Denim Deb Hay, hay, hay. Thank the Lord!

[moolie]

For some reason???? For A LOT of reasons you're really tired!

This. For sure!

 

[Denim Deb]

I've been getting to bed fairly early every night and actually sleeping all night long, so that's good.

We got our electric bill yesterday. Looks like all the work I've been doing to keep our energy usage down is working! We have budget billing, and they've lowered our monthly bill by about $75.00! One thing I'd been doing was doing the dishes by hand instead of using the dishwasher. I think that helped. Now someone's given us a dishwasher that works better than the one we had, so I have used it, but I think I'm going to go back to doing them by hand. I think it uses a whole lot less electricity. Plus, when hubby's not home, I have it a whole lot cooler in here than he does. It might only be around 60* F, and I'm comfortable. If I'm not, I'll get the heat up just a bit, then turn it off again.

They're calling for nicer weather today. And, it's supposed to warm up early enough so I can take the bike. So, that will help me save my gas. I'm thinking of finishing getting my RB feeder cleaned up. Then, I can paint it and tomorrow, I'd be able to get it out where it belongs. That will help keep my field cleaner. Yesterday for the first time since Honey's been out of my field, they were actually out of hay when I got there. Don't know if it's because the temps dropped overnight, or what. But, I'm still working on that RB I started pulling off of on the 30th! The last of it will go out today. I'm definitely going to need less hay than I had planned over the winter! I got the RBs for $34.00, I'm sellling 2 of them at least for $40.00.

Hubby's going to finally sharpen my chainsaw. That's good. I'm taking more wood out of the wood shed than I wanted to. I wanted to get it full B4 I started taking wood out. He says he's buying another cord, but I'm not holding my breathe on that. :/

I told him that I want to finish the stalls on Saturday. We'll see what happens. I need to get this done. If we get the winter they're calling for, I'll feel much better about their protection from the weather.

 

[Happy to be Me]

Congrats on the lower electricity bill!

What brand of chainsaw do you have? I need to get one that I can learn to use and handle fairly easily and don't even know where to start! We have so many downed trees that need to be dealt with that poor hubby just won't have the time. If I can deal with the smaller ones, it would be a big help.

 

[Denim Deb]

Mine is an electric one-I can't use the gas ones because the fumes trigger my Meniere's. The one I have now is a Homelite. I've also had a Poulan and a Craftsman. My favorite one was the Craftsman, but it had something break and hubby can't find the replacement.

Today's plan was to paint my RB feeder and get the parts of my hay shelter ready to put together. I found out real quick that the cans of metal spray paint don't cover very much. I was only able to paint about 1/2 of one section w/the can I bought! So, in order to paint it that way, I'd have to buy 5 more cans! Not going to happen. I can get a can that will hopefully do the rest of it for not quite 2x what 1 can costs. I'm not sure if they have them in TSC, but if not, I'll run to Wally World. They have them in there.

For the hay shelter, the bottom of the frame was bolted together. There's pieces that go in between 2 sections of the base. (They're supposed to slide in, then get bolted to hold them together.) Only problem being, the bolts were all rusted. And, I couldn't get them unbolted, so I just used a hack saw to cut them apart. But, one of the pieces refused to slide out. Not only that, it had broken and there was only a very small piece still sticking out. I tried to pull it out w/a pair of pliers. Came out just a hair more and that was it. But I remembered something that was posted on here. If I remember correctly, it was Joel that posted this. And, that was to heat the metal up. It was too windy to make a fire, so I got out my camp stove and fired it up. Then, I stuck the end in and let it heat up. It took a bit, but once the metal was hot, I was able to wiggle it until it came out! So, it worked! Thanks for the tip, Joel! Went to put a replacement piece in and it wouldn't go in all the way. So, I took a hammer and very gently tapped it a couple of times. I didn't want to mess up the other side. Well, that worked as well! But, I forgot to bring the new bolts w/me, but at least I know I can put it all together now. When it's done, it will be about 10 ft x 9 ft. That should be big enough to hold 30 sbs, 1 RB, and my lawn furniture.

Went to the nature center to help out w/a program, then came home. I was really glad to get home. I took the bike. And while I was warm enough earlier in the day, it was getting late and the temps were dropping. Got home, fed the animals and got wood in the house. Then, I folded and put away laundry, ironed a whole basketful and sorted clothes out to wash tomorrow and Friday. It was almost 6:30 when I got done. So, I got a shower, made myself some dinner and now I'm relaxing. I'll be going to bed soon.

 

[Denim Deb]

OK, it's way past my bedtime. But, RU and I went to a clinic on equine deworming. It was very interesting. And you got a $5.00 gift certificate just for attending, refreshments and they had door prizes. So, I came home w/some horse treats, a bottle of horse shampoo and some grooming tools. I got the last prize!

This morning I learned that my mower does not like to start up when it's cold out. Yesterday, it started right up. Today, it wouldn't. So, I did a couple of other things then went to my Bible study. When I got back, it started right up.

Didn't do a whole lot today because of the Bible study and the clinic, but I did get my bathroom clean, do some laundry, do some dishes and work a bit on the frame from my hay shelter. Not sure how easy it's going to be to get up tomorrow. I think I need to get off of here and go to bed.

 

[Denim Deb]

Some days, it just seems like I'm not getting anywhere w/all I have to do. But then, I have to take a step back and really look at what I've gotten done. And, if I compare where I am now as to where I was a year ago, I can see progress. But, I'm also really understanding why it's taking me so long! This morning, I was working on cleaning the basement. I had about an hour I could spare. I wasn't sure where to start, so I grabbed a small box that has a ton of papers in it and started to go thru them. They're dated between 2010 and 2006! And, the majority of it was stuff that I had no reason to save. So, anything that had an account number on it went in the wood stove. Envelopes, junk mail, etc went in the recycling bin. Good thing is, that I got rid of stuff. Bad thing is, after an hour, I'm not done going thru that box!

Got to the farm this morning, and found all of my horses in the seeded area. And of course, they had the electric down. My first thought was that I had forgotten to turn it on when I left yesterday. Nope, it was on. So, I don't know if the battery wore down because we haven't had enough sun, or if w/the blankets on, they're not feeling the electric-or they just don't care. So, for now, I hooked up my portable charger. Put fresh batteries in it and made sure it was working B4 I left.

Went to the nature center today to help w/a program. It was interesting. The kids were bilingual, Spanish and English. And some spoke more Spanish than English. A couple of times I did speak in Spanish to some of the kids. So, that was interesting. From there, I went to Wally World and got some stuff I needed-including my paint. I was dragging my heels about going back to the farm-it was chilly and cloudy out! When I left WW, I went back past the nature center then to the WMA. Someone had dumped a bunch of old fence posts in there, so I grabbed a bunch of them. Not all of them are 8' long, but that's OK. I can use them for other things as well.

By the time I got back to the farm, the sun was finally out. So, I did what I had to do, then left. By the time I got home, it was almost 5:00. Hubby had the fire going, and was bringing in wood. He doesn't stack it as neatly as I do-but I'm not complaining! Fed the goats and got my clothes off the line. Now I've had my shower and am relaxing.

 

[SSDreamin]

I frequently get bogged down in the minutia and feel I've spent all day and accomplished nothing! It is so much better to look at things over a years time. I need to remember that myself

Glad you had a good time at the clinic, and came home with lots of goodies!

 

[Denim Deb]

I'm looking at the house and am realizing that for the first time in years, I'll be able to decorate the house for Christmas the first week of December! Don't know when I was actually able to do that last!

Yesterday my hubby asked me what my plans were for today. I knew that he was planning on just staying home, so my plans were to just go out, feed the horses, then come home and work on wood, the garden and the yard B4 heading back out to the farm. I had some stuff I was planning on getting done out there and planned to leave for the farm by around 2:30 or so. That way, I could take the bike since it was fairly nice out. He thought that was a good idea. But, he also said he might come out w/me to the farm since he wanted to go to a flea market. I had no problem w/that cuz I wanted to go there as well.

Well, it was around 9:30 when we finally left the house! I had planned on leaving much earlier than that. So, it was later when we got to the flea market, and then instead of going home, he decided to go to a mall! And of course, we had to get lunch because it got so late. We didn't go to all the stores he wanted to go in because it was getting late. I didn't get to the farm until right around 4:00! And I still had everything to get done. If I didn't get it done today, it would throw off my week. I wanted to scrub my RB feeder so I could start to paint it tomorrow. I needed to pick up poop. And of course, I had to feed the chickens and take care of Cindy as well as put out hay. By the time I left, I was using a flashlight. And, he was calling to find out why I was so late. Needless to say, I got NOTHING done to the yard or garden and I did no wood. I honestly don't know why he even bothered to ask me what I wanted to do when he wanted to go running around. I don't have a whole lot of time left B4 it gets too cold to do stuff to the yard. I need to get wood ASAP since there's a possibility of a lot of snow this winter.

I've already told him that next week I want to get the stalls done on the run-in. And, I think w/or w/out his help, it's going to get done. I need it done. It was supposed to be done 3 years ago and I'm tired of waiting on him. Anything that I need his help on takes forever to get done because he always has an excuse for not doing it. And if I get upset, he gets all offended. But, if I don't get something done that he wants done, it's a whole different story.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

MEN!

 

[mrscoyote]

I feel for ya , it's pretty much the same around here.