Another quicky post, I fear.

It’s gonna have to be, ‘cause I’m running way behind. I should have written the blog this afternoon, but since we worked straight through, there just wasn’t any time. (I’m making this excuse a lot these past few weeks, don’t. Darn it, I hate repetition.

But, be that as it may, let’s do this so I can get to work on the book, hah.

Well, yesterday there wasn’t much done project wise. Considering I had to drive our tenant to the doctor’s…her blood sugar and pressure were perfect, so now she only needs to go there once every two months or so, yay…then, I had to go to the bank to talk with the manager, who is going to solve at least one of my present problems. Phew.

Then I had to hurry our tenant home, make a quick pit stop (if ya get my meaning) only to depart again to bring Nanook to the vet’s for her operation. As it turns out she had a small tumor between her toes, but we caught it in time. The operation went well, and the doc could save her toe, yay, but still, the operation meant that we had to go out again three hours later to pick up the still sleepy husky, who was more than a little grumpy once she started to come to.

But anyway, in the meantime, and afterwards, we made a tour of the property, talking about options of where to start the biological veggie garden. Lots of ideas going on, for when springtime arrives, lots of preparations to start on too. There’s the future greenhouse to think of, the new septic tank that still has to be built, watering system, and all the others things that will be necessary to make the garden work out properly.

There is also the drain that we still have to make at the top of the carport, so, lots of plans… and so little time.

The day in the bitterly cold wind ended with a wonderfully cozy evening behind the computer where we went through twenty pages of the ongoing book-proofread project. Marvelous, isn’t it?

Which brings us to today: This morning the wind was still howling; I do admit to a moment’s worry during the night where I wondered if the roof of my cabin was going to hold, hah. But it did, and during breakfast, there was the most disconcerting awareness of the absence of sound: All of a sudden, the wind stopped abruptly, almost as if a switch was turned. Downright freaky.

The sun was wonderfully warm then, and our tenant sat on my porch enjoying a book, while we worked around her, on the drain, and the desk cabinet that I still need to fix for middle sister. Got the new fronts of her drawers sawed, and the new top that we’re putting in, and after a quick lunch, she joined in to get more progress. It’ll take another day or two, but then it’ll look great again.

Big brother got most of the drain done, little sister finished painting the new kitchen cabinet doors and we hung one of the two together. With the second one, I made a slight miscalculation, so I’ll have to fix it before we manage to put it in.

The dogs loved today’s weather too, of course. They were more in the way than ever because, like us, they too were trying to find all the sunny spots to catch some nice warm zzzzs.

Well, I gotta go…again. Better luck next time.

Busy, busy, busy. :-)

Let’s do this really quick, ‘cause I’m “on the run”, hah.

Songs of the day: (I’m alternating between two) “One way or the other” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor and “Another one bites the dust” by Queen. I find them rather appropriate considering I’m attacking rusty bolts, hah.

Yesterday was basically filled with all sorts of activity and just good ol’fashioned fun, since we had visitors. Not much work got done because of it, so there really isn’t much to tell. The weather, however, was downright beautiful…especially compared to today. *sigh*

There was a the rather adventurous trip towards Marbella where we got lost because…well the person leading towards the address we had to go, kept getting lost. We did arrive at the location, though, and carried the donations of furniture down five long flights of stairs (without breaking a sweat, either up or down, by the way, yay) before we headed home again.

I finally got around to finishing the last two kitchen cabinets for the kitchen, phew. They should go in by tomorrow…because today we have to go to the vet with Nanook (malamute husky) who has a growth between her toes.

Today started with mechanics, we’re finally getting around tearing down the engine of the old wreck standing uselessly on the outskirts of our property. We’re going to have to take the whole thing apart if we want to lug it away at some point…and it is kind of fun, sorta anyway. I keep wrecking my knuckles on the darn thing.

Well that was it. Gotta go.

Miserable excuse, I know.

Song of the day: “The road to Mandalay” by Robbie Williams. Not my favorite, but apparently my brain doesn’t give a fig about that. Hah.

So, I’m running way behind, which is why I’m gonna have to keep this short.
Yesterday mostly involved pouring concrete. We were up at the crack of dawn…sorta, and headed up into a whopping ten degrees (50 farenheit) with a northwest wind that felt as if it was below freezing. I was packed up in four layers, had gloves on, a hat on and a scarf wrapped around the lower part of my face (I know, I’m a total whiner. You’d think I was on the north pole, huh.) But anyway, four wheelbarrows of sand, hauling three bags of cement up the mountain, I was starting to feel nicely toasty and started to remove layers one at a time.

It was rather wonderful, once I warmed up. The sun was shining and while I was mixing the cement for two hours outside the gate time flew past rather pleasantly. I actually ended up with only two layers, no hat and no gloves. Now, if that isn’t progress, I don’t know what is.

So we got the first half of the path done (about seven yards) done in the first part of the day, and the second part we did in the afternoon with the younger sibs’ help. Little sister mixed the cement; middle sister hauled the next batch of sand and cement, while I alternated between digging and jackhammering the rock surface in and around what will be the new path. It should be just wide enough to let the wheelchair down with as little effort as possible.

There were some more chores of course…the washing machine is being temperamental again, by the way…and the dogs didn’t like the cold at all. Imagine this, I’m sitting on the bed with Chaos and Sitabah curled up by my side, and before you know it, Knight II jumps up and literally tries to settle on top of them, or me. Chaos would of course be making a lot of racket, but Knight doesn’t give a fig about it. He must and shall be warm. In the end I just dragged him under my legs, which was beneficial for the both of us. Hah.

Today I got started a little slow. Rather than start on the morning chores immediately, I headed up to our tenant’s place and helped her through some new exercises. The walking is starting to improve, and when I arrived and checked out her hand, there was tension in her hand, rather than it being just an inanimate appendage. It is rather wonderful to see it happen.

Well, I’ve got a lot more to do today, and so I’m going to have to leave it with this miserable excuse of a blog for now. Hopefully I’ll have a wee bit more time later on.

An update.

Song of the day: “Lucky for you” by Espen Lindt. Great song, and not at all bad to have haunting through my head. Hah.

It’s a “wonderfully” rainy day right now (yep the quotation marks are sarcasm, hah). Oh boy, did it come down in buckets this morning, and that after a clear starlight sky that was more than a little chilly. Gawd, my butt felt like a clump of ice…still does, actually.

Let’s think what all happened in the past couple of days, it’s all a little blurry for some reason, which could be caused by the fact I overslept by a whopping twenty minutes. Grrr. I hate it when that happens, throws the day out of whack.

Yesterday: ah yes, we finished the extension of the carport, yay! It looks bloody great, adding a whopping 27 square feet of roof for an area that promises to see a lot of action during the winter.
Good thing too, considering today’s weather, it was a good thing too, ‘cause else we would have been a lot wetter.

Also, during the day (yesterday that is) we also used the jackhammer to cut the rock path deeper, which was another good thing today, since it allowed the rain to follow the gutter better. Soon, well, just as soon as weather turns again (the beautiful thing of Spain; the sun is bound to come back out again within days) we’re going to pour the concrete path down to the carport. It will make the trip down for our tenant a lot more pleasant.

At the moment she is enjoying participation, and is using her time to sort out screws (those silly little boxes keep falling down and mixing up, darn it) for us. It is a good task, seeing as her left hand still only works when she is seeking balance, and she enjoys being useful. The bonus for us is that we’ll save time on needing to rummage through a massive pile of screws every time we’re building something.

So yeah, yesterday involved carpentry, such as finishing the carport roof, and chopping, shovelling and hauling rock down the mountain. It was chilly, sure, but a pleasant day nonetheless. Added to that, we went on a scavenge hunt and got home with a big pile of bricks, several poles of metal, and thirty boards that will be absolutely wonderful for making another closet, or shelving in the near future.

This morning, during a break in the rain, we quickly unloaded the car and found out that there almost isn’t any room left in the old horse stable for storage. We’re going to have to expand that roof too, hah.

Book corrections are still going on, it is an ongoing process, and I am really not in the mood to spend a lot of time writing about it right now.

Oh my gawd, some moron in town threw away several bags of screws and the likes, so we’ve got new stocks there too. Long ones, narrow ones, short, thick everything. Yep, they’ll see us through several more constructions.

The dogs aren’t liking the cold much either, seriously, during the rain they had their tails between their legs, wet and muddy, trying to find dry spots to curl up into. The idiots. Of course it wouldn’t occur to them to just stay inside. No. They gotta be out there with us, roaming between our feet, getting in the way and then looking all hurt and bothered when you just barely catch yourself before falling flat on your face.

And this is about all for today. Gotta get back to work and freeze my cold butt again. Yay.