DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: JennieG
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 05:01 AM

We buy fruit in punnets in Oz, too.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 16 Jul 23 - 04:38 AM

Punnet is in common usage in the UK. Lots of punnets of strawberries will have been sold at Wimbledon over the last fortnight. Their website suggests 38.4 tons of the fruit are sold during the tournament each year. There must be a fair number of gallons of cream sold to go with them too.

I’ve struggled with bread recently because of the Co-Op online shopping I’ve been using. They have been out of stock of all 30 bread items at least once and I’ve also had the situation where all I can find are loaves sliced too thick for us.

I’m not quite sure what to think about using Co-Op. I don’t think they are among the cheapest for the products they sell, their range is quite limited and there are a few “out of stock” problems. On the other hand, they have a low (£15) minimum order, low (£1.99 for us) delivery charge, I can get a delivery within 1 or 2 (they don’t deliver Thursdays) days and their drivers will just walk into the kitchen and place the bags there. This probably makes them the best option.

Part of the problem here is that I can’t get around well enough to check what is needed and I can’t persuade mum with her dementia to write down items that we are running low on to make an order with. The result is that I make a best guess weekly order but am likely to have to make one or more extra orders when I’m told “Jon, we are out of this…”. Thinking about it now. Perhaps it’s something I could speak to mum’s/my carers about. They might be willing during one of mum’s ½ hour sessions to help mum compile a shopping list for me.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 11:38 PM

Dorothy, are you keeping a basic food diary? My food record for years has been via the MyFitnessPal app on my phone, as I track the amount of calcium and sodium each day. A simple calendar with the foods and notations on the days you have symptoms may help you identify any culprits. I hope you're completely better very soon.

Your yard sounds great; it's so hot here that it's difficult to get out to do much of anything. Tonight I've dragged the hose and sprinkler around the vegetable garden and before watering I treated everything in general but the cucumbers in particular with some soap and Neem to knock out aphids, then put up some chicken wire and wire garden edging pieces for the cukes to climb on.

I am wondering about this bread that you love so much you buy a case at a time. How would you describe it? Does the bakery have a description you can share?

Charmion, your experience with unwashed fruit is depressing - but probably too often the case with how far produce has to travel. I have a couple of types of "eco soap" products here for spraying on and washing off, but am most likely to simply run a soapy dish scrubber with Dawn over the surface of fruit or veggies before eating. I'll keep it up. And I have never before seen or heard the word "punnet." The online dictionary says we mostly use "berry basket" here in the US. I don't think I've even called them that, just fruit basket or clamshell (if it has an attached cover).

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 09:08 PM

Dupont:

But only a few more days! I ordered, received and R installed new filters for both the air cleaners here. Also ordered and received replenishment of the Pau d'Arco. I know I need more every four hours when my throat starts to feel iffy. Ordered and received 24 loaves of bread!! Yep, Fed up with trying to get to a store that has the sorts we like... I have half in the freezer here and will take the other half to Beaver where there is room for them!

AND the lawn care team showed up Friday and did a number on the yard! Mohawks from a few minutes away, they listened to what I wanted and did a great job, leaving me patches of yarrow and made the place look very middle class in spite of me. Some nifty machine cleared the nice stone walk in the back yard totally! and the concrete demarcation in the parking area as well. Hadn't seen them for a while. The local rabbit was enjoying some nibbling this morning and there seem to be more birds than usual - able to get at the under-story?

I can get to the veg bed more easily. The soaker hose which has been at a slow drip since early June has kept everything healthy and the cherry tomatoes are producing, also the couple wax bean plants. Squash flowers are beautiful and hopeful! Lots of buckwheat volunteers; I wonder what I shall do when it is ripe - to harvest and figure out a way to shell it???

Such a relief to have that done. I did not want R to be fined by the City.

This malaise is finally almost gone. Each day a bit better; today I actually packed up the remaining pottery and mopped the K floor, went out and pulled some weeds and admired the garden. Like have a haircut when it had gotten quite out of hand!

The gut is not 100% yet. And I seem to have a new version of cough which MAY be caused by certain foods; now trying to solve that mystery. Some of the coughing fits border on frightening as I gag ... Well what next!

Dishes are done, laundry is done. Yard is done and I can go home - Maybe Monday or Tuesday.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jul 23 - 12:41 AM

Jon, you've reminded me that I haven't used my inkjet for a while. I printed a couple of email receipts with color logos to use the various jets. No weird lines, so it seems to be in good shape.

My garden is producing tomatoes and cucumbers so I picked up feta cheese this evening to make my tomato/cucumber/feta (more or less equal parts) salad. Tomorrow I'll slaughter the water bill by dragging the hose around the six stations it takes to water the produce part of the yard. We can (legally) water here on Wednesdays and Saturdays; any other times are by hand with a hose or after dark with a discrete sprinkler when people can't see the watering happening.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 11:17 PM

We will have to agree to disagree on this topic. Saccharine has been around longer than any of the others and has been shown to be generally benign (you'd have to feed lab rats so much of it to make them ill that it doesn't reflect any consumption in the real world) but some of these other non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) came along when some less savory chemicals were being invented.

The problem with many of the "generally assumed to be safe" chemicals and products is that while they test them in mammals, whether rats, rabbits, dogs, or humans, that research totally overlooks the gut flora that is impacted. Studies show that remote tribal populations living in non-westernised areas without processed food have a huge diversity in their gut flora; ours is greatly diminished. It's why Roundup (glyphosate) is so obnoxious - farmers literally drench their wheat fields with the stuff to kill the grain so it will dry on the stalk before it is harvested, but the residual chemical comes through our food. Artificial sweeteners are much the same way.

Effect of sucralose and aspartame on glucose metabolism and gut hormones is a scholarly journal article from 2020.

Don was cherry-picking with his formaldehyde remark, though his accuracy is under debate:

In the small intestine, digestive enzymes break aspartame down into methanol, phenylalanine, and aspartic acid. These metabolites are further broken down into formaldehyde and formic acid,19 each of which follows a natural metabolic pathway to be metabolized just as they would from other dietary sources.

I've skimmed quickly through this article, but it's one I plan to look at more carefully this weekend. They review the possible impact points of these NNS and look at studies and literature. A good starting point for more research.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 11:00 PM

Dad's laptop came this afternoon and is just about ready to give to him. The missing bit for now is that I need to add a printer. I'll have to do the same with mum's as I forgot about it. Getting any wanted files from the old machines transferred to follow sometime.

Thinking printers. My Epson photo inkjet got moved out into a shed during the clear up of my room and I'm wondering if it can be accommodated indoors somehow. I hope it's still OK as in my experience, the inkjets get clogged up beyond nozzle cleaning if they don't do any printing. My policy became to send a print job through once a fortnight if the printer had been idle. I have it as a recurring task on my computer list.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 07:10 PM

"It is not negligible. It's dreadful stuff, go look up the history of some of these artificial sweeteners."

Sorry, Stilly, but Charmion (as ever) has it exactly right. I totally agree with you about artificial sweeteners and wish they'd never been invented. If I ever eat those ghastly sugar-free mints you can buy in supermarkets, I get the farts and bellyaches worthy of awards. And I've told you about my stevia misfortunes. If I buy cordials to get me through summer gardening heat, I look for the full sugar versions (which are getting harder to get). But the plain fact is that there are dozens of things which are far more harmful than aspartame, and in far less quantities than the bucketloads of aspartame you'd need to do you any harm. Once again we are being subjected to tabloidistic, sensationalist nonsense. Twitching antennae are crucial.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Charmion
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 06:48 PM

Wikipedia has an excellent article on Norovirus that will tell you more than you really want to know about Norwalk and its relatives. I think my adventure with it might have been the result of eating unwashed strawberries. They smelled so ambrosial I popped a couple off the top of the punnet in the car on the way home. I won’t do that again any time soon.

As for Aspartame, I’ll go with the experts’ advice — typically found in the last para of any news story — that you have to eat a hell of a lot of it to put yourself into a danger zone. I seem to remember them saying the same thing about cyclamate.

If it doesn’t agree with you, don’t use it. If you don’t like it, don’t use it. If someone you know has a dozen-a-day Diet Coke habit, that person has worse problems than the cancer threat from Aspartame.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 05:29 PM

It is not negligible. It's dreadful stuff, go look up the history of some of these artificial sweeteners.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 05:20 PM

Please don't scaremonger. Formaldehyde is produced naturally in the body by a number of metabolic processes not involving aspartame, and the amount produced by the metabolism of aspartame is trivial. In any case, formaldehyde does not enter the blood circulation and is rapidly broken down. Personally, I try to avoid artificial sweeteners (stevia turns my gut into a cement mixer), but the evidence for aspartame and cancer is so slight as to be negligible.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 05:09 PM

Aspartame Is a Possible Cause of Cancer in Humans, a W.H.O. Agency Says
The F.D.A. and the powerful beverage industry protested the new findings, and a second W.H.O. group stood by its standard that the sweetener is generally safe.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, or I.A.R.C., said it based its conclusion that aspartame was a possible carcinogen on limited evidence from three observational studies of humans that the agency said linked consumption of artificially sweetened beverages to an increase in cases of liver cancer — at levels far below a dozen cans a day. It cautioned that the results could potentially be skewed toward the profile of people who drink higher amounts of diet drinks and called for further study.

Still, people who consume high amounts of aspartame should consider switching to water or other unsweetened drinks, said Dr. Francesco Branca, director of the W.H.O. Department of Nutrition and Food Safety.

But, he added: “Our results do not indicate that occasional consumption should pose a risk to most.”

Nutrasweet hits my gut hard and it has the same effect as that gallon of prep they give you prior to a colonoscopy. I've avoided it for years and when I accidentally was given some I figured it out a couple of hours later.

Decluttering paper-wise, I have reduced the final contents of the hall filing cabinet into two thick envelopes of papers for the kids, childhood records of all sorts that now should be with them. I will suggest to them that they go through and for documents they might want to keep, make a scan and file it somewhere safely as backup.

Now, do I want to move that black 2-drawer cabinet next to the other black file and let it be a matching part of the support for that computer desk (a sheet of furniture grade plywood), or do I want to keep the bright orange file because it is already in place and it locks? I have a key around here somewhere.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 01:56 PM

Under the heading Health, Aspertame was a sweetener that Monsanto invented and sold the patent 15 years ago. Its not that it causes cancer but if exposed to heat over 100F it turns into formaldehyde.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jul 23 - 01:14 PM

Those goggles you describe are my favorites; I've used them for years, they are big enough to fit over everyday glasses. I like the way the earpiece is wide but has a tinted window so I have more peripheral vision while still blocking the glare. That's the worst part about regular sunglasses, the brightness on the side.

How does your Norwalk virus spread?

We still hear occasional fireworks exploding this far out from the fourth, but while they tend to be loud, they're infrequent. The days are pretty quiet, too hot for most yard work and not even as many people out driving around.

In the front yard I set up a child's wading pool with bricks in the middle to keep the solar fountain from drifting to the edge and draining the pool. I'll add a few more stones for bird perches. I'm thinking about rearranging my office desk so I can see out the window more easily to watch the birds. I rearrange the office every 12-18 months, and in the process I clean up a lot of dust puppies.

Time to start making some pickles and canning tomatoes. Maybe after dark when there is less demand on the power grid. And after I find some fresh dill.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 09:23 PM

Fashionable sunglasses, Stilly? Hell, no! I wear those jeezly great black goggles that fit over one’s normal walking-out spectacles. They have the great virtue of being both cheap and ubiquitous — every drugstore sells them — and they do, indeed hide the shiner. That, by the way, is slowly improving; after attaining peak purple on Monday, it is now a broad ring around the eye, with the white lids almost shining in the middle. Strange.

The stomach ailment I had is now formally identified as Norwalk virus; outbreaks have been popping up around Perth County and the Kitchener-Waterloo area all summer. My innards are still a bit wonky, but nothing to fret over as long as I drink enough water.

I’m ready for this summer to start being pleasant. Any time now will do.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 05:38 PM

Yes I've discussed it with quite a few doctors, two GPs in Bude and several doctors at our regional hospital. The received wisdom is that once you've had it, you're far more prone to reinfection, and this is the upshot of the lymphatic system in the affected part of the body being damaged and less resistant to further bacterial incursions. My instincts cause me to dispute this, as my second attack was in a different leg. I can't help thinking that a residual infection stays quiescent in the body after the first attack. It's possible for people who suffer repeat infections to be prescribed long-term low-dose prophylactic antibiotics, but I've yet to find a doctor who'll do that for me. As long as I have a full course of antibiotics in reserve plus an extra strip, I can cope quite well.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 03:26 PM

Mum's laptop has been handed over to her and Claire had a run through things with her this morning. It wasn't that successful as mum has lost her glasses but I've got some more reading glasses on order for her from Amazon and Claire says she will go through things with mum a few times to help her get started.

I've got another laptop due tomorrow as dad has decided he'd like to do the same as mum. He didn't want a 17" one so his will be 15.4" model. I think he's right on this. The smaller size probably is more suitable for his workspace on the living room table and whereas I considered eyesight when selecting a 17" for mum, it's not an issue for dad.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 03:18 PM

There's a subset of trees and shrubs in the greenbelt behind the house that isn't native, it is escaped stuff like ligustrum, also called privet. Spreads everywhere (it does smell nice and birds love the berries) and crowds out more durable native plants before they're big enough to grow over the top of it.

Then there are native trees like hackberry that are weeds everywhere around the yard and garden and when allowed to grow large are usually full of mistletoe and are always clobbered by web worms in the summer or fall. I need the bank to stay intact so most big things are staying, but as the oaks back there grow, I'll trim out the limbs on nearby hackberries that are slowing them down.

Today I decluttered myself of one of the MOST ANNOYING things that MS Word has done for ages. I think it was a default setting, that if you let it automatically select a whole word (when you mouse over) it grabs a lot more than you want. They used to have a "smart selection" thing where you could click and grab a word and click again and grab a sentence or paragraph, but I think that went away (or it has to be set somewhere else). Anyway, I fixed it. It will save me all of the wasted time many times of day of trying to get just what I want and not everything else in the table or paragraph.

Granola is in the oven. Dishes are washed. Hell's Front Porch is right outside my door, so I'm not doing much in the yard till near dark. I seem to be responding to weather extremes by staying home. Too cold? Too hot? Too wet? Don't go anywhere. In the summer it's what I mentioned before - I go walk from the heat to the museum to scan, and their air conditioning is set to frigid, so I'm sweaty and I need a sweater (which I keep forgetting). I guess this is my retiree brain saying "you went out when you had to go to work for 40+ years, now you don't have to."

Steve, do you have anyone telling you that maybe there is some underlying condition that is allowing the cellulitis to come back so often? I'd be asking my doctors about that after as many times as you've had it.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 01:27 PM

"Trash trees", I love it!
Does that include various types of "scrub"?

That latter word appears in Regency romance novels as an insult,
particularly towards men who fall short of being
ready, willing, and able to do an honorable thing.
"he is just a scrub!"

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 11:02 AM

I have a bad case of sciatica, against which paracetamol is useless but which can be tamed a little by ibuprofen, which I'm not supposed to take. So I'm taking ibuprofen, dammit. And I'm now on my eighth dose of cellulitis in three years. It comes on extremely quickly but I'm getting nifty at recognising the onset symptoms and, because of my cooperative GP, I always have a little stash of antibiotics to hand - time is absolutely of the essence. Apart from that and my perennial bad back, I'm completely hunkydory, guys! And we did have a lovely week in Taormina in Sicily. I'm glad we're not going in the coming week as the temperature is forecast to be in the "high forties..."

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 10:12 AM

There is a really dense form of Permaculture that I've seen documentaries, about how it can be used in very dry areas, I think in Israel or Palestine, maybe Lebanon, where both the density of the plants and the multiple heights of the plants involved creates its own microclimate. I suppose my back of the back yard is my little microforest; I'm working on letting some of the better native trees (that live longer and grow larger) get established and slowly remove the invasive "trash trees" that compete with them.

107^o forecast today. It's a surreal morning, overcast, like the heat is waiting to pounce on us. My thermostat is set at 80^o during the day and 82^o overnight. Trying to not run any big appliances during the day. I have enough power strips around, I should turn off the power to all of the "vampire" devices that drain power unseen with their ready lights and quick start modes.

So much to do. I need to make a list and even if I don't prioritize, just cross stuff off as it is finished. Remind myself that I am moving forward. (I did toss a bunch of stuff in this morning's trash that I am never going to use and is too old to donate, so I am still decluttering, if not also upcycling at every turn.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 03:45 AM

Tiny Forests ??? Tiny Forests are densely packed patches of native bushland the size of a tennis court, right in the heart of our cities. These urban wildlife oases are a unique nature-based solution, reconnecting people with nature and helping to mitigate our urban climate and biodiversity challenges. Using an established planting method (called the Miyawaki method) that includes soil enrichment, diverse indigenous plant selection, and a dense planting structure; Tiny Forests are supercharged, growing up to 10 times faster than traditional forests, and becoming up to 100 times more biodiverse than monoculture forests ....


Tiny forests are springing up in urban areas to combat climate change. This one measures just 10m x 10mAs the race to discover new ways of sequestering carbon dioxide from trees quickens, creating tiny forests is something the Wollongong City Council is spearheading.
Wollongong's Botanic Garden curator Felicity Skoberne says they are following the lead of Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki by planting tiny forests.
"The Miyawaki method was about putting forests in urban areas, and that's what a tiny forest can do," Ms Skoberne says.
She says growing a tiny forest does not take long, with the Wollongong Botanic Garden's taking just 10 months to grow from 30 centimetres to more than 3 metres high ...

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 13 Jul 23 - 12:40 AM

Thanks, SRS. I’m reasonably comfortable.

I’m not feeling productive but am finding little things to keep me occupied some of the time. I have put kodi on mum’s laptop and installed the plugin for the hdhomerun which I think will remain on the network. This will give her live tv and I thin the ability to record. I’ve also set up Windows Workgroup and nfs file sharing on it. This isn’t really needed at the moment but both services are at least ready to go if anyone did want to map a network drive to another computer here.

I’ve also set the shares up on the Windows partition on my laptop. And added the Android and Linux virtual environments. I might have a play with them sometime. One thing I don’t think I’ve noticed before is that the Windows (at least 11) Terminal has a built in ssh client. That’s handy for Linux users where a lot of admin on remote computers is performed over ssh. I used it today when setting up the Windows Workgroup as I needed to check the Samba server settings on the living room PC.

Back to mum’s laptop. I’m wondering if one of the carers can do the hand over for me. Me doing it would be awkward for me as I’d have to do in bed and mum would have difficulty getting in a suitable position with her wheelchair. There is one of my carers* I’ll ask when I see her next. I just want mum taken through startup/log on, see a couple of apps opened and closed, and then laptop shut down. I’ve printed some instructions for mum and this but I think she needs to be shown too.

Well I say my carers but (and this might my make my request easier) they are now both mum’s and my carers (dad’s carers are a different company). Someone from Social services called a few days ago and spoke to dad, mum and I. She felt that mum needed a bit of practical help and arranged that my care company give mum ½ hr twice a day while they are visiting me. Mum’s a bit unsure of this at the moment but I hope she will come round to finding it useful and I do think she could do with some extra help.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jul 23 - 03:14 PM

Today is supposed to be a scorcher, so this morning I had the timer on and dragged the sprinkler to keep the squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers going. The rest of it can get hot and dry.

A couple of years ago after our prolonged power outage my sister recommended a portable power pack that is enough to run a lamp and a radio and charge her phone. Then a few weeks ago a library coworker on FB complained that her car battery needed a jump and the retired IT dept head from our library recommended to a portable power pack to start the car. Research shows it does that plus everything my sister's device does, and I found it on Prime Day. Sometimes being prepared means you'll never need to use the device, but if a $90 purchase means the power won't go out or the car need a jump, that's a good investment.

My newest titanium knee gets it's one-year checkup today. These prosthetic knees have certainly improved my ability to do what I want in the last couple of years. It's a tough surgery and when I was getting ready for the second one I would occasionally ask myself if I was really going to go through with it, knowing how tough the next six weeks are after, but I did and I'm glad I stuck to the plan.

Is everyone feeling better today? I'm still treating the allergy symptoms, and have times during the day when the congestion catches up with me. Charmion, do you have a fashionable pair of sunglasses you can wear to cover the shiner? Dorothy, how's your energy level? Jon, I hope you're comfortable and feeling productive.

Senoufou, it's good you have a source of apples! That was the main thing. I'm glad you have neighbors to help with both the pruning and the sharing of fruit.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Jul 23 - 05:22 AM

A fine video on the benefits of decluttering is called 'The Minimalists' on Netflix. People over stuff and decluttering techniques are their themes.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Senoufou
Date: 12 Jul 23 - 02:48 AM

Stilly, that tree has been trimmed by our handy neighbour quite a few times, but it zooms up again in no time. Also, in autumn the lawn is covered in dead leaves. I emailed my husband in Africa yesterday, and he agrees to its being entirely removed.
We have a beautiful birdbath which could be placed where the tree used to be, in the middle of the garden.
A neighbour across the road always has the Bramley apples off that tree, plus the rhubarb from our vegetable plot and the pears (I planted a pear tree on the little cemetery where three of our cats are buried).
She'll be miffed, but it is our garden after all!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jul 23 - 10:36 PM

All of the ingredients arrived intact and we assembled our sandwiches in the student union cafeteria at the university across the street from my daughter's museum. We were off in a corner of the room, it was sparsely populated, and when my ex and I set down the bags I said "I think we're okay with outside food here, aren't we?" and a guy sitting a couple of tables away turned and said "yes." As we assembled these sandwiches with gorgeous slices of tomato a guy moving to sit nearby watched; I was tempted to tell him that these weren't on the menu, but he settled in and the thought passed. It worked out well, and we exchanged fresh tomatoes (large ones and cherry tomatoes) for some sausage she picked up for us when she was on her way back from a conference and passed by the little BBQ joint that makes the best links of sausage (lots of coarse black pepper in it). A town where she was born and we gladly moved away when she was 15-months old. Not a nice place to live or send children to school, but great BBQ.

The next batch of cedar pickets and cross-members are in the garage and I picked up a can of wood preservative so I can paint it on before putting up the panel. Maybe by the weekend I'll be within two panels of finishing this job.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jul 23 - 12:28 PM

BLT sandwiches are best when freshly toasted bread and fried bacon are added to the mayo and lettuce, but I'm going to try a picnic with all of the cooked and wet parts kept separate and we'll assemble sandwiches when we meet. Since my daughter's tomato plants have all green fruit I'll also give her some of my ripe tomatoes (in exchange for some peppery sausage that she picked up on her way back from Austin this weekend - there's a little BBQ joint along I-35 that has the best sausage around and we have a standing order to buy a couple of pounds any time someone goes past the place.)

Allergies are starting to become more active, and nowadays I'm trying to treat them without Sudafed, just using Flonase and Claritin generics. When it gets worse I take a Benadryl at bedtime to boost the 24-hour Claritin. (On a related note, I find that the Aldi facial tissues that used to be pretty good are a handful of pulp after one blow.) It's not like years ago when I didn't accept that I had allergies and it used to progress to horrible sinus infections. This week I was reading up about air purifiers or filters (Honeywell is on sale on Amazon Prime this week.) Dorothy, do you use something like that, and does it help?

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 11 Jul 23 - 08:21 AM

Job security but I’d think it gets hard when you get older.

I’ve got 2 brothers who worked with ropes but that was in difficult access. Both were keen rock climbers (and Tim at one time was amongst the best in the UK) so I suppose it was a natural job choice for them.

Tim went on to being a director in a difficult access company before moving out to Australia. I think he does still climb at a little bit at his daughters place. She inherited her fathers taste for climbing and, together with her partner opened up a bouldering gym in Queensland.

Paul works at an oil refinery now. He started off on ropes, etc. on the inspection side but he now has an office job in safety/inspection. Before that, one of the biggest jobs Paul worked on was the repair of the Nat West Tower after it was bombed. I think they used a platform the went round the whole building for that one.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Jul 23 - 08:06 AM

I went to the bank yesterday. My usual way out from the parking lot was so badly flooded, from poor drainage, that I had to snake my way around the water to take the exit.
Today, fortunately, the sun is out, and will be for a day or two.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jul 23 - 12:27 AM

That sounds like a great deal, and there is probably job security for them if they do that particular kind of work all of the time. The reputation keeps them busy. My friend who took out the tree (with his wife's brother) does a variety of work, and he prefers the tree stuff before they've all leafed out. He also hires a separate subcontractor to do stump grinding if people want that. It's a small network of friends and family who parse out the work amongst themselves.

Jon, your mother is lucky that you've set all of this up, and the photos are more precious as time passes. I've done something like that, but in a Google Drive folder that is shared with my ex and our children, since we're scattered all over the place.

I checked in with my brother today after hearing about flooding in Vermont; it turns out he's back in California with his ex (he and his ex are friends, something our generation managed that our parents never did apres divorce; I think we learned from their mistakes.) The place he is leasing is above the damaging water, and the new house is on a ridge, away from the wet. For our New England lurkers, stay safe! Take an extra pair of socks and shoes if you have to go out so you don't have to spend the day with wet feet. (I'm looking at you, Keb.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 08:32 PM

We have a super pair of blokes who will spend all day reducing/removing trees to our specification, for a flat rate of £350 per day. They swing around up there like Tarzan. They'll even cut some of the wood small enough for firewood if they have time. They'll either leave or take away stuff for free, whatever we decide, and they chip all the tops. We've had to have them two or three times over the last few years as we've lost some big trees to Dutch Elm disease. They deeply understand trees are are full of good advice.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 07:31 PM

I show mythtv, jellyfin media server, hdhomerun dvbt2 network tuner, vbox satellite network tuner in the sharing at the moment but I've looked no further.

I use home and guest vLANs too. There is a chromecast plugged into the living room tv on the guest LAN.

I think I've gone as far as I want with mum's laptop for now. I've done all the Windows updates, removed some unwanted sotware and put LibreOffice, Firefox, Thuderbird and VLC player on it. I've also put a copy of our photos on it. I'm not sure mum needs any more software but it can be added later if required. I'll copy any files she wants from her desktop PC when someone gets me a log in on it.

Next task sometime will be to get mum using it and I'm not looking forward to that... One perhaps fortnate thing though is that the kde plasma desktop she's been using isn't that dissimilar to the Win 11 one (and I've moved the task bar to the left and made Win single click to make things closer).

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 07:20 PM

That makes my eyes water and my nose run just to think about it, Jennie! And I think there really is such an injury that has you "seeing stars" - maybe it's the brain deciding whether to pass out or not? My chocolate Lab ran full-tilt through the back door into my knee a few years back - I didn't fall down, but damn, my vision just about shut down with the impact. Stars indeed!

I offered a small hand vacuum with a long cord on the local Buy Nothing FB page and it was gone within the hour. I need to list several plants to give away, but it's so hot it isn't the best time for planting anything. I'll probably have to keep them for now and maybe offer them later in the fall.

Heading to the gym this evening, it has been way too long since I've gotten any sustained exercise. I'll load a new audiobook before I go.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: JennieG
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 05:58 PM

Well, Charmion and Sandra, I can top your black eye stories.

Back in the year 2000 I was attending a friend's 50th birthday ball (at Bundanoon, Sandra - she lived in Canberra, so it was convenient for her south coast, Sydney and Canberra friends) and one of the dances on the program was 'Postie's Jig'. Being a Scottish dance it ended with a Scottish swing - left arm around partner's waist, right arm held curved in the air while swinging. As one of the women in our set flung up her arm she connected with the bridge of my nose.

I saw stars, let me tell you. Didn't fall down, but....oh geez, it hurt.

The result was two black eyes. Yes, two. At the same time.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 03:37 PM

Jon, I just opened the Windows network and sharing center and see that I now have a choice to allow media streaming and when I open that the two smart TVs show up. So I've allowed it and will give it a test later. The home network is hidden to the public (always has been). This is Windows 10; I haven't bothered to update to Win11; I tend to skip the OS offerings so maybe when Win12 comes out I'll make the move.

Sandra, good job finding new homes for so many things that were in your collection!

Amazon Prime day is approaching and I'm looking at replacing the Fire Stick in my office that spends way too much time twirling and reconnecting and often dropping programs. I see a Roku device on sale - does anyone use one of those? It's just a stick. What I want is a way to view a few apps, not worry about another new account for some device I'm using. (I see it lets me stream Essentrics, my stretching program, but it says I have to download from the Roku Channel store - so it looks like another account if I get one.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 02:55 PM

Everything is on the LAN. I’ve got nfs and samba shares on the living room PC. Things shared include our pictures, tv recordings and a bit of user home space for each of us.

With Linux, I can use the Dolphin file manager to create a network folder to access files on another PC. I could also use rsync which is good for copying lots of files. I’m less sure abot Windows...

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Charmion
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 01:46 PM

Way to go, Sandra! Three cheers and a tiger!

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 11:45 AM

several years ago I fell over & ended up with a black eye that surely would have terrified unwary kids! I couldn't get up on my own so the bloke nearby said move onto my back & to raise my arms & he pulled me up & supported me to a nearby bench & called my friends who drove me home.

Speaking of downsizing as we are, I found homes for 3 major collections in the past 2 weeks. A month ago at the DanceFest I finally had the opportunity to talk to a dancer who I thought might like my library of Historic costume books & she did! She is sharing it with other dancers & musicians as she already has many of the books. These dancers & musos are always impeccably dressed at Colonial & Jane Austin balls.

The books left a huge hole in my 2 tall & wide bookcases! & a fair amount of my craft projects & supplies that sat on the floor & on a coffee table in front of the doll cabinet are now on those shelves. As several shelves are still empty more will be shelved & I do have some other empty or under-utilised shelves.

One of the musos who helped with the book moving admired my dolls in period costume & will take them!! And her adult daughter loves bears, so the mohair bears I made have a home, the dolls & bears are not going yet.

Only a few more collections to find homes for! Plus lotsa' individual items ...

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 11:08 AM

I had a tree removed in March, it was $1000 for two men who climbed and removed from the top down; large pieces were dropped, but very strategically and the dogs were kept in the house to avoid that nuisance or hazard to them. They dragged trunk and limbs to a trailer that was fully-packed by the time they finished and they hauled the wood about five blocks to the nearby composting and wood chip recycling area where they had to offload by hand (some trailers have a system with a chain at the back so the company can clip into it and drag everything out at once. My friend doesn't have that setup). They paid the plant to take the wood (that will be chipped and he'll probably buy some next time he buys their chips) but the drop there is much cheaper and closer than taking the wood to the dump. They were finished in about 3 hours.

Senoufou, I hate to think the whole tree is going - could you reduce it in size so you get some apples just not the whole bunch you're getting right now?

Charmion, hopefully that shiner will at least clear up faster than if you'd actually taken a punch to the eye socket.

Jon, good luck with the new computers. Do you network them so they can share information? I used to do that but every time I change a router I seem to have to change the setup, so I haven't networked the stuff. I used to be able to play videos from my computer on the various smart TVs around the house. (It involved adding apps to the Fire stick but now a couple of the TVs are smart enough they could be seen by the network themselves.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Charmion
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 08:03 AM

I have had several trees taken off my small property. The big ones had to be dismembered from the top down, a task that required a hydraulic lift (cherry-picker) so a man with a chainsaw could take the upper limbs off. They could not be allowed to drop free — this is the city, not the lumbering woods — so each section to be cut was secured with guy-lines and, once free of the tree, lowered gently by the ground crew.

Not cheap, but the neighbour’s roof was safe. Also mine.

In other news, Thursday’s wallop to the head has left me with a spectacular black eye. The point of impact was at the hairline northeast (as it were) of my right eye, so I did not expect this development at all. The cognoscenti can tell that I was not punched in the face — no damage to the eye itself — but the look of the thing is so dramatic that people can’t help but stare.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 05:43 AM

As far as I can remember, the last tree job here cost around £1000. That wasn’t felling a tree but for the removal of tree limbs that the guy we’d called for advice had said ought to come off to avoid possible problems with the house (he said the trees themselves were safe).

The job only took around an hour and my first thought was “wow, £1000 for that time”. But then I thought there were at least 3 people on the job, equipment included a chipper and a cherry picker and they left the garden tidy. I concluded that the cost was probably quite reasonable.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Jul 23 - 03:20 AM

I've been getting more and more fed up with our huge Bramley apple tree. Due to the long drought here in Norfolk, it's dropping 'windfall' apples all over the lawn. It's far too big for our little back garden, so I've asked our professional handyman/gardener neighbour to cut it down and remove the stump. He quoted me £200 (gulp!)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Jul 23 - 10:09 PM

Jon, that looks like the device I ordered for my kitchen Sony laptop. It has always been WiFi, I bought it for travel and wanted it small, so got one without the Ethernet option and no DVD drive, etc. After fixing my friend's computer (dead Ethernet port) I decided to do the same thing for myself. I've spent time picking up in the kitchen, tossing things that I just won't use and don't want to try to donate, and put a few items in the box for my son. He is very fond of Tupperware and I have pieces here I never use any more.

Still no new fence panel, the afternoon is very muggy out there. I'll try again in the morning. I spoke with the neighbors, it turns out that tomorrow is his birthday and he was looking forward to my dog's visit today, so we'll do it tomorrow without the need to hurry and the old guys can have a good chat.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 09 Jul 23 - 07:14 PM

One thing I noticed with the HP laptop I ordered for mum is that it doesn’t have an Ethernet port. Perhaps that is common now but it’s the first time I’ve noticed that. I’ve ordered a combined Ethernet/USB adapter for it just in case (perhaps unlikely with mum but…) there is ever a need for a wired connection or for more USB ports.

A big change for me and this is it will be the first computer in the household in ages that is purely Windows rather having it, if present, as an occasionally used dual boot option. This is not because I’ve lost faith in Linux which has been very stable and served us well for many years or believe that Windows is easier than her OpenSuse/KDE set up for her daily bits of usage but in case mum does need 3rd party support. It’s easy to find a repair person doing Windows round here for example but I think you would struggle to find one familiar with Linux. I’ll probably do the same with dad’s laptop...

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

I was all set up for the fence work and as I was pulling on socks and shoes this morning I realized the noise I was hearing outside was rain! I hurried out to rescue the wet bucket of tools beside the old fence. It's now wet and humid, but this afternoon perhaps I'll do the work after the neighbors get back home from church, so Zeke can still have the visit through the gap. The initial plan was to do it early so the visit could happen before they had to leave.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 09 Jul 23 - 09:17 AM

We've had a change of plan re the spare laptop. Mum is getting a new 17" HP Win 11 pro one that I think might be better for her.

As for the spare which despite not being Win 11 capable is a pretty decent machine... I asked my lunchtime carer if she knew of anyone that I could pass it on to. She said the school her kids go to were often looking for laptops for pupils who can't afford them, that she also knew a place for women escaping domestic violence that could be grateful for it and that she would ask around.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 09 Jul 23 - 05:10 AM

You are right SRS in that it is something I'm aware I need to think about. When an inevitable break down occurs, I doubt they would find anyone to come in and fix things. I'm hoping I'll be able to talk this (and some other things) over with 2 of my brothers who I think should be visiting next weekend.

One perhaps fortunate thing here though is nearly all the lights can be operated manually. When I was in hospital, homeseer automation and the Alexa bits were lost because of the network disconnection under my desk and the only problem light was the study one. A carer tried fiddling with the switch and we had a colour changing study until I was able to fix things.

I suspect that the living room computer will have to go with the loss of cameras amongst other things and the LAN be simplified.

Maybe even the Honeywell Evohome heating system would be better changed to an older type set up as batteries in sensors need changing and mum doesn't understand it. It's quite simple really, each radiator has a controller on the valve which is programmed to set to the required temperature for the time of day and will open/close the valve and fire the boiler up as needed but mum, thinking something is wrong, will come and tell me, it's a cold day and that radiator is cold. I've lost count of the number of times I've had to explain to her the temperature in that room is 18C and the room is set for 18C so the radiator should be off...

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jul 23 - 11:15 PM

Patty, you have a standing invitation to stop by my place in Fort Worth when you're coming and going, and I hope that invitation is enough to inspire a detour from the shortest route between points one of these days. I have three dogs who love company, so I'll offer that heads-up. I promise to give you a tour of the area and we can even make a couple of day trips to spots you might not have thought about. Where are you headed that it will be that much cooler?

Jon, it sounds like you need to start making some lists and spelling out how you've set up systems around the house. I'm willing to bet that in the process of describing the systems you've put in place you'll have ideas about how to change or simplify things from this point forward. It should help you, your parents, and whoever comes in to help.

I set up the materials and tools for the fence panel, but it was still so hot at 6pm that I postponed until tomorrow early. And if I get out early enough, the neighbors would enjoy a visit from my Labrador retriever who loves them and enjoyed going through the fence last time I cut down a panel (earlier this week). They head to church by about 8:30, so I'll plan to be out an hour earlier to cut down the panel and make the opening. That way Cecil, who is 80, can have an in-his-yard visit with Zeke, who is at least 100 in people years. They meet every morning at the fence for treats, but this is the next step, this is Zeke checking out their yard. It's silly and sweet, the things people look forward to (his wife told me that Cecil is really looking forward to this.) :) I set my alarm already this evening.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER * Health/Home Ecologic-Innovation *2023
From: pattyClink
Date: 08 Jul 23 - 04:56 PM

Stilly, so wish you didn't have to deal with this long siege of awful temperatures! I do know that feeling of 'wasting a bath' when sweat starts up shortly after you get spotless. Lots of men in the South slip into a 2-showers-a-day routine in this weather, and you can't blame them.

Holing up inside today doing chores while the temps reach for 98 in Utah. Tomorrow will do the last push north, supposedly I'll lose 10-15 degrees. The raft trip forecast was for night temps in high 40s, but now it's more like 58s, with 90-100 daily highs. Wasted the purchase of a cheap sleeping bag, looks like. Oh well. it'll do as a mattress.