Bits and bobs.....

It was another glorious day on Friday, and I got my first true load of laundry hung out. So I had to take a photo of it. I was extra careful not to include my bloomers in the shot..........don't want to frighten y'all!  It was blowing a gale so was dry quite quickly.  Do you see the snow still in the background?  We are supposed to get some more snow next week.  Hopefully it won't amount to anything..........

My column for next week on the Eden Valley Messenger is about Barbecuing, so I thought I'd take a photo of our barbeque, and then I found a joke about men and barbecues..........

Definition of Barbecuing ... It's the only type of cooking a "real man" will do.

When a man volunteers to do the 'BBQ' the following chain of events are put into motion:



1.The woman goes to the store.


2.The woman fixes the salad, vegetables, and dessert


3.The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils, and takes it to the man, who is lounging beside the grill, beer in hand.


4.The man places the meat on the grill.


5.The woman goes inside to set the table and check the vegetables.


6.The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning.


7.The man takes the meat off the grill and hands it to the woman.


8.The woman prepares the plates and brings them to the table.


9.After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.


10.Everyone praises man and thanks him for his cooking efforts.


11.The man asks the woman how she enjoyed "her night off."


And, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women.

Did you remember to put your money in your daily savings pot today?  We are more or less two thirds through the month of March, it's flying by isn't it?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Make your own laundry detergent and fabric softener its a heck of a lot cheaper than buying it.

Odds and ends for Friday........

This month's quilt block is called Road to Tennessee  I managed to get the brown, cream and pink block completed on Thursday.  I hope to get the black, white and red one done before the weekend's out.

Another first this week, had a coyote wander through the property just before 8am on Wednesday morning, just as well I had Molly inside.........

My sister-in-law in Britain is doing a 5 km run for cancer.  If you would like to sponser her, here is the link to her page.

Something for the 40+ age group crowd:

SIGNS THAT YOU MIGHT BE EXPERIENCING MENOPAUSE


* You sell your home heating system at a yard sale. (Hot flashes)


* The person you sleep with complains about snow piling up on the bed. (Nightsweats)


* Your husband jokes that instead of buying a wood stove, he is using you to heat the family room this winter. Rather than just saying you are not amused, you shoot him. (Mood swings)


* You write post-it notes with your kid's names on them. (Memory loss)


* Your husband chirps, "Hi honey, I'm home." and you reply, "Well, if it isn't Ozzie f*cking Nelson". (Irritability)


* The phenobarbital dose that wiped out the Heaven's Gate Cult gives you four hours of decent rest. (Sleeplessness)

* You find Guacamole in your hair after a Mexican dinner. (Fatigue)


* You change your underwear after every sneeze. (Mild incontinence)


* You need Jaws Of Life to help you out of your car after returning home from an Italian restaurant. (Sudden weight gain)

* You take a sudden interest in "Wrestlemania". (Female hormone deficiency)

* You're on so much estrogen that you take your Brownie troop on a field trip to Chippendales. (Hormone therapy)

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Savings Pot today?

Money Saving Tip:
If you have a paid subscription to a newspaper, give them a call to see if you're getting the best rate.  I did that with our newspaper and got a reduction on our rate.....

Skywatch Friday

I took these photos around 8:30am this morning.  The first two are looking towards the east, the second two towards the west.  It looks as though we may be getting rain coming out of the east although the forecast says sun all day.......

for more Skywatch Friday photos, please click on this link

I am not a happy camper...........

On Wednesday as the weather was so nice I decided to bring my geraniums up from the basement and plant them up for the Spring.  So I bring Molly outside with me and she is busy in the garage looking for mice.  I go back and forward to the shed and she comes back and forward with me, as after the garage her second favourite place is the shed, as there is mice in there as well.


I pot up my geraniums and start and hang up some bird boxes when she disappears.  I find her by the back fence, but of course she totally ignores me, as now she is following the scent of the squirrels who use the back fence as their own personal highway.


She then heads to the south fence which is a split rail fence, and despite me shouting at her, she totally ignores me and manages to get through the fence into the south woods.  As I am only wearing my crocs I have to run into the house and put my hikers on, as there is snow in the woods.  I run down Kamikaze Hill and am faced with the split rail fence, so I haul my butt over the fence and start searching for Molly.  Luckily for us, she has her collar on with her tags that make a noise, so I follow the noise.


I keep shouting for her, but basically I am wasting my breath as she takes not a blind but of notice of me.  I come across the stream in the middle of the woods, and manage to get across that.  I try to bribe her with a treat, but she is not interested.  Some sort of giant black vole/mouse/rat appears out of no where..not happy with that.......


I finally catch her and put her on her leash and walk back towards the split rail fence.  Molly of course is worn out and has no intention of getting through the fence.  So I have to haul her over the fence, and as she is filthy and wet, so am I now!!  I then have to haul my butt back over the fence being careful not to break it.  Only to be faced with walking back up Kanikaze Hill, which now looks the size of Mount Everest. 


Not sure which of us was puffing and panting the most but we finally made it back up the hill and I put Molly on the back deck while I finished off my jobs on the front deck.


So I have the metal ladder out as I am climbing up it to hammer the nest boxes on the trees.  I decide to try and hang an ornamental birdhouse, that I got given last summer.  I climb the ladder and for some reason I didn't have it steady and I ended up falling off the ladder and breaking it.  Luckily I was only about six feet up and the ground was soft and I have plenty of padding.  Got a feeling though I may have a few bruises on my legs by the end of the week!!


Below is a photo of the geraniums I have potted up.  They may not look like much now, but they should grow alright.

Here are some photos of the bird houses I put up:

I hopefully will have residents in them soon...........

So here I am on Wednesday evening with a doggie who is flaked out on the sofa exhausted with all the excitement of the day.  I don't know what I have done to her this week but she is testing me that's for sure!!!

Did you remember to put your money in your daily savings pot today?

Today's money saving tip:

Re-Using Packing Peanuts

If you were lucky, you received gifts that were sufficiently "high-end" to be packed with packing peanuts. Before you take those packing peanuts out with the trash, consider how useful they may be as filler in your container gardens.


Huh? you ask. That's right: packing peanuts are light and airy enough to offer great drainage at the bottom of a container garden, such as the raised beds I show you how to construct elsewhere. Why pay money for a product such as perlite to accomplish the same result, when the packing peanuts are free? You could also use crushed stone; however, not only will you have to pay for it, but its weight will make the container much heavier to move around.


Tip from this source

A few firsts this week..

Monday night was the first night since last Fall that we didn't have the fire on; and as I write this on Tuesday night, I haven't lit the fire.  Its been lovely through the day, though below freezing overnight, so of course the heating is still turned on, though not on as much.

Tuesday I got the laundry hung out on the line for the first time in 2010.  Granted it was only Molly's bedding but its a start.

For those of you who live in Canada, that smoke you saw in the sky on Tuesday night.............it was me barbquing......or in my case cremating the burgers for the first time in 2010.  So be prepared for smoke on a regular basis now!!!

Monday I started taking Molly out for a walk after supper.  Remember I am one of those fair weather dog walkers.  I only walk Molly when it's not too cold, not too hot, not wet, not humid, and on and on I go with excuses.  Luckily Molly has clicked this is not the most energetic of households when it comes to exercise!!

By the way I said a quick hello to the tread mill as I passed it the other day, poor thing is still hibernating, so I had best not disturb it for a few more months!

On Tuesday morning I saw a raccoon on the back deck, for the first time since we have moved here.  I knew there were raccoons about, I just haven't seen any up close and personal.

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Savings Pot today?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Buy compact fluorescent light bulbs and replace your most commonly used incandescent bulbs with these more energy efficient bulbs. Each bulb can save about $30 over the life of the bulb.

What I was up to on my birthday........

It started out well, Molly let me have a lie-in until 7:45am. Then it went downhill when Molly rolled into something unmentionable.  So I had to haul her upstairs for a shower, all before I had even had my breakfast.  Happy Birthday Gill!

Anyhow, I opened my present from my mam first.  Must say she knows me well and has good taste.  She sent me a Radley purse, which I know means nothing to anyone this side of the ocean, but for the British crew they may ooh and aah.  Radley is a bit like Coach purses in the States.

She sent a couple of Spode teatowels.

A pack of four Denby coasters.

A Wedgwood tea light holder.  You know I am a sucker for any type of Wedgewood.

I got this tote bag from the Eden Valley Messenger.  For some reason blogger turned the photo.  You can win one of these tote bags by submitting a money saving tip here.

Dh brought home this lovely bunch of flowers.  He also got me a Chapter's gift card, a couple of scratch and win tickets (I won $3) and my main gift is a bit different.  He has got me a ticket for a Charity Fundraiser at a gallery in Whitby, Ontario at the end of April.  Each ticket is drawn randomly and you get to choose a piece of art donated by an artist.  Dd is also going so it should be good fun.

Dh also finished work early so I got to spend the afternoon with him as well.  Mind you we were busy, as he filed our taxes.  Then we were busy in the attic tidying that up, as they are coming on Monday to drywall the attic and sort out our bedroom ceiling.

I ventured into our shed for the first time since last Fall, as I wanted to get a container to cover the rhubarb to force it.  I was wearing my wellies, and discovered that I have leaks in my wellies, so the money my dad and step-mum gave me for my birthday I will use to buy myself another pair of wellies.

This week's column is up and running on the Eden Valley Messenger.  This week I talk about the Spring Thaw  If you have a few moments please pop by and have a read.

Did you remember to put your money in your pot for the Daily Savings Club today?

Today's money saving tip:

As the weather is getting better you may feel inclined to clean your windows.  Here is a recipe for homemade window cleaner:

2 TBSP cornstarch
1/2 cup household ammonia
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 gallon warm water

Mix the ingredients in a bucket, make sure cornstarch is thoroughly dissolved before using.

More recipes are here

I hope to get over to everyone's blogs later on in the week, as I am crazy busy this week, sorry.....

I may be another year older, but am I wiser?

Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself. ~Tom Wilson

So here I am, another year older.  I remember last year asking if I was half way through my life, as I turned 45 years of age.  I am guessing I am wanting to live until I am 90 years of age from that thought, but honestly I would be happy to reach 80 years of age.

One of my mother's neighbours is in her early 90's and has had to go into a home as she can't cope anymore.  I don't want to get like that, I like my independance, and I don't want to be a burden on anyone.  Since moving up here, I seem to be mixing with a lot more older people and are seeing their struggles "health wise" first hand, and I don't want to go through those.

My pop (grandfather) died to my mind the best way.  He got up one morning, went downstairs, my nana made him a cup of tea, he sat in his chair, not sure if he drank it or not, but he had a heart attack and died there and then in his chair.  A heck of a shock for my nana and the rest of the family, but at least he didn't suffer.  That's how I want to go, and as heart/blood pressure problems are common on both sides of my family,  there is a good chance that I will go the same way.

Gosh that was a doom and gloom way to start a post.  So lets move onto something a bit brighter!!

As we started celebrating my birthday on Saturday, I started getting presents on Saturday night.  The kids bought me a 2 year subscription to the Sew News magazine, which is such a perfect gift for me, as I am a magazine junkie, and I love to sew!!  That night I also got the orchid from R & M that I featured in yesterday's Today's Flower post.

On Sunday my dad and step-mum came up for lunch, homemade quiche, baked potatoes, potato salad, and garden salad.  Homemade apple pie or peach tarts for dessert.  I made a pound and a half of pastry and got a lot of things out of it.

Anyhow they bought me The Chocolate Bible...........do they know I love chocolate, of course they do!!!

I will post on Tuesday what else I get.

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Savings Pot today?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

In a restaurant before ordering ask about "specials" not on the menu. These are often very fresh and good bargains. Many restaurants have regular specials each day of the week. Generally Monday through Thursday are the best deals.