Welcome to the night shift

[saysfaa]

I've come to like working in the night because it is cooler.

Tonight, I'm dehydrating zucchini. That is a peaceful and fairly quiet thing to do. And when (maybe if?; I think it will be "when" tonight)I get sleepy, it is fairly easy to drop until later. Much easier to drop than making cherry jam.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I had a stretch of good quality sleep for a while. Being mid summer I am so very busy from sunrise to 11pm ish and daylight hours are long. Felt so good

 

[saysfaa]

Not good. If you are going to walk on the pavement of a five lane highway at three o'clock in the morning, please either wear something reflective or take a flashlight. I think my heart recovered but i yi yi.

Thankfully, I was watching for deer too and not just at the car weaving in the inside lane... trying to decide if he was drunk or falling asleep or just reaching for something. I really hope he is safely where ever he is going.

I'm really happy to be home.
I would rather live close enough to go to more of my nieces' and nephews' events without either spending the night or driving in the wee hours before or after but it is what it is.

The announcer said something interesting. She is heavily involved in career development type roles - I believe both paid and volunteer but maybe not. Anyway, she saw extensive research on what successful people have in common. In every way of looking at success (every kind of success, every way of measuring, and such)... there is one thing all have more often than any other factor. What to guess what it is? Before looking? If I can figure out how to do a spoiler. It is Having had chores as a child

Hey, it worked!

 

[Callender Girl]

Congrats on: 1) survival!; and 2) successfully implementing the spoiler!

 

[saysfaa]

How are y'all doing?

I've done much better at getting sleep over the last year or so.

Yes, I am awake tonight but that is because I slept so much through the day despite getting pretty good sleep all week. I was trying to kick the headache I woke up with this morning.

I thought it was dehydration from picking blueberries yesterday. I took water (and drank it) but it was slim pickings (lol, pun semi-intended) so it took much longer than I expected. I'm not sure that is the problem, though. I've been rehydrating all day and the headache kept getting worse.

 

[Callender Girl]

I've wondered a few times how you've been doing. Glad to hear you're sleeping better.

Recently took my annual trip to northern Minnesota where I slept much better without my dogs (who like to get up really, really early0, the cat (who yowls incessantly most nights) and the singing of coyotes (who pose a potential threat to my outdoor critters).

Sorry about the headache and that you didn't get many blueberries. I sometimes get nasty, day-long headaches -- just had one Friday. I also try to put myself to sleep to get through it. Unfortunately, I had an unexpected visitor who decided to hang around even though I said, repeatedly, that I had a bad headaches and wanted to get some sleep. I could not have been more obvious unless I had actually said, "Get out of my house now!"

Also, kudos for staying hydrated in this ridiculously hot weather.

Hope you are feeling better; good to hear from you.

 

[saysfaa]

So many things I'd like to do before winter sets in, I don't think I can fit them into the available time. But I'm not willing to give any of them up, yet.

Of course, lack of a decision is a decision. I didn't give up picking my own apples and wild grapes but it became given up because the season has passed and I didn't do it. I highly doubt I will find any worth picking now. Maybe next year. At least I narrowed down when they are ready - between the end of blueberries and the beginning of peaches (canning peaches). This year, we traveled for three days between blueberries and peaches to celebrate a graduation-related ceremony for our youngest, plus the extra time to get ready for it and some time after because another son came home with us to visit for a few days.

This means all five have "real" jobs now. Yay!!
It has been - let me see - 2007/2008 was the first year the oldest went to college full time, so 15 years that we've had at least one in college full time. No, there was one year in the middle that we didn't. On the other hand, there was one year that we had four, I think. Many, many years with two or three. Do not get me started on how so called unaffordable college is - better to teach people how to do it than teach them to expect to be bailed out. With very little financial help from us, three graduated with no debt, one paid it off within six months, one paid it off when the freeze ended last month (as he watched many classmates buy tvs and video games and cars with the money they didn't pay on their loans because the loans were frozen. Sorry, I almost didn't get started on that subject.

One son is starting on a master's this year. I'm not counting that; it is after he's had a "real" job. Same for daughter's master's. She's one or two credits away from a phd but isn't going to finish it because she thinks it will limit her career options.

Anyway, it was well worth missing my own wild apples and wild grapes. But next year...

It isn't like I'm not going to have apples this year. I bough another bushel of locally grown honey crisps from the amish store to eat and dehydrate. There will be other varieties later, that keep better for eating and that are better for pies and apple sauce.

I'd like to....
scrape and restain the deck
wash the outside of the windows
get the car into the garage
harvest and use the rest of the garden produce
and the garden produce that is currently holding in the garage
turn the compost into the soil of the garden area
harvest and use the walnuts from the trees in our yard
plant the hickory nuts I picked up from the lawn a few weeks ago
build shelves for the canning jars
give away more stuff that from the basement so we can use the basement better
keep the lawn mowed (so dh doesn't have to)
paint the bee hives (to use up paint and preserve the hives in case I ever get bees and the fun of it)
build a temporary coop for the chickens so they can stay at my sister's over Christmas
cut down some of the trees growing in the pond embankment
clean out the pond overflow
pull some stumps
reset the posts of the garden at the farm so it lines up with cardinal directions
get the little roof (its about 4'x4') off the ground
get the chopper box cover off the ground
mow lanes for the deer hunters
remove the brush from the edges of some fields
remove invasive plants from the middles of fields (florabunda rose and autumn olive)
plant rye and wheat

fix the gap between the existing coop and the ground so the squirrel doesn't use it to store nuts this year. I tolerated it for two years because I didn't notice it until the ground was frozen too deeply the first year, I liked watching the squirrel and I couldn't see any damage but it has started hollowing out the sand under one of the foundation cement blocks.

Paint the cracks of the chicken coop. It is board and batten; the boards shunk more.

And I need to stop listing things. Not because it is the end of the list but because it gets paralyzing to keep going.

I think I'm getting sleepy again - have a good rest of the night y'all.

 

[lightm]

With very little financial help from us, three graduated with no debt, one paid it off within six months, one paid it off when the freeze ended last month

Wise kids!!

 

[Callender Girl]

Congrats on raising kids with common sense and work ethics!

The problem with my lists -- which are ponderously long and include many items similar to yours -- is that I find some of the same projects and goals listed for multiple years. Plus, I keep adding on to the darned things And, often, if I have to choose among the many things that need to get done, I surrender, retreat and ignore all of them.

Rabbits girdled my young apple trees, so I bought four new ones this year. Last week, I realized the golden delicious had succumbed to a fungus. I could buy truckloads of apples from the local orchard for what I've spent on replacement trees over the years.

I'm usually disappointed that I haven't made better use of some of the fruits that grow on the property. This year, I intentionally let the birds eat all the mulberries (I can't find any way I really like to prepare those to eat), the aronia berries (still have some frozen from last year) and the pears (not a huge pear fan and the tree is very tall). Learning to let go was better than having pangs of conscience because I was "wasting" food. Instead, I was feeding wildlife. Okay, I do regret that a coyote came into the yard to eat pears. Until then, I had no idea coyotes liked fruit so much.

Speaking of coyotes, that's a contributing factor to my sleeplessness -- including the wee hours of today. My dogs spring awake at the sound of coyote singing, whether close or distant. Frantic barking ensues until I get up, take the dogs out on leash or run outside on my own and scare off the visitors. It's hard to settle back to sleep after all the activity.

I'm pretty confident that my poultry is all safely housed at night. But, I have one sheep left and two goats (I've been reducing their numbers by natural attrition the last few years). So, as long as there are ruminants here, coyotes will be a sleep-depriving threat.

But, I can only blame the coyotes so much. There's still all the stuff that runs through my head when I'm trying to sleep and can't.

 

[saysfaa]

... The problem with my lists ...

Me too.

For the fruit too. Do you have guards for your fruit trees? Mine (at the house) are still small enough to use this kind ... the state conservation office sells them for $2 each. They last more than one year, at least if you take them off in the spring. So, I didn't lose any trees to rabbits or mice but I lost both pear trees, one apple, and one peach the first year (last year). I think I lost the other apple tree this year. I only planted two of each. I think we didn't water them enough (it sure seemed like a lot but it was hot and dry for long stretches) or deal with insects very well.

I think I'll go with buying the fruit in season - I'm sure it will be better quality as well as far less expensive.

I might plant berries instead. They are harder to find from growers. Especially my favorites - black raspberries. I'm trying josta berries too. The bush is doing well but not producing yet. It is supposed to be quite similar to blueberries.

And quince and pawpaw trees. It is hard to find the fruit of either commercially.

Yikes about the coyotes and sheep and goats.