Central Midwest Gardening: November-Getting Ready for the Holidays, 4 by happgarden

happgarden wrote:
So sorry this is a novel....om

Patti – I only have one Aunt left alive and she married into the family. I never got to meet my Grandparents, but before my Great Uncle passed away (he had already lost his eye site) I stopped and “interviewed” him, he got to rattling on about my Grandmother his sister. I was lucky enough to be taping him. Speaking of tape, the only good safe archival media is PAPER or if you are the government microfish. The government has reels and reels of computer tape and no main frames to read it or the original software. Remember main frame computers (that is what I programmed when I first started working), just think in our lives we went from photos, to negatives , to 5.25 big floppy disk, to smaller 3.5 disk, to tape, to cd’s, to dvd’s, to cloud storage. From 8mm film, super 8, 15mm, Betamax, vhs, vhs-c, Hi8, on home movies. Now I know why I am so tired…lol
http://www.archives.gov/preservation/family-archives/ There are some good websites about archiving family heirlooms, what kind of paper and etc to use. Ok off my soap box…

I have done a lot of elephant ears in concrete, I haven’t done any for a path but for objects in the garden. I am guessing instead of mounding them on sand like I do, you could just lay them flat. Youtube has some of the best videos for making things.

OMG on falling asleep with dinner cooking! My oven has a timer and will shut off if I set the time, which I always do because I am really good about getting busy and forgetting. When smoke detectors first came out they were like 90.00 and I bought one for my Mom cause she lived at the lake without a real fire departments. She had just started frying bacon and decided to go grab a tomato from the garden, then saw they needed water, so …..lol while she was watering she heard this terrible loud sound and figured out what it was, just in the nic of time. You be so careful.

GB – Oh the kittens are so cute. One time DH found a nest of kittens but the Mom had disappeared and he thought the kittens had died, but when he picked up one it squeaked and he comes carrying over to me this nasty tiny white kitten eyes stilled closed. I washed the kitten, went to the vet got the stuff to feed him. I was still working at the time and would take him to work in a box and hide him in my office so I could feed him. As he got bigger but still feeding I put him in a safe container in the back of our truck during the day, sneak out and feed him. Lol I had the only cat who LOVED to ride since it was a 42 mile commute one way. As he got a little older he would just sit and watch the traffic as we drove back and forth…lol Since he was bottled feed he didn’t do that massaging motion most cats do.

Debra – Glad you are feeling better.

Pepper – I bet the puppies are sooo cute. Good luck with the parents, maybe bribery will work..lol

BillyP – Please don’t put off talking to relatives, about family history. I started family history a little late but I still had my Mom and we did a lot of the photos, but didn’t get thru all of them. You always think you have tomorrow. Now every time we lost a family member I realize how much history we have lost. Now we are the generation with the history and I hope we preserve what we know.

You don’t need to be crafty to make these stones and your DGkids are the perfect age. It is a matter of just playing.

LOVE your auction buys, they are so cute.

Cyber – I soo agree with you about daylight savings, now it is dark at 5:30 pm which is horrible. I know this from having to make sure the chickens are all tucked in at night. Besides I need the daylight when it is the warmest in the afternoon, not warm an hour earlier in the morning.

My basset hound has been to the vet 6 times in 3 days. We took him to the emergency er cause he was crying and howling and wouldn’t stop. ER said he had a kidney infection and sent him home drugged up. Next day we noticed he didn’t seem to be urinating like he should so up to Angels clinic in Savanah (they are so good and so affordable). The vet saw him and immediately said he had an enlarged prostate and couldn’t urinate and to take him down to Blue Pearl in Overland Park. Good place but sooo expensive. Well he thought he might have cancer and did a bunch of test and then decided maybe it was just swollen and said to get him neutered immediately which might help the swelling. Poor basset came home with a catheter and a big collar. Next day up to Savanah where they neutered him. Got him home and the catheter didn’t seem to be working so back up to Savanah to reinsert it. Last night seemed ok then DH and the basset went for a ride and the cath came out so BACK to the vet!! Don’t think I have slept in 3 days more than 2 hours at a time. Slick is so sweet and looks so pathetic. He will have to have the cath for 2 WEEKS and then they will x-ray and see if the prostate has gone done enough he can urinate on his own. So worried about him.

Since I haven't been sleeping I have been working on my stepping stone for my friend. It is coming along.

Here are pics of the kids and some of their stones.