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.