My Weblog

Downright wet! Can you believe it?

This couldn't possibly be Nevada anymore............ For 3 days out of 4, it has rained. And I don't mean the insignificant little drizzle we usually get. I mean real rain, like one might see in the midwest or the south! I'm sure some part of Vegas somewhere must be under water. With hard pack clay soil, rain/runoff is not absorbed but just runs across the surface. And, we're surrounded by mountains and water DOES flow downhill.......

Anyway, it's chilly and wet around here. We've gotten enough rainfall overnight that I had to remove my grow containers from the water containers and let them dry out a little. Otherwise the soil will be floating around in the water containers! As I understand it, with this type of gardening, you want the soil to have easy access to water. However, I'm quite sure that doesn't include so much water! 

I am shocked at the amount of rainfall we've received. The kiddie pool has at least an inch more water in it that I put in there last night before I went to bed. But, I'm grateful. Any time water falls in the desert is a good time. We have had such drought conditions for so long that we'll take all we can get.

I have 5 "baskets" all ready to plant. I will have to see what I can plant next....... Undoubtedly, I will try some tomatoes, but I don't have a lot of hope for them. Unless, maybe, I plan on eating my fill of fried green tomatoes. I can't help wondering if they'll survive the extreme summer temperatures. But, I'm gonna plant them anyway and hope that shade cloth will help me make this work.......... I wanted to see how many plants could successfully be grown in one container. I was secretly hoping I could put two in each container I plant, but that looks to be a bad idea. At least, the gardeners on youtube are only planting 1 plant per bag.........

I have decided I may buy some landscape fabric after all. I noticed on a couple of videos I reviewed this morning, one well-known gardener was creating his own grow bags from landscape fabric. He talks about using Walmart re-usable shopping bags and only paying $.50 each. Well, I can't find them for that price. Of course, these videos were made in 2012 and 2013. Maybe you could get those bags at that price then.........The best I can find is at Target for $.99 each. I know I can beat that price substantially if I make my own grow bags out of landscape fabric. 

I have a growing list of things to buy for this gardening stuff. Obviously, landscape fabric just went back on the list. I also will need some fertilizer. I'd love to have a trowel as I'm sure I'm going to have to transplant some things along the way. I'd appreciate having some gardening gloves. There is still the question of whether I can make a go of trying to use a trash container for compost. I'll need a manure fork for turning the compost. If I want to make "compost tea", I'll need to fit the trash container with some sort of spigot/valve that will allow me to drain the water from the compost bin. No doubt that would require buying a new drill bit to cut a proper sized hole. And so it goes............

Sometime today I will have to brave the rain and go to the market. I think I will go to Trader Joe's today. Just need some fresh veggies and some half 'n' half for my coffee. Shortly I'm going to have to break down and buy dog food and do a "real" grocery shopping trip...........

Well, that's it for now. I am strongly tempted to go climb back into my toasty, warm bed. It is just the right kind of rainy, gloomy, overcast day for it.  Lord, help me resist temptation...........

YOU be BLESSED today. 

 

 

 

A little damp around here.........

and my knees are feeling creaky. They are rebelling when I try to go from sitting to standing. But, I can't just sit here..........

It's been an eventful day in my little life. First, Wednesday and again last night, we had rain. The dampness in the air is probably the reason for my creakiness. Maybe I need to be a bit happier about not inheriting my parents' home in Florida. I'm not too sure how the knees would have stood up to the rain of a sub-tropical location. But, the trees and grass have been watered and some rain water collected in my "garden" as well. 

It's not much of a garden, but I'm loving it. The "kiddie" pool finally arrived today. Originally, I wasn't supposed to get the pump til the 2nd of May, but it came with the pool. I thought I'd ordered a manual pump, one that was operated by a pumping motion with the foot. But, what I received was electrical. So much the better, considering how little I paid for it. 

The air pump came with a warning that running it for more than 10 minutes at a time could cause it to overheat and die. So, I carefully set a timer for 9 minutes and started. It has a bottom that can be pumped up--I suppose to make it a bit more comfortable on the bee-hind. I don't plan on sitting in it so I don't give a fig about that. Then there are 3 "rings" above. I really only care about the bottom "ring". I just need the thing to hold maybe an inch of water. But I was having so much fun with it, I blew up all the rings anyway. Parker was extremely frustrated during the process of blowing up the top "ring". I had to hold the little pump at the proper level in order to keep the nozzle plugged in where it needed to be. So, I ended up sitting on a little step stool set up on the dining room floor. This put me at Parker's level but there was this "thing" growing between him and me and he couldn't get to me, LOL. He has always been quite sure that if I am down on his level, it can only be because I want to play with him............

So, anyway, it's now all pumped up and moved out onto the patio and, more or less to make sure the labrador retriever genes don't take him over, I've put a lot of the small containers in it. I really can't afford to buy a pool for him to play in.......... Of course, I'll probably move those smaller containers out as I plant up the larger containers which are meant to sit in there. 

I used my oldie but goodie hose and I was surprised how quickly I was able to get enough water into the pool. So, tomorrow, when the sun comes out, I'm all set for my veggies to wick up water and absorb sunlight and grow!

I used my handy cheapie soldering iron and melted drainage holes in the bottom of the plastic baskets I bought at Dollar Tree. I have to tell you that that is a very stinky job. The melting plastic REALLY smells bad. I've been careful to do it right under the exhaust fan in the kitchen, but one tiny whiff of that odor is pretty awful. But, at least, all the baskets can now be planted. And, as I do that, I should be able to get the level of potting mix I bought down low enough in the bag that I can move it. I do need to get that moved out of the van...........

I realized today that even though my "garden" isn't much, and a "real" gardener would laugh at it, this is the first time I've dared to do this for more than 30 years. I'm enjoying it a lot, as if you couldn't tell, LOL.

I just finished uploading a new kit to the store. I'll have previews of it up tomorrow, I hope. I'm pretty happy with it and it is my "official" Mother's Day kit.

I made something successfully the other day that I've never been able to make before. I've tried and failed dismally. I made peanut butter fudge. I've loved peanut butter fudge since I was a little kid. The recipe I used did not talk about "hard ball" or "soft ball" stages. Instead, it simply said to boil the sugar and milk together for 2.5 minutes. So, I got it boiling, with a rolling boil I couldn't stir down and set the timer on the microwave and produced fudge. 

I think that only one person ever made peanut butter fudge for me--my maternal grandmother. I never thought my mother's mother cared much about me. She never really spent any time with me and she didn't seem to have any kind or endearing words for me. My cousin, on the other hand............ Well, that's a different story.............

It occurred to me, as I stirred that fudge, that, most likely, making that fudge for me was perhaps her way of saying "I love you". Honestly, that never occurred to me before. But, I had just had a conversation with the visiting nurse about Gary Smalley's book, The Five Love Languages. And I realized that her love language was probably "acts of service". So, maybe she really DID love me all along. But, because my love languages (I have two) are affirming words and quality time, I never felt loved. A classic example of two people who did not speak the same love language............ It was a really nice, comforting thought.

I never really liked going to that grandmother's house. It wasn't clean. It had an odd smell. There was no running water, no indoor plumbing, and a wood stove......... I just wasn't used to any of that. And, unless my cousin, who was about the same age, was there, it was BOR-ING. No TV, no radio, only adults around.

I have come to have a great deal of respect for that woman though. She had to quit school after the 2nd grade and go to work in the fields. She birthed 9 children, 2 stillborn, 1 who died as a young child, and she raised 6. My grandfather was a coal miner, it was the depression, and, as a family, they were always teetering on the brink of ruin. She raised 2 of the children alone after his death of black lung disease. Well into her 80's she still had a huge garden which she planted, maintained, and harvested. And her cellar was full of glass jars of all sorts of colors that represented the fruits of her labors. In reality, she was an unsung hero, but I was too young to see it. She worked hard all her life, frequently doing "man's work" and she survived under very difficult circumstances. I'm glad, at least, I've finally come to recognize her heroism and understand her love. It's probably a pretty special thing to be loved by such a woman....... I just wish I'd figured it out a lot sooner.

So, I've spent a lot of today paying bills, filing paid bills and working on the budget program. And I don't plan to be awake much longer. But, I decided I'd better get on here and say something lest you think I'm ignoring you fine folks. I hope you have had a blessed day. 

Humpday.........

I'm kinda partial to humpday. It is on humpday, every month, that my pittance from Social Security arrives. Though it is only a pittance, it is certainly welcome. 

I also like humpday because if I have frittered away Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday pulls me up short. It (Wednesday) reminds me that I'd better get my butt in gear if I want the week to end with some feeling of success. 

I have had no motivation to work on design the past couple of days. No idea why, just no motivation. BUT, I have to have something to show my creative team as to what I've accomplished this week and that usually happens on Friday mornings, so I'd better turn to and accomplish something!

I am thoroughly disgusted with my e-mail in-box. It seems that everyone wants me to buy something. Now, there are times when what they are selling might be of value to me--like last week when it was an e-mail that revealed to me the sale on HVAC filters. But, generally, I don't care how great a sale is going on, I am not buying anything. If I had extra money right now, I'd be buying stuff for the garden. Other than that, nope, nada, nil. Anyway, my e-mail in-box is edging its way up again. This completely disgusts me in that I will have to dedicate time to clearing it out. I don't like that at all.

IF the objective isn't to get me to buy something, then the objective is to get me to contribute something. Unless I want to be like the widow in the New Testament and give all, I won't be contributing anything to anyone til I have a new job. There is one organization that makes me absolutely nutso. I contributed a mere $5 to them more than a year ago. I'm thinking that was a big mistake. I get e-mails, several a week. I get snail mail, at least once a week, and now they have started calling me on the phone. I realize the need is great and I believe the cause is a deserving one, but, the way I see it, they have spent way more money on labor and postage than I gave. That's not good business. If I am to contribute to an organization, I want to see it use my money wisely, even if my contribution IS paltry.

So, once again, I need to spend time cleaning out my inbox. That just totally rubs me the wrong way! Particularly when I have a mountain of other things to do! It is obviously time to "unsubscribe" to a LOT of e-mails!

The kitchen is looking good. At least, comparatively speaking. Could it look better? Yes, absolutely. I'll continue working at that. But in the meantime, I've scrubbed and scoured and shined almost all of the surfaces out there and it pleases me.

I got a call from Big Brothers Big Sisters yesterday. Glory Hallelujah--they are planning a pickup in my neighborhood on Tuesday, May 3. I have bags and bags of stuff to give them. It is one thing to cull stuff from closets, etc., but it is an event worth celebrating then that stuff is actually gone from the premises! 

So, I had thought to make an expedition to Winco today. I'm not sure on that now. I wanted to clean out the fridge before I went and I did not get that done yesterday. It's a royal pain to arrive home with groceries and have no place to put them. I CAN hold out another day or two and I may well decide that is the best idea. 

I ate up the last of the raspberry cobbler last night. I probably won't be making that again unless I find more pie filling on clearance, but it was certainly tasty. It didn't hurt that I happened to have a can of Whipped Topping in my fridge. Yum! 

I am starting a campaign to drag my rusty butt to bed earlier. I've been calling midnight "bedtime". And then I'm frustrated when I wake up later in the morning than I'd like. Well, I only know one solution to that and that is to go to bed earlier. So, I'm going to start walking "bedtime" back by 15 minutes per night til I get it back to somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 or 10:30. I should still be able to get plenty of sleep, going to bed at that time, and still have more morning hours to accomplish something useful.

I think that's it for now. I need to get this day going. YOU be BLESSED today!

 

 

Better idea?

I bought some "hole-y" buckets at Dollar Tree Friday. I know these are used by many people for planting. They spend money to line them with landscape fabric. I priced landscape fabric at Lowe's and it's more than I want to spend right now. 

I thought the alternative might be using something from my vast collection of fabric. But, something held me back from implementing that idea. 

I think I have a better idea...........

The primary purpose of the landscape fabric is to keep the dirt from leaking out through the holes, mostly at the time you are filling the thing up. Since everything is watered from the bottom thereafter, even the process of watering should not dislodge any dirt. What I've finally decided to try is a combination of brown paper bags (Trader Joe's) and newspaper. Yes, both of these things will break down over time. And the truth of the matter is that they will break down into soil! Now what could be the matter with that in a garden? I can't think of a thing. 

Best yet: this stuff is free! 

If it appears that the paper is blocking the airflow to the root systems, I think it would be fairly easy to come along and stick a knife through the holes in the basket and pierce the paper to allow better airflow. 

Anyway, I'm gonna give it a try. FREE is one of my favorite words..........

Making progress.........

It's slow progress, I admit. But, it's progress. I've gotten all the laundry caught up except for sheets. The kitchen is looking pretty darned good. Not as good yet as I'd like, but a definite improvement over what it's been the last little while. And it's actually looking pretty darned good in spite of doing a fair amount of baking. I can throw flour around with gay abandon with the best of them, though, of course, I try not to............

I made a raspberry crumble the other night. It's almost all gone now. I found raspberry pie filling on clearance the last time I went shopping. I don't know why it was on clearance, but I know a buy when I see one. However, the recipe I used called for using actual raspberries, not pie filling. It tastes great, but there is a bit more "crumble" than usual, I think. I am thinking that there might have been more "liquid" if I'd used fresh or frozen raspberries. That liquid would have bubbled up and moistened the "crumble" part. But it tastes yummy and I'm glad to have it. 

Tomorrow there will be money in the house. That is a good thing! I have a kiddie pool sitting in my shopping cart at Amazon that I can finally press the button on. Then I can plant those "grow bags". I decided on two beefsteak tomatoes, one roma tomato, and one red pepper plant for the 4 bags I am planning to use. 

I have been trying to make sure I get a substantial portion of veggies every day. This would not be a side serving like "normal" people eat. Rather it ends up being my meal. So, for example, I roasted cabbage "steaks" the other day and those were dinner (and they were scrumptious). I own 3 of the biggest sweet potatoes I've ever seen. Dinner last night was a sweet potato. I'm getting down on veggies. I still have some cabbage I can cook. I still have 2 more sweet potatoes and I still have some pickled red beets. That's about it, folks. I have some canned veggies, but I seem to be wanting FRESH veggies right now. I plan on buying potatoes and a fair amount of them. When it comes right down to it, there's not much more frugal for a person to eat than potaotes. I plan on putting a bunch of them through the food processor to make my own hash browns. Not sure what else I will buy, probably some zucchini though.

I am going to drive a ways and give Winco a try this time. Folks rave about their bulk foods. Their produce does not get great reviews, so I will plan a stop at Trader Joe's on the way home for veggies and maybe some fruit. It's about 10 miles north of me. I don't really want to drive 10 miles for groceries, but it will be worth it if I can find some things I need inexpensively. After my last shopping trip at Target, I was pretty disgusted. They seem to be "maintaining" their grocery department as though it were a regular store aisle. No, Target, wrong. When a person needs Miracle Whip, they NEED Miracle Whip. Of course, Miracle Whip was one of the items "on sale" that week and they had NONE available for purchase......... And, when a person needs solid Crisco-style shortening, they don't want to substitute oil for it. Literally, no Miracle Whip to purchase and no solid shortening unless I'd wanted lard. Is that any way to run a grocery store? I don't think so. I asked an employee who told me they were changing all the displays and not re-stocking anything that sold out in the meantime. These are not tee shirts, people. These are specific food items. Get a clue! 

I made roasted eggplant one day a week or so ago. That worked out very well. I love eggplant, but when they are fried, they seem to soak up oil like a sponge. When I roasted them, I put a bit of olive oil on the cookie sheet I used to roast them, brushed the tops with oil and that was it. It was enough and it tasted great. 

I will be buying some heirloom tomatoes at Trader Joe's. Do you know about "heirloom" items? If you buy "regular" tomatoes at your store, saving the seeds from them is an adventure. You never know what will grow from those seeds because they are hybrids. You'll get something like whatever was bred into the tomatoes you loved, but probably not what you expected. Maybe you loved those tomatoes because they were so sweet. But, if you plant seeds from those sweet tomatoes, you may or not grow sweet tomatoes. Just depends on the genetics of the types of tomatoes that have been bred together.

However, heirloom tomatoes are not hybrids. If you plant the seeds from heirloom tomatoes, you will grow exactly what you planted. Now there might be some variation due to soil or fertilizer, but, at least, you will have a very good idea of what to expect at harvest time. Trader Joe's has been selling a pack of mixed varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Some are purple, some are yellow, some are more "normal" in appearance. I'll be harvesting seeds from some of those by next week, LOL. 

There are now two visible zucchini plants growing in containers on my patio. There are also two strawberry plants, though one is so small you almost need to press your nose to the top of the container to see it. As I suspected, we did NOT get a single drop of rain yesterday. See, I TOLD you we can't depend on that weatherman around here. I'll say this for him though--it was really overcast and if we'd been almost anywhere else in the country, rain would certainly have blessed us. So, the water containers were bone dry. All the water had been wicked into the soil of the plant containers sitting in them. I tried an experiment. I rounded up a hose that's been sitting out there, unused, for a very long time. So long, in fact, I can't even estimate how long. But, the darned thing works! Wow! That's a blessing!

I used that old hose to add water to all the water trays this morning and it was functional. I'm sure maybe it would be better if I had a new one, but this works and I will no longer need to carry water to the veggies. That's a relief. By Friday, I expect to have my kiddie pool and I was not looking forward to the prospect of putting water into that, 2 quarts at a time. 

I think I mentioned here that I intended to do a water experiment. I'm told that, if you let our tap water sit for 24 hours, the chlorine taste will dissipate. Since I will no longer be using my 2 quart pitcher to carry water to my little mini-garden, I'm going to try it. I could save some money and, sadly, a fair amount of aggravation, if I cancel the bottled water deliveries.......... I have always looked on the spare water bottles as part of my "emergency" water in case of a loss of power, but I'm not willing to keep paying what I've been paying for that if I can find a cheaper way.......... It irks me something fierce that I cannot get the delivery guy to deliver the bottles where I want them, in spite of 3 conversations and one note.........

So, what about today? Well, on the design side, I have now finished all the work involved in getting ready for those 4 upcoming store collabs. I'm going to get back to the "fun" kit I was working on. I should be able to finish that in the next day or so if I'm diligent.

I just vacuumed Saturday which, with just one person and one short-haired dog in the house, it seems to me ought to be enough beyond the following Tuesday. Silly me. I can see clumps of hair here and there throughout the house. I washed the woobie the other day and was downright shocked at the amount of dog hair I had to clean out of the washer and the lint filter of the dryer. So, I'm going to go back to nightly brushings in an attempt to control it a bit better going forward. But, for now, another application of the vacuum cleaner is needed........

I still have some stuff with which I must deal in the kitchen. And, then, the fridge needs attention. 

I think I will start paying the bills that have come in which have May due dates. That will make the desk look a bit better. Since I bank on the 'net, I can set the dates for the money to go out to something after tomorrow and all will be well with the world until I have to come up with enough to make the mortgage payment.............

Well, that's about it for now. I need to do some of this stuff, not just talk about it. YOU be BLESSED today.

 

It's chilly here..........

If you live in the northeast or the midwest, you're gonna laugh at me. But we've been seeing temperatures in the 80's and 90's around here and, right now, it's 56 degrees. If we can trust the weather forecast (and we seldom can, at least when rain is predicted), we're scheduled for wind and rain, then about 5 days with highs creeping back up to the 80's. I had the windows open to catch as much fresh air as possible, and that means it's chilly in the house as well. I'm currently wearing shorts and a tee shirt, but I think I will be exchanging the tee shirt for a sweat shirt and giving some thought to long pants as well. 

I didn't tell you this, but I decided to give myself a "treat" a couple of days ago. I got my hands on an Arby's two-fer coupon. I like their just regular roast beef sandwiches and I like their reubens. I decided to treat myself to 2 reubens. I could have gotten 2 for $7 which is a bit pricey for me, but, then, there is the luxury of red meat......... I hopped in the car, salivating, and headed to Arby's. AND IT WASN"T THERE! Imagine my surprise when I discovered the Arby's I've been patronizing for 20+ years has morphed into a Dairy Queen!  I do have another Arby's not far away, in the opposite direction, but I don't like that one much. I find their drive-through is not user friendly, LOL. But, from now on, if I find a two-fer coupon, I'll have to head north instead of south. Meanwhile, I've misplaced the coupon!

I've awakened this AM with a "crick" in my neck and a headache. I'd guess the headache is partly the result of sinuses from the change in the weather and partly the result of the "crick". I will be eating something and then taking some ibuprofen. That should help on both potential causes. I narrowly avoided charley horses in my foot and in my leg last night. I felt them coming on and was able to stretch out the muscle before it progressed in to major spasm. I'm not sure what is causing this stuff. I went searching on the internet and found 4  potential problems associated with them: dehydration, insufficient magnesium, insufficient potassium, or insufficient calcium. In addition a number of drugs were listed that have this sort of muscle cramp as a side effect. Nothing I take is on that list. I have been supplementing with potassium for a long time. However, they are low dose OTC supplements so I might need more. I began supplementing with magnesium several months ago when I discovered it plays a role in the efficacy of Vitamin C/Vitamin D. I had 2.5 cups of milk yesterday (and that happens several times a week), so I doubt I am deficient enough in calcium for that to be the cause. I can do better in the "hydration" department and I'll be taking steps to do that today. 

I wanted to tell you about a recent discovery of mine. Actually, I'm really slow to discover this for myself.......... I've heard it and read it many times over the past few years. It's called "buying in bulk". To me, this meant buying 10 pounds of bread flour instead of 5. Most folks who "buy in bulk" would find that laughable. While I did find that buying 10 pounds cost less per ounce, I did not find the savings substantial. HOWEVER, I started checking out some sources for "real" bulk purchases and there is substantial savings to be realized. I can purchase in bulk at Winco. We have two of those in LV, one on the north end of the city and one to the south. 50 pounds of all purpose flour goes for about $17.50 there, per their website, which works out to be about 1/2 the price per ounce I pay for a 5 lb bag elsewhere. 

The next problem to solve would be storing bulk food purchases. I would have to store bulk foods in the garage. I would certainly want to protect my investment by storing safely--meaning in a manner that is not accessible to bugs or rodents. Right now there is no problem with bugs or rodents, but IF I start storing handy sources of food out there, there probably will be......So, I will need some food storage buckets. The buckets can get pricey. But, you only need to buy them once...........People who do this on a regular basis say that local bakeries may have some to give away. Well, I'll certainly check that out, but I'm betting someone else will have gotten there first. I'll plan for the worst and hope for some serendipitous event that gives me free buckets. 

So, I'll be making a pilgrimage to Winco later in the week. I've been doing a lot more baking and cooking from scratch so I think it will be worthwhile long term. 

I'm still working on clearing out those contributions to the monthly collabs at Scrapbird. I've worked my way all of them now. I'm not thrilled with my contribution to September's. It's not that it's not good quality stuff. It is! However, I've always worked on these so that when I create my contribution, it "flows". The preview looks as though everything is very intentional, which it is. I don't just slap something together. The color palette this time is the problem. There are 12 colors and many of them seem unrelated or as though they don't really work together. Some are "pure", some are muted. Some are primary colors, some are secondary, and so on. Anyway, I'm not thrilled with my preview but each individual piece is good. I think I'm going to have to let it go at that.

I pulled out next week's kit to get it ready for the team. I was shocked to find I had no "official", wrapped previews. I know I got it ready to send to my design assistant. But, I can't find completed previews anywhere. That means either I didn't send them to her or she did them and sent them back and I managed to save them somewhere odd on the computer and just can't find them now. I'm sure, if I sent them, she did them. She's very dependable like that........ So, I got the previews fixed last night and now I have to get the uploads done. 

I think I forgot to tell you that Parker barked the other day. First time I've heard him do that since we lost Punkin. It was really windy outside. The trash can was blown over and I think that made a noise so he actually barked. There may be hope for him as a watchdog yet, LOL. 

Well, I've got to get going on an endless list of "to dos". YOU be BLESSED today!

 

News, news, and more news..........

BEFORE I FORGET, I want to brag on Hoover. Approximately 16 months ago, I bought a Hoover Twin Tank Steam Mop. I happened to catch it when it was one of their "deal of the day" products so I got a great price on it. I LOVE that thing. I clean my hard floors with it and I feel like they are REALLY clean. Maybe they're no cleaner than usual. I'm no scientist and I haven't been collecting samples for analysis. But, I clean with the steam mop and I feel like the floor is clean and sanitized and that's a good thing.

I pulled it out a couple of weeks ago. With the extra stress of tax season, my kitchen floor got little to no attention except from the dogs who police it looking for edible crumbs. And, darn it all, it wouldn't turn on. I went on Amazon and pulled up the product and saw that it had a two year warranty. I double checked my old order and discovered I'd only owned the Steam Mop for 16 months, well within the 24-month time frame. So, I called the 800 number that is listed on the pop-up warranty information. 

I spoke with Customer Service. It was a pleasant experience. No questions, no arguments, no "you must have used it improperly" statements. They asked me my name and they asked me what was wrong with the machine. Then they sent me an e-mail detailing how to go about getting a replacement. It was SO easy. Merely remove a sticker from the machine, print out the e-mail and write the model number and serial number on it, add the sticker, and mail it. No shipping the thing back or anything difficult. I didn't actually get the information mailed out til the 18th of April. And yesterday, the 23rd, the replacement arrived at my front door. 

I think that is EXCELLENT customer service. Now, I admit, I would have expected the thing to last more than 16 months in the first place. But, a "no questions asked" policy has gone a LONG way to put Hoover at the top of my list for future shopping. We hear so many complaints these days about manufacturers who do not treat their customers well that I thought you should know that Hoover stands behind its products.

I gathered myself together Friday and made a quickie trip to a Dollar Tree. The closest one to me is just about 4 miles down the freeway, then a thousand or so feet to the right. You can't beat that for convenience unless there's one next door, right? I was offput when I first entered. The floors were dirty, really dirty. I wasn't even sure I wanted to walk on them......... But, when I checked the canned goods and found no visible dust on them, I felt better. The refrigerator cases and freezer cases also looked squeaky clean.

I ended up buying some stuff and thinking I will probably go back. I bought some grocery stuff. I found Barilla pasta products for $1. That's $1 a pound, a good $.29 cheaper than I've been paying at Target. I bought several pounds of macaroni and one pound of thin spaghetti. I also found Libby's canned beets for $1 a can. Neither Target nor Trader Joe's even stocks canned beets.......... They had canned black olives, the big size, sliced, so I got some of those. I bought a frozen "stir fry" mix. I figure I will make fried rice with it. Rice is one of the cheapest food products a human can consume but it's nice to be able to dress it up a little with some pretty vegetables and maybe even add some nutrition. They stock Betty Crocker products, including kitchen "equipment". I bought another set of measuring spoons (since I've been cooking from scratch a lot, I seem to have difficulty finding a clean measuring spoon when I want it.) I also got a little "grater". It's more like a very fine spice grater. The neat thing about it is that it has an attached container that catches what you've grated. For $1, I thought it was a deal. I bought a box of tissues (allergy season is giving me cause to blow my nose a lot) and a gallon jug of ammonia. My big purchase of the day was 6 round "buckets". Not really buckets, just containers, with holes like a clothes basket, but smaller and, I think, sturdier. I'll be planting in those. I've decided that, all in all, it was a worthwhile 8 mile round trip drive and I'm likely to be doing it again.........

About those baskets. I bought them to plant in them. According to the many youtube videos I've been watching, you're supposed to line them with landscape fabric so the dirt doesn't leak out. Well, friends, landscape fabric is an extra expense. It occurs to me I have yards and yards of sewing fabric that I may never use. I am going to try that instead of buying landscape fabric. Anyway, with the re-usable grocery bags I bought for planting and the 6 "buckets" I bought, I think I now have enough large containers in which to plant. For my next trick, I will be attempting to unearth containers in the garage to sit stuff in so I can keep it watered.

I checked on my little garden this morning. Not much has changed there except in the zucchini container. There is another zucchini plant breaking through the surface of the dirt. And the one that's been up for a few days is forming new leaves. 

Speaking of water, I'm about to try an experiment. I've been reading my new favorite blog, ThePrudentHomemaker. According to her, even though our water is very heavily chlorinated, if you let the water sit for a day, the chlorine taste is gone. I've been paying to have bottled water delivered because I can't abide the tap water. I can save $30-$40 a month and the aggravation of a water delivery service that WILL NOT deliver the bottles where I want them, IF this tip actually works. It's certainly worth a try...........

On the design side, I spent part of yesterday working on stuff for Scrapbird's monthly collabs. I'm tired of pushing up against deadlines. And, the store owner has added color palettes for all the monthly collabs from now through September to the Designer's Forum. I uploaded May's contribution the night of the 21st (due the 22nd--see what I mean about deadlines?). I've just completed my contribution for August's collab, with June and July's already done. One to go and I don't have to worry about deadlines til September!

Well, that's about it for now. I'm off to spend some time with the Lord. YOU be BLESSED today...........

 

New kit in the store.................

Years ago, I did a kit called "Joy in the Morning". I LOVED the color palette of that kit. Recently I pulled it out and looked to see if I could spruce it up a bit. After REALLY examining it, I decided there wasn't enough "sprucing up" in the world for me to re-release that kit. It needed, I thought, a complete do-over. 

I don't particularly enjoy do-overs. But, the beautiful colors in this kit just kept calling to me. And, so, here's a new kit, with new papers and new elements and new alphas, called "Morning Glory".

And here's an uncluttered look at the elements, the papers, and the alphas.

You can find this kit in the HotFlashDesigns store at Scrapbird. I just might have a coordinating freebie for you later in the week, so check back!

EDITED TO ADD: I made a beautiful set of dotted papers which coordinate with the colors in this kit. Here's what I have for you:

Here's the link:  https://www.hightail.com/download/ZWJYa3NjcklVVG1wSHNUQw

ENJOY!

Short Story...........

I know, if you've been chatting with me regularly, that you've heard me talk about Lemi-Shine. I have used both their dishwasher detergent and their dishwasher detergent booster. I really like BOTH products. You can find this stuff at Target or at Smart and Final. 

Here's the short story: My dishwasher has a rinse agent dispenser. BUT, it doesn't seem to be working. Either that or God is performing a miracle to rinse my dishes, getting rid of hard water marks, while keeping the level of the stuff from going down. I often have things happen for which I give God credit, but I'm not sure this is one of them.

Anyway, here in Vegas we have VERY hard water. A while back, I was at Smart & Final and I needed dishwasher detergent. I saw this Lemi-Shine stuff, read the label, and decided to give it a try. My dishes came out sparkling clean. Better than they'd looked even when the dishwasher was working the way it was supposed to work. This stuff not only prevented hard water spots but cleaned up several months build up that was on my glassware, etc. I've been using it ever since. 

I just found a website operated by the manufacturer. And they have coupons! So if you'd like to try this stuff for yourself, but are careful with your money, here's a place to get some great coupons: http://lemishine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Lemi-Shine-Print-Coupons-4-16.pdf  AND, the coupons don't expire til 12/31/16. 

NO, they don't pay me for doing this--I wish they did. BUT, I really do love the stuff and wanted to share this money saver with you.............

Well, the way I've been messing around with gardening.........

you'd think it was Earth Day or something. Imagine my surprise today when I discovered that today's the day. I put my "Earth Day" style kit into the store a couple of weeks ago. Honestly, I think it's just gorgeous and there's not a THING prejudiced about me. Wanna see? Let me grab the previews for you and then we'll just chat a while......

Here's a breakdown of the elements, the papers and the alphas...........

You can find the kit here: http://scrapbird.com/designers-c-73/d-j-c-73_515/hotflashdesigns-c-73_515_558/sprout-p-17884.html

So, yesterday I planted some beets. I am hoping they will weather through the hot summer. They are root veggies and the ground itself should help shield them from the sun. (I hope). For today, I've decided to try to plant some seed here in the house. I do NOT want to spend money on containers, yet I am doing "container gardening". An anomaly to be sure! So I can only put things outside as I accumulate containers big enough for what's going in them. But I do have some small containers and a couple of very sunny windowsills. I don't see why I can't start some seeds indoors so that when I have a container to plant in, I also have a mini-plant to put in it. 

I am planning to do some "grow bags". I am amazed in researching on the net as to what can be grown in a recyclable grocery bag. And those bags are good for a couple of years, at least. I have held off on planting in them, awaiting more money to arrive. I plan to sit the grow bags in a kiddie pool with an inch or so of water in it. That way they will have constant water, from the bottom which should encourage root growth, and should make them a little bit more heat resistant. Uncle Sam should send a small shipment of $$$ on Wednesday and a kiddie pool and a CHEAP manual air pump is already in my shopping cart at Amazon. I compared prices for the kiddie pool on several sites and when shipping costs were taken into account, Amazon won the contest. Anyway, by next week this time I should have my kiddie pool. 

I SHOULD plant those grow bags ahead so that they are ready to pop into the pool the moment it is inflated enough to hold a little bit of water. Parker is a labrador-mix dog. You know how Labs love the water, right? I can just see me putting one lonely grow bag in the pool and him getting in there in the open space to play in the water. Doggie toenails will do too much damage to allow that.............But, if I get the grow bags filled with dirt and planted and ready to go, I can put them straight into the pool so there is no room for a dog the size of Parker! 

The house continues to improve just a little, day by day. I worked in the kitchen yesterday and on the desk. All my pending bills are sitting here, opened, and waiting. Just waiting for next Wednesday............ I also managed to get the trash out last night so the trash guys should have carried it off by now. The wind is kicking up a bit so I'd better go drag that thing back in close to the house before it blows away.

I wanted to tell you a "blessing" story. You know, Psalm 68:19 says God "daily loadeth me with blessing". I try to stop and look for the "daily load". Yesterday I decided I HAVE to do something about air filters for my HVAC system. The filter REALLY needs changed. REALLY. I know what they sell for at Lowe's. I just did not want to go to Lowe's and buy one because I would face the same problem again in a month, right? And having filters on hand might help me to "get around to" changing them in a more timely manner, so I would want to have more than one. But they are pricey. I had just begun to search prices on Amazon when, for some reason, I flipped over to my e-mail. I saw an e-mail there from some marketing services that sends me daily e-mails (which are always (well, almost always) deleted when received. For some reason, I opened yesterday's e-mail to discover that Home Depot has air filters on sale for just about half price. Now I never go to Home Depot if I can help it. I have experienced poor customer service there (as compared to Lowe's) and I REALLY think it's because I'm a woman. That is not the only reason but it is certainly one of the big reasons why I avoid Home Depot. But, these filters were available by mail with free shipping. Yessir, I bought air filters at half price, enough to last a year. If I had some extra shekels, I'd be buying a double batch, enough for 2 years......... I have been on that mailing list for months and months and months. I think in all that time I've only opened their e-mails 3 times. I'm pretty sure it must have been the good Lord who inspired me to open that e-mail yesterday! Saved me some $$$, yes He did!

I think I am going to use my "shredding" trash can for compost for now. I have always just dragged one of the big cans in from outdoors when I go on a shredding binge. I am going to try to use the "large kitchen bags" for my shredder. I have a huge supply of them so I can use them without bankrupting myself. And that should allow me to corral all the little paper bits so they don't end up all over the floor. If I can make those "large kitchen bags" work for the shredder, then I can free up that big can for composting........ We shall see how this works out. But I have to find a solution to the composting problem SOON. I have more kitchen scraps than I can fit into the container I have for them. I can see me now, in my garage, drilling drainage holes in that big trash can, LOL. People will think I'm nuts! Who knows, maybe I am! 

I have found a new blogger that I am enjoying reading very much. I may have mentioned her before, and if I did, well, you'll just have to read about her again.......... She lives somewhere here in Las Vegas. She feeds her family (soon to be 6 kids, a husband, and herself) on $300 a month plus what she grows in her garden. I am fascinated by her gardening posts and photos because she is growing this stuff right here in THIS desert in the same weather conditions as I face. Her approach is certainly different from mine, but still I've found lots of great resources on her blog. For example, she has a planting/harvesting schedule on her blog. Now that thing will be worth its weight in gold later in the growing season this year and next spring as well. I thought she had some large spread, given the amount of stuff she harvests, but she showed a photo of her home and it looks to be a tract home, just like mine.......... So, it CAN be done. The interesting thing is that she is otherwise very frugal as well, not just as it concerns her food budget. So, to some degree, we have a similar lifestyle, though it is obvious she has advantages I don't have. 

I also grabbed a copy of her 3-week menu. I want to see what they are cooking and eating at such low cost. I have discovered that one of her "secrets" is buying in bulk. And I mean BULK. 25 or 50 pounds of various foodstuffs at a time. She has even listed her researched sources for bulk foods on the blog. Anyway, this is a rich resource and one I plan to utilize.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some celery that must either be frozen, dehydrated, or trashed. I think dehydrated might be a good option this time around. The idea of dehydrating foods is beginning to appeal to me because of storage. You can store a LOT of dehydrated fruits and veggies in a very small space.......... Anyway, I'm off to the kitchen to get the dehydrator fired up and the celery chopped. YOU be BLESSED today.