AARP Eye Center
Good morning to everyone on the Front Porch! Welcome to May 2019. We had an overnight shower to ring in the morning on the Front Porch! Welcome to May 2019. Going to be a busy day tomorrow if we do not have more rain. Remember that March - April is CLOSED now.
You all got me itching, but yes, me too, on restocking up on the picaridin.
Another bane of my existence are no see ums. Jeez. But, let me tell you, the worst has got to be chiggers. Stay out of tall grass!
Anybody got some favorite itch relief suggestions? I was reading that the main ingredient in AfterBite used to be ammonia which is pretty effective, so I tried some window cleaner when I had nothing else. Then, I just cut out all the extra ingredients and went with straight ammonia. A little strong, but it seems to give some relief. A little dab will do it; much more and your eyes might water and you tend to smell like a mop bucket. 
Good morning, Everybody here on Our Front Porch!
I hope we have all made it through another week and are ready to begin a new week of life, love, and everything good. We've had a bunch of what I call "combination" weather here. Yesterday, we had warmth, cold, rain, hail, lightening, winds, and then sun and dry ground like nothing ever happened. Today? I'm hoping for calm inside and out. The sump has finally stopped thumping and the rain that lasted all night has stopped.
So everyone...
This is .....
Relax and do you!
Lydia
Good morning to everyone on the Front Porch on this first day and Saturday of June 2019. Cloudy today with a high of 73* with midafternoon rain. Hoping to get to the front lawn tomorrow. Have a great rest of your weekend.
Good morning to everyone on the Front Porch on this last Friday and day of May!
Busy weekend coming with a retirement and graduation party. The lawn needs to be cut also.
Golf yesterday was so so with humid weather. Next week, weather allowing I will golf 3 times.
I hope everyone has a great weekend.
🤗😆
Good morning, Front Porchers!
It's a beautiful morning thus far; not necessarily because of the weather, but just because...we're here!
One day during the past week, a quick storm blew through and snapped one of my smaller trees. Thank goodness it was one of the small ones as it ended up toppling onto all three lines connected to my home--my cable line, the phone line, and the electrical line. So as I stood there surveying the situation, I decided to attempt to remove the tree from the lines without damaging them or me. And although the lines were sagging, none of them had been totally taken down by the tree. So I got on my trusty wooden ladder and tied a rope to the part of the tree I could reach near the top and threw it ways away from it and the wires. Then I moved the ladder to the mid way part of the tree (above the place were the trunk had broken). My intention was to get the weight of the tree off the lines before they gave way. So with my reciprocting saw in hand, I began to cut. Cut, cut, cut. Saw, saw, saw and finally the tree gave way and with a crack, the top part of the tree and all of it's leafy branches were now forming a tepee over the lines and the stress was now off of them. I downed the ladder and pulled the rope--guiding the tree in the ultimate direction I wanted it to fall as it was not quite fully released yet. So again I moved the ladder, climbed it, and began sawing again, but this time I was sawing the thickest part of the trunk of the tree where the original break had occurred. Suddenly, I had sawn through and the tree gave way. I got down from the ladder as fast as I could and gently guided the tree down by the rope. The lines were now free and intact. Hooray!
Exhausted from my efforts, I put my tools away and left the felled tree right where it lay--spread out in my backyard and waiting for another day when my strength and energy would be replenished. By the weekend, I was ready to tackle the cutting up of the tree. I ended up with several cans of yard waste and several small logs for my fireplace. A win-win in my opinion.
I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend--with family and/or friends, good food, with rememberances of our lost service men and women who gave their lives for all of us.
Hope the week brings you all the best of everything.
But in the meantime, have a ........................
Lydia
Hello, Front Porch People!
I just can't let the day get away without saying to all......
Good morning to everyone on the Front Porch on this cloudy Memorial Day!
I suggest that everyone should have whole house surge protetors.
Updated March 2019
You likely have at least one of these things somewhere in your home – even if just in the form of a power strip – maybe protecting your modem, computer or TV. For many consumers today, an inline unit that’s connected at the outlet is an essential add-on to any expensive electronics we have in the home.
A Whole House Surge Protector can Keep Your Home Appliances Safe
What many consumers don’t realize is that these simple, inexpensive power strips may not be adequate for a serious surge. And you’ve likely overlooked your most expensive electronic devices, leaving them unprotected. Appliances such as your stove, refrigerator washer/dryer or air conditioning unitare all equally susceptible to a large percent of surges, yet most folks don’t bother to protect them. It’s estimated most households have around $10,000 of unprotected electronics on a standard circuit.
With our growing reliance on electronics and our inevitable move towards smart homes, it’s just not feasible to get a power strip for every single outlet in your home. But, you can protect every electronic device in your home with a small investment and a little elbow grease.
Good evening on the Front Porch! Just a friendly reminder. I appreciate the "thanks for my service" from folks but wish they understood the difference between the military holidays. It is hard to have a happy holiday when thinking about all those who never came home.
Have a restful weekend!
Good morning to everyone on the Front Porch on this Friday morning! We have a strong storm moving in now . Nice weather outlook for the holiday weekend. We got to play golf yesterday in my Thursday league. The weather was great but I have played better. We have no big plans for Monday as of now.
- If you had to choose just one item for your anti-mosquito arsenal, a wise choice would be time-tested OFF! Deep Woods Insect Repellent with its 25% DEET concentration that wards off mosquitoes, ticks, flies, and more.
Have a great weekend!
Mornin', Porch Peeps,
I'm hoping everyone is safe through all of these awful storms that are giving people trouble all over the place.
We were blessed again yesterday although the regular local NBC 11 PM news was all tornado info and weather stuff.
@LaDolceVita ...Yesterday we got to the playhouse in fine weather and even at intermission it was still dry. However...during the second act there was such a LOUD roar of thunder and heavy rain on the roof, that the 2 actors on stage who had just paused in their dialog, looked at each other, then looked up at the ceiling both with questioning looks on ther faces. It was almost as if it had been planned, and the audience burst into laughter. It was quite comical. 
When we left, the rain had stopped and the drive home was fine. Luck was with us again...not so much for surrounding counties that had storms and hail and tornado watches until midnight.
Looking forward to a nice (athough hot on Sunday) weekend.
Remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our Freedom! 
N.
@Frozenoem wrote:
Check with forester/arborist on health of trees around house, root balls, or learn the sound of good vs hollow (dead/rotted) spaces by whacking trees with axe head (hammer end).
Sugar maples can survive quite abit 60-70% and still come back.
No joy here, closed road and brought them down.
Miss the shade, syrup, don’t miss mulching leaves or branches dropping and taking out power lines.
At least I still have apple, pine, maples, birch and old growth in the back with tree house for resale.
Gosh, how to tell I’ve lived in the woods awhile, Neighbors saw me sweltering while cutting and splitting maples and brought pivoting splitters to use. No joy splitting 4-6’ wide maples with wedge and mauls.Still took a week to move to woodpile.
Froze
Trees are beautiful and the oaks around here keep things cool and shady. We won't talk about autumn when the leaves fall and you have to shuffle through a daily 3" layer of leaves on the deck to keep from going down by slip-sliding on the acorns. Not only do I have to 'rake the forest floors' , but shovel off the deck too.
I watched a reporter interview an arborist after the tree killed my neighbor and he said it was a healthy tree, but the ground was oversaturated from recent rains and it just blew over.
Falling branches are also something I can do without. Heard many a big thump on my roof. They regularly have crews that trim tree branches away from power lines, but that's not failsafe either.
Still, if I had a choice, would I take them all down? Nah. They are healthy and I like the privacy and buffer and as you can see, it really is a nice setting.
A couple more pictures of the deck tree and another one on the other side. (You can probably understand why I head downstairs during a storm.)
"I downloaded AARP Perks to assist in staying connected and never missing out on a discount!" -LeeshaD341679
