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Post by zenamidievel on Jul 26, 2024 22:50:14 GMT
Good Friday Afternoon,
Your post was interesting and informative! I always knew you had a lot of area surrounding your house, but am not sure you ever mentioned acreage, so that was nice to know and have better understanding of the area. I totally understand the fencing thing, and how with that large of an area, plus material constraints, why some thought would need to be put into the situation, what to fence, what to leave, etc. You will figure it out, I KNOW it! I'm sorry you're dealing with smoke! Good job re-aquainting yourself with the evactuaion totes. Also good work on the fire break maintenance and audits! You are on it!
Creative: Thanks on the Tikis, I'm glad I did them and they are up. I ended up doing three aditional barns, changing the roof colors on them. Then I did 4 more, square, 4"x4" coaster designs. I get a little nutty thinking someone will beat me to the punch if I think I have a good idea, then I want to get it done so mine is out there first! So...I wanted to do these needlepoint designs in the form of a quilt block, in this case Log Cabin style, and then I tried, (most obviouse in the case of the Holiday ones) to add designs that appeared to be fabric patterns. Then I thought about having them, you know get "cut off" where seams meet and what not, to give them a more realistic quilt look to them rather than trying to center the patterns so that didn't happen. Hope that made sense. But on the two coffee coaster designs, sort of did the same thing for the most part and these came out really, really cute! So there's four more designs! I probably need to think about making different shop sections when I come back from vacation. But I'm not going to worry about it yet. The rest of the day today, I need to try to paint two to three canvases that are waiting for me downstairs.
I did make some headway on chores and have walked with my neighbor everyday since I got back.
So, I need to get this painting done, then I can mail those tomorrow, then I can start packing for the next trip which is Monday, and get the rest of the house in order, which is in much better state than a couple days ago.
Z.
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Post by michelle on Jul 27, 2024 3:40:15 GMT
Z, I love! the quilt squares. Congrats on getting your walking in regularly!! Today's accomplishments: I went through three totes, decluttered so that they weighed less to the point that I could lift them. I also had some good ideas of additions to make any evacuation more comfortable. DH will take them back to the storage unit in town tomorrow. I was pleasantly surprised at how organized etc they were when I started going through them. Also made a list of "Pack and Go items" that I need put on a room by room list so that way if I have to zoom around getting these items it can be done quickly. I really take this preparation VERY seriously since it can make all the difference in the world if we ever do need to evacuate. Upcoming to dos---go through my property/house preparedness list to update that and photos/videos of the property, inside of the house etc. I already have these so updating will be much easier. The replacement fence is the one that goes around the house. There is a fence that also goes around the property line which is kind of square. The fire breaks follow the fence line. There is also one around the house and then where there aren't fire breaks or trails there are very large native vegetation bushes, many of them 6 to 8 feet tall. So even though it is high desert there is spectacular vegetation (for a desert). These bushes originally ran all the way up to the fence around the house and I just loved them. But then the firebreaks had to be put in for safety. There are four fire break sides and also five trails that the fire mitigation contractor put in last year. These kind of meander through the bushes and were put in when I was having to PT walk Clair so much. These are fun to drive my quad on! and also to walk on. DH removes mostly all the new growth on these with the tractor--then I maintain them and also cut back the sides to keep them from overgrowing into the trails. That's not a hard job at all--much harder keeping up with pine needle removal. The four sides of the firebreak, the trails and the area around the house are all named. So sometimes I might post that I worked on the Faux Paw trail. DH has no idea what I am talking about since I have named the areas inside the yard etc so there are lots of names for all the miscellaneous areas but this makes it fun for me since I do gardening (Ha Ha) in all the named areas and think of them fondly because I take really good care of them--after much practice and many failures in the past. Just chatting.....
Tomorrow will be a work day since AA will be at the office. I sent her a list of items to do so she won't have to come out to the house. La Mesa Grande work is also scheduled. I wanted to go on a Plant Society outing but the fire is in that area, supposedly no smoke, but I prefer to not add to the traffic while the firefighters are at work. They have done a GREAT! job which we all appreciate so much since the last two fires (The North Complex and The Dixie) were huge. The Dixie was 800 miles around it and the smoke was disasterous for many weeks also it headed straight for our Valley and a valiant fire fight took place to stop it. Today I was fairly calmed down after being on pins and needles for a couple of days. Also working on my evac stuff has helped.
Saturday - Such a lovely day! Much time was spent outside relaxing, reading my book, taking advantageous of a day without sweltering heat. Hooray!!! Also spent several hours getting my La Terra Grade chores done while throwing the ball relentlessly for Buttercup.
Hope you are having a relaxing evening!!!
Onward>>>>>
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Post by zenamidievel on Jul 29, 2024 1:01:43 GMT
Good Late Afternoon Sunday,
Enjoyed reading the further description of your areas and I love the names! You might not be aware, I also name things....like my bathing suits....lol. Maybe I picked this up from you! Haha! My familyl gets quite the charge of of asking me what my bathing suit names aree. I hope you made good progress on your work with the AA.
Well...it might be the needlepoint miracle in that I can pretty safely say....as far as digital download charts, which I ended up doing almost every design I had, I am done with the listings. I can edit these back at a later time if I decide to. But for now, thhey are ALL up. I cannot think of anything offhand that is not up. We leave on vacation tomorrow later morning and that stuff will be up the whole time I'm gone, and I'm excited to be through it all. They are getting views, favoriting, etc. so that is fun. Today I did on more pastel variation of the coffee coaster and got 6 variations of the bears wearing smock tops and vests with checks and flowers done. holiday ones, white and brown bears, edited and up. Then when we return, I truly can just paint at my leisure and feel at ease about it. I keep reminding myself that part of doing this needlepoint stuff was that it would ultimately cost less to make designs, just the cost of the software and the certificates and the painting of canvases is supposed to slow me down because they cannot be mass produced. I will embrace this!
I had a long conversation with my friend who's been sample stitching thing for me, I mailed her package yesterday with a nun in it....sometimes these conversations generate new thoughts on approaches to things but sometimes it's a very frustrating rehashing of things that stress me out. I'm getting better at communicating when this is happening so we can change subjects, but she's hard to steer!...haha.
We had cousin and his GF for dinner last night, easy tacos, and I finally got the kitchen reclaimed and the DW is running, swept and counters wiped. Now I'm going to make my packing list, and figure out my packing, the last small load of laundry is running. I will also put the covers on teh outside deck chairs tonight so I don't have to mess with that in the morning.
I hope your day has gone well!
Z.
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Post by michelle on Jul 29, 2024 3:49:26 GMT
Z, All your needlepoint items on Etsy are so cute!!! My car is named Princess and my quad is named Bessie. I really think naming things makes life more interesting. Speaking of similarities, I meant to tell you that I also "decompress". I tell myself that I need to decompress since I feel like I am going to pop if I don't rachet it down several notches. When I am working full time I refuse to talk to DH after 6:30 at night about work or anything bothersome and told him that is my Decompress Time. My alone time is very important when I need to decompress since I am trying to stop my world long enough to be able to get a hold of reality again. Ha Ha.
Today I did the outside chores for Sunday and also any leftovers from the week. So I cleaned Paradisio, which is my bird feeding area. When I was cruising around on Bessie after adding the bird seed hulls to Happy Hole, I noticed that Lower Barking Dog Road needed about thirty small plants removed--done. Then I made myself finish up the raking in La Mesa Grande which involved cleaning any debris from under all the plants (yesterday I did this and raking for the trees). La Terra Firma has a bush that drops tiny leaves so I took the time to clip the branches along the ground so I can easily rake under there when the time comes and also did some hand held raking in those areas. Last I groomed Clair, Buttercup and Sam. I gave Sam the Collie a hair cut all over which will make grooming him easier. His rough looks quite strange but it will grow some and in a couple of weeks look fine. All of that took most of the day. Just love!!! this cooler weather because I can get so much done outside instead of stopping at 9:30.
Tomorrow I am going to MAKE myself work on Office Admin after I go outside and work for a couple of hours.
Hope you have a wonderful trip!!!
Onward>>>>
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Post by zenamidievel on Jul 29, 2024 17:26:59 GMT
Good Morning,
Great work on the outside chores! My bathing suit names are: The Floozie, Jaws of Life, Tropic Thunder 1 and Tropic Thunder 2.
I've been watering the neighbors plants, she will do some spot watering for me while we're away and I have the other neighbor taking care of our trash bins tonight and tomorrow. I got packed, house trashes emptied, DW emptied, all hand wash done, fridge is purged, we pawned some leftover food on my cousin who stopped by last night to borrow something. All my items are charged. Realistically removed items I knew I'd not wear from packing situation and decreased others based on last trip experience, my bag is NOT over full!
I will post from the trip, we land in Amsterdam and have 1.5 days there on the front end, then a few days on the return end. Then We to Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
Hope you're doing well today!
Z.
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Post by michelle on Jul 31, 2024 4:12:27 GMT
Z, Hope you are enjoying your trip!!!
I have been taking advantage of these much cooler temps to work outside as much as possible. Among other things, today I cut a number of branches off a tree so that it would be easier to work in that area. Such a difference!
Tomorrow Clair and I have a Therapy Event at an Amazon location that we don't regularly go to. Hopefully she will like this as much as the one that we normally go to. She thinks that place is the greatest.
Tonight when I took the dogs for a walk Sam and Buttercup took out after a coyote that was in our yard. Such high drama! I could hardly keep a hold of Clair's leash. After that varmit ran straight toward us (Yikes!) it circled around and jumped the fence. Sam and BC were just ferocious and really meant business. All's well that ends well....
Onward>>>>
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Post by zenamidievel on Aug 1, 2024 3:47:06 GMT
Yikes on the coyote!!!
I hope the event was enjoyed!
We arrived safely to Amsterdam and have tromped around the canals for 2.5 days and done one history museum . The boats, buildings, bridges, flowers on bridges, all very colorful and picturesque. Yesterday’s temperatures were perfect, day one was very hot. When we return we will do one of two art museums and possibly a day trip to Delft, where Delftware ceramics are made and the term “Delft Blue” comes from for a certain shade of blue used in that pottery. Today we fly to Vilnius Lithuania.
Z
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Post by michelle on Aug 1, 2024 19:35:10 GMT
Z, I hope you enjoy Amsterdam! DH and I had a really nice time there. A fun thing we did was to go to the Nemo Science Museum (for all ages). Lots of interactive exhibits that I even enjoyed since I am not a brainiac and didn't need to be to enjoy it. Definitely needed my fun personality for that and I did have it. For some reason every thing clicked in Amsterdam when we were there so it got put in second place behind London as my most favorite foreign city. Just loved staying right by Hide Park in downtown London and have been there several times. Back to reality..... Clair and I did an Amazon event yesterday which was really pleasant. This was at a different warehouse facility than we normally go to and it had a completely different vibe. It was not a locked facility with security on and on. The employees at this location seemed a lot more relaxed and happy. Probably the pace and demands of the jobs are less than the one we normally go to. Today I did a major successful clean up of the big deck including washing the windows inside and out for that area. Spent time working in La Terra Firma also. Worked on office admin in the afternoon. Firmed up dates for more therapy events. We'll see how Clair and I do at the shot clinic for the small children and babies. Not to sure how either one of us will handle the crying and general ruckus. I want to do this event to see if it is even feasible for us to do school events and if this age group will be OK. Probably we will have to stick to middle school and high school. If it looks like it will work then I will offer us a a "Sub" team--meaning we would get called when the event needs emergency staffing because of team cancellations. We'll see....
Last months stats: 2,669 days of daily weighing, maintaining my 18.6 WL, Average steps 11,479 a little lower than last month because much time was spent crawling around under bushes etc. I am so glad that WW started working for me in this ongoing manner. It's such a great feeling to pack pants away in the Evac totes and be confident that those pants will fit for years in the future. What's in my rear view mirror is a food life I never EVER want to return to--all that overeating and then dieting like crazy only to start the same old sad miserable routine over and over again. Hooray!!! I am free!
Friday - What a day! 17,322 Functional Fitness Steps. Onward to get the house closed down for the night.
Onward>>>>:
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Post by zenamidievel on Aug 4, 2024 18:51:40 GMT
Enjoyed reading about your Amsterdam experience and rating of it as vacation experience. We will have three more nights there on the return end of this trip. Glad the event went well with Clair. Ijust imagine how your outdid Ed areas would look if you never did your chores out there?!? Great work! Always enjoy the success and maintenance WW report!!
We have left Vilnius and are now in Riga Latvia as of today. I can’t remember if mentioned a dog came at me in the street, I tried to side step away and fell….again. I’ve hurt my ribs on the other side! It’s higher up and while not as bad as Hawaii, it’s still bad . I’m doing what I can to get through . Positives are I can walk and pull my bag necessary. Eatiing has been and still is going well, , lots of steps. I’ve been getting ice from bar to ice ribs in down times in room. Fi downtime when back at room. Sightseeing has been good, we’ve had great weather.
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Post by michelle on Aug 6, 2024 16:14:15 GMT
Z, So sorry you had a fall. Great job being OP!!! All the regulars have been accomplished. I did some type of sewing with glue which was fun since years ago I had a sewing machine on and on. My items to get a professional absolutely streak free window washing done have arrived. Hopefully my ability will be as good as the professionals. Why not! I bought an inexpensive screen cleaner which upon trial proved that it was ineffective or that I am incompetent--either way it got decluttered. Speaking of deculttering my items for Declutter Wednesday are bagged and my few returns are ready to take back today when I go to town. Saturday Clair and I are doing the Paws 2 Read monthly event at the library which I enjoy--not too sure about Clair I think she is just calling it as she sees it. Those preschoolers are kind of uncivilized (but very cute according to me). I started my annual reclaiming of dirt due to illegal grass project. It's surprising how much of that grass grows where it is not supposed to be. The trails and firebreaks are plant free. Buttercup and Sam know the names of two of the trails. So when they are running free I just tell them the name of the next trail and they get on it. Well, actually Sam kind of goes along side of them in the bushes--far be it for him to behave, ever.
This morning I moved some irises that had been taken over by illegal grass and read my instructions, sort of, that were with the window cleaning supplies. It's such a lovely day!
Hope you are feeling better and enjoying your trip!!!
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