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Got up, worked out, cleaned up, walked to the coffee shop and picked up some fancy coffee drinks for the lady and me, met her in the parking garage, said goodbye, went to the apartment, stretched out again to alleviate some minor hip/back pain, got ready for the cleaning people, started my laundry, put some pork chops in brine, received and put away the grocery order, spoke with the head cleaning person who asked me NOT to provide treats/break time for her cleaners as it's "against the guidelines", received the cleaning crew and watched them do their things, had the team lead apologize and tell me she booted a cleaner off her team who ran to the boss to complain about the treats and conversation, saw them out, convected some egg rolls and prepared some sweet thai chili sauce for the girl and I, started up a Marvel movie and we have been sitting here ever since.
 
So I burnt the first batch of gingerbread cookies in the wood stove, temp was fine ( I have a thermometer in it) , cookies were fine but looked like they needed a few more minutes. About literally 2 minutes later, the oven temp was 450 degrees instead of 350 and the cookies were black on the bottom....still ok for us to eat after scraping off the bunt parts but not ok to sell. Oh well, I made the rest of them in the propane oven

Talked to daughter and I feel really bad for her. Their trip is cancelled they won't get the money back and her husband got put on a different ship till who knows when...wow, I would absolutely HATE being in the Navy ! They authorized his leave, and he was due to get off the ship this week and just yesterday they told him he is going to another one. How long are they planning on keeping him deployed? Until his enlistment is up in a few years? I can't imagine...but then again I would never ever in a million years have signed up for any military.....
So daughter is probably coming back here for Christmas. I hope they won't be sick this time

Oh and the power company called to tell us " your power is probably going to go off again in the next few days" , typical! Just when I need to bake for the Christmas market. That means I have to bake by lantern light until it gets light out . Hope the generator starts in this weather . Worst case we will put all the freezers outside but our luck THAT is when it will warm up again. This entire post probably belongs in the rant section ...sorry
 
We are going to an office Christmas party sponsored by our attorney. Not my idea. I would rather have root canal without novacaine. We won't know a soul. We have to dress up. I hated these things when I had to go. gaah
I wouldn't mind going to a nice Christmas party right now....just try to have fun and meet new people
 
Yesterday the house outside faucets worked, so I didn't have to haul from inside the house. Normally I do when It's really cold, and what a pain in the butt. Trying to think of something easier that filling up empty milk jugs. Maybe this winter I'll do the 3 gal jugs with hot water, I can pour those more easily than the 5 gallon. I wagon them out. Wishing the faucet stuff in the milkhouse would still work, not sure what the last owners did to it. They took down the wash house and cut off the windmill pump at the base. That would of been a good place to get hot water, too, without trudging in. Thinking about another hydrant in a small solar heated room. That would be good.
 
This is what we got done on the blacksmith shop today. We'll probably start on the trusses tomorrow. I added a 6×6 beam across the top center in case I need to lift something heavy, like a deer or an elk. On the right side I'm going to add on a 12×16 extension. Overall the building will be 24×16.
20241204_163555.jpg
 
Success!

The dishwasher is down waiting for a part so...

I convinced The Princess to skip the bother of our Saturday night steaks and let me take her out for prime rib. We will be going to a place owned by a high school classmate who also was a cast member of our senior class musical. He played Ado Annie's father and I played Will Parker.

I am tempted to get reservations as Will Parker.

🤠

Ben
 
Went to Atwoods and got 15 of the 40# bags of feed, came home and little granddaughter and I unloaded it. Also went for the third try to return amazon stuff my mil had sent here by mistake. First try was the other day, and the RMA was screen shot on husband's phone. That wouldn't do. Today I tried returning to the Amazon return at Kohls, since I had Kohl's cash to spend. Wouldn't work, since it printed out an RMA for USPS. Third try was the UPS place I stopped at. Finally. Two big boxes lugging around, I was determined not to bring them back into the house, and I'm tired of paying $$ to ship them to her. She sends us something, then forgets to change the ship to address on Amazon, and then we get all this weird stuff she orders. Not the first time, probably not the last, but she's 91 yrs old and lives in California, so we'll grant her some grace.
 
Already Wednesday :rolleyes:
8.40 pm
Windy -- 16f -- light snow showers
Fire going

My day was a crappy weird day from the start
Chills - Diarrhea - Puke liquid was like water.....
Last for 30 minutes on and off 😮‍💨
Then was a bit better....
Don t know what happened

Tonight I am not hungry
I just took a Tylenol then some tea

I feel like 99 years old 🥴

I will survive ..hopefully

 
Got the camper home, unhooked, and unloaded. House is a mess now. I've got an electrical problem with it to trouble shoot. The jack didn't run to hook up. Pretty sure I've got some corroded terminals that need cleaning. We aren't going again until April, so I'll wait till the weather warms up before I crawl around on the ground.
 
My mom’s health continues to improve, still at hospital. Doc’s want to send her to a live-in rehab center afterwards to get some strength back after pneumonia. I and the rest of the family agree a week or so is needed, not sitting well with dad though. Spent most of the morning dealing with him. Gathering all the facts....

Got refocused on my electrical project, pulled the rest of the cable for the stairwell and storage rm. That took up most of my day.

Cousin brought over a small herd of cattle this afternoon. Got the calf turned out with them, means I don’t have to carry him water anymore. They’ll be drinking from the creek down in the bottoms. Spent an hour outside, cold and damp, heavy clouds, down right chilly.

Just tv tonight...
 
The guys who delivered GF's new mattress and box spring got there before me. We didn't know they would bring it in and set it on the frame. They also disposed of the old mattress and box spring for an extra $20. I helped GF put the new sheets on and then we headed for the gym. Got a short workout in, called the Mexican joint and ordered take out, and picked it up on the way back. I had Chile Colorado, which is my favorite, and it was fabulous.

We watched a bit of a nature show about some kind of endangered Chinese monkeys, played with Ruby the Lab, and GF is now curled up in her new bed. I'm not ready to go to sleep so I'm out in the living room farting around on the Internet. Ruby is curled up in her bed on the floor. There are wind gusts up to 50mph tonight and it sounds like it'll take the roof off. All in all, it's been a good day...
 
more problems last night, we got back in from taking care of the animals and there is no water. First we thought maybe the line froze,but its been way colder before and ours didn't freeze. So no water. We hiked up to the spring in the dark with headlamps and found the neighbors messing with it...turns out they have had no water for a day and turned off the valve going to our house ( and that of the neighbors down the road) . It's a weird complicated and not good system but it would be a nightmare trying to replace it. So we told them to turn it back on for half an hour for showers and then turn it off overnight so their tanks can fill up. It was back on this morning, so hopefully they got water. I am so glad we got the water storage tanks now!!
We are all thinking maybe a line froze somewhere and busted and yesterday it warmed up above freezing so maybe the water leaked somewhere, not sure yet.

So today I am going to fill up the last tank we have and make dough for the bread I am going to bake tomorrow

ALl the animals stay in, the wind is howling and sounds like the house will fly away soon. Nothing new, so far it stood up to it every winter, but I still don;t like it. The barn door broke before so now we put a bar in front of it on wind days.
Sometimes I really wonder if anything good ever happens....seems like life is just one problem after another, some big some small but still annoying.
 
I am going to replace the toilet seat. Yesterday, I went to swap out my two empty propane tanks, but they told me I could only swap out one. Next time, I won't wait for both tanks to get empty. I asked to see the manager, the manager and I began to talk. We started to talk about our military service, and then I told him I retired from the Navy. He told me that he had served 12 years in the Navy. He swaps out the other propane tank himself. Then say have a great day and come back any time.
 
Woke up at 7, and GF was already gone to work. I had a quick breakfast and took Ruby the Lab for a short mile walk. She wanted to play when we go back so I spent 15 or 20 minutes chasing her around, trying to get her squeaky rubber chicken away from her. She was sad when I left. Went to Dollar General and bought a bunch of gloves and stocking hats for Christmas stocking stuffers. Then stopped at Walmart and got some groceries and a couple more Christmas presents. Daughter has big, thick, curly hair and she wanted a satin bonnet to wear to bed so her hair doesn't get all messed up while she sleeps. I'll get her satin pillowcase too, because I guess that's supposed to be good for curly hair. There was a 43" smart TV there for $99 and I almost bought it but decided against it.

Next I'll head to the coffee shop and the gym. Don't have evening plans yet, but I'm sure some will materialize...
 
I have had a very productive morning. Did KP, as always. Went grocery shopping. Finished Christmas shopping for my wife. She is bought, wrapped, and under the tree. Packed for our weekend trip. Packed a cooler for the car, and snacks for the car and hotel. Have everything ready to throw in the back set when my wife gets home, since we will be taking her car. I think I will go put a rear end in a recliner.
 
Between 8am and 12 I did banking, recycling, dropped stuff to charity store, enjoyed a flat white watching the ducks at the town park, and finished my Christmas shopping. I'm missing two foody things, but can get with the fresh veg the day before. All presents got, a few cards left to post, a bit of wrapping. This weekend putting up the tree and after that I'm free to concentrate on studies.
 
For 2 days now, I've had a foreboding feeling ... my spidey sense on alert ... kinda like a "disturbance in the force" thing.

Wonder if it's just nothing.
I have that feeling every day when I wake up...what horror approaches today......LOL
Today so far so good. Water is running, we still have firewood, animals are in the barn eating hay, the wind didn't blow the house or the barn or son's house down ( but a piece of roofing is about to blow off the shop building)
We didn't drive anywhere so no vehicle problems and nobody is sick
 
Instead of a nap today I worked on the blacksmith building. Spread some gravel on the floor, had to break up the frozen chunks with a sledge hammer before I could rake it out. Then I went and worked on the chicken coop roof. Only have 2 more trusses to make then I can finish sheeting it and put down the tar paper. If the weather holds for a few more days I can shingle it same time I shingle the blacksmith shop.
I really don't like working off frozen ladders or with lumber that's covered with ice.
 
Got up, worked out, cleaned up, went to work, did stuff for money, took Charlene in for a new battery, met with the lady's insurance agent who is apparently now my insurance agent, went to the deli for some pesto, came home, and did the kind of stuff one does after work when alcohol is not involved.
 
Slowly but surely recovering from a bout of delay heat exhaustion late last night which saw me pull up outside of Nangwarry going towards Kalangadoo and dry heave about 5 times after getting home I took a couple of chemist brand ibuprofen turned bedroom ceiling fan on and slept without any covering to lower body temperature my symptoms alleviated around 1 am this morning

The insurance payout was cleared into bank account early yesterday morning but it took a lot of juggling to transfer holiday savings into my special National Australia Bank account of which is specifically set aside to wire money into whilst also working out how to transfer work pay of which goes into same bank but a separate account I assigned ages ago to hold it during my weekends away

After about 10 minutes of problem solving managed to assign each amount into its respective accounts...unfortunately the forester I'd been eyeing off wasn't available still despite getting a respectable payout figure and in a comfortable position to make regular repayments financing is no longer available through the car yard I've been dealing with for years as the owner explained he has been burned quite a few times as people have paid up front initial deposit to legally own a car or ute then never even bothered to pay off remaining balances or make regular payments

With that first option not viable despite my strong stance against going through private sales I had a squiz on Facebook marketplace and came across and okish looking 2006 Hyundai Tucson and contacted the seller who explained he had lost his license for roughly 12 or so months as result of a DUI and hadn't gotten around to getting it back due to work commitments so went to his residence to have a look before work its in very good condition to assure it wasn't sold underneath me I went to my main bank and got $500 out of the payout money as a security deposit

All that is left to do now get remaining $3,500 out before bank shuts at 4pm and take it to the seller he was very genuine about the vehicle itself only had it for 6 months and got it from his mates other half who had it for 18 months only required new brakes but other than that very neat and tidy
 
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