My Journal – cluckeyo's blog

2016 New Year’s Resolutions

The last week of December has been great fun! Our family Christmas gathering on Saturday was so nice! I saw cousins, nieces and nephews, my son-in-law, and I especially enjoyed spending some time with my precious daughter. Glenn and I spent Sunday afternoon remembering 2015, a good idea for a year-end tradition! After that, everything has been forward-looking. I put a lot of thought into how I hope next year will unfold, and how I might help my goals succeed. Then I got busy tying up the loose ends of 2015, so that the new year could arrive on a clean plate.

There were just a few things we needed, to clear the way for 2016. I’d rather not be sitting there when the ball drops, holding my old tired list of things that still need doing. So we just got busy and cranked out some work. Glenn and I got the flu shots that we forgot in October. He tackled a big computer repair job and fixed everything good as new! I got the house cleaned back up after the holiday; handled important phone calls, mail, filing, online account maintenance, changed out filters, batteries and hard-to-reach light bulbs; laundry; an impromptu doctor’s appointment; cleaned the coffee pot. I would have put away the Christmas decorations, but Glenn is still enjoying them 🙂 Now we are as ready as we can be!

It required a lot of reflection and consideration, but I narrowed it down to just a few things that I consider to be the most important goals for the new year. These are the things that I will get busy working on.

Weight Loss – I got a late start on this in 2015, but I am glad I did it. Because I lost almost 20#, which is that much I will not have to lose this year. I worked out some kinks and developed my rhythm for this task, as well. I’ll keep on calorie counting because it is working for me, and I will add a fitness work-out in the very near future.
Financial Stability – I have been dependent on credit cards way too many times in my life. They are an alluring crutch. I have managed to get myself out of debt numerous times, only to repeat the cycle over and over. We put the cards away, and will do this one more time by postponing every expense that we can possibly live without. Upon reaching our goal, we will open an account to cover unexpected expenses. By the end of this year, everything will be arranged so that we no longer need credit cards.
Time Management – According to my Dad, repetition is necessary to train the mind. I can use that. I have a real problem with my unruly mind sometimes! I avoid things that are important; things that I desire to be good habits in my life. It’s like sometimes I can only be content to work against myself 🙁 So I am attempting to get on a schedule. There are things I will do each morning, at mid-day, and in the evening. I’ll do certain things on certain days of the week. I think someone might have to dangle some kind of carrot in my face. Some days, this will be very difficult! But if I succeed, it will be such a positive change, full of important rewards.

Not many things can compare to the faith and hope generated with ushering in a sparkling, fresh new year! These are my 3 big goals for 2016. And each of them can be broken into smaller goals. So there are a lot of great things here, to be accomplished. When it comes to new years resolutions, I generally, always make progress. For that reason, I feel confident that at least some of these goals will make it to my reality over the course of this year. And once they get there, I will own them 🙂 How exciting! I can’t wait to get started!

🙂 HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!!

The Hen House

I ate a cinnamon roll yesterday. It was 450 calories and I counted it. In the end, I actually wound up having a perfect calorie counting day! Enough of that subject! I would rather talk about this great holiday season.

Though I began this month feeling kind of like Scrooge, December has turned out to be a great month for getting things done. Some of my kids will be here for Christmas, so I want the place to sparkle! After all, why decorate the house if the house is a mess? It got a good cleaning. Yesterday and today we have been cleaning up outside. This evening we were ready to decorate the porch. It looks and sounds very festive 🙂 , with pretty lights and country Christmas tunes piped through the outdoor speakers. I’m sporting a spiffy new hair-do, which I love, thanks to my very talented niece. But my favorite project so far this season, has been the quail room, which our plumber dubbed, “the hen house”.

It was quite the mess, and took about a week to get into shape, but it has really turned out nice. About a year ago, Glenn hung 5 big Boston ferns from the 11 foot ceiling, along the 20 foot expanse of south exposure windows. They let in a lot of light. So the ferns have done well, as have all the other plants. The roses, hibiscus, and lantana are blooming. Our new little hens have been moved from brooder to cages and are just starting to lay their first eggs. All but a couple of roosters are in a separate pen.

The tornado from this past spring left some damage, and now, all the broken windows have been replaced. New plumbing pipes were run to the room so it is super easy to water the plants as well as fill the buckets for the brand new watering system. Now the new little hens and roosters drink from a small, no mess cup, rather than the filthy jars they once used. A rat got in earlier this year, tore open some bags of mushroom compost and left some droppings. That’s all cleaned up now. As for the potting station, the soil amendments (including our first load of compost made with our new compost tumbler) are in nice, galvanized cans. And I’ve implemented a new system for cleaning cages that cuts way down on the mess and keeps life simple.

The retirees have a special deal. After my quail are one year old, I start a new hatch, and the old ones become members of the elite group who are allowed to live out the rest of their days cage-free, out in the room. I spread Aspen shred everywhere, and brought in piles of fresh cut winter grass for nesting. There is a plastic swimming pool full of sand and logs, for them to clean themselves. They have the water run-off in the plant saucers to drink. They eat very little feed in an arrangement like this, so they are not a drain, economically. The life expectancy of a quail is about 2 years and their egg production drops off drastically after about a year. The meat of an older bird is a bit tough, so I can’t see the point of butchering them. And since I have the luxury of this room, it just makes sense to do it this way.

It’s really a pleasure to spend time here now. There are still more improvements to come but we got a lot of really good stuff done for the quail, this year. Now that we are at a stopping place, we can move onto the next project. And we will be busy right up until everyone gets here. The honey room needs cleaning. There are tons of boxes to break down and shred in the hallway. Once that’s done we can start a new load in the compost tumbler. I’m making the dressing, gravy, and carrots for the big family gathering. And if there is any time left, I want to stock up my cottage kitchen.

Now that the kids are grown and gone, with full lives of their own, Christmas is quite different than it used to be; different, but still really, really good! It’s been a joy getting things looking good and functioning around here, in preparation for our anxiously awaited guests. One last chance to make the most of a good year; the best holiday season I can recall in a long time.

Ho-Ho-Hum

My young cousin was just saying on Facebook that their home is now, officially decorated for Christmas. And she added how much she loves to decorate for Christmas, it being her favorite time of year. Immediately, I thought to myself, “Oh yeah, I have to do that too”! Honestly, this was the first time I had even thought about it. That’s really weird, because I used to be just like my young cousin when it comes to Christmas decorating. This year it has lost it’s place in my priorities.

Now-a-days, I stay on guard over stress issues, trying not to over-extend as much as possible. The kids are grown, the grand-kids aren’t coming this year, and there are several things on my agenda that take priority over Christmas decorating; things I am not willing to sacrifice. I’m not going to rule out the possibility, but it may turn out that I do not get it done this year. It’s been a tradition, so I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Several things would have to come to pass before I would even be ready to decorate. I would have to get the house clean, and I am behind on that. As I recall, the lights on the tree need some repair. I have outdoor decorations too, so I would need to clean up the yard and the porch, and I would have to work around the weather. I was really kind of focused on other projects! We are getting ready to move my new quail from the brooder to the cages and we are setting up a new automatic watering system. They have grown up and are cramped in the brooder. That whole project absolutely must take priority, but we can’t do it until our supplies arrive in the mail on Monday.

To be honest, the whole task of Christmas decorating would probably only take about 7 hours of my time. Taking it all down might require another 3. Then we could enjoy the nice ambiance for the duration of the season. And when my daughter comes to visit this year, she will truly enjoy it.

I remember Christmastime when she and her brother were little. Great times!! We would decorate the tree together, each of us taking care of the portions we could reach, while their dad climbed on the roof with staple gun in hand, to hang lights off the eaves. We had a huge calico cat named Patches, and after the tree was decorated, but before we put any presents under it, she would spend time lying on her back on top of the tree skirt and stare up through the middle, seemingly mesmerized by the affect of the lights. The kids would make cute little handmade decorations in school, and bring them home to brighten up the house. And I always found them the cutest little Christmas pjs that they wore during the season. We read books at bedtime, with great expression. A favorite was “T’was the night before Christmas”. Another was “The Velveteen Rabbit”. I remember staying up all night on Christmas Eve with their dad and putting toys together. And seeing their bright eyes and happy faces at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning,… mountains of used wrapping paper all over the den, after they opened their presents. Times like these pass too quickly.

Charlotte and Dusty in their Christmas PJs. — Charlotte and Dusty in their
Christmas PJs.

Christmas is a special time of year, and Christmas decorating is a kind of magical, creative endeavor. It is not an absolute necessity, but for those who love a warm and comfortable home, a few hours of effort will brighten the spirit of the holiday for everyone it reaches, transforming everyday surroundings into a place of loving warmth and beauty. It will touch the child within us and remind us of days gone by. It is one way some of us give of ourselves throughout the holiday; an expression of our love for Christ.

I suppose I can re-arrange my schedule 🙂

Creepy October

I suppose it is fitting, that October would go this way. It has truly been creepy so far! The disasters began right at the beginning of the month,…

It is my custom to walk down to Mom and Dad’s house each evening and tend to their needs before bed. This night was no different. We took care of the meds, the kitchen, caught up on the events of the day, said our “i love you’s” and then I went on back home.

At this point, I will add that Glenn and I live in an old school building. It’s enormous and sits on a very large and deep, pier and beam foundation. Here and there, at the ground level of the bricks, there are little vent areas where you can observe underneath. When my Dad bought this building, he turned some of the classrooms into living spaces. He crawled under the building and put down all the pipe for the plumbing himself, and it held up for a long time. But this is 45 years later, …

So, I had walked home from Mom and Dad’s that evening. And as I passed by the vent area in the bricks, I could hear a gushing of water coming from underneath the building, obviously a busted pipe. We don’t know how long it had been like that, could have been days, we haven’t got the water bill yet. Glenn went out to turn off the cut-off, but the water still poured. He turned things off at the meter and the water still poured. Finally he turned off the hot water heater and that stopped it. When he went down under the next morning, he found things extremely wet. So he put several fans down there to dry things out. It turned out to be a major plumbing job, replacing old, worn out pipes. The whole thing really scared me. I was worried about the foundation, but I guess it’s ok. We still have the fans blowing down there, 2 weeks later.

So we got past that disaster. Then last night, as I was leaving out to go to Mom and Dad’s, there was a rattlesnake on our porch steps. Not a real big one, about 15 inches long. But they say those are the most dangerous! Glenn got a shovel and chopped it’s head off. It’s still out there, the ants are eating it. We got past that.

Tonight, I was driving home from a Master Gardener meeting, about 9:00 pm. I had just entered a stretch of road that was very curvy when my tire blew out, in the pitch dark middle of nowhere! I got out my phone, no service. Looked around, no houses that I could see. Talk about creepy! Well, thank goodness, after an uncomfortable 10 minutes or so, 2 bars of service showed up and I was able to get through to Glenn! He came really fast in Dad’s truck and put on the spare. Glenn saves my life on a regular basis. Just before he was going to follow me home, I said to him, “Did you know that there is a garden trailer hooked to the back of the truck”? He had not noticed. So anyway, we got into our vehicles and took off down the dark road.

After a few minutes of driving, I noticed that he was no longer close behind me, but way back there, and appeared to be stopped, so I turned around and went back. He said the trailer had broken and sent me up the road to see if I could find any parts strung out on the highway, about a 10 mile round trip. As for Glenn, the back of the truck was full of stuff, and besides, it was too heavy anyway, so he had no choice but to drive home going about 5 miles an hour, dragging a trailer with no axel.

So anyway, how’s your October going?

cluckeyo.com

beginnings…

I like to journal. For years, I have put them in spiral notebooks. And when I fill one up, I just throw it away. Folks have been telling me that I need to save them. But seriously, it would be a mountain of paper! So I thought I would try out blogging. See how it goes.

I like to stay busy. Right now I am building 3 websites and learning a new programming language, operating my cottage kitchen, progressing towards the opening of our store, running a household, trying to lose weight, and last but not least, taking care of my elderly parents. This kind of keeps things fresh, as I change from task to task many times each day.

I want to write about life, as it is around here with me. I want a record of things. And I would love to share it with others.

I love life! And there is not a single other one that I would rather be living more, than mine.

cluckeyo.com