Momentous decision

Song of the day: “Born this way” by Weird Al Yankovich. What can I say, I’m in a really, really strange mood.

So, I would like to say that all is well at the moment, but it isn’t not really. Since I got back, I’ve had maybe one day that I didn’t need to go anywhere, meaning that I feel seriously stressed out. Can’t be helped at the moment, I fear, but it is starting to take it’s toll.

What can possibly have taken so much time that two weeks have flown by, I hear you wonder. Seriously, you do not want to know how often I’ve visited my insurance agent (she was a darling, I tell ya, but I really don’t need to see her that often) went to the garage, a lawyer (on the assistance of my mechanic) and all for…naught, really. Yes, they finally agreed that I was entitled to 600 bucks for towing (yay) the car to the garage of my choice, only downside was that already 232 of that was already spent on towing the Trooper to the French garage where it had been stored (for a whopping 8.50 per day) for the past two weeks or so. So that meant that from the moment I made the decision to take the car back to Spain, I would have needed to pay that myself, and since I would then have to arrange for the tow to actually happen so much money would go down the drain that in the end we just had to give up on the Trooper and let it go. So, figuring that the insurance is not going to waste more time and money either, the poor Trooper is probably junk now. Such a pity. 

Moving on, and all that, I find is very difficult at the moment, but we are. What with the losses of funds due to the disastrous trip, the car’s break down and consequent loss, and all those little things that have been eating at what is left of our savings, big brother and I have both come to a momentous decision: Within a few months, we will be moving back to the Netherlands.
 

Yep. For the both of us, the Spanish adventure has definitely come to an end…and added to that we are going to have to find work, which is not something we feel we can do here in these troubled times; at least not enough to make a difference in the way of life that we’ve all been used to. Changes are going to have to be made, the biggest of which being the dogs.

We’ll be looking for homes for some of them, while the rest of them are going to be staying here with mom and the younger sibs, who have decided that they want to stay here and make a go of it. So for the time being big brother and I will be trying to send some money home every month and hope that it will be enough to tide them over until the younger sibs have found work.

Talking of the dogs, we lost Jelly and Matti this past month, the first of old age, and the latter had to be put down because little brother found him in serious agony one morning, basically incapable of movement. Some serious tests later, it turned out that he had a degenerative disease in his spine that made the disks grow out of shape until it paralyzed him. Scary thought that. Had never heard of something like it before.

Also had a big scare with Clue the other day. Big brother were on our way out of the house when the silly dog decided to jump out the window (about 5 foot high) and somehow managed to land wrong. He was lying there, seemingly completely paralyzed, blood on the floor around his head, and his breathing shallow, looking more like some sort of spasm. We seriously feared that he’d snapped his spine, and were more than a little weary about doing anything. So I went to get the Land Rover while big brother and middle sister carefully slid him onto a wooden board.

Next we carried him out, and rushed him to the vet, fully expecting to have to put him down.
Strangely enough, about half way there, he was raising his head, a few blocks away he was trying to sit up, and by the time we got to the vet he was walking again…albeit wobbly, and more cheerful than a drunk who won the lottery. The vet couldn’t find anything wrong with him, thankfully, but did put him on an anti-inflammatory and diuretics because it was clear that he knocked himself out hard enough to almost croak. He seemed drunk and extremely happy for several days, but has slowly turned back to his serious self. At least he’s okay.

We have been working constantly on the Land Rover. Now that we have made this decision we really need to sell it, for so many reasons that…well, no matter the reason, there really is not much of a choice. It feels like I’m losing the last thing (besides the dogs who are not things, thank you very much) that was a part of life here in Spain, so that is hard. Will have to get over it. If for no other reason than that there is no time to mourn it all. We’ve got our tickets arranged and they’re set for mid-July. Fast, eh?

No sense in postponing the inevitable, I guess.

Another thing that kept us busy is figuring out all that needs doing once we’re back there. There are long lists of places we need to go, folks we need to talk to, and of course finding a place to live. At first Cousin Ed and Tenant will be there to “catch” us, so to speak, but that should only be temporary, of course. Can’t mooch off them, despite their assurances that they’d love to have us there. Everyone needs their own space.

In regard to my varicose vein, I went to see a surgeon and heard the disturbing news that to get lasered the whole thing would cost a 1000 bucks, which I don’t have, of course. But Cousin Ed has offered to loan me the money for the operation, so I’ve told my doctor to proceed with the arrangements. Monday I will have my pre-op exams, and that same evening I will meet with the surgeon again, at which time we will talk about the whole procedure and get it all sorted. They think that we can get it all done within a couple of weeks, so let’s hope that it works out. That way I can have it all done before moving away from Spain.

Grandpa has slowly recovered from the trip somewhat, slowly getting used to a very different way of life. There are often times that he doesn’t know what to do with himself, so I have suggested that he go along with Tenant to her “daycare” meetings and see what that is all about and whether he would enjoy something like that. I just hope that he can find himself some sort of purpose over there.

Been going to the gym, of course, an average of four to five days a week, regretfully not with T, who has been too busy, which has been my saving grace really. I would have gone nutters without those workouts, that is a fact. This is definitely not an easy decision to take, but what can you do, really. Sometimes you have to let go and see where life takes you, rather than grittily holding onto that which you know.

Well, more has happened of course, but it is late once again, and I HAVE hit the highlights, so I’m

going to leave it at this. I need a glass of wine and then I’m off to bed.

So strange

Song of the day: “If I Die Young” by the Band Perry.

Hmmm. Well, it’s been a strange couple of day. On the most part tenant has been giving us fits. Yesterday was pretty darn horrible, drinking wise. No matter how you explain, and how often you remind her, she keeps refusing. Gave us a bit of a scare too, since her pee was a tad pinkish. Even called an ambulance yesterday evening to check that, but they said it was fine, probably just from where the tube is attached to her kidney. Then again today, I mean seriously, what is wrong with her? We are going to make an appointment to have her brain scanned in Malaga, because this is just too strange. There are times when it seems that she deliberately trying to get our knickers in a twist, or something, which isn’t what we’re used to with her. Luckily her doctor in the village suggested that we do this, so that’s definitely going to happen at some point in the near future. I can tell you that it is vastly disturbing and sad to see her this way.
We have an option for a temp carer, though, making everything a little less heavy all the way round, giving caregiver a little time off. We’re going to talk with two women tomorrow and see if we can get to an agreement.

There was plenty of laundry again, along with dog food for and other chores. I know, vastly interesting, right? You’re psyched, I know. Hah. Life is going steady as you please and I for one don’t mind all that much at the moment. I am slowly recovering from the flu. The cough is almost over, and I am losing the cough. Yay.

Yesterday we had a pretty darn good edit. Managed at least five pages, which is a first in a long time. Of course today we barely managed one, but what the heck. I’m getting ahead of myself. Where was I? We had to go out for a bit, grab some groceries for mom and the sibs.

Big brother and grandpa have been working on grandpa’s bathroom, installing the new toilet. It’s a pain, because the new model is of a different design than the old one. While they were doing that, I was working in the kitchen, making supper for us, as well as for tenant, who has a developed a strange yen for salt-less food. Made a vegetable barley mix with some chicken for her that worked rather well.

Got my first customer review for Saving Nina’s excerpt yesterday (Thank you Teresa), which is always exciting, naturally.

Big brother is still suffering from a bad cough, which didn’t put him in the best of moods today.
Not that I saw much of him early in the morning. Mom wasn’t feeling all that well, so I offered to take our friend to the airport in her stead. This meant that I had to get up at 6:45…which almost went wrong because my alarm gave the spirit again. Luckily I had asked grandpa to give me a shout if I didn’t come out on time. I only had to rush a little to be up by the car in time.

Middle sister came to get the lodging dogs, and friend and I set out toward the airport. Made good time, in particular since it was still early in the morning and the traffic low. Then of course it turned out that the main road to the airport was closed off, meaning we had to go the back way, but I dropped her off on time, so all was well. The way back I decided to go on country roads. It’s never smart to drive highways on your own when you slept only four hours, so that was much safe…not to mention more enjoyable. Hah.

Got home to a whole list of chores. No time for edits either since laundry was waiting, along with dog feeding time, and then down to the main house where the big freezer was going haywire. Had to take it apart and attach a new electrical wire before it was fixed.

Next the washing machine, which had somehow managed to become unbalanced again, meaning we had to fix that too. Not good for the machine, that.

Third chore of the day was go back up to grandpa’s bathroom and work on the installation of the toilet. It took some time, but we did succeed in the endeavor, even before grandpa returned from the village. By then I made some broccoli soup, so Sally would have something healthy to eat today (I didn’t feel like out and out cooking, so we opted for French fries with nuggets tonight) . But the soup worked out so well I had myself some as well.

That done big brother and I studied a bit of our Spanish, as promised to out teacher last Wednesday. My brain feels like mush so I don’t know how much gets stuck in there, but I’m trying and that’s what counts.

Took a nap right after, because my short night caught up with me. Slept wonderfully, thank you very much, and would have continued doing so if a call of nature hadn’t rudely interrupted me and reminded me that I was still supposed to edit today. Hah. My dogs also really liked that, plastering themselves to me for the duration of the nap.

So we edited, a little, put the dog food on the stove, ate our own supper, and…well, that’s about when the day came to an end with this blog. Time for some real horizontal stuff, and on to the new day.
I can hardly wait!

Dog stuff

Song of the day: “International Love” by Chris Brown and Pitbull. I know, how superficial is that, but let’s face it, it has a nice tune despite the fact that the lyrics are incredibly racy. Hah.

First off, writing. Didn’t go bad the last couple of days. Made good progress and added a solid amount of pages to the story. The scene I was writing worked out well. Got it set in 1918, in Romania, so the research the other day paid off at least. The nice old lady in the story, turned out to be not all that nice, hah, and the hero, well, he’s the tortured type faced with a massive dilemma and all that. That’s the best part after all. Hah. But anyway, it is going well, and so far I’m happy with the progress. Let’s see where tomorrow gets me.

Okay, we had a busy day both yesterday and today. Yesterday it was vaccination day, of course, and it started early with the arrival of the vet at around ten thirty in the morning. We had everything ready, so it wasn’t bad at all. I helped filling the syringes, and we went through the dogs in record time. They had their physical, the injection, the pills and then on to the next one. The vet is always wonderfully surprised at our well behaved dogs, and the speed with which things get done on this particular day of the year.

The all behaved well, too. Knight II didn’t even try to bit the vet when he got both his shots. Dax tried to get away, but then froze in my arms while he got examined and then injected. Sitabah was a little trickier, she tried to go every which way, so in the end I had to put her in a headlock and keep her in place until she was done. The only other one that showed any trouble in the end, was young Bakti, who’s just so scared that he gets blinded for anything except fleeing.

A couple of dogs are going to need to go to the hospital one of the these days. Their teeth are in a bad way, and the vet really thinks it would be best to clean them properly. Also an ear infection, and keeping a close eye on Jelly, who should not be developing a fever now that he’s had his rabies shot. The booklets went along with the vet, and we’ll get them back sometime next week when they should all be filled in and brought up to date.

That done, big brother and I fed the dogs, and headed down to the basin terrace for the days writing and breakfast. Tenant joined us too, and spent a large amount of the day cutting zucchini while cousin Ed cleaned out pots for canning. We did plan to do the actual canning too, but never did get around to it, since we had to go into the yard and then out for another donation thingy. Gawd, we’re out a lot these days, really rather frustrating. In particular since the Opel appears to have a short circuit somewhere and won’t start at all. We had planned to look at it, but never got around to it. Instead we got home late, where I only managed to add two more pages to the book. Hah.

I was terribly late getting to bed, and that made me totally blurry and out of it when the alarm went off this morning. Like yesterday I rushed through the morning chores, laundry and such, and then fed the dogs before big brother went up to fetch the big bathtub. Dog dipping day! The ticks were starting to drive us to distraction (seriously they were everywhere) so we decided to get the chemical stuff again and one by one dipped the dogs in the liquid.

Knight II went through the ordeal without a hitch. He just stood there and let me douse him over and over until his whole fur was wet. Chaos just looked at me balefully, wondering what all the fuss was about when I dunked him. It was as if he was saying, “Really, boss, if you wanted me to roll in it, you could have asked.”
Dax almost went apoplectic. Sitabah somehow managed to hook every single paw on the edge of the bath before I grabbed two paws per hand and just dunker her completely. She hasn’t looked at me since. Hah. Gada didn’t care either way, and Labhana, well, she was wondering why I bothered.

As for the rest of the dogs. There were the spasmodic ones in the end. The ones that knew something was off the moment we started dunking the first dog and disappeared without a trace. Sneaky bastards, really, two of them managed to dislodge the baths plug while we were trying to treat them, for crying out loud. In the end, big brother and I were treated as thoroughly as the dogs and headed down to the terrace to start on the writing once more.

There was the canning, of course. Boiling two big pans of zucchini, transferring them to the pots and then boiling the pots until they were properly sealed. Added to that was the cooking…missed a couple of meals this week, and I didn’t want a repeat of that. Leftovers are sooooo easy. Hah.

There were the chores in the yard, today and yesterday, naturally. Got all the herbs sorted and put a new batch in the drying cupboard.
A quick trip to the village, and then it was using wedging up the Opel so we could get underneath. Did find a loose wire, which I fixed, at which point big brother got the Land Rover so we could jump start the car. It started fine, and we left it running for a bit before I drove it to the village to pick up Sally from work.

By the time I finally got home it was almost dark, and I was starving, so I decided to binge on cornflakes and get it over with.

And that’s it, I think. I’m sure I’m skipping stuff again, but let’s face it, it matters none. This is all the time I’ve got left today. I’m so tired right now, I’m cross-eyed, so I better close this off and start getting ready for bed. *sigh*

Diesel

Song of the day: “Come on” by Will Young. Still a good song.

I’m going to do a rush job. I’m late and I wanna be in bed on time tonight, darn it!
So yesterday. Well, it was busy, and I was out and about for five hours later in the afternoon so I was not a happy camper. Grrr.

There were morning chores, of course, dogs to feed, dogs to pet, dogs to search for ticks and dogs to chase when they left with my cheese! Aaaargh. Hah. No matter, though. There was plenty to do. Cousin Ed and grandpa were out to the dental lab. Grandpa’s teeth fell on the floor last night, so he had to have it fixed. He could come pick it up later in the afternoon, which we’d do once the car could be picked up. Got that call around noon. Our suspicions were confirmed. Somehow a few liters of petrol ended up in our diesel (we still haven’t figured out how) meaning that they had to drain the tank and change the filters. There goes the savings of this month, eh? Ah well, at least it was nothing more serious. I could come pick up the car at any time.

Tenant opted to stay up in the old horse paddock, she was so comfortable, she claimed, that she just wanted to sit there quietly writing her letters to her elderly relatives.

Over breakfast big brother and I did some Spanish, and then noticed Sally coming up from her apartment. Gawd, she’d cut her own hair and it was standing every which way, with uneven ends, so I told her to sit down so I could do some damage control. Hah. Seriously, I couldn’t let her leave the house like that. Having rather thin and slow growing hair, I usually don’t get folks who say, “Ah well, it won’t matter that I cut it wrong. It’ll grow back”. Drives me bonkers, I tell ya.

Little brother succeeded with his theory exam for driver’s license the other day, so he had to go to his school around four, so we agreed that he and mom would drop me off at the garage, which meant I had about two hours to write before that time came. Got some good stuff down, so I didn’t mind having to head on up to get changed into something a little less casual and headed for town.

Chatted with the mechanic for a bit, who assured me it shouldn’t be a problem. They drained the tank, poured in some diesel and a big splash of oil. They advised me to put in two tack oil as soon as possible then drive with it for a bit, and then fill her up again. Talked some with the receptionist as well, who told me of the shocker the other day when she came back to the office after she’d been gone a couple of minutes and found the cash box emptied of over five hundred bucks. Seriously! Can you imagine it. That’s gotta hurt.

But anyway, went home in a bit of a rush because grandpa had to be brought to the dental lab again to see if they fixed the thing right. (First had to unload the car, though. Was filled with wood.) The guy working there is a really nice guy. He doesn’t fuss about grandpa not talking Spanish, and isn’t bothered that he has to get grandpa to mimic him. He gave excellent service, even did the lower section so, yay. Finally the darn thing is no longer hurting. Strangely enough the dentist didn’t manage that feat.

The car is still sputtering a little, like she’s a little drunk, hah, doesn’t want to pull up the mountain as hard, but that’s supposedly going to get better once the oil and diesel have fully replaced the petrol.

Were home a little late, but I still did manage to add a few more pages to the book at the end of the day. Got my daily quota at least. Yay. Of course it did make me late getting to bed, which is a pain in the behind. Grrr.
We got loads of mosquitoes by the way, and I fully blame the basin for that. Seriously, they’re in the thousands, and they’re big suckers. My room is teeming with them every night.

Which brings us to this morning where I woke somewhat dazedly, wanting little more than turn over and continue on. Didn’t of course, there were once again chores to do, dogs to feed and a book to write. Got to it ASAP too, doing only forty minutes of Spanish before I started on the writing bit. Managed almost four pages this afternoon, finishing only to help big brother cook. He did spaghetti and cheese, while I made a veggie mix on the side. Worked out well enough, I just didn’t much like the paprika powder I used.

That done we headed down into the yard where we watered and harvested for the day. Zucchinis have gone into a little bit of lull, which is good, seeing as I didn’t much like the idea of another batch of canning right now. Way too busy what with the four to five hours of writing every afternoon.

There was a rather wonderful wind blowing fiercely this morning. Regretfully it stopped around three in the afternoon, which had poor Chaos breathing heavy and Labhana hiding in Sally’s bathroom. Hah.

Tenant opted to spend the day with mom in the house today, so basically it was a quiet afternoon all way round. Had a nice dip after the yard, which was wonderful. The water is still somewhat cool, pretty clean, and I was properly refreshed to cut dog veggies for yesterday’s meal.

At the same time, Big brother made a lamp for terrace in front of my cabin. Since we’re doing most of the night computer work there, the darkness was driving me absolutely bonkers. So right now I’m standing in the glow of the night light, with the wind blowing around me like mad, keeping the mosquitoes at bay (yay) and making it wonderfully cool while I’m writing tonight’s blog.

Which means I’m done for now. Yay. The dogs are restless, and they really do want to go to bed (past midnight after all). So do I for that matter. Hah

Brain blank

Song of the day: “Next to me” by Emeli Sandé. Only recently stumbled on the music of this artist, but she’s definitely catchy.

So I’m drawing a blank here, which is vastly annoying. I mean, here I am, ready to start blogging, and I have not a clue as to where yesterday morning started.

Oh right. I remember dreaming I was in town (I slept rather deeply, both today and yesterday. Literally startled awake at the alarm) just when this massive alarm went off. Some sort of attack had started and huge trucks rumbled into town, soldiers in hazmat suits ushering people (and me) into a large parking garage where they proceeded to cover every exit with heavy black rubber. We, me and the sibs, were more or less huddling together, and just a loud boom sounded, I woke from the alarm. Very strange. I guess I could have fully described this dream, but let’s face it, I’m late, and this blanking thing isn’t helping me get on with it.

First off yesterday morning was laundry of course, followed by a quick session in the pool, cleaning out debris and such, sweeping the floor taking out sand and algae. It is a slow process, this cleaning bit, but since otherwise we lose hours on it, it will have to do. If everything works out…did that cleaning bit again this morning…we should be able to start filling the pool again tomorrow morning. Yay!

Next, we fed the dogs, of course, followed by breakfast and then headed out to the village to pay our taxes. Something changed, apparently. It is now, no longer allowed to pay at town hall, but you have to do it through the bank, so after getting our “bill” it was up the village mountain to my bank where the payment had to be arranged for. Normally you can only pay this kind of thing on Tuesday, but luckily the director knows me well, and offered to do it for me on Tuesday, so I can pick up the paperwork on Wednesday. *sigh*

That done we had to head to town to check with the insurance company, if the new wagon is included with the Opel insurance. It is, thankfully. Apparently everything under 750 kg is fine. I was much relieved.

Next it was on to the sports store to buy tenant a pair of hiking sandals. What with her precarious balance, we decided on getting her a pair like mine, which have and edge that prevents slipping out on the front. They fit so, yay!

In the right side of tow anyway we also dropped by our garage to check if the new rubber pads for the brake and clutch of the Land Rover had arrived yet. They hadn’t, in fact the receptionist had no idea what I was talking about, so she made a note, and would give me a ring as soon as she got her hands on them. Turns out that due to the bad economy they’re going to have to move shop to across the street. The nice receptionist wasn’t happy about having to paint her new, very small office, but there was no choice. I find it a good thing that they’re downsizing. It is, after all the only sensible thing to do when finances are not sufficient.

Once we got home, I headed out into the yard and spent about three and a half hours hosing plants. What with the rising temperatures, liquid evaporates at an incredibly fast rate. Most of the plants start hanging around noon, so that tells you something. Since I was busy there anyway, I also harvested our supper. Today was another yard day, of course, more watering, more harvesting, including dog food. Got a variety of that, so the dogs should really be happy tomorrow morning. Hah.

Supper yesterday was a hasty affair of fresh tomatoes with veggies on Spaghetti, since big brother and I worked on the box for the classic car’s transport.

Also worked up in the old paddock to fix the trailer. The wiring had to be reattached, the axles painted, and the wheels put back in place.

Edits, naturally. Not a lot, though, since we were late settling behind the computer. Managed only a handful of pages but we’re getting there…soon, I’m hoping.

And today? Well, I still have to get to it, so I’m going to call this a blog and leave it the heck alone.

Feeding time

Song of the day: “Never no more” by Patsty Kline. Boy, do I have a lot of Patsy in my head. It should drive me bonkers…and yet it doesn’t. Hah.

First off, I spent yesterday morning messing around in the kitchen (I soooo want my outside kitchen. Seriously, I’m going to start building that soon) and making a couple of cream/rice/vanilla tart. It turned out slightly different than the last one, but that’s what makes experimenting so much fun, doesn’t it? Decided to top this one off with raspberry jelly, and I can assure you that it works just fine. The next time I’ll skip the coconut shavings in the crumble bottom, though. It’s not that it was bad, or anything, just a tad prominent, which didn’t go as well with the raspberry, in my opinion.

The weather was nothing if not wishy washy yesterday. Grandpa called it real Easter weather. One moment it was hot as heck, and the next a cloud would slip in front of the sun and it would be downright chilly. Had him swear on several occasions while he was turning earth in the upper terrace. Hah.

What with the large batch of bread we managed to get our hands on, we’ve been making dogfood ourselves for the past few days. That meant that both yesterday and today was spent on mixing up foodstuffs (boiled veggies from the yard, leftover food from the fridge, old bread and kibble) and then feeding it to the lot. They love it, I assure you. In particular the oldies who clearly remember the old days when they would only get home made food. *sigh* If only.

Next we fixed the home trainer bike the lady of the fence gave us for tenant. She wasn’t using it, so we took it home, took it apart and fixed it up. Works just fine…maybe even better, seeing as tenant sits straighter on it and is able to stay on longer than she can on the other one. She’s most pleased with it. Hah. In fact, she used it for a full seven minutes after I helped her climb on.

Tenant settled, we headed down the yard where I spent about an hour watering the terraces. Everything is doing pretty well, and since there was some food of the dogs left (enough for this morning) I didn’t need to get anything from the yard except two cauliflowers which we ate for our own supper

Next it was back up to the kitchen to make supper and following that up by an edit, the day quickly came to an end. *sigh*

We had a short scare that Cousin Ed’s dog might have killed the wild cat that we have wandering about these parts, but late last night we saw it moving around outside the gate and it looked perfectly fine. In fact it was chasing after something, so it really was alright. *phew* Vastly reassured.

Regretfully I woke from a nightmare this morning. I would elaborate but it was just whacky, so there really is no point to it. Let’s just say that it had some basis in an old movie I saw once. It involved Liz Hurley (I know, weird, right?) hunting dogs, some crazy dude with a godly hunter complex and…well, let’s just say I was breathless when I woke up. So weird.

Another feeding session with the dogs, which went just fine. They’re loving it, the attention as much as the food. Hah. That done, and with tenant joining us down by the basin (she offered to cut veggies for the dog food tomorrow) cousin Ed and I got rid of our shoes and planted about thirty of forty cauliflower and broccoli seedlings. Since there was some space left afterward, I also put in a handful of onions. All in all that was a splendid day, in particular since afterward I headed down into the yard (very carefully due to the bare feet, of course, hah) for some harvesting. Got another small cauliflower. Some broccoli, a whole batch of Kale, which the dogs are going to enjoy tomorrow, some chickweed, alfa alfa and two big nopales which are all part of the big pans of veggie mixes that are boiling even now on the stove. Boy are they going to enjoy that tomorrow. We added some pumpkin too, for protein, you know. Did most of the cutting and dicing with tenant, who likes being useful, and listened to the racket when the owners of our visiting dogs arrived and took their lot along.

By the way, it is weird to see how some dogs despise the fresh veggies and go for the kibble with broth, while others sort through the mess in search for pieces of vegetable as much as they can. I mean it, Abacara loves boiled cabbage, she will literally fight for it. Heck, even Knight II is eating well at the moment. Though I put his bowl in the standard for him, he will eat a bite or ten there, and then spent the rest of the half hour eating a bit here, there, and then the next. For the Knight the grass is always greener on the other side. Hah.
As for my fat boys and girls…Labhana, Gada and Chaos, along with some others like Indigo, Ama and Tadaika, those we have to put out in the carport lest they eat ‘till the bursting point. Hah

It was not a good market day, apparently, but that probably had something to do with a massive fire going on at some sort of wood factory near to where the market is located. All in all, it wasn’t all that bad, but they’ve done better.

Other than that…well, what with the watering, cooking supper and picking up a small donation in town, the day quickly came to an end. Did eat more pie, though. Hah.

Well, gotta go. I’m running way behind.

On the job

Song of the day: “The Flood” by Katie Melua…gawd, I hope not, seeing as I’m at the job at the moment, digging holes, and we’ve just been forced to take a break due to the rain coming down. It has been doing that for a few hours now, and we already had to take a thirty minute break earlier because there was an increase in the water flow then too. Hah. I also had the song “I thought I’d lost you” by Miley Cyrus and John Travolta. It’s on the cd in the Opel, so it got stuck for a bit. Hah.

But I’m getting ahead of myself again, aren’t I? Let’s start this properly, and get back to yesterday. I was up just a bit too late for a proper workout, so I had to do without because I had to head on down for the usual morning chores. That done, followed by breakfast, and settling tenant on my terrace, we headed on down into the yard for the usual rounds. It was at this time that mom informed me that the lady who possibly had a job for us had gotten into a bit of an accident over in Malaga, and that she would be coming over to see if big brother could fix the back door enough for her to travel with it next week.

We were about halfway into hosing everything down when she arrived and we headed up to see what could be done. While the lady visited with mom and tenant (leaving tenant with a 7 week old puppy, which psyched tenant, of course) big brother managed to fix the locking mechanism at least, while I discussed the specifics of the job of putting up her fence.

In the end we decided on starting the next day (ergo, today) despite us being without the Land Rover (market day tomorrow, remember?) and thus needing to drive the Opel up the mountain into the country. It was quite a ways, but we managed just fine.

But anyway, since there was a down payment, we headed out to the construction and get most of the supplies. Was an experience, in particular since the guy at the building company was in such good mood that he didn’t even make a problem. Loaded everything up, checked out gates, and then headed home with all sorts of calculations in our heads.

Then there were edits (not a lot, but a few) catching up with messages, and chats before it was time to go to bed early. What can I say, we had to get up at seven in order to get to the job in time. There were a few chores to do beforehand (such as they ever existent laundry, ya know) and then gathering up food for the day before heading out in the friggin’ Opel. Seriously, whoever designed that car should be shot and then hung at a castle wall somewhere. You have to break your back climbing out, and to get in, you basically have to fall inside. Grrr. And then I’m not even talking about how it scrapes over anything that sticks out three inches up from the ground. Grrrrrrrrrr!

Arrived on time, phew, and after a short talk with the “boss lady” we went to work, measured everything out (three times, hah) and then got to digging. Boy, did we dig. I had figured we’d manage ten at most, seeing as there were stones, rock surfaces and just plain hard packed clay, but in the eight hours we were there (it started to rain by the way, twice we had to take a thirty minute break during the worst of it) we managed to dig a total of 23 holes. Yay. Most of it, in fact. Now we only need to dig three more pole holes, and ten supports and then we can start on pouring the first concrete. The corner poles are first for that, by the way. Most tension will be on those, so they’ll need the longest to dry.

While we were there boss lady got home with a bunch of puppies which she’s going to find homes for in the near future. Lemme see if I can get a pic on here…

Nope. Not today. I'll get to it later. For a flash of a second I regretted that we have so many dogs, because in that second I regretted having so many dogs already. Then of course I remembered all our own little darlings and could just enjoy the puppies for a bit before they were put in the back where they could recover from the trip.

But anyway, on the overall it was a productive day, and we got home at around eight in the evening with the dogs being absolute insane. Can’t say I blame them, poor sweeties. It was a long day without us (10 hours at least, since the trip to, and irrevocably the one back, takes about an hour) but according to cousin Ed and grandpa, they behaved relatively well.

What followed was cleaning up the leftover food, filling bags with sand, getting a couple of bags of cement, and counting out the poles that we’re going to need tomorrow.

Once we had pasta and sauce Cousin Ed made for us, it was down to our computers and editing the two pages that we hadn’t managed yesterday. Then there was this blog and now I still have to go over my messages and such. *sigh* Gotta go.

A day on the road

Song of the day: “The Banana Boat Song” by Harry Belafonte. Still a good song.

So I am totally late today. Since I wasn’t home most of the day, that wasn’t surprising, but I’ll get to that later.
First off, let’s start on yesterday.

I slept really long, partly due to the fact that I was absolutely exhausted the night before. Seriously, I was nauseous from it, and could barely keep my eyes open. Finally decided to just give up on the edits and got to be early…which meant I slept a couple hours more than usual and woke up completely sore the next morning, hah. It was worth it, though. That was a nice night. Hah.

Spent quite a bit of time with tenant, what with caregiver being at her other job again. Ended up settling her in the sunshine on my terrace with some pumpkin and tomatoes to cut for supper. That done, it was time to head on down into the yard where plants needed to be watered and a small reed fence needed to be build around the new field where big brother and I planted a batch of potatoes.
What followed was a quick harvesting session, including the wonderfully fresh ingredients for the vegetarian hamburgers I planned to make for lunch, and which worked out so well that we were all a little disappointed that I’d made only two per person. Hah.

There was another trip to town, which I won’t bore you with, and by the time we got home it was too late to cook supper. Instead we had some fried potatoes while we worked on the edit and went through a solid four pages at a sturdy clip.

Which brings us to today. I was up in time for a change, and decided to do a good workout. Went well, I’ll admit, and managed a full session in record time. It felt good. Yay. I’ve been missing the workouts somewhat fierce, and since I was getting more achy with every passing day, I really didn’t want to postpone it any longer. Did the usual hour and a half, of course, and then had to rush through the morning chores.

Managed to fix the second hand 3 heater gas stove that we got the other day. There was gas leakage all over the place, so I took the darn thing apart, cleaned out all the tubing, knobs and whatnot, and yes, success! We had plans to get to work in the yard, but then we got a job opportunity out in the country, for which we had to drive quite a distance to see what all was involved. I’m optimistic about the possibility, despite it being a big job. If we get the job, big brother and I will be out working for about a week, putting up a fence of about 230 feet. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Hah.

It was a good trip, however. Beautiful country up there, traveling through olive orchards that spread out across countless hills and mountains. Got to play with a puppy (perro the agua) and some other dogs while we tried to fix a geyser to boot. Potential client had a hankering for a shower after having to do without for two weeks. Aaawwww.

But anyway, we’ll see how that goes. Afterwards we had to head to town to pick up a load of bread. We are seriously pondering to get the dogs accustomed to homemade food again (on a bread basis) because it would definitely improve their health. You wouldn’t believe how much sick dogs we’ve had ever since we were forced to go for kibble. Homemade stuff made them much healthier, not to mention did their teeth a world of good.

Suffice it to say that when we got home tonight the dogs were absolute ecstatic. Poor darlings had been without us for a solid nine hours, and didn’t like it in the least. Knight was absolute bonkers, and Chaos has been looking at me balefully ever since he came sauntering up the mountain to greet me. I’ll be giving them an extra petting tonight for sure, poor darlings.

No edits today, no time I’m afraid. And since it is already past midnight, I am going to have to cut this short.

R.I.P. Amri

Song of the day: “The Pessimist is never disappointed” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Strangely enough it stuck in my head this afternoon. But considering the events of the day, that’s no big surprise, I guess.

Let me just start by saying that I had a crappy night, mostly due to the fact that it was friggin’ cold and thus the dogs kept squeezing up against me with Knight II actually squeezing in-between until I almost toppled out of bed (being even colder). It was my own fault, really, since I should have gotten my lazy bones out of bed and closed the door. Of course I didn’t. I would just grumble at the dogs, slap at some butts and snooze on until I was completely sore from curving into all sorts of angles.

Woke up with a massive headache, and being chilled to the point of needing a really, really hot shower. Since Amri (brown colored crossbreed, and I can't find a friggin' picture at the moment) was feeling poorly last night I decided to take him to the vet tonight. He’s not been himself for a while now, losing weight, while his tummy stays swollen, so after doing the morning chores we left for the vet and had him checked out because what with him drinking a lot as well, it could be a tumor, or his liver, or his kidneys.

It wasn’t good. The vet touched his stomach and didn’t like the feel of it. She tested his urine, which indicated that his kidneys weren’t working properly, at which point she made an ultrasound where it became very clear what was wrong. Apparantly the majority of his swelling was a tumor attached to his spleen, and what with the values of his pee, his kidney’s were most likely affected as well.

Amri went through the procedure with his usual aplomb. The shaving, the catheter, the prodding, the cold gel, but it was all for nothing. Sure, the doc could operate extending his life (not at all pleasantly) for another six to twelve months at the most under the best of circumstances, but all in all it was a bleak view of his future. I looked at him, the way he was lying in my arms looking rather vague about it all, and decided that I couldn’t do that to him.

He went gracefully, without a fuss, his head in the crook of my arm while I petted his neck and held him close until it was over. Crap!

Amri always was a proud dog, an alpha and for him to be reduced to that, it just wouldn’t be right. Gawd, I still remember getting him. It was in 2001 and we were visiting friends who ran an animal shelter. Sometimes, when Friday approached they would call us telling us of some splendid dog who had been placed on the terminate list, and we would be over there, walking amidst the cages and taking dogs week after week.

This was one of those days. We had come to rescue a young female German shepherd when I passed a cage and saw him sitting there. A small bundle of brown with a black snout. His fat little tummy bulging as he sat in the cage and then trundled over to get to bounce against the gate to draw me nearer. I was hooked. On him and his brothers, who were following right behind. Amri, Tayana and Asam. They were all gorgeous, some sort of boxer mastiff mix, undoubtedly, and maybe some Rhodesian Ridgeback thrown in to keep it interesting.

Amri wasn’t a dog prone to showing affection. But he was always there at a distance, coming over for only a daily petting and then just going his own way until it was time to go to bed. Always very composed, serious to the point of being grumpy in fact. He couldn’t stand puppies, but Gada was definitely the one he could stand best. Wherever he went she would bug him. And if I held her back, he would run ahead and bark in anticipation, waiting for her to catch up.

Gosh I hate it when this happens…and so unexpected. Seriously, I was still preparing for Gada, who won’t last much longer (or at least, I think so) if her hips are any indication, and then this. It really felt like a punch in the gut. Don’t you just hate cause and effect? Starting out (taking in dogs) you really don’t think about it. I mean for more than a year we blithely took in dogs, and now, as the years pass and the end of decade has come and gone, the consequence is digging in deep. Yes, lots of love and pleasure, and frustration, and aggravation, and more love, but also this: the losing bit. Not nice. Not nice at all, but a fact of life.

But enough about this. Spending the majority of the afternoon in the yard helped me numb things out for a bit (that works best in this situation, if you must know) and we planted more than fifty plants, which had to be done after all. Since we were busy anyway, we also sowed several rows of beets, which made up for the big field.

Afterwards we reconstructed the fences around the fields, because let’s face it, the dogs really like going through the freshly turned earth. Oh, before I forget, the first three cauliflowers are almost done. Yay. Looking forward to eating those.

There was the tent-flap door to repair in the carport. What with the storm of the past couple of days, it really wasn’t something we could postpone much longer. This followed a hauling session of dogfood. The delivery truck arrived in the late afternoon and the forty pound bags had to be hauled down to the storage where we had taken out the last few to check for mice again. Somehow the little buggers keep coming back, while we keep closing smaller and smaller holes. I really wonder where they’ll enter through now.

As for yesterday…not much of interest except for the fact that big brother and I almost got in a car crash. Yep. A car crash! It’d been raining most of the morning (started right after workout) and we’d been forced to head for the phone shop where our router was waiting.

Oh, in regard to big brother’s computer, the computer doctor says it will be several days before we can come pick it up. And we had so wanted to connect those two trips. But anyway, we were on our way home, actually not speeding for a change and went slip sliding into the railing on the passenger side of the car (my side, in this case). I remember saying, “Dude!” grappling for the door handle, as we bounced off and found grip again, and rolled down my window to see how bad it was.
Couldn’t actually see anything, so big brother kept going (4 mins away from home after all) until we got home and out to see.

Not too bad, all in all. Just a small dent in the front right panel, which we could (or so we saw after a short investigation) remove relatively easy to bend out again. All we needed to get was a new flashing light and some car paint…the latter will be tough, but the first should be here tomorrow or so.

But gawd, it was cold while I was working on the car outside. I’d put on several layers, a wool/alpaca sweater, turtlenecked T, fake fur bodywarmer and a leather jacket. I had gloves on, a baseball cap, hoody, gloves, and still almost froze my butt off. Got most of the bolts loose in the first three hours, at which point big brother was smart enough to suggest to put the car in the sun, which we did prior to getting those last pesky bolts that allowed us to take the panel off. Yay. Unbending it took a relatively short amount of time compared to the taking apart bit. Jeez. I was frozen solid all the way through.

The three dogs that we agreed to board for the next week or two arrived yesterday as well, by the way. A big golden mastiff/shepherd mix, and two crossbreed sisters will be spending the nights in my office, giving them some peace and quiet away from the pack. Their owner had to travel for work, and since she had no place to take them, mom offered to take them instead. Luckily the dogs don’t seem to mind so much. I for one know that mine would go absolutely bonkers if I left them somewhere for longer than a couple of hours.

As to the evening…the temperatures were low (low 40s), the winds high and the stove could barely keep up. Did a good edit, though, and actually got some writing done. We decided that I needed to add some extra background information to the story, meaning that I’ll be writing a prologue with a “what happened before” scene.

And now I’ve spent way too much time on this blog. I better get some more writing done before this day is fully over and I pass out in bed…looking forward to that, by the way.

Okay, I’m outta here.

Ouch, ouch, ouch.

Song of the day: “Disturbia” by Rihanna. Totally inappropriate for a splendid day like today, but there you have it.

Been incredibly busy for the past couple of days, and yes, I have held up to my part of the deal (one I made with myself, of course), I have exercised every single morning for the past three days. Three days ago I…well we decided that it was time to do some serious cowboy-the-f**k-up…ping (I know, it’s not a real word, but I like it anyway) and schedule in some workouts. And we have, in spades.

There was punching, kicking, weight-lifting, jumping kneeing, sit-ups, push up, Aerobics and everything else that fits into an hour and a half workout. I moaned, groaned and puffed, but I made it through three sessions so far…and paid for it dearly.

Muscles trembling, but wonderfully warm, I headed down into the yard with big brother. While he went down to water plants, I headed into the greenhouse and discovered a new pest in the young tomato plants: leaf miners! That sure is a first, pesky little bastards are eating their way through the leaves and since discovering I have cut out at least fifty of them from no more than thirty plants. *sigh*

After that came groceries, and basically I knew it was going to be vastly interesting by the time I realized I almost couldn’t step into my jeans. Hah.

Nope, yesterday was no walk in the park in regard to my muscles. Every step screamed complaint, and that while it was grocery shopping day. I kid you not, but my head didn’t even bother to complain about this particular day. Instead there was a constant “ouch, ouch, ouch” as I went in and out of the car (slowly, infinitely slowly) in and out of the stores (more than a little wobbly) and tried to ignore the persisting agony. Hah.

Seriously, though, it was not that bad. I know the pain of workouts and I actually kind of enjoy them, because I know that I did it right if I can barely raise my feet to get up a stair. My only miscalculation was that we basically started the day before grocery shopping, darn it. Like today, for instance I have basically gotten used to it.

Ah well, no harm done in the end, the groceries got done, and Nata got to stay at home since his fever was completely gone. We did have to go to the vet (after grocery shopping) for her to take out the drip needle, and to check his fever one last time.
He appeared fine, and his test results showed that his liver was having trouble, but nothing else, meaning that with a ten day antibiotic course, along with a thirty day diet, he should be fine. Nata for one was thrilled to go back home with us again.

Of course we were so friggin’ tired by the time we got back, what with unloading, storing, etc., that we didn’t get around to doing a lot of editing. In fact, we did a single sentence before we both decided to call it a day and head to bed early…good thing too, since the alarm went off seven hours later…time for another workout.

Starting went incredibly slow, but once I got my muscles warm it wasn’t half as bad as yesterday. Got all the way through the session and afterwards headed up to tenants to make soup for supper, and prepare chickpea patties for either tonight, or tomorrow.
That done I hung tenant’s laundry as well, considering caregiver was at her other job again, and then helped tenant out to the old horse paddock where she could read in the sunshine.
The plan was that we’d work on fixing the trailer, but then reconsidered and headed down to the carport (with tenant) to work on stuff there.

For the past few weeks so much has been going on that we have been unable to finish stuff. Meaning that big brother started to do woodwork and gadget fixing while tenant helped me sand and wax the cupboard that has been waiting in the carport for weeks now to be put in my bathroom.

Hung that, and then got so annoyed about the mess all round that I cleaned the bathroom, and washes all my windows. Hah. Looking good now.
That done, I went in pursuit of big brother to see how his cabinet fixing in his own room was going…and got annoyed with the spider webs in the patio and big brother’s room because of it.

There were so many of them that most of the woodwork had disappeared. So I tackled the lot with a broom (mom’s ceiling too) and then grabbed a cloth and cleaned the linen closets as well. Might as well go for broke, eh? It all looks a lot better now, and once we had that done, and ate soup with bread, we headed down into the yard once more.

Harvested six pumpkins, some tomatoes and several zucchinis. Supper is going to be good tomorrow, that’s a fact. Hah.

Well, Nata has been following us around most of the day, and having fun to boot. Just five minutes ago he came toddling up the slope with an empty carton box in his mouth. Next he proceeded rip the box a bit, which gave him tremendous satisfaction, I would say.

This is it for today’s blog then. Soon in about fourteen posts, I think, we will reach blog 700, yay. Who’d have thunk it three years ago that I would hold out that long, but there you have it. 700. I still have trouble believing it.

The Knight...aaargh!

Song of the day: “Opposites Attract” by Paula Abdul. Gosh, it has been ages, but who can blame my after looking her up on Youtube yesterday. There were others too, but this is the one that stuck.

First off, The Knight is driving me absolutely bonkers. Seriously, I love him like…well, I love him, but seriously, after almost a week of bruising because of that friggin’ cone he wields like a lethal weapon (had to fortify the stupid thing with steel and bolts, ya know), him yanking off his bandage at least once, but sometime twice, or thrice a day, and NEEDING to lie on top of me the moment I try to get some sleep, is wearing me down. The idiot, why I just oughta throttle him…which would be totally unfair of me, the poor baby with his mutilated tail. But I’ve gotta rant for a bit. Yesterday, I decided to leave his tail open for a bit, allowing the wound to dry a bit, but then, the moment I didn’t pay attention to him, he licked the mess open, removed two more stitches and was bleeding. I berated him thoroughly, and he looked properly castigated afterwards. In fact he hasn’t touched it since, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

The big lug scared the bejeezus outta me, though. I could see myself heading back to the vet again. Luckily it stopped again, and later tonight I’m going to open everything up to put clean bandages on. We’ll see how it looks then.
I did take him out on a rock-hauling trip tonight, so he should be a little quieter tonight…I hope.

Okay, on to more interesting ventures. What’s been going on these past couple of days. Yes I know, you’ll be chomping at the bit over there at your screen, I know I am. *sigh*
Seriously though. The days involved mostly little chores all over the place. Which wasn’t necessarily bad, considering the weather turned for the worse again.

The arbor arches are done now, and yes the pictures are on my phone, meaning I will post them as soon as I need to cheat again and can post at least ten pictures of something interesting. It’s looking good and I have already led the brambles and raspberry vines into it.

Big brother finished building the seedbed in front of the greenhouse and we put the cover glass on top of it just yesterday. Nice and big and the pepper plants that we’re going to put in them are going to have a nice lead on the others once the temperatures go up again. Which reminds me, gotta take a picture there too. Hah.

Edit wise yesterday went rather splendid. We totally caught up on our slacking of the past few days, and we are back on schedule. We’re just about to start chapter twelve…just after I finish writing today’s blog in fact.

The laundry corner is basically done, and if all goes as planned we should be able to hang the folding table over it come tomorrow. It came out beautiful. Dark brown/red varnish that really sparkles, and it will contrast marvellously against the blue and white tiles. Then I only need to make the wooden baskets to hold the dirty laundry beneath it, and it will be all done…except for the floor, but that can wait.

This morning was spent making lunch of lentils, cauliflower, sweet corn, green peppers, garlic, onion and a bit of cream cheese to soften the fresh tomatoes in it. Though I am not the biggest fan of lentils they did go down rather nicely on the flatbread I made with it.

One of mom’s sewing machines had to be fixed, and after we took it apart we managed to correct the problem well enough.

Also there was the stuck handle of the Land Rover, for which we had to take the door apart, but that problem was also solved, making it fully functional once again.

The closure of the metal storage was broken as well, so big brother replaced the lock before we started working on the folding table in the late afternoon.
I was ridiculously tired this afternoon, which is definitely to be blamed on the fact that these days I’m lucky if I can get five hours of sleep a night. I finally gave up this afternoon and took my dogs to my cabin for a short nap…bad idea, considering it was chilly, and the dogs kept hogging my blankets, leaving me seriously cold by the time I got up and got back to work. I didn’t manage to get warm again until later in the day after I took a hot shower.

Which brings me to the end of my recount. I got a wee bit distracted chatting online, so I am way behind right now. If only the days were a couple of hours longer, eh? There’d be time for everything then. *sigh*

Gotta go.

Busywork on the most part.

Song of the day: “How do you do” by Shakira. Funny song.

Busy work has been going on, but I’ve gotta give the good news first. Yesterday, (26th of December...it is going in the history books for me) was the first day in almost two years that my friggin’ left foot, the one I have been threatening to chop off for a long time, didn’t hurt like bloody fuck (pardon my French) by late afternoon. Heck, it wasn’t even hurting yet at midnight, so for me that was cause for celebration. Well...sorta anyway. I burst out in tears, in fact, but you know what I mean, right. That’s progress right. The stupid appendage wasn’t burning, stabbing, or throbbing, just a little tired from a long day, so YAY!

I do wish the doc had mentioned that the friggin’ insoles wouldn’t work in anything other than sturdy high boots, because for the past few months I seriously pondered getting rid of those darned insoles because they only seemed to worsen the problem.
Nope. Army-like boots, tough black leather and thick soles. Gonna beat this thing, hoorah.
Sorry, that came across a little inelegant but what the heck. Hah.

So what’s been going on, what’s been going on? No, no, no...don’t blank out!
Yesterday. Let’s start with yesterday. Yesterday we had beautiful weather again, and we spent the majority of it with busywork too. Hah. First off, I made a wall lamp for Sally who decided to change her quarters and needed extra light. The light actually turned out nicely. Elegantly curved and mounted on a piece of beech wood.

I also found Sally some curtain rods, and hung her other light as well…after fixing the piece that allowed for hanging, because it had gotten lost when she moved here.
Afterwards I sawed more boards for big brother’s room, so our friend Dani could paint them already.
There was some garden work, along with the greenhouse where I pulled weeds from the pots, just because it was so nice to work there for a bit. Got some more peppers from the yard too, along with tomatoes, and soon we’ll be able to eat some more chard, so everything is doing pretty good down there.
Fortuyn (pointer) killed one of the young Eucalypti while we were down there, darn it, so we’re going to have to get a new one from our stash and plant there some day soon.

There was an unfortunate accident in my bedroom. Somehow, my closet came of its perch and when I entered my cabin I had to do a double take before I managed to identify what was in front of my bedroom entrance. It was really weird. I was looking at the side of the closet for a solid five seconds before I knew what it was. Then, of course, I had to get down on the floor to wiggle through the narrow strip that was left in the entrance so I could get under the closet and push it back up straight.

With grandpa’s help, I got the thing back in place and shoved my shoes back on top.
We had a good edit last night. Which was peculiar, considering my focus wasn’t all that good. Still. The book is still working out well, so we did a good job with the first edits.

Oh I heard from J (the soldier from Operation Desert Swap) who is presently working on the island of Hawaii, lucky son of a gun. Seriously, according to him it is not cold there, and that…well, I want it to not be cold here too. *pout*

But anyway, there was more busywork today. Since we went on a nice scavenge last night, there was the car to unload, but, the water main broke, so we spent about an hour finding the leak, then dug it out and fixed the problem.

Note to self: “If the water looks white from oxygen bubbles in it, there’s a leak somewhere.” Grrrr.

So next we unloaded the car, pondered the big mimosa growing above the house and decided that soon we’re going to have to tackle it and saw the big branch off, lest a storm breaks it off and lets it fall on the house. That would be bad. Duh.

Considering the dogs finally really wrecked the door of the patio, I went up to the storage and got out a replacement. Since I didn’t like the idea of a closed one, I opted to put a window in the frame, allowing for looking through (to check what you’re facing, really. Meeting fifty dogs without preparation is a little hairy sometimes. Hah) before you open the thing. It worked out well too, since we fitted it in just an hour ago. It looks a bit like a mix between a boat cabin door and an old farm door. I’ll take a picture soon and post that too…I hope.

Big brother and grandpa went down to the basin while I was working on the door, and put in a new tap under the basin. The old one got clogged, and since they needed to open it up anyway, they also added and extra one and a drain to prevent the problem from occurring again.

The basin looks abysmal at the moment, by the way, seeing as big brother tackled the wall with the big hammer the other day. Only half of the slabs are still standing, and the rest, well, they’re going to have to come down soon. *sigh*
This time we’re going to do the support wall at the same time. Not much choice there, really, but we do need the weather to be in our favor.

Tenant joined us on my terrace today, and the dogs kinda like her company. Knight II, for instance, will try to sit on her lap, and all the other come by for a petting every other minute. Poor woman…well, it would be if she didn’t enjoy their affection so much. Hah.

The idea for the new book that stopped me the other day, had flitted from my reach by the time I got to it, so now I’ve got to be patient and wait for it to return. Darn it. The next time a scene tumbles into my head like a freight train, I’m so going to have to rush to get it down on paper.

Well, that about sums it all up, doesn’t it. It is rather strange to not have to go out to work today. Guess you get used to it after all, because I really had to remind myself that I didn’t need to hurry to get ready. Hah.

Well, I’ve got an edit to do, and…well, other stuff too.

A Merry X-mas...all over the place

Song of the day: “Perfect 10” by The Beautiful South. Love them, and such a funny song. Luckily it replaced Judy Garland which continued to haunt me for two solid days.

So I’m a mess today. Be grateful that you can’t smell me, because I haven’t had my shower yet and I worked with smelly mud most of the day. Yep. We got to empty the basin sludge again, and boy was it pungent. And I was covered in it by the time we were done. Seven wheelbarrows of the stuff, and I got to lift the bucket up to fill them. I don’t get why people pay good money to get covered in this stuff, because I’ve gotta admit that I wanted nothing more than to wash it all off afterwards…I did, btw. But it didn’t help, darn it. There I was, hosing myself down with extremely cold water from the garden hose, only to have the scent remain. Blast!

But no matter, I’m saving the best for last, and will head for the shower later tonight so I can head to bed all clean. *sigh* I can hardly wait.

Anyways, Yesterday was mostly spent doing fix ups. Sally’s room had some leakage so we poured concrete to see if that fixes the problem. We also planted some more seeds in the greenhouse: butternut squash. Added to that we spent some wonderful time in the awesome sunshine by heading into the yard to plant cauliflower plants, white cabbage and red cabbage. They were doing so well in the other field that we decided to do some more, just because it will be free food a few months from now.

It has been ridiculously cold since the rain stopped. The Mercury dropped down to three tiny lines above the freezing point. Now that is cold for Spain. In the fourteen years we’ve been here we’ve had freezing temperatures just once and that was in 2005. My dogs don’t like the temperatures at all, in case you’re wondering. Seriously, during the night we can’t get Knight II to move out of the way, and Sitabah woke me this night, by hitting me in the face with her paw until I finally just dragged her up and tried to shove her to the last empty spot on the bed. Apparently that wouldn’t do. Instead she preferred to play collar and wrapped herself around my neck. When she refused to budge, regardless of my efforts, I finally gave up and drifted back to sleep.

Labhana would have preferred to join us (did in fact for a while before I went to bed) but I’m afraid I have to draw the line somewhere. Seriously, the bed only holds so many.

This morning was spent making pumpkin soup again, while grandpa and big brother went to the gas station to get butane gaskets for the stoves. I’m happy to discover that this year I haven’t actually needed to stoves yet, so that’s saving some money at least.

This year we decided to skip Christmas entirely, and I’ve gotta say that it is rather relaxing to not have to cook a massive meal, the clean up afterwards and the heart-stopping receipt of getting the supplies, hah. Christmas eve was just like any other evening and that was just fine.
We did some good edits, in fact we managed to do an entire chapter, so Yay, and I had a relatively early night which psyched me into sleeping almost a solid 8 hours. Double Yay.

We did head into town last night at the last possible moment to get some last minute supplies from the DIY store. But the city was quiet, most of the stores already shut for the weekend. Those that were there seemed extremely cheerful. Hah.

While lifting bucket after bucket of foul smelling sludge up, big brother attacked the broken basin wall with a sledgehammer and got half of it down. Such a shame that we're going to have to redo it. Stupid rain came too early, darn it. In particular because we had to do only the fortification still. Guess we were slackers. *snort*

During the afternoon big brother and I spent about an hour finishing up his room. While he put the finishing touches on his bed, I put the plinths on his floor. Afterwards we put up part of the partition against the open section of his second floor room. Now all we have to make are narrow white-glass windows to top them off, and one more wall closet and we’ll be all done.

Maybe then my turn will arrive and we get to work on my floors. That would be totally awesome. First the parquet in my bedroom, then the hardwood in my sitting room, then the bathroom. Wow! It’ll be beautiful. Gleaming teak, polished to a shine. Whicker chairs on it, mahogany shelving. Very early 20th century. Warm light…

Gawd, I just got a scene for the new book in my head I really have to go…yikes! Seriously, I’ve gotta go. It’s bubbling out. This is bad. I’ve gotta…….bye.

Sunshine, sweet sunshine

Song of the day: “Get Happy” by Judy Garland. That’s a first, I think. The first time I had this one in my head anyway. Such a lighthearted song.

Busy couple of days, and last night was spent in candle light due to a four hour black out. Yep, that’s Spain for you. They’ve gotten a lot better, because ten years ago you’d be without power five minutes after the rain started, but when things are bad, it can sometimes take a whole night for things to get back in order.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start off with yesterday morning that started with a solid rainstorm that continued on most through the day.
We drained the basin again, from fear of flooding Sally’s room.
It is working so far, and as soon as stuff dries off a little, we’re going to have to build that wall proper.

The remainder was spent in the carport, working on big brother’s bed some more. The last drawer got done; I got the bent out of a particularly nice piece of wood, which was put on the bed this afternoon. The friggin bed looks bloody gorgeous and tomorrow, or the day after I’m going to take pictures to post here…or at least try to. Hah.

Nothing takes as much time as building furniture, but around seven we did head into the house where I had just barely enough time to answer my messages when suddenly the power went off.
Not that I minded, I could nap for a solid fifteen minutes before we decided to work on the books the old fashioned way. Pen and paper, baby. There really is nothing like it. That is REAL writing after all. Hah.

Got a couple of good pages going, and by then in was time for a quick run to the garbage dump, because the mess had been piling up during several days of rain.

Which brings us to today, thankfully.

I woke up with the sun in my eyes, and I lay there with a smile, fully enjoying it. It was beautiful. I hadn’t seen the sun in days and now the sky was clear and the sun fell right in my face. Then I remembered that everything has been damp for days and jumped out of bed to hang my linens out in the wind (it was blowing somewhat fierce) and sunshine. It all smelled wonderfully fresh this afternoon.

There was a big stack of laundry waiting, and the wind had already dried some of the massive amounts already hanging on the lines. The washing machine has been going almost non stop today.

This morning, I headed down there first thing to hang a curtain rod for her, as well as a little coat rack. The water is still streaming from the storage beside her room, but luckily it is staying out still. It didn’t take all that much time, and afterwards I went up to clean veggies while big brother and grandpa were out to get supplies.

Then, when they got back, we both headed down into the yard to plant some cauliflower, chard, white cabbage and red cabbage. Soon we’re going to try to plant another butternut squash because they turned out really well. I’m looking forward to seeing if it will manage to go all through the greenhouse.

It was rather pleasant working, first in the warm greenhouse and then the windless part of the yard. In fact, I would have preferred staying there for the remainder of the day if other chores hadn’t been waiting. You should have seen the dogs, they were all lounging about on the sunny spots, preferably out of the wind...except for the Labradors, who couldn't care less about the wind, and just lay in the sun.

Tenant’s caregiver had made cauliflower soup for us, and we wanted to build another water table for in the greenhouse. Once we ate and got the supplies we needed from storage, it was too late however, so instead we finished up big brother’s bed and hauled the twenty bags of cement to their special spot of storage behind my cabin. Once the seventy-pound bags were wrapped in plastic and we put the finishing touches to the bed, it was getting dark and we headed inside for today’s edits.

That’s it, off to other stuff…like edits, yeah.

Quick, quick, quick. Sorry.

Song of the day: “Hold my Hand” by Michael Jackson and Akon. Loved the first, don’t like the second one all that much, but it is still a great song that I didn’t discover until yesterday. Almost missed it too, but there it was and now I’ve got it stuck in my head. Hah.

Running behind again, and we really have to get started on editing so I’m going to do my best to keep it short. If I don’t, slap me on the back of my head please. Okay. It was a bunch of busy days on the most part and it involved a lot of exercise, luckily.

First of all we started laying the beech parquet floor in big brother’s room yesterday. This meant that our friend Dani and I (she came over for the day) hauled the packages from under the tarps and carrying all 30 of them down to my terrace. For the remainder of the day we spent going back and forth to the room until we laid the complete floor, except for the last three lines, which had their turn today…but that’s getting ahead of myself, isn’t it?… okay, back. There was still the piece under the shelving that needed to be done, but at that time big brother was so smart as to slam the hammer right on top of his index finger. Suffice it to say, he felt a tad faint for the remainder of the afternoon, meaning that I had to finish up. Hah.

There was a rather miserable attempt at editing afterwards, but since it didn’t work (big brother was understandably distracted) we called it a day early and headed up to my cabin to see a DVD. The Expendables with the whole string of known action movie actors. Gawd it was just like the good old days, just some mindless violence, no major message other than good winning from evil in the most wonderfully gruesome ways. It was nostalgia more than anything, seeing as the movie was far from “amazing” but still, I had fun…especially the digs and black humor. I remember the old days so…*slap* Gawd, so sorry. Got distracted there.

This morning there was a slight detour from the planned continuance of working on the floor, seeing as Sally’s door oddly gave the spirit and needed to be fixed, as well as her windows, which she was unable to close for some reason. It took us a couple of hours to fix the mishaps, but then we could head up to the carport and resume with the floor. Of course I first had to break down the shelving closet (big brother’s finger, remember?) and had quite a bit of fun with that, actually (despite the inch of dust on them). Seriously, I wrecked the thing with saw, hammer and tire-iron, before finally resulting in just bringing my heel (the good one btw) down on the last board. Then the stupid shelving was out and grandpa could haul it away. I put in the last pieces of the floor, the threshold and then it was time to put in the metal threshold big brother had made for the second door.
It looks good, I assure you. Clean too, which is the most important thing in the end. I even took out the spider webs, and there were plenty of those, I assure you.

The good part is that I found back a whole crate of books that big brother borrowed from me, so Yay. One of the walls is painted and thus clean, and we had pumpkin soup I made yesterday morning, and which turned out splendidly again.

Tenant spent both afternoons on my porch, enjoying the large amounts of sunshine that is pouring down every day now. Sure the air is pretty chilly, but the sunshine, ah the sunshine. It’s what makes living here the best. Why I still remember…*slap*…Okay, sorry again.

The dogs behaved well, after I spent the majority of yesterday snarling at them, every time I had to get through the door. Showing my teeth and growling works really well, in case you’re wondering. It worked so well in fact, that I needed to do it only once before they let me go through the door without half the herd trying to slip through.

Okay, I’ve gotta go.

Steady as you go. :-)

Song of the day: “Thank you Stars” by Katie Melua.

Not too hectic for the past couple of days, and yet they were still pretty busy. It has mostly been busy work.

First of all I had a very cool dream yesterday morning. Perfect material for a category romance, or even a full-length novel, even. It was rather sweet, really. Kyra Knightly type for the heroine and a Karl Urban type for the male. Of course this would be a medical romance, which would be the on genre I dislike, but what the heck.

On to the usual chitchat:
What with all the business these past few weeks I was dreadfully behind on the laundry. Seriously the two big bags that hold it all together in the courtyard, were filled to full capacity, and piled on top of to boot. For the past two days I’ve been doing four rounds a day and am only slowly making a dent in the pile. Yikes.

First thing on the schedule was fix my house phone and grandpa’s. The stupid thing got wrecked when Sitabah chased a rat last week (she got another one last night by the way. Good dog!) and took down the wire, curtain and a wall shelve in her enthusiasm. Aaaargh. Seriously, they’ll wreck the room if I let them have free reign. But then, if those rats continue on, they’ll do the same, so I better suffer through it for a bit. The house phone is fixed, however. Yay.

Next came Bommel. His ear infection is persisting, so I got him up on the kitchen table to clean the whole mess up and put some medicine in. Poor Bobtail suffered through the ordeal bravely and didn’t give a peep. He seemed more cheerful afterwards, though.

There was some cleaning in the carport, seeing as it was a mess in there. Soon the rainy season will start for real and since the carport will be the only dry spot available, some space is advisable. At the same time we started sorting through our glass supplies and cutting a few to the sizes necessary for the greenhouse. It’s not going to be easy to get them cut accurately, seeing as there’s a lot of safety glass, but we’ll figure it out somehow.

Afterwards it was time to clean the car. In all honesty I was a tad embarrassed when we left the car at the garage. Seriously it was like a construction area inside. So, I was busy with that for about an hour while big brother and grandpa worked on the engine, checking the oil and everything. Had to hurry too, ‘cause in the afternoon the younger sibs came up to start loading the car for their market day today. Hmmm. I wonder if they sold well today. I do know mom is getting very nice responses to her purses and quilts. We’ll see in an hour or two.

Sonia (black cocker) got her hair trimmed yesterday while we were having lunch. What with the grasses being ripe, the dogs get them stuck in their hair and get this big tangles that are a pain in the behind to get out.

Writing is going well enough, I guess. Though it felt as if I was a little stuck, I do manage two pages a day and even superceded that last night by adding three. Got a total of 116 now, so, yay.
I’ve got to say that I find this book difficult to write. It is just not entirely my own taste. Still, you’ve got to try everything once, I figure, so we’ll see how it turns out in the end.

Eating lots of pumpkin at the moment, which id definitely working on the protein part. I’ve got to say that this particular breed (light green and a warty skin) is particularly tasty. Also had pasta with a fresh tomato sauce, which never falls wrong, does it?

The rain has been rather splendid in regard that we haven’t needed to water the plants since. Tonight we are going to head down to see if there is anything to harvest, but other than that, this is perfect weather for plants and free food. Hah.

Though tenant is feeling particularly tired today, she has been doing rather grand this week. She’s basically walking on her own these days, and getting up from her chair on her own as well, so double yay for her. It is so amazing to look back to last year when she couldn’t even walk further than her own kitchen. To see her now, strolling down to my cabin, or even the greenhouse. Why the two images are worlds apart.

This morning, after another huge batch of laundry, big brother, grandpa, our friend Danni and I poured concrete in tenant’s corridor. It had been on the schedule for ages, but since we really felt that a new floor in her place this winter would be a plus, we just decided to go for it this morning. Got it all done in less than two hours, so as soon as it is dry and we’ve finished doing the same for her kitchen, I’ll start tiling the lot.

After that I still need to tile the guest room as well, seeing as we are having a regular sleep over these days. After that big brother’s floor, mine and…but let’s not think about that until the time comes. Hah. Jeez, I was already seeing them all pile together in my head as one massive task that could not possibly get done. Duh. Of course not, at least not all at once. Separately however (this thing my head forgot for a moment) it is very much doable.

Gotta go.