Thursday, January 15, 2015

A week...


I'm running a wee bit behind in life again. See that little black critter? Last week she told me it was time. She is 17 years old or older. She was starting to become miserable. It was time. So I wrapped a towel around her and glued her to me and that is where she was for about 3 days. I would put her down to make dinner or do this or that, but mostly she was glued to me. After the third day she closed her eyes and stopped breathing and she was gone. 

The day before we had finally picked a spot to bury her. So she was buried. And it's been tough. She has been such a part of my life for many, many years, and during the last few, you take care of her every need and then she was just gone. 

Just weird to have her gone. 

So I'm behind. I find myself looking for her. I keep finding mess after mess she left. So a lot of cleaning up that needs to be done. 

And then yesterday our lives kinda blow up. Neighbor came over, and she wants a list of projects done and she is unwilling to wait any longer. Hubby apparently said he would do the projects, but wanted to wait more towards spring. Because it's freakin cold outside. She wants this and this and that, and OH BOY. BUT talked her down and said one project at a time. So that was agreed on. First up is the front deck. So hubby today drew it out, and got prices and gave her a quote. She was OK with the price, and the project will start. So hubby has a part time job. Which is great, because we need tires!

Get that done and have her pick the next project. She has a list a mile long. 

The boys and I have been putting sets of legos back together. Going through books picking something and hunting for legos and putting them back together. I have many sets half done because we are missing pieces, so we move on and hope we come across that part. It's a nightmare, but we are making progress. 

Last week I was able to get the shelving unit from Costco. With Costco the fear is they will run out of something before you can buy it. So I rushed to save the money and we had enough last week. Oh the crazy time we had trying to bring it home. Let's just say we seriously considered tying a child to the roof of the van. We didn't but we came close. I'll have photos soon. Today I have been cleaning up the bedroom to make room for this thing. It's now all clear, now to bring it in and set it all up. I'm excited to have all my starts in one place.

And then there is tomorrow. Tomorrow is Tucker's birthday. So I'm off to bake a cake in a few. He demanded a cake. He all ready has his gifts. But he hasn't been able to play with them yet. Although time after time, I would catch him in my room on the bed just looking at them. 

And Monday, oh Monday. We will attempt Cole in fourth grade math. I think he can do it, but if he struggles we will head back to third grade math. But he has a math brain like his bother and mom. I actually think not too far down the road Cole will be passing Tucker in math. Oh why couldn't Tucker get a math brain as well?

 

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Oh Please Let This Be A Good Year!

Oh please let 2015 be much better then 2014. Although I can't complain too much about 2014, no real major crisis. But the garden kicked my butt, and a few other things, really dragged me down. 

This week has lead to me tossing all the left over squash, I give up. I started to plan the garden for next year. Next thing to do is write out start dates of seeds. I know first up are tomatoes and onions. I'm trying to plant the rest of the garlic, but we've been frozen for the past week. Checked it today and I can move the dirt about an inch, not enough to plant yet.


Buddy survived Christmas.


I got busy in the kitchen last night. We've been without an all purpose seasoning for many months now. My basic mix is about 1 cup of onion powder, 1 cup of garlic powder, and then toss in everything else as you wish. From dried herbs, to carrots, tomatoes, orange peel, to kale. Although I never add salt. I add salt as the dish needs it, and normally I don't salt as I cook we salt at the table.


I made a mess and there was no one to clean up after me? I really didn't plan that too well.


Holy Garlic Batman! This is elephant garlic, I have about 52 cloves I'm trying to get into the ground. This is the year we are trying hard to change all garlic over to heirloom types and toss out the store bought garlic. Photos to come!

So it's the first of the year. Time that people make goals and such. We make money goals, we actually made them about a month ago. So this week we started to put those goals into play. 

On the side bar of the blog I actually wrote down some of our goals. Some are small, but will take many weeks for us to buy/do. As we save a little each week until we can make the purchase.
 

Our first goal is to get a new shelving unit for starting starts. Last year was a mess! I had tables up and the hallway blocked and peeing at 3am when you have a few inches to move is not fun! Plus a cat got up there to sleep and killed two flats of tomatoes that were going good. We can put the shelving unit in our room and be able to shut the door, so no one can bug anything! After that probably lights for the shelving unit. Although I have two from last year, so only need two more. And might not even need those because I will be starting seeds at different times, not starting everything at the same time. But it would be nice to have on hand. Then the tires for the truck, we are nearly there, but it's time to get them off the list. 

A few things on the list will be conquered when we get our tax return. Like the two gates and the back deck. Our side gate has fallen, it was leaning and we propped it up for now, but our dog has broken through it once. Plus it's to the point you can't open the gate. The goat gate broke many months ago, it's so bad, not only do we lock it, but we tie it up. As the goats know how to open it and let themselves out. BUT they don't know how to untie yet. And the deck has big holes in it. It's way past time. Just a matter of time before we fall through it. Hubby will have to take off a week here and there to work on these projects. So need to figure that out shortly.