Jenna at Cold Antler Farm is an inspirational writer. She convinced me (by a post on her blog) to try to get my own place, despite the fact I already lost my pre-stroke house to foreclosure. Jenna has several books published, the latest Barnheart can be found at Barnheart.com. She is running a giveaway on her blog, all you have to do is spread the word about her homesteading workshops, blog, and books.
I will be way too busy to post for a few days. I have a day and a half before the move. I also will not have internet right away, so not sure when my next post will appear. Getting internet ASAP is on the top of my list. I ran out of funds and refuse to take more out of my small savings. I will be checking out the local library Tuesday or Wednesday, maybe they will have internet access.
With the same camera I capture the hair like stuff on a cucumber blossom, but my son’s 6th grade graduation pictures came out grainy. My son begged not to go to his graduation. He says he hates school, and a half day already today was enough for him. I made him go. He is lucky they did not have to wear cap and gowns or else I would have let him skip that nonsense. He had a decent, borderline good time. He received an academic excellence award for having an average above 93 all three trimesters. Intelligence runs in my family. Unfortunately, so does insanity and OCD, and a lack of social skills. I am trying to improve myself on all three. I am hoping I did not contribute anything too damaging to my procreates.
I love the tendrils on veggie plants. Maybe, I should try eating them to see if they taste like bean sprouts. First, I would research if they were edible. I would love to take a class on foraging for wild edibles. Then after I think about it, I would forget which were not safe to eat or just too bitter. The internet is really an amazing replacement for part of my memory.
I have waited so patiently for my avocado pit to sprout, it finally has a shoot. I seriously was about to give up on it. Now, I will have to read up on how to take care of it so it will mature. I have killed too many sprouts already this year. I only have cucumber seedlings that lived through my poor lighting and tiny paper pots. They are doing great, despite being way too spindly to start off. I also lost a few and had to restart them. I will be taking both with me to our new home. I will just build a small container garden this year. I still have to make raised beds to work in next year. The avocado will have to be kept inside, since it is a warm weather plant. In a few years, I hope to have a greenhouse. That is my eager plan anyway.
My son played his last baseball game here today. His team’s last week is next week. We are moving Sunday. I tried to take pictures two different days. My camera does not work right anymore. It works if I don’t zoom, but it is out of focus when I zoom. I changed to different settings with no luck. I will have to see about getting that fixed. The camera is only 3 years old. I admit, I have dropped it a few times. I might have to buy a baby one that can be dropped.
I am trying to avoid building up my anxiety of being ready to move. Holy crap, it is closing in on me fast. I don’t have my new internet service lined up yet! Ready or not, I resolved to just take one day at a time. All my projects and efforts take me so much longer after the stroke. Yesterday, I shucked some corn on the cob for dinner. The first piece took me 15 minutes. The rest went a little quicker, about 20 minutes for the next 5 ears. I won’t be working in a factory anytime soon. If the Nazi’s captured me, I would be shot. It would take me too long to walk to the gas chamber.
I gave up on perfection after the stroke also. I bought a cheap coconut liner for my planter. It took a few minutes to finagle it into the planter just so. It was almost evenly spaced, until I picked up the bag of dirt with one hand. I dropped the whole bag in the center and messed up the liner and the hanging chains tangled more. Well, now it has more character with the liner sticking out. You can’t buy preplanted ones like mine. With my messed up vision, I don’t notice all the imperfections anyway.
Because of my addiction to home improvement shows, I have come to use the word patina more often than my former self would approve of. Everything I own is a project waiting to happen. This is what is giving my life purpose for now. As much as I have been to my new to me (circa 1958) home to clean and paint, I still have much more to improve. I have also starting to acquire more possessions that will be a repurposed wonder someday. I got this old aluminum pot from the local thrift store (for free). It was there last week, and since I could tell no one else would cook in it, I thought it would make a nifty planter. It still has to have the holes drilled in the bottom. I am temporarily storing part of the bag of pebbles I bought for another project. I could not lift the heavy bag too easily by myself with one hand, so I dumped some in the pot. I then got the idea to stick some of my loose landscaping doodads that have been kicking around through my various moves. Those wooden tulips my son just had to have a few years back when we stopped at a yard full of some guys homemade wood crafts. I always wanted to be that person, to have a yard full of stuff to sell. My yard chairs, that were formerly used as my dining room chairs, because I am cool like that, are getting their own I have been moved one too many times nicked up rusty spots. They are on the list of yet to be painted. They will most likely match my front door, since that is metal and needs to be sanded and painted too. I have not decided if they will be periwinkle, deep blue, or deep purple. I am leaning towards periwinkle.
My son had his second baseball practice/game this season. He plays so awesome, for someone whose dad never spent a minute throwing him a ball or even watching a game on tv with him. I also can not afford to take him to a batting cage. He could be a pro if he tried. He also was the only kid that cried when he struck out. I thought he grew out of that last year. I am not sure if he needs therapy, or maybe just a few friends to tell him to get over it. I keep reminding him of how even Jeter and A Rod occasionally strike out. What I say just makes him angry. He did make it to first base and then a run home with the next batter. He also caught a pop fly at second base. He made it seem effortless.
I spend too much time looking at these barns everywhere I drive. All I can think of is, why did they let it decay? Was it too expensive to fix? Too much work to farm? At one time having two silos meant you were well off. I think a huge falling down building would be a liability. Look at all the resources left to rot. I would love to reside my shed in old grayed barn wood. There is a bunch of steel in the silos. Some people would part out the old decaying truck. I took a picture to show my brother. He likes old trucks, but I don’t know one from another. I first noticed this place when I was driving back from my new place because it had huge rocks in the drive. I love rocks, I would love huge boulders, not quite car size in my yard. Big Sigh. I have four huge wonderful trees in my yard! I also have a house that I need to fix ASAP, so it does not end up like the barn in the picture.
This baseball season is not starting out well. Almost every kid on our team showed up today! No coach, no other team. The kids decided to play anyway. Yay! Fun trumps unorganization, and mother nature. It had rained and thundered most of the day. The field was full of puddles. The boys did not care. They took turns batting. They did a great job of not fooling around too much, and being sort of safe with no coach or rules in place.
It rained again when I got home, so no walk for me. I slept so late today, not much else got done. I need to start packing my car tomorrow. I also need to find more boxes, so I might make a trip to the liquor store.
I struggle to post everyday. I am lacking good content. I have not had my camera out since I put in the new memory card. I planned on taking it to the ballgame today. The game was cancelled because of the wet field.
I only packed a few more boxes of books in my son’s room today. I felt dizzy, so I stopped, and never went back. I still have to edit his clothes. He has weighed the same for a few years, just grew taller. Most of his t-shirts and shorts are too short, yet plenty big around his waist. I still struggle to get him to eat more. It is hard trying not to make a big deal out of it. I don’t want him to have mental issues about his body image as the result of my constant nagging.
My blood pressure has been slightly high again. Most likely it has been the worrying about moving, along with the bread with too much sodium. I look forward to when I will start baking my own.
My daughter and son-in-law were rained out of their hiking they had planned. They were only one hour away at a friends house, so they decided to take a quick trip up to take us out to dinner. I was the only one that actually went out with them. Since I had skipped lunch, I was hungry. I ordered a chicken quesadilla. It was huge! My son-in-law cut a piece off for himself, since I knew I would not be able to finish it. I still was the last one done. It was so sloppy, and filled with salsa. I have never had one served like that. The salsa usually comes on the side. It was good since I was craving peppers and salsa anyway. I left room for a small ice cream with hot fudge on it. They were stingy with the hot fudge. I guess my guilty glutenous ways are better left to indulge at home. I rarely eat ice cream now, so I most likely won’t have any more until my birthday. Maybe earlier if I lose 10 more pounds.
Tomorrow I will make my own pizza dough. I was chopping up peppers when they called. I am going to load my pizza with peppers. I have been very lax with the walking lately. I think my knees have healed enough from the ladder stress I put them through. I must get back to walking. I also need to get my stim machine back on my shoulder. I feel my shoulder drooping too much. My wrist has been feeling strong with out the stim. If I start the routine with my shoulder, I might as well try my wrist again too. Even though it feels strong, it is not 100 percent back to normal.
Tomorrow I need to search for a new dentist closer to our new house. I also need to plan my next trip down. Figure out how to tear out the rug in my son’s room, buy a new rug, and get it in place before we move his furniture in.
In Sync With The Universe 