hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

Thanks ladies!
I haven't read that book, Deb. I'll have to check the library to see if they have it.
We had another good discussion about the fact that from both of our perspectives it seems that the other one doesn't really care. I struggle in winter really bad, so I need encouragement and help to keep up with things. He just doesn't seem to do it very much, and was using my lack of motivation as a reason to get apathetic, which only made things worse. So hopefully both of us will be able to stay more encouraged and take care of things now. I guess we'll see what happens.
I picked up work at the old barn today helping out. Working one or two days a week there would really really help the budget. I guess we'll see what happens with that.
I need to get ground beef thawed quickly so I can throw together crock pot meatloaf for dinner.
Last night i actually made dinner and made gravy out of the leftover juice from that orange creamery chicken. It turned out really good. So we had leftover chicken (which accidentally got exploded in the microwave. Oops!), mashed potatoes, gravy, and broccoli. I would have thrown together some salad but we were out of salad dressing and i had planned to make more but never got to it. So that's happening today instead. I was pleased I was able to get a nice dinner together without too much struggle.
We ended up having to go to a viewing for a friend's of the bfs family after that. It really stuck to have to go out in 23 degrees without the wind chill in fancy clothes.
I need to get moving if I'm going to get done what needs to be done.

 

[Denim Deb]

Brrrr!

 

[hqueen13]

No kidding! It was rough! I was smart enough to wear the right combo of layers, but it still took me about and hour and a half to warm up. Once i was warm, i was fine for a while. I had to zip home and meet the hay guy about 11, that took 45 minutes out of my working time. I've got 4 big bales now, I think I'll need to put one out today. I might try to do that by myself this morning while it is sort of still frozen. This evening it will be a muddy mess.
Yesterday I finally finished at the old barn at 2. Got home, ate lunch because i was starving, and went outside to work. I was really disappointed because it was pretty warm down at the other barn. Here, not so much, the wind was blowing and it was pretty cold. I still worked Othello, and got very very cold as I did. I spent a few minutes with storm when I was done with Othello and that was all I could stand. I was cold to the bone. I came in and the bf and i fixed dinner. I made ranch salad dressing up, which is yummy, it'll probably be better today than it was last night. I had a surplus of sour cream I needed to try to use so it worked out well.
I rushed out to yoga as soon as i finished dinner, the bf was kind enough to clean everything up for me. I was really tired and stiff but i am glad i went because as I suspected the yoga helped loosen me up and I'm not sore today.
I've got to get out there and check to see if they need a bale and then get grace fed. The farrier comes at 10, so I want to have Othello done eating and I'll get storm as soon as Othello is finished. I'm just passing that storm cooperates with us. I'm trying to get my head into a good place so that he'll behave very well like he knows how to do.
I think i need to get his teeth done, but it's too cold to deal with that right now so I'll wait a while. I guess i should try to plan that to happen before JS is here so she can straighten out his jaw again afterwards.
After the farrier I'm going I'll have a little time to clean in the house and eat lunch. Then I'll head to GHs house to give her a lesson. Later this evening I have a dinner seminar to go to.
I guess i need to get moving if I'm going to get anything accomplished.

 

[Denim Deb]

Sounds like a busy day!

 

[hqueen13]

It was a busy day!
I put a large square bale out all by myself with the bobcat! I was very pleased, and it took all of about 10 minutes, tops, to get it done. SO much easier than the round bales!! Now we'll see how long it takes them to get through that much hay...
The farrier was great. I'm so glad that LH found her to work on Othello, and now she's helping me with Storm which is great. She pointed out that his right feet (that sounds really funny to say) are crooked. Not sure why that is, but at least she's fixing it. Its obviously been that way for a while, which isn't cool if my old farrier didn't catch it or correct it. He has really strong feet, so that makes me happy. Now if I can just keep the cracks from forming this year, I'll be good.
Got back in the house after freezing in the barn, and ate a warm lunch and had a cup of tea then headed to GH's for her lesson. Cowboy did good, and we chatted and talked while we worked and caught up on a lot of things, LOL. It was slippery since the frozen ground was thawing, so we didn't do anything but walk the horse anyway.
I came home, and the BF was already on the way home, and so I did a little cleaning and we talked for a bit when he got home. He had to go down to his mom's house to work on my birthday present (I think he was home making me a cheesecake from scratch!) and so I cleaned more before I had to go to the dinner seminar. I was a little disappointed because everyone there was basically dairy or beef farmers, it was all women, so that was nice, but no one else had small farms, and I don't think that anyone else was really organic the way that I am. The lecture was presented by a really nice gal that has 2100 acres as part of a family farm in a southern county. They have grown organic, which was nice, but don't anymore. She is very well versed, though, and it was nice to hear her point of view. But pretty much everyone in the room was pro GMO and not very organic. Of course, it also made me realize that being anti those things means being against someone's livelihood. And that isn't good either. Its a tough thing to be a part of. But being on the inside is very different from what is posted in the media, and what runs around facebook. I suppose I will probably try to make it to more of the talks, mostly to just become a part of the group and get involved in other things. We'll see where it goes.
I got home pretty late and crashed into bed.
I'm in the office today, which isn't a bad thing since the high today was last night's low. The low tonight is a single digit, at that point it doesn't really matter which one. They all feel the same.
The BF is taking off tomorrow for my birthday, which will be fun to have a 3 day weekend with him. I have no idea what he's got up his sleeve. S texted me and asked if I could watch the chickens from tomorrow evening through Sunday morning, which I said yes since I want the cash. I'm a little disappointed to have to deal with that over my birthday weekend, but cash is king, and we can really use it from all the jeep repairs we had to deal with. My credit cards are higher than I want them to be, and so any money is a good thing!
I got info on the year long program with the animal communication stuff. I may end up going ahead and committing to it. She's giving me the original lower price, plus giving me a credit of the amount that I paid for the first class I took, plus giving me 10% off. That's a huge amount of savings, over $1000.00 off, so its worth it. I sent a note to my mom and let her know, so we'll see what she says. I still need to find someone to help me with an indiegogo campaign, I need a video, but I can't really afford to pay someone to do it for me. I'm nervous and scared, but I guess I just need to go do it!

 

[Denim Deb]

Sounds like we're getting the same kind of weather. It's cold and super windy here today. I just want winter to be over.

 

[hqueen13]

Me too! I'm so tired of it. I think I'm getting grumpy and the bf is trying to quit smoking and soda right now... not a good combo!
Had a great birthday weekend. The bf took off on Friday so we had 3 days together. It was a little busier than i would have liked, but i made extra money babysitting the chickens and we borrow the pickup truck from S while he was gone to get the lumber for the hay feeder that my friend purchased. That chore is checked of the list, which is helpful.
Friday night we had dinner at the bfs parents house, his mom made spaghetti which is good. The bf also made me a from scratch bailey's chocolate cheesecake. It turned out delicious!
we finally got the Christmas decorations taken down and put away so that was a good thing. I've only found one or two things that we missed i think. Now i just need to clean the house! It's a wreck! I'm feeling overwhelmed, but that's sort of normal i guess.
Today is my appointment with our accountant to do the taxes so i must finish up the paperwork before i go. I really don't want to go outside into the frozen rain but the dogs will start bugging me soon.
Apparently we are getting a new roof on our hay barn. They are working on it this morning so we'll see what happens. Crappy day to have to do work like that. With the weather what it is i don't know when I'll really be able to work with Othello again. Yuck! I did get the leaves raked out of the round pen which was really nice. I was almost a little bummed it was so nice over the weekend because there was so much i could have been doing around the farm.
I'd better get moving or I'll never get the taxes ready!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Glad you had a good b'day weekend! Hope the weather clears up and that your taxes turn out on a positive note!

 

[hqueen13]

Thanks FEM!
I had a pretty good day yesterday. I got a fair amount done and I was feeling good. I got some picking up done and got some laundry done, and we even managed to cook dinner despite doing horse chores in the evening and feeding everybody in the barn.
My meeting with the accountant went really well. I have to make some edits and then get her the revised sheets on Thursday, and she'll run everything. I am almost definitely getting a return. The bf should be, too, we'll just have to see how much it will be. That will be such a huge help.
I woke up this morning feeling like crap! I Ache everywhere and feel like I'm having a hard time getting a good breath in. I don't feel sick otherwise, other than from the pain, so i have no idea why i feel this way. We ate cheesecake from my birthday last night and the bf was so sweet and made me real hot chocolate, i don't know if it was just too much sugar all at once or what. Now I'm debating going to yoga later, i think it will help me feel better, but i don't know. I really just want to lay in bed and mope but i have animals that i have to take care of. I think the horses will need another bale of hay and i really need to work Othello today since he hasn't been worked since Saturday.
Ugh! This was not in my plans for the day! Grr!

 

[hqueen13]

Yesterday was a bust. I finished feeding, took Othello out to work and crashed and burned. I worked him for a while them stated to feel bad, so i put him away. I felt so bad i didn't even clean up the barn, and grace had managed to poop in her feed bucket. I came in the house and got sick. I don't know if i was really sick or if it was the fact that it was 10:30 and all I'd had was a cup of tea. I crawled right into bed and stayed there most of the day. I was achy all over and just felt drained.
I feel a bit better today. I texted BO at Worrell lay night to let her know i might not be in. This morning at 5:45, AM texted me to let me know that the server had crashed and out IT guy had spent 10 hours on it yesterday and hasn't gotten it working, so there wasn't much of a point to me coming in today. I hate that it happened, though we probably should have seen it coming, there were a few quirky things that happened recently that were really strange. I'm thinking we're going to end up wroth a new server or of this, but i guess we'll see. I just hope we don't lose much data in the process.
But it means i get the day at home again so maybe i can make up for the lost time yesterday if i don't push myself too hard. Of course is 10 already so I guess I'd better get moving!