What to pack? - April 24, 2026

This morning, I hear a wild turkey gobbling in the bottom behind the house.  He is really letting it rip.

Instead of sitting here listening to the turkey, I need to be inside, packing for a trip - another of The Husband's work trips.  Cincinnati.  Never been there, as far as I know.  It'll be an all-day drive and several days in a hotel, both of which I dread.  I'm going out later today to see if I can find some sort of rolling art case that will hold my laptop, some drawing supplies, and some wire and tools.  I would lose my mind with nothing to do.

Today is my daughter-in-law's birthday.  I usually give her gift cards, but this time I'm giving her cash and two pendants I made this week.  I hope she likes them, and I hope they hold together!

Some time today, I need to go to the garden.  An online video recommended a tonic for tomatoes (and other things) made from yeast, molasses, baking soda, and water.  I proofed the yeast last night; it'll be ready to apply once I add the other ingredients.  The video recommended watering the plants before applying the tonic.  It's supposed to rain later today.  It might be tough to time the thing just right.

Tomatoes and jalapeno peppers are the only things I've planted in the garden, so far.  The okra will go in next week.  I planted squash in the flower beds around the yard, and it has come up well.  If the critters don't eat it all, we may not need any more in the garden.  One day this week I planted cucumber seeds around the arched trellis.  

* * * * * * * * 

Seven hours later, I've done my errands.  Road-trip snacks.  Birthday present delivered.  Art case bought. Tonic applied to the garden.  Leftover ribs and casserole delivered to Nanny.  Laundry and dishes done.  Suitcase(s) mostly packed.  Coffee pot ready for tomorrow, bed ready for tonight.  

I'd say I got in a good day's work.

  

Yesterday morning, I saw a television commercial about an over-the-counter memory-boosting supplement, claiming to boost all three types of memory - working memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.  I said to The Husband, "It's my short-term memory that needs work."

See my previous post, for example - all that ranting about being unable to find the hole-punch that I could almost remember putting in the drawer with the hammer.  The background story is that this hole-punch had arrived a few days earlier and had laid on the kitchen table ever since.  Friday, when I was straightening up the kitchen, I decided to put the hole punch away until I needed it.  The craft room hammer drawer seemed like the best place to keep it.  As it happened, I needed it later that afternoon and couldn't find it.  Hence the rant.

I found the hole punch about 30 minutes after that post.

It was not in the drawer with the hammer; it was in the drawer ABOVE the drawer with the hammer (which actually is an equally sensible place to keep it since the eyelets and anvils live there).  It seems that in the process of putting away the punch, my brain over-rode my storage decision and changed the plan without telling me.  

Equally disturbing is the fact that I had rummaged through that upper drawer about 5 times during the evening, looking for other things.  The punch was right there the whole time.

...Or was it?

<spooky music and maniacal laughter>

* * * * * * * * 

Friday was a fairly productive day in the jewelry-making department.  Before lunch time, I finished a bracelet and matching earrings, both of which turned out nice.  Later in the afternoon, I fired up the embroidery machine and made two leather bracelets and several sets of earrings.  I did not finish them because I COULD NOT FIND THE FREAKIN' HOLE PUNCH.

The leather bracelets are still unfinished.  They are basically rectangular strips with designs sewn on them.  How to close them?  Snaps are the obvious choice.  I have snaps left over from my purse-making days, but they're the wrong color.  An assortment of snaps is on the way.

Today, I have to buy groceries.

Yuck.

Stalled - April 18, 2026

Well, if this don't just take the damned cake.

I've done a good day's work in jewelry today.  Made a bracelet and matching earrings with wire and beads, and made two leather bracelets and four matching leather earrings on the embroidery machine.  The leather items need eyelets to attach closures and earring wires.  Before I can install those, I have to punch holes.

And I can't find the leather punch.

I JUST HAD IT YESTERDAY.

I can almost REMEMBER putting it in the craft room, in the drawer where I keep the hammer.  

It ain't there.

I even looked in the refrigerator next to the cabinet drawer.

The Trickster is on the loose again.  

Watering - April 16, 2026

It's raining this morning, thank goodness.  Yesterday, I planted 7 more tomatoes and 6 jalapeno peppers but did not water them in, hoping the predicted rain would take care of the job today.   

One of the persistent problems that has hampered my gardening efforts has been watering.  The garden plot is over 100 feet from the nearest water faucet.  A number of years ago, I bought 200 feet of water hose and a hose cart, thinking it would solve the problem.  And it did, for one season.  The following year, when I pulled out the hose cart, the hose was still wound on the cart, but someone had cut the hose where it connects to the cart's water supply.  Strangely, no one confessed to the crime.  

I bought a new hose, thinking it would solve the problem.  When I tried to install the new nose, I discovered that the screw-on ring (from the water hose) was still on the spout, and no amount of elbow grease would loosen it.  I could not attach the new hose to the cart's waterspout.  We made do.  We continued to use the hose cart to haul the hose from the garden shed to the outdoor faucet, but it meant hand-winding the hose back onto the cart every time we watered the garden.  

Every year after that, I'd think about buying a new hose cart, but I never did.

That old cart, with 200 feet of rubber hoses, must weight 100 pounds.  Last week, when we were struggling to get water to the fire ant hills in the garden, I wrestled that *#!@ water hose back onto the reel for the last time.  The next day, I bought 200 feet of flat, lightweight hoses.  The only hose cart in the store was over $100.  Knowing that hose carts could be had for less than that, I didn't buy it and still have not shopped for one elsewhere.  

Over the weekend, it occurred to me that I could just use the hose cart from the front flower bed in our yard.

Yesterday, I un-wound the hose from that cart.  Ants had taken up lodging somewhere among the cart's moving parts.  I hosed them off and took the cart and the new hoses to the outdoor faucet at Nanny's.  It was the devil to get the new hoses screwed onto the cart's water supply, and when I turned on the faucet, intending to water the plants, water spewed around the connection so badly that no water came through the hose.  I un-did the hose and re-installed it but never could get the hose screwed on tight enough that water didn't spew.  

By this time, I'd been digging and raking and planting and fooling with water hoses for nigh on three hours.  I gave up on watering and came home, thinking I'd ask The Husband or The Grandson to have a go at it.  

Mother Nature has taken care of the problem for today.

* * * * * * * * 

Yesterday morning, before I started in the garden, I mixed up a batch of Magic Pour to fill up a mold for a cute little snail planter.  

Fooling with this stuff is a mess.  It is a 3:1 mix of powder and water.  Calculation is necessary, and it's hard to figure the right amount.  Powder goes everywhere.  I mixed up waaaayyyy too much for the mold I'd chosen; there was enough to fill the planter mold and a large jewelry mold with mixture left over.  I dripped it all over the place trying to fill the molds before the mix cured.  And when I un-molded the planter, I didn't notice that the snail's eyes were on thin "stalks," and both of its eyes broke off in the mold.  I glued them back on, but there are visible cracks where they've been re-attached.  Maybe they can be disguised with paint.

I'm going to try the snail planter again, but when all this powder is gone, I probably won't get more, not because the product is faulty (it works fine) but because I'm a natural mess-pot who has no business doing this kind of craft.  

* * * * * * * 

The woodpecker has just informed me that the bird feeder is empty.  He's out there hammering on it, hoping to knock a few more seeds out of the hopper., while the redbird waits nearby, hoping it works.

Garden (maybe) - April 13, 2026

Saturday morning, when I asked The Husband if he had a plan for the day, he said he was going to pull up last year's tomato fence and posts.  The tomato stakes are actually steel t-posts.  We drive them into the ground with the tractor bucket.  They are not easy to pull up.  I went with him to help.

We ended up checking on the tiller (no flat tires, and it fired right up) and cleaning out the garden toolshed.

It looks like we might plant a garden this year, after all.  But only a small one.

I bought three tomato plants today while I was out running errands.  If I change my mind about planting a garden, there's enough room in the yard to accommodate just 3 tomatoes.

The Grandson went to the garden this morning to load up and haul away the landscape fabric we pulled up last week.  While he was walking around, he stepped on a nest of baby rabbits.  There were 5 of them.  He thinks he didn't squish any of them.  

I guess I'll just have to plant around them.

A little of this, a little of that - April 10, 2026

My sister and my niece invited me on an outing today that included a trip to a greenhouse and breakfast.  I kind of wanted to go (greenhouses and breakfasts are two of my favorite things!), but I had some embroidery digitizing work to do for a paying customer, so I declined.  It took nearly half the day, but the digitizing work is now done.  Time to move on to something else.

Earlier this week, the delivery person brought a bucket of some stuff called "Magic Pour."  It's a powder that's mixed with water - (3:1 ratio) - and poured into molds.  It's supposed to be non-toxic and has a 30-minute cure time.  Two days ago, I pried open the bucket and mixed up a batch.  Videos I'd watched said it should have the approximate consistency of pancake batter.  My math was evidently way off, because my turned out more like clay.  I kept adding water until it turned batter-like and poured it into some cabochon molds.  It set okay.  Yesterday, I tried a larger batch.  Again, my math must have been off, for this batch turned out way too thin, more like milk.  I could've added more powder, but I was frustrated with the mess and just poured it into molds to see what would happen. Surprisingly, it set, but the pieces are not as strong as they would have been if my batter had been right.  I'll give it another shot in a few days.

This afternoon, I've been trying to make earrings, ideally two that match. 

"Two that match" is hard.  ;)

Cost of Goods Sold - April 9, 2026

This morning, I've been window-shopping (online) for wire.  

When I decided to have another go at making jewelry, I bought a few spools of wire expecting to "waste" much of it in the process of re-learning the craft.  And that's what happened; when that first round of spools was gone, there were very few finished jewelry pieces to show for it and a bucket full of twisted scraps.   When it was time to replenish the wire supply, I wrote in Sharpie on each spool the cost of the wire per foot.  It's hard to calculate the cost of a thing you had to make three times to get it right.  It turns out that the real cost of making fashion jewelry is not in the materials (unless you're brave enough to use "real" stuff), it's in the time.  

It's hard to put a numerical value on time.

* * * * * * * * 

Last evening before dinner, I reminded The Husband that we needed to deal with the fire ants at Nanny's.  I'd bought mound destroyer earlier in the week.  It was in my car, along with a watering can.  There were probably 10 good-sized mounds around the edges of the yard and in the garden.  We treated most of them last year (and the ten years before); it doesn't eliminate them; it only slows them down.

I went into the garden to survey the situation.  Last year, we'd carpeted the garden with cardboard and landscape fabric and wood chips.  It was just as we'd left it, ant mounds, weeds and all.  

I lifted a corner of some landscape fabric, and it came off in my hand.  All of the fabric was like that - rotten and mostly fused to the ground.  We pulled up what we could.  It will take a whole summer of raking to remove all the tiny bits.  If we decide to plant a garden this year, we will probably just till it into the soil.  Hate to do it, chemicals and all, but what's done is done.

Before we left, I asked Nanny if she would rather we not plant a garden this year.  She didn't much care, one way or the other, but she made it clear that she cannot be expected to help.  I silently thought, Hallelujah!  For years, I've begged her to leave the gardening to me.

Whether we plant anything or not, we've got to do some clean-up - remove the tomato fence, get rid of the cardboard, mow down the weeds.  

This looks like a job for The Grandson.