Sunday, May 31, 2020

I didn't start the fire.

Blessings Darlings!

As the US burned today, we went out and visited local parks.  Then returned to attend a virtual protest online.  Because we're rural, this was THE state-wide protest.  Other ones were all over 100 miles away (DC, Pittsburgh, etc) and we'd be seen as 'outside agitators'.  So I did it from home, and donated money to groups with boots on the ground.  Including the ACLU, as always.

Since I'm in deep donation mode, household spending is again being cut back.  Bread has been made, having pasta for a lot of dinners this week (and yeah, my body does best on moderate to low carbs, but that's not always an option, is it?), etc.  I'm not sure I'd be baking the bread if it wasn't cool out today - since I don't need the AC on today it is 'safe' to back.

The guys fixed the dehumidifier today, so that should help make the house more comfortable without needing the AC.  And, of course, the rental manager wants it going all the time, so it's great that it's fixed for that reason, too.  

Exercised a lot today.  Ate badly - but cheaply.  Oh well.  Tomorrow is another day.

Tomorrow, on top of eating better, I really need to plant more of the garden, and deal with the moles or voles.  And as always do dishes and laundry.  I wonder what I'll serve for dinner ....?

Stay tuned!

Frondly, Fern

Saturday, May 30, 2020

First Fireflies!

Blessings Darlings!

I felt very old earlier today.  Someone in a group asked 'what rituals do you do when moving into a new home?" and my first thing was "Call your insurance agent, and make sure that they cover both the old place and the new place for the month that you're moving."  THEN I got into introducing yourself to the spirits there, salt, warding,  new brooms/other cleaning stuff, etc.

The weather here is amazingly gorgeous today.  I want to spend this evening outside, sitting in the twilight, having a cigarette.  Alas, I don't smoke any more.  That complicates the plan.  I suppose I could drink.

FIRST FIREFLY OF THE SEASON!!  Right on time - I usually first see them right around June 1.

Frondly, Fern


Friday, May 29, 2020

Smash the Patriarchy!

Blessings Darlings!

Coronavirus continues, fundamentally unabated, while states open.  People dying to protect the stock market.
Innocent Black men and women, slaughtered by the police - one one camera, the cop didn't care that he was being filmed doing murder - and the president up in arms that property is being damaged in the protests.  
Property and profits before people.  So fucking consistent.  Go back to work like the depreciating asset you are, folks.  Get sick?  Die?  You'll be replaced before your body is cold.  The company will be legally protected from being sued for putting you at risk/killing you. 

The county sent me the wrong mail-in ballot.  I'm registered as an independent, and asked for a Democratic ballot, but they sent me a non-partisan one (independents get the ballot they ASK for, at least in theory.  I'm going to have to vote at the courthouse instead of mailing it in.  I was going to mail it in, like, NOW.  At least I've gotten all my candidate research done, but it still sucks.

I have made it 3 weeks into exercising.  Starting Sunday I can start 'significantly increasing' what I've been doing.  I feel really fat and old lately.  Once I start serious exercise, tho', my skin will turn totally adolescent and I will start to break out.  Because that level of exercise does ... interesting ... things to hormone levels, no matter what age you are.

That's it for now.

Frondly, Fern


Thursday, May 28, 2020

I love carbs and hate exercise.

Blessings Darlings!

It's a cool and rainy day here today.  Humidity so high that everything is sticky, the kitchen floor feels so sticky from humidity (I washed it, it's clean) that my bare feet stick to it as if it is covered in maple syrup.

I'm just about at the end of my first 3 weeks starting back to exercising.  Yesterday was rough, but I got everything in.  While I wish stores had heavier dumb bells in stock ... it's not like I'll need heavier ones than we have for at LEAST a few months.  I started off, well, old, and pretty weak/out of shape.  And we have heavy enough dumb bells for my husband to have used over 10 years ago, when he was younger and in better shape.  So I have ones to 'grow into'.  I'd sure love to NEED to buy 25 and 30 pound sets already!  It's really hard for me to go slow at this.  The husband is the 'planner' here.  I'm the 'jump into things fast' one.

Today I'm working hard at doing more 'right eating' again.  While I LOVE LOVE LOVE my carbs, I need to focus on produce.  So breakfast was a salad (with bacon and eggs as the protein, because BREAKFAST SALAD) and lunch will be either apple slices with peanut butter or Greek yogurt with fruit, and dinner will be a mostly veggie stir fry, in brown sauce, with some pork.

People are really going back to doing their shopping IN the stores (and without masks, from what I've seen).  I just put in my Walmart order for next week, and instead of having to fight for a pick up time next week, I could pick any day other than today or tomorrow.  Folks aren't doing pick up any more.  AND I LIVE IN A HOT ZONE.  People . are . fucking . idiots .

I have a long rant I want to post, but it's out getting some fact checking.  Because facts matter.

Frondly, Fern

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Actual Memorial Day

Blessings Darlings!

For those of you who aren't as ancient as I am - today, the 27th of May, is the actual date of Memorial Day.  The actual date is now ignored, and the day is partied (not honored, for the most part) on the last Monday of May, so folks can have a 3 day weekend to indulge themselves in the 'official beginning of summer partying."

I cut my husband's hair today.  First time I ever cut anyone's hair.  It's better than it was before I cut it.  I didn't screw up much of it.  I'm glad it's over with.  I'll be better at it if I ever do it again.

It was a cool and slightly windy morning today - and we got no bees in the house.  I hope this continues.  But even if we don't need a bee relocation person, we're going to need a plumber soon.

Meanwhile, the US now officially has over 100,000 dead of Covid 19, and no one is allowed to release any stats they may have about how many people are dealing with probable life-long health issues from it.

Today in problems of old age - we've FINALLY found a popcorn my husband will eat.  He worries that he's going to break a tooth on most brands.  But he's now happy with Orville Reddenbacher's microwave popcorn.  Only the one the 'movie butter' tho.  And he still likes OR's normal yellow popcorn in the 45 oz jar, but I haven't been able to find any in months.

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

40th Anniversary

Blessings, Darlings!

Honey bees in the house continue.  If it goes on much longer, I'll notify the management that we probably have a hive in the walls or such.  For now, they are just getting escorted outside.

Today (Tuesday) is our 40th anniversary, so I might not be posting much.  Or I might.  You never know.  It's not like we're going out somewhere to celebrate.

Frondly, Fern

Monday, May 25, 2020

Memorial Day, Observed.

Blessings Darlings!

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
        In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
        In Flanders fields.

By John McCrae

Fern

Sunday, May 24, 2020

I am a prideful bitch.

Blessings Darlings!

I was awake most of today - a vast improvement over yesterday.

Cleaned some, got 3 bees out of the house (yay for honeybees, but how the heck did they get inside?), baked a cake, etc.  Drank so much coffee that one of my eyelids is twitching.

So all I have to do is straighten the family room a bit, and organize/sort the stuff on my desk, and THEN I can start to argue with the Chubby Hubby about having the landlord send a plumber over to fix a problem.  I know that neither of us WANTS a plumber coming over during the pandemic, but ... the pandemic isn't going to end soon.  Not at ALL. We've had the problem since the end of February (sink in the master bath is both draining slow and the stopper part is broken.)  It's totally a first world problem.  Sink is draining slow in the hall bathroom that shares a drainpipe with this sink, so it's not going to be THAT simple a fix.

For those wondering why we don't fix it - the last time my husband tried to do a plumbing repair, it resulted in a waterfall inside our house.  I had to come home from work to turn off the main water valve, since he didn't even know where that was.  He's great for electronics and electrical stuff.  Not for plumbing.

At any rate, I let my desk become a mess, and I don't even want any one here to do repairs, who has CERTAINLY seen worse, to see it.  I'm a prideful bitch.

That's about it for today, folks.

Frondly, Fern

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Sleepy Saturday

Blessings Darlings!

It's a lovely sunny day here today.  I hope to start work in the garden soon. Maybe transplant the winter squash, and put newspaper down to block weeks.  Maybe plant beans.  And later get more work done in the house. 

Nope, none of that got done.  I slept most of the day.  Oh well.

Frondly, Fern

Friday, May 22, 2020

World Turtle Day, etc.

Blessings Darlings!

Yesterday I had an adequate amount of energy early, but it also fizzled early.  I blame having added more exercises to Wednesday's 'strength and core' workouts.  My muscles handled the workouts well, but my overall body said NOPE.  So I'll have to get yesterday's aerobics in today.

If the rain continues, I'll also be doing only inside work today, rather than getting more gardening in.  I've plenty of cleaning and clothes repairs to do, it's not like I'll be bored.

There are many new cases of coronavirus in my area.  No surprise.  The governor is sending National Guard troops to 'assist'.  Not sure what they are supposed to be assisting.  I've just pasturized our used masks again.  And, since they are boring old school masks, I'm going to be drawing cat noses, mouths, and whiskers on them.

Saturday is World Turtle Day.  As it happens, there is a turtle looking for a home.  Can you help? https://turnto10.com/news/local/53-year-old-tortoise-needs-new-home-after-owner-dies-of-covid-19?fbclid=IwAR2fIEHX4SqJVMjZ3PhYbdcvpLMvjvVLslOWazNiXrxLjLZUX7xhN1icmWw

The rain certainly has been continuing today.  I've vacuumed and done a bunch of cleaning in the kitchen so far.  More to come.

I am in my mid 60's and have been married for about 40 years. This means my weekend plans this weekend, with things closed due to coronovirus, are EXACTLY the same as they would have been without coronavirus.

Really, that's it.  Oh, I also did some vacuuming.

Frondly, Fern

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Bottom McBottomface

Blessings Darlings!

Let's talk about witchy/pagan names that folks use, especially on FB and other widely used platforms.  No, I'm not going to whine about the over use of 'wolf' and 'raven' and such in names.  Instead - let's talk about how your chosen name is, functionally, your stated goal.  What you want to embody, what you want to HAPPEN.

Naming yourself Bottom McBottomface is, magically, not a great idea for public name.  And make no mistake about it, FB is really really public.  Using that name - or Tormented Angel #986 (I'm sure that there are folks on FB using 'tormented angel' as their name, I'm not trying to call any individual out here) is an invitation for anyone and everyone to torment you.  Even for bottoms, you trust YOUR domme.  Not every wanna be domme out there.  Most of whom don't know how to domme at all.  YOU have control over that.

You don't have control over everyone who sees your name on FB, and the resulting energies coming back on that - and those energies are likely to reverberate all thru' your life.  It's going to contribute to why your boss thinks they can dump all over you and not give you raises or promotions.  It's going to contribute to why your ex keeps causing trouble.  It's going to contribute to why you keep running into roadblocks in your life.  You're going to be ticketed for every burnt out headlight on your car.   You're going to get a huge number of flat tires.  INSTEAD OF STAVING OFF TROUBLE - YOU'RE INVITING IT IN. 

Yes, I understand liking dramatic names.  But there are dramatic names that aren't invoking eternal victimhood. 

There are times and places where you can still use that power bottom name.  The most appropriate place would be before any divinity/spirit that you are collared by (and, of course, by any person that you are collared by).   You have both a relationship and trust with them.  They are not just any assholes off the street.

Frondly, Fern

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Yes, we have no tomatoes.

Blessings Darlings!

Busy day today - the Wednesday shopping took me to 5 stores, and I forgot one item anyway.  Nothing that can't wait, of course.  The stores were crowded with people not wearing masks.  That latter part made me unhappy.  What makes me even MORE unhappy is getting home and, tho' the chubby hubby said we have two tomatoes - and we need fresh tomato for dinner - that in fact we have NO tomatoes, and if I had known this, I had 5 bloody chances to buy them.

But, no.  Since CH is the person in the house at greatest risk of severe illness if HE gets Covid 19 - I spent the Spawn out to the store.  Because there was no way in hell that I was going out to the store again.  Zero. Zip. Nada.

I also cooked a bunch.  And did some other shit.  But mostly I was at bloody stores all day. I got exercising in.  I haven't meditated.  I still have to do daily offerings. I haven't taken my daily medications.  I haven't had enough fiber - and only 1 serving of fruits and no veggies.  And I keep thinking that it's Saturday.

Sheesh.

Frondly, Fern




Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Can someone clean at least PART of the kitchen for me?

Blessings Darlings!

Wednesday is World Bee Day.  And since I post this at the end of Tuesday, most of you will be reading this on Wednesday itself.   I try to be bee-supportive, especially of local bees.  I buy local honey.  While I rent this house, so I can't replace the entire lawn with stuff that's better for the environment, I keep all the lovely flowering 'weeds' that support bees - the dandelions, the clover that I adore as well, I keep the buttercups happy, etc.  Amongst the bushes we have are  some hollies that become a shimmer of bees of many many different types when they bloom.  And the bees LOVE LOVE LOVE blooming oregano!  If my son wasn't so intimidated by them I'd keep a hive of them, but, he just is.  Once he finishes college and moves on that might be an option.

Yellow jackets can just go fuck off and die, tho.

I've had a bunch of 'off' days lately, and am trying to get more done.  I'm doing more 'things', but almost all will have to be repeated tomorrow.  I'll again wash dishes, again cook dinner, again meditate and eat breakfast and take my medications, again blog, again do offerings.  I'll work in the garden every day.  I will watch part 2 of the video on making videos I saw today.  I won't have to harvest the same veggies, or make kahlua or grind coffee. 

For some reason, repetition at home is more wearing on me than repetition at work (at least at the last job) was.

In coronavirus news, things keep opening up, about 1000 people die a day in the US from it, and now to add insult to injury, Trump is suspending all safety regulations 'that slow business'.  Which is all of them, because all safety stuff reduces ROI.

That's it for today.

Frondly, Fern




Monday, May 18, 2020

This and that.

Blessings Darlings!

I've been trying to write a post about how I'm getting thru' the whole lockdown/unemployment/etc well because not just am I SERIOUSLY introverted, but that I have shitloads of privilege.  And I am/do have.  But writing about it kept seeming yucky.  So I cleaned and cooked, and talked with others about the issues of canvassing during Coronavirus, and how to coordinate phone canvassing amongst candidates and state and local and federal groups all trying to canvas the same people for the same cause and driving those people batty.  And wondering about if and when we can try to do voter registration again, and if we can do it NOT just at the libraries during the day, but also at the Save A Lot stores, etc,

And I got my exercising in, but I have not eaten healthy today.  I did make a nice vanilla custard.

Didn't hear from the group that was supposed to have contact tracing training.  I'm sad about that.

A pair of swallows keep flying close by the window being silly.

Frondly, Fern

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Mid May Land Base.

Blessings, Darlings!

On the Coronavirus front -  JUST NOW the govt is requiring nursing homes to report cases.  They STILL don't REQUIRE nursing homes to report other infectious diseases being spread in their walls.

The farmer I share a driveway with is up to her ears with the haying right now.  She spent last week sharpening/replacing the hay mowing attachment to the tractor, and for the last two days has been hauling the huge round bales of hay back here, and putting them into storage.

Hay is cut here at about the same time that corn gets planted.  So that's going on as well.  And some fields have clearly been treated with toxins to kill the 'weeds' so soybeans can soon be planted in them.  Meanwhile, the winter wheat is going to be ready to harvest in a few weeks.

The Spawn picked up a leg of lamb when he went to Costco this week.  Thus we're having Jesus (the lamb of God) for dinner tonight.  Also I've made cole slaw and hummus today.


Apparently we got rain overnight - heavy rain.  I didn't hear it, but the Spawn did.  I guess I can go out and spray stuff vole/mole repellent in the garden!  Yay!  I wonder if my hose is long enough to reach that end of the garden.  Sigh.

That's pretty much it for today.

Frondly, Fern

Saturday, May 16, 2020

Caturday in the Garden with Sweat.

Blessings Darlings!

Breakfast only had one veggie today, so I had to add a piece of fruit.  There is a new horse, a beautiful brown gelding with a large white blaze, probably a t-bred, in the pasture - the two 'old' horses are working on putting it in its place.   There has been bucking by Reeta, the black mare.  Now they are about 16 feet apart, and Reeta is 'on alert' and stamping her feet and pawing the ground a little.  Of course, that could just be due to the flies.  The horses are all out standing in the noon day sun - the cattle are all more sensible and in the shade under trees.

I'm one week into the feeble beginning of exercising regularly.  So far, while my knees have talked to me about this, no flares of tendonitis anywhere.  Of course, I'm starting slower than slow.  Ultra light weights, a small number of reps per set, only 10 minutes each session on the exercise bike (because my ass needs to get acclimated to the damn seat as much as because my cardiovascular system needs to get acclimated to aerobic work.)  I'm slightly off of zero!  Go me! 

That my knees are talking to me is why I didn't get any plants into the garden yesterday.  I watered everything, both in the ground and still in pots, but that was it.  Today is another day.  I took one Naproxen Friday evening, and am easily able to handle garden work today.

Spent some time doing healing requests at my Healing altar on Friday.

Also on Friday night - for the first time in years, ground out own coffee from beans.  For a while we could only find coffee in whole beans (during the panic buying in March).  So we ended up with some of our reserve coffee in whole bean form.  But the bags of that have 'best use' dates before the coffee in cans.  So of course we're using it first.  It's probably been 6 years since I've ground coffee, so remembering the peculiarities of our grinder took a bit of time.  This morning we brewed it, and apparently I did it all correctly for our tastes.  Yay!

Spent an unusually large amount of time lately talking with the Chubby Hubby.  For some reason, we aren't understanding each other easily.  But we put the work in, as one does.  Also negotiated who gets what leftovers, a vital thing to reach agreement on.

As always, I beat back the attacking dirty dishes this morning, then more magically showed up.  It's sorcery, I tell you - sorcery!  Also transplanted one batch of peppers into the garden, one zucchini, one crookneck summer squash.  And weeded some.  And watered almost everything, sprouting in pots or in the various gardens.  Maybe I'll transplant more in later ... maybe not.  I should at least finish the watering today.  It's now later - I finished the watering, and filled in gaps in the 'root veggies' part of the garden with plants I didn't have room for earlier.  It's sweaty out there now.

What I planted today are NOT things that will produce a lot of calories, and I know that I said in an earlier post that I'm moving more towards higher calorie gardening.  The fact is that no matter what, we LIKE to use peppers for seasoning.  I LOVE squash - summer and winter varieties.  I'm not eliminating low-calorie veggies, I'm just planting half the amount of them I planted last year.  Except for cayenne peppers, I'm going from 1 plant to several, because I use them a lot for cooking and didn't grow enough last year.  I'm still growing onions, and I've added garlic. 

Today was all the digital commencement speeches by various Big Name Folks.  I should listen to some of them sometime.

Frondly, Fern








Friday, May 15, 2020

Plagiarposting.

Blessings Darlings!

Allow me, if you will, to introduce you to introduce to a term I created earlier this week.  The term is "Plagiarposting".  It is when someone posts something in a group that someone else wrote, but doesn't link back or give any credit to the actual author.  IN-FUCKING-EVITABLY, the person doing this does so others will think that they are the author (because it DOES make it seem that they are) but 'I never SAID I wrote it (I just implied it)".  And they will do this over and over and over, with posts that are plagiarized from lots of different sources.  So they look oh, so very informed. 

But because they deliberately omit the source, they are also keeping the folks in the dark about the sources of information out there.  They are, in fact, bogarting information to make themselves look like some fucking guru, some actual source of information and ... ahem ... better writing than they can actually do themselves. 

Mutter, mutter, something about self care.  Yeah, I want a fried egg and bacon sandwich, but I'm making myself a dish of eggs served on top of two servings of cooked vegetables.  Both are delicious, but the high veggie one isn't as much a 'comfort food.'  And, yeah, I drank [some] of my morning water. 

But I'm making a fresh strawberry pie and eating some of it later on.  Just because.

Chubby Hubby and I discussed the 'meat shortage' in the stores today.  The Spawn and I have mostly  bought the cheap regular priced bags of chicken leg quarters and ground beef for YEARS, but added getting meat that was 'reduced for quick sale' meat, that hadn't sold and was reduced for the last day it could be sold.  Well, THAT meat has pretty much disappeared from the stores, as well as the prices for all meats rising.

Let me digress (as if you have a choice in me digressing?) to the history of food costs in the US.  We have had astonishingly inexpensive food here compared with the rest of the world.  It takes up less than half of the percentage of household income that it takes in all other countries.  This, in part, explains why the level of income here considered 'poverty level' is artificially low - that income is based on a multiple of what it takes to feed an individual/family, ignoring the fact that other US prices, like housing, take a relatively higher percent of household income.  Our food costs now are edging towards a slightly more 'normal' percent of household income. 

Anyway...

CH is with me on splitting a pig with the amazing Suz, and that I'mworking on getting a group together to maybe split a steer. We'll see if that works out, but at least we're working on it.  He DID ask "Will we have to go vegan?".  I pointed out that cutting down on meat doesn't = vegan.  But he'd best get used to more low-meat stews and soups for dinner, along with our usual stir fries.  And that I hadn't brought up dairy products at all.  Silly CH.

I'm posting this now, EVERY early in the day, because I might want to demonstrate my creation of the neologism "Plagiarposting" sometime.  It's now noon on 5/15/20.  I also used it in a saved Messenger chat a few days ago.  It's still a GoogleNope.  It's MINE. 

Frondly, Fern

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Contact tracing

Blessings Darlings!

It's 4 days before the 'latest frost date in my area'.  I finally sat down and planned what I was planting where in the main garden.  It's not that complex, I just need hot peppers away from sweet peppers, in case I want to save seeds, tomatoes away from potatoes, since they carry the same diseases, cukes away from tomatoes, give the hard squash lots of room to expand into, etc.  Only one of the winter squash seeds has come up so far, might need to start some more.  I have 3 different varieties to play with.

There is a training coming up in my area, to learn to do contact tracing for folks with coronavirus.  I've sent them email to get into the training.  I over qualify, having a public health degree and years working on hotlines.  And it's work at home, so keeps me isolated.  HOWEVER, the fact is that most folks don't answer their phones if the don't know the caller.  This fact is going to complicate making this approach actually work for contact tracing.  Sick folks are even less likely to answer their phones if a stranger, or strange agency, calls.  I'm also not sure that it is going to pay us, this being West Virginia where much of the health department stuff is done by volunteers.  OTOH, I also have info on a program that DOES pay, and pay well.  It contracts with the govts.  I've contacted both.

I would like a nap.  Or an entire Boston Cream Pie.  Or something. 

Dinner tonight was chicken Yaki Soba, sort of the Japanese version of Lo Mein.  I add a LOT of veggies - tonight shredded cabbage and carrots.  I wanted to add bean sprouts, but I started sprouting them two days too late for that.  I'll use them in a stir-fry later this week.

Today's magic - reinforcing the household wards.

Oh - I'm at high frustration with witch groups who feel that 'thoughts and prayers' are the pinnacle of magic. 

I think that's it for today.

Frondly, Fern

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

A lovely Wednesday.

Blessings Darlings!

Walmart pick up achieved.  I rejected the substitution for popcorn, love the substitution for canned veggies, glass 'rock' substitution is fine.  They didn't have my black rocks.  First world issue.  Maybe I'll set up a contact free pick up from Michael's sometime to get them.  I don't think there are any flat black rocks locally, mostly grey ones, but I'll check for them on my walks, too.

Today is, as always, dishes and housework.  Also baking sweet potatoes and white potatoes for use over the next week.  And baking our masks to pasteurize them for re-use.  165 - 170 degrees for 30 minutes = reusable mask.

A tire on my car has a slow leak.  I drove to the Sheetz in town to fill it.  SURPRISE Sheetz has removed the air pump.  Eeeek.  Okay, drove home, Chris was working on the tractor - oh, I'll bet she has a way to inflate the tires on all her equipment.  And she did.  And she recommends that I get the tire patched over at Bobs, on 45 going into Martinsburg.

I also hoed about 1/3 of the walkway to the front door.  Need to plant stuff there, too.

Frondly, Fern




Tuesday, May 12, 2020

No-contact purchase of Witch supplies

Blessings Darlings!

Dishes done, laundry on clothes line, seedlings moved outside again.  Trying to clean the area where the plants overwintered inside, and gotta get on that exercise bike.  Waiting to see if my unemployment money hits the bank account today.  Doing more vacuuming.

I'm really worried about what happens when they open the state.  The state isn't testing for Coronavirus worth shit.  I live in a hot spot for it.  I'm old, and my husband is older, so we're at risk.  It's a clusterfuck. 

Meanwhile, since we're still quarantining as much as possible - any magical supplies I need I'm ordering from Walmart, and picking up with my grocery deliveries.  For tomorrow's pick up that includes terra cotta pot saucers, black rocks, and glass 'gems'.  Last week I bought small LED tea lights from them.  The work must go on!

As I'm pretty sure I posted earlier, I stocked up on stuff for daily/special offerings well before things got bad.  Like, the last things I bought was wine for offerings, and that was just after Imbolc.  Over 3 months ago.  So I'm not feeling guilty about spending $10 between last week and this week for supplies.

That's it for today.

Frondly, Fern


Monday, May 11, 2020

Intent < Will

Blessings Darlings!

It's cooler here today than it was yesterday.  It's a good thing we took our family walk yesterday!  And the freeze advisories continue for tonight and the next few nights.  If I do anything in the garden, it will be planting the hardy herbs only.

Other than the 'exercise for beginners' on tap for today, I'm also making bialys, probably making a loaf of bread, vacuuming my office, the heavy traffic area, and the family room.  I already did the dishes once, and unloaded the dishwasher.  Kinda normal Monday action for me.  But now that the school year is over, and the Spawn has 'recovered' from it, he gets to start cleaning the pantry today. 

Data point - the walking and the exercise bike time I put in yesterday doesn't seem to have bothered my knees much today.  I haz a happy!  Today is core exercise and VERY light weight upper body workout day.  I hate exercising, but I gotta start doing it. 

You could say that doing it is my intent.  But since IMO 'intent' is bullshit - it's my Will. Intent is such a passive thing.  People intend to lose weight.  They intend to quit smoking.  They never intend to have a car accident ... and yet they do.  They never intend to get behind on their bills ... and yet they do that.  They don't intend to become obese ... and yet they do. 

Why do you think that is?

IMO, it's because all the passive 'intent' in the universe isn't worth a bucket of warm spit ... unless you DO SOMETHING.  Intent is the idea. Will is the action.  And competence is further yet down the road to achieving anything.  Competence is will plus learning and applying knowledge and skills.

I want to become healthier and stronger.  To get there, I make a plan, and execute that plan.  I have made sure that I have a lot of fruits and veggies in the house to eat.  I have easy to access proteins that I like in the house.  I have several whole grain options to use for meals.  Thus I used my Will to make sure I have no excuses to not eat right.  Are they fruit and veggie options cheap ones?  Hell yeah.  Apples, oranges, and bananas, with some sale priced grapes for fruits, and frozen beans and broccoli, along with fresh cabbage and carrots, and canned tomatoes, and one spaghetti squash to step in to the place of pasta.  I'm sprouting my own mung beans.  Nothing is as cheap as white pasta and white rice would be, of course, but I have the room to do this. 

To that, I still have to apply my WILL to using those foods for my meals.  That's a fact.

I hate exercising.  But I'm doing it, as best my aging body allows it at this point.  That means doing a little each day, sometimes a little several times a day.  I have to use my active Will here, too.

All the 'intent' to lose weight and get fit isn't worth squat if I sit on the couch shoveling chips into my body all day.  Even if I 'send that intent out into the universe' as I sit on my ass eating chips.

The will is sort of like a muscle.  The more you use it, the stronger it becomes.  And, because it starts off weak, when you start the actual 'doing', you might need to throw in rewards for having taken action.  Not punishment for NOT having taken action.  The Chubby Hubby is tying a little exercise in with each time he comes upstairs to get a cup of coffee.  Maybe warm ups one cup, sit ups one cup, push ups one cup, etc.  The coffee is the reward.

Now - do I really have to point out that this stuff rules both the mundane AND the magical?  Gods, I hope not.

What's new with coronavirus?  Well, doctors keep finding new ways that it fucks with the body.  On top of fucking the lungs, we already knew that it causes clots in the blood system, thus affecting the lungs less directly and causing heart attacks and strokes and kidney problems.  Now we're getting new info on neurological affects.  Sigh.

And Trump keeps egging on the quarantine protestors, while bailing out big business.  And everyone in the White House gets coronavirus tests, to protect HIM, but virtually no one in the rest of the country does, because protecting the citizens isn't important to him.

Growl.

Frondly, Fern


Sunday, May 10, 2020

Mothers Day, 2020.

Blessings, Darlings!

A special 'Blessings' for all y'all who are missing your mothers today, due to whatever reasons.  Deaths, coronavirus distancing, abuse, 'difficult relationships', etc.  And to those who are missing what you'd have needed or liked your mother to have been when you were a child or now, as an adult, because adults have needs, too.  And to those who would have liked to have been mothers themselves, but life happened differently, if you feel a heavy weight of that.

The Chubby Hubby and I lost our mothers in this past decade, with both of them having issues of blindness, deafness, and Alzheimer's disease for years before they died.  While we miss them - we also 'missed them' during the last 5+ years of their lives.  

Oddly enough - due to coronavirus, this is the first Mothers Day in like 8 years that I actually get to spend with my little nuclear family.  The Spawn and I worked in restaurants for that long.  And men take their mothers and wives to restaurants on Mothers Day.  So Mothers Day was a day we HAD to work, then.  In 'normal' times.  This being 'abnormal', we get to actually enjoy the day.  Since we aren't under awful money pressure, we're ... having a 'fancy' dinner.  Small rib roast (it was on sale), fancy rice, asparagus that was on sale.  Tho' a restaurant in town that is doing carry out now has a Lavender Creme Brulee on their dessert menu, we're going to not pick that up.  We'll work to keep it a Coronavirus Free Day.  We WILL take a walk, down Country Roads, here in West Virginia (someone should write a song about them).  We've yet to pass another walking human being while doing this, so it should be Coronavirus Free.

I HAVE printed out a recipe for it, to try sometime later.  I've no cream nor culinary lavender in the house just now.  And, speaking of 'problems of the comfortable', the provolone cheese has gone moldy.

So, we all walked - again, no others walking at all.  Some cars/pickups passed us.  I harvested some young poke, and have blanched it.  Will eat it tomorrow, we have asparagus for tonight.  Probably over boiled it, actually.  Total distance was about 1 mile.

When we got back from the walk, we discovered that the Spawn's $1200.00 stimulus check in the mail box.  Dunno why they didn't direct deposit it - they direct deposit all his tax refund money.  

Garden update - I'm keeping the cloches on the basil for now.  Today's happiness is that the potatoes are sprouting!  But I'm not sure what I'll do about THEM if we get another frost.  Sweet bell peppers are sprouting in the house, and one seed each of grey squash and crookneck yellow squash have sprouted, along with some cayenne peppers.  So I have great happies.

I ate fruit and peanut butter - and a few tasty crackers - for lunch.  So I'm at 4 servings of fruits and veggies so far today.  I did 10 minutes on the exercise bike, too, to start breaking my ass in to the saddle again, slowly.  Also because last time on it really bothered my knee.  But that was two weeks ago, maybe the knee will take it better this time.  My ass was not amused.

Coronavirus update - it's getting closer to hitting Trump.  One of his valets has tested positive, others in the staff/taskforces have as well.  The head of the CDC, and I think NIH, and Fauci, are in self quarantine.  Stephen Miller's wife has tested positive, which makes me hope he'll end up with bad Covid 19. 

 I'm going to move on towards dinner now. 

Frondly, Fern


Saturday, May 9, 2020

Spring Freeze continues

Blessings Darlings!

Didn't do much today at all.  No doubt I'm having trouble with motivation/action due to depression.  So focusing on eating 'right', whatever the fuck that means.  In this case, salad for breakfast, fruit and peanut butter sandwich and chips for lunch, and pulled pork with baked sweet potato fries for dinner.   Throw in a couple more pieces of fruit, and I'll be at 5 servings of fruit and veggies.  Drinking water.  Taking my meds.  Not drinking lots of caffeine.  That kind of thing. 

I'd better put more sweet potatoes on my Walmart pick up list while I'm at it.  As well as a basic new fry pan, until they have the one we want in stock. 

The Chubby Hubby was crabby yesterday.  He always has a problem if you continue to do stuff while he talks to you - like, if I'm preparing food I have to stop and give him all my attention, rather than listen while I prep - and yesterday he was really bitchy about it.  Don't know what set him off

I didn't look at any Coronavirus news today.  So I don't know how many thousand folks died in the US yesterday or anything - just that it was too damn many.

Frondly, Fern


Friday, May 8, 2020

Freeze coming.

Blessings Darlings!

Our main non-stick fry pan, 10 1/2 inch, needs to be replaced.  So does our 8 1/2 inch one.  So I used my unemployment benefits to get a digital membership to Consumer Reports and have started searching for a replacement.  Walmart carries what I want, but is out of stock on it for now.  Thus we will be using the well-seasoned cast iron fry pans for the foreseeable future.

With the record cold temps heading our way, I just went out in the rain and put cloches over the basil I planted.  Even *I* don't know why I chose to transplant the basil into the main garden before anything else.  It's the most temperature sensitive of anything I'm growing.  Foolish Fern!

I made the cloches by cutting the bottom off of my endless supply of empty 2 liter soda bottles.  I've been collecting them for years.  I use them for all sorts of things.  For this use, they are being held in place by sticks that I put in the ground around the plants.

I'm also using my 'Covid Unemployment check' to help folks with gofundme's and the like.  Especially the local businesses that need help.  We even meant to get a carry out lunch from a local place this week, but we forgot - we never really do that normally, it's just not one of our habits.

Oh, a new groundhog started excavating the den under our front step.  We've put the live trap back in place.  Sigh.

That's it for today.

Frondly, Fern

Thursday, May 7, 2020

Heavy food, light blog

Blessings Darlings!

Last night my son made a stuffed pizza.  They are delicious.  They also always set off my stomach.  So not much of a post today.

The guys bough a rib roast for Mother's Day's dinner.  They found it even in the 'meat shortage', so that's great.  They didn't have luck finding the 'country style' pork ribs at Food Lion.  OTOH, Food Lion had so much of an over abundance of 10 pound bags of chicken legs quarters (the same ones that my bag last week was mostly drumsticks) that they filled a huge part of their frozen food area with them. 

In other news, Trump pressured Barr/DOJ and now charges against Flynn have been dropped, even tho' Flynn essentially confessed twice.

Fern

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Frustration

Blessings, Darlings!

It's raining, the Spawn is picking up our order from Walmart, I've unloaded the dishwasher - it's just another day.  Walmart substituted two things, for things of the same or better quality, at the same or lower price.  That's nice. 

We're going to be getting a week of unusually cold weather.  I'm going to bring in all the seedlings, but I did plant 4 basil plants.  Of course, basil is VERY COLD SENSITIVE.    I'm going to have to cut the bottoms off of soda bottles and put them over the damn plants.  And hope I can cover them without the covers blowing away.  We tend to have WIND here.
 
Having done a Walmart pick up this morning, I'm starting next weeks' list.  And lo and behold ... there are pick up slots available on Monday and Tuesday next week.  Three weeks ago, I had to check back just after midnight to quickly grab the slots that opened at that time, for pick up 6 days later.  And in some areas, you had to order up to 2 weeks in advance for pick up.

Not any more, apparently.  I doubt that Walmart suddenly got a whole lot more staff pulling the items for orders, or putting orders in cars.  They certainly don't suddenly have more parking spaces in the pick up area.

Suddenly, it looks like folks are going back to shopping. Even in the hot spot I live in.  People . are . stupid . 

Frustratedly, Fern

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Situations not improving.

Blessings Darlings!

The pandemic continues unabated, so of course the administration is talking about disbanding the group they have working on it.

I went out today - had to get mole/vole repellent for the garden, and also hit Aldi's.  While out I also filled my car's leaking tire and filled it's gas tank.  I guess I'm living large. Also paid the electricity, and my health insurance.  Woo hoo!  I'm living large!

The Chubby Hubby is not willing to eat cooked wheat berries, 'they get caught in my tooth, where the filling is missing'.  Cooked mushrooms also do that to him, but he's happy to eat THOSE in a lovely veloute sauce.  Snort.  Since our full year supply of food is based in large part on wheat berries, this is a serious problem.  Sure, they rcan be ground for flour and baked, and we will be making bread.  BUT - eating cooked wheat berries as parts of dishes, from cold salads to stews and soups and beyond, is important, and saves time/energy.   At the very least, if we have a chance, he's going to have to have that filling free cavity filled.

I DO think that things aren't going to improve any time soon, and clearly we're just seeing the beginning of actual shortages of foods now (rather than panic buying having cleared the shelves.)  Executive orders aren't going to get folks sick with Covid 19 on the job.  I don't know when we'll be able to have his tooth fixed, because we live in a hot spot, and this isn't an emergency ... at this time.

Meanwhile, I'm working on re-stocking the house.  I haven't bought any toilet paper, soap, paper towels, or shampoo for me and the Spawn (did get some shampoo for the CH) at all this year.  And we have gone thru' a lot of our canned mixed veggies and canned mushrooms.  So I'm trying to order them every week.  Haven't had any luck getting most of them yet - Walmart is always out of things.  And Aldi has limits on the things I can get there (like only 4 cans of mushrooms each trip.  We use that many every week.)

Monday, May 4, 2020

Laundry Day.

Blessings Darlings!

Seriously weird post-apocalpytic  dreams last night.  Low-tech tribal societies, with societal pressure against technology.  Then THAT old trope - a cool piece of technology roars into town ... er ... village.  Thus Upheaval.

The shapeshifting Cylon lawyer at the end was an interesting plot twist.

Spawn had to go to the bank today - rolling over a CD, if he lets the bank do the 'automatic' roll over the interest on it drops to 0,02%, and for 6 months rather than 3 months.  So he also hit Costco since it's close to the bank (both are in the middle of Maryland, rather than here in West By God Virginia.)  Not much selection on Pork there, some frozen stuff out, no generic Pepsid.  No 25 pound bags of rice - so he got a 50 pound bag.  BIG ass bag.  Sheesh.  I didn't think to have him evaluate the toilet paper situation.

Coronavirus news is that they expect up to 3000 deaths a day from it, in the US, in June.  

We've got a cold spell coming this weekend.  I'll need to cover the basil that I've planted, and take in all my seedlings that I've not planted.  Le Sigh.  I wish my potatoes would sprout, but they are hanging back.  maybe they sense the problem.  Or not.

We trapped the groundhog that set up under our front step - the excavation s/he did was amazing - some of the rocks s/he moved were half her/his size!  It's gone now.

Did dishes, and 5 loads of laundry.  Just another day.

Frondly, Fern


Sunday, May 3, 2020

I suck at herding black cattle at 3 am.

Blessings Darlings!

At 2:30 this morning someone insistently leaned on our doorbell.  Then did it again.  I stagger to the door, "Dude? What the fuck?" "Are those your fields?" "No" "No?" "No" "There are cattle in the road." "Oh, Fuck"

And that's how a 4 hour round up extravaganza began.  Because tho' the cattle aren't mine, helping neighbors is totally a thing.  Chubby Hubby called the owner, she headed out here.  The Spawn and I headed out as he was calling, to see if we could handle it ourselves.  The cows got out of the street, and out of the tree farm, but then bolted into the subdivision.

We we trying to corral black cows, at night.  It didn't go well.  Tried just driving them ... they'd make runs for it.  Tried using fresh hay in the fenced fields - nope, but at least no other cows escaped.  Tried herding them with a 4 wheeler.  Into the copse they went!  Finally, in the pre-dawn twilight, we could see them and what they were doing, and got them into ... well, got them the other side of the fence, tho' not into the 'right' field.  They were in the field fenced off to let the grass grow for them to get into later.  But from there the farmer could move them.  All she had to do now was repair the fence she cut since they wouldn't agree to go to the gate.

So in a way - I helped move the cattle to their summer fields.  Very Bealtaine-ish.  

It's not at ALL clear how they got out to begin with.  All the gate around me were well closed (we checked.)

Soon the two horses go to their summer home.  With a creek and other horses to play with.  I'm going to miss them.

I haven't looked at the latest Coronavirus news in days.  I know that the US has over 100K cases, over 60K deaths, and even Mississippi's governor is saying "Ya know, maybe we'll re-think opening everything as quickly as we planned'

Frondly, Fern

Saturday, May 2, 2020

Under the weather.

Blessings, Darlings!

I suppose that today it should read 'Lessings, Darlings.'  I'm a bit under the weather, a flare up of a chronic issue, nothing major.  I'm spending the day napping and such.  And, alas, the weather outside is WONDERFUL today, and the CH and I had planned on a long walk.

Catch all y'all tomorrow!

Frondly, Fern

Friday, May 1, 2020

SSDD

Blessings Darlings!

Yup, it's May Day.  And I had very low-key dreams of driving a big tractor trailer and it's breaks not TOTALLY working.  I could get it to slow down an lot, but not stop.  Even with the engine off and being put 'in park'. 

I suppose that might be a symbol of something.

So, it's the first of May.  I washed my face in the morning dew.  Oh - here's a video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EiBzMB39qc

Oh, honest to fuck, glance over at the TV, they've got a business headline "Clorox sees increased sales".  Really?  No shit.

 Whatever, Fern