Song of the day: “Coconut” Harry Nilsson. Had it before, but it is still an incredibly fun song.
Okay, today was a busy one, and considering it followed grocery shopping day (yeah, yeah, I know: aaargh!) I’m going to skip yesterday and start right with today. Besides nothing of interest happened anyway. In fact we did the chore in little over five hours so that was good.
Soooooo, today: Yay! I mean it. Seriously. The sun was out all day, the temperatures were in the high seventies, low eighties and we made the best possible use of the day.
You see, there is this big mimosa tree growing over the house, and we have been planning to do some serious trimming for the past few weeks. Today was perfect for it.
First off, thought, there was laundry, of course. I’m turning overtime for it, since I want it all gone before the rains start again (according to the weather channel it will be tomorrow, or the day after) and just half an hour ago I pushed in the last batch. Yay.
Afterwards I tackled the glass partitions in the house for a bit. The dirty windows have been driving me bonkers for quite a bit, so last week I finally said, enough, and have been cleaning the smooth surfaces every morning for fifteen minutes or so. The result is rather pleasant, I must admit. There really is nothing more pleasant than walking in the house and seeing gleaming black patches where the windows are…perfect spot to see King’s “It” in. Hah.
But anyways. I had a quick breakfast while big brother went out with grandpa to pick up the moped. Apparently the darn thing panged somewhere along the way, so grandpa had been forced to walk home. Turns out something is wrong with the cooling liquid tank, and we don’t have a clue as to what caused it.
Be that as it may, within no time at all we were ready to start on the task of trimming the mimosa. Both big brother and I climbed onto the roof, and while he continued to climb up into the tree itself, I would be below catching the branches and trunks. That went just splendidly too, until the biggest one came down suddenly and basically landed on top of me. Yikes. Luckily my reflexes are a lot better than they used to be, and I dropped down into a tight ball as the trunk’s V came right at me.
I remember taking one step back, covering my head with my arms and then it was on top of me. I was right between the V, so no real harm was done. I’ve got some cuts and bruises on my back and sides, and that’s it. Heck, it didn’t even stop me from continuing on.
Big brother was worried for a bit, though, since I disappeared under the foliage, he asked me if everything was okay (from within the tree where he perched with the chainsaw) four times before I could answer him. Seriously, how come you’re always unable to answer someone while taking inward stock of the damage?
Soon we were back and sawing and hacking, and in the end the big offensive part of the tree that was a hazard was hauled away. Next came the fun part. Cleanup! Yep. I think that took longer than the whole operation on the tree. There was about twenty square meters of roof tiling to clean, and more than eight full wheelbarrows of composting leaves, branches and whatnot to haul away.
The fun part of it, is that I had to use this child’s toy rake thing to drag the stuff from between the roof tiles. It was pretty tough too, considering there were roots, bugs and such all over the place. Still, it was kinda nice working on the roof in the full sunshine. Heck, I might actually end up with a winter tan. Hah.
Didn’t finish the task (carting it all down the mountain took some extra time) until dusk, but that was okay. The dogs had a blast attacking the downpour of debris and then running up and down with me, so, like I said, a successful day.
When we were finally done, I was sore, itchy, sweaty and more than a little achy. I need a shower, food and a chair, and not necessarily in that order. Hah.
Well, I’ve got more edits to do, of course. When don’t I need to do edits? And considering yesterday’s edit went atrociously, I really should try to get some done today…after a nap.
I’m outta here.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Not much to say.
Song of the day: “Forever” by Chris Brown. I think it’s because this is the song my phone plays as an alarm. It is a rather nice song to wake up to, I’ll admit. Makes me smile every time.
I’m running a little behind again, seeing as I just got back from getting rocks. Yep, it’s that time again. Since we’re going to have to double to get the basin done before the end of February, we’ve gotta start stockpiling the rocks. Only got a relatively small stash today, what with the labor being somewhat unpracticed again, but we’ll get into full swing soon enough.
Okay, yesterday was spent working on the upper patio door. We took the old frame apart, replaced the rotten and broken part, and then covered the lot with hardwood slats. They’re of a red color with beautiful black burn marks on them. A side effect of the sawing machine that works really well for something such as this. We worked on the blasted thing (two of us) for eight hours, but managed to finish it enough to have a door during the night. Hah.
I made pictures of the process, of course…but of course my camera messed up and the friggin’ pictures are gone. Darn it! Now I can’t show the before and after. Grrr. I’ll have to make some new pics, but those will only show the after, blast it.
Stupid camera.
But anyway…
Today we spent most of the day working on putting in a doorpost for the door, and the majority of the morning I scrubbed the pantry, made a fresh tomato sauce for tonight’s pasta, hung a humongous load of laundry, because I really have to make use of the good weather. Seriously. The sun was shining when I woke up this morning, and I was determined to get through the load ASAP. Almost done now, thank you very much
Considering tenant’s caregiver was out to her other job, I helped tenant after my chores and walked her down to my terrace so she’d have company for the remainder of the day. She appeared to enjoy the sunshine at least, and joined us for lunch. Baked pumpkin slices with onion, peppers and cheese on French bread. It hit just the right spot.
Yesterday’s edit didn’t go as well as it should have, but we’re past half the story now, so we’re still making good progress.
Mom and the sibs went to the market, like they do every week, and did well. Apparently they had good sales going, which is a definite plus.
Sitabah has formed a slight cough of late, so I’m going to keep her inside a bit more for the next few days. Can’t have a sick dog right now, so a bit of caution is warranted. They sure don’t like the cold nights, considering the bed crawlers of them are determined to cuddle close in the night. Seriously. Knight II wedges himself between us on the bed and will stab, hipbones, shoulder blades and anything else pointy (which covers a lot of ground with him) into my back, gut and legs. Yikes, that hurts.
Well, I’ve gotta get to work, so I’ll cheat today and not be too elaborate. Nothing really new to mention anyway. *sigh*
Oh wait. I saw a movie last night. "Law Abiding Citizen" with Gerard Butler and Jamie Fox, I think. Not a bad movie, but also not stunning, much to my regret. I do have to admit that it was an excellent revenge movie. Boy, did Butler take it to the limit. Ouch!
I’m running a little behind again, seeing as I just got back from getting rocks. Yep, it’s that time again. Since we’re going to have to double to get the basin done before the end of February, we’ve gotta start stockpiling the rocks. Only got a relatively small stash today, what with the labor being somewhat unpracticed again, but we’ll get into full swing soon enough.
Okay, yesterday was spent working on the upper patio door. We took the old frame apart, replaced the rotten and broken part, and then covered the lot with hardwood slats. They’re of a red color with beautiful black burn marks on them. A side effect of the sawing machine that works really well for something such as this. We worked on the blasted thing (two of us) for eight hours, but managed to finish it enough to have a door during the night. Hah.
I made pictures of the process, of course…but of course my camera messed up and the friggin’ pictures are gone. Darn it! Now I can’t show the before and after. Grrr. I’ll have to make some new pics, but those will only show the after, blast it.
Stupid camera.
But anyway…
Today we spent most of the day working on putting in a doorpost for the door, and the majority of the morning I scrubbed the pantry, made a fresh tomato sauce for tonight’s pasta, hung a humongous load of laundry, because I really have to make use of the good weather. Seriously. The sun was shining when I woke up this morning, and I was determined to get through the load ASAP. Almost done now, thank you very much
Considering tenant’s caregiver was out to her other job, I helped tenant after my chores and walked her down to my terrace so she’d have company for the remainder of the day. She appeared to enjoy the sunshine at least, and joined us for lunch. Baked pumpkin slices with onion, peppers and cheese on French bread. It hit just the right spot.
Yesterday’s edit didn’t go as well as it should have, but we’re past half the story now, so we’re still making good progress.
Mom and the sibs went to the market, like they do every week, and did well. Apparently they had good sales going, which is a definite plus.
Sitabah has formed a slight cough of late, so I’m going to keep her inside a bit more for the next few days. Can’t have a sick dog right now, so a bit of caution is warranted. They sure don’t like the cold nights, considering the bed crawlers of them are determined to cuddle close in the night. Seriously. Knight II wedges himself between us on the bed and will stab, hipbones, shoulder blades and anything else pointy (which covers a lot of ground with him) into my back, gut and legs. Yikes, that hurts.
Well, I’ve gotta get to work, so I’ll cheat today and not be too elaborate. Nothing really new to mention anyway. *sigh*
Oh wait. I saw a movie last night. "Law Abiding Citizen" with Gerard Butler and Jamie Fox, I think. Not a bad movie, but also not stunning, much to my regret. I do have to admit that it was an excellent revenge movie. Boy, did Butler take it to the limit. Ouch!
Friday, December 31, 2010
2010/2011 Happy New Year!
Song of the day: “I will survive” by…something Gaylor? Gloria? Maybe I should check…nah. Who cares anyway? Let’s get down to business instead.
The last day of the year is almost gone and it has been a turbulent year to say the least.
I mean seriously, so much is different now from last year that I figure I might as well do a bit of what all the big networks are doing and look back upon 2010.
So what all happened? Personally, this year and the last are pretty much a blur for me, but I am trying, rather desperately, to come up with some good ones.
Okay.
First one: As of this evening, around midnight last year, I think it was I smoked my last cigarette. Now, I would like to say that it was my New Year’s resolution, but considering that at the time I had forgotten that it was old year’s eve, that would be a gross lie. Hah.
But anyway. My first anniversary as a none smoker, after six years of chain smoking. Personally I would say, “Let’s celebrate it with a nice cigarette,” but that would be kind of counter productive, now wouldn’t it. *snort*
I did prove my own point to myself, I’m happy to say. Smoking for me was definitely an oral fixation, and not all that hard to overcome. I liked smoking, and if the prices hadn’t gone up so much (just last week the bastards brought the prices up another 30 percent, or so) I would still be doing it. Heck, if it weren’t for exorbitant taxes and my refusal to fatten the coffers even more, I’d be lighting one up right now. *sigh* Alas, this is not the case, so I am once again a non-smoker, blast it.
But enough about that.
Second one: We did it. We won the bet. We built a greenhouse without buying anything other than screws and paint and it worked out splendidly. We scavenged, we scrounged, and we dove into places that I would much rather forget, but it is there and plants are growing in it even as I write this down. It’s beautiful, it’s sturdy and it’s there. What more can a person ask for?
Third one: Tenant is hardly ever using her wheelchair anymore, and that after her doctors proclaimed that it was highly unlikely that she would ever walk again. The arm they claimed she would not be able to use either, might not function properly yet, but she can raise it, tighten a fist and grab hold.
These days she walks down the mountain in the morning and then back up at the end of the day with hardly any assistance, and without breaking out in a sweat.
Screw the doctors!
Fourth: We build the basin, which, admittedly crashed again just weeks ago, but we’ll rebuild and know what to do now to make it as sturdy as it should be to hold the water that will come. The rocks are there and waiting, so are the bricks, so just as soon as the infernal rain stops coming down we’re going to tackle the wall once more.
Fifth: We lost quite a few dogs. And I much rather not linger on that particular issue.
Sixth: I finished writing two books, which should both be ready to go out to publisher in one, maybe two months. They were written, edited and re-edited within the time we allotted for the task and soon we will see if the effort was fruitful. I do admit to being curious about what the responses are going to be.
Seventh: Ehm. Is there a seventh? Just kidding.
There is the yard, of course. We had quite a successful year with our own veggies this year. More zucchini’s than we could eat, but luckily the dogs loved them. Same goes for the tomatoes, which the dogs loved as well. Hah. We had cauliflowers, melons, eggplants, onions, potatoes, leek and more chard than we could eat…which the dogs didn’t like, for a change. Hah. There were the piles of pumpkins, the strawberries (way to few of ‘m) bushes full of peppers, the broccoli, cucumbers and the white and red cabbages. All of them delicious, and several of them saved long enough for an occasional soup this chilly winter.
Eight: The weather. We’ve had a relatively cool summer to follow a chilly spring. We hit the hundreds only a few times after all, and the coolness stayed consistent through out autumn where we’ve already hit the lows that were three degrees from the freezing point. On the plus side, I don’t mind as much as I used to. Hah.
Nine: Remodelling and building wise we’ve been busy, I guess.
1. We built tenant’s solarium, and put up a wall in her kitchen. Sure, the new floor still has to be poured, but once we’ve done that, all will be beautiful in there.
2. Also put in a floor in big brother’s room, of course, along with a new bed with a drawer system beneath it and new walls and everything. While busy there we also put a lick of paint on the wall so it’s looking good.
3. We fixed my broken floor earlier this summer, of course, and soon we’re going to put in my new floors as well, so, yay.
4. The bus was painted, and a new wooden partition built behind it. Soon we’ll be putting in vinyl tiles in there as well, so it’ll be a good as new.
Ten: Got a job. Yes, finances are low and it just couldn’t be avoided any longer. It’s not bad either. I get my exercise, meet lots of fascinating people and earn a few extra bucks that’ll pay for dog operations if nothing more.
Eleven: Had a massive amount of car repair bills, in particular since we got the Daewoo for the smaller stuff. Seriously, for the car bills alone we could have a full-time job. The way I figure, soon the car will be entirely new. Hah.
Twelve: I took the first step in starting a column by spending a day at a cocktail lounge. I’m still working on the format of the telling, but I’ll get there. As of now I am looking for interesting jobs that I could do for a day and write about, so if you can think of something, feel free to leave a comment and suggest one.
Should I do a thirteen? Okay, last one. After two years and half a year of doctor’s visits, my foot is finally starting to show some improvement. I now actually have moments per day where it doesn’t hurt, and that is still the best news of this year, I think. Hah.
Seriously, I’m starting to lose track. Stuff pops up in my head but then I don’t know what I’ve already had, and what not. Maybe I should leave it at this. I’ve described everything in the blogs anyway, so if you’re a “follower” you’ll remember most of this stuff anyway. Hah.
So let’s wrap this up and move onto 2011.
Edits are still going well. We passed the middle of the book, so yay!
The past two days I spent working on the new patio door I am designing. No, not the one I had already finished three days ago, that one was for inside. But a heavier, sturdier and pretty hardwood one for the outside. It’s starting to look bloody gorgeous, and is definitely worth the effort of spending the whole day in smoke and sawdust while I sawed the slats to the right size. Seriously, I can still smell the stuff now, after a shower and dinner. For some reason the hardwood I’m using smell likes a mix of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. Very pungent.
Added to that, we headed into the yard for a bit…it felt like we were in northern England in October for all the green and wetness, to check how everything was doing. While we were wandering through the moist undergrowth, looking for an occasional tomato and pepper, the dogs were happy for the break in the rain too, and dashed up and down the mountain with noisy appreciation.
In the yard, all was well, so I could get back to work on the door. Since the sawing table overheats on the long stretches, we spent the time in-between sawing sorting through the piles of screws and doodads.
Which brings us to the very last words of this year.
Hope you had as great a year as I did, and that the next one will be even better.
Have a GOOD and HAPPY New Year!!!
The last day of the year is almost gone and it has been a turbulent year to say the least.
I mean seriously, so much is different now from last year that I figure I might as well do a bit of what all the big networks are doing and look back upon 2010.
So what all happened? Personally, this year and the last are pretty much a blur for me, but I am trying, rather desperately, to come up with some good ones.
Okay.
First one: As of this evening, around midnight last year, I think it was I smoked my last cigarette. Now, I would like to say that it was my New Year’s resolution, but considering that at the time I had forgotten that it was old year’s eve, that would be a gross lie. Hah.
But anyway. My first anniversary as a none smoker, after six years of chain smoking. Personally I would say, “Let’s celebrate it with a nice cigarette,” but that would be kind of counter productive, now wouldn’t it. *snort*
I did prove my own point to myself, I’m happy to say. Smoking for me was definitely an oral fixation, and not all that hard to overcome. I liked smoking, and if the prices hadn’t gone up so much (just last week the bastards brought the prices up another 30 percent, or so) I would still be doing it. Heck, if it weren’t for exorbitant taxes and my refusal to fatten the coffers even more, I’d be lighting one up right now. *sigh* Alas, this is not the case, so I am once again a non-smoker, blast it.
But enough about that.
Second one: We did it. We won the bet. We built a greenhouse without buying anything other than screws and paint and it worked out splendidly. We scavenged, we scrounged, and we dove into places that I would much rather forget, but it is there and plants are growing in it even as I write this down. It’s beautiful, it’s sturdy and it’s there. What more can a person ask for?
Third one: Tenant is hardly ever using her wheelchair anymore, and that after her doctors proclaimed that it was highly unlikely that she would ever walk again. The arm they claimed she would not be able to use either, might not function properly yet, but she can raise it, tighten a fist and grab hold.
These days she walks down the mountain in the morning and then back up at the end of the day with hardly any assistance, and without breaking out in a sweat.
Screw the doctors!
Fourth: We build the basin, which, admittedly crashed again just weeks ago, but we’ll rebuild and know what to do now to make it as sturdy as it should be to hold the water that will come. The rocks are there and waiting, so are the bricks, so just as soon as the infernal rain stops coming down we’re going to tackle the wall once more.
Fifth: We lost quite a few dogs. And I much rather not linger on that particular issue.
Sixth: I finished writing two books, which should both be ready to go out to publisher in one, maybe two months. They were written, edited and re-edited within the time we allotted for the task and soon we will see if the effort was fruitful. I do admit to being curious about what the responses are going to be.
Seventh: Ehm. Is there a seventh? Just kidding.
There is the yard, of course. We had quite a successful year with our own veggies this year. More zucchini’s than we could eat, but luckily the dogs loved them. Same goes for the tomatoes, which the dogs loved as well. Hah. We had cauliflowers, melons, eggplants, onions, potatoes, leek and more chard than we could eat…which the dogs didn’t like, for a change. Hah. There were the piles of pumpkins, the strawberries (way to few of ‘m) bushes full of peppers, the broccoli, cucumbers and the white and red cabbages. All of them delicious, and several of them saved long enough for an occasional soup this chilly winter.
Eight: The weather. We’ve had a relatively cool summer to follow a chilly spring. We hit the hundreds only a few times after all, and the coolness stayed consistent through out autumn where we’ve already hit the lows that were three degrees from the freezing point. On the plus side, I don’t mind as much as I used to. Hah.
Nine: Remodelling and building wise we’ve been busy, I guess.
1. We built tenant’s solarium, and put up a wall in her kitchen. Sure, the new floor still has to be poured, but once we’ve done that, all will be beautiful in there.
2. Also put in a floor in big brother’s room, of course, along with a new bed with a drawer system beneath it and new walls and everything. While busy there we also put a lick of paint on the wall so it’s looking good.
3. We fixed my broken floor earlier this summer, of course, and soon we’re going to put in my new floors as well, so, yay.
4. The bus was painted, and a new wooden partition built behind it. Soon we’ll be putting in vinyl tiles in there as well, so it’ll be a good as new.
Ten: Got a job. Yes, finances are low and it just couldn’t be avoided any longer. It’s not bad either. I get my exercise, meet lots of fascinating people and earn a few extra bucks that’ll pay for dog operations if nothing more.
Eleven: Had a massive amount of car repair bills, in particular since we got the Daewoo for the smaller stuff. Seriously, for the car bills alone we could have a full-time job. The way I figure, soon the car will be entirely new. Hah.
Twelve: I took the first step in starting a column by spending a day at a cocktail lounge. I’m still working on the format of the telling, but I’ll get there. As of now I am looking for interesting jobs that I could do for a day and write about, so if you can think of something, feel free to leave a comment and suggest one.
Should I do a thirteen? Okay, last one. After two years and half a year of doctor’s visits, my foot is finally starting to show some improvement. I now actually have moments per day where it doesn’t hurt, and that is still the best news of this year, I think. Hah.
Seriously, I’m starting to lose track. Stuff pops up in my head but then I don’t know what I’ve already had, and what not. Maybe I should leave it at this. I’ve described everything in the blogs anyway, so if you’re a “follower” you’ll remember most of this stuff anyway. Hah.
So let’s wrap this up and move onto 2011.
Edits are still going well. We passed the middle of the book, so yay!
The past two days I spent working on the new patio door I am designing. No, not the one I had already finished three days ago, that one was for inside. But a heavier, sturdier and pretty hardwood one for the outside. It’s starting to look bloody gorgeous, and is definitely worth the effort of spending the whole day in smoke and sawdust while I sawed the slats to the right size. Seriously, I can still smell the stuff now, after a shower and dinner. For some reason the hardwood I’m using smell likes a mix of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. Very pungent.
Added to that, we headed into the yard for a bit…it felt like we were in northern England in October for all the green and wetness, to check how everything was doing. While we were wandering through the moist undergrowth, looking for an occasional tomato and pepper, the dogs were happy for the break in the rain too, and dashed up and down the mountain with noisy appreciation.
In the yard, all was well, so I could get back to work on the door. Since the sawing table overheats on the long stretches, we spent the time in-between sawing sorting through the piles of screws and doodads.
Which brings us to the very last words of this year.
Hope you had as great a year as I did, and that the next one will be even better.
Have a GOOD and HAPPY New Year!!!
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Hauling butt.
Song of the day: “Irish Son” by Brian McFadden. I nicely simple song to sing, so those who were forced to spend time in my company got to hear it too. Hah.
Whazzup, whazzup? (Gawd that sounds stupid) Give me a second here to gather my thoughts.
Oh yeah, yesterday.
It was big brother’s birthday, but since he doesn’t like cake or pie at all, I didn’t make any. It was kind of a relief, since I would have had to get up at least two hours early if I needed to make something. As it turned out, Sally offered to make one later in the day anyway, so it was an unnecessary worry.
The day started with laundry, just like every other day, of course. But, what with the crappy weather (no rain yet, but lots of clouds and moist air) nothing is drying so practically all the lines are filled to full capacity, which I find highly frustrating.
But anyway, laundry got done I was free to head out into the fresh morning air. First thing up was hanging four gorgeous copper lamps in the greenhouse. The day before we worked in the carport for an extra hour or so to get the wiring right.
It took some doing, but in the end we did manage the chore and they look wonderful. Very fancy in fact, and yet I’ve made pictures, but I am not going to post them yet. Seriously, writing about it takes less time.
Since we were down there already, big brother and I also took the opportunity and the momentary break in the cloud cover to take the wall apart and put the large concrete blocks in a neat pile so we can start over (darn it) one of these days. It wasn’t as heavy as I remembered, actually. The last time I had to haul those blasted things those 80-100 pound blocks felt almost too heavy to carry, but compared to then it went easy enough. I think it took the two of us less than an hour to get them all neatly stacked on the floor.
Admittedly, I was a tad tired last night and actually had a fifteen-minute catnap before I could get myself to start on the edit. Good thing I had that nap, by the way, because we had a full chapter edit that rent bloody well, if I may say so. Hah.
So that brings us to today: Again laundry, duh, but this time I could actually take some stuff off because it was relatively dry. Yay. Next, we cleaned Tika’s (Eclectus parrot) cage, because the place was a mess, and we’d been postponing it too long. Of course, the bird was eyeballing us the whole wile, her indignation implying that she didn’t appreciate us taking her stash away. But no matter. In the end the cage was nice and clean again, and we could head outside to get down to business.
While big brother continued with the box of the car, I sanded the new door so our friend Danni could paint it later in the day.
It was moist and cold today, so we lit up the vat for some comfortable heat at least. I’d missed the vat, I’ll admit. Nothing like working on some project while back and butt are kept warm by a blazing fire. Hah.
That done I made a small roof section for grandpa beside the carport. There is a serious lack of storage space, so I took the opportunity to create some extra by building it underneath the eucalyptus that stand between my house and the carport. I love working around nature that way, it creates the most interesting little nooks and crannies, if you must know and…well, it just looks nice.
Hauled some stuff up the mountain, which my dogs didn’t like at all. They would have much preferred to stick by the vat, by smooching up to it as close as they can without getting burned.
Talking about the dogs, I made a list the other day and it turns out that we lost a LOT of dogs in the past couple of years. Gawd, by the last count we had ninety-two, and now we’re down to seventy-seven. It was a tad scary to realize that, in particular just looking at the list I could see that in the near future we’re going to lose at least another 20 to age and sicknesses. *sigh*
Better not think about it, because that is definitely the thing I hate about having our pack.
But alas it cannot be helped and feeling bad about things that you cannot change won’t do anything except cause frustration so until the time comes that we actually lose them, Screw it!
I’ve got more edits to do, and a book to prepare for sending off, and…well, just more than enough to do yet, before the day is through.
Whazzup, whazzup? (Gawd that sounds stupid) Give me a second here to gather my thoughts.
Oh yeah, yesterday.
It was big brother’s birthday, but since he doesn’t like cake or pie at all, I didn’t make any. It was kind of a relief, since I would have had to get up at least two hours early if I needed to make something. As it turned out, Sally offered to make one later in the day anyway, so it was an unnecessary worry.
The day started with laundry, just like every other day, of course. But, what with the crappy weather (no rain yet, but lots of clouds and moist air) nothing is drying so practically all the lines are filled to full capacity, which I find highly frustrating.
But anyway, laundry got done I was free to head out into the fresh morning air. First thing up was hanging four gorgeous copper lamps in the greenhouse. The day before we worked in the carport for an extra hour or so to get the wiring right.
It took some doing, but in the end we did manage the chore and they look wonderful. Very fancy in fact, and yet I’ve made pictures, but I am not going to post them yet. Seriously, writing about it takes less time.
Since we were down there already, big brother and I also took the opportunity and the momentary break in the cloud cover to take the wall apart and put the large concrete blocks in a neat pile so we can start over (darn it) one of these days. It wasn’t as heavy as I remembered, actually. The last time I had to haul those blasted things those 80-100 pound blocks felt almost too heavy to carry, but compared to then it went easy enough. I think it took the two of us less than an hour to get them all neatly stacked on the floor.
Admittedly, I was a tad tired last night and actually had a fifteen-minute catnap before I could get myself to start on the edit. Good thing I had that nap, by the way, because we had a full chapter edit that rent bloody well, if I may say so. Hah.
So that brings us to today: Again laundry, duh, but this time I could actually take some stuff off because it was relatively dry. Yay. Next, we cleaned Tika’s (Eclectus parrot) cage, because the place was a mess, and we’d been postponing it too long. Of course, the bird was eyeballing us the whole wile, her indignation implying that she didn’t appreciate us taking her stash away. But no matter. In the end the cage was nice and clean again, and we could head outside to get down to business.
While big brother continued with the box of the car, I sanded the new door so our friend Danni could paint it later in the day.
It was moist and cold today, so we lit up the vat for some comfortable heat at least. I’d missed the vat, I’ll admit. Nothing like working on some project while back and butt are kept warm by a blazing fire. Hah.
That done I made a small roof section for grandpa beside the carport. There is a serious lack of storage space, so I took the opportunity to create some extra by building it underneath the eucalyptus that stand between my house and the carport. I love working around nature that way, it creates the most interesting little nooks and crannies, if you must know and…well, it just looks nice.
Hauled some stuff up the mountain, which my dogs didn’t like at all. They would have much preferred to stick by the vat, by smooching up to it as close as they can without getting burned.
Talking about the dogs, I made a list the other day and it turns out that we lost a LOT of dogs in the past couple of years. Gawd, by the last count we had ninety-two, and now we’re down to seventy-seven. It was a tad scary to realize that, in particular just looking at the list I could see that in the near future we’re going to lose at least another 20 to age and sicknesses. *sigh*
Better not think about it, because that is definitely the thing I hate about having our pack.
But alas it cannot be helped and feeling bad about things that you cannot change won’t do anything except cause frustration so until the time comes that we actually lose them, Screw it!
I’ve got more edits to do, and a book to prepare for sending off, and…well, just more than enough to do yet, before the day is through.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)