Text 18247, 137 rader
Skriven 2014-10-18 20:16:43 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
  Kommentar till text 18182 av Janis Kracht (1:261/38)
Ärende: Peppers                                                  [2]
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Hi Janis,

>> I can understand that.  You have an advantage of nice weather longer
>> though.. must be nice :)

 JK> > It is nice; we're in the transition between air conditioning and
 JK> > heating right now. The a/c will kick on from time to time, as
 JK> needed, > but is still off, more than on. It's not quite cool enough
 JK> for the
 JK> > heating to kick on in the early morning hours just yet. The new
 JK> house is > natural gas heating/cooling so we should spend less, total
 JK> than our
 JK> > total electric house now.

 JK> We lived in a total electric apartment very early on in Warick just
 JK> after we were married... My dad and his business partner had built
 JK> these and the utility company had convinced them that going total
 JK> electric was going to be "the future" and cheap. Haha -
 JK> Unfortunately, the utility bills were _horrendous_ such that we

Our first apartment had 10' ceilings and was heated with propane. It was
a converted hotel, don't think there was a bit of insulation in the
building so we ran up some major heating costs. No a/c in the place
either.

 JK> started calling the O&R company (Orange & Rockland utility company)
 JK> the "rape and plunder" co. - it was that bad. :( Luckily we were able

Outrageous and ridiculous--I know what you mean.


 JK> to get out of there and buy our first house in Warwick shortly after..
 JK> that first house had the greatest heating system.. hot water heat with
 JK> those big radiators, that held the heat in the radiators for a long
 JK> time.. what a great house that was.  This house in Ithaca is natural

We had the big old radiators in our apartment in Berlin. Great for
putting a pan of water on to add humidity, for drying mittens, etc.

 JK> gas/hot water heat as well, but only baseboards.. When the house was
 JK> rebuilt the radiators were removed. It's still cheaper than our house
 JK> in Windsor was though, because it's got much better insulation than
 JK> the house in Windsor, and that house in Windsor uses oil.  ouch.  Talk
 JK> about painful :(

My folks have oil in their house; they've had some rough winters. The
natural gas heating should cut our electric bill considerably.


>> > Now we're getting later season produce at the market. Steve brought
>> home > some baby swiss chard, a butternut squash and some bell peppers
>> from the > farmer's market today.

>> That's nice :)  Sometimes you can't beat a farmer's market for really
>> great produce because of the variety.

 JK> > Yes, and knowing the farmers is nice too. We trade recipies, ideas
 JK> for > cooking, etc.

 JK> That is very nice - I imagine it's a place to look forward to. :)

Very much so! I was able to get up there today for the first time in
about a month--got some baby bok choy, spinach, a couple of small yellow
squash, a small eggplant, a couple of small cucumbers, some sweet
potatoes and some snap (green) beans. Steve came home with some more
tomatoes and a bag of mixed leaf lettuce. The tomatoes have been juiced
up, some of the lettuce and a cucumber went into a salad for supper. The
eggplant will go into a not quite eggplant parm; the bok choy and squash
into a stir fry (with other veggies). The rest of the lettuce will go
into a wilted lettuce salad and the green beans into my grandmoter's
green bean recipe.

Steve took some home made (he made, using my baking mix and kefir)
biscuits filled with pastrami (from what he made) and swiss cheese up to
some vendors today. He had requests for the pastrami recipe and I had
one for the baking mix recipe (home made version of bisquik).

>> me.. but..... I really had to laugh.  I'd bet you have some good tales
>> about things that didn't
>> 'really' need packing from all those years :)
 JK> [...]

 JK> > We'd lived in a military area before Steve enlisted so we'd heard
 JK> > horror stories about packing trash, ash trays, etc. That helped us
 JK> know > (Somewhat) what to expect.

 JK> Makes sense :)

 JK> > The longer Steve stayed in, the better we got
 JK> > about being ready for the packers. The night before we were supposed
 JK> to > pack out in Berlin, I wanted to get somethng from a box in an
 JK> upper
 JK> > cabinet--stood on my sewing chair, and broke my wrists. Pack out was
 JK> > delayed a few weeks, and the move was the worst one we had in
 JK> regards to > amount of damage done to our stuff.

 JK> That must have been a terrible fall.  :(

The right wrist has, over the years, done quite well except when I've
used it a lot over several days. The break wasn't too bad for that one.
OTOH, the left wrist has given me more problems over the years--it
shatterd, and I'm left handed. One orthopedic surgeon wanted to fuse it
about 23 years ago; I declined then but it may have to be done at some
point down the road. I've had 2 surgeries on the right wrist, 3 on the
left but I can still use them.

>>> Is only the type for mulch?  That's helpful for mulching at least but
>>> not the type for turning in the soil.

>> > Just mulch I think, but will help the beds here before we move.

>> Yes, and it will look really nice.

 JK> > The next tenants will appreciate it, as well as other improvements
 JK> we've > made to the house.

 JK> I can understand that.  We often left houses/apt's in better shape
 JK> than when we moved in.  In the house in Louisville, Ron installed a
 JK> parquet floor in the kitchen because I got very tired of the kitchen
 JK> floor which was covered with a rug.. who could stand a rug in the
 JK> kitchen?  I guess someone who didn't cook much :)

A rug in the kitchen would be one of those "What in the world were they
thinking?" when I saw it situations. I think most all of our places have
had linoleum or something equivalent in the kitchen; the new place may
get a floring upgrade at some point down the road.

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... I am positive that a definite maybe is probably in order.

--- PPoint 3.01
 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)