hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

Hope you stop hurting soon. That's never any fun.
 
If only, Bee, if only!!! I'd FIND a way to store a big freezer if we could take some! And I'd have an AWFUL lot of leather clothes!!!!

Thank you Deb, hopefully it won't be hurting tomorrow morning, that's going to be the question...
 
Wheee what a day!
We arrived back home this morning WAYYYYY too early from our New Year's trip back home to NC. I sure do miss southern hospitality. I can't wait to move further south again. That, and getting out of this place, but that is a whole different story.
I am impressed if I do say so myself... the last load of clothes is waiting in the dryer, and all the other clothes are folded and put away, save for the things drying on the rack. All of the luggage and other things are put away! The girl we had watching the house did a great job cleaning everything up, so we came home to a clean house, which was really nice. She really didn't need to do all of that, but it sure was a really good feeling to come home and find it taken care of.

I was also really excited because I figured out that my canner that Mom gave me will fit in the bottom of the cabinet, so it has a HOME now!! Wahoo, something put AWAY! Mom also told me I could cook stock in the canner pot so long as I take the weight off the top. That is awesome because that means the pot is big enough that I could do beef stock if I want! I have never done beef stock because the bones are so large I've never had enough space to make it worth it.

We ordered the razors from the Dollar Shave Club website, so we'll see how they turn out. They are cheap enough that it won't really matter if they aren't that great. I don't expect that to be the case, but we'll see what happens.

The downer of the day is that I discovered that there is a bleached out spot on one of my newer hand towels. I have NO idea what the malfunction is, but there is this THING that ALL of my towels get bleached. I don't understand what it is because we no longer use bleach, except on EXTREMELY rare occasions, and ONLY in the kitchen. We do not use most "standard" cleaners anymore, either. This is so strange because it is has been a chronic problem from years ago when we did use chemicals and bleach, but when it started happening we stopped using those things. But it is still somehow happening. The ONLY things I can figure are our saline solution for our contacts (it is peroxide based), toothpaste (whitening stuff??), or baking soda. If it isn't any of those, I don't know what is happening. It doesn't happen to anything else that I have found. It is infuriating to me because I really like to take care of my things and keep things nice. We have guests reasonably often, and I don't enjoy having my guests use towels that look like they should be retired to rags. I have no idea what the issue is, and I have no idea how to fix the problem to keep it from happening. The towel that I found the spot on was one in a set that my grandmother hand monogrammed for me, and I really liked them.

The other plus of the day is that we finally got around to picking up oranges so that we can add them to our smoothies, and I can save the rinds to make citrus vinegar!

I am NOT looking forward to going back to work. I am tired of the rat race around here for so many reasons. It isn't going to change any time soon, and there isn't anything that I can do about it. We just have to save our pennies up super fast so that we can get out of here and get our own place so that I can be available to manage the farm.
 
This weekend we had nothing scheduled, which means that we have to do everything! LOL
The list of stops on the errands was long, but we managed to get quite a bit done. Stopped at Dover Saddlery to try to use the gift card one of the boarders gave us for Christmas, and they didn't have any small "over the rail" tubs or buckets that I can put the new coming free choice supplements into. Seriously. Now I'm going to have to make a trip somewhere else to find something. I don't have much I want to buy from Dover. I might see if the barn manager wants to give me the 20.00 that is on the gift card and I'll just take it up to the feed store and see if they have something that will work better. Or order something online from TSC. At least I'd get a discount through ebates for that.
Made our way back down the road and dropped clothes off at the consignment shop, didn't really shop for anything, just gave her what we had. I think she has a sale right now, but we really can't afford to shop, and I don't know if I have any credit with her at the moment. I don't need anything anyway.
Went into Kohl's to return the slippers I bought the other half for Christmas, and then return the rugs and pick out new ones. Got the return part squared away, and then found rugs we wanted and went to check out. We had to wait for the folks ahead of us, and I noticed that the cashier was not all that enthused looking. She finally barked for the "next customer, please" and we stepped up. She wordlessly began to ring us up, and I told her she didn't need to put the rugs into a bag, I could carry them. The other half stepped up to swipe his credit card, and then signed the screen. She turned back to her register screen, and then reached down and opened the drawer below the register. I glanced down and saw her cell phone lying strategically in the drawer, and she punched a few things. I looked back up at her screen, which I could see from the side, and noted that it was waiting on her to make the next move so that the receipt would print and we could leave. I looked at her and asked if she was going to push the button, and she said "yeah" with a bit of an attitude. I looked right at her and commented that I didn't think her manager would appreciate knowing that she's on her cell phone while ringing up customers. I made sure to check my receipt on the way out the door, and will be filling out their survey later to let them know. Depending on how detailed their survey is, I may even place a call to the manager. That's just unacceptable. Kohl's is usually a great store, and I was pretty surprised to receive that poor level of service. In this economy workers are far easier to come by than jobs...
We finished up with our grocery shopping for the week, and still managed to spend $100.00 on everything. A bit frustrating, but I know it is all really good food. Around here that isn't easy to buy. Now we just have to make sure we stick with making all of it so nothing gets wasted! We need to practice that more.

Got home and washed the dog, poor thing he's so itchy from the yeast infection on his skin. I can't wait for the things I ordered for him to get here so I can start getting him better. It should help a lot, and get him back on track again. We'll see anyway. Its that hurry up and wait game that is oh so much fun.

Got a few other chores done and then headed out to take care of the friend's horses while they're out of town. Easy job so it goes quick enough. Came back and he got started on dinner while I did more cleaning up and such.
We made peanutbutter chocolate chip grain free cookies tonight. Pretty awesome! Well, really, they were almond butter, but still. The texture is a bit strange, but all in all, they are really good, I am impressed!

He began his focus on really adopting the primal eating concept this weekend due to a challenge over on Mark's Daily Apple blog. Hopefully he'll stick to it, he really needs to. He weighed himself for the challenge, and realized he picked up MORE weight than he had lost after his surgery, so he's heavier than he was when he went in for surgery at the end of October. He was doing ok, and had lost some after the surgery, but somehow it all came back. So now we're both focused on making sure that we are doing what is good for us. Lots of veggies and meats, and healthy fat. Now we've just got to stick to it! I know that I benefit from it a lot, and I feel better when I stick to the concept, so its a matter of really sticking with it. Just gotta do it.

Few more errands to run tomorrow. Gotta get more propane for the grill so we can grill out again, stop at Joann's to get green felt so I can redo the display board for the nonprofit for the upcoming expo we've got, need to do that tomorrow I hope. Of course that is assuming that my spray glue is still good. If not he'll bring some home and I'll do it later this week. Need to get the christmas stuff taken down and packed up so that our riding instructor has somewhere to stay next weekend when she's in town teaching lessons again. Laundry to move over to the dryer to get folded and general stuff to pick up and put away. Here's hoping we can get the list all checked off.
 
Sometimes ya just gotta trust that things will work out.
I've been frustrated that we haven't been able to get rid of this couch since before Christmas. The freecycled loveseat that we picked up is great, but with the couch still here there are just too many pieces of furniture in the living room. Thank goodness it all sort of does fit, but I don't want the couch anymore. It is irritating me that I can't get rid of it to get things set up the way that I want them.
Then my other half came home and told me that a family that works for his boss's dad's company had their house burn, and they lost everything. His boss's dad is a huge client of the company he works for, and this employee of his dad has worked for him for 30 years or so, and now the whole company has banded behind him to donate and support them in their time of crisis. So we are now making arrangements to get the couch to them so that when they are ready to move back into their house they'll be able to have some furniture. His boss and his dad will be up next weekend to pick up the couch (and drop off our new smoker!), so it will be going somewhere to do exactly what I think it should. We didn't end up with a christmas tree, the new loveseat got a string of lights draped over it and the presents sat on it, and it was dubbed the Christmas Couch. I'm ok with that now, the couch will be where it belongs.

Now I am so ready to get this living room back in order! There are a few things that I am going to rearrange when I have the space back, and I am excited to get that done!
 
"the Christmas Couch"... I love it. So nice to be able to help someone else out.
 
Where did it come from...

My own back story is rather interesting. I grew up in suburbia, from the age of 3 in the same house. Despite a rather "standard" American upbringing, dirt is just in my blood. My mother is fairly earthy, she does a lot of hand crafts, and can rewire a light. She's always had a focus of thriftyness, but not excessively so as while growing up we didn't really need to be. She did always wash the ziplock bags until they had holes in them though!
I loved to play in the dirt as a kid, and was always outside. I loved horses, even though I had never been around them. I got into art, and they were almost always the focus of my drawings and sketches.

The most interesting memory though is that the age of 5 in kindergarten, we were asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Frankly, I think this is a terrible thing to ask a kid that age, what do they know, really? But ask they did, and I answered 'farmer.' At the time, I didn't know what a 'horse trainer' was, and I just knew that horses lived on farms, and so I figured I wanted to be a farmer. :hu I always remembered that because I was a bit embarrassed to say it, and the other kids thought it was weird, of course. Years later, I recognized that I wanted to be involved with horses, and so 'farmer' probably wasn't as accurate as I thought.

But then we ended up here, and live around the horses, which is great, but then I found out about chickens. They're an absolute delight! And I've always had a love for animals, and so other things began to creep into my wish list... like cashmere goats, and alpacas (and the obligatory llama(s)!), and then we learned more about growing your own food, and why it is important to be sustainable, and now I realize that I never could have been more right at the age of 5 to say that I wanted to be a farmer.

We are slowly working towards our dream. It takes time to be able to make a change in our lives to really get out and move on our own. It doesn't help that he didn't really have any sort of plan or aspiration until he met me. Now we're both dreaming of it whole hog (pardon the pun), but didn't have the advantage of years of planning when we should have been. So now we are working hard to get ourselves organized and get our things in order so we can get out of here and into a space that is our own that we can do what we want with it. I am getting anxious to be out of here, so it is frustrating not to be able to make the change, but I know that I have a lot of learning to do, and so I try to be patient.

I just find it very amusing that I've ended up wanting to really farm when no on else in my family is like this in the least. I'm just an odd duck, always have been, and probably always will be. At least I've found more birds of a feather! :gig
 
Started feeling a bit worn out yesterday late afternoon, and immediately chopped an onion and threw it into our raw honey. Let that soak overnight and woke up feeling about as blech. Took the whole jar of onions and honey to work with me and started spooning it in about every hour. I still feel yick, so we'll see how that does tomorrow. I'm frustrated that I've ended up sick, but it is going around like crazy right now, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I know that we need to do more focusing on our diet to make sure that our immune systems are strong so that we don't get sick, but we're obviously not quite there yet.

I'll am feeling pretty tired, but before I head to bed I think I'll have one of our awesome almond butter chocolate chip gluten free cookies and then go try to sleep this off.
 
When ever I was asked what I wanted to be, I'd tell people what I thought they wanted to hear, either a nurse or a teacher. What I really wanted to be was an Indian because they knew about the different plants and animals. I don't know how old I was B4 I found out that what I wanted to be was a naturalist.
 
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