Good Morning Allllllllllllllllllllllllll

The sun is NOT shining here today, but that's ok...keeps it a bit cooler out. The air show (the Thunderbirds) is going on out at the airport and I am getting all the noise in the sky here from it.

Had an issue at Wal-Mart vision center this morning. Waited 30 minutes for my appointment, as the doc was running late. All he was going to do was confirm that the contacts he gave me to try were working well and set it up to place an order for more. Well, after him being 30 minutes behind schedule, he came out, talked to someone who arrived after me and then called a different lady into the exam room. I told the person up front that I had shopping to do and would be right back. It took me 10 minutes to circle the store and get all that I needed. As I was heading back to the vision center, they paged me. I arrived a moment later. The doc was standing there with my file, beating it on his hand, complaining that he had to wait for me. I said, well, I waited 30 minutes for you and all you did was walk past me. My time is worth money too. The 2 minutes you had to wait for me is nothing compaired to the now 30+ minutes I waited for you. He then said, well, "I" had to wait. Like, omg, the king himself had to wait. I 'spat' back at him...well, I guess you are going to continue to wait, as I will see a different doctor, thank you very much. I went and told the store manager what happened. He gave me a $25 gift card (ooo, big deal! lol) but he also went straight over to the vision center and I could see that he did indeed address the situation.

So, I left without contacts, but I did buy a new vacuum.

sorry about your issue/incident with Doctor... i also hate to wait too long - each of us have valuable time too!

today the weather is really wintry - snow in south island - the winds from south west is blowing that cold air all over NZ - temps dropping - rained heavily too this morning - blowing hard now with a bit of sunshine in afternoon.

chooks looking well with all the new feathers for the winter - few of them got their new feathers just in time for this cold weather. gave them warm mash made with hot water/mash and bread lol

nothing much here at moment - waiting for anna to put in a gardening forum in here. and waiting for Tom to come back with food shopping after visiting his artist friend. by the way i started the fire early to make house warm and welcoming for Tom

soon time for hot coffee to warm me thru and thru - still have a hottie on my lap to keep me warm too.

see ya alllll very soon...

evening everyone
it was a lovely warm day here
went shopping this morning and took Clarissa with me we had fun, though it was a long rtrip lol the transit picked us up at 8am and we got home around 1pm, had to milk tonight, now I am relaxing lol

It's been a 'week'. It ends on the note of the weather men issuing a fire storm watch for our area all weekend.

brrr good day to you all in summer :p its probably 12c outside - been out wearing all the warm clothes - still cold tho - very happy to say both huge water tanks are full now.

snowing in south island of NZ and in middle of north island of NZ - i bet the people who ski and use boards will be very happy with the very cold weather...brrrr.

the night before we had a power cut for an hour and half - last night our lights flickered - went out but came on twice - so we went to bed early.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/0a15.html?source=nav

ouch last post on 28th June by me - where are you all???

its a rainy day today - placed more sheets of newspaper on chicken's run's slippery grounds to make easier to scatter wheat

yay! Owen and Tanya are coming back from their hols in a friend's bus (converted to be lived in) on monday - been very quiet without them for few weeks.

Tonight i am going to deaf club to watch famous All Blacks play rugby against tough Springboks (south africa) - i dont usually go out there on saturday nites but a friend asked me to come ...

It is a beautiful rainy morning here in my world. It has been up in triple digit temps all last week, this cooler rain is welcome. Maybe this will de-stress my hens and they will start laying better. The goats sure don't like the rain though.

That night i went to deaf club to watch rugby - i got distracted there was a deaf sign story competition which was pretty good.

and was disgusted with NZ team not having the ball the right way (i think) so therefore they lost... i wasn't suprised.

mmm my chooks are out on the backyard grass again - run getting wet again with the drizzling weather right now. gave them apple cores plus their usual. all looking well apart from much less eggs lately.

i have tied up a wee netted bag of bread to a string attached to and hanging down from a long piece of stick stuck up between the two trees - so cat cant get them :p hopefully the tiny waxeyes will come...

thankfully my washing is finally up to date... the weather in the past few weeks has been very soggy, damp, wet and its unbelievable that my washing on frames took a week to dry - having it got wet in the rain even in the protected porch...

finally the last week we've had sunny days to help me to finish the blinking washing and transplanted a little old camellia tree that has lovely huge pale big flowers - into the side flower bed by the front door.

waiting to hear from you all - in here wondering how you all are.... right now i missed ya all

heya Tree good to hear you got your laundry done finally
it has been very rainy here the last few days

It looks like it will be another beautiful day. There is a little cloud cover and we may get some showers. We had been almost in drought conditions, so the coolness and moisture are appreciated. I may try to get quite a bit of the spent vegetable vines out of the garden to make way for Fall plants. The Concord grapes are ready to pick and there is a good crop this year. I don't want to stand at the stove and make jelly in this warm weather. I think I will just can whole grapes and make jelly another day when the extra heat in the house will be appreciated.

it has been so rainy and icky here man do we ever have mud lots and lots of mud
heading out soon to do chores, a never ending thing around here lol

It is another drizzling day here. I'm not complaining. Last week it was up to 105* a couple of times. This 77* weather is like a fresh breath. We haven't received enough rain to erase the cracks in the yard, but they are getting smaller.
We picked the Concord grapes yesterday. The week plus of high temps took their toll. I got about a fourth as many grapes as I thought I would get. But it was better than none.
I will go get my newest grand baby a little later today. He will be 3 months old in a few days.
Plenty of chores to keep me busy today. I better get to them.

it is a cool breezy day here
waiting for my sister to call me back
nothing much happening here yet lol

We had showers off and on all night last night. It is still raining. The goats and chickens are ready for sunshine. If the weather doesn't clear, I will be picking okra in the rain. I need to start catching up roosters for butchering, but it has been too hot or too wet. I am glad I have pressure cookers to make them tender. LOL
If I can't get outside to work, I will be reduced to cleaning house. Did I mention that I hate housework.

Life has been a bit busy on this end with house financing paperwork, etc. The weather has been great...hovering right around the upper 90's and sunshine. Got two nice thunderstorms last week as a long over due treat. Things are good on this end as I am getting closer to being caught up again with life's chores.

Yesterday seemed to last a week. I had been up the night before with the 3mo. grandson. He and his Daddy were here all day and the major care giving was done by me. The baby has a bad back. It makes him cry when his back is touching a bed. LOL Just a tad spoiled.
My incubator started cheeping and the granddaughter was up on a stool with a flashlight off and on all day. Very nerve racking, but she just loves the chicks to death.
When my daughter was walking by our camp trailer, she heard a noise. The GP mama decided to whelp under the trailer yesterday morning. She had 7, but one died. It started pouring down rain around 9:00 last night and I had to go out in it to save the pups. I got to them just as the water reached them. It was lucky I didn't wait another 15 minutes or they would probably have drown. Mama and the 6 pups are happily sleeping in the camp trailer at the moment.
I picked our crop of spaghetti squash and got them all steamed and put up in the freezer.
I picked okra in the rain. Mandy picked a big batch of Chili peppers that she roasted when she had the oven hot from making bread.
There was all the normal everyday chores on top of everything else. By the time bed time came, I was wishing I hadn't drained the hot tub for the summer. LOL
Today we will peel the peppers and get them put up. I have a batch of cheese going and a bunch of in the house stuff that has just got to be taken care. I don't plan on killing myself getting it done, but I will wade through as much as possible. Not sitting here though, so I am going to get up and at em. Y'all have a good day.

you have gotta take pics of the new pups we just love seeing new babies, so glad you got the the pups before the rain did
wooo sounds like you will be well sticked for a while with all the stuff your putting up.

Okie...it sounds like you live the life of a book I have...the Encyclopedia of Country Living. That is my goal...to get as far into that as possible. Much healthier of a lifestyle but oh so much more work.

morning all peeking in real quick
getting up at 5am is for the birds lol
cya all later xoxoxoxo

Country living suits a workacholic (sp? who loves life out there, loves animals, chooks and gardens provided fences and a house is all in good order?

But Okie managed it all very well including saving pups and having grand-daughter with a torch on a stool. good on ya and congratulations! if Okie can do it - this means anyone with good work attitude can do all this too

aha! what about Anna? she is doing this country living too? what are your views on this kind of life when you get back here one day?

I will give y'all a bit of background so you know why Okie does things like she does.
I am the fifth daughter of parents that lived through the Dust bowl and the Great Depression. My parents married in 1939. They didn't get a vehicle till 1943. We had running water in the kitchen and bathtub, but used an outhouse until I was about 10 yrs old. My folks had a 20 acre truck patch. We had a vegetable stand on our front porch. We had a string of 23 milk cows we milked morning and night. We raised chickens for eggs and butchering. We had a route we went on to deliver milk, eggs and vegetables to people twice a week. If there was vegetables that didn't sell, we canned them if they were still fit. If not, they went to feed animals.
You never wasted anything. You never threw away something that could be used again.
I can remember my mother washing clothes under a tree in the back yard. She was really up town though, the ringer washer was electric. LOL
I was taught from a lap baby on up that if there was something worth wanting, it was worth working for.
I come from people who always did the things so many are trying to relearn. I got away from a lot of it in the years we were raising our kids. I am just going back to my roots.
Something that really tickles me is how so many people try to make home made taste or look like store bought now. I can remember when commercials were about how different store bought items were as good as the ones you make at home.
I remember the first store bought milk I ever tasted. It was when I started to school. That was about the nastiest tasting milk I had ever had. hehe

When I share different things I am doing, it isn't to brag or say looky here what I can do, it is just sharing a part of my day. I was raised in a way that gives me the know how to do many things people today are trying to relearn. I honestly didn't know there were so many people trying to learn the old ways of doing things until I became a high tech red neck and got a computer. ROFL

Well, my story...

My grandparents were 'your' parents. Your views and ethics were instilled firmly in my mom.

I was 7 when we moved to a 280 acre dairy farm. We lived off the land, the same as you up until my mom became ill. She was diagnosed with ms.

My dad left us when I was 9, he couldn't handle the fact that my mom had ms and went in a wheelchair at that point. It was me, my little sister and my mom. My mom came to me (at the ripe old age of 9) and we discussed the situation as adults. It was up to me. Would I be willing to be her caregiver to keep the 'family' together? I didn't hesitate, I said yes and I have never regreted it. We lived on disability checks and the odd ball support check from my father.

We moved into town, into a tiny two bedroom apartment. Leaving behind the farm, the animals, the fresh air, the green grass, the wildflowers at the front door, etc.

We too did not waste a thing. We were poor, as poor could be. In the most impressionalbe age of junior high, I was thrilled to receive a bag of hand me down clothes to go through and choose from for my new school clothes. No, I did not belong to the trend setters group of the name brand this and that, and I didn't mind.

Now, as an adult and able to make my own decisions finally (left the abusive husband last year) and no demands of my time (mom passed away 6 years ago) I can finally go back to where I came....living off the land, survival by what I grew and raised. You can't find better tasting vegetables or eggs or chicken (or milk, or beef...but I can't do the whole farm thing alone) than what you produce at home. I have lupus, so can not over expand beyond what my health will allow me to take care of. I don't have help, except for my good watch dog Grizz. But...I'll be damned if I can't go 'home to my roots'.

So, that's me...there's a lot more, stuff that would not be suitable for a family board and not knowing how people would handle the situations I could describe. But, just know I am a survivor, a fighter, a lady and your best friend as long as there is respect...both ways. I am the product of the strongest, gentlest, most beautiful woman on earth....my hero...my mother, God rest her soul.

Well, It's nice to meet a kindred spirit.
I couldn't have had better parents if I looked the whole world over. They taught me that just because there is a little pain, that doesn't allow you to quit until the job is done. If you have a blister on your hand from hoeing without your gloves, it teaches you to remember your gloves next time or stop and go get them, but the job has to be done before you quit.
This mentality has almost killed me a few times. I have Fibromyalgia, a impacted vertebra, Carpel tunnel, Ulna tunnel, and I have lost a big part of my range of motion in my neck, shoulders and arms. Sometimes when there is a job that just seems too big for me to do, I hear my sweet little Mama's voice saying," Where there's a Will, there's a Way."
God blessed me by giving me a great imagination. I have had to use that imagination to invent new ways of doing things, because my limitations won't let me do it the conventional way.
If it's too heavy to lift, get a prise bar. If it is still too heavy, get a longer prise bar.

YEah i hear ya okie. I was out today loading horses into the trailer with sarah. Well ms independent soul decided she was going to go get the 3 ton floor jack in my truck cause i really didn't feel good enough to carry it out into the pasture. I am hurting so bad all the time lately. Well she did what I said not to do and lifted that heavy and i mean HEAVY jack off the bed, and loaded it on a hand truck and trucked it out into the pasture. Grrrrr.
I got it off the hand truck lol barely, and got it under the trailer and jacked it up and we hooked up the truck. then comes the fun part. Lifting it into the truck bed. Shoot i thought my chest was going to die right there.

Anyway loaded up the horses, dusty was the PITA of the day. Decided to be a snot and take forever to get into the trailer and ripped one halter to shreds.
FINALLY got him in, and closed the door and moved festuce, dusty and jake over to my pasture.

THeir out there right now trying to figure out the 10' tall weeds out there.

Got back and Sarah said where do you want to back this trailer up at. I told her, i'm not backing it your backing it and i showed her how to back it where she wanted it She did a awesome job too!!!!!