Communities

Quick Update

My Dad made it in yesterday! He left the DFW area about 8 am and made it in here just before 6pm, pretty good timing. I was at the store, he just drove on up to the store and stayed there with me for the hour I had left, he even got to meet a couple of the locals before the store closed. I am so glad he is here, I have missed him a lot.

It’s been raining for the last few days, we still have another month or so of the rainy season, I’ll have some more pix to upload soon of the creek running and the other things that are going on.

Wretha

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Miscellanous Stuff

My garden looks like it’s been frosted, I just finished “fogging” the garden with diatomaceous earth, I try to do it about once a week. I haven’t had much chance to do it lately because of all the rain, it does no good to try to dust when it’s raining or about to rain, it would just be washed off. I have noticed a lot of grasshoppers, though they aren’t doing very much damage, I can see where they are eating the leaves more an more. Today was a fairly sunny day so I decided it was time to do something about the grasshoppers.

Bob has been gone most of the day, out with one of our friends, helping him. I became adventurous and decided to climb up on the roof to change the angle of the solar panels. They are adjustable to face the sun, I thought it would be in the morning position, I was close, once I climbed up there, I could see that it was in a horizontal position, flat. The sun had passed high noon and was heading toward the west, so I undid the bungie cord and tilted the panels toward the west and redid the bungie cord. I looked around, enjoying the view from the roof, I couldn’t tell you exactly how high it is, but suffice it to say it’s around 3 stories tall. That’s all for my adventures today. I spoke to my Dad and he is planning on coming out on Thursday or Friday, it’s been very rainy in the Fort Worth area, so he hasn’t been able to pack the truck, once he is able to do that, he will leave out the following day, I’m hoping he will get a break in the rain in th coming days.

I spoke to my DIL today, she and the baby are doing great, one glitch though, the baby is in a breech position, butt down, so we hope the baby will turn in the next couple of weeks. Her doctor says the baby might come early, not a big surprise, I’ll just have to be ready when the time comes.

Pekoe is doing much better, she has had 4 doses of the antibiotics, Monday night she got a dose, Tuesday she got her morning and night doses, and this morning, she got one dose, today she jumped up on me and got in my face, before now, her breath was horrible, you could smell the infection and it was very stinky, it was miserable if she got under the blanket with one of us and started coughing, you would have to come up for air! This time all I smelled was regular doggie breath, it’s funny to think that doggie breath would be an improvement, but believe me, it is! I had to take a second sniff to make sure, …

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Communities

Pekoe and Pasta

Hello everyone, Pekoe is doing just fine, she is getting 2 daily doses of a liquid antibiotic, she doesn’t fight me about taking it though I suspect it’s not her favorite thing in the world…

Now on to more fun stuff, I am always looking for easy ways to make foods from scratch, one of my favorite foods is noodles, yes, they are cheap and easy enough to buy from the store, but what if you want to make something that calls for noodles, and you are out of noodles? What if going to the store is out of the question? Well, I ran across an easy recipe for egg noodles, they are made with just a few ingredients that most of us will have around the house, who doesn’t have regular flour, eggs, salt and water??? The best part is you do not need any fancy equipment. I do own (and use) a pasta machine, one of those little gadgets that you clamp to the table and crank, crank, crank your pasta dough through, I love mine! I use it for other things besides pasta, I have been known to make tortillas with it too…
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The pasta machine is NOT necessary to make this recipe. Here is where I got the recipe from and a copy of the recipe:

https://www.associatedcontent.com/article/470394/how_to_make_homemade_egg_noodles.html?cat=22

If you like this recipe, take the time to click on the link above and visit starrgirl’s page, she gets credit/money for each page view she gets, it’s not much but every little bit adds up, show your appreciation for the time she took to put this together for everyone.

It has been brought to my attention that the article that I copied and pasted here, might not actually be copyrighted by the author who wrote it, when she published it to Associated Content, it became their content, and even through I gave a complete link to the site and a prompt to visit it, in order to be ethical, I will have to remove the majority of this message, I will leave the recipe (re-written to avoid any copyright issues), please visit the link to see the entire message, it’s worth reading.

Homemade Egg Noodles

4 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/8 cup of water

You will need a cutting board, a deep mixing bowl, a fork, a large serrated knife and a rolling pin. Get some newspapers or brown paper bags for drying the noodles.

These measurements are approximate, with any dough, you will need to go by the feel of the dough.

Break the eggs into a bowl, whip them with your fork, add the water and salt, mix well. Add 1 cup flour and stir until blended. Stir in the rest of the flour a little at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. You

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Pekoe’s Trip To The Vet

Got up early today to take Pekoe to the vet, my friend played taxi service and drove us out there, good thing, I’m still not that familiar with the area and it’s a heck of a drive! We got there late, nearly everything that could happen, did happen… I got over to my friend’s house in plenty of time, she thought the appointment was at 10, (it was really at 10:30), she wasn’t completely ready to go yet, but quickly got that way, when we got into her truck, the gas gauge was on empty, we wouldn’t have made it out to the mailboxes, fortunately I have a key to the country store (we sell fuel there), even though it’s closed on Mondays, we got there, I opened the store, turned on the pumps, pumped the gas into her truck, on the way back in, another truck pulled up, I could hear my friend telling them the store was closed, it was the electric service coming to turn off the power to the store! Somewhere there had been a mistake and they believed the bill hadn’t been paid, I know it had, I called the store owner to let her know what was happening, she wanted to talk to him, I took the cordless phone out to him, I had to leave so I locked the door and asked him to set the phone on the porch when he was through.

We finally got going, we made it to the vet, late, but we made it. I took Pekoe inside, we did some paperwork and got right in. Talk about a countryfied doctor! His granddaughter was there, she was cute as a button! I’d say she was around 5 or 6, and sporting a bright pink cast on her arm, apparently fell off the swings at school… anyhoo, we weighed Pekoe, she weighs in at 6.8 pounds, I have always tried to keep her at or under 5 pounds, but with her age and everything, I think she is doing pretty good, she is NOT a fat dog.

Next we took her into the examination room, once on the table, Pekoe started getting nervous, the vet came in and with the help of his assistant, and me holding Pekoe by the scruff of her neck, she got all of her shots and something that was squirted into her nose (rabies, parvo, and kennel cough), the vet wanted to see her teeth, but Pekoe wouldn’t cooperate, I managed to pull one side of her lip up, but once the vet began to give her the shots, he got a good look at her teeth! She bared all of them. Next came the bloodwork, they needed to draw blood, being a long haired chihuahua, the vet had to shave a spot on her neck, the assistant held Pekoe’s head and neck from …

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Update on Pekoe

I have an appointment for Pekoe on Monday at 10:30 am, this appointment is to get her updated on her shots (dernit!!!) and to get her started on her antibiotics. I’ll post more as I get more about it as I get more info.

Thanks to those who donated, we appreciate it very much! For those who donated and do not have a site listed below, if you want me to list your site, just let me know what it is and I’ll be more than happy to do it.

Seth P
Franklin and Catherine
William C.
Craig C. https://mayberry-keepitsimplestupid.blogspot.com/

Wretha

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Tilapia Farming Info

Got this link from bearridgeproject,

https://tilapiafarmingathome.com/default.aspx

Ever thought about growing your own tilapia? What about a hydroponic system along with your tilapia farm? Well, this site shows you how to breed, grow and generally raise tilapia.

This is something I have been interested in, but couldn’t find a good source for the fish themselves, these people sell breeder colonies, one male and six females. They seem to really care about what they are doing, I think it’s because they are not a huge corporation, they are a still small enough to care about their business, their customers and their tilapia.

Wretha

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Female Stuff

Ladies, this is for you, I just read a very VERY interesting message from a sister prepper, it’s about that monthly “issue”, you know what I’m talking about… anyhoo, go, read, learn, research and do something, if the SHTF, no matter how many extra boxes you have stored back, you will eventually run out and will have to come up with alternative methods to take care of this. Wouldn’t it be better to already have a better way to take care of this that is reusable instead of throwing away (or worse, flushing!) all those disposable, toxic feminine products???

Go here to read about it…

https://shesurvives.blogspot.com/2008/08/this-one-is-for-you-ladies.html

Wretha

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Communities

Pictures & More Pictures

Here are some pictures, just to update everyone on what’s going on here on the mountain.

In the garden, the garden is growing very well, the peas have run their course and are looking a bit tattered, I left the remaining peas on the vines to dry and I will plant those for a fall crop. Here is a picture of most of the garden.
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These are the broccoli, they are just now putting on heads (the GOOD part!), I planted more but they haven’t come up yet.
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The lettuce is going crazy, these are over a foot tall, I pick ONE plant, I break it off a couple of inches from the ground and that is enough for 2 individual salads. It’s hard to see, but there are a few okra plants peeking through, they are the ones with the purple stems. You can also see bush beans in the background.
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The summer squash is starting to do something, finally! But it seems that I may have more than I can eat…
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These are the cutest watermelons I have ever seen! They are small, individual sized watermelons, since we had limited space, I trained them up a trellis, so I had to support the fruit.
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We have been having lots of rain, the creek is running here.
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This is the creek and in the background you can see a volcanic plug, I understand that we live in a caldera, fortunately the volcanic activity ceased a L O N G time ago…
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One of the interesting cacti that grows around here.
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A tiny, tiny wildflower.
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I was told that there is a mountain orchid growing around here, I have tried to find out more info on them, I thought I had found them only to learn that it was not the orchid, I asked what it looked like and was told, I would know it when I saw it, it’s very unique looking and will not look like anything else.

Well, I think I found it, this was growing between my neighbor’s property and our property, it’s growing up inside a rock wall (no mortar, it’s dry stacked), I have to assume this is the mountain orchid in question, it’s a rare plant and is supposed to only grow here, anyhoo, here are the images, the plant is about a foot tall, the flowers are the size of a quarter. The entire plant is purple, the stem and the leaves(?) are the same color, the flower is a lighter shade of purple.
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A distant view of the house. The original (main) part is on the right, the bedroom addition is in the middle, and on the left is the deck.
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This is the bedroom addition, this picture was taken on the north facing side of the house, this room has lots of windows and it’s own door to go in …

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Communities

Good News! Pekoe Pix

Good news! I went to another vet in another town, it’s farther away, but the quote I got from them will be quite a bit easier on the old pocketbook! It should be $200 or less, and she wouldn’t have to spend the night at the vet, I will have to take her in 2x, , the first time will be to get her vaccinations (dernit!) and start a round of antibiotics, the next appt will be for the teeth cleaning, extractions and such. I’m going to call them tomorrow and set her first appt for next Monday, a friend that lives out here is taking me, she takes her dogs there and is very happy with this vet.

WOOT!!!

Here are some pix of Pekoe, much the same way we consider our children, I think she is the cutest dog in the whole world, but that is how it’s supposed to be :) I took these pix today, she is a very happy and fairly healthy dog, she just needs her teeth taken care of and she will have lots of years left in her.
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Wretha


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Communities

100th Post & Pix

Well, this is the 100th post, woo hoo!

I just received some pix from my dil of her pregnant belly (that’s my grand daughter in there!) and my son, I am so proud of both of them!

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Now for the funnies:

This is Baby Girl, used to belong to my son and dil, now she belongs to my Dad, she is half pomeranian and half chihuahua. She is sporting a fresh haircut, she took after the pom side and normally has fluffy/puffy long hair.

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My son playing in a store, I don’t know, can you see a resemblance between him and Baby Girl???
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My son wearing a wig, kinda cute, huh? Hope none of his Army buddies see this! :)
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My Dad, I just don’t know where my son gets his sense of humor…
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Wretha

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