hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

FEM, yes, it's insult to injury and the reason why we can't get stuff done. I have to do turnout and stalls on Friday mornings and Sunday mornings, and it seems like it's almost always raining...

@Lazy Gardener I have the same struggle, but occasionally there will be stuff that we use, and so I take advantage of it. Right now Gatorade is one of the things on sale, and the BF will drink that during the summer, so I'll probably stock up on a couple cases now to get the discounts. At least with the credit card I automatically get 10c off gas, plus 3% back on all BJ's purchases. So that helps, too.

Friday wasn't such a great day. I got up at 5ish as the BF was leaving to get breakfast and head to the barn. I find a text that had been sent Thursday night after 9pm, which is after we got to bed, and TM knows that, that, oh, btw, there are 2 new horses in the barn that are now a part of the co-op and you have to do all 5 stalls in the morning. I time everything almost to the minute to get my chores done efficiently and get where I need to be quickly. I did NOT account for an additional 2 stalls when I got up that morning. This was also on the heels of her sending me a message scolding me for not asking for her permission to switch my chores from am to pm around my vacation, which I notified her of 2 weeks in advance. Literally the next day she springs this crap on me. I was PISSED to say the least. Thank goodness I didn't have anything going on after yoga class (which I ended up not going to anyway because of how much work I had to do in the barn and my back was feeling a bit fragile), because otherwise I would have been screwed.
I was super tired when I got back home, I ate some lunch and then took a nap for a while. I asked the BF to get me up so I could go do chores again before it got too late and more rain came in. I was passed out when he called me! I got the chores done and then back home again, and was going to throw a pizza in for dinner, but that's when I discovered that there was still burned pepperoni in the bottom of the oven from the last time we cooked pizza and the edge of the pizza fell between the rack, and the pepperoni slid off. So we ordered a pizza and that was that.
Saturday morning we made pancakes, which we haven't done in a while, and then headed down to Cowboy and Coyote's to take care of them. I wanted the BF with me because the boys had shoved their hay feeder off the bump of dirt and it was leaning, and I couldn't push it back. He wanted to measure for the work we need to do for them, and of course completely forgot to straighten out the feeder. We left there and went to his parent's house to pick up an air compressor so he can use a nail gun on the shed. He was going to buy a nail gun, but then found out his dad's was still working, so that was a good thing. The bad thing was that his parent's house is like some crazy vortex and we were there for over 2 hours just trying to pick up an air compressor and a nail gun. So after we FINALLY left, we stopped and grabbed chickfila for lunch and a box of nails for the nail gun. His dad had offered to come help, so the BF texted him and invited them up for the afternoon. I started cleaning the basement to get the cat litter off the floor since that hadn't been done in ages. His dad texted him back and said he was at his grandparent's mowing their lawn. I knew then that he wouldn't be coming up. The BF got most of the shed floor re-done since he decided to put heavier plywood on the floor. We were finally eating dinner and his dad texted and was like do you still need help? It was 6:30, and no, we don't still need help at 6:30 at night.
Sunday we didn't really get anything done because it was raining all day. We got about 1.5" since Friday out of all of it. It just won't stop raining on the weekends. It's supposed to be clear this week during the week, so hopefully we can keep working on the shed a little bit more to chip away at that. I'm so ready to move on from this project. He keeps changing his mind on how he wants to do it, first he wanted to use the frame, and now he's decided to just built a whole new shed. I'm like I don't care what you do just get it done! SO we'll see how long this takes... Somewhere in all of this we have to come up with the time to fix things up at Cowboy and Coyote's. It's rained so much I don't know when we're going to be able to do that. I want to get it done soon though so we can collect the money for it and be done with worrying about it!
Other than that, not much else happening. Same ol same ol.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh geeze...rain is not the curveball you needed thrown into your life right now... But, we're set to get rain almost all week. Yay - not! I got accustomed to wearing shoes instead of boots for a couple weeks now.

Sorry you got two new stalls dropped on you. Nothing like a little advance notice so you can plan your life!

Hope the shed gets done. Getting that crossed off of your list will help.

 

[hqueen13]

Getting it crossed off the list will help tremendously! I hope we can manage it soon. It's just going to depend largely on the weather.
We didn't get anything done yesterday afternoon. I was hoping to, but both of us were tired. This afternoon the plan is to mow again. Hopefully it will be dried out enough, but the lack of sun this morning, and moisture saturated foggy air aren't helping. We'll see how that goes.
I was looking at things over at Cowboy and Coyote's this morning and I think we're going to need to go ahead and order the stone dust so we can at least get the second feeder back up and in use. The 3 tons they delivered wasn't enough to cover the whole platform, so we closed that side of the paddock off so that the boys won't destroy the stone dust before we get everything reset. The old feeder has no platform, so it's all dirt around it, which means right now it's a nasty mud soup mix, and is slippery as crap. I think the only way to get that to dry out is going to be to stop using that feeder, which means we have to finish the area with the other feeder in it so we can get it opened back up. I'd rather use the other one anyway to avoid the mud for myself, let alone for the horses. I'm going to chat with the BF tonight and see if he thinks we can get that done on Saturday morning if I can get the stone dust delivered on Friday, maybe. I'll check in with SH and see if he's ok with it sitting for about 2 weeks, because that's what it's going to take before we can get back to it, and assume that it will be dry enough to work with again. I think he'll be alright with that, but I want to double check. I really don't want them coming home to find the old feeder as nasty as it is... It's really bad right now, and we don't have a whole lot of rain in the forecast, but it is supposed to rain agian on Friday, and I don't want the horses standing in the mud that long.

Fun times. I could use some extra hours in the day for sure!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Fun times. I could use some extra hours in the day for sure!

Sounds like a lot of work! If you find those extra hours can you send some my way?!

 

[hqueen13]

LOL, I'll probably use them all up FEM!!

Things are rocking along. The zero interest balance transfer cleared from my personal card, now I'm waiting for the one to clear on one of my business cards to see what the minimum payment will be. I'm hoping that it's low enough that I can sort of ignore the business debt for a little while, or pay very very little. That will give me a tiny fraction of breathing room to work with. Or at least it helps, anyway.

The BF wanted to go get a miter saw. His justification was that it will help him work a lot faster on the projects, and he could be able to build hay feeders again, which would be more income in the business. We got to Home Depot last night and he found out the saw had gone up by $50, and of course you have to buy the saw blades in addition to the saw (of course they don't include one with the saw). And with the stand (which is practically required because of how hulking BIG this thing is) it will cost over $600. He was feeling really guilty about the purchase, so I told him let's pause for a sec, see if we can find any discounts online, and just take a breather. Buying it last night wasn't a necessity because he wouldn't be able to work with it today anyway. So I'm praying for some kind of magic discount to bring the price down to around $500, instead of well over $600. We'll see what happens. We've got so many things going on right now it's not funny, so that isn't helping.

I did some test card readings for my friends yesterday with the new book and deck that I got, and they loved them. I want to do a couple more test readings and then start charging for them. I can't wait to see how these work, it fits right in with all the work that I do, and they're so much fun to do. I'm also getting ready to launch a group program that will be a monthly thing. For the beta test run I'll charge less than what I expect to once it's up and running, but it'll be income coming in, which is a good thing! I need to get something written up for that, and then get another email newsletter put together so I can announce it. I've got to get moving and shaking if I'm going to keep all these bills paid.

It's still freaking raining. Just enough to keep things from being really workable. I don't know when we're going to get Cowboy and Coyote's area finished. Really soon, I hope because the old feeder is nasty mucky around it and they keep shoving it over because they've worn away too much dirt next to it.

The BF reminded me that we never got to work on the Cabinet project for my office that we said we'd do, either. We agreed we need to get going on that because that can be done in the house when it's raining, and won't take all that much effort at all to complete. That'll be cash in his pocket, too. I guess that'll help offset the cost of the saw! LOL

So still too many things to do and not enough time to do it.

Add to that one of my cats isn't feeling well. I'm waiting on a call back from the vet for an appointment today. I hope he doesn't have anything major or there will be more money out the door...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I honestly don't know how you keep up with your life! Hope your cat is just having an 'off' day and will be fine!

 

[hqueen13]

Thanks, FEM! I don't really know how I do it either... if I think too hard about it, then that's a bad thing so I try not to think about it and just keep going.
Specter did fine at the vet. He wasn't thrilled about it, and we had to dump him out of the carrier, and even then he kept his back feet wedged in so bad that he was all stretched out with his front paws on the table and his back end in the air and still wouldn't let go of the carrier. They said he just had some kind of a little bug, and gave him a round of antibiotics and sent him home. He has mostly bounced back since then. I thought Mercury might be coming down with it, too, but she seems fine now. So either it was bothering her, and she worked her way out of it, or she was just upset since he had to leave. They've never been apart before in their 4 years of life. I can't believe they're 4, either!
The only annoying thing is that I came down with a bit of a stomach bug right after that. I spent the rest of the day in bed, and the BF took care of Cowboy and Coyote for me that night. I got up on Friday morning, which is normally really busy for me, and ended up swapping my chores to the evening and canceling going to yoga. I didn't want to spread anything around since I think I got it from my friend that I hung out with on Wed. I took care of Cowboy and Coyote, but barely made it through that, I felt so terrible. I got home and went back to bed again for a while, but I had to be at the barn at 2:30 because the dentist was coming for Storm. I canceled on them the last time I was sick, and I didn't want to delay it any longer for his sake. I managed to deal with that ok, and he did well, especially once the happy juice kicked in good. They finished up and I went to put him back out and apparently he wasn't quite over his dose of happy juice and we got about 2/3 the way down the barn aisle and he just stopped. He just didn't want to move at all. So I sat down on the edge of the nearest stall and waited, and we stayed there for about 20 minutes. It was rather amusing. He just stood there and wasn't at all interested in moving. I wasn't either, so we just waited. He finally began to perk up, so I took him out on the driveway and we walked a few laps back and forth before I turned him out in the pasture.
Saturday I felt better, but still not normal again. I did some cleaning in the house in the morning while the BF ran to Lowe's to get the lumber for the walls and roof of the shed. He got started on the rafters while I kept cleaning. We wanted to do a dump run before we headed out of town, and since he got his Miter Saw we had HUGE boxes that needed to go anyway. We made the dump run, and just barely made it there before they closed, and then came back and managed to get the side and back walls framed up. We stacked everything on the floor and ran to grab dinner and get a tarp to keep it covered until we can get back to work on it again. We got it covered just as it started to rain.
It's now 2.25" later on Monday morning. And still raining.
Yesterday we went to a museum with his family, which was nice. I didn't feel guilty not being at home since it was pouring outside anyway.
I just wish it would stop raining long enough that we could get a few of these projects wrapped up.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh man...you've been catching it with the back and stomach bug...not fun on either of those.

I have a mental image of you and Storm just hanging out - hoping to feel better.

Good progress on the shed though. Maybe ya'll can knock it out if it would just stay dry for a day or so. I'm afraid rain is our new normal - and I don't like it one bit.

 

[hqueen13]

I don't like it one bit, either, FEM. 2 3/4" from Saturday night through yesterday afternoon. It's NASTY wet right now. Cowboy and Coyote are only using the old hay feeder since the new one is half finished with stone dust, and it's GROSS around the old feeder. I feel bad for them, and it's AWFUL to try to get bales out there. I just hope it stays dry long enough that I can get more hay into it before they get home. We're hoping to finish that project next weekend, but it will totally be weather permitting. If it's not too bad but not dry enough to work around the old feeder, then we can maybe get the new feeder finished, so they can start using it again. If it's dry enough then maybe we can work in front of the barn, but that will have to be dry enough because right now it's a nasty sloppy mess, and we're going to take the dirt that's pulled out of there, and put it over where the old feeder is to try to raise that up a bit and make it a little more level. But if it's not dry enough then it won't matter. We need to get the manure out of there, too, so I really hope we can manage it.

As far as the shed goes, at least for the most part we can work on that when it's kind of wet. Now that the floor is in, we can do everything else as long as it's not crazy raining and stuff. But of course it requires time to be able to do so... Which we are in short supply of at the moment, too. I was reading about just how much rain we've had this year, and we've broken so many records. Of the past 40 some days of rain, over 35 of them have been Fri-Sun. That's part of what's slowed us down SO badly. We just can't get work done when it's raining all weekend. I told the BF at some point he might need to take a day or two off just to get things done during the week when it's NOT raining. That's annoying, but it may be the only way to make some real headway with a couple of these projects.

 

[hqueen13]

Whew. Back from our way too short trip to the beach. I had a blast. We drove down to Assateague island and got to see the wild ponies, which was awesome. There was even a baby with the herd, and the Ranger said it was less than a week old. We also got to see the full moon over the ocean, which was amazing. As per my norm, I saw lots of animals, some dolphins swimming in the ocean, a bunch of frogs, lots of birds, and the ponies. The weather was a hair cool to be on the beach in a bikini, but I did get to lay in the sun for a while on Saturday. It warmed way up right as we were leaving, of course. I bought a few things, but didn't spend too much. It feels good to be home, and sleeping in our queen sized bed again! A full just doesn't cut it, and I didn't have a pillow for my knees, which is really uncomfortable for me.
It looks like we might have a break in the weather for a bit, so I'm hopeful we can knock out all the work at Cowboy and Coyote's this weekend. Plus the BF has Monday off, as do I, so that's super helpful for getting some stuff done! I can't wait to get some of these projects taken care of! We'll see how things go anyway.
So now it's in to catch up mode and trying to get things put back together from our travel. I have a quick trip down to northern VA later this week for the office, so that is making things a little more complicated than I'd like. So it goes anyway.
Not much else to report at the moment, so I guess that's a good thing!