Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

Once you retire, you will be busy.

I intend to be busy - and I can hardly wait. I'll be out of here in January and it will be cool enough to do a lot of outside work - if it's not constantly raining which has been known to happen, lol.

I want to totally re-do the garden area and put in permanent beds with all-season walkways (that I can use without mud-boots)! DH wants to put in a few more fruit trees - not even sure why since he rarely eats fruit - but I'm ok with it. I'd like to have some pear trees. My citrus trees and figs flourish and are practically care free. The kumquat is doing ok - I'd like to have a couple more. But I've only gotten a couple of persimmons in the last few years and zero pomegranates. Haven't given up though...yet. I've got a couple of grape vines too. But, what do you think the goats go straight to every time they break in to the yard? SMH...

And, I'm working slowly towards remodeling/updating the house. I don't want it to fall into disrepair in our older years and I need to keep resale value in mind as we age... A bathroom remodel in the master and maybe a thought of opening up the kitchen/dining area to the living area so it would be more open concept. As it is there are a couple of important things - like walls - between those areas. My house is basically divided in half by a load-bearing stairway. I have been told I can remove those walls and brace up with columns that would open that entire area up. May never happen...but the idea is floating around. Lots of other thoughts but will have to factor in costs as compared to value gained. I'll think about all that later...

 

[Mini Horses]

I'll let them pay me out for the rest of the vacation days. It'll be like an extra month of pay.

What's not to like bout that??!! Nice "bonus".


I'm with ya Bay. The fact that you CAN "do what you want, when you want, at your own rate of speed" is the best thing about it. Do nothing if you feel like it!! Enjoy it.

I had work scheduled for yesterday, other person cancelled out. Needs two for the job. Had to move that to Fri, when another could work. Today, was moved to tomorrow, as other had a conflict but, knew that Sun and it worked well.

Suddenly, instead of Tues & Fri off, I had Mon & Tues. I was thrilled. I had work to do here & did most of it that was planned. Nice. It's hot but, ok & I worked slow, took breaks, mosied along.....having an iced tea break right now. Soon, back out there. I could do this all week!!!!!!!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Geeze, where did the week go? I'm enjoying my last Friday of the summer off. (except I'm off next Friday for doc appts)

To say it's hot would be an understatement....major understatement. And, of course I've had lots of outside chores - but if ya use some common sense it's still possible to work in this heat. My first move is to just run the water hose over my head, lol! It's so effective - but not so attractive.

I'm so happy (ugh) to report that the rut is starting. I've been getting a faint whiff of buck in the evenings and saw two does riding each other yesterday. Considering I had New Year's babies this year - it's following last years pattern. Oh yea...

Had a scare with MIL last night. We were sitting here watching the Texans lose in pre-season when DH got a phone call. He didn't recognize the number so he didn't answer. They left a message that hew as going to delete without listening to when I reminded him that telemarketers don't leave messages and it was kinda late for a telemarketer call anyway. He checked the message and it was from the Guardian Alert company that monitors his mom. She had fallen and wasn't near her phone so she activated the alarm. They tried to call her and couldn't get her so DH was the next person for them to call. We raced in there not knowing what we were going to find. She was on the floor near her bed, but other than being embarrassed, she was fine. This is the second time she's fallen. The first time she just happened to have her phone in her pocket - but it was what prompted us to consider the monitoring service. Glad we did.

Hopefully it's cooled off a bit cuz I need to get started feeding so I can come inside and shower. I've done enough chores outside today that I'm smelling rather ripe, lol. I want to get the feeding done and get cleaned up before cooking dinner. Reverse seared steak tonight - yum!

 

[Mini Horses]

Glad MIL was OK. !

They fall, aren't "hurt" but, can't get up. BTDT. Scary.

 

[baymule]

Glad that your MIL was ok, that had to be scary! And yes it is hot. Waiting on fall.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

They fall, aren't "hurt" but, can't get up.

She was always so athletic and strong until she had a small stroke a few years ago. She never quite regained her strength after that. Her mind is still pretty good - at least she remembered she wore the alert button around her neck and remembered to activate it when she couldn't get up. She'll be 88 in 5 days...so far she's doing well. But...I see the inevitable decline. It's almost like - here we go again.

 

[baymule]

My Mom wore one of those for a short time. We were trying to keep her in her home, but her mind was too damaged by the stroke. She fell down, fractured her pelvis, but because she could get up, she didn't press the button. So why have it? She didn't even tell me for a few days, until the pain got bad, so off to ER we went.

You can see it coming, you can't stop it and you can't fix it.

 

[sumi]

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Thankfully MIL is still in pretty good shape mentally. Forgetful - yes, but can still think, plan and reason. So, this will be nothing more than a stop-gap. Tougher times are certainly coming...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Don’t know how THIS happened! Went out to feed this evening and we had 4 visitors:

DH is smitten! He wants to know if we can keep them, lol. They are NOT in my pasture or at the pond - just wandering around. Have no idea where they came from - but they're definitely fairly tame. They appreciated the corn that somehow made it to the ground in their vicinity and the nice cool drink that appeared out of nowhere, lol!

I don't know nuttin' 'bout no ducks except they all appear to be male. Aren't they male if they have a curled up tail feather? One is crested - pretty cool!