Market Day

We have snow showers in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning. They salted the roads yesterday which will send everyone scurrying to the grocer to buy up all the bread, milk, and beer (it is Super Bowl Weekend). I don’t drink, don’t need milk, can make my own bread or get it at the Farmer’s Market, so I will avoid the grocer. We supplied up on dog foods earlier in the week, but are having difficulty getting hubby’s preferred cola. The shelves have been stocked with lots of options, but not caffeine free diet and this has been an off and on problem all fall and winter. I don’t drink soda either, but it is his preferred beverage. I’m not braving a grocery today for it though.

My preorders were be ready at the Farmer’s Market and I scanned the other vendors to see if there was anything else I want. The Market was a zoo, too many people for my comfort level. Hubby wanted one thing for breakfast out that could be picked up and eaten in the car, I didn’t want that and figured to just get breakfast at the market. All of the lines were too long to wait, the local coffee shop near the market had people out the door, the local bagel shop near where we drop off eggs was mobbed. Fortunately, after trying two other places, we found one that I could get a bite and coffee. Weekly eggs were delivered, we took our walk and came home. There are a few chores to do like vacuuming, but there is an obstacle in my way.

The old guy won’t get up on his bed, but he does use it as a pillow and since we have to use a beach towel under his belly to help him get on his feet now, I don’t want to disturb him.

We may or may not leave the house tomorrow depending on whether we get a dusting or several inches, there is no need at our ages (or any age) to risk going out on snowy roads when unnecessary. I can always make chili for lunch or dinner. And since I got fresh cornmeal last weekend, corn bread is always favored, hot from the oven. I once ordered a tiny skillet of cornbread that was topped with goat cheese, it was maybe the best cornbread I have ever had, but have never been able to duplicate it.

This afternoon is Zoom day with the spindle group. A visit with them is in order as I missed last weekend because we went into town to get a pizza from a small chain restaurant but when we arrived the line was out the door. There was an indoor track meet with 4 Universities over last weekend and three hotels within walking distance. As we sat in an Asian fast food drive thru line instead, the waves of college students swarming around our car was a good indication that we had chosen the wrong night to get the pizza.

The month is almost half over, we will celebrate our 44th anniversary on Monday. Four years ago we were on a cruise to celebrate the 40th. Maybe someday we will be able to safely travel again. With only the couple of weeks behind me, I have already nearly finished my batt of colored wool that was my February spin challenge, have finished 25 grams of another fiber for my second blanket, knit two breeds on to the blanket. I have picked another fiber sample new to me to spin and it and plying the fiber below and the one for my blanket will occupy the rest of the month.

A relatively quiet weekend, just the two of us.

Mouse traps

As you can see from my header photo, we live on acreage. The house sits in the midst of fields that in the past have been used for grazing, but mostly used to grow hay to be cut for local farmers use with their cattle. The upper part of the farm above the barn in an alluvial dump from the last ice age and is littered with rocks and boulders too large and too numerous to move and has been left alone since we bought the property. The prior owner had a herd of miniature horses and donkey’s here and they grazed down much of the brush and cedar trees. The area has a creek that is very dependent on rain across most of the width of the north edge of the property that joins with a creek that has never totally run dry since we moved here that serves as a water source for the house to the north of us and as it meanders back and forth under the fence line that divides us from the farm to the west, serves to water cattle before the two creeks merge and disappear into a sink hole below a rock face. The old creek bed runs just off the west edge of our farm and in heavy rain still carries the water that fills the lowest part of the sinkhole faster than it can disappear into the ground.

The first thing we did after the land was turned over to us and the horses and donkeys removed was to plant daylilies and River Birch trees along the top run off creek to help stabilize it’s path and keep it from running out into the road beyond our house, and about a half dozen trees in the alluvial field, though I am unsure any of them survived, the Birch trees are gorgeous. But by not having grazers on the land, the alluvial field has filled in with volunteer oaks, Tulip poplars, cedars, maples, and some less desirable scrub like Autumn Olive and blackberries.

The fields are hayed each spring and mowed or hayed each fall depending on the summer weather, but as hay fields, they harbor groundhogs, field mice, chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels that run from one rock pile to another as each rockpile has one or more trees growing in it.

The rodents except the mice stay clear of the house, because of having two large dogs in and out and a flock of chickens loose during all daylight hours. But the mice sometimes find their way into the house and evidence of them found usually in the cabinet under the utility sink in the laundry room, but very occasionally, one makes it into the main downstairs part of the house. This requires that they be removed. I am not putting out poison as I don’t want to kill the birds that might eat a poisoned mouse, nor will I use glue traps. If you have ever seen a mouse caught in a glue trap, you know that that is not humane at all. If I caught them in safe release traps they would just turn around and come right back in again. That leaves snap traps. Now PETA would have a fit, but a snap trap is quick and rids the house of the disease carrying rodents, but snap traps are tricky to load. I have never had one snap down fully on a finger, but have had them snap in my hand. Right now, there is a wily one that has gotten the bait off two traps without getting caught. This morning, rebaiting them I did catch the edge of finger on the nail. No permanent damage, but WOW, that stings a bit. I know PETA would say, serves you right. Let them live with mice in their houses, I won’t.

You might say, have a cat, but when daughter and her family lived with us for a couple of years with 2 cats, there was no change in the number entering the house, and when we had a barn cat that slept in a box on our front porch, her food seemed to attract more than she caught.

Everyone is an Expert

And all of their expertise is conflicted by another “expert.” In doing some research recently on several topics, one article or website or person will tell you it should be done this way, but the next gives just the opposite advice/instruction. It is no wonder that people are conflicted on important topics.

As a retired school counselor with a science background, I try to seek out the science on topics, but even that can product conflict. Should you take your probiotic first thing in the morning or last thing at night? Should you allow 3 square feet in your coop for your hens or 4? Is this method better than that? Should you wear a mask and get vaccinated or let natural immunity win (if you survive)? And everyone who weighs in thinks their way is the only way and they are the only one right.

Sometimes even those with science backgrounds give opposing advice. As we were discussing with the pharmacist yesterday about needed vaccines, one in question was Shingrex vaccine for shingles. We both had the single vaccine many years ago, but hubby still developed a mild case limited to his side and part of his back. The dermatologist immediately prescribed an antiviral medication and told hubby that having shingles was like a super vaccine. The pharmacist on the other hand indicated that having had it increased the viral load and the likelihood of a recurrence was greater. I got the first dose of the vaccine yesterday, but hubby has to wait because of the other vaccine he got, but to use a COVID coined over used phrase, “out of an abundance of caution,” he will follow up and get it also. BTW, it is an expensive vaccine, hope you have good insurance.

Years ago, we were told not to eat real butter, use margarine instead. Don’t eat eggs or at least not the yolks. Both of those dietary advices have been disputed. Use this diet to lose weight, no, use this program or this diet. Or better yet, eat whole food and exercise.

Every day I see an “expert” weigh in on a topic on social media and start an all out argument with the OP, if the OP choses to engage. I have removed a number of social media contacts and left a number of groups as I choose not to engage in such behaviors and don’t need the stress of reading them.

Who is a person to believe? Back to my research on a couple of topics.