hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[hqueen13]

That will likely be my issue, those guns are LONG! Even my M4 isn't that bad.
This range doesn't do skeet, though I think I'd like that, too. There is another place not too far away that does, we might go up there for some lessons at some point.
So many things to learn, so little time!!

 

[hqueen13]

Finally got over to BJ's tonight to pick up some stuff. They had gas for 3.65, too! Awesome! Topped off the truck, which was needed.

We picked up 12 bottles of vinegar and some water and snacks for tomorrow. The $40.00 worth of vinegar will be used mostly to kill the weeds that have over taken the front yard. It was really funny to head out of the store with three cases of vinegar. This prepper stuff is pretty funny sometimes

Things have been super crazy busy which explains my absence. Hopefully it will settle down a bit and I can get caught up. Not much on the SS front, but lots of things have been happening.

 

[hqueen13]

It just dawned on me that I recently found out that Target carries canning supplies online. I also realized the fact that I have a leftover Target gift card from Christmas that has about $70.00 left on it.

Gonna get canning supplies! Free shipping over $50.00, so I don't have to worry about that!!!!
I am SOOOOOOO Excited!!! The gift card was the "office christmas gift" to everyone, and I wasn't all that thrilled because I didn't really need much of anything... until I now realize that I can get canning jars from them! Now I HOPE they give us another Target card again this year!!

Of course, this would also require us to FIND said Target card... I looked ALL through the desk tonight, and couldn't find it (did find the $45.00 visa card that I got as a rebate for my contact purchase this year...). The other half used it a few months ago to purchase a new pair of clippers for himself, and now I don't know where it went. He needs to check in his car to see if he might have left it in there but if it isn't in there I don't know where it is.... I hate it when we lose stuff.

In looking for said card, I managed to sort out about a 2" stack of papers that all need to be filed.... Our filing system is not efficient! I suppose I'll catch up on that tomorrow or Friday.

We're getting rain, and have gotten a decent amount of rain for the past few weeks which is great for the grass growing. And unfortunately the weeds don't discriminate, either. Thankfully the crew of junvinal community service kids will be coming on Monday to weed the front yard. It looks terrible. Maybe once they get it weeded I can keep up with the rest with vinegar. Since we don't have much to do this weekend other than go to dinner on Saturday night we're going to spend time outside working on trying to get some of these projects finished up. Not quite sure how we'll put together the fire pit patio, but that is on the to do list.

The trouble with that project is that we want to put it in a location where there is a 2' drop over the 20' distance that we want to set the patio. It will be simple - just logs to outline the edges and back filled inside with pea gravel that we have on hand. I'm just not sure how to manage the 2' drop to keep the gravel in the patio and level. We are thinking of scraping out the top area, and then filling the bottom area in with the extra dirt, and then overlay the whole thing with the gravel. I'm just not sure what is the simplest, least labor intensive method of accomplishing this. We also plan to drill holes into the logs and put rebar into them and down into the dirt so that the lower logs won't roll down the hill. I am afraid we're going to need a layer of 2 logs though instead of just one because of the height difference.

Also need to get another battery and a trickle charger for the electric fence out front so that it can be fired back up again. The wee little battery on the charger lasted about 6 days, which is good. But it has been off now for a while, so I just hope the deer haven't bothered much. The rhodies actually have green leaves coming out and a few blooms, so I am hopeful.

 

[hqueen13]

Wahoo! I love it when we can strike a deal!
We headed over to the gun range which was having a community yard sale and gun show this weekend. The gun show was barely worth the price of admission ($2.00), but while we were there we found someone selling some DVD's and picked up Monty Python & The Holy Grail as well as Transformers for $2.00 each (despite the fact that the Monty Python was a delux 2 disc edition that was marked for $8.00, we didn't let him notice that!). So including admission we spent $8.00 on two like new dvd's.

We decided to cruise around the neighborhood and see if there were any other yard sales, and came across a few, and managed to score a battery powered coleman collapsible lantern for $1.00 (had the manual with it, to boot!), and a Foodsaver food sealer complete with all the manuals for that for only $10.00, PLUS a NEW in the box Magic Chef dehydrator for only $5.00!!!

We were considering putting these items on our to buy list, but weren't pressed about it. But for the price I couldn't pass them up. We'll get to experiment with them, and if I decide I don't like them, it isn't that big of a deal to drop them on freecycle and not feel guilty.

Got back to the house and of course now I have to find a place to put these.... Got the second load of laundry hung up to dry, between the two racks that I have I can barely hold 2 loads of laundry, but it is all hung. I cleaned up the few dishes from breakfast, while he was outside mowing the back yard, and now we'll head outside to work on a few things and try to get a couple projects finished up so we can enjoy our outdoor space again!

This fire pit is going to be a challenge, but hopefully we won't run into too many problems...

 

[SSDreamin]

on the good deals!

 

[Denim Deb]

That's always great when you can find deals like that!

 

[snapshot]

Those are some great deals you got! I hope your fire pit comes together for you.

 

[hqueen13]

WHEW. Those logs are HEAVY!!! Thank GOD for the tractor and even then we still struggled a bit. My wrists hurt, and I have a few bruises on nails and knuckles, but nothing major so that is good! Nothing a few healing oils can't handle
The first sets of logs are in place, and all the other logs are lying nearby. We'll have to move the two big logs in order to grade down the dirt, and then fill it with the pea gravel that is in the pile that we have. We should be able to get that done tomorrow I think if we straight early enough in the morning. Then all we have to do is decide if we're going to buy a fire pit or just order a screen and make a hole and line it with rocks. We've got plenty of rocks around, so it would be a matter of collecting them. A screen will be slightly cheaper than buying a whole pit with a screen. And cheaper is good.

So now we've got a few hours to chill out before we have to get ready and go to dinner with friends. I'm mildly annoyed, she won't let us bring anything!!

 

[hqueen13]

Oh, forgot to mention that last weekend we had a great clinic with Susan Harris, a level 4 centered riding instructor. She was awesome, and Storm was an absolute gentleman. He culdn't have behaved better if I had asked him to. She was quite impressed with him, and he really did so well with me, it couldn't have gone better. I think he has turned a corner again and we should be back on the level and able to move forward more.

 

[hqueen13]

Whoa. Where have the last two weeks gone? Work has been horrible for the last two weeks. Don't get me wrong, I like working there and all, but things have just not gone well. Whatever energy has things all skewed needs to settle down again because I'm getting really tired of this roller coaster and I want OFF!
Today was just nuts. Our phones went out completely for about 30 minutes. Verizon was useless. Told me they couldn't have someone out until Tuesday. Leaving us dead in the water, no phones in or out. They came back on just after I got off the phone with verizon, apparently something in the building went screwy. Later that afternoon my boss comes back upstairs and comments that it is warm. I was quite comfy and said so, but then looked up at the thermostat (which I can see from my desk) a few minutes later and realized there was NOTHING on the display. Blank, no nothing. Call the management company and let them know, and we turned on all our little fans and opened the door, which was about useless. Eventually, a woman stopped in that oversees the building, and commented that the "energy management system" was getting upgraded, and they had several suites and floors without a/c. It came on right before I left, of course. Glad it was the afternoon and not the morning because that would have been awful!

This week despite all the crazy at work I've managed to do a lot of cleaning in the house in the evenings. We've got friends coming over for dinner tomorrow night and I swear her house is always PERFECT. Not that I feel like I need to keep up with the joneses, but I was getting really sick and tired of the clutter and crap sitting around. So I've been working every evening (and sometimes a bit in the morning if I woke up early) trying to get things organized and cleaned up. I feel like I've actually made real headway. Our month of recycles that have not gone out cause we keep forgetting are in the shed, the shed is neatened up and organized again, the tiki torches are out and waiting to be cleaned up so we can put them up, the electric fence parts are divided and put into the office for the stuff I am not keeping and into the bedroom for the stuff I am keeping, the paperwork around the desk is organized a little better and everything filed that was waiting to be filed, the laundry is caught up (for the moment), the stove is cleaned (gotta post pics of the orange vinegar cleaning job! Awesome stuff!), the spare bathroom is SCRUBBED, the stain is removed from the back of the toilet where it was leaking (that got fixed, too!), and the bathtub/shower is SCRUBBED, and the drain cleared with bakingsoda/vinegar (so much fun!) and then plunged, and the sink drain cleared with baking soda/vinegar, and then plunged, and then cleaned, the hydraulic jack is back in the truck tied down along with the gear bag of stuff..... I am VERY happy to have gotten so much done.

Tomorrow I will vacuum, clean up the kitchen floor, repot my poor barely hanging on basil, clean off the patio furniture and get it ready to use, clean off the kitchen table, maybe spray some weeds if I get a chance, and finish picking up a few things here and there.

I also found someone on freecycle giving away Iris! I will go over on Sunday, probably to pick them up, I think they've already dug them, so I don't even have to do it! I'm excited to start populating the yard with them. The deer don't eat them and the nasty invasive trees don't grow through them! A variety of Iris will be pretty in the yard, too. We'll see how that comes together over time. I need to split the miniture Iris that I already have, so that will fill up more of the yard too. I like making improvements!

Gotten a lot accomplished and looking forward to a laid back weekend of getting more stuff done! I love improving my space!