Bad News

Sorry to hear your disease is flaring up again HT. Godspeed in your recovery.

Sorry to hear HT, a nasty condition at any time but I can only imagine your frustration with having a flare now when you have so much going on! I do hope it eases quickly and hope you are able to give yourself a break, for a short while at least, to give your body a chance to rebound. 

 Sorry to hear that, RJ.  I'm finishing up a course  of Doxycyclin, today. I have no idea when I got it, just attributed tons of aches and pains to arthritis. Of course, thanks to testing, now I know I don't have arthritis.  Lyme's  is curable in many cases, especially if caught early.  I'm starting to wear permethrin treated clothes to fish and hike, I  was going to last year, but gave my spray to a farmer friend.  I'm back working with a semi-functional leg, I couldn't walk for a week.  I did do one plumbing job for a cabinet maker friend for a had-to-happen  installation with a walker and a cane.  Fun!   
    I stopped in here to see what was happening on the lake and what the  silly season ahead may look like;  kind of a bummer to see your news.  Prayer sent and get well,  say hello if you see me on the river. 
   
  

My homestead is surrounded by woods and brush,so I rarely walk off my mowed grassy area(which is about 15% of the total 5 acres),so I am very aware of the tick problem.I check my body and clothes every time I venture outside.Beside that now we have the skitters and the potential of West Nile virus!
Sorry for your problem Rich,hope you feel better soon,Sept is around the corner.

I will say the meds and good vibes Lukas gave us last week have helped tremendous. I'm good to go again for awhile

That's rough, HT.... I understand cleaning out, but big difference between clutter and history. Hope not too much damage was done. 

They live in a “disposable” society. Everything is short lived and replaceable. Think a smartphone that is 2 years old needing replaced.

On our end, we kept everything, probably because our parents either knew of the Depression or lived it.

We also hold onto “things” for memories, while they hold onto photos on their devices.

When we moved 4.5 years ago, I did a major purge. I bet I tossed out 90% of the stuff I “saved.”

As we are getting close to finishing the trophy room and tiki bar in our basement, I’m going through the boxes that did make the move with us, looking for items that need to be displayed in the appropriate space.

None of those boxes have been opened since we moved, so just how essential is that stuff too?

I’ve gone through about 2/3’s of it and so far, I’m back on the 90+% purge rate. If I don’t have a place for it, there is no market to sell it (for even pennies on the dollar), and I’ve been able to live without seeing it for at least 4.5 years — I don’t need to keep it.

Well, some of these items are priceless even if they have no value . Some of these items did have a lot of value such as old posters from the 60's and a bunch of old baseball- football cards. No matter, it was still my things until "I" decided to get rid of them. They were stored in " my " house even if my daughter is living there.
I just can't fathom what she did thinking that just because its been in closets for years.

DarDys
True. One should only edit their own belongings.

True, the only value which matters is the value assigned by the rightful owner, others' opinions don't rate.

When my father passed away at 91, he had lived in the same house for 53 years. I went in for a couple of days for the first purge. I thought I got most of it. Boy, was I wrong.

I had an auction crew clear out the rest because they knew what was selling for what and what was not.

It took them two more days to empty the house. After the auction, which went very well (darn near everything sold), they deducted the clear out from the sale and the net was less than $500.

When we made this move, my Mother-In-Law came with us. While I had full rein to purge our stuff, I did not for hers. So 30 year old paid bills made the trip along with three sets of china (one was for my wife and one each for her granddaughters), but only after she passed.

As I finished the basement, I moved that china at least a dozen times, being careful not to damage any.

When she passed in May, we asked the granddaughters to take the china now that it was willed to them and their answer was, “WTF do we want that crap for?”

So now I get to move it again — to the garage.

Oh, and we can barely give away sets of china, but we have a keen eye for Pyrex, Fiesta ware , and McKenzie Childs, and any Correlle we get goes out as "starter dishes" for the referrals, because it is nearly unbreakable.

I keep telling dad (I am not much better LOL) that we need to get rid of stuff, but it is a losing battle. Neither one of us can throw anything away. I may need that random old part someday to get me out of a jam. Hell at this very moment I am wearing a 30 year old baseball jersey from high school.  yes its a little tight but still fits...........

A bad news with some good.
Thursday I pre packed as much as possible for my grandsons cub scouts trip. I'm so glad I did as tragedy struck on Friday.
At 11 am while eating lunch at work we noticed something strange out the window.
People thought it was just dust, I knew the difference. Our plant caught fire. We have a 1.5 mile shed type conveyer belt system that transports cement ( dust) to our port for barges at the river. It had caught fire.
Now industrial fires are the worst, very toxic.
There is a natural gas pipeline that runs right along the conveyer that had to be disabled. 5 fire companies responded. A train blocked access for 23 minutes. Our hydrants didn't work. This became a huge event.
I sprung into action helping fire crews any way possible . Pulling hoses, filling coolers, buckets , and anything I could find with ice, bottled water and Gatorade until I had to leave at 4pm . All I could taste and smelled like was burnt rubber and electrical wire.
Fireman were very fatigued and 1 was taken to the hospital. It was a very difficult fire because access was very limited. The natural draft in the enclosed system just kept the fire spreading.
I've worked there for 30 years and seen some fires but this was the worst.
So arriving home later than planned, we just threw everything together best we could and headed of to the scouts.
Another unfortunate thing is that I was only 1 of 2 males there. It was mostly all mothers taking their kids scouting, yes there was a female scout. Its just sad the fathers were or are to busy for their children ...
Nuff said there.

The trip was great. We did a 3 mile hike to a natural state park waterfall. We actually walked in 2 states, NY & MA
Then we went swimming in and old iron ore pond.
We also tried to earn some badges towards fishing but honestly, there were no fish in that pond at all.
Last night a huge storm came in about 8pm and everyone ran for cover. Some slept in their cars as their tents weren't worthy.
We batten down our tent and were just fine.
By 6am this morning people were just packing wet gear in their vehicles to get out.
We made coffee and took our time.
Home now , tired legs and 3 days work to catch up on.

I guess the message is to be kind and help your fellow people in anyway you can .

Lol. Its actually twice the work now.. Butcher called me Friday night wanting to take my pigs because is getting busy. I wasn't home or ready so I told him to hold off until after labor day. Got home to see my pigs are now ripping boards off my garage so I texted him I was ready to see them go. Tomorrow evening is the date.

The fridge ,garden and some boxes are chuck full of tomatoes. My daughter is making sauce now, she was camping.
I had about 2 dozen pickle cukes ready so I processed them.
The lawn is a hayfield and my pool needs vacuuming.
Soon today we are going to buy some lumber to build my youngest grandchild to be 1 years old Thursday a type of low level climbing fort.
Heck yeah I can buy one but the wife insists on building 1.
Ugh ... is it hunting season yet so all the garden and livestock are over.
Can't wait to spend some time without the home responsibility.

Now you know why I like fall and winter 👍but not snow.

Winter is my favorite. All the gardening and livestock are done. Deer are finished by Thanksgiving weekend and processed.
The only work thing left to do is feed the woodstove.
I get a break of about 2 weeks to prepare for ice season then its game on until I burn out from fishing around mid March.
Another short break to get boat ready for the month .
Then it's all work and no fun in the summer heat