It's been snowing, raining all day, but temps have been at or above freezing, not too cold. So the cat refuses to stay inside the house -- he stays inside this rolled-up self-inflating mattress which is inside a huge trash bag and covered with a tarp and an old coat. There's a blanket inside. The entrance is on the right side.

It's actually turned out to be a great shelter -- has held up and worked throughout several seasons. The mattress is a special portable one for camping. I could never get it to deflate and compress enough to store it away after using it, so I just rolled it and stuffed it in a bag, and that's when I said 'Hey! Cat shelter!'

It's nice that it's easily re-invented, because he tires of it eventually and abandons it. (This was the former 'Camp Festus' -- see previous pic.)

I have two distillers. This one, labeled with the '2,' is the one I would usually use only for essential oils, but I decided to use it for just water this time, because I don't plan to drink this batch, anyway (though it would probably not hurt anything), and what I am getting is a very light, fine hydrosols (sort of) that will be great in the humidifiers.

My kitchen smells very nice while it's in progress, from the residual essential oils that were left in the canister.

EDIT ADDED LATER:

If the permeating aroma was cinnamon, I wouldn't mind, but it's mainly citronella. (I don't think the dog likes it too much, either.)

gave this one as a gift to someone

I found this photo of mine at Flickr. I really like this one. It's of a cosmos, edited with a purple tint obviously. This flower was in the yard, I'd planted some before although now if they come up they are just lucky repeats.

More later...

This is another rerun.

I had an entry almost all typed and then somehow I hit a wrong button and -- poof!

Sigh.

Now I don't feel like trying to say it all again.

I didn't take my camera with me today and so of course I saw 6 beautiful deer standing and grazing in a field along a nearby road. They were adorable!

One day, in a haste and so weary from toil,

It's note is a high one; no subtle, earth scent;

Then, this seemed quite funny; we laughed! The name stuck.

For, I know -- 'pelargonium' is the real name;

This is a very old re-re-rerun. But today I changed my user name back to geranimom (from Moons-Ago Tunes) so that made me look for this picture and poem.

Yeah, I know. I gotta do some house-cleaning.

Just yesterday I received my two ghost bar stools. I've tried one while playing my foot bass and it works out fine, is much better than the pinhead-type stool I was sitting on before.

I have five of the clear chairs for the kitchen table, but yesterday I brought back the burgundy stacking chair into the kitchen, so anyone apprehensive about the polycarbonate chairs (...they are very sturdy, but take some getting used to) can plop onto the regular one.

My house is not at all fancy so the 'outdoor' chairs in the 'cubbyhole' room are just fine, they don't look weird in there. And who cares if they do?

More to prattle on about but I will stop here for now. Busy, and also, this laptop keyboard is still acting up a bit...I don't think it is entirely my hands at fault! I have to type very slowly and deliberately. Correcting a lot. It's driving me nuts.

I have two distillers -- one I use only for water, and the other I am dedicating to plant materials/essential oil. Both are the same MegaHome model, the 320-watts (there is a higher-wattage one).

I have an interest in making hydrosols, but I haven't really gotten too serious about it yet. And, in fact, it may prove in the long run to be smarter and more economical to simply buy the hydrosols available in stores. But, I've said that about distilled water, too, and yet I've managed to make it worth it to periodically distill my own. I recondition it (fix the PH) and drink it, use it in my coffee maker, hot pot, tea kettles...etc.. (I usually buy bottled distilled water for the humidifiers, though, when using those.) Sometimes I mix my distilled water with regular bottled water.

Today, I boiled about 18 ounces of water to get it ready to distill, dumped it into the distiller and added 2 teaspoons of citronella essential oil. Did a little reading during the whole process and learned about the word 'cohobate.' I got about...2 ounces, I'd say, of a water that certainly contained the citronella (mosquito spray!), then I shut off the machine at least for now, though there's still most of the water left in the container. My house was getting a bit overwhelmed by the scent of citronella, and also I wanted to be sure to not let the distiller boil dry (it shuts off automatically when it's empty, anyway, but I was just a little bit nervous).

I don't know how much my resulting solution differs from what is produced by distilling the water with the plant material (to produce a hydrosol).

I would say that what I made is a hydrosol, and it technically involved cohobation since the citronella oil added had already been distilled (not by me) from plant material (Cymbopogon nardus).

Anyway, kind of fun to make my own stuff. The aroma is a bit strong, of course, but not too unpleasant. Two ounces will go a long way in the little bottle I filled, which makes a very fine spray mist, and I would only want to make a small amount at a time.

The carafe in the photo is not the one that goes with the distiller -- it's a different container. I don't want to use the MegaHome pitcher for oils, just for water.

This must be a first, hanging clothes outside to dry in the month of March.

I was amazed that I could fit almost everything on this small, portable rack.

Back down to sub-freezing temps during the night, most likely, though.

Spring has sprung! Or so it seems. Record-breaking warm temps. Will they stay? My guess is... yes.

I'm glad, but I wasn't really ready for this yet. I was thinking I still had a few weeks before I had to worry about mosquitoes... now, not so sure!

I don't plan to garden much but I'll probably at least fix up this little patch with some plants, and hopefully some of the regular perennials will return. I guess I'll have to get ready for the hummingbirds sooner than expected.

I was so pleased to get this great shot, but... it didn't turn out very clear. Temps are warming up so these two will be around, though I don't know if I'll get them both together like this again.

Chipmunk photo taken on 9/21/2006.

I've re-run this photo a few times. It's one of my favorite shots. I took this while walking around Old Sturbridge Village.

Was without internet for about a day and not looking forward to the task of getting it all fixed, but things have started working alright again. So yay, that saves me a long boring trip to the Verizon store.

Tired today. Very. Winter woes, I guess.

News... hmm, well, I put together a new dog bed today. Another Coolaroo bed so Bubbles can be comfy in the backyard (Speckle doesn't go there). Irritated my back quite a bit to do that, but I got it done.

Yeah, did other stuff too... but that's probably the most notable.

I've stocked up on several varieties of Dr. McDougall's vegan (and some gluten-free) soups and pilafs. But getting a bunch through Amazon's Prime Pantry, I saved about 20% off the grocery store's price and found more variety, this time. (Don't worry, grocery store, I always seem to have some reason to enter your doors...)

These are quick & easy, delicious, and are dry, so I don't need a freezer (don't have one, don't want one).

I kept hearing an ad on the radio about stocking up on emergency food. I was put off by the fact that it was all 'add water' stuff -- I mean, if we've hit the End Times, are we going to have any water? So, I didn't go for any of that particular product, but...

The more I thought about it, I decided it would be okay to stock up something even if it would require some clean water. Let's have a positive attitude about the End! Right? Maybe we'll all go lights-out while we're drinking some really good coffee... with our soup!

Okay, really, I'll probably just have it all gone by Christmas. With no End in sight. And then I'll get some more...

Feb. 29th 2016 (-- the photo is old, and the book was already 'old', then!)

I don't have a new picture ready yet today, so I went looking for an oldie. Decided to pull out something from one of my Books galleries.

I have used this book, enjoyed making some things when my daughter was a little girl. I think I may find it useful again, in fact... have wanted to get back to some sewing. I have so much to do, though, that I don't know how I'm going to accomplish that yet.

What I really cherish about this book is that I very distinctly remember when I bought it. The shop owner, an elderly man who ran an old bookstore that my family loved to visit now and then for many years, didn't just ring it up and say 'Have a nice day,' but he gave me a very nice smile. That was probably also the last time I saw him... he passed on, and then his bookshop closed.

So, whenever I see this book, I see that smile!

-- I would like to add more today but, not only am I busy, but I'm having a very difficult time typing! I'm not sure if the problem is my computer, or my hands. So... I'm quitting right here for now.

I've needed just a bit more outdoor storage space around here, and since I already had one of these sheds up, I decided to get the same thing again and put them almost back-to-back.

This particular Suncast item is a discontinued one but so far there are still some available. They do have another, slightly similar vertical shed, too.

Yes, yes, I know... a slightly messy yard. Which is one reason for getting another storage shed, of course.

I hate assembling things, but other than our old green couch and our dining table, and the old piano and bench... I have put together every piece of furniture around here. Cabinets, closets, tables, trash bins... desk, bed frames, chairs... you name it, I've assembled it! Price is part of the reason. Things you must assemble are usually considerably less expensive than things delivered whole. Another reason is that these assembly-required items tend to be smaller, more apartment-sized than are the 'real' versions... yes, I have a house, but it's really just a smallish cabin that was added-onto over the years.