As promised: Pics!

It’s time, it’s time. The picture update time has arrived once more. Yay. The job is over and done with, so, yeah, here we get to see the end result. You’re psyched, I’m sure. Hah.

Here we go, first some befores then some afters:

See, all in their natural glory. Front.

Here too. Back.

And this is all nicely pruned. There's the Knight. Trying to sneak out of the shot. Hah.

All neat and groomed beside the road.

Front shot again. Notice the difference?

East side...with the fence cutting right through. All's still standing, and looking good.

Same spot, different angle.

Same back shot, but then trimmed, of course.

Another trimmed front shot. Hah.

This one isn't pruned. Neither did I do it, because it's an Almond tree. It was too beautiful not to shoot a picture, though.

The small gate. Had to take a shot from the sun gleaming on it. *snort*

The steepest part. Went up there at least fifteen times during the course of work. Boy, did I have a workout.

But okay, enough about the trees and fence. On to the daily stuff, right?
Here we have a couple of shots (before and after too) of the classic car thing I restored. Isn’t it gorgeous?

Before. Sides were broken, the paint chipped, the body mangled. This was the stage where I'd used glass fiber to put it back together. The shape was still off though.

The after. All done. Reshaped, painted and polished to a shine. I sure like the end result. *sigh*

So, here we are, let’s do the blog and get it over with, eh?

Song of the day: “Manic Monday” by the Bangles. How weird is it to have that song in your head on a Tuesday. Made me all confused, I tell ya. But okay, it wasn’t a problem, really, more than enough to keep me distracted, eh?

Yesterday was pretty darn busy, if you must know. I had to get up at seven in the morning due to the appointment with the garage at nine. I hate waking up and having to jump into the car immediately, so it is a matter of getting up in time for me to be able to enjoy a coffee, and to get some morning chores done.

Since yesterday was a working day as well, Cousin Ed and I headed out with the cars to drop off the Opel for the day (getting a pull bar, in case you’re wondering) while grandpa went out to the village (on the moped) to get some groceries and big brother stayed home to prepare lunch and make breakfast for the dogs.

Heard some complicated stuff concerning having a pull bar installed. There is official paper work to be done. A check up at the MOT, followed by informing your insurance of the darn thing. Then I’m not even talking of the price (I’m considering selling a kidney again, for the love of gawd!) which was so high that I’ve decided to postpone the repairs and do the MOT first to see what really, really needs to be done. *sigh*

By the time we got home, he had most ready, and I ate breakfast while we went over the plans and waited for grandpa to return.

We left home a little late and arrived on site to start work at 11 in the morning, luckily there wasn’t as much to do. Added to those two trees I still had to prune, I found two more I missed, so big brother started dragging debris while I got to work on those.

In the five hours that followed, I went through the whole garden one more time, checked the trees, cut off some lower branch growths, cleared some leftovers that we’d missed, all the while having Knight II following me around, or watching me from whichever vantage point he picked. Luckily he got used to the work location enough to relax a bit during the day, and even catch a few winks every now and then.

This time we did plan properly, and were done in time to load up and head on home to drop everything off and then immediately head to town to pick up the car. Made it barely in time before closing time, paid the bill, chatted with the nice mechanics, and laughed along when one couldn’t remember where he’d parked the Opel. It took him a couple of minutes of worrying, and rushing about, but then he located it in a side street, and waved me off while I was still laughing my head off. I sooooo know the feeling of forgetting something like that. Hah.

We got home around eight in the evening, to find mom and tenant on my terrace. Helped tenant on the home trainer for a few moments, and then set her on her way up to her bungalow. By then it was time for some very late supper (don’t ask me why, but I hadn’t been hungry all day, and never got around to having lunch) which I barely managed to choke down. Luckily Knight II (he was exhausted and slept most of the evening away) was starving and really appreciated the spaghetti and sauce through his food a lot. Hah.

While we did a six page edit during the evening, I had a momentary heart stab with the thought of, “OMG what if I had forgotten to load up Knight II in the car?” Seriously, I almost had a seizure at the idea. He would be wandering around there, lost and alone. Aaaah. I really shouldn’t be having thoughts like that. Bad for me.

Had a long night, almost made it a whole seven and a half hours and managed to roll out of bed without my foot messing me up. After the morning chores we headed straight out into the yard. There was watering to be done, a view to be admired, and seedlings to be planted.
Got in a solid field of peppers, and several tomato plants, and genuinely enjoyed the hours spent there.

Tenant went to the dentist again. The new teeth have to be adjusted and such, which makes everything a little difficult for her. It worked out well, though, and she’s back home relaxing in her room.

Besides gardening, big brother and I planned a traveling box for the classic decorative car (see pics) and I made a button nose of wood for a toy dog cousin Ed wants to use as an example on the market.

Well, I still have stuff to do. And then, well…more days to follow, of course. *sigh*

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.

Yard work

Song of the day: “Dr. Jones” by Aqua. Talk about ditzy song that has a way too catchy tune when it concerns my head. Seriously, it sounds like a broken record in there.

Okay, let’s get down to business fast. I’ve got loads of stuff to do still, not to mention an edit and chats and…well, I have a very important appointment with my bed within five hours, so, no dawdling.

Yesterday: I did finally get a full night’s sleep (doing a happy dance), regretfully I was friggin’ sore all over the place because both Knight II and Chaos decided that it was a good idea to share the head end of the bed while I was asleep, so by the time I noticed I was sleeping diagonally on the bed, with my feet sticking by ten inches or so. *sigh* Seriously, it took me five minutes of stretches just to be able to move. Yikes.

After the usual morning chores and such, the workout of the day started right after breakfast in the shape of hauling wheelbarrows of rocks down the mountain. Fascinating stuff, hauling rocks down a mountain, if you must know. You’re knees truly enjoy the endeavor, and so to your shoulders and spine. Hah. Still, no matter, the wheelbarrows went all the way to the lowest gate, where I lost my grip for a moment, having the rocks (80 pounds a pop, I would think, meaning three per wheelbarrow) all tumble down the small stairs. Not that it mattered, that was the end of the line anyway, since from there on out we had to carry them down three flights of stairs to the LOWEST part of the yard, where we’re creating a few new terraces. I know, that’s a really smart idea, just not the handiest. Hah.

But anyway, we got a big batch down where we needed them, and created one terrace by digging into the dirt until there was a semblance of leveled soil. While big brother and I worked on that, grandpa dug holes for the fruit trees. Three in fact, which were nice and big allowing for plenty of compost once we planted them (today).

Several dogs “jumped” the fence, so we made sure to make a mental note that we had to check the fences come morning, not allowing the more fierce ones of the bunch in the veggie lot. Tadaika, who managed to get out twice, looked most disappointed, blinking her big fat lashes at us whenever we went through the gates. She totally didn’t understand why she couldn’t go out and play with the horses. (The horses of the neighbor are out a lot again.)

There was some cloudiness during the day yesterday, but still a pleasant day to spend in the yard. Once we called the terrace building to a halt, and fifteen more lettuces were planted in the onion field, we headed for the basin level and planted 22 grape sticks in pots, along with seventeen more strawberry plants which I’d thrown into a bucket the day before. We’ll have to see how many of them will survive the ordeal, eh?

Yard stuff done, it was already late for supper, which consisted of a salad along with the Mac&cheese big brother made. Yummy, sure, but also heavy of the gut since immediately after we had to head out for an appointment in town.

I would like to say that this was something exciting to tell about, but I’m afraid that it was just boring stuff that I won’t bother you with. Instead we’ll slip right on through to me catching up on my messages once we got home, and then the edit, which went fast, and well enough, considering neither big brother nor I had much fuel left by then.

So let’s skip to this morning, which came way too early for my liking, but then, what else is new, right?
There were the chores, of course, followed by once again cleaning the ears of poor Njanna and Carla, who didn’t appreciate it at all, but suffered through the ordeal without complaint. I hate doing it to them, but really, those infections are bad. If only Rammi, Bambi, or Huckabee would clean them, like they do with a lot of the other dogs, but regretfully that is not the case with these poor babies. Instead they have to suffer through the cleaning session that literally drives Carla up the wall.

That done, it was time for breakfast and making patty dough of lentils. Since I was busy anyway, I decided to experiment with a gluten free variety, because Sally is at the moment on a diet and is having the hardest time functioning without bread. I’m curious as to what she thinks of the chickpea concoction. Personally, I didn’t like the smell, but I’ve found that with the patties that says very little.

Once done with preparing the patties, and unloading the car, it was time to get another load of rocks down the mountain before getting started on watering the veggies. By the time I was done with that, big brother and grandpa were down as well, and after grandpa spent some time mirroring fruit trees, he and big brother walked the fence in search of the spot where Tadaika and some of the others went out yesterday. They found a massive gap underneath the reed patches, so grandpa did a patch job and promised he’d add some fortifications tomorrow.

Though the plan was to work on the new terraces again, we opted to harvest instead, and then start on planting some of the fruit trees. A rather wonderful occupation, if you must know. There was sunshine aplenty (I got sunburned, thank you very much) and I dug, chopped and hauled, putting in two apple trees, one cherry, and two nectarines. Loads of fertilizers for the lot of them, along with water from the basin, which is rather pungent at the moment. Hah.

After the first four trees, only of which placed in a spot we dug out halfway in a terrace, we went up to have supper of fresh beats with cheese and fried rice. Delicious…and added to that we prepared mashed potatoes with kale, the first of which tenant cut for us while we went back into the yard to plant our first batch of potatoes this year. These are home grown, so they should be pretty ecological by now. Hah.
While big brother was making the gutters, I put in the second nectarine, which has an honorary spot beside the stairs going down to the big terrace.

And, well, that’s it for today. Once twilight fell, I had to rub my shoulders and neck in aloe vera, which should take care of the worst problems. Such a nuisance, sunburn, eh? Ah well, I’ve survived it before and will undoubtedly survive it again. Hah.

Here and there

Song of the day: “Dirty Dancer” by Enrique, Usher and Li’ll Wayne.

So it was a most peculiar birthday, I’ll admit. I started the day by sleeping in for about half an hour, which was absolutely awesome. I love sleeping, I would do it all day long if I could…but seriously, who’s got the time for frivolous things such as sleep. So much to see, place to go and…well, you know the saying, right? *sigh*
But anyway, I debated doing a workout and then finally opted not to since I had that appointment at the doctor’s.

I was there right on the dot (poor assistants were sitting there packed in several layers because it was friggin’ ass cold in there) and was let into the exam room where this nice young girl doctor, (who actually spoke a wee bit of English, yay) let me sit down on a weird chair with my bare feet up so she could look at them.

After some chatting, some prodding, and then an examination of my “archaic” insoles (I got them a year and a half ago for crying out loud) at which point she informed me that I should come back on the 23rd because she didn’t have the equipment to measure my feet right then (last time the podiatrist let me stand on a piece of paper and made a drawing, hah). But she was nice about it, so I didn’t mind. Made it back home before noon, at which time I took to finishing the cake. Still had to put fruit on top, and the Jell-O kind of substance to pour over it. Opted to make that final ingredient on a mango basis, and boy did that work out well. Ended up with two cheese/yogurt forest fruit, strawberry, raspberry, peach, mango and cream pie. Gawd. It made me salivate, and the cookie bottom…divine! It was a huge success.

Went into the yard after finishing the pie (it had to settle in the fridge) and later cousin Ed joined me to plant more than forty little seedlings. This nippy weather (an average of 45 degrees in the morning) is really appreciated by these winter veggies. They’re growing like cabbages…oh wait, they are cabbages, or at least of that family. Hah.

It was nice, despite the air being nippy. The sun broke out occasionally, and due to the strong winds these days, we had to water most of the new plants with the basin. Poor plants should be enjoying the rain and yet we’ve been having a remarkably dry December and January. Weird, to say the least. Let’s hope that we’re not going to get a five-year drought, like fifteen years ago.

Big brother was busy with his computer most of the day, it was constantly crashing so he decided to take everything off, and reinstall the main operating system. This, as you might understand took some time.

Since there wasn’t a lot to do outside, (not to mention nippy) I fully intended to work in my cabin…only to have to go out again to bring Sally to work. Cousin Ed had planned to, but she was helping tenant preparing for dinner, so I offered to go in her stead. Dropped Sally off and then returned to dig through my closet and getting rid of clothes that had too many rips in them, spots, dirt, and were too small. I was about to
Start on the last shelve when big brother came in, looking a little wide-eyed and flushed.

Big brother: Well, now the computer is wrecked.
Me: What do you mean? (folding a top and putting it in my closet)
Big brother: I got everything off and was in the middle of installation when the effing thing shut down again.
Me: So?
Big brother: So now the computer says it doesn’t know itself anymore.
Me: Shit. Maybe we should get it to a shrink.
Big brother: Funny. Seriously, though. I tried everything.
Me: So call the local computer doctor, he’s in the paper.
Big brother: Hmmm.
Me: Dude. You just bought a new wire, and a new battery, that’s more than two hundred bucks.
Big brother: Effing stupid thing.
Me: Dude. Seriously, get the paper.
Big brother: Have you seen the computer; the screen doesn’t close, the keys sometimes don’t work, the…
Me: Call anyway. Maybe it’s a simple problem.
Big brother: So what? Why not go there now?
Me: Because I want to call to make sure that they’re even open.
Big brother: Oh. It’s only six. I rather just go by.
Me (eying him): Get the friggin’ paper and I’ll cal, for crying out loud!
Big brother: Yeah. Right. Which one…

So I told him, and called the computer doctor who was friendly enough to let me know that they’d be open ‘till seven thirty.
Getting underway took a bit. There were the piles of clothes that I had to toss someplace else than the bed, warm clothes to don, only to hear that mom was really concerned about little sister who’d been feeling poorly most of the day.
We talked for a bit about possible assistance, and then opted to wait it out while big brother and I left for town to drop off the computer.

Got that with fifteen minutes to spare, and yet all was dark when we arrived. I decided to call anyway and got the “doctor” on the line who said that they’d given up on me, and returned within five minutes. Hah. There was talk for about fifteen minutes, while we explained the problem (he wasn’t hopeful due to the computer’s age and the amount of trouble it was experiencing…has anyone noticed how computer repairmen never like repairing computers. It is very strange). He was going to try, though, and promised to let us know the verdict around Friday. Definitely hoping for the repairs to be under 200, because otherwise we’re going to have to dig into the savings again.

By the time we got home I was seriously sick and tired from being on the road most of the day, and was more than happy to dig into the meal cousin Ed had prepared, prior to heading for my computer and start on the day’s edit.

Got a nice bit done, but was more than happy to call it a day, I tell ya.

Which brings us to today, yay!

Was a little late getting up this morning (did you ever notice how much harder it is to get out of bed when the air is almost frosty) but did manage a full workout. Hah. Victory! Took a little longer than usual because we got into a heated discussion about politics and such. What can I say; we get passionate about that sort of thing. Cousin Ed joined us of course, so it was a lively debate to say the least.

After workout there was a massive pile of laundry, followed by a trip down to the yard to water the small seedbed, and check the greenhouse, and get a batch of chickweed and Alfa Alfa for mom’s salad. Decided to throw in some fresh herbs as well, since I was down there anyway.

Went up for breakfast, chatting with tenant a little, and next it was back to my cabin to finish what I’d started the day before. Chaos was still on the bed by that time, and I said: “Oh my gawd, Chaos. Are you still lazing in the bed?” He raised his head sluggishly, blinked at me twice and then nestled his cheek into the pillows with a visible snuggle of delight. Seriously, the Basset has no shame when it concerns sleeping (his favorite pastime). I dragged him to the edge of the bed and set him down where he grumpily moved past Knight II and Labhana who were watching him questioningly.

We carried up a new storage chest of plastic up to the old horse stable. This will be the spot to store wicker baskets and pillows until summer at least. It cleared up the storage a little, which made grandpa happy at least. Hah.

Big brother, still chagrined about his computer, worked in the moped stall for the most part, putting in two small shelving units. At this time I sewed the broken pillows of my armchairs, which I’d been planning to do for more than a week and yet somehow didn’t get around to.

That done, a second piece of pie eaten (yummy), I went to search for a piece of roof to finish the small closet section that we plan to attach to the side of the moped stall. Used the small angle grinder to cut it to the right size…and then it was time to call it a day (work-wise), and start on supper before getting on with the blog and the edit that I still need to do.

I’m thinking that I won’t mind an early bedtime tonight. Hah.

To link, or not to link?

Song of the day: “The flood” by Katie Melua. It’s been in my head off and on most of the day.

Small stuff on the most part, involving time more than effort and keeping me busy as heck. Yesterday morning started off (after the usual stuff) with a nice session in the greenhouse transplanting a few tomato seedlings, broccolis, cauliflower, red cabbage, white cabbage and kale. I love working in the greenhouse like that, it is very calming. You just fill pots with dirt, dig little holes, take out tiny plants and tuck them gently in. Very soothing, I’ll admit.

That done, and considering grandpa finished turning earth for another potato patch last night, I headed down to the lower terrace to plant potatoes with big brother. It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it. Hah. Seriously, though. Since I should be walking barefoot a lot these days, I had an excellent opportunity to get up to my ankles in freshly turned earth, which was rather nice. Strangely enough I don’t feel my espolon when I’m barefoot, which is for me an excellent reason to get my feet dirty. Rather have dirt than pain, thank you very much.

There was a load of weeding going on. The Morning Glory vine is going everywhere, and it has been smothering the oleander and the solanum bush. Poor plantsies. They practically lost all their leaves to the vines from hell. The potatoes planted, and the sun pounding down nice and hot, I set up a fence around the new patch, determined to protect it against the nutty dogs who think it is smart to use newly turned earth as a race track. Hah

Plants had to be watered, naturally. Since big brother did the most of that, I could focus mostly on the potatoes and their protection.

Tenant spent most of the afternoon down there too, sitting on the big terrace in the shade of the small cluster of poplar trees that we decided to leave there. She cut a batch of yellow, barely ripe tomatoes, which I made into a soup for the dogs. They love that kind of stuff. Reminds them of the good old days, I think, when we still made dogfood ourselves.

By the time I headed up to start making lunch, I made a short detour to chop down a mid-sized, diseased poplar that needed to be taken out. Chopping down trees makes me sad on the most part. There’s this tree, doing its darnest to grow, going up and wide, and then there’s this stupid human (me) and bham. Off with its trunk. Sad, I tell ya. But then, this is a dog eat dog world, and only the fittest survive and considering I had an axe and knew how to use it, I was fitter. *sigh*

Another snake scare, this time in the courtyard. We had to coral the darn thing, and even wedge it between two shovels before we could get it in a bucket for a quick trip far-far away. Jeez, that was a fast bugger. Slightly greenish, an inch and a half at the thickest part and about 2 and a half feet long. Seriously, those things still scare the crap outta me. I’m surprised I didn’t dream about them last night.

But anyway, the snake back to nature, I went back to the outside kitchen for cooking. For supper we had vegetable burgers with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and pepper, along with a small portion of the day before yesterday’s macaroni.
It went down well after working hard, and since I really didn’t mind sitting a bit longer, we finally got around to sorting through the many bags of dried herbs that I’d been postponing for weeks now. Got quite a bit, and only two of the bags were spoiled due to improper saving.

At the moment we are going through another tick plague. Not as bad as earlier this year yet, but still, bugging amounts to say the least. They make me wanna scream, while being addicting at the same time. Whichever dog passes me get’s a thorough search, and thankfully they consider it a petting. Hah.

Edited the evening away, of course, and though I had planned on a quick workout session, I was so close to falling asleep at the end of the day, that I decided to go to be early instead…early being half an hour, which was a blissful half hour, if you must know.

Today, after the usual morning rituals, laundry and blissful coffee, there was nothing on the schedule for yard work. Instead we headed up to tenant’s place…well at least grandpa and big brother did, and I took tenant down to my terrace where she kept me company while tagging the canned prickly pear syrup and compote. That done, I checked the canning storage, making sure none of the pots had gone open or were turning bad (they hadn’t) and then headed for my cabin to do some much needed cleaning. Seriously every available horizontal surface has gradually become so full, that I didn’t even see the piece of furniture anymore. Ergo, the cleaning.

Put all my clean clothes away, sorted through the dirty, changed my bed sheets, wiped the floors and if I remember to do my bathroom one of these days, my cabin will be as good as new. Yay. Knight II sure liked the clean bed. He jumped on it immediately and started rubbing his big bony body all over it. Crazy loon! Wanna bet that Chaos will do the same tonight? Hah.

That done (took me about three hours for crying out loud) I headed for the carport to help big brother glue together wooden slats for tenant’s apartment ceiling. Sure the ceiling was closed months ago but there are plinths, and decorative beams to add still. Grandpa has been doing a lot of it, but there are still some things that we just want to do ourselves. After doing the biggest gluing job, and since big brother could take it on his own from there, I headed up to grandpa’s place to cook some supper. Nothing fancy, just something simple and earthy. I love a got stew.

While we were working on the woodwork for tenant, mom and the sibs got home from market day. They had pretty good earnings today. Mom’s purses/bags, dog beds and musical instrument bags are going extremely well, so yay. Glad to see that she’s having a grand time of it.

Well, this ought to do it for today’s blog, I guess. I am at the moment pondering the acceptance of a link placement right here on the page. It was requested politely, and the site appeared legit, but I’m still not sure. I never did much like advertising (heck, I almost think that putting my own books down here is a bit too much, but what the hey) and though I agreed to do a link exchange with the dude who wanted a link to his carport manufacturing site, I would hate to end up filling the entire page up with ads. I know it is all “the thing” these days, making money with clicks, links, and whatnots, but I’m old fashioned that way. *sigh*

We’ll have to see what tomorrow brings, eh.

Exhausted

Song of the day: “Hold my hand” by Michael Jackson. Yay.

Well, it’s been a busy couple of days, and I can feel every single minute of it. Seriously, I feel about fifty years old right now, reminds me that we’ve been slacking this summer, doing small tasks that don’t require that much muscle power.

Yesterday, after filling those planters I made the other day with dirt, two dame da noches (night blooming jasmine) and a big oregano plant. Looking good, I’ll admit, I can hardly wait to see how it will look once we’ve got the wall done. *sigh*

Next, upon grandpa’s insistence, I headed down to the third terrace where I would start working on the stairs that is going to be extremely necessary there once start building a container for next year’s fertilizer. Seeing as we’re going to have to haul literally everything down, a proper stairs is essential. So, during the course of the day, I hauled rocks, stones, cement and chopped until I could no longer feel my hands, shoulder, lower back and hips…and not in a good way. Hah. Managed to get five steps done, meaning that today I had to finish the rest. I can assure you that my body, though game, wasn’t thrilled with the plans. Hah.

The proper night’s rest did me well, however, and though I had my doubts around 1:30 about whether I would make it to the end of the day, I forgot about the time after starting on the third step of the day. The stairs came to be a total of a whopping 12…or was it 13? Drat, now I can’t remember. Ah well, who cares. I had to cheat most of the way, seeing as the incline got to be too steep, meaning that I had to make several really short (by comparison, btw. They’re still bigger than a house step) ones to make it work. You cannot imagine my relief when, around five in the afternoon I finished the last one.

Luckily, yesterday I had grandpa to help with hauling rocks and cement, and then today Dani was there to get me the much-needed supplies. Sure I still did a lot of going back and forth, went up and down the mountain at least twenty times, if not more, but having assistance is a definite must with tasks like this. Grandpa kept us supplied with cement, and thus we got the whole thing done today. Yay.

While yesterday tenant was a good sport and cut all our fresh veggies for supper (she’s getting better and better at that), she had a nice day off today, since we still had enough leftovers today to get a proper meal in. Considering we also still had yesterday’s dough for chickpea patties, by the time we settled (both today and yesterday) for food, we wolfed the stuff down like starving people. Hah.

Regretfully, what with the dropping temperatures (though sunny, it was decidedly cooler these past couple of days. October is what it feels like) the pool is starting to cool down to the point where it is no longer nice to go in. Sure, I needed it today, what with dust, dirt and cement all over me, but still, it wasn’t nice anymore.

The dogs love the weather, by the way. Most of them will take the chance to sunbathe again, and will be lying in prone positions all over the place during the course of the day. It’s adorable, really, in particular since just ten days ago they would be searching for the relief of the shade whenever they could. Except of course, Knight II, who is so bloody insane that one minute he is sleeping in the greenhouse, while the next he is lying in the full sunshine. Bonkers! Chaos I don’t see much during the day…though this morning snuck into the veggie garden somehow and wandered about for a full thirty minutes before could finally corner him and get him out. He had the nerve to look insulted too. Hah.

Had a weird dream yesterday, by the way. Though the details in this case have faded too much for a proper recount, it did involve an earthquake, a flooding, which is a little weird in this area. We’re about 1700 feet above sea level. And me just barely managing to salvage my computer from the front of a strange car. Like I said, the details are hazy, but I do remember that I woke up with my heart going pit-a-patter. I hate it when I don’t remember something like that properly. I always want a dream to stay clear so I can write about it here. Ah well…

Okay, this is going to be it for today. I already had a ten minute lay-down earlier, because I still have computer work to do (for the record, I really hate, Hate, HATE writing synopsis! They never do a story justice) and would like to do that without my eyes falling shut. So I didn’t actually sleep, but my back was infinitely grateful. Hah.

Gotta go. Gotta edit! Yay!

To stop, or not to stop....grrrr.

Happy New Year!!! Aren’t you just itching to see what 2010 is going to bring? *perky smile*
Well, I might be sarcastic about it, but I am curious as to the new year, not so much due to the “new year”, but more in the way of thinking back about last year, and realizing how much has changed in that time.

Song of the day: “I will survive” by Gloria Gaynor. Very appropriate, all things considered, hah.

So yeah, disaster struck the day before yesterday; the price cigarettes had gone up another few cents, passing the limit I had put myself (back in the day) just in case…so now it’s gotta happen, I’ve got to try to stop smoking, because…well, because I promised I would if it ever reached this point. Darn it!

I am basically a conscious smoker. Started when I was twenty four/three very deliberately, because, well, I wanted to, and because I simply do no believe in the ongoing crusade against cigarettes. Ya can yap to me all about statistics and whatever but I refuse to believe that tobacco is even remotely as dangerous as (for instance) car exhausts.

Sure, not smoking at all is healthier…in a world where there wasn’t a single polluted fluff in the air, but in the bigger scheme of things (i.e. engines) cars, planes and anything else with an exhaust, chemical factories (no matter how environmentally safe) nuclear power plants and all that crap out there, a cigarette would be little more than an annoying zit.
But, it’s an expensive one, so I’m afraid I’m screwed and need to quit.

42 hours, 37 minutes and 51 seconds gone (give or take a second or two) without the blessed, relaxing nicotine, and I’m…well, coping well enough, I guess. I’m having very distinct images of me, sitting back and lighting one up (sorta like someone prodding me all the time, and driving me bonkers) breathing in deeply, and doing it again, keeps popping up for some reason.
I’m a tad irritable…while yesterday I applied the technique, it is not that bad, today I’m doing the how-much-would-I-have-smoked-if-I-hadn’t-quit-and-lit-one-up-every-time-I-wanted: I’m at 37…ehm, make that 38, hah.

I don’t know if it has anything to do with the stop smoking bit, but for some reason I’m pretty tired since yesterday, even though I’m getting enough sleep. On the most part we’ve been doing only minor little projects. Three Christmas trees were put in the ground the other day, and were shored up today.

I got to dig a rather big hole (yes, I’ve found that keeping busy is rather helpful, hah) searcher for the water vein that has decided to come up on our property. It would be rather handy if we had our own water source this summer, but after digging out a 3 by 3 surface, a foot and a half deep I don’t know if it works out. We’ll have to see, I guess.

Four Cocker Spaniels got shaven yesterday by the sisters, which means that we need to do only two or three more dogs. (Oops, there went 39 imaginary cigarettes…boy are you going to read about cigarettes a lot the next few weeks.) Considering I’ve never tried to stop before, I’ve not a clue how long this is going to take. I am presuming that it’s going to be a lot worse…Oh my gawd, I just grabbed my lighter to light up the toothpick I’ve been chewing on for the past two days. Hah. Insanity. This is going to be fascinating; how bad are things going to get? Will I get more than a little nervous, snippy, crappy, downright upset? Am I going to scavenge for that last cigarette…oh wait, they’re just lying there, right in the open cabinet in the kitchen and I can take one whenever it gets to be too bad. Is it too bad yet? *thinks* Nah, I can last another hour, or so…I think.
Isn’t temptation horrid…will I manage it, I wonder? I don’t know, this morning it took me exactly forty minutes before I thought of a cigarette…drat, I did it again: 40!

Little sister and I made pie last night. One half was crumble peach, and the other half raspberry cherry, and the second pie was a whole apple pie. Even though we were missing several ingredients, what with the last minute decision to make them, but they worked out well; added raisins, some walnuts and almonds to the apple pie, just to make up for the lack of cinnamon.
What with nine people eating from it, you can imagine how long it lasted. Hah.

Got my “birthday” present in the shape of a new washing machine, yay! (Apparently, big brother has been putting a bit aside for the past year after all, and saw a sale he had to get) An eighteen-pounder that ‘ll cycle 1200 a minute during the centrifuge stage. Phew. It’s also a little smaller than the last one, so it fits perfectly on the pedestal in the corner of the courtyard.

Of course, when I was blissfully hanging almost dry laundry this afternoon, the beam of the lines broke of the pillar. Stupid thing, there I was, just barely managing to grab it before three loads worth of laundry went all over the dirty ground. Aaargh. Big brother hung the beam back up with metal wires for the time being, but it looks like I’m going to have to hang them all over again.

During the course of the past couple of days, I made a metal carousel like device for grandpa, over the new work bench, and it holds all the hammers. It worked out rather nicely, though I am not sure if it’s going to stay there, simply because I have no idea if it is at all handy. It seemed like a good idea when I thought of it, but we’ll have to see.

Mom finished her new quilt for me, and it is now on my bed. Patchwork always works well, and the orange/yellow colors always work well. Had a friend come over for a visit the other day, and that was a fun change in the usual routine. The dogs definitely took advantage of relatively naïve hands, that didn’t realize their sneaky technique of getting more attention.

42…jeez, even in my least frugal days I didn’t smoke that many in a day. Hah.

Wrote a total of twelve more pages for the book, bringing the total up to more than 130. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Hah.

I’ve been having a lot of déjà vu again of late, which is definitely freaking me out. I’d be in the middle of some action, like working in the carport at the new table that is just barely finished, and then getting this chill over your back when you just KNOW that you’ve done the action before, right there in that spot with the conversations going on around you, and the people, the light, everything exactly the same. FREAKY, I tell ya.

Well, I’m definitely behind today. I really should be writing on the book right now, but…I’m distracted and…well, you know why. Hah. Heck, last night I actually felt a tad light headed, and thinking of it, I’m experiencing it a bit now too. Grrr. Feels like being high, which I don’t like at all, darn it.

The worst of it is that now it seems as if I did some sort of whacky New Year’s resolution, I DIDN’T, darn it…the price just went over what I had set as a limit a few days before the year change.
So don’t come with good luck with the New Years resolutions please, the one hasn’t got anything to do with the other and I quit at midnight on the 29th, thank you very much. I HATE New Year’s resolutions. I don’t need a special day and some big party to make me change something.

Boy, I’m sounding a bit snarky, don’t I…like I told the sibs, this experience is probably going to be worse for those around me than me. You’ll see, soon I’ll be holding folks’ offers for a cigarette off with; “No no, I’m fine,” while they beg, “No really, take one…a drag then. Inhale, deeply, pulleeeease!” Images like that just choke me up. Hah.

But seriously, let’s see the next couple of days as an adventure and try to find out if I can go against the wonderful addiction called smoking, or if I’m going to give in and inhale that tobacco once more…Gawd, I really, really want to, hah.
The theory is, as long as I don’t say, I CAN’T take one (leave the option open that if I can’t take it, I can just light one up), I won’t HAVE to take one. Hah. Only time will tell if it works, I guess. *sigh*

Seeya later and wish me luck.
#43. Crap!

Painting and planting

Song of the day: “Torn” by Nathalie Imbruglia. It’s been a while when I last heard it, but then we had the radio on and there it was.

I’m going to have to do another short one because today got to be way too busy to have time left for actual Blogging.

The majority of the morning and noon were spent on the proofreading. Went rather well, if I do say so myself. I read through four chapters and think I found most of the remaining errors. Some punctuation got shuffled around, found one typo and I removed some excess words. All in all a good edit, since there were no major errors that I couldn’t get around.

In the afternoon (the weather is still remarkably cool, it almost feels as if we’re in autumn already) we gather up painting tools and three buckets of leftovers from the past few years, and head down to the guest cabin. While the sisters and I start scraping off the old paint, little brother mixes the other paint to a single light yellow that we slather on in the hours that follow.

It is a messy endeavor, to say the least, considering that the dogs are moving in and out of the room continuously and often end up lying up against the newly painted walls. Hah. Suffice it to say that we now have a pack dotted (and sometimes completely) yellow. Hah.

After the painting is done, another long while is spent cleaning the entire mess up, of course. Removing thick plaques of old paint, mopping up new ones, vacuuming the corners and then hurrying up the mountain so we can plant the majority of the plants we found yesterday before nightfall; that done, we head back down to finish up and put in the most of the furniture.

It looks rather good by the time we finish (around eleven PM) and head on up to the house for a much-deserved dinner, and that’s about all I’ve got to write about. I think. Or is there something else? The new plants look rather nice, so does the guest cabin and…well, that’s it. So boring, I know. Can’t help it. Hah.

Scavenging and scouring.

Though I didn’t get to bed in time last night, I’m early getting up this morning, because when the summer comes we intend to have a routine of one two hours earlier than usual. It will be necessary what with the electricity being so expensive, and the air-conditioner needing way too much of it.

I am a tad tired after such a short night, but I’m also determined to get in a workout today, so I hurry on down to the house to get to it.
After almost a month without the familiar routines, it takes some getting used to but in the end, I get into swing and go through today’s workout without too much effort.

It’s actually quite invigorating, and the punches, kicks, steps and jumps get me properly sweaty in the hour that passes.

Once done, I have a quick shower, eat breakfast and then get to work on the day’s edit. We get quite a bit done today. A total of seventeen pages get treated during the hours that pass until it is time to head out. Admittedly we take an hour longer on the edit, but since we’re not intending to build today anyway, it doesn’t really matter.

It is the plan that we’ll head out to the same location as yesterday, instead, taking mom with us, and perhaps even have a little picnic while we’re looking for rocks and more plants that we can use for the garden.

We spend more than two hours roaming through the woods, climbing up the mountains and down into gullies and valleys that appeared to have been rivers at some point. Scampering across the rocky trails, we find little treasures everywhere we go and crisscross our way back and forth to the car.

We’ve got at least twenty plants and several handfuls of rocks by the time we decide that it’s time to end our little outing. There’s wild thyme, rosemary, and a tiny Carob. Some stone oaks, virgin palms…which is what grandpa calls them anyway…they don’t look like palms at all, but that’s what he calls them. They look more like vines with lovely delicate little blue flowers. They are definitely the prizes of today’s outing.

We also manage to unearth this tiny little palm, a sprout that will actually look like one once it grows, and two finger sized spruces along with a slightly bigger one. I managed to pry it from between a crack in a huge rock, and if it makes the transition, it’ll be beautiful, I’m sure.

We get quite a bit of exercise today, basically running up and down rocky slopes, fully invigorated by the fresh and sunny spring air that is filled with the scents of wild herbs, pines and rich clay dirt that is still wet from the recent rain.

With most of our collection in the car, little sister and I decide to walk ahead already. She’s enjoying the trip in the “wild” and while we cross at a mile or so, just strolling over the path, enjoying the quiet and heavily scented air, I tell her of when we traveled through India, which was before her time.

Gawd, sometimes it is hard to believe that more than twenty years have passed since we went there. The memories are often so very clear. I’m going to have to post the story over here some day. I did write it down and it would be a shame not to share it. Maybe sometime this week. We’ll see.

By the time we get home and lay out our eclectic collection in the back of the truck, all the small bushes look a little like bonsai trees to me, which is cute to say the least.
It’s already dark by the time we finish potting our finds and store them in an old bathtub so the dogs won’t barge over them.

While we were gone, little brother decided to make my vegetable bread for dinner, and when I enter the house, the scent of it makes my mouth water. The dogs are insane, of course. They always are even if we’ve been gone for only five minutes, and an orchestra of howls greets me when I arrive in the kitchen, more than ready for a meal. Before I can sit down and enjoy dinner, however, I need to tackle the laundry. The dry needs to be taken down and the new needs to be hung.

Rather than do dinner first, I stuff a slice of the bread in my mouth, adding some cheese for the sheer pleasure of it, and then head out into the courtyard to get the chore over and done with. While I’m folding the dry clothes and sheets, I’ve got two sandwiches of the bread covered with cheese and they are baking on the stove. Once I’m done I dig in and then set up my computer.

On TV an episode of “CSI” plays, but I hardly pay it any attention while I do some more proofreading. The evening comes to a ridiculously fast end, sending me up to my cabin yawning like mad and more than eager to get some sleep.

I’m officially bushed. Hah.