Wednesday Wanderings

Hah! No, I'm not really wandering anywhere outside of my own house, at least not yet.

Having spent several weeks in the wet land up north back in April, I haven't been looking forward to going back up as much as I normally would.  It's more the aspect of the drive, and the time away from home, than being around family up there.  I'd love to be around them more.  

There are a lot of timing issues that came up that needed to be worked around.  Some of the items that came up, yes, I could pass off and let Marty handle, but I've already missed a lot of those things in the past couple years.  They have to do with Nick's school year and now Senior pictures, and picking up his registration packet and getting registered for this year.  This is the last time I'll be helping much with any part of his high school education - throughout the year that is - and I'm tired of missing it.  

In light of that, my trip north will be for only two weeks, which also means once again, I'll miss seeing some of the folks up there that I haven't seen much of during the last couple years events.  Back in April, I decided not to go to quilt camp this year; maybe I'll resume next year, or maybe I'll go up and be part of the one they have in spring, though it's shorter than the one that takes place during the same time as the Sisters Quilt Show.  

Nick will travel north with me this time - the first time since summer of 2013.  He hasn't found a summer job and doesn't appear to be giving that a 100% effort.  He can help me drive, which already is making me feel better about that long drive.  This may be his last opportunity for a very long time to see his relatives he used to see every summer.

We're planning to leave around 7/21 and be back home about 8/5.  He starts school on 8/11, which is even earlier than last year.  It seems the summers get shorter and shorter for the kids - perhaps not a bad thing given local child labor laws/regulations and the difficulty even at 17 of finding a summer job.  

In other in-home wanderings, it's the endless household chores (I'm still a slacker).  The last couple days have required dealing with ants.  Nick cleaned out and rearranged his bedroom, leaving me to figure out what to do with all the stuff he no longer wants and which is still right in the areas of the house where he left them.  I'm more "emotionally" attached to his stuff than he is (good for him/bad for me).  I've still been working on genealogy, but for two or three days have been side-tracked with sorting through pictures attempting to cull out what I don't want - I've saved them ALL including duplicates over the decades, from a lot of singles activities at church, vacations and other outings.  I'd like to pass some of them on to some of the folks in the photos, but I've no idea where they live any more having lost touch over the years.  Many aren't on social media.  

That's the news from here.  Not much exciting, but that's my normal....and it's ok :)

Work, Work, Work

The work of keeping a home never ends.  In my book, that's not a good thing.  I've often thought that I should have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth in order to have plenty of hired help - especially for housekeeping and yard work.  I could probably bring in a housekeeping agency once or twice a month, but I'd have to clean before letting them in, {grin}.
 
A couple days ago, Nick and I were talking while we were in the car, and I almost started a lecture on him and his dad and their lack of consideration in helping out and actually adding to my work load by that inconsideration.  He's out of school for the summer, and has yet to find a summer job (I'm not holding my breath).  I was telling him how it would really help me, both physically and emotionally/mentally, if they'd just be more attentive to things, like when they spill something...clean it up, or even if they think a chore is my job, they can help, clean the litter box, pick up a broom and sweep the floor, grab the vacuum cleaner, empty the dishwasher.  Small things add up!  I've covered the laundry issue here before, so won't belabor it again, but I told him it would be nice if they'd get their dirty laundry to the washer on a daily basis.  

After this conversation, I picked up a good-sized white board, at Nick's suggestion, wrote a list of things on it that could be done daily, or any time.  No comments, no action :/

Here's what HAS happened though.  Nick decided to start making more space in his room.  He says, "I don't want it to be so cluttered.".  His room is bigger than my Creation Station.  He has a double bed, his corner desk for his computers/monitors which doesn't sit in the corner because he built a huge 'box' to house his tower which is liquid-cooled but very noisy, so this was his creative attempt to cut the noise and include additional fans to cool it all contained within a sound-proofing wooden 'box'.  He has a dresser and an old oak student desk, along with a side table/dresser that resides in his closet, plus a myriad of 'just stuff'.

He started emptying part of the closet.  His plan is to move the side table/dresser out and put his bigger dresser in.  It'll fit, but he has to clear the space.  I told him that anything he absolutely, positively did not want now or think he'd want in the future, to set out into the hallway and I'd determine what to do with it.  Last week, he packed up his bowling trophies and stored them up in the garage 'attic' space.

These are a few items that had been floating around in his room.  He hadn't even unwrapped that pyramid puzzle from the plastic.  He had another box with three of those wooden puzzles he'd never opened either.  Maybe I'll re-gift them to my almost 6-year old grandson.

 Oh my, will you look at the dust in that bin that he kept his Hot Wheels track in!  He had has a bunch of the H.W. special sets which at one time, I cleaned up and put away in their respective boxes making sure all the parts were still there, then sealed them up.  He still has those in his closet.  I think he should keep the extra track with them if he plans to keep them.

And then there was laundry, and pillows...uh, THOSE pillows are going in the trash!  Time to replace them anyway.

And more laundry!  He hasn't finished in his room, more will likely come out for me to decide where it goes.  Dust is easily an inch thick, especially in the closet.  Before he can finish, I need to re-clear the space in the guest room for the oak desk, so guess where I'll be for the next however long...yep, the guest room.

Another part of our conversation, back in the car, was how I noticed something about myself and my own not-so-great cleaning habits (or lack thereof).  When I was an employee, I had someone for the most part telling me what to do - though some was self-starter stuff - and I had deadlines.  I knew what had to be done, and by when.  I was disciplined.  I had a start time and an end time.  I got a paycheck and annual reviews, read that as 'accolades for a job well-done' meriting a wage increase.  At home, neither of my guys have any expectations other than dinner and clean clothes.  There are occasional thank yous but they're few and far between, and over the years my cleaning habits have declined.  In our early years, at one point when I was apologizing to Marty about not keeping up with some of the housework (I was still working at the time, and before Nick came along), his comment to me was "you keep it cleaner than I would"...ok well then.  You know how that encouraged my self-discipline, hah!

Have a great day!

Owies, Shuffling and Cleaning

Nick went off to a friend's birthday celebration.  He won't be home until 9:00-ish.  Yesterday, he met another friend at a park he had to drive to.  He took his bike with him as the friend was riding his own and they planned on doing a little mountain biking.  He took a jump, landed it but then hit a rut/hole and went end over end.  We didn't know about that until he drove home and hobbled up the stairs to my Creation Station and said he needed to be bandaged up.  Dust was all over his clothes, the heels of the palms of both hands had ragged bare spots, a knee had a small scrape but his right arm had a good sized oozing scrape.  He told me he cleaned them all up the best he could in the park restroom with soap and water to remove the sand, dirt and grit.  He didn't hit his head but said the wind had been knocked out of him and when he finally caught his breath and attempted to stand felt like he was going to faint.  At home he was also complaining about finding it hard to take in very deep breaths though there were no marks on his back or abdomen, only some road rash on his right side above his hip.  A couple hours later we decided it couldn't hurt to go ahead and get an xray to make sure nothing was broken or punctured.  All was good, nothing broken.  He's just very sore and tender right now.

right palm

right arm - it looks worse in person and takes a 2" x 4" bandage to cover it

above hip

knee

None of these really look that bad, and they'll all heal up pretty quickly.  We're keeping bandages on the one on the arm as it's still oozy, and it stings when it isn't covered.  When he's typing or writing, that area hits the desktop too, so another good reason to keep it covered for awhile.

As I mentioned at WoT, Marty now works from home.  I had planned to discuss how to rearrange so that neither of us are bothering the other during his work-day and he brought it up himself earlier today.  He and I work and think totally opposite - often a problem.  His way of thinking was to just charge in like a bull in a china shop and start shuffling things around without a real plan.  In his mind of course, he had a little bit of a plan.  

My way of thinking would be to recognize what needed to be moved and how best to rearrange existing items in the room for everything to fit and function well. I would have drawn out a to-scale plan for that fit and layout.  This while recognizing that neither area, nor furnishings in them had been cleaned in eons, along with whole lot of clutter that hadn't been dealt with for a very long time.  I would have dealt with those issues first. Consideration had to be made for how the background and lighting for those times he'd be on video-conference calls too. 

While he was beginning to put his plan in action, and I was still trying to warm up to the whole idea of doing any of this today, and was dragging my feet wanting to do nothing but hang at the computer while I contemplated it.  Well, I finally felt I had to get off my duff and supervise (we have very different ways of cleaning too, and left to him - cleaning would be minimal).  Supervising meant grabbing the vacuum before too much dust started flying.  The brush attachment tackled the layer of dust sitting atop the furnishings and the vacuum tackled the floor with the help of the crevice tool.  Oh my there was a lot of dust and cat hair when some things were moved!!  A few cobwebs too!  The room as a whole is far from finished, but at least that little corner is clean and now houses his desk and computer.  It'll be a progression as he adds the small stuff. 

Marty's work area.

He will be getting an additional monitor and keyboard from his employer.  He needs to use the task light.  We both forgot that the overhead lights stopped working a long time ago.  Previous owners had installed two can lights in the ceiling directly above the head of where the bed would go.  We moved the bed and its orientation as well.  I would have liked to have this room painted before all this - hasn't been done since prior to 1992 - but Marty wasn't about to do that any time soon or wait for it to happen by me.  He'd wait a long time. 

This is the other corner to the right. That's my Sears Kenmore cabinet machine doing double solo duty as a nightstand.  Marty uses a C-Pap so that's the clunky machine there. 

Nothing else will get photographed in that room at this point.  So much to sort through and get rid of.  I have boxes of clothes that I've thought "I can wear those again when I lose...", well, we know how that goes, so it's probably time to get rid of them.  By this time, someone's bound to call them "retro" hehe. Marty & I both have boxes of stuff to sort through.

We haven't decided if we're doing anything tonight for Valentine's day.  My stomach has been giving me issues since Thursday night, so I'm trying to be careful about foods.  I don't want to go to the doctor, but the first couple days nearly did.  I'm thinking possible ulcer, but don't want to deal with the testing...not until I have the insurance cards in hand!  Marty asking what I might be able to eat, so I guess I'd better start thinking about that. 

Rats, Vertigo and Catching Up

***WARNING*** Gross factor (rat poo) in first picture!

I'll start with the latter...catching up.  Frankly, I don't think I will ever catch up, but I'd like to think I will.  I've been home from the northern state for two weeks already, hoping to stay here until the end of June but am already seeing hearing things from my dad that may change that.  Since I left, my sister hasn't been able to make it down to check on him either, and that concerns me.  I did eight loads of laundry in one day, and that didn't include my new fabric.  There were still a couple loads that could have been done, and now laundry has piled up again - my guys have unlearned their good habits during my frequent absences.  I've only asked that they bring their dirty laundry and set it on the washer daily, and that Nick take his clean clothes from the garage (where the laundry is) to his room.  One of my first tasks was also to review (read 'toss') things still in the refrigerator from mid-January that they ignored. 

While I was still up north, I had a chat message from my son saying we had invaders beginning with "R" and ending with "odent" - cute, huh? - so I asked if mice or rats and where?  He said they thought mice and in the garage and they could hear them in the attic crawl space.  I suggested they get some traps and deal with it.  When I arrived home, I took a flashlight and investigated a bit more closely.  I keep my pantry overflow of canned and boxed goods, and potatoes, onions, apples out in the garage.  The first thing I saw was a tiny little mouse-trap set with a tiny little piece of cheese sitting out in the open on a shelf.  Then I saw the 'droppings'....um, that is NOT from a mouse, that IS from a rat, and the rat will laugh at that mousetrap.  Keep in mind, I'm a country girl (or at least was) and my dear hubby and son are both entirely city boys even if hubs does like to be out in the wilds backpacking.  He knows nothing about these things.

This is a rat trap, not the mouse trap and it has been set for a week, no takers, and I'm not sure it's still set correctly.  Notice the wrapper was chewed into - it was a granola-type bar.

To refresh myself, I researched online - we never really had rats on the ranch, but mice were often in the feed and in the house!  I had hubby go out and get some rat traps, though I think they may be too big - isn't there a medium size? our rats aren't huge.  The research also said to make sure all points of entry have been plugged so Marty took care of that aspect.  He set ONE trap (it was recommended to set a dozen of them in many places).  Still no takers.  I had noticed that they had chewed into the potatoes, and especially had chewed into the packets in a box of instant potatoes!  

The first bottle I noticed.  I actually thought at first that maybe it had fallen onto the concrete floor and had been placed back on the shelf without it be realized it had split open.  But obviously, those are teeth marks!

Days later I discovered, in the other garage (we have technically a 3-car garage - might fit Smart Cars - with one side being 'finished' with a door that stays closed in between), that the shelf where we keep water and soda was wet.  Looking closer, I saw that several of the water bottles had the bottoms chewed out of them!  Can you believe that?  I was stunned.  Can rats smell water in those bottles through the plastic?  Hubs set two more traps there, but still no takers.  We still hear them in the attic area, and in the upstairs 'new' bathroom, the cats keep listening at the tub, so it sounds like they're going from the attic, down the wall and under the tub.  There is an outdoor access panel that hubs says is sealed, but I want him to open it and place a couple traps in there as well as in the attic.  What was Marty's comment?  "I was hoping to starve them out."  Um, if they're now trapped within the house having sealed up any access points, and they starve to death, they are going to STINK!  Such a city boy, lol.

Rats are supposed to really like peanut butter.  Notice the bottom of that water bottle, still in the case wrapping, chewed out and empty.  Several are that way.

The bag of potatoes chewed into, and though it can't really be seen, they had eaten quite a bit of several potatoes.

Research also said to hold off on cleanup until you're sure the rats are eliminated.  So I've been holding off feeling really grossed out, though I bought the bleach, and hubs bought the face masks. I need new rubber gloves yet.

So the vertigo.  Well now, isn't that fun?  I've had brief bouts of this somewhat frequently in recent years, but usually only feel its effects when I lay down so it's never been a problem.  A few days ago, out of the blue sitting in my office chair, the world started spinning if I tilted my head off center.  It persists, but not horribly, though enough to make me feel like my brain is a bowl of Jell-o when I walk or try to drive.  Sometimes its ok, other times not, and when I lie down, at times, the room spins like a pinwheel in the wind for about 30 seconds.  Interestingly, before I came home, my brother Eugene had been at my dad's and he was suffering from it big time and is on about day 19 with very slow progress of getting better.  He's glad he's in between job assignments.  Since I feel a little wonky driving, and because Nick has a minimum day today, I let him take my car all on his own, but as he doesn't have a school parking permit, he'll have to park on the street about a block away.

I'm supposed to be preparing for a meeting with our financial dude tomorrow...I may not be as ready as I'd like, but it will have to suffice.  We then have our tax appointment on the 16th,

Cleaning & Scrubbing

I was able to get Clue 2 of Grand Illusion finished pretty early - easy to do if you don't do anything else, and that's usually what I do with my weekends....very little in the way of housework!

So, what have I been doing in my non-quilty time?  Some of those once or twice a year, or decade in the case of some, maybe in a lifetime for others, but for me, something I like to get done at least once every year things.  I tackled the very necessary chest freezer clean-out, defrost and inventory on one day.  With being gone so much this year, I've had no clue what's still here and long-forgotten how old some things might be.  This freezer only builds up ice around the top rim because when you open it, warm air hits it and creates moisture, which then freezes when you close the lid.  It isn't a very large freezer, just big enough for our little family, so I empty everything into ice chests, then scoop up any loose things like spilled frozen veggies - why do the clips not get put back on those open bags? - I then run as hot of water as I can into my large soup pan/spaghetti pot, set it in atop a towel I've placed on the bottom, then close the lid and leave it alone for about 45 minutes.  Oh, and I've turned it OFF!  

When I come back, the ice on the side slips right off, I remove the hot water pan(s) and scoop out the ice then mop up any melted ice/water and dry the sides and bottom, turn it back on and re-inventory the items as I put them back....unless it's an item that gets tossed.  I also did the refrigerator's freezer but it doesn't ice up so  it was just a basic clean-out and inventory.

Once those were done, I tackled the pantry - a deep, shelved, "walk-in" space about 32" x 38". There's just enough room between the shelves and the door for a small rolling cart, and to store a few things on the floor.  I also have some overflow shelves out in the garage, so all of these were cleaned, re-organized and re-inventoried.  It's amazing how much I've crammed into those spaces.

I cleansered (is that a legitimate word?) the kitchen sink after soaking it with scalding hot water and bleach.  I discovered that the 'splashless' bleach is not quite the same as regular bleach...whatever the additive is in it, it suds, and suds a lot.  I noticed too on the jug that, in very small print, it says "Not for sanitization or disinfection.  To sanitize and disinfect, use Clorox Regular-Bleach.".  Well, so much for sanitizing and disinfecting.  I will be far more careful to read the label on my next bleach purchase.  Who knew, right?

Today, I tackled the inside of the refrigerator.  Oh my! but it was a mess.  More things got dumped.  Who needs salad dressing bottles with a half-inch of dressing remaining that "expired" a year ago?  And ugh, those shelves in the door were filthy! Not to mention the bottom after I removed the drawers. 

Oops, I need to be paying attention to the clock, it's almost time to go pick Nick up from school.

Sorry I took no pictures of my "before" and my "after"; the before would have been too embarrassing anyway.  Next, I need to tackle the microwave - sure wish my guys would learn to clean up after themselves - would make my life easier!