SSDreamin Blessings and curses

[SSDreamin]

We are checking on the Wilson signal booster. DH's phone can occasionally get one bar here, but mine gets zip. The booster is SUPPOSED to bump up signal by 20X. We'll see

Rest? What's that?!! DH is a slave driver - he is a workaholic, and expects that same from us. He is going to be very disappointed when he gets home and see's that while he was away, the mice did nothing but play (on the computer)

 

[bambi]

Sounds to me like you need to practice at looking busy, even tho this can be hard work as well

 

[SSDreamin]

DH went back to work, out of town, so I technically can now unpack and arrange things at my leisure. Unfortunately, guilt for being a bit of a slacker is beginning to get to me, and I've ramped up my efforts

Ice Cream adores her new pen! It's temporary, until we can get an OSB building up and pasture fenced, but it's huge compared to her old pen. She races around in it (it's L shaped, wrapping around the back of the house, with lots of southern exposure and shelter from the nasty north winds we get here). Everybody thought I was crazy, but I insisted it wrap around our bedroom. Now, every morning, I open my bedroom window, and reach out and pet my little girl first thing! She's always standing there, waiting.

DH and his Dad hauled 'the Cadillac of chicken coops' up last week. From what I here, it was quite the adventure and I'm very glad I didn't tag along. We went back down to do some cleaning and minor touch ups to the old house last weekend. I really don't miss that house one bit, but I miss the area and the people so much! I liked being out in the country, but only 10 minutes from everything I needed. Here, it's a half hour/45 minute drive to anything large, 20 minutes to semi-civilization. Yes, I have lived here before. I just got very spoiled by convenience

The well has been giving us fits. Every day, several times a day, I have to drag the steel plate off the pit, climb down in there, and mess with it. It was quite a bit of work, but DH got the drain problem fixed (sewage from the septic had backed up, completely blocking the tub drain. Guess the people thought they were on city sewer, and NEVER got the septic pumped. Nasty!) so I am happy to report we are not stinky! He also reworked the plumbing in my laundry area, giving me a great slop sink, plus putting the washer and dryer next to each other, instead of miles apart

On a very exciting note (at least for me), all three of us were in the huge kitchen, working on separate things, and there was room to spare! I have been trying to divide it into 'stations' - the making coffee, making lunch station, the doing dishes station, the food prep and cooking station, the dehydrating and food storage station, the baking station, and the 'do it over there so you are out of the way' station. Will be adding at least one more station (wheat grinding and maybe additional baking)once the island is built, plus the table fits in there nicely too and can double as work space! The room itself is 14 x 23, with cabinets and counters along two walls, so lots of space to work! My old kitchen had about 5 foot of counter space to do everything, so this is a fantastic improvement! A few missing drawers, no dishwasher (yet ), really needs a fresh coat of paint and the cabinets are in desperate need of refinishing, but they installed glass block as the backsplash along the 'short' back wall and the cabinets are solid wood, custom built, so that's really nice.

OK, back to work for me. No rest for the wicked, or a little rest and a lot of guilt?!

 

[SSDreamin]

OK, I admit it. My girls are spoiled rotten. DH finished up the outside pen to the coop, we let them out even though it was cold out and the next day I got 7 eggs from 9 ladies!! It was a new record for us! Of-course, DH refused to let them out yesterday, because it was raining all day (they aren't made of sugar, they won't melt ) and today I only got 3 eggs. Crazy, spoiled rotten chickens!

Yesterday was DS#2's birthday. DH got rained out, and surprised our son by coming home to spend the day with us. For some reason, DS#2 was acting very weird this year. He wanted to know EXACTLY when he was born, so he could set his alarm in order to be awake at the exact moment he turned 12. We had homemade pizza for his birthday dinner (I have always tried to do that for my boys - A home cooked dinner made by me seemed/seems to make them happier than dinner out) and we ate ice cream for dessert (the frozen concoction, not the cow ). On a down note, my Dad & stepmother chose to blow off my son, which really doesn't surprise me, but DH's parents promised our son they would come by and then never showed. DH is VERY upset. DS is pretending he could care less, but his feelings are obviously hurt. I just want to cry. Be hateful and thoughtless to me: I can take it. Don't be a jerk to my kid - it's not just hurtful, it's just plain wrong!

 

[Wannabefree]

Ugh grandparents can be such trolls sometimes :/ Sorry for your son to him. Tell him all of your friends on SS said HAPPY BIRTHDAY! DD got a kick out of a friend of mine on here sending her a card last year. She still has the card

 

[Denim Deb]

I can remember wanting to know exactly when I was born when I turned either 11 or 12, so he's not alone. Hope he had a good birthday, in spite of the jerks.

 

[SSDreamin]

Thanks for the hugs! I'll pass them along, even though I have become a giant cooty as of late Hubby sent him a card from were he works - it arrived today :/ So, he at least got a Larry The Cable Guy goofy card from his Dad, even if it's a day late I have a wonderful, thoughtful husband!!

 

[SSDreamin]

Today was birthday celebration day for DS. We went bowling (I gave up after 3 games and left them to fight it out for themselves. DS finally managed to mop the floor with his Dad the last game - crazy competitive guys! I was just proud that I broke 100 Hooray for bumpers! ) We then went to a pizza place for dinner (Ugh, pizza. Again? OK when you're a 12 yr old boy, not so much when you're a...slightly older person such as myself and hubby!) Then home for the grossest cake (Reeses PB concoction that was WAY too sweet). Thankfully, this occurs only once a year, so the sugar coma will hopefully be brief

We stopped by TSC on the way home. Picked up chicken feed, treats for Ice Cream, some mineral salt, a neat little plug that will operate our coop light by temperature, some EWWWWW carpet cleaner so I can try to clean up the nasty pet stains throughout this house and a few clearance items. Got a cast iron humidifier for on top of the woodstove, for $12 and an old fashioned popcorn popper with built in stirrer for $15. Could'nt leave without drooling over the ATV's (come on Santa, I've been a good girl! ) and browsing through all the great stuff this TSC has, compared to the one's down where we used to live. This area seems to be home to everything under the sun, and this TSC reflects that. Down south, it was mostly goats.

My ladies have been staying steady at 6 eggs a day since we started letting them back outside. On a related note, my MIL said my eggs were 'puny' and not very saleable. They're large eggs! She said she 'managed to unload them', so no more selling through her My Wyandotte's do lay medium eggs, so I never give her those (we keep those for us), but my buff's always lay large eggs. Guess I'll freeze some and, if need be, I'll feed some back to them.

Hubby built Ice Cream a hay feeder out of some fencing our old neighbor gave us. Works great - she figured it out no problem, and there's virtually no waste now! They don't know it yet, but I'm sending the old neighbor's a box of Christmas goodies, just because we've yet again realized how wonderful they were as neighbors!

Been trying to finish up shopping for Christmas. I have to brave the inlaws alone this coming Tuesday (they said they realized DH couldn't be there, but his sister will have to work on Christmas, so they felt she should be thought of first. Can't believe he actually sprang from that gene-pool!). They will be SOOOOO disappointed with our gifts, I can hardly wait! We decided to buy each child 2 gifts from the dollar store (there are 9 kids to buy for, which stinks considering we only have one ) and are giving each family a 'family gift'. After much discussion, and an absolute lack of effort by anyone in either of our families, we have decided to give an Emergency Preparedness Starter Kit- one for each family. I have been gathering all sorts of things to put in them, mostly on sale. We set a $50.00 limit, and I think I managed to cover a lot of bases for that amount. DS says they are the worst gifts in the world Next power outage, the recipients may not think so!

 

[Denim Deb]

Some things you get in the dollar store make great gifts! If I still had to buy presents for a ton of kids, I'd probably do a bunch of my shopping there. After all, you give a child a 500 piece puzzle, and those plastic glow sticks (the ones that you bend until the light up), and most kids are thrilled w/something like that. Or you can give jump ropes, a coloring book and crayons, markers, etc.

I know one of the best presents I got years ago was a radio that works by crank. Gave my hubby a shock one day when we had a power outage, and he came home to hear a radio on.

 

[SSDreamin]

I got some neat boomerrangs for the boys on my list - what could be more fun on Christmas than to go outside and get a few bruises and welts figuring out how to operate one of those! Man, should've bought an extra one for me