Wishy washy Wednesday....

Spring wildflowers on Red Grade Road in Big Horns

Good morning, my lovely readers! I hope everyone’s week is going swimmingly! I can’t believe we have already made it to the middle of May.  They say time starts moving so much quicker the older you get, and they aren’t kidding!  I only have 7 days til we leave to go see my family down in Alabama and I’m getting really excited about it!  I think I told you it’s been decades since I’ve seen most of them. It’s unfortunate that we’ll be taking 8 days for the trip and only able to spend 2 ½ actually visiting with them, but that’s the price you pay when you don’t fly and you live so far from everyone.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day getting ready for a new washing machine that was being delivered.  It was only supposed to be a few minutes, getting the area cleaned out so we could move out the old one and get the new one in.  As best laid plans go, though, things got complicated and I ended up totally rearranging my mud room and there was a lot more nasty stuff behind the washer than I expected!  While I was cleaning, I realized that this was actually the first brand new washer I have ever gotten.  I’m such a frugal person and I thank my mom for that. I have always been the beneficiary of someone unloading their old one or else, the houses we’ve bought have already had laundry goodies when we moved in.  I had no idea I’d be so excited about a silly washer!

When we moved into this house, it came with a really nice washer and dryer.  The first time something happened to the belt in the dryer, I called the repair man (who has now retired) and he came over and the first thing he said was “Do you know how old this set is?” and I said no, it came with the house.  He then asked me if I noticed anything unusual about the name and I once again said no, RCA-Whirlpool didn’t seem unusual to me.  He chuckled and explained to me that RCA and Whirlpool broke up in 1953.  When we looked at the information on the back, it turned out my set was from 1952! He told me that it would probably work forever, as long as we could get the few moving parts necessary to fix it.  So, I had that set for about 5 years before Mike retired.  The only reason I had to get rid of it is because no one else could get parts for it.  It was replaced with a used set I got from my friends who owned the Arrowhead Motel at the time.  That’s the washer that just now gave up the ghost.  It was a wonderful washer, one of those commercial ones designed for motels and I could really get a lot in there!  The dryer started screwing up about a year ago and I was lucky enough that a friend was getting rid of hers to make way for a new one.  So, when this washer stopped working, I decided it was high time I got a real “new” one.

It’s all hooked up now and I’ve already done three loads, although the first load was a nightmare! I neglected to read the instructions when my neighbor Ray and I were installing it and didn’t take out the “shipping rod” at first. Boy, did it make some noise! Evidently, they put this huge rod in the bottom, under the tub, to keep it stable during shipping (I ordered it from the internet) and I didn’t see the bright orange tag telling me to remove it before using the unit. At first, I thought I’d bought the loudest darn washer on the planet! I’m just glad I didn’t screw the whole machine up by trying to do a load with that silly rod in there.

So, today, after I figure out where all the stuff is going to go that I moved out of the mud room, I’ve got to get my butt back out to the veggie garden.  Rob has everything planted, including the tomatoes now, so the next chore is putting down all the landscaping fabric to keep those nasty weeds from coming through this summer.  I also need to put the little water walls up around the tomatoes, so I have my work cut out for me.  Rob really likes having several different types of tomatoes but he also refuses to “kill” a plant, so we have 16 tomato plants out there to deal with. For the most part, I can the red tomatoes for winter.  We also grow our favorites, Lemon Boys, which are yellow tomatoes that have less acid than the red. Those are the ones we eat all summer because for some reason they fall apart when you try to can them. I can see already that I’m going to be very busy this fall, canning again!

Green Gentian or "Monument Plant", these flowers are the size of your  thumb tip! 

Today is also the Chamber of Commerce’s Award’s luncheon and we got an invitation for a free lunch to it because evidently Rob and I are getting some kind of award.  We used to be really involved and Rob was the President for a term but I can’t figure out what we’ve done this year to warrant any awards.  Regardless, it will be a fun time and any time I don’t have to fix lunch is a good day!

I don’t know about the rest of you ladies (and some of you men) but as I age, it gets harder and harder to get excited about cooking all the time.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to cook, but the day after day problem of figuring out what my hubby should have gets old.  As it is, I have to fix two almost completely different meals for us as I’m a medical vegetarian and he’s a raging carnivore. Add to that the fact that my dear hubby is not a very adventurous eater and it makes for quite a conundrum when I’m meal planning.  Right now, it’s not too bad because for the most part, I’m just drinking my fruits and veggies right now until my tumors shrink a little.  My mom sent me one of those Ninja blenders for a gift a while back and it’s been a real time saver for blending my smoothies.  Gotta watch those blades, though, they are sharp!  I have already sliced myself several times cleaning the darn thing.

Well, I guess I better get my rear in gear and start figuring out where all the junk I stuffed in the mud room is going to live now. I swear, sometimes, I just want to call Brannian Auction and sell everything in the house and start over! Gosh, wouldn’t that be awesome? Seriously, though, I think it’s time for another Oprah yard sale.  Several years ago, I was watching Oprah and she was explaining that having a garage sale isn’t really about making money, it’s about getting rid of stuff. So, I took her advice and labeled just about everything except the really big items, all for a buck and I had tons of free stuff.  Not only did I come back in the house with only a shoebox full of leftovers, I made over $600, pretty much a dollar at a time. It’s amazing what people will buy when they think they are getting a deal! Give it a try the next time you have a sale, I guarantee you’ll get rid of just about everything!

Have a beautiful Wednesday, everyone!  Turn off the boob tube, slap on some tunes and dance like no one is watching.