That be a wrap for 2021. Farewall 2021, may the history pages treat you fairly. ( grin )
Again, Sharon and I are doing well. I had appointment with my cardioligist this month. He seemed concerned with my blood pressure so he had me fill a form with two weeks worth of blood pressure readings. I mailed it in, but have not heard back, I'm sure due to the holidays. I seen my PCP for a lab draw to compare lab draw done three months ago to test for kidney function. Again, nothing heard due to holidays. (Update: Lab test results for kidney function came back normal. Hopefully this is result of my stop drinking copious amounts of red wine.) Sharon is doing fair with her Parkingsons. She functions pretty well, but has bouts of pain that slows her down which meds help her through the day.
The apple season is on and we have purchased three 40# boxes of apples the last month. I've made several apple crips dishes as well as consumed a great many of them fresh. We've had Galas, Honey Chisps, and Fuji. I found recipe for making apple pie filling and gave it a try. Wow! It turned out great. I made three quarts. Not only is it great in pies, you can use the filling on rolls, pancakes and icecream. It's YUMMY!! ( smile )
I believe we are pretty set for Winter. I had our propane topped off as well as topping off our motorhome propane tank. We use motorhome gen-set in the event power goes out. I set up an extension cord to power frig, and freezers as well as fish tank. Fireplace is capable of running without power... primary reason we chose this unit. It functions great.
I have a few photos to share. One is of our Black Maine Coon cat, Sammy. The other image is a mind boggling Mother Nature event. Sammy is an absolutely amazing cat. He works hard at keeping the mice and pocket gophers down to a minimum on the property. He currently has his Winter coat on and it is georgous. He keeps it well cleaned and it simply glows. Sammy loves to play with Belle our little Chihuahua type dog. Sammy loves to ambush Belle at every opportunity. ( chuckling ) They both keep Sharon and I on our toes. ( smile )
The other image is quite amazing. I have these concrete test blocks that were created to test the cement for proper mix for the windmill bases. When we were pouring the concrete slab in front of the shop at the ranch, I asked what they were doing with the blocks when they were done with them. They just buried them, so I asked if they would let me have a few. They brought me 50 of them. (grin) Anyway, I use them for weights for various tasks like keeping tarps down in garden when I cover carrots and potatos that I have covered with grass or straw then cover with tarps to keep veggies from freezing. They work great!
To make a long story short, one morning a couple weeks ago, the first freeze of the season, we also had fog during the night. The next morning, I took Belle out for her morning tinkle. Everything had been covered with frost and the sun was just coming up over the mountains, just starting to thaw everything but still freezing. I was leaning on the railing of our deck watching Belle and when she started back for the house I turned to leave railing and just happened to look down at one of the blocks I used earlier to hold down a security camera mount on the railing. On that block was the most beautiful rose pattern frozen on the surface. This is the amazing image of the Frozen Frost Rose. This photo has not been doctored in any way. A sure sign of nature that the evil forces will never prevail. ( grin )
Anyway, will be back to roll these pages for the coming New Year... 2022! ( smile )
Amazing how six months can pass without much notice. As I shared in my last entry, we were busy with installing our new fireplace. Well, that project was completed and surprisingly, we passed ALL structural, electrical and gas code inspections. What a good feeling.
The most challanging part of the fireplace project was re-install the tile around the face of the fireplace once installation was complete. The new fireplace was about 3/4 of an inch wider than the old unit. This necessitated trimming the side tile down a little more than 3/8 of an inch. Luckily, the height of the new fireplace was identical to the old unit so those tile were not removed. Anyway, all went well with the installation and here is a photo of me enjoying an early morning butt warming. ( smile ) Note the big screen TV behind me. We have really enjoyed it especially during football season, which, by the way, this football season is its first!
After the fireplace, I was sitting amoungst all my unsightly computer junk piles on the bar between the kitchen and livingroom. Sharon and I had talked about setting up her 55 gallon fish tank, but hadn't decided where to place it until now. She brought a 55gal and 30gal tank when she moved to Athena, OR from Oklahoma. They have been in storage since long before her and I met. Anyway, I got to thinking that the 55gal tank would really look cool on the bar between the kitchen and livingroom, one could enjoy it from both sides. ( smile) Anyway, we set about dragging out the tank and fish tank paraphernalia, cleaning up tank and taking an inventory what was re-usable and what needed replaced. Here is a photo of the fish tank after installation. Beautiful! ( smile ) It has since filled up with live plants and a multitude of fish and snails. We have Cory Cats, Neon Glow fish, Dannios, Kuhli Loaches and of course snails. Fun project!
During the heat of the summer, not much to do other than tending garden and keeping pasture mowed down, weedeating and trap pocket gophers. In May, I finally got my fill of managers and younguns at work and decided to fully retire. I loved my customers, loved the challanges RV repair presented and of course, the extra money. The hour drive each direction was enjoyable as well, however; the expense of fuel and wear and tear on rig just got to point of being overwhelming beyond the point of putting up with the nonsense.
Now that I had more time at home, when the daytime temps started to come down, I decided it was time to finish painting the North side of the house that was left undone during last year's painting project. Everything went smoothly with the painting, starting early in the morning when the wind was low, quitting when heat rose too high around noon, or if wind picked up too high, drying brushes out rapidly as I was using acrylic latex paint. After most of the painting was complete, I decided to tackle installing gutters over the deck area to eliminate the waterfall onto the deck. I've never installed gutters before, but found it fairly easy to do, however; it's not really a one man kind of project, but I found a way to do the install by myself. It turned out great painting gutters to match paint scheme and trim. Here is photo of finish North side gutter, just finishing up with sealer and touch up painting. This coming Monday, I'm going to town to purchase more gutter pieces to put a gutter on South side over deck area. Fun project.
Speaking of the heat wave this summer, we have Swallows that return each year to nest in the front porch alcove. They built their nest on top of the porch light. This year, they laid five eggs which seemed more than their nest could handle, however; all eggs hatched successfully. Unfortunately, when they gained in size such that the five of them barely fit the nest, we got hit by a two day heat wave of 105 degrees. I put a fan on them thinking it would cool sufficently enough to keep them alive. Sadly, all five chicks perished. The Swallows always have a second batch of chicks and they set about quickly and laid three more eggs which hatched successfully. I was at Walmart and noticed a mini-swamp cooler on the shelf near the checkout. I thought, that's the Swallow chick answer!! Give them an airconditioner! I bought one, built a shelf for it to set on, filled with water and plugged it in. Perfect solution! At first parent Swallows were a bit hesitant, but it wasn't long they went about their task of feeding their chicks, paying no attention to the fan noise. It was far cooler for them. Good news, this batch of chick survived and eventually took wing and flew South. Here is photo of my Swallow airconditioner. ( smile )
Well that's what's been going on here in Athena. We're doing as best as can be expected. I'm really concerned about the future though. I believe the "babyboomers" are in for an extremely tough time with the way things are shaping up in America today. As my brother Alan used to say about such things... 'shit happens' he'd say.
All the best to you and yours, be safe, be healthy.
Once our furniture finally arrived (it came a little early), sitting in our new furniture we got to thinking, with a new fireplace coming' we've never had an upgrade from our current Sony TV, now would be good reason to go "BIG" screen TV over fireplace. The old fireplace has a very nice mantal area, but we never used it for anything other than placing pictures on. So, I started researching BIG screen TVs. My research lead us to choosing a Samsung 55" TV. We ordered it online, it arrived in one piece, I installed it and we are now enjoying the "BIG" screen TV craze. (smile) We're very happy with our purchases so far.
Our new fireplace finally arrived and as of March 13th, I'm in the middle of installing it. I've been away from work the last month or so due to pandemic slow down of RV industry. I usually take the Winter months off anyway due to usually nasty road driving conditions in the area we live. So, all this has played out quite well. Hopefully I'll complete the fireplace install later this coming week.
Then of course there's the garden to get ready for the next growing season as well as the Spring mowing season. I'm looking forward to the warmer tempatures, however; this Winter has been a rather mild one up until the last three weeks. Lots of wind, cold and snow. That's a wrap for this session. Hope you all have a wonderful Spring.
Maybe witnessing something new that early in the New Year might be a sign of good things to come for 2021, who knows. Myself, I'll consider it as such. (smile) Considering the last year, one just as well give 2021 a positive spin, no matter the form is comes in, right?
Sharon and I have been busy with some major changes the last few months and it appears this will continue into the foreseeable future. This Winter we will be busy trying to move storage stuff out of the house into the new storage sheds. Sharon has pruchased a three piece livingroom furniture set that will require reorganizing livingroom by getting rid of 1964 hid-a-bed couch that was given to me when the my folks passed away. I slept on this couch when I was a teenager. Sharon never was fond of the pea green color of it. (chuckling) However, it served a purpose when grandkids came to visit and needed a place to sleep.
Also, we finally decided to install a functional fireplace to replace the wood burning decorative fireplace that was installed when the manufactured home was built. We never used it as it literally had no means of circulating the air into the room. Looked nice, but totally non-functional. I will be installing a 40k btu propane fireplace which will pretty much be an exact fit. We're anxious to have use of another source of heat available because being so rural, electricity has a potential of going out for long periods of time out here. One Winter we were without electricity for 12 hours. I'll rig the electrical where we can run the fireplace on our small generator or plug it into our motorhome gen-set.
The newest change that Sharon & I agreed upon that needs to be included with livingroom change is Sharon's fish tank that's been in storage for years. We were trying to give the fish tank & desk away but no one ever came to look at them. So, I suggested to Sharon that I move my computer junk away from the bar counter and set her fish tank on it. She was thrilled and excited and immediately said "OK"! (chuckling) She's cute when she gets excited. (smile) She's had fish for years in the past, but her move back to Athena from Oklahoma just didn't present a proper place to set the fish tank back up until now. I enjoy fish, I just can't keep them alive. (smile)
So there's what's happening in the New Year for us. Oh, I forgot to mention I still have North side of house to finish painting. Then there's the garden to get planned and new watering system installed. The Garden Planner I've been using has gone to a new format seeings Adobe Flash Player is being discontinued in 2021. I may have to totally reconstruct my garden plan on their site. Hopefully their new format will be more intuitive to use.
There we are, our early plans for 2021. Hopefully we will remain healthy this year and not fall prey to the virus as we both feel that this vacination is not for us. We hope you and yours will remain healthy as well. Until next entry... (smile)