Me, Myself and Memories

Updates from October, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Noreen 2:17 pm on October 1, 2024 Permalink  

  One Down 

  One ground’s keeper done, down and showered.  The mowing of the acre today was a dust windy accomplishment.

  Last Thursday there had been a lot of heavy equipment on that soil.  As dry as we have had it, the soil was easily pulverized, easily moved with the wind we had today.  Good news . . . no bugs.  I was just finishing up when Dennis came over on the Sears mower to check up on me.  When I was going to head to the garage, I simply had to slowly drive along with the zero-turn as what had been cleaned up.  It was a wider swathe from south to north than it had appeared at a glance.  It was surreal to drive alongside the lot-line to be within three feet of what those neighbor’s backyards looked like.  If one tin cat finds it’s way over that rickety fence, my broom is coming out for a three-point landing.

  Dennis put the mowers away and I walked home.  I picked up a few branches and put them on the fire ring.  I could not walk past the flower bed without pulling up a lot of unwanted greenery.  One root of this certain weed can put out a web of greenery that covers everything up.  As I continued to work, I was contemplating my next decision.  I have always had perennials around the base of the huge Maple tree.  The deer have been snacking.  The drought has been hard on the plants and watering them is not going to happen.  It wouldn’t take Dennis a nano-second to spray that area with his weed and brush killer.

  I think I will wait until after this Saturday.  Dennis said AJ was coming to cut down and off the ancient dead lilacs on the south side of the white picket fence.  If there is life in the roots and they can stool out from said roots, fine and dandy.  If not, I will enjoy looking at Jan’s lilacs on the other side of the white picket fence.

  I could not believe that there is one small snowball bloom on the bush that usually blooms in early May.

  Dennis just came home from getting his two small gas cans filled.  The little red pickup wouldn’t turn over when he was ready to come home.  A new battery solved that little spendy problem.  

  We are having Tilapia fish and boiled potatoes for supper.  Tilapia is our favorite fish to fix.  Dennis will have his salt-free butter for his spuds.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:55 pm on September 30, 2024 Permalink  

  Hmm 

  I did not know this was homecoming week at our school.  I went to the grocer’s this afternoon and they had banners across the entry aisle.

  At the grocer’s I achieved my goal.  Dennis will have a birthday cake on Wednesday.  Right out of the grocer’s freezer into my cart and now it is in our refrigerator.  He will be having a Mississippi Mud chocolate cake.  They had a fairly good selection of 6″ round cakes.

  Yesterday after Dennis had put in a good day “making nice” with his patio door sliders on Saturday, he thought the undertaker was coming.  He did take my advice and with his two walking sticks and made a few trips up and down the concrete drive to drive some stiffness out.  Today Dennis got the Cub-Lo-Boy out and mowed one of our yards and also the neighbors.  The neighbor is a single gal and works with her family at Keebler’s salvage yard just down the street.  Dennis made a trip out to the salvage yard as soon as he was done mowing.  He did not see the little rope in the grass that she ties her dog to when she lets him out.  I ask Dennis if it wound under the mower blades.  Nope, but there was not any length of rope to be saved.

  Tomorrow I will be mowing the acre with the zero-turn while Dennis using the Sears will do around the homestead.  Dennis said it was time to park the mowers for this 2024 season.  Of course with all the tree removal happening on the acre site, it will take time for that grass to recover.  The east half had no traffic and that is where I will be starting.

  Our neighbors are home from their trip to see Gettysburg and other such historical places.  They watched the weather on their phone and came home earlier than planned.  Jan said one week was enough. 

  Cooler weather is coming.  I look forward to it.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:13 pm on September 28, 2024 Permalink  

  What’s Up! 

  To the west of us and to the southeast of us, there are lilacs blooming.  Very full blooms of soft lavender.  Truly this has been an unusual year.

  AJ was here this morning bright and early.  I was still in my robe having my first cup of coffee.  Dennis was in the patio porch.  The two fellows are planning a day for next Saturday.  I will wait until then to see what is popping.

  Just so you all know, we are minding the salt in-take.  For supper we are having an oven meal and it will be the chicken rueben that has been in the plans for several weeks.  The deal of staying away from anything in a can is being adhered to.  Unfortunately, I had a jar of sauerkraut open in the refrigerator for a time.  It is getting used up this evening.  Also . . . no red meat.  That will not be hard to stick to.

  As I was getting the oven meal ready, Dennis had the garden hose strung to the patio porch watering down the two small evergreens really good.  Yes, they are out in the open but amazingly having the potting shed five feet away from them is just enough shelter to keep the rain from hitting them.  His next task was washing out the tracks of the three sliding patio doors.  Yes . . . I think when we hear things from professional people, such as doctors, we tend to go with their advice a bit easier.

  I dug around the cistern closet for some beads.  Those that go thrifting had given me an unusual shaped red plastic carry case about as big as a bloated football.  As you open the lid it rolls over and over, exposing with each roll a tray of plastic beads.  I had never seen anything like it and oh yes, the trays had various plastic beads.  Every once in a while, Grammie gets a wild hair.  I am not sure where this wild hair is going.  I will keep you posted . . . but I have beads.

  I have been working with Grandma Schafer’s silk floss.  Using the “5” magnification helps ever so much.  It works best if I leave my prescription glasses on.  I work for about two hours with the project and then I turn to reading.  As I have had an indication all summer that when my yearly eye exam comes around, my lenses will be changing.  No, I do not feel as if I have eye strain as I do my various tasks.

  Dennis is patiently waiting for the time, 4:00 p.m., when the oven will be turned on to pre-heat it for the oven meal.  I can’t say I blame him.

  It would be interesting to learn why our lilacs are blooming going into October.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
• 

  Noreen 3:06 pm on September 27, 2024 Permalink  

  So It Ends 

  It is a Summer feeling day as well as a Friday.  It’s something about the jet-streams holding us in this warm weather.

  Dennis came home from the clinic this morning and asked me if I wanted the good news first or the bad.  I went with the good.  His kidneys are good, his heart is good, his lungs are good.  So then I went for the bad news.  He announced I would have to put up with him for some time to come.  Let’s hear it for the ole cowboy!

  Dennis’ cousin, Sally Engel from South Branch, passed away from a stroke.  Her husband Myron always sang in church.  We passed on the funeral yesterday, but Dennis’ niece and her husband from Moorhead attended and then stopped in for a visit yesterday.  A very good visit.  Last night we got a call from Dennis’ nephew Matt from Windom that his brother from Nebraska was coming for a visit and would Dennis be home for a Friday afternoon visit.  Absolutely.  This afternoon there were four Curry fellows in the patio porch as Brett joined them.  Talk about the stories that were told.  It has been quite the amount of company to round out this week.

  While Dennis had been at the clinic here in town this morning, I walked over to the acre to see what was going on.  The tree fellows had two huge leaf blowers going and all the bits of tree tops and small branches were being blown to the fellow that had a huge rake in the front of his bob-cat he was manning.  Good thing the breeze was from the northwest as it was hard to see through the dust.  Most of the heavy equipment was already gone.  A second bob-cat with a huge bucket on the front was leveling off the dirt from all the stumps that had been taken out.  There was one large stump that was not taken out as there was a lot of old fence wire in it, around it and some grown through it.  It was right towards the lot line to the south.  They also took out three other stumps in various places where Dennis had been able to mow.  These fellows had a work order from the boss and they didn’t have a “what if” about that wire-infested stump.

  I think this will calm Dennis down as it was one of the last things that had been heavy on his mind for some time.  Dennis took me for a ride after his company had left, so we could see what there was to see.  The far east half of the acre had not had any heavy equipment on it and talk about pigeon grass that had grown tall.  Tomorrow may very well be the last mowing for the summer.  I will help with the mowing as Dennis’ tail bone won’t take much sitting on it.  They told him at the clinic it would take perhaps several months before it’s not the first thing he thinks off when he goes to sit down somewhere,

  No discussion about supper yet and so the busy week ends.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:45 pm on September 26, 2024 Permalink  

  Hello Thursday 

  The sun is out, bright and warm.

  We had thought the tree man would be here several days ago, Monday.  We knew we were on his list.  Early this morning, it was the sound of the chainsaw and the shredder going at it.  I walked over to the acre site at noon.  Many pieces of equipment.  The crew were on noon break.  Yes, Dennis and I were in agreement, just get it done before a nursing home gets Dennis’ funds.

  No, the nursing home is not anywhere in our future plans in 2024.  We have bit off several properties over the years.  We clean them up so the grass can grow and mowing is the maintenance.  Many years ago, this acre was the site of a bottling plant in St. James.  Over time, people were with no respect, and nothing was done other than to toss stuff over the fence from the south.

  In between time today, Dennis has gotten his shots and also an appointment for his yearly medical with his primary VA doctor in St. James.  I knew it was hard to tear himself away from the tree site, but he got it done.  

  This would have been a day that my dad, Raymond, would have been sitting on a pickup end-gate, right beside Dennis.  The thrill of seeing all this equipment making short work of what would have been labor intensive not so long ago.

  The tuna sandwiches were good for last night’s supper.  Cottage cheese was the second item on the table.  Today, I added two chopped up boiled eggs to the tuna.  Another night of no-salt eats.  Tomorrow Dennis goes back out to the Mayo Clinic here in town for another lab work and then to the doctor to see what these days have proven.  How grateful that we don’t need to motor to Mankato or Rochester.

  With that I will take my leave.  ♥

   
• 

  Noreen 2:55 pm on August 31, 2024 Permalink  

  Labor Day Weekend 

  Let me tell you, Dennis and I are into this Labor Day weekend with full steam ahead.

  We have our acreage mowed. 

  Today was the first time since early 2023 that Dennis could use the Cub.  An oil situation took it out of commission into the 2024 year.  What threatened to be a very expense fix was not to be.  We hauled it over to Kevin’s Garage in Fairfax.  We believe he had a fix on the repair before we made it back to St. James.  Thanks be for logic and we must not discount Kersten’s tiny hands to get to where they were needed.  

  Last weekend Dennis’ grandson AJ came and helped Dennis get the mower deck back on.

  Today, I used the zero-turn and with Dennis on the Cub we made very good time.  The Cub is not a mower for turning short where trimming is needed.  That is where I came in.  Other than our east area to mow is rough, it all works and the job gets done.  With the inch of rain, we thought the ground would be soft.  Not in the least.

  Our tree dump is really busy today as the street past our home is evidence.

  We are not going anywhere this weekend as they are saying, the traveling will be massive on the highways.

  Sell-by dates . . . how serious are they?  Truth or fiction.  I have taken to put some cream in my coffee.  It is the highest form of good fat in the diet . . . just let me get by with that one, okay?  This morning the cream carton was empty.  I vaguely remembered that up in the cupboard was a container of Nestle Carnation powered creamer.  I used some in my left-over breakfast coffee when I was done mowing.  As I was sipping on the coffee, it came to mind where the sell by date was on the container.  I found it.  It was on the bottom.  Get ready folks . . . November 2004.  Hmm.  It’s not in the same category as C-rations, but close.

  With that I take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:35 pm on August 29, 2024 Permalink  

  Thunder Rolls 

  I believe the rain will not miss us this afternoon.

  Dennis just got back from getting both vehicles washed and tucked into the clean garages.  Mission Completion.

  Often I add at the end of a thought “Mission Completion.”

  When Megan was tiny there were videos that were called Little Einstein’s.  The videos were in cassettes but also on Channel 2 of the same team of children taking tasks and finding solutions.  Very child friendly videos.  As they celebrated their solution of making the world a better place, they all chanted together . . . “Mission Completion.”  I still have one of the videos in the living room cabinet.  For the first years of Nicholas and Megan when they stayed with us, it was the mantra of our home.  Sweet.  I would take those days back in a heartbeat.

  Both Dennis and I had decided today, this Thursday, would be a laid-back day.  Dennis had given his legs and his back a good work out on both garages.  Lets just say I could feel the early start of the fall cleaning to the point that I had not hand stitched as yet this week.  Neither one of us passes up on keeping our home tidy, tidy.  The Subway that we enjoyed last night for supper did not disappoint.

  Campbell’s extra tall can of Bean and Ham soup is second to none.  It is also hard to find.  I nabbed the only two cans in our local grocer’s last week.  This evening, it is buttered toast and bean and ham soup for supper.

  It is 3:30 and the street lights have come on as the rain is pelleting the windows.

  Friday was going to be a mowing day.  Time will tell what the morrow brings.

  With that I take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:02 pm on August 25, 2024 Permalink  

  Cable 

  Well, Grammie’s gray hair are now a hue of white.  Over the last month I have been working with the new HP to allow my Cannon camera to upload photos.  Over and over I got to the point that the computer would not allow the camera to be loaded as a new device.  Perhaps my camera was too old for the HP to recognize its make and model.

  Best Buy offered to sell me a cable to see if it would work.  It does allow the photo to be uploaded directly from the camera but the format is a bit different.  The only thing I could not get done, for now, is to give the photo a name, a label.  That is the least of my concerns today, August 25th.  Once I give in to the challenges each day may bring . . . it is down hill from there.  Many many days just bring the usual and customary.  You know . . . the meals, the dishes, the laundry and the Swiffer type of work.

  Today my focus of the tidy, tidy was our back door.  As I worked on cleaning it inside and out, I blessed our local lumberyard often.  Dennis did get a pass.  Dennis always favored buying locally.  Bolin’s lumberyard’s choices were slim to none.  The wood-core aluminum door did not have the usual metal slides to wiggle up the bottom panel to remove it for cleaning.  The slides are there, but only to raise or lower it to allow the screen to be used.  I thought by pushing in both slides at the same time it would be able to be pulled straight out.  Maybe the slides were dirty and the channels got cleaned.  Then I thought I would spray some lubricant into the channels.  I then tried a plier as I thought my hands were not strong enough for the slides to free the catches.

  How would Lena clean that bottom glass caught behind the screen.  I took my window cleaner, went outside and thoroughly sprayed the glass through the screen and then as the glass cleaner was running down the glass, I used a clean cloth to wipe down the screen as it touched the glass.  Hmm.  Not my finest work.  The top glass was very easy to clean inside and outside.  It is many shades cleaner than when I started out.  So be it.

  Dennis took the auxiliary hose off of the sump pump that had the water running into the street.  For a time the pump ran so often, it flooded the area of the usual spot north of the house.  I believe the hard huge rains are over.  I helped Dennis coil them and secure them with zip ties.  I offered to put them up and away in the potting shed.  For various reasons there have been bungee cords hanging from the cross bar of the rafters.  I was turning to leave the potting shed and . . . I could not believe my luck.  One of the bungee cord hooks had snagged the back of my shirt as I was working under it.  It almost got to the point of taking said shirt off.  Wiggle, wiggle grasping material of the shirt and I was leaving the potting shed.  Good grief.

  With that I take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:38 pm on August 24, 2024 Permalink  

  Check 

  We have one major item to check off of the fall’s bucket list.

  The mower is back on the Cub-Lo-Boy and all is working as it should be.  Dennis’ grandson, AJ,  had been surfing the web to find hints of how all went back together.  Dennis didn’t remember how he got it off when the Cub had a major oil situation.  All of the nuts and bolts had been saved in the faithful Folger’s coffee can.  AJ came to St. James from Mankato on his Honda cycle.  AJ made one trip to the parts store as a small threaded nut either dropped away from them or it had been lost when the mower was removed.

  When AJ went up the street to visit with his folks, Dennis came in for some orange juice.  He didn’t come right out and say it . . . but he was pooped.  I looked out the bathroom window before starting this posting and Grandpa and Snuggles are both taking a nap in the patio porch.  I don’t think Snuggles could get any higher up on Grandpa’s chest.  A well deserved rest indeed.

  My Saturday work has also been completed.  One load of laundry done and folded.  The bathroom from one end to the other and the back entryway have both felt the hand of . . . me.  Both of those items get hard use.  With Dennis not having any toes on his left foot, even with the orthidic insert his balance isn’t the greatest.  Our basement steps are steep for any and all so Dennis very seldom goes down into the basement.  We also do not ask anyone anymore to take their shoes off coming into our home.  I do not mind cleaning and keeping things tidy.

  Yesterday when I was out and about, I stopped at the eye clinic.  My glasses needed to be adjusted.  Over time the tiny screws that hold the “ear hangers on” become worn.  They even put on new nose pads.  I was and am set to go.

  There is plenty to choose from for supper.  I will take Dennis’ lead on what he is hungry for.

  These last days, I have been enjoying home grown peaches.  One evening when Dennis locked up the doors, there was a plastic bag hanging from the door handle of the front door.  There is only one person that Dennis and I know of that has a peach tree that we had been told was looking like the peaches would be plentiful.  Maria is the gal that we go to for pedicures and haircuts.  I am 100% sure that I was enjoying her peaches.  They were not the Alberta known grocery store peaches by any means, but I have enjoyed them fuzz and all.  Dennis passed on them.  I have two small ones left.  Sweet.

  With that I take my leave.  ♥

   
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  Noreen 2:46 pm on August 23, 2024 Permalink  

  Wasps 

  This must be a great time of year for the wasps to be flitting about.  Dennis knocked two down that were under the west awning of the house.  Dennis discovered by the back door they were busy using the corner siding piece and flying up it.  It did get busy when he used his water hose attachment and pointed the strong surge of water right up into the channel.  They are not fussy about where they choose to shelter. 

  Today I visited our local grocer.  It had been about two weeks since the last visit.  I realize the owner needs to make a profit.  Not being able to purchase many items in bulk, I am sure his price is quite different from Walmart’s grocery or Sam’s Club that don’t mess with anything unless a trailer hooked onto a semi is delivering it.  I will say $4.29 for a dozen eggs seems high.  Too numerous items to mention. 

  I had worked my last miracle in the kitchen for supper last night.  I needed stuff to make oven meals with.  I like having frozen vegetables to put in with the pasta dish, both for color and texture.  I bought five pounds of potatoes as every once in a while, plain boiled potatoes fills the bill to pair with something else.  Dennis had asked for some of the refrigerator items of Mrs. Gerry’s.  This afternoon, I proceeded to take her potato salad and mix in three boiled eggs and a chopped and minced Vidalia onion.  The coleslaw I mixed with one very large banana and some mini marshmallows.  Thank you Lena.  Why didn’t I use some of my 5 pounds of potatoes I had just bought?  From scratch, potato salad needs an over-night in the refrigerator for all the flavors to blend.  With my embellishment of Mrs. Gerry’s hard work, I have bought myself a little down-time in the kitchen for several evenings.   Put a piece of buttered bread with the fare . . . it’s all good.

  I did buy three cans of Albacore tuna packed in water.  We have tried what I call regular tuna.  In an oven dish, it is nothing but mush.  Yes, we have gotten spoiled.  We rarely eat out, I can cook using quality ingredients.  

  I had KNUJ on yesterday.  Several large grocery stores run ads over the airway.  I could not believe it when a Kalu Robbi was priced as $1.49 each.  Wow.  They have always been a favorite in our family.  I can still see Michael or Kevin standing by the garden peeling one and letting the munching beginning.

  The yards are finally slowing down with growth that will need mowing.  It has been a weekly item since late April.  

  With that I take my leave.  ♥