Never thought retirement would be like this

Here's another one that is *really* helpful when you are trying to keep calories low.

Beans and Cheese (Atkins diet?)
Only 250 calories --- protein, fat, complex carbs, all slow to digest. Guarantee you won't get hungry until you are *really* hungry---for several hours at least, even working hard.

1/2 cup pinto beans, boiled, not to the mushy stage. Onions, or onion flakes, are good cooked with them. (130)
1 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese melted on top (120)

Portion look ridiculously small? It is. But try it. You'll feel like you really ate something. Very Mexican flavor.

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Not pretty? I should have put it on a piece of lettuce. :(

Or try eating like this! (not me)

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By the way, the beans freeze well.
 

NancyNGA said:
Bea, a whole 2 cup package of sugar free instant vanilla pudding, made with only *1* cup of powdered skimmed milk, then plop a whole cup of ff, sf Cool Whip on top, has only 280 calories. You get stuffed if you try to eat it all in one sitting. Throw in a few oyster crackers and it's like adding a pie crust. But even that is a lot of work. (I'm terrible, I know. :playful:)[]

That is why I use the snack packs, just peel off the lid and squirt a little whipped topping out of a can, easy peasy!

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When I want to make an ordeal of it I slice a banana into a bowl, top it with a SF vanilla pudding snack pack or yogurt, crumble a graham cracker on top and hit it with a squirt of whipped cream from a can. A lot of work but a good calorie value for someone with a gigantic sweet tooth!!!

Keep the ideas coming, it is difficult to cook for one without falling into a very deep rut!
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Aunt Bea said:
... When I want to make an ordeal of it I slice a banana into a bowl, top it with a SF vanilla pudding snack pack or yogurt, crumble a graham cracker on top and hit it with a squirt of whipped cream from a can. A lot of work but a good calorie value for someone with a gigantic sweet tooth!!!
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:lol:
 

Emergency supplies to keep on hand in case of sweet tooth attacks---6 packs, normally added to water, 10 calories per pack, $1 at Dollar General.

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Sprinkle just a little on most anything, like cottage cheese. Tastes just like lumpy flavored sweetened yogurt. :hatlaugh:
 
A picture of the devil's pitchfork. More about that later.

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Came home late with 2 pry bars, ready to go, but the ants were still there, like nothing happened. Carried out more sinister Plan B, and near dark they appeared to be gone. Had to give that rock at least one good try tonight, because it would be a deal breaker if I couldn't budge it out of its hole, and rain is forecast for tomorrow. I got it, but also got bit by *1* fire ant 4 times on one hand. They really are persistent little devils. :rolleyes:

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Still 4 hummingbirds out at the farm---2 males and 2 females. They were going crazy today, chasing each other through the porch right past my head. I suppose the males will be leaving soon.

The devil's pitchfork (aka beggar's tick) is a seed from a weed (Bidens pilosa). They get all over your clothes here in the late summer. Picture of seed pod from the web:

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So many silly little things to think about, and so little time. :playful:

9/5: 1270 calories
 
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Just got a call from my neighbor's son. They are asking $301,500 for her house!!!! Nowhere even close to what I had in mind. I think he is dreaming, but maybe I'm clueless about current prices. There are several problems with that house from my standpoint.

First, it shares a driveway on the other side with a rental house, owned by Mr T, the rental guy. No room for 2 driveways over there. Not a problem if he buys it. Big problem for me, or anyone else.

Second, there is a huge sick poplar tree, with already dead limbs in the top, on their boundary line. Mr T. refuses to have it removed, even when my neighbor offered to go halves with him. Imagine if it came down on either house and hurt someone inside. Mr T. would prefer to let insurance pay for any tree damage, after the fact. I do not like that way of thinking. This is why I say he would be a difficult neighbor over there, but not next to me.

Finally, there is a massive hickory tree just 20 feet from her house on her property. It would not uproot like a pine would in wind, but still would drop limbs forever, or could get struck by lightning. It is the tallest tree in the neighborhood now. I do not need that kind of constant worry about roof damage, or added expense to remove it, in addition to other expenses right at the start. I am a little surprised she can get insurance. It may be difficult to re-negotiate. Insurance companies are getting more picky about what they will accept now.

Just laying out some of my reasoning for the record. In case I forget later and start having regrets, I'll reread this. Glad to get that off my mind.:)
 
Meanderer, if trees could hear and understand, they might try to get even with me. On second thought, maybe they can. It seems a lot of trouble involves trees. :confused: What's with the stick of dynamite? [I'm slow, but steady.]

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Just solved another puzzle about my rock. If you come up with another one like this, I'll never get caught up solving puzzles. :playful:
 
Time for a Geology Lesson!

Picture of a small chip off the old rock.

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I have a foliated muscovite schist! (stained with red clay) :grin:

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foliated - made of thin sheets or laminae.
muscovite - mica
schist - a rock that has been exposed to a moderate level of heat and pressure. It is coarse-grained and consists of layers of different minerals and can be split into thin irregular plates.

After it rained all night I noticed my rock had some cracks. I chipped at it with a pick hitting right in the cracks.

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When it got dry I soaked it with the hose under a piece of plastic for a couple of hours. More cracks appeared.

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It was as if it was just waiting to explode after millions of years.

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It's all dumped into the sinkhole now! No tumbling necessary. :coffeelaugh:
 
Nancy, be ashamed, you "killed" the rock! LOL There are homes around here that have big boulders put in their yards for landscape effect! You could have probably sold the thing to a landscaper! LOL

That son is asking too much for that house. I would ask for a home inspector to check it out first. There is no telling what hidden problems are in that house! Unless it has been maintained, there are probably electrical, plumbing, foundation issues. And then again, he has upped the price hoping a developer will come in and buy it at that price. Buyer be ware!

Just thought of something, you can do a "google" search of homes in your area that have recently sold and see if the price is right.
 
maggiemae said:
Nancy, be ashamed, you "killed" the rock! LOL There are homes around here that have big boulders put in their yards for landscape effect! You could have probably sold the thing to a landscaper! LOL
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You're kidding! Whenever I see a big rock in somebody's yard I assume they are in the same boat as me, and can't get rid of it. I thought about painting this one Red and Black, or putting a bulldog face on it, but it was in the *back* yard. :(

maggiemae said:
That son is asking too much for that house. I would ask for a home inspector to check it out first. There is no telling what hidden problems are in that house! Unless it has been maintained, there are probably electrical, plumbing, foundation issues. And then again, he has upped the price hoping a developer will come in and buy it at that price. Buyer be ware!

Just thought of something, you can do a "google" search of homes in your area that have recently sold and see if the price is right.
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I know he will come down, but not *that* much. What a weird asking price, anyway, $301,500? He should have said $299,900. I think she needs a different real estate agent.

In case someone thinks I'm exaggerating about the hickory tree being 20' from the house, here are two pictures.

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You can see the sick poplar just behind the hickory in this one. The top of it is dead.

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She was over there tonight and didn't stop by. She is probably mad at me now. If they are smart, they will tell Mr T I'm still interested. He is not stupid though.
 
Yep, those trees are too close to the house. They need to be removed. Maybe "Irma" will take care of them next week! LOL We had seven trees taken out 2 years ago and now I figure we probably need about the same amount taken out now. It was nice when we first built the house but after 32 years, they have gotten too old and too big. Gee, that kinda sounds likes us! LOL
 
This seems to be my little buddy lately. He shows up, and walks across the front porch, every time I go out to the farm. Probably just making rounds looking for insects, and I happen to be there. Likely a common five-lined skink. Harmless. I should give him a name.:confused:

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Supposedly, if you grab their tails, they come off. :eewwk: I surely wouldn't care to see that.:p A tail grows back, but "tail 2.0" is not quite the same:

 
My neighbor just stopped by to tell me Mr. T made a verbal commitment to buy her house at the asking price. She said he already sprayed Roundup on the foliage on her side of their driveway this morning. Thank goodness we got rid of those two big pine trees before she sold. I'm glad she got the full price. I don't think anyone else would have gone that high, except he and I.

Mr T's MO is to spend a *long* time remodeling and landscaping. He has his own tractor. The place will look much better when he's finished. It will be interesting to watch.

Then, I have to hunker down, because I'm now the only house in the middle of the part of his empire on *my* side of the street. I figure with the $300K I just saved (;)), I can do like Stan Laurel. He built a 7' stone wall around his house on a 1 acre lot near Los Angeles, and called it Fort Laurel. Stan's hobby was masonry and he built many of the walls himself.

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Hope I don't end up one of those little old ladies who makes the newspaper one day, because she is holding up progress. OTOH, this may be the catalyst that eventually makes me decide to move. Maybe it's too early to get set in my ways. I know if I move, I'm taking all the grass with me! It took 30 years of sprigging to get St. Augustine over this whole place. :playful:
 
Bea, at least if I can't mow the lawn, there is a fitness place right around the corner. LOL!

Mr T won't have any money now for a few years. He's been doing this buying over a 20 year period. I got some time.
 
I have got to turn off "The Weather Channel", this hurricane Irma is making me nervous. We are suppose to get tropical storm winds and rain here on Monday and Tuesday. Normally I would not be so worried but in September of 2004 Hurricane Ivan came through here (much the same path as Irma) and this is what we had to deal with when we got home from work that afternoon. The wind and rain was awful driving 23 miles to get home. We were out of power for days and a crane had to be brought in to remove the tree and then it took months to get the house repaired because there were so many homes with damage.
 

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Oh gosh, what a mess. I bet it did take forever to get things cleaned up and fixed. That's the worst thing. Everyone is trying to clean up and repair at the the same time. The TV does keep you upset. They started with this so early, which they should have, and are probably giving the worst case scenarios, which they also should. Better too cautious, than not enough.

I won't ever forget Ivan. I'd never experienced those bands before. It would be blowing and raining so hard the house shook, then perfectly calm, and you thought it was all over, then boom, back at it again. We just got our goats and they were little and I worried about the barn and roof holding up, but it did just fine. :)

I had all the trees around the house, the goat barn, and the cabin removed. Got sick of worrying about them.

The latest forecast here is "gusty" winds 35-50, occasionally over 60 mph, and 3-5 inches of rain, on Monday. That will bring down some trees, and the power *will* go out in town. It goes off about any time it rains hard. There will be lots of limbs to clean off the fence, but they would have come down eventually anyway, so I'll have a vacation for a few months afterward.

Probably much worse where you are. If I don't hear from you again before Monday, hope you have good luck this time. We are lucky we aren't in Florida.
 

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