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| Mowing the lawn! |
One of the best things about living out here in the state forest is that you can basically do what you want without neighbors complaining. We have no neighbors, at least no full time ones. Most of the houses around us are hunting camps. We like it that way!
This past week we have started letting our three horses out in our yard to mow the lawn. They do a very good job. They even trim around my stone bed that I have potatoes planted in and they don't nibble on the plants. It's pretty strange to be sitting in the house working on my laptop and look up and see a horse looking in the window. I think they must have always wondered what we do in the house. My horse, Georgie Girl has always paid a lot of attention to the house. Even where she lived before moving here I would see her looking over the fence at the house. She is extremely smart and is the "boss mare" so I am not surprised if she wonders about such things.
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| Dark Shadow is highly spirited! |
By letting them out in the yard every morning we have been able to cut back on their hay. Now they are not get the morning hay and don't seem to care. They just want that fresh grass. Their paddock doesn't have any due to it having been part of the forest. This year some has started growing for the first time. So it saves us money.
The big savings is that we don't have to buy gas or oil for the lawnmower. Or waste that time mowing when we can be working on the computer. We have never had good luck with a lawnmower. Seems like they always break down. Even when you buy a good one. They rarely last for a few years. So maybe we will never replace them!
Copyright © 2005 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2005 Kathleen G. Lupole
Updated 2024
to my house, and we found he was infested with fleas. We had him come pick the dog up because we did not want our animals to get fleas. He was not happy with us. Said his dog did not have fleas and there wasn't a flea in his house. Come on! His cousin who lives with him has a little puppy
and they are very susceptible to fleas and worms. He told us when he brought his dog to our house that he had just been treated for fleas.
, Patches has fleas now. She has long hair and is a very sensitive cat. She will only eat one brand of dry cat food (Purina) and that is all. No canned food and definitely no people food! Patches is my biggest cat but she is the most shy. Most people that come regularly to our home, have never seen her. Most of the time she hides upstairs. If a car pulls in she growls and runs upstairs. If she is outside when they arrive she stays hidden in the woods until they leave. My best friend has never seen her and she has been here many times.
is that I will not use the chemical repellents. I am very much against chemical use in animals and the home. I am trying to rid my home of chemicals, aluminum and plastic. That is easier said than done. I found a couple of various natural products to use except that cats don't accept anything easily. The best way I found to protect us from fleas and ticks is to keep our lawn mowed and paths as well. I tuck my pant legs into my socks when I go out in the forest. Peppermint essential oil on my hair and clothing helps with the deer flies and other flying insects. I don't think it is good for cats though. 
are ripe! They can use a couple more days to ripen more. But they tasted so good today. This is the first year we've had so many. Our house was surrounded by the forest. And I really mean surrounded! So there were lots of berries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, elderberries, hawthorn berries and of course, the blueberries. Blueberries are by far, my favorite. My grandmother had about 100 acres of land and half of it was blueberries. We spent a lot of time out there picking those berries.
(don't sell international anymore!) who bought a erotic book that in my description, I told that the book had loose pages that had come out, but were still all there. It was a old book, but it was hot on eBay. I sold it for a very low price and the price was reflective of those facts. She NEVER contacted me and said she was unhappy with it or anything. Just gave me a negative. Of course, she was new and I was her first purchase (lucky me!).
. He gave me a neutral. For a record that I played at home and was fine and by the time he got it, it was no good. I knew he was going to be trouble before I even sent that record to him. He wanted it mailed in a box instead of a padded envelope (which is how I always sent records out, and all the way to Italy with no problems). So I had a Priority Mail box and I sent it in that. But I did not know they had a flat rate of $7.70 as I had never used it before. He had "postage due" and boy was he mad! I refunded the money for the extra postage and apologized (sometimes you have to eat crow). But he still left me a nasty neutral feedback instead. Never emailed me to tell me he didn't like the record or anything. He is now blocked from my eBay sales.
are the real problem. I think that people are not as nice as they used to be. They used to help each other out. eBay shows you a good example of the cut throat society that we live in. I think my problem has always been that I try to be nice to everyone and then I come across someone like the girl from Canada, or "desperate husband" and I have a problem dealing with them.
out of the rammed earth
, which was 475 tires (saved from destroying our earth!) that are packed with dirt and weight about 300 pounds each. His home is really nice and I think most anyone would want that house (if you don't mind the climate). The room looked calm and cool. What our backward families don't realize is that this is the way of the future. People are building houses out of straw bales, cord wood, the earth and tons of other new options daily. Our house is just a regular wood framed house. It is still different because it is off the grid and secluded. Not secluded enough for our taste though.
, as they need to be inside during the cold weather. Thoroughbreds don't do so well out in the windy cold weather we get around here. They do have a three sided building, we call the lean to. They use that. The barn is what they are all waiting for. 
too. Our animals have not had any fleas since we have lived here. We have bare floors and fleas have no where to hide. 
and could be susceptible to them. Why would someone do this to us? Thinking that we would not know that he brought the fleas into our house? His dog is a good dog and I don't blame him. It's not his fault. It's his owner's fault. I think people think if you have some animals and you live in the country you must naturally have a flea problem too. I think the people that live in cities, towns or even neighborhoods in the country where the homes are close together are the ones with the flea problems. They infest the ground too. 
in our kitchen walls. We had dry wall standing close by, stacked by another wall. His friend started telling him how you have to spackle it. Goodness! He didn't even have the insulation in, or the 
nailed on yet! We did have a brand new container of spackle that we bought for that purpose. The funny thing about this incident is, that this guy has never even done this kind of work himself. And my husband has done houses before, and I even had done spackling myself. But our friend didn't know what we knew, and we certainly didn't ask for his advice. So why did he offer to instruct us? Who knows?
. And he does not use any force. Horses just love him. And most other animals do too. All those so called horse experts can give you all kinds of advice and try to sound like they know everything and still not know a thing. I have a friend who pays a trainer to help her break her horse. My friend does not know alot about horses, and is even a green rider. But her trainer, made her get on the horse for the first time. Must be the trainer was afraid to. But don't you think she would have been the one to get on the horse first?
! When you work at home, it just never seems like it's a holiday. It's like every day seems the same as any other day. Or maybe I don't appreciate holidays any more. When your children are all grown up and on their own, then holidays don't seem so special. Unless you are one of those people who like to celebrate for any reason. But I don't do that anymore. I liked making holidays special for my son while he was growing up. Now, I don't even see him on a holiday.
. So since I decided to simplify our life and get rid of useless things, I have made a page on my website for used 
and I am going to sell them there. When you get to a certain point in your life you start thinking about what will happen to all your stuff when you die. I have a son who is disabled and lives in a small apartment. He doesn't have the same tastes as I have and probably would not appreciate my collection of music. So my plans right now, are to empty my house of all my extra things. I have a store on eBay and am in the process of selling off other things, such as books, knick knacks, household items, etc.
and plastic (such as Rubbermaid, Tuppleware, ect.) with glass. I have come to the conclusion, that neither one is good for you. So I can make room in my
by getting rid of them, plus it will make me a little money also. I always loved my Tuppleware bowls. But I had put all the plastic tops in a container that had a top on it. And when I went to get one, all I could smell was that strong plastic smell. That can't be good for you! 
worth keeping are the 
plates and bowls. I keep them in the top of my warming oven, so when you are ready to eat a meal, they are already warmed up. And we have way too many glasses, mugs, plates, plastic bowls and containers. It is best to store leftovers in the refrigerator, right in a wide mouth canning jar. They take up very little room and the top fastens securely.
in my kitchen. I had them taken out. If everything is kept in the pantry on open shelves, you can see what you want to get in an instant. I am not very tall, so I always had the problem of not being able to get things out of the top cupboards without standing a stool. It don't matter how tall you are if you must get something out of a bottom cupboard, way in the back! All that is wasted space. Whatever you keep there, you sometimes you even forget you own it. It's too much trouble to find and get out.
anyway.