hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

Haha, yeah, I should have said the cat's meatballs LOL. Not that it would have been much clearer, LOL

Yes, diet is directly related to how they feel. It could be that you can find another type of dog food like Britesea suggests and it might clear up. It's tricky to find the right combo, and nothing against most vets, but many of them are not nearly as well versed in how diet affects the animals as they could be. I probably do spend more on my cat's food than most people, but they're pretty dang healthy, and they love the food, and it helped to keep them from getting sick as much, so I stick with it. It's a pain in the butt to keep up with, but that is what it is at the moment.

Stopped in the store quickly today for some more fresh veggies, and a few things we were low on. I'm trying to keep ahead of my stock of stuff in case I can't get back for some reason for a while. They're still mostly out of TP and paper towels.

I now have a collection of 'essential worker' letters. Do I win a prize if I have the most? I've got 5 now, so I should be good no matter where I want to go! I just hope I don't need them.
Not much else news. Trying to get stuff done around the house since the BF is home so early. That is really nice to enjoy, but it's sort of making my routine a little less routine. I love having him home, though. He's been doing a lot of work outside, which is really nice. Now I need to get my butt out there and help him!
I've GOT to get masks made, the pollen is about to start exploding, and I need to make sure I've got something to wear that can help me deal with it. Maybe I can get that done this afternoon. My to do list is still entirely too long and there just don't seem to be enough hours available to get it all done... But what else is new?!

 

[hqueen13]

So much for being able to relax while this quarantine stuff happens.
I got a text Friday morning from VM asking for help on the farm. They were pretty desperate. So I rolled out of bed and hustled through my barn chores and then went straight over to the farm. I got there about 9:30 and we dove into the work getting things bagged up and organized. I was there fro about 4 1/2 hours, and then headed down to make my second visit for Cowboy and Coyote, and then back over to another client's place to start working with their fresian, Oliver. He's a handful and they really have no idea what they're doing. So we got started on that, and thankfully he paid me $40 instead of the $25 we agreed to. I was very grateful for the extra cash.
Saturday morning I rolled out early in order to get to the farm by 8 to start working again. It was week three of the pickup/delivery process, and they had 84 orders to deal with. We worked through everything as quickly as we could, and even still we were moving all day. They had 30 deliveries to take care of, plus another 15 or 20 pickups that all had to be processed and organized. We hustled SR out the door and then kept working on the pickups, and getting the second batch of deliveries ready. The pickups started at 3, and it was crazy. People are generally really kind, and so that was helpful. Even with all of that I was still there until 6:00. I had ordered a few things for myself, including some cinnamon rolls from the baker, and a ham steak, and VM wouldn't let me pay for it, which was really sweet of her. I was really grateful for the extra food. I left the farm and headed over to the BF's cousin's house to drop off the order that they placed, and then stopped to grab dinner on the way home since the BF had been working outside all day himself. I fell into bed after dinner.
Got up Sunday and headed to the barn to do chores, and then Cowboy and Coyote. I didn't get back home until 11, and I was exhausted. The BF and I went down in the woods so he could show me what he'd been working on, and then we roamed back over the stream to see if we could find the "big tree" that marked the one corner of our property (who does that.... on a PLATT... writes "big tree" as the marker when it's in the middle of the WOODS?!). We think we found it, not that it matters at the moment. It was helpful, though, to figure out where the line is, and we think we found another pin as well, which is also helpful. Now to find the $2500 to get a survey done...
We came back up to the house and ate lunch, and then just sat around for a bit before we headed down to Cowboy and Coyote to move manure again. I'm glad it was dry enough to get it done. We came home and I fixed dinner and then went to soak in the tub for a bit. I was so achy from being on my feet for 3 days straight.
Hopefully my week is quieter.... but I'm not going to bank on it. SR and VM had finally decided they really do need an online ordering system. I've cost compared 3 that I've found, and I think I know which one I'd rather go with, but we'll see what they say. At this point I don't really care, I'll work it out and learn it and dive right in. I'm thinking I might go work Oliver this afternoon again since the weather is looking like it's going to hold for today but then get rainy later this week. I'm working from home today, and trying to get caught up on all the chores we didn't do this weekend because we were busy outside. I also need to find time to get the garden started now that the BF has built me two boxes and filled them with beautiful composted manure. I also need to dehydrate the onions that I bought, and get the extra lemons I bought frozen before they all go bad... So much for relaxing during quarantine!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Whew - hope you get an online ordering system set up quickly! Good luck getting your garden going! Mine is coming along slowly. We got warm and seedlings pop up then we get cool so they just sit there...sigh. As much as I don't want the heat - the garden needs it!

 

[hqueen13]

FEM, that's exactly what I'm worried about! We had CRAZY rain yesterday, 3.5", with 3" of that coming from the wee hours of the morning until about 10. And now it's going to get COLD for the next few days, like lows into the 30's! So I think I'm going to end up waiting until the weekend to plant stuff. I need to get myself organized and plan out what I'm going to put in the beds anyway.
My stimulus payment dropped into my account and will clear tomorrow! That has helped SO much!! I was able to organize my funds so that I have all of my old debt covered until it's gone, which frees up about $108 each month that I can work with, so that helps to keep me covered if my income drops a bit. There was still a bit leftover, so I set that aside, I might buy myself something, I haven't decided what yet. I very rarely splurge for myself, and I honestly don't know what I would want, so I need to think on that a bit. I do need some shampoo, and since my pay check was pending as well, I put that in my budget, too, and was pretty happy with how much I had left over to work with just from my regular pay. I'm even able to squeeze a little bit out and add some extra to my truck payment, which if I can keep that up will cut off 6 months of my payments.
It's taken a crazy long time, but I'm pretty proud of how I've been able to reorganize my finances. Now if I can just get my business rolling I'll be doing really good!!

 

[flowerbug]

we have frosts still in the forecast for the next four nights at least. it doesn't make much sense to plant too early for what i'm putting in first (peas). i'm hoping to get some in the next few weeks, but i won't rush it.

congrats on stretching things. it feels so good when you can finally get out from under any debt and credit card being fairly expensive is usually the best one to take care of first.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow - no frosts here but we've been cool this week and will be for a few more days before we're back to heat and humidity.

I seriously couldn't garden where ya'll live.

Good deal on taking care of some debt AND having a little left to treat yourself to something.

 

[wyoDreamer]

We have a short growing season, that's for sure. I am starting to use more season extenders in my garden - row covers and such. Hopefully, I will get the greenhouse set up soon and be able to start more plants for the garden that way. BUT, I don't have to be out in the garden when the temps are up in the 100's - because we don't get that hot very often. I think the warmest that I can remember growing up was 105 degrees - and that was only for 2 days the entire summer.

 

[Britesea]

Same here- we never turned on the air conditioner last summer- hottest it got in the house was right at 80; hot but not impossible.

 

[hqueen13]

I don't really have any season extenders here. SR does on the farm, and of course he forgot to put them out, so the frost got his potatoes. I'm just glad I haven't bothered to put anything in the ground yet. Looks like I might be able to this weekend, but now the rain is crazy. We've got rain most of next week, including a few days that look pretty bad, like inch + in the forecast.
Well, my budget is stretching, the BF's budget is another question. I just double checked and everything he's got to cover in a pay check is pretty much the entire pay check. He had his appointment for his crown on Tuesday, and so that added another amount that he'll have to pay monthly. Thankfully I have care credit, and thankfully they let us do a year at zero interest instead of the standard 6 months, since the bill was $500+. He really needs a new vehicle, but I don't know that we can squeeze that into the budget unless they pick his hours back up at work. I'm grateful that he's still working, but this 40 hours only BS isn't helpful to our budget. I'm loving having him home, but dang, that makes money tight. I wish I could come up with something else for him to do to make money, but he's not all that interested in most things that I have to offer at the moment.
Not much else happening. I'm still busier than a one armed paper hanger. The farm is ALMOST ready to launch the online ordering system. It's always nerve wracking at first, but then it settles out. It's difficult to get responses from the folks for assistance, but they eventually get back to you. They're swamped because farms everywhere are signing up for the system. Hopefully that will work itself out soon, and honestly, I really hope that they switch to a slightly different format so that we don't have as much to do in one day right now. I mean the cash is helpful, so there's that, but whew a 10 hour day is a long day.
I'm going to need to call SH at some point and have a chat about how we can support them and make sure that everything is taken care of. I want to find out what their plans are for how long they expect to be down in FL. At this point, as much as I'd like a break from driving to their house twice a day, I would rather they just stay there. It's a LONG drive between here and there, and who knows what would actually be open and available for them to stay over night or bathrooms, etc, along the way. And with states trying to open things up, it's only going to create a second wave, so they're better off staying put. He can also work better from down there. So if that's the plan, then I hope he will increase what he's paying me to match a full month of coverage. I also am going to offer that we take care of the property as well. They've got 32 bales of hay left, which should last about a month, and then we can get another load for them and stack it. He also takes very good care of the weeds around the house and such, so I'm going to offer to do that, and see if he wants the BF to run the mower around the pasture to trim it a bit. It has to be mowed in summer because the horses can't graze it because they foundered (long story...). So maybe that will be some extra funds coming in, that sure would be nice. At that point I can probably push some of that money back to the BF because I technically owe him for purchases that he's made for the business over the past few years anyway.

 

[hqueen13]

STILL haven't put anything in the ground yet, though the weather is turning, so that's good. But between all the work I'm doing right now, I just haven't gotten stuff in yet. If I haven't been working, it's been raining. So that's thwarted a lot of progress. Lately I've been spending Friday and Saturday on the farm, which the income is GREAT, but the lack of time for stuff around the house has not. So it goes.
The ordering system went LIVE this past week. We had been running about 85 orders or so for the past few weeks, and that was a HUGE amount of effort to get all of that prepped and organized. This week with the new system in place we did 103, and it was easier than the 85 from before. Not only that, but VM was able to send reports to some of the meat farms with a list of the orders that we had, so they actually bagged them up and wrote the customer name on the bag. That saved a HUGE amount of time. VM also set up the first delivery route so that it didn't have any of the baked goods in it, so SR was able to leave the farm at 10 with the first delivery run, which was HUGE. There were probably too many deliveries in the runs, but all in all it wasn't bad. I'm SO glad they finally got themselves together so that we could get the system launched, and I wish they had done it sooner so that we could have worked out a few of the bugs prior to a huge order volume, but it's done at this point. We all discussed a few options to make things a little smoother, but all in all, it went REALLY well. The biggest issue we're going to have moving forward is keeping everything cool enough while we pack stuff up. When it's only 50 outside, it's no big deal to leave boxes of frozen meat sitting around for a bit, or veggies sitting out. When it's 85 and really strong sun in front of the market, we can't do that. And we don't have enough space to put things to keep it all in a cooler or freezer while we pack things up. He is talking about making a 'packing room' in the barn out back, so we'll see if that works out. If he does, it will end up being air conditioned (I don't want to see the power bill with 3 freezers, several coolers, AND air conditioning...), but it will be a worth while investment in order to handle everything and not have anything go bad. Plus, of course, most of these orders are over $50, and many are over $100 or more, so while the food isn't theirs, it is making them money, so that's a good thing.
Yesterday I mostly laid low after I got home from the barn. The BF brought the tractor up to the barn and got a big bale for me since I was out of hay again. He took the tractor over to his parent's house and helped his dad cut up some poplar trees that they had taken down. These trees are BIG, so he was there all day and they only got 2 trees cut up. I'm grateful for the firewood, though, even if it does burn hot and fast. Hopefully we'll have enough other wood to mix with it to get a really good fire next winter. It would be awesome if we could get a better wood stove, but we'll have to see what happens.
I did load my new phone yesterday, and that's mostly working ok. Now I have to get all the settings back the way I like them, which is kind of annoying, but not bad. I also have to be SUPER careful because the case I ordered won't be here until Friday at the earliest. Yay amazon.
Not much else happening, except too much work and not enough time, but what else is new?!