October and Almost Friday!

Today is cool outside (77 right now) for this area but the weekend will bring the hot weather back in. Next week we are supposed to have cooler more fall type weather. I'm ready for it! I have lots of things I'd like to get done in my yard before winter.

I am hoping to get my decorating done for Halloween this weekend. I bought a little yard sign with a black cat but the stake was made out of painted paper so it melted after the rain last week. I guess you get cheap stuff when you shop Walmart. LOL It appears the black cat is actually wood so I'll make an actual stake for it when I get the chance. I bought some little Halloween metal buckets at Walmart as well to use for flower arrangements. I also bought some pretty red, yellow and orange silk flowers and fall leaves to use in it. I hope to put those together this weekend. I'd like to make remembrance cookies again this year as well.

The state fair is in town this week. It will be ending on Sunday. I'll be glad to see it go. I tend to avoid that area of town on the weekends while it's here, which means my market trips have been interrupted. Luckily I stocked up and can make it till after the fair leaves. :)

I'm still working on perfecting my kombucha. I've got some new teas coming in tomorrow to try. I got a nice organic black tea and an organic jasmine tea which I hear makes really nice kombucha. I'm hoping to get some kefir grains too and start making my own kefir again. It's been a while but I'd like to start back up on that.

Halloween events start up soon in my games that I'm playing so I look forward to that. I've made some more new friends in game so I can't wait to group up with them for some of the holiday events. We've been having a blast in the new expansion and I got my griffon mount the first week. I'm really loving that!

I'm really looking forward to the holidays this year and the upcoming weekend! :D

Almost Fall

Looks like fall will soon be here. Well by the calendar anyway. It's still hot here but I'm hoping for a decently cold winter anyway.

I did get my fluorescent light fixed in the kitchen. I put the new ballast in and no more humming and no more flipping the switch several times to get it to come on. I did replace the light switch as well. I was very proud of myself! :)

I went to the market on Saturday and got 4 large bunches of mustard greens, sweet potatoes, fresh churned butter, fresh cream and ground beef, brisket and link sausage. These are all from local farmers. The butter smells delish! I think I might try making some bread this weekend to try it out on. I've been wanting to make Ciabatta bread and thinking about English muffins as well. I might just make regular sourdough. So many possibilities!  I cooked half of the greens Sunday and will cook the other half tonight since I wasn't feeling well on Monday. I still have some yellow squash in the fridge to cook too. That will probably be tomorrow night.

So I have mustard greens, beef roast, ribs, fresh cream corn and green beans all frozen in my freezer so I shouldn't have to do much cooking this weekend. I did get stuff to make sloppy Joes, hamburgers or spaghetti, whichever I desire. I've been trying to get things ready so I can play my video game that comes out this weekend. So much fun to be had!

My kombucha scoby is doing well. It is growing like crazy and I put organic cane sugar and some Oolong tea in with the black tea this time. I still have a bunch in the fridge so maybe I can drink some up this weekend. I did see a hint about if it gets too sour, add Stevia to it so I'll probably try that. It's a fun project for sure!

Otherwise, things are going well. I got my paint in from the Labor Day sale and will be ready to go when I get a chance to paint the kitchen. Got to put some tile down in the living room first so I can get my stuff moved in there. I'm hoping over the holidays I can get it done if my mom settles down. She seems to be adjusting ok to assisted living and the doc just increased her pain pill amount, so maybe she'll calm down for a bit. The living room should be nice and cozy when I get it all fixed up. Already got the curtains and liners for the windows. It is gonna look nice when I get through! Then I'll start on the kitchen. I'm really loving it since I got all of my kitchen stuff organized.

The kitties and I are doing well. I'm still walking 2 miles a day and other than feeling a little under the weather yesterday, I'm doing great! Things are really coming together. :)

Harvey Headed Our Way

Well, looks like Harvey has headed this way. We are just supposed to get rain and we have some tornado watches out. The temps have been really nice outside though.

I bottled up a couple of bottles of kombucha last night. It has a nice fizz and you can definitely taste the fresh fruit. It's still just a bit strong for my liking but the fruit did make it better. I will continue to experiment on the flavor and best fruits. I have a new batch going and know more about what to do this time. I should have a lot better luck on this one.

I'm looking forward to this weekend even though it is only Wednesday. I'm planning on visiting the market on Saturday to pick up some good fresh food and then to the grocery store. I need to go by the hardware store and get a kaiser blade and a ballast. I need the kaiser blade for clearing a slightly grown up area at the back corner of my lot and a strip of land out front when the weather gets a little cooler. The ballast is for my fluorescent light in my kitchen which has become more and more difficult to get it to come on and has a hum to it. Hopefully my minor electrical skills will be up to it. I need to replace that light switch as well while I'm at it.

This will be a nice long Labor Day weekend. I had a friend come for the weekend last weekend which I really enjoyed, but it will be nice if I can just relax by myself this weekend. I'm sure I'll do some cooking. Corn is on sale so I'll probably get some of that and make fresh cream corn to put up in the freezer. I have a roast that I might cook as well. I have ribs in the freezer too so we'll just see if the temps hold out and if I feel up to smoking some meats.

I look forward to playing my games tonight. We had a couple of new people join our little guild so I look forward to getting to know them. I got to play with one last week and he seems really nice. We have a lot in common so I think he'll fit right in. He has a bad cold though so hoping he will feel better soon so we can have some more fun. The other joined today and from what I've gathered talking to him, I think he'll be a fun addition to our little crew as well.

So that is all for now.

Rainy Day

It's a nice rainy day. I think the rain we are getting is due to hurricane Harvey but to a much lesser degree than Texas. The temps are much cooler than normal which is odd for August. I'm hoping we'll get an actual winter this year with cold and maybe a little snow. Last winter it was in the 70's and 80's a lot.

Things have been going well since my last post which was quite a while ago. My mom is in an assisted living facility and doing well. She isn't really satisfied from what she tells me but other friends of hers tell me differently. I think she just likes to complain. They give her all her meds and make sure she has 3 meals a day which was way better than what she was doing on her own. They also drive her to all her doctor's appointments and keep up with them. She has a nice little apartment and nice furniture that I bought for her. Knowing she is ok and has people that take care of her has taken a huge burden off of me.

I'm starting to get a lot done around the house now. I'm feeling much less stressed and am walking 2 miles a day 4 or 5 days a week. I've been organizing and scrubbing my kitchen down. So nice to have things orderly and clean! I've made pickles this summer and put up lots of fresh cream corn, green beans and fruit like strawberries in my freezer. I've also cooked a lot of fresh veggies this year as well like squash, zucchini, eggplant, roasted peanuts, new potatoes and such. I'm soooo enjoying all the fresh foods this year!

I got the outside of the house mostly painted. Got a bit more to work on when the weather cools off but it looks really nice. I've been getting my yard in shape too. Well, before it got hot. I got a lot of goldenrods and other weeds cleaned out of the flowerbeds. I still need to do much more weeding and rearranging in the yard but again, when it gets cooler and I'm not putting up veggies, I'll get to that.

I made a nice flowerbed with Dianthus in various pinks. So pretty! I'm hoping to get the rose bed in shape this fall. I've got a couple of bushes to plant and have some old ones that need some help. I'm also hoping to get some baby fig trees started.

Of course, I'm still playing various video games with my friends. We have a really good group of people that I look forward to being with in the evenings and some on the weekends. We have lots of fun and laughter and they are all great players too! If one of us can't do something, usually one of the others can and will help you through it.

I've been spending more time with local friends as well and making a few new ones. Some of us have started going to the local market on the weekend. I've only been going a few weekends but it is such a nice outing and you get nice fresh food as well. One of the local cattle farmers comes there regularly and he has some of the best meats. He has cattle and pigs and the sausage is wonderful! The ground beef is awesome as well and you can tell it is truly grass fed from the smell when it cooks.

I've also been getting some Kombucha from the lady at the market. She makes wonderful flavors and I've taken an interest in making my own. It's so much better than GT's and others that you get in the store. I currently am making my first real batch of kombucha. My friend brought me a jar of hers and instead of drinking it, I let it go when I saw a little scoby starting in it. The scoby which stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast is what makes the kombucha into the lovely fermented and nutritional drink.  My scoby is growing like crazy! I plan to bottle the kombucha and try a second ferment soon. So excited!

Things are going well at work. I finally got the office I wanted and have 2 wonderful ladies that have offices next to mine.

My kitties are doing great too! Everyone gets along for the most part. Tigger is my foodie kitty. He loves to try new dishes with me. He wants to taste everything and is quite clear when he deems it unfit to eat. He is also quite clear on when he thinks it is awesome. LOL

That is about all for now. Just thought I'd post an update since it'd been a while.