DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion
Date: 03 Jul 26 - 01:14 PM

Back to Aquafit this morning, with a new session leader. This one bopped about the edge of the pool like Mick Jagger on speed. Then I did the grocery run, and now I’m on the sofa with Isobel.

The heat has abated a little, but only a little, and the forecast continues to promise (or threaten?) more thunderstorms. The gully-washers on Canada Day washed my car quite nicely.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jul 26 - 06:39 PM

Had a satisfactory conversation with the insurance company adjuster and the claim for repairs from last July's hail storm is closed. He asked a question I didn't expect - "you had a spider on the front porch that you named, did she come back?" Ms. Argiope (the type of spider) lived for several months but did die, and I don't know where her egg sacs were stashed so I don't know if any of them will appear on the house or in the garden, but thanks for asking! I assured him that my tarantulas are still around and they can live for decades.

A big declutter job finished this afternoon was the emptying of the rolling compost bin I use for kitchen waste. The spring was so wet it was sodden and needed emptying before more dry grass and such is added to balance out the wet kitchen waste. Gloves, a trowel, and an old cake pan were the only equipment needed to scoop and take many trips to the large compost pile where a hole was dug into the regular compost to drop these contents.

The large galvanized tub that used to be a backyard dip for Cinnamon and Zeke (dogs who liked water) is set up again, with bricks on one end so anything that falls in can escape. And I put part of a BT mosquito dunk into a wire mesh tea ball and have anchored the chain with one of the bricks. I don't think either of these dogs will do more than drink from it so the dunk will be unmolested.

When I get my pots in better order on the side of the house I have another galvanized tub that I'm going to set up and put the floating solar fountain in.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jul 26 - 10:58 PM

Huge flattened boxes made their way to the recycle bins this afternoon, since I'll probably never need them. Flattened for sliding stuff over it happens occasionally but I can go pull someone else's big box out of the recycle bin if the need arises.

Tomorrow starts another cat sitting gig. Much easier this time without having to base my timing on the arrival of painters.

As dusk descended the Independence Day volleys began (regardless if fireworks being illegal through the whole county) and right now I have classical music playing in the den and the washer running as the mechanical chorus, all hoping to mute the effect some. Barely. After the washer finishes I'll run the dishwasher. Maybe I should do some vacuuming.

I mentioned my next door neighbor being home while her husband is in the hospital after a hip replacement (broken in a fall). A couple of days ago I brewed a quart of lemon balm and decaff green tea and took it over, because I find the L-Theanine in the green tea is calming and generates a sense of well-being. She doesn't drink much regular tea but has had a 12-ounce glass of this over the last couple of evenings and slept better than usual. Whether the tea or placebo effect, that's a good outcome to offset the worry.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jul 26 - 04:32 PM

After the first few loud volleys around dusk the dogs stopped barking at the noise. I kept them in the house, turned on the radio, and ran various appliances in sequence. Washer then dryer then dishwasher, all to muffle outside racket. Mango was fine.

Cat sitting postponed. One vet on Thursday suggested the littlest guy shouldn't be taking one particular bowel regulating medicine so she took him off of it. This morning the effect of that was dramatic, and she is putting him back on the med and going to monitor his progress before deciding if she still has time for that trip. I would not have been happy about dealing with that mess so I'm glad it presented itself before she left the house!

Another friend who has no cash buffer at all has a sick cat and few options. I think she was hoping I'd offer to take it to the vet, but I explained that the last time I delivered my friend's cat to the emergency vet (during one of her trips) the bill was around $1,500 just to get him stabilized (they called her and she approved the charge on her card). It's a difficult thing to deal with, and I have no offers that will help her feel better.

Enough pet stuff.

I set up the sprinkler in the vegetable garden then forgot it for several hours so it's like a storm hit that side of the yard (and my water bill.) I'm keeping several small trees alive in all of this heat and maybe today I'll finish moving the pots so they're easy to water with one small sprinkler (two hoses in the front are attached to timers to avoid this morning's drench.) I have a large collection of sprinklers purchased and inherited and every so often am inspired to try a new one. Sometimes a vise grip and pliers and WD-40 are enough, other times something needs a replacement part. I ran the traveling tractor sprinkler two days ago and it did what it tends to do—gets stuck in one muddy spot. Some of them are better than others in different parts of the yard. There is no such thing as a perfect sprinkler.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: pattyClink
Date: 05 Jul 26 - 08:02 PM

Well, they say deep waterings can be very good for trees and lawns, so hopefully it will be all right in the end.

Sorry the 4th is such a trail for dog owners, but that's clever how you run white noise to buffer the effect. Perhaps in 20 years it will all be drones and LEDs and primitive fireworks will be passé.

A dust storm pounded through here, and storms are on the horizon but not dropping much moisture here. I think we're in for a semi-stormy week. Strange to hear thunder and see lightning, not common here at all.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion
Date: 06 Jul 26 - 09:07 AM

I made lobster bisque yesterday with the last of the Canada Day leftovers, using a recipe from “The Joy of Cooking”. I followed the directions precisely, as I always do with a new recipe for a dish that I have never made before, but it turned out too thin, and not lobstery enough. So I know what to do differently the next time, if there’s ever a next time. A stockpot full of lobster wreckage is not something that comes into my life all that often.

A little under a litre of it is in the fridge. I’ll buy a tin of crab meat to, um, flesh it out some.

Today I must catch up with maintenance stuff — the misbehaving faucets first — and get my hair cut. It’s flopping over my ears.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jul 26 - 10:55 AM

Exercises via streaming app are something I'm doing more of and I can feel it in my knees, they're more limber after a fairly sedentary first half of the year. The mowing and walking around don't help like the various knee bends and plié moves.

Mango was prescient with the most recent pair of loafers she chewed a piece off of - after a thorough soaking when moving sprinklers I let them dry then put them on. The rough suede brought up a couple of blisters and the shoe color transferred. Once is enough of that, they're history.

The cat gig is back on, postponed for a day while the cat was stabilized on his usual medicine. Fingers crossed that's all it was. The work from home gig is awaiting a response from the web designer, hoping he can restore a bunch of small images I unwisely removed from the site thinking they were stuff transported in from the previous site (there seems to be a space problem on the server so I've been clearing out extra topics and images not needed or redundant). The "smart move" to go way to the back of the list, I realized, was to get into the content used to design the site, so the pages look a little off as backgrounds and icons are missing. Fingers again crossed that he has backups or can restore the files from a deleted folder.

More rocks were moved and the wall around the bay window area on the driveway is looking better. Visualize a capital "L" with the short part finished and the long side now needs to be re-assembled (because I robbed Peter to pay Paul in that construction.) This counts as weight-bearing exercise, but doesn't help the knees, hence the morning exercises.

Three trees are watered daily as they get established where I planted them last week. One is in a pot and lost all of its leaves (dug out of the garden) and the trick is to keep the roots happy and it should put out new leaves. The others are looking good in the ground. The Japanese maple is near a dip or channel in the front where the deep trench was dug to replace the sewer line. The front concrete path has a 10' gap where the line went through and when I dig that out to put in more concrete (with the help of my handyman friend) all of that soil will go into the dip and hopefully level the yard. But it's too hot to do that now.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jul 26 - 11:23 PM

Today I forgot to take a bucket of water to the newly planted tree in the back yard but there is no going out now - even with a flashlight it's possible to walk through a spider web extended from tree to ground or greenhouse or dog run. Long sticky webs they put out every evening after dusk. Spiders have figured out how to suspend them above where the dogs run, but they don't calculate in the occasional human.

When I arrived home this evening I was greeted by amazing tandem zoomies through the back yard. Both dogs charged through the dog door and proceeded to race in loops for the next 60 seconds.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 07 Jul 26 - 06:05 PM

The bits of the rhubarb root that I divided are showing leaves. Very small, but definite signs of life. Our neighbor mocks me for following the advice of one of the panelists on Gardeners' Question Time (rhubarb is such a thirsty plant that one should water it when it's raining), but the leaves suggest he was onto something.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Jul 26 - 06:57 PM

I want rhubarb in my yard, but I’m not sure I’ve got so much as a square metre that gets enough sun. I can’t bring myself to buy rhubarb; I still think of it as something that’s supposed to grow by the back door.

On that theme, I must start growing parsley in a pot. I can’t keep composting wilted parsley because I needed just a few sprigs but Loblaw’s sells it only in big fistfuls.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jul 26 - 02:23 PM

We had rhubarb in our back yard when I was a kid but no one ever ate it. It's attractive just growing out there. Down here in the south if you want something that is kind of fussy for cooking (boiling twice to remove toxins, etc.) there is poke salad growing on the creek bank on the other side of the road. (If I'm going to harvest from that land I prefer the mustang grapes, but the tree supporting the vines was cut down.)

Executive decision to streamline some small appliances in the kitchen. There are two choppers, one manual that doesn't do a very good job and one that uses the motor from an old stick blender that is about to lose the blade to age and cracking. I can clear out those plus never-used bits that came with it and replace with one small chopper using points on my credit card shopping perk. Bonus (and the only reason to buy it) is it looks easy to clean. I have a better stick blender I bought last year (also with points from the credit card). And in today's purge I'm clearing out several cubic feet in the garage by getting rid of the old cracked Coleman cooler. A new somewhat smaller one is on my holiday wish list. There are a other large things stored up high in the garage that also need to go to the dump or Goodwill.

A few relics will remain, like my Dad's old fishing tackle box and some of my backpacking and climbing gear. Just because.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Jul 26 - 07:40 AM

Rhubarb even grows in Alaska,
Come to the USA, just don't drink the water and don't breathe the air.
Cyclosporidium is sweeping through 20 states via produce and water. It causes explosive diarrhea. With a DOGE elimination of half the FDA more infections are becoming normal.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Jul 26 - 11:48 PM

Got some steps in this evening when I mowed part of the back yard nearest the house, the area I watered last week. On the patio the new grill cover is in place and replacement parts are installed. I still need a set of emitter plates but they're on back order everywhere. On eBay there is a statement that a tariff must be paid before they can be shipped. Trump's idiocy at work.

With the July heat we go one day at a time keeping the garden alive. Buckets of water to trees and potted plants. Several hoses are set up to serve zones in the yard with various sprinklers, and a couple of metal hose timers are on order. I have a number of plastic ones but they are missing pieces. This helps avoid the long-running forgotten sprinkler like last week.

The frozen wrappers from good beef steaks purchased at 50% off at Albertsons (from the last chance bin) await a trip to the curb but I have so little trash this week I think they'll wait till Tuesday. The meat was FoodSavered and frozen in portions that will last through the summer.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 10 Jul 26 - 10:49 AM

Boil rhubarb twice? mebbe a different subspecies to what's grown in the Rhubarb Triangle (and other parts of England)? not heard that one before. We just don't pick it late in the season*, which also gives the poor plant a chance to recover.

When I was at school, there was a rumour (furiously dismissed as an urban legend by Herself) that two separate dishes at the same meal could combine to kill someone. I *think* one of the dishes was rhubarb, but nobody could remember the other. Come to think, it may have started as "don't pick old rhubarb" and/or as a murder-mystery plot.

* The oxalic acid is strong with this one.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: pattyClink
Date: 10 Jul 26 - 11:05 AM

Yes, I don't recall dire warnings about rhubarb, I just get some when it's in season, rinse, cut, simmer in a bit of water and sugar, have warm by itself or with vanilla ice cream. The interwebs say only the leaves are hazardous, never occurred to me one would try eating them.

Dog days are here, dust storms are dominating the valley where the plowed fields are, but I'm sort of all right up here. A few more snake and tarantula sightings serve to keep me on edge a bit, I'm too used to tromping around not watching out for hazards.

The long awaited new washer arrived, was installed and tested. Later that day I learned it stops about 40 minutes into a cycle and 'throws error codes'. And it has no 'just drain' option. So I not only got to hand-wring the clothes, dry them enough to haul to a laundromat, but have to bail a couple of inches of water from the deep tub. The siphon hose doesn't reach far enough.

They agreed to swap this boat anchor out for a much cheaper model next week, reluctantly and amazed that I do not want to go down the service-call-diagnose-wait-for-parts-see-if-that-works drill. And for those keeping score: no, it quite often does not pay to pay a lot extra for quality, because in our modern world, it's all crap.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jul 26 - 11:38 AM

No one in our family was a fan of rhubarb so my knowledge of cooking it is from ancient lore. This summer I'm looking at eggplant recipes. I've pulled out caponata and am looking for a summer sauce with tomatoes, eggplant, and basil from Lidia of Italy. I know I printed it before but it isn't in my recipe box. The video does the trick. (Ignore the thing with peaches after the sauce. That will kill you.)

So sorry about that washer. How odd that a new one died on the first use. Careful around your tarantulas and snakes, even though they might seem creepy they are beneficial.

Picking up teacher art donation stuff from my daughter today; it sounds like she has a lot so I've emptied the usual stuff that sits in the back of the SUV to make more room. And astonishingly, she found the little camera I asked her about last year. I'll see how it looks and decide if I want to use it or keep using the one I bought a while back. What I don't use I can sell on eBay.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 10 Jul 26 - 11:59 AM

--- Ach: I clean forgot "don't eat the leaves". But the oxalic acid does tend to also accumulate in the stems later in the season, which spoils the flavour. Herself's comment about boiling it twice: "I've eaten it raw."

Good luck with the washing machine, Charmion. Breaking down on first use does suggest poor quality assurance, or a very bumpy ride somewhere along the line, but at least it didn't wait till one week after the warranty expires. I'm just glad we got our German-made one before (*akkh* *phht*) Brexit.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jul 26 - 05:27 PM

Interesting family lunch today and a view of decluttering from my daughter that I'll give some thought to. I think her source of inspiration isn't terribly environmentally engaged - just throwing out stuff you don't want to deal with any more is possible, but not necessarily responsible. It's part of the reason why our dumps are so full. I may be a conduit for her to the free places and the Welman Project for teachers.

Running around after picking up snorkeling gear from her father and delivering back to her at work for a trip to San Diego and beaches with things to look at. And my work on the cat gig has shortened by a day - whoo hoo!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jul 26 - 01:27 PM

My sunroom is stacked with bags and boxes my daughter handed over yesterday and in my kitchen is my little Nikon Coolpix that she found in storage. I gave it to her to take to Japan about 10 years ago and had trepidations about the condition but see that she knew to take good care of it - most important thing - remove the batteries if you aren't using it. The lens cap and case and strap are all intact. It's in better shape than the replacement so I'll keep my original and sell the other.

In the garden this morning I made a couple of discoveries, a tarantula hole under a wedged-in piece of wood in the yard (I carefully replaced the piece of wood) and a larger hole where two days ago I buried a dead hummingbird that must have hit the SUV grill and fallen off when I parked. The hole was exposed and the bird gone. Now what would be poking around that close to the house to find a bird under a few inches of soil?

Time to make the eggplant basil tomato sauce, and I'm considering canning it, which involves a large pot of boiling water in the house for several hours during high summer (I have an oscillating stand fan that lives in the corner of the kitchen for just this activity). The finished pints are works of art as they cool on wire racks and each lid goes "pop" forming the vacuum seal. That work is a gift to my future self.

How's the washing going, patty? And I thought I read that you went to Mexico for dental work? Do you go to Ciudad Juárez? Late Mudcatter Amos went to Tijuana from San Diego for a mouthful of dental implants over the course of a couple of years.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Health *Progress - 2026**
From: pattyClink
Date: 11 Jul 26 - 03:51 PM

I had a long post written about how everything is going (not well), and bumped my mouse and the whole thing disappeared. I give up.

I do suspect an armadillo might be your midnight digger.