I'm glad to see we've regained full access to the blogs. If you ever experirence a problem, Jon has been pretty responsive to me. It helps to take a screenshot of whatever problem you're experiencing if possible. That being said, I wish the admin here would pay more attention to this site. The reason why it never grows members is because most people trying to post for the first time would have no idea that you have to post TWICE to get something published. So when they initially fail at successfully publishing, I'm sure that most give up.

I'm enjoying my new kitchen appliances. The stove is very high tech, works flawlessly and is a breeze to use. It will bring a pot of water to a boil in just a few minutes.

The fridge and freezer are great, too. I'd probably stand in front with the door open to admire all the spaciousness inside compared to my old side by side freezer/fridge, as well as the organization, but that would let all the cold air out, so I don't. But it seems a lot easier to find stuff in a bottom freezer than those narrow little shelves in my side-by-side.

I've been super busy this month and anticipate that to continue throughout the month. I've had a few PT sessions so far and some of the exercises seem similar to what I was doing in PT following my knee surgery about 5 years ago. I'm not sure it will really work to permanently ease my knee pain (he told me that I would need to do "maintenance" exercises for the rest of my life), but I also started taking collagen (rather expensive) and want to try SoftWave therapy, which helps reduce pain, address inflammation, and promote tissue regeneration. Supposedly I have one of the few insurers who covers it. I need to confirm that. The machine uses high-energy sound waves (acoustic waves)  to penetrate deep into muscles and tendons. As you may know, there is very little blood flow in the knee, so it helps with that too, along with inflammation. It's FDA-cleared.

Anyway, what with gas prices being what they are, I'm tacking on little side trips to grocery stores and such while I am out for my PT twice a week.

Home Depot has made a return visit to address the issues I had with the front door replacement done a year ago. The door now closes properly and the trim was redone to match the paneling in the 2 front rooms. Now I'm ready to proceed with the back door replacement and am waiting to hear back from the person I was dealing with.

A friend of mine spent $2,000 for a cottage for a week on the lower Cape. She brought her son, and she has done many years before. When her son went to pull back the covers in the back bedroom, they discovered the remains of a dead animal there!!! And there was poop in various places. Turns out a weasel had scratched its way in through a rotted foundation and brought its dinner with it to enjoy. I guess this had been happening for some time but that most people who rented the cottage earlier in the season only needed 2 bedrooms, and not the 3rd, smaller bedroom.

Initially, the owner of the cottage, who lives off-site and out-of-state, did not believe my friend, even with the photos provided, but her housekeeping crew confirmed it and so the owner gave her a full refund, since it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to find alternative accommodations, plus she had her 2 dogs with her.

Today I hope to address the chipmunks who every year delight in digging holes in my raised beds. Since I have hardware cloth stapled into the bottoms of 2 of the 4 raised beds (I forgot to do that for the other 2, which were installed at a later date), I'm pretty sure the chipmunks are tunneling in from the top, not the bottom. The soil is nice and loose.  Since cayenne pepper did nothing, I have a roll of chicken wire I want to cut up to lay on top of the soil and weigh down the ends with bricks or stones. I could also staple it into the sides of the rasied beds, which are made of cedar. That "should" do the trick. 

I have also been doing tons of yard work, cutting back an overgrow wiegela so I could finally deal with the invasive vines and poison ivy that got a foothold underneath it. There are also so many little chores too numerous to mention. I enjoy yard work in moderation, but it often feels like there's just too much to manage here. I also cut back a honeysuckle cultivar that I noticed had some very healthy poison ivy growing under it. There was a lot of dieback on thehoneysucke, so clearing away the dead branches allowed me access to the poison ivy.

I also had a growing mini forest right alongside the lower end of my driveway consisting of shagbark hickory, ash and elm. They just kind of appeared overnight and the saplings were already 4 feet high. While they are native, I had to treat them with herbicide to kill them as their roots would break up the driveway. So that side is better, but there is still a black cherry in there along with more poison ivy and wineberry, an invasive. I did start cutting back saplings on the OTHER side, too, but I won't do too much work there as the poison ivy is positively thriving and it's better to wait til fall, when the foliage starts dying back. There is a slope on both sides of the driveway so that adds to the risk of maybe slipping and doing a face plant right in the poison ivy. Nope, nope, nope.