Vaccinating baby calves before they are turned out to pasture with their mothers...but they are not so baby-ish any more..little fuckers...and I have the bruises to prove it, three to be precise..
I wonder why, as a person who has very obvious allergies to cattle dander, am still working up close and personal with CATTLE. After just four hours in the barn walking the calves into the maternity pen and then catching them in the head gate and holding the syringes for Robert and then turning the calf loose again, I had a gravelly, scratchy throat all night, flemmy, itchy, puffy eyes...and this morning the eyes were so swollen I had trouble seeing...and t he throat is still flemmy and my voice is gravelly like a 70 yr old smokey bar maids.... and today is round 2 of vaccination day, yup, we are officially old people now, we have to do our herd in groups, as we don't have the energy or move fast enough anymore to manage the whole herd in one day like we used to do... so I will be in the barn again working a larger group of calves today. But, when it is done, we will be able to move them all out to the pasture fields and I won't, if there is a GOD after all, have to see their ugly butts until fall. That gives me a couple of months holiday...before it all starts again...
As a Gemini, and an artsy kind of person, I am cursed with a huge imagination, and a some what limited ability to put what I imagine and dream up into a physical form. Meaning, I think to bloody much and make more work for myself....I have all these great thoughts about projects I would like to do around the yard and then torture myself by not being able to do them.. I should just stop dreaming them up...but it would be easier to just stop breathing.
My latest project, which is in the planning stages still, is a small decorative shed built to look like a tall narrow victorian house, that will camouflage my water hydrant in the front yard...currently I have a bent willow fence there but it is getting ratty and rather than beautifiing the yard is detracting from it. besides I am itching to build something. I have all the materials salvaged from other projects so it is just to make the time...but I have to prioritize...so it will have to wait until after the garden is seeded.
Robert worked the garden up for me the other day but it rained for two days afterwards and is still drizzling everyday since. but soon...stuff in the greenhouse is growing crazily....and it is time to put it all outside...but I think it might freeze once the sky clears so I will wait.
Less than a week to go to my big doc. appointment...the one in which I am going to grow a back bone and speak my mind....hahahaha we shall see.
wish me luck.
Splendor
May 26, 2011
May 17, 2011
Bitter Sweet
I am sorry for the sporadic writing but spring is here and I once I go outside I have a hard time tearing myself away to come back inside. I could be outside for all the hours it is light out, if I didn't get hungry.
I might have mentioned before that I am simplifying my landscaping, since I am not able to do the work anymore...ironically I am expending huge effort to do the very hard work of taking down arbours and pulling up posts, rolling boulders around and digging up dead trees and planting new ones. I have had to have some small amount of help from Robert but so far have done most of it myself...foolishly...
The day I planned to incorporate a half assed rose bed into an existing raised bed by pulling the half dead rose bushes out with a chain and my 4x4 ATV. I am still picking fine little thorns out of my left forearm. hahaha some of them have festered.
Once I had the bushes out, the crappy arbour down and a huge chunk of rhubarb moved to another location I dug a trench, rolled some boulders into it and then mixed 3 bags of ready cement and with latex gloves on hand placed the somewhat dry cement mixture into the crevices...mortaring smaller rocks into the gaps...it turned out quite nice I must say and if I had a camera I could actually figure out, I would take a picture. For now you will just have to take my word for it.
I planted a golden dogwood, ground covering juniper and ringed the entire bed with miniature day lilies. It looks quite nice...of course that was just the first phase of that project because not two feet away is the rest of the bed which was originally a terraced bed with three levels. The old timbers we used to create the levels have rotted and a colony of red ants have moved in and make life a misery anytime I have to work down there...I am allergic to their bite and get a bad case of hives almost immediately upon being bitten. So I am determined to removed those rotten timbers, and hopefully the ants along with them. Destined to a far off brush pile where they can live in peace and so can I. Black ants are one thing but red ants quite another, if you piss them off they bite back.
I had a bit of a break down yesterday afternoon, while I was raking up and shovelling back the dirt and mulch mixture the dogs so kindly kicked out across the sidewalk and lawn after they dug themselves a pair of nice cosy nests the night before smack in the middle of my newest bed by the front door. Robert called it a moment of senility on their part because they haven't done that sort of thing for years not since getting their ass kicked as pups for digging where they shouldn't. Dirt was spewed every where, and when I saw it and gasped, turned slowly looking at them with accusing eyes..they both hung their heads in guilt. So they know, oh they know they did wrong. I didn't realize Robert was behind me, so I was muttering to myself and God in general, while I scraped the loamy black dirt off the sidewalk, that, is it too much to ask, I said, that I could have just one thing in my life that's pretty and lovely. I don't want expensive trips to Ireland, or jewellery or sports cars, I just want for once in my bloody life to plant something and have it actually grow to maturity without being burned by grass fires, sprayed with chemicals, eaten by bloody deer or dug up by god damned fat ass self gratifying dogs. I mean, honestly, it seems like I have spent my whole adult life planting things and digging them up because they either died, they were in the way of something to do with the farm, or his parents didn't like them there, or they got insects on them or the damned dogs dug them up and exposed the root all weekend while we were gone..etc...etc...etc...
I actually had that happen once about ten years ago...this house we are in now was just finished and I wanted to put my yard back together. Everything from the first house was planted about 50 feet in front of this one and down a hill. It all had to be moved up to where this house was and I wanted to have a bed in front of this house with a feature tree. I bought a very expensive red oak tree to be that feature tree and planted it with some lovely low growing shrubs around it. it looked quite lovely, and those of you who have seen my front yard are probably scratching your heads thinking you must be losing it, because you don't remember seeing a bed in front of the house...that's because it was only there for one year...
It turned out to be the dogs favorite place to lay, shaded in the hot afternoons, with a good view of the whole farm...a dogs dream...
We had a family party in the City at Roberts brothers house and were taking the parents with us...we left Saturday morning and were back Sunday night but it wasn't until early Monday morning while returning to bed after a trip to the Lou that I noticed the destruction. I actually had to take two steps back after passing by the bedroom window because I thought I was seeing things.
The small fence that had surrounded the bed was just a tangled wire mess off to the side of the crater, that's the best word to describe what was there in place of the dozen or so shrubs and my 150.oo Oak tree. A huge hole was in the centre with mounds of dirt strewn everywhere on the lawn, spirea, dogwood and hostas, lay with withered, moisture starved leafs wilted beyond rejuvenation. Some where totally above ground, sacrificed for the perfect spot to lay, others were half buried by the dirt but the root balls disturbed by the digging. The Oak, oh my beautiful Oak tree, a tree I planted thinking that 100 years from now, who ever lived here would appreciate its regal beauty, lay like a leafless corpse out on the grass, with only a few clumps of determined dirt clinging to its many roots. Some of the few branches it had had been chewed off or broken when the dogs drug it out of their way. The leaves which had been just emerging were wilted. We weren't sure how long the plants had layed exposed to the sun, but the dirt that had been disturbed was dry and we were never sure which dog was the culprit, since when we arrived home they both ran to greet us...but I have my suspicions and it has festered all these years...until yesterday when it bubble to the surface with a lot of other frustrated gardening failures, resulting in a bit of a tantrum / rant.... there was no physical abuse but plenty of shouting and fist shaking and finger pointing... and the dogs looked sheepishly contrite, with their hound dog expressions and bowed heads...so I spent the rest of the afternoon between swats at mosquito's erecting an ugly, hillbilly looking little fence around the new bed they had dug in just the other day I ran out of the little wire fencing and had to use this ugly white plastic snow fence....last night they looked quite forlorn, that they were not able to access that nice soft dirt any longer...hah....fixed them... but that only means for the time being until they die or I get sick of looking at the ugly fence.
The fire in Slave Lake is a terrible tragedy...we had a grass fire not far from us last week, while the winds weren't quite as horrific then, it was still a frightening thing to see, the smoke and flames moved so fast...
A neighbour with a brush pile burning all winter, thought it had gone out on it;'s own and when the wind whipped up so did the fire and burned both his quarters of land that of a two close neighbours, a couple of grain bins were lost and he lost a garage...but it was just a mile away when they got it out...helicopters and fire trucks...it was quite the endeavour and on a much smaller scale than Slave Lake. but had they not stopped it the wind was blowing it our way................ Luckily we were home and Robert started the CAT, to make sure he had it going in case he needed to make a fire guard. which , given the year I think would be a good idea anyway...
We went from having snow on the ground four weeks ago to being so dry it is ridiculous. This wind is incredible...80 km/hour with gust to 100 km.
Branches have broken off the trees in the yard and they barely have leaves on them yet.
We ate our first picking of asparagus yesterday and it was delicious...looking forward to a long season of that.hmmmmmm
gotta go make lunch... have a great day...and again...sorry for the time between posts...it's a busy time of year for me, so they will not happen as frequently as they do in the winter..but keep looking...I am sure to have some interesting stories to share.
I might have mentioned before that I am simplifying my landscaping, since I am not able to do the work anymore...ironically I am expending huge effort to do the very hard work of taking down arbours and pulling up posts, rolling boulders around and digging up dead trees and planting new ones. I have had to have some small amount of help from Robert but so far have done most of it myself...foolishly...
The day I planned to incorporate a half assed rose bed into an existing raised bed by pulling the half dead rose bushes out with a chain and my 4x4 ATV. I am still picking fine little thorns out of my left forearm. hahaha some of them have festered.
Once I had the bushes out, the crappy arbour down and a huge chunk of rhubarb moved to another location I dug a trench, rolled some boulders into it and then mixed 3 bags of ready cement and with latex gloves on hand placed the somewhat dry cement mixture into the crevices...mortaring smaller rocks into the gaps...it turned out quite nice I must say and if I had a camera I could actually figure out, I would take a picture. For now you will just have to take my word for it.
I planted a golden dogwood, ground covering juniper and ringed the entire bed with miniature day lilies. It looks quite nice...of course that was just the first phase of that project because not two feet away is the rest of the bed which was originally a terraced bed with three levels. The old timbers we used to create the levels have rotted and a colony of red ants have moved in and make life a misery anytime I have to work down there...I am allergic to their bite and get a bad case of hives almost immediately upon being bitten. So I am determined to removed those rotten timbers, and hopefully the ants along with them. Destined to a far off brush pile where they can live in peace and so can I. Black ants are one thing but red ants quite another, if you piss them off they bite back.
I had a bit of a break down yesterday afternoon, while I was raking up and shovelling back the dirt and mulch mixture the dogs so kindly kicked out across the sidewalk and lawn after they dug themselves a pair of nice cosy nests the night before smack in the middle of my newest bed by the front door. Robert called it a moment of senility on their part because they haven't done that sort of thing for years not since getting their ass kicked as pups for digging where they shouldn't. Dirt was spewed every where, and when I saw it and gasped, turned slowly looking at them with accusing eyes..they both hung their heads in guilt. So they know, oh they know they did wrong. I didn't realize Robert was behind me, so I was muttering to myself and God in general, while I scraped the loamy black dirt off the sidewalk, that, is it too much to ask, I said, that I could have just one thing in my life that's pretty and lovely. I don't want expensive trips to Ireland, or jewellery or sports cars, I just want for once in my bloody life to plant something and have it actually grow to maturity without being burned by grass fires, sprayed with chemicals, eaten by bloody deer or dug up by god damned fat ass self gratifying dogs. I mean, honestly, it seems like I have spent my whole adult life planting things and digging them up because they either died, they were in the way of something to do with the farm, or his parents didn't like them there, or they got insects on them or the damned dogs dug them up and exposed the root all weekend while we were gone..etc...etc...etc...
I actually had that happen once about ten years ago...this house we are in now was just finished and I wanted to put my yard back together. Everything from the first house was planted about 50 feet in front of this one and down a hill. It all had to be moved up to where this house was and I wanted to have a bed in front of this house with a feature tree. I bought a very expensive red oak tree to be that feature tree and planted it with some lovely low growing shrubs around it. it looked quite lovely, and those of you who have seen my front yard are probably scratching your heads thinking you must be losing it, because you don't remember seeing a bed in front of the house...that's because it was only there for one year...
It turned out to be the dogs favorite place to lay, shaded in the hot afternoons, with a good view of the whole farm...a dogs dream...
We had a family party in the City at Roberts brothers house and were taking the parents with us...we left Saturday morning and were back Sunday night but it wasn't until early Monday morning while returning to bed after a trip to the Lou that I noticed the destruction. I actually had to take two steps back after passing by the bedroom window because I thought I was seeing things.
The small fence that had surrounded the bed was just a tangled wire mess off to the side of the crater, that's the best word to describe what was there in place of the dozen or so shrubs and my 150.oo Oak tree. A huge hole was in the centre with mounds of dirt strewn everywhere on the lawn, spirea, dogwood and hostas, lay with withered, moisture starved leafs wilted beyond rejuvenation. Some where totally above ground, sacrificed for the perfect spot to lay, others were half buried by the dirt but the root balls disturbed by the digging. The Oak, oh my beautiful Oak tree, a tree I planted thinking that 100 years from now, who ever lived here would appreciate its regal beauty, lay like a leafless corpse out on the grass, with only a few clumps of determined dirt clinging to its many roots. Some of the few branches it had had been chewed off or broken when the dogs drug it out of their way. The leaves which had been just emerging were wilted. We weren't sure how long the plants had layed exposed to the sun, but the dirt that had been disturbed was dry and we were never sure which dog was the culprit, since when we arrived home they both ran to greet us...but I have my suspicions and it has festered all these years...until yesterday when it bubble to the surface with a lot of other frustrated gardening failures, resulting in a bit of a tantrum / rant.... there was no physical abuse but plenty of shouting and fist shaking and finger pointing... and the dogs looked sheepishly contrite, with their hound dog expressions and bowed heads...so I spent the rest of the afternoon between swats at mosquito's erecting an ugly, hillbilly looking little fence around the new bed they had dug in just the other day I ran out of the little wire fencing and had to use this ugly white plastic snow fence....last night they looked quite forlorn, that they were not able to access that nice soft dirt any longer...hah....fixed them... but that only means for the time being until they die or I get sick of looking at the ugly fence.
The fire in Slave Lake is a terrible tragedy...we had a grass fire not far from us last week, while the winds weren't quite as horrific then, it was still a frightening thing to see, the smoke and flames moved so fast...
A neighbour with a brush pile burning all winter, thought it had gone out on it;'s own and when the wind whipped up so did the fire and burned both his quarters of land that of a two close neighbours, a couple of grain bins were lost and he lost a garage...but it was just a mile away when they got it out...helicopters and fire trucks...it was quite the endeavour and on a much smaller scale than Slave Lake. but had they not stopped it the wind was blowing it our way................ Luckily we were home and Robert started the CAT, to make sure he had it going in case he needed to make a fire guard. which , given the year I think would be a good idea anyway...
We went from having snow on the ground four weeks ago to being so dry it is ridiculous. This wind is incredible...80 km/hour with gust to 100 km.
Branches have broken off the trees in the yard and they barely have leaves on them yet.
We ate our first picking of asparagus yesterday and it was delicious...looking forward to a long season of that.hmmmmmm
gotta go make lunch... have a great day...and again...sorry for the time between posts...it's a busy time of year for me, so they will not happen as frequently as they do in the winter..but keep looking...I am sure to have some interesting stories to share.
May 11, 2011
Apologies
I know I have no business blogging when I am in such a foul mood....so I apologize for my bad language at least.
Things are imploding here, it seems, each day brings something else crashing down around us.
I am, of course, totally over reacting. Blowing things out of proportion, like people who can't handle stress, tend to do...
But from where I stand, this shit seems serious enough to me...and I am sorry, but for privacy sake I can not divulge the worst of it. But I can tell you this;
The farm is about a month and a half behind thanks to our long lingering winter season...the snow is all gone now, the pot holes are full of water and the leaf buds are swollen and on the verge of bursting forth the fresh young greenness of spring leaves. My lawn needs to be mowed and I have no ambition.
For those of you who have often thought that my yard is way to elaborate, I give you permission to now, collectively, to say " I TOLD YOU SO", I am struggling this year to get all the spring yard work done. Actually I don't really want to do it...but after an intense 40 minutes on the treadmill and 60 sit ups I force my tortured, aching body out side to get even one thing accomplished for the day. Robert says I am pushing my self too hard. I know I am, but am determined to carry on like there was nothing the matter with me, since that is what they say at this point... I have a big doctors appointment at the end of the month...but I am not holding much hope that anything will be resolved...so it's just me, still in limbo....no body doing a think because they don't know what to do....still hobbling around on my screwed up ankle. fine on level ground with good shoes on but on uneven ground my ankle wants to turn outwards, badly, which is very painful.
Anyway, the most upsetting thing happened the other day, a phone call, that in the matter of a few minutes, sent my heart racing and my mind spinning. I can't tell you what it was, but even though rationally I have nothing to worry about, there is still that feeling of panic...kinda like when the cops pull you over even though you know you weren't doing anything wrong...that feeling....so we shall see where it all leads...since I have four weeks to stew about it before the crunch.hahahaha sounds cryptic doesn't it... well let's just say it is something all of us would dread happening, and leave it at that.
In my son's defense...I did receive a Mothers Day card today...in the mail...and a birthday card a few weeks early...both of them just signed, no message...but since he only lives a half hour away it is still a bit hurt full that that is the best he can do...well, there is nobody to blame but myself and his father since we raised him...by the way, his father was just as lame about birthdays, mothers day and Christmas as he is...at least about the gift and appreciation part, the partying part, well, it never took much of a holiday as an excuse to throw a party in which I cooked and he drank....
Things in the greenhouse are growing nicely, my tomato plants are about six inches now with lots of dark green branches on them and the cabbage plants are up and growing...my flowers are doing great..I planted a lot of them in the big planters I moved in there with the furniture mover...and they are blowing and cascading over the edge of the pots already..I am loath to put them outside where the ferocious wind and hail and other weather related tests will try their best to destroy them... Most of my shrubs and perennials have survived the winter, that is one good thing about five feet of snow...it is great ground cover and things are protected from the -40 temps by the snow...so everything should bloom this spring...even the bulbs I reluctantly planted last fall are coming up so na,na,na, na-na to you to squirrel...I outsmarted you this time...usually the beggars dig up the bulbs and eat them...so I grew daffodils (which are poisonous, the bulbs ) and paper whites and other stuff...and the beggar didn't dig them up, maybe the cedar mulch I layed in the beds helped confuse him...he couldn't smell them...although I did consider planting them in the dead of night with only a flashlight to light my way so that the squirrel didn't see where I was planting them.
I hadn't grown bulbs for quite a few years..but Robert talked me into trying again. and I agreed only under the condition that it be narcissus and daffodils and such...that I knew they wouldn't eat. Tulips were out of the equation... as were gladiolas since our yard is way to windy for tall flowers...they always break off in the bad winds and makes me sad...
When we go to a nursery or greenhouse to buy shrubs and perennials...I am usually asked what I already grow and that does well, and my reply is always the same...zone 2 or less...is all that will grow in our yard... so that's Siberia and the Arctic...hahahahhaha But that offers a surprising number of shrubs,
Cranberry, Dogwood, Junipers, evergreens, Spireas and more .
So my yard is slowly morphing into a low maintenance one, the shrub beds already are 8 inches deep in cedar mulch, which will cut down on the need to weed. Most are planted with trouble free shrubs and perennials that need little work, the new beds will become that way over the next couple of years...some of the old trashy arbours are being disassembled and the timbers used for other projects..even the big one lining the front sidewalk has turned out to be a disappointment to us and will be coming down this spring and moved to some remote corner of the yard... I have become completely disgusted with solar lighting...you pay an arm and a leg for the damned things and they never last long or don't work at all...I found five out of a set of eight I bought last spring, broken this spring when the snow melted...I suspect Roberts somewhat vigorous snow shovelling to be the cause but am not about to complain since that is the first snow he has shovelled in years, but apparently the plastic shaft the lights sat on is not that durable at -30 temps.. hahahaha
I am probably going to jinx myself by saying this out loud...but so far we haven't heard our little toad friend in the pond this spring...all the other frogs in the sloughs and ditches are croaking like mad....I am hoping he shows up...
Oh I know, I complain about the serenading all through the night right outside my bedroom window...but the slug control alone makes it all worth while...
Well, I should mosey along and get my spaghetti sauce started...spaghetti, salad and garlic bread sticks for supper tonight. Robert had started working in the field now so is not often in the house long..so I have to have it ready when he comes in or he leaves again, and your guess is as good as mine as to when he will be back...even dark isn't a guarantee of his coming in...he plowed until midnight yesterday...
Lots of Birthdays this month in the family....Maggie, today, Sue tomorrow Mine and Bob's at the end of the month and then Fern's and Kim's in early June. Happy Birthday to all of us...
Things are imploding here, it seems, each day brings something else crashing down around us.
I am, of course, totally over reacting. Blowing things out of proportion, like people who can't handle stress, tend to do...
But from where I stand, this shit seems serious enough to me...and I am sorry, but for privacy sake I can not divulge the worst of it. But I can tell you this;
The farm is about a month and a half behind thanks to our long lingering winter season...the snow is all gone now, the pot holes are full of water and the leaf buds are swollen and on the verge of bursting forth the fresh young greenness of spring leaves. My lawn needs to be mowed and I have no ambition.
For those of you who have often thought that my yard is way to elaborate, I give you permission to now, collectively, to say " I TOLD YOU SO", I am struggling this year to get all the spring yard work done. Actually I don't really want to do it...but after an intense 40 minutes on the treadmill and 60 sit ups I force my tortured, aching body out side to get even one thing accomplished for the day. Robert says I am pushing my self too hard. I know I am, but am determined to carry on like there was nothing the matter with me, since that is what they say at this point... I have a big doctors appointment at the end of the month...but I am not holding much hope that anything will be resolved...so it's just me, still in limbo....no body doing a think because they don't know what to do....still hobbling around on my screwed up ankle. fine on level ground with good shoes on but on uneven ground my ankle wants to turn outwards, badly, which is very painful.
Anyway, the most upsetting thing happened the other day, a phone call, that in the matter of a few minutes, sent my heart racing and my mind spinning. I can't tell you what it was, but even though rationally I have nothing to worry about, there is still that feeling of panic...kinda like when the cops pull you over even though you know you weren't doing anything wrong...that feeling....so we shall see where it all leads...since I have four weeks to stew about it before the crunch.hahahaha sounds cryptic doesn't it... well let's just say it is something all of us would dread happening, and leave it at that.
In my son's defense...I did receive a Mothers Day card today...in the mail...and a birthday card a few weeks early...both of them just signed, no message...but since he only lives a half hour away it is still a bit hurt full that that is the best he can do...well, there is nobody to blame but myself and his father since we raised him...by the way, his father was just as lame about birthdays, mothers day and Christmas as he is...at least about the gift and appreciation part, the partying part, well, it never took much of a holiday as an excuse to throw a party in which I cooked and he drank....
Things in the greenhouse are growing nicely, my tomato plants are about six inches now with lots of dark green branches on them and the cabbage plants are up and growing...my flowers are doing great..I planted a lot of them in the big planters I moved in there with the furniture mover...and they are blowing and cascading over the edge of the pots already..I am loath to put them outside where the ferocious wind and hail and other weather related tests will try their best to destroy them... Most of my shrubs and perennials have survived the winter, that is one good thing about five feet of snow...it is great ground cover and things are protected from the -40 temps by the snow...so everything should bloom this spring...even the bulbs I reluctantly planted last fall are coming up so na,na,na, na-na to you to squirrel...I outsmarted you this time...usually the beggars dig up the bulbs and eat them...so I grew daffodils (which are poisonous, the bulbs ) and paper whites and other stuff...and the beggar didn't dig them up, maybe the cedar mulch I layed in the beds helped confuse him...he couldn't smell them...although I did consider planting them in the dead of night with only a flashlight to light my way so that the squirrel didn't see where I was planting them.
I hadn't grown bulbs for quite a few years..but Robert talked me into trying again. and I agreed only under the condition that it be narcissus and daffodils and such...that I knew they wouldn't eat. Tulips were out of the equation... as were gladiolas since our yard is way to windy for tall flowers...they always break off in the bad winds and makes me sad...
When we go to a nursery or greenhouse to buy shrubs and perennials...I am usually asked what I already grow and that does well, and my reply is always the same...zone 2 or less...is all that will grow in our yard... so that's Siberia and the Arctic...hahahahhaha But that offers a surprising number of shrubs,
Cranberry, Dogwood, Junipers, evergreens, Spireas and more .
So my yard is slowly morphing into a low maintenance one, the shrub beds already are 8 inches deep in cedar mulch, which will cut down on the need to weed. Most are planted with trouble free shrubs and perennials that need little work, the new beds will become that way over the next couple of years...some of the old trashy arbours are being disassembled and the timbers used for other projects..even the big one lining the front sidewalk has turned out to be a disappointment to us and will be coming down this spring and moved to some remote corner of the yard... I have become completely disgusted with solar lighting...you pay an arm and a leg for the damned things and they never last long or don't work at all...I found five out of a set of eight I bought last spring, broken this spring when the snow melted...I suspect Roberts somewhat vigorous snow shovelling to be the cause but am not about to complain since that is the first snow he has shovelled in years, but apparently the plastic shaft the lights sat on is not that durable at -30 temps.. hahahaha
I am probably going to jinx myself by saying this out loud...but so far we haven't heard our little toad friend in the pond this spring...all the other frogs in the sloughs and ditches are croaking like mad....I am hoping he shows up...
Oh I know, I complain about the serenading all through the night right outside my bedroom window...but the slug control alone makes it all worth while...
Well, I should mosey along and get my spaghetti sauce started...spaghetti, salad and garlic bread sticks for supper tonight. Robert had started working in the field now so is not often in the house long..so I have to have it ready when he comes in or he leaves again, and your guess is as good as mine as to when he will be back...even dark isn't a guarantee of his coming in...he plowed until midnight yesterday...
Lots of Birthdays this month in the family....Maggie, today, Sue tomorrow Mine and Bob's at the end of the month and then Fern's and Kim's in early June. Happy Birthday to all of us...
May 9, 2011
Happy Belated Mother's day Bitches
I am in a very crappy mood this morning and shouldn't be writing on this blog at this moment...but since nobody is here to stop me....read it and weep.
We had a good week last week, quite a bit of yard work and Robert got a few jobs of his done...always a bonus...on Friday we went to the city with the box of our truck full of bags of mulch that I bought last fall at an online auction...for 2 bucks a bag...Roberts elderly aunt lives in the city and we took it to her place to put under her huge soon to be mature and fall over blue spruce that dominates her front yard...the ground is so dry the grass won't grow so I thought the mulch would look better than dirt with the odd weed popping up....she agreed to let us spread it...and it looked like a million bucks...we had enough left over to spread it under her raised deck at the back of the house where her dog usually does it's business and there was more bare dirt...wow what a difference that made...
So we did our good deed for the week..and felt pretty good about it too...had our chinese fix and headed home...with the real reason we went completely forgotten and that was for me to pick up an ornamental tree for the front garden...maybe next time.
Mothers day was good...I cooked a turkey that we have long wanted to have but never the right moment or reason...and with no plans for the day we made that the plan....cook it , pig out and freeze the rest as dinners and stuff...I made turkey, gravey, mashed potatoes...sweet potato walnut dish, sausage stuffing, peas, carrots and cranberry jelly salad. It was Delicious...
no calls that day, not a one...so, when you have a child and that child does absolutely nothing Mothers day or any other day for that matter...does that make you a bad mother (not deserving of that respect) or does it mean you have a bad child ( who lives with their head up their ass and is going to leave the revelation that no one loves you like your mother, until it's too late and she's gone)... Just asking .......?
We had a good week last week, quite a bit of yard work and Robert got a few jobs of his done...always a bonus...on Friday we went to the city with the box of our truck full of bags of mulch that I bought last fall at an online auction...for 2 bucks a bag...Roberts elderly aunt lives in the city and we took it to her place to put under her huge soon to be mature and fall over blue spruce that dominates her front yard...the ground is so dry the grass won't grow so I thought the mulch would look better than dirt with the odd weed popping up....she agreed to let us spread it...and it looked like a million bucks...we had enough left over to spread it under her raised deck at the back of the house where her dog usually does it's business and there was more bare dirt...wow what a difference that made...
So we did our good deed for the week..and felt pretty good about it too...had our chinese fix and headed home...with the real reason we went completely forgotten and that was for me to pick up an ornamental tree for the front garden...maybe next time.
Mothers day was good...I cooked a turkey that we have long wanted to have but never the right moment or reason...and with no plans for the day we made that the plan....cook it , pig out and freeze the rest as dinners and stuff...I made turkey, gravey, mashed potatoes...sweet potato walnut dish, sausage stuffing, peas, carrots and cranberry jelly salad. It was Delicious...
no calls that day, not a one...so, when you have a child and that child does absolutely nothing Mothers day or any other day for that matter...does that make you a bad mother (not deserving of that respect) or does it mean you have a bad child ( who lives with their head up their ass and is going to leave the revelation that no one loves you like your mother, until it's too late and she's gone)... Just asking .......?
May 1, 2011
Work, Work, Work
What a gorgeous day it was here today...+14, light breeze and sunny. I worked in my greenhouse today...my seedlings are growing fast but I had Robert remove one of the dirt beds for me...and I was building some new shelving in its place. It was grueling work for me, for some reason and I usually live to build things...but I had to push myself all day...all I wanted to do was climb into bed and sleep.
The kitten/teenager cat of ours was up to some new tricks today...besides following me around being a general pain in the ass, that is...he first startled me by laying beneath the florescent grow lights in the greenhouse, luckily for him it was between two trays of seedlings or he would have got his little ass spanked with a piece of garden hose...I went in to water stuff this morning and as I was pulling one of the trays out from under the lights, something moved...I think I might have even shrieked...
Later he laid in wait for me atop a couple of full bags of dirt just inside the greenhouse door...as I walked in he stretched and made me jump...I yelped and jumped and he jumped and hahaha Karma at work here... he landed right in the 45 gallon plastic barrel of rain water....which the bags of dirt were leaning against...hahahahaha....after a while, I think it was the sound of the saw, but he finally disappeared ...and it was bliss...much more productive when you are not moving a cat every five seconds from between your eyes and the measuring tape....hahahah
and after a couple more hours of work, I was beat, so I packed my tools up and went to put them in the garden shed...until next time...I left a couple saw cases in there on the floor and returned for my reciprocating saw and the shovel....when I got back to the shed..I decided to put the recip saw up on the top shelf....and was stretching on my tippy toes with my hands in the air lifting this saw case up to the shelf when one of the flat black plant trays that were piled up there as well, moved....I gasped, thinking it was a mouse...and I was standing in a very vulnerable position...perfect for the mouse to run down my arm and into my shirt...when over the edge of this black plastic tray came a small white paw....and then followed a very sleepy little white face....and that darned kitten looking down his little white nose at me...as if to say "DO YOU MIND, I'M TRYING TO SLEEP HERE." I just shook my head and closed the shed door...I mean...it is impossible to keep a cat from doing that sort of thing, climbing where you don't necessarily want them climbing...all I can say is, he'd better not knock all those plant pots down while he's up there or his ass is grass.
I spread all that mulch I bought last fall on all my beds, it looks very nice and hopefully it will keep the weed seeds from taking root so easily... but it turns out it might have been a mistake...because now the dogs seem to think it is there expressly for them to lay on...and they dig a nice big deep hole and then lay in it. If I leave home for any length of time they do this...we may have to put one in the kennel when we go away...
We had supper at a friends place on Friday...and I have been ill ever since...
I have a lot of food allergies, some more severe than others...and so for several years now have been good about avoiding those things that make me violently ill....so I kinda forgot, about one in particular...so while at our friends, we took the steaks, she had left over scalloped potatoes from Easter, they were very very good....and then she made some new pumpkin square that is refrigerated..it was very good...we had a piece for dessert and then a second piece later in the evening with coffee. The last hour we were there I began not feeling well, roiling stomach, cramping, gurgling, churning....it was nasty...I made Robert take me home...and began one of the longest nights I have had for a long while...but today I am still sick....a dull aching pain in my lower abdomen....it hurts to take deep breath, I never had diarrhea or vomited but had horrendous gas and pain....so at 3 am, while lying in bed in agony...it dawned on me what it was that was making me ill...I react severely to evaporated milk....and she had used evap. milk in her scalloped potatoes and in the dessert....Oh My God....I completely forgot. I used to get sick from it when MOM made her scalloped potatoes with it...and our doctor thought that when my son David was sick all the time that he was lactose intolerant and that I must have been too....if I am it is just a mild case of it...but the evap. milk being so concentrated really does a number on me...so that even today, my guts feel like I had the crap punched out of me.. anyway, it was and is agony...but each day it hurts a little less...I guess I better tell this friend about my food allergies...since I seem to be too stupid to remember all on my own... The funny thing is, this morning when Robert was reading the recipe for our friends new dessert, he said to me, "you know, when you were writing this out and Sherry was saying what all was in it, and she mentioned evap. milk, It kinda peaked my interest but I couldn't remember why... but it does now...remember when my Mom made scallop potatoes with it and you wouldn't eat them, she used to scoff at you because you said you were allergic to evap. milk..." and I said " OH Ya I remember now..."
The kitten/teenager cat of ours was up to some new tricks today...besides following me around being a general pain in the ass, that is...he first startled me by laying beneath the florescent grow lights in the greenhouse, luckily for him it was between two trays of seedlings or he would have got his little ass spanked with a piece of garden hose...I went in to water stuff this morning and as I was pulling one of the trays out from under the lights, something moved...I think I might have even shrieked...
Later he laid in wait for me atop a couple of full bags of dirt just inside the greenhouse door...as I walked in he stretched and made me jump...I yelped and jumped and he jumped and hahaha Karma at work here... he landed right in the 45 gallon plastic barrel of rain water....which the bags of dirt were leaning against...hahahahaha....after a while, I think it was the sound of the saw, but he finally disappeared ...and it was bliss...much more productive when you are not moving a cat every five seconds from between your eyes and the measuring tape....hahahah
and after a couple more hours of work, I was beat, so I packed my tools up and went to put them in the garden shed...until next time...I left a couple saw cases in there on the floor and returned for my reciprocating saw and the shovel....when I got back to the shed..I decided to put the recip saw up on the top shelf....and was stretching on my tippy toes with my hands in the air lifting this saw case up to the shelf when one of the flat black plant trays that were piled up there as well, moved....I gasped, thinking it was a mouse...and I was standing in a very vulnerable position...perfect for the mouse to run down my arm and into my shirt...when over the edge of this black plastic tray came a small white paw....and then followed a very sleepy little white face....and that darned kitten looking down his little white nose at me...as if to say "DO YOU MIND, I'M TRYING TO SLEEP HERE." I just shook my head and closed the shed door...I mean...it is impossible to keep a cat from doing that sort of thing, climbing where you don't necessarily want them climbing...all I can say is, he'd better not knock all those plant pots down while he's up there or his ass is grass.
I spread all that mulch I bought last fall on all my beds, it looks very nice and hopefully it will keep the weed seeds from taking root so easily... but it turns out it might have been a mistake...because now the dogs seem to think it is there expressly for them to lay on...and they dig a nice big deep hole and then lay in it. If I leave home for any length of time they do this...we may have to put one in the kennel when we go away...
We had supper at a friends place on Friday...and I have been ill ever since...
I have a lot of food allergies, some more severe than others...and so for several years now have been good about avoiding those things that make me violently ill....so I kinda forgot, about one in particular...so while at our friends, we took the steaks, she had left over scalloped potatoes from Easter, they were very very good....and then she made some new pumpkin square that is refrigerated..it was very good...we had a piece for dessert and then a second piece later in the evening with coffee. The last hour we were there I began not feeling well, roiling stomach, cramping, gurgling, churning....it was nasty...I made Robert take me home...and began one of the longest nights I have had for a long while...but today I am still sick....a dull aching pain in my lower abdomen....it hurts to take deep breath, I never had diarrhea or vomited but had horrendous gas and pain....so at 3 am, while lying in bed in agony...it dawned on me what it was that was making me ill...I react severely to evaporated milk....and she had used evap. milk in her scalloped potatoes and in the dessert....Oh My God....I completely forgot. I used to get sick from it when MOM made her scalloped potatoes with it...and our doctor thought that when my son David was sick all the time that he was lactose intolerant and that I must have been too....if I am it is just a mild case of it...but the evap. milk being so concentrated really does a number on me...so that even today, my guts feel like I had the crap punched out of me.. anyway, it was and is agony...but each day it hurts a little less...I guess I better tell this friend about my food allergies...since I seem to be too stupid to remember all on my own... The funny thing is, this morning when Robert was reading the recipe for our friends new dessert, he said to me, "you know, when you were writing this out and Sherry was saying what all was in it, and she mentioned evap. milk, It kinda peaked my interest but I couldn't remember why... but it does now...remember when my Mom made scallop potatoes with it and you wouldn't eat them, she used to scoff at you because you said you were allergic to evap. milk..." and I said " OH Ya I remember now..."
April 27, 2011
Questions, always Questions
Okay, is it just me or is the government in the US turning into one big joke...
This whole issue of Obama not being a born American therefore not eligible to be president...hahahaha it just cracks me up...but not nearly so much as the thought of Donald Trump being governor or what ever the F he is going to run for.... I mean come on...the man may be rich x a gazillion but he's a joke.. and when Obama... made the comment to the media this morning...his veiled hit at Trump was hilarious....sideshow freaks and circus acts...hahahahahahha boy did he nail it... Trump is a joke with a bad hair piece...I don't care if he's rich as Croesus either.
During that same news piece they said that in a poll more than 20% of Americans believed Obama was not born in the USA.... those must be the same people who believed he is a Muslim, a terrorist, or gay.... I mean my God what the hell are they putting in the water down there....Are some Americans so un educated and naive that they would honestly believe the crap that is spewed out by the Republicans and media....no wonder then the country is in such dire straits... I personally believe that Barak Obama is a good president in spite of some insurmountable hurdles he had handed to him upon taking office.... I don't think anyone could have done any better or as much as he has for the ordinary Americans.
But enough about American politics...why talk about them when we have our own writhing snake pit of back stabbers and shit flingers right here at home...
I am desperate to be rid of Stephan Harper, but the alternatives are abysmal...to say the least... Ignatief....well he may be capable of running the country but he personally does not strike a cord with me...while Jack Layton, I have a lot of connection with, but since he has never even been the official opposition, I am a bit concerned with his abilities to run the country...The same, magnified ten times for Elizabeth May of the green party...and I would like to first see her stand on other issues besides green house gas and carbon recapture...does she have the skill needed to keep the government going...
Robert and I voted in the advance polls on Monday..so it's all over but for the weeping...I only pray the Helmet head Harper doesn't get a majority...because he has run the country for the past 4.5 years with a minority but acted like he had majority...god help us if he actually gets the majority...
I just do not understand why conservative governments have to run the country's deficit up so high...when Liberal governments don't....and the old argument that the conservatives start more social programs doesn't hold water anymore because it is well known fact that since Harper has been in office programs have been cut not added.
In the Agriculture industry...government programs have literally dried up...they no longer exist and the few that still do in name only...have been changed to ensure that no one qualifies for the subsidy...no one... but they do still charge you a fee for filling out the mandatory forms...only to tell you, you did not qualify...and those fees add up to over 3oo. per year...doesn't sound like much but...it's still 300. dollars I would rather not spend. and no we don't get the fee back when we are told we don't qualify... so it turns out we pay to be rejected...
Anyway, enough politics....I can only say that the second week of may is going to seem like a piece of paradise to me, once we no longer have to endure the constant update of the Royal Wedding and the bloody election.. and then there is the hockey...well best not get me started....there's something else the Americans have totally fucked up for us...geez...let them in to play and they completely take over, changing the rules and shit like that...somebody should shove Gary Betman in a dark closet and lose the key....Winnipeg needs to get their team back .... Remember the days when two CANADIAN teams got to play for the Stanley cup..... boy those were the days....
This whole issue of Obama not being a born American therefore not eligible to be president...hahahaha it just cracks me up...but not nearly so much as the thought of Donald Trump being governor or what ever the F he is going to run for.... I mean come on...the man may be rich x a gazillion but he's a joke.. and when Obama... made the comment to the media this morning...his veiled hit at Trump was hilarious....sideshow freaks and circus acts...hahahahahahha boy did he nail it... Trump is a joke with a bad hair piece...I don't care if he's rich as Croesus either.
During that same news piece they said that in a poll more than 20% of Americans believed Obama was not born in the USA.... those must be the same people who believed he is a Muslim, a terrorist, or gay.... I mean my God what the hell are they putting in the water down there....Are some Americans so un educated and naive that they would honestly believe the crap that is spewed out by the Republicans and media....no wonder then the country is in such dire straits... I personally believe that Barak Obama is a good president in spite of some insurmountable hurdles he had handed to him upon taking office.... I don't think anyone could have done any better or as much as he has for the ordinary Americans.
But enough about American politics...why talk about them when we have our own writhing snake pit of back stabbers and shit flingers right here at home...
I am desperate to be rid of Stephan Harper, but the alternatives are abysmal...to say the least... Ignatief....well he may be capable of running the country but he personally does not strike a cord with me...while Jack Layton, I have a lot of connection with, but since he has never even been the official opposition, I am a bit concerned with his abilities to run the country...The same, magnified ten times for Elizabeth May of the green party...and I would like to first see her stand on other issues besides green house gas and carbon recapture...does she have the skill needed to keep the government going...
Robert and I voted in the advance polls on Monday..so it's all over but for the weeping...I only pray the Helmet head Harper doesn't get a majority...because he has run the country for the past 4.5 years with a minority but acted like he had majority...god help us if he actually gets the majority...
I just do not understand why conservative governments have to run the country's deficit up so high...when Liberal governments don't....and the old argument that the conservatives start more social programs doesn't hold water anymore because it is well known fact that since Harper has been in office programs have been cut not added.
In the Agriculture industry...government programs have literally dried up...they no longer exist and the few that still do in name only...have been changed to ensure that no one qualifies for the subsidy...no one... but they do still charge you a fee for filling out the mandatory forms...only to tell you, you did not qualify...and those fees add up to over 3oo. per year...doesn't sound like much but...it's still 300. dollars I would rather not spend. and no we don't get the fee back when we are told we don't qualify... so it turns out we pay to be rejected...
Anyway, enough politics....I can only say that the second week of may is going to seem like a piece of paradise to me, once we no longer have to endure the constant update of the Royal Wedding and the bloody election.. and then there is the hockey...well best not get me started....there's something else the Americans have totally fucked up for us...geez...let them in to play and they completely take over, changing the rules and shit like that...somebody should shove Gary Betman in a dark closet and lose the key....Winnipeg needs to get their team back .... Remember the days when two CANADIAN teams got to play for the Stanley cup..... boy those were the days....
April 20, 2011
Light at the End of a very Long Tunnel
Sounds kind of dramatic I know but it is a pretty dramatic moment...I am going to risk jinxing myself and say...I have finished THE DAMNED genealogy project for Roberts cousin. It's boxed up and ready to go to the copy house...then I just have to put it all into binders and arrange delivery...if they ask me if they can pay me for my trouble this time...I am not going to turn them down...but they may be aghast at how much they would actually owe me if they were paying by the hour...but a few hundred bucks will cover my costs...paper, binder, computer ink....that won't even include the hours I spent researching and printing things off and sourcing maps and census records and hand writing records that nearly illegible...I zoom them up big on the computer and then transcribe them onto blank forms. It takes hours...but without the information on those hard to read documents I would not get nearly as far in my researching. So it is nearly the end...and I am sooooooo glad...
This fall, I am going bite the bullet and tackle the CONKLIN book...I have procrastinated long enough and done every other family tree into a book but this mother sized one...there is binders full of info and I will have to weed it down to the most interesting and print that off.
The anti-inflammatory meds made me so sick to my stomach that I decided the pain in my ankle was easier to live with than constant nausea and diarrhea...I already have a mild case of that all week from the osteoporosis drug they make me take once a week to build my bones...it just starts to wear off by Friday night and then I take it again on Sunday...so not much of a reprieve...but along with the anti-inflam....it was hell...Robert made me stop taking them, but I still ice my ankle...but did not stop the treadmill...I was just too worried about losing my momentum... I am still waiting for the appointment to be made with an orthopedic doctor...
The missing kitten is back...and I am wondering why I missed him...the little fucker has found some cocky attitude while he was away and now...flaunts his badness in my face...like taking the bird nest out of the tree on the deck and then jumping up onto the windowsill to make sure I see him in the act...today I opened the greenhouse to let some of the hot air escape and when I went just now to close it up...all the little baby lettuce plants that were growing in container have been eaten off and the reason I can't blame it on mice...is the that there is gray cat hair and foot prints in the soil....he was sitting on top of the fence just outside the green house catching the last few rays of sunshine before dusk fell... %#^%(&^(*U that's me pulling my hair out....now I will have to spend time putting wire over the window vents and find someway to block the door...what a little dick...
Heading to the city tomorrow maybe catch a movie...great I get Robert to leave home and there is no good movies to see right now...
Well I worked feverishly all day to finish that genie stuff and haven't had supper yet...and it's after 9 pm... not good for the blood sugar...so off I go to have food.
whoooo hoooo new painting here I come...freed up some time now boy O boy....
This fall, I am going bite the bullet and tackle the CONKLIN book...I have procrastinated long enough and done every other family tree into a book but this mother sized one...there is binders full of info and I will have to weed it down to the most interesting and print that off.
The anti-inflammatory meds made me so sick to my stomach that I decided the pain in my ankle was easier to live with than constant nausea and diarrhea...I already have a mild case of that all week from the osteoporosis drug they make me take once a week to build my bones...it just starts to wear off by Friday night and then I take it again on Sunday...so not much of a reprieve...but along with the anti-inflam....it was hell...Robert made me stop taking them, but I still ice my ankle...but did not stop the treadmill...I was just too worried about losing my momentum... I am still waiting for the appointment to be made with an orthopedic doctor...
The missing kitten is back...and I am wondering why I missed him...the little fucker has found some cocky attitude while he was away and now...flaunts his badness in my face...like taking the bird nest out of the tree on the deck and then jumping up onto the windowsill to make sure I see him in the act...today I opened the greenhouse to let some of the hot air escape and when I went just now to close it up...all the little baby lettuce plants that were growing in container have been eaten off and the reason I can't blame it on mice...is the that there is gray cat hair and foot prints in the soil....he was sitting on top of the fence just outside the green house catching the last few rays of sunshine before dusk fell... %#^%(&^(*U that's me pulling my hair out....now I will have to spend time putting wire over the window vents and find someway to block the door...what a little dick...
Heading to the city tomorrow maybe catch a movie...great I get Robert to leave home and there is no good movies to see right now...
Well I worked feverishly all day to finish that genie stuff and haven't had supper yet...and it's after 9 pm... not good for the blood sugar...so off I go to have food.
whoooo hoooo new painting here I come...freed up some time now boy O boy....
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