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.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
The Wall
Song of the day: “Ain’t no mountain” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel. Such a cute little song…and easy to remember, which is always a plus.
Busy couple of days, mostly involving “the wall”. Yep, since we need to dig a section out behind my cabin, the wall under the house just got shifted back to priority. Seeing as it will be a perfect spot to get rid of dug out rock and dirt, and since we would have to haul it from elsewhere otherwise anyway, we figured we might as well connect the two.
As of yesterday, a foot or two got added to about fifteen to seventeen feet of the wall. Cement was hauled, shovelled up and rocks flopped into the soggy beds until we literally ran out of rocks…which annoyed the heck out of me and made us haul a double amount down to the terrace today. I kid you not, it was some serious hauling for sure today. I think we brought down a ton or two, along with a couple of REALLY interestingly BIG rocks that I couldn’t get onto the wheelbarrow on my own. It was a fascinating (not to mention giddy) experience to get them scooped up, since I refused to wait for big brother to come up and do it for me. Hah.
But anyway, we should have enough down there to add another two feet to the entire length (23 feet) of the wall. I’m actually looking forward to that, seeing as those terrace doors of the house have been shut for years. Can you imagine being able to walk out of them and stand on a terrace surrounded by tree-high reed, a big ol’ fig tree and bamboo. Very cozy.
What else? Well, after the morning chores, and getting the laundry hung, I headed out into the yard to check the veggie plants for bugs. Same went for the greenhouse and raised seedbed, which could be opened for some fresh air. It was sunny after all. Since I was out anyway, I gathered herbs from the yard to make mom a cream she needed. Worked out really well, by the way. Incredibly good for the skin, not to mention that it smelled delicious.
There was some clothes mending last night, a harried looking sweater with a hole big enough to let a hand through, which I sewed shut while watching Red Planet with Carrie Ann Moss and Val Kilmer. Such a fun movie, and unlike so many movies today, still possessing characters that are interesting.
More garden work this morning, including checking for bugs again…not to mention weeding and gather foodstuffs for supper. Decided to go for a rice and veggie dish, covered by a satay sauce…despite the fact that big brother’s macaroni leftover from yesterday was looking mighty tempting. Hah.
Other than that there was fire to make, wood to haul, cleaning to do, and little things to see to, while the dogs trundled along all the way…except for Chaos, naturally. Poor Basset hates the winter and will while away the hours on the bed if he can get me to lift him up…since he’ll be whining pitifully and shivering otherwise, I’m usually easily persuaded. Gada too is getting a harder time of following, though Gawd knows she tries. Her poor arthritis hind legs are having a harder time carrying her every day…and she’s getting skinnier again. Darn age anyway.
Well, that about sums it up, I guess. I still have to go out later tonight, another donation, and I better do some edits before then. Been doing very little of that for the past couple of days (only two pages yesterday) because due to the computer problems, big brother has been working with his computer for the majority of that time. Luckily I didn’t need to twiddle my thumbs since I am still working my way through the first edit. Hah.
Okay, better get to it then. Not much interesting stuff going on, but life gradually moves along as usual. Hah.
Busy couple of days, mostly involving “the wall”. Yep, since we need to dig a section out behind my cabin, the wall under the house just got shifted back to priority. Seeing as it will be a perfect spot to get rid of dug out rock and dirt, and since we would have to haul it from elsewhere otherwise anyway, we figured we might as well connect the two.
As of yesterday, a foot or two got added to about fifteen to seventeen feet of the wall. Cement was hauled, shovelled up and rocks flopped into the soggy beds until we literally ran out of rocks…which annoyed the heck out of me and made us haul a double amount down to the terrace today. I kid you not, it was some serious hauling for sure today. I think we brought down a ton or two, along with a couple of REALLY interestingly BIG rocks that I couldn’t get onto the wheelbarrow on my own. It was a fascinating (not to mention giddy) experience to get them scooped up, since I refused to wait for big brother to come up and do it for me. Hah.
But anyway, we should have enough down there to add another two feet to the entire length (23 feet) of the wall. I’m actually looking forward to that, seeing as those terrace doors of the house have been shut for years. Can you imagine being able to walk out of them and stand on a terrace surrounded by tree-high reed, a big ol’ fig tree and bamboo. Very cozy.
What else? Well, after the morning chores, and getting the laundry hung, I headed out into the yard to check the veggie plants for bugs. Same went for the greenhouse and raised seedbed, which could be opened for some fresh air. It was sunny after all. Since I was out anyway, I gathered herbs from the yard to make mom a cream she needed. Worked out really well, by the way. Incredibly good for the skin, not to mention that it smelled delicious.
There was some clothes mending last night, a harried looking sweater with a hole big enough to let a hand through, which I sewed shut while watching Red Planet with Carrie Ann Moss and Val Kilmer. Such a fun movie, and unlike so many movies today, still possessing characters that are interesting.
More garden work this morning, including checking for bugs again…not to mention weeding and gather foodstuffs for supper. Decided to go for a rice and veggie dish, covered by a satay sauce…despite the fact that big brother’s macaroni leftover from yesterday was looking mighty tempting. Hah.
Other than that there was fire to make, wood to haul, cleaning to do, and little things to see to, while the dogs trundled along all the way…except for Chaos, naturally. Poor Basset hates the winter and will while away the hours on the bed if he can get me to lift him up…since he’ll be whining pitifully and shivering otherwise, I’m usually easily persuaded. Gada too is getting a harder time of following, though Gawd knows she tries. Her poor arthritis hind legs are having a harder time carrying her every day…and she’s getting skinnier again. Darn age anyway.
Well, that about sums it up, I guess. I still have to go out later tonight, another donation, and I better do some edits before then. Been doing very little of that for the past couple of days (only two pages yesterday) because due to the computer problems, big brother has been working with his computer for the majority of that time. Luckily I didn’t need to twiddle my thumbs since I am still working my way through the first edit. Hah.
Okay, better get to it then. Not much interesting stuff going on, but life gradually moves along as usual. Hah.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)