More than possible.

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I did make potato salad.  It was a bit bland, to me, but I couldn't figure out what was missing and more salt would have been too much.  I did salt the potato cubes while they cooked, or it is far worse.  Hmm.  I did find a pure dill relish that is quite good.   I used two kinds of mustard, the regular yellow and a stone ground type.  Perhaps the potato cubes were simply too large.  Still, a homemade potato salad is still a bit of a treat.

I had brots to offer as well.  The guests had to bring buns, as I ran out of time and energy on else.  It was perfect weather for an outdoor small picnic.  After, I slow cooked a pork roast and chicken hindquarters.  I sampled some of each.  I was worried that the blood draw would be bad this morning.

I didn't want to get up this morning, in part for fear of the blood test.  The other part for being sore.  I haven't written everything I have done in the last few days, but it has been much.  So I am sore and stiff today.  All good.  Aspirin, for I have chickens to help butcher, and more to do here as well.

As to the blood sugar?  Not bad, for a fasting draw... 155, which is six points higher than yesterday's fasting blood sugar, seven points lower than the day before that, seven points higher then total average for the week, four points lower than the two week total average.  As the fasting blood sugar, that is actually awesome.  As fasting blood sugar, until it goes to 120 or lower, is the highest reading of the day.  Yesterday's other readings were 137 after a hearty breakfast and 114 before dinner.

My guts hurt, but this time it has a simple cause.  I have been down, at home.  As such I have been wearing pj's.  So, putting on jeans and cinching down the belt, has put a bind where it has been unbound for a long time.  It has literally sqeezed the, well, crap out of me.  At least I didn't have to stew prunes!  Truth is I had become irregular, but not truly bound.  I was mostly out of food, and the battery was dead, plus money is low.  I simply wasn't eating much.  The belt mostly just pushed dust out.  :p  Still, a bit sore for that, bending to wash pots and pans, and a dozen other littler and bigger efforts.  Aspirin for certain.  That, fatted tea, and pork or chicken.

Oh, as for ketonic?  I actually have several types.  The one I usually discuss, is the base of fatted tea... tea and whole raw cow cream, with ketone salts (a single dose, were two or three doses are possible a day, as with all the additives listed after), a dose of taurine, a dose of berry green powder, and a dose of electrolytes.  Depending on what I am doing the rest of the day I may have another.  I may exclude some things, or all but fatted tea.  I use this on multiday fasts, sometimes.  On intermediate fasting days, I just have the fatted tea or two, as a means of getting more fat into my diet.  As with today.  It allows me to consume a small hunk of meat or a few small pieces of chicken, and still get enough fat and generally be satisfied.

Well... I'll see how the clothes are doing, reset the rinse to the remaining dishes, have something to eat, and then do a bit of crocheting before showering in prep for the trip.  I'll need to rest tomorrow.  Later.

Wonderful.

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It is too early to see if I am back in the game for long.  But after a month, months?, of pretty much sitting, I got busy yesterday and am cracking the whip already this morning.  Waking a quarter to 8:00, my first thought was a grumble.  Usually, lately, it has taken me hours from waking to opening up the hutch.  So I grumbled. The ducks probably don't care all that much.  It is a matter of... consistency as a fowler, as a man of intent, to do right by those under my care.  Rights, say to eggs?  Responsibilities first.

Anyway, I wanted to begin in the house first.  I started pots and pans soaking, then reset the other dishes.  I want to make potato salad today.  So need clean... everything... and space.  After that, I gathered laundry from the bedroom and bathroom, took it back, sorted enough for three loads and will sort the rest in a bit... bedding tomorrow or Sunday as well.  Yeah.  Then I got out and fed the quackers, opening things up for them.  All before 8:00?  Yes, crazy fast, for me.

Blood sugar, after supper, was 159 an hour after, then 152 two hours out. I feared it might be really jacked this morning.  Nope. It was a reasonable 149.  If it continues it's (lately) usual pattern of dropping twenty to forty points, I'll be in very good shape.  The total result average is down to 154 (for 17 draws over the last week).  It's... gooder.  I want better, but this is enough.

A few things today, and Monday, and I can collapse again for a time, if needed.  I hope to dig in rather than fall, but you know it isn't always a choice.  Later.

Had to push.

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With all the force I could muster it still took until noon to start.  A slow start.  I was running out of feed, for the ducks.  I was completely out for myself.  I hadn't been to the feed store before.  I believed I knew where it probably was, and sort of had it suggested.  It was as I thought.  I have enough for a good while, until I can sort other options.

After, to the grocery store and bank.  My card almost didn't go through at the store.  I tried it as credit and it worked.  However, at the bank atm, their machine ate the card.  They gave me a story of three wrong pin entries, which I know to be bunk.  Truth.  One wrong punch, got someone's or something's attention, and I look... very different.  Anyway, they wanted an up close and personal.  Funny thing?  Once in they never asked for my id.  They knew, but I look... lost a lot of weight, new very different glasses, and my hair wasn't in a tail... among other things.

I did get the cash I needed.  I am simply surprised they are watching accounts, or at least mine, that closely.  It may be time to go back to cash.

I grilled less expensive steak.  I was so hungry for meat.  I have enough food for a while.  Especially if I continue to go light with meals and frequency of them.  I am hoping to try cauliflower 'rice' this weekend.

Oh, butchering is on, Saturday.  Apparently Sunday best isn't required.  :p  I am looking forward to learning.  I'll become more of a homesteader yet.  Next thing you know, I'll have a flock of meat birds, or two, then a few goats.  Sneaks up on you.  Good night.

It is beginning.

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A shower, so far.  A fatted tea as I write, with a shave yet to finish the morning.  Blood sugar tested to 119.  I never will understand why it dropped 48 points in a few hours.  I am not actually fasting, if I am eating less.  The kitchen is backed up.  Oh, the ketone strips indicate I am over 80, not to the deepest level. if deeper than I have ever been before.  I think I was stuck at 40 for the less fatty proteins.  It takes a bit to... get it through the head, decide to go for it, then sort it all out.

Crocheting went well, while I could keep at it.  I am going larger with the dishcloths.  The main problem that remains is getting the row ends to be even and general stitch tension regulation.  It is improving, if I think a thousand projects under the belt is probably just a start.  I think I could, in time, kick out five a day, maybe more, if there would be no good reason.  Further, I couldn't afford the hobby and am extremely dubious there is a real regular reliable market demand for these things.

I have explored audio book at Amazon.  They do have the Tolkien series.  I didn't bite, as I am not sure how to get the audio books to my smart phone or other system.  The price seems reasonable, though I wonder if they have an upgrade, or might allow two enrollments?  I'll check.  I might burn through books rather quickly, even doing one or two projects, or the time equivalent, most days.

I would like to get to solid ability, then produce a few items for family and friends, then make more complicated products.  Mitten-gloves, caps and hats, shawls and scarves, throws and blankets, and those with color blocks and patterns.  Just... a hobby.  I am improving, if I am still on the simplest stitches and patterns.  All good.

Time to shave, finish suiting up, and doing a few other things.  Good day.

Good, actually, morning. In the morning.

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Nothing fancy.  No pain, slept well, got enough sleep, woke easy.  Fasting blood sugar is 162, not bad but up from yesterday's at 147.  My other two blood sugar tests were 121 around lunchtime and 128 a bit before bedtime.  I can hope to keep it low again.  There actually isn't a reason for it to have increased.  I hadn't eaten for hours before that or after to now.

It took all day, off and on, to finally finish the trim so the washcloth lies flat.  I kept adding curl!  I think the trick was using slightly less tension and making absolutely certain to hit every stitch, as well as doing extra in the corners, sometimes more than suggested.  I had to do many teardowns.  I refused to develop a flaw right at the end.  I... hope I have learned.  Odd thing is, the oblong (is it?) one?  I had no difficulty with it's border.

It isn't perfect, or appear so, but it is rather mildly and scarcely marred.  It is rather square, it is much improved, it was excellent practice.  Another start, to kick of my morning.  It is times like these when I hearken back to the golden days of radio, when talkies were the deal.  Hmm, they do have speaky books.  I wonder if they have Tolkien, perhaps the church doctors, on audio?  That... would do well.  I'll begin research.

Later.

An observer, several, many?

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Someone(s) has been... examining.  To my oldest posts.  Seem to have some idea of where to poke, if the pattern doesn't seem... singular.  Various topics, or random reviews, are occurring.  Do they see, as I present, through the eyes of a darkness redeemed, but not blind to or done with darkness?

A good start.

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Sleep was good, no pain today, I think cold weather and less sun has registered, and recovery from summer exertion has been fulfilled.  Now to get to some things.  Oh, fasting blood sugar was 147.  Yeah, it's a good thing.  Tea is steeping for a fatted ketonic, but first some cold tea.

YT, last night, became inaccessible.  It is back this morning.  They want me to switch to something I won't enjoin.  It includes tv stations.  I didn't cut cables as a purely economic issue.  It was content, intense leftist propaganda, politically correct actors and ideals, as well as advertising with all those evil traits and more.  If you wish to push white genocide, any genocide really, don't expect me to buy it.

With some help.

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Garden hoses were thawed, as were fittings.  So they were drained, rolled, and stowed.  Placed on boards, centered on rafters in the back of the garage.  It is nearly 18:00.  I'll close the coop, checking food first.  I hate to have hungry animals.  Fasting is more of a human or wild thing.  Odd that.  What takes humans, et. al., willpower is a natural part of wild animal life.  Sharpness is found from it, and health and vigor... until it becomes lethal.  No different from excess, just faster.

Blood sugar started out wicked high, at 214 fasting.  It dropped to 181, post fatted tea which I count as a meal. It is more reasonable now, at 144.  Whatever.  It is again trending lower, but jumping for no good reason.  The premeal average is in the 150's, after meal is fifteen points higher, average.  It's the loopy fasting blood sugar which is driving the overall average to above the after meal average!  Foul!

It was cold this morning.  I thought it was still cold.  Not so much.  It felt almost into the high fifties?  I brought my thermometer in the other day.  It was rattling so terribly from wind I thought it would break.  Two wood screws and a drill.  Yeah.  Soon.  And another one for out back, the other back... maybe on the coop.  Plus a rain gauge.  Yeah.

Good night.

A good start back to daytime.

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At 15:30, and counting, I have done well.  I can't do much work, if no better or worse than usual of late.  I did call and get to speak with both my mother and brother.  A very good thing.  I'll have to call more often.  It's late, in life.  Though, beside my recent pronouncement that the future is in the past, my previous observation that there is always tomorrow... until there is only tomorrow adds to it.  You do the math.

I actually have nearly completed another washcloth.  It is so close to square.  It is flat. I am struggling with the hem stitching.  Keeps curling.  I think I am too tired to do the work correctly, so I have set it aside for now.  I made two runs at the final part, only to have to strip it all out.  I won't put in a flaw that isn't necessary, if I can't do otherwise at the moment.

There are still flaws.  Fewer, smaller.  Still, this isn't an art potential exhibit, a fair product, or even a farmer's market fare... perhaps a flea market item.  :p  It is a surprising amount of improvement from the last, vastly superior to the first.  A dozen more and... we'll see.  I am improving, if there... I'm not sure how I could do worse than that first.

I had hoped to do housework.  Not going to happen.  I will close the ducks in, and feed them, before bedtime.  Might check the hoses and fittings, bringing in some of it.  Hungry, but out of pretty much... oh, but eggs.  If I can find a pan.  Gah!  Maybe just hardboil... or better soft, just enough for a meal?  Maybe.  Later.  Good night, in case I crash.

Better, faster.

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Finished with a second washcloth.  This one does lie flat.  It isn't square though.  It looks like a pyramid, if much closer to a square.  It beats the first by a country mile.  I did three tear outs, of various sizes.  I just can't seem to get it square.  Yet.  Oh, and these take a lot less thread than anticipated.  Mine is probably eight to ten by ten to twelve inches, but used far less than indicated.

Never could nap.  Now I have a headache.  Just as when gaming, getting into a new game, I end up sitting in one position for too long.  Maybe a nap soon.  Staying up to call and wish my brother a happy birthday.  I may, will, call my mom, to remind her.  He may not take my call.  I will leave a message if not.

Later, or... probably good night.

Wrong again.

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The washcloth is about half finished and rather rectangular, well on the way to being square.  Or, mostly.  I was much more careful with stitches, the pattern, and tension.  I did tear down part way, twice.  Almost did it again, until I tried something else.  I gently stretched the project.  It squared without undo force.

Further, I caught myself making stitching errors.  A lost step, or added... I am sure I missed some mistakes.  As well, I couldn't always tell where the next stitch was supposed to go.  It will simply take time.  I am improving, slowly.  It will take time.  I am finding improvement increases more through crafting, finishing, a flawed project than by ripping down and trying to improve.  Not sure why, but completion is more important... if resisting the desire to tear down in the hope of perfection is a gnawing haunt.

Nap time.  Later.

I am almost sure.

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I just can't guarantee, but I think this fall has been colder sooner than usual.  It seems to have geared down at a gradual pace, so as to hide it's depth.  But it is already freezing out there much of the time.  All the hoses outside had frozen water.  None are likely ruined, as they were mostly drained... just small amounts of residual water.

I removed attachments and put all on the sunny south side to let everything thaw.  I had to refresh the water trough.  Luckily I had a hose in the basement.  I'll check the hoses tomorrow, get them coiled and in.  I think the hydrant is suitable for cold weather, though, maybe, a wrap for the exposed pipe might be good.  Watering in freezing weather was always going to be the trickiest part of ducks.

Thankfully, I think my feathered friends keep, so far, the water from freezing.  Won't work in the harder weather, I'll need more containers.  Pull what is frozen in, just replace... fill another.  Beside just needing water, water is also necessary for them to eat.  And they need to clean their bills.  Oh, it is time to add wood chips and leaves to the floor.

I went ahead with an attempt at a dishcloth.  Many tearouts, before finally getting something going.  I finally got close enough, so I finished it off.  Far from square, if it will do.  More practice.  I learned a bit of a trick.  Eyeballing stitches, then adding or removing stitches in the next row in order to control.   I've heard counting stitches is a way.  But that is difficult and would really slow things.  Perhaps, while learning, I may have to count.  To be honest, I don't think the pattern, as given, works.  Though maybe it is my inexperience.  Time might tell.

I am going to try another one today.  I may try exact counting, and definitely go over her pattern again.  Maybe women just talk in a way that doesn't always make a correct transaction through man ears or brain... or necessarily each other's?  It is something that isn't gaming.  The place settings, hats, and gloves and mittens are no longer short term goals.  Maybe by next year, if I can keep at it.  I have to wonder how many start and end up dropping the craft.  It certainly isn't a quick skill to obtain.  I really thought I'd... be better faster.

Later.

Yeah, okay.

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Ah.  The example I tried to follow, as the simplest example, must have been a spoof.  I kept looking.  I didn't want complicated patterns, weird stitches, or a mix.  I finally think I found an actual pattern, with the correct and simplest stitch.  Not tonight.  Too tired.  Probably.  If I can, I'll work on the blanket.  The smaller yarn and needle takes a lot more concentration, too much for now.

Wrong, incorrect, in err.

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Sometimes this is a good thing.  Crocheting.  Two errors.  The first regards dishcloths.  I can't use the same pattern, scaled down.  The material just doesn't work correctly.  I am trying simple single stitches but that gets too tight.  Perhaps looser or/and skipping stitches?  I'll work on it.  As for the blanket?  I have learned a great deal.  I have about a third of the first skein stitched, and it is looking quite right.

I reviewed the video.  Which helped, though too as I run the stitches I stop to check my work.  If needed stitches are pulled, several times so far, if usually not far.  The edges are being kept even, but by eyeing the project and using whichever of several row stopping methods which allow alignment rather than just following instructions.  That allows me to correct for tension problems.  Not bad.

I can work longer, without cramping, though the smaller hook, well... not so much.  I'll get better at that too.  Surprised how well and fast improvements are occurring.

It looks like butchering chickens this or next weekend.  I am looking forward to training.  This will let me know if I will try to raise meat birds next year.  I'll help this couple any time they want help.  I am pretty sure about the meat birds.  All the practice I can get would be for the better.  Social time is a rare plus too.

Later.

I like riddles.

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Not all riddles are lyrical, or apparently complex.  Seen through the eyes of flesh, they might even seem silly.  First, the answer: Yesterday.

Technically finished.

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With the baby blanket, that is.  I... don't think I'll attempt to give it away.  The question is, should I keep it... evidence, or undo and try again?  Any of you have an opinion?  It is my first project.  Not a dishcloth or any other item has been crafted before.  I'll be considering it's fate over the next week, as I try again.  I have to admit, I am not sure I improved from start to stop.  Oh, a bit.  I just don't know.  I'll watch the vid again, too.

I did learn a different way to use the skein.  By finding the end inside, there was no need to spin the yarn off.  I have learned several tricks.  The main thing is tension.  When not done correctly, bad tension will make counting difficult, stitching correctly by pattern difficult, and makes turning around not work well.

I may try two projects at once this week.  Another blanket, and smaller sized dishcloths with a scaled down pattern, yarn, and hook.  I don't expect learning to be fast.  And yet the only way to get better is right through the cold lunch of abject failure.  Something I am noticing, when viewing more complex patterns, is that they make sense.  I couldn't replicate, but I understand... the idea.  I can even, in my mind, begin to plot patterns.  Sometimes what I devise is more or less complex.  Some of what I imagine would be useless, save as mathematically derived art forms... conches, coils, and such.  And I realize Amazon is definitely not where to buy yarn.  Jo Ann's, Walmart, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, perhaps others.  Amazon's is way out there on prices.  Weird, but it did get me started.

A darker day.  A good one, perhaps.  Later.

So dark.

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When it goes dark, it isn't only less light and heat by time, but also by the weakening of what little sun there remains, and that it is nearly as likely to be overcast as well.  This year the struggle to hold on is hampered.  A bit too much of a push earlier in the summer, if I was happy to do it.  Will do similar next year, if at all possible.

Fasting blood sugar is finally coming down again.  Yesterday it was 180ish, today 157.  The thing about today is the fasting test is lower than the bedtime test, if only by almost a handful of points.  That signals the beginning of something good.  It offers no promise of future performance, but offers a signalling snapshot of a good moment.  Collect a dozen of those snapshots and... then I have gotten somewhere.  From then on, it's a matter of maintaining balance and focus.  The right, or no, food, at the right times.  Activity as possible.

I've decided to go with more milk, which I am mostly converting to kefir.  I want more, to maintain kefir volume, plus have some actual milk to drink and with which to cook.  If only through the generous help of others, I am enjoying a much better food situation.  Milk is food much more than drink.

I finished the first skein of yarn on my project.  I tied another in and kept going.  I think two skeins will do.  These are 10.5 ounce, 220 yard jobbies, and this is only a baby blanket, if probably a rather large one.  If wanted, could be used by the child until the end of grade school unless she is a giantess.  I have to take long breaks, for hand cramping, but am improving.  It's... far from perfect.  But it will hold together.  The ends, sides, aren't even... some stitches are treble or single rather than double.  But it will easily do.  It has flaws, as the one who made it.  Perhaps forgiven, in love, for what is offered despite the problems.  Perhaps, in time, loved even in part for the flaws.

Oh, and I am still working on the game.  I probably had it, just could have started with a specific save and done things slightly differently from then on.  Unfortunately that save is gone.  This time, for sure.