Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the Middle of a Wisconsin winter part 2

[jvls1942]

good morning,
I did something that I haven't done for years.
I slept until 9am. nonstop. it feels like half of the day is shot.,
the bottling did not happen yet. the beer needs to ferment a bit longer. I did manage to get the wine racked. but it was late afternoon. too late to set up for bottling. i will try to get er done today.
the cold shocking of the wine, along with a clarifying agent made the wine very clear.
I have two dr. appts this week. that should be all for a long time.
until July , so far.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Hey

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I'm pretty much a homebody, voluntarily spending a lot of time home and alone (well, except for the menagerie of pets!). I am nearly overwhelmed this week with having to go some place Every Single Day.

None of the destinations is more than 45 minutes away, but three are appointments I need to keep, one was to pick up hay, one is a party I'm kind of looking forward to and then there's the veterinary stuff.

Yesterday there was blood all over the kennel where I was keeping my oldest cat, Ziva, while she recovered from a sprain or strain of her left from shoulder and paw. Turns out it was more than that. I had to drop her at the vet because we didn't have an appointment.

I finally got a call late yesterday afternoon that she had a shoulder wound that required stitches and an overnight stay. I am hoping to bring her home today (the ONE day I didn't have to go anywhere) and ask if and why her wound got overlooked at her appointment last Monday.

Still, I had half convinced myself that she had a tumor that had broken open. Her mom and three siblings all suffered from some hereditary form of those; she is the last survivor of that family. So, from that perspective, a simple wound is good news.

Hopefully just an abscess. My cats keep getting them because of the fighting tom that visits.

I don't like leaving my house either.

 

[Callender Girl]

Thankfully, Ziva only had an abscess. The instruction to clean the stitched area with hydrogen peroxide every day is not making either of use happy. However, if I give her canned food while I clean, she will growl but not attack me. Best possible outcome, I think.

How's the brewing going, Jim? And, the appointments? I am trying to squeeze in all my upcoming appointments before the end of the year. I am still peeved that my PPO is going away. I intend to use it to the max before it's gone.

Noticed it was snowing lightly at 7 last night. Was very happy this morning that I could sweep the ramp clean with a broom. Any snow where I don't have to shovel is a Good Snow

 

[jvls1942]

good cold morning. minus 11F too soon in the season for that kind of crap.
since you asked: the wine making is all done.
final yield was 4 1/2 gallons from batch 2.
the beer is still brewing. I have to come up with some rubber seals for the porcelain caps before I can do any bottling. the one and only wine shop does not have any., I guess I will have to resort to amazon.
shop owners don't want us to use amazon. so why don't they handle the items we need ?
my labs came back all good.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Glad everything looks good Jim. Both the lab work and the wine. Maybe the two are connected?

Got the critters fed and watered with just a few frozen toes and fingers. I don't how they all survive. It was brutal out there overnight.

 

[Callender Girl]

Congrats on your labs, Jim!

I also get frustrated by not being able to buy locally and having to use Amazon or go without. I don't do dairy and was thrilled when Target and Walmart (not my favorite store by a long shot) started carrying oat milk Frappucinos. When I still drank dairy, I LOVED Fraps and drank way too many way too often.

For a few months, both stores stocked two flavors, and I bought some every week. Fraps are definitely a "luxury" item for me, at $3.38 at Walmart and $3.49 at Target.

Now, it's down to one flavor and often, there's no oat milk Fraps at all at either store. So, thanks to Amazon, I got a case of my favorite flavor, delivered to my door, and at $2.02 per bottle. Availability, convenience and price make it hard to want to go back to searching shelves and coming up empty handed.

I think I have figured out why it seems as if December goes So Fast. It's because I am trying to do all of the things that I, in January, believed I would accomplish in 2024.

From now until the end of the year, I am booked into multiple appointments for me (everything from routine medical stuff to seeing my hairstylist) and the critters (no way in the world a single person can trim my dogs' nails; it's at least a two-person job). The month is almost half over, and it feels like I just turned the calendar page from November.

It's only 5 degrees now, so I'm looking forward to this afternoon's warm up to more than 20 -- which is still far too cold for me. I felt bad for the ducks last night, two of my runners were lying on the ground, shivering. Of course, they're runners (cute, not overly smart), so it didn't occur to them to get up and go lie down in the shelter. I helped them figure it out.

 

[jvls1942]

I am all caught up on appts. for the rest of the year. have an eye appt with the VA in Feb.
new glasses.
at 1 AM on Thursday, our electrical power went out. it came back on at 7AM. things got a bit chilly.
I am waiting for rubber seals for the bottles to come in. then I can give the kitchen back to Annie and get her off my neck.
the black cat is hanging around yet. Annie is feeding it every day. he found someplace in the garage to sleep.

 

[Callender Girl]

Winter power outages -- one more good reason not to appreciate the season! When I was a kid, we could turn on the gas stove to heat food and water, warm up the kitchen a bit. Now, there's an electric start on gas stoves, clearly thought up by someone who didn't suffer through long, dark, cold and powerless winters.

Hurray on the appointments and your new cat! My oldest cat, the one with the abscess, is finally feeling better. She prefers staying in a dog kennel to being out and about with the former strays.

Lisa, are you recovering from your illness and the recent cold?

Saturday's ice storm prevented me from attending the ONE social event I was looking forward to, but it was way too slick and treacherous to consider traveling. Yesterday, the thaw began. The new light-colored rug by the back door is covered in dark, rich Iowa mud. Winter mud -- please add that to the list of things I despise.

Yesterday, as I was putting birds away for the night, I realized one of my Easter Eggers has a damaged eye. I will call the far-away and expensive (but extremely good) avian vet clinic as soon as it opens today.

At least I am getting to see all my favorite old Christmas movies. I love a black-and-white world, full of happy endings

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Lisa, are you recovering from your illness and the recent cold?

I think I can safely say it's all finally gone.