Wahsega Valley Farm

The Twilight Zone

I feel I need some sort of a delayed segue starting from before I took my hiatus until now... a little explanation as to why I disappeared for a few months - before I start in on regular blog topics. So, while I'm brewing some tea, let me ramble a bit...

The main reason for my hiatus was my poor state of mind coming out of winter - caused by several factors. Winter was hard for Mike and me - financially, since his business is slow during the cold months and his unethical ex-mechanic ruined the relationship he had with his main winter vendor. It really sucked because that relationship and the work that came from it was our winter bread and butter. I was looking out the window at all the grey skies and bare trees reaching towards the heavens and wondering if we were going to make it here.

I've always been frugal, but I've had to put it into overdrive here in Dogpatch. I have worn out holes in all my work jeans and I can tell you that the iron-on patches they make these days don't last like they did when I was a kid and much harder on them! After a few washes, they start peeling off. Why is everything so poorly made nowadays? (That is a rhetorical question since I already know the answer to it.) We are using and re-using as much as we can. Normally I would have bought new jeans by now, but with money so tight, I'm fixing and repairing and making do. I've always done that up to a point, but this past winter I had to get serious with it. 

In addition to the gray skies of winter and financial worry, I was helping Mike's company with all the year-end paperwork. Tax stuff. It was very time consuming and I really just didn't have the opportunity to play much on the computer. I had to key-in every receipt from 2011 for starters. Talk about tedious. But it was necessary.

And, I was also spending a lot of time revamping my diet to make it totally grain-free. And mostly sugar free and dairy free and a few other frees as well. At first it seemed exhausting doing all the research following the results I'd gotten from my doctor, but as I was able to collect the new ingredients I'd be using - and putting theory into action - it turned into fun testing out new recipes and doing a major overhaul of my eating habits. It was a challenge, but food challenges have always been fun for me when the goal is to be as healthy as possible. More on all that soon. 

Now it's spring and everything is green and beautiful and we made it through the winter. And there is
more business at the shop every day. But it's still bit scary because a small town like this is a hard place to make a living. We're not sure why, though I'm beginning to think we moved into the Twilight Zone because it is just so odd and different here. Mike works his butt off and gets new customers all the time, but it's still a struggle. Some of the people here are just... not to be understood (that's a kind way of putting it). But we keep trudging forward and keeping our chins and attitudes up. We are both very positive and that most certainly helps.

I've thought about getting a temporary job, but would have to drive quite far to find anything. Mike says it's not even necessary to think about at this point, but it's something I would do in a heartbeat if I thought it was necessary. 

So there you have it. Life is a struggle. For everyone. I don't dwell on my struggles, but just wanted to do a word dump and now move on to other things. Like my crazy chickens and goofy Dusty, the gardens and cooking and who knows... maybe even some politics! Ha!

Whatever, it's good to be back. 

Some stressin'

I've been busy stressin' about things and not blogging lately. I'm so behind!

The first thing stressing me is the invasion of the Lady Asian Beetles. They are driving me crazy! We didn't live here last February, so must have missed their February 2010 debut, but we're all here now! Here is a picture of what our windows currently look like. These are not our actual windows, they are from A Way to Garden, where Margaret Roach writes about her experience with Asian Beetles:

 
I've been spending the last two weeks running up and down the stairs with the vacuum cleaner, sucking these creatures up as they congregate on the sunny windows. When I'm cooking, they sometimes fly into the food. Last night in bed, one flew in with us and bit Mike's arm - though fortunately when it cools off at night most crawl back into the little crevices from whence they came. I had one on my eyelid crawlin' around in the middle of the night, waking me up.

Normally, I'm not a innocent bug killer, but this is outa control! They're cute little creatures, see?

 
But cute turns into monstrous when they're so many. My vacuum cleaner is jam packed with their dried up little bodies. These are not the same as the lady bugs we all know of and grew up loving, though they look quite similar.

In addition to the beetle invasion, Mike's mechanic up and quit about two weeks ago just as tools and machines were coming in to be repaired. The way he left was downright mean and inconsiderate. He was a cocky thing and not a team player at all - and it turns out he was a big fat liar too. Mike called his wife to find out what was going on and she started yelling and cursing at him and calling him horrendous names. She yelled "how dare he" not pay her husband for two months! WHAT??? Mike paid him every Friday! He'd been telling her Mike wasn't paying him and who knows what else. He also told Mike he didn't want to keep his area at the shop clean by sweeping, etc., because that was "women's work". What a knuckle-dragger. In the long-run, it's good that he's gone and Mike now has two new mechanics with much better attitudes. But for awhile there, it was quite stressful. Mike put ads in three papers and was inundated with mechanics looking for work.

But the stress of that situation mixed with just the right body twist while sweeping up the shop messed Mike's back up big time. He couldn't walk at all the first day. I had to get him a walker (it was a beautiful teal color at least) and he used that for about five days - just to be able to go to work. Before we got the walker, he had to lean on me to go from room to room. The walker helped keep the pressure off his back and kept him going, but I could tell the pain was extreme. He is now walking okay, but it's still pretty bad. We have an inversion table and he's been using that again and it's helping. His back does this about every two or three years and I feel so helpless when he's in so much pain.

So it's been a bit stressful here lately and I've not been online much. But now things are easing up a bit and I have some catching up to do - and have at least three posts lined up. I never did post an after picture of my hair trim so will do that next, probably tomorrow. And I have comments to respond to and emails to answer and will get to that soon too.

In the midst of a drab winter day, I just saw this:

 

The crocus are blooming!

A few bumps in the road

When Mike I and decided to take on the adventure of starting a little hobby farm, we knew there would be some challenges along the way. This past weekend, we encountered a few bumps in the road.

We'd gotten snow in north Georgia and it was chilly, 29 degrees F, when we arrived at the farm. Here is a picture of the road, right before reaching our place:

Upon arriving, we were surprised to see that our pond had frozen over. It's quite large, so I'd not imagined it would freeze. 

One could tell that it wasn't frozen solid however, so when we discovered that a person and his or her dog had walked across the lake, leaving footprints, we were quite concerned. Who- ever it was had tested the thickness of the ice out with a few rocks - some of which had gone through and hit bottom while another sat on top.

The problem is that if someone broke through the ice and drowned, for example, we'd possibly be liable if we were sued - so said the the lawyer Mike consulted when we bought our place, although I have read that we wouldn't be liable. Either way, and sad to say, two teenage boys in another part of north Georgia drowned over the weekend for falling into an ice-covered lake. So it happens.

We hadn't wanted to put up no trespassing signs right off the bat because being the new neighbors in town, it just doesn't look very friendly. But to protect ourselves and those who don't use common sense, I'm afraid we'll have to. Then, if someone is crazy enough to walk on thin ice on our lake, they'll at least know they don't belong there... not that they don't already know that since our land is private property and common knowledge to those in the area. The funny thing is that the tracks from the pond went right to a house across the street from our place - so we know who it was!

So Mike bought a sign that says no hunting, swimming or trespassing. I particularly like the no hunting part because we have deer and wild turkey in our front fields and I really don't want bullets flying around where we live. So up the sign went - and we probably need a few more.

Next, Mike said he was going to check the gas tank to make sure it was filled with propane as was promised the week before by the gas company. Well, it was empty and there was a note hanging on the front door:

Now, that note was written by either an uneducated soul or someone high on crack. I don't know which, but as you can see he was spelling phonetically as he "mist" us and he wrote it in the year 2015. We weren't even supposed to be there when the gas was delivered, so "misting" us shouldn't have been an issue. While the note was mildly amusing and annoying at the same time, it got much worse when Mike called the company. They didn't know why the fuel wasn't delivered and they didn't have any idea when it would be delivered! What? Is that what you call customer service? Quite disconcerting I must say. And I can tell you Mike had steam shooting out of his ears.

So I couldn't use the stove and had to cook on the electric griddle and George Forman grill again. Mike had detached the gas line for the stove from the temporary grill-sized gas tank and it was too much trouble to change it back and would probably confuse the gas delivery guy if/when he ever shows back up to fill the tank.

And finally, when Mike went to look in his old work truck to see what sort of plumbing pieces and parts he had stored in it for a project he wanted to work on, he discovered it had been broken into. The window on the passenger side had been bashed in and Mike said it looked like as though it had been done quite a few months ago - way before we moved into the cabin. Fortunately, there was nothing valuable in the truck - an old FedEx truck that Mike has his company name on - but still, was it a neighbor? Who? Do we need to get a home security system and land surveillance? So disappointing. People can be such pills.

While those three things didn't sit too well, they didn't dampen our spirits and we had another wonderful, if not magical, weekend there. We took only one kitty with us this time since the other two disappeared when we started packing up. And because we were going to be gone only one night, we figured they could fend for themselves during that short period. They did, but they were not happy with us when we returned. No sir. Acting as though their feelings had been hurt. Perhaps they will show a little more enthusiasm next time? Hm?

We took Zena because she likes adventure and doesn't mind riding in the car - and sits in Mike's or my lap and looks out the window - and because she's a mouser. The cabin, since it's out in the country, has little mice when there aren't cats around, and when arriving this past weekend, I noticed that they had eaten my soap! Yes - and gnawed off one corner of it. You can see the teeth marks!

Why would a rodent want to eat soap? I don't have a clue, but it was one of the ones I made last year and since it was "all natural" and had calendula flowers in it, maybe they thought it was a treat. Other than that though, I didn't see much evidence of their scurrying about, though I had wisely put all food they might have a yen for in plastic containers. I'm not one to be afraid of rodents and such, I just don't like little mousie poo here and there; it's just not sanitary. So I can't wait until we live there full time so's all three cats can take care of that problem. When our tenants lived there with their two kitties, they didn't have a mouse problem at all anymore.

Zena follows Mike all over the place "helping" him with all the updates he's working on; I think she's enamoured with him. The sound of a drill and other loud tools Mike uses don't phase her in the least. She's Mike's workin' bud. Here they are putting up a new mirror in the bathroom:

We didn't get as much done as we'd hoped, but for some reason being at our little farm strips all the stress away from Mike and me. Not sure why, but I sure like it. I rented the old show Northern Exposure for while we are there and we watched three episodes. I used to love that show.

Here is one more picture of me when we were following the snow tracks on the pond. If I look a little cold, it was 29 degrees F and the wind had been blowing.

And, oh yes, one more picture of footprints in the snow at the cabin - the neighbor's cat tracks, a raccoon I think, and a human.