dalthauser

Here are the highlights of what is currently going on in my life......

* I seem to be on a working program to get down to my healthy weight. Super excited about this. I will be doing a post about the plan I devised.

* I've made a significant routine change this month that I think is going to be permanent. I am now waking up at 5 to 5:30 am and spending quiet time alone before Marcel gets up at 7am. I use the time mostly at the computer doing my daily MyFitnessPal Blog Post, staying caught up on my email (an ongoing issue for me), and planning my day. The bonus is that it's very easy to fall asleep at night now.....

* I've been active with Indivisible protesting some of (all of?) our current president and his administration's policies. I also started to volunteer to work with the local Democrat group, but after the event coming up at the end of the month I'm going to stop. I'm not a Democrat (even though I agree with much of their basic platform), and I have not been feeling very comfortable. I will do support for individual Democratic candidates running against Republicans in the future, but no more the Democratic Party as a whole.

* I am doing more baking for the farm stand these days. It's on a very small scale, and I'm really not making any money (paying for ingredients and supplies mostly). The neighborhood is supporting it, and it's giving me a lot of experience. Last week was all about brownies.

* Marcel and I are boarding dogs at the Bauernhof through Rover.com. This has been an awesome experience! Never mind the money - we love hanging with the dogs and it is terrific company for Hilda who is wonderful with other dogs. I want to do a post for each stay we do and save them with the tag "Rover".

* I'm slowly getting the house and my life decluttered and organized. The older I get, the more of an issue this is. The extra stuff is just weighing me down so much. It hasn't been easy, and it's been a slow process mostly, I imagine, because I have that Hoarder gene that I got from my mother's side of the family....... I want to do a proper post on this project/subject; I think that will be motivating.

* I'm currently doing a class through Futurelearn: Body Weight: How Our Brain, Behavior and Genetics Influence Appetite and Food Choices.

* My niece Jerrica, who has been living with us for the past couple years or so since my sister passed away, told me she will be moving to Florida to live with her sister. I am very happy about this! Not that I am happy to see her leave us, but that she is taking the next step towards adulthood. What a wonderful human being she is - flawed like all of us are - and working towards her better self. My sister would be so proud of her.

I'm sure there's more, but this is what comes to mind this early in the morning. When I look over the things going on in my life I have to smile. I kind of love that I live such a simple common life. When I see how people like Oprah or the Trumps live, I feel fortunate. There are challenges, but all in all - I'm beyond happy with the life I have.

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Location: New Braunfels, Texas
Crossposts: http://eats-veggies.livejournal.com/339506.html

Tomorrow is the last day of May; it seemed to just fly by. This month we had loads of rain. This was good for us, but our neighbors in San Marcos and Wimberly good clobbered. Houston and Dallas has had it's share of the wetness as well. They say, as of today, it has rained enough to put the entire state under 8 inches of water. I hope everyone's water table is where it should be for this year as a result.

( DETAILS BEHIND CUT - CLICK HERE!! )

If the slideshow goes too fast, point the mouse anywhere on the picture - then you can hit the stop (square) button then click on FF or REW to advance manually. :-)

I'm finding it more and more inconvenient to get onto Livejournal these days. When I do, I just read to catch up - rarely posting. Will have to remedy that somehow. Maybe I'll make a weekly appointment or something.

What's new.......

The baby chicks are over 3 weeks old now, and we recently moved them to the "halfway coop". They will stay there a month or more then go to the big coop. We have a couple more of the old flock to put in the pot before this happens. Five of our hens are still laying - they will stay after the new flock moves in.

Last week Marcel ordered me a Grain Mill. I've been wanting to grind my own grains for a long time now. We did alot of reseach, and we decided The Family Grain Mill was best for us because..... 1 - made in Germany 2 - with the setup we purchased we can grind by hand and also with the Kitchenaid mixer. 3. there are many add ons you can purchase including a motor, roller/flaker, meat grinder, shredder. We shopped around for the best price and found what we wanted for $149.99 with free shipping from Millersgrainhouse.com. It arrived today (so FedEx says......I'm here at work).

With the new mill I can make flour and cracked grain for the chickens (and cooked cereals). Now we need whole grains to mill. We bought 25# of rye and a couple pounds of wheat locally, but it is a little pricey. We researched and found that there is a Co-Op that orders twice a year from Waltonfeed.com. Doing it with others saves a bundle on shipping. This is the best pricing we could find - but we're still looking.

The cool season garden is tapering off to nothing as summer approaches. Still have lettuce and chard though - and the onions/garlic won't harvest until mid June. I'm not entirely satisfied with what we produced with this planting. While nature had something to do with it (like that weeklong deep freeze...) I probably could have started earlier and protected the garden better overall. Next cool season I will be protecting with hoop row covers all season long. It doesn't look as nice, but maybe I can use my imagination and come up with something not entirely hideous. We did produce a decent amount - and, more importantly we learned some valuable lessons.

I am already started with the warm seaon garden though - tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, beans, and cucumbers, and summer squash are all in the ground. This weekend I'll be planting some cover crop (buckwheat), planing a bed of butternut squash as well as re-planting basil (first planting were some old seeds I was hoping were still good - didn't pan out). I'm determined to get a good crop - and I'll be sticking close to the garden this season nurturing it along.

I'm going to post a photo slideshow this weekend - yep, promise

Catching up on my reading on LJ today - looking forward to seeing how everyone is doing. It's so convenient to pop into Facebook on my phone, the Livejournal App isn't as user-friendly.
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This year I decided to get more serious in my quest to live frugally.

The ongoing economy issue is very motivating.......

I'm going to be making regular Frugal update posts (which will also give me motivation to post.....hehe). My goal for 2011 is to pay off all my outstanding debts (excluding home) - including the debt I still owe my parents for the loan I got setting her up in a car.

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Latest Iphone App I am loving: ALARMED which is a reminder / timer / alarm app. Lots of sounds/alarms/chime and a lot of flexibility. Perfect for what I need. It's free, but I got the .99 upgrade package to support them bacause it's such a useful and well done app.

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Garden is doing good. Regularly harvesting spinach, kale, chard, lettuce, parsley, and misc other greens. Marcel is my full partner in this - it's awesome.

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Girly stuff....... I started taking the homeopathic supplement "yeast gard" a few months ago. Not one single yeast related episode since I began which is super terrific. I'd been previously fighting every month to keep a yeast epiosde at bay (often losing). I'm a believer.

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Just got over my yearly cold. Had to miss a day of work which sucked, but was unavoidable. I didn't over-react to the symptoms and just did that routine that I usually do (am or pm cold meds as needed / vicks vapo rub on chest / cough drops / vaporizer one or two nights with vicks in the meds cup).

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* We were busy at the restaurant over the weekend. I helped on Saturday and Sunday in the kitchen. Met Marcel's new cook and waitress - two thumbs up. This morning we walked on the beach before Marcel went to work. It was rather nasty - lots of seaweed and trash from last night's festivities. I got to feed the Seagulls though, so that made it worth it.

* I drove up from Corpus Christi about 2:30pm. It's a 3+ hour drive, and I don't have A/C - which is usually not a problem - but today felt so hot that I stopped at Academy in San Antonio and did some window shopping just to get some Air Conditioning. I picked up a lunch bag sized backpack cooler ($6) to take tubing (will carry some sodas, sunscreen, keys, and camera).

* I got home and headed right outside to take care of business. Got everything watered - fed the chickens/collected eggs. Got some pics of the rest of the afternoon.....................

Cucumbers grow so fast. Luckily the Armenian cukes taste good even when huge (those spots are water droplets - just finished watering)

Fig tree must have started going into ripening mode on Saturday or Sunday because there were tons of succulent figs on it. This year it seems I will have some competition from the critters. This is fine - there are plenty (PLENTY) to share. I harvested 6 1/2 pounds this afternoon without breaking a sweat (1 pound went to the chickens due to large critter bites. Usually I leave the bitten ones on the tree for the critters to finish off - but sometimes I can't tell until later which ones were chewed on).

Butterfly and Beetles sharing a tasty fig. The butterflies are all over the tree - which I didn't expect. Usually it's just friendly wasps (never been stung - not once) and Beetles.

I didn't notice this bird nest until I crawled inside the tree to do some harvesting.

Multiple varieties of beetles this year...................

Variety 1

Variety #2

.... and my personal favorite because he stayed on the fig when I picked it, let me see him up close, and he posed like a super-model on a photo shoot (BBB MAGAZINE - Big Beautiful Beetle).

5 1/2 pounds of moist delicious figs - Life is Good

* My Mom & Niece will be leaving on Wednesday, so this is my last weekend with them. It really was nice having them here. I was also glad I could share my "paradise" with them (I'm kind of proud of my life....humble as it is) :-)

* Business seems to be picking up a little at the restaurant. I hope it continues in spite of all the negativity on the gulf coast. The oil spill hasn't affected us here in Texas physically, but it sure has emotionally.

* I'm considering the possiblity of going back to school once I move to Corpus (while working too of course). I think I might like to get into the Nursing program at Texas A&M Corpus Christi or Delmar College (though since I've been out of school for almost 30 years - I may need to do a semester or two of pre-requisite work). Nursing is what I was on track to pursue decades ago when my life veered in another direction (no regrets). I think a nursing job will pay adequately, offer decent benefits, jobs are plentiful, and it would fall under my idea of "right livlihood" which is very important to me. As a bonus - I could help myself and family with my knowledge/skills. Both colleges offer an E-Learning program which I might consider while working part-time in a nursing home or care facility to keep it relevent. I'll have to see what our financial situation is like etc., but I feel good about the idea.

* Blackberries are done. It was a good harvest this year. This weekend I will get in there and get everything pruned back. It's sad that this will be my last Blackberry harvest for awhile. Whomever rents the house will be enjoying it next year.

* Because someone gave back that day - I was able to get Memorial day off as a vacation day - which means I have off from Saturday at 12:30 through Wednesday night. Yay.

* Boody mama hatched a baby - it is so very cute. Once I get my new computer I'll post pics.

* I've narrowed down the computer choices to the Gateway NV7915U or the Asus K60I-RBBBR05. The Best Buy I'm going to has them both in stock (or so they say) - so my final decision will come once I touch them. They are only $50 apart in price, so I'm really looking at professional reviews and features.

I'll post first because I'm positive that, by the time I finish reading my friendslist there won't be time to do a post.

Update (highlights)

* My computer is dead AGAIN! Grrr.... Black screen with curser this time - then when I push it gives me a cannot read disk error. I picked the brain of the Geek squad rep at Best Buy - he said - buy a new one. So, I'm puterless until that happens - which is okay, I have wifi on my Touch at home - and I have internet access at work. That'll get me through until I find something I can afford that doesn't suck too bad. :-)

* My mom is here. She arrived Wednesday night while I was in Corpus Christi. I came home early (Thursday) so I could spend time with her. First thing we did was go go the garden and harvest blackberries and taters :-)

* Canyon trip went smoothly. Michael graduated West Texas A&M. Unfortunately most of the pictures came out too dark because I had to use a cheapo disposible camera (the batteries on my digital refused to charge - turns out the cells were bad)

* Houston trip went smoothly, but we didn't do anything I planned. Still - we had a good time, and we got to see Tom (

texasts ) for lunch!

(photo stolen from Tom's Journal)

* Yesterday Marcel and I celebrated our first anniversary. We are giddy :-)

* I'm fully into blackberry season - unbelievable how many berries there are - I'm happy. Everything else in the garden rocks too. I'm blessed.

* Marcel and I walked at Landa Park yesterday evening. We sat and watched a large herd of deer stroll through the neighborhood bordering the park. Over 20 deer - it was really cool.

* My doc perscribed me anti-depressants. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I guess I'm willing to give it a try. He seems to think that my sporatic emotional issues aren't caused by my hormones. I'm generally a very happy and positive person - so I don't know if I should be medicated. I was a little taken aback that he didn't first offer to refer me to a therapist/counselor before whipping out the prescription pad. I'm taking Lexapro - it's an SSRI (Seratonin reuptake inhibitor - whatever that is) I asked him if he could just prescribe me Medical Marijuana instead (he just chuckled and said "uh no, this is Texas). :-)

* Am I a geek for thinking that Steve Jobs is kind of hot?

* We dropped the computer off to the repairman yesterday. He called me this morning and told me it'd be about $98 to fix. I can deal with this - and continue to save for a Mac. It's been, with a few exceptions, kind of nice to not have it at home. I can still access email and facebook updates via the Touch - just can't get full functioning on these sites. PC should be ready by Monday (I hope).

* If you have a iTouch of iPhone, go and check out the app iFangs (I've been scaring people with it all day - just put your iTouch up to your mouth and make like a monster) :-)

* This morning Marcel told me I'm a GOOD WIFE. This made me feel so good.

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dalthauser

June 2017

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