Just realized from the picture I won't have to do any dangling. I put that wire up around the roof, so the ladder must be tall enough. Getting a new board to stay up there while I nail it will be the challenge. Should call the gutter man. He put up a 34' long seamless gutter all by himself. I missed watching how he did it. I guess you start in the middle, or tie one end up?
Date.. Day ... Weight.... Calories 2/21 .31 .130.6 .. 810 2/22 .32 .131.4 .. 820 2/23 .33 .130.6 .. 770 2/24 .34 .130.2 .. 870 Same food except 2 cups of soup I made today with store bought beef broth, which had 865mg salt/cup! Scales will jump up tomorrow, but at least I'll know why, and it's only temporary. Btw, the wild onions have very little oniony flavor. I think it's all in the stems, tough as plastic. Could be the soil here. Explains goat breath. They don't dig up the bulbs.
Being the unfortunate owner of nearly 7000 feet of fence, I was a bit put off by Robert Frost's poem, Mending Wall. At first read, it appeared he was making fun of people with fences. Then I learned about Frost's early years living on a farm. And he surely must have had a fence to contain his wife's prize goats. I assumed he was probably just playing with the reader. This quote has also bothered me...for years. Just this week I ran across this ... Sandra Katz* writes... "Robert Frost's sense of humor is evident in his poems, letters, public performances and private conversations. Sometime(s) his wit is obvious: in fact, many critics have found it to be too glib in several poems and dismiss these poems as being inferior to his more serious work. ... On the other hand, especially in his remarks to others, Frost's humor could be too subtle; he appeared to be serious when he really was not. "One of Frost's favorite words for poetry was 'Play,' and everything he did or wrote could be thought about in the light of that notion. One of his notebooks contains perhaps his deepest word on the subject: 'Play, no matter how deep, has got to be so playful that the audience are left in doubt whether it is deep or shallow.' Thus, in his conversations as well as in his poems, Frost's seriousness might be playful teasing, and the opposite also is true: Frost's humor could be the expression of dark thoughts. The poet once wrote a friend, 'Perhaps you think I am joking. I am never so serious as when I am.' " . Conclusion:. If she's right about Frost, I think trying to have a conversation with the man would have been "difficult." *Sandra L. Katz is Professor Emerita of English at the University of Hartford and has published several articles on Robert Frost and other American writers. .
(2/28/21) Sunday Temporary fixes for the cabin roof today, to keep the squirrels out. Right now is breeding season. The end of the roof. Two nails had pulled out from the roofing, one on either side of the broken board. (How lucky was that?) I just put back 2 roofing screws and drew the tin back down, left the broken chunk there. before after This next one I'm really proud of (NOT!) The chewed squirrel hole at the peak. I didn't bring the right stuff to fix it, so I just stuck a chunk of 2x4 I found laying on the porch up there, pushing the hardware cloth up against the roofing and covering the hole. before after This will give me more time to procrastinate. The other facing board needs to be replaced also. It will fall off soon. These were not treated boards. I don't know how they lasted this long. If it weren't for the squirrels it would probably be fine just to leave the trim boards off. It just looks bad. I need to think more about this.
(3/2/21) . Update Day 40 Date Day. Weight..Calories 2/25 .35 .130.6 ... 850 2/26 .36 .129.6 ... 800 2/27 .37 .130.2 ... 800 2/28 .38 .129.4 ... 840 3/01 .39 .128.4 ... 790 3/02 .40 .128.8 ... ... Day 39 was the day after working on the cabin all afternoon, so that drop was an outlier. Probably take another day to recover. The linear trend can't continue anyway unless I keep reducing calories or upping activity. Not inclined to do either, so, whatever will be, will be. Weight = 138.3 - 0.24 x Day
I believe 90% of the dust upstairs has been removed. Vacuumed under the bed, the ceiling fan, tops of doors, oil lamps, even the walls. The only thing left are curtains. They need to be washed. Tomorrow? Just rearranged all the books in stacks in the bookshelf rather than standing on end. I figure that way if I put a large book on top of each stack, I'll only have to dust one side of the top book. It even takes up less space. But I feel like the dust is just following behind me, because you can see some dust already forming on the places where I started. I may never be able to stop dusting.
Know what flash fiction is? I would like to be like you, staying busy just a fixing, for I have plenty to do. But I am physically handicapped and all I can do about needed fixes is to stare at the problem and try to find someone who is a fixer. But I’ve been this way for years. It’s nothing new. But just like you I need to stay, if not busy, then with something to do. I’ve got a drawer full of stories, stories about growing up, stories about working with my dad, stories of my dad’s family during the depression, stories of work, stories of play, of being excepted and rejection. Mostly just sketches of people places and things. A drawer full of nothing really. I think I’m going to try to turn some of that stuff into short, short fiction, or Flash Fiction. You made me think of doing so when you read the long march into history or whatever I called it. It will give me some to do and I can belike you, a fixer. Later, gator, didn't’ meant to take up all your time. Don’t walk under any ladders.
That may be some of the best news coming out of Oklahoma for a while. Sounds like a winner. Flash Fiction is a new term to me. You know what they say about idle hands. Now I want to know what this "march into history" was. Dusting? (It was a bit historical for me.)
(3/3/21) Wednesday ... First lawn mowing of 2021. Both mowers started. Front yard only. Just weeds. Specifically I was chasing some big clunky trifolium (clover) patches that pop up every spring, nearly a foot high already. I believe it is red clover. Because St. Patrick's Day is coming soon, I got distracted thinking about clover, and remembered the little short dainty white clover in our lawn in Ohio. At certain times the yard would have so many bees buzzing around the blossoms you had to be careful going barefoot. If you can't beat it, eat it? Mother Jones: Clover Soup Recipe "Clover can be used in soups, vinegar and cough medicine. Soup is made by adding a few fresh or dried leaves of the plant to a beef stock soup. A small handful of leaves to a large pot of soup is enough to start with. After tasting the soup, add more if desired. Too much will cause the dish to taste like weeds."