Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

This is NOT my life. I am a farmer - not a painter! Spent several hours with the power roller and another hour or so doing the special little place where the wall meets the ceiling. I'm picky. Wanted it done right so did it with a little tiny corner brush.

Got the last three rolls of hay out with minimal trouble. Not ZERO trouble, but minimal.

Have a guy coming to give me an estimate tomorrow to trim a tree. "Trim" is putting it mildly however. It has a bunch of branches hanging over a power line. Power company trimmers won't touch it because it's up in the yard and is over the small line that powers my house and my neighbor. If it takes down that line its on ME to pay for all the repairs. Don't want to do that so I'll pay to have the tree trimmed. I should really have it taken down, but its a great big beautiful tree and I don't want to be responsible for it's demise. But, the trimming is going to be severe...

No idea what, if anything, is for dinner. Might go on a liquid diet tonight...an adult liquid diet, lol. It's been a day...

 

[flowerbug]

@frustratedearthmother so sorry for the tree trimming expense, but i sure do understand in wanting to be pre-emptive if you get to foot the bill for repairs.

it is interesting how different states and power companies work, up here the power company is responsible for the system up to the house so if the service line from the poles is damaged they have to fix it.

the last time they did tree trimming in our area i talked to the guy who was marking trees and wanted him to get them to take out the maple tree to the north. he did mark the tree but they barely touched it so i went out and talked to the workers about why they didn't take the tree down and they said they didn't have to. *shrug* if in the future they keep trimming the tree in an unbalanced way and it falls on our property there will be words exchanged...

as to why people can't look into the future and decide to deal with things before they become a major expense i don't know. but i wanted to remove a pine tree near the house while it was still small enough to not be much of an issue. ten years later it's more of an issue and expense that didn't need to happen. enough to pull hairs out...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Thanks! Power company hires tree trimmers to take care of the main lines, but if a tree on your own property takes out your own lines (or your neighbors) you're screwed. We tried to talk them into it once - even offered some "incentive" but they wouldn't bite. Ugh. It's something that needs to be done before any nasty storm heads our way.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Tree trimmer guy didn't come yesterday so he's coming this morning to give estimate. He's coming at 8 so I wonder if he is planning on working IF I agree to his price. I have no idea what to expect it might be. I have a feeling it won't be cheap! However, if I were climbing around in a tree and cutting branches away from a power line - I'd probably charge accordingly.

Had a big ol' mess of critters in the wrong place yesterday. They sometimes like to re-arrange themselves just to prove they can, lol. The two LGD's in the pasture were just a bit peeved that there was so much shuffling going on. As I was putting everyone back in their places (with bright shiny faces) Raine (English Shepherd female) decided to go exploring.

Raine is very exuberant and fully expects every other dog should love her immediately. She's been poorly socialized with other dogs (my fault) but has met the LGD's plenty of times through the fence or with me in close proximity. This time she was on her own. Belle, the younger LGD was ok with her and almost as exuberant. However, when Missy (pasture boss) saw her she ran up to investigate. Raine didn't follow proper 'meeting protocol' and Missy didn't tolerate that. She put Raine on the ground in a submissive, belly up position in about a half-second. She didn't try to hurt her and never even used teeth. She just bowled her over and stood over her - holding her down with her presence only. It was actually kind of funny to see the look on Raine's face as she was on her back looking around for help!

I was really proud of Missy! She used perfect discretion. I need to let them together more often and perhaps Missy will teach her to observe proper butt sniffing protocol when they meet, lol. I praised Missy because I wanted her to know that she'd done a good job as pasture queen. Raine was in her territory and needed to play by her rules.

 

[flowerbug]

glad no blood was drawn and they could figure it out.

*imagining world peace through shining goat faces*

 

[baymule]

Good girl Missy! It’s so cool to watch dog pack order.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Donating some scrap metal in the form of an old hog feeder, couple old bbq pits, old washing machine from MIL's old place to a faith based recovery program. Except they're late... a couple days late. Were supposed to come Monday. Were supposed to come yesterday. Are supposed to come today... Now I hear thunder, lighting is flashing and wind is picking up. They'll probably drive up any minute now, lol!

Gonna make some soup for DH today. But, what about me? I've been craving coconut in any shape or form. Coconut pie, cake, cookies? I dunno... Not sure I'll get around to doing anything about that craving. But I might since there's nothing else to do in this weather. Whatever I make I don't have to worry about DH snitching some. He won't touch coconut. Oops - sorry! (he wouldn't eat much anyway because of the carbs but this guarantees he will keep his BS in control) YaY!

 

[flowerbug]

macaroons are delicious. especially with a few butterscotch chips, walnuts and chocolate chips in there.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Had some serious trimming done this morning on an old Ash tree. It's a grand ol' tree and I hated to do it - but it had outgrown its safe space. Now, it's been trimmed back where it can't do harm to the power lines in the event of a weather event. It's looking a little asymmetrical but at least it's still there and alive. Tree expert was telling me that Ash trees have a pretty short life span...maybe 35 - 40 years in this part of Texas. I must have the exception to that rule because this tree is 40+ and according to the expert is still in pretty good shape. I have read that under good conditions they can live much longer than that estimation. Whatever its life span is - I'll try to keep it going as long as possible. There's a lot of family history that has taken place under that tree.

I was looking the goats over today and they look great. Hope they keep that good condition after the heat really starts hitting us next week. We've got 98 in the forecast for several days with a heat index of 108 or 109ish. I'm sooooooo not ready for that!

Scrap metal folks still haven't made it out here....argh! We're back on their schedule for tomorrow. I need for these folks to do what they say they're going to do and to stop yanking my chain!

I may or may not have given in to the cravings and created an awesome coconut cake. I might even have treated it like a Tres Leches cake and soaked some coconut milk into it after it came out of the oven. That's just a rumor of course, lol!

 

[flowerbug]

as usual i will start with the cake and work my ways backwards. MmmmM cake!

scrap metal was going for so little when i took some things to the yard the guy started filling out the paperwork to write a check and it was like $1.65 total and i said to just keep it and skip the paperwork and left. i was just glad to have it gone.

glad to hear the goats are doing well. i still think it looks like they want to fly or be pilots with those ears - all they need is goggles.

old trees can be so majestic and also welcome givers of shade in the heat of the summer. i like trees, i just do not want them near the house or utilities.

good luck tomorrow! and with the heat. i guess it is your turn for a while.