DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 May 26 - 10:58 AM

Other than the lost singing voice, the rest of you feels ok?

My health insurance company keeps trying to set up appointments with some kind of reviewer to do an overview of my health and such. I don't need the interference, but they sent out a letter last week explaining why they want to do this and followed up with an email. I haven't had a physical with my GP for a couple of years so maybe doing that will set them to rest. (It's time for the physical, lately I'm wondering if my thyroid Rx needs an adjustment.)

Preparing to clean out the stuff under the kitchen sink isn't as bad as it could be because it was an early recipient of the declutter approach to organizing the stuff. That didn't spare it from the attention of mice, but cleanup will be easy because I put a layer of vinyl tiles under the sink (left here by former owners after they put them in the laundry room, the ones I just replaced) after a visiting friend suggested it. He had helped cut out and replace the rotted out flooring of that cupboard. It dawns on me now that I should put vinyl squares in the bathroom cupboards also. Some of them have had leaks so might also need a flooring replacement just to have a smooth surface to work with (and maybe remove the chronic mustiness found under there?)

I have identified several stashes of past mortgage documents to put on the pyre when the last of the paperwork comes through. The woman who helped me with the last most affordable mortgage is a broker who lives up the street from me, I should invite her over to bask in the flames and dodge the smoke.

Most things are now showing considerable growth in the garden and a couple are failing to thrive. Must figure out what is happening there. I have two tiny tomatoes on my kitchen windowsill that I'll have with a meal today.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 May 26 - 06:26 PM

A lovely surprise for my next door neighbor, the village garden club has planted their "Yard of the Month" sign in her front yard. The effect, though, is more traffic because all month the scrolling sign down at the main intersection announces the winning address. My yard is barely tidy and quite unconventional. The best I can do is mow and trim regularly to not make it a foil for the winning yard. With a jungle across the road and along the creek on the other side of them, mine will always look tidier than that, but my vegetable garden is in full view out there and it can get a bit weedy. A teen walking past last night remarked on the sign and since I was working on reducing the brush pile asked if I was working to get the sign next month. I told him I've always felt that I would win the "most improved" sign from that group if I got anything.

This afternoon the cup hooks were screwed into the trim above the front porch and I re-strung the LED lights that I leave up year round. I set the timer to go on at dusk and run for 8 hours; I've missed them. Another thing for this week is to stop at the nursery and get a few flowers to put in a couple of pots out front and at the side. Then there are the rocks to re-configure just because (like rearranging the furniture occasionally.) I'm hoping the painters are back tomorrow to finish so I won't put pots or rocks in their way yet.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jun 26 - 01:29 PM

Almost finished packing the art teacher donation items in the SUV; a couple of items need to be contained in some way (some hook rug kits of my mom's that I'll never use but someone else can finish or take apart and redo). That drop-off is tomorrow. All of the paint is in there, clearing a path through the garage so I can get the mower out the side door more easily (needs mowing badly). I've included some of the sorted hardware (screws, nuts, bolts, castors, wooden knobs, etc.) that came out of the garage and the laundry room cupboards. There was a box in the sunroom with contents that have gone for donation, clearing that chair for human or canine use.

With everything identified for donation in the car, I can walk around this evening and see if there is anything else that is suitable to go.

Now that the termite work is finished (and it was paid off instead of paying that cash to the mortgage!) I need to reassemble the guest room to usable guest space. It's one of those "out of sight, out of mind" rooms that I'd rather have ready than not.

The lights on the porch look lovely. The wasps seem to appreciate that space also and are back to trying to build nests on the walls and soffits. I have a broom inside the front door to take out for quick removal. The battle begins. No sign so far of another Argiope spider, or if her egg sacs survived the power wash and paint job.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Jun 26 - 07:00 PM

I went back to aquafit today, at last. The convulsive cough that plagued me all winter was too much to take into a swimming pool, but it’s now a shadow of its pre-Prednisone self so I gave it a try. All went well. I also had my hot-weather dresses taken in so I don’t look like a high-schooler in her big sister’s clothes. So far, it’s been a cool spring, but max heat could roll in any day now.

The next house project, after Thursday’s tree surgery, will be landscaping. The back yard has a marked slope from the deck step to the easement, which contains a drainage swale with a storm sewer grating. (The dying ash tree is on the other side of the swale, up against the fence.) The dirt professional I consulted — he calls himself a “landscape designer” — recommends adjusting the grade slightly with a bit of retaining wall and rather a lot of topsoil so whatever moisture happens to hit the ground heads for the storm drain less speedily than it does at present. Some permeable paving along the east side of the deck will fix the mud problem in the high-traffic area where the neighbours drag large stuff (barbecues and the like) out of their back yards to the street.

Unlike Stilly, I am now rather too brittle for hard manual labour; I reckon my digging days are done. So the last of the extra money from the Stratford house will pay for strapping folks with shovels and rakes and implements of destruction who will make all those improvements happen.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jun 26 - 11:55 PM

There are a few things I have delegated to others now also. Lifting heavy objects at the nursery and hardware store, for example. The bags I use to collect compost are about half the size of the ones I used to use.

Tomorrow is a blood draw and I see the doctor next week. Either I have a bad batch of synthroid from the pharmacy, or more likely, it's time to change the Rx. Here I am finally getting moving on the projects around the house but tired all of the time.

I'm too cheap to pay for drive-through car washes so a couple of times a year I wash it myself. Today was one of those days. Since our temperatures were in the mid-90s it was comfortable to be a little soggy out there, though there were some really hot spots on the concrete in my bare feet.

Also tomorrow is some shopping, and I have a couple of small plumbing things on my list, including caulk, though I'll poke through the laundry room cupboard and the garage tomorrow to see if I have them already. There is a hole near the top of the cabinet space that mice have been coming through so a ball of steel wool stuffed in and a squirt from one of those cans of expanding foam should end that.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion
Date: 02 Jun 26 - 11:19 AM

The landscapers are officially on the case.

In other news, I have finally started on the task of sorting and scanning the possibly thousands of photographic negatives stowed in the basement. At this point, I have no idea how many will be recoverable, but putting it off any longer won't help.

Deep-cleaning the car at least once a year, to get the winter salt and filth off it, is an operational necessity in Ontario. Now that I can afford it, I like to get the car "detailed", as they say these days, and drive around in gleaming splendour with no dust on the dashboard, a condition that typically lasts about a week but is so worth it. In Stratford, one trip down a county road between ploughed fields would renew the interior dust, but I'm hoping for a little more grace in that department now that I'm in the big city.

I just heard the horn on the washing machine. Time to hang up my clean underwear and put in a load of jeans and towels.