Nothing especially noteworthy is going on, just a bunch of events and
circumstances piled on top of one another.
The garden. Food first. You all know the drill: bed prep, planting, keeping up
with the weeds, especially with all the rain we've been getting. Mulching,
picking, and preservation take up at least half of every day.
Milk is still abundant, although
not like before. But still enough so that every other day requires cheese making. I've
finished with my hard cheeses and I've got my
feta
done. I'll start on
halloumi next and then
mozzarella. We have plenty of
kefir, cottage cheese,
ricotta, and fresh cheese to enjoy as well.
The pantry.
The cheese cave adventure
got me started on re-doing the pantry. I needed to wash dusty jars, check
seals and dates, and rotate as needed anyway. Clearing out the space for the
now-gone cheese cave helped me figure out how to add new shelving, which has
meant some a lot of re-arranging. So everything is getting reorganized, which I needed to do anyway. I should be able to store empty jars in the pantry now too, along with kitchen equipment, so this is a
welcome project. I'm figuring out how to make better use of the space. I just
get stumped on where to put things now with the new shelving. I have an
opportunity to organize better, but it's been slow.
My step-mother's passing. It was unexpected but considering her age not
surprising. It's meant dismantling her and my dad's home in preparation for
selling the house. I've inherited family furniture that belonged to my
great-grandparents, some of my dad's books (which I showed you
in this blog post), my stepmother's sewing and crafting supplies, and several big boxes of old
family photos and records, plus the genealogical research my dad had done.
Those are especially interesting as I've begun to go through and sort
them.
Replacing appliances. I'm in the process of replacing my old fridge and
washing machine. The fridge is about 15 years old and all the plastic is
either broken or cracked. And it leaks. Every other day I have to take out the
crisper drawers to mop up the water before it leaks out onto the floor. Dan
has tried a number of repairs and parts replacement, but it still leaks. I
researched durability and repair frequency and ended up getting another
top-freezer model. This one by LG which had top marks in those categories by
both consumers and repairmen. Cleaning out the old one was another big
project, but I was glad to do it and especially clean the walls and floor
behind the fridge. They needed it.
Replacing the washing machine is also on the list. My old one is 40 years old!
It's only still running because of Dan's mechanical ministrations. Now,
though, it only fills a little over halfway and I must fill the rest with a
bucket. Plus it does a terrible job cleaning. My choice for a new one is a
Speed Queen. Yes, they are expensive, but with a documented service life of 20
to 25 years, it's worth it. Plus, I could get one entirely mechanical - not
"smart!" I didn't even opt for the digital controls. The problem is that there
is a long waiting list for these. I asked the salesman if the economy is doing
so badly, then why are people buying expensive washing machines? He said folks
are tired of stuff that breaks down after only a couple of years. Me
too!
The
front room
is still a work in progress! It's kind of taken a back seat due to all of the
above, but I'm getting a project on the loom, which gives me a creative break
every day. I still have some boxes to find homes for and want to put pictures
on the walls, but otherwise it's mostly functional.
The sewing room is our temporary storage room. Between everything moved in
there from the front room, plus the boxes from my stepmom's, it's another
space that needs to be sorted and put back to it's former usefulness.
So I have a very long to-do list. All necessary but nothing terribly
interesting. Eventually I'll have some before-and-after pics to show you, but
it won't be any time soon.
Busy Days With Nothing To Write About © May 2026
