Organizing and Progress

I hate that futile feeling that I'm just doing the same things over and over again: laundry, dishes, picking up, answering emails, etc.

So every week I try to do something that will either be a more or less durable improvement in my life or that represents a long-delayed task.  This week, I put stickers on my computer keys.  I didn't know they made such things (they were in a pile from a friend to keep or donate), but I'm delighted because my fingers usually wear the letters off of keyboards.

Here you can see the stickers, some keys without letters and some keys with stickers.

Life, improved. 

Garden Visit from Ann S.

My lovely friend Ann is thinking about starting a garden next year, so she came over to tour mine.  It was a delightful visit!  What gardener doesn't want to prattle on endlessly about her planting and plans? 

Ann helped us harvest.  This photo is from earlier, but it includes some of what we are harvesting these days.... tomatoes, purple beans, basil, chives, thyme, okra, chamomile, and oregano.

I need to let Ann know two more things that I forgot to tell her (despite talking at her for almost two hours!).  One is to get the garden fenced and the beds dug and enclosed this fall.  The other is to save these, since she wants to grow tomatoes:

The one on the right is for planting seedlings (with holes punched in the bottom for drainage).  It is smaller so that the seeds get the heat from a heating pad placed underneath.  The one on the left is for tomatoes after they have enough leaves and no longer need the heating pad. The milk carton is where they will grow until they are transplanted.  Next year's garden is going to be MUCH bigger now that we have a freezer. :)

Hope everyone is having a bountiful harvest!  We've topped 100 pounds of tomatoes already this year, but keep in mind that that is from 12 plants.

Metal Detecting Adventures

The Magician found this little heart when metal detecting in a local park here in Nebraska about a month ago. It is a trade goods token from "Matt's Place" in Grangeville, ID. Here is the front and the back:

As you can see, it is worth two and a half cents. These tokens were popular starting in the 1840s when a shortage of the metals needed for making coins meant that the government minted less of them. This meant it was hard to make change, so stores minted their own tokens which were good for store credit. We are thinking that this is the oldest thing he has found to date, possibly from the late 1800s or early 1900s, as stores continued to make them into the 20th century.

The story-teller in me wants to know how it got to Nebraska.  Was someone just passing through in the 1800s?  Was it a good luck charm that was dropped in modern times?  Did someone from Grangeville go to school at UNL?  I don't think I'm ever going to find out!

Sunday Thoughts

Catholics traditionally celebrate today as Mary's birthday... so Belovedest made gluten-free cookies!

(One of the many things that I love about Christianity is that there is almost always a good excuse to celebrate something!)

Laboring on Labor Day

I am SO proud of this.

Honestly, it's going to make life much easier than having them all jumbled together in a file.