Busy Saturday

It's amazing how much more energy you have when you get to sleep normal human being hours.  I woke up raring to go this morning, just not to the farmer's market.  I don't know why I always feel obligated to go up there every Saturday.  Maybe I'd go more if they stayed open longer.  Maybe not.

First thing I did was to go piddle in my garden a bit.  Well, the first thing I did was to make some coffee, but that goes without saying.  After that, I went and piddled in the garden.  That's just about the only thing I miss about working second shift -- being able to work in the yard in the cool of the morning.  By the way, it was 63 when I got up today, but it warmed up pretty quickly.  Still, it made the coffee taste extra good, being that chilly.  

The plan was to cut and dry some more lemon balm and tarragon, but I had to grind and bottle what I'd already cut first.  When all the dust had settled, I ended up with two jars of lemon balm and nearly a full bottle of tarragon. 

I also bottled up what spearmint I had dried, which will be all for this year because I let it go to flower, then weedeated it all down anyway.  Eh, it'll be back in spring, and for what it's worth, spearmint is my least favorite of the mints.  

I used my fancy new herb jars, but I'm not too happy with the pre-printed labels they came with.  I didn't really expect one for lemon balm, but I was kind of surprised that tarragon wasn't included. I thought it was a pretty popular herb.  I mean, they had labels for stuff I've never even heard of.  What the heck is achiote?  Anyway, they did include some blank labels, but most of the pre-printed ones will likely get tossed.   I'll probably just design my own and print them myself.  

Oh, and there was a label for cayenne, which is a good thing because I cut and strung some more this morning.  

I checked the ones I already had drying and they seem to be doing much better.  No mold as far as I can see.  

For those of you interested, I also recorded a new garden journal, which you can watch on my YouTube channel here:  Garden Vlog.

I also spent a little time cleaning out my shed before it got too hot.  I tossed a bit of stuff into the pile to be hauled off, then I brought a storage container into the house to sort through it.  As I figured, the majority of what was in it went either into the garbage or into the donation box.  There were even a few books that I'm going to take down to the Little Free Library on the square.  

This book is not one of them.  

I'd bought it for Cody when he was little, but when I asked, he didn't even remember the book.  I'd first put it into the donation stack, but then pulled it back out and put it onto my book shelf.  It's got some really cool stuff in it, and if you have a little boy in your life, I highly recommend that you get him one of these.  

I never even put this book into the donation stack.  

It was mine when I was little, but I highly doubt it would fly in today's climate.  Oh, it's not a bad book.  It talks all about how the Native Americans knew how to live off the land, make birchbark canoes, and hunt for their food.  Stuff like that.  But it says Indians and that's verboten these days.  

Other than a few old photos, the last thing I kept from that box was my 50 state quarter collection.

I knew I had one somewhere.  They were a thing, back in the day.  

Trying Again

Apparently, when I filmed my garden journal yesterday, I didn't get my microphone connected or something, so the video had no sound.  Sorry about that, and thanks to Marcy for pointing it out to me.  Yeah, yeah, I should have checked before I posted, but I didn't.  No matter.  I've deleted the old video, and after a couple of test videos, I figured out the problem and re-filmed the whole thing.   As always, it's not edited in any way, just my ramblings.  

If you want to watch it, you can find it here:  Garden Journal

On a similar note, after I blogged yesterday, I cut and rigged up my first soaker hose. 

The hose is still a little stiff, but I'm hoping a few days in the August heat will soften it up a bit.   I may re-position it in the fall, after the first frost kills off everything in that bed, but for now it is where it is.   

Once it was in place, I put all the cardboard mulch back, 

leaving the connection exposed, naturally.  I've got some more boxes that I'm going to cut up and add to this, but probably not until later today, or maybe even tomorrow.  

This morning, I hooked up my hose and ran it for about half an hour.   I have to be careful not to put the water pressure up to high so it'll ooze and not spray.

I'd bought a quick connect system at Walmart last week.  It had two sets of connectors, but for some reason, they are not interchangeable.   What's even the point, then?  I had hoped to be able to quickly swap my hose between my soakers and my nozzle, but that's not going to happen with these connections.  

Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.  I hopped onto Amazon and found a set with multiple connectors of the same type.  I've added it to my cart, but probably won't order it for a few weeks yet.  I'm not going to rig up any more of the beds until after the current growing season, when the plants in them have died back and the beds are empty.  I figure it'll be easier that way. 

My bill is going to be sky high this month anyway, because seven of my subscribe and save orders all hit on the same day.  I usually don't get but one or two, and I think this is the first time I've ever had so many at once.  Ah, well...two of them were the cat's food and flea stuff, two were supplements my doc recommended that I can't find locally, two were my protein powder -- which I subscribe to to get a discount since it's gotten so expensive -- and my protein bars, and one was my mouth guard because I grind my teeth when I sleep. 

Not that you needed to know all of that, but there you go. 

But I digress...

As promised, I got up this morning and harvested the cayenne peppers that were ready, then strung them to dry.  

Most of them were short and stubby, and I think it might be the heat.  Peppers are in the nightshade family, which loves heat up to a point.  July and August are past that point.   But since the goal is to grind them into powder anyway, I don't suppose it very much matters.  

And finally, someone is going to be very disappointed when I finally get around to cutting this grass. 

I should probably do that today, since it's not supposed to get out of the 80s, but I'm not.  It's the day of rest, and that's what I'm going to do.  

Rest and knit. 

An FO

For you knitting muggles, an FO means a finished object, and I have one.  

Yarn:  Red Heart Bitty Stripes

Colorway:  Rainbow

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5mm

Yes, I finished last night while I was watching the rest of that documentary on Pompeii -- the one hosted by Tom Hiddleston.  It was really good, and I can attest from personal experience that alarm fatigue is real.  Last year when we kept getting all of those tornado warnings...Yeah, by the time the season was over, I was like, "If it gets me, it just gets me.  I'm staying in bed."  

Anyway, if you're into ancient history like me, I highly recommend it. 

While I was doing that, I cast on another hat with my new yarn.  

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Rainbow Galaxy

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

*  I found out the video didn't upload properly, so I've deleted it.  I'll try again.  

Basically I was talking about the storm that came through here last night and did an absolute number on my plants.  I didn't even know it had gotten that bad until I saw the state of things this morning.  My little shade cloth rig was completely torn down, and I had to rebuilt it first thing.  

Luckily, none of the plants under it seemed harmed, other than being a little droopy, but I expect they'll perk up in a few days. 

And look at this!  This is the little tomato that was being eaten, and was down to two leaves before I moved the spare basil into the bed next to it.  Can you see, right in the middle?  It's putting out new growth!  

Yes, I realize how pathetic it sounds to get so excited over that, but what can I say?  I am who I am.

One of my basil plants had also been knocked over, so I just cut the whole thing off.  

It was already putting out new growth from the base, so it'll be OK.  I'm not so sure about the tomato next to it, though.  Those first tomato cages I bought were pretty flimsy, and not quite tall enough, which is why the second ones I bought  I sprang for the high dollar cages.  They can be built up much taller, so next year, I'll know.  I'll probably use the shorter ones for my peppers -- whichever type of peppers I grow.  

I'm thinking maybe jalapenos or tabascos.  Maybe I'll grow more banana peppers -- just not six plants.  

Speaking of, I pulled that dead one up and put it into my hot compost.  Earlier this week, I put my candy thermometer into my tumbler and it got up to around 145, so that ought to be hot enough to kill any diseases over time.  And seeds.  And roots in viny weeds. 

While we're on the subject of tomatoes, here is today's harvest. 

I got a good many tomatoes, but only a few peppers.  I didn't even harvest any cayenne peppers.  Maybe I'll get some in the morning.  I plan on hanging them to dry and grinding them up in my spice grinder.  

The last thing I did before coming into the air conditioning for the day was to measure out and mark where this last bed is going to go. 

My supervisor approves.  

I'll still need to shave some of that red clay down so that it sits level, but that can wait until it cools off some.  At least it's lined up and in place, plus the corners are staked so I can move it if I need to.  

That's about all I did today.  I didn't mow, and I didn't get that last batch of pepper jelly made.  I will eventually.  Maybe tomorrow.  

Maybe not.  

Headache!

Yep, I finally got the annual headache of doing my taxes out of the way.  I had to do things a bit differently this year, though. 

You know that commercial where the H&R Block guy is walking around saying "Free, free, free" the entire ad?  Yeah, that ad is a lie.  I've used H&R Block for the last several years, and truthfully, I don't really mind paying a small fee, even though I file the 1040A and take the standard deduction.  

Single, no dependents, no investments or anything complicated.  It's the best option. Still, I've never been able to figure out how to file for free. This year, when I went to file, I found they had significantly jacked up their prices.  It was going to cost me over $100 to file federal and state!  And that was with the discount for filing early. 

Um, nope.  I went back to Turbo Tax and really did file for free.  The good news is, Turbo Tax seems to have simplified the process from what I remember it to be, and got the whole thing done in under half an hour-- and that included the time I spent trying to find my log in information. 

And then, there was my app I use to get my pay statements and tax info.  For some reason -- even though I had just logged in two days ago-- it decided I didn't have an account any more.  It took some doing to get all of that straightened out, then it wouldn't let me use face ID.  Well, it would, but I had to enter my password every time to authorize it.  What's even the point, then? 

Be that as it may, I finally got that headache out of the way, and now I need to fix my 401(k).  But what's wrong with it?  Well, nothing really.  I'd moved my money out of the stock market in early 2021, then in 2023 when we had all of those shutdowns at work, I'd lowered the amount I contribute quite a bit.  I had been contributing 30%, and just couldn't afford that not getting all of those overtime hours.  

A while back, when the hours at work picked back up, I increased my contribution amounts, and now I need to get my investments diversified once again.  I think I might just bite the bullet and pay someone from the company to handle my money for me, because I sure don't know what I'm doing. 

On the other hand, I'm hearing hints of a recession, so I may hold off on that until I see what's going on.    

Once I'd gotten my taxes done, I watched the livestream of my church's service, which I've gotten back to doing.  I've been watching the Cowboy Church of Orange County, but they don't livestream, and it just isn't the same.  I'm still going to watch the sermon videos, though, because I really enjoy Pastor Harland's messages. 

Then, since it's rained off and on all day, I settled in with some knitting and the 2004 version of The Alamo.  

It's more historically accurate than the 1960 version, but doesn't have John Wayne in it, so it's a tossup. 

And finally, I'm going to post a link to YouTube to a video I took a couple of days ago.  I'd embed it here, but for some reason, FB doesn't like my videos and will mark that post as spam and take it down.  So, if you want to watch it, click the link below.

Spring Concert

Milton

 All eyes are on Milton as he makes his way across the Gulf.  

He is an absolute monster.   As of this writing, he's still a Cat 5, but is expected to weaken a bit before making landfall.  The good news is, he's not expected to hit the same area that Helene hit -- but you never know for sure.  Weather is ultimately unpredictable, which is what makes it so exciting.  I'm not going to drone on and on about the details; there are professional meteorologists for that.  But I will tell you one thing -- 

Here's how you know it's going to be bad:  This is the Waffle House closure map.  

You know it's bad when the Waffle House closes!. 

In better news, we're finally getting a taste of fall here in the Fine Martial Household. 

Yesterday when I got off work, I went straight to the gas station and filled up both my car and the gas can I'd put in there Sunday.  I hadn't intended to mow as soon as I got home, but it wasn't too terribly hot, and I told myself, "You know if you go inside and sit down, you'll never get back up."  

So, I got out and mowed the front and side yards and hardly broke a sweat.  I came inside and sat down to watch an episode of Sister Wives, then the Cowboys ball game, which I missed Sunday night due to a lightning delay.  I got to halftime, and decided to pause the recording and take a shower.  But first, I went into the kitchen to fill up my water cup and put it into the refrigerator.  I turned on the water and...nothing.  No water. 

I quickly jumped onto the water company's FB page, and yep, they had it turned off to work on something.  It should be back on in about an hour, said the page.  I went back into the living room and unpaused the game.  

After about an hour, I checked again and still no water.  I finished the ball game, practiced my piano, then watched an episode of Land Of The Lost. 

Long story less long, the water didn't come back on until after 8:00 PM, and even then the pressure was low.  Still, I needed a shower, so I took a quick one even with low pressure, then went straight to bed -- only about 30 minutes later than I normally turn the light off.  And that was my excitement for the day. 

All that to say, after all that, I just didn't feel like blogging, even though I had stuff to blog about.  Like the big meeting we had at work last week that I keep forgetting to tell you about.  There isn't much to tell anyway.  They said the reason we're still working so much overtime this late in the year is because they're phasing out the R-410 refrigerant and the coils that use it.  A few weeks ago, the company put out a last call for customers to order the old units before we stop making them completely. 

Since then, we've been swamped with orders from customers wanting to stock up on the old units, and thus, we will be working overtime through the rest of the year, and on into next peak season.   The good news is, I might be able to save up enough to get some necessary work done on this house -- if I can find someone I can trust to do said work.  I've been blown off or ripped off way too many times for that. 

OK, moving right along... Sunday morning I recorded a brief vlog for you.  

One day, I'm going to get better organized and record something actually interesting for a change. 

This is not that recording. 

And finally, I'm thinking about changing the name of my blog.  I no longer draw, because I can't see well enough, so no more fine arts.  I no longer do martial arts, because sensei closed the dojo during the last recession, so no more martial arts. 

The only thing I still do is fiber arts, and those are mostly charity hats, which I'm sure get boring after a while.  The name just doesn't seem to fit any more.  Even the reader who suggested the name no longer comes here, and has unfriended me on Facebook as well.   We'll see...

On a similar note, I'm almost done with my incognito knitting, so you'll soon see more boring charity hats.  I guess I'd better get to it, then. 

Laters. 

Finally Fall

And the long, hot miserable summer finally comes to an end this weekend.  Tomorrow morning at 7:43 AM CDT to be precise.  Of course, it's been meteorological fall for three weeks now, but let's not quibble over details.   The point is, it's finally Fall!  Except that it's still hot, at least for the next few days.  By Wednesday, it'll drop into the lower 80s, and I can't wait!  

With that in mind, I started putting out a few of my fall decorations.  

I won't show you all of them, because they're the same every year.  Mostly.  I did do something a little different here, because last year, I had a turkey wall plaque hanging in this corner.  

I felt like it made that corner just a little too cluttered, so this year, I put it out in the car port by my back door -- which is not the door shown here. 

 That is the old door into my laundry room.  Sometime before I bought the house, someone added a door from the kitchen into the aforementioned laundry room, so this one doesn't get used any more.  In fact, if I ever get to the point I can get my house completely remodeled, I've been considering having it removed completely and that space bricked up -- provided they can find matching bricks, of course. 

OK, moving right along.  Some good news and some bad news.  The good news is that these bricks seemed to have worked, because this bed was undisturbed this morning. 

The bad news is, the other raised bed was all dug up.  Sigh...I guess I'll have to put some bricks in it for the time being.  Next year, I want to get some of that stiff plastic screen and cut holes in it just big enough for the plants to grow up through.  

On the other hand, after a few moments of research, I found out that squirrels -- and indeed most rodents-- are repelled by peppermint oil.  I don't have any on hand, but I do have a peppermint plant.  I went outside and cut a few springs of it, then crushed the leaves just a bit and scattered them around the bed.  If it works, I may be able to do away with the bricks.  

Hmmm, I wonder if I can drop some down the chipmunk holes and run them off, too...

On a similar note, I got out early this morning and started digging up some of the day lilies.  I recorded a short video about it....

And finally, I started taste testing my new coffee this morning.  Since I'm not one of those people who can drink it all day and still fall asleep at night, I only tried three of the new flavors:  maple walnut, caramel brownie, and Frosty's mint chip.  They were all pretty good, but my favorite of these three was the caramel brownie.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get this published because LSU and Navy both play here in about 15 minutes.  I'll need the computer to watch one of those games, so I'll check you later. 

Geaux, and Anchors Aweigh!

P.S.  Just so's you'll know, I do read all comments you leave on my posts, whether you do so here on Blogger or on Facebook.  I may not respond to them all, because I'm an introvert.  I need time to absorb and process, then I figure it's been too long to reply, so I don't.  But I do read and appreciate every one of them. 

Too Hot For This

So, there I was on a Sunday afternoon, sitting in my recliner watching my friend Marcy's latest vlog -- which is like two weeks old, but this is the first time I've had time to sit down and relax.  I was only a few minutes into it when the power flickered, then went off altogether.  

 No power means no air conditioning, and it's 101° outside. 

But, thanks to modern technology, I was still able to watch Marcy's vlog on my phone and read my Kindle book when I'd finished with that, and thanks to the foresight of my buying a solar charger, I didn't have to worry about my battery running down.  And thanks to whoever built this house back in the 60s, it's pretty tight, so it didn't get unbearably hot in here.  Oh, it got warm but not nearly as hot as it gets at work.  Still, I was actually in the bathroom getting ready to go ride around in my car for a bit to cool off when the power came back on.

I'm not completely sure what caused the outage, because for once, Entergy didn't send me a text.  Some people in one of the local groups said it was another car wreck -- we'd had one earlier this week that knocked the power out but I was already at work for that one -- and others said a power line fell for no apparent reason and set a pasture on fire.  I guess we'll never know for sure, but at least the air is back on now.  

And I got this much done on a new hat while I was in the dark.  Well, the semi-dark.  I still had my Harvey lantern to light my way.  

OK, moving right along...

Some of you have been asking why we can't have insulated mugs at work, especially when it's so hot in the plant.  Short answer is, I don't know other than because they said so. 

The story is, about three years ago, we got a new HR director whose name I won't call here, but her nickname on the shop floor was Karen, and it fit her perfectly.  She even had the Karen hair cut to go along with the Karen attitude.  She would stand up in the employee meetings and literally yell and scream at employees.  I know I use that term a lot speaking figuratively, but this time, I mean it literally.   She yelled at us.  Literally.

Well, she came in and one of the first thing she did was to state that we were no longer able to have any food or drinks on the shop floor at all, except for water.  To make sure that we weren't drinking --Heaven forbid -- coffee or a Coca~Cola -- we had to start drinking out of clear cups.  She never gave a reason for that policy change, and when we asked why, she just yelled and screamed at us. 

When we pointed out to her that some people were coming in at 3:00 AM and with this policy, they wouldn't be able to eat or drink anything until their lunch break at 11:00 AM -- which is 8 hours straight, she just stood there and yelled, "This is now company policy and it will be followed!"  

I don't know how true it is, but word on the shop floor is that she fired someone on the spot because she caught him putting a single piece of chocolate candy into his mouth. She fired another lady for going into the break room outside of her regular lunch break to get something to eat because she was so very hungry.  Karen didn't last but about a year after that, and no one was sorry to see her go. 

Since then, the plant has kind of eased up on the water-only policy, but we still have to drink from clear cups, as Cuz says, "So we can see what kind of sugary drinks you're spilling into the machines" which makes absolutely no sense, but it's policy.  Still, those clear cups don't keep your drink cold when it's that hot out on the floor, and honestly, when I'm watching Junior and Cuz walk all over the plant with their insulated mugs or gas station Styrofoam cups, I'm pretty sure the policy exists only to show us that they think we are beneath them.  

I can understand that they don't want us to have cell phones, because they pay us to work not play on our phones, and I can kind of understand the PPE -- but would understand it more if they took us seriously when we bring up safety issues, but not letting us have insulated cups has never made any sense.  

And yes, we do have a safety department, but they're kind of like the King of England.  They're just for show and don't have any real authority out there.  If The Big Man Up Front or the Maintenance Supervisor overrules them, there's nothing they can do about it.   

In other news, I finally got that vlog recorded, and even better, YouTube let me embed it.   Here you go, enjoy.

Sunday Sunday

I know Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest, but right now it's the only day I can get out and work in the yard before it gets too hot, so out into the yard I went.  Today's project was to get the privet 

and the poison ivy cleared from the canna lilies on Mrs. Newman's side of the fence. 

 I've been doing this once or twice a year ever since they had to put her into a care facility a couple of years ago, but this year, I kind of let the stuff get away from me. 

If you know me at all, then you’ll know how sensitive I am to poison ivy, so the first thing I had to do was to come up with a makeshift hazmat suit. And that’s exactly what I did.  I recorded a vlog for it, but for some reason, YouTube isn't giving me the embed link, so if you're so inclined, you can watch it here:  Putting On My Hazmat Suit.

I also tried uploading it directly to Blogger but they said the file was too big.  I don't know what's going on.  I've never had any trouble doing any of this before.  Yes, I tried different browsers, and I disabled my ad blockers, too.  Oh, well...That and the Clean Yard video were going to be the bulk of this post.  

I apologize that you have to click through because I'm such a Boom-A-Ludd.  

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled content.  I was a bit appalled at how poor my posture is in that first video.  I guess it comes from bending over my brazing stand all day.  I'll have to make a conscious effort to stand up straighter.  

I'd gotten out early this morning before it got too hot, but the humidity was so doggone high, I ended up drenched with sweat anyway, so I decided to forgo mowing and come inside to take a shower.   Once I'd showered, I wasn't going to go back outside and get sweaty again, so I spent the rest of the day mostly watching TV.  

So, there's not much else to talk about today.  I'll catch up with you later. 

Prime Day And Birthdays

Happy Birthday, Onyx!  

And happy birthday to the other snakes, too.  Well, not so much.  Onyx is the only one I actually have a hatch date for, so I've made his birthday the default hatch date for all the others, too.  Onyx, Sunset, and Slider are all 20 years old today, and Blaze is 19.  I was going to try to get photos of all four of them, but only Onyx was out and about.  

OK, moving right along....

Last night while I was laying in bed, I had an idea.  I know some people hang up those disposable aluminum pie pans to chase birds away from their gardens, so I thought I'd give that a try.  Alas, when I woke up this morning, I couldn't find a single one in my cabinet.  I'm pretty sure I'd tossed them all out last summer when I was cleaning out the cabinets.  So, I did the next best thing. 

I got strips of aluminum foil and draped them across the flower.  Like so...

When I got home this afternoon, wonder of wonders, I actually found a pie tin -- in the snake room, of all places. I quickly got it hung and hopefully, it'll do the trick.  

While I was out there, I also noticed that it's time to replace Old Glory, as she's getting a bit ragged. 

On a completely unrelated note, I have no idea why I have Edinburgh in my world clock. 

Honestly, I didn't even know it was there until I accidentally opened said World Clock while trying to see how close it was to quitting time.  

Oh, look!  I did a vlog!  Heh, I had a brief moment of panic when I checked the video and there was no sound.  I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong.  I'd double checked to make sure the microphone was on, but still....then I remembered I'd turned down the volume on my phone.  

Whew!  It has sound!  I did it right after all!  Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. 

By the way, my friend Marcy has a blog at Amnicon Studio, and a YouTube Channel by the same name.  Go check her out, if you don't already follow her.  

And here is all my stuff lined up boringly...

And this, which wasn't a Prime Day purchase, but they put it into the same box anyway. 

 By the way, I already tried the salted caramel popcorn protein shake.  It's pretty good.  

But now I need to go get some solid food to go with it.  

Laters. 

Knitting And A Vlog

Guess what?  They handed out water bottles at work today.  Can't turn on the air conditioning, but they handed out water bottles.  

Thin, flimsy, cheap plastic, uninsulated water bottles...I brought mine home and added it to the rest of the ones that I've never used...

The new one is the one in the middle.  I wish they'd let us have our insulated cups back, but nooooo.  We have to drink out of an ADP approved cup.  So they can tell what kind of sugary drinks we're spilling into the machines, or so says Cuz.  

In other news, I finally finished that hat I've been working on for about two weeks now.  

 

Then I ripped out this scarf and started it over for the third time. 

I didn't like the way the edges were laying, so I'm doing them a bit differently.  Before, I was slipping the first and last stitches.  This time, I'm just slipping the first.  So far, I'm liking it better.  

And finally, because I was too tired to type it all out, you get a vlog.   Yay!

By the way, this was the second take.  I recorded the entire video without turning on my microphone, so I had to do it again.  Oh well, it gave me a chance to rehearse.  

I hope you enjoy it. 

Day Of Rest

It's been so nice just lazing around the house today, knowing I don't have to be getting ready for bed at 6:00 PM.  I still had a hard time shaking the feeling that I needed to be rushing through everything I was doing -- which wasn't much actually.  Other than changing my sheets and doing a few odds and ends, I didn't really do much of anything.

I finally finished knitting this hat, which has been on the back burner while I knit myself a couple of new washcloths. 

I haven't cast on a new one yet, but you know me.  I can't stay away from the hats for long. 

I did take a few moments to clean Slider's tank, despite how the glass looks.

That just leaves Sunset and Blaze to go.  They'll have to wait, though, because I just fed them and they'll need a few days to digest their food. 

In other news, yesterday after I'd posted, I started grinding and bottling some of this year's herbs. 

That's all I have so far.  I'm going to have to buy some more of those little jars before I do any more.  I'm going to put some of the same type of labels on as I'd made last year, but have decided to go with a smaller size.  I had to order them, because Walmart didn't have any smaller than 2".  By the way, I'd dumped out the Purple Deadnettle I'd previously dried.  I was going to try to use it somehow, but just couldn't get over the fact that it smells and tastes like dirt.  

As for what I'm reading, I finished that Tithe book I'd started.  It was a pretty easy read, but there was nothing new or original about it.  It felt like the author put Hugh Howey's Wool series and The Hunger Games into a blender, then threw in a dash of Divergent for flavor, and this is what came out.  It was the same old typical post - apocalyptic dystopian novel in which the main character is a spoiled, selfish, headstrong, narcissistic teenage girl -- only this one is 18 instead of 17.  There is even the love triangle that is so prevalent in these types of books.  It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't great.  Let's just say, I'm not going to rush out and buy the second one. 

Speaking of buying, I finally broke down and bought the last book in the Matched trilogy, Reached.  

I'd been waiting for them to mark it down or put it on Daily Deal, but finally came to the conclusion that they weren't going to do that.  I'll have to re-read the first two because it's been so long I don't even remember the story.  

And finally, I recorded a short vlog for you -- mainly to try out my new microphone and selfie-stick.  It's completely raw video, because I don't have any editing software.  My vlogs aren't nearly popular enough to make editing worth the time.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little trip around my yard.   

Surprise!

One more day!  One day more until I'm off for four days.  I'm already working on my to-do list for the weekend, so I can get busy ignoring it.  I'll tell you one thing, I'm planning on going somewhere and recording another vlog for you -- if I can pry my hiney out of the chair, that is.  

Let me tell you something, this weather has been so nice here lately.  I stepped outside this morning and it was only 67.  I got confused and frightened there for a moment, thinking I'd gone through a wormhole to somewhere up north, but no....It really was just that cool.  Frankly, I can't wait until it's like that all the time. 

In other news, Idalia made landfall early this morning.  I overheard a conversation about it between two of my coworkers that went something like this:

Coworker #1:  That hurricane came ashore about 8:00.

Coworker #2:  But it's only 7:30!

Coworker #1:  Florida is an hour ahead of us!

Coworker #2:  But wouldn't that make it 6:00?  

 OK, moving right along....

Some months ago, I jokingly posted on Facebook that I was going to start a YouTube channel where I opened surprise parcels, and that if anyone wanted to send me a surprise parcel, I'd film myself opening it.  I did get one a few weeks after that, but it turned out to be yarn I'd ordered and had forgotten about.  

Today, when I got home from work, there was a box waiting in my carport.  I thought it was the new work jeans I'd ordered, which confused me because they're not supposed to arrive until tomorrow.  However, when I saw the return address, and who it was from, I squealed like a girl.

Someone had taken me seriously and sent me a surprise parcel!  True to my word, I filmed myself opening it. Here for your viewing pleasure, is that video: 

If anyone else wants to send me a surprise parcel, we can do this all again.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go browse knitting patterns.  I've got a huge cake of yarn to use up!  Heck, I may even make something for myself. 

For a change.   

My Attempt At A Vlog

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day.  Sunny and warm, but not too hot, and a good breeze blowing to boot.  It was a good day to put my raised bed outside, and that's exactly what I did. 

As you can see, I ended up putting in inside the fence anyway, and as you can also see, my first plant is pussy willows.  Heh...I'll see myself out...

No, but seriously, my biggest concern in putting it inside the fence was getting it far enough way from the eave of the house that the runoff from the rain won't pound my plants into mush.  If you look carefully, you can see the slight trench said runoff has dug into the ground.  I've marked it with a flag to make it easier to see. 

I'm hoping the planter is far enough away that it won't interfere with anything planted in it. 

Once I got it situated and leveled -- yes, I really did get my level out and check it -- I filled it up with my garden soil and we are off to the races. 

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you.  That dirt is two different colors.  I'd bought two bags of Expert Gardener brand, and it wasn't quite enough to fill the whole bed, so I topped it off with a little bit of Miracle Gro that I had laying around.  I'm not sure if it's so much darker because it was wet or what, but it is what it is, and what it is is dirt. 

The first two things I planted in it are a couple of wild onions and some wood sorrel. 

My wood sorrel isn't looking too good.  I'm hoping it's just a bit of transplant shock, and it'll perk up after a day or two.  I'm not too worried about the onions, as they'll probably get eaten before too much longer anyway.    

As you can see, I've got lots of room left for other herbs and such. 

I'm leaning towards rosemary, lavender, and thyme.  But nothing is set in stone just yet.  Heck, I might even plant some flowers in it -- edible ones, of course.  Or maybe even some vegetables.  I don't know, but you'll be here with me every step of the way. 

And finally, here is another attempt at doing a vlog.  It's just raw video, as I don't have any editing software, and probably wouldn't know how to use it if I did.  Kindly ignore the quiet parts.  I forgot I was supposed to be speaking. 

Let me know what you think, and if you want to see more stuff like this, or even if you don't.  Feedback and constructive criticism is always welcome. 

I Did A Thing

I did a thing today.  I mean, more than just watching TV.  I did a thing that involved...*looks around furtively*...leaving the house. 

Yes, gentle reader, I actually left the house when I didn't even have to!  

Why did I embark on this adventure?  Well, back in the day, in a conversation on Facebook, I happened to mention to a friend that we have a couple of old Civil War forts here in the area.  I said something about going out and doing a video tour of them, and she was all, "Yes!  Do that!" 

Naturally, I said I would, and just as naturally I didn't.  Until today.  

Without further ado, here for your viewing pleasure, is my walking tour of the two Civil War forts.  First up, the one that has been restored. 

And here is the unrestored fort, so you can see the difference. 

I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into my town, and let me know if you'd like to see more of these types of videos.  

For now, I've got to recover from all that being outside nonsense with a little Time Team binge.

Laters.