Community

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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Community

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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Community

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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Community

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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Community

Pekoe’s Vet Bill

Hello all, I have come to the conclusion that I need to take my little dog to the vet, she is a long haired Chihuahua, her name is Pekoe. She is 9 years old, she has been my companion and baby for a long time. She is a very healthy dog with the exception of her teeth, typical of Chihuahuas, she has developed teeth problems, they need to be cleaned, she has several loose teeth that will have to be pulled, and she has an infection in her mouth.

I am asking, for those of you who wish to help (and if you don’t want to or can’t that’s OK too) for donations to offset the vet bill, I called the vet and found out it would cost between $300 and $400 to get this taken care of, it may be higher than that because she is not current on her shots and they will want to do that too (though I would prefer NOT to do that part, I think the law forces us to get rabies shots for our dogs). Anyhoo, if you wish to help, please consider donating, any amount is OK, 100% of all donated funds will go toward this bill (with the exception of what PayPal takes for their fees).

I hope to be able to take her to the vet on Monday Aug 11.

~~EDIT~~
I went to a different vet in a different town, the new quote is now $200!
~~EDIT~~











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Wretha


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Night Lights & Such…

Night and fireflies…

My day to day life has become fairly routine to me, but I forget that you, my readers don’t get to see and experience what I see and experience, so I will try to post more details. Each night, when it’s time to go to bed, we turn off the light (yes, just one light that is attached to the ceiling, it’s a 12 volt led light that is attached directly to the batteries, this way it will work even if the inverter is buzzing because the batteries have fallen below the acceptable charge-gotta get more solar panels!), I use a flashlight to make my way to the bed, I always check the blankets, pillow and around the bed to make sure there are no bugs (mainly scorpions and spiders) in the bed, occasionally I will find a beetle or moth, so far, no really bad bugs… once I get into bed, I turn off the flashlight and wait for my eyes to adjust to the low light. Depending on the moon, it could be anywhere from nearly completely dark, to bright moonlight streaming in, that can be annoying, I like it pretty dark when I sleep, I have got to get some shades on the windows…

I will see the led lights from the various power equipment, the inverter has a small, led light, the Xantrex controller has a BRIGHT, blinking. green led light, I have placed a piece of black electrical tape over the led, it is just annoying when it’s blinking all night, even with the tape over it, the reflection of the led is visible, but it’s ok, it’s only visible if you look directly at it, it doesn’t reflect on anything else.

Since the beginning of summer, the fireflies are very active, they look like little greenish white blinking led lights. Each night, at least one firefly gets into the house, sometimes as many as 3 or 4 get in. So once the lights go out, they are visible, they fly around and crawl on the ceiling and walls, they flash all night, they are usually dead by the next morning, they must have a short life… anyhoo, it’s fun to watch them from the bed, fortunately they have never gotten in or on the bed, or on us, it’s funny to realize that if it was a roach or something like that, I would HATE to have it in the house, but since it’s an interesting and entertaining bug, it’s OK for them to be inside… I have though it might be fun to catch a bunch of them and glue them to a board or the side of the house in an interesting pattern, maybe even my street address… probably wouldn’t actually do this, but it’s a fun thought (fun for me, not for them!) I have also wondered if …

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Community

Use less, pay more

Energy prices on the grid are rocketing to record levels – the big utility companies are justifying the outrageous hikes by saying they are also helping poorer families be more energy efficient…

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Party!

Today was such a fun day, I was at the country store (as is usual for a Saturday), we closed early today because of the P A R T Y! The store owner planned a big party for the community, it was held behind the store at the RV park. We had 10 smoked briskets, hot dogs, snow cones, drinks, beer and wine. The entire community was invited, (there are less than 200 full time residents), I estimate about 100 people showed up.

…I feel such a part of this community…
  I felt so comfortable, I actually mingled…

Now please understand, back in my “old life”, I didn’t go to parties as a general rule, and when I did, I was the one hiding in the background, talking to only a few people and generally feeling uncomfortable and out of place. Out here, that was a different story, I feel such a part of this community, and being at the store (the heart of this community), I felt so comfortable, I actually mingled, I went from group to group talking, visiting, hanging around and having such a good time! We had live music, all very good, the food was good and the company was great! Nearly everyone I know out here attended.

I don’t drink, I have nothing against it, I just don’t like the taste of wine, beer or spirits, and I’m not really interested in drinking something I don’t like just to get drunk, I wish I could just bypass the drinking part and go straight to drunk, well, not really, but anyhoo, drinking and getting drunk is not my personal thing. That being said, I took advantage of the wine collection that was being served and the wine expert manning the table to try a glass of wine, I went up to her and told her I know nothing about wine, don’t drink it, but wanted to try it and asked her what she recommended,

…I had a brisket sandwich
  with BBQ sauce,, onions and tomato……

she asked me what I was eating, I had a brisket sandwich with BBQ sauce, onions and tomato, she pulled out a white zinfandel wine and gave me a taste, it was ok, most likely the only one of the bunch I would have been willing to drink, (I have tried that before) and it did go pretty well with the sandwich. It may have been a very good wine, however I didn’t go back for more, I drank that one and went back to water and soft drinks.

Bob showed up about half an hour into the festivities, we were dressed alike, it was so cute, we both wore digital camo pants, though the rest was different, he wore a black t-shirt and combat boots, I had a girly shirt and sneakers, but it was …

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Community

Finally, Finished With The Major Overhaul…

OK, the poll ended about which look for the blog, you collectively liked best, only 9 people answered, and it ran pretty close, at least until the very end, it ended up being 6 like the original look, 3 like the new look. I liked both looks, so I decided to combine the two, it still has the same layout and I kept most of the desert colors. The header, that is from the new look featuring a changing sky depending on the time of day you read this blog. If you want to check out all the different sky colors, then you will need to change your computer clock, here are the times when it changes:

  • 6 am
  • 9 am
  • 12 pm
  • 3 pm
  • 6 pm
  • 8 pm
  • 10 pm
  • 12 am

I noticed it does load up a bit slower so I removed a few things on the sidebar, I also shortened the page by only having fewer messages show up on the front page (I had it set up to show the last 500 messages), that has helped, I will continue to work speeding things up.

For now, I hope you enjoy this look, now I can focus more on posting messages and less on overhauling the blog. ;)

For what it’s worth, this blog does look better in Firefox than Internet Explorer, don’t know why but IE doesn’t show rounded corners (when they are made using code (CSS) instead of images), if you are an avid IE user and do not want to use Firefox, that’s OK too, the blog is still 100% readable in IE, it’s purely an aesthetic thing.

Let me know what you think.

Wretha

4 Comments

anon16-rounded-5661787 Anonymous said…

Wretha,
Much better! I was getting kicked off before. I don’t know if it was the dial-up or what? I’m not super computer savy, but I should work on mine too. I’ve noticed other folks are jazzing up their blogs as well. I’m enjoying watching ya’ll’s progress on the homestead. Keep up the good job!

Kim
rubysbigadventure.blogspot.com

July 24, 2008 9:07 AM

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b16-rounded-4008479 Wretha said…

Hi Kim, thanks for your response! So can I assume that it is working for you now and wasn’t before?

Wretha

July 24, 2008 10:16 AM

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b16-rounded-4008479 Mayberry said…

Cool! I like it. Any property for sale nearby? Heh heh …..

July 24, 2008 8:38 PM

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b16-rounded-4008479 Wretha said…

Mayberry
Hmmm, land, uhhhh, ahhhh, what was the question again??? LOL Email me privately if you are serious.

Wretha

July 24, 2008 9:02 PM

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