Now, to be fair, I'm aware that Alaskan freight costs are 38% higher than the lower 48 and that Hawaii's freight costs aren't significantly lower. However, in an earlier post, I had mentioned a purchase of a 16 ounce flat of blueberries and a 16 ounce of strawberries for $5.99 each.

Then a friend from Washington D.C. mentioned she purchased a 16 ounce tray of strawberries for $1.99!

I can't wait for the farmer's markets to open!!

Good morning

Starting off at 47° and sunny. We did get a light rain last evening though.

Baking today, laundry and if any energy leftover grass cutting. That should put the day in.

Rick, this mower is so easy to push and I am so pleased with it. Makes my job a lot easier to do.

Patricia, blueberries here are 7.99  for not much more than a pint. They stay right there on the shelf!

OLM. my sons friend bought a Ego and has it for 6+ years with no problems .....it even has headlights!.

Enjoy your day and stay safe!

Good Morning Amy, Patricia and all!😊
Its 42°F here with clear skies. We had rain and a T-storm yesterday afternoon. Settled the dust nicely.

Somehow I managed to get a low tire on my UTV. My new tire inflator (looks like a drill) came out of its bag. The manual claimed the battery was fully charged before packaging. Mine was not. I put it on the charger overnight. It has a nice digital pressure display so I won't have to 'guess and check' any more.

My glass blocks came yesterday. The new shoes the day before. I found the description had not been entirely accurate. The are leather and didn't stink.👍 They were, unfortunately, lined with synthetic fabric over cheap foam. The "leather insole" was a very thin leather over dense foam. All that material had to come out. I reserved the leather insole, trashed the synthetics and foams. I still have a little clean up and sealing the inside to do. They bonded some gauze to the inside of the leather by coating it with a white rubber or EPDM like substance to give it structure. That I'll have to seal. I didn't pay a lot for them. I figured I'd have to do this. I just couldn't find a better match even paying more.

Ron showed up yesterday evening with groceries, blg mtrls and 4 wheelers. He'll be back about mid-day, I think. Our daughter, son-in-law and grandkids will arrive in the late afternoon.

Amy, headlights! I was at first perplexed... so he can mow after work? Then I realized that maybe some places its so hot mowing after dark is preferred. Being an early bird I never thought of it. Come to think of it, now that my husband mows he does end up mowing in the dark. He has a blinding headlamp.🫣

Patricia, How much will they be at the farmer's market? You've reminded me I need to go check the huckleberry patch. There might be enough for pancakes in the morning with the Gkids. I have thimbleberries also, but they're better just to eat from the bush. Too squishy for much else besides jam.

Have a lovely day everyone!

Happy FLAG DAY to everyone.

                                                    THINK ABOUT IT.

Good morning everyone, it's 65 presently and will be in the mid-eighties this afternoon. Meet and greets, morning routines and everyone's fed with my first coffee at hand.

Farmer's markets began in May and operate through September. However, fresh fruits and vegetables are sparse due to the earlier cold, wet and rainy weather. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and others are cheap because they grow wild and plentiful in the interior.

Most fruits and vegetables grow large here and flowers, especially peonies, are a major export. The soil locally is a rich black glacial soil and items such as cabbages and other root vegetables can grow quite large.

 A 138-pound cabbage, 65-pound cantaloupe and 35-pound broccoli are just a few grown in our short, only 105 days, on average, growing season. For comparison, California's growing season lasts nearly 300 days. The Interior has a midnight sun, almost 24 hours daylight due to solstice and from the filtering of harmful sun rays from our location, this far north.

Patricia,that is fascinating! Thank you, I love learning these kinds of things.😃

Good morning...
 Nice sunny day with a temp of 47° and we still need rain. Most of the work got done yesterday all but one load of laundry.
We are off to Kyle's sister's 90th birthday party later on. Just the two of them left now.

Patricia,  did you think of all the cabbage rolls that could be made from that 138 lb cabbage?

Rick, while sitting out on the veranda  a bluebird came by ,perched in the tree then picked something off the ground. We don't often see them and  enjoy when they are here.

OLM, my thought was dew on grass but apparently no dew that night.

Better get the day started.

Enjoy your day and stay safe.

Good morning, it's sixty and clear outside, although, one site says 56 and the other 60, but they agree on the clear skies.

Meet and greets, a call with Claire's son, morning routines, everyone fed and coffee is in hand so here I am, and how are all of you?

Barb's last post was on the fourth, has anyone heard from her?

Amy, no cabbage rolls came to mind, but I remembered reading that last year and thinking of all the coleslaw that would make.

Kyle's sister, Phyllis, MaryPage, Jane, and others in their nineties, that's quite an achievement. No one in my family, that I'm aware, both sides, have lived past their late eighties. Although most have come from hardscrabble farming lines. Ironically, I recently took a quiz from a health site that I'm in line at 87.3.

I have a question for all you that are houseplant savvy. I have grown spider plants for years, however this variegated one I have now is three years old, quite large and has never had flowers or small plantlets that can be rooted.  Last year I tried fertilizing and the previous year I used spray due to gnats that had snuck in on a new plant. I haven't had the gnats or any bugs since but no plantlets.

I haven't seen any smaller birds other than the occasional wren since they cut down the trees on this back side. However, this past week when the weather warmed and tiny mosquitoes made their debut, I have pigeons being very amorous on my balcony rail. Farrah wasn't impressed beyond watching them quietly, a time or two.

Patricia, Barb is around somewhere. She posted on SeniorLearn this morning.

Good Morning!!  Or I should say good afternoon!!  I don't know if this will go and I'm still not hooked up!  So I'll try to see you tomorrow. I had a great time with the kids and I miss them already??  Enjoy the rest of your day!!

Come to think of it Patricia, Jenny hasn't posted since the 2nd. I've been checking to see if she posted for the last few days.

Oh, here is my sister calling to let me know she is back from the casino. Most Sunday afternoons she goes for a few hours and I get to here how the smokers bother her, again.

Aside for a few normal chores, I spent the day reading. Weather is still cloudy, humid and off and on drizzly. Temp stayed in the low 60s.

Thanks for letting me know, MG.

Jenny hasn't been posting regularly for the past year. She last posted on May 26th but was briefly on site on June 2nd.

I know that she recently returned to Denver from Arizona and may just be busy with settling in again.

Good morning

Another chilly start to the day at 40° but nice and sunny.  We had a great time at the birthday yesterday, was nice catching up with the nephews too!

Need to pick up paint this morning after coffe with friends then home to catch up on work inside and hopefully brushing along the fence.

Jane, how was the trip home? Nice to sleep in your own bed , am sure you will miss them as much as everyone misses you! Ali has some wonderful memories  of canning with you .


MG, thank you for letting us know about Barb.

Patricia,Jenny is fine, just been busy.

Ok, better get busy.

Enjoy your day and stay safe.

Good Morning Everyfriend!  I don't know how this well be because I can only see half the screen.  It's doing a checkup and I just don't have time for that today.  I really miss the kids already but Cooper and I have had 2 walks together.

Yes, I think Ali will become a canner.  She's already looking at Pressure Canners!

AMY  The trip home was LONG and BORING and we're both glad it's over.  The unfortunate part of that is Cindy has to do it again.  The nice part of that is that her sister Christy is traveling back with her and will have a week's visit then fly home!

Now I'm going back to work getting stuff done around here!I hope you all

When I saw the size of that cabbage I also thought of Cole Slaw like PATRICIA did!  If I had to deal with that, it would take me all summer to get it canned!

Now I'm going back to housework!  Not my favorite occupation but I'm glas I can still do it!  I wish you all a great day Do whatever suits your fancy!

Good morning, 69 and smokey from some small fires in the area. We can never have heat in the forests without fires, not one anytime without the other. A concerning one is in the sanctuary. We'll have highs in the mids to high eighties or higher through at least Tuesday.

Morning routines, meet and greets, and some tidying up finished and coffee in hand.

I do have a couple of errands today, back to Lowes and to a paperwork issue. Then that inspection finally on Wednesday. It never ends, does it?

Amy, thanks for letting me know about Jenny.

Jane, I'm sure Cooper was glad to see you and to have those two walks, getting reacquainted with the neighborhood.

The ones that have dogs here, have a narrow fenced corridor, the length of the building for their dogs with bags available. But many prefer taking their dogs to one of the city dog parks to let them run and play with other dogs.

The larger crops due to the midnight sun and black glacial soils have turned into quite an intense competition not only locally but at fairs around the state and between various growers. Besides the various berries that grow wild, or brought to the farmers markets and fairs around the state, there is also piling and piles of rhubarb and zucchini in yards with signs saying free to a good home.

This is why, FDR, in the thirties, sent so many of the dust bowl farmers here and why the Mennonites arrived in Big Delta. Big Delta also has a communion of Russian Old Believers, an offshoot of their Orthodox church around the same time the Amish split from theirs and for similar reasons. Old Believers, similarly to the Amish, wear the older styles of clothes, similar church services, but they do drive.

Good morning..

Pea soup of a day out there, glad we don't have to travel and pity those that do!
Not a lot on the agenda other than continue on with the brushing out.

Jane, Cooper must be happy to get you home and out for his walks!

Patricia,our temps are to soar and I am not looking forward to that!

Phyllis,how are you doing? Making your baked custard for dessert tonight.

Rick, do you have killdeers' there? We heard one the other day,first one in a long time.

Enjoy your day and stay safe.

Quote from: Amy on June 17, 2025, 07:03:47 AMRick, do you have killdeers' there? We heard one the other day,first one in a long time.

I don't think so, but over time I have heard many "calls" that I don't know. I went to a site that had bird calls and played it and I could hardly hear it. My higher frequency hearing is not what it was a few years back.

Good morning all,
52°F currently. Expecting a high of 80°. It was a beautiful day yesterday. Lots of fun with the family. My daughter and SIL trained for a 3k. I took the Gkids to a couple ponds for mor polliwog, frog and newt hunting. Toby collected an extra: a leech on his ankle. Toby and I painted trim boards. My husband and daughter worked on the outside shower with unlimited hot water. The cramped RV shower with 10 gal hot water capacity does not cut it for her. The outside, on demand water heater wouldn't work, so Ron ordered a new one.

Justin smoker grilled corn on the cob and dutch ovened, over the campfire, a delicious sausage and rice casserole. He also made herbed green beans. Ron smoker grilled salmon. They had s'mores for dessert. Ari (7 yrs) is getting the hang of toasting a nearly perfect golden brown marshmallow. The night before ladt night we had scary stories around the campfire. Last night we sang. Apparently I'm the only one who knows actual campfire songs. The kids just made stuff up.😄 Ron was just as bad.

Good morning, 67 presently, with smoky skies due to some small fires, one in the sanctuary, and a promise of two afternoon thundershowers. Our high is supposed to be 85.

Wednesday afternoon is my floor's inspection schedule, and they're taking down the hallway handrails in preparation for the drain dismantles and replacements. The company has reached the elevators in their vertical sections, fifth floor down to first floor, and I'm at the other end of the further hallway so they're to reach me by the end of June or first part of July.

OLM, you posted at 5:25AM my time, so you're four hours ahead, and into afternoon by now, and probably very busy.

The only things I've gotten done is meet and greets, morning routine and feeding Farrah and me. I haven't started my coffee yet. Yesterday, I spent time returning items to Lowes, visiting Walmart and having lunch at Fred Meyers. In the evening, Farrah and I watched the two pigeons that are having a romance on my balcony. Lots of sex on the fly, which seems interesting, but it's one of those blink and miss it sort of liaisons.

Amy, I hadn't heard of Killdeers, but looked them up, recognized the pictures and checked. Yes, we have them here, but they're called Plovers.

Evidently, our heat is on its way to you. I'm told it will start into the seventies by the 24th.

Ron, Alex, Justin and the Gkids headed for town to go swimming at the public pool. Ron will dump the Rhinos, Justin will get the grocery shopping done, then they'll join Alex and the Gkids at the pool. The dogs and I have 2 hours of quiet time.

Its 76°F currently. Mostly sunny. Breezy. We have killdeer in Oregon; none on the mountain.

Patricia, One more day before inspection. 😐 I bet you're looking forward to that being checked off! Still 2 more weeks for the drains, sigh.

Ron mounted hardware to doors this morning after a much needed sleeping in. Justin scrambled eggs with left over smoker grilled salmon for breakfast. The only thing I made was the coffee.😁 He and Ron will be smoking a leg of veal for supper when they return from the pool. We've never had veal before but a 2 year old steer spooked and slammed into a 2 month old calf. He knocked her flying into a heavy gate post and broke her back. She had to be put down; Ron went ahead and butchered her. Sad. 

      bbl

Good morning everyone!
Last night was my favorite campfire night. The kids sang and danced! They actually sang real songs. We started out with Michael Row Your Boat Ashore, with Joey, then moved to Row, Row, Row your boat for Ari. Which turned into a Cannon. Justin chose a song from his plalist and Joey started singing along. They listen to classic rock with their dad and didn't realize they know them! So Justin played the songs on itunes and they sang along.    It was great! I even managed to get my daughter to sing a camp song with the hand motions.  We even had some deep discussion about covid, started by Toby (age 9). They did not have leg of veal, it wasn't thawed yet. Justin made spaghetti over the fire instead. All the kids declared spaghetti their favorite food. There's plenty of leftovers. They were talking about spaghetti for breakfast.

They enjoyed their swim. Kato wanted to be in with Rosie and I. He thought they all went home and got sad and lonely. I actually ended up taking a short nap.

Thinking of Bubble today. I hope, through all of this, that she and her family remain well and out of harms way, insofar as that is possible just now.

🥱☕🍳🐱🧹   🙋

I just had my inspection, two men, three women, 3 to 5 minutes, and instead of the usual "This is nice," I got "Yours is always nice." They don't know the time, effort and worry I always put into it. But then that's good, and yes I know I'm obsessing.

Now all that's left is the drain dismantle and replacement, which I'm told, should reach me, mid-July.

They've been doing a few upgrades around here too. First they painted a spot right in front of the rental office for the exclusive use of the partly disabled and put up a sign with a push button to boot. I think the button is for those who have trouble with the step. Being the perfectly coordinated people that manage these things, the parking lot (including the newly painted spot) got repaved. This morning the maintenance guy and helper were around to install a GFI outlet in one of the kitchen outlets.Also, Anthony was kind enough to take the porch rocker out to my car and put it in the back. It will be going to either Community Aid or Goodwill soon.

Good morning..

Starting temp is 64°, we did have some rain and I hope it starts up again.
Took the van in for repairs on A/C and it is still there and then the fun began. Spent hours on the phone with our phone company that is also tv and internet.Not sure who one but I cam away with more mbps for internet at a less price.

Just working around home today, one doesn't have to look for it as you can alsways see something that needs to be done.

OLM, sounds like you are having a great family time!

Patrica, bnow you can relax a bit till they work on the drains. Killdeers would make a nest in the ground and I would cultivate around it, then get off the tractor and put a stick up so I knew where to avoid. They would feign a broken wing to draw you away from the nest.

Jane, are you back into routine?

MG, must admit it really annoys me when an able bodied and not just young ones use the handicap parking. One friend told me that she even had an able bodied person park in between two handicapped spaces  making in impossible for her to get in her vehicle.

Enjoy your day and stay safe.

Good morning everyone!Its 46°F and calm. Last night the winds were so high I couldn't keep a signal to post.
Patricia, I'd have loved a tenant as conscientious as you! Definitely not "obsessive!" I was a landlord for several years! I was so naive going in! Oh the stuff some tenants did! Congratulations on another superior inspection.😃

MG, the parking over 2 spaces to save their paint job...😤 Those with invisible disabilities also get a bum rap sometimes over using the handicap spaces, even with a handicap placard. Some people think they're only for people with wheelchairs. People with respiratory disabilities that are worsened by parking lot fumes (among other disabilities) need them too. My daughter once got after me about it. SMH

Thank you Amy, I'm really enjoying their visit. 🥰 We did similar things on the farm for the killdeer their. 

Good Mornine Everyfriend!  I forgot who asked but I'm not back to normal yet!!  Cindy is still here and she has a work seetup on my dining room table.  She puts in at least 5 hours a day and sometimes more.  She's also doing a lot of visiting with old friends.  Living In OKLA had now changed some of her growin-up friendships!

Today I have a Dr. appt at 3 and I have to leave  a bit pase 2:30 for that!

Also, Cindy and I stopped for bird see yesterday and she went out to fill the bird feeder and discovered tons of tiny little aunts making their home on my front porch, the steps and the walkway!  So she took of for WM, got some spray and came back from that area and told me not to let Cooper out there for a couple of days!  As you might notice, I'm not back to normal yet!

PATRICIA, congratulations on you good report and also for the great compliment from the inspector!

I wish you all a great day!  Make it your own in every way!

Clearing things up? The apartment management had a handicapped space painted where it was just a space before. Then the pavers came in and repaved the whole lot which means the whole lot spaces had to be repainted. I haven't checked to see if they painted the handicapped sign on the space, but at least the sign is still planted in front of it. I thought the push button was a nice touch for those who might have trouble navigating the several small steps up to the rental office. Earlier this year an environmental testing and remediation outfit was through here sticking monitors on the wall to check for radon. State mandated no doubt, so this is something new in this area. Because I live on the first floor, my apartment was one of the testees. I am not sure what precipitated the GFI in the kitchen or repaving the parking area.

Yesterday and today, I have been checking out bed frames, mattresses, and furniture again. Almost all of those I like are mail order only, and I would have to put it all together. I have been trying to avoid that because I don't think my back can handle the twisting, turning and bending to put same together any longer. Unfortunately, there are only two real furniture stores in the area and they sell just about the same things. There is a discount furniture store  or two, but not really near by and they don't have very good ratings. Also, there seem to be several high end furniture stores, including Gish's (Amish made) which are out of my league. The furniture I like from the local Raymour and Flanigan is nice but is way too dark for my taste (only one color). It looks like Wayfair contracts with Angie's, but I don't know for sure if they use her list for around here, and I have heard varying opinions on the quality of service from Angie's list of contractors. As you can see, I manage to tie my brain in knots overthinking things sometimes. Well, it is not like I need to be in a super hurry.