2021-04 April 2021 Prep Journal and To-Do Lists

I wrote out a long post for the March thread last night....and then forgot to actually post it before I fell asleep! I really thought I'd finish my entire list, but I fell just short. Oh, well. I came closer to clearing a list than I think I ever had, and some items are only done because I HAD a list to refer to, so I guess I'll count it a success. 😊

So, here goes with my April to-do list:

1. File my taxes! (I have a refund coming, and it's just silly to let the government use it for free.)
2. Continue to go to all the consults and follow through on all the testing and advice to get and keep me healthy.
3. Get my 2nd Covid shot and find an appointment for Abby as soon as she's eligible.
4. Groom the tangles out of Muttley's coat.
5. Keep losing weight and improving stamina.
6. Continue to track spending, income and expenses.
7. Dig and plant potatoes, plant peas and other cold-hardy veggies, more winter sowing and start more tomatoes in house, set up tomato supports and weed the beds, dig and move rhubarb out of chicken pen.
8. Unstick stuck 5 gallon buckets and finish cleaning them, wash up the 2 stacks of smaller buckets and store away/put to use.
9. Strain diesel into clean buckets with gasketed lids, clean up the old buckets and switch out lids where needed.
10. Drain old fuel and oil out of generator, add fresh and test.
11. Plant the bulbs, perennials and plants I bought in March, as well as any I buy this month. NO MORE NEGLECTED PLANTS!
12. Hawk and chicken proof the chicken pen, including removing trees that interfere with overhead netting, install netting, start sorting out the good layers of nice big eggs from the ones who lay smaller eggs, sell the ones who don't earn their keep.
13. Replace the leaky fitting on the framing nailer and start building hay, lumber and equipment storage.
14. Haul home enough hay to last through to July.
15. Finish getting the truck and horse trailer ready to travel. Need to get the new tires on the trailer and a new brake controller unit for the truck, as well as an oil change and fluids check.
16. Continue to sort and organize my books and add to list of books to watch for.
17. TBD

I'm probably going to regret making this list so long...I reserve the right to add or subtract items as life happens. 😉😁

lilith, I have to know, are you coming inside an hour before or an hour after sunset, lol? I like the last one on your list, too. A foot soak sounds lovely.

I got my 2nd Covid shot yesterday. Another 2 weeks and I'll be able to visit with vaxed friends without worrying about masks or social distancing. That and even more so, hugging my grandkids, will be amazing. I'm a little tired and ache quite a lot in my joints, especially my knees, this afternoon, but whether that's from the shot or all the walking on city streets I did yesterday, I have no idea.

The CT was finally approved yesterday, so they sent me for repeat labs to check my kidney function. I was already in town for the Covid shot and had the horse trailer hitched behind to take it over to the tire place to have all the new tires mounted and balanced, and the spare replaced by one of the tires being taken off (the spare totally split!), so Abby and I walked from the tire store to the hospital lab and back. My knees were already hurting from that yesterday, but I was feeling okay this morning, very painful this afternoon. Needed an extra pain pill, and I could use a nap.

After numerous phone calls from the doctor's office and the hospital to arrange and REarrange the check in time and the location for the IV fluids and the CT, we finally headed for town for a 1pm appointment. We got a whole 4 miles down the road before I got ANOTHER phone call, canceling the whole thing! Evidently, the approval didn't cover the IV fluid part of the order and voided the whole approval pending review of the "new" order. Well, at least they reached me before I drove all the way in. So, now it looks like it's going to be at least sometime next week. This whole thing is getting old, fast!

I've washed up all of the smaller buckets, including 8 matching buckets with rope handles that I've decided to use as planters for the front porch this year. I'm thinking flowers and herbs, mixed with a few edibles.

Let's see, what else can I knock off my list today? I have been continuing to organize my books and adding to my shopping list of missing books I want to find for my collection. That was on the March list, but has been an ongoing project. I guess I should add it to my April list... 😁

I ended up weeding one of my raised beds, clearing one of the tomato patches, removing the stock panels from that patch, and moved all the bar mesh panels to the garden where they'll be used as part of my tomato supports and for growing peas and other vining vegetables, I cleaned up the compost pile and did some general picking up, dug a few potatoes for dinner, and weeded out around some of the bean poles. Lots more to do, but at least I made a start on it.

I had a delightful snack of overwintered purple broccoli while I was checking over my garden. I don't normally like raw broccoli very much, but these tiny little heads the size of a quarter all over the plants are so sweet and crisp. I've never had broccoli overwinter like this before. Normally, it seems like it goes straight to seed or I pull the plants in the Fall. Being too exhausted to put the garden to bed last year has resulted in a wonderful surprise this Spring. I wonder how long I can keep picking off all the tiny florets before it bolts? I want to save seed from it eventually.

I was extra achy all day and needed extra pain meds, my arm was a little sore at the injection site, and I was so tired that I fell asleep while it was still light out. If I'd turned off my phone alarm to remind me to take my evening med, who knows how long I'd have slept. Instead, I couldn't go back to sleep and am only just now getting ready to nod off. Oh, well, I ended up sorting more books and listing titles to watch for, doing the dishes I'd left soaking and sweeping all the floors. My morning chores are pretty well done, so I can sleep in without guilt, lol.

midtnmama, I agree that useless might benefit from adding salt to her Epsom salt soaks...it certainly would do no harm. I wanted to ask if you've been affected by any of the flooding and other weather related issues in TN. I'm hoping you're in a totally peaceful part of your state!

I've worked hard today. It turned out to be one of those days where I started out working on one small thing and ended up working on something totally different! I prepped the buckets for planting flowers, herbs, etc...that was what I meant to work on. I didn't actually PLANT anything, though. I cut boards to fill in the gaps in the pallet for the floor in the feed/tool/pool supply room in the barn and got the pallet in place, air compressor charged up and everything nailed in place. I mended some broken slats in the pallet floor in the barn aisle and swept/blew as much of the floor clean as I could. I moved the buckets of dog food onto the new section of floor in the feed room, moved pasture seed into buckets, labeled all the buckets - oyster shell, black oil sunflower seeds, grass seed, etc. I was able to move a half full barrel of chicken feed out of the back stall (currently not being used as a stall, but storage) and into the feed room with all the other barrels of feed. I brought another small garbage can filled with firewood scraps (left over from cutting tomato supports the other day) into the house to burn. I took dirt and chicken manure to the compost pile. I moved stock panels that had been laying flat in front of the barn to vertical leaning up against the barn until I need them. I basically just did lots of moving, cleaning and organizing all day.

Oh, and I washed a couple buckets that I emptied - I'm not sure I'll ever be done with that job, lol. I'm about ready to start filtering diesel into clean buckets, so that means cleaning 15 more buckets and lids to clean....sob.

TL returned my tillers this afternoon, and we looked at the generator and what it will take to get the well working off generator power...it looks like it's doable.

I sold 4 dozen eggs to J, my kattycorner neighbor...that's 14 dozen sold this week. That's getting closer to covering what my hens are laying, but I'm still soft boiling the oldest eggs and using them to bind the grains into a mix that gets them eating ALL their grain instead of cherry picking the choicest bits. I still need to gain more customers to keep selling at the rate I did this week.

During rest breaks, I added a bunch more authors and books to my phone's notepad. I'm getting close to finishing this project, at least for the authors I'm most interested in collecting. I've found another grocery sackful of duplicate books and books I don't plan to re-read to donate to the Post.

My eyelids are drooping, so I'm ready to call it a night. The weather is holding, so I hope to work in the garden and barn again tomorrow. Of course, it seems that all I need to do is state what I'd like to work on, for my plans to totally change. 🙄☺

useless, manygoatsnomore might know better than I whether epsom salts are the same as regular table salt in that regard.

useless, midtnmama, lilith is right. Epsom salts are mainly magnesium, table salt is mainly sodium. Two different chemicals. Make sure to rinse the soaking solution off and apply a mild lotion to the skin after a soak to reduce irritation.

I guess I overdid a bit on Saturday...had a hard time getting comfortable and sleeping that night, in fact, I didn't sleep and was draggy all day yesterday. Other than gathering eggs and feeding chickens, I didn't do much outside except admire how much neater my barn looks.

I did finish up quite a bit more of my book sorting and listing project, but I called it a day by 4pm and went to bed! After sleeping until 8am this morning, I feel a lot better. Still not terribly energetic, but at least I'm functional.

The wonderful thing about the days getting longer is that I can be lazy for part of the day and still get in a pretty good day's work by dark, lol!

A third of the month is already gone! Seems like it's flying by. Time for a to-do list check in:

1. File my taxes! (I have a refund coming, and it's just silly to let the government use it for free.)
2. Continue to go to all the consults and follow through on all the testing and advice to get and keep me healthy.
3. Get my 2nd Covid shot and find an appointment for Abby as soon as she's eligible. I got my 2nd shot on the 1st. Abby gets her 1st Covid shot the 11th.
4. Groom the tangles out of Muttley's coat.
5. Keep losing weight and improving stamina.
6. Continue to track spending, income and expenses. Ongoing, and on track, too.
7. Dig and plant potatoes, plant peas and other cold-hardy veggies, more winter sowing and start more tomatoes in house, set up tomato supports and weed the beds, dig and move rhubarb out of chicken pen.
8. Unstick stuck 5 gallon buckets and finish cleaning them, wash up the 2 stacks of smaller buckets and store away/put to use. I finished washing up the smaller buckets and am planting some of them with flowers and herbs. Having trouble getting the fitting on the air nozzle.
9. Strain diesel into clean buckets with gasketed lids, clean up the old buckets and switch out lids where needed.
10. Drain old fuel and oil out of generator, add fresh and test.
11. Plant the bulbs, perennials and plants I bought in March, as well as any I buy this month. NO MORE NEGLECTED PLANTS! I'm working on this one.
12. Hawk and chicken proof the chicken pen, including removing trees that interfere with overhead netting, install netting, start sorting out the good layers of nice big eggs from the ones who lay smaller eggs, sell the ones who don't earn their keep. I have a slight problem with this plan. A hen has been laying a clutch on top of the roll of netting for the pen!
13. Replace the leaky fitting on the framing nailer and start building hay, lumber and equipment storage. Working on the 1st shed. Haven't changed out the fitting - it works fine, just hisses if the hose isn't just so. Annoying.
14. Haul home enough hay to last through to July. 3 trips Saturday will finish this, plus another 1000 lbs of chicken feed.
15. Finish getting the truck and horse trailer ready to travel. Need to get the new tires on the trailer and a new brake controller unit for the truck, as well as an oil change and fluids check. Tires are on, brake controller and wiring harness are here, just waiting for my schedule to mesh with TL's for the rest.
16. Continue to sort and organize my books and add to list of books to watch for. Done for now.
17. TBD

I know it's really only 9 complete days, but I have a lot to do tomorrow (Saturday) that I'm gonna want to add, and I know I'll be really tired, so I figured I'd set it up tonight and update it tomorrow night, lol.

It is April 15 and I don't think I have made it to this section at all this month- if I did it was so early on that I have already forgotten!

Plodding along, getting things done here and there in dribs and drabs. Almost finished with maple syrup- I have one pot of unfinished syrup left that hubby drained out of the evaporator yesterday. I should have finished it yesterday but it was the strangest day. Normally, syrup is done when it hits 7 degrees above the boiling point of water. Ish. We always do a test boil at the beginning of the season to ensure that we remember what that point is. So this year we did it and the water boiled at 212F. Therefore, the syrup should have been finished at 219F. Well, because this process has dragged out over the entire month (we are usually done in 1-2 weeks), and the weather has changed so much during that period, our finish mark has varied from around 215F to 219F, and yesterday I swear it went almost to 220F on one batch (I use a spaghetti pot and do several small batches in a day, normally). Well, yesterday was so weird- the finish point actually varied from batch to batch. The temperature is just a guide- the real test is done by using a hydrometer to measure the brix (sugar content). If the brix reading is not correct then the temp doesn't even matter. I went around and around and around yesterday trying to get the syrup to the correct state. If it goes past 66% brix then I have to add more sap to it and start over- which I had to do several times. I finally gave up on the last pot and will have to do it today or maybe Saturday.

I was asked to deliver posters for the local (next town over- 45 miles away) community theater. They emailed on Tuesday to ask if we (DD and I) could deliver them on Wednesday, or "Thursday at the latest". sigh. They always do this- no notice at all, as if we are just sitting around waiting for them to call. I get a little frustrated because, while we enjoy delivering the posters (and it is a thankless job, I think we are the only ones who enjoy it, lol), I don't always enjoy doing it in the winter. And they have to place an order with the printer for the posters so they could give me a little heads' up. They know I don't live in town and I don't always know when they are having a production, especially during the pandemic when everything has gone south and they have been closed for most of the past year. But I emailed back and told them we could do it today. Well, then they told me that one of the gals in the office was going out to deliver some on Tuesday, and then I got another email yesterday saying that she was going out again, but that she might not get them all done. Well, it is 10:40am, they don't open till 11am, and I am sitting around waiting to hear if they expect me to jump in the car and drive over there to deliver the few remaining posters that the other gal did not get to. oy. Wish they were a little more organized about it- I am happy to help, but I don't need to be stressing out over posters.

I am probably just in a bad mood in general. I finally found a vet who will euthanize two of our dogs, and made an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. My beautiful 13.5yo boy has lost most control of his rear end and can barely walk. He falls down frequently and lately we can see that he gets scared when he cannot get back up without help. He is having some incontinence, and he no longer gets up to eat every meal- he often skips eating altogether. His 11.5yo sister (half-sister, actually) has cancer and 11 months ago the vet told us that she would likely only live another 3-4 months. No treatment, just palliative care. She is one tough little dog and has hung in all this time. She doesn't seem to be in any pain that we can tell, but she hardly eats enough to keep a bird alive. She is skin and bones- it is painful to look at her. But the worst part is that she is not only incontinent, but she seems to be putting off some kind of pheromones that make the other male dogs think that she is in heat- or at least, they act like they think she is in heat. They are tormenting her constantly. We have been rotating dogs in and out of crates, in and out of bedrooms, and one of the males is off his feed now. It has been very stressful. But now even the little girl dog is refusing some of her meals and so we have decided that it is time for both of them to be put out of their misery. On top of all that, we are mad at our usual vet, who for many years has come out to the farm to euthanize our pets, and we just cannot deal with her right now on top of everything else, so I had to find another vet. Most of the vets around here are only working part-time (pandemic) and trying to find a vet that would put two dogs down, not regular clients, was impossible. I get that they probably think we are some kind of rednecks that just want to get rid of unwanted dogs, but two of them never even called back after I left messages for them- they couldn't even be bothered to find out what the situation is. So those are two vets we will never use. Our usual vet does not do x-rays so we use another vet whose clinic is 75 minutes from us when we need x-rays done. Usually for health testing of hips and elbows, but also when our girl was diagnosed with cancer. Well, that vet is only working 2 days a week and is booked out for the next 5-6 weeks. We didn't think the dogs would last that long without a lot of suffering, so we tried to go elsewhere. When we could not get an appointment anywhere else we called back and made an appointment with a different vet in the clinic who has never treated our dogs- hate to do that, but for end of life care maybe it doesn't even matter. The whole thing has me feeling sad and depressed and having to deal with recalcitrant vets has just made it more painful.

Anyway, once we get done with delivering posters (maybe) and dealing with sick dogs I can get back to the syrup, finish the last batch, and do the final clean up for the year. I am ready to be done with this project!

bearcreekbees, I'm really sorry that you've had the extra stress of finding a vet as well as having to put down not one, but two of your dogs at the same time. After so many years together, it can't be easy. How is your little bee doing with it?

I remember putting down one of my cats after 16.5 years together. I was worried about Abby, but she was a trouper. I'm the one who cried my eyes out!

lilith, you're doing great on your list! At least you know where your tools are, lol. I still can't locate some of mine. 😕

I've been so busy and tired that I've barely been on line at all. Been getting a lot done, but it's been a week since I think I last posted. Probably the best thing I knocked off my list was getting my taxes filed. I'm getting back most of the amount withheld from my retirement fund draw - I do wish they would consider my circumstances instead of taking a cookie cutter approach to withholding.

I also finally, FINALLY, had my chest CT angiogram yesterday. It took 6 weeks to get it okayed, scheduled and completed. Sheesh! Now I just have a consult with pulmonology and 2 weeks of wearing a cardiac monitor starting point n a week, followed by another trip to the cardiologist. Since I had another episode today where I couldn't get my heart rate down, felt sick, and had gastric issues, I really want to get this figured out.

Abby got her first Covid shot on Sunday, gets her second one May 2nd.

I'm digging potatoes out of my garden and working on getting the sprouted sections planted back to produce this year's potatoes. I might chose to leave some in the ground over the winter again. They seem to have fared really well and are much nicer than the ones I've stored over the winter. I'm also pleased to find that some plants and bulbs I didn't plant last year are still alive. I've planted dahlias, clematis and have gladioli still to go in. Also, the peonies I thought I'd killed last year (with the help of the chicken squad) are sprouting. Yay!

I've hauled home and have on hand a literal ton of grain for the chickens and enough round bales to last 2 horses until the middle of July. I might go get a few more, since we will have 3 horses for a few weeks if Abby buys the one she is eyeing.

I've also been spray painting some of my plastic lawn chairs...not on the list, but an experiment I've been wanting to try. They are looking pretty nice. 😁

This month I'm going to
1. File my taxes. Done.
2. Go racing with my Son and hopefully show him this old dog has a few tricks left up her sleeve. Tried to complete, but car failure puts this on next months list.
3. Sew seed strait into my new garden beds. Peas are in, not sprouting yet tho. Tomato and pepper plants are looking great. Wish I had more peppers and less tomatoes.
4. Setup the watering system and put it on the timer. I have all the pieces, just need assembled and hooked up
5. Put a new floor in my shop. this depends on having the muscle help required - will complete as help arrives
6. Get all my mechanic tools organized and put away properly in my shop. half way there lol, and by halfway, I mean the tools are somewhere in the tool boxes - mostly
7. Remember to go in every evening within an hour of sunset! It's been more of a I'll sleep when I'm dead kind of week.
8. Use the foot soaker tub I bought weekly just for my own pleasure! I subbed out Mom's hot tub for a foot soak ... But I did manage to soak my feet in there too

manygoatsnomore, I'm tired just reading what you have done! Yesterday I potted up tomato plants and planted parsley, ajuga and pumpkins. Wehn I weed, I try to keep the ground covered so will drop weeds if they don't have seeds. I'm still working on the wild violets which crowd everything out, so I'll fill a bucket most days for the chickens. I'm slowly organizing my messy planting area with the various containers of soil, composted chicken manure, pots organized. It's time to clean up my winter sowing containers and get them hanging on a string from the basement rafters.

I clipped the wild roses around the yard and will be stashing them where my dog likes to dig out under the fence. I put wood chips around another tree and planted mums. My goal is to have something planted with blooming flowers under each tree where it faces the house. The other side of the trees will be edibles: rhubarb, horseradish and comfrey (not for eating but for mulching). These will be mini forest gardens. As I plant out a pot of something, I am planting more seeds immediately into the pot. One of my goals is to plant something every day. Even one or two things each day adds up over time.





Tomorrow morning I'll go to Lowes in the early morning to check out the bargain stuff, and buy eggplant and peppers.