hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

Had a great weekend, it was busy, but then it always is when JS is here.
Thursday I managed to get a few things done, I was on the phone for a while, but I caught up on some stuff. I sort of ran out of energy in the afternoon, which was a bummer, but I did manage to get the shopping done for my workshop and then got my dishes made. They were SUPER easy (as in dump everything in the blender then blend, then pour into the pan and bake the brownies easy!).
Friday I got up and went to yoga and then came home and started getting stuff done. I had a phone call in the afternoon after lunch again, and then headed down to the airport to pick up JS. We drove to one of the other gal's house to work on her since she had surgery recently and it was better if she didn't drive afterwards. It took JS a long time to work on her, she was a mess (no surprise after a 12 hour surgery), and then we headed home and grabbed dinner on the way. PH was waiting for us and ate dinner with us before JS worked on her. I started bagging everything up for the class and got all the stuff organized. Then I ended up hanging out with PH and JS after JS finished working on her, and we talked way too late. I was exhausted by the time PH finally left, and I cleaned up the liter box and put the dogs out and crashed. The BF was out at an appreciation party for the company he is working for part time, so he didn't get home until late.
Saturday we got up, and I did the chores before JS and I left, we grabbed breakfast on the way, and then went to a friend's barn. She worked on 5 horses there, then we headed back home to grab lunch and pack the car with the workshop stuff. I was glad we had almost 2 hours to get ready because I needed it. We ate leftovers for lunch and then loaded everything up. The only thing I ended up forgetting was business cards, so I consider that a good thing! We headed down to the old farm where I used to live to work on 2 horses there, and then drove up the road to the barn where we were doing the workshop. There were a total of 6 in the workshop, and it was a really great time. JS did a good job filling in more info for me, and everybody got to make their poultice and fly spray. We had a lot of fun, and ended up planning the next workshop we're going to do with JS, which will be an intuitive essential oil blending class. I am so stinking excited about it, I think its really going to be great. Its going to take a lot more planning to get it organized, but it will be a blast.
We came home dead tired, but JS still managed to help me make shepard's pie for dinner, and I fed the horses in my barn. I was so exhausted it was borderline too tired to eat kind of exhausted. We finished dinner, cleaned up a bit, and then got into the shower. The BF had been out all day helping move some stuff out of his aunt's house which was being sold, and then the pickup truck broke, so he didn't get back until late, either. JS showered, and then I decided to clean the liter box and get myself basically ready for bed before she started working on me. I finished cleaning the liter box to turn around and find the cat puked on the bar. Awesome. Clean that up. Turn around again and the dog peed on the floor. Terrific. Get the mop out. Nothing like making good money to turn around and have to clean up after your animals to make you feel humble again. I FINALLY got into the shower. The BF got home while I was in the shower and we chatted for a few minutes while I finished up, and then I went and crashed on the table while JS worked on me.
I was a mess, and it took her a while to straighten me out again. It wasn't the usual thing that were bothering me, which is both good and bad. I'm glad that it was different because it means I'm not stuck in the same old pattern, but I was pretty twisted up. It took her a long time to sort me out, and then she put tape on me in addition to make sure that I could heal and not be bothered by the soreness I was going to experience from being so locked up for so long.
Sunday morning we got up rather slowly, and JC came over for her session. We headed out after she finished up and went to find breakfast before we went to JK's house. We were there for what seemed like forever, but I guess it takes a while to do 3 people and 2 horses. LC fed us both omelets that were to die for, which was a nice treat.
We finally finished there and headed down to meet LW so I could pass JS off to her next destination. We had a lot of good conversation and good connecting. She is really supportive of me with a lot of things, and it was nice to connect. I finally headed home, and checked in with the BF. His parents had gone down to see his grandparents, so we decided to get chores done then head to his parent's house for father's day. They ended up not getting home until late, so we were really late eating. We didn't get home until after 9 which is WAY later than I wanted to be in bed on a Sunday night after a VERY long weekend.
The sun came up early, and the BF was late leaving, so I managed to get up early enough to be in the office a few minutes early, too, despite feeding my horses and stopping to feed Cowboy and Coyote on the way to the office. I'm dragging today, and have a busy morning tomorrow, but am looking forward to a relaxing afternoon! Thankfully my gals in the barn swapped feeding times, so they're feeding tonight so I won't have to worry about that either!

 

[hqueen13]

Yesterday went pretty good, though half of my phone calls got cancelled. I got up in the morning and got the chores done and the horses fed before getting on my morning call. It went really well, and I think we found some ways to help the cat that I was chatting with. Jumped from there immediately onto my other morning call, which was good. My coach is doing a 2 week morning routine call, and that has been pretty helpful. I need to figure out how to incorporate more of these things into my daily grind so that I can start making more progress.
Headed to do chores at the other farm, and then to yoga, which was a great class. It felt really good and I felt really balanced, which was a nice thing for a change! I struggle so much with my balance it was cool to find more of it and feel pretty strong.
Headed home, ate some lunch and then chatted with CM for a little bit when she stopped by to pick up a bottle of Trace Mineral Concentrate from me. That's a few dollars I didn't have before.
I got all ready for my afternoon call, and the woman never called me. I checked my messages and found that after she replied and confirmed the time, she never replied to my message asking for a photo of her dog plus the info. My fault for not following up, however, if you pay for something and schedule an appointment its really on you to makes sure you DO it. I will be getting an online scheduling software to use, but I don't want to do that just yet since I'll get 30 days for free, and then I'll have to start paying the $10 per month for it.
After I figured that call was a bust, I called my videographer to check in and he said he'd get to my voice over edit this morning. I really hope he can manage to do it because I want to stop bugging him, and I know its the middle of his busy season, so I hate to take up his time. I am sure it will be really quick to get it done because it is mostly just replacing what is there with what I sent, with one minor break to keep some of the original audio.
Then I called the contact we got from one of the techs at verizon to try to get our address put into their system. I've GOT to get internet. I can't keep limping along with my phone. It is ridiculously frustrating trying to keep up with everything on my stinking phone. I just discovered this morning that I had 3 messages that I couldn't see on facebook because of the way the stupid messenger works. One of which was someone wanting a Connection Call that sent the message way back on the 15th!! That's real good for business /sarcasm So keep your fingers crossed that comes through soon.

Finished with that and was reading my affirmations that I have for some of the shifts that I'm trying to make, and I was reading the final line and a huge bolt of lightening flashed, and then a big clap of thunder rolled right as I said the last words. I was like EEK!!! Then I laughed because it was really funny. I told my other mentor about it and she laughed and commented that there's nothing like a littler universal confirmation that you've been heard! I'm very proud of myself, I have to read these affirmations (its about 2 pages) for 21 days straight as part of creating the shift that I am working on, and I'm on day 14 without a break (if you miss a day, you have to start counting all over again!) and with the way the schedule is looking I should be able to complete them without any problems, as long as I don't forget to do it. I haven't been doing it in front of the BF because he just doesn't understand things like this, so I've had to figure out times when he's not in the house on the weekends to get it done. I'm thrilled that I've had just enough time to do it every day so I haven't missed any days since I started!

Finished up all that and started on some cleaning and straightening, and the BF texted to say he was on the way home. I love it when he gets home early, but that means I don't necessarily get as much done. I was waiting for the storm to finish anyway so I could go run some errands. Its not fun to have to pick up feed in the rain, even if it does get put into the back of my truck.

He got home and we headed out to the bank (yay money in the bank!) and then to swing by the feed store. He was really hungry so we decided to get dinner (not so great). It was really early, so I ended up hungry by the time we went to bed, but oh well.
We got home and he sits down in the chair and says "Well, what do you want to do now?" I was like, well, there's lots of cleaning that still needs to be done.... always needs to be done.... He's been rather needy recently, but instead of figuring out a way to help me so that we can do stuff together, he seems to expect me to take care of all of it, and then wonders why I don't have the energy left to be close and spend cuddle time together. He's been leaning his junk all over the place, and not cleaning up after himself when he does projects, and its driving me crazy. He tends to have a victim mentality, and lately I've been hyper sensitive to it. I've had trouble figuring out how to support him without enabling him, and I don't know that I'm doing a very good job. We went to bed pretty early, but I couldn't fall asleep, even doing my meditation sequences didn't help. I got through all of them though, I guess that's a good thing. I did a lot of meditating yesterday! I should do that everyday...

I did manage to get my tomatoes tied up a little better, the cages we made are almost too big for the tomatoes at this stage. I tucked the cuke into the frame a little better, and was glad to see that the seeds I'd replanted are coming up so hopefully they'll all make it this time. I suspect I'm going to have cukes coming out my ears... the BF better be interested in making a LOT of pickles this year! I trimmed the rest of the scapes off the garlic, I hope I'm not too late doing that. The garlic tops are beginning to die, I don't remember them doing that before, but maybe they did. I was glad to get that tidied up. I need to get okra in the ground, let that come up and then get the beans in the ground. I also need to replant some of the sunflowers that didn't come up so that we can have a full row. The ones that did come up look good, but I'd like to have it filled in.

Stuck in the office on the clear day and back at home on the rainy day tomorrow. Fun stuff. I'm supposed to go pick up some plants from a lady tomorrow in the morning, of course that's when the highest chance of rain is. Whee.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Stuck in the office on the clear day and back at home on the rainy day tomorrow.

That is the story of my life these days! Hope your okra/bean combo does well together. I was just saying I need to get some okra going too. And, I might just follow your lead and put some beans around them for a 2fer!

 

[hqueen13]

I hope it works out too. I'm not sure how long I should let the okra go before I plant the beans. I don't want the okra to be too small before the beans start getting heavy. I guess I'll just wing it and see what happens!!
LOL, and yes, that is the story of my life most of the time!!

 

[hqueen13]

Holy moly things are moving at the speed of light.
KN was here this weekend for lessons. Except her flight was delayed on Fri night. It didn't leave FL until 11:00. That means it didn't arrive here until 1:00. I was late heading down there (of course, its 1 am!!!) and got pulled over for speeding. 61 in a 40. Oops. The BF was with me thankfully, and he saw the cop right as I blew past, so I was already slowing down, but it was too late. He at least gave me a warning, but then I haven't really been pulled over before. So yeah. Not exactly a fun night.
I don't know how KN does it. Lessons started at 8 and went until about 7:30 that night. I can't do it, that's for sure.
Had a great lesson, finally got to ride again, which was great. He did super well, which made me happy. I feel like we might be making a tiny amount of progress. Got done with the lesson, ate lunch, and then crashed for about an hour. The nap did me good, and then I got up and went to hang out with a friend for an early light dinner, which was perfect. We had a good time hanging out and talking. I headed home and took care of some things for the evening.
Sunday morning I got up and had a high school student coming to do some volunteer work. ST got there right as I got home from doing the away farm chores, and we got started. I set him to weeding and sweeping, and while I worked Storm in the hope that he could do some stuff with him when we were done. As we were finishing hosing him off after I finished working him, the horses in the pasture started to get stupid about the neighbor walking some stuff up to this out building. That set Storm off and he got all worried. So there went the plans to work with the horse. Instead we finished cleaning up the barn and went and talked for a little while in the shade.
He left about the time that the BF got home from his bachelor's party stuff, and so we caught up and talked. My friend, CM, and I wanted to go back to the same restaurant because they had Mango pancakes with a spiced rum sauce that we really wanted to try, so we agreed to go back on Sunday because the special would be over by the end of the month (Thurs). So we headed back to the same restaurant, only to find out that they had sold out of the stuff they needed at the morning's breakfast. We were so bummed, and the bill was that much higher since we each ordered a meal instead. It was a good weekend, but exhausting.
Monday in the office was so busy I didn't even have time to check in here. Yesterday I had a number of phone calls that I took care of, which was good. We also got things worked out to have Verizon installed. We have an actual install date now!!!!!

So hopefully, as long as all the ducks are in a row, on the 13th we'll join the rest of the world with real live internet. I can't freaking wait!! I'm going to plan to have my campaign ready to go and launched by that time, so I have plenty of time to get everything tightened up between now and then. We'll see how it goes, anyway.
We finally got some rain last night, I forgot to check the gauge to see how much, though. But it did some good I am sure. Its a nice day today, so hopefully everything will grow again. I noticed this morning that one of my tomato plants was growing strange, and now I'm wondering if it needed water or something. I need to check the garlic, too, its probably pretty close to pulling. I don't remember how long after the scapes I need to wait. Then I have to figure out where to hang it to dry... Then the real work begins!

 

[hqueen13]

Zoom again... there goes another week.
So the internet was supposed to be installed at the landlord's house on Sunday. It didn't happen because there is a problem somewhere in the 1200 feet of buried cable that they put in. We'll see what happens with that, but I'm hoping they can get it figured out ASAP so that our install date isn't delayed. I don't have time to sit around my house waiting for them to get it right!
We were pretty productive this weekend. The BF had to go to work at the part time job on Saturday morning, so I went to yoga and then got veggies from the farm, which was nice. After I got back home I did a little more work on the computer, and then we ate lunch and started running errands when he got home.
Sunday we got up and the high schooler came over to help out, so the BF and ST did the chores, while I went down and fed Cowboy and Coyote, and then they got started on cleaning out the run in shed, which was sorely over due. I needed to get fly predators put out, so I did that while they got started. My stomach decided to rebel after that and so by the time I got back into the barn they were almost done. ST and I sat down and took a break for a few minutes before we walked down to go over grooming for a bit. Unfortunately, the pony was pretty clean, so we didn't really have much to do, but he got to experience a little bit. So there's another 3 hours off of his 50 that he has to do. I can't wait for hay stacking to come, we're gonna put him to work doing that!
We finished up with that and the BF and I did a few other things before we finally ran down and did the chores at Cowboy and Coyote's and then grabbed dinner at our favorite mexican place.
Monday we got up and started chores, I ran out to the other farms while the BF finished up around our place. He needed to take the bobcat back down to the bottom of the hill with the bucket and put it away, so I told him I'd text him so I could meet him down there to pick him up. When I got down to the bottom I found him talking to DB who was loading posts and boards into the pickup to repair the paddock fences for the pony camp they were hosting this week. The BF put the auger on the bobcat, and so I just drove back up to the top and met them up there. I pitched in and helped get things organized while the BF came up with the bobcat to dig the holes. That is so much easier than doing it by hand! We worked for a few hours getting the fences put back together so they would hold rowdy ponies again. We ended up driving one post in with the bobcat, banging the top of the auger on it to drive it back down into the post hole where we pulled the previous post out of. It worked pretty well, and was faster and less work than tamping with a rock bar! My abs are crying today!
We cleaned up from that and headed over to his cousin's new house to their 4th cookout and combined birthday party at their new house. It was a nice time, I ended up hanging out with the BF's mom and his brother's girlfriend for most of the evening. We finally left there and headed to do chores in the rain. Got home and the boys were all stirred up from the cool weather and the ponies in the paddock next to them, and I couldn't catch them for dinner at all. Very annoying!
Yesterday I was looking forward to getting back to a normal routine, until I found the freezer door cracked. Half the meat that we JUST bought was defrosted, and we lost 1 1/2 salmon fillets and a whole turkey (I'm not so worried about the turkey, it wasn't a very good one and was part of "payment" for farm sitting. I was CRUSHED about the salmon. I was suddenly pulling all sorts of meat out of the freezer and shoving it in the fridge so that I could get it cooked after I got back from yoga.
Finally got home, ate lunch and then took care of a phone call, and then got to work on the meat. I cooked 2 1/2 lbs of bacon (in the oven, super easy!), 4 1 lb meat loafs, 12 hamburgers, 1 lb of taco meat, 1 lb of plain ground beef, 3 chicken breasts and 4 ranch steaks, plus made up 8 sausage, egg, and spinach burritos for the freezer. There's a chicken finishing defrosting in the fridge that will go into the crock pot on Thursday for dinner, and I think that's all of it. I don't want to look at cooking meat again for a LONG time. We went to the BF's mom's house to celebrate his brother's birthday for dinner and I was SO glad I didn't have to figure out what to eat for dinner, too, because I didn't even want to LOOK at any of the meat I just cooked. I was SO DONE. I slept like a rock last night, too!!
Dentist appointment for the BF tonight, and then my schedule should go back to normalish I think... I hope so anyway!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh wow - I feel your pain on the freezer door and the whole meat thing. Just went through that, but lost most of it...what was left was only fit for chickens and a little for the dogs. Ugh. Glad you were able to salvage yours!

 

[hqueen13]

Me, too, FEM. I was so upset when I found that all that beef was thawed. It cost $45.00 for just the ground beef, so I was NOT going to be pleased if I had to toss it all out. I don't have any animals I could have given it to at this point.
The BF had another dental appointment yesterday for more fillings. The dentist was pretty candid with me about how bad his teeth are and that these fillings are really only patching things up. I suspect he's going to have a life of some pretty serious dental work over time. He needs another crown due to the continued decay of another tooth, but since its not hurting him that can wait until next year. We are hoping to get most of the rest of the fillings done this year, and then we'll handle the crown on next year's insurance. We'll see how it goes. That's another $246.00 on the care credit card again. I hate having to pay on that, I can't wait until the day when I don't really need it! I've needed it so much in the past few years. I'm grateful to have it, of course, but I just hate having to pay on it continually.
He was a trooper and did really well with all the work she did, I'm proud of how far he's come from the first few appointments. Even so, because we're trying to get as much done each time so that we can use the care credit, and so that we don't have to pay for as much happy gas, he had 5 teeth worked on and it took over an hour of her working as quickly as she could to get it done. He's going to be sore today I'm sure. Thankfully we came home last night and just went to bed, so that was a good thing to sleep it off for the most part.
I have had a rough morning this morning, things have just not gone smoothly. Well, half of the things have not gone smoothly... The good thing is that I got to work really early so that's another half hour I'll be able to add on to my time, and I saw a heron on the way to work this morning. That always makes me happy.
The not so great things were finding the mess in the barn aisle, and not having anyone claim it, and then getting started feeding the horses after I put the dogs out, and finding the dogs in the pasture and one of the horses sniffing them. So our "dog yard" isn't attached to the house, so I have to walk the dogs to it, and it is attached to the pasture with a shared fence. There is a gate that goes between the dog yard (a small paddock, really), and the pasture. That's where they've run the new cable, under both gates in the dog yard and through the pasture up to the road. Yesterday when we got home and put the dogs out, we discovered that someone doesn't know how to operate a "kiwi" latch, and they unclipped the whole thing, instead of just lifting the kiwi out of the eye bolt. The BF fixed it with one of those links that has the screw barrel in it so that won't happen anymore. This morning I'm up at the barn, starting the bring the horses in, and something catches my eye. I look over towards the dog yard and see the dogs IN the pasture with Scooter sniffing them all over! I call Scooter, and he doesn't come. Of course the dogs don't come either, they're too confused and half deaf/blind to know what's going on. I grab Storm, and then Simon, and by the time I come back out, I find that Toby has slipped between the rails of the pasture and is out (that part was good at least), and Bear tried to climb over the bottom board the way Toby did, but got stuck because he couldn't get his front legs over. Scooter has lost interest since Bear was half way out of the pasture, and so he's coming up to the gate for breakfast, thankfully. I grab Scooter, and then hustle back out to get Bear and figure out how they got in. I find the gate between the pasture left dangling with a 8" gap between the gate and the post. F*@k!n Verizon guys don't know how to shut a gate the SAME way they opened it. They didn't bother to lift the gate closed to the post (as many many gates need to be closed), and then they just moved the clip on the chain so that it reached the eye bolt, instead of trying to figure out how to get the gate closed the same way that it was closed in the first place. I SWEAR if one of my dogs had gotten hurt, I would have sued Verizon on principle of the matter. Thankfully, Scooter is just a curious boy, and the dogs are too old and too interested in the fact that they were roaming around somewhere new to notice Scooter sniffing them all over. I grabbed Bear, went back into the dog yard, latched the gate PROPERLY, and then went and put Bear on his leash and went to find Toby. Finally I found him coming back around the house from the driveway side. I'm glad nobody was driving in a hurry up the driveway, either...
I'm in the office for a few hours trying to make up for Monday's missed day, and then I head home to throw a chicken in the crock pot and take care of a few phone calls.
Its getting hot out there. I felt bad this morning because all the running back and forth got me sweaty before I got to the office. I don't think I stink too bad... There's not much I can do about it when I have to get chores done before I get to work.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Seems like I've spent the last month stinking, lol! At least it's not in public.... I go out to feed in the evenings and I am soaking wet from head to toe by the time I get finished. So, go inside to shower before starting dinner. Same thing in the mornings. Go out to feed and even with lower morning temps the humidity is higher - so it's back to shower again before coming to work. It adds another half-hour to my morning routine and takes away a half-hour from my sleep time. ARGH!

Sorry about BF's dental issues.

 

[hqueen13]

Yeah, I'm with you on that with the issues of the heat. I've managed to make it through all the chores without stinking too much, I don't have time for the extra showers! This weekend I pretty much spent feeling gross and stinky the whole time. It just wasn't worth taking a shower early because I knew that I'd need another one later.
We watered a lot of the plants this weekend. Actually the BF did it, he bought a nice sprinkler and everything. I hope the lack of water is the issue with the zucchini. It doesn't look so good
We did 2 batches of pickles between Thursday and Friday. I certainly hope the BF likes them because we're gonna have a LOT more cukes, and they won't be ready for another 4 weeks or so. Hopefully we can get some more together and get them done soon. I'm finally getting into more of a groove so its not as big of a deal to run a batch in the evening. I think the cukes in the fridge might not be good anymore, they've been sitting there for several days. I'm sure I'm going to have plenty more, so its not a big deal, but I hate wasting them, too.
I'm surprised with this heat that the tomatoes aren't running yet. They're growing, but they're all still green. Can't wait to those tomatoes!! Of course, then I'm going to have to process all of them... LOL. In the great freezer thaw a few weeks ago, I actually found a gallon zip lock of frozen tomatoes from last year. Oops. Missed that one! I guess I can pull it out and process them whenever I get the fresh ones in.
Last week was crazy, I had 3 friends out of town, so I was running 3 places before I got to the office, and 3 places every evening again. I'm SO glad that two of them are back in town, and its just the easy one for another 2 weeks. I think they get back on the 5th of Aug or something. I'm torn between asking those friends if they'd like to board the horses rather than me farm sitting. On one hand it would be a lot more consistent income for me, on the other hand, it would be more expense because I would be feeding them. I do know that I'd be able to give them much better care while they're with me, so that is something. Who knows. They're out of town enough its almost like boarding them anyway!
Otherwise, I've been busting my butt trying to get my campaign launched. I will be pulling the trigger today and getting started on it. We'll see how it goes... I really need this to be successful, so hopefully this will go super duper well, and I'll earn way more than I'm expecting.
That's pretty much about it from the farm. I'm busy as usual, its crazy hot, and I've got so much to do I can't see straight. Everything's perfectly normal