hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

Tid bits of good news today!
Called the septic company that did our inspection initially, and they only charge $265 for the pump out, which isn't bad at all. They're going to send their inspector on the truck to take a look at everything, but the lady said she doesn't think that there is a problem. She did say we should put something over the hole again though to stop the mosquitoes!
Next tid bit of good news: I spoke with the guy who works at the Mill and talked to him about my soil test. He said that until I get the PH up, that I shouldn't waste my money on grass seed or fertilizer. So he recommended that I drive the manure into the soil to try to get it below the top layer so that there is more organic matter for the nutrients to bond to, and get the PH up and THEN I can seed and fertilize. He said it will take about a year to work through all of that. AND the SoluCal lime that he recommended is on sale for $14.99/50#bag instead of regular $16.99! YAY!!!!!! So I'll save $2 per bag, and since I need 20 bags, that's a good thing! I'm REALLY happy with that, and I guess that means that I'm going to buy those this weekend... Really happy that all of this is coming together so quickly and easily. And we're at the perfect time in the season to take care of it and get it started right now. VERY pleased about all of that!
This weekend is shaping up to be busy, too. I have my lesson on Saturday morning, and then I think we'll be getting a load of hay this weekend, I might ask the BF to go to GH's and clear out the manure and put the hay feeder where it belongs, and then we'll take the tractor to the farm to get the hay put away, and then we have to go to the Mill to pick up the lime, which probably needs to happen on Saturday because most of the locations are closed on Sundays. And we need to go to the dump, which also needs to happen on Saturday too... Hmm, looks like there might not be enough hours in the day.....

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Yay for good news! It's always nice to find out things aren't as bad as they could be, lol! Hope you find some extra hours in the day this weekend....sounds like you're gonna need 'em.

 

[wyoDreamer]

As for our tractor, DH drove to the other dealer in the town on the other side of us and got what he needed. The first dealer who didn't have lug nuts in stock, is who we almost bought our second tractor from. So glad we decided to buy the LS instead of the New Holland. those guys are idiots, not impressed by 3 of the 4 people we met there.
On a happy note, when we bought my little tractor last fall, we drove 1 1/2 hours to pick it up from the dealer who had it on sale. This spring, a new LS Tractor place opened up on the highway on my way to work, about 15 minutes from our house. DH stopped in to see if they were just sales or if they would do repairs if needed, and they will be full service for the tractors at their new place just down the street from where they are now. The owner is really nice and this is going to be his second shop, so they will have full stock on most parts.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Yay for sale on lime!
Do you have animals at your place or did you bring in the manure from your jobs? What do you mean by "drive the manure into the soil to try to get it below the top layer" ?

 

[Britesea]

sounds like tilling as deeply as possible

 

[hqueen13]

@wyoDreamer yay on the tractor parts! It's so good to have nice people to work with!
We'll actually use an aerator (or what they call a plug seeder) to push it down into the soil. I don't have animals here yet, the grass isn't worth crap, and there's not enough top soil to hold onto anything, so I'll get it from some friends. I know people with endless supplies So the goal is to get the manure and organic matter down into the soil so that there is something for nutrients to bond to. Otherwise good grass just won't grow, and the animals will immediately destroy what is there, and it will just be barren dirt, even if I did have paddocks for rotational grazing.

In other news, in the middle of all of this upgrade stuff in the office, my coworker has been out all week helping her mother who feel and broke both arms, and I've come down with the cold that's been going around. Really not pleased with this. I should be at home in bed, but I'm in the office anyway because this stuff is too important not to get done. I may not stay all day today, I've got to see how things go, but I'm hoping I can get some stuff done and then go home early and try to sleep. I slept terribly last night.

In good news I did get a new pair of ariat terrain boots! Mine were HORRID, they STUNK (for real, I'm not joking) and the seams were all busted out. TSC had them on sale for only $75. I stopped in yesterday, the first day of the sale, and couldn't find my size. At first I only saw 2 or 3 pair on the shelf at all. I went and asked the girl if they were going to order more or if they could order my size. She awkwardly answered my question that I could order them online and ship them to the store, and I asked if that was free shipping, and she had no idea. Yay for lowest paid workers. /sarcasm I went back over and was trying on a few different sizes to try to make sure I ordered the right now, and was considering calling the TSC that's north of me (I never go north, so I never go up there, even though technically it's closer to me), and finally found the right size! Bought those babies right there! SO glad to have new shoes again. I'll take my oldest pair and send them off to be resoled, which is only $70.00, so that way I do have a backup, but very glad to have new ones, too.

So just trying to lay as low as possible right now, which is not working nearly as well as I'd like!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Sorry you're feeling poorly....but glad you got a new pair of boots! Yay on that!

 

[hqueen13]

Thanks FEM!
I'm feeling much better today. A friend of mine recommended an additive for the neti pot nasal wash, and I happened to be by a store that sold it yesterday after work. I was exhausted by the time I left the office, and I needed to drop off a package at FedEx and then go put a deposit in the bank (it's mildly nerve wracking to take 5 figures worth of mostly checks and some cash into the bank! ) , and then I stopped by an organic grocery store and picked up the stuff. It was $15 for a small bottle, but I expect that bottle will last a long time since you only use 1/2 a dropper full per wash. I will probably only use this stuff when I'm sick, anyway, even though I do neti pots at other times. I think it helped!! As I said, I'm feeling MUCH better today. I'm going to use it again when I get home and see how it goes.
I had a busy morning, I'm tired but not horrid. I had to do chores in the barn, and I cancelled my yoga class, I knew I couldn't manage all of that, and putting my head upside down doesn't seem appealing at the moment. I had to swing by and take care of Cowboy and Coyote, and then head over to one of our other offices to get those computers set up for the new upgrade which is dropping tonight. I'm SO looking forward to getting this done! I'm kind of geeky excited about it, actually. Then I grabbed chickfila (don't judge ) and brought it to Cowboy and Coyote's house where I've sent a few more emails and checked a few more things and then I'll take care of them and head home. I didn't see any sense in driving all the way home to have to drive all the way back down here later. I'll head out in a few minutes to do that and then get down the road. I've got a few things to take care of this afternoon, and then I should be done for the day. I need to wash my saddle pad before my lesson tomorrow morning, it's GROSS (and stinking up my car!! )
We have WAY too much to do this weekend, but hopefully it goes smooth and easy. I have my lesson tomorrow morning, we need to get to the dump, we need to arrange a load of hay to get delivered and stack it (which means taking the tractor to the farm and meeting KD with the hay), we need to pick up the lime from the mill (gotta call them and make sure they've got it, if I have to go to the other location which is further away then it will HAVE to be done on Sat because they're not open on Sun....), need to pick up the spreader from my friend and give her a check, and somewhere in there I need to check the new system and see how it's working. I think that's all... but I also could easily be forgetting something...
I saw my paycheck was pending, and so I entered all that info in my budget, and it stretched further than I thought it would! That's kind of awesome news! I went to look in our payroll system to see how much I'm getting per hour, and it locked me out after it asked me to change my password and then wouldn't accept any of the options I tried. Nobody likes that site, it's always a pain in the butt. Hopefully I can look into that on Monday. My check didn't seem to be a whole lot bigger than usual, though, but it was enough. At this point I already have 9 hours of time to add to the next check, plus I'll get some more when I get into the system over the weekend and check everything out. And I'm sure I'll add time next week helping everyone get it figured out. So the next check should be mighty fat, too! That's really good news!! Maybe I can actually afford to buy the washer and dryer myself! That would be so awesome!
I should get off of here and get some work done, but I'm not all that enthused about getting up again. So it goes...

 

[hqueen13]

Really irritated at myself. I bought a big pack of ground beef, and it says use or freeze by the 26th. And it's still in my fridge. The soonest I could cook it all would be tomorrow. I guess that's money down the drain (or to the dump as it were)

 

[wyoDreamer]

I hate when stuff gets lost in the fridge.
I would check it out, does it smell good, look good, not slimy or whitish gooey smear on package? I guess i live dangerously.

Our grocery store has a butcher onsite, so I know that most of what I get is fresh ground at the store, so that adds to my security about using older meat. I used some last week that was forgotten and 5 days over the use by date - but that was a roast, not ground beef. And I cooked it in the Insta Pot so it was well done. I'm not dead yet.