Do You Eat In Middle of the Night?

 The cleaner is here for two hours. She has made my bed and is now cleaning the bathroom. That is all I expect her to do today. Oh, and I want her to take the Christmas lights off the tomato cage. I don't know why Tommy does not want to do it, but he said he does not want to. Maybe next time, she can help put away the few things that are Christmas and stacked on a table in here. 

I added more things to my call and do list. I have paid two credit/debit cards this morning. 

This is a sore spot with me. Two weeks ago, I called because I 'lost' my debit card, right here in the house, I was sure. Well, the next day, of course, I found it right at my elbow. Since I knew, according to the banker, that my card had been cancelled. Now, a new one had to be ordered. Annoyed at myself, I did not call. I was to expect it in 3-5 business days. I know how that works. Yesterday, I called to see if all was going as planned since the new card was overdue. She told me the debit card was still active and there was no record of a new one being ordered or even mentioned. I was fit to be tied. I had been using Tommy's CC all this time. I am glad I decided to be an annoyance and call about the debit card. Grrr

I still have not heard from the tree guy or electrician or mower. We are expecting rain on Friday, so two of those guys better hurry. 

We went out and I left my phone at home. So, no more phone calls. I was fit to be tied! So, no doctors calls. Nothing. We went to new location of farmer's market and could not find farmers from whom we buy, mostly clothes and junk. Since I was so annoyed, we just came home. I decided I would have a doughnut and that put me out. That and the fact I lost sleep last night, forgot why. Oh, my eye hurt. It felt like I had an eyelash under the top lid. Then, I had to get up for cleaner. 

Tomorrow, I have an appointment to have teeth cleaned. Plus, I do need to make more phone call. The three men who should call will all probably want to come here to do their thing. Nope.

Today, cleaner did make my bed. She forgets what I want done to bed, so I stay to see it is done correctly. The bathroom was cleaned top to bottom. Tommy washed rugs and put them back. The Christmas lights are down and in box. Progress!

Tommy jumps when the monitor goes off. He ate at 4:30 this morning. I hate he has to wake up to eat. But, he goes right back to sleep. And, he still writes in his spiral notebook. Does anyone else have a monitor that goes off during the night? Do you get up and eat? I only mean after a monitor goes off!

Cleaning a Hoarder's House

Cleaning a hoarders house that is gross.

Cleaning a hoarder biohazard kitchen for FREE - YouTube

This guy cleans houses for free. He is very compassionate toward the people whose houses he cleans. He points out the reasons houses get into this condition. 

I suppose I have watched about ten hours of his videos. It is appalling how these houses look. Even at the worst, I have never seen a house like these. 

Once you watch one of these, you will hear more about him. In a few of these he is very disrespectful to his son, calling him awful names. But, apparently, he quit that nonsense. His son and daughter and another young man work with him. He will tell you he is autistic, has a cleaning company that he does charge for his services, is 6'5" so he can reach the high stuff. 

These videos are fascinating to me. 

Oh, we went to Publix. As I switched carts in the lobby, I felt a flea jump onto my wrist. Conflicted as to what to do after I caught it, I went back outside to trash and put it in there. I did not want to infect the store or the outside. It would have jumped on someone else. 

Have you ever seen a house in the condition of the kitchen or bathroom? He even had to wear a hazmat suit for the bathroom. 

Long Lost Things Found

When E, the cleaner, was in the bathroom, she was cleaning out the little door under the open shelves. She asked me if I wanted to use the little things that hang in the toilet bowl. I have not used these in over 20 years, yet they were there, hiding behind things. I never get down low enough to see what is back there.

So, I am using the Scrubbing Bubbles things to turn the toilet blue and smell to high heaven. So, sue me. I will not buy more, but will use these.

Tupperware makes a handy little gadget that is one of the freebies they give. It is for hanging clothes. It has a hook on top about the side of a clothes hanger. the whole thing is about 4-5 inches long. On the bottom there are two notches to slip a sock or something into so the socks can hang to dry. I love these but had not found these two. They are great for travel.

I was so happy to get them back. I can hang a pair of panties or socks in the notches and place the hook over the towel bar or anywhere it fits, not necessitating the use of the dryer. Now, I have about five of these hooks. They can hold ten wash cloths!

Plus, She pulled at least five pair of panties and maybe ten washcloths from behind and under the tub. They all appear to be clean and smelled clean. I think these were hung on the two towel racks over the tub to dry and just fell off.  Their discovery is like getting new things.

Unfortunately, each of the two days, she and I almost filled two kitchen garbage bags of things from the little cabinet and under and behind the tub. Okay, maybe it is fortunate to get up the trash, things like toilet paper rolls,

Several toothbrushes appeared and several combs. The cleaning toothbrushes went into their container and the combs need to be washed. I keep a separate container under the kitchen sink for toothbrushes to use cleaning in the kitchen.

She cleaned with a brush on her knees per my instruction. There was too much hair, dust, dental floss stuck to get all that into a mop. I have cleaned on my knees with a brush. My friend who cleaned the bathroom floor in exchange for something I gave him asked for a brush because he said that is how he cleans his floors. E did not seem averse to the idea.

With kids I always had discoveries when I pulled out the washer, dryer, refrigerator. But, this was a whole new class of found items. There is nothing more to find on the bathroom floor. Now, my job is to try to keep things off the floor!

What do you find when you move appliances or clean in hard-to-clean places?

Still Not Clean

I hired someone to clean the bathroom with exbf's money. So far, $100 has been put into the effort. Yes, it was filthy. She started at the ceiling. She is by far the best cleaner I have had the last two years. She can actually talk and keep cleaning.

During the time I paid her to clean, she also took off the old commode seat, put on a commode seat. I had to show her how once she installed it and the lid would not come up. The new commode seat and lid were mangled. I bought this on clearance but was told it was fine, that the commode seat was opened and returned. Not so. So, I paid her about $20 to take off the old commode seat, put on the new commode seat, put on the new commode seat correctly,  take off the new commode seat, and put on the final commode seat.

She is washing inside a small, low cabinet. It looks great. I have  bookcase type metal piece that is difficult to work around. It is still not clean, very dusty. And, she will wash the window next time unless I can do it. There are four shelves next to sink and over the little, low door. I will clean those shelves.

I will wash the window curtain and the lace curtain I use at the four shelves beside the sink. I certainly manage to do that and save money by not paying her. I can do some things.

My whole bathroom is discombobulated. Some things are outside the bathroom. Since I cannot get into tub, I have used tub to store some boxes. I have to empty those. Well, I have to decide where things go. The toothbrushes and toothpaste I get for Christmas Child boxes are put in one of the boxes in the tub.

Part of her time here was lopping tree limbs. The hickory tree outside the back door has large hickory nuts that weigh down the limbs. When the tree has large nuts and is soaked with rain, the limbs hit us in the face. So, she pulled the limbs down and I lopped. It hurt me but not as much as pulling limbs down. In the front yard at the corner of the street, I noticed the Yoshino Cherry tree limbs would hit cars or bicyclists, so she lopped those limbs. Then, she dragged them to the road.

About 4:30 I was hungry and shocked to see how late it was. She took me up on a pbj sandwich. We both felt much better when we finished.

I have an oval mirror in the bathroom. the frame is plastic but looks like wicker. It needs to be carried outside to the hose. I will take out the mirror and leave it in here. Soap and water will make the dirty frame pristine.

She started on the ceiling, cleaning it, went to walls cleaning them, cleaned the trim above the faux tile. Everyone thinks I have tile on the lower part of the bathroom. No, they could work miracles with plaster and lathe boards 100 years ago. I assume they pressed something against the plaster to make it look like tile.

It took forever for her to clean under the claw foot tub. The bathroom is tiny. There is little room under the tub and even less behind the tub and at the end. Then, at the end there are pipes for the drain, hot water, and cold water.

If I ever have my way, my claw foot tub will not be put against a wall! It will be angled in a corner. If I ever get my way about installation!

The bathroom is white and just about knocks your eyes out when clean and everything like towels and pictures are removed. I use pink towels. The soft soap is always pink shampoo or body wash. The pink and a bit of blue and white "Made in China" item makes it all work. The bath tub always has pink Dove. I need to get another pink rug.

I clean with the brown, liquid Lysol, so it smells nice to me. Clorox is suffocating and Pine Sol is gross and I am allergic to it.

That was all done on a day last week and a day last week. She stayed four hours each day and did other things besides cleaning, just things I needed.

Yes, it was filthy, but I cannot do all this anymore. Hopefully, I can keep it up and only have someone clean the bathroom maybe twice a year just to get what I cannot. I am also going to sell a few things that need to go so I can afford this. I did NOT spend my gift money on this...lol.

No, I am not going to get a Medicare waiver. Do not suggest it. Will not happen. JRE is exempt because she mentioned it and I realized I should have put something in the post. So, I did.

Have you ever fought to clean behind and under a claw foot tub? Have you ever needed help to clean?

Leafsnap--Tree ID App and Saving Money

This app was identified on a murder mystery program that included the Lindbergh baby murder. As I understand this app, it can be used by a phone or the computer.

Take a picture of the leaf and use the app to identify the tree. I noticed there are fruits, too.

I have a whole page of the sites that have information about this app. So, you can choose what you need to read or use.

When I was in high school, I could tell you the name of a hundred trees, but all that is just about gone from my memory.

I can imagine this app would be great for children as an educational tool.  Or, you might use it to identify trees on your property.
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1) The weather for the most part has been beautiful. This is the type of weather where I hang clothes on the line because I like to hang them out and to save money. The pollen is so terrible and so early, it seems. So, I try to hang things in the house to dry. Pants, blouses, panties, and socks are hung inside always. However, towels and wash clothes and dish cloths go outdoors. Now, I have to use the dryer. When I wash sheets and blankets they will have to be dried, also. Running the dryer is expensive! I will hang a few washcloths in the house.  No money saving steps here until the pollen is gone.

2) Tomorrow, I have to use the oven instead of the crockpot. Hopefully, I can get two pans of meat and vegetables into the oven.  It is not so hot out that the oven will heat up the house and cause me to use the ac. Using the crockpot would be cheaper. I cannot save money with the crockpot on Thursday.

3) I had someone help me remove two boxes from the front seat. For a while I thought I was going to have to pay someone. So, money saved there.

4) The car console is filthy. It is embarrassing. I will go to my trusty stash of toothbrushes for a cleaning tool. I change my toothbrush every three months, so I usually have plenty of toothbrushes for other jobs around the house.
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Do you think you or someone you know might use the Leafsnap app? Is there anyone out there who uses the dryer exclusively as opposed to using to hanging clothes to dry?

Learning New Things

Today, Thursday, we had none of the storms predicted with words like "tornado," "straight line winds." "high winds." However, I have not heard what happened to MS, TN,  and the rest of AL.

J came to help me today and got the counters finished. She was cleaning the stove and took out the electric eyes and drip pans. She called me and with a look of disgust showed me the area under one eye. I raised the top of the stove and she was about to gag by the look on her face. Then, I explained: All the white stuff was baking soda poured onto bean or pasta water that had boiled over and burned underneath. She was relieved to hear what the gunk was. I had her scrape it and vacuum up the loose stuff. Cleaning it right under the stove top will wait for another day. My stove has not been so clean in a long time. She was not aware the stove top lifted, so she learned something new about stoves!

Today, all the junk on the window sill was removed--odd vases, the petrified wood. All was dusty and sitting in dust. I want to clean the wood window parts myself so that the paint is not damaged or the paint scrubbed off with the wrong cleaner. LOC is what I like for this job and cleaning walls, but I have none.

She has seen me put toothpicks in sweet potatoes to get slips. She almost threw away my potatoes set to chit on a paper plate. Today, she was fascinated by the carrot tops in a saucer. I explained I would not get carrots, just a few tops to put in soup, dehydrate, or put in a salad. I think she was underwhelmed by the mention of eating carrot tops.

J is not into gardening and just did not want to grow anything in a bucket. She hates tomatoes. I asked her what was her favorite vegetable to eat.  Cucumbers. She was sincerely happy when I told her I would help her grow cucumbers! So, today, I supervised and instructed her how to use grow pellets to germinate cucumber seeds. She proudly took home a sandwich bag with four pellets that have eight seeds set to germinate and strict instructions about what to do with them. Tonight, I will use another 4 pellets for 8 seeds in case the five cats or the ac at her house disrupts the germination process.

When we went to get cigarettes for her, I mused that I needed pallets. She said we should go behind stores, so we did. She stuffed the one huge one we found into my trunk and she tied it down with the plastic string I keep in the trunk. I drove home about 20mph and avoided the main streets and only had to cross the highway, really busy. She brought it to the back yard and put it approximately in the place it will be for my bucket garden. The pallet was beside the dumpster, so I hope it was abandoned to the trash. I need one more or maybe two more.

Thursday was windy, so clothes on the line dried in record time! I only have one line, but the rest of the wash can be put on the line tomorrow.

The next thing for me to do is locate my drill and for us to drill holes in five-gallon buckets and wash them with Clorox. Of course, the seeds need to be transplanted into larger pots as soon as they get two true leaves. Well, that is what I do.

It is debatable as to whether the aloe is surviving or slowly dying. I cannot tell.

She commented as we left the house and several times before, "I learn so much from you." I will keep her in cucumbers if that is what it takes for her to keep cleaning and lifting things that are not really heavy. And, I cannot pay her!

Did your area have bad weather today, The day here was very pleasant, sort of windy for an hour with no rain!

Your turn
Do you teach anyone simple things about plant propagation?  Well, she is sort of a captive audience. How was the weather at your place--stormy or quiet? Do you have a place you can find pallets?