Notice:

I can't predict when I have the time to post a new blog, but check occasionally. I'm going to try at least weekly.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Weird storms

Song of the day: “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, I believe. If not, feel free to correct me. Hah.

Okay, let’s hurry this along, because I still have to edit and I would rather not sit at the desk all day when I could be outside in the sporadic sunshine, darn it. I’ve been missing the sun for almost a week now, and I want to be in it every minute I can.

First of all, we stopped outside work a little early after the last blog, what with the horrible weather not allowing us to do much outdoors anyway, and made quite a bit of progress with the edit. After yesterday’s chapter, we’ve only three or four chapters to go yet, so, YAY! If it goes remotely as planned we should be able to add another “done” one today, so the end is finally nigh.

The mimosa tree we mutilated the other day (due to what appears to be an illness it was looking close to dying) still looks horrid, and I really hope that it will make it, if for no other reason than that my view would be a lot less attractive if it’s gone.

We had some crazy storms these days past. Incredibly loud and fast thunderstorms. One even hit the electricity pole at the top of the property. It lit up grandpa’s bungalow, apparently, and tenant saw it too. And while it happened Labhana thought she was dying and I felt it go through bone and marrow. Seriously, for a moment I thought I pulled something in my spine. Hah.
Poor Labhana insisted on sleeping on the bed that night. She was terribly upset. I never realized that she was so afraid of thunder, but maybe it was because these storms were very different than usual. One moment everything would be clear and the next clouds would tumble overhead making the ground tremble with thunder.

For the most part yesterday was spent doing little stuff. I started the day (no. No laundry for a change. What with the bad weather the lines are full and nothing dries. *sigh*) bringing mom’s extra little table to the carport so I could adjust it and ad extra fold-out sections to both sides. What with her quilting being so big, she’d been making due with this little bed stand so I figured I might as well widen the top. It’s now double the size and looks cute.

Big brother fixed Sally’s sowing machine. What with her being out of a job these days, she’s decided to join mom in making quilts and such for the market, which is keeping her nicely busy, I think.

We also fixed up an old white glass bulb lamp, which we hung in the patio later in the afternoon. It took some doing, what with the roof being 13 feet high. So big brother was on top of the ladder. I was under the ladder holding it, while Ox (oddly enough I was allowed to mention him this time. Hah) helped with handing over tools, the lamp and doing everything what big brother would have had to get off the ladder for. It took maybe half an hour, the whole process, but the result was absolutely gorgeous. It looks so very neat.

There was the edit, of course, but at some point (after page three, or so) I was so bloody tired I stumbled to my bed and napped for half an hour. Dax immediately joined me, of course, crawling under the blanket with me, and curling up against my stomach, while Knight II took about five minutes to realize where I was, and joined us by slamming his bony butt into my spine. Jeez!

At the end of the afternoon the sun broke out for a bit, and I more or less bounced out into the sunshine. Oh my Gawd, it was so bloody wonderful to have bright sunlight again, and to stand in its warmth, if only for thirty minutes or so. It cleared my head from the bad-weather-lethargy I always suffer from.
We went into the yard to check everything, and though some tomatoes look like they’re drowning, and we had to drain the garden pit into the basin, and the drain of the basin overflow was working overtime, everything was looking pretty darn good, all things considering.

Before I forget, we also got some gravel (for concrete), which we spent unloading most of the morning…much to the annoyance of the sibs who were waiting to load up the Land Rover with market stuff.

Which was today, of course, meaning that today I did manage to do some laundry. Though a lot was still wet, I did manage to pick some items of the line, creating space for a new batch. This was also the time that we decided to check the washing machine, because it appears to be making more and more of a racket, of late. It is probably something in the bearing, meaning that a washing machine of less than a year old could be totally wrecked. Aaargh! Spent about half an hour trying to reach a repairman, but due to Semana Santa going on, no one is really reachable.

But anyway, I headed down into the yard and started planting herbs in the garden pit. Parsley, sage, basil and chives now have a good spot, and though I will be planting more there, it looks rather nice there.

Afterwards there was lunch to see to. Considering tenant could use a good meal to, I made it up there. Baked potatoes with white cabbage, onion and red peppers. It turned out rather well, in particular because of the large batch of fresh herbs I poured in. Hah.

Knight II’s tail is looking good, and the cut on his foreleg is healing properly. Dax’s ear is good too. Though there’s a flap hanging loose, the part is still on, and is no longer looking red around the edges.

Well, that about sums it all up. I should do some reading, and then maybe some cleaning, and then…well, I’ll see about that later.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Flashdance

Song of the day: “Who makes you feel” by Dido. I don’t know why, but it was one of the first songs that played this morning, and it has stuck ever since. Luckily, it’s a good song.

First: Success! I mean it. Dani’s birthday is close at hand and I decided to surprise her with apple/pear pie and ended up experimenting with the leftovers. Suffice it to say, the experiment was absolutely delish! Heck, even big brother liked it, and he is NOT a cake type of person. Imagine pears, apples, apricot jelly, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, sugar and fresh cream all mixed together with cornflakes. OMG. I could have eaten the entire dish…and almost did. But the pie was good too, and Dani like apple pie a lot, so, Yay! All round.

Okay, back to normal stuff, because let’s face it I am a bit nauseous at the moment from all that sweetness. Hah.

Yesterday: Right. Well, we did go through the yard, which is more or less a habit big brother and I developed this past year or two, if for no other reason than to check the veggie plants. Everything is doing pretty good, what with the continuing week of horror, weather wise. *sigh*
And though we are not able to fill the basin with the miserly rain that is going on, the next best thing IS happening: we don’t need to water the plants either. Hah.

What else. Well, there were rocks to unload, of course, but what with the humongous ones that we’ve been getting this past week or two, we have decided to make time for a little break in hauling new ones down. The ol’ body is whining about the constant strain, the knees protest against simple squatting, and I really do not want to discus my friggin’ foot at the moment. Do you know the sensation of burning yourself on a match, or a cigarette? Now tenfold that, and apply it to the edge of your entire heel. Grrrr. I am still glad that it no longer feels like I’m walking on glass, though.

Knight II had another little mishap, the idiot! He slipped out of the office, all enthusiastic like, and then little brother’s and sister’s black Labradors came out to make a hassle. Mati, the most forward of the two, got hold of Knight’s paw somehow, and didn’t let go until Knight grabbed the heavy lab by the neck and tossed him away (reminded me of a lion somehow) before running towards me with a bleeding paw and headed up to the cabin.

He bled quite a bit, and I was worried for a bit that an artery had been hit, but then I managed to stem the bleeding with bandage, and tied the whole lot up. He’s been a real sissy about it, too, what with shivering, and looking all miserable whenever I check on him, and then still being his barky self whenever someone dares to do something he doesn’t like,

Changed his bandages this morning (am using a cut of sock to keep the lot in place) and it looks fine. Tomorrow, of the day after I am just going to let the air to it, and only clean it regularly. Let’s hope that he doesn’t develop an infection this time, because I really would rather not use antibiotics. He looks like he’s playing a part n Flashdance, by the way. You know what I mean, right? The floppy dance socks without toes? Cracks me up just looking at it.

Ooh, still nauseous. Hah.

We did work on the wall some more, despite the bad weather. Got the foundation of the main upper wall in, and it is pretty solid, I would say. Hah. About a foot thick in the narrowest place and offering for a nice 7 to 8 feet terrace in front of the house once we’re done. My muscles are not agreeing to that all that much, but it has to be done, of course.

There was a wee bit of excitement yesterday afternoon too, what with Tadaika managing to get over the fence (or under it, we are not sure what) somehow. In fact she was the reason we had first contact with out English neighbors, which wasn’t a bad thing, considering we never really had a reason to talk. She seemed nice enough, and luckily, Tadaika didn’t appear to have done any damage. Phew. It was a bitch getting her back over the fence, though. She’s fat. Hah.

The majority of today was spent unloading the car, baking pie, and trimming the big mimosa in the middle of the property (it appears to have gotten the same disease as the one we lost last year). It looks horrible now, but with a little luck, the new growth will have a shot at making it now. If not, we might be forced to take her out and put something else there, darn it. Now all we need to do is haul the massive pile of wood away from the main path.

Edits are going slow again, but no matter, we’re sloshing our way through regardless. The query letter is done (printed and everything) and should go out sometime next week…we’ve got Semana Santa ‘round here, which means that everything shuts down at the drop of a hat. No use in sending anything out before all the celebratory stuff is over. Hah.

Little Djoti’s (sister’s cocker spaniel) operation went fine, by the way. It was a minor operation really, but of course cost more than a hundred bucks. *sigh* Hard to say no to having a loved one saved, eh?

Well, that is about all I can think of at the moment. I’m sure there is more, but my brain is showing signs of leakage once more. And since I’m still nauseous from the pie, I think I might need a nap. Hah.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Freaky April

Song of the day: “By chance” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. A somewhat odd song to have in my head, considering I don’t know it all that well, but what the heck.

The weather has definitely taken a turn for the worst these past few days. Three mornings in a row now, I’ve woken up to cloudy skies and chilly winds, meaning that the newly planted veggies are doing poorly at the moment. Not surprisingly either, seeing as I wouldn’t want to grow in this weather either. Hah. Freaky April weather for sure.

Little sister had to go to vet yesterday with her little cocker spaniel (Djoti) because he had a small growth in his mouth. Turns out it was a benign tumor that the vet could remove in a single afternoon without trouble.

Big brother, grandpa and I were out most of the morning yesterday. We had to bring grandpa’s moped to the repair shop in the city, then go to the Daewoo garage for an appointment…he also did a quick look/see of the Land Rover due to a little problem we encountered the other day. We will have to see if it happens again, but let’s just say that as usual when we have a “little” problem, he was stumped. Hah.

Afterwards we headed for the phone shop (the one where we go to deal with the average crap the phone company puts us through) to figure out why I’m being charged money for an internet service on my phone that I never asked for and use. Aaaargh. Didn’t discover this little hiccup until a few days ago, so hopefully the shop will manage to get us a refund.

Once we got home (there were a few showers throughout the day) big brother and grandpa went to work on the drainage tubes, while I headed down into the yard to plant tomatoes and peppers on the little fields where the experimental potatoes weren’t working. They do look cute, and in the end I didn’t mind working in the rain.

There was another rock hauling trip somewhere in there, along with a sand hauling trip…yes I know, it is starting to sound like the laundry versus the Tax & Death thing, right? Ah well…
We got some beautiful rock, in case you’re wondering. And when I say beautiful that there are rocks that I can barely carry, and rocks that big brother can barely carry, so they’re a nice selection for the second wall foundation. Regretfully my knees did not agree with the activity at all, and have been complaining for the better part of the week whenever we go out to get rocks.

Edits are still going, of course, and the query letter is finally done to satisfaction. We might send it out as a test run this week, so…keep your fingers crossed. Heck, while you’re at it, might as well cross your arms, legs and toes too. Hah.

Tenant was out walking with her caregiver, and ended up falling on her side. The good thing is that she apparently managed to catch her fall because she ended up with only a slightly bruised pinky and a few bumps on her arm. She makes light of the entire thing, so in the end there was little harm done…scared me though.

I managed to do some cleaning in my cabin. The place is still a mess but at least there are some clean spots now, which was really necessary what with time (having it) being so very relative these days.

Small pits for the new berry bushes had to dug still (in summer they need a pit to hold water), of course, so I got to that too, and I am studiously thinking of building the stairs on the east side of the yard, so that the lower yard will be more accessible.

Which brings sharing the past couple of days’ activities up to date, I guess. The doggies are doing fine, and Chaos, for a change, apparently doesn’t mind the missing cocker spaniels. In fact he seems to like the extra attention it warrants him.

Okay, work to do. Gotta go.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Up and down

Song of the day: “One hand in my pocket” by Alanis Morissette. It’s been a while since I heard this one so I’m not entirely sure where it came from.

The past couple of days…Gawd I better hurry writing this down, because even as I writ this brain cells are disintegrating, darn it.

Let me think for a minute here. I know it is hard, but I will persevere, darn it.

Yesterday! What the heck did we do yesterday? Right. The rain drain in front of the house. Phew. It hasn’t disintegrated from my memory banks yet, thankfully. Hah. But anyway, what with the slight possibility of rain in the near future, we decided to get to the chore of putting gutters under the roof of the front of the house, in hopes of catching as much water as we possibly can. It ain’t done yet, seeing as big brother and grandpa only got as far (I was supplier for the majority of the morning, hauling butt up and down the mountain) as the gutter, and not the drainage tubes that are supposed to transport water to the basin.

Since I was pretty fed up with being supplier, I did a quick tour of the messages, some edits--and a quick nap--and then decided to do rock hauling instead. Seriously. I rather haul rock in wheelbarrows (did about fifteen big ones) than stand there, waiting to fetch something. It is necessary, however, and if they had needed anything, they would have asked, of course. But they managed, and I got my daily dose of exercise by doubling up and down the mountain.
Gonna need to do a lot more of that in the near future, so it’s a good thing I don’t mind. Hah.

Dani has been spending quite a bit of time here of late, meaning that we’ve got help doing this stuff. She volunteered hauling sand down so we can continue with the wall asap…another thing she wants to learn. She is starting to get better at picking the right rocks. Which reminds me; the first section of the wall is done. About five yards long and five feet high, I would say.
Sure, there is still a lot of wall to be built, but it is always awesome when something is done.

Afterwards I headed into the yard to water plants, which was regretfully necessary since there was not a drop of the expected rain, darn it. Everything is growing nicely, though. Tomatoes are forming rapidly, and last year pepper plants blithely started on round two. Hah.

So there were bricks to haul, more edits to do and chores to see to, but what the heck, that about sums up yesterday, meaning we have arrived to today, where I got a whopping eight hours of sleep because I was so friggin’ tired last night and went to bed early. Yay!!!

But anyway, I was properly rested this morning what with the extra hour or two, and got down to business right after the laundry. (I know, boring, but it’s still there, of course.) There was a quick breakfast, along with making cream cheese, and then it was out into the chilly day. For some reason the weather is acting weird again these days. There are clouds all over the place and the eastern wind is almost freezing cold.

While big brother and grandpa continued on with the gutter and the draining system, Dani and I got to work on digging holes for the small fence that’s going to be around the berry bushes. Got seven poles in, and what with the slats on them, it is really starting to look like something…even though it isn’t finished yet, seeing as I was two poles and four slats short. Guess we calculated something wrong. No matter though. Grandpa will make more of them in the near future.
It looks good, in case you’re wondering, and it’s another thing that I’ll have to post a picture of. Hah.

What else? Well, edits of course, and more edits, and reading the query letter again for some more polishing, and so on and on.

The dogs are adjusting well to the losses in my pack, thankfully. Though Labhana appears to still be somewhat down, there are moments when she wags her tail again, so she should be fine again in the near future.

My new bed is working out nicely. Part of the drawers are full already, and the height of the whole thing is great. No more crawling out of bed, but rolling out again instead. Perfect.

So that’s it for today. Got stuff to do still, and I really have to think of something to eat ‘cause I’m friggin’ starving. Aaargh.