Nope, not blood…just all tomato juice all over floor and me 😦
Mine is just saucy… as in tomato… as in all over the floor! Yesterday I bought about 30 lbs of tomatoes, Roma organic, from the farm market truck that came to Apache Junction. Today I started to prep them for making into sauce/paste etc. Pealed the little labels off each one, popped them into boiling water to loosen skins, then ice bath (ran out of ice before I ran out of tomatoes!) Slipped off skins. Set up the sauce press. Started out well, smooshing tomatoes, and pouring off liquid as the catch pan got full… AND THEN… last batch and a tray full of liquid… The huge silver bowl I was putting the liquid in,,, yep, slipped out of my hands and hit the floor.
I think I was in shock… the phone was close so I got a picture 🙂 Torrie’s dog, Lady, was no help on cleanup, she just watched me. Every kitchen towel was put into swooping up the juice. It even spread to the wood floor but I mopped that up fast. The SHARK will never bite any dirt again, it was a casualty and totally sauced! Mostly cleaned up and all the wet stuff outside… I even stood on my patio and left my well-sauced shorts, shoes, and shirt out there!! (I did go put on clean clothes) Lady did assist ?? on hosing down everything outside. She loves water. (After she went home I really cleaned all the guck off the towels, shoes, floor mat, etc.)
The rest of the afternoon was spent finishing up her dog food. I had already cooked the meat in the oven so I just needed to chop it, fill containers, add rice and veggies, and put them in the freezer. (I do this every two weeks for her.)
I think March did a double-time march and I blinked twice and it was April! I really haven’t been fooling around much in April, just trying to get the rest of the backyard work done, stitch, get a few chunks of wood underway, and such. Now I approach May and realize I am really getting older, year 72 of my life is about to start! Only one joint is reminding me daily of age and I have hopefully trained my brain to listen to my body about my age. (far too often the brain wants to be back at 40 or 50 and do stuff the body no longer can do.) On the flip side, I am enjoying “retirement” such as it is. No time clock for meals or naps or such. So that is life in a nutshell for today.
I have been busy building trellis, starting seeds and filling planters for this year’s garden. Yep, here in Arizona, I am actually late on the carrots, lettuces, and beets. I really like container gardens for most stuff here… the ground is really hard. I do have one ‘raised’ bed but it is a battle keeping neighborhood cats out of it!
In the first photo there is a small Mexican (Key) lime tree on the left side and the raised bed is behind the tree. I have tucked in a small greenhouse on the back of the house and it is full of plant starts now. I have fingers crossed that the garden grows well.
Plants planned, started, growing: bush beans, pole beans, Salsa garden tower, tomatoes, ground cherrys, lettuce, carrots, boc choi, beets (several colors) squash (three types one of each) lots of herbs, okra and sunflowers. Will post updates once a month on this project.
Trellis ready for beans and birdsmixing dirt, vermiculite etcGreenLeaf towerGreenLeaf tower with herbsSecond Greenleaf tower and got shortenedReady for garlic and tomatosGreenLeaf tower with veggie seedsGreenLeaf tower (short) with peppers, tomato, herbs… Salsa GardenSeedlings
I was laying on the couch one morning mostly watching birds outside when I noticed the sun causing little bits of glitter in the air. Aha, dust! From the Afghan on the back of the couch perhaps…. Yep. Smack the top of the couch and what a storm of little gray bits glinting in the sun. I tried blowing on them,,, they floated in crazy circles. Ok, must get photos. Not as easy as I thought but did get a few good ones and one that was definitely a ‘snow storm’. I did take the Afghan out and shake it but it probably should go thru the wash… don’t even remember who crocheted it for me.
Oh, what a glorious day to see with the sun peaking around my tree!
Two Hummingbirds, probably Costas, are zipping from spot to spot to grab a bit of breakfast… A very silly (yes, they are silly) Curved beak Thrasher hit the green top feeder before the sun was even up. He was insistent on an early breakfast. Due to the overcast sky, the bees are not out yet, but the temp is in low 50 (F).
Positives for today: SMILE, ignore any little irritations… and boy, are there a lot of them out in the world.
{{{{{ for those of you new to reading my blips… I love ellipsis… and hate to try to spell (Thanks to Grammarly my writing is not as bad as it could be) I also don’t give a flip about runnnnnnn on sentancesssssss… THIS IS NOT AN ENGLISH PAPER…….. DO NOT PLAY “TEACHER” AND TRY TO CORRECT MY WORK ( I will block you if you bug me)
Well, 2022 is off to a screaming start… Really good for me but then too… I have been on Prednisone for a few days… to total out at 2 weeks’ worth so I am getting stuff done, feeling no pain, and driving everyone else nuts… don’t sleep much either.I have made the wise decision not to go back to college… I prefer to do my own thing at this point and the driving, studies, trying to get what I want to do done around the schedules of others is way too much of a pain in the ass. Life is too short to waste it on such stuff. And I have learned many skills, especially in the woodworking that I want to pursue… and no way am I training to go out and get a JOB ! Don’t need the money anyway… (Thank you Chuck for providing so well for me, never thought life would be like this.. am in lap of luxury but I do miss him very much ☹ )
So here is the plan for the new year…
NO complaining about shit I can’t do anything about anyway…
Wake up happy that I wake up at all and thank God for every minute.
Watch the birds out my window or from my patio
Plant plants for the joy of good food, great colors, and knowing I am able to do it.
Read at least, or listen to, 3 books a week.
Play in my little wood shop… I am really having fun making bandsaw boxes.
Write in this journal at least 4 times a week,,, and pop some stuff into the blog.
Keep blog (WordPress) updated weekly or so with sculpture, notes etc
Life in Arizona, wood, ideas etc… all positive stuff
KEEP NEGATIVE SHIT OUT OF MY LIFE
Get stuff organized: Stitch books, pantries, yard, kitchen, stitch room, art area, woodshop, eBay, MY LIFE!
Get eBay store up running better and sort all the crap in it…
Keep filling the Mall of Peddlers booth and cabinet with the stitch and the tiny stuff I need to clear out of the house.
Walk
Lose a few more pounds… see walk above 😊
Watch clouds go by
Draw
Paint
Stitch.. finish a few projects
Sew… learn to use the big machine and get some clothes made!
Start transferring writing from journals into the computer by both scan and retype (stories for retype revisions)
Sort photos on the computer and put them into correct files and names so I can find shit
!!!!!!!!!! well, bumped the computer table, turned everything off! And yea… autosave kept it for me… got to love technology..
I have found,,, this am sitting here typing… I have a very very good spot now to type in… quite comfortable, good posture etc I have not had this good a setup in eons! (Thank you Torrie for the enablement at Staples to get a good computer desk, and chair… and to keep Black Cat (my desktop computer) flying along. Gaming equipment really is worth the money even if you don’t ‘game’!
I do feel like I have turned a corner in life and thanks to Torrie and my VA counselor, I am going to try to stay this new course… I am a stubborn cuss so If I let myself settle then all will be well.
So to all who waded thru this bit of chatter, thank you and I hope you have a wonderful start to your new year also… It has been a wild ride the last few years but we can each make it better by focusing on our own priorities, not everyone else’s (since we can’t do anything about them anyway even if we think we can) and SMILE at the world and sun shining down… YOU COULD BE DEAD after all 🙂
Lady wants us all to remember the important things in life… food, pets, tummy rubs, and showers. My dear GrandDog loves water, at least when it is in a dish, from a sprinkler or better yet… in the shower. She will lay in the tub for what seems like hours, waiting for someone to turn on the shower. BUT rain outside… no way. And we finally have rain here in Arizona! Lots of rain and lots of very happy desert plants. Also lots of flooding so let us not forget that people are losing lives in floods and loosing property.
Classes start Thursday for me: Sculpture II (metal work), Wood I, Encounters with Art and Intro to Digital Media (proff already sent assignments as of today, Monday am!) So most posts will be about class stuff for the rest of the year.
Enjoy life, many don’t have the privileges’ that we have!
PS she is an elderly mostly English Mastiff weighing in around 140 lbs! oops trip to the vet and her weight is 154 Lbs!!!
Joanne and I have set up a booth at Mall of Peddlers in Apache Junction. (this is the starting photo of our project) Time to let her do most of the adding of stuff since I will be preoccupied with College.
Summer fun with fibers done with perle cotton overdye threads
Pounding clay, trying out release agents with plaster, learning to carve with Dremel, cutting wood with new bandsaw and I did some regular stitching also. But I am priming up for classes in the fall and watching YouTube videos on carving and welding and sculpture too!
Stitch and Cluck 