Ughhh!!

We all have them. Those days where nothing seems to go right!! Well, we just had a whole weekend of this.

Thursday Kyle bought a brand new weed wacker. A fairly basic piece of equipment - nothing state of the art, they have been around for many, many years. We even went high end and got a Stihl, not cheap but supposedly a work horse....NOT! Friday evening I began, just the grass around the house, set it up, filled it with its special gas/oil mixture, actually read the manual, started her up and off we went. Had to stop to refill once and to fix the line - those things never work right, there must be a better solution there other than little bits of plastic string.

Halfway around the house (its a mobile home so its not that big) and zilch....it stops. And doesn't start again. Saturday a phone call to the store where we got it - oh, probably nothing major, bring it in and I will fix it. Its over an hour away one way - the whole reason we spent this exorbitant amount of money was to avoid having to run to the fix it guy....so with smoke coming out of my ears I am off to take it to be fixed today. NOT HAPPY!

Then we got the mower attachment for the tractor - poor Kyle spent about 6 hours getting it put together and hooked up. Who writes these manuals, because the words that come out of them are the complete opposite of the accompanying diagram or picture. It was absurd at how difficult it was to get it going but we finally did and he got a good portion of the grass bcut to a manageable level.

Add to that we get in my car on Saturday night to go to dinner two doors down and the ignition won't stay on and the car keeps dying...hence I had drive home with my hand holding the key in the "on" position - DOES ANYTHING WORK!

Rant is over - off to the weed wacker man and the german, automotive specialist, let's hope something works by the end of the day!

Of course just when you are at your wits end with ridiculous mechanical devices you realize  that it could be much worse and things could be tougher, I rant in jest - I know we are fortunate and I appreciate all we have.

Views of the Hood

I bet you didn't believe me when I said we were growing hay -


Oh yeh, we are baling soon. Here are some other shots from the property or our "hood"....

Had to Post

I don't think anyone likes plumbing, even plumbers but its pays the bills and pays them well. Kyle and I are no exception, more so Kyle because he is the one doing the plumbing, I just sit by and listen patiently to the tirade.

Well, finally here is an invention that is LONG overdue (apparently innovation isn't popular in the world of plumbing).

You can adjust the dial to move clogs through, do regular maintenance to avoid clogs or in the event of an emergency reroute through the top. Its brilliant and is an application that can be applied to many drains to aid in rerouting appropriate gray water for reuse. Also useful for those girlfriends whose hair is endlessly shedding and seems to somehow always end up down the drain...Oooops!

Oh, new birdie pics - they are SOOOO cute -

Birdies and Kitties

After I hung a little candle lantern on our front porch, a lovely birdie decided it would make a great house for her babies this year. She wasted no time in making her lovely nest (though didn't use any of the useful tools I left for her, dryer lint, dog hair, little pile of lovely soft twigs) and apparently we missed the entire egg period and went straight to the arrival of the fluffy babies.

I guess 'tis the season of birth - we went down to Twain Harte, CA to where Kyle's first house is. We are in the process of renovating it to rent it out (anyone want a lovely, secluded cabin in the Sierra Foothills???) We are having a big onslaught of it at the end of May but this weekend we needed to go and pick up the tractor and some of Kyle's heavier equipment as we are growing hay at Shoo Fly and are in desperate need to get it cut!! So we traveled down and on Saturday night the doggies were going nuts trying to get into the old blocked up fireplace. We muted the movie we were watching and heard little Meows....oh boy.

The following hour was spent with Kyle trying to shimmy down the chimney (Kyle is skinny, how the heck does St. Nick fit!!) and use kitchen tongs to grab the two kitties that were about halfway down the chimney. After that failed we bust open the fireplace, rescued the two of the kitties that had fallen there and Kyle was able to reach up and grab the kitty further up the chimney. At this point mom had taken off so we put the kitties (days old, their eyes were still closed) together in a big cushy box all decked out for them and placed them high up in the garage with some Fancy Feast kitty food for momma and hoped that she would come back and find the new location of the kitties.

The next morning, Fancy Feast gone but so were the kitties. I guess she didn't like our makeshift home so she relocated them to a place she liked. We had already blocked off the chimney altogether so she wouldn't make that mistake again. I just shudder of what would have happened if we hadn't gone to the house this weekend, at least 2 lost kittens and maybe 3 and mommy. We are just glad that they are all together again and we now have 4 feral cats around there...good thing there are lots of mice!

to all those NYC lovers

as posted on re-nest - Grand Central Station is finally green -

This past Tuesday, workers removed the last remaining incandescent bulbs in Grand Central and replaced them with compact fluorescent bulbs — thus officially completing the transition to "greener" lighting that began in the mid-1980's. The last remaining bulbs were on one of the ten 96-year-old Beaux-Arts chandeliers hanging in the main lobby.

So how much money will switching to CFL's save? According to Marjorie S. Anders, a spokeswoman for Metro-North Railroad, replacing the roughly 4,000 bulbs in the public areas of the terminal will save an estimated $200,000 a year.