Is Walking Good For You?

In my humble opinion it is, but it's not without it's pitfalls.  My feet and legs took a beating when I first started walking.  

My first "injury" was a nasty blister on the bottom of my small toe on my left foot.  A couple of days after that popped up I had a medical pedicure and the lady decided to pop the blister and pour acid (it felt like acid 😬) antiseptic fluid on it to keep it clean and I about jumped out of the chair.

My second "injury" was the arch on my right foot.  Thought I was starting with plantar fasciitis, but it seems to have calmed down.

After that I have had various muscle strains in my legs, which come and go.

My biggest downfall is thinking I can walk more than I can, when in fact all I end up doing is hurting myself.  I also did not use the correct walking shoes to start with.  I ended up buying a pair of these walking shoes:

They are fine but I am still wearing them in, so not 100% perfect at the moment.  

Then due to the weather I have got sun burnt.  I have also had more mosquito bites this year than in past years, as my main walk is first thing in the morning to try and beat the heat and if it's damp out that's when all the biting insects are around.

I go for one long walk in the morning just after 6am of around 3 miles which takes around an hour.  Then I do one or two shorter walks during the day depending on how much time I have and also what the weather is like.  My "goal" is to have logged between 4 - 5 miles on my FitBit every day.  Some days I do a lot less other days I do more.  I vary my walks every day, so I don't get bored.

This is one of the hills I walk up most days:

As per my FitBit it's equivalent to climbing 6 floors in a building?

Yesterday was a good walking day as I had three good walks and logged the following:

• Miles walked: 7.53
• Steps: 17,770
• Minutes exercised: 131
• Floors climbed: 34

Today, I may not do any, who knows!!  I do what I feel like doing.

Here is a link to an interesting article that asks, Walking For Exercise: Is it enough by itself?

Tomorrow I'll tell you what benefits I have noticed due to my walking.

(I am struggling with the editing on this post, tomorrow's should be back to normal, I hope!)

Thank you for all your get well wishes.............

I took your advise and took it easy on Thursday.  I took your recommended medicine of Quality Street and rest.  Though I think I may have over dosed on the old Quality Street, but figured I would better take more than the recommended dose so it would help the pain.  I spent the day watching the Food Network and doing a puzzle.

The spasms have stopped, it's just aches like crazy.  I think I will still be careful today and keep taking my "medicine!"

Can't believe we are on the last day of the 2010, it doesn't seem like long ago since we were just seeing 2010 in.  I don't think we will see the new year in, we never normally do.  We may go out for dinner but have no definite plans. 

What are your plans for New Years Eve?

I am in so much pain........

Now what did I do you ask?

On Wednesday I decided to put away some Christmas decorations, which then turned into a full blown lets remove the Christmas tree as well.  As I was putting everything down the old basement this time, I decided I had better tidy up that first.  So I tidied up there first which took ages, moving everything around.  While down there I decided also to put a couple of bags of salt in the water softener, the 20kg ones.

Then went upstairs to tackle the Christmas tree.  We have a 7 1/2ft tree and it weighs a ton.  The top and bottom piece isn't to bad and I got that down the basement okay.  However the middle piece is heavy and to be honest I wasn't sure who was going to win the battle me or the tree, as it wasn't happy about squeezing down those stairs!!  Anyhow I finally go it down there and then started the other battle of trying to squeeze all three pieces into the box.  After a few minutes of me battling with it and Molly watching with a strange expression on her face I finally got it all in the box and tied up.

I then had to move a huge Rubbermaid box of decorations down the same stairs.  I dragged that and slid them down the stairs so that wasn't too bad.  It wasn't until I had completed all this and the sweat was dripping from me that I began to feel sharp pains in my back.  So I quickly hoovered up, all the time the pain was getting worse.

Within a few minutes my back was throbbing and the pain down to my knees was just plain awful.  I took some liquid Advil and that didn't do much good.  I even went to lie down on the bed, but that didn't really help.  I struggled on until about 8pm and then gave in and went to bed.  As normally when I have done too much, a good nights sleep settles down my back.

I got up this morning and although I am not in sheer pain, my lower back and the outside of my legs to my knees are so sore.  The good thing is I don't have pain in my ankles or feet, as that would mean I have a bigger problem.  So I guess for the next day or two I am going to have to baby my back to see if it will settle down, and keep taking the liquid Advil to try and dull the pain.

Oh and another good thing, at least I got plenty of exercise as well, right?  By the way I do keep my Christmas Cards up until the 12th night, as it's bad luck to take everything down before then.

Someone asked yesterday what Quality Street are, they are a brand of chocolate from Britain which is very popular especially around Christmas time.  My favourite one is the Caramel Swirl, followed by the Strawberry Delight and Orange Creme.

Photos of the kitchen......

Managed to get the kitchen put back together on Thursday, despite the heat.  It has brightened it up no end putting the yellow on the walls.  It would be even nicer with a new ceiling, new kitchen cabinets and new counter top though..........but that ain't happening any time soon!

Still as hot as heck here, so still suffering.  I keep hoping it will rain, but no luck so far, as I am writing this 8pm on Thursday night.

Still worn out with this heat.......did however take your advise and did a bit of reading to rest up. I read a book called "Bayou Fever" by Kathleen Y'Barbo It was a short one, so didn't take long to read.

My arm is mending just fine, looks like a nurse had a fight with me when she was taking blood now!!

Obviously I didn't kill them all then....

I see there are the odd red raspberry on the bushes between the weeds. So I didn't kill them all. I am still a couple of weeks away from picking as it's a bit early yet, but there may be enough to make some jam with again.

I managed to get the brown, cream and pink quilt block done on Sunday.  I am pleased to be so ahead of the game this month.  Sewing is at the bottom of the list at the moment; but with it raining again Sunday it was a good job to get done.

Now if you click on the photo of dh's finger you will see the full extent of his "wound."  Dh was harping on about the fact that he will have a deformed finger.  However as I pointed out, it's not like he's going to be giving up his day job as an electrician to be a hand model, now is it?

If you see me in real life, look on my forehead to see if you can see the word "Sucker/Idiot" on it.  That daft dog of ours has got me wrapped about her little finger/paw.  She doesn't like going out in the rain, just like me.  However on Sunday night she was hopping around, so dh tried to let her out and she wouldn't go.  Then I tried and she wouldn't go so I carried on sewing.  However I knew something was up, so I put on my coat and took her outside on the leash.  She went out no problem and both peed and pooped.  Only we would have a dog that likes us to observe her going to the bathroom.  Mind you she is probably laughing at me for being such a mug and standing out there in the rain with her!!

 Then finally the thugs/protesters at the G20.  It's all over our news about the protests with the protesters complaining of police brutality etc.  One woman was complaining about the police, and how afraid her 4 year old daughter was.  Excuse me, but what sane parent would take their 4 year old child to a protest???

Here are more news stories  One thing I know for sure, the leaders of the G20 really need to rethink the whole meeting procedure, as at a cost of 1 billion dollars for a four day meeting (for both the G 8 and G20 summits) the whole thing is way out of whack.  That money could have been used for a much better purpose and hundreds of thousands of lives wouldn't have been disrupted like they were.

One thing I was pleased to hear though was that Barack Obama, didn't get it all his own way, that our Prime Minister finally found his back bone and stood up to him.  What good it did him I don't know, but finally a little bit of leadership from our "leader!"

A couple of firsts on Thursday...............

I had to dry the laundry in the electric clothes dryer for the first time in months, as it rained for most of the day on Thursday.  However, I hung the clothes on the clothes horse for most of the day, so they were half dry.  Dh needed work clothes, otherwise I would have just left them to dry overnight.  I even had to put my jogging pants on instead of my shorts also on Thursday as it was cool. 

Then I went into town and bought a couple of Christmas gifts, the first gifts for the 2010 Christmas season.  Can't say what I bought, as they could read the blog. 

I tried a new recipe on Friday: Peach and Nectarine Muffins.  It was the monthly ACW meeting, so wanted to take some for the members to try.  I also supply the recipe for them as well.  Everyone liked them, and the vicar even had a couple.  I forgot to take photos, sorry.

Talking of recipes, I got all the editing done that I needed to get done in the book, so that's a good job over with. 

My arm is sore, but it's early days yet, so hoping things get better.

Two trips to the hospital in one day.......I don't know!!

The first visit to the hospital was a scheduled appointment for dh, as he had to have a CAT scan as he has a persistant cough and chest problems.  The only reason I went was that dh's truck was in the garage for a service, so I was recruited to be his driver for the afternoon.  So lets pray and hope it's nothing too to serious for dh.

The second visit was NOT scheduled, read on to find out why!!

As you all know I went and hurt my arm with the brush cutter over two weeks ago, read here  Things have been up and down with my arm ever since.  I went to the doctors a week ago and he said it was mending nicely and not to worry about the lump it would go.

A couple of you have been asking how my arm is, so last night I was looking at it, and it was still lumpy.  On further investigation; me squeezing it, I discovered it was full of pus and liquid.  On even more further investigation; me poking it even further, I discover a black object in it.  So after poking about in it for a while with a pin and tweezers I was finally able to get hold of the black object, but couldn't pull it out.

So I got dh to try and he decided to go and get his tool for pulling nails out of wood to grip this black thing.  I know you're all yelling.....NO!!!!!  He did wipe the end on his pants just to make sure he got some of the dirt off!!   Anyhow, he could get hold of this black object but it didn't want to come out of my arm.  Plus by this point I had figured out it was a piece of metal.  Both me and dh decided this was a hospital job, as we figured the skin had grown around the piece of metal and someone was going to have to cut my arm open to get it out.

So just after 8pm of we trot to the hospital again.  At 11:15pm we saw the doctor in emergency and he cut open my arm; after freezing it I am pleased to say, and cut out a piece of metal that was sort of shaped like a "U"  He said it was like a fish hook, as the more we were pulling on the one end, the other end was digging into the flesh of my arm, so I would never have got it out without ripping open the arm, which would have been painful.

Of course I had to have a tetanus shot as goodness knows when I last had one of those; and off I went at 11:35pm.  We were all tucked up in bed by midnight, shattered.  Poor dh had to be up his usual time of 4:20am, and Molly had me up her usual time of 6am.  So I can see and early night in store for us.

Oh and a bit of good luck with all of this.  Remember how the dentist put me on an antibiotic for my tooth, see here  Well we figure that is what has helped keep the infection in my arm down during this past week.  I got another prescription for some more antibiotics last night, but will only fill it if my arm starts to flare up again.

So the moral of this story, one trip to the hospital can lead to two.  That British Woman should never be allowed to use the brush cutter with the metal blade on it.  If you have a lump in your arm and it looks lumpy, investigate earlier on in the day, so you can get to bed at your normal time, otherwise the next day you will be bone weary, which is not helpful when you have a busy day ahead of you!

Well I had better get on, as I still have my Orangeville Banner column to write for this week!

I did NOT have a good day on Monday....

Dh put the blade on the brush cutter for me, so I tried it out and this is what happened to me:

I caught the blade on something and something flew up from it, cutting my arm, there is a hole in my arm now.  I was lucky it didn't hit the vein where the butchers nurses draw blood from.  It's sore {SIGH}.  That bloody brush cutter is dangerous, I think I need to wear full body armour next time.  So I obviously gave up on that job!

I managed to wreck the blades on lawn tractor by running over a stone, so as you can guess dh is just thrilled about that {{SIGH}}!

I made steak for supper on Saturday night.  I am not a fan of steak and have a terrible time chewing it for some reason?  Anyhow, I have ended up with chronic toothache in the back tooth next to the one I had out.......{{{SIGH}}}  I refuse to have the tooth out, as that will mean I will have no back teeth on my right side of my mouth and I will have to start and eat flipping pureed baby food next..........give me strength.....

I called to make an appointment for my feet to get my orthotics.  They are going to cost $460 {{{{SIGH}}}} I did ask if they were gold plated at that price!  Oh and the earliest appointment I could get is for the 25th of May, so I guess I'll keep wearing my crocs.

I also called Sears on Monday to schedule an appointment for my yearly maintenance on the fridge.  I only have it done, as I get a free filter for the water dispenser.  Anyhow, they are coming on Wednesday between 8am until 8pm.  I asked them if they could narrow it down, but no they couldn't.  I told them I would be in the garden all day, so the guy would have to look for me, as I wasn't sitting in the house all day waiting for him.  It took me nearly 20 minutes to sort this out, they are painfully slow {{{{{SIGH}}}}}

So all in all I will be glad to see the back of Monday!

I am thinking of joining the circus this week in my column at the Eden Valley Messenger, just in case you're interested.......

I am a walking disaster!!! and my column

It was a nice day on Monday so I spent most of it outside doing jobs in the garden.  I finished off cutting the ditch and bank from the other day.  I dug some more of the veggie patch.  By the time I had done those jobs, it was lunch time.

After lunch I got the edger out and cut grass in various places.  I then planted the lilac bush and the pear tree.  By the time I had done that it was 2:30pm and coffee time.  I then did some more edging.

I then realized I was crippled, my poor old back was killing me, along with my feet!!  So I am sitting here on Monday night, hardly able to move.  Finger's crossed after a good night's sleep I will be as right as rain.

Bit of a strange subject in my column this week in the Eden Valley Messenger.  I talk about trying to find my perfect final resting place and how difficult that is, as I have a few requirements.  To find out more please click on this link

Another busy day at The Acreage.....

Pottered outside on Thursday morning doing bits and bobs.  Started off with clearing the ditch of garbage.  Someone had thrown a garbage bag of clothes out; there was another garbage bag full of just garbage.  I picked up nuerous plastic water bottle, a dirty diaper, wine bottles, beer cans.  I just can't believe what people throw out of their windows as they are passing by.  I wonder how they would like it if I threw garbage on their front lawn???


The local ACW (Anglican Church Women), of whom I will be a member of next Friday, are having a yard sale on Saturday.  So I decided to donate some plants.  Below are some Irises and some Chives, you can see them in bloom here.

Here are some scented geranium cuttings. 

The Anglican Church Women is very similar to the WI for those of you in Britain.  Hopefully all those plants will maybe make $20 for the ACW.  I just had a thought, I hope the ACW doesn't decide to do a calendar like the movie Calendar Girls not too sure about posing naked for a calendar and letting all my wobbly bits hang out?!!!


It poured down at lunch time, so I popped into town to visit a friend, and pick up some recipes from her.  I knew I had to fit in a visit to her before the weekend, so this worked out well.


After supper I tackled a bit more grass cutting, it was cool though and I had to have my flaps down on my hat!!  With all this rain we keep having it's growing like mad.  It's lovely though to see everything so green.

Again the day went by in a flash, and my poor feet are killing me which sucks....................

Burnout?

I knew it would happen and it all finally caught up with me on Wednesday.  I woke up with a headache, bad sign.  Plus my heels on my feet are just killing me; that started last Thursday night after being on my feet for three hours straight.


Anyhow, I decided I had better go to the doctors and see him about my feet.  I got an appointment for 3:10pm, and decided to potter around the house, doing some odds and ends.  Then after my 10 o'clock tea break, I figured I would cut some more of the lawn.  Got back in by 11:30am, and my poor head was pounding.  So I did some more tidying up, then decided that the 45 minute drive to and from the doctor's, plus the hour sitting in his office (as he's always an hour behind) with my head pounding wasn't a good thing.  So I cancelled that appointment.


Meanwhile the phone rang and it was the local town's health centre.  I had put our name on the waiting list for a doctor closer to where we lived.  Did we have a doctor, yes we do, so back on the list we went.  They were only taking patients with no family doctor.  However, when I put our name on the list in April we were five hundred and something, now we are three hundred and something, so we are moving up the list quite fast.


Anyhow, after I had something to eat I went to bed for an hour or so to try and sleep off the headache.  By 4pm we had a major thunderstorm pass through, which cleared the air a bit, thank goodness.  Luckily I had brought in my laundry from the line, and got it ironed when I got up.


Oh and I had a groan/flipping heck moment after lunch.  I am a taste tester for a company and today the courier brought me two packets of these new ice cream bars, covered in chocolate.  All I could think of, is I have a blasted headache, I shouldn't be eating chocolate!!

I managed to hold off from trying one until after supper.  I had one of the white chocolate ones, and it tasted like Milky Bar chocolate, so it got a big thumbs up for me!!  I can't tell you anymore as I am not allowed to disclose any information.


So all in all Wednesday wasn't as productive as I would have liked.


We pass this house on the way to one of the towns.  I have long admired it, I love the look of it; and now it has come up for sale.  Don't worry we're not moving, at the price they are putting it up for, I could probably only afford the garage!!  It's still a lovely house though.........

Another busy day and OUCH!

Remember what I did with the closet on Tuesday?  Well did the same first thing Wednesday morning.  Then I cleaned out the fireplace, brought in some firewood.  Washed the bathroom floor and the stairs and upstairs landing.  Hoovered the dog hair off the sofa, chair and ottoman.  Had a shower and did a load of ironing, plus spent some time on the computer.  All before 9:45am.

I then had to pop into town for a "business meeting" for 10am.  I was bartering my "expertise," about advertising and building up their clientele in exchange for them repairing my lawn tractor tire.  The meeting went well. 

Didn't get back home until 12:30pm.  Had lunch, then went outside and lit the firepit fire.  Had to supervise that to make sure it didn't get out of control.  While I was watching that, I moved all the lathe I had thrown out of the bathroom window onto the firepit.  When the fire had died down a bit I came inside and typed a letter to a friend, keeping an eye on the fire.

By this time it was 2:30pm and my arm/shoulder was killing me.  Obviously carrying another seven garbage bags of plaster down the stairs again hadn't done me any good.

Around 3pm one of the neighbours popped over to see if we had found Molly and was slightly ticked off that I hadn't been around to tell him we had found her.  So after he went, I called around the other neighbours houses, and left a thank you note if they weren't in.  The one neighbour was in, so talked directly to him.  I took Molly with me in the car. I will maybe bake a cake for the ticked off guy, as an apology?

It was 3:45 pm by the time I got back , so put some pasta sauce on to slow cook.  Watched Eastenders at 4pm.  Then washed a pile of dishes.  Put dh's lunch up for Thursday, put pasta on to cook, so we could eat supper at 5pm.

Meanwhile the pain in my shoulder was going from bad to worse.  Spent the rest of the night watching tv and relaxing in the hopes my shoulder will be a lot better by Thursday morning.

So due to my shoulder hurting me, I wasn't on the computer much after supper time.  So I'll hopefully catch up with you all on Thursday.

I give up...............

Poor Molly has now hurt her back leg, on what I have no idea.  I had to carry her upstairs as she can't manage them.  Although she is managing to hobble up the basement stairs?  Those voles and mice outside the patio doors are too big a temptation for her.......LOL

It must be bad as she is not attempting to get on the ottoman, the couch or the chair!!  She is managing the three steps on and off the deck and can walk down the stairs as normal.  So I will keep an eye on her and see how things go.

Then poor dh went and hurt his back on Sunday morning.  He was walking out to his truck to go to work, by the time he got into the truck he was in agony.  His laptop bag is so heavy, it's full of "stuff" and he must have carried it wrong.  It's been a long time since he has been in so much pain with his back.  Backs are funny things though, I first pulled mine out, by bending over to put some clothes in ds chest of drawers.  One minute I was standing, the next thing I am on my knees in sheer agony.  He is talking about going to the chiropractor to has his back cracked, he goes once a month anyhow.  Hell will freeze over before I let a chirpractor touch my back!!

Here is a link to my column on the Eden Valley Messenger.  As always please pop by and have a read of it.  I am talking about how our house disguises itself as a "Wildlife Hotel" on the side.  If you know of anyone else who may be interested in it please forward it onto them.  The Eden Valley is a small area of Britain, which is overlooked, so the more people we tell about it the better!!

It was Shrove/Pancake Tuesday on Tuesday and we were supposed to go to the local fire hall for a pancake supper.  However I wasn't feeling 100% and dh's back was still sore.  So I made our own pancake supper:

Now I have to say although it looks good, I now realize why we don't have pancakes very often I find them very dry, even though we put butter and syrup on them, along with bananas.  Still it made a change.

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

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Shop with a list and then STICK TO THE LIST! This one tip alone can save you a lot!! Impulse purchases tend to be expensive as well as unnecessary.

Those bloody mice are back!!!!!

First my apologies for the strong language, but I think its needed at the moment. I mean just when I think they have gone for good, up pops another one. So out came the marigolds (rubber gloves) on Thursday to dispose of another googly eyed rodent; and we all know there are bound to be more of the little devils!!

I have no idea where they are getting in, as I thought we had blocked up all the holes in the basement windows. Now I was mentioning this to my dad and he said, "well you should take a black light down the basement and then you will be able to see the mouse pee, as it will glow yellow in the dark, and that way you'll know where they are coming in at."

Huh, I am thinking, how on earth does he know this?

Then my dad say's, "I saw it on National Geographic, or one of those types of shows."

I must say that makes me feel a bit better, as I thought he was having me on.

However later on I am thinking about this conversation and had a couple of thoughts. Like what sort of person wakes up in the morning and thinks to himself, today I am going to figure out a way of finding mouse pee in the dark? Also what would the benefit of finding mouse pee in the dark be? If anyone would care to enlighten me, please feel free!!!

I had to pop into town on Thursday as my knee is playing up. I am finding it feels worse when its cold and wet. I just take a liquid ibuprofen, and confirmed with the pharmacist that was as good as anything to take for the pain. I have a funny feeling this knee will end up being a bigger problem the older I get?

What to eat on a Fall day............

A big plate out of macaroni (in this case rotini) and cheese.

Thanksgiving Monday was a true Fall day. Cool and overcast. It was a day when we saw swirls of smoke coming out of people's chimneys. No doubt they were settling down to a lovely Thanksgiving dinner of Turkey. The leaves are changing on the trees, Fall is truly here now.

We had a quiet day. Dh battled with some heating pipes, and I mean battled, poor thing. He sort of won, but wasn't 100% happy with the outcome. He did manage to run the cables from the attic to the basement, which was good.

Me, well I tidied up, did laundry and basically didn't do much. My knee is playing up, and not feeling 100%. I did get the bird feeders filled up, and the blue jays are back feeding from them.

I just couldn't be bothered.........

to write a post like I normally do on a night. That's sad really when you think about it. However when I went for a shower last night, I couldn't be bothered to do that either and ended up just washing my hands and face. Which for anyone who knows me that is more unusual, as I religiously have two showers per day, one in a morning and one on a night. I am fussy that way.

Not sure what's wrong, I think I am tired with this knee. I have given up taking the anti-inflammatory, as it is killing my stomach. I spent part of Monday night, around midnight, vomiting, and I have had a bad stomach since I have started taking them. Which I have to say is unusual for me, as I like to say I have an iron clad stomach. So we'll see if I feel any better with not taking them. They are called MELOXICAM 15mg if anyone is interested.

Then we have dh and Molly, one is in the dog house with the other, and its all my fault. As you all know Molly is a beagle, infact she is a Lemon Beagle, only discovered that yesterday. Well beagles have a lot of energy and it is a well know fact you shouldn't let beagles off leash as once they smell something that's it, they take no notice what so ever of you.

However, I have had a little bit of success with letting her off leash and have always got her back.....well until last night. Now I know I am supposed to rest up this leg, but I thought I'd have a wander down the field with her, as she had been cooped up for most of the day; she never normally goes far, however this time she discovered a hole in the fence, and off she went into the woods. Now I could hear her as she has a collar on with a lot of tags that jingle, but she wouldn't come back.

Dh could here me calling her, as he was getting some logs, and by the tone in my voice he knew she had gone. So he came marching down the field not happy, and to cut a long story short, which included us climbing over the fence, and me finally catching Molly in next door's horse barn (no horses in it), we got her back home. Dh very, very unhappy with Molly, Molly not happy with the way dh is speaking to her, and me saying all the time, well it was my own fault for letting her off leash!!

Molly did however sleep through the night........well I never heard her............which made a change, and she never got up until 6am..........YEAH!!! Her scratching is a little better, she still does it, but I am not spraying her as much. So its either the colder weather, or the change in the food? I just wonder how long dh and Molly are going to be mad at one another?

An extra: Liz asked me to check out this blog, she's a girl after my own heart.

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that......

Well it only took me five months, but I finally got some pictures hung up around the house on Monday. Not all of them, but enough to make a little difference in the house.

Dh got the last basement window sealed up, so fingers crossed that stops the mice from getting in the house. I haven't caught a mouse since last Friday, would love to think that's it, but honestly I know better!!!! Still inundated with cluster flies; I figured we would be so over those by now, but no such luck.

While dh was outside doing the last window, I had Molly out having a good run around. Luckily her nose gets her in such a frenzy, that she wears herself out. So a good 45 minutes of running around the raspberry bushes and the trees, was great exercise for her. I just watched her, as I don't want her heading towards the road. Her allergies are no better; she started her scratching and chewing her paws at 2am, and she had me up at 4am Monday morning. I made her go back to sleep and ended up not getting up to close to 7am.

I am still hobbling around. My knee though does feel as though it is getting better, slowly but surely. It's still taking me a lot longer to do things; and I don't know what the scoop is but ever since I have hurt my knee, everything I need is down the basement stairs. I seem to spend half my life struggling to get up and down the stairs.............

Oh and finally, I don't have an email address that everyone can access via my blog. If you want to talk to me privately, just leave me your email address in a comment, with DO NOT PUBLISH in large letters, and I will send you an email. I moderate all my comments, so comments do not publish right away.

The reason I am telling you all this is that someone was asking why I don't have email access via my blog. I choose not to, as I am terrible at checking my emails, other than my main email address. I do have the usual hotmail, yahoo accounts, but I never check them.........no idea why I have them...LOL I obviously don't want my main email address on my blog, as there are some strange and unusual people out there, that have nothing else better to do but leave weird and nasty comments!!

Laundry........have questions.....

I try not to use the dryer if I can help it, I prefer to either hang my laundry out to dry or hang it on a clothes horse. I have dryer envy as I would just LOVE this ceiling mounted dryer it would be perfect in our kitchen. However it costs over $200 USD, not even Canadian dollars to buy one over here. I can't seem to find a Canadian manufacturer, does anyone know of one?

Here is a link to more indoor clothes drying racks: http://www.tiptheplanet.com/index.php?title=Air_dry_washing

I'm not sure about you but in this house we go through kettles and irons on piece. It doesn't matter how expensive or how cheap they are, we always seem to be buying them? Now it's my irons turn to be replaced. Do any of you have a favourite brand or model. I like a steam iron, and have a Shark one at the moment. I have just "ordered" this one from airmiles, and the cost to me.....FREE!!!! Have to wait 4 weeks for delivery.......but when it's free you don't mind.

I actually enjoy ironing, as I find it therapeutic, how about you?

Update on my knee, although the pain isn't as much, I just can't be on my feet for any length of time as my poor knee aches like mad. So I just pottered around the house and kept sitting down with my leg up. So we didn't go to the wedding, but I didn't think I would be up to it, and don't want to set myself back.

Dh managed to get a little bit of work done in the attic. We are feeling it now with having no insulation in the attic. Its pretty cold upstairs, but we have a fan running and pumping the hot air up the stairs. Our wood burning insert is great and is keeping downstairs toasty warm. We are even managing to keep it going overnight. We are hoping to be at the insulation stage by the middle of the month, fingers crossed.

I have only been catching 1 mouse a night over the last couple of days........I would love to think we only have the odd mouse in the house now, but I don't think so!! I think I caught 17 mice this last week.

Genealogy and couple of updates.......

Friday, I took it easy and didn't do too much, just pottered around the house. I kept sitting down and put my leg up, as it kept aching when I was on my feet too much. The anti-inflammatory pills have kicked in and are working fine.

We had a hard frost also on Friday morning, and I had hoped that would cure Molly, but she still is chewing her paws. I have been spraying her as directed. She loves her new vegetarian food. Dh has a friend who will be going hunting, so I am going to ask him for a little bit of moose or deer meat, as that is a protein she should be able to have.

Now for the genealogy. My cousin Dougie had a co-worker do our family tree on my mother's side. This lady was able to go back to 1810 on my mother's dad's side and back to 1650 on my mother's mother side. It's really quite interesting and there is so much more I want to find out. I am going to a genealogy seminar which is being held at the local library next Thursday. As I really don't have a clue where to start on this.

While talking to my mother on Friday she gave me some web sites to look at. She got these from a book called "Seeking Catherine Cookson's Da," by Kathleen Jones.

http://www.genuki.org.uk/

http://www.pro.gov.uk/

http://www.scotsorigins.com/

http://www.1837online.com/

and the lady who did the family tree so far used: http://www.familysearch.com/

Ginnie also said this site was good: http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Of course these are all British sites, as that is where we came from. I am wanting to do dh's family, as the township we live in some of the founding families came from Scotland with the same last name as dh has. So it would be interesting to see if we are related some where down the road.

Are any of you interested in Genealogy? Any tips?

I had a pig of a day on Wednesday.......

We are going to a wedding on Saturday, and I have been meaning to dye my hair for a couple of weeks now, and finally got around to it on Wednesday morning. I bought the Nice 'N Easy Natural Medium Brown and due to the fact I have the odd grey hair, who am I kidding I have a ton of grey hair, I leave it on for the 45 minutes.

Now I am not one for swearing, but I get out of the shower and look in the mirror and say Holy S**t, what have I done. I look like a Goth :00 My hair is so dark and with my pale skin it looks even darker. So I am not a happy camper. I emailed one of my knitting group buddies and told her I wasn't coming to knitting class, as that is the first thing they will say what did you do to your hair. Told Eva the mail lady I wasn't setting foot out of the house, she told me not to be so daft. I mean I look like a Goth......which is all well and good if that's what you want to look like, but I DON'T!!! So goodness knows what I am going to do........

We have had rain for a few days now, so everything is wet. I put my wellies on to take out the ashes from the fireplace to the fire pit and walk on the wet deck; I slip on the wet wood and fall on my backside. My rear end is fine, as there is plenty of padding there!! However I twist my knee on the way down and I am in agony, I am hobbling around and it is so sore. So goodness knows what damage I have done there, as my knees were sore before hand.

Caught another three mice overnight, so I think that's 12 since Saturday, oh joy!!! Still haven't found the elusive trap that disappeared. Dh put wire wool in the hole, but there is more work to be done there. Don't think I will be doing much as I am in so much pain with this rotten knee. The fly population is down though, only got the odd one or two remaining!!

Then the icing on the cake was I caught two more mice on Wednesday afternoon, and one was still alive, with it's back leg hanging off. I should have hit it over the head to put it out of its misery, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I was actually in tears over that one.

Put the heating on, but it will only come on when it goes down to 14 oC in the house. We have the fire on, on a night so it's keeping the chill off the house. However it is cool upstairs.

So another GREAT day here on the Acreage!!