Just need to talk to my friends (211)
Comments
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Correction—what I called the butcher plant is actually a butterwort plant, a carnivorous plant. I hope it is hungry!
Iris
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Good morning
Dark, windy and damp here
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Good morning. Bright and warmish this morning on my end of the porch.
Lorita— I hope Billy is improving. It's probably not a good idea to store food of any kind in the car as it'll attract vermin. Judith is right, I've had mice/rats chew through Tupperware to get at bird seed.
Beth— That's a lot of compost but your garden will love you for it. I've toyed with getting one of those composting balls and trying my hand at it. My soil is terrible. The house is built on an old farm but the developers strip most of the topsoil to sell when they grade the lots ahead of putting in the roads and storm sewers.
I do the Libby recipe, too, but I increase the amounts of the spices called for and toss in a little nutmeg. As a result, commercially made pies seem bland to me.
Judith— Who is offering your course? Is it an in-person course or something online?
Lady Z— The house in Boise seems a bit much for you to be tackling. That's a lot of house for 3 people. I hope your DD can find a good cleaner quickly.
Ron— That fig tree is massive. I don't think I've ever seen one locally that was shrublike; most here are spindly little spikes of a tree. That BBQ/smoker set up is pretty impressive. Is he as good a cook as you are?
Carl— I wouldn't want to have a blue spruce in that condition either. When this house was landscaped 40 years ago a bunch of purple leafed sand cherries were put in along the fence-line and around the deck. They've all died over the years. I had the last one cut down 3 years ago. I'm not in any hurry to replace them as the other trees have grown in over the years.
Gothic G— "some spider". It's like macrame.
Iris— Those are some words to live by. Thanks for sharing.
Eagle— I hope you like the new lung guy. I normally defer to mom about her medical decisions but her former pulmo was (and retina guy) where times I put my foot down. When she moved here, I got her in with a good PCP and he made the necessary referrals to replace her team. Most were excellent, but these 2 were turkeys.
I went with her to a pulmo appointment (my first time sitting in) because she seemed off and more winded than her usual. When I expressed my concern, he said "She's 80. This is what 80 looks like. Get used to it." I told her she wasn't seeing him again. Three days later we were in the ED, and she was admitted for a COPD exacerbation with pneumonia. Her new guy is great. I didn't like the retina guy's office— appointments were mere serving suggestions and the techs came into the waiting room to instill drops without washing their hands between patients. WTH?
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Speaking of things medical, I did my surgical consult Friday. I think I like this practice better or perhaps it's that insurance and protocols have changed. There was a time when the payment for the procedure was bundled which disincentivized surgeons from prescribing PT— that's changed. Plus, they have an improve pain management approach. The plan is for surgery Feb 3 with discharge in the late afternoon. I'll be met by PT and an RN at home, and they'll come on the 4th and I'll start outpatient PT on the 5th.
On one hand I am looking forward to being more mobile but not the process needed to get to that point.
The painter is supposed to come today. Hopefully the landscaper will as well.
I hope all have a good day.
HB0 -
Good morning Porch Friends!
No matter which side of the aisle you are on, I just wanted to say that the photos and videos online from No King's Day were amazing. I was astonished to see all the protesters at The Villages; that's a pretty "red" area.
HB, we have clay soil here. Just as the developers do in your area, here they scrape the good soil off the top and sell it. When we moved here last year, my garden's clay was hard like it was sun baked in some areas. I applied 20 bags of compost last year too. But I didn't put mulch on top last fall and the winter winds blew some of it away. Lesson learned. At our last home, the developers only removed top soil from about 1/2 of the lot; the back part of the lot was originally empty/undeveloped and no soil was removed and that was the best soil ever. Anyway, I do make my own compost and I enjoy using it. (I cannot make enough for my needs though so supplement with buying some). I put vegetable peelings and things like apple cores, plant material (not weeds with seeds), coffee grounds (12 bags from Starbucks recently but also my daily coffee grounds), grass clippings, leaves, shredded paper etc in it. I'm kind of obsessed with my lawn and garden. My composter is one from Amazon. It is wooden, open in front and on top. My hubby built me a nice two bin system at the other house. It's in the background of this bluebird photo. It looks like the ones built of pallets, but it's not. He built if from lumber himself.
Regarding pumpkin pie recipes, my daughter told me she likes a more heavily spiced pumpkin pie so I found a recipe and have also made that. Speaking of pie, I have frozen peaches from a friend's tree that I need to make into a pie; I did one a few weeks ago.
Family was over last night. The 10 year old and 2 11 year olds are basically "bottomless pits" when it comes to eating here. So I made 2 meatloaf, 2 loaves of banana bread, 7 lbs of mashed potatoes, cottage cheese, applesauce and the aforementioned pumpkin pie. A bit later they wanted more food and I told them they could grab an apple. Of all that food we had 6 slices of meatloaf left, a fair amount of banana bread, 1/3 of a carton of cottage cheese and a 1/3 of the pie. They took most of it home with them, leaving us enough for some tasty leftovers for lunch today.
I'm drinking hot tea this morning. I am doing a taste test between Irish breakfast and English breakfast. I think I prefer the milder English breakfast. I do drink a fair amount of iced tea. For that I use Luzianne decaf. I don't make "sun tea." I just place the tea bags in the pitcher in the refrigerator.
I'm sure this is all more than you wanted to know so I shall close. Thanks for listening (reading) and good luck HB with your TKR.
Beth
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Afternoon, Beth, I agree about the rallies.Haven't heard how many millions participated but there wss a lot, even in foreign countries.
It was 51 here this morning, warming up some.now. So thankful for the nearly one inch of rain. The fescue is trying to grow so the drink will help that.
Girls just started bawling like crazy. Probably heard a truck and thought it might be the feed truck- it wasn't. Love the picture of the blue bird. I have never seen one.
Iris, I used to leave the keys in the car and PU but have stopped. It seemed like when I was outside and wanted to use one, the keys were always in the house. Glad you had a.nice trip.
Watching the Chiefs now, Eagle, two TDs ahead. Watching them in October at Arrowhead brings back really good memories of the times we were there.
The storm last night did something to my flag. Guess it broke one of the fasteners. I take it down when I know it's going to be windy but this storm surprised me. Flags don't last a long time around here, too windy.
GG, love the picture of the spider web, too They are so pretty and intricate in the mornings when there's dew on them. There are lots of the big black and yellow spiders around now. Those and golden rods are surely signs that autumn is here.
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Iris…thank you and I lift my glass to Beatrice!
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Hello Porch Friends.
It's 57 right now with some wind and rain. I'm loving this weather in Bosie.
My DD and I fially got out for a drive. We did not like the town of Bosie, it's way too big with lots of traffic. We are 4.5 miles from the town, but Were country girls, and prefer to stay right where we are at. We did find good places to shop and a Starbucks, closs to home, No more going into Bosie.
Albertsons is headquartered in Bosie, and we did see the big Albertsons, office. We are only 1 mile from a Albertsons, that's where we will shop. Along with our Walmart, home deliveries.
I hope all of you are having a good day, we are resting from our big trip to Bosie.
Hugs Zetta
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Beatrice Wood rocked! What a nice trip you took, Iris. Thanks for sharing.
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Good evening Rockers!
I come stand quietly near the porch and listen to the conversation, but I don't have time to post often enough to join in. I live in Albuquerque, in the high desert and I love, no I adore hearing everyone talk about life in each part of this large, diverse, and beautiful country. I knew next to nothing about farm or rural life before I started reading "the porch." I'll join the chorus of asking Lorita not to shorten her news items. :-)
Some time ago there was talk about prickly pear. If you're going to eat prickly pear, you need leather gloves and pliers to pull out the spikes. I have never done so, although I've had commercial prickly pear products. Around here people grow prickly pear and other cacti as deterrents, but then have to pull the needles to avoid liability.
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I wish I had known Beatrice Wood!
We had a "No Kings" rally here, despite the rain. SW Missouri is about as red as it gets, but "No Kings" is a bipartisan issue. I don't see nearly so many red MAGA caps as I used to see. Rather, I see a lot of "Army (or Navy etc.) Veteran" caps, worn proudly by men like Ron who took an oath to defend the Constitution and meant it.
Went to the diner today for dinner. The Chiefs/Raiders game was on the TV so I ordered my first slice of pumpkin pie of the season and dawdled until the game ended. Chiefs 31, Raiders 0.
It's 60 degrees and sunny, a nice Autumn afternoon.
I'm getting my hearing checked Tuesday to see if I need hearing aids yet (Life in the slow lane). Hope you all have a great week!
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Visiting my son for dinner; northern beans over rice, ham, collard greens and Mexican cornbread.
Forgot to mention one of his small dogs!
Ron
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Welcome to our porch. Sandwich, glad you posted.. We love Albuquerque, especially Old Town. We've been there a few times and thoroughly enjoyed it. On our way back home from the Grand Canyon we got to Albuquerque just after dark- we could look down at the town with all the lights - very pretty.
I hate prickly pears. Years ago we planted a small one against my sister's advice. It spread and spread just as she said it would.The big yellow blooms are pretty but that's all. I have had those little stickers in me and they hurt and are hard to remove. We have had little calves up where they are and they always wanted to lay down among them. I have seen cactus candy - Never tasted it, and cactus handkerchiefs. Are those things made from prickly pears? Still trying to get rid of them but they seem to survive.
Last night on an episode of Emergency there was a woman who was thrown into a huge bed of prickly pears. Evidently she was in a wreck and ended up there. I could not imagine the pain from that.
Ron, you look thoroughly relaxed after that good dinner. Sounds good.
Zetta, glad you all found places to shop closeby so you won't have to go into town.
Billy is still limping some but he eats well. Two more days of medicine and he can go back out with the girls. I think he is spoiled!
Enjoy your evening, everyone.
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I learned today why cows have hooves. They lactose.
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Carl, that is funny? I will tell Billy tomorrow.
Good night, sleep tight.
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Hey there everyone -
Judith - I went out yesterday to try to take a close up of the spider web, but it was gone. They're kind of ephemeral like that. October is "spider month" where we live and I usually see many of those guys. I've already rescued about four of them.
Iris - I've only been to Ojai once a long, long time ago (college boyfriend had family there). I'm loving Beatrice!!! And those are great words to live by. Not so wild about her choice in boy toys. 🙂 I'm like Janet from Rocky Horror - "I don't like men with too many muscles." Frank's response? "I didn't make him for you!" Which is probably what Beatrice would say!
HB - I'm with you about doctors. "This is what 80 looks like. Get used to it." I wouldn't put up with that either. Peggy's first doctor (a few months before she was diagnosed) told Peggy (with me on the phone) that Peggy was "slow" I'm sorry, what? Not okay. We ditched her faster than you can say "malpractice'.
Beth - What is "the villages"? I saw a lot of photos yesterday of the rallies - my favorite was the trio of T.rex dinos - since Tyrannosaurus rex means "tyrant lizard the king". And I'm a dino girl, after all. Here is the gallery. The dinos are about halfway down the page. I think the total number of people attending was between 5 and 7 million.
I don't think I've ever seen a bluebird before.
Zetta - I'm glad all of you are getting settled in. How many people does Boise have? I guess I never really thought about the size …
Carl - I guess I see the No Kings rallies much the way you do - a bipartisan issue. My dad was in the Navy (WWII) and not the most liberal guy you'd ever meet, and I know he'd support the rallies.
Sandwichone - it's nice to see you. I learned a lot from you back when I was caring for my sister, Peggy.
I've only been through NM and Albuquerque a couple of times, but I really enjoyed it. Lots of fossils….. 🙂
Over in my neck of the woods - it's cold and rainy! With thunder and lightning, even. Yesterday I made a vat of spaghetti sauce, which was cozy and warm. We had leftovers today.
I saw a laugh out loud funny article on The Guardian today. 'I felt my soul leave my body': 13 readers on the worst meal they ever cooked - from 'ethanol risotto' to gravy cake. And I thought I was bad in the kitchen! Enjoy!
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Carl—good one! 😄
Zetta, I'm surprised that a small town like Boise has traffic.
I spent all day at a Town Hall meeting of over 500 patriots, it was wonderful!
Now to bed. Good night.
Iris
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Good morning, its a little on the chilly side this morning. Guess I had better get use to it and go buy clothes I didn't need in Louisiana. Son mentioned yesterday that it snows even in March.
I've heard all my life that women was always right and men was always wrong. Does that mean if I tell a woman she is right, then im wrong?
Sorry for the last paragraph ladies...…just can't help myself this morning.
Ron
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Good morning
Ron that sounds sounded like a good meal.
Sandwich nice to meet you. If you ever have time to share we would like to hear about your area. It is nice to hear from everyone from all different areas.
Gothic hope you get to see s bluebird they are beautiful i think.
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GG, the cooking fails are epic! I can't imagine why some "cooks" make very strange substitutions and expect the end product to taste good.
I also liked seeing your photos of No Kings Day. About The Villages: it is a census designated place designed as 55+ living with many amenities; several golf courses, pools, many recreational activities, gyms. It is for active living for seniors. The Villages are located near Ocala, FL. It's said to be the world's largest retirement community (150,000). From their website: "We are a 55+ community, perfectly located in sunny central Florida, where you can strive each day to lead an active, meaningful and happy life. Our vision was to create a community with the ideal backdrop for you to write the next chapter of your story, a place where you can grow, learn new things, and spend more time doing the things you love surrounded by friends who are more like family. In our hometown, each of our Villages are made up of a collection of quaint neighborhoods surrounded by a wide variety of recreation, golf, entertainment, shopping, dining, and wellness opportunities – just a golf car ride away. Go exploring and have a new adventure every day. Reconnect with family and make new friends. In The Villages, your dreams can become a reality."
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Good morning. We had a spritz of rain overnight. Just enough to keep the painter from coming today.
Lorita— I'm glad you got a decent rainfall. I'm sure Billy is spoiled.
Lady Z— I'm glad you're settling in. Bummer about the traffic in Boise.
Sandwich— Hi. It's nice to see you here. Drop by when you can.
Ron— That is a lot of dog. Are there others?
Gothic G— A friend in Portland donned a Velociraptor suit for her protest. I met her years ago via an ASD support sub-group focused on advocating for special education for bright kids with ASD. We referred to ourselves as such, so her suit was a nod to our little group. She's a clinical psychologist and the one who texted me off the wall when my dad was hospitalized for the psychotic episode that led to his diagnosis.
Beth— That's a pretty sanitized description of what The Villages is. My parents spent the winters nearby. I've been for doctor's appointments and happy hour dance parties. It's kind of like if Sodom and Gomorrah j/k had a baby with Carnival Cruises. The locals do seem to be enjoying themselves.
Nice compost bin you have there. That's a great shot of the bluebird. Did he build you the box as well. Back when I was working with the scouts, blue bird boxes were a common Eagle Scout project. I've seen a couple of birds at the local park where I used to walk. They're so cute.
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I'm 1 for 2. The painter did show up and did the medium toned trim on the sides and back of the house. I'm quite happy with the color so far. DS likes it but says it could be greener. DH doesn't much care so long as I am happy with it. He'll be back later in the week. Landscaper was a no show. I did
Wordle is down for some reason, I guess I'll do the crossword and finish the laundry instead.
Be safe out there.
HB0 -
Morning. Sunny, cool and very windy this morning. Time to turn off the water in the lot. Just gave Billy his medicine and some hay.. Back later.
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I went to the store today and when I got out of the car, the wind almost blew me past my camper. Now that im inside, a strong gust will shake the camper. We had strong winds in Louisiana, but nothing like this.
Ron
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My little town ( surrounded by OKC) has a population of 3,000+. Now that's a small town!
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Good afternoon, rockers. Kind of chilly and gray on my end of the porch today.
I, too, am enjoying the pictures of the No Kings march, and especially the signs people carried. The news is saying that 7 million people participated; it was the largest nationwide protest since the first Earth Day in 1970. Here in NYC, 100,000 joined in citywide. Most of them started in Times Square and marched down Seventh Ave. to 14th Street.
On my way home from getting groceries this morning, there was an awful smell of burning wood in the air, and the sound of dozens of fire trucks racing to their destination. It was a bad fire about five blocks from me. A house was pretty much gutted; I heard the firemen saying that it was a suspected lithium ion battery fire from an e-bike. I don't think i would ever feel comfortable keeping one of those batteries in my house. They are a big source of home fires here. The number of engines and ladder trucks on site was amazing; I saw one firefighter preparing to launch a drone from the corner to inspect the damage from above. The fire seemed to be out, but the response was kind of awesome. I felt sorry for whoever owns that house.
BethL, that was a lot of cooking, but it sounds like you made the right amount. At least they left you enough for lunch. I used to have similarly voracious neighbors. One year they came for Thanksgiving and I did not have enough left over for a sandwich the next day. It is amazing how much even small children can eat.
Carl, that is one truly terrible joke.
HB, lots of things are down this morning. There was a big cloud outage at Amazon Web Services overnight, and the delays are dragging on. They are trying to fix it.
Sandwichone, welcome. Glad you decided to post. I read a long time before i started posting, too.
Lorita, i am glad that Billy seems to be getting better.
And Gothic G, thanks for explaining the reason for all those t-rexes at No Kings. I did not know that is what the name meant!
Hope everyone has a good day. Fall is starting to settle in here.
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So, Tigersmom, that may be reason I can't get through to Amazon customer service. I received a statement from Amazon saying I owed almost $17. I haven't ordered from them since 2023. Called Synchrony Bank and they said it wss for Prime. I did not request that so they are filing a dispute but I need to get through to Amazon to tell them. I have heard people are having a hard time cancelling their prime.
Ron, it is so very windy here. Really kicking up the pollen so it's bothering me. Like the song says " when the winds comes sweeping down the plains"Oklahoma for sure and Western Oklahoma is worse than the Eastern side a lot of times.
Judith, my hometown is a small town - barely 200 people and that probably includes the rural areas. But you're in a perfect place with everything closeby. Must be nice.
Girls have been upset today, probably the wind. Probably heard a truck two miles away. They made the trek up to the MH where they feed earlier but I don't think they fed. Just now they all came back down bawling. Most of them are just outside the yard in the shade from the trees in the yard.
I'll watch Rachel tonight - she usually shows a lot of the rallies. I heard at least seven million people participated, too. I enjoyed seeing the costumes and signs. People are unhappy!
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Good afternoon Rockers.
Lorita. Good news about Billy's feet. Does the wet ground make it worse? I'm really liking the weather here in Idaho. Right now it's 51, wind blowing and suns out.
Sandwichone. It's nice hearing from you. We drove through Alberquie on our way to Oklahoma, many years ago. I remember we stopped in a area that was probably for visitors. It was a small park area with shops on all four sides, we had the best tacos, in one of those cafes. We stopped there on our way back home to get more tacos.
Ron. That pretty dog was bigger then you. It sounds like maybe you need to tie your camper down so you don't blow away.
Iris. I had no idea how big Boise, was going to be. It's probably not big to you, I bet L.A. is alot bigger. I grew up big city. Sacramento, but have been in small and smaller towns all my adult life.
GG. The population in the Boise metro area is 845,000. In Boise city it's 235,000. We live 15 miles from the big city of Boise. When we went out for our drive to Boise, we drove through a small cute town, it was only about 2 blocks long. We thought that was the town of Boise. A few miles later we saw how wrong we were. 😱😱 if your familiar with Boise, we live a few miles from Micron, Technology.
HB. We dont plan on dealing with that bummer traffic again we found everything we need closer to home.
Judith. A town with a population of 3000, is my type of town. When I was a kid, when we went to my grandparents house, in Jenner California, we drove through a small town, Duncan Mills, population of 21. I could have lived there.
Tigersmom. I'm glad you were not close to that fire. Hopefully it was all put out without anyone being hurt.
My DD, Sure keeps my life busy. That's good and bad. The older I get. I don't like being around a lot of people and I prefer quiter days. Today a landscaper came and spent 3 hours in the yard. Later today we are having a new dinning room table delivered and set up. Molly and Fiona, barking the whole time. Now she is getting ready to be interviewing housekeepers. This big house is not as easy to keep up. I do enjoy when we goto Albertsons and Starbucks ☕️ I love my coffee. We have 3 coffee makers in the house.
Hugs to all, Zetta
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Sorry Carl, im afraid Tigersmom thought it was you telling the woman always right joke. I dont mind sharing, gladly let you take the heat. LOL
Ron
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Carl, i meant the why-cows-have-hooves joke. That one is a real groaner!
And Lorita, you may be right. Until Amazon fixes their worldwide problem, it may be hard to raise a human being there. Not that it is ever easy with them…
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We're getting wind from the south at 25 mph, and the temperature is in the mid-70s. Tomorrow, we expect a cold front from the north and the high temperature is expected to be in the mid-60s. The NWS says Springfield MO has the most changeable weather in the US, and I believe it. It is pretty consistently hot in July and August and cold in January and February, but otherwise we never get used to anything. We just might have T-shirt weather at Christmas and an ice storm for New Years, or not. I carry a jacket in my car year-round, just in case. Ron, it is not too early to buy a winter coat and hat. I have seen snow in October and in March, just as your son said. I have also driven to work in shirt sleeves and driven home in the snow. We're right at the crossroads of weather, and the forces of nature use us for tug of war.
Another thing: If a man says something in the forest and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?
I went to Chair Chi (seated version of Tai Chi) today and got a good stretch. I could hear the bones in my shoulders popping like cog wheels, but the stretching is helping. Lunch at the Center was white chicken "chili" with cornbread and cucumber salad. Not the best I ever had, but not bad. It was basically white beans flavored with cilantro, with kernel corn and a few bits of chicken. I couldn't detect any actual chili pepper. Passable food in good company beats great food eaten alone, so I was satisfied.
TTYL
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Don't know why I told the cow joke. It just moooved me somehow.
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