hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

*crawls out from under my rock again*
Yup, still here. Survived Sandy just fine... except that the power went out yesterday at 1:00. It was out for 24 hours, which was long ENOUGH, thank you very much. It was 57 IN the house when I got up this morning out from under the mountain of blankets I was hiding beneath. Otherwise, we were fine, didn't lose power through the whole storm, save for a few blips. We lost the top out of one of the crappy trees in the front yard (no surprise), and a dead locust came down on the fence in the back, plus another tree leaning on the fence. Nothing major that couldn't be easily dealt with. The poor horses were in for almost 36 hours straight, save for less than an hour each on Monday and Tuesday when a few at a time were turned out to clean their stalls. It was too cold, wet, and windy for them to be out. They haven't even finished growing in their winter coats yet!
Otherwise, things are rocking along. Our friend E is now staying with us in our little house. He's lost his job, and it makes so much more sense, he's helping us out a ton and doing lots of things for us, which is a huge help. I'm very glad to have him around, he fits right in with the other half and I, we all have fun together.
This weekend is body work and I can't WAIT. I SO need it. My jaw has been driving me NUTS. I've also been through quite a bit since then (*coughlaiddownbikecough*) and probably need to be straightened out a bit...

Found another website, tho it is a pay site, but they have some really useful prepping stuff including a detailed course layout that walks through prepping preparations. I've been enjoying going through that and meeting other like minded people.

I brought in my basil plant out of the weather now that it is cold and Sandy blew through. Poor thing needs some attention, I'm going to have to take a photo of it and get some advice. Its still alive though, which is impressive in its own right!

Alright, probably gonna end up under the rock again for a while. Wheeeee... Hopefully not for quite as long!

 

[Denim Deb]

Wondered how you made out w/Sandy. Did you hear we may get a nor'easter next week?

 

[hqueen13]

yeahhhhhhh heard that. Not cool.
How did you make out in Sandy??? I was thinking about you! (haven't had time to check your journal... too much crap going on!)

Got my body work done yesterday!! I feel SO much better! I couldn't have told you that I felt bad before, but now I feel BETTER! She had to work HARD on my right shoulder and ribs from falling on the bike, but she was able to mostly work it out. I've had to ice it off and on to deal with the muscle soreness and inflammation that is there, but it should really be much better now. I hope that I can stay balanced for a while now. No more goofy accidents. She checked Storm and only took about 15 minutes to work with him, he's doing great! She worked on E for a long time, and he's really struggled, but he took to it much better than I expected him to. I think he'll feel better, it is just going to take time. He's been funny all afternoon because he doesn't quite feel normal in his own skin now, and the headache that he had hasn't gone away. She told him to take magnesium and drink a lot more water, which he's been grumpy about (oh well!) but I think he'll feel much better now. Its a start, she'll have to keep working at him, but this kind of thing is very slow for people to change.

Made Paleo brownies, they smell SO good (and the batter tasted fantastic!) so now as soon as they cool I'll get to try them!!

In other fantastic news, The Other Half got a lateral promotion at work and no longer has to commute almost all the way to DC!!! His drive has been cut in half and he's getting home at about 5:30 in the evening instead of 6:15-6:30! Come January the office he is working out of will also be moving even closer, which means less time and less distance! This is going to alleviate about $15.00 in tolls per week, plus the reduced amount of gas he'll be burning! He is SO excited!! Its already freed up his time to get out and take walks in the evening, and has already lost a little weight, pointed out by our body worker.

Otherwise, things are rocking along. The wedding plans are going slow, but sort of progressing. We'll get there eventually I guess.

 

[Denim Deb]

That's great! Does he know where they'll be moving to?

 

[hqueen13]

Yes, the main office for their parent company is just south of the city, and they are moving his company's headquarters into the same building. He's very excited. Of course since they are moving they aren't fixing anything so he had to hunt to find a working phone for his desk!

 

[hqueen13]

Found a BROWN RECLUSE in the house among some tack that I was selling! AKK!!!!!! Brown recluse and ticks give me the heebiejeebies like NOTHING else. DISGUSTING! Then we found a tick on the dog the other day, too,

Saw 2 herons and a PAIR of BALD EAGLES this morning going through the reservoir!!! Not one but TWO Eagles! Sitting high up in the dead tree. I was so excited that I turned around to take a picture. It didn't really turn out well, though. I would post them but my phone is not cooperating with the computer right now. Pain in my rear end!

We are in the process of trying to sell quite a few things to get them OUT of the house, and get some space cleared out so that E has a little more room. Poor guy is shoved in the spare bedroom among all the other things that I have forever shoved into the spare bedroom and that's not a good scenario! I need to MOVE some of this stuff and get it OUT of the house. I'm in a clearing mood, and things have got to go. Not to mention that we could use as much CASH right now as possible. Too many bills and things that are knocking. We're so tight on the budget right now that its not funny. We'll survive, we always have, but something has to change in order for us to actually get somewhere. We'll never get out of here at this rate.

Otherwise, not much happening. Caught up with an old friend and met her knew partner last night. That was a blast, and it turns out that they are much closer than we thought, which is awesome. I suspect we'll be hanging out with them quite a bit more in the near future, which I wouldn't complain about.

Not much else happening, glad its the weekend.

 

[hqueen13]

Well, we've gotten quite a bit of prepper type stuff organized, and are moving along. We joined the Prepper Academy forum, which has been a nice resource to compliment this one. Though I think some of those people are sticks in the mud a bit... people here are much more entertaining. I guess the scope of this site is wider than that one. Ahh, well, it is what it is.
We've made some lists of things we would like to get, and so that has been helpful. And Christmas is coming, so that has been doubly helpful!
We've spent way too much money this Christmas so far but it has all been really useful stuff, so I am not too worried about it. We ended up buying a gun safe today (much needed to keep everything secure!), and scored a good deal on it buying it on black friday sale from Lowe's for $299 for a 14 gun safe, plus getting 5% cash back through ebates.com ordering it on Lowes.com with free in store pickup. I love working the deals! Now if only they'd let me out of this freaking office I could go pick it up!
Going to do some canning this weekend, that will add to what we've got stored up so that we can dump and heat to eat rather than giving in and ordering food.
Very excited to decorate this weekend too. My mom will be in town next week, so I want to have all of that prepared and done by then, plus the house cleaned up good.
Not much happening other than sitting around waiting for packages to arrive now...

 

[hqueen13]

Yup, I'm still alive under my rock... So it goes.
Life's been busy, but we've managed to put up a few things lately canning wise which has made me happy. Last weekend it was chili and beef stew. This weekend it will be marinara, and next weekend we're going to do a big run of chicken stock. Yay for canning it and not having 3 gallons of divided stock in my freezers! I just don't have enough room for that! We've stocked up on quite a few meats lately, so that is good. Now if I can get other things organized and a little more prepared on the food front that will be a good thing.
In other news our friend E moved in with us for a while since he doesn't have a job and has been working around the farm. He's been great to have around since he fixes EVERYTHING. We all get along well so even though the house is not large we're getting along pretty good. Having him in the house has made me work on making room for him, so I've cleaned out some things, which is always good!
He also managed to get the 1912 Singer working for me for Christmas! now I just need to learn to sew with the treadle! Anybody got any tips on working on that?? I do need to find new needles for it first though...
The horse has stood around in the field all winter. Our upcoming lessons for this weekend were cancelled on account of the pending weather. Fun fun... I'm kinda ok with this, though I really do need to get back to work again and get some riding done.
Work is annoying, and I'm looking for a new job, but what else is new. We are thinking that we're going to end up out of here by the end of the year, just due to a lot of factors converging at the same time. It will probably be good in the long run, but in the mean time its a bit rough.

 

[Denim Deb]

If it makes you feel any better, Misty has stood around in her field all winter too.

 

[hqueen13]

I just don't know how anybody does it... Its too freaking cold. I just can't get warm through winter. The sun is getting stronger, and that almost makes it worse, I just want it to be warm.
Of course, today is cloudy, 36 and WINDY, and I have to be there to hold the horses for the farrier. It would figure that would be the weather on the day it is my turn... After that, I'm going hiking with JC from the park to plan new trail routes, and then after that there is a guy coming from a nursery to look over our fields and areas and tell me what he thinks about planting trees and a rain garden for erosion control to submit a proposal for a park funded project. If I can get this to go through, it will be a huge help because we have some serious erosion problems that are going to cause bigger problems if they aren't addressed within a year. And then we have to feed the horses tonight... Fun stuff....
This weekend I'll be putting up another batch of chicken stock, and hopefully canning it to keep it out of the freezer, then I'll be pruning all the trees in preparation for spring. I did notice that I have Iris coming up as well as Daffodils. I guess that's a good thing. It just isn't warm enough yet though, and that is driving me nuts! I'm so ready for warmer weather, I think it will help my overall mood a lot once the weather improves. There is too much chaos in my life and winter is wearing on me. This definitely hasn't been an easy winter at all. Hopefully the rainbow on the other side will be worth it.