The ON DIT and a couple of pics

Song of the day: “Roar” not by Katie Perry, but rather this band that covered it splendidly. Been going through my head for quite a bit, actually. Hah.

What’s new, what’s new…not much, but the good news is that you are looking at a very happy girl who finally has a kitchen sink again. Hah. Yep, this very day, big brother and I finished installing the thing, and I gotta say it is looking pretty darn cute. I’ll see if I can post a pic.

It worked out well. Worked with wood, stainless steel and marble, and there is lots of light since we basically knocked the window back a couple of feet and created an alcove of sorts. It reminds me a bit of a galley, which has its charm. I just have to forget that I really, really like open big places. *sigh* All it needs now is a water heater and a light.

Stove in front, then kitchen sink. Very handy.

I haven’t been getting enough sleep lately, much to my regret, but who needs sleep anyway. I’ll sleep when I’m dead, right? Been trying to catch up with naps here and there, but alas that doesn’t always work. I’ll keep trying, though. Hah.

  

The gate I mentioned. The lock's not on it here yet.

Like mentioned the last time the gate big brother and I put together for the old horse paddock. Nice and straight and sturdy and made of materials that used to be my cabin. *sob* Poor me. Seriously, I sometimes look at the stuff we’re using, including for the kitchen sink, and think: “Oh, that was my lovely cabin.” I miss my cabin. I want my cabin back. *double sob* Can’t care about stuff I can’t change, so moving on.

Been doing daily writing. Not much, mind you, since I’m often drooping by the end of the day. But the story is steadily progressing. Also, we finally figured out most of the plot, which has been jotted down, yay, making things a lot less complicated. Though, I find it hard to find my focus whenever I’m working on my book, but there are moments when I get into the zone and pound out a page or two without conscious thoughts. Those are the times I live for at the moment, I admit.

Lots of experimenting with cooking this past week or so. Got a really good dish of fresh soft veggies that I really should jot down for the cooking blog. Including a rather successful attempt at stuff mushrooms, which for some reason made them taste like little pizzas. Added to that, I tried out a south American dessert called Morocho…well, I had the main ingredient, looked at the picture, the title “spiced Morocho” and gave it my own swing…really nice, but it took forever to prepare. Considering I had to also boil chickpeas which had been soaking all through the night, it wasn’t like I wasn’t already busy at the stove already. The latter was for patties, which was really something I was in the mood for.

Been in the mood for veggies a lot lately, so there was loads of experimenting with zucchini, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, eggplant. Since we’re also training, egg has been part of our diet as well. Which reminds me…

We signed up for the fitness club in town, which is about a ten minute drive down the mountain. At the moment we’re doing three times a week, but would like to, somehow make that into four times. Luckily the aches and immobility after a workout session are gone, leaving only the usual soreness that belongs with regular training. I gotta say I like it. The place, the people, in particular after nine in the evening when there are only few others left at the gym, giving us free reign of the machines. Yay!

Been cutting and prepping a lot of the dog food lately. Normally grandpa insists on doing that, but he is not well. I have been trying to get him to go to a doctor, but he is terribly stubborn, determined to handle things his own way, in a way that I can’t help him. I probably shouldn’t anyway. Everyone needs to walk their own path. You can’t change that. It just makes me sad to see him suffer like this. Ravaged by worries, real and imagined alike, make his life very hard.

As for the dogs. I am still having difficulty with Knight’s passing. Not bouncing back as quickly as I’d hoped. Guess I didn’t exaggerate in the blog of his death: He did break my heart. And there barely is a day that passes without me thinking about him at least once.

On the up side, I get lots of guest during the night, these days. Huckabee has decided that he rather likes the quiet of my corner of the porch, so he and big brother’s Thorgal (Golden retriever) alternate overnight stays. The same goes for Clue, who has become a permanent resident on my bed during the night. It’s not bad, considering I only have Sitabah and Daxie now.

Lots of laundry, as usual. But there is something wrong with the washing machine, meaning that we’re going to need to get a mechanic here one day soon. Don’t know what’s up, but several of the usual washing programs are no longer functional. Gawd, I do hope that it won’t cost a fortune, because let’s face it, the warranty ran out about two months ago…strangely enough just a couple of days before the machine started acting up.

I am enjoying my table, in particular since it allows me to write in semi-comfort, and eat a meal sitting down. Not that I’m such a big fan of eating while sitting down, it is just that it is nice that you can, if you want to.

Spent quite a few mornings trimming more trees. There were some touch and go moments when things could have gone seriously wrong, but now the trees that could have been a problem for the power company, have been cut down leaving the lines completely free.

Did some sewing. There was stuff that needed to be fixed, and I liked the change of pace.

Oh, I cut my hair. Yep a whole two inches…and no one noticed, of course. Seriously, I cut it, fluffed it in a way that I never do, and no one mentioned anything. It’s hysterical. But anyway, I like it.  I can still tie it in a small stub in the back, (easy for training)  and I can leave it loose without it looking like a mess. I still have Einstein hair in the morning, of course, but that’s okay.

Well, I’m going to leave it at this. I’m running late, and morning is less than seven hours away. I’ll be back…at some point.

"Trimming" Hah

Song of the day: “Demons” not by the original band, but rather by Jasmine Thompson who did a gorgeous cover of it.

Oh gawd, time goes so fast, doesn’t it? Once again it has been way too long since I’ve written here, but this time round I have a good excuse: I am back to writing!!! Yay. Right after my trip to the Netherlands visiting friends (hi, Friends!) big brother and I spent several days hacking out a serious plot-line for “Gun” (still don’t have a better title than that, but it is starting to grow on me), which took time and effort, but stuff is turning in my head now, slowly slipping into place. The world is “becoming” and that is always the most exciting part when writing a book.

Did end up lost on Wikipedia several times these past weeks. Research gets to me in that way, I'll admit. Like a list of all the big bank heists in the past century that got me surfing through soooooo many pages for many hours. History is just fascinating, isn't it? I mean, seriously, at some point I stumbled on seppuku (opening a whole new can of worms) which then dragged me into several pages of Japanese culture, which was fascinating. Definitely a country I will be visiting at some point in the future.

 

The fact that big brother and I finally got around to hanging a desk in my corner of the porch. The bed is now set in a way that there is actually room for big brother and me to sit at the desk whenever we need to work together…added to that we now actually are able to eat at a table, which is a novel experience after all this time. Hah. It’s tiny, but it is cozy enough, I suppose.

So what all has been going on lately…at least since the last blog. Honestly I can’t really remember what I did and didn’t write. Which is a bit of a pickle, but we’ll muddle through, I guess.

Part of the past couple of weeks’ activities have been taking down several tops of our eucalyptus trees. It wasn’t easy either. First because every day the wind was blowing, and we really had to pick them carefully so they wouldn’t end up on the power lines…which one did...no damage day, phew.

On two occasions we had to use the car to pull, meaning that at one point I basically ripped one of the tops out, because the car was on an incline, and started slipping, so I had to gas it, ergo, that almost went wrong. Anyway, we got them all now.

The reason is the power company that's trying to act preemptively, I think. So much damage because of the trees during storms that they're just going all out by clearing them away before they are a problem. Since we rather didn't have strangers on the property, big brother and I decided we rather did it ourselves...considering I've been pushing to do this for more than two years now, but we never had time, I didn't mind regardless of the hazards.

This morning the wind finally stopped, so we got the last one down, meaning that I had to climb down part of the mountain with a rope that big brother attached to the upper branches. Then big brother started sawing, while I hung on that rope for dear life, wondering if I was far enough away for when the thing came down. Seemed like it could be a problem, so I backed up one step, by then it started to give, squeezing the chain saw blade. Put my weight into it by then, and had to do it well because there was a slight inclination of the darn tree to go in the opposite direction…straight into the power line. I pulled and next thing you know it came tumbling down, with me backing up three more steps to get out of the way. Yep, you guessed it, the top landed right where I was standing before I started worrying about it. Hah. No worries, though. It all worked out.

For the next half hour or so we were stripping smaller branches of the big trunks which we’re going to save for firewood.

Another activity, due to the drastic “trimming” was dragging branches down to the compost heap. That took a lot longer than planned, but was good exercise at least…it was a lot, so it took us a bit of time, in particular since grandpa isn’t feeling well lately.

Another new thing is that big brother and I have been trying out a couple of gyms, and think that we have come to a decision of trying it out for at least a month. I liked it, both gyms actually. Tried all the machines on both occasions and paid for it dearly for the first couple of days. There was some soreness the first day, at which point I thought to do some stretches and to try out a part of this tae bo cardio that I found. Wasn’t going all that bad, in fact at a certain point nothing hurt at all…but then I could down and it got worse than it had been before. *sigh* Anyway, the soreness was good, it told me I’d done well. Second session at a different gym was a bit more mellow and didn’t leave me all that sore, thankfully. All those muscle groups that you can tackle in there. Gotta love it.

There were a couple of dinners with a friend, which was nicely relaxing. She also invited us to tennis, which should be fun. Haven’t played tennis in ages, and when we did it was far from serious, but the change will be nice.

Tomorrow I’ll be going with her to an animal shelter in Málaga. She likes to help out there, so I’ll go along, see if I can give a hand. Afterward we’ll be heading for the market…that is, if we can make it in time. We’ll see. Otherwise we’ll go to the market next week.

Did some experimenting with cooking, naturally. Not as much as I’d have liked, but enough to have maintained a somewhat healthy diet. Did a very nice experiment with cupcakes, by the way. Chocolate, hazelnuts, and coconut shavings. Was a rather nice combination if I do say so myself. Other than that, I worked with so many different tastes and herbs these past couple of weeks, that this afternoon I was suddenly in the mood for something completely different. Ended up boiling cauliflower and broccoli in some salt sugar and pepper, and then served it with a triangle of butter on top. It was absolutely yummy, especially with a bit of parsley sprinkled over it.

Dogs are doing fine, thankfully. Sitabah and Dax are not liking the cold, though...I can relate. As for the others, they are happy with the changes in my sleeping arrangements. It means that they can just join us by lying between our feet and in the kitchen when we're working on the computers. Am a little worried about Jelly, however. He's getting way to skinny, even though he is eating relatively well. Makes me wonder if there's something wrong inside there. I hope not.

 

Had to go to the garage, to make an appointment for the Land Rover. A simple thing, really, but a hassle of course because we’ll have to go there in the morning on Monday, drop it off. Feels like such a waste of time, but what can you do, right.

Added to that we also had to go to the insurance agent, to arrange for the insurance of the Isuzu Trooper, and grandpa needs to have his driver’s license renewed, which is going to be a bitch because of his medication. For some asinine reason trafico needs to know about that with a doctor’s note.

Which brings us to the end of today’s blog. I’m missing loads of stuff, I’m sure, but it is late and I’ve just about had it with today…doesn’t help that it has been cold as heck, lately, with snow on the near mountains that bring is this chilling wind most every day. Can’t wait for winter to be over.

Kicking my butt

Song of the day…well, there wasn’t one. I’m sick as a dog. Got a stuffed nose, some fever, and have little aches all over the place. I had some discomfort in my nose and the back of my throat yesterday, and the fact that we went out to work in the freezing cold of El Burgo, didn’t help in the end, I think.

But anyway, we left early for it, loaded up everything that had to go to Liane. Meaning the tiles and tools, and, on the way there a big load of sand that we bought at the local construction company. The guy did apologize for this time being a little less than usual, because he has to guess the load, but then we agreed that the next time he’d put in a bit extra, so all’s well.

So we got on site, luckily with grandpa who helped us unload both sand and tiles, prior to us leaving for el Burgo where we had an appointment with a dude who’s in control of a large piece of property, with loads of trees on it that were either dead or in need of trimming. The biatch is that almond wood is pretty tough, so if I hadn’t figured out at some point that you could just rip the trees from the ground when they’re dead, we wouldn’t have managed to reach our quota for the day. One I pulled out was a bit on the big side though, seeing as when it “went” I couldn’t hold it, and landed flat on my butt. Pulled a thigh muscle in the process, darn it. Took me at least half an hour to walk that off. *sigh*
Good I was a little upset too, otherwise I would never have managed, I’m sure. Hah. But anyway, most of the following six hours were spent pushing, pulling over trees, and carrying them all up the steep, steep incline toward the car where we could process them.

Bad news was that by the time we started the processing bit, both the chainsaw’s gave the spirit. *sigh* So, in order to meet the deal we’d made with the dude (giving him a big load, ready for use) we stacked what was already sawed and chopped inside the car, so I could drive him home and unload at his place before dark, and before big brother and grandpa froze to their deaths on that deserted mountain top.

Personally I was frozen halfway through by the time I got back, and since the sunshine was gone by the time I got there I didn’t warm up anymore either. But anyway, we got the wagon full at least, and part of the back of the car, so it wasn’t for nothing. But cold. Gawd it was, really, really cold over there. Sooooo not doing that again. I think grandpa and I went up and down that mountain some odd twenty or thirty times, and boy was it steep in places. I am terribly glad that I didn’t take Knight, because he would have perished from the cold.

We didn’t get home until dark, and by then we were so sick that big brother’s teeth were chattering, and I could barely move anymore. So I went to take a shower, a hot one (as hot as I could stand it while my toes tingled) for as long as the boiler water held out, end then up to thaw out in front of the stove while trying to do some work on the computer. I couldn’t of course. The common cold had set in for real by then and I decided to just give up and go to bed at ten.

Basically slept through the night. A solid ten hours, and I will tell you that they were downright wonderful. I just slept, and slept and slept (woke a lot, but turned over and went right on) and finally got up around nine feeling still sick, but at least not at all sore from the activity. Guess my stamina for such activity has improved at least.

This morning, what with the pounding head, my leaking nose and sleepy state of mind, I didn’t get much writing done, so around noon we headed up to unload the wagon and car (the first got damaged some, by the way. Big brother went right through the wood putting in a trunk). Got a phone call from the hospital that Sally had to return asap, because her cultures came back and because she still has a fever. Caregiver took her, and she (Sally that is) has been admitted in hospital once more because her cultures showed that she had some sort of unknown bacteria that was making her blood respond oddly.
She’ll be staying there for a few days on antibiotics.

Tenant also has the same cold as us, Cousin Ed…the only one exempt at the moment, appears to be grandpa, so I’m hoping that’ll stay that way. Would be a pain in the behind if we all end up useless.

Had to take Knight II to the vet this afternoon. There was some swelling in his foot, so he’s back to the antibiotics, darn it. He did like being at the vet, though. His tail wasn’t down for a change, and he let them fuss with him without trouble. Gawd, sometimes it seems as if that stupid paw is never going to heal.

By the time we got back there was the trailer to fix, you know, from the broken barrier and back that I mentioned earlier. It took some time, and a brisk wind made it rather unpleasant. Then, after the damage was fixed, we still had to shovel it full with sand, get the wheelbarrow strapped on, and prepare that wood for tomorrow’s job at Liane.

I am going to bed early, by the way. This cold is really kicking my butt.