We have two does due to kid in February. One is due on February 22nd. I haven't figured out the date on the other doe (oops). I am sure I have it in my barn records, I just have to look for them.
Last year, I put in a request to my husband that he build me a maternity ward for the pregnant does. Well, the wedding kind of took up all our spare time and the doe ended up kidding in the doe pen. Which wasn't that big of a deal except that made it basically impossible to get hold of the babies and spend time with them, so they are the wildest babies we've ever had.
Also, one of the does due to kid is half wild. She is not scared of me, but she won't come up to me readily either. So I am going to have to really work with her, to tame her down for milking. My hope is to get her into the maternity ward by next weekend, and then start spending time with her every day. I also hope to be present when she kids as that helps the bonding process between the doe and her human milkers. We let the does keep their kids, but we get kidding goo on our hands and then let the doe lick us clean. She's licking her kids clean, which helps her to bond to and get to know her kid, so licking us helps in the same way.
It is very important that a doe licks and cleans her kid because she will reject them otherwise. If a doe has twins or triplets and she licks and cleans one and the other crawls off in the other direction and she never gets to "know" the kid, she will very likely reject the kid. Most does hate other kids, and will head butt them. If she doesn't bond to her kid, she treats the kid as another doe's kid. Then you end up having to bottle feed.
Bottle feeding isn't that big of a deal, but it does add about an hour to chores as there are now bottles to clean, babies to feed, in addition to milking the dam, processing the milk, etc.
So we decided this weekend we'd get the maternity ward built. We are building a small shed 8 feet by 8 feet square. Dh is also supposed to be working on his other weekend job, but he keeps going 90 miles to the jobsite, only to find the electricity isn't turned on. That's a real bummer, not to mention a huge waste of gasoline!
After we get the maternity ward built, we'll paint it. After it's painted, we'll put a fence around it. We have a lot of fencing material, so we just need to take the time to put the posts into the ground and we'll be set. Hah. Here's the hubby sawing the boards down to seven feet long.
Here I am framing the wall, which means I'm hammering the wall studs together.
I have to make sure the 2x4s butt up to each other, and since the ground isn't perfectly level I have to stand on one stud with my foot angled over onto the other one, press down and hammer. Dh took some pictures of this technique, but they didn't come out. The camera actually considers them a different format and won't show the image at all.
Okay, I hammered all the walls together, and now we have to move the green swimming pool (the dog's water for drinking and laying in, when it's hot in the summer) and the dog's shade area.
Here's a closer view.
Here's Mocha, one of the pregnant does. She's standing with her front legs on a higher surface than her back legs. They like to do that later in their pregnancy. She's also chewing cud as you can see by the golf ball wad sticking out the side of her mouth on the right side.
Here dh and ds2 are carrying the walls to the area where we're putting the maternity ward.
The walls are up!
Now the plywood is up! We've got a BOX!
Here's the front side. We only framed in three sides. We'll leave the middle section here open for a doorway.
Dh had to leave at this point to go in and make Rattlesnake Stew for Question and Answer night at church tomorrow.
I stayed outside to finish shearing the walls - which means I was hammering 8 nails into each set of studs. 8 nails multiplied by 23 studs. Okay? That's 184 nails. It takes about 6 to 8 whacks to get each nail in. Not to mention the ones I nailed into the stud, but missed by a fraction of an inch, had to remove and nail it back in so it would catch. Let's say an average of 7 whacks to get each nail in. That's a minimum of 1,288 whacks.
Speaking of nails, I broke my thumbnail by whacking it.
And my hands are covered with rust from handling all those rusty nails.
OH yeah. Chuck's not my husband's name.
Here's Chuck:
Remember when we took Chuck 1100 (Total Gym) back to Walmart? Well, his big brother Chuck 1700 Club actually had showed up the day before. I swore myself to secrecy so I could see how it was going to work out.
My goal was to get some exercise, and that was it. Not get sucked into diet mentality, just get my body moving.
I am very pleased with the results. I'll tell you more about it sometime. To say the least, one month ago I would not have been able to pound in over 200 nails (remember I also pounded two nails into the top and bottom of each stud on the walls, so that would be another 44 nails) without having exercised this body like I have been for the past month.
Go Chuck!
Until next time.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
How Chuck Helped Me Build a Maternity Ward
Labels: goats, Never Forget, work
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
The Skirting
Labels: work
We finished that skirting on Monday. It really makes the place look like it needs to be painted!
Until next time.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
"Yes, those look like almonds, but they are pecans."
Labels: Just Stuff, work
I worked with dh today... we started the process of putting skirting around a manufactured home that is 70 feet long and 28 feet wide. We laid the bottom rails, hammering stakes in every three feet, and nailed the top back rails in place. The next step will be to cut the panels and insert them into the rails, then lock in the top front rails. After we finished for the day, we stopped at the truck stop before starting on our 90 minute drive back home. There was a candy shop inside, near the restaurant with chocolates, salt water taffy and fudge. The Almond Paws looked really good and I asked the girl to weigh two for me.
She looked down at the Almond Paws and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, we're out of the Almond Paws." I looked again, and looked at dh and said, "Those there?" and she says, "Oh, yeah, those look like almonds, but they're pecans." The tone of her voice was very matter of fact, as if she gets this all the time from the silly tourists. Again I looked at dh not knowing how to respond, since the girl was convinced these were pecans. I just asked her to weigh two for me, we bought them and were on our way.Now ironically, my friend Rees just gave us a huge sack of pecans from her backyard tree. On the 90 minute ride to today's job, I used a pair of dh's channel locks to crack and shell over 5 dozen pecans. I know what pecans look like. They look NOTHING like almonds. The Almond Paws ARE made of almonds, not pecans.
I weighed the pecan meat once I got home; I shelled 10.5 ounces.Until next time.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
80 Year Old Woman?
Labels: work
As I mentioned earlier today, in an attempt to shore up my self image, I've been wearing my new professional outfits and putting my hair up in a French twist. The reason I decided to start putting my hair in a French twist is because I want to wear it that way for my friend's upcoming wedding. I've also always wanted to know how to do a French twist. Not just an attempt and I can't do it and then going with a French braid or twisting my hair into a bun on top of my head. I have put my hair into a French twist three days in a row and every day it gets easier. I am placing the bobby pins properly as my hair is staying in place nicely all day long. I'm learning!
So I have looked VERY nice this week. Every day several of my coworkers comment on how they love my new outfits and how I look so put together. My dress today was blue and my boss especially liked it, since her favorite color is blue.
And to be totally honest with you, another aspect of my doing this is because of my coworker who eats Lean Cuisines. She has this beautiful red hair that's curly and she always wears makeup and she looks nicely put together. She told me today she wished she could dress professionally all the time, but since losing 40 pounds she has to pick and choose the days, since she doesn't have too many outfits to wear. I guess I should have 'fessed to her that part of my wanting to dress nicely was because she looks so nice! I've been feeling like I'm on the janitor crew with my jeans and tennis shoes.
Soon after lunch I'm standing at the printer waiting for some documents to finish. One of my coworkers walks up, apparently she had sent some documents to the printer as well. Here is how our conversation went:
Coworker: "Oh, that is a very pretty dress. It looks really nice on you. Now the dress you wore yesterday, if you wear it again, be SURE you wear your hair down because you looked just like an 80 year old woman."
Me: "Ummm, really. I didn't think I looked like an 80 year old woman."
Coworker: "Well, you did."
Now another coworker, a man, had walked up by this time and I don't even remember what his problem was, but he needed something from me so I walked away.
About 15 minutes later, the woman coworker comes back and says, "I hope I didn't hurt your feelings earlier. You see what happened is I looked in the main hall and I saw you there and I thought we had a new client. And it turns out it was you. I thought you were an 80 year old woman."
I told her no harm done, I wasn't hurt by what she'd said.
You know, I just had to consider the source and laugh. I'm 44 and no one can believe I am this old, let alone 80. Apparently she thinks the French twist is only for old bats. I happen to think it looks very sophisticated and if I do say so myself I look very professional and sharp. She is obviously jealous.
Until next time.
Very Bad Day Continued
Labels: work
Last night I turned my computer off and closed all the browser windows, totally forgetting I had started a post. So this morning I just put "To be continued..." and now here I am with the rest of my thoughts.
My new heels are Aerosoles and they are actually comfortable!
Well, except for they rub on the back of my heels, but that is easily remedied with a band aid. I almost never wear heels because they hurt my feet, so the fact that I am wearing these shoes all day long should stay a lot for the brand. It would be fun to try on some other styles of Aerosoles to see if they are as comfortable. I wonder how these would fit: Gene Land.
I also got myself two new suit-type outfits, $29.99 each, two pairs of slacks and two dressy shirts, and a blue dress for $14.99. I'm learning to put my hair up into a French twist, so I've wearing my hair this way all week. It looks very elegant. It also helps me to feel better -- in a way I guess it's proving to myself psychologically that I'm not just a slave or lower class citizen here at work. It also serves as a psychological statement to everyone else that I'm not a slave. I am elegant. I deserve to be treated with respect. And last but not least, you know how it freaks people out when you dress nicer than you normally do. They think you're looking for a new job.
I'm beginning my wish list for my next job. I almost didn't come in to work today. I woke up depressed and was crying about the whole stupid situation. But I'm here. Tired. Trying to figure out how to stop feeling hurt over what happened, and my office happens to be right between the two unfeeling persons who planned the event.
One other person talked to our CEO and got the same answer. Astonishment that ANY OF US would think we would be invited. I feel so disrespected.
Until next time.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Labels: Aggravation, Deep Thoughts, work
As I looked for the title to that book by Judith Voirst it occurred to me that today wasn't the ultimate worst ever day I've had in the past year, but it was bad enough that I wished I could have left work by noon and gone home for the day, crawled into bed and stayed there for hours with the covers over my head.
What happened is I went and let my feelings get hurt.
The place where I work had their 60th anniversary event on Friday. The invitation said, "The Board of Directors and Staff cordially invite you to attend our Donor Appreciation Luncheon".
Now wouldn't you think the Board of Directors AND the staff would be included in the luncheon, considered both parties were said to be doing the inviting? Not my job. It was decided early on that staff would NOT be included in the luncheon event. No. We would be offered "delicious sack lunches" (an oxymoron if I ever heard one!) including a "snack, drink and sweet treats". Those are the words included in the email. Very condescending if you ask me. And the person who wrote the email does think herself to be better than the "rest" of us.
I honestly thought our CEO would be upset to discover that people were very upset at being excluded. I emailed him to that effect and he was very polite, but firmly told me that staff was never going to be included in the event, from the beginning planning stages.
Staff was expected to WORK the event. I guess that's how we come in on the invitation.
And the person who planned the event is NOT AN EVENT PLANNER. I personally heard some positive feedback on the event, so to our guests things looked great. I guess in the long run, that's all that counts.
I am now trying to stop feeling upset over the whole thing.
I actually took off work yesterday, well most of the day. I had to attend a training for one of our upcoming proposals and went to that. But I decided early on in the day that I wasn't coming in for the day. Instead I ended up going clothes shopping. Yep. Me, clothes shopping. It's been nearly eight years since I shopped for office wear clothing, and I decided yesterday was the day. My MIL gave me $200 on my birthday last May to buy some new clothes and I'd only spent $50. So I spent the other $150 and actually bought myself some heels!
To be continued...
Sunday, May 20, 2007
It's a Good Day to Clean
Labels: Body Acceptance, books, goats, knitting, work
I'm thinking weekly posts are going to be my best hope at this point in time. I'm trying out the "working 15 minutes, taking a 15 minute break" FlyLady idea today. I think that's her suggestion. I figure I can get four hours of housework done if I stay at it all day long. (Hah, that worked for about 1 hour and now I've been here since.)
So I'll be here on and off for the next couple hours or so. Depending on how much I end up fonting about. Pretty cool on the new Blogger feature - auto-saving drafts. NEAT.
My keyboard and mouse arrived. The mouse is awesome, now to learn how to use all the buttons all over it. The keyboard's spacebar isalittle funky... as you can see I am having some spacebar issues. I hope I'll get used to it.
On the baby sweater front... well, it's looking like I might be giving it to someone else's baby. Maybe. I've become a bit annoyed with the previous recipient baby's parent who didn't even know I was knitting a baby sweater, so will never even know what the baby almost had. I was confused about the front and blogged about it here. I think I solved the problem. I'm pretty sure I was backwards on my sides. I will try to remember in the future to use patterns which show the layout of the pieces. This pattern doesn't, so I have no idea how the individual pieces are supposed to look. But this is what I have for now. I think the piece on the left is the right side. The piece on the right side is the first side I did and I had to take out several rows to be redone correctly.
Because this part of the pattern takes so much thinking effort, I decided to start my sock gauge. I hear a lot of grumbling about making the gauge, but then I read a blog somewhere - did I already link to it in a previous post? I see that I haven't. Anyway, I decided to embrace gauge swatch-making and use it as a tool, which is what they say it is anyway. That said, I discovered why I couldn't get my gauge without using needles 3 sizes smaller with this knit baby sweater. It's because I knit freakishly loose. So I decided to tighten up my knitting on the sock gauge. I left this image extra big so you can click on it and maybe see what I'm taking about. The bottom few rows are very loose and stretchy. But as I continued on perfecting my technique my knitting became tighter and more uniform. Later in the day I worked on the baby sweater again and was still able to achieve the loose knitting effect which is important if I ever want to finish the baby sweater.
I like this article about gauging.
Rethinking Thin arrived. I've had a chance to read a bit of it, and frankly am astonished at how long people have been dieting, and learned that like fashion, diets resurface their way through the generations.
Yesterday dh had another side job. It's actually a continuation of side jobs for an elderly woman. We neglected to call to let her know our estimated time of arrival so naturally she was a bit annoyed at us. It was getting late in the day so we had almost decided to wait until next weekend to finish the job, but then we decided we just wanted to get it done. We refinished her back gate, and replaced the door frame (the decorative part) around one of her side doors. We stained the back gate and painted the door frame. It took longer than expected - four hours both of us working steadily. These jobs always do. I told dh yesterday to start doubling the time he's estimating for jobs. If the person doesn't like the cost, then they won't hire us for the job. That's fine.
The lady knows we work four days each week and made a point to comment on how she only has two days each week to get things done and can't sit around waiting for us to arrive. Well, her roommate also drives but doesn't work at all. I say she should do the errands and running around during the week. Whatever. It's not we slept in until 10am and finally decided to get going. I was up by 4:30am, out milking by 5am and we were finally leaving just about 7am. It was a non-stop day. We finally arrived home at 8pm. Ds2 had a wonderful dinner ready for us. Butter fried chicken breast (no batter coating), a lovely tossed salad, eggplant and zucchini and fried rice. It tasted so good. I got overheated while working in the sun and at one point had to sit down and kick off my shoes and socks. I was just too hot. The lady had some friends over, a man and woman and their young daughter, for swimming. They're splashing and yelling (Marco - POLO - Marco - POLO) and we're burning up from the heat.
No one has any time anymore. Today ds2 said the weekend never even started and it's already over.
I was late for milking this morning. The girls were yelling at me. I started milking around 7:10am. Very late indeed. I noticed Ms. Z was still in heat (I questioned whether she was yesterday but wasn't quite sure) and have been toying with the thought of some off season breeding - especially since I'm noticing my girls coming into heat this late in the year. Usually they stop showing signs of cycling by end of March. So I decided to take her over to visit Elvis once I was done milking. I have been worried about his fertility since I stupidly didn't pay attention to the important things when choosing a buck. Things like positioning of the equipment... when humans have fertility issues, men are advised to switch from jockey shorts to boxers for maximum fertility since having the scrotum snuggled near to the body keeps the sperm warm. God designed the sperm to be cooler, thus the hanging design. Elvis' ahem seems to be very near to his body.
Today I moved our other buck, a Nigerian Dwarf -- who is excessively sexy (iow, constantly peeing on his own head) and always ragingly in the mood (and quite frankly he seems more like a dirty old man pervert the way he's always leering and snorting and sticking out his tongue at the girls, lol) -- into the hallway which separates the does from the bucks, while Elvis and Ms. Z had a chance to get to know one another. Ms. Z immediately reared up and popped Elvis one on the head, so I had to hold her to stop her from doing that. One of my goat mentors says there is nothing worse than a young buckling being bashed by a doe to make him less likely to perform his job successfully. Finally he covered her and was done in a fraction of millisecond.
I debated leaving her with him for the day, to make sure she was bred but ended up taking her back home. Next I took out one of our doelings who is 14 months old. She has always been on the wild side and I've been worried about her ability as a milker. I've heard some horror stories of people trying to milk wild does. So I've been catching her once each weekend, removing her from the yard, putting her on the milking stand, locking her in and giving her some grain. She's taming down nicely.
I am working with Elvis each weekend (should work with him more, but just don't have the time) training him to walk with me when I hold him by the collar. I need to be able to take him to visit the does and take him back home. Bucks grow to be very big and it's important that they learn to take commands. Once he weighs 250 pounds, it's too late to teach him to walk calmly. By that time he'll be charging and racing to get where we're going and that would be a disaster. I'd never get him back home. So I took Elvis from his pen to walk him for a while. Last week was the first time I went into his pen. While he didn't run from me too much, he did run. But this week he came right over to me. He knows good things happen when he comes with me. Namely he gets grain. But best of all, he'll learn walking peacefully with me will allow him a visit with one of his wives. I did take him over to visit again with Ms. Z. She stood for him this time, that's a good sign that she's at optimum fertility.
If she produces kids in October, his fertility will become less of a question. I will probably breed a couple other does if they come into heat in the next couple of weeks. We have never bred off season before. Usually we wait until September or thereafter to breed. That is the normal season for breeding Nubians. Also, for people who show, it puts their does at the peak of their lactation so they have these huge udders when being shown at the fair. But since we don't show our goats, that isn't a priority for us.
Sweet dreams, kitty.
Until next time.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Pruning Bushes and Visiting the Dump
Labels: Memory Lane, work
I blogged previously about chopping the poor bougainvillea bushes down to nothing. Yesterday was the day we were scheduled to chop down the other four. As you can see, they are quite full and beautiful. If you click on the photo, I uploaded a large one so you can have a closer look.
It was almost painful to chop these down to nothing. As I said in my aforementioned previous entry, this is what my FIL requested.
So that's the before picture, and now here's the after picture.
I guess it's not so shocking. Again, it's just that I've never seen this type of bush butchered down to nothing, ever before.
The back of our pickup was loaded, as well as our trailer. We brought along some other things to throw away while visiting the dump. The cost was only ten dollars, which is quite inexpensive! Out where we live, it costs $25 just to drive onto the site and dump anything. Then you pay a per pound price. This dump is a long ways from where we live, so it wouldn't really be economical, even though it's cheaper. Once you figure in gasoline at $2.15/gallon and the vehicle only gets 12-15 miles to the gallon... it's cheaper to just pay the $25 to the locals.
I know you will probably never hear anyone else say this, but going to the dump makes me feel sad inside. The thing that makes me feel sad, is to see all the things that people throw away, which are perfectly usable!!!! When we throw things away, they are totally trash and no longer fit to be anywhere, but in the dump! Note the arrows pointing down to the old mattress and two box springs. They are ripped and torn apart and no one could use them for anything. We throw our old mattresses and box springs out for the dogs to sleep on. They play on them and sleep on them, and rip them apart... so they need to be thrown away.But while we were at the dump, I saw truck after truck, after truck with men throwing away perfectly good things. One man, I imagined that he was a landlord who had evicted some tenants. He was driving a rental trailer, and he had trouble getting it backed in properly. He kept jack-knifing it and having to pull forward, and try again. He threw away a propane fueled barbeque, not the best one you can buy, but it looked like it was in perfectly usable condition. He also threw away a wooden desk, just a little one that you might sit at and write notes. Not a big office desk. He threw away a desk chair and a la-z-boy type chair. Plus a bunch of other things that looked like something you shouldn't be throwing away!
Another man threw away two big wooden gate looking things, plus a bunch of big pieces of plywood. The gate things looked really neat and I'm sure would have made some really good shades for the goats.
But it's illegal to take anything with you from the dump nowadays. When I was growing up... we rarely had a vehicle to go to the dump with, but when we did, it was okay to take anything there that we might have been able to use. But now people throw away perfectly good things, and smash, into the refuse pile it goes. At least at this dump.
We have been to another dump that does a good amount of recycling and has areas cordoned off for things like bicycles and parts, mattresses and box springs, furniture, etc. But I think they take it someplace and refurbish and then sell it. Or maybe sell it to someone. I know it's probably grossing you out to think of reusing someone's old mattress... but I have never bought a brand new bed in my entire life. The only ones I could allow myself to buy would be such cheap pieces of crap that they would wear out in a year's time.
Until next time.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
TOILET Mystery
Labels: Bargain Hunting, Home Improvement, Memory Lane, work
Today we had to butcher some bougainvillea bushes, well just one (you thought I was going to say a goat, didn' t you?) but we have about five more to go. My FIL butchered one for us to see how he wants us to treat the others. He did a horrid job, I wish I'd brought the camera. If I go when the others are done, I'll get some pictures. He made a terrible sticky looking mess out of the poor thing, it is just a mess with suckers sticking up all over, it's just gross looking. I have always looked at poorly trimmed pruned trees and thought how awful that someone didn't know what they were doing.
I used to own a bougainvillea bush a few years ago, and I never butchered it down to nothing. I pruned my lantana down to nothing every fall, but never my bougainvillea. One of my neighbors had two bougainvillea bushes that she kept trimmed with scissors and they were nicely shaped. She also never pruned hers down to nothing.
Anyway... then we had agreed to help my mother move some furniture from a storage unit that belongs to my sister and her boyfriend. But while we were waiting for my mother to arrive, we went to one of my favorite places to buy home improvement type things. Okay, it USED to be my favorite place, because the prices were so amazing cheap. It was a cheapskates paradise!
But now (according to one of the employees) the new manager runs around with a pricing gun, putting astronomical prices on things. For example, I found the Glacier Bay 8 Inch Hi-Arch Two Handle Kitchen Faucet that I almost bought from Home Depot last weekend. Dh and I got into a bit of a tiff since he thought he'd told me it wouldn't work (without modification) since we live in a manufactured home. If he told me, I did not hear him. He found a faucet that *would* work because it had long copper pieces coming from underneath the faucet, which is what we need to hook up to our kitchen sink pipes. But it was a regular height faucet.
Ds2 had been wanting a hi-arch kitchen faucet for some time, and I want one, too!! It is frustrating washing the tall half gallon jars we store our milk in, and the milk pails. I'm also beginning to realize that I don't have to get the cheapest thing there is, just to save money. In the long run, you end up with the product breaking, and having to replace it again.
I digress... the faucet had a sticker on it for $40.00. I asked one of the employees if that was really the price and told him that's almost what it costs from Home Depot. Actually it's $48.00 from HD. First, let me tell you there are signs all over that state changing tags is illegal. So the guy tells me the manager might be up front when he's ringing me up, so he has to be careful about changing tags because the manager might remember what he put on the faucet. He removed the tag, and said he would find a pricing gun and reprice the faucet to $20 or maybe $15. So I hung around for several minutes, and he never came back. Finally I left that area and dh and I looked around a bit more and then finally I suggested we just leave. So. While we are checking out, someone else gets the faucet, the tag of which had been removed by the employee. The man stands there waiting until we are done, then asks the cashier, another employee, how much is this faucet. The man takes a look at it, and says, "Twelve dollars." OH. MY. GOSH. I just about fainted right on the spot. The feelings that went through me, like, "THAT'S MINE!! I HAD IT FIRST! Give it BACK to me!" And "Why does HE get it for twelve? NO FAIR!!!"
I was really, really upset, but finally consoled myself with this: The man was wearing an identification badge, which indicated he worked in a group home. He also had a person with him that was obviously impaired, and probably lived in the group home. I know those places aren't rich, and I guess they were meant to have that faucet. Also, the fact that the price tag was removed, what if the manager had been there with the cashier when I asked for the price? What if I had been accused of removing the tag?
I am sure a better faucet will come along. One last thing about faucets. Dh and I looked around at Lowe's over the weekend, pricing a few things, and among those were kitchen faucets. They had some with price tags OVER $500!! Why?! Are they lined with gold, or maybe diamonds? I can't imagine paying that much for a faucet. It's not like the faucet will last 1000 years longer than any other. No one even lives that long.
Now, on to the toilet mystery.
Some time ago, I decided I wanted new toilets for our home. One for the main (boys) bathroom, and one for my bathroom. I am sick and tired of having to fill a gallon bucket with water, JUST to flush my toilet. I hate it. I hate it. I happened to casually mention this to my MIL on the phone one day. She told me they just got a new toilet from Home Depot and said I deserved new toilets and they are only $50.00. I told her that I didn't want a brand new toilet, which would work just as horribly as mine were working. I told her I was hoping to go to this "second hand" home improvement place and she became quite alarmed saying, "NO! Don't do that. Do not go there for a toilet! You deserve new ones!" I tried to explain my reasoning to her, and she was just not hearing it. A week later, she gave us $115 so we could buy two toilets from Home Depot. I've been hanging onto the money since that time, trying to figure out which toilets to buy. Home Depot's cheapy toilets, the ones she said we should buy, were $44. But CHEAP. I am sure I would have been using my trusty bucket to flush them! And I didn't want that. BTW, MIL's new toilet was not the cheapy toilet. I think she would have been happy with the cheapy toilet, and therefore attempted to push the cheapy toilets onto us. She specifically mentioned her new toilet being extra tall, and she says she feels like a child with her feet not even touching the floor. So I know for sure her new toilet wasn't one of the cheapy ones (her husband is a spendthrift, while she's a cheapskate dumpster diver -- gotta love her for that!!).
So finally today, we got to go to this home improvement place. They are a non-profit that takes donations of things from homes being knocked down, or maybe someone's upgrading, etc. They used to have killer prices. Like gallons of "oops" paint for $2.50. Now the gallons are $5.00. Bummer. I used to go there and buy gallons of colors, just to have paint on hand if I wanted to do a project.
I started checking out the toilets, and I am pretty sure I remember that American Standard is a good toilet, at least when you are shopping at Home Depot.
I found two American Standard toilets. I paid $10 for my toilet. It is "shell" colored, according to the American Standard site. My toilet was missing the tank lid, but dh says he can make me one. That's fine. I hope to cover it with one of those fuzzy things soon anyway. The other toilet was $25 and it is white.
I know these things about the toilets: They are both "Right Height" and they both have elongated bowls.
Those two things right off the bat make the toilets more expensive than a normal cheap $50 toilet. I went to the American Standard site and found that there are 71 toilets to look through. I was able to narrow that list down, by crossing out all the one-piece toilets, round toilets, and regular height toilets. Now there are 19 toilets to look through and figure out which are the ones I bought.
Searching on Home Depot, I found this American Standard toilet, with an elongated bowl, and "Right Height". For the toilet bowl and seat, they want $161.25. The tank costs -- GOOD GRIEF -- the danged tank costs $165.00!!!
Some of the toilets at the AS site are very expensive, for example, the Retrospect Elongated Right Height toilet costs $435. The Champion Right Height Elongated toilet costs $424-$594 based on color.
Now my dear reader, if you have made it this far, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. Well... first off, my dear MIL was so aghast at the thought of my buying a "second hand" toilet, and now it looks as if I may have purchased two very nice quality toilets for a mere $35. We now have enough money left over to buy a brand new hi-arch kitchen sink faucet, if we so choose.
I really wish I could go back and buy the matching bathroom sink. Well, I don't know if it really matches EXACTLY, but there was a bathroom sink that was peach colored, with really nice high quality brass handles. It was $60 though! That is really high priced, in my opinion. I still wish I could have it for my bathroom. I do like to have nice things sometimes.
Back to the fuss... secondly, there are some nice features to the AS toilets, like the Champion Flushing System... or the Cadet Pressure Assisted flushing which run $625-$862 depending on the color.
I've been googling a bit while blogging... and it's starting to look like my toilets might be the Champion line, which features a "flush tower" instead of a standard flapper. According to this site, it's one of the Best Toilets. But now with more research, I see my toilets are not Champions. That means I can eliminate 7 more toilets from my list. That leaves 12 to research. That's much more manageable. I'm sure it will be much easier in the daylight tomorrow. I can take a picture and bring it in to compare with the others for one thing...
I think one of the things that may have horrified my MIL was the thought of picking through grungy, ugly, filthy toilets. These toilets are relatively clean. It won't take much scrubbing to make them look brand new.
Enough about toilets. It's past my bedtime.
Until next time.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Wow, Time Flies
Labels: dogs, Gardening, Herd Queen Productions, LJ, work
I honestly do not believe three days have passed since I posted last.
I'm feeling quite a bit better, but still not 100% myself. Ds2 and dh are working together tomorrow, so I'm supposed to have the day off. I'm looking forward to it, as my garden needs some serious weeding done and of course there are hundreds of other things I need to work on! I always have to remember to pace myself and don't get too ambitious for I can only get so many things done in a day's time.
Oh yeah. I posted last on the day I was off work. That's why I forgot. I went to work on Wednesday and tried to get three days worth of work done in two days, plus handle a crisis for a co-board member who was on vacation in another country, attend two board meetings, deliver invoices that were lost from July, and on and on! I was asked to attend an event today for a coworker who has won disabled employee of the year, and also was asked to attend a board/staff meeting tomorrow. But I asked to get out of it. I'm glad I did because I'm still tired.
The meeting on Thursday, we had a man come to speak with us. A man who I found, and who is going to be of great help to us in a project we are currently working on. He is volunteering his time to us, which is amazing. One of our group asked his motivation and he mentioned doing volunteer work through his church and I thought that was just really cool. I was thinking how lucky I got at first, then my coworker who is not a believer actually made a comment that made me remember that I don't believe in luck. I believe that God is in charge.
I've started a new business. Now I just need to find time to get some more images uploaded, and once I'm ready, I need to start publicizing. It's here: Herd Queen Productions.
It's 64°F out and by morning it will be very nippy, probably down into the fifties. I know. That's what I SHOULD do tomorrow. I should work on the milking shed and get it ready to milk in. Currently we are milking outside in the open, which is pretty awesome because I can see the stars in the morning, and can also watch the herd to make sure everyone is okay and not feeling poorly.
I will definitely wear a DUST MASK. I don't want to do what I did some months ago and kick up my asthma for days and days because of breathing in too much dust.
My little puppy, who is not such a little puppy anymore (he is 8 months old and weighs 70 pounds!!) thinks he is a big dog now and wants to sleep outside at night. Only problem, his hair is so short he freezes out there. The other dogs have long hair with thick undercoats. Not my LJ. I'd better see if he wants to come inside now.
Until next time.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Kneepads, Where Have You Been All My Life?
Labels: Memory Lane, work
I worked with dh again today (as well as yesterday). Over the weeks, I've been slowly gathering items to make this job more comfortable for me. I've always been a glove wearer, and found a nice pair of real leather gloves from one of those cheap tool places for $5. The gloves actually seem to be well made and high quality.
I have also worn a hat over the years, to protect my face and neck from sunburn. Gloves and hat when gardening in the summer. During the winter I'm not so fussy about it.
The first new addition this year was wearing a bandanna. I haven't really worked much in the HOT HOT part of the day for much of my life, and haven't needed something to mop the sweat that drips off my forehead, and runs into my eyes, burning them with salt. I actually never knew I sweated this much, to be honest.
Yesterday, we worked on putting a deck back into place. Whoever built it didn't do the best job. For one thing, it's a pretty large deck, 20 feet in length by about 12 feet, and they only put in supports on the outside perimeter of the deck. The ledger, which was attached directly to the house, was the only support for the beams. Anyway, it's hard to explain since I don't really know all the official terms and probably only carpenters would care about those anyway. I don't think any carpenters are reading my blog...
But here, with this picture, maybe you can get the gist. Okay, see the board against the back that the "ledger" arrow is pointing to? The bottom of the first beam you see is just bit below that ledger, but see how the next one is quite a bit more below it? The bottom of the beam should be level with the bottom of the ledger, so you can see it's sagging down quite a bit. Then, see the nails pulling out from the ledger? The beams were being held in place with nails, and also, you can see there are no supporting pillars (under any beams) from this view. The entire side of the deck was attached to the manufactured home! Remember, this deck is 20 feet long - and that length was butted up against the home and nailed into it. It's a wonder it hasn't started pulling the home apart (it is a double wide) from the weight of it.
Okay, so here is a picture during the repair. We used joist hangers to secure each beam to the ledger. This should have been done originally, and this problem would have been less prone to happen. We also used metal straps to help secure things better. We also put several pillars underneath the deck in various spots, to give it more support, rather than just counting on the ledger to be the sole support.
Ideally we would have taken the thing down and redone it, but then you have to pay for permits and inspections, and that sort of thing. So if the deck could be repaired, that's what we were asked to do.
So yesterday dh removed five boards to create that gap you see. The person who put in the deck wasted no expense or time on nailing down the boards. Every single board had 3 to 4 nails pounded into every single beam. The boards are six inches wide by twenty feet long. The beams were probably 18 inches apart, so each of the five boards had 39 to 53 nails, long nails, mind you. We didn't really have a work table or anything like that, so I worked on my knees pulling out the nails. I also became very good friends with my cat's paw, as I learned how to use it to gain more leverage when pulling out the long nails. Otherwise I was whacking the hammer again and again, without the nail budging. Very cool.
You see, I've always loved this kind of work. Every since I was a little girl. When my father left when I was five, I kind of stepped in as the "handyman" around our house, which was just my mom and the three of us girls. So I'm pretty lucky that I do like this kind of work. It is gratifying work!
We worked on this place several weeks ago, putting up a fence. So it's been about a month since I've been back. I did notice that I could navigate the terrain much better -- meaning it feels like I am in better shape now than several weeks ago! The house was set up on higher ground, and there is a steep grade to walk up to the deck area. At least this is the quickest path. I could walk several yards east to where the cars are parked. But that would make for a lot of walking back and forth with tools, etc. Then of course, coming down, with the sandy dirt and rocks, you have to tippy-toe and walk fast, almost running to keep from falling due to the steepness.
Yesterday I decided that I was buying myself knee pads, no matter if dh thinks I'm a sissy or not. ;-) (Actually I get a break because I'm a "girl").
So this morning when we stopped at Home Depot for more material to build the new stairs, I took a little detour over to the knee pads. I also decided that I should get myself some goggles, since we were going to be using the circular saw today. I hate getting sawdust in my face and almost in my eyes every time. I found this nifty "professional" kit for less than five dollars, which included plastic goggles, plastic earplugs with a string (like little children's mittens often have), and a dust mask. Dh tried to hide the look on his face as I walked up with my choices. He's such a Real MAN ®, and apparently REAL MEN don't wear ANY safety equipment, thank you very much!!!
We got to the worksite and started marking up... wait, I must tell you about the free wood we found on the side of the road. I can just say there was a LOT of it. Like twenty boards. Made of pine, all 1 inch width. Varying lengths, from probably 6 feet to 10 feet long. There was a little sign on it that said, "FREE - Pine Flooring". So we stopped and loaded it up. Oh, and while at Home Depot we found a bunch of cull wood, which sells for $0.51 per piece. I found a piece of real oak which retails for $14.95 and the cashier even called someone over to ask and make sure it was really cull lumber, since it didn't have a black or pink mark on it. The lumber area guy walked up while we were there with more cull lumber and it was some kind of board that you use to put at the lower part of a room, and then put trim at the top of that to decorate the room. It cost almost $9 a sheet and since it had been cut for someone -- wrong cut -- they were now selling it for cull price $0.51 per sheet. There were nine pieces. I love getting cull lumber.
But we started marking up the stringer... see, I'm learning all these technical terms. The stringer is the part that goes under each tread to support. You ask, "What's a tread?" The tread is the part you step on. So the zig-zaggy piece that goes under each tread is the stringer. We marked up the stringer, and then it was time to get my stuff put on.
Dh couldn't stop from laughing, and he kept saying "You can see with those on, can you?" So I was groping around for my tools and pretending like I was having a hard time seeing. I had my earplugs in, too, and kept saying, "Huh?" He said he just had to take a picture of me.
So here I am all decked out. My senses were dulled: touch, sight, hearing. It really was harder to see, especially since my sunglasses kept going askew (bad grammar?). I couldn't breathe very well under that mask either. But I was all set for putting up with the noisy saw and sawdust!
It wasn't until a while later that I got to try out my new kneepads. OH OH OH. If you do any kind of yard work on your knees, forget those stupid little cushions, buy yourself some KNEEPADS!! Do it today!! They are INCREDIBLE!! I cannot believe HOW much easier it was for me to work. I ended up having to pull out more nails from more boards and usually I can't stay on my knees too long, and have to sit down, or if I have to move from one section to the next, I have to actually stand up, then reposition, then sit back down. But with kneepads... just walk on my knees to the next spot. I was helping dh hold the treads in position with the level, and I was able to rest on one knee, then the other, then both, and switch, so I could hold the position without having to ask him to stop for a minute while I took a rest.
A few years ago, I would have bought the cheapest ones I could find, but I've changed my mind (and having more money to work with HELPS) about trying to find items that are higher quality. I ended up getting some kneepads that have a hard plastic front piece on them, and I'm sure glad that I did. If I'd bought the cheapy foam ones, I don't know if they could have withstood the little rocks and bits of sand I was kneeling on today. The cheapest kneepads were $3.97 all the way up to $40. I opted for the $10 ones and they worked GREAT!
See my cute work pants? They have pink embroidery on the left knee. They are one size bigger than I need, and they are really comfy which makes it easier to work.
Kneepads are awesome tools. I can see myself using them while gardening, or any kind of work outside where I might have to kneel. I'm going to have to find a duffle bag to stash all my work equipment in so I can find it easily every weekend. That's another thing, trying to keep all this stuff together so I don't forget to bring anything that I need to have to be comfortable!
Until next time.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Building a T-Post Fence
Labels: work
I built a fence on Saturday and Sunday, while dh was cutting in a driveway.
We took down 190 feet of field fencing from another property that SIL owns and made a small fenced area at that same property and then brought the rest with us to this job, to make another small fenced area. SIL feels having at least a small fenced area is a selling point, especially if the new owners have a small dog or children and don't want them wandering about the entire acreage.
I used a tool called a post driver to drive the t-posts into the ground. Since the dirt is so soft in this area, it was rather easy for me to do this task. Once I had the post driver in position, it was just a matter of lifting and dropping 6-10 times for each post. The post driver weighs about 40 pounds and is awkward to handle. I'm always afraid I'm going to drop it wrong and hurt myself somehow. The picture actually shows the tool upside down from the way it is used. There is an opening at the end that is closer to the handles. I have to slide the t-post into the pole driver while it's lying on the ground, then hoist it upright and then start banging. Taller and stronger people (most men) position the t-post in place, then pick the post driver up into the air high enough to put it over the top of the t-post.
I measured out my area using an antique tape measure, it's one that you have to use a little handle to roll it back inside itself. It is really cool though, because it measures as long as 50 feet and then you just roll it back together. As seems to be the trend, newer tape measures aren't made very well and they don't want to roll back into themselves after they've been used a few dozen times.
Anyway, I digress. I measured out the area and put t-poles in at each corner. Then I tied this long orange string from one t-pole to the next one, so I would have a guide as to where to pound in the t-posts in a straight line. I measured my distance and divided the number of poles equally into the distance so the fence will look somewhat symmetrical.
I used a tool called a cat's paw (although I keep referring to it as a cat's claw) to hook the fence and pull it tight against each t-post. I used bailing wire to tie the fence to the t-posts. Finally I used a pair of pliers to twist the bailing wire tightly.
It is a lot of up and down work. I used the milk crate to sit on, and hold my tools. The dirt is really powdery and it's similar to walking on a sandy beach, but there are fist-sized round boulders hidden in the powder which when walked on cause one's ankle to twist right over. I did this so many times, I'm surprised I didn't end up with a twisted ankle.
The way birthday cake candles are lit at our house... with a blow torch. The cake is German Chocolate (cake made from scratch by ds2) with store bought coconut pecan frosting, and hot fudge topping. Dinner was shredded beef and cheese enchiladas, restaurant-style with a side of refried beans.
Until next time.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Cutting in a Driveway
Labels: work
This is what dh did today with the little Farmall Cub Tractor. Click on the photo to see the larger version. The first one is the before picture, with the desert shrubbery and the second one is the after picture. Pretty impressive!
Until next time.
Monday, September 18, 2006
I'm a *REAL* Working Girl Now
Labels: work
Apparently there's some rite of passage for working in construction... helped dh build the back deck yesterday and after a bit more work on it today, it was ready for painting. I was out in the sun a lot, and I'd bought myself a "new" uniform shirt, bright coral/pink, which had shorter sleeves. The picture you see first is my left arm. Near the bottom of the photo is my elbow and that's my normal "tan" color. I am olive complected and tan nicely, but I do not like being in the direct sun. I've sunbathed maybe three times in my life and it was sheer torture! Too hot!
Back to the rite of passage... I pulled up my sleeve and showed my arm to my dh who told me "You're a REAL working girl now!" Heh!
Isn't it funny how my arm looks normal with the bright contrast of the shirt, until you see my lily-white skin? LOL.
It doesn't really hurt too bad, unless I accidentally scratch it, and when I went outside and the direct sun was beating on it, it felt like it was catching on fire.
I guess I need to buy longer sleeved shirts for my work uniform.
The back porch looks great!
Here is a picture of it - the plastic and blue tape are to protect the house from overspray:
I have noticed that Blogger is aligning my posts funky. Like it's not seeing my hard returns. Bugs me.
Until next time.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Flat Tire
Today on the way home from the jobsite, the truck started driving a little funky. Sometimes it's just the freeway, but we were pulling the trailer, so it could have been one of six tires gone bad.
I couldn't tell if it was the road, and dh suggested I pull over as I was in the fast lane, going 70mph -- the speed limit on that stretch is 75mph. This morning on the way there, without the trailer, as we'd left it at the jobsite yesterday evening... I was doing 80.
We have never been able to get the signals to work properly for the trailer. We have brake lights but only the right hand turn signal. I can never remember which one. I turned on the signal out of habit more than anything while observing the traffic behind me. Not a lot, but many are traveling fast, at least 75, and remember I was only doing 70, and by now I'd slowed down to 60. (This morning when I was doing 80, someone zoomed past me and was a mile ahead of us within a minute, they must have been doing at LEAST 90 if not 100!) I needed over -- QUICKLY -- as a rest stop was just ahead (this was a park and recreation type trucker's rest stop without any facilities). The emergency lane on this stretch is very narrow.
One car passed me on the right, and another car was coming in that lane. I needed to get over! Suddenly they slowed and pulled behind me into my lane, which allowed me to make my merge just in time to merge into the rest stop area.
Dh got out and walked around the passenger side, around the back and up to my side. I rolled down my window and he said, "Shut 'er down, you've got a flat." Meaning my vehicle, not the trailer. It was the rear driver's side tire.
I immediately gave thanks to God for watching over us and thought of all the things that had just fallen into place with perfect timing. My gratitude list:
- the flat happened on the way home doing 70mph instead of on the way there, when I was doing 80
- the person coming up in the right lane was paying attention (this is important as many people do not seem to be paying attention while driving!) and pulled behind me, even slowing down themselves, to allow me to merge over
- the tire began to act up very close to the rest stop (which are far and few between on this stretch)
- I had enough time to merge safely into the rest area
- we didn't have to change the tire in the narrow emergency lane
- we were able to stop while the tire was just low, not shredded or blown
- the turn signal I needed is the one that works
- the tire may be repairable since it didn't shred or blow out
I used Krazy Glue to make the repair. I'm working again tomorrow. SIL is on vacation and is due back in a few days. We had hoped to be further along than we are, and there is still a full day's worth of housecleaning to be done. That mud bogging adventure we had last weekend did not help at all!
I'm tired.
Until next time.
