Weekend Musings

Much needed rain moving in

What a week. The weather continues to be hot, humid and just miserable. Last weekend I worked most of the time dismantling, boxing up and cleaning the old computer desk and surrounding areas. I think it was Monday night that my Dad helped me move out the old washer and dryer. Then I had to clean a whole lot of accumulated gunk from out of that corner (where it had been seeping) and get things ready to paint.

See all the 'help' I had???

Tuesday & Wednesday nights I painted, stained and reglued some tile. Wednesday night we also got a surprise and much needed rain--1 1/2 inches. In between the rain, I loaded up my truck with junk. At work we had a big dumpster brought in to move out a bunch of stuff out of the rental house and our boss told us if we had anything (within the 'list' of acceptable items) we wanted to toss in, that we could. When I got the little travel trailer it came with quite a bit of it's own nasty junk. I ended up loading up two t.v.s, two vcrs, three fans (grills removed as they are handy for lots of things!), a bunch of pots and pans and hotplates, and some old antennas. I was very happy to get rid of this stuff.

Thursday the washer and dryer were delivered with Dad hooking it up and Mom standing guard duty at the door so no errant cat would dart out. The kitties tend to scatter and hide when strangers are around so it's not as difficult as it sounds. I went in to work a little early to unload the truck into the dumpster...and nearly started an avanlanche when I opened the dumpster door. Yikes. Thursday night I used my washer and dryer--and the washer wouldn't spin out.

Friday the guy came back and fixed the washer. Friday evening Dad and I moved the new computer cabinet from the garage to the house, using two, two wheeled dollies--one on either end of the bottom of the cabinet. It was a little scary, but it worked like a charm with only minimal lifting and shoving. Once in the house we transferred it to two towels so that it scooted easily across the floor. Once it was in the house, I cleaned it and let the cats 'inspect' it.

For several days the heat indexes were around 109.

Saturday I was pooped. My back is still bothering me (not sure if I mentioned it, but I was 'down' in my back for three or four days several weeks ago). I got up early and wormed the three Shetland lambs and then walked the upper pasture to check the fences and for thistles, beggar lice and cockle burrs. The sheep have been off this pasture since May and it's grown like crazy. Unfortunately one section has quite a crop of rag-weed--nearly as high as my head! I've been putting off moving them onto new pasture due to the heat and the stress fresh 'greens' might cause. But they need to be rotated. They've been working on the front area around the house of the evenings and on their pretty gnawed down regular pasture during the day.

Because I use Ivomec wormer I didn't want to worm anyone while grazing them around the house. (Ivermectin can be fatal to collies) I hope I didn't wait to long on the lambs. I was also hoping for cooler weather to worm them anyway, but that ain't happening.

Once I got those outside chores taken care of early in the morning, I started working on getting the computer hooked back up. There sure are allot of wires that make these things possible! There were some glitches, but everything got straightened out fairly easily.

Then frankly I haven't done much on the productive side for the rest of the day! I'm still trying to decide how I want to set up the computer cabinet with all the misc. junk that I have (paper, books, office supplies etc.)

Oh, and one of the lambs got caught up in a bit of old barbed wire that I didn't know was there. Since it was down by my folks house, my Dad called to tell me, and I headed out to unwind the lamb. Only when all the sheep saw me they came running and screaming in so that the little guy felt abandoned and freaked out and broke free--dragging about three or four foot of barbed wire. Thankfully he doesn't seem to be injured, but it wasn't much fun convincing him to hold still while I cut and untangled it from his wool...all with sweat pouring into my eyes. I hate this summer.

This next week will be taken up with preparing a whelping area for Ashley, so I doubt much painting will happen---maybe a little squeezed in here and there. Still praying for a break in this miserable weather!

I do love my computer cabinet---oh my how I love it! And the orange walls are starting to grow on me. I think once the room is done, it will be very mellow and inviting. At least I hope so.

Have a great week.

Kitties first birthday--a rare picture with them all in the frame (plus Meshach)Starting lower left and working clock wise--Noah, Tempe, Trinity, Gabe, Verity & Chaco--Meshach is in the upper right.