Last day

Song of the day: “Jesus knows me” by Genesis, I think. Seriously, cousin Ed mentioned it in the morning and it has been going through my head ever since. Thank you Cousin Ed! Grrrr. Then there was “Call me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen, which is a little embarrassing, but it was even going through my head when I woke during the night. Darn it.

This is so embarrassing, but apparently I forgot to write in my diary, so now I’m going to have dig deep in my brain to discover what all happened yesterday. Gawd, this is difficult as heck. Ya can’t expect my brain to remember stuff…oh wait. We did masonry yesterday, of course.

That small platform we started the day before, got finished, yay. It really is looking rather grand. Sorta like a tower of natural rock, about the size of the water tank it’s going to support. It took several hours, but I was only there for the beginning of it. First because I had to cut the veggies for the dog food, and then because tenant had finished cutting veggies for our supper, and I had to start on supper.

Tenant, on the other had spent most of the early afternoon in the sunshine, sitting in the old horse-paddock. I think she was a tad tired from the busy day she had before, going out to the village and walking up a long stairs and everything, so she dozed a lot. Hah. After several hours of that, she was ready for some action and offered to do supper’s veggies.

Food preparation only took about half an hour, at which time I decided to experiment with making tart. Yep. Again. This time lemon cheesecake…and boy, did that work out well. Made two, just so we could try it out prior to offering it to the visitors. I can honestly say that we devoured a whole tart with just the four of us. Hah.

Throughout the day the weather was acting rather wishy washy, which wasn’t something my dogs appreciated. They spent quite some time inside my cabin, poor darlings. Spent about an hour in the yard and greenhouse. Hunting bugs, harvesting some tomatoes and such. I think that was the highlight of my day. Hah.

We had quite a good edit, yesterday…or at least, it appeared to be a good one, since we managed at least ten pages of V.L.’s last edit…after which I headed for bed on time for a change and passed out before I even managed to write in my diary. *sigh*

Was only a little late this morning, making me rush a bit through the morning rituals. Laundry, cleaning, and digging up the spare coffee machine so I could take it up to tenant’s so we’d have a big pot of coffee when her daughter and family came over for the last time before they went back home. (Tomorrow)
We doubted for the longest time whether the visit was going to be outside, or inside (still that wishy washy weather, thank you very much) but finally ended up around the big wooden table in the old horse paddock. The weather cleared enough for it to be semi comfortable outside. Yay.

Had pie…mine and the one the visitors had brought along, hah. How’s that for like minds, eh? Took a piece of both, as the impending departure was discussed and last-minute arrangements were made. When I suggested I take the lot (tenant included) for a little drive into the country, it didn’t take too long to decide.

Hopped into the Land Rover, including tenant, and drove out into the “wild” towards that little river I’ve occasionally mentioned over the past couple of years. By the time we got there the sun was out in full swing, so to speak, so it definitely left a good impression on the relatives. Took the adventurous road back (had about two inches left on either side of the car while we drove home) and were back and hour after departure. It was well worth the trip, and by the time we got back it was time to say our goodbyes. Tenant was glad with how things had gone this past week, her daughter and family seemed content as well, so we said our goodbyes with smiles and exchanged see-you-soons.

Afterward big brother and I had to head on down to town for a pickup and to get some sewing supplies for mom. We got home way too late, meaning I didn’t have time to cook (we fried potatoes instead) and that, due to needing to blog, I didn’t have time to edit either. Blasted blog!

Well, I’ve gotta cut this off, because it’ is well past midnight, and I would like to be in bed before two in the morning. *sigh*
Things should be calming down a bit in the near future, now that the visit thing is over and done with, allowing for blogs that are a little more detailed.

R.I.P. Manni

Song of the day: “Dream a little dream” by the Beautiful South. Considering I only got about five hours of sleep last night, it was cruel of my head to get stuck on this one. Hah.

Let’s start with the bad news and get it over with. One of the pack died. Yep. It was that time again. Age caught up with little sister’s Cocker Spaniel, Manni, who’d been with us since ‘98. Gawd, I remember the day we got him. He was about four months old and his breeder couldn’t get a home for him because one of his kids had carried the pup wrong when it was younger. It had caused a problem with his neck, making him tilt it awkwardly most of the time. Manni, on the day we picked him up, was locked in a tiny little cage and was peering around the corner at the strange people trying to catch a glimpse of him. He was a sweet little dog, black and white in color, timid sure, but incredibly loveable. He’ll be sorely missed, but age was eating at him, his body failing, so yesterday morning mom and little sister went to the vet to have the poor thing put out of his misery. It just wasn’t working anymore.

Then this morning we almost had another start. Mesha (another Cocker Spaniel) was unable to get up, and since his health has been a troubling thing for more than a year now, we did ponder for a bit to take him to the vet, but after a bit he managed getting up again, and the red alert was brought back to orange in regard to the black cocker.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, first there’s yesterday of which most of the day was spent in the yard. Tenant came down to the yard with me and cousin Ed who yanked weeds (loads of those) from amidst the veggies, harvested a solid load for the dog food and heightened the fence of the sugar peas by another foot or two.

Big brother harvested a big load of chard, which he would actually prepare for dinner after he and grandpa were done working in the kitchen. Of course we didn’t have time for an actual meal, since we had to go out for a pick up (and to drop Sally off at work), but what the heck, we ate it afterward once we got home and got to the edit. Managed only 8 pages, much to my regret, but eight pages is eight pages and always better than none (which will be the case today, darn it) is my estimation.

And though I am sure that there was more stuff that happened yesterday, I’m just going to skip to today.
Got up a little early to be able to do a workout, and actually succeeded. Yay. Did a solid hour and a half workout, which set a nice tone for the day.

Workout done, and with caregiver off to her other job, I headed up to help tenant into the car. Her daughter and family was picking her up for a day out and about, clearing some time for us. First thing we did after the normal chores and such was go down to the greenhouse to check for miners and caterpillars. After a short tour through the yard to make sure everything was alright, we went back up to start on the small platform for one of the new water reservoirs.

While big brother and grandpa started to dig for the foundation, I started hauling rocks down. Did a total of maybe 1400 pounds. Rocks that were basically too heavy to carry and took up a whole wheelbarrow. Did at least ten of those little trips before tenant returned. By then caregiver was back too, though, so I basically just said hello and went back down to continue with the small wall. Finished about a three quarters of the construction, so if we’re a little lucky we can poor the concrete tomorrow afternoon.

By the time the afternoon came to an end, we had to do another pick up, along with a few groceries to see us through the next few days, so we didn’t get back until after nine in the evening, darn it. Gawd, what with only sleeping so few hours, I’m seriously running on fumes by this time, so another edit tonight is definitely not going to work. I’ve a suspicion that I’m going to be seriously sore tomorrow, already my muscles are complaining.

Am playing a bit with an experiment in my head for a lemon cheesecake tomorrow, or the day after. I’ll let you know how it works out.

And that’s it for today. I’m going to call it a day, if ya don’t mind.

Going all out

Song of the day: “Perhaps perhaps perhaps” by Doris Day. For some reason I felt very domestic today, and ended up humming that oldie quite a bit. Hah.

I better start with yesterday, seeing as my brain isn’t all that clear today. After my last blog, I got way distracted and ended up going to bed around two thirty, which did nothing for my night rest. *sigh* Woke at the normal time to rain, meaning that the day was going to be a slow one since there would be only a little, if nothing to do outside.

After the usual chores in the house it was time to make some serious pie. Tenant’s daughter would be having her 30th anniversary, so we figured we might as well make some pie to celebrate the happy occasion. Opted to go with the idea which had been spinning in my mind for some time. A cookie crumble bottom, with vanilla cream over it, topped by sliced peaches with mango juice. Worked out rather well. Very soft, with a light tartness to finish it off.

We fed the dogs, which was a messy ordeal and utterly appreciated by the dogs that were starving for some peculiar reason. I don’t see why they were going at it like wild wolves, but if I didn’t know better I’d have thought that they didn’t eat the day before, or something. Had enough, though, and afterwards they were quiet as lambs with satisfaction. Hah.

That done, the rain started again and I was forced to retire to the carport to work on restoring a small decorative classic car that should do well on the market if cousin Ed can find the right buyer for it. It is rather damaged (probably fell several times at some point in the past) so I used liquid glass fiber on the broken parts. I am going to have to fully replace parts of the hull, then make two to three types of paint that match the original, so it will be a challenge to say the least.

There was a trip into the yard, followed by cutting new dog food veggies. Lost about a quarter on the dogs since it is simply impossible to keep ALL of them out of the big bowl where we put the newly cut stuff into. *sigh* Thieves, the lot of them.

Managed a nine page edit for a change, so, YAY! Seriously, I was astounded when big brother told me the amount we did at the end. That was around eleven in the evening, at which time I took an hour or so to catch up on my correspondence. I’d been slacking, but I took care of that, for sure. Got a message back today from my pen buddy in Afghanistan, in fact, so that was nice. He’s doing well.

No time for a workout this morning, there were the normal chores to do, dogs to feed and then down into the yard. I opened up the greenhouse, and then went down to gather fresh veggies and herbs, and of course all the extras to feed the dogs today. With a basket full, (and a crate for the dogs) I went up to start cooking for the lunch we planned to cook for tenant’s relatives. Tenant was all excited about it, and helped out by cutting the veggies.

First off I made the bean/chickpea patties. I like how they’re light colored and crust in a wonderful golden brown. Not to mention that their taste is very soft.
We ended up preparing a wholly fresh salad (all ingredients from the yard, except the red bell pepper) a sauce on the side, fresh veggies baked in olive oil, spiced up by green herbs. Had fried rice with peanuts, coconut shavings and onion, and a dish of white and red cabbage with similar green herbs. Was nice to go all out for a chance, since usually we settle on a stir fry for expediency sake…and the guests were appreciative, so that is always a pleasure.

Ended the meal with a dessert of the pie I made yesterday, topped by whipped cream that was still liquid enough to seep off on all sides. Yummy.

Supper over we all headed into the yard for another tour, (dogs behaved splendidly again. None of them tried to bite...only Chaos made a racket) tenant along with us, of course. It was have been a splendid little walk too, if it hadn’t started raining again. *sigh* Ah well, the basin is as good as full, so there was a good side to that at least.
There was the cleanup afterward, along with tenant and her relatives chatting for some time, followed by goodbyes and see-you-soons before I headed down to my terrace where big brother and I prepared the dog food for tomorrow.

Now, the blog as good as done, dogs de-ticked once more, I really should see about editing another page of two before calling it a day. I sure hope that tomorrow the sun will be out, because it was friggin’ cold today and I want to work in the yard just to make up for the two to three hours that were spent in the kitchen today…if only my outside kitchen was done already. *sigh*