Wednesday, September 30, 2009

A Day Time Nighmare!

Ohhh my goodness! I am sitting here reading email and pondering a post for musings of the summer gone by and goodbye September.

Today is National Mulled Cider Day. There's not much I can say about that other than it's "not much" of a special day to me. I love cider but not so much a lot of mulled cider. I am fine with the national day though as I know many many people do enjoy it. Maybe they'll tip their cup to me!

In my pondering for a post though, I've just been struck by lightening so to speak. I'm having a mini nightmare of sorts. It's the last day of September so it's time I "get over with it" as to summer being over.... done... another "gone by" .... and I don't want to. Summer is my favorite season. I love the sunshine and cherish it. Maybe that is because I live in the northern midwest and ours is short and not to many horribly hot and humid days.... just a lot of humid days with sunshine.

BUT, I JUST realized..... next time Summer is here I'll be 60! WOW.... YIKES... OMGoodness! And worse than that.... Winter is staring me in the face and it's time to scurry and get the homestead ready for winter.... BUT in February I'll turn 60 so I'll be 60 before the winter is over too! Winter is my least fav season.

I guess I'll write my goodbye to summer tomorrow..... I've got to ponder somemore!

Friday, September 25, 2009

How Important is the Title "World's Coolest Parent"?

I find issue at times with the wording of titles for the news, online and other, when they are going for drama which feeds into status in life. Today's example comes from the AOL news. "Be the World's Coolest Parent" We are suppose to go buy our munchkins Halloween costumes that beat all others and of course a trip to Disneyland is also crucial.

How important is it to be the coolest parent? What ever happened to striving to be the best parent we can be? Where are our goals for being parents? I know we can work the # goal of many of us, to have our munchkins grow up feeling loved, cherished and valued AND to be other things too. BUT do those other things raise munchkin up to be the quality or type of person we would like to see them be?

That's just something for you to ponder to day. Sometimes it's good to pause a moment and look at the road we're traveling and see if we are on course or if we think we need to take a different route. May you all end up where you hope to be and enjoy the "trip"!

Monday, September 21, 2009

THE RULES OF CHOCOLATE

If you've got melted chocolate all over your hands, you're eating it too slowly.

Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices & strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you want.

The problem:
How to get 2 pounds of chocolate home from the store in hot car.
The solution:
Eat it in the parking lot.

Diet tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal. It'll take the edge off your appetite and you'll eat less.

A nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Isn't that handy?

If you can't eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. But if you can't eat all your chocolate, what's wrong with you?

If calories are an issue, store your chocolate on top ofthe fridge. Calories are afraid of heights, and they will jump out of the chocolate to protect themselves.

If I eat equal amounts of dark chocolate and white chocolate, is that a balanced diet? Don't they actually counteract each other?

Money talks. Chocolate sings.

Chocolate has many preservatives. Preservatives make you look younger.

If not for chocolate, there would be no need for controltop pantyhose. An entire garment industry would be devastated.

Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to-do-today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done.

Why is there no such organization as ChocoholicsAnonymous?
Because no one wants to quit.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Gardening Goaties

No pics so you have to just visualize it....

The girls in the romper room wanted a good romp (2009 doelings - when don't they) this morning so "we" decided to do a couple little chores I needed done. Sometimes things are a pita such as the wheel barrow tire is flat again. :( So I used the dolly/hand cart (with low wheels and squeaking like the dickens) and an old fiberglass sink/tub. I needed to move some nicely composted black dirt to a garden plot I've been working on off and on all spring and summer and had tomatoes in it last year. I mulched it heavily with cardboard, bedding and some manure interspersed in there last Fall. Then I had some bad hay given to me so it got a layer of that too. It's loaded with worms under neath so is deteriorating and settling nicely.

With the help of the 8 young inmates from the romper room, the 3 new Boer kids, and several adult goats (Alpine and Boer) along with a horse, I got the tub filled and, while giving rides to who ever jumped aboard, got the dirt moved. With help from all and sundry, the dirt from 3 loads was roughly spread within the wooden sides of the garden plot and is now ready to have the netting strung around it and a couple more posts put in at the corners. They also helped in spreading the dirt around within the frame.

Good gardening goaties that they are, they also discovered there was a job of spreading and compacting the newest compost bin down some and took turns frolicing and jumping in and out of it. The compost bin is pretty full now and next to this garden plot so it was deemed to be lots of fun and part of the gardening game. I will say I'm glad that this group likes to hang out with me as they do make it easier to have them out and about with me that way.

Thankfully I don't have to go after them as they want to be with me and to be "helping". When I call they come running and answering and resume the underfoot assistance.

Needless to say, with lots of fun and my laughs, the project drug out to a couple hours and we were all nicely wore out. We did take a short stroll out into the pasture for nibbles in the "roughts" and their goatie fun there too.

The romper room inmates are now back in their "room" (double stall) to chew cud. They've also met a new inmate. I have a hen who was being picked on, who needs some healing time, and the inmates have been wasting a lot of grain so they've joined forces and now have a feathery maid to clean up after their messy meals. After all, they MUST stand in those tubs with the grain so they don't up and disappear out from under their hungry little mouths!

And, I'm EXHAUSTED! 14 gardening goaties is a lot of "intensive labor"!

I'll try to start posting pics soon. I did get a couple taken of some of them in the paddock but need to crop and shrink it. Altogether, there are currently 22 goats!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Personal Goal Posts

I could write a post with the following quote, but some things just don't need a lot of words! That coming from a wordy person - me. I don't know who is quoted to give them credit but.... wow....

"Life is said to be a game -- but how can we play if we don't know where the goal posts are?"

Do you know where your goal posts are? I do but I'd rather be on the offense than spending so much time on defense these days!

I'll leave you to ponder this and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Fall & Daylight Savings Time Countdowns

I'm wondering if countdown banners work to add the html to a blog so here's my test.....

I can't believe Fall is sooooo close! I'm not overly thrilled with this situation! I'm one to want to hang on to good weather and especially weather I enjoy outdoors.

At least with DST I don't have the same feeling of cringing as when looking at Fall and Winter arriving. I don't enjoy this Fall time change but it's not dreaded as much as Winter's arrival.

Daylight Saving Time countdown banner

I guess I better get use to it, huh?

Monday, September 7, 2009

A New Direction!

Due to some life priorities, I got behind on blogging and in that time, decided I wanted to change directions with my blog to be more of a homesteading type blog. I have a couple other blogs but decided I'd rather focus on one and keep up than have a few that I'm not doing justice with. So I'll be closing the others and starting in the new direction of focusing on homesteading and all that involves for me.

I hope you'll come along and enjoy this new direction with me!