Learning new skills!`
Sunday was a big day in which I learned to drive the skid loader and spent some quality time with a chain saw.
It was Clean Out the Barn day and I got back from a quick trip to town to find Joe already working in the barn. Plan was to clean out the crap that had piled up over the years. Old tires, plywood, boards, miscellaneous old feeders and waterers. Joe rolled his eyes every time I wanted to save something (like the old pig waterer).
"Whatcha gone do with that?"
" Plant flowers in it."
"HA!"
Joe's got a way of saying "Ha!" that belongs in a sit com. He'd be Ricky to my Lucy.
I told him the story about how, as a teenager, I turned Dad's antique forge into a front yard flower garden. I thought it looked great; the forge was about 4' high and made of iron. I planted nasturtiums and geraniums in it and couldn't wait for Dad to see it. He pulled in the driveway and said something like "why is my forge in the yard with flowers?" I couldn't believe he didn't like it. Harumph. (yes, I took it apart and planted the flowers in the yard instead).
I wonder where that old forge is these days. It'd make a nice planter...
Anyway, he saved the old wooden feeder and I'll figure some spot to put that thing.
So I practiced with the skid loader by moving some of the manure pile around. Then I got full of myself and decided to drive it into the barn to pick up the next load of junk. I was going in perfectly straight when I got to the edge of the barn floor. Apparently, when you go over something like a ridse the front end gets squirrely. I had the bucket partly extended and when i went over the edge the bucket whipped over to the right and caught the barn support beam. It shook a bit and Joe's eyes got big but the beam held just fine and no damange done. Joe is about as patient as a person can be and he kept on loading like I hadn't just driven the skid loader into the barn beam.
So of all the wood we found in the garage there was some good pine boards that I chopped up with the chainsaw. While I'm getting adept at the chainsaw, I can't say I like it much. It's loud (I hate loud noises) and it scares me. Guns and chainsaws I can do without but they both have their uses.
Speaking of guns, I was back in the pit the other day and saw the Reduce/Reuse/Recycle in action. Remember the old pig feeder that we moved out of the barn? It's now being used for target practice. It's got a few targets on it and it's got a whole new life in the pit.
Ah yes, recycling. Country style.
b
PS: To Cathy: Rosie and Beep send their good thoughts and wish you extra strength.
4 comments:
I was reading the comments from the earlier post and I just have to ask Barbara, how are you doing on 500 calories a day???? Are you aware that this is not enough to sustain a gerbil? Do you have enough fainting couches in your house to catch you at odd intervals when your blood sugar goes negative? I'll forgo Halloween trick or treat candy in solidarity if you bump that up just a little.
Good job completing the first course of SkidSteer U. I hear a person can have lots of creative and/or destructive fun with those! If Joe has a post hole digger, I highly recommend you auger yourself a few nice holes in de ground. Better yet, try to dig one with the old fashioned manual post hole digger and then use the auger. You'll never have a more satisfying hole-digging experience.
Ah Sara!
How touching that you care about my poor gerbil's mysteriously disappearing food! Yum yum! Actually, I am somewhat of a walking biological miracle. In fact, there are entire cultures in which I would be highly prized for my body's ability to maintain its over-generous proportions in the midst of famine. (Unfortunately ours isn't one.) For me to "cut back" to 500 calories a day is not hard at all. I eat very little normally. The only thing I do miss is the occasional nip of chocolate. But - You should see what I can do with Tofu, zero calorie chocolate syrup and a dash of vanilla! Also God bless eggbeaters and Lean Cuisine, shrimp cocktails, Pam spray and broccoli. And with no sugar high there is no blood sugar drop. Never once had a light head. Big, maybe, but NEVER light!
AND - on those same 500 calories I have been on a plateau for five whole days. Not a single ounce lost. (Maybe the birthday glass of wine - yes I counted it - threw me off) And I am not hungry, either. The gerbil is, though. Don't tell him. Hope you didn't give up your Halloween candy for me. I'll send you all my leftovers. I wont eat it.
What a healthy attitude you have, Barbara! I probably shouldn't have pried but I love good food so much that I get worried when I hear about 500 calories a day. I do understand how frustrating a metabolism can be, but it sounds like yours has mastered cold fusion!
Aha! Perfect description! Cold fusion metabolism indeed! Funny that I look exactly like the pictures of my Paternal grandmother. Her three boys used to call her "Round". What a nickname! My Maternal Granny had about the same generous profile. But a corpus maximus in the early 1900s was not quite the cause for denigration it has become in the post-twiggy era in which the models folks are so anxious to emulate are so highly paid for their anorexia. I'm still working on a great no-cal Caesar dressing without sugar or sweetener to ruin the true wonders of garlic and anchovies. Any thoughts?
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