DG's frugal journal

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Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

Friday-thought for the day

I am still asking around for opinions regarding the stock market. The low interest rates are hurting those depending on money markets and CD. But it is clear that building business and jobs for Americans is the first order of business for the current administration. And unemployed young people find trouble, so this may be the best way. As the saying goes."Idle hands do the devil's work." I just read a long article by Bertrand Russell, his Nobel prize acceptance speech, "The four desires driving all human behavior." What a brilliant man. He pointed out that boredom leads to aberrant behavior. Thinking about the welfare system, it fits. A number of communities seem to have figured that out and offer daily employment to the unemployed especially the young and able bodied. Scott Pressler is trying to motivate people to clean up their communities. It is a shame that most of the media is against him. He is a good young man. I am glad I follow him on FB.

I even asked my sister in law about the stock market. She is nervous about it, but offered no investment insight. Hubs and I are discussing how much of the market is controlled by AI computer programs. I figure at least 50% and maybe 75% because it seems to ignore the daily fear mongering. I recently read an opinion that said obviously global warming is a scam because the insurance corporations are still selling insurance to coastal cities. I had not thought of it that way. If there is one group of penny snatchers, it is the insurance companies. I need to pay more attention to insurance trends. Could be useful.
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

Saturday am

Cool morning, 67F. Windows open and window fans on. I mean to buy a couple more, but keep forgetting. I like telling hubs to check on these kind of things. He likes to buy things online, so it gives him something to do. I don't like shopping. I'd rather be gardening.

Yesterday, I moved and spread mulch most of the day. I am clearly out of shape thanks to this knee issue and resulting weeks in the wheelchair. I did get the butterfly nectar bed mulched and the ground cover area mulched and the fence line mulched. But I also took a lot of breaks. My back was not up to the task and ouched often. So I would come inside and rest a bit, then back out at it.

The electric company has sent a tree trimming company out to clear lines of limbs. I am glad. It was much needed. Eggman let his trees really snarl the lines and the company really hacked off a bunch. Of course, he was mad. Well, they did what they had to do. I said nothing.

Eggman's wife, the one with spine problems and an insurance name I cannot say here, looks to get the spinal implants done in November. That will be good. It has been a difficult years for her. I have tried to encourage her to get her kitchen retrofitted like I am doing mine, but she says "not yet". She is still looking forward to medicare as a better insurance. Well, I have not found it that great. But I said nothing. Just listened. We all need something to look forward to.

Today, I think I will try to move the rain barrel that I got free from the county. It has not worked out well connected to the rain gutters. The ones I bought work better. But I had planned to install a free standing one to water the gardens on the north side of the house. It will be interesting to see if I can make it work. I need to plant more seeds as well. T'is the season. One of my hoses has a bad connector. I need to try to fix it. Two or three other yard projects can be addressed depending on my energy level. It is great that I can set my own agenda of activities.

I think I will make chili tonight. It is cooler and hubs loves chili. I don't, so I will eat something else and that will leave chili leftovers. Hub likes that too.
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

Saturday-thought for the day.

The fires in California are bad and the suffering of the people is sad. Climate changes are going to make the situation worse. The climate reminds me of the way it was in my childhood or 60 years ago. We thought it was normal. The extremes of temperature were much greater than it has been the last few decades. I can understand why young people are so afraid as they experienced this new weather. Californians are in for a rude awaking as the weather in their state changes. The power grid there and elsewhere has been built on easy weather. And many have come to rely on it too much. It will fail more often in the coming decade. And they will want to sue the utility company, but it won't change anything.

Climate change is real. Growing traditional US vegetables here is difficult. Growing tropical fruits and vegetables is easy. A wonderful lady on FB who loves Florida native plants is sad because people don't want to grow native plants. I am sure she believes in climate change, but can't see it affecting her own backyard. The native plants and animals are being pushed out by plants and animals that do better in the new climate. The environmentalist want us to kill Cuban frogs because they are killing our "native" frogs. They don't see that this is evolution and adaptation to a changing climate. I have tried to talk sense to these kind of people before and simply lost friends. So I say nothing.
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

Sunday am

Looks like another lovely day in Florida. I got into yard cleanup yesterday and I visited the Eggman and his wife with spinal issues in the afternoon. I wanted to see her dragon fruit. And then she took me on a garden tour. She also gave me a couple of empty boxes which I will use in the garden as a weed barrier. She is due to get her pain shot in the lower back this coming week and then hopefully soon after insertions of the TENS unit in November. She was very chatty. They also decided to leave up the plywood panels on several of the back windows. She seemed to think it would deter break ins. She says they may want to travel more. They have been stuck at home a lot this year with her health issues. I also have plywood that I put up on the north facing windows in the very cold weather. I said the panels would reduce drafts. But I found mine made the windows sweat on the inside. She was surprised. I did point out that the 2 back doors have their hinges on the outside which makes it easy to pop the door off. From her reaction, she had not considered that. However, I said it would not be a big deal once they put up the fence they had been talking about. It would secure their back yard. Well, it turns out that the fence project is on hold. He and she are not seeing eye to eye on it. I think she has the better, more sensible idea. Considering all the stuff they have, they should be thinking more about security in my opinion. But I said nothing. The front of my house has Miami Dade "shatter" proof windows and I have a new front door with shatter resistant glass panel. I have one window to the converted garage room that is not shatter proof. The shatter proof windows are very expensive. But the door from the garage to the main house is secured into the concrete wall and a strong exterior door. I have a high fence in the front and a chain secured gate. The fence along the back is lower, but exposed to the street and the neighbors front doors. Not very criminal friendly.

I really need to dump my worm towers as suggested by the extension agent. The jasmine vine has taken over and I will have to do a lot of trimming on it to get to the buckets. Of course, I will try to root most of the trimmings. The spinal neighbor said she will be trimming her crotons soon. I asked for the cuttings. I am pretty good at getting plants to root. I have a bunch of false rosella rooted and ready for planting. And another bucket with lantana and passion vine rooting.

Today, I will plant the 2 buddy belly plants the spinal neighbor gave me and the pencil cactus as well. This little garden is surrounding an old stump and doesn't get watered. Good place for those kind of plants.

We got 4 more Christmas cards from a charity we don't donate to. This means we have enough now to send out this year. The year is sure rushing to the end.
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by Dgflorida »

Monday am

I woke up early and spent some time looking into hand held vacuum cleaners. I was disappointed. The cordless ones do not last long. The corded ones are inconvenient. Back to square one. Still thinking about solar power. I feel like I should get a bigger unit to put out in the sunny north back yard. Still thinking.

Yesterday was productive, but I pushed the knee too much. I have to be more careful. I planted a bunch of plants and re-positioned the 4x4 poles on the edges of a raised garden and attached a 2x8 lattice to it. Looks pretty good. I also carried a lot of dead limbs to the road for pick up on Thursday. One was quite large and I strained my knee dragging it. I also cleaned my car of leaves and acorns. They are falling everywhere and find ways to get stuck in every exterior crevice. Opened the hood, blew them out. Opened the trunk and blew them out. Realized that I bought more softener salt. So I toted the 40 lb bags and filled the salt holder on the softener. I also tried to clean the one headlight. It has gotten foggy on the outside. I used toothpaste. It is improved, but not perfect. I also need to just clean up the car interior and vacuum it. Sounds like a today project.

Today, I want to put a fresh coat of paint on the newly hung trellis. Maybe paint some other areas as well. Once I put on my painting clothes and get started, I can always find more to paint. An afternoon project.

My plants have white flies. I am treating them with neem oil, a recommended product. Frustrating.

I cut up and put down one of the free cardboard boxes(weed barrier) from the Eggman. I didn't put any mulch on it yet. Something to do today. The other box will get cut up today.

I finished the turkey breast last night. I have enough beans left to freeze a pint. I also got green peppers 2/$1. I will chop some of them up and freeze. The best ones, I will offer to hubs as a fresh side with dinner. I don't like green peppers. He does.

I am in the mood for a pot roast. I got one out of the freezer and put in the refrigerator to thaw slowly. We still have plenty of chili for hubs. And plenty of ground beef patties for various meals. I will be eating out on Thursday. A seminar and discussion on finance. I know it is a sales pitch, but what isn't anymore.
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: DG's frugal journal

Post by alliesmama4 »

Dgflorida wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 6:13 am Monday am

I woke up early and spent some time looking into hand held vacuum cleaners. I was disappointed. The cordless ones do not last long. The corded ones are inconvenient. Back to square one. Still thinking about solar power. I feel like I should get a bigger unit to put out in the sunny north back yard. Still thinking.

Yesterday was productive, but I pushed the knee too much. I have to be more careful. I planted a bunch of plants and re-positioned the 4x4 poles on the edges of a raised garden and attached a 2x8 lattice to it. Looks pretty good. I also carried a lot of dead limbs to the road for pick up on Thursday. One was quite large and I strained my knee dragging it. I also cleaned my car of leaves and acorns. They are falling everywhere and find ways to get stuck in every exterior crevice. Opened the hood, blew them out. Opened the trunk and blew them out. Realized that I bought more softener salt. So I toted the 40 lb bags and filled the salt holder on the softener. I also tried to clean the one headlight. It has gotten foggy on the outside. I used toothpaste. It is improved, but not perfect. I also need to just clean up the car interior and vacuum it. Sounds like a today project.

Today, I want to put a fresh coat of paint on the newly hung trellis. Maybe paint some other areas as well. Once I put on my painting clothes and get started, I can always find more to paint. An afternoon project.

My plants have white flies. I am treating them with neem oil, a recommended product. Frustrating.

I cut up and put down one of the free cardboard boxes(weed barrier) from the Eggman. I didn't put any mulch on it yet. Something to do today. The other box will get cut up today.

I finished the turkey breast last night. I have enough beans left to freeze a pint. I also got green peppers 2/$1. I will chop some of them up and freeze. The best ones, I will offer to hubs as a fresh side with dinner. I don't like green peppers. He does.

I am in the mood for a pot roast. I got one out of the freezer and put in the refrigerator to thaw slowly. We still have plenty of chili for hubs. And plenty of ground beef patties for various meals. I will be eating out on Thursday. A seminar and discussion on finance. I know it is a sales pitch, but what isn't anymore.
Dg I need a nap after reading everything you have been doing..lol. You certainly keep busy outside. I bet your yard looks amazing. Wish we could see pictures of it.

You do have to think about and be kind to your knee. I had to keep working when my knees started to deteriorate. By the time I had my total knee replacements I was in severe pain. The Dr who did my surgery told me I had the most severe case of arthritis that he had ever seen in his career. He said especially in someone so young. I was 53. He said he did not know how I was walking let alone going to work every day as a physical therapist assistant. I know I did push myself too long. The thing is I did have pain and ignored it and kept pushing myself through it and made things worse faster.So be good to yourself and your knee.
Janet Alliesmama
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