Can’t really pinpoint the source of my motivation, but I actually did some stuff yesterday. We have a water well that yields water safe to drink, but smells and tastes terrible, so we buy bottled water.
Currently, I have 12 cases of assorted brands of bottled water, and 13 five gallon jugs, plus 3 cases of 6 1-gallon jugs of the Ozarka variety.
I refill another 13 1-gallon jugs from the five gallon ones. These I use to cook with, and make coffee and tea.
Every now and then, I gotta make a run to the nearest big city and refill however many empty 5 gallon jugs I have to the tune of .50/gal. It goes fast.
We have a stand that holds the 5 gallon jug and I fill the 1 gallons from that. I usually wait until I am tripping over the empties before I refill them.
Yesterday, I refilled eight 1 gallons, which required replacement of the big jug twice. It’s a little bit of work, and can get away from me if I get distracted…easily done.
I then repaired the flag pole, and hung the flag we got for Pop’s funeral since he was a vet. The pulley at the top was broken, but managed to “re-engineer” it to make it work. The flag was huge, and hangs but three feet off the ground when there is no wind.
I then replaced one of the toilet seats. Nothing is easy. Murphy’s laws are waiting around every corner for anything I do.
I then proceeded to the bunkhouse to clean it up after a project that I recently finished. The pest control guy is coming next week and he sprays the bunkhouse as well. I figured he need not know what I had been doing out there, so I took everything down back to normal.
Then, I decided to return to work on my forgotten project, the compost bin. Yes, it’s been at a standstill ever since I threw up my hands at my piss poor attempt at cutting a hatch in it, and unsuccessfully mounting the hardware necessary to allow it to open and close.
Yes, it looks like crap, but the hatch does work with two hinges and two latches. Now I just have to cut and bolt down two braces to keep it from leaning.
I went to the meat market here in small town Texas, and bought two packages of tenderized fajitas @ $4.99/ pound. Yeah, a little pricey but I’m trying to get away from the HEB fajitas; premarinated. (HEB is a statewide grocery chain.)
I bought some papaya juice, and used 16 oz of that as the base for my own marinade. I also added 1 Shiner Bock beer, 1/4 C orange juice, juice of a lemon wedge, juice from a small can of pineapple chunks, and 1/4 C Worcestershire sauce, and marinated for 24 hours.
I drained them while I started the fire. Just a chimney starter full. When it was hot as hell, I slapped on the fajitas. It took three minutes each side. I left the lid off. I enjoyed a Shiner whilst I waited.
They were the best I ever had. They fell apart as I removed them from the grill. I had no tortillas, I just ate them with my fingers.
With them, I had reheated some of X’s charro beans.
The papaya juice contains papain, an enzyme that eats meat. The pineapple juice as well has something in it that attacks proteins…something like that, anyway I’m sticking to that line of thought. It’s hard to find pure papaya juice; it’s usually blended with another fruit juice like apple or orange, or even aloe.
This morning, I have the pest control guy coming to do his twice a year “scorpion repel” spray job. In the past, it seems it always rains the day he shows up. He sprays the entire perimeter of the house; inside and out.
I have taken a very aggressive posture at pest control in the house vs. scorpions for obvious reasons.
Even after he is done, I will use the Raid Fumigators when I leave the house for more than a couple hours, and spray the outside perimeter with varied pesticides available locally.
I will still find a staggering live scorpion later today or tomorrow.
I got bit by something this past summer during the night on my forehead. It itched like crazy and looked really scary, but didn’t hurt. Just scared folks away, until I told them it was a spider bite, then they offered their home remedies, and suppositions as to the particular variety of spider. It spread across my forehead and downward to my eye as the skin got real flaky. After a couple weeks, it just went away.
Scorpions are members of the arachnid family. Just some trivia for ye.
As you may or may not know, we keep a water tub out in the yard for the deer. It probably holds 20 gallons. The wildlife here drain it dry every night. I found another tub that holds twice as much, at least. However, the deer don’t drink out of that one. I don’t know why. I have rinsed and rinsed, and very few will drink from it. It is not the same material as the other. Both are black.
We also have a bird bath with a live water connection that constantly drips water into the bath, to help keep it replenished. The deer have discovered it, and now they drain that one first before they drink from the other two. Oh yes, they will drink from the bigger one, but only if the other two are empty.
In the winter, I keep the water source tightly insulated so as not to freeze. I have seen the birdbath frozen solid. I have also seen deer put both paws on the birdbath trying to get some water, knocking the pan itself off the pedestal. That’s all I need, for a damn deer to snap the water pipe.
That would mean only one thing; back strap for life.
Doctor appointment on Friday, just a follow up. I have been fighting high blood pressure for a few years now, and all of a sudden, my blood pressure has dropped to less than 95 over less than 70; on and off for several months now.
The doc lowered one of my meds, but it still drops low from time to time.
I’m fairly certain I have sleep apnea as well, but since my wife doesn’t live with me much, I don’t hear about the snoring. Still, I am up several times during the night to drink water as my throat and mouth are dry as the desert.
For most of my adult life, I have only been able to sleep on my right side. If I sleep on my left, my sinuses will drain into the left side and clog, causing me to breathe through my mouth. I was diagnosed when I was in my teens with a deviated septum.
My younger brother uses a CPAP machine for over ten years now. It must be tough to be married to an RN. He was practically sleeping on the couch until he went to a sleep center. Now he says he cannot sleep without it…not sure if that’s him talking or his wife. He has since lost 70 pounds and is skin and bones. My guess is that he doesn’t need it any more.
Those damn things are expensive! I seen ’em for three grand down to $400.
I have to make a trip down to the RGV to be with the wife; also to get my state inspection and license sticker. In Texas, we have to pass state inspection, and then get sticker for license plate in the county in which the vehicle is registered.
So, not this coming weekend, but the weekend of the 1st, will be heading south for a few days.
