Do you gots it?

Being a lady is an attitude.
~Chuck Woolery, Love Connection

Well.

This is swell.

Another week-long unbearable heat wave that renders everyone both useless and miserable.

Whatever happened to sweet autumn temps?

What the hey is this heavy, muggy, oppressive heat?

Big Daddy is dripping with sweat and covered in flies, hungry and tired (too hot to graze in the fields except at night), the chickens are panting like dogs, not laying any eggs and the coops are also invaded with flies, the dogs sleep all day and refuse to go outside and as for the humans, let's not go there.

Sumbitch!!

Watch it snow or something in two weeks, just for the hell of it.

In other news, this is playing
on TV right now (channel: Spike):

Best song intro of a retro show evar!
Who else is with me here :-D
Ah, memories of youth.... lol

So, I did nothing on Sunday.

Then I over-compensated yesterday by getting more lumber and hardware and spending four straight hours in the barn sawing, drilling, hammering, heavy lifting and hammering some more in the blazing heat.

I totally can't move today after a night of not sleeping out of pain and a busy brain.

I know! I'm an eejit!

The inside of the barn looks crappier than ever.

A total redneck trailer trash project.

I'm embarrassed and it's ugly and I hate it.

If only it was at least functional, but no. Two horse boxes, each half completed, still many long hours of work to go and for what? Recycling bits and bobs SUCKS but when you pay over $10 for just one simple door lock, $30 for hinges and $40 for bracing brackets, well, you start to look around at what you can re-use.

Sigh. One day we'll have the money to build things proper.

One day.

Time to go make iced tea, do some laundry and pop a few Advil.

/end of What's In Your Barn? post/

Beyond exhaustion

Fatigue is the best pillow.
~Benjamin Franklin

Without family, what are we?

First, I'd like to wish my beautiful little sister a very happy birthday - she turns all of 20 today, which makes me feel like an old crust but I celebrate her youth with a full heart and hope she knows how much I adore her!

Isn't she gorgeous? :)

So, the past few days have been crazy busy... Had to prepare for the "fencing bee" that took place yesterday. My dad and stepbrother drove in from Ontario and recruited two of my uncles (my dad's brothers) who live nearby to come help Vegas and I open up a new paddock for the horses. It was hot, sweaty and exhausting work but you know, we did have a good time getting through it - I cannot imagine how long it would have taken us without any help, oh dear lord!

At first we tried to carry the 6' cedar fence posts by hand to the end of the field but that was just stupid crazy. One of my uncles said "screw that" so he took the seats out of his van, they loaded up the posts and drove through 4' high grasses to the fence site - that saved hours of work right there.

Luckily the ground was hard and dry
so nobody got stuck in the middle of the field ;-)

The new fence line stretches to the end of our property,
we have 12 acres so it was a LOT of walking!

Vegas and my step-bro taking a breather n'shit -
there is a story behind this language... LOL!
Vegas is up on a ladder here:

Uncle, dad, uncle, me, Vegas, Maika, Dakotah:
We're a helluva lot more tired than we look!

I think we all got heat stroke...
Sure am feeling it today, ugghh.

One of my uncles stayed for dinner, my dad spoiled us all with wine, home-made lasagnas, dessert, fresh veggies from the garden and a whole lot of other stuff while my stepbrother proceeded to get plastered on beer and wine...

Yep, a planned drunken binge.

Holy crap.

We hadn't been around that sort of thing in ages and it wasn't pleasant. At least at a party you can move away and leave but when it's in your house? The burping and farting was something else... every sentence punctuated by "n'shit" - all of it harmless and unintentional, sadly - he's a great guy and fun when sober. Where does one learn to speak and behave that way?

Longest. Evening. Evar.

*shakes head*

Anyhoo. The muscle was very much appreciated and the work got done well and in good time, nobody got hurt, it was great to reconnect with my dad and uncles again - I've got awesome fambly, I tell you.

Today... we roast. It's hot. Very, very hot. The forecast is for more of this weather all week, ho geez - just as long as it's cool during the night so we can sleep, please? I hate to see the chickens panting, the dogs hiding in the basement and the horses being eaten alive by flies!

At least the horses went nuts this morning when they were let into their new pasture - nom! nom! nom! They should have enough food in there to last another good month, which is why we went to all this trouble in the first place.

We are family.

/end of Hiding From The Burning Rays post/

From the grapevine -

Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you.
~Spanish Proverb

Really bad August haikodes

Hot cold temperamental
You tease us
Month #8

****

Green! Green! Green!
Oh wait, is that a
Red leaf I see?

****

Yey! Corn harvest
Delicious golden nuggets
Stuck in my teeth

****

Quiet summer night
Alas,
Screeching crickets

****

Most perfect month
Of the summer
Kids back in school

****

Sitting on porch with
Laptop,
Wind in my hair
Happiness

Some, or nun?

For a long time I thought I wanted to be a nun.
Then I realized that what I really wanted to be was a lesbian.
~Mabel Maney

Happy homestead

I just love this time of year... Yet again on the cusp of another season change, scrambling to get stuff done before the weather turns and taking a bit of time to enjoy it all. Some trees are already starting to turn (gasp!) but I'm trying to ignore those for now.

We're getting another heat wave as of this weekend, so who knows what can happen?

Oh, speaking of the weekend!

My dad has rallied some forces and he's coming over (5 hour drive) with my step-brother on Saturday to help Vegas with the fence posts for the new paddock. Two of my uncles are also coming over to pitch in, how awesome is that?

A week-long job has been reduced to one afternoon, woo!

For some reason,
this has made Maika très happy:

(I posted another "happy Maika face"
in the Bubblegum Snapshots, worth a look)

As for Dakotah-bean, well, he's always happy:

My dad's bringing a couple of home-made lasagnas and I've got to start making ice for the lemonade, pop and water - gotta take care of a bunch of grunting, sweaty men working hard in the field, LOL! I'll also make a loaf of garlic bread and for dessert: ice cream. Or beer, depending on who's asking.

Big Daddy is mighty pleased, as a new paddock means
MORE FOOD!

I love my big doofus :-)

It's also my sister's birthday on Saturday, mustn't forget to call - she turns the big two-oh! I can't believe I'm twice her age. Sigh.

Two things before I leave:

a) if you haven't voted on the current poll, do give it a whirl!

b) what the heck does it mean when someone keeps dreaming of big appliances (stoves, fridges, freezers, washers, sometimes dryers - no dishwashers)? It's crazy. I move into these weird places with nooks and crannies and big wandering rooms and there are machines from previous tenants everywhere, from antique to old to funky to new-ish, stacked side-by-side or stuffed in corners, piled on top of each other, some with coin slots, some working and some not. It's freaking me out! These are not unpleasant dreams, just the recurring theme is making me think I'm crazy or something. This has been going on for years.

/end of Thirsty Thursday post/

And keep the doctor away?

If you have an apple and I have an apple
and we exchange these apples
then you and I will still each have one apple.
But if you have an idea and I have an idea
and we exchange these ideas,
then each of us will have two ideas.
~George Bernard Shaw

This'll have to do

I'm too pooped to blog or, worse, to read my favorite blogs tonight.

Boo :-(

All's good here, the paint job is fabulous but without the crown moldings the room still looks half-done... Gotta get that up soon, after that we can buy curtains and a couch and dress up the bare walls n'stuff.

I keep getting sidetracked by life's little demands, never-ending pet care and on-going disasters. That Big Daddy. If it's not a Sunday afternoon of colic, it's a Tuesday stable-box destruction by kicking. Godammit. More work on my full plate, gaaaahhh!

Vegas says that someday we'll be rich and pay people to build things proper. And mow the lawn. And fix the gardens. And clean the house.

I love my husband :-D

/end of Bedtime And Dreamytime post/

Did you know?

Definition of RENDER - transitive verb
1a : to melt down ; also : to extract by melting
1b : to treat so as to convert into industrial fats and oils or fertilizer

How does this affect you?

AAFCO Admits Rendered Pets in Pet Food - click here to read the article and see the short youtube video of the AAFCO’s president finally admitting this, on camera.

Lesson:

Read the labels of the foods you buy for your pets. More importantly, know how to interpret them and what the ingredients actually mean. Research the company that makes it and where they source their ingredients from.

Unless you don't mind feeding euthanized cats, dogs, roadkill, rodents, rotten grocery store meats and who knows what else to your pets...

He he

It's never what you expect

The plan was to paint today.

Waking up tired and achy, putting up painter's tape and just not feeling it on account of the hazy rainy day, I decided to focus on smaller tasks and just take it easier today: after all it's the sabbath, yes?

Somebody has a sense of humor because Big Daddy chose today to get colic.

Long, stressful and harrowing afternoon.

He's all right now, thankfully, but it was a wake-up call.

Colic is the #1 cause of death in horses and you just never know when it will strike, or why, or how bad it will be. Luckily he recovered with the help of vet advice, Bowen and T-Touch treatments, walking, pacing and waiting. It could have gone the other way very quickly, and it can happen again without warning.

Exhausting day, emotionally and physically draining for everyone.

Life comes at you so fast, sometimes you just don't have time to duck.

Holy shit.

/end of Love Now, Not Just Tomorrow post/

Lifelong loves are built in childhood

Funny how my old rig of a body is aging, my brain's sprouting mysterious holes and I'm getting more jaded by the day but lordy, have I changed that much since yonder?

I still love huge piles of snow...

I'm still fiercely independent
and must start every day with toast:

I still love ketchup and tuques:

The smell of fresh warm laundry from the dryer?
Still heavenly!

I still love my mama, more than ever
and always aspire to be as wonderful as she is:

Still love camping...

And I still love horses...
it may have taken 35 years but I finally have my own now!

So... have YOU changed that much? ;-)

Soul food

We picture love as heart-shaped
because we do not know the shape of the soul.
~Robert Brault

So this is what I did today:

I painted.

And painted some more.

Half done the giant room now, yey!

I wussed out and put painter's tape over the baseboards and around the windows, no fuss no mess - just a bit time consuming but meh, whatever.

Two coats of Sico Supreme Pearl in Whalebone and wow, it's so gorgeous!

We love it :-)

It's a lot paler than we thought it would be but it fits the room beautifully.

Very serene, calming and zen.

Peaceful.

Can't wait to see the room all done up with new furniture placement and all - this morning we sold the propane gas fireplace that took up a chunk of our living room so we now have both money and space for a long-awaited new couch - yippee!

Oh, and guess what:

Not hiring painters means money saved, which will go towards installing crown moldings - this room needs some classing up and it solved the stupid paint nightmare of ceiling lines! Woo!

Now... I ache in places I didn't know had raw hamburger muscles in them.

Holy mother of all pain.

Being both knackered, we ordered chinese food for dinner. Called it in at 5:44pm, the food arrived at 6:04pm - LOL! Of course it wasn't very good and totally not worth the money but some days you just gotta say f*ck it, you know? It was hot, it was plentiful and cleanup = paper bag in the trash. Win.

Tomorrow... There won't be any painting tomorrow, that's for Sunday.

Tomorrow is for errands, doggie TLC, potential company and maybe a bit of rest... It would be nice to sit outside in the sweet sun and read for a bit, cup of tea in hand.

I think I'll put that on the top of my list :-)

G'nite peeps!

/end of Making Pretty post/

My horse is amazing!

LOL!

Project mayhem

You can't say I'm not trying!

Someday I'll look back at this part of my life and laugh...

Someday.

Cuz right now I feel more like crying and hiding in a cave, oooo a nice nap would be lovely... and a two-hour massage...

Sigh. As if.

No, I'm stuck in the middle of a mess I created with grandiose ideas of turning this house into a home, only I hadn't thought out all the details first.

Such as: book painters in advance and not try to find help in the middle of a botched job with a short deadline looming ahead. Can you believe every single painter/contractor in the Yellow Pages is booked until next week, even for an estimate?

Gooaaaaaah!

I don't have any choice but to plow ahead and do the best I can with what I have, eh...

Here's a (bad) pic of what four long hours of applying primer to walls looks like - notice the piles of furniture in the middle of the room, the bare windows... We've been living like this for a week now! Enough already!

Oh, and this fugly couch is being relegated to the basement
as soon as we find a replacement!
Hopefully before the end of the month :-)

What you don't see is that this room is 30' x 18' -
that's a lot of wall to paint, not to mention the tedious trims!
I'm up and down on a chair every minute or so,
using small roller, large roller, trim tool and angled brush-
what a flippin' nightmare!

Anyhoo. Primer is done, albeit badly. I dribbled on the baseboards and missed wall spots - and let's not talk about ceiling borders and wall corners, those are... um... sad. I can see the old paint peeking out from everywhere. Thank goodness we have laminate flooring, or else all the paint splatters on it would have cost a fortune to remove... :-/

Now, here are the new paint samples applied on the primer,
two coats each - oh, the dilemma!
I love them all...
But we need to chose only two!

The real colors are much paler and
warmer/brighter than on this photo.

I think we'll go for the two paler colors, the ones on each end. This is a huge room with lots of light and anything dark would just bring it down, perhaps... Just waiting for Vegas to come home so he can give me his input.

Am I a good wife or what?

Even if I'm a shoddy, impatient painter.

Right, I have to go crunch some painkillers now and walk the dogs, they've been so sweet and patient today - it's like they know mommy's having a meltdown! Awe :-)

More news laters... alligators.

/end of Can't Rock At Everything post/

Blink!

I blogged too much yesterday so this one's short, besides I started my day waaaay late and had to cram a long afternoon of errands into... um, one afternoon... so not much time left for dramas nor shenanigans.

Got new paint samples, got new paint tools. Got primer.

Got lumber for the stables, bits and bobs of hardware.

Got a bag of lime for the box walls and got an earful from Vegas about it - hims scairt I'll chop up a body and get rid of the bits by dissolving them in lime sludge or sumtin.

Silly mens.

Nights are cool and refreshing these days, I actually like this weather.

Yes, I said it: this bit of summer is nice :-D

I kinda want to sleep in the tent tonight but my neck's a mess and I need my energy for tomorrow's paint job. Just priming walls, but still - ugh. I've been taking vitamin & herb supplements the past few days and I think I feel a difference? Not sure though. I'll keep on it for a few more weeks.

G'nite, peeps :-)

/end of Brain Vacancy post/

That's the spirit!

Continuous improvement is not about
the things you do well - that's work.
Continuous improvement is about removing
the things that get in the way of your work.
The headaches, the things that slow you down,
that’s what continuous improvement is all about.
~Bruce Hamilton

Oh, brother

Second post today, as I had to scrap the first one below.

There was no painting.

Well, there was some painting, some shaky hands, lots of paper towels, cuss words and the beginning of tears as the paint color took form on half a small wall.

Fugly.

F-U-G-L-Y!!

I threw in the towel right then and there, literally. Fuck this, what a giant waste of time. I hate painting. I suck at it. I need to get professional painters in here, I can't do this. There are just too many huge walls to paint, it's going to kill me and look like shit after I'm done anyways.

I vented. I stomped. I fumed.

My friend came in to check things out as I wanted her opinion and yep, I'm not crazy: the mocha paint in the can is the exact same as the paint swatch only it magically turned a pink hue once applied and dried on the walls. Super weird.

And even if the color had been the same once applied it still doesn't work in this space, not one bit. Clashes with everything.

What the heck was I thinking??

Ewww!

I felt like a failure, everything I touched went arse up.

I started a pot of tea and splashed my arm with boiling water. Spilled sugar all over the counter. While packing up a carton of eggs for my friend I dropped and broke two. Missed the trash can so had to clean a mess on the floor.

At one point it just got funny...

I mean, you can only fail so much, right?

My day just vanished in a cloud of yuck.

End of afternoon I decided to spend a bit of time in the stables working on securing Big Daddy's box and actually got a decent piece of work done. Then I took a good hard look at all the renos that I wanted to get done in there before November, checked that against my super meager budget and came up with inventive solutions that saves a ton of money on both supplies and labor, since I can do most of it myself.

I took the dogs for a walk, made them a nice dinner and set about planning a return to normalcy.

I can paint this damn room.

I will paint this damn room!

Inspired by this site and encouraged by my mom and my super-awesome hubby Vegas, I'm ready to try again. Face it, we don't have money to hire professional painters right now and I'm too proud to admit defeat! It's only one giant room, I can do it.

So tomorrow I'm heading to the store to get a vital piece of painting equipment that will allow me to do straight ceiling edges, I'll buckle down and use painter's tape for the trims (sigh) and, most importantly, I need to bring home some samples to paint on the walls so we can see if the colors actually work or not in this cavernous space.

Whodathunk it would be so complicated?

Jeez Louise!

(although I don't know any Louises)

Now, I'm off to paint my hair cuz tomorrow is another day and it's not going to involve any shades of grey, enough already.

G'nite!

/end of Pity Party Is Over post/

Quick! Before the gumption fades!

Imma gonna do it today.

After months and weeks and days of stalling.

Painting!

Gonna paint the huge living/dining room that has tons of flat wall space, many big windows and a patio door to throw in some trim twists! Woo!

Did I mention how much I loathe painting?

No?

It's cuz I'm so bad at it... No matter how clean I start off, I always end up with smudges, splatters, stains and drips. Everywhere.

Please wish me luck... and YES there will be some before-and-after pics for you to laugh at! LOL

/end of Challenging Day, Gulp! post/

Agri fair - buckle up!

I promised you photos from yesterday's "adventure", so here you go!

I had trouble picking out the best ones so just went with a bunch and hope you enjoy - remember, it's just like being there minus the smells.

You can thank me later :-D

We only went for the farm critters so once we had navigated through the maze of crap rides, cheap fried foods and piles of manure on the paths we finally arrived at the cow exhibitions.

(all photos click bigger!)

First the babies, notice how happy they seem...

It was a bit surreal, to be honest...
Like a dog show but for cows?

This one almost made me cry.
She was hugely pregnant, too...
Looks painful, no?

Mixing grains, shoveling manure...
All for a ribbon?

This about sums up the cow part:

For a $12 admission you got to see a lot of behinds:

...and a few sad-looking faces:

Then we wandered over to the horse bit,
Cause that's all there was.
Yeehaw!

I was next in line for that refreshing shower!

Inside the main stables,
prepping for ring shows:

The 3rd main attraction,
porta potties and tractors.
Sigh.

The midget exhibitions:

Vegas laughing at the hilarity of it all
(notice the "rides" way in back - yey empty dragon boat!)

Next up was the "egg and spoon" competition,
Where riders had to navigate at different speeds
Holding an egg balanced on a spoon, no fingers allowed:

There were quite a few participants in this one!
Pretty funny, too -
Drop your egg and you're out!

Hicks, hicks and more hicks:

This mare was asking me to please get her
the hell outta there...

Back to the bullshit...
Next time you eat a steak think of this big boy.
It was probably a hunk of his arse on your plate.

If you eat a hotdog
You'll probably get this bit instead
(yes, the balls!)

Bye-bye strange people in white
with your poor bloated genetically-modified beasts...

I'm glad we went even if it was disappointing in content. We had a good laugh and will never have to wonder if we missed anything by not going, you know? Mystery zapped!

Today's hot and blustery... again way above average seasonal temps, no break in sight. Tropical summer, arctic winter - we've got it all, folks! I moved the room painting to later this week when Vegas isn't here, he's deep into soccer - er, football - today so that means no unplugging the TV or anything.

Ah well. To each our own.

This afternoon is for horse grooming, flock care, running errands, baking and the like.

Yeah, another day of taking it easy on account of the sleepies. I did get some fairly good zzz's in the tent last night and a couple more hours in the house after the sun turned my sleeping quarters into an oven, but am still very weak and unfocused.

I'm getting some iron supplements later today.

/end of Cows, Cows, Cows post/

Haze

I'm trying to focus on the screen but there's a thick fog between my brain and reality, a film of water on my eyes from repetitive yawning.

I had some sort of energy for part of the day and then crashed again.

Tired, so tired.

And yes I slept, I'm sleeping quite a few hours in fact.

But never any deep sleep, I float on top like a leaf on a slow river.

*pauses to stare vaguely into space*

Oh, we finally went to that "famous" agricultural fair a few towns over today. Famous cuz it's been an annual event there for 184 years now.

Um.

I doubt it will last for many more years... Rumors are it's getting smaller and smaller due to increasing exhibitor rules, regulations and fees - and how the heck do you attract visitors at $12 a head, all ages? WTF? For the privilege of riding on a few rusty, rickety fairground rides, eating overpriced fried dingbats and looking at a few mangy, sick chickens in cages?

Gaaah! So annoyed! I wanted to turn around and come home but Vegas insisted we go in anyways since we had taken the time to drive there... Ah dear husband, you're OK in my book ;-)

We had fun laughing at ugly people and gaping at enormous cow udders. We watched some horses and riders doing things with eggs and spoons, looked for prize bulls and found none. No pigs either. No sheep, no goats, nothing. Lots of big tractors and farm equipment though.

And big porta-potties.

I'll post some pics tomorrow, too tired to set anything up now.

You'll be entertained, I promise!

/end of Moo? post/

Fairy and troll land, in images

Vegas and I made good on our promise to the beanies (our dogs) yesterday and took them for a hike up one of the nearby ski hills - we discovered this lovely and quasi-deserted path last year and were looking forward to going back - and yey! It was as lovely as we remembered it :-)

Gettin' ready, dogs foaming at the bit and all:

Religiously green:

The footpath that meanders along the creek
is a work of art in itself:

Pause for olfactory delights:

The great thing about this walk is that
the dogs never go thirsty:

Nature's path of awesomeness:

Huff! Puff! Huff!

Yey! Made it to the waterfall:

Another pause for resting, pics n'stuff:

Sweet happy Maika:

Happy Dakotah, our tired trooper:

Leaving fairyland...

...but not before admiring the stumps.

If you want to hear the creek music that accompanied us on our hike,
just click on the below :-)

The End :-)