Busy as a bee today

Funny thing Facebook.  I posted asking for silver beet recipes, and got the most responses that I have ever had.  It was great!  Best reply didn't come until today, but hey, I will have that in my arsenal for next time.  Silver beet, the one vege that grows itself with not much help from me.  I plant it then ignore it.  Everything else treated this way dies.  My vege garden is a very sad sight.

And on the topic of food, we watched River Cottage Somethingorother last night and I literally CRIED, I had TEARS at a desert he made.  Very simple, crushed meringue with cream, and strawberries and raspberries (pre-mixed with a bit of sugar so it made a bit of a syrup).  It looked SOOOO good!  So good I cried!  Seriously!  I just wanted it so badly.  Will have to wait for summer to come so I can make it.  Drooooool!

Today was good.

I got up around 6am jumped on the bike for an hour, followed by a couple of bits of toast for breakfast.  I then stripped the bed and put the sheets and my pj's on to wash, and did last nights dishes.

TJL and I then shifted the break for the cows, and set up the break for tomorrow (well ok, TJL did this while I talked to the cows, patted the dog, and gave TJL directions).  Stella-Dog and I then went for a walk up the hill while TJL feed the cows a bale of hay.

Got home, stripped the duvet covers off and washed them, hung out the sheets, folded yesterdays washing, and made choc. chip cookies.  Apparently the cookies are very nice, I am only allowed one after dinner, with my hot chocolate - my wee treat of the day - so I have yet to sample them.

I then dug over a quarter of the vege garden.  Found a few potoatoes.  Murphys law applies here, regardless of how few potatoes are in your patch, you will spear every single one with your garden fork.  Bah!  But the few we got are all good, will be about a weeks worth, bearing in mind TJL likes them with every diner.

Read the Dairy News until lunch (had baked beans on toast) and then read the NZ Gardener, and NZ House & Garden.

After my wee I break dug up another quarter of the vege garden, so half to go, and mowed the lawn.  Took another wee break to read NZ House and Garden, we then walked Stella.

Back home I made some pasta, which was cut into squares and 'stuffed' with last nights left over potato, silver beet, and some cheese.  Served up with a tomato & bacon sauce.  It was actually delicious, the pasta was a bit doughy, but it was only my second attempt, so it can only get better.

And now I am catching up on some computer time.  I have emailed the basketball committee to say I am resigning from the committee, I really need to focus on helping TJL out on the farm much more.  I just have to get all of my stuff sorted to hand over to someone else.  I did media, so that is control of the website, facebook, and twitter thingees.  Just have to give login's and passwords etc, so nothing too major.  Will be nice to go to the basketball next season as a spectator, and if I don't feel like it then I just won't go rather than feeling like I have to go.  Luckily 3 guys just joined the committee so I am sure one of them will be keen to take the job.

And now it's time to fill out the daily farm and personal diary's before hot chocolate and bikkie time!  Booyahh!

How many buckets ...

How many buckets does it take to clean a fish tank?  In my case that would be 7.  But it is one job done for the month, and the fish now have a nice clean tank to swim in.  I must say they certainly are not happy campers while swimming about in one of the buckets while I clean their tank, they get quite splashy indeed.

It has been a fairly odd day weather wise here.  It was warm this morning, so warm that when we were out shifting the break for the cows that I had to take both my woolly hat and sweater off.  Then, this afternoon while walking the dog, it was quite cold, and now the sun is out.  Random!  Or typical Autumnal weather I guess.

I have to say that I do love this time on the farm, late starts and the only 'must do' job is to give the cows their fresh break and hay.  I also shifted the bulls today.  I am a bit scared of the bulls (we only have 2, plus 2 bull weanlings), and one is a bit of a roarer, but they shifted ok for me, once I got them moving.  One stopped halfway up the hill to rub his head on the dirt bank, as he always does.  Ends up with a head covered in mud/dirt, but obviously he likes it.  The boys are now up on one of the hill paddocks, so that should keep them happy for a week or so.  Probably not, they are known to whinge when they think we are starving them.  Typical males!  Cute though.

Currently watching Transporter 2, and I don't recommend it, it's pretty bad, ridiculously unbelievable. 

Anyway, nearly time to start prepping veges for dinner.  If I can decide what veges I want to cook for dinner that is ...

I'm an over-reactor

Oh yes I am, I tend to over react in even the most ridiculous of circumstances, and I think it is about time to stop … if I can.  At least it is a start to recognise this flaw (one of many) in myself, but then again, I have recognised it in the past and haven't changed myself one iota.

So what triggered the recognition of this in myself today?  An article in a Cuisine magazine that said 

'blah, blah, blah … rely on industrial agriculture for sustenance, even if it comes at great cost to their personal health and the environment'.  Being a farmer means that this type of reporting in media gets right up my nose as we always seem to be the bad guys!  Not all farming is bad, in my opinion anyway.  Our animals are loved and treated well, and we do our utmost to make sure nothing suffers unnecessarily.

BUT the sentence before the one that annoyed me said 

'blah, blah, blah … buying sustainable, ethically farmed ingredients'.  Which is something I totally support.  And it is a track I hope to go down when we are finally able to purchase and run our own farm, rather than running the farm for other owners.

And so what have I learned, well hopefully learned?!  Well it is a few things.

Firstly, in the case of an article that has my back up - read the full article, slowly, and then read it again incase I missed something.

In the case of something trivial, like today when TJL came into the kitchen just as I was about to dish up tea, and he grabs my plate, and he gets told off because 'I'M  DOING  IT', think, is that reaction really necessary or appropriate?  Heck no!  I just need to take a breath, and speak nicely.  Honestly, to react as I did to something so pathetically trivial, is just, well, pathetic and juvenile.

Secondly, think about it,  What annoyed me?  Is it really worth getting annoyed about?  Does it really matter?  Is it a mislead by false facts or is it just someone else's opinion?  And should I really stir up more trouble by responding?  Do I want to face the fall out of that trouble?

Thirdly I learned that I really, really, really can not wait until we own our own property so we can take ownership of all of the decisions regarding that property.  

And I can get a horse, or 3, of course!

Sometimes its a hard life when we are still learning about ourselves when we are in our 40's :)

Weekend away - alone

Well I got back from my weekend away, alone, last night.  Surprisingly I missed TJL!  Not surprising in an 'I no longer love him and want to leave him' kind of way, but in a 'I love being alone and spending time with myself and I never get to do it anymore' kind of way.

It was good though.  3 days of horses, horses, horses - BLISS!!

Yep, the NRM 3 Day Event at Taupo was fabulous.  Frickin cold, but fabulous.  Friday, dressage day, rained a bit and was overcast and not great.  Saturday, CROSS  COUNTRY  DAY - BOO YAH!  Beautiful sunshine, but the wind was freezing!  Sunday, show jumping, and again beautiful sunshine but when the wind got up … fa - reez - ing!

I haven't been to a huge horse trial event in years, and years, and years, and MAN the cross country jumps were ginormous!  I took photos of most of them (ok all of the big ones, except the last one because I missed it).  They were lovely looking jumps though, so well designed, very cool looking, but would I ever want to get a horse and compete to that level?  Not on your Nelly!  It took me about 2 hours to walk the course, obviously I wasn't walking fast, but I didn't think it would take me quite so long.  Was good though, because being away meant that I wasn't exercising at home.

I had crap food for dinners (ok and brunches too), but whatever.   Hmmmm, but whatever she says, having had a spackie this morning about not having lost weight despite a big increase in exercise amount over the last month *sigh*.  I seriously don't get it, but that's a post for my other blog.

So life is great!  Aside from the fact I want us to buy a farm so I can get a horse (or 3).  But, yeah, life is GREAT!!

Oh yeah, had a blood test today - day two of Aunt Flo.  Awww, whatever!  Over it!  But must.lose.weight!!

Wearing my brave pants

This year, for the first time in many years, I came across mothers day with no bad feelings what-so-ever.  Seriously,  I am still in a state of enjoying our childless status, and while I have a year to go (at least) before I can get myself a horse (or 3), I actually really appreciate the freedom TJL and I have to do what we want, as we want.  How stress free is that??!!  Of course being Mothers Day we headed over to TJL's Mums, where his sister was, with her 4 kids.  My only problem with this, it was raining and so the kids will all be inside making TOO MUCH  NOISE!!  Hahaha.

However, on FB I did take exception the the 'mummy day' posts that spieled forth about how frickin awesome Mothers are because they 'work so hard and thus are so much more superior to those of us without children'.  Yes, ok, no-one actually SAID that, and it is how I INTERPRET what they say, because, let's face it, aside from my birthday I don't get a day, and I certainly don't get a day congratulating me on how hard working I am.  So what did I do?  I posted this as my status:-

To all the women out there who aren't mothers (whether by choice or natures design), to those of you who don't get extra days off of work because you don't have any children who are sick at home, to those of you who work all school holidays, who work the weekends, who put up with constant posts of other peoples children's achievements, who buy far more Christmas and Birthday presents each year than you receive have a GREAT DAY. Spending the day with nieces, nephews, other peoples children? Fill them up with food colouring and sugar, then go home to your nice quiet, peaceful house.

And do you know what?  It is probably the one status that I have ever written that got the most likes, EVER.  And comments from people (women) saying Thanks M!  A-ha, you are not alone!

Which then got me thinking, is infertility easier on guys come Fathers Day?  I mean, I don't really recall any guys saying 'To all the daddies out there, have a fantastic day, you deserve it because you are awesome'.  Guys just don't do that sort of thing.  Their women, however, will be out there in force, declaring how 'their partner is the best Daddy ever … blah, blah, blah'.  

Seriously, what is it with women that they feel the need to constantly sing theirs and their families praises?  Quite frankly it is not only boastful and downright annoying, I actually believe it displays a severe lack of confidence and need for affirmation.  In fact I have one 'friend' who in he last month has got herself (and family) printed in 2 magazines (where you send yourself in), and told us all about it on FB, and then on mothers day she trolled through her pregnancy photos (kid is now a couple of months old) and 'liked' herself so we all get to see her pregnant again.  **scrolling on by**

Get over yourselves ladies! Seriously!  The rest of us don't give a monkeys! (However, politeness on my part means that I will never let you know that :)