Happy NEW YEAR!!!

Song of the day: “Big spender” by Shirley Bassey.

I had thought to do a rhyme of sorts, but it felt kind of pretentious and unlike me to do it in anything except a mocking fashion, so I decided to just go for normal. It’s not as if the 31st of December is any different from any other day of the year, it’s just a date.

I don’t do celebrations, or resolutions (seriously, the fact that I stopped smoking two years ago around this time had nothing to do with New Years, I just gave it a shot and stuck with it), which I think are really not all they’re cracked up to be. If ya wanna do something, you can decide to go for it any given day. 31st of December is not going to change that. Ah well, it is tradition, and all that, and for that reason I don’t suppose I can complain about it too much. Traditions are important, seeing as they got us where we are today, eh?

So yeah, no celebrations, just a nice evening by the stove and working on the book, of course. Just like any other night. Personally, I am looking forward to it, considering yesterday was a busy one.

Yep, grocery shopping day is over and done with for a full month again, thank you very much. I would write about it, share with you all the details, but this is a special night for some of your, so I’m not going to bore you to death. Hah. Let’s skip yesterday as if it never existed, eh?

So let’s do today. Woke up a little on the late side, what with me having decided to sleep in a little, yay. No workout either, so it was rather awesome to wake to the sound of music, staring sleepily at the sun rising over the slope, shining right into my face.

It was a tad of a restless night. Chaos woke me a couple of hours before dawn by flopping down right on top of me, demanding to go off. The dog has some serious issues, and is smart to boot, because that is the one way he knows he’ll get lifted off the bed posthaste. Hah. Knight II, on the other hand, decided multiple times that he had to lie against me, and Amri wasn’t feeling well, and vomited twice. Poor darling. He totally overate yesterday.

Regretfully there were no edits last night. Our brains were just too mushy from a day in the city, so instead, after going through the messages, chatting online a bit, and catching up on the news, we decided to watch one of little brother’s movies: Fright Night.

I gotta say I was a little disappointed. The premises was nice (Gawd, it’s about vampires, what can possibly be wrong with that?) but the execution left me wanting more. Personally I like the more serious vampire flicks. “Interview with a vampire”, “Queen of the damned” (even though I wish Tom Cruise had played Lestat again. Not that Stuart Townsend did a bad job, he did fine, but in my head Lestat is still a blond Cruise. Hah), “Underworld” and “Bram Stokers Dracula”. “Fright Night” didn’t even hit my top five, even though it was funny at times, and not even badly played. Heck, there were even a few scary moments, which was definitely a plus.

But back to today. After the usual stuff like morning chores and breakfast, I made dough for today’s mid-day treat of…well, I suppose most people would call them a kind of donut. Tenant was feeling a little homesick, so I decided to make the traditional treat of her youth that is usually served ‘round this time of year. She liked it, had three in fact, before dozing off again.

The dough made and brought to the greenhouse to rise, it was time to head on out into the yard and fully enjoy the sunny day doing something markedly necessary: planting young seedlings.

Yep. It was that time again. Grandpa spent the last week turning earth down there. He keeps insisting, clearly determined to have it done right (in his eyes) and liking the task that reminds him of working the farm way back when. Liking the turning earth part myself (nothing like using a shovel to get your mind to shut up) I can relate.

But anyway, he’d turned earth, so for the majority of the afternoon big brother watered the older plants and I planted up to sixty plants of cauliflower, broccoli, white cabbage and kale. They look nice too, since they’re on these narrow little terraces in the lowest part of the yard.

Harvested a full meal of broccoli while we were down there, along with about ten pounds of potatoes and a few tomatoes too. There were lotsa bugs again, but that’s all part of the deal. We grow stuff, bugs necessary to pollinate try to eat stuff, I kill bugs, and the plants grow a bit longer. It’s the circle of life…sorta.

Tenant spent the afternoon with us, trying to read but dozing in the sun most of the time instead. She did enjoy coming down to the big terrace, rather than the one by the basin, because she hadn’t seen that part of the yard in at least a year. She walked all the way down, and several hours later, up again…boy will she sleep well tonight. Hah.

But we had the extremely fresh “donuts” for a late lunch, and I was stuffed. Big brother did a nap (so should I have, but what the heck) at which time I finished the baking and then helped grandpa loading up the car with garbage because we were going to take Knight II out for a nice long walk, lest the idiot drive me bonkers again. Hah.

And that, my friends, is all she wrote for today. I know, not a lot of interesting stuff, but life is just that, LIFE! We all have it, and I for one try to enjoy it while it lasts.
Gotta go. I have less then three hours to go before midnight, and I would like to have a teeny little nap before I start editing again. Hah.

And as a final bit: I wish you a wonderful, splendid, fruitful, adventurous, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

See you in 2012

Catching up

Song of the day: “Big Spender” by Shirley Bassey and “Leaving on a jet plane” by John Denver. The first has been going through my head most of the afternoon, and the other started about an hour ago.

Sooooo…four days to catch up on, eh? Let me see if I can keep it a little short, rather than blabber on endlessly. Wouldn’t that be grand? Me, keeping it short? Yeah, I know, we just might have to contact the dailies afterwards. *sigh* Let’s not hold our breaths, okay?

No worries, there were four days of laundry, as usual. See, that was fast, eh? Four separate events dealt with in a single sentence. We might actually get through this within a decent time after all.

First of all, Monday (day after Christmas) big brother and I took tenant to the market with us. A nice outing for her, a surprise for mom and the younger sibs, and an opportunity for us to roam and look for power tools, generators, shoes and jeans. We found several, but nothing that suited our needs at that time. After helping mom and the sibs pack up, we took the scenic home, making the experience as adventurous as possible for tenant.

I gotta say that going into the yard afterwards, and the greenhouse, because we had transplant some of the new seedlings into pots, was wonderfully relaxing…despite the fact that there were bugs all over again. Hah. Definite plus was the big harvest of Broccoli which I used for our pasta with veggie dinner.

Since we had to go get rocks that night anyway, we took Thorgal to the vet, but apparently the clinic was closed for the holidays, so we took him along on the trip and let him run with Knight later on.

There was dinner, edits and then, because our focus was shot anyway, a nice hour or two watching Tears of the Sun with Bruce Willis and Monica Beluchi. Still a splendid movie.

The next day I had a solid workout, really punished the bag, thank you very much. I’m afraid I’m going to have to make a new cover soon, because the fabric is really wearing now, and the duct tape won’t hold indefinitely. Hah. The car had to be unloaded, and I made new chickpea patties for supper.

What followed was getting Njanna outside (Golden retriever with agoraphobia, really) and getting him up on the table (he’s also overweight) and cleaning his ear. He’s developed a new infection, so we’re going to have clean it frequently again. Since we were busy anyway, surgical gloves on and all, we got Carla (similar ear problem) up as well and cleared the cocker’s ears as well.

Spent most of the afternoon washing out my chairs. Gada’s becoming more incapable of controlling her bladder, so there you have the reason for this sudden cleaning spree. Luckily the sun was out, so I could just hose it all down, scrub it with soap and then let it dry most of the day.

I worked some on the new cupboard for my bathroom, three days ago, yesterday, and then again today. It’s going slow, but I’ll get there…someday. Also more work on the parking spot for the moped, which is slowly coming together now. The roof’s on, one wall panel is shut, and we only need to add a little more to the rock wall on the other side.

More yards work, followed by a quick trip to the igloo where I got out a couple of new pillows for my dogs, and some supplies for mom’s quilting.
There was another outing for building supplies, a walk with Knight II, and then the picture blog of the last time.

Which brings us to yesterday at last…see, I compacted two days in a single Word page, thankfully. We might get through this before midnight after all. Hah.
So yeah, yesterday:
First off, it was Big Brother’s birthday. We didn’t celebrate it. He hates pie and cake so I didn’t make any. We agreed he would get a full bag of paprika chips during tomorrow’s grocery shopping (yeah, the time is there again, yay).
One of the covers for my chairs didn’t get clean properly, so I had to rewash that after doing laundry this morning.

Next it was up to the terrace in front of my cabin setting Thorgal on the table and taking him in a chokehold with the help of grandpa so big brother could take out his stitches. We cleaned him up some as well, and then it was time for me to have breakfast and make some more of the special cleaning stuff we use for dog ears and open skin such as Thorgal’s .

I had to unload the car, and help tenant down to my terrace so she could spend the day reading and enjoying the sunshine, but then I went back to work on my cupboard. It is starting to look pretty good. Fake marble of lapis and gray color, over real and fake oak wood. All that remains now is attaching the door and then installing it. Yay.

Got another load of rocks, took Knight II for another walk (I try to do that as often as possible because he eats better if he had some exercise) and then spent another evening on the edit…which went rather well despite our time crunch. We still had to go out for a donation and didn’t come home until two in the morning. I was miserably cold, considering we spent more than half an hour loading in the full wind, but no matter, it was a good donation. Lots of stuff mom can use for the market.

And we have reached today. Still in page two…let’s do this fast.
Today’s activities were blissfully simple, really. First of all (after the usual chores such as laundry and breakfast, hah) there was the unloading of the car, followed by heading down to the greenhouse for watering and such.

That done, it was back up to the carport where big brother started to work on the moped corner again, while visiting Dani and I unloaded several hundred of pounds of dog food (in bags) from the storage behind me cabin. Apparently mice are still getting in there, but no matter that we emptied it completely, all we found were mouse droppings. Luckily Sitabah and Dax really enjoyed the endeavor. Seriously, you should have seen their tails wags a mile a minute.
Considering a new batch of food was brought today as well, filling the storage up again took some time.

Afterward I helped big brother with sawing a bit for the moped corner, followed by a bit more work on my bathroom cupboard, adding the finishing touches to the top while grandpa painted the oak doors up by the old horse paddock.

What followed was another trip to get sand, and having Knight II run some more. He’s getting better at the going out bit, I only had to get his butt out of the car once today. Seriously, before I had Knight II, I never knew a dog would rather stay in a car than go out and run around in the wild. *sigh*

Well, I still have an edit to do today and then, if I can manage I’m going to go for an early night, what with grocery shopping coming up tomorrow. Well, okay, going now.
Guess I will be back on Old Year’s Eve. Let’s see if I can make it a little interesting…I doubt it, but we’ll see. Hah.

Pix for a change.

So we're doing it slightly different today. No talk, just pictures and a short description. I'll bring you up to date in the next blog.

A good starter right here. The mutilated Acacia. *sigh* Luckily the view is still good. Hah.


The greenhouse from way up...where we recently trimmed the big-leafed mimosa.


The new floor for grandpa's moped, cordoned off for the dogs, of course.


The wall halfway done for the moped.


The back wall done.


A piece of wall of the road up to the gate, with Chaos and Labhana.


Did I do this one yet? The stove in the house. So cozy.


An average cloudy day. Makes me depressed, but it does look impressive.


Recently pruned olive tree in the courtyard. Quaint, eh?


A bunch of dogs (Dax in the middle behind the rope) enjoying the evening bothering us by sleeping around our feet in the carport. See all the old rugs there. They love those.


Our mountain from the west while we were walking the Knight. Hah


Our mountain top as seen through our eucalypti.


Grandpa's new porch roof.


Grandpa's little square, recently poured. Nice and smooth. See Sitabah back there.


New storage thingy I mentioned. You know, for car stuff.
This is the before shot, obviously.


Car stuff storage as good as done.


Digging in progress behind my cabin. We got a couple of tons of rock and dirt away here.


Wood storage by the old bus. Got triple this down there now, though.


The chimney I made on the house. Works like a charm.


Just because the view was so nice. Just look at that light. I love it when the light does that.


Knight II sleeping by the stove, half on top of Sitabah.


From the top to bottom. Indigo with Huckabee to the left, Tridatu under her head, and Kolossus at the bottom.


On the left, Sitabah, Chaos, Labhana and Chamea. On the right Knight II, of course.


Knight II. How's that for elegance? Jeez. Such a mighty beast, and then acting like a pup. *sigh*


Chamea, curling up less than a yard from Big Brother. Must. Stay. Close!


Sitabah on top of Chaos, something she often does. Hah


Here she's on top of Labhana, which also happens a lot.


Thorgal after his operation. Gawd, in the picture he looks dead! He isn't. It's healing nicely now.


Knight II, of course. I sometimes worry he breaks his legs when he lies like this.


Sitabah over Gada. Gada doesn't like it when she joins her in the chair, but Sitabah doesn't care. Hah.


That's it for today. I'm more than happy to call it a day.

Merry Christmas Eve

Song of the day: I don’t remember the title. It was some childhood diddle anyway, so who cares. It was a little embarrassing since at some point big brother gave me a baleful look and asked, “What the heck are you singing?”
*sigh*

Ehm…yeah…thinking…darn it…I can’t…
Oh wait, I have picked up workouts again, and had a couple of excellent sessions both yesterday and today, though this morning I cheated a little by half-ing two particular reps my foot didn’t agree with. But other than that, it went well enough.

Spent most of yesterday digging into rock and clay beside the path leading down from the gate to my cabin. It has been years that we’ve wanted to finish this particular low wall, but until now, after making the parking area for the moped, we never did get to it. But anyway, because of that I spent several hours using the jackhammer on the ground and wall, until finally I cut away enough to start masonry. Finished about half of it before the end of the day was there and it was time to head out to get sand…and let Knight II run for a bit. He did quite a bit of that too, so there was a definite plus. Hah.

Both today and yesterday there was greenhouse work. Bugs to seek out, water to give and all that. I think that, looking back…in particular on this afternoon while I was crawling my way through the dirt looking for caterpillars in the borecole and cauliflowers, it was probably the absolute best of the past couple of days.

Which reminds me of this morning. We had a rather peculiar phenomena going on right outside. It started last night really. Once I was preparing to go to bed the city in the valley had disappeared under a thick blanket of clouds that only lit up at the horizon. Then, this morning when I came out for the workout, you could see those same clouds still there, only slowly, but gradually making its way into the valley and up onto the mountain. We were just about done with the workout when the cloud reached the lower neighbors, and while I was taking a shower they crawled right over the property. Seriously, it was a tad creepy. Some odd thirty feet of visibility was all that remained and the atmosphere had suddenly turned decidedly chilly. In particular compared to the rather pleasantly warm days that we enjoyed since the day before yesterday.

But anyway, tenant was attempting to catch some sunshine just outside the old horse paddock, but by the time I got there it was a waning bit of light that barely penetrated the thick mist all around us. I could see the horror movies of old, “The Fog”, “The Mist”, nothing but white all around you, and then, topping the rise, something weird, something dark, something horrific. *sigh* I definitely saw too many horror movies. Seriously, I gave myself the creeps out there. Hah.

There was pumpkin soup making, along with a fresh chickweed/nettle/chard mix today which went down well enough, despite it being a bit wiry. As desert I also experimented a little. This time with fennel. I suddenly had a certain taste in my head and I just had to see if it would work out. It did, and I am considering putting it in my cook book.

While I was doing masonry, grandpa and big brother worked on clearing a spot where they could temporarily store the new moped, without the dogs wrecking it.

Added to that, there was the unloading of sand from the car…twice, you understand. This is an excellent way to supplement the daily workout, in case you’re wondering. Hah.

I had a wee bit of a confrontation with grandpa, by the way. I was working on the small wall, and while I was explaining my technique, grandpa realized that I wasn’t going to build a straight wall. Which got him in a bit of a tiff, because he wants stuff straight, while I like to go in curves, make it more natural. Straight is what always gets him into trouble. In particular since when you are working with natural rock, straight is a relative concept. Ya gotta go with the flow, keep to the Bob Ross attitude of “There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.” But anyway, grandpa doesn’t see it that way. He’s a farmer of old: when nature doesn’t want to work with you, you ram through it. *sigh* He does forget, of course, that it doesn’t work. Nature always finds a way, and that goes for a rock wall as much as anything. Take the last straight wall we did, for instance. I spend several hours some odd ten months ago, to add a bulwark just to keep it from toppling over. There goes the straight wall. *double sigh*

I hate confrontations like that, but it can’t be help. Considering that I was the one doing the building, I compromised only a little by creating one curve, rather than two, and left him dissatisfied regardless. No helping it. If I’m charge of building something, I bloody well will build it the way I like it…I expect no different from him when he’s working on his (despite the fact that I don’t like straight walls, hah).

Okay, we let bygones be bygones, so in the end it really didn’t matter.
What else…oh dear, I’m drawing a blank again. What is it with my brain these days? I slept enough last night, darn it.

We made some repairs in the igloo. One of the support beams of the shelving had broken down, so we had to fix that. We brought the broken washing machine into the carport, where the dogs can’t mess it up again. So I washed that, along with the mirrors in the house, some shelving and all that sort of thing. Laundry, and bla, bla, bla. I know, that’s boring.

Hmmm. There was some carpentry, mostly regarding the future parking spot of the moped. Some small fixings for whicker baskets.
Tenant walked all the way down to my cabin, all on her own. Sure, big brother and I were watching her with hawk-eyes, but she managed, and was darn proud of it too.

Sawed wood! Ah, I haven’t lost my mind completely yet. Big brother and I sawed the beams for the new section of roof (for the moped) and that is always a bit of a tense thing. Big brother once sawed off his thumb and index on that big sawing table, so we’re always extra careful. It is doubtful that the docs could fix it that well again.

Still reading Jack Vance, this time “The Killing Machine”, and I’m still enjoying it. Vance does have a rather wonderful writing voice…despite it being a tad old fashioned.

Well, this is going to have to be it for today. I can’t think of anything else anyway, and I still have to go out later tonight for a donation. Maybe we should arrange for these kinds of trips during the day. Hah.

But in case I don’t “see” y’all before then (almost forget to do the well wishing bit): Have A Marvelously Merry Christmas!

Another wall, however small

Song of the day: “Never no more” by Patsy Cline again. Yep, this one’s a keeper apparently. Hah.

Let’s see if I can speed this one up a little, because I had a friggin’ long day and I am seriously contemplating an early night…again. Oh right, I forgot I had one last night as well. Okay, never mind then, I’ll probably be late. Hah. I might not be entirely coherent either. You see there was a sale of Fondue, so that just made up for my supper and it was absolutely delicious. *hiccup* It doesn’t help that I haven’t gotten around to sipping anything more alcoholic than a cherry bonbon, so seriously, the wine went straight to my head.

Good news on the interview/guest blog with C.S. Marks. If all goes well I’ll be on the receiving end around New Years. Yay! With a little luck we’ll either end the year with it, or call in the new one, let’s wait and see.

Okay, on to business as usual.
Yesterday:
It was a windy day, but not cold thankfully. The plus side of all the wind, though, is the laundry that dries incredibly fast. Seriously, by the time I get there in the morning, everything is dry as can be, which not usual for winter at all. But anyway, the green soap experiment is still going well. I kinda like the lemony scent to the clean stuff, and the fact that we could reuse the water for the yard is definitely weighing heavily in the equation.

Finished the first one of Jack Vance’s “Demon Princes” and was pleasantly entertained. Personally I truly enjoy the way he plays with words, and the way I hear some old English teacher in my head when I read it (like there’s a narrator) but I also fear that in this day and age, the way books are written now, he would not have been published. There is an old fashioned courtesy to it, an unpretentiousness and a patience that you rarely come across with new writer.
I think I will have to do a review once I’m done with the whole series.

Oh, oh, before I forget: Grandpa’s moped arrived. Yay! Big brother and I went to town to fetch it tonight, and it looks so cute…though grandpa obviously needs to get used to it. He doesn’t like change all that much. Hah. Good thing about the moped is that it’s small enough to fit in the back of the Land Rover…which was a total pain in the behind with the old one. Not this one, though. It weighs barely a 140 pounds and we got it in without any trouble.
Of course grandpa is not going to use it yet, first he’s going to ride the old Katana to death, and then start on the new one.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, darn it. Where was I? Right, yesterday:
The sun was out so I had to open the greenhouse and raised seedbed up to prevent funguses from going rampant. Did a half-hearted search for bugs, but then headed up because grandpa had already made me a batch of cement to start with the wall…after helping out tenant who needed to change and head on down to my terrace where she could enjoy the sunshine and a book. :-)

Which reminds me, she finished mine “Trust Me” said the Spy, her first English book ever, and she said she really, really enjoyed, despite the fact that she had to check every fifth word or so in her trusty dictionary. I for one, gotta commend her for making it through the book at all. If I had to check so many words, I’d have given up already. Hah.

But anyway, grandpa had made cement, so it was time to start on the wall for the moped parking spot. The trick about building a straight wall of natural rock, is not to think about it too much. Usually the first instinct of where and how to place a rock is the right one, and if you start thinking it won’t work. So I didn’t think, I just started putting up whichever rock I came across and ended up with a rather peculiar selection of jagged peaks. Now, if I had started thinking at that point (I will post pictures in the near futures, just not now, I’m too tipsy and too sleepy) I might have worried about which to fit on top of those, but for the first four or five layers there wasn’t a single problem. It was then that I decided to go for a cake shaped dist with tilted sides which really put me to the test in finding (without thinking) one to match the tilt. But I managed, and by the end of the day three fourths of the wall was standing.

Of course that meant that today I had to work on it again, but this time there was only half a foot or so to go, and I need only two wheelbarrows of cement, rather than yesterday’s five. We sure are going through our supply or rocks fast. It will be nice to see the old gate wall again after all this time, while it was hidden behind the piles. Hah.

Where was I? Oh, right. After the masonry, big brother and I went out for another batch of sand, taking Knight II along so we could take him on a short walk afterwards. Good thing too, because the big lug spent most of the day in the back of the car, which is his favorite spot because it gives him such a good vantage point of the carport.

Once I got home it was time to cook a quick supper, and then off to the edit. Didn’t get a lot done, but enough at least. Three pages at least, and let’s face it, the first edit is always a massive pain in the behind. The story’s still new then, more a road of discovery than anything else, it’s edit number two, plus the paper edit when stuff really starts to get together. I did discover that during the next edit we’re going to have to remove more than a thousand words, which is going to be massively interesting.

Like I said before I had an early night, so that basically brings us to today, doesn’t it?
Let’s see…laundry, of course, followed by tackling the mirrors in the house, taking the small grill oven up to the carport so we could clean and fix it (the on off switch broke down). Also middle sister’s sewing machine was acting up, so we worked on that during the day as well, and since he was busy in the carport anyway, big brother decided to work on the house computer as well to see if he could speed it up a little with some extra memory gadgets that I don’t know the name of.

The greenhouse and raised seedbed had to be opened again (yes I remembered to close them last night, yay) and then it was up to have breakfast and help tenant again because caregiver was at her other job. She was in a cheery mood today (tenant) and I let her walk most of the way while I took the car out to the old paddock and started to unload since Grandpa and big brother were down by the carport to catch her. So nice that she can do simple stuff like that on her own now.
The car unloaded and having spent the majority of the afternoon finishing the wall for the moped, (no wind today, it was actually a worm day with temps in the high sixties) the end of the day was spent cleaning the grill oven and carrying it back into the house. Next there was the greenhouse, which had to be checked for bugs and such. We’re going to have to transplant cabbage kinds again tomorrow. They’re getting to be too big for the multipots.

Then there was the trip to town to pick up the moped (got the call this morning) followed by some groceries, and picking up the biodegradable oil for the chainsaw, along with the new blade for the circle saw. And finally around nine in the evening we were back home where we could eat fondue, write this friggin’ blog and then go to bed early, because, let’s face it, the edit is NOT going to work tonight.

No mater, though. Another early night will allow for a workout tomorrow morning (weather permitting) Yay!
Heading out and signing off…gawd, this fondue is potent.

Oh darn it. I still gotta go fetch Amri from up on the mountain. Bye.

Rocks and sand

Song of the day: “Step by step” by Whitney Houston, of course. Big brother has been playing it since yesterday, so it goes without saying that it gets stuck in my head. Hah.

The day started a little earlier than usual yesterday. Thorgal III had to go to the vet to have his drains removed, and since we had to go anyway I decided to take Gada as well. Her walking is getting to be more difficult every day, and though I suspect that it was arthritis and there wasn’t a lot the vet could do, I decided to have her checked anyway.

Thorgal was doing fine, and the vet told us to keep an eye on his cuts, but other than that it is just business as usual. Gada on the other hand…you should have seen the vet’s face when she tested The Labrador’s hips. It wasn’t good. She explained that if she were to make an X-ray, we would see that probably the majority of the bone would be degraded. Poor Gada. For now, she’s on Prednison, which is not going to make her better, but which will numb the pain some, and when I notice that she isn’t enjoying herself anymore, the vet basically let it be known I should start thinking of putting her out of her misery.

I gotta admit that I’m not ready yet, though I know that it is mean towards Gada who must be going through some serious discomfort these days. But Touri and Mosha are still rather fresh and if she’s gone too, that means I’m down to Amri, Knight II, Chaos, Dax, Labhana (who’s not responding well to the massive losses of my personal pack. She gets depressed) and Sitabah. That’s six dogs, which is a measly amount from what I’m used to. Darn it, I used to have thirteen and that was just five years or so ago. Added to that Amri is not doing all that well, age catching up with him as well (at least ten years of age) so I fear that around this time come spring I’ll be down to five. Grrrr. Age and sickness are horrible things, that I have to admit.

Right. Thoughts like that depress me, so let’s move it along before I start bawling my eyes out.

Oh, yeah. I’ve been experimenting with green soap for the laundry, and so far it’s been going rather well. If stuff keeps getting clean, I think I’m going to keep using it. That way we could connect the washing machine to the basin and use the water for the yard, which would be, like, totally awesome.

After breakfast I hauled the cement mixer up for Grandpa. He did help, and tried to stay in the lead at first, but he hasn’t recovered that much yet, so he left the heavy stuff to me while adding his weight to getting the thing up the mountain. I am rather pleased with the concrete path. It made the hauling that much easier. I remember last year being a total pain when we had to get the machine either way.

While grandpa and big brother got to work on pouring concrete for the parking spot of the new moped, Ox and I began hauling rocks down the mountain. Only managed about 10 wheelbarrows myself, but since we filled most of the small ledge in front of the house, it should do well enough once we decide adding to the wall again. I think that, not counting the extra half foot that will be part of the balustrade, it will be enough to finish the wall in its entirety. Yay!

By the time I was done for the day, big brother and I went out to get a new batch of sand (standard procedure after using one for concrete or masonry, of course) and then took Knight II out for a nice long walk. He liked it too, gallivanting around as if he wasn’t scared out of his mind. Hah. Seriously, though, he did well despite the fact that the rough earth patch we came across smelled like wild boar. He didn’t like that, poor fella.

Once we got home I quickly cooked supper involving the lupine slices that baked rather wonderfully in butter. It was a nicely meaty substance for sure, not to mention rather filling.

That done, and wishing I had time for a nap we did edits for the remainder of the evening. At the end of it, I did some reading on the Falkland Islands, just because, and then we watched an episode of “Castle” in Spanish. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Fillion was on Cortisone.

I also started reading Jack Vance’s “Demon Princes”. Funny thing is, folks don’t write like that anymore, and what a shame that is. Seriously. The best way to read Vance is out loud, that way you also get the chance to practice you upper class English pronunciation. In particular the excerpts, which would otherwise be absolutely boring. Hah.

What with a temperature drop to no less than forty degrees, I was a tad restless during the night…if for no other reason than the fact that Knight II was so cold that he refused to lie anywhere except firmly against my back. My back did not agree with this, but lost the battle many times over. *sigh* Suffice it to say I was a mite stiff and sore when I did the laundry this morning.

No matter, though, it was time to get started so I tried a new experiment for patty dough. This time a chickpea pumpkin dough, which would work as a perfect substitute for meat since it has such a high protein value. Ah well, we’ll see how that works.

Next it was time to maneuver the car into the old horse paddock and unload yesterday’s load of sand. What followed that rather quick session, was loading it back up again because Dani had offered to the take our pile of old metal to town and sell it at the local “old metal scrap yard” Went well enough. Got more or less what we expected and that was nice.

Time to head into the yard. The greenhouse could be opened, and the seedbed needed water. After doing that, I focused on the tomato plants to remove miners and caterpillars alike. In this case there were a lot of the first, while after I went down into the yard to check cabbage, cauliflower and kale, the latter were all over the plants. Buggers. Those little bastards will eat a whole plant in a day if I let them. *sigh*

Afterwards we worked in the carport a bit, trying to take big brother’s computer apart. It all went well, but in the end we didn’t manage to fix the problem at hand, meaning that it was all for nothing, if it weren’t for the fact that we know a little more about computers again. Hah.
While we were working on this, grandpa worked on taking apart the Honda for spare parts. This is turning out to be not as easy a task as you would imagine. Turns out a moped is complicated too. Hehe.

Next, after crawling over the floor for about half an hour to find (and failing) to find the screws big brother lost due to a picky dog, it was time I headed up to start on supper. The burgers worked out splendidly too filling the stomachs and all that. Hah.

Well, that should do it. I’m outa here

Chilly

Song of the day...isn’t there for some peculiar reason. I know, weird huh? It’s been ages that I didn’t have a song of the day. Feels very strange, I tell ya.

Right. What’s been going on? I’m not sure, once again I am drawing a blank, which might have something to do with the fact that it is now afternoon rather than evening, when I usually write my blog. I think I better grab my diary to see what happened yesterday, because otherwise I will have to fill this blog with mindless blather…which is completely different from the usual highly intellectual narrative I usually apply, right?

*snort*

Okay. Diary in place….
Well, first off I woke prior to my alarm and lay there with the wind howling, and my head still involved in the semi-nightmare that had woken me up. I was seriously contemplating getting up early, but it was chilly, the dogs were draped all over me (in other words keeping me nice and toasty) and I really didn’t feel like heading out into the early morning for a workout. I would have (pondered it every time the wind died down, but then another would tumble through the door and I stayed in place) but ended up dozing (still with that freaky dream) until my alarm went off.

Finally I couldn’t drag it out any longer and got up to head up to the paddock to fix the left-side mirror of the Opel.The stupid thing keeps falling but I managed to get it back in place within a few minutes. That done I went down for the morning chores, and then up again for breakfast, and making tomato soup for later in the day. A time which was mostly used to discuss the day’s plans.

While big brother and grandpa tackled the solar panels and their batteries, I went to the greenhouse to open it all up and to sow some lettuce, green beans and five pots of wysteria, which want to have some plants for ‘round next year. Gotta sow them some day, don’t I? But anyway, that done I transplanted fifteen more of the seedlings into small pots and checked the tomato plants for leaf miners and caterpillars. Not a lot of them, but a few.

Next it was going into the yard itself, big brother joined me, to check on the veggie plants and to take out a field of potatoes. Got a nice batch, with about half a bag that didn’t have the disease which we can use for replanting early this spring.

That done it was time to go up, peel the potatoes that aren’t good for saving, eat some soup, and then go for a nap while the potatoes boiled. I did sleep a little, though I was so friggin’ cold afterwards that I had to sit in front of the stove (writing, of course) for a solid hour before I was finally warm enough to get settled in my usual spot. Seriously, the cold is not funny. Even Knight II is now constantly trying to get under the blankets, and Chaos was so cold he was moaning and shivering until I dragged him half under me so he would warm up at last.

The lupine patties worked out splendidly. We had them as a snack with fried potatoes last night, and they were delicious with a slice of cheese on them. Jeez. I didn’t expect that from the smell I caught from them yesterday. I rarely like something if the smell is not to my liking. But there you have it. It was darn good, and I might need to consider making them part of the batch that I want to try to sell.

But anyway after that there was the edit and some writing to connect that scene (still. I’m going very slow with that) as the night rapidly advanced. Got to bed only a little late, dogs piled on top of me again, of course.

Today was mostly about hauling butt, again. After the usual chores, dressing in a multitude of layers and drinking coffee by the gallon, rock and dirt got dug from the in front of the carport and behind my cabin, followed by hauling several wheelbarrows of rocks down to the terrace under the house. Almost got the level up to the height of the rock wall now, meaning that as soon as we’ve added one more layer of clay and rocks, we can start masonry again.

There is still some work to do now, before we gotta start on the day’s edit. That hot cup of soup an hour ago really did fill the gaps well enough for me to have my energy levels back up a little, but since I’m cold, I really should get some movement. My teeth are about to chatter, for crying out loud.

Okay, gotta go.

Windy

Song of the day: “Break my Stride” by Blue Lagoon. Well that’s something different at least. I might have had it in my head once or twice before, but not often. Cool. Also, yesterday there was “Amazing Grace” by the Maverick Choir, which is a really awesome version.

Have been catching up on a little bit of sleep by managing 6 to 7 hours a night at least. Been noticing it too, since my eyes are less droopy later in the day. Hah.
In fact, yesterday I slept at least seven and a half hours, which had me, like, totally ecstatic.

There was the usual stuff like laundry, breakfast and half a gallon of coffee, hah. Gawd, I definitely got me a dependency for the brew going. There are times (when I forget) that am just incapable of waking up without it.

Thorgal is looking pretty impressive with his massive stitches, drains and shaved neck. Poor fella. He doesn’t appear to be bothered by it much, but it looks horrible for sure. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think he was mauled by a bear, or something.

My shoulder was a little better, and I actually managed to haul a couple of wheelbarrows of rocks down to the terrace under the house. Then, after opening the greenhouse and seedbed, I went up to work on the wall. Added another foot at least to the entire length, and I gotta admit that it is looking pretty darn fine.

We’ve been in an almost constant wind storm for the past couple of days. If we had a total of four hours without wind it’s a lot. A little scary, really. It messes with your equilibrium, and there have been some debris that we had to run after lest it was dragged along.

Chaos and Sitabah have been sticking close together, imitating ying and yang whenever they find a warm spot. Seriously, you’d think they consider each other their personal pillow. If one isn’t lying on the other, it’s the other way around.
Knight II gets a little freaked out from all the wind too, looking like a horse that’s about to bolt most of the time. Poor fella, he doesn’t like the wind at all.
As for the other dogs, most of them don’t give a fig. They follow us around, nap, and follow us some more. Hah.

The afternoon was spent in the yard checking the veggie plants for bugs. Found quite a few clusters of caterpillars. Always a little freaky to come across a one inch spot with more than fifty of the bugs piled together, but at least at that stage they’re easily removed. Also snatched some miners from the chard leaves. Since weeds had to be removed anyway, there was a fresh batch of chickweed and another small broccoli, which made a nice added bonus for the night’s supper of spaghetti with a veggie mix.

Supper downed, we headed for town. Didn’t feel like it, but sometimes you just can’t get out of something like that. We needed new oil for the car, a few groceries, like milk and such, and a trip to the DIY store for chainsaw oil…which they didn’t have. This means we’re going to have to search for the stuff at a later time.
Did discover that grandpa’s moped had arrived, and it still looks cute, despite the fact that he opted (quite insistently) for a black one, rather than a white one. If all goes well, it should be done just in the beginning of the new year. Paperwork and etc. I forget what else. Hah.

Anyway, we were too tired for an edit once we got home, so I handled my messages, checked everything online that had to be checked and then headed to bed for some reading and then to bed early…well, semi-early anyway.

The storm had us lose two treetops so far. This morning I stood staring at the 45 angle of most of the trees for a solid five minutes before I finally sighed and got dressed to face the day.

First thing up after breakfast was sawing the sides for my future basin cabinet in my bathroom. The long board was driving grandpa bonkers so we did that first.

Then we took down tenant’s chair. She declared yesterday that she wants to be able to get out of her comfy chair herself, so she can move around a little even when caregiver isn’t there, so we decided to take out the useless one inch nubs from underneath it, and replaced them with beautiful wooden paws that make it exactly three inches higher, after a test sit+rise (a success) she approved of the change and we brought it back up again.

That done, big brother and I finished the side wall of the little storage of the spare fuel and such, which looks great. I’ll post a pic soon.
This was followed by unloading the dog food storage. I’ve been hearing sounds there for several days, fearing termites, only to discover (after removing thirty bags, or so) that there was a tiny little mouse living in there.

I had called Sitabah and Dax to deal with the rodent, but they were too excited and the mouse too sneaky for them to be of any use. The mouse got away and the two dogs were uselessly sniffing and snorting their way through the dog food bags. Such disappointment was just sad to witness, I tell ya. You should have seen Sitabah look at me sorrowfully when she realized that she’d lost the creature and that I started reloading the bags.

The imperial got painted again. Hopefully it will be done tomorrow, which is when the sibs will start loading up for the market again. It should be, but it is always a worry. It had to be done, though. The rust was getting to be ridiculous.

Other than that, the day was spent digging and hauling dirty down the mountain. In this case we’re trying to put together a parking spot (easy to close against rodents and such) for the new moped when it arrives. Some serious digging involved there, the humus layer for the storage for the yard, and the rocky dirt for the terrace under the house. We’ll need a lot of that yet, so every wheelbarrow counts. Got about five of them down, and as a joint effort we put about twelve, or fourteen in place. I do hope we have enough.

While supper of leftovers and pumpkins was simmering, I experimented with a new patty. A lupine mix this time, and if I’m to go for scent, I don’t think that this one will be a favorite of mine. Seriously, I’m not the biggest fan of Garlic, but I put four cloves in the mix just to mask that particular smell. Also, it better be extremely special, because otherwise it won’t be worth the extra effort and expense…in particular if we do decide to go to the market with them.

Supper done and eaten I headed down for the yard to see if big brother was done watering the plants, and to close the greenhouse and seedbed for the night. The sky was completely clear, but over Africa there was a massive depression that was so black that it looked like a land mass. Quite impressive.

That done it was out with the car to get a load of sand and to let Knight II out for a walk. I had to lock the poor fella up most of the day (not that he minds when the wind is blowing like mad) because I had to head into the courtyard time and again. Knight II and little brother’s pack don’t go together well, and I rather not have the hassle.

But anyway, sand got picked up, Knight II had his run, and I got home running on fumes. Was more than ready to sit down by the stove and start on today’s computer work. Hah.

Blowin' up a storm

Song of the day: “Never no more” by Patsy Cline again. Though admittedly this one wasn’t stuck in my head, I just put it there to counteract another one that was really bugging me yesterday. Hah.

First order of the day (yesterday) was taking Thorgal to the vet. Poor fellas neck was swollen even more, and they were going to have to put him under to treat him. Since we were out anyway, and had dropped grandpa off to pick up his moped, we did some quick groceries (bread and milk) and went over to the construction company to get another batch of cement. Loaded up and headed for home where big brother and grandpa unloaded.

Turns out that beside the busted knee (which is almost over and done with btw) I did something with my shoulders (I’m guessing the jackhammer. The new one is heavier than I’m used to) that has been more than a little uncomfortable. There are points where I can barely raise my arms, and there’s the resonating sensation from my shoulder blades that resonates straight into my skull. Very unpleasant, obviously. Hah.

But anyway, it was business as usual, and since the sun was shining rather beautifully, I decided to wash the Land Rover.
First I gotta tell ya about the wind, though. The day started out completely still. Not even a whisper of wind and I was up by the gate when I suddenly heard a distant roar. It was rather weird, really, this rumbling sort of sound, like when you’re close to the ocean and the waves are particularly high.
I looked out over the sloping hills to the west, pinpointing the sound to be coming from that side, and stared for the longest time into the distance. Nothing. Not a tree was moving, and yet the sound was getting worse, coming closer even.
And that’s when I saw it, the row of trees at the top of the first, most distant ridge began to sway like mad, and then the row in front, and in front of that, rumbling steadily closer, making a stretching meadow of knee-high grass undulate impressively. It skipped across the opening, set the eucalypti in the narrow valley below us to a mad sway and then it tumbled over us, setting my hair to dance, while the trees and plants around me took up a cheering dance. Rather awesome, actually.

Reminded me of one of my books, that’s a fact. Had never experienced the wind quite like that before, but it was beautiful to witness that way.
But anyway, I washed the car, waxed it too, kept company by Dani who was washing her car at the same time. In the beginning it wasn’t at all unpleasant, but as the afternoon advanced (heard over the phone that we could pick Thorgal up after five) and the sun lowered from its zenith the chill increased and so did the wind.

I for one, was more than happy to finish rubbing the wax out (very Karate Kid, really: “Wax in, wax out” Hah) and heading inside to cook some dinner. Opted for red beets with rice and fresh cream cheese.

By then it was time to pick up Thorgal, and since we were out anyway, we got another batch of rocks into the back of the car. Had I known then that we’d have another donation run later that night (heard when we got back) I would have opted not to get rocks. As it was, Knight II and Thorgal really enjoyed the free run they had while we loaded up.
Had and extremely short nap once we got home. I had planned to just lay on the bed for a bit and relax my shoulder and back a bit, but ended up sleeping for about thirty minutes. Felt much better after that.

Rather than only editing, I did some writing immediately after. That scene I still need to insert needs two segues, and one of them I managed to finish last night. The edit of the night done, we headed out to town again. *sigh*

Boring, I know. Didn’t get to bed until three in the morning, so you can imagine my mood when I got up this morning. Hah. Was a little haggard for sure, but today I had “I like it” by Enrique Iglesias in my head, which was a definite improvement. Great song again.

There was the usual laundry, followed by busywork up by the carport (after breakfast naturally). I had to fix a rubber curtain. The glue wasn’t holding so I bolted the rings instead, which should work better at least. Grandpa and I hung it as soon as I was done, and yep, it’s holding. Yay.

Next there was the dismantling of a small electric wagon. Since it was broken, I basically took it apart for parts while big brother worked on grandpa’s moped, which battery wasn’t working. He fixed that problem, but while he was doing that, he drilled a hole through another important part, meaning that we were standing there beside the dismantled moped, swearing at his inattention.

Me: “Why’d you do that?”
Big brother: “I didn’t do it on purpose. I just wasn’t thinking for a moment?”
Me: “Does it still work?”
We checked, numerous times. It didn’t.
Grandpa: “What happened?”
Big brother is mumbling.
Me: “He drilled a hole through the Ducatti part?”
Grandpa: “Ducatti? What’s that?”
Me: “This thingy.”
Grandpa: “Oh darn. I think that’s the power diverter.”
Me: “The what?”
Grandpa: “Power diverter. It’s connected to the fireplug.”
Big brother (mumbling still): “I can’t believe I didn’t notice that.”
Me (exasperated and amused): “Yeah. How could you not notice? That plastic is an eighth of an inch and you drilled through about four inches of material.”
Big brother: “Dunno.”
Me: “Can we take it out?”
Big brother: “Dunno. Let’s check.”
We do manage, examine the little gizmo, stumped as to what it does.
Big brother: “Darn. We’ll have to go to the village and order a new one. This won’t be stocked.”
Me: “Not much choice.”
Big brother: “Stupid. Why didn’t I…”
Me: “Hey, you know, you could just flog yourself and get it over with. Jeez. Accidents happen.”
He mumbles some more, shakes his head, and then lets it go while he tosses the broken part on the table.
Me (the proverbial light bulb pings): “What about the Honda?”
Big brother: “What about it?”
Me: “We can’t fix it and won’t it have the same, or similar part?”
Big brother (perking up): “Probably. We can check.”
Grandpa: “I doubt it. Most engines have a different firing point.·”
Me: “Let’s check anyway. You never know.”

We check, and yes, the part was exactly the same. After we broke through the old plastic of the Honda we managed to get it out easy as you please. About half an hour later we had it in the Katana and it started on command. *phew* Major relief. The stupid moped has to hold out ‘till the new year at least until the new one arrives.

But anyway, for the next hour we put the carcass of the moped back together and then head on up to the horse paddock where the imperial waits. Since big brother treated it’s rust spots yesterday while I was washing the car, it was now dry enough for us to paint it again.

By then the sun was starting to lower on the horizon. Big brother headed down into the yard while I went to the kitchen to make dinner, partly with yesterday’s leftovers. Tenant helped out. She had a nice afternoon with caregiver who took her to the library and then out for coffee and pie.

Which wraps up the activities of the past couple of days, really. Right now I’m (dogs and big brother alike) sitting by the stove enjoying the sit down and preparing to get started on the day’s edit. Yay.

Lotsa vet stuff

Song of the day: “Tonight I’m loving you” by Enrique Iglesias. I don’t know how he manages it, but on the overall most of his songs grow on me at some point. Hah. Besides, his rhythms are perfect for workouts.

No workouts for me, though, at least not the fitness kind. I have been physically busy, so that makes up for it at least. Lemme see if I can remember some of the stuff that went on in the past couple of days.

Yesterday mostly involved shovelling and using the jackhammer on the rock wall behind my cabin. Mighty interesting, the jackhammer, in particular. After about three hours of working with the thing, my hands were shaking so bad that I kept dropping stuff. Hah.

But anyway, got quite a bit of rock out, shovelled it into a wheelbarrow and let Ox haul it down. (What with me busting my knee again…I know, why aren’t I more carefull, eh? I try, it just doesn’t work.) But anyway Ox hauled it down while I filled the wheelbarrows, got two rocks on the top of my foot, which pounded like mad for half an hour. POd me, it did. Took out an extra piece of rock and dirt out, just to get rid of my mad. Hah.

Wheelbarrowed (I know, still not a real word) four loads down and then got some tools and supplies to hang the water tube under the house, rather than risk sand slides taking it down. Looks better at least, and it will keep the tube out of our way once we restart masonry on the wall.

Looks nicely filled right now, but since time still needs to make all the new dirt settle, and since we still need to build another two to three foot on top of the wall, that will change soon.

Was seriously running on fumes by then, so I ate some cookies for a sugar boost and then headed down the mountain with my trusty chainsaw and spent the remainder of the afternoon cutting firewood for next year. So I am getting a hang of the chainsaw, I mean, really, I only almost cut off my foot twice yesterday. Yep, soon I’ll be an old pro at it, I’m sure…I hope. Hah.

Went to the greenhouse for a bit, relaxed clearing away bugs and such from the tomato plants. Got a nice batch of tomatoes for our efforts by the way.

Mom and the sibs came home tired from the market, but didn’t do too bad, considering the bad economy. Since big brother and I had to go out again later that evening for another donation, they did manage to clear out the car in time for that.

Had a nice supper of fresh pumpkin, corn, onion, chickweed, and tomatoes through a big batch of paneer. Different, but definitely worth a repeat in the near future, in particular since we added chickpea/white bean patties for filling.

Tried to have a nap, but I was too cold, so I ended up huddling in front of the stove and working on the book. Turns out I had missed a scene during the pasting of all the individual sales, meaning that I had to put it in, and then work on connecting it to the one before it, and after. It was nice to do some actual writing again, that’s a fact.
Left for our trip a little late again, but managed to get home only half an hour after bed time…meaning I got too little sleep again, darn it.

Anyway, this morning there was no time to linger in bed, instead I had to go down to the house, shower, get dressed and then head on out with Tridatu. Our appointment for his teeth at the vet was today, after all, and he didn’t like the trip at all. But anyway, he was in good hands, so we picked up grandpa who needed his moped fixed again (just another week before the new one should arrive) and left it at the shop.

Once home, it was time for breakfast, unloading the Land Rover and then heading down to the greenhouse and then the yard. It was wonderfully peaceful down there, and since I was in no mood to mess with my cupboard for the bathroom up by the carport, we opted to work by the woodshed again.

Sawed through most of the mess (or at least big brother did) and I used the ax on the bigger blocks so grandpa and Dani could load them into the woodshed. I gotta say I like working with the ax. It’s like boxing, a perfect way to get rid of frustrations. Hah. Nothing is quite as plenty as work that allows you to shut off your brain, isn’t it?

By the time it started to cool down due to twilight, it was time to head on out to the village and pick up Tridatu. Since Sophie (Dalmatian) and Mesha (cocker spaniel) needed a checkup for their ears, and Thorgal needed to be checked out because of this huge swelling that is disfiguring the left side of his face, and grandpa needed to pick up his moped the car was quite packed.

Then Sophie thought it smart to go number two in the back of the car, making the cab smell like a chemical waste plant. Jeez, that was rank. And of course he is a klutz, so he ended up lying in the stuff, making it all worse. Jeez! My eyes were watering, and once we arrived at the vet we took him straight to the back and hosed him down while big brother tackled the back of the car with nappies and all that stuff. Gawd, I’ll smell that for days to come, I’m sure. Hah.

But anyway, Sophie got cleaned, he and Mesha got checked, Tridatu could go home with us (they had to take out eleven teeth), and because the swelling was so big they wanted to keep Thorgal overnight. Since they were incredibly busy, we decided to take him home and bring him back in the morning. No one was happier about that than Thorgal, who was already screaming his head off in the back of the clinic. Poor darling.

So, we got home, unloaded the dogs, let mine out of my cabin because they weren’t appreciative of being locked up at all, hah, and had some of the supper I’d started on prior to leaving.

Which brings us to now. The stove’s on, the dogs have quieted down after their meal, and they’re all clustered around our feet and the stove, fully enjoying the heat. Smart dogs.

Well, I better see about that edit, because I don’t suppose I’ll hold out long tonight.

"...in the woodshed"

Song of the day: “Big Spender” by Shirley Bassey. That’s a first, I think. Haven’t had this one before.

Well, be that as it may, let’s start with yesterday, and then do the usual by working our way to now…or should I just turn it around and mess with your head. I could, you know, but then, I don’t wanna be mean or anything…maybe I do…nah. I’ll try to remember accurately.

First of all, I was properly exhausted from all the dirt hauling in the wheelbarrows Thursday. In all seriousness I woke sore enough to have to do quite a few stretches before I could roll out of bed and limp my way to the bathroom. Gawd! Stupid effing foot! It just didn’t want to support me at first, but then strength returned at last and I could start moving again.
It didn’t look like wheelbarrowing (I know, not a real word, but it sounds nice. Hah) yesterday’s amounts was going to be possible, but there was only one way to find out, eh?

Anyway, first there were the usual chores such as the ever lasting laundry and tackling spider webs throughout the house. Since the whole cream-cheese making debacle was long enough ago, I took a bag out of the freezer for defrosting, along with the two patties I put there to see how they taste after they were frozen. Fine apparently, because we ate them for a snack later in the day, along with the rice burgers I made from leftovers. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

During the course of the day I managed to haul on 10 wheelbarrows. Not bad, all in all, considering the way my body was complaining. I could even have continued on if it hadn’t been for Chaos, who thought it smart to walk in front of my wheelbarrow, making me swerve out of the way, only to end up driving the cart nose first into the dirt while my legs thought it was okay to carry one. My knee figured out that it wasn’t, and I’ve got a big ol’ bruise on it to prove it. Stupid Basset. Moseying along as if I wasn’t hauling 250 pounds of dirt, for crying out loud.
Had to ice the silly joint.

So, what with my wheelbarrowing forays over, I joined big brother (wielding the jackhammer) by filling the wheelbarrows for Ox to haul down the mountain in my stead. Filled about six…or was it eight of them, getting some excellent abs workout for free. Nothing’s quite like using work to get your daily dose of exercise. Hah.

Had to stop around four to head for the construction company. We need to put sewage tubes underneath the future terrace, so we had to go fetch those. Since we were out already, we took Tridatu to the vet so she could check out his mouth. (Took Knight II along for company.) We’ve been noticing swellings and a really, really bad smell, and as we suspected she’s going to have to remove several of his molars. Poor Tridatu.

Since he also had a swelling on his chest, we were there for a while due to the x-ray the vet preferred to take. This meant that Knight II and I sat in the waiting room, where he proceeded to make a laughing stock of himself because he kept sitting down on my lap.
Seriously, the vet’s assistant kept getting laughing fits, and a bunch of kids who’d come in with their tiny Pincher mix, kept chuckling because it was just silly to see a pony-sized dog cower the way he did.

But anyway, he behaved fine otherwise, meaning that he helped pass the time. In the end Tridatu was cleared for surgery, and we headed home with antibiotics and an appointment for Monday morning where she’ll remove the offending teeth.

There was of course the edit, followed by a rather late bed-time that had me out of sorts this morning…the fact that I felt like I cracked my ribs didn’t help much either. Hah. Luckily that passed during the course of the day while muscles warmed up and movement took away sorceresses that keeps insisting. Whoever says that a workout is a good substitute for hard work, doesn’t know what the heck he’s talking about, I tell ya. No amount of weightlifting, Stairmasters and gawd knows what else, will substitute hauling rocks and dirt. It will literally use ALL your muscles.

Ah, gotta love a good workout, eh?

So, no wheelbarrow for me today, not that it matters, considering there was enough other stuff to do. First off, we laid the new tubing in place, followed by me getting the necessary supplies for the cupboard I’m making for my bathroom. I am not at all happy with my present wash basin, so a new one is becoming quite necessary. I managed to cut out the top today, and get the majority of the woodwork sawed.

By then I put it all away and went down the mountain to help grandpa making a woodshed for the firewood…which kept reminding me of the movie “Cold Comfort Farm” with Kate Beckinsale. “I saw something nasty in the woodshed” it is a phrase that is often repeated throughout it, and it kept going through my mind. I ended up telling grandpa about the story a bit, making him chuckle.

We finished the new woodshed around six in the afternoon (had supper of macaroni with satay sauce that big brother made in-between) and then headed on up to prepare for today’s blog and the edit. Which brings me to now with the blog done and ready to start some real work. Better do it fast too, because I’m already way tired. Hah.

Haulin', haulin', haulin'

Song of the day: “Que sera sera” by Doris Day kept going through my head a lot, along with some other songs that I can’t remember at this point. Lots of oldies, though.

Busy couple of days, part of the busy-ness being due to the trip to town, which always takes waaay too much time, if you ask me. (I know, you didn’t, but what the hey. Hah) But anyway, we had to go to town, first of all to get a tab thingy for inside mom’s toilet tank. It had been leaking, and what with all the holidays going on, we had to time it right to get to town while the stores were open.

Had to get some groceries as well, such as dairy products, which, regretfully one can never buy too much of in advance. *sigh* The reason we stayed away ‘till after three in the afternoon was because we went looking for a store where they sold solar power. You see, your batteries of the solar panels are degrading, and we really need to get our hands on a set of new ones. But first we would like to know the prices, you know, so we can chose what we’re going to have to sell, an arm or a leg. Jeez. It was all for naught, though, once we found the store it turned out that the tech who knew the prices (yeah, apparently the woman working there was just eye-candy) wasn’t in, so we’d have to call at a later time.

Right. There went one customer. I know, that sounds weird, but I dislike when business is done that way. I think one of the biggest reasons why people don’t buy solar power is because it is so much work to get your hands on it. I tell ya this, if some smart entrepreneur would make them available, like off the rack, in an average electronic store, or a mall, people would start buying them. I mean seriously, who wouldn’t by a new flat screen that’s a few inches smaller so you’re able to afford a panel that will provide you with free power for it?

But okay, we got home and got to work on the wall under the house again. While grandpa made cement, Dani and I added another foot to sections of the wall. We got to talking about possible jobs and I am now pondering the idea of trying to find a market for my meat substitute patties. They are working so well these days, that it would be wasteful not to try. But we’ll see how that works. I’ll need to make some preparations if I really want to go through with this, and be willing to spend time on it. We’ll see.

Didn’t finish masonry around twilight, at which time the greenhouse and seedbed had to be closed and I headed down to the old pool apartments to help big brother make some electricity repairs.

After that followed the day’s edit and some net surfing while I went searching for a nice location for the next book. Ended up looking at real estate in Oklahoma, just to get a feel of the architecture over there, and the general atmosphere. Found some cute houses for sure. Hah.

But anyway, I got to bed a little late, which led to me having some trouble getting up in time this morning for workout. Yay. No matter, though. Had a good one anyway, priming me for what was going to be a long day.

First up was breakfast, though, (that is after the usual batch of laundry and cleaning a glass partition in the house) and boiling a batch of rice for supper. I like to have that sort of thing done in the morning so I only need to do the finishing touches later on.

There was a quick foray into the yard, consistent of hunting bugs in the plants (lost another cauliflower to core rot, darn it), yanking out weeds and getting a handful of chickweed to see if I can make something eatable of it. Recently I discovered that beside the purslane (edible plant) we also have this chickweed in our yard, which should be totally edible. I tried it raw and it to me it tastes like a mix between spinach and chard, which is awesome.

That done I fetched tenant and walked her down to the basin terrace where she was going to spend her afternoon now that caregiver was off to her other job. We walked at a rather brisk pace, which meant that big brother didn’t make it in time with her chair. This of course forced me to head on back up to fetch it for her anyway, but no matter, I got my extra workout today anyway. Hah.

Once I got her settled, I went back up and started loading up the first wheelbarrow with rocks and dirt because grandpa was still doing something else. Then, I went up to peel some pumpkin and get broccoli, which I took down (on the full wheelbarrow) with a cutting board and knife. Tenant was kept busy cutting the lot while I started hauling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow to the wall.

The dogs love this particular part. They keep running along, up and down, up and down, until they get tired and then they find a vantage spot where they can keep an eye on me without all the exhausting walking. Hah. That meant that half my dogs were snoozing in the sun in the lower garden, and the other half lay on the terrace in front of my cabin, also in the sun. The only one who kept the "dogging" up was Labhana, which is good because she's still a little fat. Hah.

Had a short break after wheelbarrow eleven, which I spent with tenant, chatting and helping her a bit with the pumpkin that was turning out to be pretty tough for he to cut. It was so ripe that it was almost like cutting through stone. Luckily that doesn’t matter when you intend to use it for soup.

Ended up with sixteen full wheelbarrows, filling up quite a bit of the gap, allowing for easier access in the future…like tomorrow since we really have to haul rocks down again, hah. I made a rough estimation and figure I hauled about 2500 pounds of dirt on my own, and big brother, who took over from me after four because I had to see to tenant, added another 1000 to that, I’m guessing. We’re getting there, but whether we’ll have enough dirt to fill it all, remains to be seen.

Dirt hauled, tenant back up to her bungalow and it was time to start on supper with the veggies tenant cut, and the rice I cooked in the morning. I was in the mood for fried rice today, and fried salted peanuts, coconut shavings and an onion before adding a curry mix that made the rice absolutely delicious.
The chickweed worked out well. I actually liked it a lot. I’d prepared it the same way I do spinach and that was a success. Heck, even grandpa liked the taste. I love finding free foods among weeds. Hah.

After that I needed a nap, I really did. I slept for about 70 minutes, and could have continued on, but didn’t because there is this blog, of course. Which reminds me, I have more to do, in particular editing, so I better leave it at this.

More wall stuff

Song of the day: “Hollywood tonight” by Michael Jackson, of course. Not his best song, but the clip is fun, and whenever I watch it, it will stick in my head for a while. So there you have it.

Busy couple of days with heavy physical labor, so on the most part I don’t really mind that we skipped a couple of days’ worth of workouts. Yep, workout consisted of hauling rocks, and let me tell ya, that works splendidly. Hah.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s do this right and start at the beginning of yesterday (whether I remember enough we’ll have to see, but I’ll try anyway) while gradually working the blog to today. Okay, let’s see…

Started the day a little late, but that was semi-planned considering the “no workout” plan. Hah. First there was the usual laundry, of course, quite a bit of it too, followed by scrubbing one of the glass and wood walls in the house. It’s been a while since I did that, and it is visible.

Next I headed down to the greenhouse and raised seedbed to open them up to the sunshine…which was still iffy considering we’ve been having a considerable windstorm raging overhead. And when I say windstorm I mean freaky hard winds that’ll knock you off your feet if you’re not careful.

Had to unload the car after breakfast, which was very interesting to do in that wind. Luckily we have a closed gate now, though, blocking the worst of it and allowing a semblance of peace while we sort through messes and decide where to haul them. It was more than the last few times (donations, you know) and there’s this cute little Moroccan table I’m going to restore to see if the sibs can sell it at the market.

But no matter, we decided to work on the wall in front of the house, meaning that we were out of the wind and in the sun. In one word: Awesome!
But anyway, we added another foot to the length of the wall, including a particularly low piece where I put a two-hundred pound rock, which almost was too much…well, it was too much, since I could only lift it about two inches before I had to resort to pulling and pushing. But anyway, with brought the wall up considerably. Yep. Made excellent progress, and finished most of the rocks we’d hauled in…meaning another hauling session. Yay.

We were pretty much running on fumes by the end of the afternoon, and since tenant had spent the majority of the day nearby, reading in the sunshine and well out of the wind too, we headed on up to heat up the leftovers of the day before with a bag of macaroni for filling.

Had to head into the village afterwards, get some lamp oil and another batch of sand since we’re going through a lot of it while working on the wall. Since we were out anyway, I decided to take Knight II for a short walk too, and he liked it, I think. Took him on a trip around the block and he kept nicely to heel.

There was a short edit, often interrupted by big brother’s problematic computer of the moment. He still hasn’t sorted it all out, and is pretty much consumed by the dratted thing for hours on end. Ah well, luckily we’re not in a hurry or anything. Besides, it was not as if I sat there twiddling my thumbs. I do still need to finished the first edit (so it’ll be legible for big brother at least) and am not sixty pages from the end.

Sleeping didn’t go well for some unfathomable reason last night. I lay awake for at least an hour, itching all over the place. Heck, at some point it drove me so bonkers I stripped down to check if there was anything crawling around in my PJs. There wasn’t so I had no choice but to dress again and try again. Successfully this time, but too short a night after all.

Today’s workout consisted of hauling over twenty wheelbarrows of rocks down to the house. It was a good workout, admittedly. First loading them up, wheeling them down, and then unloading each and every rock onto the ledge under the house (chest height) until my every muscle trembled in complaint. In other words; a perfect workout.

This “workout session” followed another big batch of laundry that had to be folded, while a new one had to be hung. But anyway, the rocks done, it was high time for breakfast, (and making dough for patties) at which time big brother took the Land Rover out and parked it where I could unload it from the 1600 pounds of sand we’d left in it for the night.

Must have pulled something right then, because my shoulder has been friggin’ hurting ever since. I think I’m going to have to hang on the pole for a bit again, might have dislocated it a little like the other time. That really goes way too easy these days. Grrr.

Checked the greenhouse for bugs again (opened her up too) and yes, found the buggers digging through leaves again. Heck, I even captured a couple of massive caterpillars that were trying to fade into the background by imitating branches. I sure showed them. Hah.

Helped tenant down to my terrace, where she could sit out of the wind, and while she sat there, big brother to the opportunity to trim the eucalyptus that robs her of most of the sunshine. Since he was busy with the chainsaw anyway, I asked him to trim the other tree as well, so for the next bit we were busy hauling branches down the mountain where they will have to be stripped of leaves, cut into pieces, and then piled into a dry storage spot.

I worked a little on the little coffee table for a bit, and then remembered that I still had to fix the controls of the main stove in the big house’s kitchen. They sure don’t make them like they used to. Those knobs started giving the spirit a month after we bought the dratted thing. But anyway I made three simple replacements so they are manageable, and with big brother’s help fixed the fifth (biggest) burner by taking out a rusted screw and adding a new one. Works like a charm now.

Worked a bit on one of the broken covers of the old bus, and then had to leave that to big brother because Sally needed a ride to work. Once I got back I went down to give big brother some supplies and then went to the greenhouse to close it all down. Apparently, while I was making patties this morning, big brother shifted all plants around, which took me by surprise for a bit. Hah.

That done, we had to hurry a bit. Twilight was already falling, and we really had to hurry if we still wanted the time to pick out a new batch of rocks. Almost didn’t make it, time-wise and physically for that matter. Boy, there were some rocks there that I almost couldn’t lift due to being low on foodstuffs. I’d only taken the time to nibble on some crackers since breakfast, so the first thing I did once we got home start on dinner.

Used the patty dough to make pan crusts, and made an Italian vegetable mix to top it off. Added some parmesan and voila, instant pizza…sort of anyway. It was tasty regardless.

Which brings us to now. A little worse for wear, a little more tired and totally ready to call it a day…now if only there wasn’t an edit to see to, eh?
Hah.