midnightsjane: (Default)
It's been awhile. I just don't seem to have the time to put into LJ/DW on a consistent basis lately, but I do read my friends' page almost every day. So, hi!
Last week was super busy. We went to the big CDI Dressage show, one of the biggest they've ever had around here. It was very exciting, and we had a blast.
We took Seraphina, our up and coming 5 year old. She is doing training level, just starting on her dressage career, and is such a good girl. She loves to work, and was so well behaved with all the chaos; we were very, very proud. Besides that, she's beautiful, and talented, and got a lot of attention from a lot of people. She won ribbons in every class she entered; one first, a second, two thirds and a fourth. Not bad, considering she was the most inexperienced of the bunch. We were thrilled. Worth all the early mornings and all the hard work!

I took advantage of all the tack shops, and bought myself a spiffy new coat, one that a lot of people were wearing. It's a Eurostar, long coat with a zipper up the back so you could ride in it, and is toasty warm. I really needed it, because it was rather cold last weekend. No rain, but cold winds.

I haven't worked that much in the first part of the month what with the horse show and everything, so now I'm doing a whole bunch of shifts in the next two weeks. Worked nights last night and have another one tonight. Haven't slept much today, sadly. I had to take my car in for servicing, and it turned out I needed the brakes done...so almost $1000 later, I have yet another reason to go to work tonight! sigh

I haven't been doing much else of late; trying to keep up with some of the shows I watch has been a bit of an effort, but I'm still watching OUAT, The Flash, Castle, and a couple of others. Really enjoying this season of Dancing With the Stars, and the Amazing Race is okay. I got my DVD of my favourite movie ever, LadyHawke in the mail the other day, and I need to find a couple of hours to watch it. And then I have to get my garden ready for planting too! I pulled weeds the other day, and by the time I got back to it they'd grown back. At least I know the soil is good for growing things!

Now I have to eat some dinner and get ready for work.
midnightsjane: (Default)
Sadly, I did not have pie. But hey, the day was good even without pie..'cause there was Pi. It will be another hundred years before these particular sets of numbers line up again, so celebrate the moment, eh? :) This comes from someone to whom mathematics will always be a mystery. One of the things I never excelled at in school, I blame my lack of math skills on the fact that I skipped grade two, and thus a big step in the math department. That's what one of my teachers told me years ago, and it sounds like a good enough excuse to me. LOL.

It's been beautiful here; spring has arrived in full bloom. The roads are starting to look like they've been snowed on, but it's only the cherry blossoms that have been blown off the trees by the wind today. My favourite trees are the magnolias, which are really coming on now. My thoughts are turning to my garden, and what to plant. I have to redo the fence, which has not made it through the winter unscathed. Jack offered today to put in some better fence posts for me, now that I've finalized the garden area. I'm going to take him up on that, because the metal stakes I used are not really good enough. I started turning over the soil, and I need to add some more of the old composted manure....luckily, we have a never ending supply of the stuff!

I've been busy at work, too. It was a crazy day yesterday, but good. I have to say I really enjoy working in the Cardiac Care Unit; it's different from the ICU in that there's a lot more coming and going of patients; they have a heart attack, come in for diagnosis and treatment, get their blocked arteries fixed, and go home, usually within 3 days. It's nice to have patients who actually get better and go home (not that that doesn't happen in ICU, but it's a much slower process for most of those patients). I'm also enjoying being able to talk with my patients, and having that interaction. It's not always a happy ending, we do get very sick people, but for the most part it's a lot less depressing than the ICU. It's also a lot easier physically; unlike the really sick ICU patients, the ones in CCU are usually mobile, and able to get up to the bathroom etc. I run around a lot, but I don't have to do so much heavy lifting. That's nice, especially since the tendinitis in my right shoulder seems to be flaring up again.

I finally took my car through the car wash this week; it was getting so dirty I was embarrassed to be seen in it! Sadly, just one or two trips out to the farm and it's getting dirty again. :(

Someone on Facebook posted a link to a review of one of my favourite movies, Ladyhawke. I loved that movie when I saw it years ago, and I've looked for a DVD, but never came across one. Tonight I found one on Amazon, so I ordered it. I was going to just stream it from them, but then I noticed that it only works in the USA. Darn. Anyway, I will have the DVD to watch whenever I want now...when I have time, that is. It's my happy spring present to myself.

Got to quit typing now. My shoulder hurts. Must go put more Voltarin cream on it.
midnightsjane: (Default)
About time I wrote more than a dozen words here, I think. My excuse for not doing so earlier is simple; I've been busy, and when I'm not busy, I'm lazy.
2014 was a very full year, what with working almost full time between CCU and ICU, helping out at the farm, trying to keep my horses happy, and generally keeping my life from coming apart at the seams when I feel like I'm going in 15 different directions at once. I really hope that this year will be a little less busy, but I suspect it will keep up the general trend.

Last year I managed to fit in a visit with my family back in Ontario at my niece's wedding, which was really quite the event. My sister spent almost a whole year planning the thing, and it went off splendidly. (Even if my niece, who is a bit of a diva, wasn't the most gracious of brides..but that's just my opinion, and I would never say anything to my sister). It was rather shocking to realize that my siblings and I are now the "old folks" in the family. Just my Uncle Jack left of my parents' generation. Wow.

One of the highlights of the summer was a visit with Masq and her friend Deborah when they came through the city. We had a great time seeing the sights, especially "Storybrook" (or Steveston, as the locals call it). It's always fun to have old friends come visit. Hope that happens again this year.

I have had no major issues with my health, for which I am grateful. Even my sprained ankle is getting better.

The biggest focus was the ongoing construction of the new house out at the farm; a two year long event, at times a major ordeal given that we still had to keep the farm running and the horses going. We are just thiiis close to completion now. Last little bits to do in the house, which should take the rest of the month, and then we can start moving. We're not stressing over getting moved immediately; Sue and Jack are slowly getting their stuff in, and my apartment still has to have the kitchen installed, so I'm just waiting..
and actually quite glad not to have to move during the worst part of the winter.

Our young horses are going well, we have 2 of the girls in serious training, and one of them is going to her first horse show the beginning of February. Very exciting.

I have a lot of catching up to do with the various TV shows I'm watching; got behind with The 100, have a couple of episodes of Elementary to see, and I was partway through a rewatch of Farscape when I just got too busy to spend much time watching TV. I am watching the new season of Downton Abbey, and looking forward to the next part of the Once Upon A Time season. But I've been more in the mood to read a book than watch TV, so I've been doing that. I bought The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (AKA JK Rowling); it came highly recommended by my friends who own the bookstore, so I'm looking forward to getting into that.

I did a major sort through and culling of my books in preparation for the move; I donated somewhere in the range of 1000 books to the book bin, and I still have very full bookshelves! Felt good.

And that's about it for now. There's a whole year to come, so I'm sure there'll be more to say..
midnightsjane: (Default)
Updatey kind of stuff:

Finally managed to watch the Doctor Who finale, part 2. That was quite a ride, and I enjoyed it a lot. Shed some tears along the way, and now I can't wait to see what the Christmas special has in store for The Doctor and Clara.

I worked nights this past Friday and Saturday, and I think the full moon had some influence on events. Friday night I almost got punched by one of my patients, who lost his cool rather dramatically because he'd knocked his phone off the hook and the voice kept telling him to hang up now. Have to tell you I was a bit scared, because he was really aggressive. Luckily we managed to calm him down before we had to call security. Over the years I've been sworn at, scratched, pinched, grabbed, but never punched by any of my patients. Not something I want to experience now.
A few hours later we found my other patient standing in the middle of what looked like the Texas chainsaw massacre. His monitor alarms went off when he climbed over the side rails of his bed in his muddled state of mind. I'd given him a half a sleeping pill, which I guess wasn't the best thing for a 78 year old gentleman. He was standing in a pool of blood, and there was blood spattered over the bed rails, the floor, him..he'd pulled out his arterial line and was literally spraying blood everywhere. I grabbed his wrist to apply pressure, while the other nurses helped him back to bed. When he finally kind of came to his senses, he was totally mortified by his actions. He said that he had no idea why he climbed out of bed, and kept apologizing. Happens a lot, we reassured him. When I left the room I looked at my arms and realized I had blood spatters on them too. Felt like I'd just walked out of a bad horror movie. Made the shift interesting. Darned full moon!

Had to go out to the farm this morning to help with the stalls. Left here in good time..good time to get stuck on the freeway in a humungous traffic jam. Must have been a bad accident, because there were ambulances and police cars and tow trucks going by, but by the time I got past the site there was just one car in the ditch, and they were sweeping the glass off the road. Just a reminder that the roads are going to be getting slippery now that the temperature is going down.

We've put the winter blankets on all the horses now. I put Rochelle's on today, but Midnight was being an ass and wouldn't let me catch him; he actually turned his butt to me and tried to kick me! Ungrateful creature, I only want to make sure he's got a warm coat on. We left him for today, since he was in a mood. We'll get it tomorrow.

I have made headway on the book culling exercise. So far I've carried about 20 boxes of books to the book donation bin, and I have six more stacked in the living room to go. Still have 2 bookcases left to sort. It feels good to let go of stuff and I plan to do a lot more decluttering as I get ready to move. Not long now. Trouble with living in one place for 20 years, I've accumulated a whole lot of crap.

Onwards.
midnightsjane: (Default)
So, to catch up...

I was going to do this last night, but I was so exhausted when I got home from work I could barely manage to make myself a cup of tea. Honestly, I felt like I'd spent the day in the middle of a whirlwind. CCU can be like that, lots of traffic in and out, patients coming in from other hospitals upcountry for angiograms and other procedures, patients being transferred from Emergency, etc. There is a lot of interventional stuff that happens in our hospital, and the focus is on getting the person having the heart attack up to the Cath lab ASAP, to have the procedure to open up any blocked arteries etc. It means that people get admitted, get treated and get discharged within a few days; it's really unlike the ICU in that regard, where the patients tend to be very sick in a different way, and end up in ICU for days or weeks. I like CCU a lot, because there is so much more interaction with the people I'm looking after; in ICU there's not a lot of opportunity for conversations with my patients as a rule, they're too sick. In CCU I've had the opportunity to talk with the people I'm nursing, to do some teaching, to listen to their worries, and I've found that quite satisfying. I get feedback too, and it's very pleasant to hear from someone that I have helped, that I've made their day easier, that my work is appreciated. A woman told me the other day that she thought I was a very professional, kind and caring nurse, and that I had a good way with people. That really does feel nice, hearing that I'm making a difference. Kind of the reason I went into nursing in the first place. But some days it can be crazy busy, and by the end of the day I'm peopled out. I was glad I didn't have to work again today.

I went out to the farm this afternoon. I spent some time cleaning up the garden; the beans are done, and I had to pick all the green tomatoes because they're not going to ripen on the vine. I don't want to take the chance that they'll rot instead of ripen, so I'm going to let them ripen inside. Maybe try some fried green tomatoes. I pulled all the bean plants, picked the last cucumber and pulled that plant out too. Still have lots of Swiss Chard, Collard greens and Kale left, and the last planting of salad greens is growing. I have a whole mountain of squash out on the manure pile.....I picked a whole wheelbarrow full the other day and hardly made a dent. I'm thinking I may contact the local food bank to see if they want a donation of tasty fresh squash. My friends are starting to run the other way when they see me coming armed with squash. LOL. I ate a whole acorn squash for dinner tonight, with a small steak, baked potato and swiss chard. The squash was the best part of the meal.

My horses (Midnight and Rochelle) are still out in the field. There's still lots of grass, and we feed them hay in the afternoon. Midnight is quite porky, and Rochelle has good weight, so we're letting them stay out there as long as the weather holds. We generally close the field at the end of October. I put rainsheets on both of them this afternoon, so if it rains they'll stay dry. Rochelle hasn't really worn a blanket before, but she was very good about having it put on. She tugged at the front of the sheet a few times, and ran and bucked a bit to see if it would come off, then went and ate hay. Hopefully it will still be on when I get out there tomorrow! Midnight better not teach her any of his blanket removing tricks.......

I have to stop in at the Auto Glass repair place this week; I was driving along the other day and a rock flew up from a truck in front of me and dinged the windshield of my car. :(

The house is getting closer and closer to completion. The Tile guys were there this week, putting down the paving stones on the patio outside my apartment, and on the patio at the back of the house, and on the path alongside the house that leads to my patio. It looks fabulous. Nearly there!

All in all there's enough going on to keep me busy. No time to get bored, that's for sure.
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Wow. October already! That was fast.

I had a good day, all things considered. A bit of a sleep in, with a trip to my doctor's office in the early afternoon (time for the annual checkup; I seem to be in good shape for the shape I'm in), then some grocery shopping and a visit with my friend Jill. That took up most of the afternoon.

This evening I made two pies, one savory, one sweet. A leek and potato pie, and a squash pie with the filling made from scratch using one of the squashes I grew. It's delicious, much like pumpkin pie, although the custard could be a titch more custardy. Hopefully it will set a bit more in the fridge. Otherwise I'm going to have to eat it with a spoon.. but it's tasty. Something more I can do with all the squash I have! Just now I blanched and froze a bunch of beans I picked from my garden yesterday. Susy Homemaker, that's me, LOL.

Finally managed to see this week's Doctor Who episode, which I quite liked. I'm finding Capaldi's Doctor intriguing, and I love Clara this season. Mark me well pleased.

I'm in the middle of a Farscape rewatch. I started awhile ago, and I'm halfway through season one. I do love this show so much!

Tomorrow the farrier is coming to trim the horses' feet, so I have to be out there early. It's going to be a busy day.

October is off to a good start.

:)
midnightsjane: (Default)
That was a good night shift. I have been working in the CCU a lot over the summer, and last night was one of the first shifts in ages that we all weren't run off our feet. The patients were all stable, most of them slept, and we actually had time to play around with the new IV pumps that we went live with this week. It was nice. Things must have picked up since 7a.m., because so far today I've had calls from staffing asking if I would work a)tonight b)tomorrow days c)tomorrow night. And that was for CCU. ICU called as well. The ICU was insanely busy last night. I declined all offers, because I am booked for two nights this weekend, and I've decided I don't have to work every time they ask. I've gotten into the habit of taking on more work than I actually need to keep the finances steady, so I think I'm going to cut back just a bit. I am retired, after all. heh.

Went for my annual mammogram this afternoon. It's a bit uncomfortable, but was over quickly, and they have the new digital imaging XRay machine so I could see the pictures on the screen. Quite neat.

Cleaned up the apartment, made dinner, watched a little TV, finished the book I've been reading (a mystery by Rhys Bowen, quite light and enjoyable)so I can take it back to the library before I have to pay a fine, and that's about it for today.

I'm doing a Farscape rewatch, inspired by my friend Rob's rewatch and blog about the episodes. I haven't watched it for a couple of years, but it remains one of those shows that pulls me in every time. It's truly brilliant stuff, and Ben Browder and Claudia Black have the most amazing chemistry. Love it.

I think I'm going to have to find a copy of Frozen and watch it before the new season of Once Upon a Time starts. I really don't have any idea about the story, so I guess I'd better do the homework. Right, Masq? LOL.

The first storm of the fall came upon us yesterday. I was out at the farm, and the sky was black as we brought the horses in. We had just finished all the work when the sky opened and water poured down. We brought my two in from the field; they weren't keen on coming in, but I didn't want them out if the night was going to be nasty. They were predicting as much as 50 mm of rain overnight in the Valley.

I still have many squash. I'm starting to store them in the garage now, as they're winter squash and should keep. My friends are starting to avoid me! Can only push so many squash on them, LOL. The rest of my garden is still doing well and hopefully the warm fall will mean the growing season lasts into October.

Time for my next episode of Farscape.

Fall in.

Sep. 4th, 2014 09:41 pm
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Well, September is here, and it's feeling more like fall than summer. Although having said that, today was really hot! The long range forecast for here is a warmer than usual autumn, so I'm hoping that we'll have a good stretch of this lovely dry weather, with the odd day of rain for a bit of a change. My garden is growing so well, and if it stays nice I should have another crop of beans this month. Today I picked beans and squash and kale and swiss chard and a big tomato. It's so satisfying to sit down to dinner and know exactly where the veggies on my plate came from. Makes 'em taste even better.

With this great weather we've been able to get a lot of jobs done out at the farm; last evening Sue and Jack finished putting the crusher dust on Jubilee's paddock, a job that must have been exhausting. Jack brought the crusher to the paddock with the Bobcat, and Sue raked it flat. Makes me think my tiredness after a busy day at work in CCU was nothing at all! The paddock looks fabulous, and it's so nice for Jubs now. It was the wettest and muckiest of the paddocks last winter, and now it's all lovely and dry. There is just a bit of fixing up in Dusty and in Florrie's paddocks, and Rochelle's paddock to do, and then we will have dry paddocks for every horse this winter. In this wet climate, that's a huge deal. No more worrying about the horses getting thrush in their hooves from the wet footing.

They are moving along with the work in the house, too. Today they were painting the posts on the veranda, and stuff inside; I haven't been in the house for a week or so, so I'm not sure what's happening in there. I do know that the tile for the bathroom floors has been chosen; a lovely gray slate. It's getting closer and closer to moving in day, only a couple of months now. Almost time to start sorting and packing my stuff..

Speaking of jobs, I really should be working on the one I was going to get done tonight: we are getting new IV pumps at work, and there is a tutorial and quiz online that we're expected to complete. I have tried to get to it at work, but there's never enough time, and I refuse to give up my breaks to do it, so since I found I could access the site on my own computer, I figured I'd do it tonight. Hmmm. It's already 10 p.m. Maybe I won't go there.. Damn. all the best intentions in the world, and I still manage to procrastinate long enough to avoid doing it. (Cause it's a long, and IMHO, repetitive test that could be done more efficiently by just showing us the damned pumps, but who am I to tell the PTB how to teach the staff to use the equipment?)

Now to go take the laundry out of the dryer, and maybe do something about that test.
midnightsjane: (Default)
Seems like I only have the time and energy to do this once a week lately. I keep saying that life is really busy, and it is, and I'm not complaining about it really, but where does the time go? I have thoughts about posting stuff, and then by the time I get home I seem to have lost those thoughts, so I end up just browsing around the internet. Oh well. Guess once a week is better than nothing, eh?

I had a day to myself today, owing to a mixup with my work schedule. I thought I was booked for days today and tomorrow, but it turned out to be only tomorrow. Since everyone expected me to be at work, nobody was expecting to see me..so I just stayed home and relaxed, waiting for the Doctor Who premiere.

I did clean out my closet (yesterday), after months of looking at it and thinking about doing it. Tossed a bunch of ratty tee shirts, threw out several pairs of shoes that were no longer fit for wearing, and bundled up a pile of clothes to take to the SPCA thrift store. What a wonderful feeling it was to get rid of all that old baggage. I open my closet door and just stare at the neatness that is in front of me...lovely.

Walked up to the Library and took out a pile of books to read. Started one, quickly tossed it aside because I was bored after the first two chapters. The good thing about taking out Library books is that I don't feel compelled to read them because I've spent the money on them. LOL.

I watched Doctor Who, and I was pleased. I like Peter Capaldi's Doctor, and I think it's going to be an interesting run.

I started rewatching Farscape this week. Watched two episodes during my night shifts (Netflix on my phone! Ain't technology wonderful. Couldn't sleep on my breaks, so it was good to have something to entertain me. How I love that show. There is so little on TV now that I have any desire to watch; it makes me long for the good old days of Buffy, and the various Star Treks, when it was all new and shiny.

I can't believe August is almost done. My garden is doing very nicely. I have had several good harvests of green beans, a few ripe tomatoes, some cucumbers and lots of kale and collard greens. It's growing almost in spite of me, because I certainly haven't put much effort into it beyond planting and watering. It's just great soil, good weather, and the natural tendency of plants to grow. Yay!! I'm going to be swamped by all the squash that's growing out on the manure pile in a couple of weeks; most of it is almost ready to pick, and there's a lot of it! Considering I didn't plant it on purpose, it's a nice little bonus. Tossing my kitchen scraps on the pile turns out to be a good thing. Full circle..squash seeds onto the pile, squash grows, gets eaten, squash seeds on the pile, round we go.

The horses are all fine, the house is coming along, and before we know it, it will be fall. Already it's getting dark a lot earlier, as the days wind down.

And now to bed.
midnightsjane: (Default)
And another week flies by. I can't believe that it's the middle of August already. Blink and you missed it! At least this week has been a little cooler, so I've been sleeping better. A tired Jane is a grumpy Jane..

Had three really hectic days at work; I was so happy to finish last evening. It was perc valve Friday in CCU, the day they do the TAVIs (transcutaneous aortic valve placement, a procedure pioneered by one of our cardiologists in which a new heart valve is inserted via a femoral artery into the heart, thereby avoiding open heart surgery). It's done for high risk, generally elderly people who wouldn't tolerate open heart surgery, and it's pretty amazing. Most of the patients do well, and go home within 72 hours. We do three every Friday, as well as all the angiograms that get done every week day, and sometimes it gets pretty bloody busy in the CCU. Yesterday was no exception, and I was run off my feet. By around 6 p.m. I was trying to deal with both my patients who had come back from the Cath Lab within 20 minutes of each other. Taking vital signs and checking pulses every fifteen minutes, then pulling out the angio sheaths (the catheters in the femoral artery and vein) and all the other things...whew. My coworkers tried to help, but they had their own stuff to do to. I found myself standing in the hall dithering..trying to do ten things at once, and getting nothing much done at all. So I took 15 minutes to shovel my dinner down my throat, because I'm sure my blood sugar was low. I ended up working 45 minutes overtime, getting my charting done. I was very happy to get home and collapse. So when the phone rang early this morning (at 5:45) and staffing asked me to come in, it was all I could do not to laugh hysterically. No way. And again just now, they called wanting to know if I could work tomorrow. Nope. I think I deserve a few days off. After all, I'm supposed to be retired!!

I was out at the farm this afternoon to see my horses and check on my garden. It was lovely, a bit overcast and cool. Sue and Jack went out to do their weekend shopping, and I was there alone. It was so peaceful, except for the propane cannons going off at the blueberry farm next door of course..we're used to them and hardly notice usually, but when it's super quiet, the bangs really echo! Pretty soon they'll have harvested all the berries, and it will be quiet again. Midnight and Rochelle are still having a great time in the field; Rochelle is getting spoiled, and hates coming in to her stall. She'd better enjoy herself now, because soon enough the weather will change and they'll have to come back into their stalls and paddocks. But for now it's good.

Nicole was telling me that Midnight comes down to the sandy patch of ground by the gate every morning to get a drink and then lies down for a nap. Rochelle comes too, and once Midnight is down, she lies down beside him, even though he pins his ears at her. She just wants to have a wee cuddle with her BFF. Seems like they do this every morning, but I have yet to see it.

I checked out the squash plants that are growing on the manure pile in the field; there seems to be at least 4 different varieties. Acorn, butternut, and something I think is a delicata and maybe a turban squash. Funny thing is, I only remember eating the acorn and butternut varieties! There must be at least 40 squashes there, from what I could see. I picked a couple of the delicata and this evening I roasted them to make pureed squash to freeze. I toasted the squash seeds too; they're very tasty with a bit of salt. A nice healthy snack.

Picked a bunch of beans, some peas and a couple of cucumbers, as well as swiss chard and kale, from my garden. Some rhubarb too. There is something so satisfying about growing vegetables, then sitting down to dinner and enjoying the taste of something that was growing not two hours before. I'm very pleased with life at the moment.

I stopped off at my friends' bookstore on the way home to give Jill some of the bounty from the garden. Her father loves rhubarb, so she took some for him (hers didn't do well this year). I was browsing through the books, and came across a book I think Sue will enjoy: Poirot and me by David Suchet. Sue is a huge fan of the Poirot series on PBS, as am I, and we were just talking about them today. I bought the book, and have been reading it all evening. Fascinating insights into character development by an actor who has captured Christie's vision of Poirot like no other, a really enjoyable read. Going to finish it this weekend before I pass it on to Sue.

And now it's the end of the day, and time to say goodnight.

Hello!

Jul. 28th, 2014 10:07 pm
midnightsjane: (Default)
I am at a loss for words, subject wise. Can't come up with anything smart and to the point to lead into my post, so I'll just say hello, everyone. How are you? Keeping busy? Enjoying the summer? I know I am. Even though I'm a little more busy than I would like, I'm doing fine. Can't believe we're halfway through summer already. Wow.

I kind of did myself a disservice this week by booking more shifts than I really want to: 4 dayshifts in a row, ugh. Sometimes when I'm prebooking shifts for a month away I don't realize how much I'm going to end up working; the trouble with being a casual is that you have to take the work when it's there, and realize that some months shifts are going to be a little thin on the ground. Oh well, I'll just think of the money.

Today was the day we do all the stalls because it's our employee's day off. We really motored and got all the work done by 10:30! It really helped that Jack was there to push all the wheelbarrows to the manure pile and empty them for us, so Sue and I could just clean. We wanted to get it done before Jack went to work (he's working the afternoon shift),and before it got too hot.

It was stinking hot this afternoon. I was working in my garden and it felt like I was in a sauna, the sweat was just dripping off me. Picked some peas and some greens for dinner, did a little weeding. I have to plant more salad stuff and some spinach for a fall harvest. My little garden is doing quite well, considering how late a start it got.

There are 4 of the biggest squash plants you've ever seen growing on the manure pile; some of the seeds from my kitchen scraps germinated, and presto! giant squash plants. I checked today, and I think I have butternut and acorn squashes. Lots of little squashes on the plants. They certainly like the manure pile!

We had someone come and mow the field on Saturday. Midnight and Rochelle are really having a great time out there. Rochelle was super pissed that she had to come in for a few hours while the mower was going; I think she's getting a bit spoiled with all that space and grass. It's good for her, she's looking great, getting lots of muscle. I have to start thinking about what I'm going to do about getting her under saddle in September. The hardest thing about having young horses is getting them started; finding someone who can do that isn't easy, as we've learned with the others. I have some options, I'm just trying to do the best thing. I love that little horse; she's such a sweet tempered girl, and very smart. I think we'll have a fun fall and winter working together.

oops. Almost burned the rhubarb. I'm making stewed rhubarb with the rhubarb from the garden. I love stewed rhubarb. So tart and sweet, delicious with yogurt. mmm.

I've finished my Dresden Files reread. It's really interesting when you read a series from start to finish (or to the end of the current chapter), knowing how it all ends, and seeing little foreshadowings, and wondering if the author had it all mapped out, or if he took an off the cuff remark and later on used it to swing the story line in a direction totally unexpected. Now I'm anxious for the next book!

I am slowly getting to the season end of "The 100". I think I have 3 more episodes to go, but I just haven't had time to watch. I really think it's a show with lots going for it, and I've been quite impressed by the acting and the plot. Good show. And I just realized that I still haven't watched the season finale of "Orphan Black". Must do that ASAP.

Quite excited to see that Doctor Who is starting next month. It's been a long time since the Christmas special. I think Peter Capaldi is going to make a very intriguing Doctor. Going to have a great suit, too.

Okay, time to shut it down for the night. My eyes are starting to close as I type, so I will take the hint.
midnightsjane: (Default)
I last posted a week ago..seems like yesterday. I really don't know where the time goes, it just seems to zoom by my best intentions to post regularly. LOL. Actually, I blame my new smart phone. Since I got it, with its ability to connect me to the internet and email, I haven't had to turn on my computer as often. Posting from the phone is a challenge, 'cause the teeny tiny keyboard makes me very impatient. Of course, there hasn't been a lot to post about, other than "hey, working" or "hey, working at my non paying job at the farm". Keeps me busy.

I am happy to say I've had my first harvest from my little garden this week. I picked snap peas, swiss chard and collard greens, and one ripe tomato, and had a tasty stir fry for dinner. The salad greens went straight from seed to tiny plant to seed because of the heat, so that was a bust. The beans are growing like a Jack in the Beanstock bean, and I hope they'll produce lots of beans. I have to plant more stuff. Was going to plant more lettuce and spinach today, but it was raining too hard to work in the garden. Still, I didn't have to water it!

The house is getting closer and closer to completion. The drywallers have been busy, and the builder wants us to pick paint colours, and the outside work is almost all done. The tile guy is putting the tile on the veranda, and the siding is almost all on, and OMG, it all looks so gorgeous. A friend gave Sue a beautiful magazine which is all about using colour, which is a challenge when dealing with a house this big. We want it to keep the flow, but not to look like boring builder beige. Lots to consider.

We have three of our young horses in training, so just about every day one of them is being ridden. We have a schedule so everyone knows what everyone else is doing. Today Dusty got ridden from 9 to 10, Florrie from 10 to 11, and then Sera had a lesson with our dressage teacher at 3p.m. They are all going really well, and we're so proud of them. Florrie has just been started; she's had all of 8 sessions with a rider, and she is being so good. It's a lot of work, because once you start them, you can't just stop. I am looking forward to getting Rochelle going in the fall, but right now we have enough on our plate.
It's so much fun, and so rewarding to see these brilliant young horses getting started on their careers. It's why we work so hard.

I'm going to have a day at home tomorrow. I think I'm going to spend some time going through my closet and toss all those old stained teeshirts, and all the clothes I don't wear anymore but have hung on to. Time to clean house, so to speak.

I might even have time to make a rhubarb crisp. I picked a bunch of rhubarb from the garden today, and I'm thinking rhubarb-apple crisp might be nice.
midnightsjane: (Default)
Lordy, we are almost halfway through July. I am far behind on my DW/LJ updating..
It's hard to find the time to keep up with everything, but I'm trying. What with working, gardening, farm stuff and general life maintaining, there just aren't enough hours in the day. I haven't been watching much TV, although I have shows I want to catch up with; I just haven't felt like it; did watch the Amazing Race Canada on Monday, and it was fun. I've been more into reading in the evenings of late, kind of enjoying the peace and quiet. Also since I got my new smart phone I don't have to boot up the laptop just to check my email, and making comments etc. using the teeny tiny keyboard is a pain, so I've neglected updating here. Trying to do better about that.

Best news: My tax return came yesterday! Thank you Revenue Canada. Much appreciated, for sure. Going to pay a chunk on my VISA, and put some aside for training my horse Rochelle in the fall; we're getting Floriana going now, so we have that to pay for too. Flori is such a spectacular horse; I think she may be the best horse we've bred yet, and everyone who sees her agrees. She's going to be a star dressage horse, with the proper training and rider, so we owe it to her to give her the best start. We've found a great rider, someone who knows how to get young horses started properly. She works for Leslie Reid, who is a very well known dressage rider in Canada, so she has lots of experience. It's not cheap, but we have to have the help, and give our horses the best start we can. So, thanks to some nice tax return money, that's a little easier for now. I am waiting until fall to start Rochelle; she's having a lovely summer in the field with Midnight. Just don't have time to get another horse going, we already have Dusty, Sera and Flori to do at least 3 times a week each. Once we get them started we have to keep going so as not to waste all that time and training.

The house is getting closer to being ready. Drywalling is happening, and my apartment looks amazing now that there are actual walls. The whole house is just beautiful. Getting very excited about moving in...although it's still going to be a few more months.

It's been hot and sunny here this week, real summer. My garden is growing well; I can practically see the beans grow in front of my eyes! I've started picking radishes and some of the salad greens. Out on the manure pile in the field there are 4 huge squash plants growing, from seeds I tossed with my kitchen scraps. The squash really seem to like the pile, lots of good organic material for them I guess. I'm tempted to toss some other seeds there just to see what comes up!

I have to get organized for work tomorrow; the second of three day shifts.

Calling it a wrap for tonight!
midnightsjane: (Default)
I'm so tired. Not exhausted physically tired, just lack of sleep tired. I was quite busy this week past with various things, including a very pleasant stint as tour guide for friends, ending with two busy night shifts at work. I was up all day Friday, worked that night, didn't sleep much yesterday, worked last night, and didn't sleep much today. So my eyes are a little heavy right now. Yawn. Gonna get myself off to bed early tonight and hopefully catch up on my time in dreamland.

I got home this morning at 8a.m. and had just walked in the door when the phone rang..it was CCU, wanting to know if I wanted to work today! Since I had just worked for 12 hours in ICU, I felt quite sure I didn't. LOL.

I had a busyish shift, more emotionally than physically tiring. My patient was a 40 year old man who had a sudden cardiac arrest - he collapsed on the street, got CPR by bystanders before the ambulance arrived, but had a very long down time before he got a heartbeat back. As a result, he has very significant anoxic brain damage, and his prognosis is grim. He had a steady stream of visitors all night long, all of whom were understandably upset. It's hard to tell people that their friend is most likely going to die, and that if his brain is injured beyond repair there is no point in keeping him on life support, and I'm sorry but no, just because you've heard of people coming out of comas it doesn't necessarily mean he will. I try to say these things in a sensitive and caring way, but in my head I know that this poor guy is for all intents and purposes dead. It's very sad, but sometimes it's just the way it goes. All I can do is pass tissues and let them cry. One of the less fun parts of my job.

So today I slept a couple of hours, then got up and made coffee, sat on the couch and finished another Dresden novel, played Candycrush, made some moves on Words for Friends, and made some chicken noodle soup for dinner. I was going to catch up on one of the shows I'm watching on Netflix (The 100) but I don't know if I'll be able to stay awake much longer.

I have another busy day tomorrow.
midnightsjane: (Default)
Some fun facts about the country I am happy to call home


Whatever you plan to do today to celebrate Canada's 147th birthday (looking pretty good,country) don't forget your sunscreen...and possibly your umbrella.

Have fun!

Yum. Yuck.

Jun. 23rd, 2014 11:11 pm
midnightsjane: (Default)
So disappointing. I indulged myself and splurged on some locally produced blue cheese yesterday. I love blue cheese and I was eager to try a fresh new one. What a letdown; the cheese has a weird astringent peppery bite, highly unpleasant. Yuck.

Much better, the fresh berries. Raspberries and strawberries, picked that very day. Just finished the raspberries with full fat Greek yogurt, definitely a yum.

I'm quite tired tonight; busy day. Got stuck in a big traffic jam on my way to the farm so I was feeling a bit flustered when I got there. We hustled and got the horses out so I could get to cleaning stalls. Poor Sue is still on the injured list, so it was up to me. I managed to get through all of them by lunchtime. Yay me.

I put a fence around the vegetable garden yesterday and when it was done I realized I had miscalculated and there isn't much room to walk in it. I'm going to have to do some serious tiptoeing! Things are growing, as seeds like to do! Now if I can avoid stomping on my poor wee plants..

Booked.

Jun. 4th, 2014 09:09 pm
midnightsjane: (Default)
Hurray, we've found someone to do the barn work! Nice young woman who has her own horse, rides dressage, and is currently working part time at a busy stable with 25 horses. She was very keen, seemed like a mature and motivated young woman. She'll do nicely. And even if she only stays til the fall, at least we've got time to work out something else. The girl who is leaving is going to stay until the 16th, which covers the time I'm going to be gone for my niece's wedding. Huge relief.

Booked my flight tonight. Gulp. Air travel ain't cheap. But it's for family, so I have to do what I have to do. Now all I have to do is figure out what the heck I'm going to wear to the wedding.

I'm working the next three days in CCU, then I'm off for 10 days! Feels like a huge stretch of time...and I'm looking forward to it.
midnightsjane: (Default)
With all the bad news we're inundated with every single day, I sometimes have to remind myself of all the goodness there is in the world. I'm no Pollyanna, always looking on the bright side of life, but I believe there has to be a balance. If all we see is the negative, dark side of our world, pretty soon we'll feel so defeated we become convinced there is nothing we can do to make it better. If we close our eyes to the badness, we pretend the world is just a cakewalk and probably do nothing to make it better. So I believe we have to look at the world's problems clearly and honestly, while reminding ourselves of all that is wonderful and joyful, in order to motivate ourselves to make the world the one we want to live in and leave to our children.

So to that end, I've decided to try to find at least 3 wonderful things to pay attention to every day. For today:

The sight of the barn swallows coming and going from their nest in the big barn. One of them was basically hovering like a hummingbird, while his/her mate chattered away like an enthusiastic cheerleader. They're charming and beautiful, and make the barn a happy place.

On my way home the other day, I saw what looked like something dragging a branch across the road...as I got closer, I realized it was a mamma duck with a string of ducklings trailing behind her, crossing the road. At the curb, the ducklings hopped up and followed Mamma..except for one, who seemed to be a little more awkward. He hopped, and missed, and hopped and missed, and I held my breath and willed him on, and then he hopped, and made it up the little bank, and off he went with his family. I cheered!

Goldie won the big challenge class (jumping 3'6") at the Thunderbird Show yesterday! She was clear both rounds with the fastest time. It was a big class with some very good horses. She got a big red ribbon, a ceramic plate, and $200. Jack was thrilled to bits, as we all are. Yay!

I got my garden planted yesterday. Now I just have to get a fence up so the cats don't dig in it, and the bunnies don't eat the veggies.

We're still looking for a new worker for the barn; we interviewed someone today who looks promising. Hope it works out. I have to buy my ticket to go to my niece's wedding, and I don't have much time left. Fingers crossed.
midnightsjane: (Default)
-Sometimes you shouldn't say what you're thinking out loud. For example: the other night at work one of the patients kept pulling his CPAP mask off and demanding to go on nasal prongs, then five minutes later wanting to go back on CPAP, which meant the RT had to come back over from ICU. At the nursing station I said something to the effect that he really needed to just settle down and stop being so annoying. A few minutes later his daughter came out and said "you know we can hear you, right?". OOOPs. I apologized for what I'd said, explained why I was feeling frustrated, and why it was important for her father to wear the CPAP mask. Things were smoothed over, a plan was made, and I learned that sometimes I should keep my thoughts in my head and not let them leak out into the open air. Easier said than done, in my experience.

In other news, I need to book my flight to Ottawa ASAP. My niece's wedding is coming up mid June, and I haven't done anything about a)the flight b)the wedding present or c)a dress to wear. Procrastination is another thing I need to work on, it seems.

I have to take my car in for a tuneup this week. These new cars have fancy reminders for us dumb humans...yesterday a little picture of a wrench popped up on my speedometer panel with a message: Oil life 15%. Now if the car would only tell me where the parking spots are.

LOL
midnightsjane: (Default)
I just don't know where the month has gone; all of a sudden, May is half over and I haven't done half the things I had on my list! The days just aren't long enough. Plus, the whole working for a living thing just takes up way too much of my time. LOL. Still, being busy is better than sitting around being bored, I guess.

I worked nights the last three nights, and I have to work another one tomorrow night. I was busy all night last night, had a sick patient who was quite unstable and needed lots of my attention, so the shift flew by. I had brought a book with me to read, on the off chance that it would be a repeat of the previous night when I basically watched my patient sleep all night. I read one page and that was all! On the whole, I would rather be kept busy; the time goes by a lot faster.

It's been a nice week weather-wise here, so I had hoped to get some more work done in my garden. I need to get that thing planted. Just have to make time, and get organized, or it's going to be harvest time and I won't have anything to harvest!

The horses are enjoying the nice weather too. Midnight got to go in the field a couple of times this past week for a few hours. The grass is so rich we have to be careful, and let him get used to it. I don't want him getting a tummy ache! Once he's settled down out there, I'm going to put Rochelle out with him. She will love having all that space to run in, and I think the two of them will get along fine. They know each other, and I hope Midnight won't be a bully with her. He went out with Kyra, and she kept him in line because she was an old mare who knew how to deal with his pushiness. We'll see. I have to get Rochelle started this summer, and she's on Maya's list of horses she's going to work with, but not until later this summer. I just don't have time at the moment, and once we start, we're committed to keeping on with the training. We have four horses in training right now, and that's a lot for the moment. It's really busy out at the farm these days. Feels like old times when we showed a lot and had people coming and going all the time. The past few years were tough, when all our energy was just focused on keeping the wolf from the front gate and keeping the farm going. Now we're through that tough patch, and it feels like there is so much good stuff happening now. It's very exciting, and very motivating to keep going. Then one of the horses does something amazing, and it just gets the juices going even more.

Like Sera's first big adventure. Maya has been riding her in the arena, and out in the field, but she's never been off the property. So on Tuesday Maya brought her truck and trailer over, to take Sera to her farm for the day. Sera is pretty inexperienced, has never been in a trailer, so we weren't sure if she'd load or not. We have to start somewhere, so we went for it. Sera took about 15 minutes to figure it out. She almost hopped in first time, but the trailer moved a bit and scared her, so it took a bit of encouragement, but she went in without too much fuss. Amazing. We've seen horses who were twice her age with lots of training go nuts loading. It can be a real challenge. We wanted her first experience to be a good one, because it sets her up well for the future. She loaded, was very good on the trip over to Maya's place, spent the day there, got ridden in the outdoor arena, hung out in a paddock, loaded in the trailer again, and was back home for dinner. We are so proud.

The big jumper show starts on Tuesday at Thunderbird, and Goldie is entered. We're so excited to see her go. It's going to be fun.

I'm having a quiet evening, just some down time for myself. I'm almost finished rereading the last Dresden Files novel, in preparation for the release of Skin Games this month. Have to watch the season finale of Elementary, and maybe another episode of The Hundred, if I can stay awake long enough. I didn't sleep much today, because I knew if I did I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. Shift work messes up my sleep cycle for sure.

At some point soon I have to book my flight to Ottawa. My niece is getting married on June 14, and my sister has asked me to come a few days early to help her with the preparation. My sister has taken on a lot, including making the bridal gown, and the wedding is going to be in their back yard, so I know I'll be put to work! And that reminds me, I have to shop for an outfit for myself, and a wedding gift. Time, I need more time!

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