Always Something To Do Around Here

The desk top computer has been giving us trouble lately. I'm no computer expert, but I know enough to get by. The router/DSL modem crapped out last month, so I got a new one. The problem with the new router though, was we had to turn off the security to get on the internet! That ain't right. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the security system to view the new router as a non-threatening program. Then the power went out once and we lost internet connection. I finally figured out it was the new router. After much fiddling around with it, I re-installed the program disc and it worked, but we still had to turn off security to use it. Yesterday, the power went off and once again, the router/DSL modem no longer worked. This time, however, I couldn't get it to work again. Time for a new router. And a new security system.

Amazing how a day without internet services can sort of put a damper on things. We aren't online all day, but there are quite a lot of things we do on the computer and not having internet service really stunts us. We're too far from anywhere with wi-fi access and more than 20 miles to the nearest Library, so packing up the laptop is not ideal for us. Making a trip into the big town was necessary.

The other day, the riding mower sputtered and back-fired, then shut off on Andrew just as he finished the majority of the mowing. Lucky for us, he knows enough about engines that he knew what it needed and a trip to the hardware store for parts should do the trick. The hardest part about that was finding a hardware store that carried what he needed! At one store, the filters were all bent. At another, nothing matched what he needed. Third time was the charm indeed when he found all he needed at store number three.

While at the hardware store, we picked up fencing. We're going to fence in the chickens! After much talk, we've decided it would be best to build a pen around the chickens. I love the idea of free-range chickens, but in the case of my chickens, that means free-ranging all over the back stoop! Nothing like stepping on cold, mushy chicken poop in bare feet! I used to be Miss Barefoot until the chickens came along, then I became best friends with my flip-flops.

We bought 150 feet worth of fencing, which I think will give the chickens plenty of room to roam. I'm still thinking on a way to make a gate without resorting to buying one. I have plenty of scrap wood, so I'm leaning to making a frame then stapling chicken wire to it and voila! a door. I get lots of ideas in my head, just a matter of translating to paper to actual materials.

The kids are pretty happy about fencing in the chickens. The big rooster chases them and I constantly have to provide distraction to the rooster so the kids can make their escape to the swing set. It's getting irritating. Warmer weather equals kids playing outside equals mama dropping everything and distracting the rooster 10-plus times a day.

Anyway, after we got home from the computer store and the hardware store, I tried to get the new router working. I had quite the time trying to get it all to obey me. I get frustrated to tears when it comes to the computer because visions of it freezing and floating bits of money flying out the window do not a pleasant picture make. After about 4 hours of installing, un-installing, deleting, more installing, updating, down-loading, re-starting and one final updating, the desk top works! It works, it works, it works! Happy dance!

I worked right through dinner and sweet Evelyn made dinner without any prompting. She came to me and asked me to check and see if the macaroni was tender. "Macaroni?" I asked.

"Yes. I'm making dinner because I can see you are too stressed out from the computer, so I wanted to help you." Evelyn replied.

Well, melt my heart! We ate a mighty fine dinner of macaroni and cheese last night, paired with a glass of juice. It makes me proud when one of the kids can step up to the plate and pitch in when Andrew and I are both busy doing something.

Andrew's friend is supposed to come over tomorrow and let Andrew use his brush hog. I'm so excited! All the weeds and brambles and small brush are slowly overtaking the yard and I cannot put up the new fencing for the chickens until we clear away the brush. Using the brush hog will make the job go so much faster and easier, then we can just maintain afterwards. Fingers crossed it all goes well!

Percy the cat is quite the TOM cat. He is getting rambunctious and jumps BC, the older cat, a lot. He's starting to pee on clothing or towels that get left on the floor and I try to keep after the kids to pick up their clothes, but I don't catch every one. We could smell pee somewhere and sniffed around for it, but couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. Andrew says here, I say there. Finally I moved a bed over and there was a pair of pants, soaked with cat pee.

Peter let Charlie the cat in the house a couple days ago, and he made a beeline to the bowl of cat food on the floor. I let him chow down when this happens, then put him back outside when he's done. This time, however, I got distracted and forgot about Charlie being in the house. I got a quick reminder when Percy spotted Charlie and a swirling, angry, hissing and yowling ball of black rolled around the kitchen floor, tufts of black fur flying! I'm not stupid enough to stick my hand in there and separate them, but something needed to be done! It all happened so fast, I somehow got them apart, swatting at them with a towel or something, then just as I was about to pick up Charlie, Percy came charging again, and the crazy ball of two black cats fighting rolled into the sun room, leaving a trail of fur. Andrew came in and managed to pull Percy off Charlie, then Charlie hid under the table in the sun room. After I finally coaxed him out and let him back outdoors, we knew something had to be done about Percy.

No way are we letting him out, free to impregnate every fertile female cat within spitting distance. He has an appointment on Thursday to get neutered. After he comes back, if he continues to pee in the house, he'll go outside with the other cats. Hopefully he stops that, cause I really like having him in the house. All the other outdoor cats are there because they peed in the house at one time or another.

Andrew works from 1-9 today, so I'm hoping for an uneventful day. At this rate, I'll be happy to distract the rooster to let the kids outside than face another computer issue.

Computer Glitch Update

I took the computer in to the local fix-it shop and they were able to recover some of my pictures. A lot is gone, though, like the last 18 months worth of pictures. I'm sad about it but it's not a total loss because thanks to my blogging, I still have baby pictures of Baby, puppy pictures of Maisy, baby chick pictures, and lots of other stuff. If not for my blog, then I would have probably broken down and cried in the fix-it shop.

I also learned something new about my computer:: Apparently, when we are surfing the 'net, the computer picks up images we click on here and there and saves them. When they pulled up my recovered pictures, they had a separate file labeled "internet pics" and I didn't understand what they were because there were pictures of total strangers with a few I recognized from blogs I visit. They explained to me that the computer saved them. huh. Didn't know that. I knew about being able to track where you've been, but not about pictures.

Mixed in among my recovered pictures of photos I did take, were also random images from the internet, like photos we clicked on to see in ebay and etsy. There were 757 recovered photos and more than half were random images that I deleted. Of the pictures I have left, many are duplicates, so total pictures recovered? Less than 250.

I will be printing pictures more often to put away into photo albums and I also bought a memory stick for back-up. This was a lesson learned, and one I don't care to repeat.

On the bright side of things, the computer was totally cleaned out and is running faster now. We had to download some programs to be able to watch news clips and tv shows and it's kind of nice to have a "fresh" computer again. I can't post any recent photos until I upload the photo program I had, so those pictures of Oldest in the previous post are the only ones I have left from the recovered photos.

We can't afford one now, but hopefully, later on, we will get a second computer for the kids to use. One that they can play their games on, do their schoolwork and other things and keep them away from 'Mommy and Daddy's computer'.

We have an old laptop and when I asked the fix-it shop about it, they said it would cost too much to refurbish and I could probably get more money for it selling it as 'parts' on ebay. I find that so hard to believe-- that a laptop that cost us over 1,200 new less than 10 years ago is now worthless. sigh... Any suggestions out there? I can't accept that my only option is to sell the laptop for parts.

June!

Can you believe it's June already?! Man! They weren't kidding when they said time flies when you have kids! My Oldest will be 7 on Friday and since we have decided 2009 to be the year of no birthday parties, it will just be her grandparents coming up on Saturday for her birthday. She has already made her requests for specific meals and a cake for her special day and I need to get busy and make a doll for her like I did her other sisters. Shhh!



My computer still isn't back to normal yet-- I'll be calling the local computer fix-it place and see what they can do. We use this computer for so much that we cannot put it off any longer. I use the photo program I downloaded for ebay and etsy sales, this here blog, and for personal family pictures and it's so frustrating not to be able to upload more pictures. Plus this setting that the computer went back to is so plain and all our personal preferences and favorites are gone and we have to go by memory on where certain things on the internet are located. A real pain in the you-know-what!



A lot has happened since I last posted. Something got into our chickens Thursday night/Friday morning and left one Rhode Island chicken dead and 2 Speckled Sussex chickens were carried away, presumably to be eaten. I followed a trail of bloody feathers into the woods and then lost the trail. They were not in the coop, it was not done yet and they had been settling in for the night in the corner of our sunroom and dining room. I put up a fence and they spent a week there until the incident happened. Friday, the Husband and I spent the day finishing the chicken coop and it was a good thing that my Mom happened to be visiting us because she watched the kids and Baby for us.



We finished the coop! No pictures, unfortunately, but I'll post them when my computer is normal. I still have to build nest boxes, but the roof, walls and door is done. I'm sore from all the hammering and the physical work I did to lift and carry all the wood I needed, but I'm so proud of our little coop! It's nice and solid and we paid less than $50 in materials we needed that we couldn't scavenge. I need to tweak it a little bit, add windows for light and block a few spaces that the chickens got stuck in, but for the most part, it's done. They have been in there since Friday night and every morning when I go to let them out, I hold my breath and count the remaining chickens-- still 11 left, whew!



We also tried our strawberry wine! Yum yum! It's been a year since we made it and my instructions for the wine said to let it ferment for a year. I think I'll wait 6 months next time, try it and then check every month after that because we had a 50/50 success rate-- wine and vinegar. The wine is delicious!! I can definitely taste the alcohol. It's a sweet wine, light and tasty, I'll make it again. The vinegar is also good, but my! that's a lot of vinegar we're stuck with! Looks like nearly 2 gallons of vinegar so far. Looks like there's going to be a lot of strawberry vinaigrette on my salads this summer.