hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[baymule]

It sounds like y'all are doing a good job of budgeting what you have. Planning for the big bills is a smart idea. After we paid off our old house, I put money back each month for the insurance and taxes.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Use that coupon!! 25% off will help a lot! So much easier to plan ahead than to try and play 'catch-up' where money is concerned! You're making good progress so that in itself is a reward!

 

[hqueen13]

Thanks yall!!!
When we got up yesterday, I had no idea that at the end of the day we'd have a whole lot of dirt. LOL. The BF texted me and told me that his uncle was offering to give him some dirt from a job site he was working on (he's a contractor). What I didn't realize was that he meant TODAY. When I arrived at home there was already 1 load dumped... and by the end of the evening we had about 5 loads total that they dumped. The BF is freaking out, I think he's feeling really over whelmed by this very kind gesture. It's REALLY good dirt, too, which is nice, not that it will matter when it's under the foundation of the garage... There's a low spot next to the house where the BF wants to put a garage with additional rooms above it, and so this dirt will go towards filling in the low spot. We needed it, and here it is! The BF has a way of doing things like that, and he has no idea how magical he really is sometimes! So now the big project is going to be figuring out how to get that in place and secured before rains come (which is Thursday night into Friday...)... They've almost run out of room to dump it, the ground is so soft from the rains we've already gotten that the trucks couldn't get it to where it really needed to be. I REALLY hope they bring a bobcat over this morning and push some of it down where it needs to go so that there's room for more of it when they bring it. We'll see what it looks like when I get home... LOL. Right now it's a long line of dirt, and so the BF posted pictures on his Facebook last night and we put the comment "I think we have a mole problem..." on it because it looked really funny. We were laughing about it all evening, at least I was because I think it's hilarious.

The weekend wasn't bad, Friday I was supposed to pick up KN from the airport, but I woke up feeling like I had a cold coming on. I knew she wouldn't want to sit in the car with me for the hours that we had to drive around for lessons, and I wasn't going to have the energy to do that plus everything else I had to do over the weekend. I emailed NP to see if she would be willing to drive her instead, and she said that she could. Later on she sent me another message and said that KN had missed her flight, only the second time in about 12 years that's happened. So I'm REALLY glad that it was NP dealing with that and not me. I took a 2 hour nap that afternoon and that helped before I had to do my evening round of chores.

Saturday morning I got up and went to turn out the horses, then headed to the barn for my lesson. Storm did fantastic, I rode the whole time. KN kept the lunge line on him so that I'd have a safety net if he decided to be stupid, but he was lovely the whole lesson. The last lesson of the season is in 2 weeks, which is kind of good so I should get to ride again. Then I have to figure out how to keep up the work through the winter before she comes back in the spring...

I got home, and the BF and I decided to run out really quickly to grab the part for the pickup truck and some lunch, and then we came back home and took another nap. Then I got up and went to do evening chores while he threw together dinner, which was really nice. Sunday I got up and headed out to do chores again, 3 farms this time, which I can't seem to get back home before noon when I have to take care of all 3. That's a little frustrating, but it is what it is. I finally got home and the BF was working on the pickup truck. He was a little crabby, so I came in the house and ate leftovers for lunch and then did some work on the computer. He came in later and apologized, and then said that he wanted to go to the neighbors and get some of the firewood he had offered us. I would have rather rested, but I knew that needed to be done and I figured if I helped it might go a little faster. We got a whole pickup load and took it back to the house and got the splitter that he brought home and got most of it split up, and stacked. As he started splitting, I had to clear out some of the old firewood that we had gotten last year that was too dry rotted to burn now. I was tossing it out of the wood shed, it was so light weight that some of it when a lot further than I intended, LOL. I started reloading the wood shed, and we basically filled the back of it up. Most of the wood is too wet to burn now, but hopefully we'll go through it slowly enough that it will be usable at the end of the season. We didn't quite finish all of it, but we got most of it done, and what's left the BF should be able to split by hand. Of course that's still in the back of the pickup truck, we have a huge pile of dirt that is sitting on the lawn, AND we need to go to the dump this weekend! Our work is cut out for us for sure... I think that maybe this afternoon, if he's not shoving dirt around (he wants to bring home a bobcat to move some of this dirt around) then we need to get the firewood arranged, and get the old crap into the pickup truck so that we don't have to drive on the grass this weekend in the back of the house. Maybe I'll start moving that when I get home with the hand cart since it doesn't weigh all that much at all. I should be home at a decent time today. Oh, I was going to make soup today... hmm, I guess we'll see what happens.

We're planning to vote tomorrow while everybody else is trick or treating, hopefully the early voting poles will be quiet at that point.

So now there's lots going on and we have to figure out what to do about all of it!

 

[sumi]

Goodness, you do have your work cut out! Score on the dirt That sounds like a wonderful blessing, if unexpected!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Yay for free dirt! A bobcat would really help moving that around. Glad ya'll got a bunch of firewood too... Sometimes good things just fall into your lap - glad that happened for ya!

 

[baymule]

Free dirt! Dirt is expensive, so y'all made out like bandits! And free firewood too! Awesome!

 

[hqueen13]

Yes!! It's been a big blessing, though a lot of work... WHEW. I'm exhausted, as if I wasn't tired already...

Friday was a super long day. I got up, took care of the barn chores, and then went into the office for a few hours. Thankfully the girl I was covering for got done early at the other location she was covering for, so she came back and I got to leave about an hour earlier than I expected. That was super good news because I was able to go to one of the two farm stops on my way home early. I got home and started working outside to try to do a little bit before the rain hit. I managed to get a few small wheelbarrow loads moved to the front of the house where we wanted to back fill some (dirt is heavy yo!), and then I started digging up the pavers in the "sidewalk" to get them out of the low spot so we can back fill that as well. It started to drizzle, so I headed back down to the other farm to do the evening chores and put the ponies in for the night. When I got home, the BF had some dinner ready and so we ate and crashed. It POURED overnight. We apparently didn't get the worst of the weather, either. SR told me when I saw him this morning that they got almost 3" out of the rain overnight on Fri, and of course the tornado that caused the Amazon warehouse to collapse killing 2 people down in the city was bad, too. We had wind and rain, and it poured, but apparently not that bad.

Saturday morning we got up and thankfully there wasn't much dirt moved. The worst spot was where the gutter drained across the dirt and where the low spot filled up with water then over flowed. I headed out to go take care of the ponies and the BF got some cleaning done in the house and then started breakfast so that it was ready when I got home. We finished eating and then headed to the dump to get rid of the old rotten firewood and the trash from the past month or so. The BF decided to go get a trencher and dingo (a baby bobcat that is walk behind rather than ride in) so we could get some things done with the dirt, and I headed back down to my friend's place to let the dog out again and swing by SR's farm on the way home for eggs and honey. When we both got back, we ate lunch and I decided to lay down for a bit since I was feeling pretty tired from all the work on Friday, and my throat has still been a little sore. The BF went out and started moving more dirt around. I finally got up, and did a few things in the house before he came in and we ate dinner and crashed.

I used the time change to my advantage on Sunday, and got up early and headed out to get the chores done so I could get back home. The BF headed to Home Depot to get the supplies to put the gutter underground, and I met him at Depot to help get that loaded on my way home. We got home, and he started laying everything out, and got the trencher out to get started with holes. I cleaned up in the house since his parents were going to come up and help. I headed outside once I was done with that, and the BF realized he hadn't gotten enough of the right kind of connectors to make it work. So back to Depot we went. We ate lunch when we got back and then got to work again. His dad and mom finally got there in the middle of the afternoon, and so his dad started running the trencher, and they worked on that part together and his mom and I started filling in the holes where we could. They ran into some issues for a bit, but managed to get things straightened out. It was getting dark when it was finally mostly done. His dad was using the dingo to back fill and smooth everything out, which worked fairly well. His mom and I ordered pizza and then cleaned up a bit. She and I went inside and ate when it arrived, and the BF finally came in a while later. His dad was still outside messing with the dingo, which was irritating the BF. He finally had to go outside over an hour later and tell him he had to quit running the machine so he could load it on the trailer to take back the next morning. His dad doesn't quite grasp that for him the machines are not a scarcity because he can bring them home whenever he feels like it as often as he wants. His dad is used to using them until the very last second when he needs to take them back. The BF was annoyed he'd spent so much time running the machine and was moving dirt to fill in the low spot where the pavers were, but wasn't doing it in a way that the BF wanted. So we'll probably have to move that dirt around again, but hopefully we'll have an actual bobcat instead of a little dingo and it will be easier and faster. I was annoyed they were there that late because I had really wanted to soak in the bath tub since we'd been working so hard for the weekend and I had waited until after the work was done instead of soaking on Saturday. That didn't happen so I'll have to do it tonight instead (hope my coworkers don't stand too close cause I'm pretty sure I probably stink...)

This morning I was up at 4 so that I could be over at SR's farm by 5:15 so we could load up the last batch of broiler chickens to go to the butcher. I'm sure SR is happy to be done with them for the year, they are a lot of work. Of course, thankfully the time change worked to my advantage because it felt like 6:15 instead of 5:15... It started raining just as we started loading them in crates, which was annoying because chicken crap gets super slippery when it's wet. We finished that pretty quickly, then I headed to the farm to turn out, which went smooth despite the rain. I knew it was going to rain, but I didn't realize it was going to rain THIS much. Today and tomorrow are pretty much all rain in the forecast. Hopefully the dirt will stay put again. I only wish we had gotten some straw and grass seed down at least on the part where the gutter was dug, but oh well. Hopefully it won't be too bad, but we'll see.

Next step is to keep smoothing it out, and then get some heavy duty landscape fabric and find some gravel for cheap!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Geeze, I'm tired just reading about all that dirt work. You are right - dirt is heavy! And even heavier when it's wet. Sounds like ya'll are making good progress though.

 

[baymule]

Loading up chickens to be processed...….must be nice. No one does that around here. You got 'em-you process 'em.

Sounds like y'all got a lot of work done. Take that long hot bath!

 

[hqueen13]

@baymule he raises about 100 per batch, so he takes them to be processed. There are enough places that do deer around here that they'll do some chickens, too. He does about one batch per month from April/May through now, so it's a LOT of chickens, way too many to manage personally, but not enough to actually have a facility. It's worth it to take them to someone to just get them done.

Not much has happened in the past few days. The BF is still working long hours, which will be really good for the paycheck again. I miscalculated and we won't have the extra check like I thought, but that's not the end of the world, we can still make it work, and we're still ahead on the mortgage payment so we can use one of these checks to pay for gravel. There will be extra funds in Nov, anyway, because there are extra checks. The "extra check" just got sucked away into getting the mortgage payment head, so we can manage if we don't set it aside that way.

We got 2" of rain between Monday and Tuesday. It's a real mud pit out there. Pigs would be happy for sure. There's more rain coming tomorrow, too. And Saturday will be cool and windy, which should help dry it out all over again. We'll see what happens. We need to fill in some of the spots where we dug for the drain pipe again, which I expected. It's not like we have a shortage of dirt to do it with... We also need to get some grass seed and straw down in some spots if we're going to hope to keep the dirt stabilized. I don't know if grass seed will grow, we may have to put down a mix that includes some winter rye to get it started. We'll see what a couple of places recommend. I really still need to figure out how to get a landscaper out there to talk to them and discuss some of our ideas and options. I want to have a plan together so that we can figure out what makes the most sense in the long run. I was also trying to decide what to do with the leaves that have fallen. I'm in favor of mulching them with a mower and leaving them where they are. The dirt needs some help anyway. And we STILL need to get lyme and fertilizer and manure and get it aerated in. Still need a manure spreader to do that. Still, still, still. I guess things will get done eventually. In the mean time, here we are.

Tomorrow is going to be nutty. I have barn chores in the morning, a quick stop by Cowboy and Coyote, then head down to get KN from the airport for her last weekend of lessons for the year. Then drive her out to the west side of town for lessons, then drive back to this side of town for my own lesson. It's supposed to rain. I'm debating putting Storm's sheet on in the morning to keep him dry. I don't know if it will be too warm or not. We'll see in the am I guess. Do my lesson, then finish everything in a hurry and get back over to Cowboy and Coyote's, take care of them (just look in on them, really, I shouldn't need to do anything) and change clothes and go to a concert benefit dinner thing right down the street for one of the local fire departments. The concert starts at 6. My lesson ends at 6. We'll see how that goes. Thankfully NP is going to come get KN so I don't have to drop her off after my lesson. After I leave the concert I'll have to make one more stop at HR's to take care of the ponies and cats there. It'll be later than usual, but that's probably fine because I won't be getting up as early as normal on Saturday, there's no way, LOL! On one hand I'm glad my lesson is on Friday. On the other hand, I wish it weren't, but then that would mean getting up and getting out of the house on Saturday morning instead. So it's all a trade off.

We'll see what we can get done this weekend. I know the dirt needs to be shoved around more, but some of that is going to depend on whether or not the BF can get a bobcat to use. They've all been rented out for a while now. We'll see what happens, but I hope by the end of the weekend we have a plan to get rid of the mud pit and turn it into a driveway!