Good Morning, All! Hope this post finds you all and your family members safe with the frightening things - Hurricane Florence, gas explosions in Boston suburbs to name just a couple - happening at this time. Prayers for those in the pathways, and for our intrepid First Responders and the Volunteers who put their own lives at risk to help others; we are so blessed to have these folks among us!
The neighbor lady and I slacked off a bit and didn't head up to the pool until around 8 am yesterday; there were a total of 4 other people there during the hour we stayed. Sure hope they got their water heating system fixed - the water temp was 78*F yesterday (it's usually 85*F) and I can just hear the elderly ladies howling on Monday when they get in for aqua aerobics class!! We should already be in and out by then, thank goodness! I'm sure going to miss my daily jaunts to the pool when I have to go back to work later this week.
Since I had to run in town yesterday afternoon to pick up the pie I'd ordered from the foo-foo bakery, I hit a couple of stores while I was there. First, I popped in to Dollar General to finish using up my Gain ($2.95 after coupon) and Tide Simply (95 cents after coupon) coupons. I ended up with 6 packages of each after using up all my coupons but then daughter said she doesn't really like the Tide Simply, so when I go to the pool on Monday, I will stop by the American Legion afterwards and drop them off - they have an ongoing collection area for household needs for the Veterans who are getting out of the VA hospital to help them set up their households; doubt they care if their laundry doesn't smell like flowers!
I stopped by the grocery store to snag 4 more tubs of the 'Spend $25 get $10 off' Folger's coffee; grabbed a roast chicken while I was there as it was just too darned hot at 93*F to even think about turning on the oven and I wanted real food, not sandwiches (though I won't be disappointed if Hubby turns the leftover chicken into chicken salad...) I grabbed another 3 cases of the bottled water they had on sale for $1.99; the Baptist church in a small town nearby usually takes a trailer of relief supplies when there is a disaster - last time they had their donation drop off point at a football game and filled their trailer AND a donated flat bed semi trailer as well.
I'd picked up my pie and was putting it in the van when the grandsons video messaged me.... Decided that Papaw and I didn't really NEED to eat a whole pie by ourselves, so snagged the boys on my way out of town - which led to a stop at the store in our little home town for ice cream to go on the pie.... and popsicles and ice cream sandwiches and cheese puffs for Papaw and Doritos for the boys and lemons to make homemade lemonade.... At least everything but the lemons were on sale
Dang good thing I saved all that money using coupons/sales 
Then Hubby came home from work with Italian food from our favorite restaurant in our work town as a surprise for me - with it and the chicken, there was plenty for supper for the 4 of us, plus enough leftovers for today or tomorrow. He also came in with a bag from Rural King that he was trying to be sneaky with; he finally came clean and handed me the 525 ct box of .22 LR he'd bought. Now, this is the man who grumbles at ME when I bring home .22's - I think maybe he's been sneaking on this forum while I'm not home....
Daughter had plans last evening to make a quick run in to her local VFW where a benefit was being hosted - she thought she was just going through the drive through area to pick up a meal.... Ha! I could have told her that's not how that generally works out around here Needless to say, she ended up staying for a while to help out. Her donation to the auction ended up bringing $600 at the auction; she was pretty excited that it did so well. It makes me so proud to see her helping in her community.
Plans for today include apple pie for breakfast (at least for me!) plus a couple of cups of foo-foo Chocolate Caramel Brownie coffee that was a gift from my co-worker buddy to go along with it. The grandsons gave me a pretty purple aster plant to put in my garden so we'll go out and plant it later this morning; we'll have to rig up a sunshade for it with some electric fence posts and cardboard and give it a water bottle (gallon milk jug with a couple of holes poked in the bottom) as it's supposed to continue hot and sunny through the next week. The asters grow well here and provide a fall food source for the pollinators, so I am very happy with my new plant - especially since all my other asters are pink; this will provide nice contrast.
I need to head over to the nearby corn field and cut some tassels to use in fall cemetery and house decorations; they make very good background fill (spray 'em with hairspray to keep them from shedding). The corn and soybean harvests are starting so I need to get the tassels before they disappear. I'm keeping an eye on the corn field across the way where I have permission to glean missed ears for my wild critters; gotta get in there in the small window of time between right after they harvest/before they disc down the stalks.
If I can get the boys fed and shove 'em outside in that short window of time between the dew drying off and it getting miserably hot, I need to do more work on clearing the gardens off - looks like I'm going to have a bumper crop of zinnia and marigold seeds to harvest this year; that sure makes me smile! True, I don't eat the flowers, but they do provide food for the pollinators
The boys and I are also going to take the buggy down to the persimmon grove to see how they are coming along - it looked to be a very small crop this year, so I am going to have to be quick to beat the critters to them to harvest seed. We also need to pick up walnuts in the side yard again; that'll be ongoing into the middle of next month
Other plans for the week:
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are good days to graft or take cuttings per the signs; I'm going to try to take cuttings of my pineapple sage and Eutin roses; I haven't had any luck keeping the pineapple sage alive in either dormant or growing condition over the winter but will try again. The hummingbirds really like it, and it blooms late in the season so provides a nectar source when others are slowing down. It also smells really good in potpourri! I also need to check under the oak trees to see how many acorns are dropping, ditto the hickory trees for nuts. I've peeled the husk off a few walnuts and put them in a cage to dry (to keep the blasted squirrels from hauling them off - score is now Hubby 8; squirrels 0 ) so I can see if I want to keep any or just haul them down to the gully and dump them for the fluffy tailed rats.
Monday - pool, then a doctor's appointment in the afternoon to see if we can figure out what's going on with my blood pressure - highs of 196/121 down to a low of 87/49 that kept me home from the football game on Friday as I didn't think I should be driving in case it dropped farther - really grumpy about that one because apparently I missed a really good game Also grumpy about needing to be on a med since I've mostly managed to avoid anything daily other than vitamins. Hubby may go with me to the doc appointment so we can stop by Rural King afterwards to look at shotguns again; I keep trying, but the one he bought me is just too big for me to handle well unless I have a rest or something else to prop it on, so I want to look again for a youth model. We're also going over to the range so I can try out the different scope he put on my Mini 14; I was doing fine with the open sights but he needed the scope - on, ahem - MY rifle.
Tuesday: no plans beyond the pool and yard/garden work.
Wednesday: pool, and the kids get out of school at 2pm so I might need to pick them up.
Thursday and Friday - vacation over; back to work
Saturday - Co-worker Buddy's birthday so Hubby, the grandkids and I will take him out out to supper. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are good days to plant grains and leafy annuals so I will get some more fall greens planted in the one bed I've managed to get cleared so far
Dang, now I'm all worn out just thinking about that stuff
Take care all; stay safe!
The neighbor lady and I slacked off a bit and didn't head up to the pool until around 8 am yesterday; there were a total of 4 other people there during the hour we stayed. Sure hope they got their water heating system fixed - the water temp was 78*F yesterday (it's usually 85*F) and I can just hear the elderly ladies howling on Monday when they get in for aqua aerobics class!! We should already be in and out by then, thank goodness! I'm sure going to miss my daily jaunts to the pool when I have to go back to work later this week.
Since I had to run in town yesterday afternoon to pick up the pie I'd ordered from the foo-foo bakery, I hit a couple of stores while I was there. First, I popped in to Dollar General to finish using up my Gain ($2.95 after coupon) and Tide Simply (95 cents after coupon) coupons. I ended up with 6 packages of each after using up all my coupons but then daughter said she doesn't really like the Tide Simply, so when I go to the pool on Monday, I will stop by the American Legion afterwards and drop them off - they have an ongoing collection area for household needs for the Veterans who are getting out of the VA hospital to help them set up their households; doubt they care if their laundry doesn't smell like flowers!
I stopped by the grocery store to snag 4 more tubs of the 'Spend $25 get $10 off' Folger's coffee; grabbed a roast chicken while I was there as it was just too darned hot at 93*F to even think about turning on the oven and I wanted real food, not sandwiches (though I won't be disappointed if Hubby turns the leftover chicken into chicken salad...) I grabbed another 3 cases of the bottled water they had on sale for $1.99; the Baptist church in a small town nearby usually takes a trailer of relief supplies when there is a disaster - last time they had their donation drop off point at a football game and filled their trailer AND a donated flat bed semi trailer as well.
I'd picked up my pie and was putting it in the van when the grandsons video messaged me.... Decided that Papaw and I didn't really NEED to eat a whole pie by ourselves, so snagged the boys on my way out of town - which led to a stop at the store in our little home town for ice cream to go on the pie.... and popsicles and ice cream sandwiches and cheese puffs for Papaw and Doritos for the boys and lemons to make homemade lemonade.... At least everything but the lemons were on sale
Dang good thing I saved all that money using coupons/sales Then Hubby came home from work with Italian food from our favorite restaurant in our work town as a surprise for me - with it and the chicken, there was plenty for supper for the 4 of us, plus enough leftovers for today or tomorrow. He also came in with a bag from Rural King that he was trying to be sneaky with; he finally came clean and handed me the 525 ct box of .22 LR he'd bought. Now, this is the man who grumbles at ME when I bring home .22's - I think maybe he's been sneaking on this forum while I'm not home....
Daughter had plans last evening to make a quick run in to her local VFW where a benefit was being hosted - she thought she was just going through the drive through area to pick up a meal.... Ha! I could have told her that's not how that generally works out around here
Needless to say, she ended up staying for a while to help out. Her donation to the auction ended up bringing $600 at the auction; she was pretty excited that it did so well. It makes me so proud to see her helping in her community. Plans for today include apple pie for breakfast (at least for me!) plus a couple of cups of foo-foo Chocolate Caramel Brownie coffee that was a gift from my co-worker buddy to go along with it. The grandsons gave me a pretty purple aster plant to put in my garden so we'll go out and plant it later this morning; we'll have to rig up a sunshade for it with some electric fence posts and cardboard and give it a water bottle (gallon milk jug with a couple of holes poked in the bottom) as it's supposed to continue hot and sunny through the next week. The asters grow well here and provide a fall food source for the pollinators, so I am very happy with my new plant - especially since all my other asters are pink; this will provide nice contrast.
I need to head over to the nearby corn field and cut some tassels to use in fall cemetery and house decorations; they make very good background fill (spray 'em with hairspray to keep them from shedding). The corn and soybean harvests are starting so I need to get the tassels before they disappear. I'm keeping an eye on the corn field across the way where I have permission to glean missed ears for my wild critters; gotta get in there in the small window of time between right after they harvest/before they disc down the stalks.
If I can get the boys fed and shove 'em outside in that short window of time between the dew drying off and it getting miserably hot, I need to do more work on clearing the gardens off - looks like I'm going to have a bumper crop of zinnia and marigold seeds to harvest this year; that sure makes me smile! True, I don't eat the flowers, but they do provide food for the pollinators
The boys and I are also going to take the buggy down to the persimmon grove to see how they are coming along - it looked to be a very small crop this year, so I am going to have to be quick to beat the critters to them to harvest seed. We also need to pick up walnuts in the side yard again; that'll be ongoing into the middle of next month Other plans for the week:
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are good days to graft or take cuttings per the signs; I'm going to try to take cuttings of my pineapple sage and Eutin roses; I haven't had any luck keeping the pineapple sage alive in either dormant or growing condition over the winter but will try again. The hummingbirds really like it, and it blooms late in the season so provides a nectar source when others are slowing down. It also smells really good in potpourri! I also need to check under the oak trees to see how many acorns are dropping, ditto the hickory trees for nuts. I've peeled the husk off a few walnuts and put them in a cage to dry (to keep the blasted squirrels from hauling them off - score is now Hubby 8; squirrels 0
) so I can see if I want to keep any or just haul them down to the gully and dump them for the fluffy tailed rats.Monday - pool, then a doctor's appointment in the afternoon to see if we can figure out what's going on with my blood pressure - highs of 196/121 down to a low of 87/49 that kept me home from the football game on Friday as I didn't think I should be driving in case it dropped farther - really grumpy about that one because apparently I missed a really good game
Also grumpy about needing to be on a med since I've mostly managed to avoid anything daily other than vitamins. Hubby may go with me to the doc appointment so we can stop by Rural King afterwards to look at shotguns again; I keep trying, but the one he bought me is just too big for me to handle well unless I have a rest or something else to prop it on, so I want to look again for a youth model. We're also going over to the range so I can try out the different scope he put on my Mini 14; I was doing fine with the open sights but he needed the scope - on, ahem - MY rifle. Tuesday: no plans beyond the pool and yard/garden work.
Wednesday: pool, and the kids get out of school at 2pm so I might need to pick them up.
Thursday and Friday - vacation over; back to work
Saturday - Co-worker Buddy's birthday so Hubby, the grandkids and I will take him out out to supper. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are good days to plant grains and leafy annuals so I will get some more fall greens planted in the one bed I've managed to get cleared so far
Dang, now I'm all worn out just thinking about that stuff
Take care all; stay safe!
