Monday, April 15, 2019

Warm weather changes routines fast, livestock pic

Monday 

 I did part of my normal routine... laundry was done and hung on the line, house was picked up and floors swept.  Cleaned the dry goods shelves in the dining room and wiped down the china hutch. Flipped out the "winter dishes" which is red that goes well for Christmas etc.  for the spring dishes. Put out the "Asian"dishes and "Italian" dishes as Hubby calls them.

Dinner was leftover pulled pork so I didn't focus on that.

Hubby's parents came to visit for the afternoon so I didn't do anything else. They haven't felt up to getting out of the house especially Mom O who had sinus infection that went into bronchitis. SO it was great news that they felt up to coming over and even better that they ate lunch out as Dad O has some of the same issues I have and eating out is not something we do very often due to after effects of eating....new way of saying we run to the potty a lot afterwards? 😕
Mom O brought over hamburger buns as they were too SOFT for their liking... worked fine for us as I served them with the pork instead of making wraps with the tortillas. I put the rest in the freezer along with what was left of the pork.So hamburger buns for freezer is off the list. Had a friend give me a bag of pot stickers she had bought but didn't like. SO that's off the freezer list also.

Tuesday

Hubby put more concrete on the deadman of the clothesline  and fixed the downspout on the barn. Two things off his list.
He took a picture of the livestock trailer
Was advised to get some ply board and put around the bottom of the inside of trailer as horses with shoes have a habit of kicking and can damage the trailer if you don't have the ply board there. GLAD another person that does transporting livestock for a living warned him also told him to require straw be put down before loading as part of the "payment" then we can put it with the compost, makes it easier to clean out the trailer.

He tilled the south garden and laid the 1st weed barrier down that is 120 ft long.
This is the main path down the middle of the spring and summer sections. Hubby used landscape staples to hold it in place.

While Hubby was tilling I potted the 2 rose bushes a friend gave Son 2 and me.
Then potted 5 blueberry bushes (they do better in this area in pots as they prefer acid soil ) and made extra pots for the foxglove when it gets ready to transplant (also better in pots)  and THEN transplanted 18 from the grow light cart to the square pots until ready to go in ground. This way I can cover them or even bring them in if it gets that cold.

We checked out the fence line making sure everything was secure and noticed
 this in our pond.
I think they are blue gill...

And this in the side yard
E and M's guinea hens... they really need to go down to the gardens LOL

and then we decided to get the mail as neither of us had checked and that means walking pass the asparagus patch... we found ! one!

lonely 😁



Guess we might have to share him LOL

I fell in a hole in the yard ...yes I saw  the hole and still stepped in and fell. Now everything hurts...SIGH. Hubby immediately went out and filled it in. It's were a post was at that he pulled last summer and it settled in.

Wednesday 

Hubby is car pooling with some Amish and  a Mennonite today. Last week he
asked M if she needed anything as he was going over to Sidney for an errand and was going to stop at Aldi's on the way back. She asked if she could go also as she had appointment that would be 30 min in Sidney  and she would pay the gas. So he changed the day he was planning to go and said yes.
Since he can run the errand while waiting on her (I'm still home bound mostly). It's not any different than him going by himself. SHE mentioned it to a cousin who is Mennonite and she asked if her Hubby could go as he had an errand over there also and would split the gas... YES...  AND then one of the Amish guys Hubby is friendly with asked if his wife could go also as she needs things from Aldi's and they would chip in on gas. Reminds of our childhood when the neighborhood would car pool, Daddy worked in town 10 miles away and it was common for him to run errands for neighbors after he got off work and they paid his gas that covered him going to work. Hubby got gas money and lunch out of the deal. He was happy.

And speaking of Daddy...
He is happy and even though most of the time he doesn't remember I am his daughter (usually thinks I am his sister and have been called Mommy a couple times. My aunt says I look like Grandma who died when she was late 30's). All I care about is he is well and happy... and watch out because he will run over you with that wheelchair that he moves with his feet. He roams the halls(he calls them streets) and stops at each room (apartments according to him) and says hi to every morning and good night every night. If he doesn't see you in the chow hall (they call it community room he calls it chow hall) he will go check on you. He likes  commissary...or the general store depending on if he is in veteran mode or civilian. He is on insulin for the first time after being a diabetic for over 30 yrs.  A very low dosage and his doctor said at 91 going on 92 she wasn't going to tell him he couldn't have his snacks but she did increase his physical therapy to help him burn some of it. He used to walk 5 miles a day, ride an exercise bike for 1 1/2 hrs while watching the news every morning and lift weights besides mowing 10 lawns for elderly( after he was 60 himself) with a push mower. My brother and I are not any where close to being fit as Mother who worked until she was 80, was or Daddy.

I cleaned out the herb and spice cabinet and reorganized it. Made notes of what I need to grow and what I will need to buy when on sale.

Thursday

We were suppose to get gravel today, guy called from the quarry and they were out again of the size we ordered. Guy asked if we could take 2 other sizes and him bring us all for 4 loads tomorrow. SO we did.

Hubby moved the compost to the north garden edge instead of it being behind the barn in the field we let E plant in exchange I get sweet corn for our freezer.

He then cleaned out the mow of the barn of some wood shavings he found, put those in the compost also.

I did finances .... paid all of April's bills including medical bills and 2 school taxes. Shifted some things around and now have all the May bills $$ in savings until May when I need to pay them. NOT including biologic which at this point it's a waiting game on insurance to approve it. Hubby has a check in the mail that will start building June's bill money and thought after paying the gravel bill he might have enough to cover 1/2 of June and his deep sea fishing trip.

When we went to wash the walls while spring cleaning we found the paint was leaving residue on the cleaning rags so we stopped.


I let the contractor that painted the house know there was issues with the paint. The company that sold him the paint is sending a man down to check it out. He will be here Monday. The front room, dining room and kitchen is also doing it.

We went to Son 2's, we wanted to drop off his rose from our friend I potted for him and he needed some help with filing his taxes... the soldier in him does very well at inputting information... the civilian gets confused when asked about life changes like did you get a raise , did you put money in a retirement fund? HEAVENS!!!. I got him through it and then poor Hubby had to listen to me wonder where the boy's (HA HA actually a middle age man) brain went to on the 2 hr drive back home. Our dinner was from the gas station, yeah really, pizza (8 slices)and ice cream (2 -8 oz). Wasn't bad pizza and definitely was cheap as all of it was only $10 and fed us very well.

Friday

I was up at 3 am... ate too much and too late last night and paid the price. Made coffee and let the dogs out and in since I was up. Went back to bed at 4:30. Since dogs had been out they didn't wake Hubby. He woke up at 6 startled and wondering why the dogs hadn't gotten him up LOL. I got back up at 6:15, when I heard him rattling around in the kitchen.

I started doing some odds and ends that needed caught up and he went out to move things around for the gravel. This is a big check mark off the to do list for the month and the "punch" list for the house.




Ended up with 5 loads coming to  100 tons... will need 75 more tons when we finish the area at the basement ramp and around the pond. The pile by the barn is to go under the deck that is going to be on the side of the kitchen. The white stone piles is filling in the grass area on the north gardens so it's easier for delivery trucks to turn around and I can park my car there in the winter and let Hubby park the 350 which is diesel and needs plugged in at the porch where I park usually. Where the dump truck is dumping is the 32 ft trailer parking. The 18 flat bed and the 24 livestock are at the back side of the barn.  After we get the gravel spread the rest of the way out, we will need it graded (AKA smoothed out) E charges $25 to grade a regular lane. Hubby asked if he could barter... instead of E paying Hubby $30 to take some equipment to be fixed and bring it home, E just grade all of the gravel since we have more than a regular lane... E accepted.

Hubby just talked to the lady that is trying to sell the other flat bed trailer. She had a person looking at it ...the trailer is worth $12500... we asked $9000 with accepting $8000... the person offered $1000....She said she asked if he understood what the trailer was worth, YEP... and he was still offering only $1000. YEP..Said she had to bite her tongue and walk away to keep from calling him a idiot.

We went to town to get a battery for the old truck  and post office. I proceeded to fall in the parking lot SIGH... I caught the edge of a mud puddle and landed face first. SIGH...

We had eggs and corned beef hash and pound cake for dinner.

Saturday

Hubby went to auction with 1 of the Amish, good thing they went even though neither bought anything as another Amish was there and not only needed a ride back home but had bought something that needed a trailer. Said God was taking care of him.

I did my normal Saturday routine plus baked bread in my 13 inch Pullman pan using M's recipe. We like the bread better than the Pullman recipe and the size better than regular loaf pan. I used the meat slicer to slice the whole loaf.

Sunday

Put all 3 turkeys that was in deep freezer out to thaw to cook Monday. Making room in freezer as there are at least 3 dozen asparagus up in the patch.

Moved coat and sweater rack to loft and

HEAVENS Fell down the stairs.... I felt the nerve in my back pinch but could get sat down on the stairs fast enough so down I went...Hubby said he saw me lean back like in a plank when he turned around.

DONE for the day.