Daily Blogzone

Yesterday was my fun, Girl's day out. We had hoped to do it last week, to celebrate my return to health, but it couldn't happen. We manage to take off, mid morning minus any children. We had an early lunch at Cheddars, then off to hit the stores. Randa and I have both lost considerable weight in the last year, so new clothes are needed.

That and I was given a gorgeous silk handkerchief skirt, that I own nothing to go with. Since I have two casual weddings to attend this year, I was hoping to find something to go with the skirt, so I can wear it. Being that we are both frugal, we hit every Good Will and Re-Sale shop in Bryan College Station. We each spent about $15, and came home really happy. I have four new tops, including one to go with my skirt, and a pair of shoes. Randa got a pair of jeans and a really cute cordoroy mini skirt. But most importantly, we had a lot of fun.

I am finding that I can work at my old pace, for short periods. This allowed me to do all my chores before I left....

I know, I haven't been writing. It has been a few days of everything breaking and I had trouble finding anything positive to say. I don't like to write complaining, with nothing positive. But, it was nice to receive at least one email complaining that my blog wasn't up. So, I will be better about writing daily.

Yesterday started to be another disaster. I went to Madisonville to pick up my chain saw that had been in for service and to get Herb some supplies. While I was there, I discovered that I had picked up a screw in the sidewall of a rear tire. This is on my brand new truck, so I managed to destroy a brand new Michelin Tire. Ouch.

When we bought the truck, we had planned on taking it to Discount Tire and getting them to put their road hazard warranty on the tires. They will do this with new vehicles and we have done it before. Except that medical problems had interfered and I hadn't got over there yet. I had it on my schedule for Wednesday of this week.

I have to love that company. They honored my intentions, let me buy the...

Another wonderful morning, properly prepared for last night. I am going to make a habit of this. Since we use a percolator to make coffee, it takes a while anyway. And a hand grinder for the beans, so it normally takes a good half hour to get coffee. I like my coffee as soon as possible when I wake up, so setting it up the night before works well.

I did go out to work on the fence yesterday. I do believe the problem is with our charger. Unfortunately, I am not a good enough technician to get into fixing that. So, the fence waits for Garth. Hopefully he will be back tonight, so he can get it fixed tomorrow.

I need to do some baking today. In Conroe tomorrow, there is a food swap. People are getting together to swap various garden produce and food stuffs made under the new cottage food laws. While this is a ways away, the idea is that if we like it, we want to start a swap like this in Huntsville. I will be going with Randa and Linda, so we can check it out. And, it will be a fun, girls day...

Well, yesterday was a bust. By the time I was ready to go out and work, the skies had opened up and dumped on us. For hours it dumped. Flash floods were common in the area. So, the idea of working with electricity and a hot wire in that is, not common sense. Water is a good conductor and that fence can really hurt.

Slogging through the mud to do chores proved to me just how many stomach muscles you use when walking. Especially in rubber boots through water and mud. I did basic chores and quit. Common sense and not pushing too hard will get me strong faster than overdoing.

I was proud of myself. I did prepare for this morning well last night. I had the fire all set to go, just touch the lighter to the fire and it took off. The coffee was ground and the pot set up, ready to go. And my cereal was set to ferment, so it is ready as soon as I get off the computer. It is much easier to get up in a cold house, when everything is ready and the fire can heat the place quickly. One good...

I know it has been less than a month of recovery, but it has seemed like forever. Finally, after talking with the doctor yesterday, she lifted the restrictions on what I can do. That is, on the understanding that I am sensible and don't rush into picking up bags of concrete. But, I can work as I feel able, to push a little, to get my strength back. And, once I can sneeze without pain, I can ride my motorcycle again. Which should be about two or three weeks. This is much earlier than she first said, originally I didn't expect to get to ride again until April. Instead, weather cooperating, I will be back on my bike in March. I am happy.

Of course this meant that I spent what was a perfect day for working on the farm, sitting in stinky offices, getting inundated with perfume and other nasty chemicals so I came home tired and cranky, despite good news. While my oncologist does try, she can't control her patients or those who come with them. But a shower and a good meal and I felt much better.

So, this morning will be spent doing my own chores....

Yes, I know I skipped yesterday. It was cold, wet and nasty. I just huddled up to Big Bertha, our wood stove and tried to stay warm.

Sunday didn't see much done, but we did have an opportunity to do the full farm tour with Zach and Randa, whom have been helping us so much these last few weeks. Garth looked after the boys, taking them for a trekker ride, until they got too cold, then watching a movie with them. It was fun to watch, Garth was like an old dog, given a new kitten companion. He rediscovered his own youth, came fully awake and for a while, forgot about the oil field, being tired and how old he really is. A nice break for him.

Meanwhile, I got a chance to do the full tour, explaining what we are doing in various parts of the farm, and more important, why we have made the choices we have. This does take a while, and it is difficult to do with all the interruptions the boys make. As we work on each part of the project, we will teach them about it, but it is information over load for children...

Life is getting interesting. Our cows are still at the neighbors, thankfully, we have good neighbors that understand. We have several problems, none of which I can fix, which is frustrating. First, I am not sure of our hot wire, that needs to be checked. Then, there are the water lines that need repair or we need to lay out hundreds of feet of hose. Because, due to the wicked storms we have had, we can not continue our normal rotation of our cows to the front pastures. The pastures are covered with an exploded building. Mud pit season makes it impossible to get in there with a truck and trailer to pick it all up. And, I don't want dead cows from them eating on what is not food, but smells interesting.

We have today with Garth home, then he will be gone for another week and Randa and I will attempt to cope with the farm. Moving the cows home will take some work, but it will get done. Somehow.

Lady continues to not want me touching her. I was seriously hoping to work on the milk stanchion this weekend, but the Dexters decided they needed attention first....

Life on the farm has been real quiet during the day, it has to be as Garth is working nights. So, he comes home and sleeps all day, thus quiet must reign. This does make it difficult to get much done in the house. I love my open floor plan house, when we are both on the same schedule, but it does not work when one of us is working nights. Or sick and trying to sleep.

I know what today will bring, already. It started with a phone call at 10:30 last night. My Dexter cows went visiting. They are at my neighbors. They came home from a nice dinner out to find my cows in their driveway. After calling to make sure the cows are not mean, they herded them into their secure back pasture for the night. Once we figure out how they got out, and fix it, we will go and get them.

In the meantime, dishes, laundry and other noisy jobs must be done this morning before Garth comes home to sleep.

I am really looking forward to having the restrictions removed from my life, but still, it will be a fair while before I...

I spent most of yesterday in the kitchen with Randa. On Monday, we pulled a bag of neck and back bones from my freezer, and put them into a pot to thaw. Once they were thawed enough to break apart, I added water until the pot was full. We were using a 20 quart stock pot. Then, I set it to simmer. On Wednesday, I added whole carrots, an onion chopped in have and some celery, then let it continue simmering until 4 AM on Thursday. Randa arrived at 9AM, and we began the final work of getting the broth into the jars. First we pulled out as many bones as we could with tongs. Then, we strained the remainder through a colander, into another large stock pot. This was set aside, in a cool spot, to allow the tallow to rise to the top, so we could skim it. While some tallow in the broth is good, too much makes for greasy food. This was 100% grass fed beef, so the tallow is good for you, but still, I don't like to eat greasy food.

Then Randa got the yuckky job of finding the edible meat among the mess...

Yesterday morning started with a little zest. I love my email in the morning, especially when I am feeling blah, or tired and sore from the day before. It seems like on the mornings I really need it, something special comes in. This time, it was Nextworld TV, and a show on building with soda pop bottles. http://www.nextworldtv.com/page/6360.html What fascinated me was the water catchments, built with pop bottles. But the web site they show at the of the clip is in Spanish. So I spent a lot of the morning looking for more information on this type of building. If you want to do a greenhouse with soda bottles, there is a lot of information out there, including some pretty good directions. But for actually building, it is far more difficult to find. I will be continuing my research, as this looks to be the best option I have seen yet.

Lady Leche got miffed with Buttercup for trying to suckle, and jumped a fence. I left her out while I went to town and when I went out in the evening to give her more ACV, I put her back in. This time she stood quietly and let...