A bit wrecked.

Song of the day: “This is it” by Michael Jackson, which is a welcome change to yesterday’s “Barbie girl” by Aqua. Hah.

So yeah, I’m a bit wrecked, seeing as I’ve been incredibly busy (physically) for the past couple of days. It all started out with the work-out session of an hour and a half the day before yesterday. Seriously, it was going so well, I just kept at it and...well, I didn’t even pay for it in the morning. Hah. Nope, what really did me in was unloading the car on my own while big brother and grandpa went to the village. Seriously, hauling ‘bout 1600 pounds of rock on your own ain’t nothing to sneeze about. *sigh* Last night I was so tired I was seeing spots.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I. There was other stuff to do...though now that I mention it, for the life of me I can’t remember any of it. Hah. Let me just check with big brother.
Well, there was gardening, of course. Not that much, seeing as the weather was extremely cloudy for this time of year. Seriously, the sky has been pretty much completely covered since Tuesday. Heck, we even had a bit of rain, which meant that we only had to spray the seedlings once.

The beans are doing rather well in this weather. Coming up like...well, the beans they are and looking eager to start climbing on the constructions we still have to build for them down there.

Bit of bad news, one of the dogs (Sita III) is feeling a bit poorly, the poor darling. Mom and the sibs took her to the vet just yesterday to do some tests.
Nothing yet, but let's just hope that it is a flu kinda thing that passes on it's own. This month's expenses are already going through the roof.

Besides hauling rocks down, and a trip to pick out flat stones for the stairs big brother is putting together, last night, we also spent a couple of hours working on the wall last night. It’s coming along nicely. We’ve got more than half up to head level, and the stairs are four steps high. There will be a massive bulwark (on which the stairs is made) holding the wall in place to boot, so with a little luck that wall will still be there a hundred years from now. Hah. Yep, I definitely am of the A-Team mind. “Overkill is vastly overrated” (or something along those lines) hah. And boy are we doing overkill! I soooo do not want to have to fortify that wall again anywhere in the foreseeable future.

There was a wonderful cooking session, just yesterday. Sure the weather was wonky, and there was actually some rain, but not bad enough to bother us under the cover at the basin terrace. On this ancient, one-burner, I cooked macaroni and then a mix of fresh cabbage, tomatoes from the greenhouse, some onions from the yard and loads of herbs from my herb garden. Yay. It was yummy. I had no idea that white cabbage was eatable with tomatoes, but there you have it. Hah.

This morning, after just barely managing to get my butt out of bed, I had to stick my head in a tile of water, just to wake up. My ankle was throbbing (I think I twisted it a little when we got rocks last night) my knee didn’t agree with me, and on the overall everything was sore enough for me to have to do ten minutes of stretches just to be able to move like I wasn’t a hundred-year-old woman. *sigh*

Well, it’s about time to finish working on the in-between-project (keeping my fingers crossed, because I really want to start on something new, darn it) and then head on down into the yard for watering, checking, weeding and such. Then, maybe another trip for flat stones, gonna need lots of those and we’ll need to sort through the offering (big ol’ pile) to find the ones we need...oh wait, nope. Today is sand hauling day, darn it. Gotta get a new batch, because we are going through our stash like mad. Ya can’t believe how much cement you need to build a wall like ours. Hah.

Pics and dialogue

Okay, as promised here’s Bakti II pictures. Aaaaawwwww.




Isn’t he a cute little Mutt? Makes ya break out in baby talk, I tell ya. Hah. Turns out I had his age wrong, though. He's 12 weeks, or so. Ah well, still a baby anyway. Hah.




Seriously, his whole body is barely the size of Knight II’s head. It’s just weird. I was downright scared to even pick him up. I'm used to waaaaay bigger ones. Hah.




*sigh*

But anyway, here’s the Song of the day: Well, there’re two today, actually. “Apple Jack” by Dolly Parton and “Don’t worry, be happy” by Bobby McFerrin. Sometimes I wonder about these combinations that keep popping up in my head. I swear, yesterday evening I had “I need you” by LeAnn Rimes and “I hope you Dance” by Leann Womack chasing through my brain. Do you suppose it was the Leann bit that connected them? Hah.

So, yeah, yesterday was a friggin’ busy day, and I barely spent half of it at home where I could do something useful. Luckily there was still book work. Another few pages got added to the in-between-project, so yay, and yeah, there’s actual writing involved still, so I am psyched.

The weather has been wonderful, even though right this instance clouds are rolling in, which freaks me out because I was so enjoying the wonderful high eighties, low nineties temperatures. Seriously, I was pondering breaking out the summer clothes, digging into storage, putting away winter stuff, but then...there’s the clouds again, with even a threat of rain! What is this world coming to, this is friggin’ Southern Spain for crying out loud, and we’re about to enter June of all times. I’m supposed to start sweltering just about this time of year. *sigh*

But, let’s get back on track. Yesterday: The day started a little late, seeing as I slept through my alarm...which I absolutely hate. There’s nothing that screws with your day than starting off being behind on schedule. Messes with my head I tell ya, and because of it I had to rush through the morning rituals (another thing I hate) and laundry and...well, by then I was back on schedule and headed out into the yard.

Hmmm. Nothing like spending a few hours in the sweltering sun (yep, there was actually some sweltering involved yesterday. Wonderful) early in the day, before it is time to retire in the wonderfully cool shade on the terrace. Seriously, it is a marvelous spot. Got a view of the sea, the valley and loads of flowers from where I’m sitting right now. The added bonus is that it is basically the only spot on the property where there is at least a bit of wind 95 percent of the summer...once the temperatures hit the triple digits that is really something you learn to appreciate.
Now those remaining five percent...those are the days you just want keep quiet and wait until the summer is over. Hah.

After siesta time (a lot of places around here are closed between two and five) big brother and I headed back Malaga to pick up the Land Rover. Luckily the repair didn’t cost all that much, at least not when it concerned parts. Apparently a pin had broken, meaning that they had to get into the transmission and replace it, costing us a solid five man hours. Yikes. Expensive little mishap, but luckily still affordable. Considering they were in there anyway, they also added oil to the transmission (apparently there was five liters missing for some odd reason) meaning that we won’t have to worry about that for another four to five months at least. *sigh*

Now, we were supposed to go past a big domestic appliance store on our way back to pick up an affordable fridge for tenant, but big brother forgot and raced right past while I tried to gesture him off the highway. Heck, I even tried to call him, but alas,there were way too many coppers on the road, and we got to town before he finally got a clue and pulled over.

Let me share our dialogue, because it was hysterical...in particular if you imagine me hanging out the passenger window of the Land Rover, while big brother sat behind the wheel of the Daewoo Matiz (which is tiny...in particular compared to big brother who is like a giant).

Me: What are you doing?
Big brother: What do you mean? We had to pick up that stuff first, right. *He looked confused.*
Me: I tried to phone you two or three times. Why didn’t you pick up?
Big brother: No you didn’t. I’ve got the phone right here. Didn’t hear a thing. *Held the phone up in demonstration.*
Me: I did. Two or three times. *He checked.*
Big brother: I didn’t hear.
Me: Uh-huh. Now we gotta go back. *I looked at him meaningfully*
Big brother: Back?
Me: Yup. Back.
Big brother: Back where? *he blinked confusion*
Me: Malaga.
Big brother: Malaga. Why? *I rolled my eyes.*
Me: Appliance store. Fridge. Cheap. Ring a bell?
Big brother: “Fri...ooooooh. Shaite. I completely forgot.
Me: No! Really? *He nodded, sighing deeply.*
Me: Park the Daewoo, we’ll pick it up on our way back.

So there we went, tearing back over the highway (luckily the Land Rover is nicely frugal on the highway) and heading right back to the city. There was one more fridge available, so after finally getting some assistance from the two-men counting staff (seriously there were like thirty people there, with only two guys to help customers in that particular section. I know because I found one in the computer game section who was picking his nose, and send me right back to the dudes that were busy). But anyway, when he did finally come to help us with our purchase, he requested assistance from big brother (had a bit of a misunderstanding there, since I thought he asked me, and I was already lifting the thing up when I realized that he meant big brother behind me, hah. Didn’t way a thing.) But anyway, looking at the verge of bursting out laughing, like me, big brother “helped” the dude drag the fridge to the register where we paid and passed through within ten more minutes.

We barely didn’t make it to our appointment of picking up donation stuff for the sibs’ and mom’s market stand. Since we had to go out anyway, we offered to pick it up. Turned out that it was too much for one trip, so we loaded it all up with the fridge, headed on home, unloaded and then headed straight back out to get the remainder of the donation. In fact we didn’t get home from the second round (folks had been nice and left it outside for us) ‘till after one in the morning. *sigh* Gotta love them all-nighters.

I can assure you that I was more than happy to see my bed (and dogs by that time) but, of course, I didn’t get to bed until ‘bout three in the morning, meaning that I got too little sleep, again. Ah well, who needs sleep anyway.

This morning mostly involved unloading the car, sorting through the donation stuff, helping tenant because caregiver was out on her other job again, and then heading down to water some of the new plantsies (Chinese cabbage is coming up, yay...at least, I think it’s yay, because I never actually ate it, hah.) before the heat of the day really settled in...hey, things cleared up again. Phew.

Well, I’ve got more to do, so I’m going to leave the blog at this and say by bye.

New pack member

Song of the day: “The Chiquita Banana song”, you know, of the commercial? I’m a Chiquita Banana and I’m here to stay...blah, blah, blah. Very annoying to have in your head. Just to mess with your head I should post it here so you can enjoy it with me. But I’m not that cruel, so I’ll just suffer on my own until a new song takes its place...knowing my luck that will be ‘round next month by the time I’m screaming mad from this one, and wearing a straight jacket. *sigh*

So what have I been up to? Your guess is as good as mine. Hah. Seriously though, I’m thinking here. Well, on the most part there was gardening, of course, seeing as we’re heading into summer there’s a lot of that going on most any day. Weeds are there to be plucked out, water needs to be given, and plants need to be pruned and checked. Yep, ecological farming takes a lot of work in that regard, ya gotta pluck them weeds, rub off those lice, and remove molds, bugs, and disease rather than spray chemical stuff to do it for you.

I’ve gotta admit that sometimes I wonder what is worse about store bought veggies. The stuff that IS in it, or the stuff that is NOT. I mean, think about it. Iceberg slaw floats on water with fertilizer, for crying out loud. Sure it is nice and clean, but what’s a little extra protein (bugs and whatnot) compared to stuff that you could use as carpet cleaner? Hah. Hmmm. Do I sound like a tree hugger?
I don’t mean to, I’m just trying to be sensible about this sort of thing, in particular since grandpa (farmer, remember) studied this kind of stuff for years for his crops, used it liberally too, and fully knows how dangerous it really is.

Okay, what else? Oh, right. I dug seven big holes last night for the wooden structure that’s in the plans for our raspberries and brambles. There will be an L-shaped pergola like thing that will support the vines as they start on their way to adulthood, so to speak. So now we’re eight poles further (big brother dug one hole, hah) for which grandpa is going to fix up the slats in the near future. We do still have to plant two brambles for the construction yet. But then, oh my, can you imagine walking through that L-shaped tunnel with brambles and pink and yellow raspberries? I can. Heck, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Hmmm. I also did a nap yesterday. I was so friggin’ tired I could barely keep my eyes open while working on the computer. Still, we managed quite a bit of work on it, bringing the in-between project another step closer to completion, yay.

Tenant hit another milestone today. We walked over her little courtyard without the aid of her cane. I mean seriously, though I held her bad hand, more for balance than actual support, she went the distance twice, not doing bad at all, even though she would of course disagree. She thought she was moving ungainly, but like I told her, for someone who couldn’t even walk at all just two years ago, she was moving perfectly. Hah. It requires practice, is all. Another good thing is, we are practicing her dexterity and working on getting her able to touch her toes while she stands. We’re getting there.

On to the dog news. What with little brother losing his Bakti the other day, we now have a new member in the pack. An abandoned black and white (6-8 week old) pup, named Bakti III as of today, from the local animal shelter. He’s adorable, he’s tiny and the dogs were fascinated when little brother brought him home this morning. Seriously, he’ll fit fine in the pack that knows how to welcome pups in their midst like old pros. It will be fascinating to see which old-stagger is going to jump in the breech for babysitting. One usually becomes most prominent in that.

Been doing a lot of research into Irish legends again, what with the Brendan (ATOL sequel) story going through my head, and am definitely leaning towards trying to fit in a banshee or two. The first meeting is going to be absolutely hilarious.

There was some cooking involved this morning, of course. Seeing as tenant’s caregiver was out to her other job, I took the opportunity (after morning exercises) to cook a lentil lunch for us. Seeing as later today we’re heading for Malaga with the Land Rover...oh, I had I mentioned that yet? Well, there appears to be a problem with the low gear stick, so we’re taking her over to the garage to see if the the problem can be fixed without me having to sell my kidney, or something, to pay it.

Well, gotta go, so much more to do today...though if the car is going to be out of commission for a bit (likely, since repairs always take so much time) I’m going to have some time on my hands in the evenings. Hah.