hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

LOL @baymule that's cute!! Yes, he has quite a few good points, even if we do get frustrated with each other now and then!

This weekend was interesting. Saturday morning I went The Salt Sanctuary with a coworker who wanted to try it out. I really enjoy going, it's great me time and I feel really good after being there. We went and had sushi for lunch afterwards, and then headed back up to where we live, it's about a 45 minute drive to get down there.

After I got home, the BF and I spent some time taking care of a few things, and then we headed down to RS's farm to pick up a wood stove insert he was selling us. They go for about $3000 new, so we were hopeful it would work out well since RS only wanted about $200 for it. When we got there, we found that it had been sitting in RS's barn for a while, so it has a fair amount of rust on it, and some mice had made a nest inside the top part and chewed up a bunch of wires. So it needs some serious work. RS cut the price, which was nice of him. We backed our truck around and down to the barn to make it easier to load since the thing weighs a ton. But then trying to get the truck out the truck got stuck really bad. Then RS brought his truck around to try to get us out, and got HIS truck stuck ahead of our truck. So finally RS and the BF got behind RS's truck while I got in the driver seat and they pushed while I drove. They told me don't stop if you get moving but be careful at the top of the hill. Well I was pushing pretty hard on the gas, and it finally broke loose and so the truck rocketed up the hill slipping and sliding everywhere. RS ended up covered in splattered mud, and the BF was cringing because I VERY narrowly missed the spike for the horse shoe pits (which of course I didn't know until I came back down the hill). So we tried to do the same thing with me in the driver seat of our truck, but we had no luck. And in the process the grass was TORN up. We finally gave up and RS drove us home, which was kind of nice because we had wanted to have him up but he wasn't able to make it to our open house back in January. He was impressed with the house, which I expected him to be.

We pretty much crashed after that, ate dinner and headed to bed. I wanted to get to bed early because of stupid daylight saving time. I hate it, and figured I'd try to get a jump on it. Being light late is nice and all, but moving time around is dumb.

I got up earlier than the BF did on Sunday morning, but later than my norm since the sun wasn't coming up as early as it had been. Grumble grumble. I got out of the house by about 9, and found that it had gotten pretty cold overnight, so I suggested that he head down to RS's pretty quick to see if the frozen ground would help them get the truck out. The BF was much slower to get moving, but he finally headed down there, and they drove the truck right out since it was so frozen. I guess that's good news, but it was a little bit anti climatic after all that struggle. RS was kind enough to drive our truck back while the BF drove the Jeep home, and then the BF drove RS back down to the farm again. He got done dropping him off about the time that I finished barn chores and we got back home about the same time. It was a GORGEOUS day, so we cleaned up the sticks in the front yard (again) and then took a break and ate some lunch before finishing getting the sticks cleaned up. That's what happens when you have 5 large trees in your front yard. We got a few more things cleaned up, and then decided to head down to TSC to return some things that the BF bought (he bought a bunch of chain and hooks in case he needed to pull out the truck), and then we went to dinner at our favorite restaurant down there again, since we hadn't been in a long time. Since it was still early, the BF suggested that I soak in the bath and then we could go, which was really nice. We had a nice dinner out and then came home and mostly crashed.

I hate this time change thing. It's stupid and useless and buggers everything up for a while. I'm really tired this morning, and probably will be for most of the week. So it goes.

The BF was able to go ahead and pay off his one credit card and the personal loan. I'm SO thrilled that is FINALLY DONE! That'll save him just under $300 every month, which we can spread around so that we're not stretched quite so thin. He has, of course, spent WAYYYYYY too much money elsewhere, but we'll survive. He knows that he spends money when he's not happy, not it's just a matter of figuring out how to help him make different choices. It also often seems like he spends the money when I'm not around, either, which probably is also part of why he's not happy. So it goes. I complain about him, but he's a really wonderful guy, and like you said, baymule, nobody is perfect. I wish he would work harder at doing things differently, but he's on his own journey, and I can't make him change, either. All I can do is change myself and see if he'll come around.

I guess since I'm in the office I need to actually do some work for real for once... LOL

 

[baymule]

I hate getting stuck in the mud. It is a sport, mud doggin', but that is one sport I can do without. I went to Sam Rayburn lake on my 25th birthday, by my self to have a cook out. I got stuck. I walked back to the paved road, then walked up the road until I came to a yard full of 4 wheel drive trucks. A redneck dream house! LOL I knocked on the door and several guys came out and were happy to go pull me out. While telling me what I did wrong, Redneck Mud Dogger got stuck. No problem, one of them walked back to the house to get his truck, he got stuck too. Another one walked back to the house for his truck.....and you guessed it, he got stuck too. By this time most everybody was well on their way to being rip roaring drunk. I dropped the tailgate on my truck, standing past my knees in watery mud, lit up the hibachi grill and cooked hamburgers for everybody. Another guy walked back to the house and came back with a neighbor that was not only sensible, but sober too. He pulled everybody out. My truck wouldn't start, so he took me home. By this time it was past midnight. It turned out to be a pretty good birthday. Maybe a little not the ordinary birthday party, but it was fun anyway. I went back a couple days later with friends and we dragged my truck in for repair.

Thanks for that memory, your getting stuck reminded me of it.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Sounds like fun and what a memory!

 

[hqueen13]

@baymule that's hilarious!! What a great birthday memory!!
This week has been good so far, it's been a little more normal than previous weeks, so that has been helpful! Tuesday I spent the day at home, mostly, and took care of quite a few things, got some work done in my biz, and got a bit of cleaning done in the house. When I headed over to take care of Cowboy and Coyote that afternoon I texted the neighbor to see if she wanted me to clean the chicken coops, since I do that once in a while to help her out since she's got 2 young kids and a new born and her husband has his hands in too many projects to do it himself. I got over there and started cleaning and found a BUNCH of eggs in the nesting boxes. I hope they're still good! AFTER I started scraping everything out (it was way overdue!) I found that there wasn't any shavings to put back in. Thankfully I noticed before I had gotten too far into the job, so I scraped out the worst spots, and then spread some that was still mostly clean from the nesting box corners into the other area. Since I had to drive right by TSC on my way to and from, I told her I'd pick up more for her. She was really grateful and gave me enough cash to cover what she usually pays me, plus shavings with a little left over. Frankly, her son is old enough to do it now (he's in grade school, so I know he's over 5, and he's probably 6 or 7), but her getting him to do it would be difficult and she doesn't have the time/energy to supervise him so it's not going to get done. That's ok, she can pay me to do it instead I guess!
Wednesday TM and I were going to go out to our favorite woo-woo store, and hang out for the day, so I decided to work Storm and get his feet trimmed a bit before we left. I should have gone on Tuesday, but I didn't, so there I was Wednesday morning with it being COLD, and the wind picking up the further into the morning it got. TM texted me and said she needed a shower, but that she was running late. I also discovered that I had beat the girl there that does the Co-op chores on Wednesday mornings. So Storm was still in, anyway. So I made up some feed for him with a little sweet feed in it for a treat, and then helped TM finish up turning out her horses. Then we dumped the feed for Storm and she helped hold him and keep his nose in the bucket (but only if he picked up his feet) while I trimmed. I was reminded that I need to do the left foot first because that's my harder side, and by the time I did the right foot and went to the left I barely had any energy left. Dang farriers work HARD. I have no idea if I did a decent job of it or not, I think I might try again on Sunday when the weather is going to be a LOT better, and this time I'll start on the left and then do the right! He did well, and so once I had done as much as I could muster (and he hoovered up the feed I gave him so he was starting to get distracted), I turned him out. I went back to the barn and grabbed my stuff to work him and a flake of hay so his belly would be happier while I groomed him. I'm down to the older hay in my pile now, and he wasn't real thrilled about that, but eventually he ate it anyway while I scraped the hair off of him in wads. He's shedding SOOOOOO bad! Hair was flying EVERYWHERE since the wind was kicking up already. I finally quit because it was just about useless to keep brushing, I'd have been there all day. I got him dressed and we started to work on the ground. I forgot my whip, which made things slightly more challenging, but he did really well anyway, so it didn't really matter. He did great, and I froze, so I finally quit and got him untacked and put everything away and went and sat in my warm car to wait for TM.
She got there and decided to take her truck so she could get a load of sawdust from the sawmill on our way back. I ALMOST forgot about the shavings (and going to check in on Cowboy and Coyote for the morning visit!), but remembered right as we were pulling out, so we threw the shavings in her truck and she drove. Took care of that stuff and then headed down to the shop. We got there later than I wanted to, but that's normal when TM and I go anywhere it seems. She's always running a little behind. I had fun choosing stones to go into the cage that I got at the expo so I can easily wear them and don't have to worry about having them in my pockets. Now I just have to research all of them so I know what they're for! They happened to have a tea ball at the shop, too, which was awesome. I picked up some new belly rings for cheap, as well, since mine is ancient and needs to be replaced.
We left there and grabbed lunch at Panera before heading up to another new shop that we saw posted on Facebook. It was cute, but WAY more expensive. I bought a couple more stones that the other shop didn't have, and a shell to use for smudging, and spent TWICE as much money for about half the stuff! I was a little irritated, but they're in a much higher end area, and the shop is very different, so it shouldn't have surprised me all that much. They are interested in having me come in and do sessions and are happy to allow people to bring their pets into the shop, which is cool. I need to stop back over and make some arrangements with them next week.
And now it's Thursday and the end of the week is coming fast. KN comes back into town for lessons tomorrow. I'm a little bummed that she's not going to be staying with me, but the good news is that the schedule has been arranged so that my lesson will be on Friday and then I'll drop her off and so I won't have any of my weekend taken up with her being here. The only downer is that my day tomorrow is SLAMMED as a result. I've got to get up, head to the barn to do chores, go take care of registration at yoga class, probably skip yoga so that I can go down and take care of Cowboy and Coyote before heading to the airport to pick KN up, then driving out west of town to a lady's place for 3 hours of lessons there, then heading all the way back across town (on a Friday afternoon mind you) to Storm so we can do his lesson there, and then I have to go down and drop her at the next farm where she'll stay overnight. I think my lesson is 4:30 to 5:30, or so, but it's going to be a late evening! I should probably stop and make sure I have snacks and some extra food in case we get stuck not being able to get to much. I'll have to stop and take care of Cowboy and Coyote, which is right there, so that's helpful, and if I can't get all of the chores finished in the morning I'll have to go back to the barn and do them that evening after I drop her off. It's gonna be a little nutty! But that does free up the weekend for me to do whatever I want, and it's going to be GORGEOUS!! I'm REALLY happy about that! Hopefully I can get lots done and have the energy to work Storm again on Sunday since it's been clear and dry. That's the only down side to having my lesson on Friday... it's STILL going to be windy. Four days of wind. I'm SO done with it!
That's the scoop from round here. Not much else to report on.

 

[baymule]

Whew! You stay on the run! What kind of stones? Pictures?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

She's busier than a one armed paper hanger - as usual! You need a day off!

 

[hqueen13]

LOL, that's true, FEM! I kinda took a day off yesterday, sort of. I had lots I could have done, but I was not feeling motivated, so I didn't!
@baymule crystals, really, a whole bunch! I can't even remember all of them, I bought almost 20 different ones I think.

Well, we finally got snow! Tuesday was GROSS with mostly rain/sleet/snow mess that just made things icky. About an inch of that stuck around, more depending on the surface. Tuesday overnight I don't think it did much, but Wednesday morning it started snowing about 8 and then didn't stop until about 6 or 7. We ended up with somewhere between 6 and 8", and I've seen friends further west that had more than that. It was beautiful, a little heavy, so it coated all the trees and everything. The birds finally found the feeder that we put out over the weekend, which entertained the cats to no end. My pool daffodil had a snow hat on.

The BF got home early yesterday, which was nice, but then he went and worked downstairs in his workshop for the entire rest of the afternoon. I did a few chores and then read for a while because I decided I wasn't going to bust my ass cleaning the house if he was just going to be puttering around doing what he wanted to do. We're gonna have to have a chat about that because I'm getting tired of feeling like I'm the only one doing things again. This started back when I was at the expo a while ago, and it has been that way since. He's spending way more money than he should be, and he is just sitting down there rearranging stuff. I know he wants to get it functional, but he has zero patience for taking time to do things, and that project consumes him at the detriment of everything else. I guess we'll work it out eventually.

Other than that, not much happening, hopefully this snow doesn't make too much mud. I'm not gonna hold my breath on that one!

 

[baymule]

Snow......while we have 70 degrees, sunny and beautiful.

 

[hqueen13]

Hush, @baymule LOL
The snow is mostly gone, except in the shadiest spots. We've had freeze/thaw cycles every day, which is actually keeping the mud (mostly) down, which is nice. But there's rain in the forecast on Wednesday so I think that will be the end of that.
We had ok weather this weekend, on the chilly side and a little breezy. Yesterday was cloudy, and had snow squalls off and on all day. At one point we came out of a restaurant after eating dinner, and it was snowing these big fat sloppy wet flakes, but it smelled like rain. It was so strange!

I don't feel like I got much done this weekend. It was alright, but I really wanted to get more things done. Saturday we had a 2 year old birthday party for one of the BF's cousins. We got him a little card and put 2 gold dollars in it (that was all the bank had), and it was a huge hit. One of the other aunts had gotten him and his older brother started with a coin collection, so we picked the right thing. Lord knows the child does NOT need any more toys.

The party took up most of the middle of the day (which annoys the crap out of me, but whatever). The BF got some cleaning done before we left, and then we ran a few errands and headed home. I had Guinness Corned Beef in the crock pot, which smelled amazing by the time we got home. We sold an old steamer trunk (in rough shape in my opinion) for $50 so the guy came to pick that up. I was THRILLED to have that OUT of the house, and have the cash! We really need to work hard at figuring out how to sell more of the crap that was left in the house!

Sunday morning I got up and headed to the barn. I ended up going to take care of Cowboy and Coyote after I finished the barn chores, which is the most efficient way to do things, so that saved me some time. I got home about 11:30 and the BF had the work area of the basement all torn apart. He wanted to rearrange the work benches down there to make more work space. What I walked into was the chaos in the middle, LOL. We decided to work on that for a while more, and then head out to run some more errands, grab dinner, and go down to take care of Cowboy and Coyote so that he could look at the hay feeder door to figure out why it is getting stuck. He decided he wanted to replace the lights in the work area, and so we stopped at a couple places to check out those, and he decided to think on it a little more. While we were eating dinner, he decided to go ahead and get them, and so we swung back up to Home Depot before going home. After we got home I spent some time working on the computer while he continued to putter in the basement, and then I soaked in tub.

I seriously need a new computer. It's slow to the point where it is hindering my ability to get work done and to manage my data. I have no idea what I'm going to do because I really don't want to outlay the cash, but it's to the point where I am going to have to because I just can't keep working on something that is so slow. I guess I need to start doing some more research...

I'm somewhat not excited about the next couple weeks. This weekend is Easter, which means my whole entire Sunday is going to be useless between barn chores and then family stuff. Then the following week DR is back doing Alexander work, which is much needed, but will keep me busy. The next week KN is here for lessons again, which is good, and mostly on Friday, but it will still be intense. The following weekend JS is coming for sessions so I will have to manage that all weekend. There goes April. Hopefully my weekly schedule will settle down so that I can get things done during the week since I'm not going to have much in terms of weekends at all. Hopefully spring will start getting here and it will warm up but not rain too much so I can at least enjoy it before I start sneezing my head off!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You constantly amaze me with all the things you do! Hope you can swing a new computer - it's hard when you really NEED one and are hindered with one that's not quite up to snuff anymore. Hope your spring gets there soon!