Thursday August 11

[Shirlv]

Morning All, The hot extremely humid weather has been unbearable. I have been using the inhaler indoors. Had a heavy rain the last couple days and the corn in the field across the road is loving it. I had a Cannon printer with a paper jam. The paper was coming out of the bottom. Finally found a video to fix the problem. I am amazed at solutions to problems found online, I love videos. Needed to sit on a chair, use a magnifying glass to read instructions in the teeny tiny printer window but got it done. Shelia, searching for a video of how to install a water filter might be a fix for you. Still without a landline because Mighty Verizon still hasn’t transferred my telephone number. Brother called to say broadband will be installed in his house next week. I will be there to help so the tech will have his hands full dealing with dumb and dumber. My brother can dial a phone and use a tv remote so I have been printing pictures of modem, router and how the internet works. I had to look up how to enter the Gateway with your SSID ??? Who talks like that. I’m making a selection of user names and passwords for him to choose from. I would pack a bag and spend a couple of days with him but afraid we would hurt each other. I have an old Kindle tablet which I can use to at least give him an idea of possibilities. More of life’s challenges. Lol. Be safe

[Colliemom]

Morning Shirl and all. Beautiful sunny morning here and the current temperature is 58°. Supposed to be around 75 maybe today. Perfect day for working outside. Plan is to do some yardwork and maybe mow outside by our sub entrance. I have one “leaf”To cut out from a pallet board so that I will have all of the pallet pumpkins done. Then I just need to kind do a light sanding over them and after that work with my paints until I get the right “color wash” determined. I haven’t really done this before but it is a matter of mixing water and paint and until you find the shade you like and then just applying it to the wood. It’s supposed to allow the woodgrain to show through so that it looks old fashioned. Wish me luck.

Got to the blueberry Farm and spent two hours out in the field picking berries. They are chemical free/organic Highbush berries so you can stand up or you can sit on the ground or whatever you choose. It was so nice and peaceful out there. Just listening to the birds twittering in the trees and once in a while I could hear people talking from another part of the patch. You are either is there along with myself but not a whole lot. Plenty of room and plenty of bushes for everybody. I think they have about 2 acres of berry bushes. They are all a nice neat rose what’s grass between the rose and Wood chips around the bushes to keep the weeds down. I know I have about 7 1/2 pounds of berries in my freezer. Couldn’t help but think of the generations who have done this every fall since people populated this country. First it was the Native Americans and then it was passed to the early settlers and on down the line. It is a connection to our past when you stop to think about it. Back then they did it to add to their winter food supply, while we do it for pleasure of making pies and muffins and jams and jellies and whatever. Picking at the farm of course is not as good as being able to get the wild ones, but when you can’t get the wild ones it’s the next best thing.

So I best get cleaned up and get this day moving. Heading down to the township hall to pay my summer property taxes and get them out of my way. Then I can come home and get busy. Have a wonderful day everyone

[MandysMom]

It's already 80° at 10 am, on it's way to hot and hotter over next week or so. I'm ready for fall! Handy guy Sean, has truck almost 3/4 finished! And I finally got shorter risers to lower flower bed sprinklers from spraying 20 inches in air, down actually to spraying the ground for my rose and mandarin in the bed. Might even get some mums or something in there next month. Spent couple hours yesterday, after Curves, wandering Home Depot and Hobby Lobby looking for E6000 High Viscosity glue. They have regular, but not high viscosity. That's the type recommended to repair titanium frame glasses. Chris has a eye appointment in two weeks, but his frames separated at the sleeve joint on bridge and no glasses place wise will even try because they are old. Poor guy, he's near sighted so can't just get a pair of readers, it's hard to function without distance vision. It just galls me to have to order 9 tiny tubes of the special e6000 for $19, just to get 2 drops of the stuff for temporary fix for him! I could get larger tube for slightly less, but then use 2-3 drops then rest will likely dry up before we need it. At least with tiny tubes they can be opened one at time.
Yesterday got a jaw dropping utility bill. I knew everything was going up, but this is ridiculous. It's a combo bill for electric, water, sewer, and garbage. For May it was $389, June$450, and July over $500! I need to go online and figure out what exactly changed. These days I'm signed up for pay by text, where they send a text, telling me total and I text ok back and they take the $ out of my bank. So I don't really see details until I sign on the website amd look at actual bill. I know it's been hot, but wow.
Well, I better get moving here. Gotta shower and figure out my plan for day . Have a good day everyone !
Velda

[Acadianmom]

Not much going on here today. It is warming up and hasn't rained yet but there is plenty not too far away. A crop duster is spraying or fertilizing near me and is flying over my house. That makes me nervous. My neighbor was a cropdusting pilot and lived long enough to retire. I knew several that didn't. Now his son and grandson are pilots.

Shirl, I have a magnifying glass in my desk that I have to get out often. I wish they would put the dose on medicine bottles first and in big letters instead of hiding it in the middle of all the warnings. I wish my brother lived nearer to me. I don't think he will ever move back to Louisiana and I'm sure not going to Canada. He is a lot more computer savvy than I am. He is Mr Fix-it like our dad. He did woodworking and built furniture for a while. Now his hobby is fixing old clocks and lawn mowers. My hobby is wasting time on the computer.

I have only picked blueberries once at a campout I attended. I tried planting bushes twice but they never made it.

My son borrowed my small carpet cleaning machine and I need it. Stinky threw up pink cat food on the carpet last night. I feed Charlie canned food because he has teeth problems and she ate his leftovers.

Every few days I wake up to a sink full of ants. I have been battling them for over a month. I have gone thru most of a bottle of Terro. They will fill up on the Terro and be gone for a few days and then a new crop shows up. I need to put out poison on the hill again. All the rain makes them move to higher ground.

Velda, someone opened a Facebook page for Entergy users because their bills have gone so crazy. People are getting bills over $1,000. My electric company is a Co-op and my last bill was only $159. The property in Maurice is on Entergy and after dealing with them I would never build a house there. Subdivisions are being built not that far from my property and I'm hoping someone will want it more than I do. I have an RV spot set up with electric and sewer but I can go somewhere else.

I filled up another bag of clothes to be donated. Now to get it in the car and remember to drop it off. If I put it in the front seat it gets gone a lot faster.

Martha

[OregonLuvr]

Holy Moly Velda, that is quite the bill. Gosh mine was under $100 I was happy because in Medford area it would have been twice that amount. The cost of living is much lower up here but of course so is the population. Taxes were $268, last ones in Medford were $1380 Guess I will quit complaining about living up here,

Not much happening up here just Doc appts etc. Made an appt today with a Pulmonary doc November 14th LOL LOL Well as fast as time flies by will be here before I know it.

Got my portable ice machine humming today. I will have 3 bags of ice soon.

Sue you are making my mouth water for fresh blueberries. I used to live across the street from a blueberry farm and their daughter and I used to ride all over it and eat our way thru. Loved the Early girls.

[snowball]

ta da we have ice... thanks to mom!!!! I went to see if there was any ice so got my glass for water and ice a few but not many mom came out with her water bottle to fill with ice so had to tell her that there was none...she moaned and groaned about why were things breaking down really not that many I tried to explain things get old and they break down...couldn't tell me how old the fridge is but it's not that old.... I guess that she decided to look at it and I guess I didn't have the bar down far enough thinking it was because it's in a different position than it was last night and we had ice... now I know I didn't do it so had to be mom! now I know what position it's suppose to be in
got my booster today mild discomfort at the site when I think about it other than that wouldn't know at this point that I got a shot... really need to do the shingles vaccine but will deal with that when I know what life holds the next few months
looking at my clothes I really need to get some new stuff before going on the cruise ... it truly is a need while here at home it doesn't matter is the tops are stained or the pants are frayed but out among people yep it matters...
have any of you ever heard of Berrylook or pyramid Collections? found some skirts in Pyramid that I really like and tops in Berrylook that look really nice... not sure how they look together and need to decide if a swimming suit is worth taking at the time of year that we will be going...Sept 12 to Sept 19
put some knots in the Swedish Weave oh went to the nursery why??? because a spot with dead plant in it was bugging me so went to see if they had something that I could fill it with they did a fushia spent all of 1.33 on it...
you all have a good day
sheila

[Pooker]

Velda -

I, too, got upset and worried about my utility bills this summer. My recent electric bill was over $300 and I was about ready to have the electric company send someone out to check the meter, etc. when my son started going through the details of the bill. We actually discovered that a year ago at this same time period I used slightly more electricity than this year, but the dollar amount was much lower. So . . . somewhere along the way they have gone way up on their fees/rates. You got me wondering about my total utility cost and this month's bills for elec., gas, and water total about $420 but that's without trash. I pay a separate company for trash pickup and that is billed quarterly. Guess we just grind our teeth and deal.

Speaking of water filters and ice makers: My old fridge had an ice maker and I lived alone so I didn't use a lot of ice. Periodically I would have a flood because the tube would freeze up or too much debris from our water would plug it. I hated that ice thing. So when I replaced the fridge I hunted all over for one that didn't come with an ice maker! They ALL pretty much get installed automatically, but the advertised price posted on the appliance doesn't include the cost of the ice maker - so that's added on along with the other taxes and fees. Made me mad that everywhere I went I would have to pay extra for something I didn't even want in the first place! Finally found one I loved and it didn't have the ice maker.

Now as for water filters. Our water here is terrible out of the tap. The whole city seems to buy bottled water and/or filters their incoming water. But there is so much "junk" in our water that water lines, faucets, etc. get all corroded and I've replaces every faucet in the house, some twice. I have two faucet filters for our drinking water. A Brita and a Pur. Both are doing the same thing. The filtered stream is small and slow. Not as bad when I first put in a refill, but within days the stream is barely running. Takes forever to fill the coffeepot. We have tried back flushing them, blowing them out, cleaning the little screens inside, etc. It almost seems like the carbon (or whatever it is) in the filter clumps together and reduces the stream! I can't see replacing these expensive filters every few weeks, but the larger filters for larger systems would be even more expensive to replace. Years ago we had an under sink filter system and that worked quite well, but that was before I moved to this different water provider. I do get both the gallon bottles of water and the individual ones, but it would be impossible to use bottled water all the time. First, I can barely lift the gallon ones, I could never get the larger bottles. Second, I have very little counter space to put even a 2-gal jug with spout. Keeping bottled water outside in a shed when it's consistently over 100* which we have to do, doesn't seem smart either, but we're doing that.

Sorry to write a book, but do any of you have this problem? Anyone have a good solution? Is there another brand besides Brita and Pur? I haven't seen one and I hate to buy yet another filter that only lasts a couple of weeks!

Evie

[Cudedog]

Speaking of water filters and ice makers: My old fridge had an ice maker and I lived alone so I didn't use a lot of ice. Periodically I would have a flood because the tube would freeze up or too much debris from our water would plug it. I hated that ice thing. So when I replaced the fridge I hunted all over for one that didn't come with an ice maker! They ALL pretty much get installed automatically, but the advertised price posted on the appliance doesn't include the cost of the ice maker - so that's added on along with the other taxes and fees. Made me mad that everywhere I went I would have to pay extra for something I didn't even want in the first place! Finally found one I loved and it didn't have the ice maker.

Now as for water filters. Our water here is terrible out of the tap. The whole city seems to buy bottled water and/or filters their incoming water. But there is so much "junk" in our water that water lines, faucets, etc. get all corroded and I've replaces every faucet in the house, some twice. I have two faucet filters for our drinking water. A Brita and a Pur. Both are doing the same thing. The filtered stream is small and slow. Not as bad when I first put in a refill, but within days the stream is barely running. Takes forever to fill the coffeepot. We have tried back flushing them, blowing them out, cleaning the little screens inside, etc. It almost seems like the carbon (or whatever it is) in the filter clumps together and reduces the stream! I can't see replacing these expensive filters every few weeks, but the larger filters for larger systems would be even more expensive to replace. Years ago we had an under sink filter system and that worked quite well, but that was before I moved to this different water provider. I do get both the gallon bottles of water and the individual ones, but it would be impossible to use bottled water all the time. First, I can barely lift the gallon ones, I could never get the larger bottles. Second, I have very little counter space to put even a 2-gal jug with spout. Keeping bottled water outside in a shed when it's consistently over 100* which we have to do, doesn't seem smart either, but we're doing that.

Sorry to write a book, but do any of you have this problem? Anyone have a good solution? Is there another brand besides Brita and Pur? I haven't seen one and I hate to buy yet another filter that only lasts a couple of weeks!

Evie

Good morning, Evie & all.

I have many of the same thoughts as you do. When I needed to replace my 25-year-old refrigerator (it died) at the height of the pandemic in 2020, I had a heck of a time finding a small-ish fridge without the icemaker thing. Although I do use some ice, just the plastic ice trays inside the freezer make enough ice for me.

As for water. . . don't get me started. Where I lived in the Sierra foothills for 30 years the water right out of the tap (and it was "city" water) was heavenly. When I moved to the valley the taste of the water was a rude shock - almost undrinkable (after doing some research, I found that the tap water here comes partly from the Feather River, and partly from city owned/managed local wells). Yuck.

After about a year of filling/refilling gallon jugs at the local grocery store, I decided to try this Pur water dispenser (I keep it in my fridge):



https://www.walmart.com/ip/PUR-30-Cup-Dispenser-Filtration-System-Blue-White-DS1800Z/358108111?athbdg=L1200

It holds about a gallon-and-a-half of water, has worked very well for me, produces lovely tasting water, and is quite durable (LOL - mostly!): The first one lasted for several years, until I dropped it (it just slipped out of my hands) right after filling it. It smashed into several large plastic pieces on the floor, with water everywhere.

I had been so happy with it, that I just bought another. The new one (now about a year old - I do replace the inexpensive filters on it every month or so) seems to work just as well as the first one did. It seems to fill the reservoir fairly quickly.

Anne

[MandysMom]

I use a Berkey (I think model is Royal-about 3.5 g). With my city water, I fill the Berkey using a half gallon pitcher and fill it every 2-3 days. Filters are expensive but with city water only in it, they last years. I only use it because I drink more without the chlorine taste my city water has. I have a Travel size Berkey I use in my RV.
I have found in my searching that if you look at fridge of 20 cf or less, they pretty much do not have ice maker. There were at least 6 on the floor at Home Depot Wednesday. I'm looking at one for basement as back up fridge .
Velda