Homestead mailing list

["Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

Hey Bev; I did almost nothing all weekend. I was going to rev up the tractor 
and take a few bales of hay out to the animals before the snow storm hit, 
but it started snowing Friday morning and snowed until Sunday afternoon. My 
mother had a doctor's appointment on Friday afternoon, and we drove around 
in almost white-out conditions. The snow is too deep now to get to where the 
bales are stored...the tractor can travel with a bale on the back (extra 
weight), but gets stuck as soon as I put the bale down...a real catch-22. 
Fortunately I planned ahead this time and put a few bales in the barn. So 
I've been feeding hay in the barn. It's easier for me, but makes a mess in 
the barn that I have to clean out later. It's fun to think of you raking 
leaves; I haven't seen the ground since early December.

The firewood on the porch it getting low, so I plan to bring a couple 
sledsfull up...I was going to say "before the really cold weather hits", but 
it was 4 degrees this morning. At least we have a lot of snow on the ground 
to protect the plants from the really cold temps. It's supposed to go into 
the 20's today; later in the week we will have highs only in the single 
digits. Phooey.

I think you need to give the tumeric more time to work. Is it just supposed 
to help with the inflammation, or is it supposed to work on the root of the 
problem? I think anything that is benign and can cut down on the amount of 
commercial drugs  is a good thing. I don't know how you can get so much done 
when you are in pain.

I can't do a pushup, either. Even my couch potato son can do one...I think 
it's something about the distribution of muscles. A woman's strength is in 
the lower body. I've found that's true. I often can't move a big round bale 
by putting my shoulder to it, but if I can lean against another bale and get 
my feet against the bale, I can easily push it with my legs. Of course it 
would be more convenient to have the upper body strength to be able to heft 
a 100 pound sack on my shoulder, but I don't think that's ever going to 
happen. The kid at the feed store carries 100 pounds on his shoulder and a 
50 pound bag under each arm. Sigh. Maybe I should just go after a strong man 
instead of building up my own muscles...I can bat my eyes and play the 
helpless female? Nobody who knows me would ever fall for that. :-)

Lynn Wigglesworth
Tioga Co. PA


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "EarthNSky" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
To: "Homestead List" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 1:33 AM
Subject: [Homestead] Random thoughts about the day


> Otherwise known as What I Did This Weekend...<g>
>
> I had a cast iron dutch oven that was sticky-wasn't seasoned properly,
> so I put it in the stove and decided to start over on seasoning it.  I
> suppose I will be working on that for the next few days.  This is the
> second time I have started over with this pan. For whatever reason, I
> just can't seem to get it nice and shiny black like the rest of my cast
> iron.  This piece is just being stubborn.
>
> It was a high pain day today.  I haven't taken Enbrel since early
> December, and until today, I haven't taken my anti-inflammatory.
> Normally, I take the anti-inflammatory (Diclofenac) every day, morning
> and night, but while I have been trying the turmeric this past week, I
> haven't taken any.  I've noticed some swelling and increased pain over
> the last few days, and I realized that I needed more turmeric than what
> I was getting, that is why I bought the capsules.  I took capsules today
> which is 1000 mg of turmeric but it did not help.  I ended up taking
> both Diclofenac and a pain pill this afternoon.  Tonight, my hands are
> less swollen and I am a lot better, whether that is the result of the
> additional turmeric or the prescription meds, I don't know.    I'll
> continue the turmeric trial without taking the other meds, but I just
> couldn't handle the pain today.
>
> I pulled out my wooden clothes drying rack as I usually do in winter.  I
> try to dry as much as possible on the rack instead of in the
> dryer...saves energy.  I actually have two of them, but my living room
> is kind of small.  Also, it make a nice drying rack for pasta, and I
> hope to make some fettuccine this coming week.  I noticed that the rack
> needs repair from wear and tear and that sparked a conversation about
> possibly building a new rack of a different design.  Ron suggested that
> an A-Frame design might be more stable.  I do have a good number of
> towels, and today I was drying a comforter..the rack was rather wobbly.
>  I was wondering if anyone here had any thoughts or suggestions of
> design for wooden, indoor, clothes drying racks.
>
> We loaded wood onto the porch today, it was nice to have help in that
> chore as I certainly did not feel like wrestling with wood and the
> wheelbarrow alone.  I also assisted Ron on a ladder..scary for me...as
> he put flashing up to keep water out of his workshop.  I just stood on
> the ladder and held the flashing in place, nothing fancy or complex, but
> for someone who is afraid of heights, standing on a ladder holding
> something instead of hold on is a bit scary.
> Slowly but surely, we are raking the leaves up and piling them into the
> garden beds and into large compost piles.  It seems like a never ending
> job.  Everything is wet, so raking is a pain, but necessary not only for
> the grass under the leaves to grow, but so that I can add leaf mold and
> mass to my garden beds.
>
>
> I've been exercising and practicing my tai chi/chi kung, but I am no
> closer to doing a push up or a pull up than I was last month.  I've been
> doing some resistance work with the tube bands, too.  My goal is to be
> able to do 5 push ups and one pull up before mid May.  I've just never
> had any arm strength, but I'm working on it.  I am also looking forward
> to warmer weather/longer days when we can get back on the bikes and
> ride.  I've lost about 5 pounds so far.  It is not much, but I am on
> target.  I'd probably lose more if I could quit making guacamole.<G>  I
> am seriously addicted. I have some seeds sprouting in the greenhouse,
> and about 10 more in water in the house.  Today, I discovered another
> use for avocado seeds, the big ones anyway.  Many are too small for this
> purpose, but a few seeds are almost egg sized.  I have two seeds that
> could have sized as medium eggs, so I washed them and put them in the
> nestbox as 'lures'.  I normally have golf balls in there(orange ones
> fade nicely and become almost the color of brown eggs), but the avocado
> 'eggs' look natural, too.  For anyone not familiar, the fake eggs serve
> two purposes...1. it encourages hens to lay 2. it thwarts snake predation.
> Speaking of eggs....
> We candled eggs today, two days late by my reckoning.  This is day 12,
> and I like doing it on Day 10.  Of the 28 eggs in the incubator, we only
> had two that were not developed.  The remaining 26 look good.  I still
> have 46 chickens out there, all growing and looking good.
>
> Bev
>
>
>
>
> --
> "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will
> not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius
> will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the
> world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone
> are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve
> the problems of the human race"
>
> ~ Calvin Coolidge
>
> _______________________________________________
> Homestead list and subscription:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
> Change your homestead list member options:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/lynnw1366%40hotmail.com
> View the archives at:
> https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead