j.w
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Okee dokee and
The pond dig has begun!
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callingcolleen1
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I am having coffee and resting before work this afternoon. Got to work one till ten pm tonight, what a horrid shift, seems to go on forever... Had a nice day Saturday, was off and got lots done in my greenhouse. Snowing right now and 14 degrees, no heater in main ponds yet, and candles are keeping my greenhouse warm right now. Will get the heater on later once the real cold weather comes, like below below zero...
j.w
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So Colleen if you don't mind me asking what incentive do people have up in Canada regarding retirement? Is it like here where some get a pension and or social security after a certain age or do you have something totally different to get you through your perfect years ahead?
Sorry you have to work that darn awful shift.
Sorry CE for budding into your pond dig. You are prolly outside now working your poor brother to death or maybe he is watching you work to death
Sorry you have to work that darn awful shift.
Sorry CE for budding into your pond dig. You are prolly outside now working your poor brother to death or maybe he is watching you work to death
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No worries, all comments are welcome on my threads, JW. :blueflower:
My brother pounded in the first 2 "T" posts for staking one of the red leaf Red Bud trees. Doesn't he look happy? I should have asked him to smile, but his smile is soooo fake looking, this is what he looks like 90% of the time, doesn't smile much. Not at all like his little sister. :biggrinangelA:
I also pruned my butterfly bushes wayyyyy down. Not sure if this is the right time of the year to do that, but I did it anyhow. They were sooo tall and leggy, I was beginning to hate them, although love how they draw the butterflies. Found 2 young praying mantises. I bet they wonder what happened with their life? They must have been late hatch, or just never grew past juvenile size.
My brother pounded in the first 2 "T" posts for staking one of the red leaf Red Bud trees. Doesn't he look happy? I should have asked him to smile, but his smile is soooo fake looking, this is what he looks like 90% of the time, doesn't smile much. Not at all like his little sister. :biggrinangelA:
I also pruned my butterfly bushes wayyyyy down. Not sure if this is the right time of the year to do that, but I did it anyhow. They were sooo tall and leggy, I was beginning to hate them, although love how they draw the butterflies. Found 2 young praying mantises. I bet they wonder what happened with their life? They must have been late hatch, or just never grew past juvenile size.
j.w
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Hee hee no he does not look very happy indeed :bdaybiggrin:
You will have to let me know if your Butterfly bushes survive. I cut mine back also and then found out we are not supposed to prune them till early Spring otherwise they might freeze and die. I had let mine grow too tall. They were way up over 10ft tall. Oh well there are more where they came from if we lose them.
Will those Mantis bugs survive or do they kick off in the winter?
You will have to let me know if your Butterfly bushes survive. I cut mine back also and then found out we are not supposed to prune them till early Spring otherwise they might freeze and die. I had let mine grow too tall. They were way up over 10ft tall. Oh well there are more where they came from if we lose them.
Will those Mantis bugs survive or do they kick off in the winter?
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The bugs die in the winter, usually leaving egg sacs to be the new ones for the following year. These are just either late hatchings, or they were runts, never grew. LOL
If the butterfly bushes die, I will think of something else to put in that spot. They were too large, the bed was only 3' wide, and they were hanging over the sidewalk, so if they die, so be it. The nursery had beautifully pruned back plants that were no more than 2' wide, and tall, and they were full of blooms. I asked how they got them that small, wondering if they were dwarf bushes, and they simply said by pruning. They told me not to prune then, which it was during the summer, but later. I didn't think about fall being bad time, and spring better. I also pruned my Crepe Myrtles, so if they die I will be sad. I know my cousin's husband cut theirs way back this past spring, and it was FULL of blooms. Hopefully mine will survive the winter and come back. I'm thinking with the butterfly bushes, I will continue to prune them as they grow (if they DO grow) in the spring, to train them to be smaller. We shall see ..... :blueflower:
If the butterfly bushes die, I will think of something else to put in that spot. They were too large, the bed was only 3' wide, and they were hanging over the sidewalk, so if they die, so be it. The nursery had beautifully pruned back plants that were no more than 2' wide, and tall, and they were full of blooms. I asked how they got them that small, wondering if they were dwarf bushes, and they simply said by pruning. They told me not to prune then, which it was during the summer, but later. I didn't think about fall being bad time, and spring better. I also pruned my Crepe Myrtles, so if they die I will be sad. I know my cousin's husband cut theirs way back this past spring, and it was FULL of blooms. Hopefully mine will survive the winter and come back. I'm thinking with the butterfly bushes, I will continue to prune them as they grow (if they DO grow) in the spring, to train them to be smaller. We shall see ..... :blueflower:
callingcolleen1
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You are lucky, up here we are having a deep freeze, had to drag out the big 1500 watt cattle trough heater and thaw out my frozen ponds, they are still running the pumps, but last night was much colder than they said it would be. Right now it is a freezing five degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 15 c.
I am cranky, had to get the heaters all going before I had my morning coffee!!! ... ah my coffee is finally finished perking, not fully human till I get a coffee in me..... c o f f e e. Fresh ground, freshly roasted, how does anyone function without it???
OK, JW, I am a good 17 years from reaching 65, then we get Canada Pension, if there is any left when I retire! Ha ha ha. Good thing I will get a little pension from work as well, if that does not go broke too!! I like to work right now, hate the long lonely night shift sometimes cause nobody around much, good thing I work mostly days, cause we all have a good laugh at the bakery and I love people, I am very talkative and we joke all the time, we have a good time in the bakery. I think at this point, I don't ever want to fully retire cause it is too depressing at home, as much as I love my yard and ponds, I just find if I have too many days off I get lazy and that can make me depressed. I must always feel like I have accomplished something, laying around not good for me. I think it is the German coming out of me, must always keep busy or I would go mental for sure! I think many people today depressed cause they have not keeping them selves busy enough. I work so hard and when it is time for bed, I pass out after half a glass of red wine cause I am so darn tired, but it feels good to keep busy, I bet Sissy can relate to that!!
I am cranky, had to get the heaters all going before I had my morning coffee!!! ... ah my coffee is finally finished perking, not fully human till I get a coffee in me..... c o f f e e. Fresh ground, freshly roasted, how does anyone function without it???
OK, JW, I am a good 17 years from reaching 65, then we get Canada Pension, if there is any left when I retire! Ha ha ha. Good thing I will get a little pension from work as well, if that does not go broke too!! I like to work right now, hate the long lonely night shift sometimes cause nobody around much, good thing I work mostly days, cause we all have a good laugh at the bakery and I love people, I am very talkative and we joke all the time, we have a good time in the bakery. I think at this point, I don't ever want to fully retire cause it is too depressing at home, as much as I love my yard and ponds, I just find if I have too many days off I get lazy and that can make me depressed. I must always feel like I have accomplished something, laying around not good for me. I think it is the German coming out of me, must always keep busy or I would go mental for sure! I think many people today depressed cause they have not keeping them selves busy enough. I work so hard and when it is time for bed, I pass out after half a glass of red wine cause I am so darn tired, but it feels good to keep busy, I bet Sissy can relate to that!!
callingcolleen1
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CE I love your praying mantis bugs, they are so neat, we don't have anything like that here!! Get the whip out and make that dear brother work for his whiskey! Ha ha ha.
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Yeah, Colleen, our Social Security system may be broke by the time I reach 65, too, which will be only 10 more years. I also have retirement pension from work, but I work for the State of Illinois, which everyone knows is broke, so who knows if there will be anything left from that. I am working my butt off now to pay for my house, as I want to retire free and clear. It's hard now, but will be worth it, paying it off in record time.
I love all the bugs I have here, but sure do miss the birds. I had a finch talk to me while brother and I were outside getting ready to put T posts in ground. I talked back to it, and told it there was sunflower seeds, and they didn't like the finch food anyhow! My brother laughed at me, asked if I was really talking to the bird. I said, "Of course I was! They talk to me, I talk back to them." After all, when I go outside and they let me know the feeder is empty, I'm pretty certain they ARE talking to me. More like cussing me out, probably, but directed at me for sure. :blueflower:
I get so frustrated with my brother when he comes here. He is not what I call "normal". Let me explain. He has never married, so my Mom says he never had a wife teach him correct manners, even though he was definitely taught manners when he was growing up. When we went to the restaurant, he does NOT open the door for me, but will hold it open for others. What's up with that? When he eats, he lets food dangle (soup, cheese, anything small) from his mustache, which is too long and messy looking. Had to tell him more than 5 times to wipe it off, it was gross! He got mad at me for reprimanding him, but I kept it up. I told him other patrons at the restaurant would NOT want to see his food hanging on his mustache. He gets food out, but never puts it away. Maybe he figures I'm here to wait on him. I know you think he probably puts things away at home, but he is also a hoarder, so you can imagine the disarray in his household. I don't even go into his kitchen any longer. So much old food and mold and so forth in his kitchen, makes me want to puke. I cleaned it up about 75% one time, and a month later, it was back to the way it was before I cleaned, so that was that. If he can't take some time to try, I am done helping him. He has his own business, chooses not to file taxes, so has almost never paid into social security. That means he will have nothing for retirement, including Medicare. He has health insurance that is pretty much worthless. He is pretty much sunk, and although we had the "talk" about him selling his business, his 2 rental properties (one of which is rented, but falling apart, the other has not been rented for 3 years, and he continues with the same excuses ...) and his house, he refuses to see reason in any of it. I am pretty much done trying to convert him to a normal human being. He wants to live like a bum, that's fine. Probably best I don't convince him to move closer to me. :banghead3:
I love all the bugs I have here, but sure do miss the birds. I had a finch talk to me while brother and I were outside getting ready to put T posts in ground. I talked back to it, and told it there was sunflower seeds, and they didn't like the finch food anyhow! My brother laughed at me, asked if I was really talking to the bird. I said, "Of course I was! They talk to me, I talk back to them." After all, when I go outside and they let me know the feeder is empty, I'm pretty certain they ARE talking to me. More like cussing me out, probably, but directed at me for sure. :blueflower:
I get so frustrated with my brother when he comes here. He is not what I call "normal". Let me explain. He has never married, so my Mom says he never had a wife teach him correct manners, even though he was definitely taught manners when he was growing up. When we went to the restaurant, he does NOT open the door for me, but will hold it open for others. What's up with that? When he eats, he lets food dangle (soup, cheese, anything small) from his mustache, which is too long and messy looking. Had to tell him more than 5 times to wipe it off, it was gross! He got mad at me for reprimanding him, but I kept it up. I told him other patrons at the restaurant would NOT want to see his food hanging on his mustache. He gets food out, but never puts it away. Maybe he figures I'm here to wait on him. I know you think he probably puts things away at home, but he is also a hoarder, so you can imagine the disarray in his household. I don't even go into his kitchen any longer. So much old food and mold and so forth in his kitchen, makes me want to puke. I cleaned it up about 75% one time, and a month later, it was back to the way it was before I cleaned, so that was that. If he can't take some time to try, I am done helping him. He has his own business, chooses not to file taxes, so has almost never paid into social security. That means he will have nothing for retirement, including Medicare. He has health insurance that is pretty much worthless. He is pretty much sunk, and although we had the "talk" about him selling his business, his 2 rental properties (one of which is rented, but falling apart, the other has not been rented for 3 years, and he continues with the same excuses ...) and his house, he refuses to see reason in any of it. I am pretty much done trying to convert him to a normal human being. He wants to live like a bum, that's fine. Probably best I don't convince him to move closer to me. :banghead3:
callingcolleen1
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Take out life insurance on him so if he croaks you don't have to pay to bury him too!! Ha ha ha, but you might want to consider it....
My hubby is a hoarder too, when he sneaks things in the front door, I sneak things out the back door to the garbage! Ha ha ha.. I think most men tend to hoard in some fashion or another. My hubby hoards "end of the world" stuff like food and supplies, then drags them into the basement and I have to built shelves to try to organize his stuff. When it goes lost of missing, it is MIA somewhere lost in the house!! Then he drags home stange plants from the river and tries to grow them and saves the seed from everything, even Weeds too!! I told him if it grows down by the river naturally, it is most likely a weed, no need to save the seeds.... Men!! Confession time.... Oh how I have sinned!!! I disobeyed my dear much loved hubby and there has been times of extreme madness and I have just thrown his bags of junk out from the basement and not even bothered to look inside!!! Ten years later and he still has not noticed that I threw that shit out!!! Ha ha ha hahahahaha. .... Hubby quit smoking but he still grows the tobacco in the garden, and saves all the leaves and hangs them in the basement to dry ..., forever!!! I got frozen tobacco in the darn freezer from ten years ago cause " that was a good year" like he is making wine or something!!! Oh now I need to confess again!! I threw the old tobacco out of the garage two weeks ago, that was hanging there from LAST year when he was in the hospital, I harvested the tobacco that year cause he made me promise to save it when he was in the hospitall!!! I warned him to take it down and bag it or something cause I needed room for my own hoarding of my garden JunK!! Ha ha hahaha...Now it's in the garbage, lets see if he will notice!! Probally won't notice till next year, then I will lie and tell him I bagged it and put it in the basement somewhere... good luck finding it!!!! Ha ha hahahahaha..... good thing he finds the "garden Pond forum" boring or I would have lots of explaining to do!!! Ha ha ha.... you just have to laugh it off cause in spite of all his funny ways, I still just have to love him cause Boy would I miss him if he were gone!!!!
My hubby is a hoarder too, when he sneaks things in the front door, I sneak things out the back door to the garbage! Ha ha ha.. I think most men tend to hoard in some fashion or another. My hubby hoards "end of the world" stuff like food and supplies, then drags them into the basement and I have to built shelves to try to organize his stuff. When it goes lost of missing, it is MIA somewhere lost in the house!! Then he drags home stange plants from the river and tries to grow them and saves the seed from everything, even Weeds too!! I told him if it grows down by the river naturally, it is most likely a weed, no need to save the seeds.... Men!! Confession time.... Oh how I have sinned!!! I disobeyed my dear much loved hubby and there has been times of extreme madness and I have just thrown his bags of junk out from the basement and not even bothered to look inside!!! Ten years later and he still has not noticed that I threw that shit out!!! Ha ha ha hahahahaha. .... Hubby quit smoking but he still grows the tobacco in the garden, and saves all the leaves and hangs them in the basement to dry ..., forever!!! I got frozen tobacco in the darn freezer from ten years ago cause " that was a good year" like he is making wine or something!!! Oh now I need to confess again!! I threw the old tobacco out of the garage two weeks ago, that was hanging there from LAST year when he was in the hospital, I harvested the tobacco that year cause he made me promise to save it when he was in the hospitall!!! I warned him to take it down and bag it or something cause I needed room for my own hoarding of my garden JunK!! Ha ha hahaha...Now it's in the garbage, lets see if he will notice!! Probally won't notice till next year, then I will lie and tell him I bagged it and put it in the basement somewhere... good luck finding it!!!! Ha ha hahahahaha..... good thing he finds the "garden Pond forum" boring or I would have lots of explaining to do!!! Ha ha ha.... you just have to laugh it off cause in spite of all his funny ways, I still just have to love him cause Boy would I miss him if he were gone!!!!
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That is hilarious, Colleen! I used to lie to my former husband all the time, so he would not get furious with me. If he didn't ask, I didn't tell, that was another of my theories. LOL
As to my brother, right now he is worth quite a lot, all the properties he owns, even if they are in bad shape. But, one day he will have a terrible hospital stay, and maybe get put in a nursing home, and then all hell WILL break loose. I know that if this ever happens, I would be allowed to buy him a funeral and burial plot out of the sale of his property, but that would be about it. The rest would have to go to medical bills. Bad thing is that he would not be eligible for social security or medicare, but maybe medicaid (from need, rather than having paid into the system), so not sure what nursing home would even take him! It's going to be a sad sad time in his life if that ever happens. I would truthfully see him killing himself to keep from having to go to a nursing home. And, honestly, it would kill him to be there.
As to my brother, right now he is worth quite a lot, all the properties he owns, even if they are in bad shape. But, one day he will have a terrible hospital stay, and maybe get put in a nursing home, and then all hell WILL break loose. I know that if this ever happens, I would be allowed to buy him a funeral and burial plot out of the sale of his property, but that would be about it. The rest would have to go to medical bills. Bad thing is that he would not be eligible for social security or medicare, but maybe medicaid (from need, rather than having paid into the system), so not sure what nursing home would even take him! It's going to be a sad sad time in his life if that ever happens. I would truthfully see him killing himself to keep from having to go to a nursing home. And, honestly, it would kill him to be there.
j.w
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CE sounds like your brother has a sad life going on there. Sounds like he has some mental problems going on that might need intervention. Don't know how good those things really work. I watch that show hoarders and they always call in the shrinks to help those people. Wonder how many go back to their old ways unless someone stays on top of them at all times? I've been going through lots of papers that I have saved and finally gotten around to burning them all up. Have more and will get to them someday again. Hoping your brother can find something in him to realize that he has a problem and that he will want to fix it. He is fortunate to have you to visit and have some sort of relationship with now and then. You are a good sister.
Colleen you really got me laughing at your story! All us women are so much alike. We know how to work the man system and keep them from finding out just what exactly is going on w/ their junk or from them knowing about our junk that we need. Now that my hubby and I are both retired I have to find times to get secret things done around here. Sneak in more trees................he for some reason thinks I have too many trees. I don't believe one can ever have too many trees,ha, ha :biggrin:
He is off bike riding now..................what can I do while he is gone
Colleen you really got me laughing at your story! All us women are so much alike. We know how to work the man system and keep them from finding out just what exactly is going on w/ their junk or from them knowing about our junk that we need. Now that my hubby and I are both retired I have to find times to get secret things done around here. Sneak in more trees................he for some reason thinks I have too many trees. I don't believe one can ever have too many trees,ha, ha :biggrin:
He is off bike riding now..................what can I do while he is gone
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ce I cut my butterfly back in the fall, they come back fine. My cape myrtles (three of them) die back every winter, they must be borderline for here, always dead down to the ground.
The others hang in there and keep growing. Yours should do fine, if you worry about them, toss some extra mulch over the plants.
The others hang in there and keep growing. Yours should do fine, if you worry about them, toss some extra mulch over the plants.
callingcolleen1
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CE maybe you can find him a good woman, it is never to late to settle down and be happy, or is that just not possible? Your brother sounds like he is lonely and does not care anymore, has he given up on dating? They say there is somebody for everyone somewhere out there, might be good for him to join a dating club??
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Oh, if you knew my brother, you would realize how he is 100% set in his ways, has been since college, that's why he never could keep a girlfriend. Then, because he stayed in a college town, he kept looking at younger and younger, and they were never smart enough for him, or if they were smart, they stayed away. LOL His house smells ... no, reeks ... of mouse/cat feces/urine, molding and rotten food, you name bad smells, and his house has them. I could NEVER live there. I would rather live in a stinky nursing home than in his house. So he has never tried to clean things up, even after I did my best on his first floor. Had his LR floor cleared away (took out something like 12 or 15 huge black garbage bags of trash, and took half of a day to clean up his kitchen, got it 3/4 done, and the next month for his doctor appt., it was back to stacked up with dirty dishes and food open and molding or rotting away. he had freaking turkey legs, uncooked, in a cat litter tote, lid not even sealed on top. Asked him what in the heck he planned to do with them. Get this ... he told me he was going to put them in the compost pile!!! You do NOT compost meat, it bring in maggots and unhealthy environments. He is sick, yes, but he refuses to listen to any type of reason. He is too smart to commit him or make me his power of attorney. He just simply refuses to believe that life is not how he wants it to be, and even though I told him his life in the future is getting sadder and sadder, he doesn't believe me. He has a house that has 4 bedrooms in it ... college town ... can you imagine the rent he could get for that??? He says $750, but if he had ever taken care of it, he could easily have gotten $1,000/mo. And, after 3 years of no renters ... yeah, he has literally lost close to $30,000!!!! But, "it has mold". Clean up the mold! It also has junk i the basement, mostly his, some from old renters. He doesn't try to make his properties appealing to good individuals. That house will rot to the ground and all he will have is the property it is built on, a loss of about 75% of the value, but he doesn't believe me. I told him his house he lives in is falling down, and he told me he had the roof redone. Well, his siding has holes large enough that squirrels can get into the walls!!! What does that tell you?
OK, off my soap box. I have no idea how this valedictorian in High School is now the failure of our family. He chose to remain in the 70's, be a pot head, and not grow up. Those were all his choices, same as not paying his taxes as law says he should have, and not paying in to social security, because he didn't feel he should have to. maybe he will die before he incurs any more expenses, I don't know. We shall see. He does take his meds, I will give him that, so I guess he doesn't want to die.
OK, off my soap box. I have no idea how this valedictorian in High School is now the failure of our family. He chose to remain in the 70's, be a pot head, and not grow up. Those were all his choices, same as not paying his taxes as law says he should have, and not paying in to social security, because he didn't feel he should have to. maybe he will die before he incurs any more expenses, I don't know. We shall see. He does take his meds, I will give him that, so I guess he doesn't want to die.