hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[Denim Deb]

I have some stuff called Excalibur, and it does a great job of softening it all up. I have trouble not laughing whenever I read the posts on here from people wanting to know how good an Excalibur is as a dehydrator.

 

[hqueen13]

Yeahhhh I've used that stuff before, I'm just too lazy to get anything like that, LOL

 

[hqueen13]

Is it bad that it is only 8:30, pouring rain outside, and I would totally be ok with going to bed right now???

The storms tonight have been pretty rough. Tornados happened in the west, and then just north of us again. I am VERY VERY grateful I got through both sets of horses (two different people are out of town right now so I'm on double duty) without having to deal with rain, and got home JUST as it started. N, the woman that feeds on Friday nights, called me and asked if I would mind going down to the barn to give the horses their feed since they have been in since about 3:00 this afternoon to avoid dealing with the weather. She hadn't left work yet and would have to come and feed them and then come back later and turn them out again. I went and took care of that, and will add the half hour to the time sheet later (yay more money off the board!)

Got lots I could do this weekend but I think we'll be taking a trip up to a little town just over the line to go to an Amish market and pick up some more beer that is only sold in PA.

Hopefully I can get other things done this weekend too. Now if the weather would settle down I could get a load of much needed laundry into the wash tonight!

 

[Denim Deb]

I've gone to bed this early B4. Only reason I'm up now is because I'm watching Monk.

 

[hqueen13]

He's got Dune on the tv since the weather is wreaking havoc with the satellite.

 

[hqueen13]

Well, this weekend has been nice, but there have been some rough edges.

The folks that left in a flurry last week to go take care of his mother are still down in FL. She called me very upset yesterday (they had originally thought they were coming home tonight) and said that the mother had taken a turn for the worst, and she wanted to find out if I was ok continuing to feed, and she was worried that they would run out of hay. I told her that we'd take care of everything and that she shouldn't worry. It means continuing to pull double duty, but they've got to take care of their things, and I am totally ok with that.

We drove up to PA to wander through the amish market there, and found some really nice trash can holders, though we didn't buy them, but it is something that is on our radar. If we got the little cabinet we could put it where the trash can is now, and then sit the water jug on top of it, instead of on top of the counter next to it. It may or may not really be an improvement. We didn't feel like spending the cash (upwards of $100.00) so we'll think on it and see what we decide later. Otherwise, we didn't find much, which was a bit disappointing since I really was hoping to pick up a set of windchimes. They usually have lots of beautiful chimes that sound more like bells than "chimes" which I can't stand. That was quite disappointing!

We finished up there, stopped at a gun shop, and then roamed across the countryside and zigged our way back down to our side of the world, stopping to feed the horses on the way back in. We didn't get in late, but we ate lunch late, and I was a bit tired from being in the car all the day (what the heck, I didn't *do* anything...) and so I didn't really get much of anything done yesterday evening, either.

Today started out lazy, for the most part. I got up and had to call the barn manager to go over a few things for the forms that we've got to turn in for permits for the Bull Roast coming up. After that I managed to connect with a few people, and send several emails, I got organized for the day. About that time the other half got back from feeding horses and running to the grocery store for the week. Got everything put away, and then grabbed a bit of a snack pretending that it was lunch. He headed out to mow the yard, and started feeling bad about that time. I managed to get the next load of clothes hung to dry. He came back in and pretty much crashed. He's been in and out of the bathroom a few times, and mostly sleeping all afternoon. This feels like De ja vu from last weekend when he started feeling bad at the end of the day Sunday. I wish we knew what was going on because this is not fun, for me or him! So unfortunately the two pork shoulders that were supposed to be smoked today are now simply being cooked in the oven

I did manage to get the little poor almost dead basil plant potted into the random pot that I had. It is not the most ideal situation, but it should be alright I hope. We'll see what happens anyway. I also managed to remelt my first attempt at lotion bars and add more beeswax. I still don't have a kitchen scale yet (gotta get by Ikea, we rarely go in that direction), so I just winged it, and then dumped in a whole bunch of essential oils since these are supposed to be for my mom. Course mailing them to her could be kinda interesting if it is warm outside! :/ I also managed to make up the first batch of dish washer soap. We'll see how that goes.

I suppose some time soon I should head back out to take care of the horses for the evening.

 

[hqueen13]

Well he's not really any better today, he stayed home, and has just been super tired, slept most of the day, a bit achy and said he's got a headache. He's still mildly feverish, I think, too. I don't really know what to do for him, at this point I don't really think there is much to be done.

It was a bit hectic at work this morning. The power was out for 12 hours after the storms ripped through on Friday night, and this morning the server and everything did not want to play nice together. Our IT guy wasn't able to do what he was supposed to do over the weekend due to the power outages, so he couldn't fix all of this before we got in on monday (that's a whole nother rant, that I am not going to bother with). Our new tech started today, and so I spent most of my afternoon helping her to learn some of her new tasks. That took a lot of energy, and I left with quite a bit of tension in my neck from not sitting in the best way possible.

Almost autopiloted myself home instead of over to take care of the horses. Remembered before I got too far along my home route, thankfully. Took care of the first set of horses, cleaned up the barn a bit more for them, and happened to notice that their farrier left a note that she (I think it is a she, nice handwriting, LOL) will be back tomorrow. I texted my friends to let them know and make sure that I didn't need to do anything to help take care of them, and she texted back that it was fine. Headed over to set of horses number two, and they were just fine.

Got home and have pretty much crashed. He managed to have enough energy to cook dinner, sheppard's pie with creamed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes, yum.

I posted a wanted ad yesterday for canning stuff on Craigslist and got a response today... negotiated a KILLER deal, almost 15 dozen jars of various sizes, quite a lot of rings, even some lids, a water bath canner, tongs, and funnel. SO stoked. She's up in PA, so we'll have to see when we can actually get up there to get the things, or hopefully if she can meet somewhere in the middle.

And I think now I am going to crash. Gotta get some things organized for tomorrow, and then I am done. Its gonna be a long week.

 

[hqueen13]

So that little sickness he had... food poisoning. He thought mushrooms, but I had mushrooms too. The woman that I go see for allergy treatments today works with a pendulum, and she thinks it was the ham slice that he had for breakfast on Saturday. He was surprised it would have taken 24+ hours to "bother" him, but I reminded him that my dairy allergies don't manifest for 24 hours either.

I have been playing with the Kindle that I bought "used" (I say used, it came sealed in a box, though it had no instructions in it. Not sure what is up with that, but whatever!) for $70.00 versus the $139 that it retails for. Pretty nifty little toy. Anybody that has any recommendations of free reading geared towards SS I'd be happy to download!

We had a bit of a revelation tonight. There is a (ANOTHER) tree blocking our satilite dish. We've cut trees, and moved the dish more than once and now something has to give. However, the barn chain saw chain is HORRIBLY dull. And I have no idea when someone will have the time to actually cut down said offending tree. The alternative is that we scout out another location to put the dish on the other end of the house and run the line from the other direction. Neither one of those are going to happen quickly. So now we're considering canceling the TV until football season rolls around, and then signing me up instead of him as a "new user" and having them come out and try to resite the dish, plus hopefully getting the football bonus package and maybe a cheaper rate. Right now we aren't able to watch it and we're paying 80.00 per month for something that is useless. We have netflicks and quite a few movies we like to watch. I'm totally ok with this. And this could be the first step to getting him away from (live) TV We'll see. And maybe ultimately we'll save money. We'll save money for the 2 months that it is shut off, in the least, but after that maybe we'll be able to get a better deal. I'll just tell them I just moved in They won't know the difference.

I'm exhausted from feeding too many horses over the past week and a half, and my brain is SO fried. I tried to autopilot home yesterday and Tuesday on accident. Had to turn around and head back down on the route I should have been taking. I've made a few small mistakes, and just plain can't process things right now. I can't wait for things to settle down again. I am SO exhausted.

And with that, I am going to bed!

 

[hqueen13]

We had a good weekend, we ended up yard saling again. And we made out like crazy again!

Found a shelf for DVD's that will also serve the purpose of a small end table next to the couch, and free up a shelf from the dvd's on our bookcase so I can put more books on the shelf again! For $5.00!
Got a gatorade water cooler for $2.00, an unused crab pot for $10.00, a wire panel corral for the chinchillas to play in for $10.00, a basket to put soaps and stuff around the bath tub for $1.00, a Wall heavy jacket for me for winter for $5.00, a soaking boot for $5.00... and I probably forgot some stuff!

today is the last day I'll have to feed extra horses for a week and a half. I am VERY relieved. I'll have my time back, my mornings and my evenings again. We've got a list of things to catch up on around here this weekend, which should be nice to accomplish. That's assuming that the clinic that is planned for this weekend doesn't go off, but it won't matter if it does or doesn't, really, it won't affect that much of my time.

Now, if I can only get THROUGH Thursday since today felt like Thursday all day. It is depressing that it wasn't!

 

[Denim Deb]

I'm kind of glad it wasn't Thursday! I have one more day to get stuff done.