DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 26 - 09:56 PM

Sandra, when looking at your heron and mine it seems clear that they are direct descendants from dinosaurs! You have some great names for the birds in that park (Noisy Miner, Tawny Frogmouth, Willie Wagtail).

It was a loud and rainy afternoon and evening, so though there isn't much rain in the morning forecast tomorrow, I'll learn early if it is still too wet still to paint for the remaining touch-ups.

I looked out the window this afternoon in time to see two of the volunteer fire department folks loading their truck with those 4x4 posts that were free at the curb. It seems that away from work one them them has chickens and is making enclosures that can use sturdy posts to frame the base. Excellent!

This evening I emptied a forgotten bin that had some really old potatoes, and just for the heck of it I planted four of them in the garden plot. There were small potatoes growing on the rotting larger ones that might sprout. They may also just decompose into the garden and never make an appearance. The rest are going into the compost bin.

After a long absence from the sewing studio I'm going to go work on a couple of small projects this evening.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 May 26 - 02:00 AM

we have some good bird names - an old mild insult was to call someone a Drongo scroll to the end (Culture) for the insult, or a Galah, again scroll down for the Cultural References

And a cockatoo was the bloke outside an illegal gambling venue who kept an eye out for police & a cockie farmer was a poor farmer cos teh cockatoos ate his crops.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 26 - 10:44 AM

Not surprising that there are no painters this morning, I suspect paint would be really weird on the moist surfaces, with humidity at 93% right now. Like trying to make a bandaid stick to wet skin. Tomorrow is forecast to be quite wet (and I have a rescheduled hair appointment) - I think it might not be until next week before the work is finished.

I've started another round of what would be considered late-spring cleaning. Sweeping and vacuuming so far, but next I need to wash windows and mirrors and clean various counters and table tops (most have some kind of cloth or clear vinyl covering to protect wood). Wash some of the winter lap quilts and put them away.

Most mornings I drink a mug of hot tea, but as of today it's time for a seasonal switch and 1. make it a smaller cup and 2. mostly drink iced tea. With this humidity the tea has me breaking into a sweat.

patty, what kind of rocks or minerals did you go looking for on your latest trip? I was just looking at the rocks that have been moved around during the painting prep - lots of local limestone fossils. My favorites in the bunch are the round sea urchins. (I tend to bring rocks home and line them up somewhere, on window sills or the outside potting bench, or stack them on top of the stacked rock walls. Mixed in are a lot of quartz crystals picked up in Arkansas.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: pattyClink
Date: 20 May 26 - 10:46 AM

" I heave Inner Sydney" tickled me. I see a ship's mate hollering "stand by to heave yer Sydneys, boys!"

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 20 May 26 - 11:33 AM

> I see a ship's mate hollering "stand by to heave
> yer Sydneys, boys!"

Only if it's mess time, and he knows the cook's got it in for the crew.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 26 - 06:06 PM

The next time the painters are back it will be to finish the trim around doors and windows, so today I'm washing windows and glass doors. The decorative bars make it difficult to reach some of them, and as warm and muggy as it is, the work is slow going. I have bars to paint also, with a couple of them close to being finished from the last time I painted. Time to get out the step ladder because the window tops are all out of my reach and maybe finish painting (the paint on the bars over the guest room was almost finished last time I worked on them, I don't remember why I didn't finish.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 May 26 - 10:32 AM

The prospect of replacing window screens can be a math nightmare, both in ordering exactly the right size and in suffering the sticker shock. Part of the repairs after the hail is replacing a few, and I've opted to go with the old fashioned Marvin Adjustable screens for a couple of windows. I might order the fancy ones for the front of the house later. The thing about these screens on single-hung windows with decorative iron bars, it's almost impossible to the the old ones out without destroying them and fitting the new full-sized ones in looks impossible unless it is a window with unlocking bars (bedroom windows).

Another job is to power wash the fence and the next door neighbors have such a washer. I asked about borrowing it and seem to have set in motion the tuneup process (dig out of back of garden shed, change oil, spark plug, etc.) that I hadn't intended. However, once it is tuned up I'm pretty confident that they'll go ahead and use it on a couple of things at their house as well. Now that I have the spark plug wrench and gap measuring thingie I can offer those to help with the job.

We have a series of rain events washing over us until Memorial Day, so we agreed to wait until at least Tuesday before the paint touch-up is finished. In the meantime my handyman came by and trimmed a couple of large dead branches from the vitex out front and they're cut small and stacked at the curb (the village published new requirements for bulky waste and he keeps a photo of the letter in his phone to be sure people know the reason he is now cutting stuff so small.) No more quarterly mountains of whatever dragged to the curb. Now on Fridays only it has to be about 3'x3'x6' or the size of a smallish sofa. I'd call that a loveseat, but whatever.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion
Date: 21 May 26 - 11:20 AM

I’d call that a settee. The loveseat, properly speaking, is a Victorian novelty piece with its two seats facing in opposite directions and an S-shaped divider.

Now that the trees are in full leaf, most of my back yard is shaded all or most of the time. The sunniest part is on the deck, so I guess it’s time to investigate containers. I’ll plant something that likes shade in front of the fence — astilbe, perhaps, and hellebores if I can find any that will grow in Ottawa.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 May 26 - 11:37 PM

How's your voice today?

Hellebore are found hiding in deeply shaded corners of gardens in Texas. They bloom in winter down here, and they don't survive much north of here, so you must have some specially adapted ones or maybe keep them in pots and move in during winter?

Looking forward to a few days at home with the rain pampering the garden and me pampering my house with more cleaning and some rearranging. I cleared some space in the sunroom with the donation of a stack of eight jigsaw puzzles today (only bought one to replace all of them) and stopped by a small library branch where I friend works to offer a puzzle I'd held back from the thrift store for their public puzzle table. It was nice to catch up.

Colbert's last program is tonight. I'll move myself into the den and watch it on the big TV and let the dogs hang out. (Usually I watch it in my office while I'm puttering on other things.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion
Date: 22 May 26 - 07:31 AM

My voice is unchanged. I squeak, rasp and honk when I talk, and I can’t sing at all. Andrew says the Prednisone made it a bit stronger and clearer so he can actually understand me, but that’s all. I’m apparently in for a long haul.

I had hellebores in the shadiest parts of my garden in Stratford, where they’re very popular, and the nurseries advertise them as hardy to Zone 4. Ottawa is at the cold end of Zone 5. We had frost last night and probably more tonight.

Edmund’s bicycle and most of its accoutrements have finally left the building, with help from Andrew. We took it to Re-Cycles, a co-op of bike nerds that provides work space for amateur bike mechanics and refurbished bikes at affordable prices to people who need them, especially new Canadians. The only bike-related items I kept are Edmund’s anti-theft lock and chain, which now secure the gas barbecue to the deck railing.

A surge of mixed feelings hit me as we drove away from Re-Cycles. The bike had to find a new home, no doubt about that, but I still felt a pang of regret. I think I’m done parting with Edmund’s stuff.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 May 26 - 11:27 AM

Reasons for keeping things fall into three categories, I read in a recent AARP monthly newsletter. I don't remember 1 or 2, but 3 was "guilt." At somehow betraying the person an object used to belong to. I just pulled out my copy of Don Alett's Clutter's Last Stand in which he offers a philosophical approach to how we deal with all of the stuff. He begins the chapter "The Economy of Clutter" with

The well-known 80/20 rule of business says: If all of a given category of items are sorted in order of value, 80 percent of the value will come from only 20 percent of the items. Think about that in terms of clutter. Eighty percent of the space on our shelves (and in our mind) is occupied by stuff we never need. . .

He applies this to beauty products, games and puzzles, books, clothing, accumulated paraphernalia in our garages, etc. I need to reread that book and get myself moving again on more than just selling eBay stuff. I pulled a couple of things out of the closet this morning that can go in the teacher donation box.

Guilt has kicked in discarding things from my parents though I've done better with stuff from more distant relatives. As I sold artifacts on eBay (antiques that I don't collect) there's a computer folder for photos and sales information as I researched them. That's enough.

The bank has written to say the house was paid off and in the next 30 days they'll wrap up the finances and send anything they still hold in escrow. And that I now have to pay my own taxes and insurance. Yup.

The Weather Service has gotten really dodgy lately. All of that rain forecast seems to have evaporated and the dew point at a respectable point for painting, if only they'd gotten the forecast right. This is what happens when you cut the staff and stop sending up morning weather balloons.

Along with the 3x3x6 stack of tree trimmings stacked at the curb I put at least 50 pounds of the rest (stashed out of view of the street for now) into the trash can. Next Tuesday's trash run will get the rest of it.