235 - A Breath of Fresh Air

This year I only made one resolution - to learn one thing every day that will help me become more grounded, that can be self-help-y type stuff, or watching a module in my gardening course, or even reading in the bathtub to relax. I used to set aside time every day to light candles, close my eyes and listen to soothing music (classical, new age, etc.) and I realized I haven't done that in a loooooong time. Television has become my electronic babysitter and for some reason, instead of quiet and introspection, I need to hear the background noise and am loathe to leave its comforting jabber.

So far I have reacquainted myself with alternate nostril breathing, which I first learned through yoga, watched a video about reiki, explored energy healing, listened to a course on detoxification and tried meditation. Bo and I have been taking more walks to get out the house and get some exercise. I'm am also taking probiotics again. With all the stress I've had in my life the last couple of years, I think these things are important. Today I am learning how to breathe properly.

When I exercise I am aware of my breathing: exhale when you exert yourself or contract a muscle, breathe to assist the body and enhance your workout. But on a daily basis I take shallow breaths. I am aware of it but never change it, and when I do breathe deeply it feels strange and even makes me a little dizzy because I'm not used to so much oxygen... may be part of the reason I feel sluggish all the time. I primarily breathe within my chest, but I should breathe with my belly. So that's my focus for the next few days, because breathing is such an automatic process that you don't think about how you're doing it, and changing my ways is going to take effort.

Next on my list is juicing. We bought a juicer recently and I can't wait to juice some apples and pears. I will explore with other flavors but those have always been my favorite. I am not a breakfast person... I don't mind drinking something for breakfast but I don't usually eat food, so juicing will be a great way to 'eat' something healthy. I can even replace meals on days that I don't feel like cooking, or in the summer when I want something cool. Mike is excited about it, he's been wanting a juicer for years. If we can ever get some fruit trees growing it'll even save us money. If.

And... so far, so good with the resolution. I don't really have to try to do it, things come my way each day and my goal is met. I don't always find value in them all, but it's about learning and exploration and finding out what does work.

I also realized that I have been comparing the kittens to Gracie, where they fail miserably to compare. I'm still bitter that she's gone. So I am going to try to think of them as... just kittens. And to get them neutered and see if they calm down a bit. If not, they can be indoor/outdoor cats, and they go into the basement at night... we need to partition off a space for them though, because they are tornadic and I'm also afraid that they'll one day rip into the ductwork and I'll have a moment of insanity that they mightn't survive. Today they were pretty low-key and maybe my irritation was a lessened because I was able to put them back into the basement last night instead of the room next to ours where I hear everything they knock over and every meow they (Walter) make. I flip-flop every day about what to do with them... someday I'll make up my mind. If they weren't so cute and affectionate it would be easier.

234 - Never was the name of this blog so apt

I went to bed last night and it was -1 degree. When Bo decided his bladder was full at 3 am I glanced at the temperature and it was 5. "At least it's warming up," I thought, until I noticed the negative sign in front. It was -5. That is officially the coldest cold I have experienced.

Today it got up to 17 degrees and the road seemed clear, snow was melted and liquid, not icy, so I made the short drive to the bank. Took more time to defrost my car than it did to get there and back. I went slow and scanned the roads for any sign of ice; there were others out so I figured it was probably safe but I was cautious since this is my first rodeo. There is a small band of ice near the front of our road, but nowhere else on the route and it's not wide enough to make you slide.

Building on that good fortune I decided to see what the creek looks like at these temps - but not in my car... Bo likes to walk and it behooves me to make sure he gets that opportunity even on crappy days. Today isn't particularly crappy... just cold. So I bundled up and out we went into the 13 degree weather. I figured it would be pretty.

Jack's pond is frozen over and has a light dusting of snow over the top. While I was marveling at the idea of that and trying to gauge if there was a good vantage point to get a decent picture... down I went. My right forearm took the brunt of it but I'm good at falling without injuring myself so it will bruise and I'll be fine, just kind of smarts at the moment. Note to self: toward the creek it gets icy...

Now more acutely aware of my surroundings, I trudged on, keeping to the snowy bits.

This is the part of the road where the water constantly trickles down toward the creek, so much so that it has worn ruts into the asphalt. As you can see... it was visibly frozen.

Off to the side where the creek wraps around toward us.

I heard water trickling but on the surface the creek was pretty much frozen except for where a couple of people crossed over it. I know I saw Jack pass this way and back earlier. I guess that kind of confidence is borne of years of doing it, but you won't can't me trying it!

It's pretty though.

If it was solidly frozen I bet it would be fun to slide on... in a sled or something meant for that kind of thing. I think there was very little of it solidly frozen though. Not that it's deep. Just really cold.

And back up we went...

This is on the side of the road where the water runs off to the creek.

I think I slipped on something like this... not quite obviously ice, maybe this is the dreaded black ice. It looks like slush, but if you look closely it's frozen. So I avoided it. Easier to see when the sun is shining on it.

That shiny bit is solid ice.

Bo playing in the snow. I took his sweater off because I woke up last night and his legs were pinned at an odd angle. He doesn't seem to care much unless we're standing still, and standing still isn't something he excels at anyway.

Hurry along will you? I don't have time to pose for your silly pictures, there are birds to be chased. And perhaps I can pull you across a patch of ice. You know how you always tell me how graceful I am? Well it was quite funny when you fell down earlier. I was quite amused. You're so graceful. Really you are. May we continue on now?

Hmph. Bo is very well spoken for a dog.

An owie on my elbow. All those layers probably helped protect me from more than just the cold. :( I'll have a nice bruise tomorrow I can just about guarantee it. Live and learn.

So except for potty breaks I think we're in for the night. I've done my adventuring for the day and now it's time to relax. Or my version anyway. I have stuff to bake and only one more cold day to get my care package done. (I gave myself until Wednesday to mail it off, because it'll be warm by then)

233 - Frozen in Thyme

My day in pictures:

Frosty bathroom window looking out onto a winter wonderland.

The Bermuda triangle. They called today and said that instead of today, they'd most likely come get the RV on Wed or Thurs. I thought that was probably a good idea.

Bo has the right idea.

The Magnolia is one of the few trees that still has leaves on it and therefore has become a haven for several species of birds. Hopefully next year we'll have bird houses for them, too.

The road less traveled.

Bo didn't seem to mind the snow... to a point.

Signs of life

Bo life.

Birdie food. I scraped the snow off and let some seed fall to the ground so they could get to it however they chose.

A birdie. If you play Angry Birds, he looks like the one that explodes like a cannonball.

UPS actually came today. He had a hell of a time backing into the driveway. I thought I was going to have to put cardboard under his back tire to help him get some traction but he finally made it. Poor guy, I figured they would take a snow day. Didn't see much traffic on the road today, just the UPS truck, another truck that sort of slid around as he went up the road, and a 4-wheeler who practically taunted death.

Back of the property was nice and powdery.

Some lady's pics of frozen bubbles have been all over the internet today so I thought I'd give it a go. I don't know what magic solution she used, but I had a hell of a time getting a bubble to settle to the ground without popping, much less freeze once it landed. And even that bubble ended up wilting in the wind. So I don't know what voodoo she used to get hers to last overnight, long enough for the sun to start to melt them.

I even revamped my bubble solution. I ended up flinging the wand to the ground and got these pitiful little bubbles. Oh well. So much for that. It's too cold to stand out there for very long (2 degrees with a -13 windchill).

Gonna be another cold one tomorrow. So far, so good for today, I still have water running in a thin stream from each of the faucets to keep a flow and I haven't had any problems. And it's nice and warm in here. After tomorrow it should warm up out there, too. We will be back in the 50's. Crazy.

232 - The Squall

Well, here we are, smack in the middle of a twenty year freak cold snap. Bo is in his sweater, afraid of the ice falling from the sky so he wants to go potty but prefers not to leave the house unless I go first. To clarify - I go out of the house first, I do not go potty outside, first or otherwise. Not at home anyway.

The thing is... weathermen are wrong about 50% of the time or more. Why do these Nashville weatherpeople have to be such overachievers? I was hoping that, in the same manner that the predicted snow fall decrease by an inch since yesterday (1-2" instead of 3"), the temperatures would rise a bit... but noooooooooo... Here's what they look like so far:

There are lots of single digits on that page, and if you scooch over a column and add windchill there are some negative numbers - and no one likes negativity! It's bad! If I wanted to live like this I would have moved to South Dakota.

So I will be wearing lay-ers, a hat... if I can find one of the four pair of gloves I own, and my rain boots when I take Bo out. I doubt he'll linger so it'll probably take me more time to put everything on than for him to do his business. I wonder if his pee will freeze midstream. That could be a problem...

Anyway, to reiterate... Bo...

is afraid of that ^.

Doesn't like it.

Not a bit.

As for me, I went to the store on Sunday and stocked up on supplies to keep me busy baking through the frigid norther. I figure it keeps me busy and keeps the kitchen nice and warm. As for the pipes. I wrapped them. Probably wrapped the wrong ones, but I wrapped something. I remembered Mike saying that pex doesn't burst, so I wrapped the pvc, but then he pointed out that the sewer pipe doesn't have standing water in it, and therefore won't freeze. So... yeah. I covered a couple of the windows, I did what I could, I may go down there tomorrow and rethink things. I wasn't expecting quite such a prolonged period of stupid cold.

I don't have to leave the house except to take Bo out, so I don't have to be concerned about road conditions. I am sure the emergency radio will be going off quite often because it always seems that after a torrential rainstorm, snow or icy conditions, someone has had an accident somewhere. Or a tree fell down. Hopefully my prediction doesn't come true, because I hate to think of anyone else having to be out when it's like this. Especially a volunteer. They've closed the schools tomorrow and I'll be surprised if I get mail... if I do I may or may not go to the box to check it! Anyway, life is an adventure right? Right.

231 - Stupidcold

That's what the local news station predicts for next week. Stupid cold. The actual headline is: "Rain, Then Snow, Then #StupidCold."

Sunday will have a low of 5. That's 5... degrees. Their map shows a low of -6 early Monday morning. Needless to say that I will be staying indoors as much as possible (and I don't foresee that Bo will be itching to go out as much as usual either).

At 20 degrees Bo doesn't have as much interest in staying out and exploring. :)

LET ME IN

The homestead.

Apparently we had a double rainbow going in the yard, I ran and got the shovel to find the pots of gold but the ground was so hard I let the Leprechauns have it.

So even at 23 degrees, the sun eventually melts most of the snow, except where the shadows fall. This is where I parked my car, hahaha.

And that's all folks... Just gonna feed everyone, watch some (more) tv and try to stay warm.

230 - Snow Day

As promised by the weatherman, it snowed today!

Like a rain storm

Birdie visitor

The deck

Rosemary in the snow

Video: http://youtu.be/xR1HlI0Vt8Q

229 - Goodbye 2013

2013 has been a doozie... Then again, Dad reminded me that over a 3-day period during Christmas 2012 we dented our truckbed, slid down an embankment into a ditch, and scalped the truck just before a torrential downpour and drastic temperature drop. Not to mention that the RV almost caught on fire earlier in the year. 2013 was better than 2012 in some respects...

I don't want to do a laundry list of what's been good and bad because some of the bad still stings, but I will say that I am thankful that heading into 2014 things seem to be looking up on many fronts. Not just for us, but for others as well.

Tonight is a pretty low-key NYE. I intended to grab wings and fries on the way home from Cookeville, but Timberwolf was (inexplicably) closed. I went the long way home JUST so I would pass that way and it was (inexplicably) closed... So I stopped by Walmart instead and bought wings so I could make my own damned wings and fries. So much for being lazy for a night. I didn't pick up any movies either, by the time I made it to the checkout line I was ready to scream... where do all these people come from??? Carthage isn't that big!!! Crowds are exactly why I didn't want to shop until at least next week, so the holiday rush would be over.

Anyway, Bo and I went for a couple of walks today. I took him toward the creek and back up to the hickory tree before I headed out. I figured it was only fair since I was putting him in the basement for a couple of hours. And then when I got home I walked him a little to burn some of his energy off. He's always manic when he comes back inside after being in the basement, I call him Frog-Boy because he reaches the end of his leash and keeps trying to run.... he looks like a frog jumping. I can't wait until we have a fence so I can let him run until his heart's content. As it is, he's subject to my whims (which vary greatly according to how cold it is out there). He's all muscly and lean but I know his breed likes to be more active than he is and I can tell he gets bored sometimes.

I ordered a supplement for him, to ensure that he's getting all of the vitamins and minerals he needs now that I'm making some of his food. For the moment I'm still adding kibble, and that also supplies some balanced nutrition, eventually I'll probably stop since he tends to eat around the kibble (spoiled ass). This stuff got great reviews and is supposed to help with digestion too. Digestion is a major issue for him and has been since day one. I know changing up their food can do it, but he just seems to have a sensitive tummy; maybe that's why he wasn't gaining weight when he was a baby. Anyway, he loves it. It's a powder but you add water to it and it makes a gravy. Like Gracie, Bo is a gravy lover. I am interested to see if it makes a difference.

Pictures...

I love the sky in this one. Such a pretty blue and the clouds have a lot of contrast to them.

The winter barn.

Bo's favorite... walks.

I almost accomplished my music file cleanup. Just a few more duplicates to take care of. I ditched iTunes and went on a search for a new music platform. I narrowed it to three candidates and settled on Music Bee. I LOVE IT. It has so many neat features... I can delete songs from both the player and my computer, new music goes into an inbox, a little box shows me either the album cover or song lyrics, I can rate by 1/2 stars... that's the tip of the iceberg. So color me pleased.

Well... that's it for now. It's 8:44... if I'm lucky I'll make it to midnight before I fall asleep but I'm not counting on it since my eyes feel pretty heavy right now... Happy 2014!