The Experiment

 My new stove has a multipurpose oven, and one of the things it does is dehydrate. Now, I have never tried dehydration before but decided to give it a go. The one thing that I decided is that when I run the dehydrator, the oven will be full. So I use both racks and even put a smaller baking sheet on the bottom of the oven, and then I run the dehydrator over night. The oven keeps at a steady 150 degrees.

When I wake up, everything is done. The house is also warmed on these chilly mornings. Double duty, there!

This is my first experiment. 

This jar is about 1.5 quarts. Unbelievably, this jar contains 3 lbs of carrots, 3 lbs of celery, six large Vidalia onions, at least 4 trays of dehydrated tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, corn, green beans. I just dehydrated whatever I found on sale, produce wise or whatever came from the garden. If I had part of a onion left over from whatever I was cooking, I just diced it up and put it on a parchment covered baking sheet. It was a great way to use up the last of the garden, when things were winding down, not enough to make a meal, but too much to waste.

It is my soup jar. I have tried this. I had made a little venison roast. I saved the broth from it. I chopped up the meat and dropped it back into the crock pot of broth. I added a half cup of dehydrated vegetables and enough water to cover it. I let the crock sit over night in the fridge and then popped it back into the crock pot on low the next morning. I added a handful of barley and let it go.

That evening, we had our bowl of venison-vegetable-barley soup. Tim said, 'This is good.' I said that I had used the dehydrated vegetables. He said, 'Really??? They don't taste any different from regular vegetables!'

He is a convert. He tells everyone.

I have been dehydrating potatoes too. We bought a 50 lb bag. 

This is a two quart container. You can see that it is about 2/3 full. This is 10 lbs of potatoes. I will do another 5 lbs tonight. My thoughts were to use them for scalloped potatoes. If they pass Betty Crocker's scrutiny, there is no reason it shouldn't work for me. 

I hunted online and discovered that there are quite a few people who swear by dehydrating.

I found an 'instant sauce mix' to use in making the scalloped potatoes. Dried milk, flour, cornstarch. Dried minced onion. Garlic powder, parsley, salt, pepper and ground mustard. 'Better than Betty's' they proclaim. 'No additives!' 

I wanted to also explain something else. You really can fall down quite a rabbit hole with this dehydrating stuff. Gz mentioned that she just braids her garlic and hangs it. We go through a lot of garlic in this house, either sautéed in olive oil and stored in the fridge or minced fresh.

This sauce recipe (and many other  dehydrating recipes) called for minced dried onion and garlic powder. I had a lot of fresh garlic and that bag of Vidalia onions. I wondered why you would buy that. If you were dehydrating, why couldn't you dehydrate those like everything else? So off I went to discover that for myself. I would call the experiment a success, but I will warn you that 3 trays of onions and one of garlic will bring you to tears! Luckily, we sleep with our bedroom door shut and windows open for the cool. By the time we got up the next morning, the tear makers were neutralized!

We will be putting these potatoes to the test on Sunday. We have company coming for barbecue. I will let you know.

This jar contains 40 ounces of fresh mushrooms. They were on sale at the grocery store, so I picked them up for dehydrating. They turned out great. I have used these already. I tossed a scoop of them into the tomato sauce I was making from the last of the tomatoes. Again,  they were (to us, anyway) indistinguishable from cooking with fresh mushrooms.

So...that is my experiment so far. I am pleased with the results. It is awfully nice to have the time to try my hand at new things.

Get 'r Done

 We have been getting things done here, and for whatever reason, it seems to be moving along without 'hiccups'.

Today, I walked out of the house with my to-do list. Tim had a list of his own. He dropped me off at the bank. Despite multiple assurances that the bank's hands were tied, two teller trips to the manager's office to discuss the situation (I was pretty sure the teller did not understand what I was explaining), I finally was allowed to speak directly to the manager. I explained the situation, she immediately understood what I needed and she did it. She also took the extra step of calling the main office to double make sure the issue was resolved. I appreciated that. I was in and out of her office in ten minutes flat.

From there, I walked to the post office with some letters. We had our mail forwarded to the new address. It took two tries to get that accomplished, but it got done. Except that we began getting mail addressed to other people at the old house!

I was directed to the postmaster. After a brief conversation with him, that problem was resolved.

Then it was out the door and over to the library. For our wedding gift to our daughter and almost son-in-law, we got them tickets to a theater event they wanted to see. Since we still do not have our computer set up, I needed to print them off there.

One interesting thing happened there. Someone had left their cellphone beside the computer, so I took it up to the desk and turned it in. Immediately, this caused great agitation. One of the librarians made a big deal about 'what are we going to do with it' and 'I am not touching it!' (Repeated multiple times). I am not sure why she was so upset by the phone. Surely it was simple enough to put the phone behind the counter for safekeeping until someone realized they'd misplaced it and began retracing their steps. The issue was debated for far longer than I thought it needed to be.

But in any case, the tickets were printed out. At about the same time, my phone rang. Tim was finished with his list. Perfect timing.

We got a few groceries and headed home. Yesterday, we had gotten our freezer loaded onto the truck and down to the new house. I got it defrosted overnight and wiped it down. We got it unloaded and into the basement with minimal difficulty. 

Has anyone heard of this cheese? I had never tried it before, but we both think it is the best cheddar we have ever had.

So anyways, I was happy with the day's work and I felt quite accomplished. I reminded myself that:

Relief

I had a doctor's appointment today, and I was sincerely dreading it. I hate arguing with the doctor. She is actually a Physician's Assistant, but, you know what I mean. She had been trying to convince me to do metformin for my 'diabetes', even though I clearly fell into the pre-diabetes range. I was pushing back. 

I cited NIH guidelines. I discussed the fact that I was hampered by a very bad knee which made exercise difficult. I was also struggling with a bit of depression. I was just not in a good place last winter.

Personally, I was seeing this as a wake up call. I got serious about my diet. My knee replacement allowed me to begin exercising in earnest.

But despite all of those changes, I was dreading that doctor visit like crazy. I was sure that the issue would be pushed again. 

Except it wasn't. 

I am no longer pre-diabetic. I have lost just over 28 pounds this year. They are pleased with the changes. Told me to keep on keeping on.

I can't tell you how relieved I am.

Pete Hegseth put out a demand that all news agencies at the Pentagon had to sign a pledge not to cover any stories not approved by the Pentagon. The deadline was 5 pm today. As far as I can see only one far right news group has signaled a willingness to do so, something called OANN, which stands for One America News Network. 

I can't tell you how relieved I am about that too. 

Let's end it on a humorous note, shall we?

Happy

 

Today, I had to go into town early to have blood work done. We had company coming for supper, so I wanted to pick up makings for a tossed salad, but I had some time to kill before the grocery store opened, so I went to the Tractor Supply to see what they had left in their garden shop. Everything was 75% and I was not going to buy anything. Just look. 

As you do. 

Except there was this bumble bee clinging to this plant in the morning chill.

Isn't that just so cute?

I bought the plant for purely humanitarian reasons, and the little bee was quite happy to travel home in a warm car with me. 

I know it is ridiculous, but that tiny good deed made me very happy and that happy lasted all day.

For Blondi

Blondi Blathers tickled me yesterday with her comment, so here you are: My refrigerator. I have a lot of magnets. Some artwork. 

I have a stone that my youngest granddaughter presented to me with great pride. She painted it herself.

The 'hagstone' (the rock with the hole in it) was found by my grandson.

They are kept in a crystal dish with my other interesting stones, arrowheads, a stone scraper/knife, fossils, pottery shards. 

I have an orange plastic spider on the bathroom window sill where my granddaughters left it.

That's enough real for the moment. 

Today I woke up at six am. I finally just got up. I peeled the rest of my apples from my niece's house and made apple sauce. Once that was on the stove, I chopped up 3 trays of onions and started dehydrating them. Once done, I whisked them through the food processor on pulse, just the tiniest bit to make dried minced onion. I am drying garlic to make garlic powder. This dehydrating thing has been such a very interesting thing to learn about. 

Taking a tip from Boud, I did a bit of creating. I made a little terrarium with mosses. That made me happy too. 

My sister and her husband came over. I finally won a game of scrabble. It's been a while. She brought beef tips and noodles for supper. I added a loaf of zucchini bread and apple sauce. Apple pie ala mode for dessert.

That is it really, unless you want to hear about the recycling taken in. Or scrubbing the bathroom. 

There you have it...another day in the life, but it was soul satisfying.

Dull Day

 Today was a hodge podge day. Errands to be run, a bit of groceries. Then back home and up to deliver some pepperoni to my niece. We picked apples. She has a glut of them and I am welcome to as many as I can use. 

We have had two hard frosts, and so I picked the last few of my tomatoes and figured to use them for spaghetti sauce. I added some of my dehydrated onions, mushrooms and garlic. I tossed in my seasonings and three cooked links of Italian sausage and let it all simmer together to rehydrate my vegetables. I peeled and cut up apples for an apple pie. 

Tim spent the afternoon tinkering with his 'new' old truck. So far he has changed the oxygen sensors, something about wiring harnesses and grounds. He cleaned the fuel filters today and he changed the ignition switch. He is patiently tracking down codes. He bought a fuel pump for his last old truck but thinks he will have to put it on the new old truck and just order another fuel pump for the last old truck.😵‍💫

I say, 'I don't understand why you had to buy a new old truck. Why didn't you just fix up the last old truck?' The answer is always 'The body on this one is perfect.'

Lucky he doesn't apply that thinking to wives. I will stick to apple pies and spaghetti sauce. 

But here's something curious. I didn't really have enough tomatoes to make enough sauce, so I added a jar of marinera to stretch the sauce. It was a brand I was not familiar with, but the label said 'Marinera' and underneath 'roasted red bell peppers'.  It was only after I added the sauce that I noticed in smaller writing above the word 'marinera'. It said 'with Hatch chiles'. 

Have you ever seen marinera with chiles?

Tim does not like spicy food but he liked this a lot. He also liked his slice of warm apple pie with ice cream on top. 

So that was today. Who is that snoring out there?

Unexpected

 The weather is getting cool and Tim worried about our newest tenant. Her apartment is heated with a vented gas heater. We shut it down in the summer when it is serviced. When it gets cool outside, it can be relit and it is ready to go. It is thermostatically controlled like any furnace. 

Tenants seem to be nervous about lighting it, which surprised us a little, but Tim would obligingly walk down and demonstrate it for them once sgain.. The last tenant nervously messaged me about when we were going to turn the heat on. We were horrified. She had been shown how to do it, and we never even considered that she wouldn't. We had turned on our own heat a couple weeks earlier.

Now we live 1/2 hour out of town and Tim wanted to make sure the new tenant had the heat turned on. It has been getting into the 30s at night, and the mornings are frosty.

I messaged J but received no reply. Still, we stopped by on our way through. I rang the buzzer, but she didn't come to the door. 

The downstairs tenant was hooking his truck up to his trailer of lawn equipment. I greeted him cheerfully. 'Is J out, do you know?' 

His answer was short and curt. "I wouldn't know." Just the was he said it, I kind of got the idea that he was upset.

Now, understand that we have had problems with tenants getting along before. We had a real slyboots once.  She had been with us for several years. No matter who was in the other apartment, there were problems. She like to stake claim on the shared washer in the basement. She would put clothes in it over the course of a few days, and run it when she got around to it. When the other tenant came to use the washer it was always full of her not yet washed clothes. We fixed that by assigning days. Odd days the washer was reserved for the bottom apartment. Even days belonged to the upper apartment. Clothes not removed from the washer or dryer were allowed to be removed. 

The next tenant she complained about non-stop. To be fair, that girl was a partier, when her lease was up, we did not renew it. 

The third tenant, our longterm tenant just did stupid stuff. If she saw the tenant on the back deck, she'd throw handfuls of bird seed from her balcony 'for the squirrels' as the seed rained down on the tenant trying to enjoy her view. The hall light had a shared switch. When the downstairs tenant came home with her groceries after working her second shift job, the upstairs neighbor would switch off the hall light on her. There were other things. Lots of things. We gave her a three month notice, and were glad to see the backside of her.

Things have been pretty quiet ever since. We thought, anyway.

I said, "is there a problem?"

He said, "I'm not saying anything. I need a place to live." He was mad though.

I was a bit dumbfounded by that. "We would never just get rid of a tenant for that. We've always try to mediate."

I couldn't imagine what it could be. J is a quiet person, with a shaky voice. She has had a rough go of things and was so emotional hearing that she had the apartment, that it made us sure she was right for the building.

I said, "I am sure that we can work it out with her..."

He said, "So he wasn't honest with you at all, I see. I grew up with him and his family and..."

The change in pronouns made it clear to me. I said, "We know she's transgendered."

He threw up his hands in disgust. "I know his family and they are good people."

I said, "Listen. It doesn't matter. We did not ask her to pull down her pants before renting to her. We didn't ask you to either."

He snorted. J. opened her door at that moment. He said, "We will talk later."

I could not even imagine what was left that needed said. He got in his truck and drove off with his trailer. 

I guess what made this exchange so unexpected is that we knew him before he ever moved in. We know his family. I attended church with his grandma. His brother and sister in law were coworkers, as well as church friends. We knew him. I ushered in his nephew's wedding to his same sex partner. I watched him dancing at that wedding with his girlfriend, a gorgeous black woman with long flowing hair. It would never have occurred to us that he was one of those. 

Tim and I agonized over how to best handle it. I actually lay awake last night. My biggest fear was that there had already been words exchanged that might have J feeling as if her living situation might be at risk. 

This morning, I just bit the bullet and called her. I explained it very briefly. I had barely begun to speak when she said, "I know he doesn't like me. He has never said anything, but I can feel that. He knows my family."

I said, "Good. I honestly don't think he is going to say anything. I was just blindsided by the conversation. I just want you to know where we stand on it. You are a good tenant, and you never have to worry that this will affect your relationship with us. This is his problem to sort through. Just know that if he ever begins to harass you, we expect to be notified immediately."

In other news, Hegseth has given the greenlight to Qatar opening a military base in Idaho. Gotta say I did not have that on my bingo card.

Trump did not win the Nobel Peace Prize today. 

We installed heat tape on a house as part of a birthday present. I baked 4 loaves of zucchini bread when we got home. Supper was just a simple tomato soup and grilled cheese. For the first time since we moved into this house, I managed to grill the sandwiches without setting off the darn smoke detector, something that I think is worthy of a prize.

Nature

 I have been meaning to comment on the whole 'cats are lactose intolerant'. I wonder about that. I have three younger kittens, six - eight months, I am guessing. I buy cans of evaporated milk from the discount grocery (30 cents a can) and heat up water in the kettle, dilute about 1/3 of a can until it looks like milk should look. Then I add a can of catfood in to make a sort of a gravy. They start the day with bellies of warm food.

 I figure that I will just stop when they stop eating it, but they still lap it up. The thing is, so do their mothers. They all crowd in and lap up that  ixture until it is gone. So I guess I have questions about that. I think animal instinct would kick in if the milk was making them sick. It is not as if they don't have other options. There is a large dish of kibble. They each get a packet of cat food. The moms get two. But they still do love their gravy. All of them.

I remember my friend's dairy barn. The cats always came in at milking time. When the udders were cleaned, prior to milking, the next step was to milk them by hand into a bucket to make sure that there was no dirt or bacteria to contaminate the milk once you put the milking machine on them. The milk from the 'stripping' was always given to the barn cats and they knew it. They followed us around mewing excitedly, and there was always a too excited cat getting milk poured on his head, so anxious was he to get the first taste.

So I do have questions about the whole lactose intolerant thing.

Anyways, I headed to the garage tonight with the pitcher of milk gravy, and a carton of cat food. It was getting dark, and Tim had closed up the garage doors already. 

Now the thing is, I wasn't being quiet. I was talking to cats like I always do. I did notice that zero cats came to meet me. I walked into the garage and noticed a black and white cat at the kibble dish, and groaned to myself. I am two cats away from having them all neutered and the last thing I need is more cats showing up. 

I stepped closer and realized what I was looking about the same time he looked up and realized what he was looking at. 

The skunk swiftly turned tail. I recoiled in horror. 

The answer is no. He swiftly waddled off through the hole he had dug out at the back of the garage. 

Tim thought this was a real knee slapper. He said I came close to sleeping in the camper for a few days, but did offer to turn on the heat and water so I would be comfortable.

Seasons change and so do I.

 We finally got a good soaking rain on Tuesday.  I honestly don't think there is a better sound to fall asleep to, the shussssshhh of heavy rain on the roof. 

I washed windows yesterday, inside and out. It is interesting. We picked up windows over the years as we found them on sale. The sizes match, and the colors too, but the mechanisms vary. What started out as a small job (only 11 windows to do) turned into an afternoon's work. I could not find the right nozzle for the vacuum, then I needed to rip it apart to clean the filters. Then I finangled with the different windows. Long story short: I have three more windows to clean. 

But yesterday, on my ladder it was cool and breezy and the tree leaves rattled behind me. The seasons are changing. 

This morning, when I got up, there was a light frost in the meadow in front of the house.

A funny thing? The deer come to the meadow in the evening. Last night, two curious cats came out to watch them feeding. A big doe was curious right back. She walked to each one of them in turn to investigate. One cat fled, but one cat stayed, and the deer ate, comfortable with the strange little creature laying just a few feet away.

I think Portland and Chicago are doing it right. Not backing down, either one of them. 

Portland police chief pushes back on White House 'war zone' narrative - ABC News https://abcnews.go.com/US/portland-police-chief-pushes-back-white-house-war/story?id=126274228

Ice teargassed the police in Chicago.

 ICE Feuds With Chicago Police As Tension Between Law Enforcement Grows - Newsweek https://www.newsweek.com/ice-chicago-police-tension-10834038

Oregon National Guard General states that if the National Guard is deployed in Washington State, their orders will be to protect the public from ICE. 

Watching all this from the woods, one thing is clear. We owe it to the people on the frontlines to protest on October 18th. 

Tell me

 Anyone out there use Viasat for their internet?

We are living out in the country right now. Our computer is not yet set up, because we don't have a provider. My sister uses her StraightTalk phone as a hot spot. It meets their needs, so we figured that we'd probably just do the same.

Then this came in the mail: 

Tim suggested that we check into it. 

So, I called. 

A friendly woman asked for my address to make sure they provided service to our area.  I thought that was strange since the postcard was mailed to this address, but I gave it to her. She brightly said that they did service our area, and she offered to put me through to a sales representative. 

I thanked her and listened to another round of the same recording as I did waiting for the first representative.

Another woman came on the phone. This one asked for my name and then my address once again. I spelled my last name carefully using the military phonetic alphabet for my last name. 

She thanked me. I said that I just had questions about their service. My post card did not mention a hookup cost. What would that cost? 

She said that she would connect me to a specialist. (!!!!)

So I waited again.

A young man came on, and once again, I spelled out my name. Once again, I provided my address. He asked questions. One was 'who is your existing provider?' I said that we just moved here. 'Owning or renting'. 'Own.' Who provided service at your previous address?' 'Breezeline.' 'Why aren't you continuing with them?' 

Uh... that struck me as odd. I said because this is a rural area, they don't service this area, and frankly we are not impressed with their customer service.'

He said, 'Let's get you set up with a home visit shall we?' 

I said, 'We aren't there yet. I need to get some basic information. How much is the hookup fee?'

He began telling me that it all depended, without telling me what it depended on. 'The technician would explain this when he made his visit,' he said in a placating voice.

I said that I was not interested in a home visit if he couldn't even provide me with basic information.

He danced around a bit, but finally said it would be between 0 and $500 to hook up. Monthly fees would be between $69 and $200. Again he said that it was all depending while not telling me what it depended on. 

I mentioned the postcard offering service at $61.99 a month. He seemed very surprised at that price. "I am holding it in my hand right now," I said.

'Let me see when we can get a technician out...' he said.

"No," I said. "This feels very scammy."

He was surprised and sounded wounded. He asked me why I would even think such a thing. 

I said, 'Have a good day,' and hung up as he said, 'Wait, Ms -------'.

Is this the way business is done now? Craziest phone call ever.

Sometimes...

Sometimes I scare myself. Last week, I managed to lose my wallet twice. It gets set down and forgotten. The last time I had carelessly dropped it when I reached for my sweater. 

It scares me, these lapses.

I decided the sensible thing was to begin carrying a purse. One is far less likely to drop something or leave it behind if it is slung over a shoulder.

Friday, I drove my brother in law into town to pick up a rental car. The deer had sensibly run across the road and into the brush before suddenly changing his mind, turning back and flinging himself into my sister's car. 

"I don't know what is wrong with my car," I said. "It doesn't seem to want to shift." 

The thing is I had not driven my car much. We tend to stick to the Suburu because the gas mileage is better. That is the only explanation I have. My brother in law looked down, laughed and shifted the car from Low to Drive. I was mortified. 

In the Suburu, Drive is straight all the way back. To put it into Low, you move the gear shift from Drive to the left. In the Lincoln, it is a straight operation: park, reverse, neutral, Drive and low. I just pulled the shift all the way back like you would for the other car.

I forget things. 

There is part of me that just wants to blame it on my preoccupation with the chaos around me. There is another part of me that worries that it is not.

The find

 Yesterday, just before I pulled my prank at the yard sale, I was stopped dead at the sight of these. 8 of them. Tealight candle holders that look like ice, and immediately, I wanted them. 

Now, I did not need them, and I told myself that in a very firm, no nonsense way. 

I mean, I couldn't have made it any clearer to me. 

But it did not stop the wanting. 

I stood there thinking of Sue and her carboot sales, and her seasonal displays. 

In the end, I caved. I bought them. $8 for all of them, a dollar apiece. 

I came home and looked them up. Kosta Boda art glass designed by Ann Wolff.  That was pretty cool. They are leaded glass and very heavy. In the case of an actual emergency, i could use them to defend myself! 

Tonight I lit them and set them out on the coffee table. I am glad that I ignored myself.

I am reading a good book. The Guest Book by Sarah Blake. 

And last night. ICE raided an apartment building in Chicago, zip tying children and putting them into the back of U-hauls, separated from their parents. It sickens me, literally.

How can anyone justify this? 

But people are, and their excuses make me every bit as sick as the raids themselves.

Joker

 Tim stopped at a yard sale last week. They had old garden tools, so he returned to the sale with Levi, who bought a carload of stuff.

(Not kidding, btw. )

The ladder he bought was set aside. And picked up when Tim brought the truck into town. So Tim did that yesterday.

Tim knows the family hosting the sale. An elderly couple is selling their big house. Their kids were helping out. One of the daughters mentioned that they were bringing stuff to the sale through out the week.

Tim needed to run into town to meet the water company this morning. We were astonished to get our water bill for the old house. They claimed we had used 63 gallons of water a day last month. The house has been empty since the end of July! When they were called, they said it was an estimated bill and said that they are required to be notified when a house is empty for a final meter reading. Who knew? We sure did not.

So this morning, we went back to town for the dreaded 8-12 'window'. Luckily, the man was there not long after 9. 

Tim wanted to stop by his yard sale again to see what else they had. They were delighted to see him again. 

The elderly woman said, "I assume this is your wife..."

I made my face look perfectly astonished, as I looked over at him. "Wait...you're married????!!"

Something Promising.

 Yesterday was an early start. I had caged Possum and Tiger Kitty the previous night and they had meowed pitifully from the basement through the night. I am sure they were hungry and thirsty, but they were being neutered.

We were up at 6. On the road by 7. In line by 7:30, back in the car by 8.

We had a list of errands to do. Tim needed to get some tools to work on his 'new' truck when the parts arrive on Friday. I wanted him to get a truck that was sound. I mean he already has a truck that he doesn't want to drive because it is an antique. He has two more trucks that need some mechanical work. Now he has another. He looks at me and patiently explains that the new truck has not got a bit of rust on it. All it needs is some tinkering and a paint job. The other trucks require tinkering AND bodywork.

I don't get it either, but he has promised me that once he replaces the fuel pump on his previous 'new' truck, he will sell it. 

We'll see, but we are two people who do not need six vehicles. Seven if you count the Baja in the garage. 

I digress, but this really is a bone of contention between us. All I can say is that at least it is not another house. 

Anyways. We had an appointment at the bank (that we missed) but that she took us anyway. We had to pick up some stuff from Lowe's. We had to stop in at the insurance office to add the 'new' truck to our policy. (Grrrrrrr....) The last stop was at the library to print off our tickets for Kansas. 

We got headed for home. It was not yet noon and we thought we might be able to get a little nap before we got the call to go pick up the cats. Usually the call comes about 2ish. This time we had no sooner gotten home and the stuff out of the car than the call came. 

I drove back in to town and two cats were pitifully glad to see me. They sang a very sad song the half hour home. I tried to confine them in the basement to insure that they were over the effects of the surgery, but they were so frantic to get out that I gave up and let them out. They tore across the yard and back to the safety of their clowder and garage. 

(At suppertime, they were just as glad to see me as usual, and allowed much petting.)

The Fix'n Wag'n neutered over 80 cats yesterday. In the four month that this service has been provided, they have neutered over 380 cats in my town. I can't say enough good things about this program. Not all these animals have homes, but there are people who tend these animals. The 'tipped' ear allows you to tell at a glance which feral cats have been neutered and which have not. Last visit a woman brought in (and paid for) 11 feral cats. Neutering them in this numbers should have a noticeable impact on feral cat populations - a very good thing.

Successful Day.

Today was a ticking boxes sort of day. 

Yoga (tick).

Remembered to pick up two jalapeños (tick)

Made salsa (tick)

Obligatory sampling of salsa - so very excellent (tick)

Finished siding 

Siding finished. (Tick!)

Managed to capture both ferals for their neuters tomorrow. (Tick!!! Only two more to do!)

We have a long list of errands to keep us busy while we are in town tomorrow waiting for the cats to be ready to come back home. It will be a long day, but at the end of it, we are going see 'Kansas' tomorrow night in Erie. 

For Dave. Thinking of you and your family.

Talking about ticked: how about Trump's speech? Greeted by silence as he took the stage, he told 800 military leaders that they could applaud if they liked what he had to say. He also told them they could also leave the room if they didn't, but that it would cost them their rank and their future.

Whoo boy.

TaskerI will have to get your truck picture another day. One box unticked.

Buying a truck.

 Yesterday, Tim suddenly made a phone call. "I am about an hour away from you and I am leaving the house right now." 

I was dicing up tomatoes for salsa. He passed by, tossing me his phone. Google this address for me. He has a truck for sale. He just put it up an hour ago. He has had a lot of calls, but no one has made arrangements. If I like it, I am putting a five hundred dollar deposit on it. He said he would hold it 'til I got there." He headed for his shoes. I brought up the address, and kept my mouth shut. He knew what I thought. 

Out the door he flew. 

I had my own stuff to do. I had already canned 5 quarts of stewed tomatoes. I was turning another 5 quart crockpot of tomatoes into 5 quarts of spaghetti sauce, so I was chopping onions and peppers and garlic for that. I set up 4 cookie sheets of tomato skins for dehydrating. I talked to my youngest daughter on the phone. I made meatballs.

In the end, Tim returned home triumphant. He had bought a truck. It was from California. No rust. Chrome deer guard. Nice tires. Aluminum wheels. 

The seller was a nice fellow. When it came time to write out the receipt, he said that he could not read and write. He had a sister who took care of those things for him. He went into the house, and came out with the receipt, which he signed and gave to Tim.

Tim mused over that while we ate our spaghetti supper. "He knows trucks and does great body work. I'd guess he is in his seventies."

I said. "Well, I don't think it was uncommon for young men to leave school to take care of their families. My grandpa..." I trailed off. My grandpa would be about 120 now. This fellow was not much older than we were. The realization came as a shock, as once again I realized my own age.

So today, we drove up to get the truck. Surprisingly, Tim took the money in cash for him. He just felt like it would be easier for him. 

I didn't know how safe that was, but he had his mind made up. He knew the guy could count. 

We drove the hour to get there. We saw this: 

I can't imagine someone spending thousands of dollars to have a chainsaw carving of that man square in the middle of the front yard. There's a picture for your picture window, alright. It is not even very good. Look how big his hands are. 

Anyways we pulled up in front of a tidy little house. A neatly dressed man with a bushy mustache stepped out of his garage and walked out to meet us with a brisk step. Tim and he talked. We gave him a ride over to the AAA to do the title change and get the new plate for the truck. 

We handed him the money. He was a familiar face there and everyonegreeted him by name so I assume this was not the first time he had sold a vehicle. The woman doing the paperwork took him around a corner and helped him count the money. 

When the paperwork was done and we were walking back to the car, I asked him if he wanted us to take him to the bank to deposit it. "No, no," he replied. "I have a safe in my house."

So, we got him back home. There was a gray haired man with a ponytail in front of the garage. "Looks like you have company," I said.

"That's just my brother. He really wanted that truck. He already had a truck. I told him no."

Just something in his voice made me think that he really didn't care much for his brother. I was even surer of it when we all got out of the car. He immediately headed to his house. I noticed that he had that money concealed on the opposite side from his brother.

I was sure at that point that there was a problem in that relationship. 

We changed his plate for our new plate, Tim said, 'follow me'. He drove off in his new-to-him truck. 

We stopped for lunch about halfway home, and then headed off. I was following Tim still. It was such a pretty day, with autumn colors. The road got very twisty. Tim got further and further ahead. I was pretty sure I knew where I was, so I wasn't too worried. I just kept my eye on that far ahead green truck. 

I came to an intersection and I intended to turn right, but then I saw that green truck far off in front of me. He had gone straight. I simply assumed that he was taking another route, so I continued on straight, keeping that far off truck in my sight.

As I traveled along, I noticed I was catching up to that truck. Eventually I got close enough to see the dog's head out of the window. I was following someone else's green truck!

It made me laugh, but it was a pretty day for a drive. I knew where I was and I knew how to get home. 

The field is barren

 It has been a lot of busyness. We had to run into town yesterday, and so Maytag was delivered to his new home. That kitten has hit the jackpot. He looks like the older cat they already have, so they were eager to get him. She sent me a video of him playing with a very posh mechanical toy that had him leaping and twisting. He also has a stuffed gorilla that he drags around. She said, 'I got out the cat toy box and he picked that out immediately.' 

Cat toy box? Multiple cat trees? If there is a feline version of Disneyland, he is there. They are besotted. 

Fred and Houdi were thrilled to have their suppers to themselves once again.

The house deal closed, and Mia now officially has a house for her and her little boy. She still does not seem to be be speaking to us. A disappointing end, but it is done.

I drove an Amish woman to the hospital so that she could have sister time. Her sister lives in Ohio but is quite ill and was transferred to St Vincent hospital.

It was a nice day, and I enjoyed sitting outside in the sun and reading my book while they visited inside.

Today was pumpkin butter in the little crock pot and stewed tomatoes in the five qt. 

Keeping myself occupied seems to be the only way I am going to get through these strange days. 

I saw someone referred to trump as 'Been-a-dick Donald.' It is good that I can still laugh.

Retirement, take two.

 We came up six panels of siding short, so we had to order more. Tim picked it up this morning, and has been working between rain showers trying to finish the job. It isn't going to happen, but we have tomorrow.

It has been cooling down here -good news- and we had more rain this week than we have had in the last month. Looks like more on the way. All good news.

So the siding is nearly done. How on earth will we entertain ourselves now? 

Yesterday, I needed to pick up a phone card. I always stop into the discount grocery on my way through. You can never tell what you are going to come across.

I spent $35 there, and quite honestly, nearly half of it was on cheese. It is all vacuum packed. It will store.

When I was done there, I headed to the Walmart to get my phone card. 

My niece messaged me. She wanted to know if I was able to make yoga that night. We have been trying to mesh schedules, but with our 4 kids' birthdays in 3 weeks, getting the siding up, and her trip to Virginia Beach, it just never seemed to work out. 

She normally goes in the mornings, but fresh from vacation, she missed yoga and had a spur of the moment idea to do an evening session and texted to see if I could make it. 

I could, if I hustled, so hustle I did. I am glad I went. The class was small, the instructor good. I discovered that I am still pretty flexible, and although the instructor was concerned about my knee, I wasn't. I made it clear that I had no intention of pushing it.

There was only one exercise I could not do, putting all my weight on that knee while extending the opposite leg and flexing the knee I was kneeling on. Everything else was very 'doable'. It even felt good. 

At the end of the class, the instructor asked what I thought. I said, 'I think this is something that will be very important.' She was pleased to hear that. I think she was also relieved to see that 'if I couldn't, I didn't'. I think she had been awfully concerned about an injury.

I did a stupid thing though. I lost my wallet. I did not realize it until I went to add my minutes to my phone. 

I was pretty sure that it had to be one of two places. My phone was out of service and it was too late to call anyone anyway. So, it was a fretful, sleepless night, but it worked out just fine...it was in my niece's truck. 

'What's the limit on your credit card?' she wanted to know. I explained it was a debit card and she was limited to the buck-98 I had in the bank. I mentioned that it always happens when I get in a rush, and mused about brain yoga.

She said, ''You were juggling a yoga mat, a water bottle you phone and a wallet. You're fine."

I responded with *there, there senile old lady...it's okaaaaaaaaaayyy*

This morning while Tim was collecting the siding, I enjoyed a leisurely cup of coffee while re-reading 'Sense and Sensibility'. Pumpkins were roasting in the oven to make pumpkin butter.

It felt like what I thought retirement would be like.

The Not So Peaceable Kingdom

 Allison asked yesterday how many cats we have in the house. Difficult to answer.

I had one cat. Houdi. He is a large chonky orange cat. Born from a feral mother who gifted a kitten to practically everyone on the street. (We still haven't caught her to have her neutered.) Houdi took about 3 months to tame. Grandson William played a big part in his domestication.

In the middle of last winter, a large fluffy gray cat was discovered hiding out on our balcony. He was very wary and frightened. It took months before he allowed me to touch him, although he came readily when I called him. He was hungry.

Once Freddie's backstory was uncovered, I did not have the heart to abandon him to the streets one more time. He and Houdi tolerated each other well enough. I brought him along to the new house.

(And then there were two.)

Now understand that we had quite a clowder of ferals at the new house already. 3 mama cats. We trapped 9 raccoons out of the garage and to be honest, I think they were partially responsible for the fact that Sigh had only two kittens. Tiger had two kittens. I think that some kittens met unfortunate ends. Just before our move to the new house, Possum had five kittens, all of which survived.

If you are keeping track, that is two cats in the house and 12 cats in the garage. (!!!!!!!!)

Something had to be done. Two of the mamas were neutered after their kittens were weaned, but feral cats are hard to catch. They are also hard to find homes for. So Possum's five kittens were taken from the garage and moved to the basement. 

For those of you trying to keep track, that is seven cats in the house, and six cats in the garage. (Don't ask questions).

Now the five kittens were confined to the basement. There was a lot of running around room, it was dry and warm. We called it the kitten kindergarten. There was a recreational area. They were fed 3x a day and there were human beings down there to play and handle them. They tamed very quickly, actually. They figured out the purpose of the litter box immediately. 

Houdi and Freddie have their litter box downstairs as well. It wasn't a problem. As soon as feet hit the floor in the morning, Fred wants out. He doesn't come back until evening. Houdi asks to go down stairs. He runs the gauntlet of kittens, does his business, runs the gauntlet of kittens to get back upstairs. 

At night, the kittens were all caged in a large animal cage for their own protection once Fred was back inside. This allowed us to leave the basement door open so that Fred and Houdi had free access their litterbox.

Although Fred and Houdi got along fine when Fred was an outside cat, once inside, he became a bit territorial, trying to establish himself as the top cat. Houdi and he were warily working things out between the two of them, but we did not trust him around the kittens.

It took a little over a week, but 4 little kittens went to their new homes, leaving one: Maytag.

Again, for those keeping score, that is 3 cats in the house and six feral (but becoming tamer) cats in the garage. 

Maytag was lonely. He was also loud. We began allowing him to spend more time upstairs. Socialization, doncha know.

This sent poor Fred right around the bend. Maytag doesn't help matters. Even if he has been fed 10 minutes ago, when he notices one of the big boys eating, he toddles over with his little tail straight up in the air, as if asking 'what do you have in that bowl for me?' 

Predictably, this annoys the bigs, and Fred began to get very aggressive, which provoked shouts of 'NO FRED!!!' which only served to further traumatize poor traumatized Fred , which made me feel bad. Fred began lashing out at Houdi. Houdi began to lash back. Maytag fled to the nearest lap and watched the whole thing unfold, a feline version of Jerry Springer. 

After two mornings of breaking up early morning cat squabbles, we were at our wits end. We invested in a Feliway Calming Diffuser last night. It is too early to tell if it is working for sure, but there was no cat fight this morning. Fred was waiting calmly at the door to go out as usual.

Anyways, someone has claimed Maytag. However, he has not yet been actually picked up, so we will see.

On October 1st, Possum gets spayed and Tiger Kitty (not to be confused with Tiger Cat, who is already neutered). Adding more math for those keeping score, that is 6 neutered cats.

Once Maytag is finally claimed, the goal will be to trap these two and bring them in. And yes, these are two different cats, both blue eyed. Everyone wanted the two blue eyed kittens from the first batch. We will have them both neutered next month. We are very hopeful that we can rehome them quickly. The fact that they are such pretty cats AND neutered will be quite a selling point for a free cat. They are still young enough to be kittenish, and they are very sweet natured.

Then, for those of you keeping track, it will be two cats in the house, a fact that will please those two cats to no end. In the garage, there will be four cats, all neutered.

I can live with that, although honestly it is 5 more cats than I actually wanted.

Success.

 I made a venison roast in the crockpot the other day while we working. I just tossed a couple potatoes in at the end, which we had with sour cream. It was a fine meal. As always, there were left overs. I minced the meat up finely, tossed it back into the crockpot, with some beef broth. I added some of my dehydrated vegetables.  

I haven't dehydrated before, but I have a half gallon jar in the pantry. It holds 5 lbs of potatoes, celery and carrots. As I picked vegetables, I dehydrated them and tossed them in. When the cherry tomatoes got to crisis levels, I sliced them in thirds and put those in my oven  too. If I had extra onion from cooking, I tossed it in the oven over night. I crumbled up my dehydrated tomato skins and tossed them in. No vegetables went to waste, no matter how small the amount. I can always run down stairs and grab some potatoes to slice and dehydrate to make a full oven.

In any case, that jar had a good assortment of vegetables. I gave the jar a good shake and then scooped out a half cup and added them to the meat. I tossed in  quarter cup of couscous. It simmered overnight. Boy, did that ever make a great soup. 

I am calling this one a success. 

We drove into town to take my daughter out for her birthday.  Four kids have birthdays in a three week period and hers is the last. In just a month, she and Don are getting married, so there was wedding talk as well.

Then it was back home. There is distant thunder, and flashes of far off lightning. A cool breeze is blowing and tonight, finally, it will rain.

Man. A lot of typos in this. Corrected now. 

Something else that is cool: Those four kittens that went to their new homes? I got pictures and videos of them settling in along with thanks from the families. That is such a nice thing and totally unexpected. 

And, finally it IS raining! I really love hearing the rain on the roof.

Again.

 I can't believe I am talking about it again, but here I am. A local man was 'doxxed' for a social media post on Charlie Kirk. His wife lost her job over it. They are receiving death threats. 

Now the first thing I want to clarify is that I do not know what the social media post said. It is down now. Maybe he crossed a line. I don't know. What I do know for sure is that things are getting pretty heated. 

A family member posted something that complained that the left is taking the things he said out of context. My response was, 'okay...so what is the proper context for "Passing the Civil Rights Act in 1964 was a huge mistake."

Instead of answering the question, he blasted me because I was here talking politics on his post, and I had said sometime back that I wasn't going to talk politics...yet despite that, here I was again.

I said 'pardon me, I thought we were talking about a man. I don't see this as political at all.'

And I honestly don't. People are trying to make it political, granted, but it is a simple matter of how you see God. 

Now a great many ministers have come forward to say that Charlie Kirk's podcasts were riddled with angry divisive language, and he used the Bible to try to legitimize MAGA, but just as zionism has little to do with Judaism, Christian nationalism is a very perverted take on Christianity. 

We have people who believe that they are better than others. Who believe that they are doing God's work when they vilify others, or they mistreat them. Or ignore the struggles of the poor. "Thou shalt not judge," but he did over and over again, passing judgement on others in public settings, calling them out by name even. 

Another relative felt strongly that it was wrong that such a good man should be so savaged after his death. She echoed the claim that his death was being celebrated by "the left".

Except it isn't, not by anyone I know. There is a huge difference between celebrating it and not mourning it.

As for me and my house, we are NOT mourning it. We are sorry for his children, of course. No kid should see that. Sadly, way too many children have.

We see Charlie Kirk as a man who amassed a 12 million dollar empire bringing his version of God's word to a target audience: the young. His "debates" were done alà Jerry Springer.

Did you know that there are rules for debates? Wanna see them?

The five fundamental rules of debate are

1) to prepare and research your topic, to anticipate counterarguements. To be clear, I will give him that.

2) to speak clearly, respectfully and avoid interrupting your opponents.  He deviated from that format regularly.

3) to focus on arguments and evidence rather than personal attack or emotions. His "debates" were contentious and he interrupted. He also didn't hesitate to deviate from the truth to make his point. Moreover, he used his audience to pile on aad heckle his opponents. That's not a debate. That is an ambush.

4) to stick to the topic. No matter what topic was brought up, he swerved from it to showcase his opinions, and opinions are not facts, no matter how forcefully you are saying them.

5) Stick to the allotted time for each side. He never did that. He leaped in to derail the conversation as quickly as possible at his audience loved it.

He did it MAGA style. Might makes right. Drown out the opposition. Loud and proud. 

He was furthering the kingdom of Donald tRUMP, and made no bones about it. He became very rich doing that. He was the darling of the GOP. Who is going to argue with a man of God who is legitimizing your own ungodly agenda? In the Bible, these people were called the pharisee.

But, in these strange days, people are insistent that he must be mourned. I understand that some people grieve his death more than I do. i respect that. Charlie Kirk was a man. An imperfect one. The hateful things he said in his podcasts were not one offs. He has been spreading his message for years andvmy opinions were formed while he was alive. His death has not changed them. 

He was not a saint but may he rest in peace anyway.

Asep? Are you okay out there?

MAYTAG

 ...and then there was one:

 ....all alone. So alone that his best friend is a paper towel.

Remember the lonely Maytag repairman commercials? Meet Maytag.

There is hope though. We once owned a Maytag washer. It was a piece of crap. We would have offered the poor lonely repairman a room in our house and a seat at the table just to keep it running.

So...maybe someone needs a pouncey, purr-y pain in the butt for his or her very own. We will not abandon hope for little Maytag.

I put the ad on Facebook. Everybody and his brother wanted the two blue eyed Siamese looking ones. The first went promptly, with no complications at all to a little girl having a birthday. The pictures of 'Narnia' were adorable.

The im's came in regularly, one after another. One woman wanted the other blue eyed cat desperately. Her own cat had passed away and this one was an image of her dear departed cat. Begged me. I had 4 other people wanting the same cat. I politely told them the white one was spoken for. 

Much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Then I got ghosted by the woman with the sad story. 

That is when things got very crazy. All the cats were taken multiple times over, but no one actually came for any of them.

I would spend big chunks of time patiently sending pictures and answering questions only to have them discover that they lived five hours away from me. Some people wanted the cat delivered. Other people were irritated that the neutering would be "on them". (The cats are only 6 weeks old. They are too young to be neutered.)

After a solid week of this, yesterday, a woman messaged me: "Are any of the blue eyed siamese still available?" I sent her a picture. She wanted the cat. She lived a hour away. "GREEEEAAATTTTTT!" I groaned to myself. She had to work the following day but could pick it up afterwards. I had heard this spiel before. I had to drive back to the old house, so I told her that I could meet her in the Aldi parking lot, which cut her travel time in half. Much to my surprise, she was there to meet me just as planned. She was thrilled with the kitten and sent me pictures later. Her kids named her Snowball and love her dearly. The picture showed a played out Snowball curled up in her husband's armpit, sleeping comfortably.

And then there were three. In the middle of the night, a med evac nurse wanted to know if I had any tiger striped ones left. She also lived an hour away. I said, "well, I have a hair cut in Warren. I could meet you..." "Deal!" she said. When I asked her which cat I should bring, she said 'Bring them both. Kittens are a lot more fun when there are two!" 

I thought for sure that I was going to be ghosted on that one, but she met me as planned. They had just lost their old tiger, and the family was missing having a cat around the house. I felt quite good about The Wondertwins' new home in the country.

It has been quite an experience. Amazing to me that people simply make plans to take a kitten and never show up.That was irritating. 

But the most outrageous exchange I had was with a woman who had to have a female cat. Many people have preferences for one reason or another. That part is not uncommon. But at some point it came out that her other cat is female and that's why she couldn't have a male. I said, "your female is not neutered?" She replied that it did not need to be. It was an indoor cat!

Now I know from experience that a cat in heat is very wiley about escaping. If she had two unneutered females, it was simply doubling the chance of unwanted kittens. 

That woman ghosted me and I am not sorry. I did not want her to have a cat.

Short One

Tonight was going to see Barack Obama. It was crazy. Parking garages full. We wound up parking several blocks away and hoofing it. We may have even parked illegally. We speedwalked back to the car in the dark, talking about what we had heard. We were relieved that we had not been issued a ticket or been towed.

The line was 2 1/2 blocks long, and we stood in line for about 45 minutes. Everyone around us was pleasant and interesting to talk to. A lot of different perspectives. An faculty member from Gannon University in front of us. A heavily tattooed couple behind us. Behind them a scholarly looking black man and his wife. 

For whatever reason, it made me think of the old Simon and Garfunkel song: 'they'd all come to look for America...' I suppose that was true in a way, all of us nostalgic for the days when we were not all considered evil and that we hated our country, and moreover, our president hates us.

I did have one mild heart attack. As we approached security, people began to fish out their driver's license. That had not even occurred to me. Mine was in my wallet in a locked car several blocks away. We waffled back and forth about whether I should run back to the car. 

Tim did have my veteran's ID. He uses it regularly at Lowe's for the discount. I walked up to a secret service guy who said it would be fine. Such a relief. 

A drone hovered in the air. SWAT watched from the roof. But the lines moved right along.

We were as far away from the stage as you could get, but it actually was nice. We were on comfortable high backed stools with a bar in front of us overlooking the crowd and the stage waaaaaaaay down there BUT we had a waitress come around. You could order your drinks and snacks, an amenity not available to the people in the bleacher seats. Quite a bit of service for the cheap seats.

When he took the stage, the crowd went nuts cheering. He talked for an hour and a half, about the importance of bipartisanship, about current politicians who are still upholding that core value in these times. He talked about these perilous times but reminded us that political violence is not new in our country, mentioning JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King. About women's marches, Vietnam protests and civil rights demonstrations that turned violent. 

We have been at inflection points before, and he made it clear we are at another, that people are polarized and angry.

We need to take care of others. We needed to celebrate each other and our cultures. That that is where our strength would come from, but there is no quick fix for this and these will be difficult days, not just for us but for the world. When people see other people as 'less than' it emboldens cruelty. He didn't say anything new, really, but he seemed to put it in a different context.

 It was nice to sit with 8000 other people and realize that there are others who think the same and feel the same and have the same vision for the country as we do. 

There was a heckler who interrupted twice shouting things I could not hear. She was mad as hell about something. The first tirade, Obama reminded her that he was not the president now and hadn't been for quite a few years. The second go around, the moderator spoke up to say, "Please! The people have come to hear a former president speak. After that, she stopped.

Sorry this is a pretty disjointed report. I am tired. I am so glad we went though.

Hop over to Northsider Dave's blog and leave a kind word if you would.. His beloved wife has died.

Narnia

 One kitten off to new home. She was a birthday gift to a girl who had spent quite a bit of energy and time caring for their fish, dog, and other cat. She wanted, more than anything, a kitten of her very own.

The mother came bringing her two older children, who were all bursting with excitement at being in on the secret. It was a toss up between the two blue eyed cream colored one, but she specifically wanted a girl.

They had a little collar for her and a carrier. 

The mom sent pictures later. The look on that child's face was priceless. I asked her what she had named her. "Narnia," the answer came. "We read the books and all of them loved the series."

That's interesting. It does not seem like you have a lot of mothers who still read to their schoolaged kids. 

She said, "we just finished 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'. We are looking for our next book. I was thinking of 'Gulliver's Travels'.

I like that. I like it a lot. It is probably a bit biased on my part to believe that little cat has gone to a good life.

I am about to reach another weight loss goal, which is exciting. The weight loss is not fast, but it is steady. I do need to buy a couple new pairs of pants.

We had to go into town to sign some papers that the bank wanted for the house transfer. Then we needed to run to the library to print off a return label and our tickets for 'A Conversation with Barack Obama'. We are both looking forward to that so much. I am sure we will be as far away from the stage as you can get, but you know what? I don't care, as long as I can hear that calm measured voice speaking in sensible full sentences.