Catching up....

March 15, 2016

Maybe.
I'm kinda aimless today.
The last 3 days I've had hard deadlines to meet with work, things that had to be done that day.  My next job isn't due till Sunday, so there's only a little pressure there.
Of course, I've got a ton of things to do here, at home.  But, the motivation has not crept upon me yet.
So I'm sitting here wasting time on the internet....
And thinking....
It's spring in the middle of the U.S.  Yesterday was 80 degrees.  There's a possibility of snow on Saturday.  So things are still a bit in limbo.  Not in too much of a hurry to plant stuff.  But I'm thinking next week is a good time for planting the cold weather stuff.  It's time to think about pulling out the duck pools.  All the little song birds are back already, so I don't think we've got much more winter left this year...

That was yesterday,

March 16, 2016.

It continued to be a rather aimless day.  I got some stuff done around the house.  But I wasn't focused on anything in particular and time kept catching me up.  The effort was rather scattered.  I got organic material, AKA leaves and old clippings from the yard, into a couple of the onion planters.  I'm waiting till next week to do any planting.  I got some of the laundry done.  I thoroughly cleaned one corner of my room.  I cleaned the window and wiped down the shade, wiped down the wood work and everything.  I built a cat barrier for the top of the bookcases.

Those cubes are about 17 years old.  Steve and I bought them back in the early 90s at Sam's.  We figured they'd be a good option on a limited budget.
We figured right.  These things were some of the best money we ever spent.  They've been used inside and outside as shelves, tables, planters, and barricades.
Which is the present purpose.  I need something to keep Giles:

 Off the top of the bookshelves.  When I moved the room around he discovered that he could jump from the dresser to the top of the bookshelves.  Since I use that space, he was becoming an annoyance.  We're waiting to see if this keeps him down.  Waiting to see how long it survives.
Could all be on the floor tomorrow...



I wiped down the washer & dryer, and cleaned all the gunk out of the bleach thingy.  I uploaded a post, took some pictures, figured a work around for the graphics.....
And wasted time.

So far today, I've finished cleaning out the garden, moved a corner shelf from the out building, cleaned it up, and put it in the pantry for the big pots and pans, and finished another load of laundry.
And now it's later...
I went and did the one job I had outstanding.  That was about four hours out of the day.  The next few jobs don't open till Sunday.  Next week will be busier than this week.  I've gotten a few things done  I've got a couple of planters for onions started.  It's been a little windy the last few days so they're sitting out on the table waiting for dirt.  The weekend is not looking good for outdoor pursuits, so they'll sit there till next week.  I cleaned out the window box in the garden.  It needs more dirt too.  We're getting things prepped for the season.  Kathy started cleaning the garden out, I finished that this morning.  Her Pop came out and got the old tiller started.  So we're ahead of where we were this time last year.
The current roster of inmates is:

5 people

5 dogs

4 horses

I'm too tired to try to figure out how many cats

or chickens

3 ducks

2 rabbits

1 turkey

1 pea hen

1 rat

I think that's everybody.

This is, of course, subject to change.  Every other weekend the human count goes up to 6.  One of the reason I'm not even attempting to figure out how many chickens there are, is, we've got new ones upstairs.  There will probably be more.  We are planning on getting some turkeys...

March 23, 2016

It's been an odd week....

Who says holding a treat with the camera works?  Not with our pack.  I'd hold the treat up, they'd all settle and then, just as the camera was going off, Juno moved, then Luna lost focus, Perdy tried to grab the treat, Doeman wandered off...
Dusty was the only one who stayed where she was through the whole thing.
They're lucky they all still have a happy home.
Couple weeks back I was in the kitchen one night, washing grapes, and I hear...

Perdy

Perdy- The Great Dane

And Juno- The little, brown Bullshit....

Juno

She really is a Bullshit. Part Pitbull, part Shih tuz.
She and Perdy have a thing.  They get along really well.

But, on occasion, they have had some serious discussions on the concept of personal boundaries.
They started one while I was washing grapes.
I yelled at them and scrambled to shut off  the water, grabbed a towel, yelled at them again as I headed towards the living room.  I rounded the corner of the counter and heard a thud, and then silence.  Got to the living room, and the only dog in sight was...

Doeman

Doeman laying in the bedroom doorway wagging his tail, where he'd been the entire time, I'm sure.  He's too lazy to start, or participate in, any malarkey.
The room was in what we call theater lighting.
Long ago, Steve and I discovered that a few strings of colored Christmas tree lights are perfect for watching TV at night.  They give you enough light to see what yer doing without the glare of room lights.
So it was kinda of dim and it took me a second to see the big screen TV face down on the carpet.
Dam Dogs.
Everybody, But Doeman, was cowering in the bedroom.  I could tell by the degree of head hang and the velocity of tail wagging exactly who had been involved in the incident.
Dusty...

Dusty

 

Was in her usual place on the bed.  Head up, tail still.

Luna

 

Luna had her tail between her legs, but she met me at the door her head was down, but not hanging.













 Perdy was trying to hide behind the bed, head hanging low and the tail wagging a mile a minute.  Juno had opted to go sit in the cage.
Which was a good choice at that moment.  Lucky for the two of them, the big screen is fine.
That's the first time, and probably the last, that I've been thankful we have the ill-fated light blue carpet, and not hardwood floors.

I worked today.  So I've been out and back.

Things are kinda rough right now here at HappyDale.  We lost Enos the turkey on Monday.  He ate something that really didn't agree.  He's buried under a straw bale out behind the garden.  He was a good boy, not too territorial.  He'd posture and puff his feathers, but that was as aggressive as he got.  I think he thought my car was some sort of mutant turkey.  If he was out when I left he'd chase my car.  We had hopes of breeding him, but it just wasn't meant to be.
The rest of the birds seem to be doing pretty well.
They were out enjoying the weather the other day.

Egg production is way up.  Which is a good thing.
We're facing the end of winter squeeze of big heating bills and the fall out of my slowdown at work.  Money's tight and things are a bit unsettled right now.  We're hanging in there.  We've got a start on the garden,  We've got a batch of new chicks.  The weather is getting warmer.  I've thoroughly cleaned a bit more of my room.  The cat barrier is still on top of the bookshelves.
And the daffodils bloomed really nicely this year.  So, it's not all bad.