FLY LADY - Week 1 December

  The holidays are in full swing! That means while many of you did a massive Spring Cleaning, I am doing my deep cleaning in preparation for holiday decorations.

My room schedule stays the same. The only difference is that after I deep clean, the Christmas decorations for that room go up. While this week is the Laundry & Kitchen, I'm also doing the Bathroom. I need the towels and wash cloths put in place. All of the fall/ Halloween linens are packed away and I'm working with emergency back-ups until the Christmas ones get unpacked.

Before I start with the regular routine, let's tackle the bathroom. This is probably the easiest/ fastest room in the home to clean but is often the room left behind until company is expected. When you consider that aside from the kitchen, this is the germiest room in the home, the bathroom really needs routine attention.

Everything gets wiped down by spraying with a vinegar water solution. I vacuum out the tub before wiping that down. 

The bathroom sink drain gets the montly drain cleaner solution. If you've not done this before, a monthly routine of this task will keep all of your drains running smooth and fresh.

Pour 1 cup of baking soda over the drain opening

Add 2 cups of hot vinegar

Flush through with hot water

     Note: Don't use the tap water as it won't be hot right away. I use a 4-cup pyrex cup.

     Note: To keep the water from boiling over and creating a safety hazzard, place a 1/2 of a bamboo                      skewer in the cup before putting in the microwave. You can also heat your water in a pan 

                or tea kettle on the stove.

If you've not done this before, the drain may still be sluggish. Just repeat the process then plan to do this once a month.

I also sweep/ mop the bathroom floor. 

Now I'm ready to decorate!

Laundry room/ Kitchen

These two areas are really one long room separated only by a double arch opening. 

For the washing machine, I run 1 cup of baking soda and 1/2 gallon of white vinegar through a HOT water wash. If you have an Heavy Duty setting, use this for the added agitation time. After you've run the vinegar/ soda rotation, run the washer again with just a hot water cycle.

I also wipe the lids and the machines on the outside with a vinegar cleaner solution. 

Everything gets taken off the shelves above the laundry side of the room and wiped down. While the shelves are drying completely I repeat with the cat counter on the opposite side of the room. 

The rug beneath the cat box is taken outside and shaken out then put in the washer. While that is running, I empty the litter box, wash it with pinesol and allow to air dry outside completely. 

I move the recycling baskets to the front deck, clearing the floor completely of any opstacles, allowing me to sweep/ steam/ mop/ rinse mop the floor. Once the floor is dry, everything goes back in place. This entire process takes me about half of a day but the results are worth the time.

On Day 2 of this week I'll tackle the kitchen. The baking counter seems to become a catch-all so that all as to be sorted out/ put away or pitched. Then the appliances are removed so I can detail the counter with the vinegar solution. Once dry, the appliances go back in place. 

Additionally this week, I will strip everything out of the coffee corner, wipe everything down, refill the tea bag jars and detail my coffee pot. I don't clean Bob's Bunn. That's his department. I don't mess with his coffee pot except when I need strong coffee to dye paper :-D

On Day 3 I will give the oven a good cleaning in preparation for the annual Christmas Cookie baking I'll be doing on Saturday/ Sunday

After the oven is cleaned, the floor will receive the same detailing as the laundry room and my kitchen will be ready for decorating and baking season!

Come back on Friday to see these rooms done and ready for Christmas!

Country Blessings!

~ Kelly

PREPPER FRIDAY - What's Enough?

 

Good morning, everyone!

As I hear the stories of everyone 'stocking up' and constant buying, wiping out shelves I find myself asking... What's Enough?

I'm pretty sure Bob has asked 'do we have enough, already' as he put together two new shelving units we purchased from Menards.

We have a wall between the shower room and Bob's man came. The side on the shower room is open stud. I saw this drop can storage unit on Pinterest and knew the studded wall could be converted.

 The wall is only about 6' long so not a lot of storage. Our canned goods overflow to a heavy duty shelving unit Bob built when we first moved in to this house.

In the spare room we have the two shelving units from Menards, an upright freezer that houses most of the meat. I also have four 5-shelf book cases that initially held all of my smaller pieces of fabric. I've since moved those to a storage shed in the back yard that I've dubbed my crafting warehouse. The Menards units hold paper and cleaning supplies. The bookcases hold all of our dry goods. I have one other bakers rack to move downstairs for all of the baking supplies. I want to add one more of the big shelving units to hold all of our water storage. Right now everything sits on the floor - in the way. 

So, back to the question. 

The amount is going to vary by the individual's situation.

I'm planning for a year. Not necessarily for another lock-down. (We haven't really experienced that here in the US like other countries) but should Bob be off work for whatever reason as well as working towards having a serious food supply for the early days of his retirement - which I'm hoping will happen in two years. 

What's your version of 'What's Enough?'

PREPPING - Dry Canning

 Good morning, friends!

Hard to believe a new month has begun. As I write this, it is Sunday afternoon. We have sun but a cold wind. We've barely crossed the 55* mark. 

Inside, I have the heat all turned off since I have the oven on and we are at a comfortable 70*. Quite comfy for working around the house.

Since I've been canning for over forty-five years, keeping canning supplies on hand is nothing to me. When everyone was going nuts and clearing the shelves of jars and lids, I had a pretty decent supply. Mind you, I still picked up a few boxes of what I thought I might be short on. But honestly, I did not understand the purpose of people buying EVERY BOX ON THE SHELF! One lady on YouTube admitted to doing just that. Why? In my opinion, those are the true HOARDERS... and the folks who give the rest of us preppers a bad name. 

I bought four boxes of pint jars since I wasn't sure what I had on hand for lids. I knew I had the jars but if I didn't have enough lids, those jars weren't going to do my any good. Buying jars insured I had enough lids.  When ACE Hardware had the jars in their ad (but not on the shelf), the manager of a local store allowed me to rain-check five boxes. I ordered three boxes of the half-gallon since I knew at most I only had six of those not already in use, as well as two boxes of wide -mouth pints. Wide mouth are great for when you want to dip into the jar for measuring. That was it. No clearing off a shelf- even if I could have found them. I bought only what I knew I needed and would use.

I spent all day Sunday writing/ scheduling blog posts and dry-canning sugar and flour.

I put up 40 pints of all-purpose flour. I chose pints because most recipes call for two cups of flour... exactly one pint. As I type this (Sunday) I am not sure how many pints I'll have of self-rising, 7-grain or corn meal.

Sugar is one of those items you really can't pre-measure for recipes. With that in mind, I put all of the white sugar in half-gallon jars and the Stevia in Nestea Tea jars. Sugar doesn't have to be sealed or heated like grains so packaging these up were easy. With the amount of sugar I had already purchased, I wound up with 10 jars and 9 jars of Stevia. I have both on my grocery stock up for Tuesday to finish filling out the jars I have on hand. The Truvia brown sugar will be packaged in wide mouth pints and regular brown sugar in wide-mouth quarts. 

While I'll keep a flour and sugar canister on the baking counter, my goal is to eliminate items like the brown sugar and Stevia that I don't need to keep handy in quantity. Easy enough to grab a smaller jar from the pantry as needed.

They say baking items could be our 'new' shortage as we head into the holidays. I do a lot of baking so am glad I won't have to disappoint the business folks I know look forward to their holiday cookie box every year. 

What are shortage are you anticipating? Is there anything you usually buy this time of year that you are already having problems finding? Please share in the comments below.

Be Safe! Be Prepared!

~Kelly

FLYLADY - November 2

 

Welcome to a new month, everyone!

We've enjoyed a few days of warm weather. The cooler temperatures are moving back in. What else can we expect for November. I'm hoping for a warm weekend as Bob and I have so much to get done outside, including putting the new cover on the greenhouse.

The first week of the month is dedicated to the Laundry Room and the Kitchen. I did the laundry room last weekend because I just couldn't stand it anymore. I also detailed the kitchen floor.

This week I want to get the baking counter under control In just one month I'll be diving into full-on Christmas baking mode. Aside from the 60+ cookie trays we pass out to businesses who've served us throughout the year I will need to get two boxes in the mail... one going to IL and one going to WA. 

The other thing I'm hoping to do today is to clean out the soffit area above the kitchen cabinets. We have glasses/ cups up there we haven't used since they were put up there. If I can tackle the area on the North and East wall then I can move to the soffit above the baking counter at a later time. That entire soffit on that side is all cook books. 

When we moved here twelve years ago I got rid of two HUGE boxes of cookbooks. I need to go through them again. My main keepers will be those from or associated with entertainers. From there I'll start recipe-testing select recipes from all of the others to create one single keeper book (or possibly one for each category). 

If I can accomplish that this week, I will be thrilled. I already have a box ready for the cups/ glassware to take to the thrift store tomorrow.

As we make our way closer to the holidays, I realize we may not experience the gatherings of the past but it's even more important to create an atmosphere we want to be in.

Let's get busy.

Be Safe! Be Prepared!

~Kelly

FLYLADY - Basement

 

To say things have gotten a bit off-kilter around here is an understatement. That said, I think I've found the light. 

Since I plan to be really busy next week diving back into  my novel process during NanoWriMo (aka National Novel Writing Month. org), I want to get the laundry room/ kitchen done this week. We've been through the list of what I do normally, but I'm adding to the list this week by degreasing the microwave shelf (mounted above the stove), finally getting some dry goods into jars (that post coming Friday) and giving the floor in the combined rooms a good steam cleaning. 

Temperatures have really turned cold here in the Ozarks. I need just one 'sunny' day to get the garden stuff stripped out, as well as emptying the green house in prep for a new covering. We hope to get that done the first weekend Bob is home. Winter is coming!

As we approach the holidays, I know many people start thinking about a winter cleaning in prep for holiday decor and family.  While the 'family' part may be scarce this year, throw up the holiday decor and cheer the place up!  I'll still be baking for the usual cookie box recipients and I love my Christmas decorations even though  no one ever comes to visit. I do them because I enjoy them. 

What's on your cleaning list this week? Share? Maybe you do something I've not thought about. 

Blessings

~Kelly

PREPPER FRIDAY - Where to Begin - Replay

 

Since the onset of Covid-19, there have been a lot of people joining the prepper forces. 2020 will go down in history as the Great Toilet Paper Shortage... except for those of us who've been stocking up on necessities for years. 

I purchase stock-up supplies on a rotation, many of the items I buy from Dollar General. They are closest to me and while they are a chain store, they put money back into my small community of around 650 people.  Every penny counts. 

We often have a $5 off $25 coupon to be used on Saturdays and I take advantage of that extra $5 to buy a couple extra things. While not in any particular order, one week is all paper supplies, another week, personal hygeine, the next week might be canned good items and the final week fills in the gaps or holiday items. We can't be totally practical, after all. :-)

Many of the newbies on this journey began buying willy  nilly and panic buying bulk items they'll probably never use because someone on YouTube said that's what they should stock-pile. 

I thought for this week, we'd go back to another post from February 2014.

* * * * * *

Anytime someone wants to start something new, their first question is usually something to the effect of 'how do I start?' or 'where do I begin?'  My Mom always said any project is best started at the beginning. So I'm going to start this whole Prepping series at the beginning.

Start with DECLUTTERING a space to use as your new storage area. For us, that is in our utility room. Even with the wood burner cranking in the middle of winter, our utility room is the coolest room in the basement with two exterior (while well ground-insulated) concrete walls. One West and one North.

Aside from shelves on the West wall, we turned a wall separating the Man Cave from the shower room into a rotating can storage similar to this one on My Family Essentials. The link will take you to the page where she talks about food storage and the picture of her can rotation system. For a quick look, I have a pic on my Pinterest Board - Emergency Preparedness -   CAN STORAGE  I really like this and wish I could turn more of the walls into this system. 

We use this cabinet to store our bath necessities as there is a shower in this room as well. But we also store the overstock of personal, beauty and paper products here.

A storage area can be one location in your home (ideal) or have zones throughout your house. Under the bed for instance, is a great place to store cases of bottled water. Think about repurposing various pieces of furniture such as an entertainment center (most people don't even need these now with the flat screen now a common household item.  Can you put shelves on the wall above the toilet area for extra rolls of toilet paper or personal products. While having them in plain view may not be the prettiest, how important is pretty when you need to have those items on hand?  A wooden chest doubling as a coffee table, end of the bed seat or even a hassock that has an opening top can be used to store canned goods.  

If you have a garage, how much can you declutter this area and add shelves for bulk items such as toilet paper, paper towels, detergent, etc.

Your assignment this week if you choose to accept it is to take a tour of your home. What can you get rid of and what necessary emergency supplies could you store there instead.

Start a blog about your Prepper journey and link me. Sharing ideas could save numerous lives!

Kelly

FLY LADY - Living Room/ Dining Room

 

The first full week of October is dedicated to the living room. I'm not sure a lot of  deep cleaning will get done as we'll be focusing on the changes we need to make to the green house and reorganizing the garden shed.

Traditionally, when Deep Clean week for the living room, I make sure to do the following:

* Detail the recliners

* Clean the ceiling fan blades and lamp globes

* Dust the Entertainment Center

* Sweep/ Mop  floor

The Living Room also includes the Dining Room since we have an open floor plan for this part of the house.

* Clean off the sofa table

* Dust china hutch and clean glassware

* Go through the garden book shelves

* Detail the pet food corner

* Sweep/ Mop floor

This month may be left to what I can do around the outside chores that have a specific deadline... they must be done before Bob goes back out on the 13th. 

Are you a Fly Lady Follower? Whether you are or not, I'd love to hear your cleaning schedule in the comments below!

~Kelly

PREPPER FRIDAY - What's It All About, Alfie? - Replay Post

 Wow!

That was a rough ten days. Right after posting on the 14th, I got hit with a serious sinus infection and did a lot of nothing and very little of anything else. 

Friday's will continue to be Prepper Posts - but more regimented than in the past.  As you'll see from today's replay post, I began talking prepping in 2014. I've always been someone who prepared for any situation. I was raised my a step-mom who lived through the Great Depression. I consider myself a 1950s housewife. Often times, blog posts don't go up because family and home always come first for me. 

I'm still not completely over the sinus issue, thanks to all the autumn leaves beginning to fall. There's the last of the garden to take care of and we're redoing the green house these last two weeks Bob is home. I can spend days in October reconfiguring how I'm using the inside as far as seed tray placements and that type of thing. 

While I try to get things caught up here I thought since I have new followers/ readers, I'd go back to early posts and shine new light on them. In coming weeks I'll be sharing what I'm doing as well as introducing you to some of my favorite YouTube preppers.

One thing I will not do is ACTUALLY SHOW my space. To me, that is just inviting trouble should the SHTF. So let's take a step back to February , 2014:

* * * * * * * 

Prepping is nothing new. 

People have been preparing since the beginning of time. From the first man killing/ preserving food for winter to the Cuban Missile Crisis and more recent. For generations people have planned for a 'rainy day'. They kept their food stock in root cellars in case of long winters when what they preserved might be all they had to hold them until Spring. How many families prepared for 'the big one' like our folks in Blast from the Past. Though the movie was meant to be a comedy, there was nothing light about the importance of how prepared they were to live below ground.

But over the past few years, 'Prepping' has taken on a new meaning. Some have extended the term into 'survivalist' - preparing for everything imaginable from a natural disaster like a tornado to Armageddon. Several months ago I found a book by Bernie Carr called - THE PREPPER'S POCKET GUIDE - 101 Easy Things You Can Do To Ready Your Home For A Disaster.

Bernie breaks prepping down in to 101 manageable tasks to having everything you need for any emergency that might arise. Disasters, like tornadoes, will knock you off your game if you are not prepared. My plan to kick-start this blog is to take you on my journey as I work my way through the booklet and prepare our home for an emergency and put our Prepper Plan into action.

In the mean time, I recommend you order Bernie's book and join me on this journey. If you are already a Prepper or know someone, link me to their sites. I'd love to share what others are doing.

As an added bonus, I thought I'd share this video from Dionne Warwick. Is this Prepping sitution really for the moment we live? 

Be Safe, Be Prepared

~Kelly

FLYLADY - Week 3

  Hello, everyone!

I know I'm coming in the door late. My apologies. Glorious day in the Ozarks. I've put six loads of laundry on the line to dry in the fabulous breeze and warm sunshine. I've also made Carrot/ Zuccini muffins (recipe to come at a later date), baked my first buttercup squash of the season (there's a story for later in the week) and gotten a bit of housekeeping done, both on the computer and in the house.  I've had a busy morning. :-)

I will be working on future posts later in the week and getting them scheduled. My goal is to have all blog posts running by 9 a.m. We'll see.

Today's post, as well as all subsequent Mondays, will be about my Flylady Cleaning Schedule. If you're not familiar with the Flylady System, you can read about the program HERE.

In essence the key is to have a home you're not afraid for people to see when they just 'drop by'. Many people, once they get the hang of the system, customize the schedule to fit their individual homes.

I have broken my system down into five areas and assigned each area their own week on the calendar:

Week 1 - Kitchen/ Laundry

Week 2 - Living Room/ Dining Room

Week 3 - Bedroom/ Bathroom

Week 4 - Office

Week 5 - Basement

This week, I'm all about deep cleaning the Bathroom and doing some pitching out of the Bedroom. 

My tasks will include fresh sheets on the bed (which I do every week), dusting/ mopping the floor, dusting all of the furniture as well as decluttering my night stand.

I also want to go through my closet again and see what can go in the thrift store box I'll be dropping off later in the week. 

Cleaning the bedroom also means taking the air can to the electronics. You're electronics will last longer if you give them a frequent dusting. If you have animals, the dust bunnies really do multiply at a rapid rate.

I also do the bathroom this week which means aside from a good mop of the floor I will run soda/ vinegar down the tub/ sink drains, wipe down the baseboards, shine up the bubble tub,  mirror and fixtures.  I will also change out the Sensa melts and clean out the medicine drawers.

While this seems like a lot to do, keep in mind I'm not doing it every day or all in one day. This is DEEP CLEAN Week. I will work on these tasks throughout the week. After that, I simply give them a swipe and shine daily when we're finished with our morning routines to keep things presentable until their week rolls around again the following month.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a Travel post but I'm holding off on that until next week. I have a FUN place to take you to. So much fun in fact I need TWO parts to share everything!

Until next time...

Be Well, Be Safe 

HITTING RESET!

 

Today's post is all about that big red button. Kind of reminds me of Red Nose Day from Walgreens.

I've sat for over six months,  not doing much of anything. Not even completing most of the journals I have started through Julie's challenges. Why?

Well, the reason finally came to me last weekend. I haven't been using my blog/ editorial boards or my planners since the end of February... when I started the reorganization of the studio/ office. 

I am a VERY visual person. Even during my days of selling Christmas Around the World, House of Lloyd and Undercover Wear whenever there was a promotion, I would buy a sheet of poster board and create a chart to track my progress towards a goal.

Saturday, I pulled out mynotepad and decided there were changes to be made.

 1- Work only with blogs that bring me joy.

I had six blogs. I made the definitive decision to close the Living Through Weightloss.

I find being motivated hard on the blog when there are no responses to posts... and only a hand full of readers. I thought that through my journey I could inspire others. I've gotten to the point where my time is to valuable for something that is not having any affect on me or others. As of today, that blog will be closing by end of the month - with the last post being today, similar to this one.

THIS NEXT ONE PERTAINS TO THIS BLOG!

Please Read and Share your Thoughts in the Comments below

Thank you! 

2 - Still In Debate

I started this blog back when I first met the Polish Sinfonia and needed a place to post pictures from the grade school students so that the orchestra members could all go look at them. I still like the blog idea but I'm making a couple of changes.

I want to keep talking about prepping, my garden and household. I was talking 'household' on the weightloss blo, after all a clean house does make for a better self-journey but something in me decided I could keep the household with the Ozarks Journal. I mean, I LIVE in the Ozarks. LOL So OJ will be more about my corner of the Ozarks and our home here.

 

3- Staying on Task

This required evaluating what I really want to do.

I want to write

I want the Etsy shop or some other sales form to destash my stuff and let it bring joy to others.

For that reason, I am putting a more solid YouTube stream in place, getting my shop open and Keeping THIS blog but with a few changes. I'll be talking about those on Friday.

 4 - More time to craft and to write.

I still have book series I want/ need to write. I'm starting back to a regular writing schedule next week. Hopefully, by the time Bob comes home I will have a routine where even if I only take thirty minutes, the words will flow.

Overall Goals

To create beautiful things while destashing our home

To stay more on Task

To write more books

To have a financial plan in place that has the house paid off in two years.

 

I'm not saying these goals will be easy, but with visuals in place  I have a much better shot

I'm spending the rest of this week getting posts written/ scheduled, batch-recording videos and putting the office back together from company last week.

I will see you back here on Friday (September 11)  to talk about the new schedule and give you a final flip-through of my Ausgust Assembly Line Junk Journal Challenge journal.

 until then...

~Kelly

WEEKEND TRAVEL - West Plains

Hi Everyone!

This was supposed to be last week's post but I've been down with my back for over a week. Before that, the weekend of this 'travel', I managed to drop a battery operated chain saw on my right foot and torqued my back taking out the garbage. That was the beginning of this more than a week-long aggravation.

While the swelling has subsided in my foot and most of the lovely purple tones are gone, the back is still being a pain - literally.  So bear with me, please as being at the desk isn't the most comfortable right now.

Okay.. off to my weekend travel.

West Plains is one of our go-to shopping spots. Our supercenter/ $ Tree/ ACE Hardware are our main stores to visit, though I've also been in Ramey's grocery for specific items. Last week I learned via the internet that our CashSaver is also the same as the 10box store in Poplar Bluff that I shop at frequently for our meat.

CashSaver bought one of our Ramey's locations several years ago. I checked out the store right after they opened and found it not very clean nor organized. I realize West Plains is in one of the top five poorest counties in Missouri but do our stores have to reflect that statistic?! I've never been back.

I've noticed that while the sign doesn't say 10Box, the Cashsaver sign is less predominate so I'll be checking the location out again soon. If I still see problems, I'll write to corporate.

Anyhow - while in West Plains a couple of weeks ago, I took a very hot stroll through the farmers market in the Endurance Church parking lot. There was a very nice variety of fresh meats/ seafoods as well as vegetables/ baked goods and hand-crafted items. 

The Church is located at 805 Worley Drive - West Plains MO  

Next to Hirsch Feed & Farm Supply

Here are a couple places for you to investigate.

My #1 choice is SGT. DAN'S REDNECK CATTLE CO.

Don't let the name fool you. Dan Crowder is a reallyl nice guy and a veteran. All Veteran's receive a 10% discount on purchases.

All meat is grown and raised in Oregon Co or just over the border into Randolph Co. AR, USDA inspected. 

He is currently working on a delivery route and will be happy to try and work a route close to you if you give him a shout. 

You'll find him on FB - Sgt. Dan's

Give him a call: 4179384834

Email: DanielCrowder7@gmail.com

Tell him you saw this on KellysCountry!

Next we have:

KELBY HUTSLER

Kelby is the seafood outlet.

Fresh from the gulf via SS J-BELK GULF SHRIMP AND CRAWFISH

Give him a call at 417-372-2015

He sells out quick so get there early!

I hope to be more mobile later in the week to take you along.  There is a cave near Van Buren I want to tour. 

Safe Travels & Country Blessings!

TUESDAY HISTORY - Cabool MO Part 2

I had some pictures I took of the Historical Society in Cabool last year but could never get  hold of anyone to let me inside. So I'm having to rely on everything from the internet so with that caviat, here we go.

Cabool (Missouri), located in Texas County, got it's name from Kabul Afghanistan in 1882. (Wikipedia)  Story goes that a construction engineer worked on the railroad there. He'd also worked on the railroad in Kabul and thought the area looked similar.

Another legend sites the name taken from Chief Kabul (Kay-Bull), who lived in the area. According to legend, Chief Kabul and his sweetheart dove off a cliff into the onyx pool because their parents did not approve of their union (Reminds me of a song) There was even a POEM written by Tug Wilson and Ben Durnell about the romantic legend.

Whatever the background of the name, Cabool is a quiet little town steeped in community.

Cabool Missouri is the only Cabool in the United States.

Here's a video of the song that came to mind.

ROAD TRIP - Cabool MO

Saturday, I took a drive to Cabool to the Dollar General. That location has the best selection of cold/ frozen food items I've seen at any of the other chain locations. They're prices are lower or comparable to Walmart.

Before shopping, drove downtown and found this Mexican restaurant. I can see why they have a 4.8 rating.  The food was excellent, the portions large and the price better than most places. The staff were friendly and accomodating. The restuarant also offered plenty of room for social distancing.

While they did not offer Wi-Fi, I was able to use my data and sit in on a two-hour business meeting. They were okay with that. 

After my trip to Dollar General, I had a taste for something sweet. DQ is just out the highway...

The small town also features a different food truck on Tuesday's. I hope to check them out soon. I hope you'll come back tomorrow for Part 2 of my trip to Cabool when I'll share more of the history.

In the mean time, take a drive down Hwy 60/63 West between Willow Springs and Mt. Grove. You'll love the charm of this small, inviting community.

Safe Travels!

CAN I COME IN?

Not the absolute best picture but imagine my surprise when I looked up from the computer this mornign to see this pretty head peeking in the screen.

This is probably Queenie or one of the second year black snakes that roam the property. I went out the back door and around to the front deck to check her out. She had come down off the screen and was just hangin' out on the deck railing. I encouraged her to go elsewhere.

This is my second snake sighting in the 'yard' in the past couple of weeks. King, my 8'+ monster who's lived on this property probably longer than we have, was stretched out in the wood trailer last week when I went to check the live trap. We've had a real timber rat problem of late. Bob didn't tell me how bad the trailer was until I went out to get something one day. Ugh! I won't say how many rats we've trapped but I will tell you I'm just glad they've stayed out there and not ventured into the house. I haven't caught any in a couple weeks. Maybe between the live trap and King, we are finally rid of them.

Next task is to totally clean out that wood trailer, pressure wash everything then start from scratch. with Bob's breathing issues, I'll be the one on the inside handing him the lengths of timber through the window to the outside. Fun times!

How's your summer kicking off?

GUARDING PRIVACY

Good morning!  

This is a quick post written (Monday) as today is all about phone calls to Social Security. I'm not sure what has happened, nor am I going to speculate. I just know something isn't right. The only thing I can do is figure out the issue then move forward.

 With that in mind, I'm not sure there will be any other posts this week. I'd planned to be back to work full force, though that  may not happen this week.

What I do want to point out is that I've done everything in my power to guardd my personal information. I don't do business on my phone, I don't bank on-line and I have one credit card to my name for business and hotel confirmations.

Sadly, the same precautions do not appear to have been take with the U. S. Government.

I have blog posts ready to roll... with a few changes in format for the remainder of the year. With the first half of the year winding down, this seemed like a good time to make those changes.

Hang with me - we'll get this straightened out!

Be Safe!

~Kelly

MEMORIAL DAY TRIBUTE!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE

 TO THOSE WHO SERVE IN THE OUR ARMED FORCES

 AND

 THE FAMILIES WHO SACRIFICE SO MUCH

FOR OUR

FREEDOM

UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

As you can see from the picture, my living room is a disaster. My dining room looks the same way – like someone just unloaded a large U-Haul. This is only one of 5 areas of the living room/ dining room:

When we moved me into the studio four years ago, nothing went as planned. Bob was anxious to turn my old office into his man cave. That meant nothing got put away in the studio the way I wanted… more dumped wherever it would fit.

Since then I’ve also added more things – mostly planner and Mixed Media items – that I’ve had to find room for. Instead, those items just got added to the already disorganized mess.

I’ve been trying since January to get my office/ studio in order – all while trying to carry on with my daily work routine, write a book and keep the house presentable. I finally came to the conclusion that plan of attack wasn’t working.

First off, I have OCD. I can’t work on something unless everything is in order. Just makes my life more complicated.

Last week, after writing all my blog posts for the week, I emptied the studio into those two rooms. I’ve worked all weekend with the cleaning part. Washing windows, shampooing carpet, detailing furniture… you know what a deep clean entails.

This week I HAVE to get stuff back in place so that office work can resume as usual. Bob comes home on Wednesday. He’d really like to be able to sit at the dining room table in the morning with coffee or sit in his recliner in the evening to watch TV. To add insult to injury, his best friend is planning a visit for the coming weekend. Kevin helped us move in thirteen years ago. He hasn’t seen the house with the addition of my studio. So yeah…. This room HAS TO GET DONE.

With that, I’m taking this week off of all of my blogs, no book writing and only the 1 crafting deadline I have for Wednesday.

Blog post should resume next week – Monday May 4th or Tuesday May 5th. If Kevin shows up, I’ll have all weekend to hide in the studio and get ahead of the week. Otherwise, that’s what I’ll be doing on Monday. I always devote Bob’s first weekend home to him. He’s been gone for twenty-one days, after all.

Thank you for your patience and I’ll see you next week!

GARDEN TOUR

Good morning, everyone!

The temperatures are starting to climb back up to normal averages. Rain in the forecast for tonight as well as on and off throughout the weekend. Wet and cold sure make wanting to get into the garden difficult. 

I have rhubarb to plant. As soon as I purchased the rhizomes, the temps plummeted to freeze/ frost warnings! Hoping I can get those in Sunday. On the plus side, nothing seems to have been damaged by the cold temps. I did cover up the butterfly garden and the two clemitis a couple of nights just in case. The peach trees and the apple had already started leafing so they were spared.

Here's a walk-through of what everything looked like a week ago. Mind you, all the rain has me behind in everything outside. I'm hoping to get into gear first of the week. 

I'll have a new video next week. I've gotten the greenhouse someone cleaned up but have been negligent about getting the seeds started as I've found a mama wren. She chose to build her nest in one of my baskets. I don't want to disturb her. She is fine when I first go in but if I hang around too long, she leaves the nest and flutters around encouraging me to leave. We only have about another 8-10 days I figure before those 5 little eggs should hatch. So for now, the green house is hers.  I monitor to make sure the temp doesn't go over 70*F in there. If they do, then I open the windows to get a cross ventilation but not so that any critters can get in.

Until this shelter-in-place thing is lifted, there won't be any travel posts. I've been making a list and planning how to arrange my hatch back for over-night/ camping adventures.

Everyone seems so disturbed by their overseas/ cruise plans being derailed through this. While I'd love to visit Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain there is so much more in our Great America I'll never see all of as it is. 

When I do travel, I'll take you with me. 

In the mean time, stay smart, stay safe, stay home. 

SPRING IS COMING!!!

Welcome back to the Ozarks!

I am so ready to get out and do stuff. I have a list of places I want to visit, to learn more about and share with you.

I'm anxious to get in the garden. The critters have all nested in my garden shed and the wood storage trailer over the winter. I fear we'll lose a good portion of the wood there thanks to a rat or two.

After potential thunder storms tonight, rain on and off through Tuesday I should have a stretch of at least four sunny, relatively warm days to dig out the garden shed and the green house. I want to prep the green house for seed trays and I'll be starting seeds in the house in the next couple of weeks while we wait for consistent warm temperatures in the green house to move everything out there.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Last October I got in 28 straw bales and I've been conditioning them throughout the winter.  Once a month when they've called for rain, I've gone out and fed the bales with lawn fertilizer. I figure this will give them a head start on the 21-day conditioning process, allowing me to put plants in them a bit earlier than I have in the past.

I still need eight more bales but my local MFA hasn't had any. I'd be happy with just two more or I'll be moving my cucumber trellis - where I plan to plant squah but I'm pretty sure Bob wouldn't be happy with that idea considering he's the one who pounded the 8' T-posts in.

I'm letting this blog slide through the month of March. I have a book to finish writing and one to get off to a potential publisher. The 'day job' has to take presidence. Then I'll be back more regular with travel posts as well as prepping for the lovely weather spring brings.

In the mean time, take stock of your pantry, check the dates on things in your Emergency First Aid pack and I'll see you back here end of the month or first of April.