My B-day present, finally.

Song of the day: “The bright side of life” by the Monthy Python gang again, of course. So weird. And Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive”, which are odd choices of music for my brain to get stuck on, I think…oh and there was this new song I recently heard from The Band Perry with “If I died young”. Such a cute little song. I’ve gotta say that every now and then I do thoroughly enjoy country music. Oh boy, I had no idea that I had this many songs in my head these past couple of days. And considering I usually sing out loud, and that sometimes others start singing along…well, much to my embarrassment things might look a bit like a musical. Hah.
Don’t hold it against me, please.

So what’s been going on, and for a change I’m not blanking. Weird, isn’t it?
Yesterday. Oh my, it was a splendid day, I assure you. Most of it was spent gardening and really there isn’t much that can beat that. I sowed lots of pots with herbs, seeing as grandpa promised to help me put together a cabinet in which I can dry them this year. It’s going to be fascinating.

In regard to experimenting, in our yard we’ve got lots of cacti, and I found a recipe on-line to make prickly pear jam, so I’m going to have to try that soon too. I’m not sure what to do with the taste description they give, though. Kiwi, melon and natural bubble gum. I mean, really. Eeewwww, but then I tasted a bit of the fruit’s flesh and it turned out it wasn’t bad at all. We’ll see once I get around to it.

Grandpa was turning earth, so we can start planting potatoes soon. He really is the expert there (having been a farmer most of his life) and he appears to want to do it “right” rather than have us bungle it. Hah.

Other than that there was basin cleaning, with a little luck we can paint the thing tomorrow…or at least the walls, while big brother puts a final layer of cement on the bottom. Then, if only we have five more days for it to dry…it’s unlikely, what with clouds already gathering over the mountain. Ah well, we’ll see, I guess.

There were edits, naturally, just like there will be more tonight. We’re not going fast, but not going slow either. It is going well enough, though.

Touri’s ear is doing well, and Gada appears to be improving as well. At least her recent deafness appears less bad. Carla is still pretty bad with his ears, so we’re going to have to continue with him for a while yet.

At the end of the day, big brother and I removed most of the furniture from my bed room, so we could spend today putting in my new floor…did I forget to mention that. Of course I didn’t, I just figured I would do it in the proper sequence. It took us about an hour, leaving on the bed for the night, and then had to leave for our daily trip to get rocks…again.

Chaos is absolutely enjoying the fact that my bed is presently half the height it usually is. Finally he can just climb up on his own (which he doesn’t do, he’ll put his front legs up and then wait for me to lift him up) and stretch out whenever he bloody well pleases.

So let’s start on today, because I finally got to my birthday present. I. Got. My. New. Floor! Yay!!! Seriously, it’s beautiful. We worked on it most of the day today and the bedroom has a completely new and perfectly spotless floor. Awesome, wonderful, and I can’t wait for the day to be over so I can go up and try to organize a bit before I go to bed. Seriously, I haven’t had this smooth a floor in…well, ever. Hah. But I’m serious. It’s wonderful, and yes, I did take pictures and I will post them at some point.

Which reminds me, I got an SMS from the people I did a babysitting job interview with. Apparently, their old babysitter was coming back from the UK after all, so they wouldn’t be needing me after all. Can’t blame them, really. The baby was already used to the woman, and changing sitters is rather difficult after all.
Ah well, better luck next time. I ain’t desperate yet, so I can afford to keep looking at my leisure for now.

Afterwards we headed down for the guest rooms to check up on the geyser in the bathroom, Sally was starting to get desperate with only cold showers in the morning, so big brother decided to tackle the thing again. We did manage to get it back to working order. Not scorching hot, but warm at least. After that we did a round of the yard, checking the berry bushes, giving some water where necessary, and just enjoying the outside for a bit.

More stones to be fetched at the end of the day, poor dogs meandering by the sides of the road…have I complained about this yet? What with the economic crisis, more and more dogs are being tossed out on the streets, meaning that they’re everywhere. Seriously, it makes me wish we didn’t already have all our dogs, because I definitely want to save some more. Can’t though, so I clench my jaw and we continue on our way after throwing out some food, and whatnot wherever we know lots of dogs frequent. I hate this!

But I’m not going to linger on it. It has no use anyway, so let’s wrap this up, shall we?
There were some supplies to be bought after getting rocks, and then it was back home for a quick snack prior to starting with today’s blog.
I think I need a nap.

Nostalgia?

Song of the day: “Thank you stars” by Katie Melua. So sweet, so darling. It makes me feel a little melancholy, though, which isn’t entirely strange, considering I had a job interview today. I might get a babysitter job, and I think it reminds me of my teens when I used to do that a lot, and of course when the younger sibs were still small kids. Though I am infinitely grateful that they are fully grown, I do sometimes miss the cheerfulness of young kids walking around the place. They could be so wonderfully selfish (kids can, I remember myself clearly, hah) and get pleasure from the smallest things.

Ah well, those days are gone, but I had a job interview today and I think it went reasonably well. The people were nice, the baby was adorably cute (ten months old) and we seemed to get along. I’ll be hearing on Monday, so we’ll see. It’ll mean that I’ll be out three times a week to spend an evening at a place in town.

But on to the basics, right. What have we been up to of late? It has been busywork on the most part, consistent of hauling dirt down into the garden pit. It took some wheelbarrows, (I would think around forty of them, but big brother says at least fifty) but in the end we had the plant containers filled. We planted zucchini plants, tomatoes, cauliflowers, thyme, and oregano. And of course the aloe vera plants, which make the whole look absolutely wonderful. It’s going to be a pleasure working in there…not to mention that the greenhouse is wonderfully warm these days.

We also planted some cauliflowers in the lower yard, along with the blueberries, which now have a wonderful spot on terrace number two (right beside the new stairs, yay) and we transplanted some leek and onions. Other than that it was chopping and binding reed, preparing the terrace for the future porch, and just busywork that really is rather boring to tell about.

Touri is responding well to the mixture for his ear, and considering Gada now also appears to have an ear infection, I have started her on a treatment as well. She is a lot better behaved that Touri in that regard, and will simply let me clean the ear as if it is the most normal thing to do. Seriously, Labradors are darling that way…in particular compared to Cocker spaniels (in this case Touri) who will respond as if I’m slaughtering him, for crying out loud.

There were edits of course, and since they went rather well last night (we’re past half now in the paper edit) there really isn’t a lot I can say about it. Regretfully I was late getting to bed last night, darn it.

Today was spent doing some chores by the carport, and cleaning the car since the sibs and mom are heading out to the market again tomorrow. Then we took the dogs down, so they could watch us work in the yard a bit. We watered the new fruit bushes, checked the greenhouse, plucked some weeds, dug some earth, and before you know it it was time for me to head to town for my job interview…and considering I already told about that, I won’t go into any more detail about that and skip right to the home-coming.

The back latch of the Land Rover finally broke down, meaning that while I write this big brother and grandpa fixed it. Much to our pleasure, after oiling and cleaning it, replacing some screws and such, the thing is working like new again. Beautifully…I know because I just checked. Hah

Well, that was it for me today. I better head on down to the house, (I’m in the carport right now and I’m bloody freezing) and start on today’s edit. There’s work to be done, and regretfully time always seems to be short…and that while I had this wonderful dream to tell about. Darn it.
Well, next time…*sigh*

The usual

Song of the day: “The bright side of life” by the Monthy Python crew, of course. Cracks me up every time (the song that is). “Enjoy it, it’s your last chance anyhow”. Hah. Nothing could be truer.

Yesterday…I did ridiculously little, actually. It was a most peculiar day, and I seemed to be one step behind all day. I hate it when that happens. That lethargy that makes you want to go back to bed and do a do-over. This wasn’t possible, of course, but what the heck, a girl can dream, right?

So what did I do? Well, there was the trip down into the yard to put some fencing up by the new raspberries and brambles. This is a safety measure (against the dogs) as much as help for them to grow up into once they start forming branches.

There was a car to unload, naturally. We had a rather late trip the night before, so that was waiting for us in the morning. We are definitely going to have create more storage in the near future, because all the old ones are starting to get full. Hah.

My new floor is gradually getting closer, so yay. I’m looking forward to it…even if it is only for my bedroom in the first instance. The sitting room is going to have to wait for a bit, considering that’ll be a bigger hassle. The bedroom “quick step” parquet should be a breeze.

We worked in the garden pit in front of the greenhouse. Cleaning the floor while big brother put the finishing touches to the last planter. Stuff is starting to look good, and yes I will take pictures to show it. I also sowed several pots of herbs. Like chives, rosemary, thyme, anise, melissa and peppermint. I still need to get basil, parsley, but my oregano from last year is still going strong, so I won’t need to re-sow that.

There was rock hauling and sand hauling, and after pumpkin soup with pasta for lunch, I was so friggin tired I took a nap in the sunshine. It was rather wonderful but then I was even more out of sync, which made getting rocks a rather difficult chore for me.

Ah well, Knight II got a good run, and afterwards we got to work on the edit without more dawdling. We got a good amount of pages done, but I’ve got to admit that I was rather happy that I’d reached the end of the day and could go to bed early.

Luckily, today went a lot better for me. The dogs didn’t bug me, and after laundry and other early morning chores, I headed out for some exercise in the shape of hauling rocks down the mountain in the wheelbarrow. Seriously, you don’t need a fitness club doing this; you get all the basic muscle groups working in fine order. If that doesn’t work, cutting reed, binding it and then hauling it to storage will help along. If that still isn’t enough, digging out bamboo roots, is just awesome. Seriously, all my muscles are properly lubricated today.

Today lunch consisted of pancakes with onion, wild onion, fresh garlic, basil, oregano and minced chard through it. On top I baked cheese, and thought it was definitely a first try, I’ve gotta say that it was pretty darn tasty.

While taking out reed and bamboo, the old rock wall behind it (under the house) became visible, and it is rapidly becoming clear that we’re going to have to get to work on the porch wall fast. Stones are starting to fall out due to rotting roots and sliding mud, meaning that the next big project (after cleaning and painting the basin) will be the wall. It was actually kind of scary to see how bad the wall looks.

Tenant still has her cough, but at least she is in good spirits and enjoyed sitting in the sunshine again. The thyme along with a chamomile steam bath is having a bit of a calming effect, so that’s good. And she did eat some, which is always a good sign.
I did trim her hair tonight. Her bangs were driving her to distraction, and since there were these massive knots on the back of her head, due to her napping, she decided that she wanted the whole lot off. Now she’s got a bit of a punk thing going. Hah.

There was a sand hauling trip this afternoon, which means that tomorrow I’ve got another nice exercise waiting for me in the morning, hah.

Touri’s ear appears to be doing better now with the new mixture. Carla’s cough is completely gone, so we’re going to give the tincture to Tridatu as well. The poor lab/mastiff mix has developed this nasty cough over the past couple of days, so we’ll see how things go with him.

Well, I’ve got edits to do, lists to make (don’t ask) and then maybe I’ll manage to get to bed in time again. That would be bliss, I tell ya.

Stair building...with pictures

Song of the day: “I’m in love” by Maria Mena. Still cute after more than a year where it passes frequently through my brain.

Don’t mind me, I’m in a rush again, and the past couple of days have been so friggin’ busy that I barely have had time to ponder what would be remotely fun to write about. So we’re going to stick with the usual, meaning that I’ll make a quick recount. Hah.

Oh, I did have a rather exciting dream the other day, but right now I don’t have time to write about it. It was a hot pursuit kind of thing, which is…well awesome. Maybe…no. Not now.

Okay, yesterday. No work day for the papers (I’m starting to get the feeling that the job is non-existent, and that, for some reason, I have not been informed of it. Weird) so we could do some real work at home. Hah. Yep, been pretty darn busy. While big brother tackled the planters by the greenhouse, we’ve got three now, I started on the stairs that lead down into the yard.

Gawd, my second attempt at making stairs and it is going rather splendidly if I do say so myself. In the past I always sucked at it (it is so very hard to get the steps straight and everything) but I thought what the heck, I’ll just learn it the hard way. Hah. So after that first practice round under the little gate, I got to it. Laid eleven steps down to the first veggie garden terrace, and after walking on them (repeatedly) today, they function rather well. Let’s see if I can get a picture up…

There you go.




Isn’t it gorgeous? I love the way it flows with the land. I can hardly wait to start with the next one, which will lead down the other side. Did I say that the plan is to have stairs all the way down (and up) the mountain? Well, it is, so I’ve got my practice worked out, don’t I. I can see the end result in my head and am more than a little curious if it will look that way.

Afterwards we had to take down a couple of eucalypti, which is not necessarily a bad thing, considering we’ll need a few for the Daewoo’s parking spot. Poor little zit can’t withstand the elements (there’s some leakage during heavy rains) so we’ll need to make it a cover. Much like a carport, only a little less civilized, since we don’t want to wreck the view. It would be such a shame if the beauty of the big trees gets destroyed.
Knight II almost got a falling tree on top of him, and looked at me reproachfully the rest of the evening. Seriously, he’s such a baby that way.

After that we headed out to get rocks for the future wall under the porch. Remember, the dratted floor is going down, so basically the wall is next on the list. Knight II is gradually gaining some guts in that regard and actually roamed a little while we loaded up. Who knows, within a few months I might actually need to start paying attention to him. In fact he started trailing the wild boar trail nearby. Hah.

There were edits, naturally. Still going steadily, and we’ve reached one third for real now. And I will get to it again tonight, of course.

I’m back to cleaning Touri’s ear. His infection is back, and he doesn’t like me at all at the moment. Ah well, what has to be done, has to be done.

There was pumpkin soup with bread, which is good. I have definitely come to love soup these days. Such an easy medium to fill your stomach. Not to mention tasty with bread to dip with.
Sleep was late in coming, (got distracted by other stuff) but what the heck. I can sleep when I’m dead.

Today.

Well it was another busy one. Little sister went to her job again and we went back down into the yard.

Tenant has developed a cough. No fun there, but we’re keeping track of it. I wish she liked a toddy, but since she doesn’t I’ll have to figure something else out. For now, she’s getting a thyme tincture and coughing syrup, along with teas and scented steam. Luckily, her spirits are relatively high and the aspirin to care of the most immediate problems of achy chest and the like.
She did insist on joining us downstairs, which I hadn’t expected. But apparently she didn’t feel as bad as I’d anticipated, since she preferred company.
The sun was out, so it was absolutely wonderful working outside, (both today and yesterday) sure the wind was extremely cool, but on both occasions I ended up working in only a short, sleeved T. Not surprisingly yesterday what with hauling huge stones and cement for the stairs, but today I worked fences.

Oh, didn’t I say? Our neighbor’s dog has been making a habit of riling our dogs up, so for safety measures we decided that it would be best for me to add another two feet to the fencing down below. This meant extending the existing poles, adding two more for safety reasons, and then putting the new piece of fencing up at a slight angle. Because, let’s face it, Sitabah is a disaster when it concerns fences and strange animals. I really don’t want to be the one to explain some sort of mishap. *sigh*

It was awesome working down there, by the way. There was the almost cloying scent of blooming almond trees, the budding “Common Broom” (I love their scent) and the wild thyme growing everywhere. I spent hours down there, the cool breeze drawing my eyes occasionally to the distant mountain where a steep roof of snow sparkled in the sun, and the trees whispering around me.
My dogs loved it just as much, considering they spent the majority of the day lounging in the high grass, and keeping track of me with only half an eye. Hah.

Once I was done with the fences, the raspberries (red and yellow ones) and brambles had to be planted, at which time big brother was done with the planters in the garden pit by the greenhouse and grandpa and I could start on cleaning in there.
If the weather holds, we might actually be able to paint the basin before the next rain. I’m keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Didn’t finish cleaning up, but we made a dent in it before it was time to head out for another batch of rocks, letting Knight run a bit and then going inside for today’s blog. I did manage a shower this time, which was necessary, considering the activities. Hah.

Well, that’s about it. Time for me to wrap this up. I’ve got a book to finish after all.

Here’s a couple, just because.


Aren't they beauties. It's almost not real, right. Sonia, Chamea and Abacara. I just couldn't resist taking a picture.


And Knight II. Now do you get why I call him a moron? He doesn't have any pride, if you ask me. Look at the pose. He'll sleep that way, I tell ya. *sigh* No elegance whatsoever. Darn it.