. I am now well stocked in my favorite brand diced tomatoes, Muir Glen. They are pretty expensive (over $3 a can) but they go on sale to half-price (!) in the fall, so I took full advantage of that recently and should have enough organic, sodium-free diced tomatoes for the entire winter's worth of soups and stews. I use 2 cans per pot of soup with a whole lot of veggies.
Generally speaking, my diet is as low sugar, low salt and low sat fat as possible, and it's very hard to eat in America without consuming some degree of processed foods where much of that sugar, salt and fat can be found. I used to buy dried beans for my soups and stews but it was too time-consuming to soak the beans overnight and then cook them. The Muir Glen brand also uses BPA-free linings in their canned products.
I am also very happy with my Biroux water filtration system, which is said to filter out all kinds of unwanted stuff, including BPA, microplastics, heavy metals, and more. The water does taste subtly different; I'd mentoned that to a customer service rep, who asked me if I could describe what it tasted like, and I could not. I found myself puzzling over that for weeks afterwards, and decided that it just tastes like nothing, which I guess is what water is supposed to taste like. Perhaps in the past I tasted flouride or minerals, although Biroux is supposed to retain beneficial minerals while stripping away contaminants.
Biroux sells a nice countertop stand for their water filtrations system (i bought the small one shown) but I saved a few bucks and just used a plant stand.
The 2025 vegetable garden is wrapping up. All I have left are my snow peas, but here's the tally of everything else I harvested. Note that I planted for one person using 3 4 x 8' raised beds.
Cherry tomatoes: 490
Lost a few to exploratory chipmunk bites.
Yellow squash: 31
Cucumber: 21 (wiped out early by powdering mildew)
Zucchini: 16 (also pulled early due to cucumber beetle and powdery mildew)
Medium-sized tomatoes: 8
Stringbeans: 3 lbs
Snow peas: 40.5 oz (2.5 lbs)
Plenty of red lettuce but not counted
Next year I may skip the stringbeans and return to eggplant.
This morning I woke up and, looking out the bathroom window, I saw a wooly caterpillar in a large, ground-level water bath I put out for the animals. Fearing it had drowned or was drowning, I ran downstairs and outside, to remember with some relief that I had dumped the water yesterday after seeing mosquito larvae swimming around. The wooly caterpillar was just wedged beside a small river rock in there. I let it be and now, with the warming sun, I noticed the caterpillar crawling around the rim of the bath, maybe doing its morning calisthenics. So all is well.
Since I'm so fond of photography, I've been thinking of doing the Photo a Day Challenge starting on Jan 1. Although it's harder to find things to photograph during winter. It would be fun to compile a year's worth of photos which would likely be rather mundane but also accurately reflect my life.
I've now achieved my credit card goal to earn $100 credit. Now I can go back to a different card to charge up entertainment purchases, which include restaurants, where I can get a refund on any entertainment-related charges with credits I already earned on a travel rewards card. I think I have a year to do that.
September 29th, 2025 at 10:24 pm 1759181046
Also I am loving what I believe is a gravity-fed, reverse-osmosis water filter. How well do they work for you? I may get one myself some day, when my current (ZeroWater) water filter croaks some day.
September 29th, 2025 at 11:00 pm 1759183221
September 29th, 2025 at 11:56 pm 1759186589
Does it have to be an out in nature challenge or can you do landscape or still life photos?
I am fascinated by the difference in light between the seasons. I’m not sure how you would capture that in photography, but the morning, noon, and evening sky varies every month,
September 30th, 2025 at 01:11 am 1759191108
September 30th, 2025 at 05:32 am 1759206720
September 30th, 2025 at 01:17 pm 1759234658
September 30th, 2025 at 02:16 pm 1759238214
Are you finally feeling better? I hope so.
October 1st, 2025 at 03:01 am 1759284080