Weekend Recap - and being Infamous in Albany.

In sort of reverse order...

I have found a sure-fire way to combat insomnia.  Clean out your barn.  Even though I know it must be done - shearer is coming on Wednesday - I pulled every trick from my procrastination bag and managed to put it off until I was squeezed into action.  The only way I can make it through a monotonous job (battling with my fruit-fly-like focus) is to set up little challenges:  "how many wheelbarrow-loads will it take to clean the barn?"  I was pretty close - I guessed 6 and it took 7, plus one extra to move a small mountain of llama beans from the area of future action. 

Then I went inside and made a roast leg of lamb, garlic mashed potatoes with carrots and a pineapple upside down cake.  I had missed my neighbor's birthday (80) and planned on making it up to him.  It is always helpful to invite someone to dinner who is a lot older than you, when you know you'll be sleeping in your soup at 7:30...  I woke up in my chair, covered in cats, at 8:30 and went to bed, armed with two Aleve.  I didn't move until 4:30.  As odd as it sounds, I LOVE being bone-tired - physically.  I spend too much of my life with brain fatigue.

Saturday was a flurry of activity - errands, lunch with my parents, chores for them, driving all over godsgreenacres to find a calcium drench for my dairy neighbor's cows, picking up the answer to raising my meat chickens sanely.  I also had come across a frozen package of smoked salmon that needed using.  So I did some research and came up with a smoked salmon quiche with a potato crust.  It turned out so well that I had to give half of it away.  It is not what you would call "low fat".

I got my hands on a large galvanized watering tub - 2x6x2 - and spent the weekend moving it into place into my shed (badly in need of a new roof, so I will have to keep an eye on where the leaks drop), running electric (as in extension cords), building a rodent-proof cover, and weaning the tweenie chicks off their electric light.  The tweenies are in the small coop and have a nifty screen door through which they can watch the chicken yard activities.  They are riveted.  I poked around in my miscellaneous building supplies and cobbled together a wooden frame that is lined with hardware cloth and fits tightly on top of the tub.  I only had enough cloth to run 5 feet, but found a metal framed piece of glass that fit perfectly on one end.  That is the end where I will put the bits that need accessing - water and food.  They will have light and a chick heater. 

Last week I had picked up a lovely, solid wooden wardrobe from friends who went through a purge.  It fit neatly into the back of the car and on Friday after work, I tackled moving it myself.  Being a stubborn, independent type, I figured I could handle it.  I have tools.  I got it out of the car and onto a dolly.  I bungeed it on to within an inch of it's life.  I toodled it up the pathway and to the three steps to the front deck.  I could not heft it up.  I did some noodling, rolled it halfway back down the path, fetched/dragged a piece of plywood to make a ramp, braced the ramp, and managed to get it on the deck.  Woot!  I got it right to the front door and then could go no further on my own.  I wasted about twenty minutes wrestling with it, to the alarm of the dogs, then acknowledged defeat.  It was a bitter pill.  Did I mention I was stubborn?  I stomped inside and called my neighbor who was already in his pjs.  He was over in five minutes, helped me move it inside and went home.  I now have to figure out where I am going to put it, but at least it's inside and the floors are smooth.  Maybe I can hook up a dog team....or not.

Now, the Infamous part.  The law firm for whom I work (large) is merging with another larger law firm to create a mega firm.  Whoopee.  We were all summoned to a national web conference which I set up for my office (I now wear the Techie Hat).  As we sat and listened, my cell phone rang.  In the form of loud sheep baaing.  Apparently, I had forgotten to activate our mute button, for the Chairman of Everything paused and looked around.  I quickly hit the mute button and looked around (feigning innocence) myself.  My coworker had to leave the room and roll on the floor in laughter.  I am hoping they cannot trace the sheep....