Augh. Have to hurry and get my barn cleaned out. I got more hay coming.
Also gotta venture out to find more sticks for my tomatoes.
Oops one of the chickens is out again. Ok got that done.
Now to find some branches. Let's see. The ideal branch should be fairly sturdy, have at least one fork and be.. Blackberries! The blackberries are comin, on!
A bit of a historic detour here if you've never had the pleasure of picking blackberries.
Blackberries are (or should be) a winter sport. You have to put on long jeans, socks and something a bit sturdier than flip flops.

I don't like flip flops, the thing that goes in between my toes and all.

Anyway, You also need a long sleeved shirt and dont' forget to put up the hair.
Picking blackberries is not a sport for the faint of heart. If you can fend off the hungry insects, there's the occasional bear or two who may have already marked that berry territory for himself.

Ok I made that up.

Yeah the bears are there, you see signs of them regularly, but actually see them very unregularly, but I've really never had to go one on one with a bear over a blackberry.

So let's say you've risen victorious over the insects and the bears.
There remains an arch enemy you will not win against, and that is the bushes themselves. They will reach out and grab you, pull on your hair, snag clothing and leave their little barbs deep inside your clothing (or skin if you didn't wear you armour) and itch and scratch you.

Are they worth it? You bet, they are good! And they only last a week or so, due to the birds and bears and all.. So get em while you can, boys and girls, and then you can resume your stick hunting adventures. Oh yeah, and get the hay loft straightened up! Did that chicken really get out again??

Just Clearing Up Some Stuff!

I feel I have to comment on one of my comments yesterday.

You know, they make things called VCR's so you can record a show while you're watching another.
Yeah, a VCR? I can make a computer jump through hoops but I can't figure out how to set the clock in my truck! And now you want me to add another black box to the assortment that already lives under the TV, and know how to use it? For all I know there may be one there already!

The frozen barn, you should move your barn into the sun so it'll thaw out.
Now why didn't I think of that!

The high electric bill... Do your laundry at mom and dad's since they're not there anyway and they won't know.
I HATE, HATE, HATE soft water, have no use for it. No, I'll hang them out.

The high gas prices... Ride your horse to work since they're not doing anything other than look pretty.
It's very tough to just stand there and look pretty, just ask PAF. That's about all they can handle. Plus my 50 yr old body says "there's no way I'm gonna be the first one to ride any of them for the first spring ride." That's why I have kids! Plus, going back to the 5 or 6" of ice on our road.......

You should paint your bike a fluorescent pink color!!
Um, yeah! Probably not gonna happen. It will either be a cactus green (favored choice) with a hand lettered "Life Is Good" logo, or it will match hubby's who's is more of a dark mauve, almost raspberry, or plum. yeah, a ripe plum, that's the color. With black accents. But I'm still in favor of the cactus green (Like little brother's jeep used to be.)

See... Aren't you glad you have a bro that full of ideas and answers?
Lol, don't know what I'd do without you.

Tommorrow, I promise a really fun read complete with pics! (A challenge has been issued!)

Random Stuff

A few random thoughts pinging around in my little brain. You're in for a treat I tell ya.

No knitting has gone on this weekend. Not one stitch, not one knit, not one purl, and definitely no ripping. That in itself was a good thing.

I need to speak to the people who schedule sports events around the globe. How is it that Nascar and NHL both have an event going on, neither of which I can miss, on Sunday afternoon? On the good side, we (Red Wings) tromped the Predators. Well, maybe not tromped, but we did win. I always like to watch these two teams battle it out. There's a history between them and the intimidation games that take place within the Flinging Of The Puck Toward The Net game are just as much fun to watch as the actual Flinging Of The Puck. On the other side of the coin, my fantasy Nascar team needs to step it up a bit. My points are waaaaayyyyyy, well..... down.

The water in my barn is frozen again. OK. enough! There! I've said it. I'm always the last to say Enough to Mother Nature's yearly Winter Games but I've said it now. Now we can maybe climb out of the single digits at night and a bit higher than 23 during the day.

My electric bill arrived with it's always fun surprises. For some reason this month was a bit higher than the previous month. I don't know why. We heat with wood so there's no furnace that requires a fan which requires electricity. In the winter I do a lot of my cooking on the woodstove, so it's not the electric range. I suspect hubby's aquarium. That has to be it. I don't know what else it would be. Certainly none of my computer stuff, or washer and dryer, freezers, or all the little black boxes that are hooked to the tv. So, the sooner I can start slogging through the snow out to my clothesline the better. I've done this before, it's no biggie. I had at one time 2 kids in cloth diapers in the UP of Michigan with no dryer. I hung them out. All winter. I survived to tell about it, and I do regularly.

Gas prices? what's up with that??? Well, they're up, again. My truck gets about 11 miles to the gallon. Before you tsk tsk me for driving such an inefficient vehicle, this is my farm truck. I need this truck. I've not yet met a Geo that will haul critters or hay as well as my farm truck. And besides that I really love my truck, even though it only gets 11 mpg, going downhill, with the wind, on a good day. I seriously need to figure out a way to turn all of this manure we make on a daily basis into fuel. But until then, I should get to work, you know, my paying job. But, first I have to haul water out to the livestock in my 5 gal. bucket that lives by the side door. That's a log of hauling, so we're back to the water in the barn being frozen again. Let not go through that again, shall we?

Besides, once the ice is off the roads and I'm certain it will stay off for at least a few months, I'll pull my bike out of the barn. That get's lots better gas mileage!

I think I'll paint it this year. To match hubby's bike. And spruce it up a bit. But until I can get it out of the barn......