Really nice work, mALX. Amazing how well you are optimizing that small space into a beautiful, usable kitchen.

Thank you!!!

Just me and my husband; we are doing it by ourselves = doing it a little at a time as the money comes in for each next "phase" of the job, lol.






Thank you both!!!

@ Acadian - It really is such a tiny space! The past couple weeks having cabinets and counterspace in there has been like a total culture shock, lol. (but in a great way, lol). I love it!






This post has been edited by mALX: Apr 14 2023, 03:57 PM

Just checked up on my olde bike down in storage that I haven't tocuhed much since losing my job ten years ago. Inflated the tires on that and also cleared out some old boxes that's basically been down there for the last 15-20 years

Will the motor still work on that bike after sitting so long?

I also need to clean out A LOT of boxes from my move in 12/21.. I keep waiting for the good weather to do it, but in the good weather I'm either in the mountains having fun or out fishing = out having fun instead of cleaning out the boxes, lol. Then when it is cold or rainy and I can't have fun = would clean the boxes out, but can't due to the bad weather, lol.

I passed that question on to my legs and yes; they confirm they work fine


Bike = bicycle. Motorbike was sold five years ago.

Aw, you sold the motorbike?

Project: Exercise-walks
Status: coming along, but jinxed

I've been able to walk pretty much every day for the past some weeks. However, for at least five days in a row I've been forced to break pace mid-walk, for a variety of reasons. I don't like breaking pace. On the other hand, these past two days I've taken the extension added last year. Alas, beginning tomorrow we have over a week straight of rain and storms. I'll get out as a can, but expect a major setback.


Project: Replace bananas with blackberries in my breakfast oatmeal/fruit bowl.
Status: ???????

I'm only three days into this experiment. Day one, I didn't much like the taste of blackberries (in my oatmeal). Day two I returned to bananas, and found I didn't enjoy them that much more than the blackberries. Today I returned to blackberries, and enjoyed them better, but not that much better.

Why the change from bananas to blackberries?

The gist of it is that I am attempting to migrate to a healthier diet. I looked for any of the videos upon which to I based my decision, and of course couldn't find them. By sheer happenstance, I found another such video amongst today's YouTube recommendations.

Awww! Why is everything that tastes so good so bad??

Project: Exercise-walks
Status: Doing better than anticipated

The week-plus of nothing but rain and storms fizzled out. Instead of not being able to walk at all during that period, I walked every day. Doing so was always in doubt until the morning in question.

This morning, I used Google Earth to chart a more accurate measurement of my daily route, to include the extension I began taking a few weeks ago. To my happy surprise, I walk 1.7 miles! I also timed myself; 36-min. That's slower than a chart I found online says a person my age should be walking (at a brisk pace), but I am not at all displeased.

Project: New tinroof over firewood shed
Status: Complete


I have no idea as to how or why, but when I layed the first roof over the firewood shed in 2019 it leaked from the getgo. Using plastic sheets, new tin roof and new screws didn't stop it. I cannot fathom why. I did it a bit different now; laying a whole plastic sheet instead of two overlapping ones (even though I did it correctly) and I screwed the screws on the top parts instead of in the valleys of the roof. If this doesn't do it I am well and truly stumped



Also; thanks to Decrepit for this template when reporting

Not all is doom and gloom, as this video attests.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: May 21 2023, 12:33 AM

Project: Mouse annihilation
Status: Possibly complete

Late yesterday morning, I began a long-postponed project to remove some of the ever-growing accumulation of clutter atop my never-used-for-sleeping bed. This would not warrant mention, except that as I set foot in the bedroom, an elongated blackish lump streaked from under the bed into my bathroom. My first thought was that it was a trick of the imagination, a black floater in my eye. Remembering that I possess no imagination, I entered the bathroom, determined to affirm that the lump was what it almost had to be. Reaching the room's far end, WHOOSH!, the lump sped back into the bedroom. This was no mirage, but a bona fide pest, one mus musculus to be exact, your common house mouse in the vernacular.

Though it has been years since my last mouse infestation, I know where my traps are stored. Finding the decades old jar of Walmart Great Value peanut butter to bait the trap proved a harder nut to crack, but find it I eventually did. Trap baited, I removed two hampers between Washer and Dryer, and placed it an inch or two from the wall. Priming proved a challenge. I almost gave up for an easier-to-work-with trap. In the end, the trap tired of toying with me and allowed itself to remain open. I restored hampers to their accustomed locations, put away peanut butter, washes my gloves/hands, and returned to the bed-clutter project.

Ere I set foot in the bedroom, a click was heard. "Crap!" thought I. "That blasted trap has set itself off." Reentering the kitchen, I removed those hampers. To my great surprise, there it was. A dark-gray mouse, dead as a door nail! It hadn't been five minutes since I set the trap! Plus, I'd been moving around in the kitchen almost the whole of that time. Still, done is done. The mouse was removed not long afterward.

I intended to reset the trap, in case more were in the house (which is usually the case). Only, this time the trap would not remain primed for love nor money. I eventually lost patience, trashed the trap, and baited another, which proved super easy to prime. It remains untouched.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: May 25 2023, 06:44 PM

"Remembering that I possess no imagination..."




Anyway, great job on the mouse hunt! Dad and I use a modern trap variant which is very easy to bait and prime:

A simpler solution would have been to get a cat.

Great job trapping, by the way! That mouse must have been hungry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for a project of my own: nettles removal. Status: failed!
Reason: they bite!

Will have to get some long gloves and try again.

Project: Replace bad sitting/back supporting boards on lawnchairs.
Status: Ongoing


Started with planing two long boards on the edges and the flat sides. Then I cut them up in proper lengths. Now I need to remove all the boards on two chairs, putting the good ones on one of them and then put the new boards on the other chair. No need to replace all the boards on all three chairs as 1) the other boards are in good condition and 2) I can't find more suitable material unless a I want to cut up bigger boards and do more work. Which I could do of course, but seeing as it's unnecessary I think I'll do it this way instead.

Project: nettles removal
Status: done

Method: let hubby do it

Project: Evaluate "new" breakfast
Status: Ongoing

I admit to having made these most recent changes with some apprehension. While I've questioned the FDA's and Heart Association's food guidelines for some time, questioning and going against their recommendations are two vastly different things. At the very least, I suspected that the switch from oatmeal-and-fruits to Bacon, an egg, half an avocado and some raspberries would put back on some or all of the weight lost due to my prior breakfast alterations. To my happy surprise, the advice followed to formulate my new breakfast has proven right, at least weightwise. Not only have I not gained weight, but actually lost some! In fact I'm now at the borderline of dropping too low!

Today's exercise-walk was the best (so far) this year. I had plenty of energy for those two steep inclines near the halfway point, and was still going strong at the end. My low-weights lifting session went well too. I still have breathing issues, but am not sure any diet is going to cure or improve Chronic Bronchiectasis. At any rate, I'm satisfied enough to keep breakfast as-is for the time being.


Project: Move boxes to attic
Status: Partial fail, and a lesson in reality

Feeling more energetic than usual this week, on Tuesday I tackled a years-put-off project; moving essential-to-retain, large, heavy boxes from the middle of my living-room floor to the attic. Also on the agenda; do the same with a ton of broken-down Amazon shipping boxes. I bought a construction helmet awhile back, so need no worry about cutting my head on roof nails. The flashlight was loaded with fresh batteries.

The attic is accessed via a fold-down wood ladder located in my computer room.

I started off moving three broken-down essential boxes.These were heavy enough to require tackling one at a time. The first transfer went well. The second, not so much. My left knee buckled during the climb. All that kept me from crashing to the floor was somehow being able to grab hold of the handrail located on one side of the steps. By the time I finagled that second box to the attic, I was panting up a storm. My arms were so shaky that when I attempted to pick up the flashlight, placed on the attic floor, it slipped through my fingers and rolled to the stairwell, then dropped to the computer-room floor. I sat on the attic floor some minutes, until feeling up to climbing down to retrieve the flashlight.

It was OK, though I had to fiddle with it maybe five minutes before it would turn on. I then carted the third and final broken-down essential box up the steps and positioned all three boxes where I wanted them. The final two essential boxes, which can't be broken down, proved too big to fit through the attic entry hole. (I should have measured them beforehand.)

By that point, I was exhausted beyond my limit. The project was abandoned. I did some juggling and created a new, out-of-the-way home in my bedroom for the two remaining essential boxes, and tossed all those Amazon boxes in the trash. I firmly believe that my days in the attic are behind me. Whatever's up there is likely to stay there, forever. If I need any essential boxes, I'll ask a neighbor for help.

The lesson learned here is that, despite feeling well, exercise, and trying to eat a healthy diet, some things that were once easy are now beyond me. The trick is in knowing what those things are before they do me harm. And hoping that a wrong assumption doesn't result in permanent damage.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jun 4 2023, 01:38 AM