hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

Yeahhh there is that, FEM. UGH. Another 3/4" yesterday.
It looks like there is a pretty good amount still in the forecast scattered across several days. I think that it has shifted and it shouldn't be raining for my lesson, which is in the middle of the day on Saturday, thankfully. We'll see how that goes. I'm not pleased about the fact that all of our work is coming to a grinding halt! Hopefully we can keep up with things anyway.
Not much else in the news at the moment.

 

[hqueen13]

The weekend was BUSY, but we got some good stuff done!

Saturday morning the BF worked, and I ended up with a spontaneous call with a client/friend to support her cat who is dealing with cancer. It went really well, and I think she's going to want some regular energy work for a little while to help support the cat, so we'll see if that comes through. That little boost would be SUPER helpful. I had my 2nd to last riding lesson of the year, which started at 12:30. That was an odd time, normally it's in the morning, but it worked out really well because I was able to go early and get a few things done and get him started so that I was ready to ride right when she got there. I wouldn't want that time in the middle of summer, but it was great on Saturday!

I headed home, and the BF was home by then, and we at the LAST tomato mozzarella open faced sandwiches of the season. I'm shocked there were still tomatoes at this point, it's WAY late, but it tasted SOOO delicious. I will miss them for the next 7 months again! After that, the BF got his dad's spreader up and running again and we started putting out the 1000# of lime. It was off and on drizzling, but we worked through it anyway. I walked with him on the tractor as much as I could keep up and collected all the rocks that got launched into the yard when we spread the neighbor's manure. I think I got them all, but no doubt I'll find more later I'm sure. I was relieved to have that project DONE. We straightened out the silt fence and got it in a little better shape to handle the rain coming on Sunday, and then hustled into the house to get in the shower before heading to his mom's for dinner. She had invited us and his brothers and their girlfriends over for dinner, and it was nice to not have to cook. And we weren't really that late getting there, either, which was impressive. We left there later than we wanted to, but not as bad as some days, and headed home to crash.

The BF was SO kind to get up with me on Sunday morning and come with me to the barn to get my chores done so I could be done early enough to get back home and shower before going to tea with his mom. It was POURING all morning, and I got drenched, he was mostly dry since he stayed in the barn mucking and I took the horses out. I'm SO glad he was with me because it would have taken me exponentially longer if I had been alone. We got it done in a bit more than an hour, and headed home. I got in the tub and soaked, and then we took a nap because we were both really tired. I got up and got ready and his mom came to pick me up to go to tea with AR, his brother's girlfriend. The other girlfriend was supposed to come, but she ended up having to study. We met several of his cousins and aunts there, and it was a nice time. Not quite as good food as the other tea room we go to, but cheaper, so that is a good thing. I think we'll go back at some point because it was nice enough, and hopefully they'll keep improving. We were the only party there, which was surprising, the other tea room is often packed with people.

When we came out it was over 70 degrees and sunny, which was a huge change from the morning's weather! We took a ride down to the water, and walked along the water for a bit, and then headed home. His mom wanted to see the work we've been doing (I knew she would!) and so they stayed and chatted for a bit.

After they left, the BF asked if I could watch the neighbor's kiddo while he and the neighbor went up to the shopping center to sell the neighbor's car. I said sure, so I watched the 3 year old for about 20 minutes while they took care of that. I was amused being in charge of a 3 year old, as I don't do that all that much. I'll wrangle 1000+ pound ponies, but leave me with a 50 pound child and I'm not real sure what to do. They got back and the BF and I ran down to take care of Cowboy and Coyote for the evening, and headed home to make dinner. I'm proud of us for making dinner, and not eating out, so our budgets are still doing pretty dang good!

Next step is to start getting the landscape fabric and stone for the driveway so we can complete that and start parking next to our door! I can't wait! I'm SO ready for some of these projects to MOVE ALONG!

Oh, we ended up with 1 3/4" from the rain yesterday. The dirt held ok, there is some wash out, but not as bad as I feared. The silt fence did ok, though I don't think we got it far enough down in the dirt in some spots, because it was still flapping in the breeze... Oh well. We have a few days of clear weather before the rain returns again so hopefully it will dry out and we can see what we can do for it.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Busy, busy busy! You have so much going on I don't even know how you keep up with it! But, sounds like progress is being made and that's always a good thing!

 

[flowerbug]

oh yeah, i know so much about loving to see a project move along at last. keep at it, it all works together.

did you have many green tomatoes this season? we usually pick them and put them on a table in the garage and they will gradually ripen. they may not be prime tasting quality, but in a chili or soup you may not notice. all good.

good luck with your projects.

 

[hqueen13]

Yes, FEM, I don't know how I keep up with it sometimes, either. But I just keep trucking along...

@flowerbug I don't actually grow them right now, my tomato plants didn't grow at all, but it's probably because I didn't water them.... I tried pots, and that didn't really work. I'm not so great at keeping stuff alive outside in pots. The farm where I work though had some greens, but I still can't believe they were able to keep the tomatoes coming this late, it probably has to do with the warm spell, and not getting so cool at night in the past few weeks. We had one dip close to freezing, and a couple nights in the upper 30's but that's it, so they have had enough to keep going, plus we got some much needed rain, so that probably helped as well.

The boss paid the BF for hanging the TV in the other office, paid him $100. I was pretty dang happy about that! Also, he finally called the insurance about getting the accident removed from his insurance, and they're giving him $280 back! That is pretty much enough to cover the insurance on a new vehicle for him, which means the extra $800 that we had over and above what we needed for the insurance premium gets to be set aside for his new vehicle! I'm SO proud of him and how hard he is working right now for that. He's been doing SO well. I know eventually he'll slide off the wagon again, but for the moment, he's doing terrific. He could be buying lunch out a little less, but honestly, he's got that covered, too. He actually hasn't spent all of his $100 that I set aside for him to buy food and random stuff the past few pay checks, so I've left the extra available to him, which he'll probably use for beer eventually.

So pretty good stuff. Looks like more rain coming in Wed night through Thurs night. I hope it doesn't disrupt JS's flight in on Thursday evening. And after that it gets COLD, of course, just in time for her to be here! We will likely have the first official frost of the season this weekend. The only good news is that the weekend looks dry, and Friday is supposed to be windy (which will stink working with horses) but it will mean it will dry out everything from the rain on Thursday, which means we might be able to keep working this weekend. I need to talk to the BF to see if he plans to bring home any equipment this weekend so we can continue to make progress. I'd love it if he brings home a bobcat if he wants to get the rest of the dirt moved, but I'd be happy if he brought home a log splitter so we can work on the wood we've got to get split before we need to light a fire. There's so much to do it almost doesn't matter what he starts with, we need to work with it. I need to find out what he wants to do for landscape cloth to put under the stone for the driveway, and get that ordered so that we're ready to put it down when the time is right. Of course we also have to figure out how many square feet we need, too... Whew, so many things to sort out and take care of. He's got about $500 in the home improvement fund, so we have some money to work with right now. The stone will take about that much money, so I hope the landscape fabric doesn't cost that much, but I guess we'll see how many square feet we have to cover... I guess I should get out there and measure this afternoon. Actually I need to remind him that we need to clean out the gutters before it rains again so we don't have an over flow. Then we'll need to clean them out again after the rain stops on Thursday. He's also got to clean the chimneys, and we need to clean out the stove in the basement and get it ready to run again, too.

So much to do... so little time!

 

[hqueen13]

We're going washer and dryer shopping tonight! I can't wait to get them!! The black friday sales are already in full force, which brings the units we were looking at down to about $700/ea. Then there is an additional discount from Home Depot, and then I have a couple coupons, and there might be a rebate from LG, so we'll see how cheaply we can get this done! I'm SO ready to be able to just wash clothes without thinking about it.

Yesterday was an adventure... as I was getting ready to leave, my neighbor texted me, he found a kitten. He didn't give me many details, just asked if I knew of anyone that wanted a barn cat, I was like, um, no, not really (they're a dime a dozen.....), and he was like oh, ok, I suggested a rescue that I knew of that was local, and he said he'd talk to me more about it later because he was late for work. A bit later I was like uhhh, I wonder what he did with the kitten. I texted him, and he was like it's in a box with me in my work truck. I was like ok, phew. SO then I was thinking hmm, the BF's brother had said that he might want a cat, and his GF and him just moved in together (that's actually a really long and complicated story I'm not getting into here.... LOL). So I messaged her and was like, uhh, I know you didn't want a cat until later, but my neighbor found a kitten, so, you want it??? She checked with him and he said ok...... SO. I was out with friends at this point, and headed home around lunch time, and my neighbor said he'd swing by and she told their mom, and so she picked her up and they went shopping for the cat and got everything they needed, then came up and met me at my house. We waited for my neighbor to stop by (which actually took longer than I expected), and he finally got there. I suggested that since she didn't eat the dry food my neighbor offered that we try to give her some wet food that I had. I asked if she wanted to try to feed her from a syringe just to make sure she could eat it, and she was like, uhhh, you can do it. So I get the kitten a syringe and she wolfted that down once she understood it was edible. Then she ate the rest out of the bowl and was quite content. So we set her up in my smaller carrier with a towel and I sent them home. She's adorable, and I'm really happy they're keeping her.
The crazy thing is that the night before, the BF heard something crying outside, and he kept trying to listen, but when he opened the window it quit. He did walk around before he left, and didn't find anything, so then she shows up at the neighbor's this morning, so I'm glad she got his attention at least.
So happy endings for all.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Congrats on w/d shopping! It'll be nice for you to get that taken care of.

Ahhh - glad the kitten found a home. Gotta love a happy ending!

 

[hqueen13]

Yes, it has been a happy ending! She's doing well, and is cute as a button. I can't wait to see what she looks like when she gets big. She's got these super adorable tufts of fur on her ears, I hope she keeps them, but it makes me wonder if she's a long haired breed. It's a waiting game now!
Didn't get a whole lot done this weekend, actually spent most of the time with bro2 and fiancee, he needed help getting some plumbing set up in the new house. So fiancee and I hung out most of the day Saturday just relaxing. Sunday I had barn chores, and we got a little bit done in the afternoon, but not a whole lot.
Yesterday I cleaned up some things outside and got the halloween decorations down, since the weather was turning bad today. It was 61 yesterday, our high for today was this morning at 52, it's supposed to be 35 by this afternoon. We could see flurries today, along with this rain, and the wind is supposed to pick up, too. Fun times. I think we're going to have to fire up the stove, but we've got to clean it out, STILL. Hopefully I'll have time to do that tomorrow.
I'm waiting on the call from Home Depot about the delivery time. Then I will know if I need to cancel my farrier appointment for tomorrow or not. I kind of want to cancel it because the high is in the 30's with wind... not exactly the weather I want to be trimming in. And I haven't done as good of a job keeping up with his feet since his last trim.
I do need to vacuum and mop where the old washer and dryer were sitting, I did convince the BF to move them last night so that the space is ready. He was grumbling about doing it on Wednesday, and I'm like you know you will want to just put them in on Wednesday, and this way I'll have time to clean before they get here, so the space will be ready to go when you get home. Trust me, you'll be happier if you do it now! We have dentist appointments tonight so we won't have time to move them tonight.
Not much else happening at this point. I guess that's good. We are getting quotes for landscape fabric, and I think we will probably go pick it up later this week so we can do that this weekend. The BF keeps pushing the dirt around, and slowly but surely the pile is getting smaller, and the flat space getting bigger. I'd LOVE to be able to have it done by next week. His goal is his birthday, and he's quickly running out of time! We are SO close though. I can't wait!!

 

[Britesea]

I think FINISHING a job is always the hardest part; you start thinking about what you want to do next, and get impatient.

 

[hqueen13]

YES, @Britesea that's the truth! We're already half way on to the next thing and the first thing doesn't get completely wrapped up.
The washer and dryer went in yesterday! I can have clean clothes again! The BF took apart the dryer yesterday for us to scrap it, and discovered a massive amount of lint in the dryer. It's a wonder that the thing never caught fire... I'm SO very grateful that it didn't! The new machines are running well. We just need to get longer washer hoses, and then we did decide to stack the 2, which will take some adjusting of the things on the wall and the plug for the dryer. The good news is that it will shorten the dryer vent significantly, which is a good thing and speeds up drying times. I will be really happy to have all of this finished and all neat and tidy again. And catch up on all the laundry I've been putting off, too! I need to wash the mattress pad from summer, and get a few other things done. Thankfully the new machine is HUGE!

Not much else happening. I need more free time than there are hours in a day at the moment. I did catch up on most of the financial tracking for the past 2 months. I always say I'm not going to let it get away from me, and then I do. I only have a little more to finish, I just have to go into the sheet and put in all the details for the business stuff from the past 2 months. That shouldn't take long, and then I have to print out the pages that I keep for the records and I'll be good to go. It's about time I caught up with that for sure.
My pay checks are stretching further than they used to, I think because I reorganized some of how I manage the groceries and my gas. I'm happy with that, and I think I'll hold onto the money for a while since I need new tires very soon. Hopefully I can get enough together to pay for those myself. Need to figure out what number I'm aiming for and see how quickly I can get there. I also talked to the boss about taking care of our next year's tracking sheet, which means doing quite a bit of reconstruction to the current sheet, so that will be some extra hours I can put in at home in my PJ's. Having the laptop and being able to access everything I need from it has really made a big difference in me being able to catch an extra hour here and there. I'm really grateful for that! Of course, I have lots I need to do in the house, too, but that doesn't give me a pay check LOL
We should be picking up the landscape fabric for the driveway on Saturday. The BF has a bit more grading to do, there's still a little more of the pile of dirt left, so that needs to be graded out, and then we can lay the fabric and order the stone. I can't wait!! It's possible that it could be done in another week or so, depending on how quick we can get the pile graded out, and the fabric down. He does want to edge it with landscape timbers, I think, so we do have to get those, but that won't be a big deal, either. It would be nice if we could get those parts done this weekend. We also still have wood that needs to be split and stacked, and we need to get the brush taken care of, but he's got to bring home a brush hog for that. I hope that can happen soon now that it's turned cold enough to freeze the yellow jackets and stuff.
Speaking of cold, it's been COLD here. Geez! It was 21 this morning down at the farm, 27 at my house. I guess it is November, but dang, that's harsh! At least we didn't get any snow out of the storm that rolled through bringing all this cold air with it on Tuesday. Looks like we get a little warm up, but not a whole lot, and I think the weekend is clear, which is good for getting projects done!