Spring or Summer, you choose.

Hello again everyone. I hope you’re all surviving the Social Distancing thing, and staying healthy. Don’t you hate how you can’t tell if anyone is smiling when they’re wearing a mask? Oh yeah, you can tell if their eyes are crinkly but that’s no good. My cousin made a darling smiley mask and I wanted one, so I made a no-sew one. My mouth is a little bit crooked but I like it, even though it’s not as good as hers. I’ve been staying home as much as possible, though we are having a heat wave with temps in the 80’s, so I need to go buy ice every 3 days again. I had hoped to have the refrigerator up and running by the time it got hot. The average temps for right now are only supposed to be in the low 70’s! And I was also caught on the hop without ANY summer clothes! Well I do have a couple pairs of shorts but they’re “for good”, not for schlepping around the house. I found one tank top in size XXL which keeps trying to fall off me, and I broke down and paid full retail price for a pair of $4 shorts at Family Dollar. So now I have exactly one piece of clothing that didn’t come from a thrift shop! I’m hoping I can hold out til my favorite thrift shop opens back up; on Wednesdays you can fill a kitchen-size trash bag full of clothes for $1.50! On the other days it’s $3.00. I think I’m going to have to undo what I’ve done with the refrigerator. It’s just way too high up off the floor. I don’t think I can live with it. I can pay another $37 and get an additional wall vent to go under the existing one, and move the fridge down about 16” lower. That’s a lot lower than I’d like, but I think it’d be more acceptable than having the darn thing too high. That would still leave me with space for a 12” high drawer underneath it. I’m thinking if I could find someone with a bottle jack, I could support the fridge where it is while I reposition the supports, then lower it down without having to remove the closet wall and lift the refrigerator down, then back up onto the new base. It SOUNDS like it should work, anyway.
I’ve been babying my hydroponic lettuce and celery but at the first sign of 80 degree temps, they pretty much all bit the dust. I think I would have gotten an edible crop if only the weather hadn’t ramped up so quickly. Somehow we skipped the 70’s and zoomed straight to the 80’s, and it looks like they’re here to stay. It’s supposed to be 88 by Wednesday! The spinach is struggling, I keep it in the back of the house where it’s shady almost all day long. I do have some promising Rutgers tomato plants that I started from seed, two in half gallon hydroponic jars and three more in dirt. I have some organic San Marzano tomato seedlings coming along, and some bell peppers. I’m going to try planting them in a huge tub I found along the side of the road after one of our big windy days, and some 5 gallon buckets. I’m hoping the sides will be too high for the rodents to climb. I planted a bunch of mini carrot seeds in a large planter but only one came up. So I guess my carrot garden will be exactly that….one carrot!
I took a pickaxe and loosened up the soil for a flower garden, and hauled the top 3” of dirt out and dug in some Home Depot garden soil. The yucca plants in he middle were growing wild there. I lined the outside with Good Rocks that I collected the whole 3 years I was on the road. I carried over 100# of pounds of rocks in my car for all that time! And I couldn’t believe it, there weren’t enough Good Rocks to go all the way around! I had to fill in with the ugly gray cinder rocks that are laying all over the place here. I may not be able to keep that garden going though, unless we have a pretty good monsoon season, it’ll probably take too much of my water supply to keep them happy. With it being so dry here, the plants dry out horribly fast. In another spot up against the house I dug up a small bed and will scatter some Nasturtium seeds. I read that they thrive on poor soil and abuse! They sound perfect. I lined the outside of the flower spot with all the Good Rocks I picked up in my travels and hauled around in my car for 3+ years, and I couldn’t believe it, there weren’t enough of them!
I had to fill in with the ugly gray cinder rocks from the property.
A friend I’ve never met but I feel close to, sent me a lovely geranium from Amazon! I did not know Amazon sold live plants, did you? It got delayed in transit so the flower was dead but the plant looks amazingly OK and has lots of other buds on it. I needed some color in my life! Update… it’s losing a couple leaves every day so may not make it.
I’ve been pretty happy with how the house is handling the heat. Even though the gable ends don’t have any insulation yet, the house is staying comfortably cool. I kinda missed the boat on doing that insulation; I intended to get it done before hot weather hit, but I forgot about the windy season. There’s no way I can work with 4×8 sheets of foam in 30 mph winds! Duhhh.
I finally had my cardiology appointment after several delays. Just as I thought, it was all a storm in a teacup. I have some slight valve leakage that’s pretty common for my age, but the heart function is good. He said I don’t need to go back. Yay, I think that’s IT for the specialists!! I am having more trouble with my speech; the slurring comes and goes pretty often but sometimes only lasts for 5-10 minutes. It is what it is, there’s nothing that can be done about it at this point. It would have to get a whole lot worse before I’d ever think about having brain surgery.
I’m still wrestling with the last few pounds I want to take off. It’s been over three months now that I’m bouncing 4 pounds up & down, over and over. I guess I’m OK with it but I’d like to quit doing this super-strict diet and relax a bit once in a while, and I just can’t understand why I’m struggling so much with the final few pounds when I haven’t changed my diet at all. I’m ready for some toast, or a baked potato, or popcorn! Well I apologize if no photos show up. I’ve been fighting with this issue for 4 days…tried both with the laptop and the phone app. I give up.