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Quiet Sunday morning here, slept well but I'm still a bit worn from all the physical activity this past week... so a nice quiet day will be "just what the doctor ordered." Town run later, I'm in no hurry, lol. Sharing quality time with the three kittens as I key this post, they are sleeping next to me (after a big breakfast, lol). Tiger & Crackhead already ate too, in fact they usually eat first, then I let the kittens out of the bedroom and they run into the kitchen to gobble down the remainder of the wet food, lol. I keep a bowl of dry 'Kitten Chow' on a tray in my room with a bowl of water on the side, that way the kittens never go hungry in the middle of the night. Young growing kitties need all the food they can eat, lol. Kind of a gloomy overcast day outside, but all are happy & healthy in our home... and I won't miss much by taking it easy this morning at the ol' hacienda. Cheers! :cool:
 
Canning French fry cut potatoes. Will be able to remove some of the canning equipment from dad’s and put it back in my storage closet in the garage by me.

Planning to try and set up a table in my garage to skirt the fleece I bought to prepare for washing. First time I’ll be processing a fleece for spinning so I imagine it’s going to take me a long time.
 
Went out to feed the chickens and found the one hen that has been AWOL for the past couple of evenings bed check. I used to be a pretty fair chicken catcher but she eluded me and we ran around the back yard awhile. I did find two stashes of eggs that got laid before I put up the nesting boxes. Keeping the other 12 chickens in their smaller pen till I catch the houdini chicken and re educate her on where to lay. They have had the run of a half acre and garden for the summer so they do enjoy the bugs and weed seeds.
Time today to dig up and put in pots my tobacco plants and bring them in as house plants for the winter.
I have to get welding today and repair a life size horse sculpture I made that the owner had in with her horses and they kind of scratched on it till it fell down.
 
Today we did church, have more this evening. I'm trying to get a little done on the greenhouse while it's nice outside. I made the duct from the diffuser inlet to the blower, things are moving along. I will try to pre-cut the mounting frame for the solar panels and hot air collector. Lots of planning and cutting.

This morning I was up at my normal time (04:00) and was starting to clean when the power went down and the alarms started going off. "Molly" our robotic vacuuming machine went nuts. The wife says that between Alexa and Molly, I will have plenty of women talking to me when she's gone...
 
Wild time for the local cops last night. Started with a hit and run about 4 30 pm. After a car chase he wrecked and got away on foot. Then he stole a car and the chase resumed. He wrecked again and stole another car, got away again and wrecked again and was finally caught on foot. He shot at the cops at least twice. This was in a very sparsely populated area. At the end, he had deputies from 3 counties, one city cop and the MHP chasing him. They restrained and did not shoot him. After the chase some of the officers stopped at the truck stop where my stepson works. He would not let them pay for coffee.
 
The situation went south at work today. We were informed that we'll work on two of our days off and it's mandatory. The gang is just about ready for mutiny. We work 80 hours in 7 days, because we like to have the next 7 days off. That's our schedule and that's what we all plan for. Now we're being forced to come in two days early - on a Saturday and Sunday - and to start work at 2AM. I'm putting my name in for a different position under a different manager next week. I've had enough...
 
Spikedriver said:
The situation went south at work today. We were informed that we'll work on two of our days off and it's mandatory. The gang is just about ready for mutiny. We work 80 hours in 7 days, because we like to have the next 7 days off. That's our schedule and that's what we all plan for. Now we're being forced to come in two days early - on a Saturday and Sunday - and to start work at 2AM. I'm putting my name in for a different position under a different manager next week. I've had enough...
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That's a lot of hard work!! Sure things need to get done in a timely manner, but pushing the crew harder won't make it better! Good luck moving on to a better position!!
 
Going to my regular Monday morning job, then to talk with one of my older ladies. As you know I clean for several ladies who are over 90 years old. The one I am going to talk with today I have worked for a good 15 years or more. She lives by herself but is having a hard time lately. Her kids get her whatever she needs to make things easier, a walker with a tray and basket, a lift chair, etc.! But they are totally ignoring a hygiene problem she is having! I thought about talking with her, and suggesting some simple fixes. But I brought it up with her daughter instead. She does not want to discuss such issues with her mom! Probably not my place, but a few simple changes will help! Hope all goes well!
 
I'm starting on my "new" routine for work. Last Thursday afternoon we were informed that the pharmacy would be opening 1 hour later on Monday through Saturdays. We were told this is a "test" going on with 2 stores in our district. The other store had their hours of operation cut back by about 10 hours. We're both "low volume" stores (but not the lowest). I'm wondering if they are toying with closing us. Probably not but more likely so they can move pharmacists to stores that are short of them.

So now my hours have changed from 9-5 to 10-6. It's gonna suck. The hour in the morning isn't enough time to do anything meaningful and now every thing I do in the evenings will be pushed later. I could keep my ending hour at 5pm but I would be losing 5 hours of pay and coming dangerously close to the full time cutoff.

As bad as it is for me, our two pharmacists have it worse. They'll be opening/closing three days in a row now.
 
Priority mission today: dropping Zorlac at the shelter so he can be neutered tomorrow. This is not a public shelter, it is a privately-run organization, so they will take him to a vet in Capitan who works with the organization, then bring him back to be picked up tomorrow evening. Zorlac will be a "new man" once the surgery is completed. :oops:

Otherwise, it's trash day, I already have the filled bin on the street. Laundry day. It rained last night so no watering! Don't have to refill the birdbaths either! Just gotta dump some birdseed out on the circular pavers I use for ground feeding... one paver near every birdbath, 10-4? I'm also dumping cheap cereal out there, birdseed has become stupid expensive. :mad:

Enjoying herbal tea right now and sharing quality time with the kittens, they join me at the table every morning once they've run around for a bit. They know who feeds them! But I'm okay with it, at my age I need all the unconditional love I can get, lol. Well, maybe there ARE conditions, somebody has to clean the litter boxes and add more litter on occasion! :confused:

Might get more rain today, I'll have to check the forecast... sure is gloomy & overcast outside! Meh, we're all happy in here, so that's all that matters! I don't have to take Zorlac to the shelter until 1300 hours, so I have plenty of time. Gave some weed to a neighbor yesterday, a big ol' country boy across the way, he was happy to receive the unexpected gift, lol. :cool:
 
First of all, apologies to those who thought it sad that we will have no more cats. Didn't mean to offend or upset anyone, but we are dog people and the house is "proofed" for that. The new pleated sheers were $80 and have had to wait quite a while to afford.

Already walked this morning.
Made oatmeal for DH.
Will clean up debris in the garden today. Glad it is over and the fence is down.
Doing laundry.
I hope you all have a great day!!!
 
Puppy chewed my computer cord a few months ago and it finally broke last week so I had to wait to get a new one.
One of our goats had a big lump on her neck and now it's an open wound. So I gave her a shot of LA200 and she freaked out her little one so bad she got stuck in the stall feeder somehow and very badly broke her leg. So bad it would most likely only have been fixed with surgery. Of course this was Friday night, after I baked 22 loaves of bread for the last market Saturday and no vet would have been available anyway. We put the little goat out of her misery :( I hate it when stuff like that happens. Did call the vet today to see what to do about the mom and was told to leave it uncovered and don't put anything on it so it will heal faster in the open air. Ok.
Market went well but I was not in a good mood because of the goats.
Plus we are going to have January temps here in the next few days. Anyone give me any of that "global warming" nonsense I will cuss at them.....
Oh and my shoulder got much worse again so I am not doing too much today.
 
I didn't get the ice maker fixed today as I mentioned in the Rant thread due to incompatibly of the new part.

20221017_141518_HDR.jpg


So I ordered another part and put the fridge together enough to get by until the part is delivered.

While the girls were carving pumpkins the youngest was asking the seeds and asked that Grampa grow a bunch next year from the seeds. So I processed the seeds and they are now drying in the greenhouse.

I then placed a call to the dealer that sold me the side by side about having trouble getting it in to park. Learned I should expect to push the brake in hard during the break in period.

So now I am watching for the first set of LED grow light to be delivered within the next gour or so.

Ben
 
TeeJ said:
@Wingnut - saw this and thought of you. Apparently if you put a pool noodle on a paint roller, you can pick up any goathead seeds left after weeding. Way better than picking them up with your feet, IMHO!
View attachment 96099
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Good thing no near neighbor. Imagine Gladys Kravitz peaking out the window and seeing him painting the backyard. :confused2:

Ben
 
Had another super busy weekend - realized that a chicken tractor wasn't working in our backyard setting because the puppies were obsessed with the left behind droppings so I added a bottom and a roof converting it to a mini coop - which will probably be better for the winter anyways.

Did lots of puppy training, we now have "heel" down pat and "drop it" and "come" about 75% of the time. He's now fixated with the bark mulch in flower beds and was smuggling pieces in his throat once he knew I was checking his mouth every time we were out. He's a smart one for sure! We're slowly but surely training that each and every square foot of the flower beds are out of bounds :rolleyes:.

Started working on a hydroponic system to run indoors since the hoophouse was so expensive to heat last winter. I founds plans I should be able to make on my 3D printers - each section should take about 24 hours to print, so I should have at least one made in a week or so. I'm planning on putting it in the large picture window in my bedroom and lighting the backside with some existing clip-on grow lights, so the whole thing will be about $15 for a pump - the rest I have on hand laying around... I'm hopeful I can keep some lettuce and herbs growing year round. The finished tower should look something like this:
2022-10-17_14-48-45.png
 
Had a great productive weekend.
It looks like this is the last week before temps drop to n below freezing at night. Rain n snow starting Saturday last time I looked.
I got my fence n gate done but not everything else I wanted too outside.
Owell..
Back at work..back on pine :/
Good news though..hot spring season for me starts this weekend!
 
I had a really good day, had some energy. I filled this weeks water buckets (for chickens and critters). Garbage day so I got the bins down to the highway. Vacuumed all the area rugs and started on the mopping.

I worked on music the rest of the day, went through about 600 bluegrass songs. Figured out the key each song is played in, most only took a few seconds so it went quickly. Some were rechecks also. I copied about 40 songs into my practice folders for a total of 135 or about 7hrs of playing time. That should do for a while, shouldn’t get bored any time soon.

I wish I could find locals who pick bluegrass. Seriously, folks I knew either died or moved away. I’ve called everyone I could think of the last few weeks. Usually ended up offering my condolences to a family member.

I did talk to a guy the day of the reunion, briefly. He’s from just down the road but younger than me and played music in different circles, mostly country/rock bar bands. Anyway, now that’s he’s bought my great grandfathers old farm I need to drive over and see him. The guy can play bluegrass, whether he’d be interested is another matter. He told me he quit playing bands about 5 years ago, maybe he’s getting the itch to play again.

No plans for the evening but a little tv.
 
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Peanut said:
I had a really good day, had some energy. I filled this weeks water buckets (for chickens and critters). Garbage day so I got the bins down to the highway. Vacuumed all the area rugs and started on the mopping.

I worked on music the rest of the day, went through about 600 bluegrass songs. Figured out the key each song is played in, most only took a few seconds so it went quickly. Some were rechecks also. I copied about 40 songs into my practice folders for a total of 135 or about 7hrs of playing time. That should do for a while, shouldn’t get bored any time soon.

I wish I could find locals who pick bluegrass. Seriously, folks I knew either died or moved away. I’ve called everyone I could think of the last few weeks. Usually ended up offering my condolences to a family member.

I did talk to a guy the day of the reunion, briefly. He’s from just down the road but younger than me and played music in different circles, mostly country/rock bar bands. Anyway, now that’s he’s bought my great grandfathers old farm I need to drive over and see him. The guy can play bluegrass, whether he’d be interested is another matter. He told me he quit playing bands about 5 years ago, maybe he’s getting the itch to play again.

No plans for the evening but a little tv.
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Your mention of 7 hours reminded me.

A friend held world record for longest guitar marathon. See below.


https://www.worldrecordacademy.com/...athon-world_record_set_by_Andy_Hoke_90121.htm
That record has since been bettered.

Ben
 
TeeJ said:
@Wingnut - saw this and thought of you. Apparently if you put a pool noodle on a paint roller, you can pick up any goathead seeds left after weeding. Way better than picking them up with your feet, IMHO!
View attachment 96099
Click to expand...

HOLY CR@P!!! ATSA LOTTA GOATHEADS!!! o_O

Now ya know why I've tried so hard to eradicate the blasted vines! Don't need my feet looking like that pool noodle! 😒

Chillin' with a cold beer here at the ol' hacienda... dropped Zorlac at the shelter earlier for his vet appointment, visited the injured man Clyde and his retired USAF neighbor Paul, took 'Car Porn' pics on the way home, all in all a good day! Had a good brunch too before taking off with Zorlac: ham & fried eggs atop cheese toast, with cold milk to wash it all down! :)

Just gonna chill tonight, maybe watch a movie or read a Western... mack a burrito later when I get hungry. Trash bin was emptied today, so I'll fill it with weeds tomorrow... recent rains should make weed-pulling easy! Might putter around a bit too, unless it's raining. Priority mission manana is to pick up Zorlac tomorrow evening... he'll be a "new man!" :oops:
 
Neb said:
Your mention of 7 hours reminded me.

A friend held world record for longest guitar marathon. See below.

That record has since been bettered.

Ben
Click to expand...
Ah! an electric guitar, that makes sense... Wouldn't happen with an acoustic steel string. He'd have bloody nubs left instead of fingers.

This guys only problem would have been staying awake.
 
Peanut said:
Ah! an electric guitar, that makes sense... Wouldn't happen with an acoustic steel string. He'd have bloody nubs left instead of fingers.

This guys only problem would have been staying awake.
Click to expand...
He practiced in prep.

When he would visit he would pick up the closest guitar and start playing as he carried on conversation. A guitar junkie.

Ben
 
Today was a work day, didn't finish up until 8PM because of some paperwork that needed to be completed.. :p

Moma didn't catch me planting strawberries in her flower bed... They just POOF..ED there...

The greenhouse is really starting to come together, I plan to take Wednesday off to haul all my scrap away...
 
All this time I had no idea what a goathead was. Now that I see that poor pool noodle, I'm glad to be ignorant.
I really like the idea of the indoor planter. I've not progressed beyond sprouts for off season greens.
Today I watched the snow fly and realized I've put off covering the pool a little too long. But I got in a 120 mile motorcycle ride yesterday so that's ok.
 
I watched a couple of movies online, cooked for Mom, played with some graphics, and then found out one of my cousins' daughters died last night. :-(
Also got a fedex package-- forgot I didn't have pants and walked out there. Driver was so lazy he put my package in the back of my truck instead of on the porch. I went out to look for the package and he said it was in my truck. He drove off before I could ask him not to leave stuff in my truck. It rained later. I would not have found it.
 
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