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we need an ongoing thread to share our failures ond / or accomplishments each day. some of them could be pretty humorous. remember in morgan county indiana we say " it aint braggin if ya done it.
alison , ive seen diotomecious earth mess up termites and flying ants . any waxy bug is screwed when you throw that stuff around . its cheap / non toxic . my accomplishments arent happening right now . spending a few days with edna . she isnt supposed to be left alone -- placement at a NH is in progress . im going to chicago when edna gets settled , prob'ly ridin ike . last day of hepc tx is this wednesday . i shant miss the constant headache -- might miss looking at sondras behind when she aint lookin tho . he he
Alison, the Raid Ant & Roach Killer works pretty well. You put a line down anywhere that might be on their crawl path. I use it here when we have problems.
The flying ants are swarmers that are leaving their nest. When they get to the new place, the wings fall off. They are only good for a single flight. The thing is to let them know that they haven't reached a good place. RAID .!!! (The .!!! is a dead ant.)
Allison - Captain is right about the diatomaceous earth. It's fantastic stuff. It's kind of like a form of revenge against the critters that torment us. It contains the crushed exoskeletons of ancient critters (diatoms) that are *extremely* sharp - it's like the death of a thousand cuts for insects. It causes them to dehydrate and die.
It's a completely naturally-occurring product and can be used for many things. Many people who keep a large quantity of flour in their home use it to keep bugs out of their pantry - a small amount of FOOD GRADE diatomaceous earth mixed in with the flour will not harm humans and will kill any bugs or eggs that end up in the flour. (Sounds gross, but you have no idea how many insects or eggs we actually ingest annually because they're already in our food.)
And on a humorous note....you reminded me of the Pink Panther theme song, Jessiebelle....deadant...deadant...deadantdeadantdeadant deadannnnnnnt....
Thank you, all of you wonderful, helpful people. I looked up the Diatomaceous earth (that's a mouthful), wasn't familiar with it. I love the idea of a non-toxic product to use.
Yes, the flying ants are in their swarm mode. Last year I only had to deal with them for about 1 week and then they are mostly gone. But what a week of tiny flying ants EVERYWHERE. So after they swarm this year, I will be figuring out how to access under front porch (I know that's where they are but its not really humanly accessible, just bug accessible) and again attempt to put an end to them taking up residence under there. I got up on top of drop ceiling in basement last year, poked my head and hands up in area of front foundation wall and put some poison down, it clearly didn't work.
CM, thanks for heads up on termite awareness. I'm positive these are standard run-of-the-mill black ants and flying ants. I have hundreds of their little corpses to inspect, haha.
Assandache, you hit the nail right on the head. I couldn't stop "feeling" ants on my legs for hours. Of course, it was imaginary - but I just kept feeling them!
JessieBelle, it sounds like you are describing a powder product? Or is it a spray? I have some of the spray, and have been using it, but I don't care for the toxic chemical smell that seems to linger. Outside would be fine, but these guys are getting inside en masse, so I'm having to spray more than I'd like to indoors.
Today I cleaned up all the corpses, put a few dozen more that were trapped inside the house out of their misery and warned my dad about the ant problem. He's so oblivious to everything, and its just so odd to me... I had to point out the dozens of bugs all around front door and by window sills and he's looking at it and saying "Oh. Oh, those are ants?" He doesn't seem the least bit bothered, and that's fine, but his unawareness means he will be squashing them underfoot and smearing them throughout the house... :-P
Accomplishment: my house is temporarily ant free.
Failure: now that sun is down, the flyers will fly towards the light inside the house and I will have some nocturnal visitors again. Rinse, repeat.
I took a tablespoon of the DE FOOD GRADE, to combat parasites, worms and such. It worked great, although I also saw a naturopath and doctor and took other herbal things to help them die off. You can give your pets it too. Do your research first!
I took a tablespoon every morning in juice about 15 minutes before breakfast or eating food, for several months, until my glass jar that I put it in fell on the tile floor. What a mess. I do think it helped a lot. It felt good going down.
wooo hoooo! A great day here! I got in the back yard today and got it all raked, pruned, and mowed and just as I was about to finish up, saw my brother rolling up the hill...Initially having a moment of "Oh $**t, I told myself to chill out, calm down and just be firm about what you need and don't need. He came and first thing he told me was how hard it looked like I was working and he asked me what he could do to help me.... then he told me he had brought his blower and if I wanted him to he could blow off all the sidewalks, patios, etc. (that is the one thing I really needed to do) so I was very excited for him to do it for me...we worked well together....and Mama had such a good day..she was laughing and talking and enjoying herself, and I know it was seeing my brother and I working together that made her happy...so that is why I'm doing this, I must remind myself...nothing major happened adn we actually enjoyed our visit...so I'm going to unsquinch my eye enough when he comes and try to look for the good in his remarks and see if we can't keep working through this together...sure made Mama happy...and that makes me happy....woooooo hoooooo.. Happy Dance!!!
I also must toot my own horn here as my brother asked me how on earth did I cut all those trees down? I told him with my handsaw of course...he looked astonished...he has all that fancy expensive power equipment....so he was most impressed with all my efforts...I was pretty happy with myself .....patting self on back here....and had a rib eye and some onion rings I have been saving for a special dinner for me...tonight was the night!!
Febreze Air Effects kills all kinds of bugs BUT do not use it around pet birds or reptiles. A safe insect spray would be spices infused in water: clove, cinnamon, and mint leaves in a "tea". And the commercial sprays for bedbugs are simply extracts of geraniums. Lavender is well known for protecting linens and sweaters from bugs. Cedar is good too, clip some young branches, make a tea and spray around your baseboards, or just put some sprigs of it in your closet.
Accomplishments: I've rarely cooked all these years. I've decided with my pay cut, I can no longer keep buying take outs. Time to start cooking and bought several very simple cookbooks. All our pots, pans, utensils, bowls are mom's. And she stopped cooking 25 years ago. Time to get new ones. I have a gift card from Macys. I was able to get a 7pc utensil set, metal colander, cutting board, meat thermometer... can't believe all that cost $67!!! Went to other discount stores and bought the cheapest spices (yes, I know McCormick is the best but $4.59- $6.95 per spice bottle!?) which was $1.90 each for garlic powder, oregano leaf, paprika, cayenne pepper and italian seasoning. I still have left over money in the Macys gift card but I didn't know what other basics I needed.
Failure: I didn't get to check my Life Insurance and couldn't find the Diatomaceous at Home Depot. So, I bought more ant killer sprays and again sprayed our walls.
Accomplishment: My friend texted me yesterday saying she was coming to town and asked iof she could come by for a short visit. (Short for her usually turns into the remainder of the day)....nonetheless, I let her know I was working in the yard, a short visit would be nice and if she arrived and I did not come to the door, gave her the info she needed to get in. Also, I asked her was she going to be close to a fast food place where she could grab me a burger and fries. She said sure. As mundane as all this sounds, the reason it is an accomplishment for me is 1. I continued on with what I was doing i.e. working in the yards...instead of following my old MO and stopping what I was doing and "preparing " for guests...2. I asked for something i.e. my lunch and then 3. because she still had not arrived anywhere near the time she said she was coming, I went right ahead with my bath and didn't miss a beat. We had a pleasant visit, BUT the short visit turned into four hours and was moving into the evening when she said, I guess you wish I'd go home....and I said...girl...I love you and I love to see you, but I am tired and maybe we can do this again soon. I am learning the older I get the more I have rights same as anyone else. ....and I do not feel like entertaining all afternoon long. So for me , today went pretty well. BTW...I did pay for my lunch...She tried to dissuade me but I insisted there....
Now that I have my pool open I have to vaccum it everyday, so that's what I did.. I like being able to do it, it gets me outside. Along with the usual laundry..
Thanks yall!...Now why has that been so hard til now? lol know what you mean about getting outdoors. I find it is IMPERATIVE for my sanity to get out at least from the house and do something, anything...for me here it is the lawn...I am working on clearing out the woods a lot more to dissuade predators like coyotes and bobcats...so clearing away the underbrush is supposed to help....plus it sure feels good to get all that word done, get a good hot bath and then enjoy the fruits of my labor while I enjoy some coffee on the deck....I have always loved doing these things..for some reason drifted away from it all...for one thing...it is HARD...lol...and feeling tired all the time it is pretty easy to talk myself out of it...but...if I push on through and just don't over do, then it is so personally rewarding to me to actually see myself accomplishing something...because sometimes as strange as it sounds, caregiving can feel so invisible...except to the two or few people involved....
Accomplishment: Had to hit the ground running today. Already got a days worth of activity finished, not the least of which was finally getting my big security light installed by the power company after catching a man standing on my front porch a week ago...also, turned myself into a ravishing 8 1/2 Champagne Blonde out of a box...well, at least a blonde out of a box....Mama's sleeping, has had a great morning, and I am about to get myself a nice hot cup of coffee and put my feet up for a spell.
It is funny, I pretty much let go of the professional salon treatment a couple of years ago, but can tweak it pretty well myself with the box stuff...I have had that box of color sitting in there for a couple of weeks and this morning asked myself who on earth I was saving it for...haha....it sure feels a lot better...looks better too....all jazzed up and no where to go... !!!
Failure: haven't been doing cardio gym class and juicing lately. It makes a big difference in my energy level. If all I do is take dad to endless doctor appointments and the chores for the house, I am too tired to have any fun and I don't feel so good. I've gotten out of some of my good habits and having hard time putting them back into place. Instead, I am now Facebooking like mad. :-P
Accomplishment: I'm a blonde now, too, hope! I figured if half of my hair was going to turn gray, I might as well lighten the rest and think of the grays as "highlights." I did it myself, too, after watching some YouTube videos. I slowly began to lighten it using combination of color remover, then bleach highlight kit for medium-to-dark shades of hair... And it worked, my grays blend in much better now and I get a lot longer time in between touch ups. The color turned out well but I think I may have done serious damage to my long hair by using the bleach and may have to have it cut shorter. Oh, schwell.
hope , " all dressed up with no place to go " youve just described an athiest in a casket . lol ali , i pretty much only look at the mature gals with graying hair . i think gray hair / beard looks great on an older man too . im only 55 but a persons tastes sure change as they age . id feel like a pedophile even looking at a 30 - 40 yr old woman ..course i only look when theyre not paying attention anyway . he he that must be frustrating for them -- knowing this m - f is going to check out my azz and theres little ( nothing ) i can do to stop him .. its a victimlerss crime -- like punching somebody in the dark ( nelson muntz ) ..
" an athiest in a casket" thats brilliant Cap even mum laughed at that one!! I tell her im on a forum for "singles"!! As she always wonders why im always on here!
My mom calls me, complains about her health without letting me even grunt a response and goes on and on. Since she is resistant to any suggestions all I have to do is make one and she finds a way to end the conversation and hang up. Success: not caring so much. Sad but that's how it is.
Capn....lol....hilarious!!! I've got to remember that one...
ACCOMPLISHMENT:
I may have already mentioned it, but we got our security light installed yesterday and I was so excited upon seeing that power truck roll up the hill you'd have thought that they were delivering a BMW to my front door! I went outside last night and just stood there in the warmth of the "glow" and was so proud of it...Friends, this was very exciting for me....I'm guessing my neighbors were wondering what the big deal was...haha....This mornings "high moment" was getting all of the garbage out of the house and to the curb ...which for me involves clearing out the up and downstairs, cleaning up behind myself, making sure the fridge is cleared out blah blah blah...well, it was a big deal, now I am boring my own self.....funny how mundane things actually excite me these days....
Oh Hope! what a life! i was excited yesterday when mums "stroller" arrived......... WHY? Yes im very bored lately i just dont know what to do? i go for a walk in the mornings then go for coffee then what can i do with no money? theres days when i would love to just keep walking until my life is sorted!
Not sure if to count this as a failure, accomplishment, or incredible adventure.
Mom decided today she wanted to go to a beach she and Dad used to go to when they were dating, before they were married. So, off we went. Now, Mom knows the roads here like the back of her hand, but I have noticed her memory lapses are starting to affect that as well - so I thought we'd give it a shot, but I'd be keeping an eye on where we were going in case she got us lost, so I could get us back out.
We started down a road she said led to the lake...no worries, smooth paved road, beautiful forests all around. Soon, the road changed to gravel...still no worries - plenty of dirt roads in Michigan, drive on them all the time. The the road narrowed...and narrowed further still...until it was essentially a one-lane, very rough, rutted dirt road through the woods, twisting and turning, up and down hills...one of the hills was almost washed out by a recent rainstorm, and I had to take great care going down that hill, to avoid getting the tires caught in the ruts caused by the rain. Oh...and did I mention that there was NO PLACE to turn around on this road - anywhere? It was follow it to the end and hope to find somewhere - anywhere - at the end to turn around...and this road was LOOOOONG.
We made it to the lake. Gorgeous, of course. Took the dog down to the water to play and I found a few pretty rocks. Mom sat in the van and just enjoyed watching the lake. The mosquitos were pretty bad, so we didn't stay long. Headed back out the long, long, LONG dirt road back to civilization. Remember that hill that was washed out by the rain with the deep ruts? Well....I got up some speed and tried to climb it, but the passenger side tires hit one of the ruts, and we kind of tipped sideways a bit, and then the the dirt road fell apart under the tires (because it was already weakened by the ruts in it), and we were stuck. I tried to put it in neutral and just let the weight of the van roll us back down the hill - no go. Reverse didn't work either. Van was buried up to the hubcaps.
I ended up having to call 911 to get a wrecker out there to pull us out of the spot we were stuck in. I felt like an absolute idiot. 2 hours in the woods, $100 for the wrecker, 1 potty accident for Mom and much frustration later, we were back at our motel.
Failure: Trusting Mom's failing memory to get us where she wants to go. She felt terrible. So did I, after I had to spend $100 of our trip money on a wrecker. I feel badly for her, because I know she really thought she knew the way to the beach, and her inability to remember the way really distressed her.
Accomplishment: I kept my cool through it all, and we just kind of laughed it off - there wasn't much else we could do. It could have been far worse. If I hadn't had cell signal, we might have been sitting there in the woods all night.
Thanks, Glad - but GPS was useless here. I am in the wilds of the U.P. of Michigan where cell signal is extremely spotty and there are *many* roads that don't show up on GPS - I found one of them, of course. I pulled out my handy-dandy smartphone with GPS app to tell 911 where I was located and it told me I was somewhere 15 miles from my actual location - because it couldn't tell where I was.
We did have a good time - until we tried to go back up the hill. Chalk it up to another adventure, and something we can laugh about in the future.
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my accomplishments arent happening right now . spending a few days with edna . she isnt supposed to be left alone -- placement at a NH is in progress .
im going to chicago when edna gets settled , prob'ly ridin ike .
last day of hepc tx is this wednesday . i shant miss the constant headache -- might miss looking at sondras behind when she aint lookin tho . he he
The flying ants are swarmers that are leaving their nest. When they get to the new place, the wings fall off. They are only good for a single flight. The thing is to let them know that they haven't reached a good place. RAID .!!! (The .!!! is a dead ant.)
It's a completely naturally-occurring product and can be used for many things. Many people who keep a large quantity of flour in their home use it to keep bugs out of their pantry - a small amount of FOOD GRADE diatomaceous earth mixed in with the flour will not harm humans and will kill any bugs or eggs that end up in the flour. (Sounds gross, but you have no idea how many insects or eggs we actually ingest annually because they're already in our food.)
And on a humorous note....you reminded me of the Pink Panther theme song, Jessiebelle....deadant...deadant...deadantdeadantdeadant deadannnnnnnt....
Yes, the flying ants are in their swarm mode. Last year I only had to deal with them for about 1 week and then they are mostly gone. But what a week of tiny flying ants EVERYWHERE. So after they swarm this year, I will be figuring out how to access under front porch (I know that's where they are but its not really humanly accessible, just bug accessible) and again attempt to put an end to them taking up residence under there. I got up on top of drop ceiling in basement last year, poked my head and hands up in area of front foundation wall and put some poison down, it clearly didn't work.
CM, thanks for heads up on termite awareness. I'm positive these are standard run-of-the-mill black ants and flying ants. I have hundreds of their little corpses to inspect, haha.
Assandache, you hit the nail right on the head. I couldn't stop "feeling" ants on my legs for hours. Of course, it was imaginary - but I just kept feeling them!
JessieBelle, it sounds like you are describing a powder product? Or is it a spray? I have some of the spray, and have been using it, but I don't care for the toxic chemical smell that seems to linger. Outside would be fine, but these guys are getting inside en masse, so I'm having to spray more than I'd like to indoors.
Today I cleaned up all the corpses, put a few dozen more that were trapped inside the house out of their misery and warned my dad about the ant problem. He's so oblivious to everything, and its just so odd to me... I had to point out the dozens of bugs all around front door and by window sills and he's looking at it and saying "Oh. Oh, those are ants?" He doesn't seem the least bit bothered, and that's fine, but his unawareness means he will be squashing them underfoot and smearing them throughout the house... :-P
Accomplishment: my house is temporarily ant free.
Failure: now that sun is down, the flyers will fly towards the light inside the house and I will have some nocturnal visitors again. Rinse, repeat.
It worked great, although I also saw a naturopath and doctor and took other herbal things to help them die off. You can give your pets it too. Do your research first!
Failure: I didn't get to check my Life Insurance and couldn't find the Diatomaceous at Home Depot. So, I bought more ant killer sprays and again sprayed our walls.
Accomplishment: I'm a blonde now, too, hope! I figured if half of my hair was going to turn gray, I might as well lighten the rest and think of the grays as "highlights." I did it myself, too, after watching some YouTube videos. I slowly began to lighten it using combination of color remover, then bleach highlight kit for medium-to-dark shades of hair... And it worked, my grays blend in much better now and I get a lot longer time in between touch ups. The color turned out well but I think I may have done serious damage to my long hair by using the bleach and may have to have it cut shorter. Oh, schwell.
youve just described an athiest in a casket . lol
ali , i pretty much only look at the mature gals with graying hair . i think gray hair / beard looks great on an older man too . im only 55 but a persons tastes sure change as they age . id feel like a pedophile even looking at a 30 - 40 yr old woman ..course i only look when theyre not paying attention anyway . he he that must be frustrating for them -- knowing this m - f is going to check out my azz and theres little ( nothing ) i can do to stop him .. its a victimlerss crime -- like punching somebody in the dark ( nelson muntz ) ..
not caring so much. Sad but that's how it is.
ACCOMPLISHMENT:
I may have already mentioned it, but we got our security light installed yesterday and I was so excited upon seeing that power truck roll up the hill you'd have thought that they were delivering a BMW to my front door! I went outside last night and just stood there in the warmth of the "glow" and was so proud of it...Friends, this was very exciting for me....I'm guessing my neighbors were wondering what the big deal was...haha....This mornings "high moment" was getting all of the garbage out of the house and to the curb ...which for me involves clearing out the up and downstairs, cleaning up behind myself, making sure the fridge is cleared out blah blah blah...well, it was a big deal, now I am boring my own self.....funny how mundane things actually excite me these days....
Mom decided today she wanted to go to a beach she and Dad used to go to when they were dating, before they were married. So, off we went. Now, Mom knows the roads here like the back of her hand, but I have noticed her memory lapses are starting to affect that as well - so I thought we'd give it a shot, but I'd be keeping an eye on where we were going in case she got us lost, so I could get us back out.
We started down a road she said led to the lake...no worries, smooth paved road, beautiful forests all around. Soon, the road changed to gravel...still no worries - plenty of dirt roads in Michigan, drive on them all the time. The the road narrowed...and narrowed further still...until it was essentially a one-lane, very rough, rutted dirt road through the woods, twisting and turning, up and down hills...one of the hills was almost washed out by a recent rainstorm, and I had to take great care going down that hill, to avoid getting the tires caught in the ruts caused by the rain. Oh...and did I mention that there was NO PLACE to turn around on this road - anywhere? It was follow it to the end and hope to find somewhere - anywhere - at the end to turn around...and this road was LOOOOONG.
We made it to the lake. Gorgeous, of course. Took the dog down to the water to play and I found a few pretty rocks. Mom sat in the van and just enjoyed watching the lake. The mosquitos were pretty bad, so we didn't stay long. Headed back out the long, long, LONG dirt road back to civilization. Remember that hill that was washed out by the rain with the deep ruts? Well....I got up some speed and tried to climb it, but the passenger side tires hit one of the ruts, and we kind of tipped sideways a bit, and then the the dirt road fell apart under the tires (because it was already weakened by the ruts in it), and we were stuck. I tried to put it in neutral and just let the weight of the van roll us back down the hill - no go. Reverse didn't work either. Van was buried up to the hubcaps.
I ended up having to call 911 to get a wrecker out there to pull us out of the spot we were stuck in. I felt like an absolute idiot. 2 hours in the woods, $100 for the wrecker, 1 potty accident for Mom and much frustration later, we were back at our motel.
Failure: Trusting Mom's failing memory to get us where she wants to go. She felt terrible. So did I, after I had to spend $100 of our trip money on a wrecker. I feel badly for her, because I know she really thought she knew the way to the beach, and her inability to remember the way really distressed her.
Accomplishment: I kept my cool through it all, and we just kind of laughed it off - there wasn't much else we could do. It could have been far worse. If I hadn't had cell signal, we might have been sitting there in the woods all night.
We did have a good time - until we tried to go back up the hill. Chalk it up to another adventure, and something we can laugh about in the future.