Song of the day: “Woman’s intuition” by Shakira. It’s been going through my head most of the day, part of the problem being that it’s been going in mix of Spanish and English, which is a problem when you know both versions, hah.
First off, the good news for a change: The last edit of “Saving Nina” is finally finished! Yay! *dancing a little jig* It took some time, and sure, we’re going to start on the V.L. edit right away, but still, I’m always psyched when we finish a project like that. Three months, minus the few weeks we took to edit “Chicago Hope” this summer. Glad that we stuck to the time schedule at least, giving us time to start on the new project and finish it before spring so I can start writing the new book. I can hardly wait!
Yesterday very little got done at home. Sure, we managed to do some stuff on the stove’s pipes, prepare some more metal since there was a change in plan. Rather than risk a piling up of dog hair and dust, we opted to do a bigger opening around the pipe, meaning I had to cut, fold and shape metal strips to protect the wood of the second floor.
Didn’t get it all done before we had to leave, though. Mom had to go to traffico again to make arrangements for her driver’s license, and big brother and I agreed to go with her so she wouldn’t have to part and walk a long distance. Turns out she had to go there to hand over her old one and take a small note that will be valid for three months while she waits for her new one in the mail.
After that we went to town so she could go to a fabric store, and I to a sports store where I go new boxing gloves and thin leather shoes without soles for my kick boxing. What with the cold getting worse, I won’t be able to workout on bare feet anymore, and since shoes don’t go well with my PF, I’m going to try them.
What followed were some groceries such as milk and veggies, and then it was back home after three in the afternoon. Did most of it on my high heeled boots (it’s been ages since I wore them, and it took some getting used to) and boy did I feel it at the end of the day. First thing I did once I got home was exchange them for my work boots, hah.
The day was pretty advanced by the time stuff was put away and we got to work. Seeing as there was only little time before we had to start computer work, we got to work on the small storage under the main wall where we keep oil and such for the car. The old one was really starting to fall apart, so this time we decided to go fort brick walls and an actual floor. To keep the rats out, we decided to use half an inch thick glass for the back to close the lot. Only got as far as the foundation, though. The sun was about to set, and I had to go down to check on the plants and close the greenhouse and the seedbed.
By then I had to start on supper, which was late, but since tenant already ate, I didn’t feel inclined to start earlier. Turned out well, if I do say so, using the new wok I found at this little Chinese store. Stir fries like a charm.
But anyway, last night we finished the S.N. edit, so I didn’t mind at all that we were a little late getting to bed. Was exhausted, though, and basically conked out ‘till my alarm went off this morning, bright and early. Hah.
As is par for the course these past few days, no workout this morning either, instead it was back to the grind of working on the stove. Not a lot we could do either. We forgot that we had to do a lot of drilling in the wall, so we could attach the pipes to the wall. So instead we worked on more metal in the carport, had breakfast and then headed back inside once everyone was out and about.
Got the pipes in okay, except for the one attached to the stove itself because the reduction pipe we ordered didn’t arrive at the construction company, we got it all in. Added to that, I varnished the woodwork around the glass bricks, which makes the whole look even fancier. Hah.
That done we headed down into the yard, and that was divine, despite that I once again found a whole batch of leaf miners in the tomato plants, darn it. The forecasts are predicting rain again, so I really soaked up what sunshine I could today. The wind was cooler today, but in the sun it was still nice enough to walk in a T shirt. Harvested a few tomatoes, a mini zucchini, a handful of purslane, and some peppers that were going to be today’s dinner.
After watering the new cabbage type seedlings, I headed up to start on supper. Made noodles with veggies and a satay sauce, which went down splendidly. The purslane was definitely experimental within the mix, but it actually made the pieces of pumpkin nicer. Besides, tenant enjoyed it too, and she’d never had noodles with satay yet. I think it went over well in that regard.
Dinner over and done with, and with me doing with less than six hours of sleep per night for the last week, or so, I took a nap of forty minutes and am therefore surviving this edit without my eyes falling shut. Hah. But anyway, it’s time to start on the edit. I made a serious start a few months ago, but I only did the first edit for about sixty pages. Can’t have big brother start on the edit without me reading through it at least once, now can I?
Time to start.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Stove update with pics
First of a few pretty pics.
View while planting trees. Too pretty to pass up on.
Here's Tallis on the first section of the new wall underneath the house. Doesn't it look great here. Those plants really took this summer.
Labhana rutting on the floor. I just couldn't resist, she was so sweet...and practically smiling to boot. Hah.
Knight II, impatient when I didn't come inside fast enough. That window in the main gate starts at chest height. He doesn't mind.
DOGPILE! It happens every now and then, and of course they were right in the way of where we were walking. Hah.
And Chaos, stroking himself on both the downed eucalyptus branch and the plastic. Insane dog. He enjoys that waaaaay too much.
But okay, let's get started.
Song of the day: “The wild rose” by Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave. Such depressing song, but pretty regardless.
Yesterday wasn’t an entirely good day for me. Most of it because I was feeling a little under the weather, and no matter what I did, that didn’t change. Ah well, it was a day, it’s not like there won’t be others.
Work involved inside stuff mostly, despite the sunny weather, and that didn’t help either. These days I’m not at all good at being inside for long anywhere. I wanna be out there in the fresh air, preferably in the full sunshine and with hands and feet in the dirt.
But anyway, we were putting up the glass brick wallsies, which got done with quite a bit of effort. It’s our first time with the friggin’ things, and figuring out how to get them stuck together and sturdy wasn’t as easy as it should have been, but it got done, and it looks good. Very eighties, for some reason, while the stove definitely looks antique. Those two styles, along with the rustic atmosphere of the house, should make for an interesting combination.
We didn’t finish yesterday’s masonry until well after three in the afternoon. At which point I was just about ready to go up the walls. Hah. It got a wee bit better when I headed down into the yard and hunted for pumpkins and caterpillars.
A new field of cabbages got planted, and there was some watering to do, but all in all that was about the extend of yesterday’s activities, prior to a fruitless nap (was too wired for some peculiar reason) that I gave up on after half an hour, there was a cooking session of instant mash potatoes and fresh chard plucked from the yard. Yay. Very delicious, thank you very much.
Yesterday’s edit went well despite my being tired, and we’re now less than a dozen pages away from the end, which is…like, totally awesome! In fact, we had to stop in the middle of the last action scene since we had to go fetch another donation in town. Not a lot of it, but well worth the effort in the end. Heck, I didn’t even fall asleep on our way home. Hah.
Which brings us to today…I will be so glad when this whole stove thing is over and done with. That way we can start the morning workouts again at least, because I miss them somewhat fierce. But it will be another two days at least, so I better not think about that right now. Grrr.
We hauled the wood stove in today, put it in place, started hanging the pipes and cut a good-sized hole in the ceiling to get the pipe up to the chimney. There was some more metal working for me to do, like making a covering for the inside of the hole, getting the stuff big brother needed to get it done, and all that. Making progress is grand, I’ve got to admit.
Here are some pics of the whole process.
First off, tenants stove after I painted it the other day. Cute, eh?
Day one of the stove thing...and so on on consecutive days.
All finished, except for one tile which I put in right after this picture. I know, I should have put it in first, but I got impatient.
Looking good, I'm thinking.
Today’s work inside (cleaning left over glue, scraping dust, dirt and rust) was interrupted by a quick trip down into the yard to check the greenhouses, the tomatoes for miners (lots of those again) and the cabbage species for caterpillars, less of those what with the temperatures lowering.
There was a lot of wind this past week, but since about three hours after the last blog the wind suddenly died and things have been blissfully quiet since then. Seriously, if you find a spot away from the shade, the sun is wonderfully warm.
Once we finished what we could of the stove today, there was some serious tree-trimming going on. Grandpa needed to have space on top of the old bus, so we took off a couple of big branches, and we needed space behind the upper wall, meaning that we had to take out a rather big branch of the eucalyptus that was growing over the wall.
We also had to unload the car, but that was done relatively fast, and lunch consisted of pumpkin soup, which was delicious, meaning that in the evening I could fix an easy supper of baked carrots with mash potato on the side. It filled me up pretty well, since it is still there, hah. While food was simmering I managed to fit in a quick session with Dani’s hair. I’ve been promising to cut her hair for more than a week now, so I figured we might as well get it over and done with. I think it looks nice.
Well, I better get to the edit. We might actually make it to the end of S.N. tonight, and I can hardly wait. Yay!
View while planting trees. Too pretty to pass up on.
Here's Tallis on the first section of the new wall underneath the house. Doesn't it look great here. Those plants really took this summer.
Labhana rutting on the floor. I just couldn't resist, she was so sweet...and practically smiling to boot. Hah.
Knight II, impatient when I didn't come inside fast enough. That window in the main gate starts at chest height. He doesn't mind.
DOGPILE! It happens every now and then, and of course they were right in the way of where we were walking. Hah.
And Chaos, stroking himself on both the downed eucalyptus branch and the plastic. Insane dog. He enjoys that waaaaay too much.
But okay, let's get started.
Song of the day: “The wild rose” by Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave. Such depressing song, but pretty regardless.
Yesterday wasn’t an entirely good day for me. Most of it because I was feeling a little under the weather, and no matter what I did, that didn’t change. Ah well, it was a day, it’s not like there won’t be others.
Work involved inside stuff mostly, despite the sunny weather, and that didn’t help either. These days I’m not at all good at being inside for long anywhere. I wanna be out there in the fresh air, preferably in the full sunshine and with hands and feet in the dirt.
But anyway, we were putting up the glass brick wallsies, which got done with quite a bit of effort. It’s our first time with the friggin’ things, and figuring out how to get them stuck together and sturdy wasn’t as easy as it should have been, but it got done, and it looks good. Very eighties, for some reason, while the stove definitely looks antique. Those two styles, along with the rustic atmosphere of the house, should make for an interesting combination.
We didn’t finish yesterday’s masonry until well after three in the afternoon. At which point I was just about ready to go up the walls. Hah. It got a wee bit better when I headed down into the yard and hunted for pumpkins and caterpillars.
A new field of cabbages got planted, and there was some watering to do, but all in all that was about the extend of yesterday’s activities, prior to a fruitless nap (was too wired for some peculiar reason) that I gave up on after half an hour, there was a cooking session of instant mash potatoes and fresh chard plucked from the yard. Yay. Very delicious, thank you very much.
Yesterday’s edit went well despite my being tired, and we’re now less than a dozen pages away from the end, which is…like, totally awesome! In fact, we had to stop in the middle of the last action scene since we had to go fetch another donation in town. Not a lot of it, but well worth the effort in the end. Heck, I didn’t even fall asleep on our way home. Hah.
Which brings us to today…I will be so glad when this whole stove thing is over and done with. That way we can start the morning workouts again at least, because I miss them somewhat fierce. But it will be another two days at least, so I better not think about that right now. Grrr.
We hauled the wood stove in today, put it in place, started hanging the pipes and cut a good-sized hole in the ceiling to get the pipe up to the chimney. There was some more metal working for me to do, like making a covering for the inside of the hole, getting the stuff big brother needed to get it done, and all that. Making progress is grand, I’ve got to admit.
Here are some pics of the whole process.
First off, tenants stove after I painted it the other day. Cute, eh?
Day one of the stove thing...and so on on consecutive days.
All finished, except for one tile which I put in right after this picture. I know, I should have put it in first, but I got impatient.
Looking good, I'm thinking.
Today’s work inside (cleaning left over glue, scraping dust, dirt and rust) was interrupted by a quick trip down into the yard to check the greenhouses, the tomatoes for miners (lots of those again) and the cabbage species for caterpillars, less of those what with the temperatures lowering.
There was a lot of wind this past week, but since about three hours after the last blog the wind suddenly died and things have been blissfully quiet since then. Seriously, if you find a spot away from the shade, the sun is wonderfully warm.
Once we finished what we could of the stove today, there was some serious tree-trimming going on. Grandpa needed to have space on top of the old bus, so we took off a couple of big branches, and we needed space behind the upper wall, meaning that we had to take out a rather big branch of the eucalyptus that was growing over the wall.
We also had to unload the car, but that was done relatively fast, and lunch consisted of pumpkin soup, which was delicious, meaning that in the evening I could fix an easy supper of baked carrots with mash potato on the side. It filled me up pretty well, since it is still there, hah. While food was simmering I managed to fit in a quick session with Dani’s hair. I’ve been promising to cut her hair for more than a week now, so I figured we might as well get it over and done with. I think it looks nice.
Well, I better get to the edit. We might actually make it to the end of S.N. tonight, and I can hardly wait. Yay!
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Dreams of reality?
Song of the day: “Sunlight” by…I have no idea, actually. Hmmm. It’s an annoying song anyway.
“So. Where are we going?”
The man, walking ahead of me, doesn’t pause, nor does he glance back. I double up, stumble a little as I try to shift the bulk of my backpack into a more comfortable position. It is a cold day, somewhere near dusk I think, and we’re walking through a forest cast in a variety of grays that range from white all the way to black. It is like I’m walking through one of those old B&W movies where you can only guess which color is what. But this isn’t the movies, this is real…or is it?
Ahead of me, the man points straight ahead, and seeing as I’m not paying attention to where I’m walking, I stumble over a big root sticking out of the floor. My boots, heavy with mud and even some specks of snow, are in good shape, and for a change I can’t feel my heel. I think part of the reason why is because of the cold. It is pressing against me from all sides, penetrating through several layers. A padded coat covering a ragged woollen sweater, two flannel shirts and a tight T at the bottom. My legs are encased by heavy Jeans and a thick sweatpants which just barely keeps me from freezing my bum off.
“What’s over there,” I wheeze at my companion, doing a clumsy skip, and then again as I try to keep up with his quick pace. From what I can see, his face partially concealed by a deep red scarf that is wrapped around his jaw up to his mouth, and a snow cap pulled down to his brow, he, for some reason, reminds me of a bearded Vin Diesel. Which is weird, since he doesn’t share any resemblances to the actor at all. He just reminds me of him. Must be some long forgotten movie, or something.
On his back, over a bulky backpack that is twice the size of my own (damn, the man doesn’t even have the decency to appear out of breath from the brutal pace he is setting) he carries a heavy duty riffle that gleamed from a recent polishing, I’m sure.
It might be my imagination, but it looks like he shrugs. I can hardly believe it, and hurry up to grab hold of his arm.
“Did you just shrug at me?” I demand, holding on for dear life while he continues on as if I am not even trying to stop him. “I want to know what’s over there in the direction we’re going?”
The way I figure, I have a right to know, what with me following his lead because he appears to know what he’s about. I’ve gotta be on time, after all…for what, I’m not entirely sure.
Strange.
He stops at last and turns to look at me. He’s got dark eyes, high cheekbones and more than just a five-o’clock shadow, and perspiration coats his wind-blown face. Thankfully he doesn’t appear to be as impervious about our stark surrounding as I first thought.
“I don’t know.” His voice is heavy, gravely, as if he hasn’t used it much.
“I beg your pardon?” I blink at him, for a moment not having a clue as to what he’s talking about. Then it hits me. “You mean you don’t know where we’re going?” I demand, outraged all of a sudden. How can he walk with such purpose and not know where we’re going, darn it. It just isn’t fair.
“Sure I do. We’re going that way.” He jabs a thumb in the direction we’d been heading. “But you don’t know what is there?!” I practically shout at him,
“Doesn’t make a difference,” he points out calmly, as if he is making all the sense in the world. “We’re going where we need to go, and it’s over there.”
“I swear, if you point your thumb in that direction one more time, I’m going to break it,” I threaten, getting a mite huffy when he only laughs at my threat.
In hindsight, I can understand why, seeing as he is at least a foot taller than I which is…well, weird, considering I’m six foot tall, but what the heck.
“Ron, we can’t just walk around aimlessly. It’s freezing out here and we…”
“Trust me,” he cuts in, and I can only stare at him as he shakes off my hand and continues his way through the muddy trail that we’ve been following for ages, or so it seems.
“This is not a matter of trust,” I call after him, scrambling to catch up, and almost landing flat on my face when another root appears to wrapped itself around my foot. Drat.
When I do finally catch up with him, I just barely manage to catch a branch he lets go after his passing, and grimace at the sudden increase of light now that we have reached the end of the forest.
“What are you trying to do, have me…” He stops and I literally slam into his backpack and the cold metal of his riffle. I swear under my breath and scramble back a step or two before going to the side so I can give him a piece of my mind. But before I can open my mouth to do so, the view beyond him takes my breath away.
There, in the distance, following a mountainous slope that leads straight into a long stretching valley a city lays. At first it is a city like any other, high-rises and suburbs surrounding it, but then I see it, the biggest difference of all. All through the mega city plumes of smoke rise high into the evening air, light glimmering, but it isn’t street lights. Fires rage within the streets, and the skyscrapers that should have glimmered with light on any normal day are dulled with age and lack of glass. Even from this distance I can see the damage to several stories, but it is not that which holds my attention. Instead my gaze is drawn to where something dark, something dangerous lurks. I know, and yet I cannot see it, but then, my hand automatically latching onto Ron for support, I…wake up with Knight II slapping his paws onto my chest with enough force to slam the air from my lungs. Jeez!
What did you think? That’s not my reality, of course. though admittedly at the moment it is chilly enough for me to feel as if I’m face a snowy day of sorts. Hah.
It was a dream, naturally, but it was so vivid that I just had to share.
Okay, enough dawdling, let’s get down to business and get this over with. I’ve got another edit to face (getting nearer to the end of this one, yay) so I better rush through this a little.
I woke up, sore all over. I’m thinking that Knight II thought it a good idea to press himself against me throughout the night, meaning that I spend the majority of the night trying not to fall off the bed. *sigh* I love Knight II to pieces, really, I do. But sometimes I also want to strangle him. Aaaargh.
No workout, again. There just isn’t time. What with winter rapidly settling in, we are putting more of a rush on the stove in the house, meaning that we went down there early once more to get to it. Change of plan though, seeing as I discovered a load of water in the hallway when I finished my morning shower and fully intended to start tiling.
Turns out the main pipe of the house’s sewage was plugged, filling the hallway with all sorts of nasty. This meant that the next two hours were spent unplugging the pipes with a garden hose. Big brother shoved it up there and a few minutes later the whole mess came sloshing out. Eeewww! Then came the cleaning bit, mopping up the mess and everything, trying to breathe through my mouth rather than anything else, and failing miserably since the smell stuck to my nostrils the rest of the day, darn it.
So by the time we finally had it all done, the only thing we could do for the stove was clean the tiling of the day before, check if it hadn’t sagged, take off the small moulds and then cover it all up again when the younger sibs got up and let their dogs out. Rather than risk some serious “discussions” between the pack, I totally don’t feel up to that early in the morning, we took out tools and postponed the efforts to today.
What followed throughout the day was painting the storage barrel, which was starting to get seriously rusty. That done, there was the metal works waiting for me. To fully install the stove, we need to make a hole in the second floor, through which the pipe needs to be led, and a protective coating for around the beam of wood under which it passes. This took some time, the cutting, bending and then polishing, but I’ve got it ready and waiting.
While big brother made dinner (red beets with mashed potatoes) I made a tomato soup for later in the evening when that little snack would go down really well.
Next I hauled wood down to the terrace where we burnt a nice barrel fire to chase away the cold of the evening while we worked on the edit. I love an open fire. Hah.
Which brings us to today, doesn’t it? Well, the morning started early once again, and the chill was pretty intense. Grandpa estimates that we’re only a few degrees away from the freezing point these days. (Bonkers! Especially for Southern Spain, for crying out loud.)
Did work on the stove spot today, though I started after big brother who is working with those glass bricks to create a protective corner for the pedestal. While he was doing that, I headed down into the yard to water the small seedbed and open her up for the sunny day (too windy to be warm, but sunny at least). Same goes for the greenhouse, which needs to dry whenever possible, lest we’ll have plants dying of molds. Lost another top of a tomato plant to leaf miners who think it funny to dig into the young top stems of the plants and kill them.
That done, I headed down to check on the cabbages and such. I watered the young ones, checked them for caterpillars, and then did the same with the big ones. Found only a few of the pests, but then went up to see if I could start tiling the last bit of the pedestal yet.
Yep. The pedestal is basically done for the stove now. All we need to do is build the glass brick corner around it (big brother only did one edge today. We need to add three more layers) and then we can start putting the thing in. It is going to be interesting to see if we’ll manage to get it in place without disaster occurring. The stupid thing does way a ton, and we will need to life it a solid foot + several inches. Ah well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
The day’s efforts successful with the last tiles added to the construction, it was time for breakfast and other tasks. Which consisted of some repairs for mom today. Big brother worked on her sewing machine, while I fixed the large construction we designed for her bag designs at the market. Apparently they lost four pegs during transport at some point, so I had to see if I could make new ones. Ended up fixing suitable replacements, so all’s well in that regard.
Next the barrel had to be painted again, followed by a session of working on the gate, which needs a new lick of paint as well. Rust was breaking out everywhere, and since we found the right paint once again (don’t understand why they stopped making it) and managed almost half before it was time to head out in the car and drop Sally off at her job.
That done it was time for more soup (I had one cup during the paint job) some crackers, and then making tea on the barrel stove before I started on the blog and the ever-lasting edit…for which the time has arrived now.
“So. Where are we going?”
The man, walking ahead of me, doesn’t pause, nor does he glance back. I double up, stumble a little as I try to shift the bulk of my backpack into a more comfortable position. It is a cold day, somewhere near dusk I think, and we’re walking through a forest cast in a variety of grays that range from white all the way to black. It is like I’m walking through one of those old B&W movies where you can only guess which color is what. But this isn’t the movies, this is real…or is it?
Ahead of me, the man points straight ahead, and seeing as I’m not paying attention to where I’m walking, I stumble over a big root sticking out of the floor. My boots, heavy with mud and even some specks of snow, are in good shape, and for a change I can’t feel my heel. I think part of the reason why is because of the cold. It is pressing against me from all sides, penetrating through several layers. A padded coat covering a ragged woollen sweater, two flannel shirts and a tight T at the bottom. My legs are encased by heavy Jeans and a thick sweatpants which just barely keeps me from freezing my bum off.
“What’s over there,” I wheeze at my companion, doing a clumsy skip, and then again as I try to keep up with his quick pace. From what I can see, his face partially concealed by a deep red scarf that is wrapped around his jaw up to his mouth, and a snow cap pulled down to his brow, he, for some reason, reminds me of a bearded Vin Diesel. Which is weird, since he doesn’t share any resemblances to the actor at all. He just reminds me of him. Must be some long forgotten movie, or something.
On his back, over a bulky backpack that is twice the size of my own (damn, the man doesn’t even have the decency to appear out of breath from the brutal pace he is setting) he carries a heavy duty riffle that gleamed from a recent polishing, I’m sure.
It might be my imagination, but it looks like he shrugs. I can hardly believe it, and hurry up to grab hold of his arm.
“Did you just shrug at me?” I demand, holding on for dear life while he continues on as if I am not even trying to stop him. “I want to know what’s over there in the direction we’re going?”
The way I figure, I have a right to know, what with me following his lead because he appears to know what he’s about. I’ve gotta be on time, after all…for what, I’m not entirely sure.
Strange.
He stops at last and turns to look at me. He’s got dark eyes, high cheekbones and more than just a five-o’clock shadow, and perspiration coats his wind-blown face. Thankfully he doesn’t appear to be as impervious about our stark surrounding as I first thought.
“I don’t know.” His voice is heavy, gravely, as if he hasn’t used it much.
“I beg your pardon?” I blink at him, for a moment not having a clue as to what he’s talking about. Then it hits me. “You mean you don’t know where we’re going?” I demand, outraged all of a sudden. How can he walk with such purpose and not know where we’re going, darn it. It just isn’t fair.
“Sure I do. We’re going that way.” He jabs a thumb in the direction we’d been heading. “But you don’t know what is there?!” I practically shout at him,
“Doesn’t make a difference,” he points out calmly, as if he is making all the sense in the world. “We’re going where we need to go, and it’s over there.”
“I swear, if you point your thumb in that direction one more time, I’m going to break it,” I threaten, getting a mite huffy when he only laughs at my threat.
In hindsight, I can understand why, seeing as he is at least a foot taller than I which is…well, weird, considering I’m six foot tall, but what the heck.
“Ron, we can’t just walk around aimlessly. It’s freezing out here and we…”
“Trust me,” he cuts in, and I can only stare at him as he shakes off my hand and continues his way through the muddy trail that we’ve been following for ages, or so it seems.
“This is not a matter of trust,” I call after him, scrambling to catch up, and almost landing flat on my face when another root appears to wrapped itself around my foot. Drat.
When I do finally catch up with him, I just barely manage to catch a branch he lets go after his passing, and grimace at the sudden increase of light now that we have reached the end of the forest.
“What are you trying to do, have me…” He stops and I literally slam into his backpack and the cold metal of his riffle. I swear under my breath and scramble back a step or two before going to the side so I can give him a piece of my mind. But before I can open my mouth to do so, the view beyond him takes my breath away.
There, in the distance, following a mountainous slope that leads straight into a long stretching valley a city lays. At first it is a city like any other, high-rises and suburbs surrounding it, but then I see it, the biggest difference of all. All through the mega city plumes of smoke rise high into the evening air, light glimmering, but it isn’t street lights. Fires rage within the streets, and the skyscrapers that should have glimmered with light on any normal day are dulled with age and lack of glass. Even from this distance I can see the damage to several stories, but it is not that which holds my attention. Instead my gaze is drawn to where something dark, something dangerous lurks. I know, and yet I cannot see it, but then, my hand automatically latching onto Ron for support, I…wake up with Knight II slapping his paws onto my chest with enough force to slam the air from my lungs. Jeez!
What did you think? That’s not my reality, of course. though admittedly at the moment it is chilly enough for me to feel as if I’m face a snowy day of sorts. Hah.
It was a dream, naturally, but it was so vivid that I just had to share.
Okay, enough dawdling, let’s get down to business and get this over with. I’ve got another edit to face (getting nearer to the end of this one, yay) so I better rush through this a little.
I woke up, sore all over. I’m thinking that Knight II thought it a good idea to press himself against me throughout the night, meaning that I spend the majority of the night trying not to fall off the bed. *sigh* I love Knight II to pieces, really, I do. But sometimes I also want to strangle him. Aaaargh.
No workout, again. There just isn’t time. What with winter rapidly settling in, we are putting more of a rush on the stove in the house, meaning that we went down there early once more to get to it. Change of plan though, seeing as I discovered a load of water in the hallway when I finished my morning shower and fully intended to start tiling.
Turns out the main pipe of the house’s sewage was plugged, filling the hallway with all sorts of nasty. This meant that the next two hours were spent unplugging the pipes with a garden hose. Big brother shoved it up there and a few minutes later the whole mess came sloshing out. Eeewww! Then came the cleaning bit, mopping up the mess and everything, trying to breathe through my mouth rather than anything else, and failing miserably since the smell stuck to my nostrils the rest of the day, darn it.
So by the time we finally had it all done, the only thing we could do for the stove was clean the tiling of the day before, check if it hadn’t sagged, take off the small moulds and then cover it all up again when the younger sibs got up and let their dogs out. Rather than risk some serious “discussions” between the pack, I totally don’t feel up to that early in the morning, we took out tools and postponed the efforts to today.
What followed throughout the day was painting the storage barrel, which was starting to get seriously rusty. That done, there was the metal works waiting for me. To fully install the stove, we need to make a hole in the second floor, through which the pipe needs to be led, and a protective coating for around the beam of wood under which it passes. This took some time, the cutting, bending and then polishing, but I’ve got it ready and waiting.
While big brother made dinner (red beets with mashed potatoes) I made a tomato soup for later in the evening when that little snack would go down really well.
Next I hauled wood down to the terrace where we burnt a nice barrel fire to chase away the cold of the evening while we worked on the edit. I love an open fire. Hah.
Which brings us to today, doesn’t it? Well, the morning started early once again, and the chill was pretty intense. Grandpa estimates that we’re only a few degrees away from the freezing point these days. (Bonkers! Especially for Southern Spain, for crying out loud.)
Did work on the stove spot today, though I started after big brother who is working with those glass bricks to create a protective corner for the pedestal. While he was doing that, I headed down into the yard to water the small seedbed and open her up for the sunny day (too windy to be warm, but sunny at least). Same goes for the greenhouse, which needs to dry whenever possible, lest we’ll have plants dying of molds. Lost another top of a tomato plant to leaf miners who think it funny to dig into the young top stems of the plants and kill them.
That done, I headed down to check on the cabbages and such. I watered the young ones, checked them for caterpillars, and then did the same with the big ones. Found only a few of the pests, but then went up to see if I could start tiling the last bit of the pedestal yet.
Yep. The pedestal is basically done for the stove now. All we need to do is build the glass brick corner around it (big brother only did one edge today. We need to add three more layers) and then we can start putting the thing in. It is going to be interesting to see if we’ll manage to get it in place without disaster occurring. The stupid thing does way a ton, and we will need to life it a solid foot + several inches. Ah well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
The day’s efforts successful with the last tiles added to the construction, it was time for breakfast and other tasks. Which consisted of some repairs for mom today. Big brother worked on her sewing machine, while I fixed the large construction we designed for her bag designs at the market. Apparently they lost four pegs during transport at some point, so I had to see if I could make new ones. Ended up fixing suitable replacements, so all’s well in that regard.
Next the barrel had to be painted again, followed by a session of working on the gate, which needs a new lick of paint as well. Rust was breaking out everywhere, and since we found the right paint once again (don’t understand why they stopped making it) and managed almost half before it was time to head out in the car and drop Sally off at her job.
That done it was time for more soup (I had one cup during the paint job) some crackers, and then making tea on the barrel stove before I started on the blog and the ever-lasting edit…for which the time has arrived now.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
4 days, right?
Song of the day: “The Flood” by Katie Melua. Jeez, this one is sticking a lot, isn’t it. I do hope that it isn’t prophetic. I hate rain, darn it. Hah
But okay, I’ve got four days to bring you up to date about, and I completely forgot to do something special for my 700th post the last time. And here I’d been thinking about something fun. Like a competition, or something. Ah well, too late now, isn’t it?
Four days…no way am I going to be able to do that without help, so I’m going to get my diary and check it out. Seriously, my brain is already blanking out. *sigh*…
Right. The third…well, I had a solid 7 and a half hours of sleep is like…well totally awesome! (Could do with more of that goodness, but seriously, I can sleep more when I’m dead, can’t I? Hah) It didn’t help that I had some whacky dream about working at some company. I was a newbie around there, and my boss, or one of my bosses, called me into his office and had me close the door behind me. Then he proceeded to tell me about this new client that was coming in from Germany, and that he had read my application form where it stated that I speak German. Next he touted some cockamamie story about needing the money of this client really bad and that he had told this elderly lady that he had a friend who would join them, just so the dinner appointment wouldn’t be a “business” dinner…which it was, of course. Now the thing was, since my form also said I worked with handicapped elderly, he wanted me to come along and pretend I was his “close” friend. And then, while having dinner, smooch this potential new client.
It basically came down to my job being on the line if I said no, so I said yes. Now as dreams tend to be, this one started to get odd around the time the boss and I went to a supermarket and met his invalid client. Rather than driving a wheelchair, she was sitting in a shopping cart, and thought it grand fun being carted through the store. Like I said: Weird.
No workout on Thursday. Too much rain, and since we don’t much fancy getting soaked during the workout, we decided to skip it all together. Instead we worked on small stuff in the carport. Stuff like preparing the braces for the woodstove in the house and a couple for tenant’s stove as well. By then that one was almost completely done, and all that was left was putting it in place.
Once the weather dried out, we headed into the yard and spent some time checking plants in the greenhouse, and draining the garden pit. Though the plan is to get a big drain tube in there, we haven’t gotten around to it. Instead we’re using the garden hose and siphoning the lot out.
No cooking for me that day, considering big brother made mac&cheese with mushrooms, which is one of his specialties, and then headed for town to get some supplies from the hardware store…and ended up drooling at the power tool section for about half an hour. Seriously. In one word: Beautiful!
Right. The next day was no fun. Kenneth, who’d started to feel poorly on the 3rd was doing worse on the fourth. She had been living on borrowed time for more than a year now, really. She’d turned blind in less than six months, was starting to lose her hearing, and had a big bulb of cancer in her lower belly. We considered having her operated, but what with the deafness, blindness and a fragile mental state, decided against it and went for letting her live her life out without the trauma of waking up in a place she didn’t know by feel and scent. If she’d been younger (we got Kenneth in 2001/2002) we might have considered it by insisting to stay with her, but we feared that the mental trauma would rob her of what little confidence she still had.
Kenneth always was a weird dog. Even as a puppy she had the most ferocious growl, and whenever you petted her, (and she enjoyed that more than anything) she would growl somewhat fierce. As a young dog she would actually snap at you, but as the years passed it turned into a mellow growling that would have done a lazy lion justice. Hah. We’ll miss her. In fact, I already do. We are rapidly losing out Cocker Spaniels, darn breeders who go for looks rather than health!
So anyway, Kenneth she lived vicariously for the past year, and now when her eye began to look bad from cataracts, we took her to the vet and had her put down, which was really the best thing to do. With both big brother and me there for her to smell and feel, she went quietly, without a peep, or even a complaint and just fell asleep…permanently.
Phew. That’s depressing. Better move it along.
No workout again, this time due to the Kenneth incident, so we headed into the house to do some more measurements for the wood stove, and laundry, of course. I know. Annoying eh, all those mentions of laundry. So unglamorous. *snort*
But anyway, I trimmed a full centimeter off my hair, yes, three whole hairs gone off the length, hah. Seriously though, my hair isn’t all that bad anymore. It’s actually growing back…finally! Since it was starting to look a bit like straw, I decided to trim some of the tips off.
We went into the yard, and then up the mountain to the top of the property to replace some of the trees that died during the fire and others. Decided to also plant three fig trees at the absolute top of the land, because I don’t like it that the wild palm that was all lush and beautiful up there got burned up. It might still come back, but a nice hedge of fig trees will look nice and…well, green. I like green. Hah.
The weather really cooperated while I was up there, Dani helping me by hauling the pots up and putting them in the holes. The sun was out, and while digging I could actually strip down to a T-shirt, rather than the three layers of sweaters that the wind and rain had demanded earlier in the day.
We were just about done when the weather changed for the worse again, and clouds packed angrily together once more. We’ve been having a lot of 45 degrees at the moment, which is not normal this time of year, I assure you.
Which brings us to yesterday which started at eight in the morning so we could work on the pedestal of the woodstove in the house. Rather than do it when everyone is up and about (not to mention an extra thirty dogs, or so, big brother and I worked on it early. We had planned to finish this first step before eleven, but ended up working through to noon before we had everything cleaned and covered against the dogs.
Tenant, who had been chilled considerably because she insisted on staying inside due to the morning wind, finally agreed on a walk down to my terrace and ended up staying there for the rest of the afternoon because she discovered (once again, because she always forgets this) that the sun warmed her up in five minutes flat. Seriously, no stove can compete! At the moment she is making her way through my novel, “Trust Me” Said the Spy. Sure, she has a dictionary with it, but other than that she appears to like it.
In the afternoon we finished tenant’s stove as well, and lid it up for the first time since putting it away this spring. It took a while for the smoke to stop. Something to do with the new paint, of course, and we used a fan to get it out of her bungalow, but then it worked fine. She’s been toasty in the mornings ever since.
That done we worked on sawing slats of wood for the second floor chimney pipe cover. Rather than hiding it completely, we decided to go for tasteful wooden grill work that will allow heat to disperse as long as possible.
And finally we get to today. I know, I should wrap this up, but I’m already skimming the really boring parts, darn it.
Had an early night, so we were up bright and early this morning to work on the pedestal for the stove again. I tiled most of the thing, while big brother and grandpa worked on the protective wall of glass bricks that will be around it. Can’t have the dogs hurting themselves against the hot steel after all.
That done, we worked on inventory, most of the afternoon. Checking supplies, restacking piles, sorting through stuff, and so on and on, while tenant once again sat on my porch (out of the wind) and in-between reading cut veggies for today’s lunch.
Hauled dog food to storage, which is interesting, really. I might not have had a workout this morning, but walking UP the mountain with two forty pound bags on your shoulders is nothing to sneeze at. I tried to keep up a slight jog, but all I managed was a fast walk that had me wheezing at the top of the incline. Jeez! I definitely need more workouts. Hah. Today I finally understood why I used to be wheezing whenever I had to make my way up the mountain. I used to carry that weight around all the time, for crying out loud.
That done, and with mom and the sibs back from a successful day at the market, it was time to start on some dinner. Had potatoes with cauliflower, onion and cream today, and it was abso-friggin’-lutely delicious after all that walking.
We checked the upper veggie patch for caterpillars, got wood stacked for tonight’s use and then started preparing to start on the day’s computer work. Though yesterday’s session didn’t went bad, we would like to get this friggin’ edit done so we can start on a new one…”V.L.” has been lying around for months now, and we really should get to it. Can’t waste too much time on “S.N.” after all.
The dogs are loving the “stove we have on the terrace in front of my cabin now. It’s one of those outside things, and they look so cute, all of them huddling around it and our feet. It’s still doable, being outside like that, despite the 44 degrees. I actually like it so far…though admittedly you won’t be able to keep me out her with a stick if I decide that it’s starting to get too cold. Hah.
But anyway, that about sums the past four days up right well. ‘Bout time too, considering I’ve been yapping our way into page four right about now. Hah.
Gotta get to work.
But okay, I’ve got four days to bring you up to date about, and I completely forgot to do something special for my 700th post the last time. And here I’d been thinking about something fun. Like a competition, or something. Ah well, too late now, isn’t it?
Four days…no way am I going to be able to do that without help, so I’m going to get my diary and check it out. Seriously, my brain is already blanking out. *sigh*…
Right. The third…well, I had a solid 7 and a half hours of sleep is like…well totally awesome! (Could do with more of that goodness, but seriously, I can sleep more when I’m dead, can’t I? Hah) It didn’t help that I had some whacky dream about working at some company. I was a newbie around there, and my boss, or one of my bosses, called me into his office and had me close the door behind me. Then he proceeded to tell me about this new client that was coming in from Germany, and that he had read my application form where it stated that I speak German. Next he touted some cockamamie story about needing the money of this client really bad and that he had told this elderly lady that he had a friend who would join them, just so the dinner appointment wouldn’t be a “business” dinner…which it was, of course. Now the thing was, since my form also said I worked with handicapped elderly, he wanted me to come along and pretend I was his “close” friend. And then, while having dinner, smooch this potential new client.
It basically came down to my job being on the line if I said no, so I said yes. Now as dreams tend to be, this one started to get odd around the time the boss and I went to a supermarket and met his invalid client. Rather than driving a wheelchair, she was sitting in a shopping cart, and thought it grand fun being carted through the store. Like I said: Weird.
No workout on Thursday. Too much rain, and since we don’t much fancy getting soaked during the workout, we decided to skip it all together. Instead we worked on small stuff in the carport. Stuff like preparing the braces for the woodstove in the house and a couple for tenant’s stove as well. By then that one was almost completely done, and all that was left was putting it in place.
Once the weather dried out, we headed into the yard and spent some time checking plants in the greenhouse, and draining the garden pit. Though the plan is to get a big drain tube in there, we haven’t gotten around to it. Instead we’re using the garden hose and siphoning the lot out.
No cooking for me that day, considering big brother made mac&cheese with mushrooms, which is one of his specialties, and then headed for town to get some supplies from the hardware store…and ended up drooling at the power tool section for about half an hour. Seriously. In one word: Beautiful!
Right. The next day was no fun. Kenneth, who’d started to feel poorly on the 3rd was doing worse on the fourth. She had been living on borrowed time for more than a year now, really. She’d turned blind in less than six months, was starting to lose her hearing, and had a big bulb of cancer in her lower belly. We considered having her operated, but what with the deafness, blindness and a fragile mental state, decided against it and went for letting her live her life out without the trauma of waking up in a place she didn’t know by feel and scent. If she’d been younger (we got Kenneth in 2001/2002) we might have considered it by insisting to stay with her, but we feared that the mental trauma would rob her of what little confidence she still had.
Kenneth always was a weird dog. Even as a puppy she had the most ferocious growl, and whenever you petted her, (and she enjoyed that more than anything) she would growl somewhat fierce. As a young dog she would actually snap at you, but as the years passed it turned into a mellow growling that would have done a lazy lion justice. Hah. We’ll miss her. In fact, I already do. We are rapidly losing out Cocker Spaniels, darn breeders who go for looks rather than health!
So anyway, Kenneth she lived vicariously for the past year, and now when her eye began to look bad from cataracts, we took her to the vet and had her put down, which was really the best thing to do. With both big brother and me there for her to smell and feel, she went quietly, without a peep, or even a complaint and just fell asleep…permanently.
Phew. That’s depressing. Better move it along.
No workout again, this time due to the Kenneth incident, so we headed into the house to do some more measurements for the wood stove, and laundry, of course. I know. Annoying eh, all those mentions of laundry. So unglamorous. *snort*
But anyway, I trimmed a full centimeter off my hair, yes, three whole hairs gone off the length, hah. Seriously though, my hair isn’t all that bad anymore. It’s actually growing back…finally! Since it was starting to look a bit like straw, I decided to trim some of the tips off.
We went into the yard, and then up the mountain to the top of the property to replace some of the trees that died during the fire and others. Decided to also plant three fig trees at the absolute top of the land, because I don’t like it that the wild palm that was all lush and beautiful up there got burned up. It might still come back, but a nice hedge of fig trees will look nice and…well, green. I like green. Hah.
The weather really cooperated while I was up there, Dani helping me by hauling the pots up and putting them in the holes. The sun was out, and while digging I could actually strip down to a T-shirt, rather than the three layers of sweaters that the wind and rain had demanded earlier in the day.
We were just about done when the weather changed for the worse again, and clouds packed angrily together once more. We’ve been having a lot of 45 degrees at the moment, which is not normal this time of year, I assure you.
Which brings us to yesterday which started at eight in the morning so we could work on the pedestal of the woodstove in the house. Rather than do it when everyone is up and about (not to mention an extra thirty dogs, or so, big brother and I worked on it early. We had planned to finish this first step before eleven, but ended up working through to noon before we had everything cleaned and covered against the dogs.
Tenant, who had been chilled considerably because she insisted on staying inside due to the morning wind, finally agreed on a walk down to my terrace and ended up staying there for the rest of the afternoon because she discovered (once again, because she always forgets this) that the sun warmed her up in five minutes flat. Seriously, no stove can compete! At the moment she is making her way through my novel, “Trust Me” Said the Spy. Sure, she has a dictionary with it, but other than that she appears to like it.
In the afternoon we finished tenant’s stove as well, and lid it up for the first time since putting it away this spring. It took a while for the smoke to stop. Something to do with the new paint, of course, and we used a fan to get it out of her bungalow, but then it worked fine. She’s been toasty in the mornings ever since.
That done we worked on sawing slats of wood for the second floor chimney pipe cover. Rather than hiding it completely, we decided to go for tasteful wooden grill work that will allow heat to disperse as long as possible.
And finally we get to today. I know, I should wrap this up, but I’m already skimming the really boring parts, darn it.
Had an early night, so we were up bright and early this morning to work on the pedestal for the stove again. I tiled most of the thing, while big brother and grandpa worked on the protective wall of glass bricks that will be around it. Can’t have the dogs hurting themselves against the hot steel after all.
That done, we worked on inventory, most of the afternoon. Checking supplies, restacking piles, sorting through stuff, and so on and on, while tenant once again sat on my porch (out of the wind) and in-between reading cut veggies for today’s lunch.
Hauled dog food to storage, which is interesting, really. I might not have had a workout this morning, but walking UP the mountain with two forty pound bags on your shoulders is nothing to sneeze at. I tried to keep up a slight jog, but all I managed was a fast walk that had me wheezing at the top of the incline. Jeez! I definitely need more workouts. Hah. Today I finally understood why I used to be wheezing whenever I had to make my way up the mountain. I used to carry that weight around all the time, for crying out loud.
That done, and with mom and the sibs back from a successful day at the market, it was time to start on some dinner. Had potatoes with cauliflower, onion and cream today, and it was abso-friggin’-lutely delicious after all that walking.
We checked the upper veggie patch for caterpillars, got wood stacked for tonight’s use and then started preparing to start on the day’s computer work. Though yesterday’s session didn’t went bad, we would like to get this friggin’ edit done so we can start on a new one…”V.L.” has been lying around for months now, and we really should get to it. Can’t waste too much time on “S.N.” after all.
The dogs are loving the “stove we have on the terrace in front of my cabin now. It’s one of those outside things, and they look so cute, all of them huddling around it and our feet. It’s still doable, being outside like that, despite the 44 degrees. I actually like it so far…though admittedly you won’t be able to keep me out her with a stick if I decide that it’s starting to get too cold. Hah.
But anyway, that about sums the past four days up right well. ‘Bout time too, considering I’ve been yapping our way into page four right about now. Hah.
Gotta get to work.
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