Rain!
We got another couple of inches of today. All the standard low places are flooded again.
I always have to guestimate how much rain we had - take the rainfall reported by all the towns around us and average. No more! Today I bought a rain gauge. I should have it installed by 2010.
Worn to a frazzle
The big limb cleanup planned for Saturday got preempted by a call from the dollar store.
I saw it on caller-id, but stupid me, I answered the phone anyway. One of the girls called in sick and they needed someone to fill in for her. With scowls and heavy sighs from Hubby, I agreed to pick up the shift.
That was my second stupid move. The shift was to close, then I had to turn around and be back at 7 am the next morning. Lemme tell ya - by the end of the second day, I wuzunt worth nuttin.
Surprises in my mailbox
Saturday night I made a swing by the post office to pick up the mail on the way home from the store. I had two packages! Two! All for ME!
My new apron from Aunt Jo arrived in perfect postal condition (they didn't play kickball with it). I've never been to Aunt Jo's house, but things that come from her always smell so good! I'm not going to model it because I'm just too fat for modeling. You can, however, see Bitsy curled up in my lap, and I'm wearing my apron. And, I wore it yesterday. And, I'll wear it tomorrow....
Next I received my Kona Bay fabric. Very pretty, but they colored outside the lines. I was marginally disappointed. It's still pretty, though.
Supporting our vet
Our veterinarian, that is. My little Bitsy is having eye issues and we're going to see Dr. Randy tomorrow morning. Bit's inner eyelids aren't closing completely. Dr. Randy's electric bill will be paid this month courtesy of Annie.
Frugality for the day
Hubby has been ordering fully cooked hamburger patties from Schwan's - 24 oz. for $14. This afternoon, I picked up three pounds of lean course ground beef (the kind they package for chili) for under $9, cooked patties this evening, and they're sitting in the freezer waiting for hubby to have for lunch. Savings: more than $5, with no preservatives, additives (except the hormones and antibiotics fed to the cow), or flavorings.
I still haven't put up my clothesline, but who could dry clothes outside in this weather?? I also have a wall of dead limbs that stands six feet tall in the clothesline path. Sticks and dead leaves in my undies might could be problematic.
Farm improvements
A trip to Atwood's today gained a small bundle of T posts. Small. Very small. Six foot T posts are close to five dollars a piece these days. We'll need many to replace/repair the fence around this place in order to have stock. The plan is to collect a few each payday, and by next spring we hope to have fencing enough to purchase a pair of Large Black Hogs.
We also need to fence around the house. It doesn't matter to me if it's not chain link fence. Stock panels work fine (we're just a bunch of redneks, anyway). Once the yard is fenced, we need a watch dog. Hubby wants a Norwegian Elkhound. He's had them in the past and says they're protective and territorial. I want a Rottie. They just look more dangerous than a fluffy mush dog. Dutch, the big black Lab, is ancient in years and too dumb to bark when strangers show up. Our other pack dogs - the ones who did bark at strangers - had to be put down because of illness.
We have a cistern behind the house. When the original house stood here, the cistern was in the kitchen and a hand pump brought the water up for cooking and cleaning. Gutters from the roof emptied rainwater into the cistern. When we dozed the remains of the old house and put this one in, we thought we would just fill in the cistern and cover it. We dumped in some rocks and assorted junk, but that was as far as we got. Now, hubby is looking at the cistern as an emergency source of water. We've used it before, like the winter of the big ice storm when our water was out for a week. Current plan: clean out the trash we threw in, set up guttering on the house and set the downspout to empty into the cistern; take the sandstone blocks from the old front porch and turn the cistern into an old fashioned well.
Oh, that's enough rattling for tonight.
Museums
12 years ago
3 comments:
We only got about 3 tenths of an inch of rain but it was nice while it lasted. Now we're getting a warm dry south wind.
By oldfashioned well do you mean a hand crank with a bucket attached to a rope or what exactly?
I have a cistern in my laundry room (converted back porch) and I'd love to use it. We get so much rain here that I feel bad not collecting it. I don't think it would be hard to change the layout of the gutter and divert the water to the cistern.
Getting the water out is my only concern. Well, that and a kid falling in it while doing something stupid.
I'd like to have the wishing well look with the top of the well covered (gotta protect the kitties), and use a hand pump rather than a bucket. The close proximity to the house is the problem, and the reason the sliding glass doors open to a 3' drop. I can't figure out how to build a porch and landscape around the cistern.
When the old house was here, I remember the kitchen island was over the cistern, and the hand pump was in the center of the island. Could you do something like that in your laundry room?
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