stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

We were faced with that kind of decision lately. The new technology is wireless, using wires for many things is dated, it's so last week. I don't know how long current technology will be "the" technology but we are going with wireless speakers. We haven't got them yet by but the replacements will be wireless.

i really don't like wireless if it means yet more batteries and chargers around. i try to buy things that plug in or have adapters (that can be turned off when not in use!) or standard AA or AAA batteries. i'm avoiding things that have custom battery packs in them. i just don't want any more odd sized batteries and their charging cradles around. even with that in mind i still ended up with two more of those this past few years the camera and the cellphone. i was able to get a plug in ac adapter for the camera so i could use it for extended periods of time without draining the battery and that's been great - i really hate getting partway through something and having to stop and wait for a battery to recharge.

 

[flowerbug]

one mouse in the traps this morning. i'm glad i went out right away and dealt with it because it has been windy and blowing snow squalls off and on all morning.

 

[flowerbug]

working on the bean project page, it has needed a rewrite and reorg for a long time. i'm not sure i like the newer version better yet or not, but there's still a long ways to go.

one thing for sure, it's going to be my consolidation for a bunch of scattered files i currently have so once i get a few more hours into it and have it backed up in at least one other place then i can start getting rid of the duplicate sources/files which aren't all that useful to me now.

when you start out you don't always know what you're getting into so you may not keep records of everything that later on you figure out would have been useful to have. most of the history i do have a rough idea and it wasn't so long ago that i've forgotten the most important aspects, but there are some fine details i'd have liked to have kept in easier places to access. a few examples are some trades i did with people in the early years, i had those e-mails in a different program and format than what i use now and while i may be able to get to those and get the information out of there it just isn't happening any time soon or quickly...

ok, time to get back to work before i get sidetracked again.

 

[flowerbug]

today, taking a break from reading and sorting beans and poking at the web stuff to finally dust the floor under the futon and wash all my bedding. including removing the old memory foam mattress pad and cutting it up so it can go out in the trash this next Monday morning. i've needed to do this since the end of bean shelling season when the worst of the dust flying is over. my blankets weren't really too bad, but the foam mattress pad certainly was getting old and crumbly and developing a very distinctive old smell like old cigarettes (neither of us smoke) and what i would just call "The Funk". probably a few hundred million skin mites living in there just having a good ol' time of it... so that is now out in the garage and they are all freezing their little butts off. whever i redo the bedding and dust underneath is also the time to flip the futon over so that it can air out down there and whever is there can then fall to the floor and eventually get dusted up again. the covers and blankets were all washed a few months ago, the pillows and cases are all recently washed so nothing was really gross, but i'm very glad to finally have gotten that old memory foam pad out of there. it was certainly developing character better not smelled any longer and perhaps my sinuses will be happier for it too.

getting everything washed takes some time...

the floor is all done. i can take a few minutes to rest before another round of laundry is ready. i need to get this one dry so i can get the futon back together and my comfy perch back (but a few inches lower now that one of the pads is gone). i may need a nap after this trauma. i dislike change...

 

[Marie2020]

today, taking a break from reading and sorting beans and poking at the web stuff to finally dust the floor under the futon and wash all my bedding. including removing the old memory foam mattress pad and cutting it up so it can go out in the trash this next Monday morning. i've needed to do this since the end of bean shelling season when the worst of the dust flying is over. my blankets weren't really too bad, but the foam mattress pad certainly was getting old and crumbly and developing a very distinctive old smell like old cigarettes (neither of us smoke) and what i would just call "The Funk". probably a few hundred million skin mites living in there just having a good ol' time of it... so that is now out in the garage and they are all freezing their little butts off. whever i redo the bedding and dust underneath is also the time to flip the futon over so that it can air out down there and whever is there can then fall to the floor and eventually get dusted up again. the covers and blankets were all washed a few months ago, the pillows and cases are all recently washed so nothing was really gross, but i'm very glad to finally have gotten that old memory foam pad out of there. it was certainly developing character better not smelled any longer and perhaps my sinuses will be happier for it too.

getting everything washed takes some time...

the floor is all done. i can take a few minutes to rest before another round of laundry is ready. i need to get this one dry so i can get the futon back together and my comfy perch back (but a few inches lower now that one of the pads is gone). i may need a nap after this trauma. i dislike change...

 

[Marie2020]

@flowerbug
Funny you mentioned that about bedding.

I've just ask a dear friend of mine too help me turn my heavy mattress over, so I can clean under my bed and give my mattress a good clean .

I make a spray with bicarbonate eucalyptus lemon rosemary and lavender oils in. I find that keeps nasty flies and bugs away

 

[flowerbug]

@flowerbug
Funny you mentioned that about bedding.

I've just ask a dear friend of mine too help me turn my heavy mattress over, so I can clean under my bed and give my mattress a good clean .

I make a spray with bicarbonate eucalyptus lemon rosemary and lavender oils in. I find that keeps nasty flies and bugs away

i can't do things like that, either i or Mom has reactions to most scents.

 

[flowerbug]

the two scarfs i use when i'm out in the very cold. extra thick layers of knitting so that the cold air i breath in is warmed by the heat of what i breath out. the black one fits inside the purple one.

on the less cold days i only wear the black one.

[later edits added:] i forgot to mention that these were custom measured around my head and also how high so they would just fit over my nose, or at least the black one was and then i said to make the purple one the same height as the black one but you can see that Mom went a bit too far so i have to fold it on the bottom or it will be up too high on my face... haha!

so nice to not have to deal with scarf ends. that's the thing i was really after i was always not having them stay put or the scarf coming loose so i asked Mom to make these and they're great. and for some things dangling scarfs can be dangerous so i think they can be a help to some people who have to deal with those sorts of concerns.

 

[flowerbug]

not me eating from the garden today, that was yesterday and for a few days before when i had some roasted red peppers from the gardens that i had frozen for a few years. finally got them out and put them in some goulash. still very good eating and wish i had more of them, but that was the last of those until i grow some more next year.

this morning the worms were fed a few lbs of reject beans so they will be able to turn those into plant food. all ten buckets were gone through and made sure they were doing ok. also fed them some bean pods and was able to get rid of another brown paper sack so that gives me a few more cubic feet to work with here in my room. one more sack to go and that will be the last of the pods from last year's bean harvest.

when putting up all the winter squash last month i had put all the skins into the worm buckets and this time when checking the buckets out there were still some places in the buckets where the worms hadn't quite gotten through all those squash bits, but the worms were very much all around those clumps, very thick - like if i ever needed to harvest worms on a regular basis those would be one way of concentrating them into a smaller area.

 

[digitS']

FlowerBug,

I used to say that my soil amendments for the year came to an end when I bury Jack o'Lantern from Halloween. That doesn't always work because of frozen ground. (Sometimes, his service is held at the covered compost pit.)

One Spring, I dug up the ground where Jack had gone ... the pumpkin was absolutely full (or nearly ) of earthworms!

Steve