The Good Day All Thread

Happy Tuesday. It is a cool but sunny day today. Angus and I went for a walk to see if there were any signs of Edgar the beaver at his lodge. So far nothing, but there are some dropped small trees and branches with the bark eaten off, which is a good sign he is doing his beaver thing.

I can see the mountain behind the house from the pasture, and the snow line is very low. I may go for a short drive later today into the snow line for a little winter wonderland.

The raspberries came out of the freezer yesterday and are getting ready for Hubby's raspberry wine. The primary is ready, and I boiled the pillow case for a jelly bag to drain the fruit. We wait until the woodstove is going 24/7 before making the wine, so that it has a nice warm spot in the drafty house to do its thing.

I kept enough berries for eating this winter, and to make jam for Christmas gifts. Sadly a lot of our berries went unpicked this year, but there should be enough for all of the projects.

I'm off to put a couple hours into the crawl space - it's a little closer to being done.

Enjoy the beautiful day!

 

Hiya Mel— is there a difference at all in using frozen vs fresh raspberries for winemaking?

 

Yesterday I had a repairman repair a broken valve on the gas stove at the in- law house. That's a week after having a repairman replace the bad thermostat for the furnace.

Then the realtor emailed me an offer on the house. That's a very good thing. I signed the paperwork. We'll see what happens. It's been a big burden, now there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Seems like there can be repairs when homes need a bit of updating. I hope the sales contract goes thru for you Daniel.

You have been swamped all year with a lot of work and handled it all with the caring and grace of a pro.

 

That's great news @Daniel W . I'm keeping everything crossed the sale goes through.

I know only too well how hard it is to close up and sale our parents home. We lost Dad in May 20 and even his funeral was difficult to arrange as Covid was rampant and we were in lockdown, only 12 people could by law attend so we arranged for it to go live online for all to feel part of the celebration of his life.
Everything had to be arranged over the phone, even his funeral was a 5 week wait. Sorting out the house that my parents ( Mum passed years earlier) had lived in for 50 years was very difficult as was putting it up for sale.....no face to face communications whatsoever. In the end we got a house clearance firm in and they emptied it . A sale went through and the keys were handed over 6 months after we lost Dad. It may sound quick but it certainly didn't feel like it. Really difficult with doing it all via phone or email.

Difficult as it is when the time comes to finally close the door for the last time.....sadness will be quickly dulled by a huge sense of relief. Your final job for them completed with unwavering love and respect shown to the place they made their final home.
Emotionally draining too, so look after yourself.

 

Good Friday morning all! Currently 9°C and windy.
I'm finally done at work! Today is my first day home, and my mind is racing with all the things to do. I have an appointment this morning, so I need to cool my jets!
I also need to make an appointment with the dentist, and also the car dealership to take care of a recall on my car.
I can't wait to start fall cleaning!
Have a great day all

 

Good Wednesday morning all. Currently -5° and sunny.
Here I am, a few days into my 'vacation' and I'm getting deep into fall cleaning. Master bedroom done, bathroom and laundry room done, winter clothes pulled out of storage and washed, gardens completed, and now I'm getting ideas about doing some painting. DD is bugging to put up the Christmas decorations, but I told her no way would I put any up until at least December 1st. But I have started my Christmas shopping! I'm having a coffee and deciding what todays plan is.
Have a great day all

 

Have fun Christmas shopping, @Netty!

Great to get those cleaning jobs done.

My assignment has been to sort a couple of dressers and closet and remove unneeded clothing. My old clothes are too big (like Netty, lost 20 pounds so far). I loaded up the car with a big pile of clothing. Now nothing needs to be moved to find anything, nothing is hidden in closet or drawers. Lots of room. It's nice.

Also accepting that this dietary change is for the long term. My blood sugar lever remains in a range well below even "pre-diabetes " with limited, low level spikes after something carb containing. So, there are boxes / bags of crackers, snacks, breakfast cereal that need to go. Fortunately the hens are happy to eat it, so save a bit on chicken food.

Today is the big house inspection for the former in-lar house. I'm nervous because one of the realtors said her client claimed the deck wasn't up to code. I thought it was, a contractor had replaced a beam a few years ago. That was a big surprise to me and might not even be true. If it needs work or replacement, another hassle and maybe the sale could be canceled? Fingers crossed.

 

Congrats on your weight loss and diet changes @Daniel W . Time to shop for a new a wardrobe. I am proud of you and your recipe’s shared here have been a good way to help us all eat healthier.

I will keep my fingers crossed that the sale goes thru. Sometimes people are looking for ways to nick pick for better deals. The sale is as is and that’s it . It’s like selling a home today everyone wants everything to look updated, brand new, and perfect forgetting that homes were lived in the past and kept up for many years. It’s a sellers market due to low inventory across the nation. I hope it all works out .

 

Great plans, Netty.
I admire your strength to resist x-mas decs pressure. I support you on this standpoint. The city and businesses here began in september. It seems a bit nuts, to be honest.

Daniel— congrats on your weight loss. That ought to give you an edge on the DM. X-mas is just the time to buy new clothing. Chapeau, mate.

Pac—You are so good with words. What a nice posting you made.

 

Good Thursday morning all. Currently 1°C and overcast. The sunrise was extremely red this morning, so I'm going to assume there is some rain on the way. I havent checked the weather forecast yet. We are off shortly, to meet with DD's dressmaker. She has a competition in just over a week and this is the final fitting. Then I'll do the grocery shopping. I can't believe the week is almost over already! Why don't the days pass this quickly when I'm at work?

 

Netty— Dalí said it best:

 

Well done @Daniel W on your weight loss. Your loss is most definitely your hens gain.

Lovely and sunny again here and I'm just heading out into the garden unfortunately later than I had hoped but I had a brain testing morning!!
I am part of a trial ( randomly selected) for studying and learning more about how the brain deteriorates as we age and how we can help slow the process down....maybe even stop it. This is my 5th year now and once a year I have to access their website and work my way through a series of online tests/games.....I love all brain games and do a few everyday but these are tougher and I find them stressful as you are timed and some have numbers ,symbols flash in sequence on the screen and them quickly disappear and then you hear time ticking away waiting for you to copy out what you think were the correct sequences. Ahhhhh!!. I was asked to start this year's test 3 weeks ago( you can start and stop) but time was now dragged on a bit and they were emailing me to knuckle down and complete everything......so phew!!!....I now have and all has been submitted to the University. October 25 will soon be here in a blink of an eye I know but until then I can chill .

 

Oreti— that is interesting. Chapeau for mustering the resolve to complete your exams. Of course you will get a report about your own function, but the greater picture is interesting to me in terms of trends in the general population…over time.
Do they also pose questions like your dietary habits, exercise, interests? I can imagine that those “puzzle pieces” are also important to give a more rounded picture of your personal situation.

 

No @Sjoerd there will be no personal feedback on how we performed over the 6 year period. The Universities who have collaborated on this study will analyse the results as part of their research .
I was invited to take part via my GP Surgery as were many others across the country.
We were then placed into 1 of 3 groups. A= were just to carry on as normal and seek their usual medical care from their own GPs. B= had access to the Website and had to go through a yearly progress test . C= had to do the same yearly tests as well as attend face to face consultations with the research team a few times each year. I was placed in group B.

Yes I have to answer loads of questions yearly too. Lifestyle was looked into in great depth, sleep patterns, food = I had to answer how often certain ones were consumed each week and if required what method of cooking was used.
Relationships/ social life were looked into as well . How much tv was watched per day, how often did I read/ take out library books and what type of books interested me most. Places I visited on days out and how often did I have time away from home each week. How well I can manage day to day routines. ..maintaining the home and garden, paying bills, managing savings etc. How many times per day/ week did I read a newspaper, do a crossword puzzle, do a jigsaw puzzle, asked to list all brain testing games I do on a regular basis. That is to name just a few of the questions ..there were loads more. I think the study has one more year to run.