hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[baymule]

I have had horses for 21 years. Only since February of 2015 have I lived on the same property with them. What a luxury! We lived in town at our old place, had 16 acres 7 miles away. At least I didn't have to deal with all the ice and snow that you have. I know how happy you will be to have Storm at HOME.

 

[hqueen13]

Yes, it is a pleasure to be able to look out your window and see them. I really do miss that a lot.

The weather was so bad yesterday that TM kept them all in the barn. I hate that they were in for 24 hours, but they did a good job making sure they always had hay and water throughout the day, and then fed them at the appropriate times. I don't envy them this morning because they'll all be jacked up going out for sure. I hope Storm behaves himself! He needs to be worked BAD. And of course because they were in for 24 hours, well, 36, really because they were in overnight, through the day and through the night again, the stalls will just need to be STRIPPED. Honestly, as heavy as it gets, it's a little easier that way because you don't have to even think about trying to save anything. You just toss it all out. This winter has been AWFUL, it was mostly dry in Dec, and not too bad, then it got crazy cold in early Jan, then the weather broke and we had some beautiful days, and then now it's been nothing but rain and cold every few days. And I swear the past month it's been every single Sunday, when I have to feed. And it's happening again this weekend, too. BLECH. I'm so done with it. I really wish I had someone to work Storm for me because I don't feel like dealing with him right now, but I need to because it's got to be done. The farrier comes back on the 20th and he needs to be much more polite before then!

Not much else going on right now. I had a great birthday, even sold a package, a prior client out of the blue purchased one of my biggest packages which was awesome. I absolutely adore her dogs, the first dog I worked with taught me a lot, and I love working with her. We'll have to talk again next week, some time, too, since she still has some time left in the package.

Otherwise, life is pretty normal, LOL. I want to get the curtains hung this weekend, which requires hemming them, which isn't a bad thing, I just need to drag the machine out and do it. Hopefully that will help with the temperature in the bedroom. It would probably be ideal if I didn't open them at all, even during the day, because the bedroom is on the north corner of the house, but I really don't like not being able to see out of windows.

Oh! Yall, I went and did it. I hired a lady to do shopping and some meal prep stuff for me. And it's amazing. I found her on a local forum, she responded to a post where I asked if anyone would want to do it. And it's been terrific so far. The amount that I am paying her will be a wash between not eating out and not wasting food, and better planning. Like she already saved me some money because she was at BJ's and noticed they had canned chicken AND there was a coupon, so she texted me and of course I said yes! (And she told me that you can double your coupons, too.... you just gotta go through the self checkout and scan it once, put some random coupon in there, and then scan it again and it will take it off twice!) She's got me set up with SO much food right now, I think our leftovers have leftovers! And she already got me set up with a bunch of stuff in the freezer, so that's awesome. I'm really excited about this because it's taking a lot of stress off of me in prep and everything and I'm thrilled about it! I couldn't be happier with the whole concept!

Had my meeting with the accountant, so hopefully she'll have good news for us that we'll have a big fat return! That would be SOOOOO helpful! I think almost all of it will be put directly towards paying down the credit cards. I hope that the BF gets enough back to pay OFF his lowest balance card so we can get it out of there. Then he'll only have one other card to pay off, and he's been looking into finding a card that will give him a zero interest balance transfer so that he can get rid of some of the interest so we can get it paid off faster. We'll see what happens once we get the returns and everything. I'd love to be able to pay off my one card, too, it's down pretty low, but my returns haven't been very high. I do have the expo job coming up, so that'll be about $500 to dump on it, and every little bit helps at this point.

Speaking of money, I'm reading a book called Money: A Love Story and it's been great. It has a lot of exercises to do along the way that explore your beliefs about money and everything, and it's been super helpful. I'm loving it so far, and I'm only about 1/3 of the way through. I can't say enough good things about it. If you struggle with money, then it's a great one to grab because it really digs into the underlying beliefs that you hold about money, which dictate how much you can really have (if you believe you're not worthy of it, or that it always leaves when it comes in, or if you're afraid of what people will think when you have it, then you'll never have it!). I was thrilled that I was able to get it from my library, too!

That's about all the news from these parts...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Cool that your "personal shopper" is working out so well! That's a great idea for someone who is so busy. Our grocery stores around here are offering shopping online and you drive up and they load 'em up for you! I need to figure out all the steps and start taking advantage of that service. Anything to save a few minutes is a good thing.

 

[sumi]

Belated happy birthday! Sounds like things are ticking along nicely by you now, apart from the weather, but that should improve sometime in the next 2-3 months.. Ours is much as you described yours, ALL over the place. O.K. freezing, rainy, you name it.

 

[baymule]

Our daughter and son in law use the meal in a box companies. They sign up for the introductory box, but don't subscribe. They went through all the online companies, now they are having them sent to our house. LOL That might be another idea for you to explore.

Soon it will be spring and you can build a fence and shelter for Storm. Question, since horses are social animals, will you be getting another horse?

 

[hqueen13]

FEM, I tried that once, but didn't like the way it was set up here. I haven't figured out a knack for organizing things well enough to take advantage of the curbside pickup. I would always forget something I needed or something like that.

Thanks @sumi I appreciate it! Yeah, rain rain rain all weekend.

@baymule I looked into those, but many of them run about $10.00 per meal per person, and there really isn't enough for leftovers. That was too rich for my budget. This gal charges me a flat rate for shopping (and she goes to BJ's AND the grocery store for me), and then an hourly rate to prep the meals. Some things she'll just give me the ingredients, and some stuff she makes, but all in all it is working out to be roughly $60 per week for her fees. For that price I'm getting 3-4 different "meals" out of it, but when I say "meals" she brings me HUGE containers that will be 4-6 servings for us, so 2 nights for dinner for both of us, and usually 2 lunches. That's way more than what those services would cover! And she shops with coupons and sales, which is awesome. I'm thrilled to be able to give someone local a little extra cash to do something they like to do. She mentioned that once her daughter goes to school that she might be looking for a job. I'm going to suggest to her that she investigate doing this on a more formal scale and maybe pick up 2-3 clients and do the shopping. I don't know what the rules are about food prep, but she might have to stay away from that legally speaking, but the shopping portion is super helpful.

This weekend was just gross. We managed to get some more wood moved and stacked (the only junky stuff never got completely moved from where we originally stacked it next to the shed, and then it fell over, and then it got rained on, and then it froze to the ground, fun times), and covered by tarps. The BF grabbed his dad's chainsaw to cut up a few pieces that were too big for the stove from the good stuff that he got, and the saw wasn't running right. Our neighbor 2 doors down wandered over and offered to help. Apparently he was a wildland fire fighter and a bit of a chainsaw junky, and was able to teak some settings on it to get it running better (it was stalling out, so running at all was a good thing!). We had a great conversation and found out that he stays home with their son (who was running around the yard at this point). I think he'll be a good resource, and I was relieved to know that he was home a LOT if I need anything. We stood there talking until the rain started, and then we all headed in. We sat around a lot this weekend. The rain didn't help any motivation, which was annoying. I managed to get the office cleaned up, I got a bunch of files pulled out of the filing cabinet and ready to go into the basement file cabinet. Then I drug out my sewing box so that I could hem the curtains, but that's as far as that went. I got it all spread out all over the floor (the contents of the box, not the new curtains) and that's where it's still sitting.

Sunday we did more of the same. We cleaned out the stove since it is so warm and raining it was a pretty good day for it. I did get some laundry done, and got the chinchilla's cage cleaned up again. We also vacuumed the basement since the cat litter was everywhere and the wood had brought in a lot of dirt. It had gotten pretty gross, so I was glad to get that done. Other than that we sat around most of the day until I had to go to the barn. The BF ran out to grab some stuff to clean the stove with, and I went and did chores. I was early, but very relieved that it wasn't raining and that it was still light enough I could SEE where I was going in the mud. It is AWFUL. Both my boots are covered well over my ankles. I'm so sick of it. It's raining every 2-3 days, and raining a lot. It's mostly cloudy in between, and just plain gross. This is NOT normal weather for us right now. I'm ready for something different. I think it's supposed to be breezy enough that it should dry things a little today. Tomorrow I think is supposed to be nice, so I'm going to attempt to work Storm before I do chores. We'll see how that goes. Hopefully it won't be as slick. But then again if he's gonna act like an idiot he can bust his own butt in the dirt. He's so jacked up it's not funny. Every time I go to bring him in I can feel his energy. He's just dancing with it. He tosses his head around a lot. I was pleased last night that he shook really hard, which can be an energy release. I'm so ready to not have to deal with the mud and the long walk into the barn. I need to call the gal that my accountant referred me to that has a farm around the corner from us. I'm just done with the long drive and trekking through the nasty mud.

This week is gonna be crazy. My coworker is out, so I fill in for her, which means extra hours which is fantastic, but it also means being away from home a lot more. And it will mean being busy in the office, too. I'm not exactly thrilled about it. But the paycheck will be good, especially since this month is short! So you might be hearing from me more if I am not too swamped and need a mental break! LOL

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Weather here is awful as well - I think it's country wide!

Sounds like you might've just found a good neighbor - it's really a good feeling.

Definitely call the gal that has the farm around the corner! Wouldn't it be nice to get Storm closer to home, at least until you can get him home for good? Sure hope you can get that worked out!

 

[baymule]

I'm glad the supper shopper is working out so well for you. There are a couple of ladies here that make meals and their clients go to their home, build their meals, pay and take it home. It is a lot of food also, well worth it to working women.

It won't be long before you can bring Storm home. It meant so much to me to have mine home with me.

 

[hqueen13]

Well, we've had a tiny break in the weather. Yesterday I stood in the field and groomed him before I started my chores. We ended up with 22 "waffles" on the ground. The curry I have makes these round mats from the hair when it's shedding like this, and we dubbed them "waffles" because they have holes in the middle that look like the waffles squares. He was very happy to stand there and let me rub on him for a while. He was napping, and I was a little disappointed that he got up, I love to groom him when he's on the ground. It looks like the weather has shifted a bit, and it may stay good for today, too, so I think I'm going to go try to actually work him today. I also figured out yesterday that if I give him a flake of hay when I start chores he's not as antsy when I bring him in later. I don't blame him, he's hungry, but I don't like to handle him when he's that way.

The office is exhausting my brain right now. I'm covering for my coworker (which means tracking payments and taking cash/checks to the bank, and also moving the hearing aids in and out), AND we're relocating one of our offices which will finish by the end of the month, AND I'm trying to keep up with my normal work. I'm working more hours, but the mental drain is making it harder for me to keep up with everything else that I'm trying to do at home, too. I'll have to juggle all this stuff next week, too, and a lot is happening at the location next week.

The BF has been feeling bad for several days, so he finally went to the doctor's yesterday. She noted that he had an elevated temp, and his throat was red, and his BP is really high, but his lungs sounded good. She seems to think that the sensation he's experiencing is due to post nasal drip that he's got almost constantly due to allergies. She was also fairly serious with him about his weight and his soda habit. I'm glad for that, and now we just have to get him off of it. She wants to see him back for a full physical and blood work in about a month, and he really wants to see what he can do to make changes between now and then. I hope that he does because he really needs it. I just told KK, our shopper, that we need to get more veggies in. So we'll see what we can do to adjust the menu to make sure we're eating more things that are good for us. It's calzones tonight, which isn't exactly clean eating, but next week we'll get organized to make sure we're eating better. I just hope he can stay dedicated. Self discipline is something he struggles with, and nothing I say makes much of a difference.

I'm doing a little better with my finances. I've been able to keep things fairly balanced, even with the extra we're spending on paying KK for the shopping and some prep stuff. I'm looking forward to the next fat paycheck, plus the extra work at the beginning of the month at the expo. Hopefully I can get my personal credit card that's got the big balance paid down to $1000.00 with the extra work. That will be a big relief to get it down so far. Then after that's gone the next task is the business cards!! I'm so tired of living paycheck to paycheck and of carrying debt around it's not funny. I'm just DONE with it. This is the year all that changes!

I'm in the middle of Money: A Love Story, which is proving to be very helpful. The exercises are worth diving into, and I'm feeling like I'm releasing some of the attachments to the stories that I was told that became my truths as I grew up. It is not easy work, but it is humbling work, and I'm happy to be doing it. I want a different life than the one I have now, and I won't get that if I keep doing what I've always done. So onward and upward from here!

 

[hqueen13]

Just got an email back from the lady at the other farm. They're full at the moment, but she said she'll keep me in mind. I guess that's good/bad. She's probably more expensive than TM is, since I get the friend's discount. So I guess we'll see.