Love recycling!

Song of the day: “Black Velvet” by Alanah Myles. An oldie, but still awesome. Heard it again the other day, and it’s been going through my head ever since.

I better start with yesterday and see where it’ll get me. From fear of blanking out I made a little list for myself so I could keep track if the worst happened. Hah.

First off, yesterday morning, we started the day with a good workout and clearing out the car, preparing it for today when the younger sibs would need it to load for the market tomorrow. Wow, that’s a confusing sentence, isn’t it, it has a yesterday, today and a tomorrow in it. Hah.

That, and breakfast over and done with, we headed out into the old horse paddock and jacked up the Opel. It’s been making a racket of late, and we wanted to check if there maybe was a hole in the muffler. We couldn’t find anything, and after checking everything we could out, decided it couldn’t be too serious (crossing my fingers, knocking on wood and all that carp).

There was a sharp wind yesterday, but the sun was out so we took tenant with us down into the yard where she sat in the sun while big brother and I worked in the greenhouse and yard. There were quite a few caterpillars to annihilate, along with leaf miners that just make it their business to take all the green stuff from the leafs. Seriously, there are times I’m surprised at finding the bugs every single day, in particular the bigger ones since I basically check every single leaf at least once a day. Somehow one or two escape my notice every time.

Since I was working in the greenhouse and tenant was helping big brother cook, I took the opportunity to fill a couple of big pots and putting in new tomato plants. Regretfully the leaf miners I playing rampant within the tomato plants and we’ve already lost quite a few.

After supper we headed on out to the village where we got a new fire extinguisher and inquired after getting the other two refilled. Apparently doing a refill is half the expense, so we’ll definitely be doing that in the near future. Also got a bucket of paint, considering we found another slat with some sort of termite in it, meaning that, for safety, we’re going to have to redo my cabin completely, lest we risk the wood to the eager little buggers that literally eat their way right through everything. Saw the larvae for the first time, by the way. Perfect horror story material, in case you’re wondering. A white ribbed, legless creature with this huge, cross like mouth that eats its way through wood, for crying out loud. They gave me the willies.

Shopping done we got another load of rock, loading up the car completely and letting Knight II meander about all the while. Not that he does a lot of running, or anything, but at least he gets some movement. *sigh* He’s soooo lazy.

Once we got home there was the usual edit of course, along with an internet search of real estate in the US for back ground research we’re doing for our next book. Got some nice locations, if I do say so myself.

For a change, I was in bed on time…sorta. 1:30 is definitely earlier that usual for me.

Woke to rain this morning, which made workout an interesting endeavor. I was on my own for a change, and was about halfway in when there was a phone call from grandpa. He was in the village and had been surprised by a flash flood that had soaked him and his moped straight up to his waist. Turns out, in his attempt to avoid the sideways downpour, he’d gone through the center of the village where all those tiny little streets open into, meaning that the water had no place to go except up, much to grandpa’s and other traffic’s chagrin.

Before big brother could go and pick him up, we first had to unload it of the rocks, meaning that there was a slight change in routine for me during workout. Hah. Luckily lifting rocks is not a bad way to get the muscles warm.
Once big brother was on his way, I finished what I could of the session, because what with the bad weather I had to drive caregiver to her other job too, rather than have her face the downpour.

Once I got home and checked on tenant, I went down for a much needed shower. My limbs were chilled to the bone, so I really have to be more careful in the future. Within an hour I was sore all over, making lifting Chaos on the bed not at all easy. Poor Chaos doesn’t like the cold at all, and it won’t surprise you to hear that he slept on the bed for six straight hours without a peep. Jeez. I don’t know how he does it, but he was psyched with the beauty sleep. Hah.

Big brother was back round then, and we headed into yard to check that everything was doing well. The basin is steadily filling (Yay!), and I found a few more caterpillars. More beans are finally coming up in the raised seedbed, and the pepper plants in the new lean too, were enjoying the moist heat for sure.
Everything checked we headed back up where I changed into dry clothes and hat. I’m loving my new Goretex boots, by the way. Went through puddles, wet grass and bushes, and they looked soaked through, but kept my feet dry. Double Yay!

Lots of rain and thunder going on for the majority of the day.
And since there wasn’t much else we could do we worked in the carport for the most part. But first we had to attach a big slate of granite in the corner of tenant’s room, which will hold her stove soon.
Afterwards, while big brother worked on a measuring stick for the basin, I took an old cupboard apart, getting out screws and anything else useful, for personal recycling. There’s nothing I dislike more than wasting building materials.

That done, I got metal plating from storage and prepared the section for tenant’s window that I had to cut with the angle grinder. It will be time for her stove again, so we need to finish getting it back inside. This meant that I had to cut the metal, make a perfect circle in it, and replace one of the small windows in her new doors so we can stick the tube through. Had a nice piece of metal tool. It was from the old geyser, so the white paint matches her door perfectly. (See. Gotta love recycling.)
We’re all set to put that stove back.

The rain stopped at last by then, and the sun actually broke through, and since big brother and grandpa went down to check waste water tracks and such, I took the opportunity to put away my clean laundry. Seriously, what with the wetness and cold, Dax has decided that my clean laundry is the perfect spot to cuddle up in, meaning I had to get it stored fast. One bag had to go back to the laundry, however. *sigh*

What followed was a meal of leftovers, which we made into a full meal by adding pancakes for dessert. By then the clouds had really broken apart, making sitting down on my terrace a pleasant experience since for about half an hour we were in the full sunshine…right before it dropped behind the distant horizon.

Which brings us to the now, doesn’t it. You’ll be pleased to know that Chaos (my Basset Hound, in case this wasn’t clear) was impatiently dancing in front of me, crooning rather pitifully right until I gave in and said, “Okay. Go then.” At which point he stormed into my bedroom and jumped up to stand against the bed, waiting for me to lift him up (I am so happy that my bed is too high for all except three of my dogs. Can you imagine how many of them would be on it if it was lower to the floor.
But anyway, delightedly Chaos flounced about on the blankets, threw his head down on the pillow and let the rest drop in an elegant flounce that had him prostrate and asleep in less than a minute. *sigh* I sometimes do realize that I have dogs that are absolutely crazy.

Going to edit, so…