Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

About to go "make" DH walk again. He did a short-ish walk this morning, stopping short of his goal. So, he'll have to make up for it this afternoon, lol. I don't cut him a lot of slack. He wants to get better but it takes work. Yep - you might be uncomfortable, but that's part of it. When he first started walking he could only make about 8 laps up and down the driveway. He did 20 laps yesterday. He did 15 this morning and he's about to go out and do at least 15-20 more. He's definitely getting more endurance, but he hasn't picked up much speed, lol. I'm ok with that as long as he stays upright and keeps moving.

I've been going pretty much full-tilt since this morning. Did all the feeding chores and then started on other projects on the list. Put together a bucket with feeder ports for chickens. I hope this keeps them from wasting a bunch of feed. Time will tell, I guess.

Picked up a bunch of debris/crap in the backyard and got that mowed. Moved the chicken tractors around so I could get that area of the yard done too. Then I did some weed whacking. First time this year and I wish I could say it's the last but that's not at all realistic, lol. I HATE weed-whacking.

Unloaded a bunch of feed and got that put away then did the evening feeding.

I did some pre-preps for dinner earlier and it's now in the oven.

Ready to sit still for a little while!

 

[baymule]

He is up and walking, that is much better. You could always threaten him with a cattle prod!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You could always threaten him with a cattle prod!

I have! (only a verbal threat - so far)

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Up and rarin' to go this morning. We're down to less than 3 weeks before the trip to DGS's graduation from basic training. Unfortunately, I'm not comfortable with his choice in life given the current situation. Not going to get any deeper into it for fear that I completely go off on a tangent.

Preps to be gone for a week continue. Putting together auto feeders for everything from the dogs to pigs to chickens. No auto feeders for the goats, lol. They'd eat it all in the first 20 minutes and then stagger off to die. Dumb animals, lol.

Working regular chores into the midst of all the preps. I've already mowed the back yard. Used the rider in the bigger area and used the battery walk-behind in a smaller area. Poor thing wasn't happy about mowing some of the overgrowth - but it powered through. I sure enjoy that battery mower. No need to have fuel on hand. No checking the oil. No loud noise.

Did some weed-whacking around the front of the house. Looks much neater. Been picking up a winter's worth of debris from windstorms. Have another pile to pick up after trimming some volunteer brush around some trees. My fig tree has decided to reproduce itself and unfortunately, I'm going to have to put the brakes on some of it. Might be able to relocate a few starter sprigs.

Had plans to have a few seeds in the ground by now - but still haven't. Need to get that done. Rain in the forecast for the weekend so I'd like to get it done before then. Need to move that chore closer that to the top of the list.

Better get up and get started instead of just talking about it.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Out of bed around 6:30 this morning after a disturbing night. About to call the local police and let them know what happened and hope to find out if there's been anything going on in the vicinity.

A little before 1am last night DH was getting up to go to the restroom. I woke up, as usual, and asked him if he was ok. Yes. Then I heard 2 small "bumps." Immediately after that our security alarm goes off. In the midst of the blaring noise I grab some shorts and a t-shirt and most importantly, a firearm. Our room is upstairs and we keep the door to it locked at night. I unlocked it and peeked around the corner and downstairs and my heart nearly stopped. My front door was wide open. WIDE OPEN! I yelled down the stairs that if someone was in here, they had better get out while they still could. Dead silence. Dogs weren't even barking. I checked every room in the house and even the garage and thankfully I could find nothing out of the ordinary. While I was downstairs checking things out the security company had called. DH was on the phone with them and they wanted to know if we needed police. In hindsight, I should have said yes and let them come out and do a check. It's nice to have that backup. I'll make the call to police in a few and at least make them aware.

We live on a pretty quiet dead end road. I've always considered it a blessing, but it has its negative aspects too. Makes it easy for someone to slink around. There has been the occasional issue but not often. A chain saw walked out of our garage one night about 15+ years ago and there were some car break-ins too. Our cars were rifled through, but nothing missing. I've lived here almost 40 years so a couple issues in that amount of time isn't awful - but I'd rather it be zero issues.

Is there a front yard fence and another big dog in my future? Hmmm...

 

[baymule]

That is a real creepy feeling. I hope "they" don't come back. That violates your feeling of safety. Yes, fence the front and get a big dog for the front. That would close in your vehicles and keep thieves out of them.

In Lindale, our doublewide sat way back from the road, we put up a gate and fenced the whole property. At night I closed up the sheep, but left the gate to the field open so the dogs could guard the property as well as the sheep.

Here, it is a dead end dirt road, a long driveway, doublewide set back from the road. I don't have a gate up across the driveway, but I should put one up.