Song of the day: “Foundations” by Kate Nash. Strange, I wonder if we’re going to build for real today, ‘cause that would mean that I get this song every time. This would make it the third time. Hmmm. We’ll see.
So, what’s been going on…wracking the brain. Gawd, I can’t remember what we did yesterday…oh yes, we went into the yard of course. How could I possibly forget, first there was a lot of weeding to be done, while big brother and I worked in the morning and then, when the younger sibs arrived we put in at least twenty tomato plants.
They were beauties, I tell ya. Several were already half a foot high, wide as a hand, and more than ready to do some serious growing. Hah. Then there was more weeding, of course, but since the weather was rather pleasant I didn’t mind all that much.
We had a wonderful salad made out of Swiss chard, fresh spinach, wild onion and of course iceberg slaw from our very own yard, it was tasty it was healthy and it went really well with the apple pie I made for our friend Danni’s birthday…the pie just as tasty as the salad.
Little brother and sister both appeared to be a little better…or at least they joined us and seemed able to keep themselves distracted.
There were two more trips for rocks, of course, and tonight there will be another I think.
Today was mostly spent working on the greenhouse, putting in the brick edge, pouring the bases of the support poles, drilling holes, cleaning floors and placing all the pots and trays with the new plants on a different spot, because the place where they were standing is going to be where the greenhouse pillars will stand.
The sun was nicely scorching today, got another sunburn, I think, and our tenant of course came down…or more accurately we rolled her down, because her hip hurt. We had some more pie during work, and well, it was a productive day all round. Heck, I even found another handful of caterpillars, ugly little buggers.
Well I’ve got to get to work, lotsa editing to do yet, even though the past couple of days we made nice enough progress already.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Hauling butt.
Song of the day: “Mr. Rock & Roll” by Amy MacDonald, which was preceded (meaning yesterday) by “Coconut” by Harry Nelson. Remember that song? You know, from “Practical Magic” when they have midnight margaritas? Such a funny song, really.
Well, let’s keep this short shall we, lots to do, and only so little time to do it in, darn it.
After the last blog there was a rather successful scavenge that re-supplied our woodpile considerably, which is always excellent news…from my perspective anyway. There was another rock gathering trip, and we got some more sand and tiles, all for the variety of projects going on, of course.
The younger sibs are pretty down at the moment, by the way. Considering that Sita was their dog, this is not really surprising, just sad. I still think that distraction is the best cure, mourning for days on end doesn’t help anyone, not Sita, and least of all them, but such is the mourning period, and sometimes there is just no other way through than go through it.
Little sister did join me in hauling rocks yesterday, and we did a lot…Gawd, did we ever.
We did a slight calculation in the evening (being sore all over) and discovered that we hauled a stunning total of…yes, hold your hat and I would like to insert a drum roll…at least 6000 pounds. I was like; Yikes, might have overdone it a little, seeing as my muscles were insisting on feeling every single pound individually. Hah.
No matter though, it was nothing a little sleep couldn’t heal…which of course meant that I didn’t sleep as well as I’d hoped. I actually had a freaky nightmare of leaf lice crawling all over the yard, frizzing like mad and turning the ground almost bluish until I woke up itching all over. Seriously, it took me more than an hour to get over the itches, and I actually had to turn on the light to get rid of the images that caused the sensation. Aaaargh.
Which reminds me: We are doing daily vigils of the veggies in search of caterpillars, and are finding approximately ten a day on a variety of plants. Not bad.
Progress report on the veggies: we had another iceberg slaw, our first two batches of Swiss Chard, which is growing splendidly, our own wild onions, the second helping of fresh Parsley, and the first two strawberries got cut up in nine semi-equal parts and passed around. Hah. There was also a small helping of fresh spinach, which went into the salad. All of it was yummy, of course.
We sowed more Swiss chard, sweet corn, cilantro, oregano, basil, lavender and chamomile. This random planting is going to be fascinating; it makes me wonder how much (or how little) harvest we’re going to get this year, hah.
Editing: Not a lot of progress, only eight or ten pages, but respectively they were good edits after all. We’re getting closer to half, so we’re doing well enough, I guess.
The medication on the dogs is working, I think. Some have already lost their cough again and I’ll just continue giving it until I feel confident that they’ll get through it without further aid. Clue for instance, has already conquered the bug: Good for Clue.
Which, once again reminds me: That coughing syrup I made for our tenant a little while back, really worked, because she got over her coughing really fast. That certainly is a fun thing to hear. That cough syrup recipe is definitely going into the books. Hah.
Well, let’s keep this short shall we, lots to do, and only so little time to do it in, darn it.
After the last blog there was a rather successful scavenge that re-supplied our woodpile considerably, which is always excellent news…from my perspective anyway. There was another rock gathering trip, and we got some more sand and tiles, all for the variety of projects going on, of course.
The younger sibs are pretty down at the moment, by the way. Considering that Sita was their dog, this is not really surprising, just sad. I still think that distraction is the best cure, mourning for days on end doesn’t help anyone, not Sita, and least of all them, but such is the mourning period, and sometimes there is just no other way through than go through it.
Little sister did join me in hauling rocks yesterday, and we did a lot…Gawd, did we ever.
We did a slight calculation in the evening (being sore all over) and discovered that we hauled a stunning total of…yes, hold your hat and I would like to insert a drum roll…at least 6000 pounds. I was like; Yikes, might have overdone it a little, seeing as my muscles were insisting on feeling every single pound individually. Hah.
No matter though, it was nothing a little sleep couldn’t heal…which of course meant that I didn’t sleep as well as I’d hoped. I actually had a freaky nightmare of leaf lice crawling all over the yard, frizzing like mad and turning the ground almost bluish until I woke up itching all over. Seriously, it took me more than an hour to get over the itches, and I actually had to turn on the light to get rid of the images that caused the sensation. Aaaargh.
Which reminds me: We are doing daily vigils of the veggies in search of caterpillars, and are finding approximately ten a day on a variety of plants. Not bad.
Progress report on the veggies: we had another iceberg slaw, our first two batches of Swiss Chard, which is growing splendidly, our own wild onions, the second helping of fresh Parsley, and the first two strawberries got cut up in nine semi-equal parts and passed around. Hah. There was also a small helping of fresh spinach, which went into the salad. All of it was yummy, of course.
We sowed more Swiss chard, sweet corn, cilantro, oregano, basil, lavender and chamomile. This random planting is going to be fascinating; it makes me wonder how much (or how little) harvest we’re going to get this year, hah.
Editing: Not a lot of progress, only eight or ten pages, but respectively they were good edits after all. We’re getting closer to half, so we’re doing well enough, I guess.
The medication on the dogs is working, I think. Some have already lost their cough again and I’ll just continue giving it until I feel confident that they’ll get through it without further aid. Clue for instance, has already conquered the bug: Good for Clue.
Which, once again reminds me: That coughing syrup I made for our tenant a little while back, really worked, because she got over her coughing really fast. That certainly is a fun thing to hear. That cough syrup recipe is definitely going into the books. Hah.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Sita didn't make it.
Song of the day: “Si tu no vuelves” by Shakira and Miguel Bose. Marvelous song, and it follows up on Harry Bellafonte’s “The Banana boat song” and “Shake shake shake senora”. Gawd, they’re so much fun. I think I’m going to be dwelling into those easy smooth songs for a bit, hah.
The day before yesterday, just hours after the last blog, our vet called, telling us that Sita had taken a turn for the worse, and had a 41 degree fever. Of course we went to hospital, little brother and sister and I, but when we arrived there it was too late; poor little girl, our just 14 months old, black, Irish setter, but apparently her immune system just wasn’t strong enough to fight the bug.
I’ve got to admit that nature is a hard taskmaster that way. Especially when witnessing little brother and sister in their grief it is a particularly difficult task. So sad, so pained, make me want to cry too, I tell ya.
It doesn’t help either that at the moment the bug appears to have mutated and is sweeping through the pack with what appears to be kennel cough. The medication has already been brought out, but once again, the immune system is going to have to do the hard work.
But enough of depressing stuff, moving on.
It’s a beautiful day, though; the sun is out, the wind is down and I can hardly wait to head on outside. The only reason I’m doing my blog right now during breakfast is because otherwise I have to head back inside in the afternoon, which is just not doable.
What with the dreadful weather the past couple of days, there were lots of short sessions editing. Quite a bit of pages, and some arguments (apparently they are inevitable during and edit, darn it) along with frustration whenever focus floated away. But all in all not a bad job so far.
In between the rainstorms, thunder and Gawd knows what else, we hauled stones and rocks down the mountain, adding to the massive pile below the future greenhouse (yay, I remembered to title the old pool correctly).
Yesterday, in a rain pause, we headed into the yard and planted the cauliflower seedlings. Considering everything is literally soaking wet, grandpa suggested that we make proper use of it by putting plants in, without having to water them afterwards. We were still in the middle of it too, when the rain started up again. Bloody hell, I was wet all over, even my butt, which had been sticking up most of the time while I put in plants. Hah.
Seeing as I was wet anyway, I dove into the courtyard garden afterwards and removed hundreds of caterpillars from the plants. Silly little insects were having a field day on our beautiful plants, meaning that we had to toss the lot of them in a bucket of water, rather than kill them one at a time.
I finally took the time (meaning after midnight when I should have been getting ready to go to bed) to do some cleaning in my cabin. Oh my Gawd, it is such a mess there. It took me a solid hour to get my shelves clean. Since I was busy anyway, I scrubbed the bathroom too and then flopped down on the bed to pass out. Jeez.
Well, that should about do it, if you ask me. Can’t think of more to write about except if you want to hear about laundry?
Hah.
The day before yesterday, just hours after the last blog, our vet called, telling us that Sita had taken a turn for the worse, and had a 41 degree fever. Of course we went to hospital, little brother and sister and I, but when we arrived there it was too late; poor little girl, our just 14 months old, black, Irish setter, but apparently her immune system just wasn’t strong enough to fight the bug.
I’ve got to admit that nature is a hard taskmaster that way. Especially when witnessing little brother and sister in their grief it is a particularly difficult task. So sad, so pained, make me want to cry too, I tell ya.
It doesn’t help either that at the moment the bug appears to have mutated and is sweeping through the pack with what appears to be kennel cough. The medication has already been brought out, but once again, the immune system is going to have to do the hard work.
But enough of depressing stuff, moving on.
It’s a beautiful day, though; the sun is out, the wind is down and I can hardly wait to head on outside. The only reason I’m doing my blog right now during breakfast is because otherwise I have to head back inside in the afternoon, which is just not doable.
What with the dreadful weather the past couple of days, there were lots of short sessions editing. Quite a bit of pages, and some arguments (apparently they are inevitable during and edit, darn it) along with frustration whenever focus floated away. But all in all not a bad job so far.
In between the rainstorms, thunder and Gawd knows what else, we hauled stones and rocks down the mountain, adding to the massive pile below the future greenhouse (yay, I remembered to title the old pool correctly).
Yesterday, in a rain pause, we headed into the yard and planted the cauliflower seedlings. Considering everything is literally soaking wet, grandpa suggested that we make proper use of it by putting plants in, without having to water them afterwards. We were still in the middle of it too, when the rain started up again. Bloody hell, I was wet all over, even my butt, which had been sticking up most of the time while I put in plants. Hah.
Seeing as I was wet anyway, I dove into the courtyard garden afterwards and removed hundreds of caterpillars from the plants. Silly little insects were having a field day on our beautiful plants, meaning that we had to toss the lot of them in a bucket of water, rather than kill them one at a time.
I finally took the time (meaning after midnight when I should have been getting ready to go to bed) to do some cleaning in my cabin. Oh my Gawd, it is such a mess there. It took me a solid hour to get my shelves clean. Since I was busy anyway, I scrubbed the bathroom too and then flopped down on the bed to pass out. Jeez.
Well, that should about do it, if you ask me. Can’t think of more to write about except if you want to hear about laundry?
Hah.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Stormy weather...sounds like a song.
Song of the day: “Little girl” by Enrique Iglesias. Literally a song that makes me go awww, every time I hear it…even in my head. Hah.
Yep, yesterday was that day again, that particular time that comes by twice a month and that we simply can’t get around (darn it) Grocery shopping day…aaargh.
We’d printed out a list for a change (all properly prepared and everything) went through all the right motions, looked for sales, went for the bargains, and only went over budget a tad because we had to get a new water boiler: the old one gave the spirit the day before yesterday, stupid thing.
Now, I wouldn’t mind all that much if they made the blood things fixable, you know what I mean, a rubber ring here that you can replace, a switch you can get out there, spray some silicone, whatever and you’ve got yourself a fixed boiler. No such luck with modern day boilers, however, they’re of cheap plastic, cheap metal and just about ready to dump after three measly years of use. That seriously POs me, I tell ya.
Well, all the necessary stuff got done (I missed a few, what with the lists being different that usual and everything) but I managed to correct the errors at different stores, so we won’t be without anything in the near future. I could of course write down everything that occurred yesterday, but since it was basically a repeat of grocery shopping three weeks ago, you might as well skip that way and get the gist of it, hah.
The only difference was that town was busier than usual, and so were the stores, which meant that we took seven hours to get everything done, even though we had three stores less, darn it.
Okay, onto the next item. Sita is still staying at the vet’s…they suspect that the virus, bacterium, whatever the heck it is called (they say it has no use to check because the treatment is the same) has come out of incubation and she had a 40 C temperature yesterday, diarrhea and vomiting, just like Niobe, only without the massive amounts of blood. Poor little girl, she looked so darn miserable when we came there for our daily visit. And the smell…OMG, I don’t know what the heck it is, but the smell is definitely unfamiliar to me.
Which reminds me (visiting Sita, I mean, not the smell, hah) that on our way back home the other day, we took the forest path and got pulled over by the coppers. I don’t know what the heck is going on these days, but the cops are literally all over the place. It’s like they’re ambushing us in the most unlikely places for crying out loud.
But anyway, they pulled us over…not hard to do, considering it’s a narrow path and there really isn’t anywhere to go even if we are inclined to such things *snort*…asked for big brother’s license, then who little brother and I were. Then the chubby cop asked what was in our TOOLbox in the back of the car, what the boards in the trunk were for, and then sent us on our way with a rattled apology for “molesting” us. Hah.
Okay, these guys crack me up at times, really. Here they are looking for nefarious criminals, stopping the big white Land Rover with a bunch of foreigners in it, (and looking for some action by finding terrorists, or something, hah) only to find a car full of construction materials, garbage, construction debris, wood, or whatever the heck else we are hauling at the time. Disappointing for them, I tell you. Especially since the Guardia civil can still be the macho types who like to throw some muscle around. I swear I always see disappointment in their faces, and a distinct drop of animation when they figure out we’re foreigners from “up the mountain”…sometimes I wonder if our reputation precedes us, hah…They’ll mumble something like, “Oh, right, okay, move along, and stop bothering us.”
Maybe I should feel insulted that we harbor so little interest, I mean seriously, some cop abuse would be so much more interesting to write about.
So this morning, I woke to the sound of thunder (a lot of sound, in case you’re wondering) and it has been raining off and on for three days now, with a constant downpour that started around six this morning.
Seriously, the thunder is deafening at times, and it has been roaring overhead at regular intervals for the past six hours. Quite impressive.
We only managed a short edit yesterday morning, by the way. We got up early so we could get some done prior to leaving for grocery shopping, but if we did two pages, it was a lot. It wasn’t a bad edit after all, though. Short but sweet, hah. We’ll get there yet, even if we have to bash each other in the brain to achieve it.
Other than that, some of the dogs are feeling a tad poor. I think that the bug is making its way through the pack. Carla (cocker), Gada (Labrador), and Sitabah (weimaraner) are coughing, so we’re starting on some mild medication to see if it helps. Knight II isn’t feeling well either, and like him, Dax appears to be a bit lethargic. Those immune systems better kick in fast, darn it.
Well, time for me to start on the day, maybe do an early edit and then on to helping big brother hand the new boiler.
Yep, yesterday was that day again, that particular time that comes by twice a month and that we simply can’t get around (darn it) Grocery shopping day…aaargh.
We’d printed out a list for a change (all properly prepared and everything) went through all the right motions, looked for sales, went for the bargains, and only went over budget a tad because we had to get a new water boiler: the old one gave the spirit the day before yesterday, stupid thing.
Now, I wouldn’t mind all that much if they made the blood things fixable, you know what I mean, a rubber ring here that you can replace, a switch you can get out there, spray some silicone, whatever and you’ve got yourself a fixed boiler. No such luck with modern day boilers, however, they’re of cheap plastic, cheap metal and just about ready to dump after three measly years of use. That seriously POs me, I tell ya.
Well, all the necessary stuff got done (I missed a few, what with the lists being different that usual and everything) but I managed to correct the errors at different stores, so we won’t be without anything in the near future. I could of course write down everything that occurred yesterday, but since it was basically a repeat of grocery shopping three weeks ago, you might as well skip that way and get the gist of it, hah.
The only difference was that town was busier than usual, and so were the stores, which meant that we took seven hours to get everything done, even though we had three stores less, darn it.
Okay, onto the next item. Sita is still staying at the vet’s…they suspect that the virus, bacterium, whatever the heck it is called (they say it has no use to check because the treatment is the same) has come out of incubation and she had a 40 C temperature yesterday, diarrhea and vomiting, just like Niobe, only without the massive amounts of blood. Poor little girl, she looked so darn miserable when we came there for our daily visit. And the smell…OMG, I don’t know what the heck it is, but the smell is definitely unfamiliar to me.
Which reminds me (visiting Sita, I mean, not the smell, hah) that on our way back home the other day, we took the forest path and got pulled over by the coppers. I don’t know what the heck is going on these days, but the cops are literally all over the place. It’s like they’re ambushing us in the most unlikely places for crying out loud.
But anyway, they pulled us over…not hard to do, considering it’s a narrow path and there really isn’t anywhere to go even if we are inclined to such things *snort*…asked for big brother’s license, then who little brother and I were. Then the chubby cop asked what was in our TOOLbox in the back of the car, what the boards in the trunk were for, and then sent us on our way with a rattled apology for “molesting” us. Hah.
Okay, these guys crack me up at times, really. Here they are looking for nefarious criminals, stopping the big white Land Rover with a bunch of foreigners in it, (and looking for some action by finding terrorists, or something, hah) only to find a car full of construction materials, garbage, construction debris, wood, or whatever the heck else we are hauling at the time. Disappointing for them, I tell you. Especially since the Guardia civil can still be the macho types who like to throw some muscle around. I swear I always see disappointment in their faces, and a distinct drop of animation when they figure out we’re foreigners from “up the mountain”…sometimes I wonder if our reputation precedes us, hah…They’ll mumble something like, “Oh, right, okay, move along, and stop bothering us.”
Maybe I should feel insulted that we harbor so little interest, I mean seriously, some cop abuse would be so much more interesting to write about.
So this morning, I woke to the sound of thunder (a lot of sound, in case you’re wondering) and it has been raining off and on for three days now, with a constant downpour that started around six this morning.
Seriously, the thunder is deafening at times, and it has been roaring overhead at regular intervals for the past six hours. Quite impressive.
We only managed a short edit yesterday morning, by the way. We got up early so we could get some done prior to leaving for grocery shopping, but if we did two pages, it was a lot. It wasn’t a bad edit after all, though. Short but sweet, hah. We’ll get there yet, even if we have to bash each other in the brain to achieve it.
Other than that, some of the dogs are feeling a tad poor. I think that the bug is making its way through the pack. Carla (cocker), Gada (Labrador), and Sitabah (weimaraner) are coughing, so we’re starting on some mild medication to see if it helps. Knight II isn’t feeling well either, and like him, Dax appears to be a bit lethargic. Those immune systems better kick in fast, darn it.
Well, time for me to start on the day, maybe do an early edit and then on to helping big brother hand the new boiler.
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