Eat Your Fruits & Vegetables!

I started this 1000 piece puzzle after the Patriots game on Sunday afternoon and just put the last piece in!

I thought it was going to be harder than it turned out to be.

It's a love hate relationship when it comes to me and puzzles; I enjoy doing them, the problem is I can't stop working them once I start, until completed.

Good Omen or Bad Omen?

Let's zoom in -

Closer -

AH HA, there's the culprit making all the racket -

Growing up I recall crows as being extremely skittish.  Usually taking flight as soon as a person would appear, or at least when I would came out.  However, seems crows today are far more empowered and bolder, seldom taking off and instead holding their ground with what seems like more of a gangster approach of what ’chu lookin’ at?

According to the Google machine, "in modern spiritualism, crows and ravens are seen to symbolize transformation, prescience, destiny, intelligence, fearlessness, mystery, flexibility, adaptability, and perspective.".  

So, I'm gonna take these symbolisms to mean that they and I have a connection, and that perhaps things are happening the way they're happening for a reason.

Do The Work!

Enjoying Some Downtime

This dude was relaxing and chilling, lazing in the sun on that Boxelder tree limb.  Perhaps, wondering about the upcoming winter, how cold it will be and if he's amassed enough nuts to get him through till spring.  Or maybe he's just trying to recall where he stashed all the acorns and hickory nuts throughout my lawn and gardens and flower beds.

There was no skittishness or rushing and bebopping, as most squirrels do, just contentment and some shuteye.

I watched him as I washed the dishes and he laid there as content as could be.

Find The Critter

Can you find the critter in the below photos?!

Luv my back deck!

"Oh, The Places You'll Go"!

I came across these .37 Dr. Seuss USPS postage stamps the other day, two pages of twenty.

I forgot I had them.  I don't recall exactly when but they were given to me by my dad.  It was at some time after 2002 since these stamps were released back on June 30 of that year.

Not that I send much mail out via USPS but I gave some thought to simply using these on the few things I do mail.  However, after doing a bit of research and for posterity sake, I opted to keep and display them.

I tried to find matting to fit the page size but no luck, as they're an odd size.  I toyed with the idea of having a custom matting done but too impatient, so I went with a standard 8x10 frame and a 4x6 matte.  It chops off some of the stamps but it doesn't look too bad -

Interestingly, Amazon has this same page of stamps listed for sale and as of this morning there are only (7) left in stock, so order soon if interested - 

2004 DR. SEUSS #3835 Pane of 20 x 37 cents US Postage Stamps by USPS

‼ Also, this "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" posting is my 309th of 2024, making it the most I've ever posted in a single year since I began blogging here back in 2006!

What The Buck!

Peeked out my kitchen window yesterday morning and saw the rear end of a dear making it's way into the property behind me, just behind my old chicken coop.  So, I darted and grabbed my Canon camera and was able to get only one picture taken, see above.  *Apologies for the yucky background of this pic...

Turns out it was a buck, see his antlers?!  Which might explain why he seemed to be in somewhat of a hurry and not interested in slowing or stopping, rather he was headed somewhere.  After all, we're in the midst of deer mating season here in Massachusetts, so I'm guessing his focus was on one thing and one thing only.

Off into the brush and wetlands he went.

Amen!

And They're Gone!

As touted, the town hired Waste Management crew were here mid-morning on Monday to pick up and remove all 45+ bags of leaves I had at the ready for them.

I was happy to see there were no rips or tears or spillage as they were loaded into the back of the truck and that they're all gone, PHEW!

While I have you let me ask you a question - 

What are your thoughts on neighborly leaf clean up?

Now keep in mind that I'm a bit anal generally speaking and have a wee bit of OCD too but I tirelessly raked and raked and raked and bagged and bagged and bagged, not too mention all the leaves that I also sucked up into my mower and emptied in the back corner of my lot.   So, what are your thoughts on your neighbors leaf clean up responsibilities?

The neighbors on either side of me are clearly NOT outside yard working people and seem just fine with letting even the basic upkeep go undone, which is an entirely different rant of mine.  For example, why would anyone purchase a home for $700k and then neglect basic outside upkeep?  I'll never understand this but I digress.

It's frustrating to have neighbors who do not rake up the leaves in their yard.  It's not just a poor reflection on them, in my opinion, but ultimately their laziness affects me, and the other abutting diligent neighbors, since the winds will inevitably redistribute "their" leaves onto our upkept properties.

When I see my good neighbors across the street busting their arses to rake and bag the leaves, it motivates me to want to do the same. I want to be courteous to them and their efforts, so that "my" leaves don't end up blowing into their yards.

However, sadly and frustratingly, both the neighbors on each side of me are fine leaving "their" leaves unraked.

Again, your thoughts?

A Classic Comfort Food It Was!

I made a savory French onion meatloaf this past Sunday that was delicious!

Enough for leftover diners on Monday and Tuesday, as well as freezing a couple pieces to enjoy later.

Unfortunately, no after cooking pictures, as I was too quick to dig in and start eating but you'll need to trust me when I say it looked just as good as it tasted!

Come. Sit. Let's Reminisce!

Who remembers this bench?

This was my mothers bench that resided in the kitchen beneath the wall mounted telephone.

I don't recall where she got it or when she got it, just seems to have always been there.

She painted it a couple times over the years.

Well, I've had this bench in my basement for quite some time now. It's been somewhat buried holding stacks of boxes full of family pictures.

It was time to pull this jewel out, revitalize and give her a new purpose.

I had a location in mind, which helped in deciding on the colors and decorations.

First step was sanding, however, the vibrating sanders of which I have a bunch, only worked so well.  As you can see below, this was the best I could get.  I had been hoping to remove all the purple paint, even tried a chemical stripper, but that didn't work too well either -

So, I gave up on trying to strip it completely and moved to the painting.  I chose tan (looks more white in the pics but it's more brownish in person), which is the same color that my kitchen, living room and hallways are all painted in. I already had the paint too. I needed to apply (3) coats to completely hide the purple from bleeding through -

The second color I chose was a forest green, which is the color of my master bedroom where this bench has been earmarked for.  I struggled with how to add this second color and went with painting several of the spindles and adding some stripping -

I found some flowery stickers to accent with and that also matched the color scheme too, so I incorporated some of them -

The finished product accented with a green pillow and my grandmothers knitted throw blanket with her initials EVF -

All in all I'm pleased with the end results and super happy to have finally brought this bench back to life and placed it where I can see it every day.  It reminds me of my mom and brings back some wonderful memories ♥

#Blessed

It's NOT A Game To me!

The Easter egg roll at the White House is an age old event where children use plastic spoons to roll hard boiled eggs to the finish line, a cherished springtime tradition for sure.

I have a bit of a similar tradition here at the ole homestead.  It's one I typically do twice a week, however, my tradition doesn't involve eggs, nope, rather it involves dog poop 💩.  More specifically Trixie's poop, YUK 🤢

Here's the problem, which I am sure I'm the only one who has this "issue", let me explain -

I keep a trowel under my back deck that I use solely and specifically for picking up Trixie's "business".  Generally speaking it does the job and works just fine.  However, why is it that whenever I'm "scooping" up her crap it feels like I'm doing an egg roll?  More often than not I find myself chasing after one or two elusive terds that just will NOT comply and get on the trowel, grrr!

So, if you happen to be in ear shot of my backyard and you hear me yelling and cursing, it's a safe bet I'm in the midst of performing a "dog poop roll" and trying to wrangle a nugget or two onto the trowel to be bagged for disposal.

Oh well, shit happens...

See You In The Spring

This pretty much sums up this falls leaf season and all the raking I've done.

It's now official official, my outside yard work and chores are complete!

I spent a couple hours yesterday taking care of the few remaining winter prep tasks - turned off the spigots, drained and put on their Styrofoam covers, drained the hose and put away (it's been so dry I had to take out of storage to water my winter rye the last couple of weeks), brought my two front yard Adirondack chairs into the garage and the coup de grâce, which is the final task I do, installed the reflective driveway markers along both sides of my driveway.

Inside projects only till spring, so time to hunker down!

Mileage Milestone

My car has hit 60k mile mark!

Luv my car!  Very happy with it.  It's been good to me.  Fingers crossed it keeps on going.  I wouldn't be disappointed with another sixty thousand miles...

Keep Mov'in

Pets Don't Know We Turned Clocks Back

Honestly, I do!

There are a number of reasons too but let's start with this one, which happened to me this morning -

Trixie has NO idea the clocks have been turned back.  Her internal clock is still operating on DST, so she's had me up at 4:00ish every morning this past week to let her outside to do her business.

This morning was no different, so up I got.  Well at 4:00ish it's still very much dark out.  Since my plan was to go back to bed I didn't turn on any lights, instead I simply make my way downstairs.  This hasn't been a problem in the past, however, a different story today!

As a made my way down the hallway and turned to head down the stairs I stepped in something wet and squishy!  I mean I "stepped in it" with the ball and toes of my left foot, YUCK!

Well, the no lights things went out the window, as I immediately flipped on the hallway lights and as I suspected there lay a pile of cat hair vomit, GRRR!

Instead of letting Trixie out to do her thing, then crawling back into my warm bed, I was on bended knees cleaning cat puke off the carpet, screaming and swearing like a drunken sailor!

Needless to say I was NOT and I am STILL NOT happy, nor was I able to go back to bed, as I was too jacked up.

In the midst of that event I made the decision that the cat HAS TO GO, which I am still very much adamant about even now some 10 hours later!

I'm a firm believer that the best kind of cat is a dead cat!

The Real Deal II

A little over a year ago I posted an entry titled "The Real Deal", about getting in touch with my artsy-fartsy side and had a picture of a holiday wreath I made.

Fast forward a year now and all the red berries and leaves have fallen off and all the pine needles turned brown and were super brittle but the bittersweet vine base and the pine cones were fine.

A Hobby Lobby opened in next door to Trader Joe's in Foxboro, MA, so after picking up a few items in TJs, I stopped into Hobby Lobby.

OMG, an artsy-fartsy goldmine!

So, with my wreath in mind I picked up some holiday swag (fake swag) and created the below -

Original wreath, 1-year old -

Newly decorated and ready to shine -

This one should last a bit longer...

It Was A Good Day!

Another outstanding day yesterday!

So, I took advantage and spent a couple most of it in the yard.

My bags of leaves is growing and now stands at (46) and as you can see in the picture below, the maple tree is still loaded with leave yet to fall, UGH, so it's very likely there will be more.  Scheduled leaf bag pick up is scheduled for this Monday, 11-14, which will be the last day I pick up a leaf rake for a long while!

After raking I mowed my entire yard one last time, then washed my ride mower and let it dry in the sun.  Once dried, I stowed it in the back corner of my garage, then shuffled some other items around, e.g. wheelbarrow, lawn spreader, etc., so I can now park my car IN the garage.

A couple items left to do before I'm officially done with outside chores and I'll take care of those when the weather officially returns back to seasonal.

The day ended with another nice sunset off my back deck -

Cooked and had myself shaved steak with peppers from my garden, onions and mushrooms, and some sweet potato fries, which was washed down with a couple glasses of merlot.

#Blessed

Show Me

Find The Critter

Can you find the critter in the below picture?

She didn't think I saw her, as she did blend in nicely. However, I am always on the lookout for critters when I am out on my walks and this is one of the encounters I enjoy. I suspect most folks would be clueless of such encounters and miss it completely, as they're too engrossed in their phones.

 Also, full disclosure, I've see her in this same dead-end road spot a handful of times the last couple of months.

Click this link to see the critter and where she was hiding - "Oh, Deer"

Boy Was I Flushed!

I thought it a good idea to replace the water supply hoses to each of my (3) toilets.  I have replaced them all at some point but it's been years now and even though they are the recommended braided supply line hoses, I still wanted to replace them.  After all how much could it cost?

About the same time as this urge hit me, I found that my kitchen sink is leaking, UGH!  It's leaking around the strainer fitting, plus there's a cracked plastic PVC nut that's also leaking a tad.

So, I reached out to the plumbing company that recently replaced my gas boiler and scheduled a time for them to come out and give me a quote.  I have a service contract with them, which includes discounts on parts and labor.  Since they were coming out to give me an estimate, I asked them to quote out replacing the three toilet lines and two outside spigots.  Figured why not, I'll have someone here doing a repair job, I'll let them address the preventative maintenance items too.

OH BOY, was I wrong!

They quoted me $110.00 to replace ONE toilet hose, ONE!  And to replace all three, multiply the $110.00 by 3 - $330.00 and that's with their "discount"!

Like the bible thumpers that come knocking, I told them to piss off!

I am more than capable of replacing these hoses myself but again, I just assumed while I had them here...

So, instead I took a drive to Lowe's and picked up three brandy new 12" toilet supply line hoses.  They were a whopping $5.30 each, so for three new hoses, including tax, it cost me $16.89 -

Here are the new hoses I purchased -

It took me about 30 minutes to replace all three hoses this morning and test them to make sure they're working fine and not leaking.

Here are the old hoses I replaced -

I understand that they're running a business and need to make money but c'mon.  If this isn't price gouging and taking advantage of people I don't know what is!

Let me tell you, once my maintenance contract is up, I will be taking my business elsewhere!

Shame on them!

Oecanthus

With the cold weather upon us these days run-ins with insects and critters are few and far between.  However, we had a few days of above average temperature to end this past week and this dude, a male Common Tree Cricket made an appearance.  Perhaps, out sunning itself one last time before it crawls back into its winter hiding place -

Just Being A Homebody

This should surprise no one but I spent this past weekend at home and in the yard, taking care of this, that and the other things.

Saturday, I lowered the deck on my ride mower for the final cutting of the season.  I like to cut it short for the winter, plus being short the leaves don't get snagged in it as much and blow on by.  I did a first coat of painting on a new inside project I started, to be revealed here later.  Ended the day with a relaxing soak in the hot tub!

Sunday, I changed my flags, from Halloween to Thanksgiving -

Moving the clocks back an hour had me up at my regular time even though the clock displayed 4AM.  Once daylight arrived, and even though a brisk 38ish degrees, I made my way outside to do some more raking!

Replenished with a plethora of leaf bags I tackled the sidewalk side of things and filled up (10) more bags and rest assured that they're FULL!

My new full leaf bag total stands at a whopping (41)!

Okay, so before heading out to rake on Sunday morning, I spent about an hour readying my crockpot with the fix'ns for beef stew.  Loaded with tender beef, garlic, onions, mushrooms, carrots, green beans, peas and potatoes.  I'm not a braggard but I gotta say, I nailed it! Nice and thick, as it should be, and super tasty!  It was ready by half time of the Patriots games and went well with a glass or two, okay half a bottle of Merlot, with plenty of left overs for a couple days AND I froze some for a later time.

#Blessed