Things around here seem to be going so fast that I can barely keep up. I only seem to be able to complete my regular daily chores before it's time to go to bed. Everything is piling up and I can't seem to find my way. Last week I was sick for most of the time, then I worked Thursday and Friday, a friend's wedding rehearsal Friday night, then the wedding Saturday night. Sunday was spent selling some books for gas money and then kicking around the McKinney square, then home to try to start getting caught up. I just seem to be so tired all the time. Maybe it's the weather change. It's chilly here at night, which is welcome, and still in the 80s during the day. My goal today was to actually get up and get right to work, no computer, no tv, no reading. I did pretty well, got some laundry done and some other chores. Then I went and gassed up the truck and picked up an ice chest from the neighbors. Tomorrow is "spa day" again for the babies. We have 33 this time, and they'll be 7 weeks old on Wednesday. They've been really good this time around. We learned a lot with the first batch. A lot of what not to do. This batch has been living in the dog run, and then free ranging during the day. I think these guys are a lot healthier as far as running around chasing bugs and eating a lot of grass. I'll be getting up early, loading them up and heading out.
I also finally got the Headless Horseman set up for the front porch. He's sitting in the rocking chair by the front door with a scull in his lap. Pretty spooky. I've only carved one pumpkin so far this year. One for a friend, so I can't reveal what it is until it's delivered.
I guess that's about it. Just trying to get a routine re-established, get some energy and get some things done.
Wish me luck
Monday, October 20, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
All Burned Out
The title says it all. I'm soooo burned out on summer. I'm ready for some cool weather and crisp nights and all that goes with it. We don't get much fall color here in Texas. The leaves sorta turn brown and fall, or just fall off when they're still green. I need to be outside, putting in the fall garden, but it's still in the upper 80s and lower 90s and I just can't bring myself to do much out there. I'm setting a goal for myself though. I've gotta get that stuff in next week. DH will be off next tuesday and he said he'd help with building the new beds and putting up another section of rails for the stick fence. That will complete one whole side of the fence. And then, while I've got the air compressor out, I'll go ahead and get the cornice trim in the hallway put up. I just get so far into a project and then it stalls and I leave it. So weird. So annoying.
I bought a whole bag of "scratch and dent" organic bananas at the grocery store the other day for 50 cents, and this morning I've made a couple of loaves of banana nut bread with cranberries. I'll freeze one and leave one out. Nice healthy snacks for the family.
We had to replace our water heater on monday. Sunday, we smelled gas in the house and found that the bottom of our old water heater had rusted out just enough for a small spray of water to hit directly on the pilot light/burner. We turned everything off and waited for monday morning to call our plumber. We were supposed to have gone camping this weekend, but ended up canceling because the baby chicks weren't old enough to be left for the weekend. Thank goodness for that. If the house hadn't exploded, we would have had extensive water damage. God was watching out for us there.
The banana bread is almost ready to come out of the oven, and it smells really good. I've got a chicken boiling on the stove so I can use the meat in a couple of casseroles. I've got a bunch of okra to process and the rest of the small onions to pickle. I need to baste a vintage quilt top today for hand quilting and C and I have haircuts this afternoon. (Bring on the SASS!) Plenty to keep me busy while I (im)patiently wait for the days when I don't have to run the a/c.
Peace Out,
Deb
I bought a whole bag of "scratch and dent" organic bananas at the grocery store the other day for 50 cents, and this morning I've made a couple of loaves of banana nut bread with cranberries. I'll freeze one and leave one out. Nice healthy snacks for the family.
We had to replace our water heater on monday. Sunday, we smelled gas in the house and found that the bottom of our old water heater had rusted out just enough for a small spray of water to hit directly on the pilot light/burner. We turned everything off and waited for monday morning to call our plumber. We were supposed to have gone camping this weekend, but ended up canceling because the baby chicks weren't old enough to be left for the weekend. Thank goodness for that. If the house hadn't exploded, we would have had extensive water damage. God was watching out for us there.
The banana bread is almost ready to come out of the oven, and it smells really good. I've got a chicken boiling on the stove so I can use the meat in a couple of casseroles. I've got a bunch of okra to process and the rest of the small onions to pickle. I need to baste a vintage quilt top today for hand quilting and C and I have haircuts this afternoon. (Bring on the SASS!) Plenty to keep me busy while I (im)patiently wait for the days when I don't have to run the a/c.
Peace Out,
Deb
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Procrastination strikes again
Yeah, I know, I never posted pictures of the finished hallway. Know why? It's not finished. I was SO CLOSE! And then it happened. I couldn't get the moulding for the door cut b/c of old rusty tools, and I just stopped. Well, I was talking to one of my co-workers and she said her husband does wood working all the time and that if I brought by the moulding, he could miter cut it for me in no time. I'll be painting it today and measuring the door frames and I'll take it by tomorrow evening after I get off of work. They live in the same town that I work in, and really, they're on the way home. I work again on Friday, so Saturday should see me putting up the moulding! I still need to purchase the crown moulding, but that stuff's expensive. But I'll be closer than I am right now.
I spent part of yesterday preparing for the arrival of my second batch of broiler chicks. They should be here either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. The sewing room is all rearranged and I moved my sewing machine into the front room so I can keep the chick room warm enough without having to use the heat lamp. I'll just turn off the a/c in there, close the doors and it will be plenty warm for the little critters. I'm excited for them to arrive. I'm going to try to house them in the dog run this time. It'll give them a little more room to run around and I won't have to sequester the big girls.
I have 2 regular egg customers now! 2 of my co-workers have both asked for a dozen a week, which is pretty cool. Only took 5 years for the girls to start paying for themselves. LOL. I have another customer here in town, but he's not so regular. Every other week or so. But that's okay. Hope we can keep up with the demand. My older ladies don't lay as much as they used to, but I can't just get rid of them. I'm running an old hen home. :) But they're pets.
I canned 5 pints of green beans yesterday. First time that I've done that. I didn't grow the beans, they're from the Farmer's Market, but that's okay. They're in my pantry and I know what went into the jar. I hope they're tasty. I'm focusing my grocery money on buying one item in bulk at the market, then canning it. So, I'll probably do green beans again this week, and maybe some cucumbers for pickles. Then when the tomatoes get going again, i'll hit that pretty hard as well. I've started some seedlings for broccoli, cabbage and lettuce, and also pinto beans, and I'll be putting in a whole bed of beets and carrots soon, and get those canned and into the pantry to feed us over the winter. And of course, the okra is still going strong. I'm going to attempt to freeze some uncooked okra fritters to use some of them up. I've frozen some for frying, and I'll most likely put up some for pickling. Soooo, the season is not over yet. I can probably even get some peas in and even have a couple to eat.
That's about it for now. Keeping very busy. I assembled a quilt top yesterday, need to border it today and have another one to work on as well. 2 full size shop samples, so there's a deadline on both of them.
Keep the faith!
Deb
I spent part of yesterday preparing for the arrival of my second batch of broiler chicks. They should be here either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. The sewing room is all rearranged and I moved my sewing machine into the front room so I can keep the chick room warm enough without having to use the heat lamp. I'll just turn off the a/c in there, close the doors and it will be plenty warm for the little critters. I'm excited for them to arrive. I'm going to try to house them in the dog run this time. It'll give them a little more room to run around and I won't have to sequester the big girls.
I have 2 regular egg customers now! 2 of my co-workers have both asked for a dozen a week, which is pretty cool. Only took 5 years for the girls to start paying for themselves. LOL. I have another customer here in town, but he's not so regular. Every other week or so. But that's okay. Hope we can keep up with the demand. My older ladies don't lay as much as they used to, but I can't just get rid of them. I'm running an old hen home. :) But they're pets.
I canned 5 pints of green beans yesterday. First time that I've done that. I didn't grow the beans, they're from the Farmer's Market, but that's okay. They're in my pantry and I know what went into the jar. I hope they're tasty. I'm focusing my grocery money on buying one item in bulk at the market, then canning it. So, I'll probably do green beans again this week, and maybe some cucumbers for pickles. Then when the tomatoes get going again, i'll hit that pretty hard as well. I've started some seedlings for broccoli, cabbage and lettuce, and also pinto beans, and I'll be putting in a whole bed of beets and carrots soon, and get those canned and into the pantry to feed us over the winter. And of course, the okra is still going strong. I'm going to attempt to freeze some uncooked okra fritters to use some of them up. I've frozen some for frying, and I'll most likely put up some for pickling. Soooo, the season is not over yet. I can probably even get some peas in and even have a couple to eat.
That's about it for now. Keeping very busy. I assembled a quilt top yesterday, need to border it today and have another one to work on as well. 2 full size shop samples, so there's a deadline on both of them.
Keep the faith!
Deb
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Just a quick note
Man, the past month has been a whirl wind. I got the job, got trained and then I've been filling in for every employee that needed a vacation! I've been working 4-5 days a week, which is a lot for this homebody. I have been realizing just how spoiled that I've been. When getting to work at 9:30 is hard, you know you've been spoiled. I have to actually get up "early" (7:30)! I also started the FLYlady program, so I've been cleaning and de-cluttering and getting things to where I like them to be. I'm always tidy, I just sometimes don't deep clean, and then it gets overwhelming. The FLYlady lets you join the program and start learning cleaning habits in babysteps, setting the timer and doing chores for ONLY that amount of time. As she says, "I can do anything for 15 minutes". I really like her system, and I'm finding out that some of her systems I already have in place, like doing a load of laundry every day if there's enough for a load. And my favorite of hers is not going to bed with a dirty kitchen. That way, when you wake up, you don't already feel overwhelmed.
We've been having crazy weather, down into the 60s at night and only topping out at 75-80 during the day. Plus, the 4 inches of rain we've gotten in the past couple of days. We're forecast for rain for the rest of the week, but the temp will be going back up to the 90s. Some of my plants think it's fall and are starting to go to seed before the big freeze. I keep trying to tell them that it will heat up again, but they never listen.
I need to get my fall garden started and cut down all those sunflowers and clean everything up, but between all the working and the rain, I just haven't had a chance. One of these days I'll get caught up. Hahahaha!
I'm starting a new program at the shop called the Hard Times Social Club. The 3rd Thursday of the month, I'll have a pot of soup and a scrappy pattern and a stash swap. It's free to attend and nothing is required of the customers except to come in and sit a spell. Everyone needs a place to go where they don't feel pressured, especially during this downturn in the economy. I hope it takes off and people like it. It will be from 5-8. They'll get a bite to eat, some company, a free pattern, maybe a recipe or two and maybe be able to swap some of their old fabric for someone else's old fabric...a win/win proposition, I think.
I hear the oven timer going off. Need to go check on that fabulous smelling chicken!
Take care of each other
deb
We've been having crazy weather, down into the 60s at night and only topping out at 75-80 during the day. Plus, the 4 inches of rain we've gotten in the past couple of days. We're forecast for rain for the rest of the week, but the temp will be going back up to the 90s. Some of my plants think it's fall and are starting to go to seed before the big freeze. I keep trying to tell them that it will heat up again, but they never listen.
I need to get my fall garden started and cut down all those sunflowers and clean everything up, but between all the working and the rain, I just haven't had a chance. One of these days I'll get caught up. Hahahaha!
I'm starting a new program at the shop called the Hard Times Social Club. The 3rd Thursday of the month, I'll have a pot of soup and a scrappy pattern and a stash swap. It's free to attend and nothing is required of the customers except to come in and sit a spell. Everyone needs a place to go where they don't feel pressured, especially during this downturn in the economy. I hope it takes off and people like it. It will be from 5-8. They'll get a bite to eat, some company, a free pattern, maybe a recipe or two and maybe be able to swap some of their old fabric for someone else's old fabric...a win/win proposition, I think.
I hear the oven timer going off. Need to go check on that fabulous smelling chicken!
Take care of each other
deb
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Things you don't know
It occured to me yesterday that I've been remiss in my blogging. There are SO many things I haven't told you, or shown you. So, I made a list of things that are sorta important. Gardening things, house things, eco-things, hippie things....you know, things that I fill my life with.
Item 1 on the agenda is my solar oven. I built one. I made mine out of 2 cardboard boxes, a couple of newspapers, some tin foil, matte black paint and a piece of clear 1/8th inch plastic that was on a shelving unit in my sewing room. You can see how attractive it is. :) BUT, amazingly enough it works. I put my oven thermometer in there and the temp, so far, has reached 220 degrees F. To go along with my solar oven, I got this great crock pot cook book to maybe come up with some new recipes. I actually got one that has food you would really want to eat in it. The most important fact is that crockpots cook at 180 degrees, so using my solar oven to cook in is perfectly safe. It's also FREE and doesn't heat up my kitchen, which in this house of no central a/c and no insulation is vitally important. It's eco-friendly, made from recycled products and it's pretty damn cool, if you want to know the truth. I've been cooking about 2-3 meals a week in it so far. The only problem I've seen so far is that I have to bring it in when I'm done using it and put it in the sewing room. It's biodegradable. My family thinks it's pretty cool too, hubby asking me when I was going to build a permanent one out of wood. Still thinking on that one. I'd still like it to be made from recycled products, and I'm not sure what to insulate it with yet. I'd love to have one I could leave outside. Next on my hippie list of things to build is this fabulous rocket oven. I figure with the solar oven and the rocket stove I could almost do all my cooking the eco friendly way.
Item 2: Harvesting my onions/garlic. I harvested all my onions and garlic before we went on vacation in June. I got them all cured and ready to go, braided them and hung them from my pot rack. As it cools this fall, I'll most likely move them out onto the covered front porch for storage. The warm temps in the house will shorten 
their storage life. Besides what you see hanging, I have a big basket of the smaller onions and I also took all the very small pearl onions and pickled them. I just couldn't stand throwing any away, and they were really too small to cook with.
So that's today's update on what's been going on around here.
Woke up to thunder and rain this morning at 6 or so. Didn't even know we were supposed to get any rain. But they're saying we'll get 1/10th of an inch. Anything is good.
BIG NEWS: The "Half Blood Prince"(Harry Potter) trailer came out last night. Looks really good, and so far, pretty accurate to the book. Now to wait til Novemeber. Also, book release for "Breaking Dawn", the final installment in the "Twilight" series is Saturday. I'll be escorting C and her friend to the local book store for the midnight release party. I just love those! It's pretty cool to be around a whole bunch of people who like books. Just does my heart good.
Deb
Item 1 on the agenda is my solar oven. I built one. I made mine out of 2 cardboard boxes, a couple of newspapers, some tin foil, matte black paint and a piece of clear 1/8th inch plastic that was on a shelving unit in my sewing room. You can see how attractive it is. :) BUT, amazingly enough it works. I put my oven thermometer in there and the temp, so far, has reached 220 degrees F. To go along with my solar oven, I got this great crock pot cook book to maybe come up with some new recipes. I actually got one that has food you would really want to eat in it. The most important fact is that crockpots cook at 180 degrees, so using my solar oven to cook in is perfectly safe. It's also FREE and doesn't heat up my kitchen, which in this house of no central a/c and no insulation is vitally important. It's eco-friendly, made from recycled products and it's pretty damn cool, if you want to know the truth. I've been cooking about 2-3 meals a week in it so far. The only problem I've seen so far is that I have to bring it in when I'm done using it and put it in the sewing room. It's biodegradable. My family thinks it's pretty cool too, hubby asking me when I was going to build a permanent one out of wood. Still thinking on that one. I'd still like it to be made from recycled products, and I'm not sure what to insulate it with yet. I'd love to have one I could leave outside. Next on my hippie list of things to build is this fabulous rocket oven. I figure with the solar oven and the rocket stove I could almost do all my cooking the eco friendly way.
Item 2: Harvesting my onions/garlic. I harvested all my onions and garlic before we went on vacation in June. I got them all cured and ready to go, braided them and hung them from my pot rack. As it cools this fall, I'll most likely move them out onto the covered front porch for storage. The warm temps in the house will shorten 
their storage life. Besides what you see hanging, I have a big basket of the smaller onions and I also took all the very small pearl onions and pickled them. I just couldn't stand throwing any away, and they were really too small to cook with.So that's today's update on what's been going on around here.
Woke up to thunder and rain this morning at 6 or so. Didn't even know we were supposed to get any rain. But they're saying we'll get 1/10th of an inch. Anything is good.
BIG NEWS: The "Half Blood Prince"(Harry Potter) trailer came out last night. Looks really good, and so far, pretty accurate to the book. Now to wait til Novemeber. Also, book release for "Breaking Dawn", the final installment in the "Twilight" series is Saturday. I'll be escorting C and her friend to the local book store for the midnight release party. I just love those! It's pretty cool to be around a whole bunch of people who like books. Just does my heart good.
Deb
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
A friend in need is a friend indeed
A really good friend of mine valiantly offered an older monitor up to me, and I snatched at it with both hands. She even made the drive out to the boonies to bring it to me on Saturday. So, I'm back in business.
The hallway looks great, but I want to the get the moulding up before I take the "after" shots. It's like a whole new room. It makes me happy. C and I are even decorating it, which is unheard of here. It's more of a throw things anywhere sort of scheme at this point. We don't want to buy anything, but we figure we have enough stuff laying around covered in dust that we can find stuff to put in there. We're even talking of an area rug to go in there. I know! It's very motivating.
I joined the FLY lady webgroup the other day to get a little better about being clean and orderly. I've gotten my DIL and my friend, Jack to sign up too, so we're all working on the babysteps portion. It's a pretty cool system. It's a NO STRESS system. I'm fairly tidy anyway, but I get overwhelmed by our "extreme dust" and just give up most of the time. I'm learning how to approach the mess and the clutter from a different angle now.
I've started my annual "summer's almost over, I better get a routine again" program. No more sleeping til 9 and hanging out for a couple of hours doing nothing until someone says they're hungry. I get that way when it gets really hot and I don't want to go outside and work in the yard anymore. I'm kinda whiny that way. I really work hard in the garden/yard until about mid July, then I'm indoors until October. Meanwhile, Nature hits it hard and takes over and then I have major work to do when I get back out there. I really don't want to let that happen again, so last night after dinner, I set a timer for 15 minutes and worked on weeding/clearing the iris bed out front. 15 minutes goes by fast, and I was surprised by how much I got done. So, that'll be my after dinner thing for awhile. I also forced myself to get up while it was still relatively cool, cut okra and peppers and take care of all the outside chores before it gets too hot. I even did my 10 minute workout dvd this morning. Routines make me feel better and I tend not to just wander around the house all day, eating something.
We're really looking forward to the Olympics. C and I watch them together when they're on, and we have some really nice memories of them. We also watch the X-Games together every year. So, this weekend coming up is the X-Games (7/31-8/3) and then, of course the Olympics. We have our favorite athletes, and enjoy rooting for them.
One last item.
Uh, I thought only Garfield liked lasagna? This is C's cat Bam. Needless to say, I used a different pan. And the bowls were already empty. :)
peace,
deb
ps: Welcome to my new readers!
The hallway looks great, but I want to the get the moulding up before I take the "after" shots. It's like a whole new room. It makes me happy. C and I are even decorating it, which is unheard of here. It's more of a throw things anywhere sort of scheme at this point. We don't want to buy anything, but we figure we have enough stuff laying around covered in dust that we can find stuff to put in there. We're even talking of an area rug to go in there. I know! It's very motivating.
I joined the FLY lady webgroup the other day to get a little better about being clean and orderly. I've gotten my DIL and my friend, Jack to sign up too, so we're all working on the babysteps portion. It's a pretty cool system. It's a NO STRESS system. I'm fairly tidy anyway, but I get overwhelmed by our "extreme dust" and just give up most of the time. I'm learning how to approach the mess and the clutter from a different angle now.
I've started my annual "summer's almost over, I better get a routine again" program. No more sleeping til 9 and hanging out for a couple of hours doing nothing until someone says they're hungry. I get that way when it gets really hot and I don't want to go outside and work in the yard anymore. I'm kinda whiny that way. I really work hard in the garden/yard until about mid July, then I'm indoors until October. Meanwhile, Nature hits it hard and takes over and then I have major work to do when I get back out there. I really don't want to let that happen again, so last night after dinner, I set a timer for 15 minutes and worked on weeding/clearing the iris bed out front. 15 minutes goes by fast, and I was surprised by how much I got done. So, that'll be my after dinner thing for awhile. I also forced myself to get up while it was still relatively cool, cut okra and peppers and take care of all the outside chores before it gets too hot. I even did my 10 minute workout dvd this morning. Routines make me feel better and I tend not to just wander around the house all day, eating something.
We're really looking forward to the Olympics. C and I watch them together when they're on, and we have some really nice memories of them. We also watch the X-Games together every year. So, this weekend coming up is the X-Games (7/31-8/3) and then, of course the Olympics. We have our favorite athletes, and enjoy rooting for them.
One last item.
Uh, I thought only Garfield liked lasagna? This is C's cat Bam. Needless to say, I used a different pan. And the bowls were already empty. :)peace,
deb
ps: Welcome to my new readers!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Houston, we have a problem
My monitor died on my birthday, and we're replacing it this next weekend. Right now, using my daughter's laptop, which is pretty cool of her! Just can't upload any photos. Dying to show you all my new fab hallway. I painted it last week while C was gone camping with her friend. I didn't have anyone to play with, so I painted. I even remembered to take before and after photos, amazingly enough. So, next week you get to see. :)
C has a job interview this afternoon. Wow, my baby is growing up! Hmmm, what does that say about me? I'm NEVER growing up.
talk to you soon!
C has a job interview this afternoon. Wow, my baby is growing up! Hmmm, what does that say about me? I'm NEVER growing up.
talk to you soon!
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