuel to fly from Philadelphia to SW Missouri. A tragedy for them, for whoever was in the houses and cars the plane crashed on, and for whoever was prepping for transplant surgery here in Missouri.

Lorita, I paid about $8 for the last dozen large eggs I bought. I sold fresh, free range eggs door to door for $0.50/dozen when I was 14, of which I cleared a nickel after paying my grandfather $0.45. In real dollars, adjusted for inflation, that 50 cents was probably more money than $8 is now. The factory farms, with a million or more hens on one farm, have lowered costs for a long time. They do spread diseases, though.

Flu is spreading rapidly in SW MO, and the schools are closed in several small towns. The school in Mansfield, MO is closed because to many students were out. The plan was to do a deep cleaning while school was closed, but the custodial staff are all ill so that's on hold. The hospitals are busy with flu, and some covid. DW and I are doing OK. We had our shots, so that probably helps.

I "tested" the fall alert system on my emergency pendant yesterday. The lanyard has a magnetic clasp that opens if pulled on, I guess so you don't hang yourself on a faucet handle if you fall. I opened it accidentally and the pendant fell to the floor. Then it spoke to me, like a magic amulet in a fairy tale.

Just need to talk to my friends (202)