12/12/16 December Deadlines!

I'm looking at the clock on the shelf above this computer set-up. In a very few minutes I will be leaving for my WAG Writers Accountability Group Meetup meeting at The National Exemplar in Mariemont, Ohio.

We meet in a wood paneled room with a rectangular stained glass window which brings "light on the subject" to our gathering of similar writing interests. (Stopped herewith this post in order to attend  our writers' Meetup).

As we entered The National Exemplar we were welcomed with "Christmas" everywhere. A huge tree in the lobby was decorated with small wooden nutcracker figurines. In the dining room was another glowing Christmas tree. A beautiful Christmas centerpiece was placed on the huge wooden table.

We seated ourselves around the table and waited for our waiter, James. He offered us fresh water and other beverages. I ordered iced tea and added a packet of my Vitamin B12 to it. Then we took our time looking at the large menus (found out there was no "Soup of the Day"). We usually have 10 to 12 members show up, but this time we only had seven in attendance.

Our orders were taken. I ordered the burger (without the bun). The National Exemplar has other "chains" in other cities, too. The omelets and fritatas are quite good, too.

Our organizer, Susan Ellerhorst, brought the Meetup group "to order". Each person shared and continues to share her progress and success with her own particular writing project. Some of us are "bloggers". Others are poets. And, some are published authors! Susan brings in interesting speakers, too.

I continue to learn a lot and enjoy all the sharing that takes place. It is a great Meetup group and an opportunity to improve our writing skills.

Thank you so much, Susan and to all of you who are part of our WAG Writers Accountability Group. See you in 2017.  I keep setting up my goal to keep on writing my blog (s). I'm happy to report that I met this month's goal: write another Widder Lady post! Onward!

Plumbing Challenges! October 9th, 2016

Plumbing Challenge!

It's FALL already! It's time to do the "walk around" to prepare for the cold months ahead. There are check lists available on Google and other Facebook sites, plus a coupon-filled booklet from Angie's List. 

I know (now) to shut off all outside faucets from the inside of the house first, then open them to let out any remaining water. Then I cover each faucet with it's foam "cap" which takes a bit of skill to install. Slip the plastic loop thing over the faucet handle and then maneuver the foam cap into place while holding the plastic slip thing taut. Pull the slidy thing tight against the cap to complete the task.

Even though I did cover all of the faucets last year, I found a broken pipe under a bathroom sink which I had not used for awhile. One day when I was cleaning under the sink, everything on the bottom shelf was sitting in water. It hadn't leaked all the way out the cabinet door to the floor, so it was hidden from discovery. I have since stopped using that sink, figuring I'll get to it "soon enough".

The other sink that I use "all the time" is now defunct, too. What happened? That sink wasn't draining very well for a long time. I dropped one of those gum brush things down the pipe and hadn't been able to retrieve it, so I figured it was a cause for the slowdown of water draining  from that sink.

To jump "way ahead" to serious plumbing issues with this house, clogged pipes have always posed a problem especially at the "new" end of the house. Having a major pipe plugged with the roots of the huge magnolia tree has cost a lot and has been an endless challenge for figuring out what to do about "the plumbing".

Major digging and replacement of old pipes by the back patio walk was a huge investment. The opening to that drain is a landmark! Sometimes English Ivy covers the pipe and I'm again faced with pulling ivy away and away until its top appears.

This past week I called Roto Rooter and asked for help to open up the main pipe by using "the snake". The guy gave me a break with the $99 coupon but only found a few tree roots in that line. He drug "the snake" into the house to try to reach whatever clog was down the toilet and shower drain. He removed the toilet and replaced it again using a new wax ring. He said "the snake" that he had couldn't be used after all. I wondered if he knew what he was doing because other Roto Rooter guys had figured out where the clog was. This fellow wanted to bring in "the camera" and use some sort of  power jet to move the clog out - wherever that might be!

Shower drain hole!

I told him to just stop and I would call my own plumber to see what he could do. In the meantime I have used about a dozen packets of Green Gobbler clog remover, poured down vinegar over cups of baking soda, squeezed Dawn liquid down the shower drain and into the toilet that drains into the shower drain.

I've studied my plumbing guide book, Googled and checked out eHow. I now know a lot more about plumbing diagrams, plumbing tools and plumbing parts - pipes and such! I took apart the p pipe under the sink that was draining slowly and found a clog! It was a lot of gunk of hair and that gum brushy thing! Got that out. Tried to put the pipe back on, twisted my back a bit. Used a (Lanicain patch which worked to relieve the pain.)Went to the hardware for a new pvc replacement pipe. The guy who helped me, sawed off the extra pipe and showed me what to do. I tried and failed!

So now, I'm shutting down that bathroom except for the shower. I may put a potted plant in the toilet and just clear off the bathroom counter top. I've already moved most of my stuff down to the bathroom down at the other end of the house! It's a better view out the window. It's got "good energy", too!  Onward!

September, Sunday 9/11/206

Sunday, September 11th, 2016 

Here it is (or was) another September Sunday. It's been an incredible day - weatherwise, skywise and otherwise. The sky was a bright clear blue filled with huge, drifting white clouds. The sun was out, too. Such a day!

Such a day offered the opportunity to push procrastinating behavior aside and give way to energetic urges to get something done!


 And so the day began "regular" tasks (explained in an earlier blog) while listening to WGUC's Sunday Baroque and sipping on Kukicha green twig tea. I had purchased a cinnamon twig broom awhile ago and just this past week found that it is terrific for sweeping! It's slender twigs easily reach into the crevices alongside the breezeway floor. I used it to sweep down the greenhouse steps and to remove many spiderwebs "everywhere".

  I laundered the breezeway entry mats and brought the "recycled" tire mat inside after leaving it to be cleaned yesterday evening's heavy downpour. I also wiped down the doors and threshold with GP66 Miracle Cleaner. Items that had been sitting against the walls and in the corners of the breezeway were put away. I wiped off the "recycling station" (a recycled bar cart). I toss recycles into two black trash bins (paper/cardboard in one and plastics, glass, tin in the other) before taking them out to the large outside bins.

This Tuesday, Bacher's Window Cleaning service will be here to disassemble and clean the glass panels from the breezeway doors and go on throughout the entire house (including the greenhouse and garage) to clean windows inside and out. Bacher's is at the at the top of my list" for doing great work!

Breezeway West View

 I chose not to watch TV all day. Instead I chose to "do something that needed doing". I'm still remembering those who gave their lives on 9/11 fifteen years ago and never forgetting,  Never forgetting! Onward!

Breezeway East View

Recycling/Project Center

Outside Bins

Trash & Recycles (ready for pickup)

August Moments 8/18/2016

August Moments! 8/18/2016

Each and every day something incredible "happens" around here!

I look outside the family room patio doors to witness "critter activity". Current update: one young mother deer and her one fawn enter the yard to check out the crab apple tree's booming crop of crab apples. They spend a lot of time scooping up mouthfuls of small red fruit. Their tails in down position flick back and forth when all is "safe" Their tails "alert" to "up" position if some other critter (meaning me) knocks on the glass patio door. Off they go to scout out the entire neighborhood for more evening deer fare!

In "all the years" here (nearly 40) I have never seen a ground hog! I couldn't believe it! A ground hog! Angel Lois had a big ground hog at her home on Carterway Drive, Milford, Ohio.  She took pictures of her ground hog and fed him, too.

"My ground hog" seems to be a youngster. At first I though I was seeing a big squirrel, but its fur was brown and its tail was shorter than a squirrel's tail. It was sitting at the edge of the patio in front of a large grass plant. It didn't move and was giving me "the fish eye". I finally moved and it saw me move. That's when it jumped off the patio ledge and disappeared. I hope it has a cozy home nearby and keeps company with all those chipmunks that live under the patio, too.

For my contribution to the butterfly population, I've planted butterfly bushes and milkweed. All are blooming nicely and plenty of butterflies visit these plants. I hope a few monarch butterflies find the leaves of the milkweed to be a comfortable wrap as they go into their next phase of development!

For those who believe in "Spirit", I call the little white butterfly that follows me around, Mrs. Garrison (my late mother-in-law, first marriage to Harry). Mrs. Garrison loved butterflies! She really LOVED butterflies! She had butterfly "this and that" everywhere! And so, I figure that little white butterfly IS Mrs. Garrison.

The cone flowers (Echinachea) are prolific this year and offer plenty of seed picking opportunities for Gold Finch (Angel Loise loved gold finch and purple finch, too). The finch seed that I used to put into feeders dropped to the ground and grew into a huge "garden" of thistle! The thistle plants were removed - they are just too thorny!

There are other creatures of nature that do a lot of buzzing about around here, around this time of year: locusts (cicada - not the 17 year ones), bees, hornets, wasps, dragon flies and some no-see-ums!
There are plenty of crickets, tree frogs and bigger frogs, toads and other creepy critters that surround this neighborhood that I call "home".

I certainly know, for sure, that I am not here, home alone! Not for a moment am I alone!

Onward!

Motivate! Inspire! Just do it! 8/8/16

I'm tempted to slow down to a lazy pace and just absorb life, moment by moment. But, something "inside" says "get with it"! It's the constant, it's the demanding, it's the requiring of myself to do what needs to be done in spite of the urge to stop, just stop and give myself a break! (How's that for a lot of cliches?)

Each morning I add a few more check marks to my daily list of "to-do's" Sometimes I give myself a "star" for a "job well-done". I'm following my mother's habit of list-making. (I wonder if her mother was a list-maker, too.)

My daily "to-do" list is logged into a Mead 5-Star notebook about 5"x5" square. I now have stacks of these notebooks. They serve as a good record for tasks that I have accomplished - household and personal.

I start with the date on the left side top line and draw a smiley faced sun or a somber cloud to represent each day's weather. Today it is overcast, so I will draw a cloud with the sun peeking out behind it, or maybe do it in reverse order.

In the blank space above the date, I put "key" events. Today I will be attending a Meetup group called WAG (Writing Accountability Group) - so I will write WAG in that space.

Here's my list layout:

B_L_D_   (breakfast, lunch, dinner)                V_(vitamins)
EM/FB _ (email/FaceBook                               T _ (tea)
PCA _ MB (put clothes away, make bed          W - (water)
TT_TTB_RO (trash trashed, trash to bins         SWIM _
                         recycles out)                              WALK_
DI_ DO_ RD_ (dishes in, dishes out, run           PILATES _
                           dishwasher)                              PMT_(put me together)
CC_ (counter cleanup) SPF (sort, pitch, file)      T/G_ teeth/gums

The rest of the page is left to describe further important tasks:
WRITE _ PAINT_READ_

I also report in on my Facebook group called Homemaker's Encouragement where we list our tasks by number and add onto each other's list as the day goes by to see how many tasks we can complete. I am amazed by how much we all accomplish and how much we encourage each other. Having a place to share the "daily doings" helps me to realize the importance of being a "home manager". It is business, a business of managing and running a home from daily maintenance to major projects.

We share ideas and give each other loving support when something happens that "throws a monkey wrench" into our daily lives. We've shared news of new babies being born, health matters and death.
We've complimented each other on our progress and successful completion of long-term goals.

Today I have already had breakfast, vitamins and green tea. I swam ten laps, "put me together", scrubbed my teeth, put on makeup, made my bed, trashed trash, put dishes in the dishwasher and now I am writing! I am writing because I like to write and consider myself a writer!

Now I can go to the WAG Meetup group and report in that I did WRITE something this month! And, I certainly hope to do more writing before next month's Meetup!

Widder Lady: Cleanup! 7-17-16

Widder Lady: Cleanup! 7-17-16: Cleanup! Sunday 7/17/16 Sharing - Pictured are my currently favorite cleaning products! Scrub Daddy, Bar Keepers Friend, Magic Erase...

Cleanup! 7-17-16

Cleanup! Sunday 7/17/16

Sharing - Pictured are my currently favorite cleaning products!

Scrub Daddy, Bar Keepers Friend, Magic Eraser, Green Gobbler, Fly Lady's Purple Rag

 

Remembering "way back" to my young self doing housework, way back to the forties at Potter Farm Lane. Mama divided up the household tasks between my sister and myself. I don't remember if Allan (our younger brother) had any specific household task other than being responsible for cleaning his room.

My job was to clean the kitchen and living room each week. It was not a quick swish and swipe assignment. Mama was definitely a "clean freak" and I suppose she learned this from her own parents and from being the eldest child of a family of 7 and then orphaned early (age 18) and married young (19) and a mother of me before she was even 20.

Cleaning meant dusting and wiping all woodwork - baseboards, window sills, trim, doors, etc. Windows were usually done by Mama sitting on the windowsill while precariously balancing outside the window, holding onto the bottom edge the lifted window. We eventually learned how to clean windows, following Mama's example.

In the kitchen I emptied out the refrigerator of everything, then wiped everything clean using baking soda and clean water. If there was defrosting to be done, then the freezer part would be cleaned, too.
Shelves and bins would be removed, cleaned and put back in place.

Cleaning the stove would be a challenge, too. We used "Easy Off" to clean off the spills and built up gunk from many baking projects. When we lived on Route 125 in Withamsville, Ohio I took the entire electric stove apart - even undoing all the wiring under the burners! I wonder to this day how I put it all back together again!

Then, I know and knew what it is and was to scrub the linoleum kitchen floor clean. I used two buckets - one filled with Spic & Span water and another with clean rinse water. I used a scrub brush with the Spic & Span mixture on the entire floor. Then, this was followed by using a rag dipped over and over again in the clean water to wipe up the dirty "gook" of wax and debris. Eventually the floor would be clean and dry enough for me to apply two coats of liquid wax. (I can still smell that wax).

Instead of buying new linoleum, we painted it with three color dobs - yellow, red & green "all over". It was part of my 4-H Kitchen Re-do project. I chose a color scheme of dark green walls and woodwork and we made french cafe curtains - white with red, yellow and green ribbon stripe trim. Part of the project required that the kitchen be organized efficiently - "zones" for specific tasks and storage. We had a Hoosier cabinet which 'housed" the baking supplies and provided a porcelain pull-out table/shelf for rolling out pie dough. The kitchen table was big enough for our family of 5. It sat in an alcove.

For awhile we didn't have running water. Instead there was a hand pump at the kitchen sink. Eventually we did have running water! But, we never did have an inside toilet at that house!

I was also in charge of cleaning the living room. Luckily we had an Electrolux sweeper which I think we got from Uncle Charles (who may have been selling them). I used all the attachments to clean all the woodwork and upholstery.

Daddy had made some beautiful end tables from piano bench and piano tops. I dusted those with a rag and something oily for a protective shine. The floor was dusted and swept. I don't remember if there was an area rug, but it seems an important finishing touch to the room. I loved the roll-up bamboo shades and turquoise walls. I remember enjoying many incredible sunsets from those west-facing windows above the couch. The living room would be shut off during very cold weather. For awhile we had an old pump church organ that I enjoyed playing. Eventually we got a piano which I played a lot. We took lessons, too.

All this leads from an early introduction to housekeeping/home making to a lifetime of tasks, doing again and again, the never-ending tasks that fill up "to-do/done" lists/booklets and constant thinking of how a housekeeping task can be done more efficiently or delegated to someone else!

I now have my Meetup group called "The Society of Too Much Stuff" which encompasses many challenges of "keeping house". I'm writing this today, to remind myself that, "Yes, I have done it well in the past and will continue "doing" until I can't do it any more. Onward!