DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jul 23 - 11:14 PM

Dorothy, I'm guessing that it is a lot harder to get too much iron than it is to get too little. My doctor said to eat more meat, but I also take a low dose iron supplement. Meat is typically a small part of the diet, a couple of ounces of chicken in a sandwich or mixed in with cheese ravioli this week, for example. I rarely eat a whole chicken breast or a steak, it is usually part of a dish with vegetables, rice, potatoes, pasta, etc.

Jon, if it is a simple matter of coding and you're wanting to automate it a little bit, I have in the past used MS Word tables. For example, if you make want to show a sequence of characters but don't want to type it all the way down the page, you can put the parts of each line in a cell, and leave some cells blank between the elements.

<b> (rendered using html character entities so you can see the code here) is three characters that can each be placed in a column. Leave the next column empty, then do your next sequence, maybe <i>, another three characters. When you have figured out how to space these things, and you can add &nbsp; (non-breaking space code to keep the line together). With Word, if the whole column is going to be <, for example, then select the column and type in that symbol to enter it on each row. Enter the content of each identical column as you work across the page and then type in the variable data in the columns you've left empty.

When this is all assembled, then select the row or the table and choose to combine columns; that leaves all of your symbols and characters in each line in place where you want them. (You may want a column <br> so they don't all run together on one line.)

I'm guessing that this might be what you were asking about. I think I was making columns of names and years when I used this in the past, or something comparable. For documents we put online in html using an editor like Dreamweaver or Frontpage (versus a PDF that looked just like a print document.)

This heat certainly saps energy. 106^o today, and all week. I have to get out early to do some work in the yard (code enforcement wants my trees next to the street trimmed and I didn't get to it over the weekend).

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 31 Jul 23 - 04:56 PM

Beaver:

NOT getting hot today! Thinking of those who are suffering! Threw well today and now need to go back and trim previous ones. Today's might be ready tomorrow.

No idea where my energy was hiding but today is good! Cooked up a pot of mixed veggies and a pot of carrots which got missed in the first round. Threw in some fresh dried oregano, stripped from stems I brought in a few days ago. Had sweet potato/apple/cinnamon/chicken for lunch. Nibbling at hydroponic lettuce from Farm market - on counter in a large cup of water.

Cool, crisp day is clearly my kind of day!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 31 Jul 23 - 04:53 PM

According to the UK wide data I downloaded (or my attempts with it), going from 1900 till the end of June 2023:

Our hottest month was July 2006: , 23.3C
Coldest month: January 1963: -4.5C
Wettest month: October 1903: 219.8mm rain
Driest month: February 1932: 9.6mm rain
Most sunshine: May, 2020: 266.9hrs
Least sunshine: December 1912: 19.4hrs

It looks like there is some averaging going on. I've done the Max Temp for all regions the met office supplies and I get:

UK: Jul 2006: 23.3C
England: Jul 2006: 25.2C
Wales: Aug 1995: 23.5C
Scotland: Aug 1947: 20.7C
Northern Ireland: Aug 1995: 22.1C
England and Wales: Jul 2006: 24.9C
England N: Jul 2006: 24.1C
England S: Jul 2006: 25.8C
Scotland N: Aug 1947: 20.1C
Scotland E: Jul 2006: 21.4C
Scotland W: Aug 1947: 21.6C
England E and NE: Jul 2006: 24.4C
England NW Wales N: Jul 2006: 23.3C
Midlands: Jul 2006: 25.7C
East Anglia: Jul 2006: 26.7C
England SW Wales S: Aug 1995: 24.3C
England SE Central S: Jul 2006: 26.1C Jul 2018: 26.1C

I’m pretty sure I’ll leave it at that. In the unlikely event I do have another go and get somewhere with it, I’ll start a new thread.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 31 Jul 23 - 04:52 PM

Sorry it’s all computer from me but I’m not doing much else… I’ve had another look at the met office site and found some climate data to play with. I’m not sure what I’m doing with it but here is a view of a spreadsheet I’ve made. The data in the downloads are per year but I’ve been grouping it for charts (I’ve used 5 yearly grouping for that spreadsheet). I wrote a program that does this pretty quickly but does anyone know how to do this in LibreOffice Calc or other spreadsheet without a lot of editing?

  Year    jan   feb   mar   apr   may
  1900   4.20   3.10  3.8   8.2   10.5
  1901   3.30   1.7   4.1   8.4   11.2
  1902   4.70   1.5   6.8   7.6   9
  1903   4.30   6.6   7.3   6.5   11.3
  1904   3.50   3.7   4.4   8.9   11.2
  1900   4.00   3.32  5.28  7.9   10.64

eg. instead of the first 5 data rows here, I want the row in bold.

Mum’s been having a bad patch and I’ve had another go at finding her things to do. I bought her Lorna Doone to read, Calamity Jane to watch and Prosperous, Christy Moore to listen to. The last 2 of these led my to by an external dvd drive as my laptop and my parent’s new ones don’t have a built in drive. I’m not giving that to mum but will use it to get the dvd and cd on mum’s laptop.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 31 Jul 23 - 09:41 AM

Beaver:

SRS: Visit to Dr last month elicited him trying to figure out if anything could be done... It is up to me to figure out the ways of my body. The dietician helped and I am trying to figure out how to make things better -at 86! This morning is propitious. I am hoping to get some decent work done today- just an hour before the studio gets hot - it is currently at 60! So I am taking a warmer bag of clay out from the LR which is 68! Feeling like it is possible. I think about iron but hope it is in veggies, chicken, nuts. I have always heard too much iron is not good either.

Opened Internet to pay bills and now off to pottery. A beautiful, breezy, sunny day. The studio will get too hot in a couple hours!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jul 23 - 11:09 PM

I finished closing up the next panel on the fence after replacing the warped 2x4, and it was plenty hot after 30 minutes. Next I hung sheets on the line, but didn't want to turn on the dryer for the rest of the stuff in the wash (clothes end up stiff as a plank on the clothesline). A spare piece of woven clothesline now spans the covered patio between two high-up plant hooks. It is looped every few inches so the garments from the laundry were put on hangers and spaced apart by the loops. This way I don't need to bake my brains in the sun at the clothesline. Who knew that it would get too hot out for drying clothes on the line?

Dorothy, have you had any blood work to tell if you're low on thyroid or iron or some other thing that we tend to run low on as we get older?

Today at my friend's house (cat sitting) I released an eastern swallowtail butterfly that just this morning was still a pupa, but was fluttering around the delicate enclosure when I arrived to feed the cats dinner. There are caterpillars and pupas several in various states and I'm hoping nothing else decides to transition before she gets back home tomorrow. It was a nice surprise to find the butterfly. There is a lot to know about all of the stages.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 30 Jul 23 - 06:14 PM

Beaver:

Beautiful day, bit of rain - drizzle. And folks had the audacity to complain that it was just above freezing this morning! It sure is unusual or the end of July but a clear warning to prepare for a winter that may also be unique.

I was delighted that Ann could find that key. She gets full points!

I had a social couple hours today with nifty people and then went home with no energy at all. The few pots I threw yest4erday morning, which were not up to snuff, might get trimmed tomorrow. Do wish I would find a bit more energy.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jul 23 - 03:03 PM

Amazing she could find the key! I do try to put tags on keys around here but there are still a lot that end up loose in the junk drawer in the kitchen.

Air quality is poor today and the heat interminable. I have a low-grade headache as a result. I'm making a more efficient run this afternoon to feed cats and go to the gym (assuming Motrin works soon) - feed cats medical stuff for "lunch" then after the gym swing by and give them dinner. Lunch time just needs to be an hour before or after a regular meal with other medications.

I'm loving the nectarines I can get at Costco, and a neighborhood grocery still has good peaches. I've made more jars of fresh pickles and if I can get another piece of feta I'll make more cucumber tomato and feta salad. I'm getting to the end of tomato season for now. And I have to make hummus this evening.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 29 Jul 23 - 01:54 PM

Beaver:

Finally threw a few small pots this am but not very well done. Seem to have lost the knack for my usual mug shape. Rather disconcerting as I once threw 40 in an hour. Will try again later today.

We are having a cool spell!!! Overcast and squall warning. At library now - for the internet - but will try again a bit later, after a cup of green tea.

Nice fresh veggies at Farm Market this am! And folks with whom to visit. Had terrific 7-11 Cafe last night - lots of good musicians and good potato soup. And on Thurs, the annual BBQ of the horticultural society was very well attended; I spent the time visiting with a new-to-community potter about my age, and her husband, who live a few minutes from me. A visit in our future.

R needs a key to the studio door at the Mill; I have one but I am here. I remembered giving one to a woman who was using it a few years ago and -LO! - she could still find it and took it next door to our friend Geri (close to Mill) so R can obtain it when/if.

Light rain falling. Time to go home for lunch and another try in the mug department.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jul 23 - 06:05 PM

We've been hearing about that meat allergy condition for a couple of years now, but it seems to have hit a growth spurt lately. So when Jon travels to parks with good weather, careful in the weeds and woods, don't get into the ticks. I try to avoid the woods across the road from me each summer because we've always had a tick problem there.

I've spent the afternoon helping a Freecycle acquaintance figure out how to set up a TV antenna outside her apartment on the patio to get some kind of signal that she can't get with an indoor antenna. We're discussing how to camouflage the base of a spring-loaded pole that she'll attach a small TV antenna to. A couple of buckets of potting soil with flowers should do the trick. I hope some of the problem solving we've been doing on this have been instructive.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 28 Jul 23 - 03:37 PM

I’ve been looking at the Met Office DataPoint service today. I’m not sure if I’ll do anything with it but I can get text forecasts for regions and other areas such as national parks for it. eg. here’s a bit for East of England from this evening on.

createdOn="2023-07-28T13:40:24" issuedAt="2023-07-28T16:00:00" regionId="ee”
day1to2
Headline: Dry to begin with locally heavy and showery rain overnight.
This Evening and Tonight: A predominately dry evening across the region with isolated showers possible. Cloud increasing through the night as a band of locally heavy and showery rain pushes up from the southwest, affecting most areas through the early hours. Remaining mild. Minimum Temperature 16C.
Saturday: Overnight rain will clear quickly eastwards through early morning, followed by a mixture of sunshine and showers. Turning drier and brighter later in the afternoon and through the evening. Mild. Maximum Temperature 23C.

I can get daily and 3 hourly forecasts from it as well as hourly observations for a 24hr period. These come in xml and json formats I’ve written some php code to get the json output into something readable. eg. Here’s a snippet from a 3hrly forecast for Cromer:

Forecast for CROMER dated 2023-07-28T18:00:00Z
2023-07-28Z
21:00
Wind Direction: S
Feels Like Temperature: 19C
Wind Gust: 18mph
Screen Relative Humidity: 78%
Precipitation Probability: 6%
Wind Speed: 9mph
Temperature: 19C
Visibility: Good - Between 10-20 km
Weather Type: Cloudy
Max UV Index: 0

There are some 500x500 overlay images for things like rainfall and pressure but I can’t see what to do with them. I suppose it might help if I could find a base map to try to put them on.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Jul 23 - 03:02 PM

Alpha-gal syndrome from a tick bite is affecting half a million and growing in the mid-Atlatic to Southern states. It makes you allergic to red meat with stomach problems, hives, joint pain, etc.
Don't diagnose yourself. Even doctors don't know much about it.

Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) is a serious, potentially life-threatening allergic condition. AGS is also called alpha-gal allergy, red meat allergy, or tick bite meat allergy. AGS is not caused by an infection. AGS symptoms occur after people eat red meat or are exposed to other products containing alpha-gal.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jul 23 - 01:07 PM

Let us know how it goes! Buying twin sheets in August can be difficult if you live in a college town. Every dorm room in America seems to have twin bunk beds. My son had a standard twin the first year but managed to get a room with a long twin the second (and final) year he spent in a dorm. So more sheets. (Even though they're big and heading off to college, I made a point when helping both kids move into their first dorm room of making their beds for them. There's an element of homesickness even in the most exciting new activity and I thought that perhaps knowing Mom made the bed would be a nice transitional gesture.)

I'll get to the gym this week because of the cat sitting that is on the way there. I may also get some burritos on my way back home since I'll be driving past several restaurants and a number of food trucks. More exercise will be good because yesterday I made a small batch of hand pies. Apple with raisins and walnuts and cinnamon sugar. One cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of butter for the crust, plus the rest - it comes out about 500 calories per pie. Maybe I can make them smaller next time.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Charmion
Date: 28 Jul 23 - 12:45 PM

Yes, I also have a double bed, a late-Victorian piece inherited from my father’s family. It’s what I’m sleeping on now, and thrashing around on. It will stay in the larger bedroom, on the windward side of the house, and I will move back into the smaller bedroom on the leeward side.

Sheets for twin or single beds are often marked down at the end of the season when the much more popular queen-sized sheets are sold out.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jul 23 - 11:34 AM

I've considered downsizing to a double to use the antique bed frame I have in my room, but I suspect it would creak like an old wooden bedframe, so I simply have the headboard leaning against the wall at the head of my queen-sized bed. I rarely let dogs sleep on the bed, but when I do, they're notorious bed hogs, and larger helps give me a little space.

Sticker shock hits when you price nice sheets. Do you have a guest room with a bed?

Cat and caterpillar sitting this weekend. I helped her create this monster by spotting a half-dozen caterpillars in the parsley last month. Most of those have pupated and then turned to butterflies, but there is a straggler from that batch plus some new ones that have come along. If someone tells you you'll "rue the day" they might mean if you have a pot of rue the butterflies and caterpillars will keep you busy. :)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Charmion
Date: 27 Jul 23 - 06:39 PM

I have acquired a new bedstead — well, new to me. It’s a single (all the bed I need), Mission-style, built of quarter-sawn oak by a Mennonite firm. New, it would have cost close to a thousand bucks *without* a mattress, but I found it on Facebook Marketplace for two hundred. I offered another fifty bucks if the sellers would deliver, and they eagerly complied.

So now it’s time to re-home the queen-sized bed I shared with Edmund, which is much too large for me and the cats, and somewhat oversized for this modestly proportioned house. I’m not sure yet how to do it, but I’ll figure it out.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jul 23 - 10:45 AM

Dorothy, both the bread you buy and the weather you're experiencing sound nice! Here, I buy the multi-grain bread at Aldi and keep it in the freezer to use as needed, or put pita or tortillas or my own dinner rolls into the freezer for the same reason.

I have a whole bunch of pre-gate steps to do today but I am prepared to construct a gate. I have to dig a hole where I want the gate hinge to go and put another post in, then shift the existing panel crossmembers onto that post and cut off the rest, leaving the gap for the gate. And before I put up the gate I have to put up the next panel beside it so it has a new panel end to close against. So of course the allergies are acting up this morning, and air quality is moderate (no Ozone alert today, but I won't be surprised if there is one tomorrow.) I'll be in and out all day as the heat dictates, and will actually construct the gate in the shade of the garage.

Trash day today has several things that have needed getting rid of that aren't donatable or reusable, and aren't eWaste (that goes to a different collection place). And I've decided that the only way anything is going to break down when it's at the dump is if there is SOME organic material in each bag, so I try to add the paper shreds and will occasionally dump something that is too large for my countertop kitchen waste bin (yesterday, an overlooked cucumber). Not enough to create a huge source of methane, just enough to let future dump miners (because you know that's were all of this is headed) know that the organic stuff helped the old ceramic thing break down into elemental kaolin clay. I'm sure this is trash science on my part, but I do wonder what scientists think about the state of American trash (someone must be thinking about this?)

Dinner went well and Cookie sat under the dining table the whole time getting head scratches from my friend.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 26 Jul 23 - 05:32 PM

Beaver:

Came last Tuesday and finally recovering. It seems to have taken more out of me this time and causes me to be concerned about how much longer I can keep doing this. Malaise that started 1 July took two weeks before I felt safe to travel. I do believe it was a virus as Charmion described, so I attacked with Pau d'Arco (herbal antibiotic) successfully. Lost 10 pounds and now trying to keep it off.

SRS: no hope of me keeping a food diary; I have tried and failed so many times. The only thing I manage to keep any record of is pottery firings - They have been essential to my life and relative peace of mind!! I keep finding food ones that I started and gave up on - as recently as two years ago.

The bread: Dimpflmeiers - mostly organic loaves but some just pumpernickel made with spring water and no additives. Heavy, thin sliced ones with sunflower seeds or sandwich types - not so dense! Not easy to find in grocery stores so I just get fed up and order it and pay the shipping for the convenience of knowing it is in the freezer. I tried two new-to-us sorts this time - heavy with flax seeds, and plain but sandwich shaped which I have, curiously, been using for my one slice toasted with almond butter for BF. Very tasty. The half round type I use for grilled cheese sandwiches; last night's was cheddar, green pepper and apple slices.

The water here is not potable and that at Dupont is disgusting so I do not buy anything that needs much washing - use distilled water with vinegar for fruits, esp soft ones. I was in a bar/restaurant on Friday and the water (in town) was undrinkable; I could smell it. Had left water bottle in car and did not want to leave to get it.

The good part was that a very fine musician of my acquaintance, Noah Zacharin, was playing with a friend of his; I was able to sit with two of his neighbours - nice folks. Major social event for me. I ordered nachos with chicken - one of two things on the menu I would tolerate. Had nachos for lunch on Sat and Sunday! Not bad for $40 - food, large tip and tax. This place is 5 minutes from here and, in the 3 hours I was there, I did not see anyone I know.

Got a nice handful of blueberries the other day. Need to feed those guys! Meant to ask Larry when he and Abbie (dog) visited. We were able to sit on the back deck - no rain or mosquitoes!!! I think he said peat moss - all I need is enough energy to fetch some. Home Hardware I think; they will put it in car for me. And I need a sweep for the bottom of the back screen door; a garter snake seems to lie in wait along the bottom edge - catching the aft sun? I prefer not to have it in the house.

Did manage to throw half a dozen butter dish tops and bottoms and trim them. With any luck they may fit each other - or the previous ones that need tops of bottoms that fit! Does the law of something mean that someday I will manage to match all.... ??? I measure! This time I made the bottoms smaller than the tops. The bowl shaped lid pulls in as it dries; the plate does not shrink as much.

Weather has been quite decent and good rain. I can keep the house ok by closing east drapes in the am and west ones in the pm; the aft sun can raise the indoor temp several degrees - nice in the winter!

The new Beaver pond across the road is causing the stream to rise. Steve cannot mow as close to the stream. I am delighted to have the beaver; though I have not seen any, they have been enlarging their pond! And a large brood of wild turkeys, with mom have been enjoying the area. Also, resident woodchuck, who was sitting in one of the raised beds the other day - posing!

There were lots of cherry tomatoes coming along at Dupont - for Robin to pick and enjoy. It does look better with the grass cut. The perennials have enlarged in the front garden and the canna are blooming, and the wonderful Roxanne greets me at the front steps, reminder of friend Tina.

Steve came to cut here again - without invitation! I guess it is easier for him. He also told me he would deal with the new woodpile - move last year's to the front and stack the new behind. He is a good worker, takes care of his tools, organized ... One might say he is hyper-active - And I may be starting to understand his speech impediment!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jul 23 - 04:36 PM

I had my pickets and all but the last board loaded in the SUV when the beefy guy whose pickup was parked next to me arrived back at his vehicle and he offered to load the bag of concrete. I was happy to let him - I do so much of this stuff myself, but I have begun to draw the line at these bags of sand, gravel, concrete - they are so dense it seems easier to hurt yourself trying to lift them than equally heavy bags of things like potting soil or dog food. I have no science behind this suspicion. I bought a bag of rapid set (the stuff in the garage is the regular 24-hour type) so when I decide where to put the next post and get the hole dug it'll be set and ready to work on within about 30 minutes. You don't dawdle when you work with this stuff.

Shopping on the way home I picked up a rotisserie chicken to use for the rest of the week. The friend here for dinner tonight will get a salad and my zucchini and pork casserole. I blanched a dozen smallish tomatoes that are overripe but still edible; they'll be the tomato part of that casserole. So far my garden ingredients in our dinner will be zucchini, onion, poblano, garlic, basil, oregano, and tomato. I bought the pork sirloin, olive oil, fresh mushrooms, and the cheese that go in it. I still have a lot of potatoes, I might think about adding one of them to the mix (they're the waxy red lasoda, it wouldn't fall apart like a Russett.)

I did enough fence and gate work today just bringing home the materials. I'll take a nap, wash a dog, shower, then vacuum before starting dinner. I'm looking forward to figuring out this gate, but I'll do it tomorrow morning when it's cooler out.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jul 23 - 04:30 PM

Our government is talking about banning gas boilers and making us all have heat pumps. That's great, except that a boiler might cost three or four grand to install whereas a heat pump comes in at about eighteen grand. As an aside, they are also banning new petrol/diesel cars from 2030, even though electric cars cost a fortune, they have limited range, there is nowhere near enough charging infrastructure (and it's getting worse) and that the nation doesn't generate anywhere near enough electricity to support the policy. Apart from that, fine!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jul 23 - 11:20 AM

Which is why I have installed very efficient heat pumps and keep the thermostat set high.

The materials for the gate are stacked and ready to use, now to buy the parts I don't have, mainly, two 2x4s, some corner braces (the technique in this video) and a few extra heavy-duty lag bolts. I'm glad to say that this project will declutter leftover stuff from past projects (deck screws, bag of concrete) or parts from things I've dismantled (galvanized fence post, crossmember supports, hinges).

A friend is coming for a late dinner so I'll stop working on the fence at some point (either at a good stopping point or before heat exhaustion sets in) and shower, vacuum, and get ready for dinner. Too bad there isn't time to wash the dogs, I'm used to them but realized this morning that everyone could use a quick scrub. Maybe if there's time before I shower? I use a squirt bottle of vet shampoo and a hose in the backyard.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jul 23 - 10:20 AM

Air conditioning is grand, and we had it running in our hotel room in Sicily for the whole week on our recent holiday. But there's no such thing as a free lunch: aircon is a massive contributor to global heating on account of its power-hungry nature.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jul 23 - 09:38 AM

It sounds like having several levels of assistance has been helpful (and not helpful at the same time!) - we have a volunteer fire department here, and mutual assistance agreements with surrounding communities for fires and big accidents. There are commercial ambulances through the whole region that are called when the fire department/EMS folks deem it necessary, our EMS folks don't do any transport. They do first aid and EMS stuff and the lifting I mentioned.

I've rescued my mud-caked shoe (my favorite pair for yard work). A stiff bristled brush was all that was needed and I'll be looking for more shoes like this (it has a few more weeks wear, but they're showing their age.) They don't lace, just have a sturdy loop at the back of the heel to pull them on.

Off to get lumber and plan out the gate part. I may have a bag of concrete in the garage and I have the posts and the hardware, just not the latch part. I'll arrange it so the gate can lock/unlock from either side and place a key nearby.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 26 Jul 23 - 05:23 AM

SRS we told only to use the 999 emergency service for a life threatening emergency. There is a Norfolk County Council run service called Swift who have teams who will get people up from a simple fall where there are no medical concerns. Their teams carry an air cushion thing they can insert under the casualty and pump up. Their service often has all teams out and no one available though. When this happens, Swift’s own advice is to call 999 as there is no other service who’d do the lifting.

In dad’s case this time round, there were medical concerns as well as the need to get him up and out of the chair. On the medical side, sometimes you may not be sure whether or not to call 999. In this case, you can call 111. They will ask questions, assess the situation and get an ambulance if they feel it is needed.

Dad’s coming home this morning. They gave him blood tests, a brain CT scan and possibly other tests? but found nothing wrong. It’s an odd one. Slurred speech, confused speech, difficult getting the right words out and loss of or decrease in usage of an arm, the symptoms dad has been having on and off do make you wonder about possible small strokes.

And the ambulance taking dad home can’t find us. I don’t know what goes wrong sometimes. We can be difficult to find as going by road signs, the bungalow is out of the village for our address and it is a bit tucked away, set back from the big semi. Over the years, I’ve had several people thst they have been on our road many times and never knew our building existed. On the other hand, the instructions to find us should be easy to follow. Most people find us straight away with them but the odd one gets in a mess.

Ah, he’s home and now they are struggling to get him into bed. I do wonder about ERS (a private company that handles non medical transport for the health service) and the training their drivers get. When I first saw them struggling, I told one of the drivers about the equipment we have and the Ross return is the usual method for transferring dad. I was told that they are not allowed to use them. And it gets worse. The drivers have said they can’t move him and the only thing they can do is take him back to hospital. We’ve got Mike from Elite coming in now and we hope he can help… Ah Mike’s here and dad's in bed. In don’t know where we go from here...

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jul 23 - 12:46 AM

Between points earned and a credit toward a trade in I ordered another Roku stick with a good discount. Color me converted: this summer I've decommissioned both of my Fire tablets and two of the TV Fire sticks.

One of the 2x4s for the fence was so warped that there was no fastening the pickets to it this evening; at present it's a placeholder on the bottom tier of the new panel to keep Zeke from drifting into the neighbors' yard overnight and in the morning I'll get a replacement plus the next panel's worth of pickets and cross-members. The pickets I did put up are fastened only to the top and middle supports. I'm surprised with myself that I brought home a plank in that shape, but I don't think it could have warped that badly in just a few days in the yard.

I left a gap when putting up the pickets so I can get through to water again tomorrow. Next comes the new post and the gate. I'll be measuring and putting that together before I put up the next panel.

Considering this is the age of air conditioning, ceiling fans, and insulation, I have to wonder at how people in past times in North Texas (or the American Southwest in general) managed to sleep at night with the heat that builds up in houses. Here in Texas the "hip roof" was designed to pull heat from the house, and dog trots - an open air passage through the middle of a structure - helped with ventilation. Novels set in the mid-late 1800s do a good job of portraying the heat (Cormac McCarthy, among others) and it's clear that the only thing that made this area livable was the invention of air conditioning.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jul 23 - 05:40 PM

I took a 15-minute trip into the midday yard and transplanted some cannas to a new area, then turned on the soaker hose and accidentally created a bog. When I went out to check an hour later I stepped on the mulched area and submerged my shoe and sock, up to the bottom of my jeans, in the resulting slurry. No more water there for a while. I'll leave the cannas and tomorrow I can lift them out if it doesn't dry enough by then. They prefer getting more water and being well-drained at the same time, but these plants were quite parched and might benefit from a good soak.

Jon, emergency responders are trained in techniques to help lift people, and to shift people who have fallen or can't get up completely on their own. I called the local fire department (Volunteer) when my friend Susie's husband was on his knees leaning against their bed and couldn't stand. She called me first, we couldn't lift him. I asked them to not use sirens, that we hoped it was a simple matter of someone helping him up, but we'd let them evaluate as far as if he needed more than help to their car (she was trying to take him to the doctor.) He ended up in the hospital - but the thing is - they picked him up without causing pain that Susie and I were causing when we tried.

The Amazon Fire stick in my office (installed in 2020) was always glitchy, updating, twirling, turning itself off. Drove me nuts. I bought a Roku stick during Prime Days and just installed it. The Fire didn't work well even when I had it on the Ethernet, using the house WiFi this Roku is fast and I can see replacing a couple more of these Fire sticks that don't work very well. They have a trade in program that doesn't offer much, but they pay the shipping and I'll get a few dollars off my next purchase.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 25 Jul 23 - 11:46 AM

Have you used SQL, SRS? I used one statement in the bible count example and wondered if you had with Access (although that has GUI methods for most things) or other database. In case you haven’t: There are a few differences depending on the database used but it is the standard for querying and manipulating relational databases and if say, you knew how to query an Access database, you’d pretty much know how to do the same with MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL server, etc. The Mudcat forum will use a fair bit of SQL behind the scenes.

Dad is hospital again. I can't remember if I posted this but he was taken in and sent home on Sun 16th. He has been up and down since then with occasional slurred speech, confused speech and problems with one arm. We had been in touch with his GP and were waiting for a home visit but problems led to an ambulance call out yesterday evening. He had got himself in a position in his chair where he was leaning so far to the left, he looked in danger of falling out of it. His carers managed to get him straight but couldn't get him on his Ross Return and were worried about his arms.

I hope the hospital do get to the bottom of what's going wrong this time.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jul 23 - 11:58 PM

The kitchen table is almost clear, the peninsula is looking better, and the tall table has less clutter. Not finished, but better. I'm thinking about having a friend over for some caprese salad and a bottle of reisling. I think I owe her a couple of meals by now. We may also make a pie, because she has struggled with making crusts.

I've signed off of the 10" Amazon Fire tablet and spent time this evening moving files to the Samsung tablet, including setting up the Adobe Digital editions permissions. (Years ago @BatGoddess told us about the free digital books from the University of Chicago every month. I don't often read the whole book, but I try to download each, they always sound interesting.) See if this gets you to this month's free book. Adobe Digital Editions is free to set up, and it is an authorization platform for downloading and reading these books. It works great on a tablet or smartphone. I should have gotten the non-Amazon tablet a long time ago - they look great but are really limited in what they can do other than offer Amazon products.

In the garage today I dug around for the existing fence hardware that I kept after dismantling the old gate that was here when I moved in (we took the fence apart to build the new garage behind it.) I have the brackets for a new post (if I put up a gate) and I have heavy duty hinges for the gate. The latch isn't the best one to use in this spot, so that might have to be new.

Plugging along.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jul 23 - 11:39 PM

I deployed a new power strip with USB ports in the sewing studio, and in the process liberated a couple of small charger blocks (the ones that come with phones and tablets). And because I was checking out power strips in other rooms, I found two more chargers in the office. They're now in the basket labeled for spare headphones and adapters. Funny, I couldn't find any of these a couple of months ago when I was trying to match up tablets with their chargers. Two power strips were accidentally ordered on Prime Day, but I have so many of these around the house I need to see if there are any more old ones I can retire.

A friend just offered to send mail to my post office box and sent it out before telling me he was going to do it (to do with getting recent first class mail to take in when I renew my library card - if you use mail to prove your address, it has to be recent). He sent it to a post office box address that I got rid of 20 years ago. Whoever has that box has never returned mail that was misdelivered there (it has happened before). But - the box number he used was wrong, one digit short, so there is a chance it could be returned. Slim, but a chance. Good intentions gone awry. [slaps forehead]

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jul 23 - 06:19 PM

Jon, I've had just enough exposure to coding that I recognise you have to set up lines with spaces, brackets, parenthesis, symbols, etc. and do it in the right order. Beyond that, I wouldn't know how to set it up, so, just enough information to know this isn't likely to be something I would attempt. But thank you for showing us!

Charmion, good luck getting the COVID jab. It seems to be dropping of of the general radar, but come fall when flu season rolls around I'll be asking for the new flu vaccine and about any COVID updates. I think that is what the CDC has planned, update it the same as flu.

The next set of pickets are treated with wood preservative and leaning against the back fence beside where they'll go soon. After this panel I must figure out the whole gate or no-gate thing. I was in the shade of the garage with the door open and a fan running, but I'm staying in for an hour to completely cool down before I head next door to water.

I finally found a sprinkler I started searching for weeks ago (it fell off of the stone wall into the irises) and will use it to direct water into the cucumbers and chard this evening.

Trash goes out tomorrow, and with it goes a ceramic pitcher (kind of like that) I've used for years to hold various wooden spoons and other utensils. I knocked it over a couple of times, breaking off the handle and cracking it. Time for a replacement, so I picked up a small restaurant supply stainless steel bin. I was in to buy sausages and spotted the bins, otherwise I'd still be living with the chipped pitcher.

Two immature blue jays just visited the bird bath outside my office window. I need to work with the ceiling light off so they can't see me move when I lean to look out at them.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 23 Jul 23 - 05:10 PM

SRS, Jupyter, matlibplot, numby and other related packages are pretty good software. They are quite widely used by scientists and others doing work such as data analysis and presentation.

My simple charts were written in python and put in a Jupyter notebook. A package called matplotlib produces the charts. As an example, I’ve changes the data a bit since posting the link but this is pretty much the code I used for the rotating pie chart.

  %matplotlib agg
  import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
  from matplotlib.animation import FuncAnimation
  from IPython.display import HTML
  
  labels = ['R', 'V', 'I', 'B', ' G', 'Y', 'O']
  explode = (0.01, 0.01, 0.01, 0.01, 0.01, 0.01, 0.01)
  colors = ['red', 'violet', 'indigo', 'blue', 'green', 'yellow', 'orange']
  nums = [10, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12]
  plt.rcParams["animation.html"] = "jshtml"
  fig, ax = plt.subplots()
   
  def update(num):
      ax.clear()
      ax.axis('equal')
      ax.pie(nums, explode=explode, labels=labels, colors=colors, autopct='%1.1f%%', shadow=True, startangle=434 - num * 2)
      
  ani = FuncAnimation(fig, update, frames=range(179), interval=50, repeat=False)
  HTML(ani.to_jshtml())

The Jupyter notebooks provide code cells (various languages supported) and markdown cells. Markdown provide something similar to HTML. So you can have a mixture in a document. The next thing for me was to export the notebook to html. I used nbconvert for this:

jon@jonlaptop:~/pyjupyter> jupyter nbconvert --no-input pies1.ipynb --to html

--no-input tells the program not to include the code in the html.

That done, I just uploaded the html pages to jonbanjo.com which is hosted by Web Hosting UK.

For a little play today, I decided to have a quick look at getting data from spreadsheets and databases. For the database one, I used a mariadb I’d created a few years ago for the King James Bible. The task was to find our how many times the word “Jesus” occurred in the 4 gospels. Here is my attempt. Again, html produced by converting a Jupyter notebook, this time leaving the code in place.
--
I used to host folkinfo from home mainly because of the requirements of the abc routines I used. Mandolintab.net managed to host the abcconverter part on what I think was shared hosting but it couldn’t be done with my current web hosts. Without the folkinfo need, I’ve avoided having any home hosted stuff.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jul 23 - 02:57 PM

I've added more books to my tablet, though I keep reminding myself that it will be a one-time use because I can't give them to anyone else to read. Books I think I might want to share I still buy on paper.

Jon, those are clear animations - how are they put to use on websites? Stored elsewhere and linked from the host, or is there something you can load and host it yourself? Is your jonbanjo site on your computer as server, or is it from an Internet provider somewhere?

I've shifted and nudged and come to the conclusion that the only way to approach an office furniture reorg is to do a full shutdown and unplug everything. There are too many moving parts (to be knocked over and broken.) Sometimes things can come and go without much fuss, but this isn't one of those times. And if I move the computer desk, I'll have to move the TV, though the radio can stay where it is. If I got really ambitious and tried shifting the old computer and it's file cabinet desk 90 degrees I could even start having to move stuff on the walls - perhaps a bit too much. Whatever is done, this will give me a chance to once again mop the floor, see if there are things hidden in plain sight to toss, and to curate the books that appear behind me in Zoom meetings, etc. Dusters and vacuum cleaner will need to be at the ready for this operation.   

Working on the fence some today, it's mostly too hot for that, but I may finish this latest panel tomorrow morning. I started chiseling out a tree root in the way of the end post (it can either be straightened or it needs digging out and replaced.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 23 Jul 23 - 06:02 AM

I’m still just messing around with the laptop. My brother told me of a couple of programs he’s been using so I had a look at VS Code and JupyterLabs. I thought I’d have a play at putting some simple charts in Jupyter notebooks. These little plays can eat up hours as I struggle to find out how to do things. I managed (there’s little in the way of code but it still took me ages to get the animation working properly) to do this and this and I think that will do me with this.

On to other things... Mark and family are supposed to be visiting this week. I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to this or not but there are things I want to discuss with Mark (and Paul when I seem him). Plus there a few tasks he may be able/willing to do.

It's mum's birthday on Monday. I ordered her this slate clock with the Welsh lettering on the face but it hasn't arrived. It may just make Monday's post but I've just ordered a box of chocolates on Amazons to try to ensure I've got something to give her on the day.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Charmion
Date: 22 Jul 23 - 01:21 PM

I am contemplating travel to the States, which means getting a COVID booster. Sigh.

Huron-Perth Public Health would like everyone to put off their next booster until the autumn, so it's still at maximum effectiveness when the COVID and flu seasons set in. I must be needled and tested before crossing the border at the end of September.

That means phoning up the Public Health Unit and convincing the gate-keepers that I am sufficiently special to be needled early. I hate that.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Charmion
Date: 22 Jul 23 - 12:07 PM

It's a beautiful, sunny day in Perth County, Ontario, after a cool night tinged with the whiff of woodsmoke that has become the signature scent of this summer. The Canadian Armed Forces are now involved in the wild-fire effort, in the form of airlift to move people and supplies in Quebec and British Columbia, and two companies of infantry deployed to the fire front in BC.

To a large extent, Canada's public response to major natural disasters hasn't changed much over a century -- when it gets bad enough, call out the Militia.

If this year is a sign of things to come, that unwritten policy has been overcome by events. If the Fantasians still want to invade us, they now have two golden opportunities per year: flood season and fire season.

On the home front, with respect to digital subscriptions: I'm all for them. After Edmund died, I changed all the news media to the on-line versions and decided to stop buying novels on paper. After more than two years, this choice has allowed me to cut back the contents of my recycle boxes by about three quarters, so they now go out to the curb only about once a month. Over the same period, I have reduced the fiction section of the real-life library from five 80-cm six-shelf bookcases to two 60-cm six-shelf bookcases. I still chug through three newspapers per day and consume prodigious quantities of fiction, but I have ceased to stuff my living space with the evidence of my habit.

Now, if only I could give up Perrier water ...

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jul 23 - 11:28 AM

I've given myself the assignment to solve the office desk question this afternoon - part 1, will I swap the orange cabinet for the black, and part 2, will I move other pieces of furniture around just for a change (and a better look out the window.)

Starting this weekend I'll be watering plants next door while they're taking a grandchild on a road trip, and she said it would be easier for them if I just put a hole through the fence and came in that way and don't have to fool with the padlock on the gate on the other side of the house. I love that we're so comfortable that a hole in the fence is the preferred transit mode. I'm still thinking about a gate that could go in there for as long as we're both in these houses. I might have to turn that stretch back into fence if one or the other parties moves. YouTube has many videos that show how to make them, and I'm almost there.

An interesting note on the New Yorker subscription - when I called she said she didn't have any offers as low as I was asking for, so I should just renew using the web page I'd found that offered it. "Really? It'll let me do it that way?" Yes - so I clicked through, paid my money, and got it for $50 instead of $99 or the print and digital "deep discount" of $169. It opens new possibilities for some of these publications. (Don't forget to turn off automatic renewal or it will charge you the larger amount next year.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Jul 23 - 12:46 PM

Yesterday only short posts were going through - I wasn't able to share a remark about the garden and the freezer - I'm using a lot of the garden stuff and being careful to draw down freezer contents that went in before I started watching sodium. I'm pacing myself with a few processed foods and I won't be buying as many things like tortillas; the few I use I can make myself and be sure they're low salt.

This morning I cleared the counters and scrubbed Formica and backsplashes on the stove side of the kitchen, to start a cleanup that is overdue. I'll clear an obstacle in the back hall later - since no family members are interested in the filing cabinet I could put it on one of the free sites, but then I have to wait for someone to approve the post and it will be faster to take it to Goodwill. In another declutter move, one of my magazine subscriptions expired and I'm going to call in and ask to take advantage of one of the "digital only" offers. I never read the paper version, but it has come to the house every week.

This weekend we have a "weak cold front" coming through, meaning it will lower the temperatures by about ten degrees during the day. Then back up again. Ugg.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jul 23 - 01:49 PM

Charmion, there are cities in Texas that have rules about things like water breaks, but last legislature also passed a law (or was it a constitutional amendment? They tinker a lot with the state constitution) saying the cities and counties can't make rules like that for their own areas. They really are pulling the whole state into the dark ages.

The extra two-drawer file has been sitting in the hall for a couple of days to see if I think of anyplace else where I might use it. Nothing is coming to me. Nor has the key for the orange locking two-drawer cabinet turned up.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jul 23 - 01:13 AM

Much of the evening was spent reducing several pounds of homegrown tomatoes into juice and sauce, with a sink full of dirty bowls and pans, and a batch of skin and seeds that will go to the compost. In the past I've dried the skin and seeds to pulverize for seasoning (and a great source of lycopene), but it's time consuming and I still have a bunch in the freezer from a couple of years ago.

This is one of those things that is difficult to describe to the layperson. If I were being paid, the hours I spent doing this would add up to enough cash to buy a whole bunch of canned tomatoes or sauce. I have three quarts of juice and just over a quart of finished tomato sauce (I added onion, green pepper, garlic, garden herbs, salt, pepper, and olive oil to make an Italian tomato sauce). But considering the hours spent maintaining the garden, it is all part of the whole enterprise. Consider this a gift to my future self. I have two and a half pint jars of sauce cooling in the fridge and I'll freeze them tomorrow. After all of that it's too hot to process jars in boiling water (40 minutes for pint jars). Homegrown tomatoes have so much flavor and nutrition and this sauce, when thawed in the fall or next winter, will be used for something wonderful. Never mind the huge water bill for the garden.

Meanwhile, this morning I sprayed the garden with Surround WP (Kaolin clay, finely ground) so the grasshoppers will be repelled. It makes the leaves look like they were whitewashed and reflects the sun off of them, so they withstand the heat a bit better.

The dishwasher is loaded with bowls and materials from this evening. I've spent time cleaning the steam juicer and other large objects, the rest will soak and finish in the morning.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jul 23 - 04:00 PM

This afternoon I had a reminder that I really do need to pick up around here more often. The nextdoor neighbor called; her visiting granddaughter had some gardening questions. This is the granddaughter who was one-year-old when I moved in here in 2002. She is now married and putting in her own garden. They came over, we looked around the beds, and I brought them in to retrieve a few small bottles of things to send her home with. Duplicates I haven't used up yet, but good for this year at least for a beginner. I guess this means I did some decluttering with that tour. I also gave her one of those spray nozzles with the long tube for any sized container you want to use it with. At one point I realized (and said) that this is what a gardening bag lady house looks like. You have trouble throwing out containers because you can use them for something in the garden. After they left I dished up a bowl of my homegrown cucumber and tomato with feta salad for lunch. I'll be making some Italian style tomato sauce with my homegrown tomatoes, onions, peppers, herbs, and garlic this afternoon. All of the flavors of my yard.

I was sorting out stuff from the file cabinet when the call came and I'll return to that for now. It's 109^o right now.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Jul 23 - 02:23 PM

Sorry, I miswrote myself in my rant above. Reloading …

I wonder sometimes if widespread rioting, or maybe a general strike, might get those levels of government to *realize* that, like pandemic disease, homelessness is everybody’s problem.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Jul 23 - 12:10 PM

Ah, Stilly, you're being disingenuous again.

"It's a brutal time of year to work outside and the Texas [legislature] just approved removing required water breaks for outdoor workers. Makes no sense at all."

Sure it makes sense, when seen through the "shrink government" lens preferred by today's rightest of right-wingers. The Texas legislature is currently committed to getting government out of the way of private enterprise, which to them apparently means cutting any and all regulations that don't directly benefit the people who give large sums to the Republican Party.

Oh, did I say that with my outside voice?

Sorry, not sorry. But maybe I should take a break from American news media.

Stratford is not large enough to attract homeless folks from outside the Huron-Perth region, so we don't -- yet -- have tent camps or shanty towns in this area. I'm always shocked by the prevalence of homeless people on the downtown streets of Toronto, where certain major parks have effectively become semi-permanent refugee camps. Because of the way taxation power is allocated in Ontario, Toronto can't afford the measures required to tackle the problem effectively; that would take a major infusion of provincial and even federal funding that just ain't forthcoming. I wonder sometimes if widespread rioting, or maybe a general strike, might get those levels of government to stop pretending that, like pandemic disease, homelessness is everybody's problem.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jul 23 - 07:14 PM

There is quite a YouTube rabbit hole to descend when one is formulating the method to build something. As hot as it is today, this is a better use of my time than baking my brains in the yard, though I did spend a few minutes replacing a washer on the hose stand in the front (it stopped leaking at that point, but it is now always on). Water is turned on/off at a regular faucet, this is a free-standing hose stand that is connected by hose and is where I hang a big length of hose to drag over to the garden. Must shop around for the proper washer to restore that fixture.

I was reading an article in today's local paper about the number of unhomed folks who are living rough in the wooded areas over near where I go to my vet's office. If you know where to look you can see the tent and awning encampments. I just pulled it up on Google maps - easy to find when you know what you're looking for. It's a rough business, the employees at the Homeless Coalition are mostly social workers and health care administrators. They do accept donations.

This afternoon I made another batch of my cubed tomato, cucumber, and feta salad. Dish it up and add a couple of tablespoons of Italian dressing and it is a great start to dinner. I also have chickpeas soaking to make hummus tomorrow. Cool food for hot weather.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Jul 23 - 04:26 PM

I just got home from a meeting and sat down with a cold drink. Both cats were aboard before I had time to put both feet up. I think they missed me.

The black eye is still improving, now reduced to about half the extent it had achieved last Monday. Everywhere I go, people want to know what the other guy looks like.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jul 23 - 12:09 PM

Canning is a messy process and there are lots of pots and bowls in play. I was considering smaller pans for processing a smaller batch, but it is the height of the pan that is important (you need 1-2" of water over the top of the jars being processed.) I managed to use a smaller stockpot (the one that comes with the colander for easy blanching) and washed and put away several others. Next comes the steam juicer (which reminds me that I probably completely missed picking grapes again this year - another thing I run through the juicer). I'll make sauce because this system allows the easy removal of skin and seeds in one move, after the juice is drained off. Still, lots of tools and bowls and pans to wash when it's over. (When I do a single jar at a time I use the asparagus steamer, but tomatoes process for 40 minutes per pint, meaning you have to keep an eye on that pot and keep topping it off.) Canning is a gift to my future self. It's such a pleasure in mid-winter to open a jar of the sauce from the summer before.

Zoom meeting today, I may not make it, I have things to do in the garden that can't wait till later when everything is wilted. Gardening takes precedence over docenting.

The kitchen table is stacked with papers needing managing, filing, or shredding. Something to do after it is too hot to work outside. I put two bottles of water in a cooler on the porch and every morning I top it off with fresh ice and new bottles if they were taken. In the past a couple of regular delivery folks have stopped to get water even when they didn't have deliveries here, because they know about that cooler, and that is just fine (they've told me about it later when we meet on the porch). The mail carrier has a cooler in his truck, but needs to keep restocking. It's a brutal time of year to work outside and the Texas Lege just approved removing required water breaks for outdoor workers. Makes no sense at all.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jul 23 - 12:35 AM

First canning session of the summer today, tomatoes in a small batch of just four pint jars. These are the really ripe perfect ones that get blanched, cored, peeled, and cut in half or left whole. For 20+ years I've diced my tomatoes and canned them, but when I tried to talk about it on one of the Official Facebook Canning groups last year I got blocked. It seems they frown on dicing. Oh, well. Less work to do them whole, but less density of tomatoes also (which is, I think the issue they have with dice - but sauce and other things are even more dense.) I might end up with a case of tomatoes canned this year; others will be made into sauce and I'll freeze them. I use more sauce than anything, so I might as well make most of them that way.

The heat has truncated the garden production; some years I have an entire kitchen counter covered with huge tomatoes by now. We had a nice rain today, but more high heat in the forecast means fruit won't set (it has to be under 80^o overnight for most tomatoes to set fruit.) That said, I'm enjoying the garden again this year and have used a lot of the produce. Cooking, canning, and salads. If I can get my hands on some fresh dill I'll make refrigerator pickles. I should find a recipe for pesto (the pine nuts were $25 a pound at my bulk grocer, so a recipe with a different nut is called for.)

More cat sitting coming up in a week, and plant sitting for next door. We've talked about putting a gate through between our back yards, making visits for the dogs (for Cecil) and watering easier (for me), and as I work on the fence, now is the time to figure one out if we're going to do it. Only three panels left. I'm thinking a Hobbit sized gate set in the middle of a panel. YouTube must have some suggestions to offer.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 10:52 AM

I use organic pest control (Bt, Neem, soaps, and Spinosad, primarily) so I do rinse off my vegetables before using, but usually a swish through the dishwater in the kitchen sink is sufficient. It's raining right now - setting up the rest of the day to be cooler but very humid. And it's the day I'm going to finally start processing some of my tomatoes. I don't have a huge crop, but I like to can a few just because I can't eat or use them all right now. Foods engineered to be drenched in Glyphosate during growth are best avoided, but at this point, almost impossible to even identify (especially grains). One must assume most of them are tainted and try for organic products with less contamination.

My goal this summer is to power wash the bird baths and the wading pool (with bricks, a rock, and a solar fountain) every other day to keep the algae down. I have a nozzle that works to peel that off of concrete and plastic surfaces. I put mosquito dunks in them also. The garden needs weeding but the turf area is fairly dormant; I need to occasionally water the tree areas but one thing I can do is move the wading pool with the fountain to different parts of the yard and when emptied, water another tree or shrub zone.

In the house I have unpacked my new Stanley Jump Starter with Compressor that is also a portable power supply for general household use in power outages. I have a small portable air compressor in the car for emergencies (that runs off of the old-style auto lighter port - now a days you never see the actual hot thing to light cigarettes, but I must have eight power ports through the length of the car for powering various passenger devices.) I've found those little compressors at estate sales over the years and made sure the kids had them in their cars. I'll have to consider if this new device would go with the car (maybe in cold weather - the time of year most likely to confound the battery). At any rate, I'll read the booklet then charge the device.

I also have a couple of new power supply/surge suppressors (I meant to order one, saw a second on the order and removed it, but that apparently didn't stick.) I'll offer some of my older power strips on Freecycle; they work but aren't as handy (these have USB type A and C charging ports). I had the guest room in mind for this, with people who arrive with everything from O₂ machines to run at night and phones, tablets, and computers. I'll be able to put a couple of USB cables in the room and lessen the deployment of wall wart chargers. (Apple/Mac users will have to figure out if this setup works for them.)

The dishwasher is set to run with a bunch of canning jars in preparation for this afternoon's canning. I have a large oscillating fan on a stand that comes out from behind the Kitchen Queen this time of year to help cool the stove area. Meanwhile, I don't do as much cooking for myself this time of year and was happy to find some of my favorite Aldi crackers in single type sleeves (not just the assortment box I usually find). Crackers with cheese or hummus is a nice summer lunch or dinner.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 08:45 AM

Nutrasweet was neither nutritious or good for you. I am glad Jimmy Shattler, a human, was involved :^/ There are worse things.
I remind folks that Monsanto also manufactured Frankenseeds.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 08:11 AM

I wash all bought fruit and veg in running water before we use them, including oranges. The only exception is mushrooms, which washing can spoil. Just brush off any residual growing medium with the thumb. I never eat them raw because I don't like them raw. I don't bother washing lettuces, rocket, tomatoes and beans that I've grown myself as I don't use pesticides and life's too short to worry about whether some minibeast or other might have peed/pooed on them. In fact, I have a penchant for munching them fresh-picked as I do the gardening. I'll pick a bunch of rocket and give it a gentle bash with my other hand to dislodge those pesky flea beetles that make tiny shot holes in the leaves, and scrutinise the innards of lettuces for slug babies, and that's it.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 07:39 AM

"Aspertame was a sweetener that Monsanto invented"

Aspartame as a possible sweetener was an accidental discovery in 1965 by an employee of GD Searle. Monsanto didn't buy GD Searle and form the Nutrasweet company until 1985.

From Wikpedia

Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by James M. Schlatter, a chemist working for G.D. Searle & Company. Schlatter had synthesized aspartame as an intermediate step in generating a tetrapeptide of the hormone gastrin, for use in assessing an anti-ulcer drug candidate. He discovered its sweet taste when he licked his finger, which had become contaminated with aspartame, to lift up a piece of paper. Torunn Atteraas Garin participated in the development of aspartame as an artificial sweetener.