My Tireless Retirement - Week 224

 

Another week has whizzed right on by and for me it was a busy one.  Are you finding yourselves rather busy these days too?

 

Friday afternoon I handed over the keys to Laverne’s new owner and she is now off to a new life.  It was a surprisingly easy handover for me as I want her to be used and loved.  It was a dream to for me to live in her in retirement, but life has a way of changing things and I’m adaptable.

 

She sure came in handy!

And, much to my amazement, I also sold my truck on Friday.  This past year I had been waffling back and forth as to whether to let it go or keep it.  After I got the Subaru however, I found I wasn’t driving it as much and it was sitting quite a bit.  I just don’t drive enough to justify two vehicles right now and vehicles simply do not do well if they sit for long periods of time.  So, with a somewhat heavy heart, but not really, I offered it for sale and it was immediately snapped up.

 

I didn’t go into this week expecting to sell two vehicles, definitely not on the same day, but now that it is done I feel that it was the right decision for me in my current stage of life.  Along with that I put some other items on Facebook Marketplace to sell because they are no longer needed.  I’d say I’m taking this round of decluttering pretty seriously.

 

It was HOT on Friday and over the weekend with 100°+ temperatures so I hunkered down inside with the A/C on and drank a lot of water throughout the day.  With the exception of power washing the driveway I only ventured out to check on the chickens and water my garden and flowerbeds.  I’m not too sure my garden is going to make it through the next two weeks of extreme heat.  My poor plants are struggling.

 

Tuesday was much cooler, thank goodness.  We even got a spit of rain.  That morning I had to take the car in to get one of the tire pressure sensors replace and then headed over to one of our senior living centers to be a judge at their Mac & Cheese contest.  It was so much fun and rather tasty too.

 

Wednesday I was back to doing some decluttering and cleaning and was able to wrap that project up.  It felt really good to be done and know that I have now streamlined things to a much more manageable amount of crap in the house.  I’m sure I’ll find more stuff to get rid of in the coming months.  It’s crazy how you just keep finding stuff.  On Thursday I loaded up a laundry basket with donations for our neighborhood food pantry.  I had been working on that project for a while and now I can check that off my list as well.

 

I felt so good after this week, a little sad about my precious truck, but just like the motor home it needs to be used and driven.  I had a good 29 year run with it.  Now someone else gets to enjoy it just like the motorhome.  Laverne’s new owners are in love and have even sent me pictures.  Win-win for everyone!  I hope you are all doing well.  Be sure and tell me what have you been up to lately.  Have a great weekend!

My Tireless Retirement - Week 220

 

Good morning my friends.  I hope everyone is doing well today and that you’ve all enjoyed a fabulous week.  I sure did.  Nothing all that exceptional happened and yet was an exceptionally good week.  With every day being the weekend, how could it not?  I am fully embracing my retirement life.

 

My mornings start out slowly.  After a good night of sleep I sit in my recliner, usually with a kitty or two, sipping my coffee and watching the hummingbirds outside my window at the feeder.  I sit quietly, windows and back door open with the fresh, cool morning air coming in.  No pressure.  Nothing looming ahead.  Quiet, calm and peaceful.  It is a very good way to start my days.

 

Over the weekend I was in puttering mode.  I did some laundry, tidied up the house, prepared my meals and washed my dishes.  Simple ordinary tasks that I find even more enjoyable now.  Sunday morning I headed outside and trimmed the hedges.  I got that all cleaned up and my wheelie bin filled to the top with lawn debris just in time for the heat of the day to arrive.  While I was working I was in the shade so it was nice and cool.  I did some watering before heading inside to rehydrated and take a well earned rest.

 

I gave myself the gift once I left my part time job to just take it easy and decompress, especially that first two weeks.  Then I gave myself another two weeks because it seemed necessary.  Now I’m thinking I’ll just continue to live my life this way because I can.  I’ve never been one to just free flow through my days, but right now it just feels like the right thing to do.

 

Enchiladas

I also gave myself the gift of not needing to leave the house and go anywhere for a solid week, it ended up being ten days, and it was really nice.  To just be home, no pressure to go anywhere or get things done while I simply lived my life was a real treat.  I plan to do it more often.  I did look up some area events to go to, but didn’t see anything that tickled my fancy and nothing was playing at the cheap seat theater that I wanted to see so I think staying home for the week was a really good option.

 

I spent Monday working on home management administrative tasks like updating spreadsheets, a little bit of planning, very little, and more puttering about the house.  Tuesday, again before the heat of the day hit, I headed back outside to putter in the yard and garden.  The squirrels are not my friends again this year and have pulled up all of my beans, but one lone plant.  They ate all of my cucumber plants and the squash too.  Little bastards!

 

This past week I have been slowly and methodically working on adding above ground drip irrigation to my flowerbeds.  This is something I have long wanted.  Taking it one section at a time, ordering the parts I need so I don’t overbuy or buy the wrong thing, I have managed to get it done with the option to add on further in the future if I decide to.  It is so convenient now to simply go outside and turn on the faucet and then set the timer so I don’t forget to turn it off a couple hours later.  Definitely not an expensive or high tech system, but it suits me well and I am thrilled to have it completed.

 

My peace lily is very happy

I repotted a couple of plants into larger pots, prepared some lovely meals, drank lots of water, did quite a bit of writing, played with Jack and Stella (the cats love having me at home), played with the bunny, played with the chickens, played with my dolls, played cards, worked some crossword puzzles, read, listened to music and watched some TV.  Plenty to do and I loved every moment of it.

 

Chickens & Garden 2026 Update

 

Last year I added three new peeps (most likely my last set) to the flock as my senior hens were in their final year and egg production was minimal.  I am really happy to report these ladies have grown up strong, healthy and happy and they are excellent egg layers.  They comfortably reside in the coop and pen area I built fourteen years ago (hard to believe it is that old!) and expanded   years ago.  I continue to keep it well maintained so it holds up and keeps them safe from predators.

 

The ladies are enjoying a rather charmed life with good feed and lots of goodies to keep them healthy and happy.  I give them the leaves I rake up in the fall and the weeds I’ve been pulling up from the yard this spring to add variety to their diet and it helps to keep them from getting bored.  The leaves have the added advantage of keeping mud at bay in the pen area and become next year’s compost.  The weeds have given them added nutrients as well as some nice variety.  I can attest that the eggs they lay are delicious!

 

Last month I turned the soil with added compost and I am allowing it to sit for a full two months untouched to allow the earthworms to do their job.  Next month I will be turning it in just before I start planting and then I will rake it nice and smooth.  I will be using bunny litter to mulch and fertilize what I plant this summer, which is going to be rather minimal.

 

At this particular time I am blessed to be well stocked with food so I don’t have a need to plant out a full garden.  I want to put some zucchini seeds in the ground, cultivate what garlic I already have in the ground and perhaps a tomato plant or two, but other than that I am going to let the rest of the garden beds rest again this year and then re-evaluate things next spring.

 

My flowerbeds need some transplanting, rearranging and fertilizing so I’ll be working on those this summer.  The bunny will be helping me out by providing all of the fertilizer I will need so I won’t need to purchase that.  It’s too bad the farmers don’t have access to bunny manure because it is good stuff.

 

My fruit trees are healthy and I’ve sprayed them for insects, twice now.  My hope is that they provide me with enough fresh fruit to enjoy, share with others and maybe can some too.  I have an apple tree, a pear tree and a new plum tree.  I’m not expecting much from the plum tree as it is still quite young.  I’m super grateful to have these trees.

 

That pretty much sums up my 2026 garden plans.  I am keeping it pretty minimal this year as you can tell.  Will I ever plant out a full garden?  Probably not, but who knows?  Gardening really isn’t my jam, as I’ve mentioned before.  I suck at it, but I truly do love a fresh homegrown tomato.  There is just nothing quite like it.

 

 

 

Getting The Ladies Ready For Their First Winter

 

Last week I was able to get outside on a nice cool sunny day and get the coop ready for my new girls very first winter.  I use a deep litter method in my coop which means you keep a deep layer of pine shavings and their droppings in the coop and as long as you keep the inside of the coop nice and dry it will decompose and create its own heat.

 

There are a lot of good benefits to doing the coop this way, the biggest being that there is no odor and I don’t have to clean the coop as often.  I will remove some of the droppings under their roost, but not all of them and then I add another big pile of pine shavings which they will spread out for me just the way they want them.  In the spring once the weather is warmer I will clean out the coop entirely adding the contents to my compost bin.  They get another big pile of pine shavings to spread out and we repeat the process.  I personally do not find that this works as well with straw as I do with pine shavings.

 

In the pen area I give them a full 55 gallon trash can I fill up with mulched leaves when I do my annual Fall cleanup raking leaves.  They will spread them out and pick through them.  This creates a nice layer that will keep down the mud and help break down their droppings while it composts into a soil additive.  Each month during winter I will give them more mulched leaves I have saved for them.  It has the added benefit of entertaining them and keeps them busy.  During the spring and summer I will rake this up and it gets incorporated into the compost bin, my flowerbeds and the raised garden beds to fertilize and amend the soil.  Again keeping the pen area, like the coop, nice and dry is my key to healthy chickens and an odorless process.

 

During freezing temperatures I use ice cream buckets to give them water.  Since they don’t drink as much water in the winter as they do in the summer I find that by swapping out one bucket a day works well most of the time.  During really cold temperatures when it doesn’t get above freezing all day I will do it twice.  Each time I bring the frozen bucket inside at night and allow it to thaw and then it is ready to go back out in the morning to be swapped again.

 

I will give them their regular feed along with the addition of cracked corn or scratch grains that I toss on the ground.  They will need more protein to help them stay warm so I will also give them meal worms, which they love.  I also make them homemade suet cakes by melting beef or pork fat I have saved for them when I cook and I will freeze it for this purpose.  I use a plastic bowl as a mold and after placing a layer of  scratch grains, cracked corn and/or meal worms in the bowl about a half inch thick I pour in enough fat to cover that.  Once the fat has cooled and solidified I can pop it out of the bowl and give it to the girls.  Cool Whip containers are perfect for this.

 

Egg production slows down considerably in the winter and even stops sometimes because of the colder temperatures and fewer daylight hours.  Some people will add lights and heat to their coops, but I choose to allow them to naturally take a break and rejuvenate during this time as they are meant to do.  In the spring, once the temperatures rise again and the daylight hours are longer, they’ll get back to business.  In the meantime my job is to make sure they are healthy, happy and well cared for.  They are definitely loved.

 

 

My Tireless Retirement – Week 183

 

Hello my friends!  It was another wonderful week for me.  Likely while you are reading this I am in McCall, Idaho taking a group of seniors for a fun Fall daytrip adventure in the mountains.  It is a sweet little tourist down so restaurants and shopping are the main focus of this little jaunt.

 

I picked up 3 frozen pizzas and 3 blocks of cheese on sale at Fred Meyer

Albertson's had the great meat deals I was after!

Last weekend I was able to get a really good jumpstart on my October grocery shopping with the focus being to fill up my deep freezer in the garage as well as any gaps I had in the pantry and my LTFS.  With such a busy week ahead of me I felt it was a good idea for me to use my weekend just for this purpose and it was very successful to say the least.  I found a good deal on marked down meats at Albertson’s and was able to restock my ground beef which was starting to run low.

 

Winco for produce and a few pantry items

I stopped at Winco on my way home from work on Monday for the bulk of my shopping and was thrilled to be able to get the rest of my list completed and still have plenty of money left in the grocery “envelope”.  So far I have only spent my monthly budgeted amount and have yet to touch the rollover amount from previous months.  Go me!

 

A little meal prepping

Stuffed bell peppers

One of the things I really wanted to do was find a good deal on bell peppers and make some pepper halves stuffed with my meatloaf mixture for the freezer and use up some of the older ground beef I had in the deep freeze.  I was able to just that and now I have loads of delicious stuffed bell peppers to enjoy in the upcoming months.

 

Kitchen freezer is full 😁😁

Garage freezer is well stocked too

I managed to get outside and do a little yard work starting with trimming the shrubs and a little pruning on the big sycamore tree, very little.  The weather has cooled down quite a bit now, our mornings have been a bit chilly and Fall is definitely in the air.  Leaves are just starting to change colors too.

 

I remove the fronts & backs

Then I soak them in hot water and degreaser before I give them a good scrub

The last item on my list I wanted to get done was to gather up and take apart all of the box fans I use to keep my house cool in the summer so I could give them all a good cleaning.  It isn’t a particularly fun job and an easy one to procrastinate about because it is a process, but this year I decided to just do it and be done with it.  Now that they are all clean and put away for the season I must admit I am feeling pretty darn good about it.  I have a solid sense of accomplishment because with that my summer “To-Do” list is officially “Ta-Done!” and that feels amazing!

 

They get pretty grimy

I put these 3 away until next year

Spiffy clean!

October is off to a really good start and I couldn’t be any happier about it.  I am super thrilled with all of the grocery bargains I managed to find and the fact that I am well stocked with both groceries and household supplies for the upcoming winter gives me tremendous peace of mind.  I am nearly stocked with the pet food and supplies I will need before winter hits too with only a few items left on that list.  Right now however, I am feeling extremely blessed and grateful.  How are things going for you?  Are you working on preparations for the upcoming winter season too?

 

Getting Things Done! Summer 2025

 

I have been a very busy girl and I am thrilled with everything I have accomplished so far this year, especially over the spring and summer months.  Once my houseguests left I started out by printing off a fresh copy of my semiannual housekeeping checklist and in six weeks I busted my way through it and was able to completely reset my home.  Using stain I had in the garage and part of an old rag I touched up the stair treads and they look so nice now.

 

I did an amazing amount of decluttering again this year, even decluttering some of the really hard sentimental items that were filling the closets in the two extra bedrooms of my house.  I sold some of my Pyrex collection and added the proceeds to my savings account, took four loads to the thrift stores and even placed several items on the FREE table where I work.  In the process I was able to empty a ton of boxes and plastic bins.  The boxes were then decluttered and the bins were reused for organizing the items I kept.  

 

I have gotten rid of even more stuff since I took this picture

Next I moved out to the garage where the goals was to clear, clean, declutter and reorganize it for better function.  I was able to add a lot of items, mainly cardboard and boxes, to the recycle bin over a period of six weeks as well as the trash bin and my donation pile.  After a good sweep and wipe down I was ready to reorganize all of the shelves.  Now it is much easier to find the things I need whenever I do a project.  I have used up a lot of the items I already had on hand like sandpaper, a replacement dryer vent cover, some interior paint and a can of spray paint as well as some of the bubble wrap and priority mailers I had squirreled away out there.  I dropped off glass jars and bottles at the recycling collection bin located at a local supermarket parking lot and I took several items from the garage to the hazardous waste collection site.

 

The failing dryer vent cover on the exterior of the house was finally replaced.  It was a simple fifteen minute job and once it was done and marked off the list I was glad to have it completed.  I had picked up the replacement cover over a year ago and it was patiently waiting for me in the garage.  It was definitely one of those tasks that I questioned putting off for so long.  ??

 

I cleaned and reorganized my long term food storage (LTFS) area in the downstairs bedroom.  I found several items I knew I wasn’t going to use up anytime soon so I made up a couple of bags to give to two of my co-workers and brought in another bag of items to set out on the FREE table.  Once I was done I had it all clean and organized so the oldest items are in front of the newer items and will get used up appropriately.  I am now quite settled with the variety and quantity of the things I have in there.

 

Our entry way as well as the upstairs bathroom’s wainscot were in need of a refresh so I got busy with a bit of spackle I had in the garage to fill in the gouges and imperfections and then repainted those spaces using leftover paint also in the garage.  While I was at it I went through the house and touched up any places that needed it so now my walls look great and are all nicely maintained.

 

Fresh paint makes everything better!

"Hey!  I think you forgot something!"

I wasn't able to get back outside and get the deck staining project completed but I'm okay with that.  It will keep until next year, but I was able to get the living room and hallway carpet cleaned and refreshed which was a big item on the list for this summer.  This is the second time I've cleaned the carpet I was very pleased with how nice it turned out and that even after seven years the carpet is wearing well and still looks good.  Proof that a no shoes in the house policy and regular maintenance works!

 

With the deck sanded and stained I decided to give the outside of the chicken coop a refresh as well with the same stain.  Then I moved the new chickens in with the old and after a bit they all seemed to settle down and get along.  Since I have determined this is going to be my last batch of chicks I went ahead and decided to declutter the brooder and all of the chick feeders.

The pear tree in all its glory

The apple tree did not produce at all this year, but the pear tree did.  Not the bumper crop I got last year, but enough to enjoy for fresh eating and to share with others.  I had pruned both trees quite a bit in the fall so I wasn’t surprised with the smaller yield of pears and unfortunately a storm took off all the apple blossoms before any of them got pollinated.  Hopefully we’ll get apples next year.  On the other hand my garlic harvest this year was absolutely pitiful.  I bought bulbs at the feed store last fall and they were expensive!  The year before, I bought organic garlic bulbs at the grocery store.  The organic garlic did so much better and they are way more affordable so I am going to plant that again this year.  Also, my rhubarb did really great this year!  I put up four quart bags into the deep freezer to enjoy this winter.

 

Fixed some boo boos & cleaned the exterior!

Scrubbed & cleaned the interior!

I cleaned the engine bay!

Getting the Subaru maintenance finished, thoroughly cleaning its stinky interior and making some minor repairs has been an ongoing project since I bought the car in January.  Replacing the damaged driveshaft and U joints was a bigger job than I was willing to take on so I had my mechanic take care of it for me.  Now that all of this has been completed I am left with a reliable daily driver (without a lot of money out of pocket) that I hope I will get to use for a long time to come.

 

Along with all of those projects I was able to carve out a lot of time for some fun stuff too.  I’ve had a goal since retiring to really focus on using up what I already have on hand before buying anything new, particularly when it comes to craft and sewing supplies.  I was able to use up quite a bit of my stuff when I made things to fill up my gift shelf.  I like to give useful and consumable gifts so I made lots of decorated journals, note pads and some greeting cards.  I also made candle mats to go with candles I had bought on sale earlier this year as well as hanging dish towels to go with foaming hand soaps I recently picked up at Bath & Body Works with a gift card I had.  I also made myself a lot of goodies too.

I am absolutely in love with these shelf liners

And my aprons!

Santa Rosa Plum

The most surprising project, for me anyway, was to start rebuilding the area where the maple tree used to be.  In the spring my enthusiasm to get this done had waned, but by July I had found my mojo and a gorgeous Santa Rosa plum tree on clearance at my local Home Depot.  Just prior to making that purchase I realized I already had a lot of things in my yard to reinvigorate this space, I just needed to move a few things around.  I started by planting the tree and it just went from there.  It is still a work in progress, but so far I am quite pleased.

 

Looking back I’d say I was a very fulfilled and productive young lady and I am very happy with all of the progress I have made, not the least of which was, to get all of my end of life documents updated, signed and filed.  For me that was huge!  Super happy and relieved to have that all done!  So with that, I am ready to enjoy the Fall season with some downtime along with a little bit of relaxation thrown in for good measure.  It is going to be a great Fall, don't you think?