October 5, 2010


  • TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

    Today is the first day of my *vacation* from picking up Chewlee.  I'm wondering how much I will miss picking her up and hearing her excited *Gramma!* when I come into her classroom.  I really love that kid and I think I will miss her as much as I will like not having to worry about the time so I pick her up like normal.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Especially since she always occupies some of the space here on my blog.  She comes up with some of the darndest things. 

    The Beast and I both were kind of energized by the cool...heck, COLD ... weather this morning.  He got ambitious and started cutting some of the wood for my shelves for the spice jars.  I got up and put the ingredients for Italian Beef into my slo-cooker.  Later on, what do I find but HE has started a pot of black beans for black bean soup.  I had to email the Princess and tell her to grab a container and she could have some.  She loves it with white rice.

    I'll have to send home some of the Italian beef with her tomorrow, too.  Hopefully she can come by for it early in the day....well, as early as she can manage to really feel like going out.  There is no way to make just a little bit of Italian beef.  Although the Beast does eat that more than once in a week, we just don't use up leftovers like we should.  Even if I freeze some, I forget what I have in there and it gets freezer burn no matter how well it's packed.  Then it becomes garbage.  It's really a shame.  I guess I should have the Beast think about a compost heap and do a little research on the kind of things we can put in it.  I doubt all the foodstuff is acceptable but I'm a bit ignorant about that.  All I can think of is stuff like leaves, lettuce, potato peels and things along that line.  I read that somewhere a long time ago.  At least then we could be doing some kind of useful recycling.  Maybe I could stop cringing every time I have to throw away things that I was used to recycling in Florida but they don't do here locally.

    Did I tell you our rain barrel is full?  The Beast has been happy about that but I had to remind him that it's not fit to drink, just to use for other things.  Water gets stagnant so he's thinking about putting an aerator in it but I just rolled my eyes over that.  I told him things hadn't gotten desperate by any means so what's the point.  But I'll bet he picks one up to have handy...JUST IN CASE. 

    Johnnycakes stopped by to drop off the Beast's dolly that the kids borrowed to move a refrigerator and stayed for almost a half hour just chatting.  Mostly they talked about hunting.  The Beast is trying to focus and remember which hunting areas require what things to be done when you show up.  For some places, you can just print out your license and just need to have it on you.  For others, you have to check in with a ranger before you go into the area.  Different places, different rules apply.  The Beast finally figured out he's going to have to print out the rules for each place he goes to hunt.

    Poor Johnnycakes was saying he's been averaging 65 hours a week and working 7 days.  Last Sunday, he was paid double time.  If he works this Sunday, and he says it looks like he will, he will be paid triple time.  I wonder when he's going to sit down and figure out that the more hours he works, the bigger the bite gets in taxes and there is a point of diminishing returns at play.  Good thing he's young and healthy is all I have to say.  But it does leave the Princess on her own, except for Chewlee on Sunday.  Plus, if he's getting home late from work every day, there's not much time to spend together before they both fall, exhausted, into bed.  No fun for Chewlee, either.  We all know that when we are tired and cranky, we tend to yell more at our kids for dumb things.

    The Beast started preparing the house for winter weather since it's been getting cooler and cooler at night and not warming up much during the day lately.  He closed the vents under the house for the crawl space and purged the lines for the fireplace.  He figures he might just have to use it one of these mornings.....and soon.  It barely got over 60 degrees for our high today and will be down in the 40's tonight.  I told the Beast if this continues, I'm pulling out the flannel sheets and the down comforter.  At least the day was sunny and bright.

    Love you all and I wish you a great day.  Smile a lot, laugh a lot and make sure you hug those you love.