Time to do the math.....

In spite of the unusually hot and humid weather, the garden is doing very well. (as I type there is the scent of fried squash, green beans, and sweet corn coming from the stove, mmmmm) We're getting a HUGE amount of yellow squash and zuchinni, and quite a bit of blackberries. Squash and zuchinni are washed, sliced, dipped in eggs, battered with a flour & cornmeal mix, flash frozen on cookie sheets, then vacuum sealed and put in the freezer. I love fried squash. Set a plate of it in front of me and watch out. You may get stabbed with a fork for trying to get to one. Oh yea.....blog post.....oops.

Today we got the first small picking of sugar snap peas and broccoli. The peas will be eaten raw, and the broccoli is going to be blanced and frozen after dinner. So far we are just freezing green beans simply because it's just been too hot and humid to fire up the stove and canner. Hopefully things cool off this weekend so we can actually start canning. The freezer has one shelf jammed full of frozen strawberries and blackberries, and I'd love to get them out this weekend and do a few big batches of jam. Lisa has always done the jams and jellies, but I figure it's my time to learn since I've been canning everything else. Later this evening I'll rearrange the freezer and see what we have to work with.

As of the latest garden picking today, the total count stands at 278 3/4 pounds of fruit and vegetables off of our place. When I rearrange the freezer and start canning, I'll keep track of not only weight, but how much is put away. (canned, frozen, basement storage, etc.) We still haven't gotten into the big stuff yet either-corn, tomatos, cucumbers, and potatos. I can't wait until those start producing, just so I can see how high the total weight can go. I'm shooting for 1000 pounds, but I'm not sure we'll be able to reach that. I imagine if I add in eggs and chicken, I could; but 1000 pounds is a long way off from 278. I'll have to check just to see what a dozen eggs weighs and take that into consideration. Food production is food production, right?
OK...so after writing that, my curiousity got the best of me and I weighed a dozen eggs. They were over 2 pounds for all 3 I weighed, but I used the weight of 1lb11oz from the store carton to do the math. I have counted 160 dozen eggs since January 1st and used that number, so 160x 1lb11oz=270lbs of eggs! Holy Layin' Hens Batman! LOL So.....add that 270 to the count of 278 3/4 of produce and we get 548 3/4lbs. Now...if I add in 26 chickens at an average of 3lbs each, I get 626 3/4lbs of total FOOD production. I suppose that technically, I can count the eggs and chickens since they were layed/gathered/fed/butchered here on site. (even though the chickens were free and raised elsewhere) For all inents and purposes, I'll leave the count at that amount just for the sake of knowing how much food has come from our property and left us that much more non-reliant on the grocery store.

Sitting here looking at that number, I am still in shock. I never expected to get that much food from one acre. Never. It's amazing how much things have grown since that first small vegetable garden and since the very first 3 laying hens. It's almost funny now to look back at how excited we got over that first ear of home grown corn or tomato. I'm never one to brag or gloat, but this is a perfect example. For those that think you need a huge amount of property to grow a lot of food, take a look at what can be done on one acre, IF you make food production a priority. Sure it's a big commitment. Sure it's a lot of work and an almost daily chore, but wouldn't 626 pounds of food that you wouldnt have to BUY be worth it?????

Garden growth-usual happenings-and the future

Well, we never did get that nice all night rain we really needed, but we have managed to finally get some decent rain on and off over the past week. It's still been unusually hot and humid, though yesterday was a nice break. 95 degrees just isn't normal for Ohio, and this humidity? WOW There have been days that it was so bad that I was drenched in sweat just walking to the garage. The forecast for this week calls for 80's and not the 90's like we have been dealing with. Hopefully they're right, but they seldom are.



Last week was however, a great week for freebies. We ended up with twelve more chickens through someone that Lisa works with. We added the new layers, taking our flock to 18, thinned out some of ours, and added others to the freezer. As it stands now, we have the 18 layers, two more I'll be returning to the main run today, the same five mille de fluers, and four more hens to butcher; which will bring the total freezer count to 22 this year alone. I just hope the egg orders keep going strong now that the flock is larger than ever. The last time we had a larger flock, the orders all but stopped and we had to get rid of some


.
Besides the chickens, I got around 60 cinderblocks that I plan to use for a few new raised beds, a roll of poultry netting, some 4" drainpipe, a camp toilet, misc lumber pieces, a chicken tractor, and a bunch of misc nuts, bolts, hinges,latches, link pins, and other goodies to add to the garage shelves. After all these years of making fun of my dad, I finally have came to terms with the fact that I inherited that packrat gene from him. LOL



Granted, I don't keep parts from a tractor that I haven't had in 15 years, or snow tires from a car I got rid of 30 years ago like dad did, but I try to keep a lot of other things on hand. I have two 4x8x1ft deep wooden shelf units in the garage full of nuts, bolts, washers, screws, nails, pipe fitting, electrical fittings, wire staples, hinges,latches, pins, and all kinds of other handy little items. Anytime I start a project, or have to repair something around here, I check what I have on hand and rarely need to get anything but lumber. Just the other day when I was repairing the freebie chicken tractor, it needed a door on one end. I had the piece of plywood, hinges, screws, and even the hook latch. I didn't have to buy a single thing. I even have 2 pairs of pneumatic wheels & tires that I'll be putting on it today that I took off of an old compressor in dads barn. I even scrounged the motor off of it for another project I have going. I love having all of this "stuff" here when I need it, and 90% or more of it I have for free. I do need to thin things down a little, which I've already started,but I'll be sharing some with a friend who has little of their own "stuff" stock. I just HAVE to quote my dad on this one....."thats not junk, its good stuff!".


The garden has started producing fairly well, though some things are still slow since we got everything in so late. We've been picking squash, zuchinni, blackberries, and green beans almost daily. As of the last picking yesterday, we've taken 136 3/4 pounds of produce out of the garden, not counting greens. I just won't bother weighing greens since we only take out a salad or two at a time. While for some that may not sound like much, for us on this one acre, it's pretty impressive for no more than we have been able to pick so far. I figured out the amount of eggs so far this year too, and came up with a total of 164 dozen. Add that to the 22 chickens in the freezer at an average of 3lbs each, and we're getting a helluva lot of food off of this place. It's funny now to look back at that first year and that tiny 10x10 garden when we were happy with just a few quarts of green beans to can. We've grown here more than either of us ever imagined back then. We had no idea that we would someday be literally out of growing space or have chickens. At first, this way of life was an obsession, but now it's just how we operate from day to day. Things next year, like I have said in the previous post, will be growing even more when we start using some of my uncles land. We've talked quite a bit on what exactly to plant there, and decided on things that we can, for the most part, plant and leave alone. Corn, potatos, etc. Anything that needs watching or daily picking will stay here. With the open space here then, we'll triple the amount of tomato's to make sauces, soup, and juices. We'e still kicking around wheat and oats, but thats VERY new to us and we aren't sure about the work or details. We'll be researching that more before we decide.


When we were out running errands on Saturday, we stopped to visit my uncle and see how he was doing. He doesn't do well with this heat so I wanted to check. We sat and talked about a lot of things, but when we started talking about planting and doing things there, he told us stories about what my grandparents did there when he was young. They had chickens, pigs and a dairy cow. There were blackberries, blueberries, and elderberries all over the property. He told us that the property next door had a HUGE blackberry patch, but the newest owners bulldozed them over when he started bringing in loads of soil & fill to level it out. He remembered spending days picking berries for grandma to make jam and jelly, and how he and my dad sold extra berries to get things they wanted. Dad sold enough berries to get himself a real AMRY puptent, speeping bag, canteen, knife, and mess kit to camp in the woods. I have that WWII mess kit now. My uncle saved his money to buy a .22 rifle and ammo. We talked about all of that and how they used to trap muskrats in the old creek for extra money. I love hearing those stories from him and from my dad. It not only makes me almost see what life was like back then, but always brings a smile to their faces as they remember their youth. Even though I'll be in most likely y 50's when we take over, I hope to make just as many fond memories on the land. It's strange how yesterday I had the thought that I will be there on that land when we can celebrate 100 years of our family on it. OK granted that's 19 years down the road, but I plan on having a bit celebration. Hell, I'll even make a nice sign to put out front. "The W farm-celebrating 100 years"

Garden update and weathermen are paid to lie!!!

The weather here has been insanely hot and humid for weeks now. We've had rain, but it's been very sparatic and never lasts long. The forecast calls for rain starting tonight and lasting all of next week. While I don't want to lose a week of working on things here and some other projects that need done elsewhere, we really need the rain. The garden is doing fairly well, but with how late things went in, and the lack of rain, it could be doing a lot better. It still needs to be finished with weeding, but the heat and humidity has kept us out of it for nearly a week. I weeded 4-5 rows on Sunday night while Lisa picked, and I was soaked in sweat. She did manage to get quite a bit picked considering all the factors we have against the garden doing well right now. We got 4 1/2lbs yellow squash, 5lbs green beans,4 3/4lbs cabbage, and 10/4lbs zuchinni. Not to bad considering how dry it's been. If we get this rain, things will most likely explode and canning time will start with a roar. With all this in mind, I took an inventory of canning supplies and we're actually pretty well set, other than being a bit short on wide-mouth lids and rings. Those are cheap, so we'll get some in a week or so just to make sure they're on hand when the time comes. With the diet change, more awareness of processed/grocery store food, and trying to save money, we plan on more home canning this year than ever before. Yep, it's going to be a busy, busy canning season.


Earlier in the week, I was supposed to help my uncle take down two trees over at his place, but we weren't able to because his neighbor didn't leave the keys in the lift,(he owns a tool rental an brought home a 60ft boom lift), and because of the heat. He's FINALLY realizing that he is 75 and can't do everything he wants to. He's not giving up and just sitting, but he's not pushing himself either. While we were there, we took a walk to the back of the place simply because Lisa has never seen the whole property. We all talked about what he has done to it over the years, and he began to talk about what else he wants to do. He knows that we have pretty much dug up every available & usable square foot of our property, so he wants to clear a spot, plow and till it, so we can use it next year. He said he wants to finish clearing another area so he can fence it in for us to use as a pasture, then he said he wanted to dig a pond next to that area because the neighbor had offered to do it for him for nothing. It was funny to hear him say that with a pond, he could put in a pump that he already has so we would have irrigation water for whatever we had planted. We're thinking corn & wheat but we aren't 100% positive. He's actually fine with the idea of a couple goats and meat birds next year. I know we've talked about it before, but we're pretty serious this time. I'm going to slowly start gathering materials for a couple of buildings there.


It's hard sometimes to have those talks with him. He wants to do things for us for when he passes and we take over, which is greatly appreciated, but it's still him talking about what will happen when he's dead. While it will be an honor for me to be the 3rd generation on the land, I don't like thinking about it much, let alone talking about it. He even talked about putting up some fencing and building a pole barn because he knows that we would need it. I love the fact that he is thinking of us and how we will treat the place, but it's sad to know that he has to die before we can move in. I should just feel honored that he chose me out of my sister and my 2 cousins to take the place and not just money, but it's still hard to think about. I don't want to lose my uncle. I just hold on to the fact that I'll be the next line of W's to be there since 1929. I'll do my grandparents and uncle proud when we take over. I just wish my dad felt the same, but he thinks we're nuts. Ah well, can't win em all.


Today I scored close to 70 free cement blocks which I'll be using for more raised beds. I already used some to raise the height of the outoor sink/chicken station since it was just too short. Anytime I spent a few hours out there cleaning chickens, my back was killing me from that slight bend over the table and sink. Not anymore!! We also got another dozen FREE chickens this evening...as if we really needed them. The plan is to keep the majority of the young ones and thin our flock of the older ones. I'll be using the older hens for soups, (they're not quite 2), and buthering the last five freebie roosters tomorrow since they're finally big enough to be processed. Between all of the freebies this year so far, we'll have a total of 20 chickens either in soup or in the freezer. YAY on beating last year's record already. I'm positive there will be more. I can't wait for the carrots to be ready so we can start making giant batches of soup to can. MmMmMmMmMm


Today it rained off and off again. (yes I started writing this a few days ago lol) I think I would almost rather have no rain than these quick 2-5 minute showers. C'mon already. Give me a good steady all night rain. We hit a good downpour on the way back with the twelve chickens this evening, but of course, as soon as we got closer to home, we drove out of it. UGH this is frustrating. I can water with a hose if I really have to, but it would take me all night or more to get a decent soaking on everything. The forecast had said rain on Saturday afternoon-nothing, Sunday was supposed to be rain all day-again nothing. Monday and today said the same and we got a few random sprinkles here and there. Arrgghh. When I *don't* want rain-we get rain. Just my luck. DRATS

Lehmans goes chinese? Luckily not....

Last weekend Lisa and I set off to one of our many annual trips to Lehman's. It's only 45 minutes away, and a great day to spend a day there and driving through the area finding new places to visit. I have loved that store since my first trip there nearly 20 years ago. We generally have a shopping list, which is always wayyy less than the "want" list. We've often joked about the same thing many people do- "when we win that lottery we're going to ________) Our list is short and simple. Pay off everything, hit the Ford dealer,trailer dealer, gun shop, and Lehmans. How cool would it be to walk in Lehmans and say "OK gimme one of everything!" Ahhhh dreams.

One of the things we wanted to buy last weekend was a corn cutter since canning season is fast approaching. We found them in the newly remodeled kitchen gadget area, and there were three to choose from. Sadly, two out of three were made in China. We began to talk about the way the store has slightly changed, and the apperance of chinese products. Had it finally happened? Had Lehmans sold out? We really wondered if it had came to that. Well, Lisa had written a post in her blog about the very same thing, and recieved a much unexpected response. That response was from Galen Lehman himself, son of Jay Lehman who had opened the store 55 years ago. I gotta tell ya folks, Galen's response was very impressive. It really answered the questions we had about chinese made products in their store. I'll post it here for you:
"Lisa,

Thanks for your blog posting. I am sorry you were disappointed with your visit to our store.

I absolutely share your frustration. We are trying our best to carry only USA made goods, but we're finding it harder and harder to do so. The corn cutter you mentioned used to be made in America. Now it's not. What should we do??

I stand on this promise: If it's available in the USA and our customers want it, we will carry it. If you find a Chinese-made item on our shelves that you think should be made in America, it means we haven't found a USA made source for it.

And by all means, if you know of a USA made product we should be carrying, please, please let us know.

To read more about our struggle against Chinese products, check out this article on my blog: http://countrylife.lehmans.com/2007/10/01/should-lehmans-be-buying-from-china/

Thanks for your hard work on this blog! You're fighting a good fight!

Galen Lehman"

She never expected many responses, let alone someone from the Lehman family. This response really brought back my respect for Lehmans store. Knowing that they care about what they carry and do their best to avoid imports makes me very happy. Galen, hats off to you and your family for keeping this policy and for running such an incredible store. I won't hesitate to return like we always have. Thank you.

Here at home, Lisa and I are still struggling with eating fresh and local. It's hard to deprogram your brain from the huge variety available at the grocery stores. We're all so used to having anything we want, any time that we want, that we never think about it anymore. We're still searching for local, and affordable, beef and other produce that we can't or don't produce here for ourselves. It's a lot harder than we imagined. Another one of our goals for that trip last weekend was to hopefully find locally grown grain or flour, but we had no luck. Everyone had the same answer. "it comes off the truck" We'll continue to look as best we can and not give up. Sure we can buy flour from the store and skip the extra preservatives that are in store-bought bread, but we'd rather try to skip what was sprayed ON those crops, what kind of seed they were grown from, and basically just not give our money to big agriculture. It's the same with meat products. It's a continuous struggle, but we're slowly gaining ground.
It's amazing to read labels on food from the store and see ingredients that you can't even pronounce. What IS that? Why is it there? What does or can it do to me over time? Read "Death by Supermarket", and "Food Inc" and it's companion movie and you'll really start to wonder about what you're having for dinner. It's been a real eyeopener for us, and has pushed this journey to self sufficency even more. Getting used to having less than 25% of the choices will be the largest hurdle, but we're getting used to it. Right now as I type, there are two large cookie sheets of cereal in the oven. Oats,honey, dehydrated apples, cinnamon, and a touch of brown sugar. Not flavor enhancers, no preservatives, no nothing. That cereal is just one of many things changing around here in our diet and food storage. There will be many more to come soon, and I'll keep them all posted here.
If anyone is local and knows where we can find locally produced/raised flour, grain, beef, pork, or any other things we don't already do for ourselves, please let us know!

Doc results and a rather long rant

Well..........the virdict is in. My bloodwork came back and I had a dr. appointment on Thusday. I try to eat well as best I can, and I'm highly active, but my cholesterol was high. REALLY high-182. Nearly double what it should be. (100) So, along with the diet change, I started meds today to bring that down. I'm also going to dump the cigarettes once and for all. With the high cholesterol. smoking, family history of heart disease, and being male, I have 4 out of 5 risk factors for heart disease or attack. That is some pretty scary stuff. Tomorrow we're having friends over for a dinner that was already planned and all four of them smoke. I've decided to go as usual through tomorrow night and make the big changes starting on Sunday. What better day to totally change my life than on Independance Day? I'm really looking forward to this.


Right now I'm going to touch a bit on my viewpoint of the BP oil spill. Now first of all, I am in no way going to defend BP. What happened was completely avoidable and tragic. That isn't my problem or what I want to go into at all, so don't think I don't see how bad this all is. I do.

My problem with this isn't what happened, it's WHY it happened. I don't mean it's because of money hungry oil moguls going for that extra almighty dollar. I mean the DEMAND we have for oil. I look around when I'm out and still see the gas stations full of cars and trucks. (sadly BP still remains busy here) I do see the handfull of hybrids and electrics, but mostly I see normal gas or diesel vehicles just like always. Though we all hear the stories of oil shortages and see the ever rising fuel prices, people don't slow down at all. They bitch about the price, but they still fill up on their way to wherever it is they are going. Even at $2.85 a gallon a few weeks ago, I saw people filling their ski boats and jet ski's for a weekend at the lake without a single concern. I see them fill their cars as they head to aimlessly wander through the mall or to go see a movie. Not a one of them has, or will, change their lifestyle for gas prices or the *possible* oil shortage. (and no I don't believe that either) They continue on their same old routines and just pay the price no matter what. Well.....guess what. Supply equals demand.

Even the people who drive electrics or hybrids that get eight bazillion miles to the gallon are STILL contributing to the demand for oil. How? What is the interior of that electric car made from? And what is that stuff made from? Hmmm?? OIL. Yes, I mean plastic. And not just plastic in the cars we drive, but in everything we buy. Look around the room you are in right now and see what is made of plastic. Look at the computer you are reading this with. Look through your kitchen at all of the utensils, cups, food storage containers, jugs, bottles, cartons and wrappers all made of plastic. Even the people you see and read about being so "green" are surrounded by plastic. That solar panel on the roof, that fancy overpriced rain barrel, that hose running around the house to water those eight vegetable plants in your little garden, all plastic. Again, plastic is produced from fossil fuels, and again, supply equals demand.


I am well aware of recycling. We have a recycle program with our local trash company. But consider this: Those trucks that pick it up run on fossil fuels. The machines that grind and re-use it run most likely somehow on fossil fuels. It takes fossil fuels to make whatever is packaged in these containers, more to produce the containers themselves, more to ship that product, more for you to get it and bring it home, more to run the fridge that keeps it cool for you, more for that recycle truck, then the cycle starts all over again. It's a horrible vicious circle all run on fossil fuels. Once again, supply equals demand. It's really, really scary to think and look at how we use fossil fuels, and this is only one example. Though granted, it is a big one.

Is it possible to live plastic free? In today's world, I honsetly can't see how it's possible. Sure you can quit buying bottles of pop and get an aluminum water bottle, but that's a tiny part. Even using cloth shopping bags or opting for paper doesn't make much of a difference. Nearly everything we buy in a bottle is plastic. From ketchup to vinegar, from dish detergent to shampoo, all in plastic bottles. I don't see any way of changing this, even with all of the recycle programs in place. People continue to buy, so businesses continue to produce. Supply equals demand yet again.

Now I'm not going to try telling everyone to stop buying plastic. That is nearly impossible. I just want anyone that is reading this to think just a bit about the demand for fossil fuels and realize that it's far beyond gasoline and diesel fuels. Let me clarify once more that I am in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM defending BP and the horrible mess that they have created. My reason for this post is to get you to think, just a little bit, about WHY they were offshore drilling in the first place. I know, I know, money money, big oil blah blah blah, but that's not my point so don't go there. My point is to just hopefully have one person, just one, see the big picture of the demand of oil from a slightly different perspective.

*climbing off the soap box for now*

Handshakes, hugs, and how are ya's where they belong....Chris

Rain, rants. ramblings, reowrking and reasons for change

There isn't much to write about today. I woke up to rain and it hasn't stopped yet. We really needed this so I can't complain. It's been so hot and humid the past week that we were beginning to worry about the garden. Yesterday we had a thunderstorm, but it was nothing more than some high winds, lots of thunder, and less than 30 minutes of light rain. So, this steady soaking rain is a welcome sight. It'll do wonders for the garden.
Everything that we've planted is looking good, other than the gourd seed. If nothing is popping up above ground by Monday at the latest, I'll check the seeds and resew the area with something new. Maybe celery. All of the other plants though are doing well. The sweet corn is even standing close to 16" tall already. It looks to be a great garden year.
This morning I'm going to do some re-working in the basement. The little chest freezer I picked up for free last week will be going in the walk-in closet in my room downstairs where we store all of the canning supplies and goods. My plan is to turn that area into food storage since we planted so many potatos and onions. We plan on using that small freezer for chicken, but that could change at any time. I've already butchered three freebies, and there are five more outside that will be getting the same in another week or two. I'm hoping to get back into rabbits as a supplimental food source, but I haven't seen any breeders for sale at a reasonable price. I'm watching for some, but it's not all that important right now.
Over the course of the past few months, Lisa has dramatically changed her diet. She has changed due to wanting to lose more weight and to lower her cholesterol. So far she's lost 62 pounds, which to me is amazing. Just by cutting back portion sizes and all the work I've been doing outside, I've gone from 228 to 186 myself. We've both been doing more research and reading into food and what we eat and have decided to make a giant change in some things. We will no longer be buying any meat of any kind from ANY grocery store. Though Lisa has become vegetarian, I haven't. And if her cholesterol checks out ok tomrrow when we both go back to get checked, she'll return to just white meat. (red meat has never agreed with her system anyway) We'll find sources for local meat or work with our friend in southern Ohio
This decision has been made for several reasons. First of course is what is IN the meats we buy at the grocery store. Growth hormones, forced antibiotics, all kinds of nasty stuff. I want to know where my food came from, and what it's diet was. There are links to all of those chemicals and additives to disease that plagues this country. That we want to avoid.
Secondly is how those animals are treated. I'm never going to be a PITA member or any other similar organization, but I have to look at how these animals live. Chickens live their lives in a giant warehouse in a tiny box that they can't even stand up in. Cattle are fed feed full of growth hormones to make them grow fatter and faster. They eat strictly corn and feed. Cows just aren't designed for that kind of diet. Chickens for meat have been cross bred into mutant-like birds that grow so large and so fast that they are prone to broken legs and just dropping dead from heart attacks. Some people may say "it's just a chicken" or "it's just a cow". Look next to you at that dog or cat laying at your feet and say the same thing. Really, do it. It's just a dog. Stick it in a tiny doghouse that it barely fits in and feed it garbage. No? What's the difference? Where do we draw a line? I not only want to know what these animals have been fed, but also how they have been treated. Read FOOD INC. and it will open your eyes to a lot of things. Do some research online on how "factory" farms treat animals and you will be disgusted. I can no longer with any kind of concience support that way of production. We have found several places locally that raise and butcher their own on-site and will be buying from them now on. Sure it will be more expensive. Yes, the buy1-get1 meat sales from the big chain store will be gone, but what price do you put on your concience? I wish more people would do some reading and research, but most either don't care or are happy being totally blind to it while they jam fast food burgers down their throats. Well...no more of that for us. If we can't raise and butcher it ourselves or get it locally from someone that we can trust, then we just plain won't bring it into the house.
The same will go for other food products as well. No more canned anything from the store. I don't want to eat canned vegetables from god knows where sprayed with herbicides and pesticides that more than likely aren't even legal to use here in the U.S. Home canning will be taking a giant leap this year, which is the reason for reworking the basement storage area. Some things will be unavailable to get locally, but we'll keep those at a minimum. It's time to not only take responsibility for our food, but for our health and well being. This will be another big turning point for us, and we've yet to take one of those turns that hasn't worked for the better.
Sometime in the next few days Mike and I will be returning to his brothers house to get more things that he planned on leaving behind. The list includes 12-15 flourescent shop lights, a trampoline, 16-20 pieces of 6ft privacy fence, some storage shelves and possibly some workbenches. There is some carpeting laying inside that was meant to go in his dining room, and if it is still in decent shape, it will come here and go into either my room or Lisa's sweing room, or course depending on size. My garage is going to glow like a tanning bed by the time I get all of these lights up. Again, I don't feel like I'm taking advantage of a bad situation and a friend. This is mostly his own fault, and why leave things behind that will most likely just be thrown in a dumpster.
For now, I'm off to check eggs then start moving things around downstairs. Luckily this small freezer doesn't weigh as much as the last chest model we had...whew.

I need a nap

Today we're finally getting some rain that we've really needed for a few weeks. The forecast has said several times that we'd get rain, but it never happened. I've been having to water the tomato plants sometimes twice a day because it's been so dry. It was a great sight to wake up at 6am to a good solid rain. We can sure use it.
The moving on Friday was brutal. It was really hot, and his place was a disaster. We ended up with two 19ft box trucks and two pickup loads full. Loading was a bit bad but unloading was easy since we were able to just back up and unload into his mothers garage. I felt bad for him losing his house, but at the same time I remembered that it was partly his fault. He'd quit his job in the late fall of '08 and never really bothered to even look for work. His fiancee and kids had left, and he'd had various friends staying there with him. Needless to say, the place was trashed. And I don't mean just messy, I mean TRASHED. His mother had gotten a pretty large insurance settlement right before he bought the house 3 years ago, and she insisted on furnishing the entire place. New appliances, carpet, paint, everything right down to privacy fence and lawn equiptment. You would never know everything in that house was only 2-3 years old.
He had packed up a few boxes and set aside the things he wanted to keep. The rest he just plain didn't care about. So....his brother and I loaded the pickup twice with things he didn't want that we did. Why just leave things there that were fairly new for the bank to just take anyway? I ended up with two 12ft swimming pools, a 12x12 screen tent, a weedeater, misc garden tools, 5 ton chainfall (hoist), small unused chest freezer, and a few things that I can't seem to think of right now. Sometime later this week I'm heading back with his brother to help take down the privacy fence and see what's left. Some might say I'm taking advantage of a bad situation, but he doesn't care about most of the things and planned on just leaving them there.
Thursday was a long rough day of outdoor things and moving that pile of sod. Friday was all the moving. Saturday was our annual party to celebrate summer solstice. We were up from around 6:30 until the last guests left at after 2am. Sunday morning we got up, headed to my folks for fathers day, then drove almost 2 hours to a picnic at my friend Bens and didn't get home until close to 9pm. It was an exausting four days.
Yesterday I just cleaned up outside from the party, cleaned the mudroom and patio, and just put things away. It was in the high 80's, really humid, and no wind at all. It was just too hot and I was too exausted to do much of anything strenuious. The evening was just sitting around in the screen tent reading and eating a big bowl of raspberries that I picked from the front yard.
Today since it's raining, I'm just going to clean house a bit, do laundry, and put things away that are still sitting out from Saturday's party. I have 3 or 4 books started and plan on spending some time reading later today as well. I'm just physically drained, even after an easy day yesterday. It's going to be a lazy,lazy day.