Fri. Prep

[Nancy]

What are your prep. & plants for Eclipse week?
I remember the last one my grand was here and we had a good visit indoors.
Not doing much here for me for it this time.
The birds get to sing twice & chicken crow again as well that is one thing I remember!

Today rain woke my up at 5 I was glad it was not stormy just rain, it is still raining and suppose to do that till lunch time.
The I'll be working on getting plants in dirt.
My yarn projects are calling me.
Bfast first maybe.

QT & journals x
Dishes are put away.
Have a great day hope you all have a fun weekend!

[Harriet]

Dd44 is our science go-to, who's in the know. We'll probably hear from her on opinions of appreciating the eclipse. Not "coming across" our area, but interesting everyone, I'm sure. It "starts" here by 2 Monday and hits a peak of about 80% covered at about 3:11.

I'll be giving some time today to a large parcel of clothes that came yesterday - this is an online order of which I already know that a lot will have to be sent back.

It frustrates me that I must rush out to deliveries to try to convince people NOT to put packages up AGAINST the door I'd like to use to go get the package! (or open the door at all) I made it in time to get this fellow's attention, thank goodness, because he had put the package on the porch but on the mat just as you would open the storm door. As I tried to open the door, saying "thank you", the door caught on the package and wedged!! He came back, sheepishly, and pulled the package out from his side, admitting that I would have been stuck like that without him.

Happily, HRH did do a good job of installing a monitoring system that beeps when motion is sensed on the driveway, so we have a warning about deliveries, for instance. But it's not perfect and can be tripped by lots of things. Definitely wildlife, but we've even been informed of falling leaves before.

Nancy, I had forgotten that about birds getting to sing twice!

[LadyMaverick]

Good morning!

I slept over 9 hours last night and woke up feeling refreshed and ready to get started on the day. #Thankful

My first 3 hourly challenges have been successful. I can see progress on getting all the plates spinning again. Repetition and consistency seem to be the winning combination for me to stay up with things. The SHE cards make me aware of tasks that I am doing well in this effort.....and which tasks that I still need to get back into doing.

There are several who are visiting our area in anticipation of the eclipse. I've met some of the visitors at church over the past week. We will only be in the 90% range so I assume they will travel a few miles to be in the 100% zone. I think of previous generations who didn't have the capability to predict the eclipse. I assume it would be a total surprise and unknown what is happening.

My mammogram is scheduled for today. I expect it to take less than an hour to have that yearly task accomplished. While in the city I will see how many items I can check off the Buy This list. Pantry restocking is easier when I stay up with it.

[LadyMaverick]

skippable garden chatter. ...
5.5 of the raised beds are planted and 2 of them are producing daily harvest.
I have 5 more tomato plants, 1 pepper plant and dozens of flowers waiting to be planted. My goal is to have all transplants in the raised beds by April 10th. That is the average last freeze date for this area.

DH and I teamed up to cut cattle panels to fit on top of the plant cages. I stumbled upon this method of support and planned to try it this year in one bed before committing to it. However, after observing how solid it is for a few days I have decided to go 100% with it. It is so simple and easy. It takes less than a minute to complete a raised bed. There are no ties or support needed. And maybe the best is how easy it will be to disassemble in the fall. I detest having string to cut and remove or bungie cords to untangle at the end of the garden season. I want to keep it simple, and this new support set up is perfect IMHO.

[Harriet]

I've had photo shock. HRH took photos of me in a likely Mother of the Bride outfit and when I look at them, hmmm... .. suddenly I look rather frumpy in dressier clothes. Definitely see dd44 looking back at me, so I had to do a double-take. I forget how much she looks like me. Dd25, at work, says it looks nice. I might agree that it looks at good as possible. dunno... .. Seems to calls for high heels and this is an outdoor wedding. Ugh. This is one of the wedding colors. Another, sadly, is not the same as the other wedding color as advertised, so is disappointingly "off". A third is a completely different color, so that I would not be trying to match at all. I'd need dd25's full input on that, so maybe I'll just wait on her for any more trying.

We felt nothing of the big earthquake on east coast - I suppose we would not have expected to. Wondering if Kathryn or Cathy felt anything?

LadyM, you reminded me of the time my ddad came to turn over my garden for the winter with the tractor, having forgotten I'd gone over to raised beds during that year. He was standing out there with his hands on his hips, shaking his head. Your garden sounds like a lot of fun and very productive.

[Nancy]

I have been outside playing in the dirt this morning. Had some volunteer annuals so I moved them between the rocks I put out.
Got some steps in doing that. Also limbed the branch that fell and got that in the trailer. It is looking better now especially after I
planted pansies in the planter with the welcome sign I move to the mower off area.
Moved the bulbs to a safe zone in the middle where there is no neighbor boundaries close by! \
I just heard the mail truck.
I came in to warm up a bit & got more coffee.

Found a cabbage in the fridge so I've chopped it up and am browning hb to go with it
for some cabbage soup. I'll freeze some glad I got the smallest cabbage I could find.
YUM! Drained the liquid off not much and will do the rest with bread not sure but leaning
towards a roll with it inside. Never made one of those before.
Sun came out briefly when we were on our walk.

Forgot to mention they got 6" of snow around us glad we just got rain.

[Harriet]

Sure enough, dd44 has long had 10 pairs of eclipse glasses ordered, and 2 would be for HRH and for me. The potential bad news is that they haven't arrived yet and she already expected them. So, it's possible we and the boys won't have the experience she'd hoped we would.

Nancy, she says she wonders if our nearby roosters will also crow a second time.

The cake she made for the bday party tomorrow has already been eaten. She says, "I don't know what I was thinking. There are four boys in this house." I offered (although I really don't have time), but she says she's just about made up her mind to buy whatever she can find while she's out tomorrow.

Dstepson had to send his apologies and won't be at the party as his nephews expected. His truck repairs are, sadly, very extensive. He and a friend will be working on it all Saturday. I would suggest to HRH that he go over to help, too. HRH loves him and would do anything for him, does have some expertise, but there is an "oil and water" element to their relationship. Dd44 and I both said to each other, maaaaaybe let's not invite too much potential for frustration. The friend will be a better helper.

I have some by-hand fabric cutting to do and it's tedious, so I'm doing it in fourths, walking around the house after each session to shake it off. My left forearm is feeling it.

[LadyMaverick]

eclipse glasses

Someone posted today on our small town facebook group asking where to get eclipse glasses. I was surprised at the response. Order a drink at Sonic and they will give you eclipse glasses. The local library is giving eclipse glasses away for free. The quick stop convenience/gas stations are selling eclipse glasses for $2. Lowe's is selling them too.
It is supposed to start at 12:30 and end at 3:30 here. DD12 will have eclipse glasses provided by the school as they are going to be outside during part of it. I haven't made any effort to get eclipse glasses and probably won't.

Trip to the city was smooth. We had 5 stops to make and every one of them was as easy as can be. Mammogram only took 20 minutes from the time I got out of vehicle until I was getting back into it.

[CathyS]

Because this general area is so close to Niagara Falls, where they are expecting 100%, we are already under a "state of emergency", there will be numerous roads closed all over the region. A friend lives in the falls and I was talking to her today. She had "an evangelist" knock on her door yesterday and told her she had to repent before Monday because the world was going to come to an end and did she accept Jesus..." She said she just closed her door. She also said there are already roads closed and more people around the touristy areas already and she left her place at 9 this morning to come to the knitting store. She won't be working on Monday. Lots of places, including all schools, will be closed on Monday.

I drove to the Costco that is 20 minutes from here going towards the falls this morning. Traffic wasn't too bad, but heavier than usual for a Friday morning. On the way home less than an hour later, the traffic going towards the falls was much heavier.


I had to go deal with pasta that was almost ready... so now we have had supper. Dh had penne with pesto and I had a delicious bun with provolone cheese and sliced deli meat.

LadyM beware of the scam with those glasses. They need to be stamped with a marking of "ISO" and something else as some come from China and might not actually be safe to wear.

[Nancy]

I have made up rolls with pizza sauce, hb & cabbage & pepperoni in them forgot the cheese so I will be adding it on top when I bake
them up. I rolled and cut them like cinn. rolls so I could use the new to me bread pan. Got too of them and a small one rising in the
oven now. They were yummy, I can improve them with a couple tweaks adding olives for one, & cooked sausage next time instead of beef, I will try sour kraut as I like it instead of the cabbage.

Rinsed out some planters, I need to go rinse off my garden shoes next.

Picked up after the doggo grass needs mowed but not today it's still pretty wet. We have more rain coming but have seen some sun.