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DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Feb 25 - 02:38 PM A large canner! Oh, what a lucky Goodwill with that and the jars! We went out on a produce run today and loaded up, also found some large packages of frozen tilapia. I'll have to pry the pieces apart to use, there are several possible approaches. The cost was a lot less than the usual I buy frozen at Costco, and I'm hoping the fish is still in good shape (it was sold as fresh then went into the freezer to go to Town Talk for sale). The bonus on the trip were a few more 85% cocoa chocolate bars and a bouquet of various flowers. I usually bring flowers back for the next door neighbor also, but they're headed out on a cruise in two days, so no time to enjoy them. More garden prep this afternoon and soon I'll be getting another load of free mulch from the city bunker near here. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Charmion Date: 27 Feb 25 - 12:43 PM Another carload of excess stuff went to Goodwill today. Half-litre and larger Mason jars, an entire stack of wooden cutting boards that I never used, a Tupperware pie-carrier, half a dozen bread pans, a large canner, a paella pan big enough to feed six …. Every time I think I’ve about exhausted the supply of stuff I don’t want to move again, I find more. Stashed in the bottom of the linen closet — Edmund’s kettle bells and ankle weights! Loading those in the car was a special experience. Snow and rain in the forecast — it’s still winter. Provincial election today; almost certain to return the Conservatives under the egregious Doug Ford with an even larger majority. Bah, humbug and phooey. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Feb 25 - 09:03 PM This afternoon I spent time with the string trimmer scalping the dead grass and weeds in each of the raised beds beside the driveway. It took about an hour for my hands and lower arms to feel normal again, after lifting the trimmer and all of the vibration from it. This is in preparation for digging and mulching and whatnot. A friend asked about how to make calls to federal elected representatives so last night and today I worked on a blog post to describe it in the simplest of terms, then sent her the link to see if she can make it work. Sometimes the shortest pieces take the most time to write. Now to do something else. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Feb 25 - 05:15 PM It's going to be a busy year for you, we can all predict that now! This morning while eating my scrambled eggs I sneezed - three times! The resulting headache from food that migrated into a sinus was finally resolved with the neti pot. Kind of killed the day, though. Everything on my to-do has been postponed until tomorrow. More virtual rearranging (and no bin needed to collect the bits!) Lots of house rearranging also needed. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Charmion Date: 26 Feb 25 - 12:27 PM Patty, the swooping cash buyer probably issn't seen often in Stratford, or the real estate people at both ends would have warned me. The selling agent has been peddling properties in Perth County her entire adult life, so I think she'd know. And even if it happened to me, I have a contingency plan -- store my stuff, board the cats, and camp with one of The Brothers. Not something I want to do under any but the direst of circumstances, but people who don't make a Plan X end up needing one when they have no time or energy to plan anything. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: pattyClink Date: 26 Feb 25 - 11:59 AM Regarding selling houses, we have had a few years where quite a few of the desirable ones get snapped up by cash buyers; both real people trying to put cash in safe investments, or landlords and corporations building big rental portfolios. They can swoop in fast, and they don't have a long lead time for the deal to close, so it might pay to be ready for that scenario. Ran a full set of errands yesterday in the new wheels; took me a while to figure out the hatchback WAS locked, it just kept unlocking itself every time I walked up to it with the magic key. Ridiculous, but I was afraid to leave it 'open' in a big parking lot til I proved to myself it really was locked. In an effort to get some of my funds out of the hands of greedy corporations, I stopped at the new little produce stand I've been speeding past. Met a nice lady and got some fresh local foods for a song. Have to do the same with local meat suppliers next. Bought a leather belt I needed in Mexico instead of at the big-box. Just think if 50 million of us pulled back even 20% of our purchases from the chains... |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Charmion Date: 26 Feb 25 - 08:55 AM Stilly, a house move late in life is like bankruptcy in one respect: its progress is achingly slow at first, and then sudden. This one began at a few minutes past midnight on 10 October 2020, when Edmund died, and kicked into perceptible movement in late January of this year, when I realized that I don’t want to endure another winter on my own in Stratford. In the end, I figure it will have taken up about five years. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 26 Feb 25 - 05:20 AM > it's all moving around pixels so no clutter to speak of. Don't forget to empty the bit bucket: that's where dropped pixels end up. Write-only memory has a limited capacity, y'know. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Feb 25 - 12:49 AM That's what I thought, but it seems to be coming on so quickly! The speed at which good houses sell is sometimes astonishing, and the number of hoops a seller decides to put themselves through in advance can make a difference. Working on a project for a couple of friends this evening, it's all moving around pixels so no clutter to speak of. Tomorrow I need to do some digging and some scanning. Let's see if I can motivate myself out the door to do both. I should scan first so I'm not covered in garden dirt when I get to the museum. I could go for a three-fer and get a gym visit in as well. That sounds very ambitious. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Charmion Date: 25 Feb 25 - 08:40 PM Oh, no, Stilly. Selling a house these days is only partly about price; the other critical issue to negotiate is closing date. Most people have to sell a house to be able to buy one, so it’s common to set a seller’s condition of 60 to 90 days to closing. Consequently, when I sell this place, I jump in the car and drive to Ottawa to buy my next abode, where I will dicker with people bent on forging the next link in the massive chain reaction. Stressful? No kidding. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Feb 25 - 04:50 PM Wow, Charmion! So what will you be doing in the next five weeks? If it sells right away, do you have a new place selected already? I helped a friend with a computer case today, it turns out that when the rather expensive case was tossed it didn't have the guts (graphics card, processor, RAM). But she can sell it as an empty case for someone to rebuild. Trouble is, she doesn't know anything about computers so when she listed another one on eBay from what was printed on the old box, it was returned because she didn't know all that was missing. I'll have to convince her not to just list things she found in her building without doing more research or she'll get a bad reputation on eBay and will have trouble selling. She also needs help understanding how to call her representatives and what to say. I'll work on that with her. Send a text every day if that will help. It's a warm afternoon. Time to head into the yard for a bit of digging. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Charmion Date: 25 Feb 25 - 09:21 AM The melt is strongly under way, and southbound traffic on Mornington Street has ceased to come as a nasty surprise. Of course, with such heavy accumulation, we are now at risk of flooding in certain areas — fortunately, not on my property. But rivers and creeks will run high this spring. My favourite mandolin has developed a nasty tuning problem that I can’t diagnose myself, which means a trip out to St.Mary’s to visit the luthier. I so don’t need this now. By the end of this week, I really should have the basement work table cleared of the latest load of Goodwill-bound stuff. The house goes up for sale in only five weeks … ! |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Feb 25 - 12:52 AM I have completed the first pass through the tax forms, and printed the appropriate page of the tax table to mark the range for my taxable income. It always looks cut-and-dried, but I don't think a year has passed when I didn't have to go back and do the math again (sometimes to my benefit, sometimes not.) The bread crumbs from past years usually help, unless I made a mistake that was caught later by the IRS and I didn't go in and mark my documents to show where the error happened. There are some really asinine calculations to make, with results being compared to other results for the larger or smaller of those numbers. This is why the commercial companies stay in business, people are unable or unwilling to jump through these stupid hoops. Tax prep companies lobby Congress to keep taxes complicated. Poor people have to jump through these hoops, the super-rich ignore paying taxes altogether or have so many deductions it works out the same. And the IRS folks who keep the super rich honest are the ones being fired right now by Musk. I finished my cuppa herbal tea, I'm headed to bed to read. Taxes resume tomorrow. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Feb 25 - 08:57 PM This afternoon I headed into the garden with the small mattock to test the soil consistency, and find it is good and workable. I cleared one side of the bed where I'll plant potatoes, then worked my way through the asparagus bed to remove weedy dead grass so I can see when the shoots start. If they're a good size I'll harvest a few, but since they were transplanted to that bed a year ago this year they may not be ready for much picking. Joann's (the fabric and craft store) is closing completely late in the spring, so I tried going to their custom fabric site to order one last batch of the Pride fabric I designed in 2021. That part of the business seems to be shut down, so I'll use what I have left carefully and look around for a place to order more. I keep a supply of the homemade 3D Pride masks for friends and family. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Feb 25 - 01:26 PM My mother always had a plan to get almost everywhere in town in a way that avoided left turns. She was convinced they were the most deadly driving maneuver out there. I seem to have absorbed much of that policy, I either avoid lefts that don't have a light or make three right turns to avoid the left. I hope that visibility resolves quickly! Appointments this week and they run the gamut from teledoc to driving someone to their appointment to digging plants in a friend's yard. (We only have drifts of sunshine to impede driving here.) This implies getting up, dressing, and being ready for the day. Typical stuff, but it was so cold last week that slouching around the house in flannel pants, layered shirts, and the long bathrobe was briefly the norm. Back to the regular world. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Charmion Date: 24 Feb 25 - 08:36 AM Tax time is looming on my side of the border, too, and about half of the relevant documents have yet to arrive. Every year some of them never show up at all, and I have to dig around the Revenue Canada website to find the data. Without actual pages of numbers in boxes, I always feel nervous; is this the year I screw it all up and attract hostile attention? The inevitable mid-winter thaw started yesterday, and the accumulated snow already feels different. I hope devoutly that the melt lasts long enough to reduce the bank at the corner of my street by at least 18 inches so I can see the southbound traffic most likely to T-bone me on my way to all the places I go most often. On my way to church yesterday, I had to goose the accelerator like a stock-car racer to make the left turn ahead of a pick-up truck driven by a person who obviously owned the road. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Feb 25 - 05:12 PM The visit happened but they got a call from their house during the drive down that the pump company had been contacted and told them where to find the reset button. Good save! Apparently the pump house is frequented by black widow spiders, so it took a long-sleeved shirt and gloves to make that important move to restart the pump. A while back I transferred some large pumpkins to my daughter for her chickens. There was still one pumpkin left but it was on the porch during the freeze and was too spongy to seem healthy for the hens. When she carried it past the chicken coop on her way to the compost this morning all of the hens watched expectantly, disappointed when they didn't get their gourd. This afternoon I sent her home with a cucumber for them (something they also adore). And another stray cat turned up on their property, not sure if it was a littermate of the one my daughter adopted last fall, but it was a friendly calico and was taken to the county shelter. Turns out the shelter had only one other cat at the time and someone the day before had been in looking for a calico. Stories of spiders, chickens, and cats today, and I can see the influences of her being raised by a park naturalist mom who gardens. Back to the photos for eBay listings. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Feb 25 - 12:27 PM I noticed an unincorporated town of Dwyer in New Mexico when we were camping at the City of Rocks State Park. Wide spot in the road. :) Surprise visit today, daughter and wife coming over to shower and do laundry; their pump is out and they're preparing for a trip tomorrow. We'll take what visits we can get, and I'll make lunch. Top of their to-do list will be to pool resources and buy a new pump (it came with the property, chances are they can get something more efficient and with a solar component that will serve them well.) I have sudden motivation to quickly pick up around here. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: pattyClink Date: 23 Feb 25 - 12:17 PM Ugh, taxes. The most beautiful time of the year, with so good weather and fun things to do, and we have to mess around with taxes. Well, nothing to do but get organized, and whip through them. One consolation is at least the forms are about the same this year. By next year the traitor-tots will have decided we should all do taxes on some dysfunctional app that runs through the overlord's platform. Got out on back roads including Dwyer Road yesterday, trying to explore with the little SUV, learning how to shift into sand/mud mode etc. It was strange having high clearance and a tiny turning ratio. Unfortunately though I am close to Cookes Peak, no public roads lead directly there, have to backtrack towards town to get to the access roads. Will not tackle going up into the mining districts til I have a buddy traveling with me. Well, there is clutter on every surface, back to work getting the house under control. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 22 Feb 25 - 12:14 PM Time to bite the bullet and figure out my income taxes. This year it is unlike anything I've ever considered doing because of the political situation and the agency that processes them under massive assault. I will continue to write and call and nag my representatives. If I owe taxes I'll set up a second checking account at my credit union and use that account for the debited payment, hoping to keep my usual account number out of harm's way if all of this goes pear shaped onto the dark web. Today there are a couple of more things to offer on Buy Nothing and a whole bunch more for eBay. The camera is out and the second computer warmed up for processing photos. Last night the new friend from the buy nothing group posted a photo of the mustang grape jelly she made. Her original intent was to use the strawberry juice first, but I bet her curiosity is why she changed plans. And of course she was thrilled with the flavor! It is a sweet-tart taste kind of like tamarind, by way of comparison. I'm glad to be sharing the wealth of these grapes (now to find a new vine that is easy to reach and not also full of poison ivy.) My daughter wants to make wine if I can find a good source; she can't use frozen juice because you have to start the whole grapes with the skin for the must. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Feb 25 - 11:02 PM Charmion, how is the surgical spot feeling? Are you able to eat without it bothering you? And good call by the family in avoiding driving into that whiteout! Two batches of crispy pecans in the oven this evening, the house smells wonderful. Hopefully the salt level is better this time; they need some, but somehow the last time I made them there was way too much. They're coming to the end of three hours, one more to go (oven set at its lowest temperature for this long process). After the cold overnight it's supposed to get back to more normal Texas temperatures. About time! |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Charmion Date: 21 Feb 25 - 06:00 PM In Stratford the snow is deeper than ever, and it’s quite cold. I stayed home and paid bills, reconciled the chequing and credit accounts, and had a fruitful phone conversation with the realtor in Ottawa . Then I took a hot bath, reading the Spectator while I wallowed in the steam and bubbles. Getting into and out of the bathtub is much easier at 60.5 kilos than it was at 79.8 kilos, although my wonky ankles still don’t allow me to crouch or squat properly. It’s not a manoeuvre I would ever willingly perform for an audience. My great-niece Faith and her grandparents — SIL Mary and her husband Terrance — were supposed to come to Stratford to visit last Tuesday. Mary and Terrance planned to drive from their home in Chatham to London, where they were to meet Faith and travel the rest of the way to Stratford in her car. I did not like the weather forecast because the radar map showed a massive storm system inbound from the west, and I called Mary at breakfast time to warn her. The sun was shining brightly in Chatham, so they decided to make the trip anyway. All went well until they turned north off Highway 401 heading into London. Within about 5 km they entered the southern edge of that storm system and found themselves in lashing snow. When they reached Faith’s apartment, they called to say that discretion is the better part of valour and maybe we should try again in April. Meanwhile, the storm system had settled across Highway 7, the main road between London and Stratford. About half an hour after Mary and Terrance decided to have lunch with Faith in London and then go home, a massive white-out enveloped a column of traffic entering a roundabout about 15 km southwest of Stratford. One vehicle skidded and rolled, while six more piled up behind the wreck. The cops closed the highway and issued a bulletin asking everyone to stay home, for God’s sake. If they had not decided to abort their trip, Faith and her grandparents would probably have reached the collision site within about five minutes of the first impact. So, bullet dodged. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Feb 25 - 04:35 PM Excellent lunch, we talked two hours, mostly politics - it was good to be in person and be able to say this stuff out loud. Handed over the shirts, much appreciated. Also talked a lot about houses, gardens, and decluttering. I think the garden needs to be larger and more diverse this year, to compensate for what's going on in the world. My friend is another one who cooks from scratch, who loves the fresh produce. I can see some visits this spring that are centered in the garden. Big push this weekend to get eBay stuff out, and I'm going to add a bonus to the antique sewing machine I have listed, a parcel with few extra bobbins and some needles. The bobbins are harder to get for those old machines, so this might be the offer to finally make the sale. A friend needs a ride to a computer store next week, and I looked up their reviews. They buy used computers and game consoles (what she's taking over) but they also do complimentary e-waste recycling, and I have some of that so I'll put a box in the SUV to unload over there. Still darned cold out there, but next week will be up into the 70s again. Time to start digging and tilling that garden. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Feb 25 - 12:44 PM MaJoC at most I would like to draw targets on a number of individuals, that's about it. Lead poisoning couldn't happen to more deserving schmucks. This morning I exchanged two jars of mustang grape juice and two jars of strawberry juice to a former (fired last week) federal employee in my FB buy nothing group. We had a quick conversation on the chilly porch. She just finished her MSW at my university and said she was thinking of applying to teach there. My opinion is that isn't the best choice, adjunct work is poorly paid and they overload them, but regular state jobs at the university in any department is a better bet. I told her that's how I ended up in my job, instead of teaching at the university I stayed in the staff position. Excellent networking, and she's made enough jelly and done canning to know why the jar exchange was a condition of the offer. Said she'll make strawberry jelly this afternoon. Already having those four jars of juice out of the freezer means I could put a bag of frozen blueberries in the door shelf. I hope to give away four more, and I'll keep three and make a batch of jelly later for gifts. Taking a couple of t-shirts to a friend I haven't seen in ages as we meet for lunch at a restaurant that probably needs to come off of my list of acceptable places. They're on the list of companies that capitulated to the dump DEI policies of the current regime. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 21 Feb 25 - 11:57 AM > (sharpie at the ready) Have you been deflecting any hurricanes recently, Stilly .... ? |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Charmion Date: 20 Feb 25 - 04:56 PM I have a discreet bandage under my nose like an off-centre Hitler moustache. It feels strange but does not hurt. But I have to stay out of the Y pool until 48 hours after the stitches are out, and I have to figure out how to take a shower without getting my face wet. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Feb 25 - 12:52 PM Patty, I don't have an ice cream maker (but I take your general point) but I've been considering long items like baking sheets, though they're doing ok in the pantry now. It should be something that isn't harmed if there is a messy spill that splashes into the cupboard. I have some of those rarely used items in the bottom shelf of a different cupboard already. :) To have a clear picture of your vehicles, you have an RV and the Subaru? It sounds like a great vehicle you found. I've been looking at stuff in the freezer and am going to try an experiment. There are YouTube videos that show how to use commercial freezer zip bags in the FoodSaver machine, but what I observe in the freezer is after a while many of the regular plastic bags have puffed out and the contents rattle around. Were they just regular bags I used (non-freezer?) that must be somewhat air permeable? So the idea of using zipper bags instead of the expensive sealer branded bags may be good as long as I use freezer-weight bags. There are a couple of techniques and I'll try both and label the bags (sharpie at the ready) and see how they work. I also have quart canning jars full of frozen wild grape juice and I'm considering offering them if people who get them bring me quart canning jars in exchange. I have about a dozen jars in there and don't want to give away a case of them if I can avoid it, I use them a lot. A phone call with my sister last night showed that even a thousand miles apart and not talking very often we still think alike. We've both been organizing accounts and trying to streamline but also protect finances from possible bank or credit card nonsense in this era of 47. We each had good suggestions for the other so I'll be considering some of that. Still very cold today, but sunny and dry. It was so cold that last night the programmable thermostat showed the house was pretty darned chilly at bedtime. I pushed it up a couple of degrees for the dogs. I did manage to surprise Cookie and put her jacket on, and she's ok with it. That boxer/pit coat just isn't meant for really cold weather. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: pattyClink Date: 20 Feb 25 - 09:53 AM SRS, that deep cabinet would be good for anything only used rarely; ice cream maker, Thanksgiving or Easter stuff, beach gear. Got home last night after a 660 mile round trip to pick up the car, a very long day. It is a Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness, low mileage 2024. Way too many bells and whistles, but it was the best way to get 4x4, high clearance, and towing capability. It was strange to be able to pull in anywhere, and I wound up stopping for food at a place with truck parking anyway. Exhausted, I'll spend time unloading new rocks and minerals and books, tidy the place a bit, and then get started on a houswarming/St. Pat's party plans. Lots to do to make that happen, but I am anxious to have friends and neighbors over, and looking forward to a proper celebration of St. Patrick's Day. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Charmion Date: 19 Feb 25 - 12:18 PM Stilly, I’m totally low-tech with frozen fruit. No fancy weskits; I let the blueberries thaw in a glass cocotte, add a little cinnamon and some fake sugar, and eat them with a spoon. My back still hurts. Floundering about in the snow yesterday was not good for it — not to speak of digging out my front path every day, sometimes twice a day. At least it’s no worse. In about an hour I’m off to see the surgeon, MasterCard at the ready. It’s a good thing I pay it off every month so I don’t have to worry about the extra expense. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 19 Feb 25 - 11:49 AM Last night I cleared out several containers in the fridge and freezer by making a batch of my "nacho mix" - can be used for tacos, burritos, nachos, etc. and it absorbed the several containers of aging but still edible cherry tomatoes, a partial can of tomato paste, the last 1/4 of a jar of chipotle salsa, finished the frozen Hatch chilis from 2021, and used up two pounds of beef chuck (the oldest vacuum sealed in 2021). The house is dark because the insulating curtains are pulled across the back, over the sliding glass door and windows in the dining area. A few flakes are falling but no buildup. It's 14 The dogs are back in the cave of bedding built in the kennel and the bed in my office closet. If I feel ambitious later I'll isolate Cookie in the bathroom and see if I can put her dog jacket on; once in place she likes it, but you'd think I'm trying to torture her for the reaction when I approach (and if Pepper is in the room all hell breaks loose for some reason). How's your back doing today, Charmion? And have you used any of those blueberries? Have you found a way to use them that isn't high carb? I sometimes put them in a bowl of yogurt. I put my homemade granola on top (it's mostly nuts now, only a little bit of oatmeal in it, and I measure it out so I don't get too many carbs in a day.) |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 18 Feb 25 - 11:40 AM Verily re crumbling plastic. We obtained a considerable amount of well-rotted farmyard manure a decade or more ago, which came in plastic farm-feed bags; now we find we have to dig in plastic shrapnel along with the muck. So much for improving the solid clay masquerading as soil in our garden. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Feb 25 - 11:16 AM In spring 1978 I drove across the US and in Wyoming encountered a snowy day on a straight highway with those snow fences. They kept snow from the roadway but the wind was blowing north to south with the constant movement of a small amount of snow scuttling across the road, making it visually very difficult driving. (Plastic sheeting is such a bad choice, to crumble on the landscape as it breaks down.) Still fussing about that peninsula cupboard in the kitchen and where to relocate food containers. If I moved food storage out then what would I put in there? Stuff that doesn't matter if I lose track or forget it altogether? I suppose the extra tiles from floor and shower projects and paint cans with current room colors could be parked there. The stuff that you leave for the next homeowner (I have no plans to move, but I appreciated finding some spare kitchen floor tiles when I moved in.) There's only so much of that, it's a very deep cupboard with a lot more space. What else? |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Charmion's brother Andrew Date: 18 Feb 25 - 09:24 AM Wood lath snow fencing was wired to 6-foot steel T-sectioned pickets set 2 feet into the ground. If the pickets were set on the recommended 8-foot centres, cattle could be restrained by the fencing. Wood lath has largely been replaced in North America by heavy-gauge polyethylene sheeting with lozenge-shaped holes in it. As it does not involve the multiple double strands of wire that were used to hold the wood laths together, I would not vouch for its ability to hold back cattle. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Feb 25 - 11:35 PM Congratulations on your papers and cardboard clearing, Keb. Some days it feels like an accomplishment to run a load of dishes in the dishwasher. This was one of those. I also went shopping, but didn't do much else. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: keberoxu Date: 17 Feb 25 - 01:30 PM On my latest visit back to my apartment, I sorted and trashed some more papers, several bags of them to the dumpster, as well as some unusable cardboard boxes. And I donated a small manual typewriter to Goodwill. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 17 Feb 25 - 01:10 PM MaJoC I grew up in the Pacific NW where it was easy to find wild blueberries and huckleberries, but the commercial ones are huge in comparison. Not as flavorful, but ok. The organic ones are much better for you, as with most produce. The first summer I worked for the Forest Service I was also getting credit toward a forestry degree and the afternoon my partner and I watched a VW beetle drive up a logging road was memorable. Not a usual sight in a world of pickups and logging and gravel trucks. When it parked nearby and a 6'5" guy unrolled himself from the front seat I recognized my friend and professor. We were surveying new tree growth in a clear cut area that was a few years out from harvest, and it was also full of successional blueberry bushes and other plants that come back after logging or a forest fire. He was most impressed that as we worked we kept picking berries for ourselves but were also keeping an eye on a black bear on the other side of the unit who had no intention of giving up the blueberries to the two people out there walking around. When bears eat they use their front feet like hands and rake the berries off of the branches running between the fingers and straight into their mouths. He told me later that was the most entertaining of all of the internship visits he did that summer (I think he also took home a bag full of blueberries.) I'll do one more shopping trip this afternoon and called the neighbor getting over flu, asking if she needs anything. It's a rough week coming up and I've moved the potted shrubs and small trees into the garage again. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 17 Feb 25 - 11:50 AM > wild blueberries Do they taste better than tame ones? The ones on the shelves in the UK are cheating to my mind: basically super-sized blackcurrants that have had all the flavour leached out of them. I like fruit that bites back. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Charmion Date: 17 Feb 25 - 11:21 AM When the roads are a bit more passable, I also want to declutter my freezer of comestibles I will not eat — specifically two one-kilo packets of stuffed tortellini and three bags of cranberries. (I love cranberry sauce, but I know exactly how much sugar it involves.) I’ll hang onto the frozen wild blueberries. Today began with blowing-snow warnings on the radio. In my far-distant youth, every country road was lined by snow fences that halted the movement of blowing snow before it could cover the pavement. A snow fence was a flimsy thing of cheap wooden slats wired together and anchored to four-foot posts made of angle-iron. It could not restrain even the most docile dairy cow, but it admirably did the job for which it was designed. The winter landscape was marked by windrows of snow pocked with the tops of the iron posts, and the roads were somewhat less dangerous. A good thing as the cell phone had yet to be invented and one hit the ditch in the certainty of a very long, cold, wait for help. Southwestern Ontario is apparently innocent of snow-fencing, and so we have blowing-snow alerts. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Feb 25 - 10:15 PM An afternoon repeat of the purging printed records of old online accounts, this time through the "Free accounts" book; I must have removed 50 pages, checking half of them online to see if the sites still existed then closed several that were viable but no longer of interest. Each book is still too full for them to be combined into one, but the contents of each might go into smaller binders. Did some shopping today and will finish the rest of my list tomorrow ahead of the freezing and possible snow midweek. I emptied dessert stuff from the freezer and took it in a care package to the next door neighbors (who have had a couple of rough weeks, surgery followed by the flu). |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Feb 25 - 04:55 PM Virtual decluttering and some organizing. The Bluesky account started with a lot of people following and for efficiency at first I followed back, but then spent time looking into who those folks were. Not all there with good intentions in their hearts - so they were unfollowed. A few blocked. Today I created a "starter pack" of the accounts that I am always going to look at if they scroll across my feed. Friends who are there as followers are still following though many are quietly postless, and that starter pack is intended for them, if they're interested. I looked in on a couple of those friends and was pleased to see they've gotten a great start and are communicating well. I used Instagram for photos, and still do to a large part, but Bluesky is a replacement for the important political accounts I used to follow on that bird site that took a bullet to the heart (and brain) when the fElon took over. Now for some me time, a shower, then get a bit of sewing in for a banner project I've wanted to do for ages. I've thought of a good way to use it (so I'll make an extra one.) |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Feb 25 - 01:56 PM Good news, Patty! Will you now tow the SUV behind the RV back to the house? I'm glad you are so experienced with trailers and towing! It looks like snow here mid-week coming up so I'll finish my driving to shop this weekend. Unlike in Charmion's neighborhood, a little snow stops everything even when we have so little that there is a clear view all around. Writing this weekend. Finished the complaint to the board of REI, now for the senators and rep, and then for the blog. Same song, different verses. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: pattyClink Date: 15 Feb 25 - 09:03 AM Yikes, snowbanks high enough to block visibility! I'll take my dusty but warmish skies more gratefully. Camped between Phoenix and Tucson, having driven a long way yesterday to secure An SUV At Last. Was not about to have a 'just right' one slip through my fingers, so got on the road shortly after seeing the listing at breakfast. Long day getting the deal done, but cleared the Phx metro by 5, only to sit in a senseless jam for an hour on the interstate in the middle of nowhere. 's okay, I had found and booked a site along the route, with pool, and finally landed there as night fell, only to find my envelope for late check in locked in a guardless guard shack. Grrr... not in the bin where it should have been. Why? No explanation from the guard who bumbled along 15 minutes later and thinks that's a fine way to welcome weary guests, more convenient for him. I swear we are going to have to start teaching courses in hospitality, because all people are learning at home, school, and work is 'make it easy on yourself'. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Feb 25 - 04:59 PM Charmion, given the alternative, that is a good plan. I've struggled today to get a scanning facility on the phone, but calls keep dropping. My doctor wants this test done even though it isn't covered so will cost me, the first time I've come across one of these in years. Working for the state meant lower income but great retirement benefits, including they pay for your insurance (combined with Medicare that I pay). I hope your back feels better soon. Re: your snow, I shudder to think of the sledding we did on the hill where I grew up during middle and high school years. Two blocks long and while one street was a T into that slope, at the bottom you shot into the cross street. (The very long block above those two was so steep that no one would sled on it because of the speed and because there was a jog in the street at the bottom and chances were you'd hit a wall. So we lived dangerously but didn't have a death wish.) |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Charmion Date: 14 Feb 25 - 04:36 PM Heavy snow started falling on Wednesday and let up about noon yesterday, and yet more is due tonight and tomorrow. For the first time in years I put on my high boots yesterday; with the snow well up over my ankles, I’d get a soaker for sure digging out the front path in my normal Stratford boots. The snowbanks are now both a menace to navigation and an attractive nuisance. They are so high that little kids climb on them to slide, running the risk of skidding into traffic, while drivers at intersections can’t see over them to spot on-coming vehicles. In Ottawa, city crews equipped with monster snowblowers and ten-ton dump trucks take down such snowbanks several times each winter, but Stratford apparently counts on Mother Nature for that service. I’m surprised by this laissez-faire policy because Perth County is the very buckle on the Ontario snow belt. Only six more weeks to go … unless it’s longer. I haven’t done any more house-clearance this week while I’ve been nursing my sore back. The visit to the plastic surgeon was a calm affair; she thinks the growth is a wart, so its removal would be “cosmetic” and therefore not covered by the provincial health plan. The tissue will be examined as a matter of routine, however, and if it turns out to be malignant I get my money back. The deed will be done next Wednesday afternoon. I will have a couple of stitches and probably a fat lip. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Feb 25 - 03:55 PM Rearranging does come with the risk of forgetting where things were moved to. I've done that to myself in the past. And sometimes the process of rearranging brings about discoveries of items lost for a while. Lots to do around here. Another cold clammy day, but I'm gearing up to head into the greenhouse and start some seeds. Must do laundry, I'm down to the last pair of undies, and I have a couple of t-shirt new arrivals to run through the wash before wearing. The ACLU shirt has a very large message, they don't want any ambiguity when supporters wear them. Today I'm wearing my ALT USFS shirt from the first 45 term. ("Only you can prevent forest fires! Seriously. We've been defunded. It's just you now.") Sewing. Listing. Writing. Everywhere I turn are chores waving "me, next!" |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 14 Feb 25 - 12:50 PM Apologies, Stilly: when I saw "rearranged", my mind autocompleted it with "and everything's been put Somewhere Safe". I suspect I've wittered on about that family phrase, at length, somewhere heareabouts. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Feb 25 - 11:57 AM MaJoC: I'm looking at some of the supplement bottles on a small lazy susan on the tall table in the kitchen (a workspace that arrived in the form of a great table for $20 at Goodwill that I lugged into the kitchen when I got home. It immediately became a working space and was never moved farther.) This device was in the cupboard but put here I think this might work. There is a lot of veterinary stuff in another cupboard and the various cold and pain medications that now must be considered. (What I also need to do is find a way to store all of the lids for various Rubbermaid food containers. Now they're organized but not easy to reach in a lower cupboard, but I use them all of the time so they should be more front and center somehow.) I am considering switching over to Firefox as my default browser and in a prelude to that imported all of the bookmarks, passwords, etc from the now-default browser. The bookmarks didn't land in a separate folder, they did a shotgun blast into the existing bookmarks. What a tangle. I woke this morning thinking about what jobs I can do in the yard and garden. That's a good sign! Time for pots of soil and starting seeds. (Past time, actually, but it's a long growing season.) I have a sweet potato in the window to grow slips for planting later. This year I plan to use a large "Smart pot" (an unwoven sturdy pot) for sweet potatoes, and some in regular beds, to compare results. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Feb 25 - 05:41 PM It's not the use of a mattock (I have two of them I use all of the time) it's the cold weather. I'm not fond of outdoor work at 36o. If it was just cold weather, not a problem, but working in that cold air makes my eyes water and I tend to end up with a chapped face. Rearranging cotton balls and bandaids was a delaying tactic before I waded into the online Medicare/My Health insurance website to determine if there was a way to have a test that was ordered paid for (without the copay the provider said would be required). Before I got to that part I updated my beneficiary information and signed up for credit monitoring (all the more critical these days). It makes sense to take advantage of every benefit from my insurance coverage. But I finally got to the coverage pages and then called my doctor's office. It's now a question being put to the rep for the company that would do the scan. There is job security for people who know how to accurately use those Medicare codes. eBay research this afternoon show me that I missed an opportunity as far as t-shirt yarn. Back when I was using it to make COVID masks it was all homemade and turned up online, but now there are companies that make big long uniform rolls of the jersey yarn and I don't see much of the homemade type offered. I was going to use the shirts I bought to make my own to use, but I don't need it now. I may go ahead and make the yarn and sell it as a lot, it will sell, it just won't go for a big price any more. It'll clear out the extra stuff in the sewing room and listen to an audiobook while I do the work. |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 13 Feb 25 - 04:18 PM > it is still freezing, so not a good day to start > in the garden Use a mattock :-) ? > Today the cupboard where those things live was > rearranged As soon as I saw that, methunk "Oh Dear". |
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Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - 2025 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Feb 25 - 02:10 PM Every so often the arrangement of prescriptions and supplements needs addressing, usually when I buy something then I discover I already had it, or when I'm sure I have more of something but can't find it. Today the cupboard where those things live was rearranged and the cotton balls, cotton swabs, bandaids and cough drops were evicted. The bottle of calamine lotion had a use-by date of 2011, evidence that I never use it, so it is also gone. There's another cupboard where a subset of this lives on a rotating double-decker lazy Susan with pain killers, Sudafed, etc. Time to get out the step stool and see what I can end up with. Not sure where the cotton products and bandaids will live. Maybe in a basket in the pantry. |
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