25 July 2024

I’ve been resting like I’ve never rested before, seriously I don’t think I’ve ever slept this much. My cough seems to be gone, so resting did it’s job. This wouldn’t be possible without my mower breaking down and needing to have someone else mow the lawn, even with everything taken care of I was stressing a little bit about the grass. Today the tractor repairman was able to fix my mower and I learned he was an artillerymen when he was in the Army. Of course infantry is my favorite, but artillery gets some of my respect, they are the queen and king of battle respectfully. I’m happy to live in the country, everything is cheaper than I expect and maybe it’s the military background that makes these guys easy for me to work with. When working with others in the past I’ve thought, I only care about getting the job done, the guy pulled up with his truck and got it done in the driveway in probably 30 minutes. With talking to vets my age I’ve noticed most spent time in Afghanistan, my thinking is that I might be from an older generation since I joined younger than most and Iraq was the bigger focus in my time. I’m grateful to have made these two connections for landscaping and equipment repair since they’re guys I liked and they’re two jobs that I’m most likely to need. Having these resources is a big weight off my mind going into the new baby as that will become my main focus. Something I would like to get done soon is building my bee frames, they need to be hammered together and then added on top of the hive I’ve got. It’s been awhile since I’ve opened the hive, they’ve probably built all over the place in there, but I think they could use some more room.

22 July 2024

The weekend of cousins visiting was a success. When playing in the pool one of the kids broke a pipe that sprays water and Alex said the prophesy was fulfilled of having guests break things, but unlike other guests it was fixed before they left. This concludes the end of my Summer visitors and with my princess back in daycare this week I’m going to lay in bed as much as possible to recover. The past couple weeks I’ve been having mucus build up in my throat causing me to cough a lot during the nights, it’s created some bad sleep for the queen and I. Now that I’ve got some time to rest she got me a steroid pack and we can get back to normal life. Some highlights from the weekend were celebrating my birthday with a big key lime flavored cake, so big that by the end of the weekend there was still half of a cake left. Having a traditional cake and everyone gathered around the dinner table was nice. Another nice experience was laying down a tarp inside so the kids could do some painting together. During the painting a wasp got in the house and the room we were painting in has a tall ceiling, maybe 20 ft, it made for the comical scene chasing the bug around with a long pool skimmer. The final night we played some bird board game on the Nintendo switch, it took hours and at the end of the night it was just the brothers talking. It’s nice to develop this new adult relationship, we all grew up sharing a room and needed some personal space after that. When it came to picking favorites or characters to related to everyone had to have their own to be an individual. Coming together now everyone provides a piece that makes up the family.

19 July 2024

Alex arrived safely and we were able to record the podcast last night without a hitch. Well the only hitch I can think of was that the headphones he normally wears have a USB end instead of AUX which I’m used to for headphones. We shared my computer and there are only two USB slots which are taken up by the camera and microphone, I did have spare headphones, so it wasn’t a big deal. Since he’s doing tourist activities today with The Ben, I have time now to edit the video while the princess naps. We spent most of the afternoon yesterday swimming and his queen was very helpful with my princess which is not something I’m used to. Normally I’m having to clean up the messes behind my visitors and making sure they don’t break anything. The princess is well behaved compared to a lot of people in my life. Today the princess and I took a walk down to the pole barn since she likes to visit the buggie and my mind is always on the grass. There is some grass that grows around the barn that the landscaper didn’t cut since it’s on the other side of the woods and most people wouldn’t even know its there or that it belongs to me. I was staring at that grass hoping the tractor repair guy doesn’t take too long, he said he would order a part I need as the bolt did break and the spindle needs replacing. The part shouldn’t take too long, but you never know, still that’s the annoyance of grass and nature, it’s always closing in on us. Once people are back in the house I’ll be too distracted to think about silly grass. 

18 July 2024

The queen had ordered a car shaped pool float for our princess and yesterday I inflated it, she is obsessed with it. The float has been very helpful in keeping her entertained in one spot, she’ll sit in it pretending to drive and do whatever else she needs to. The princess was eating in the float and when it came time for bed she carried it with her, I was sad to separate her from it. This morning “car” was the first word out of her mouth and she had her breakfast in it, she’ll probably be more excited when she finds out that it can be used in the pool. We’ll have to get her an actual car she can ride around in soon, then it’s only a matter of time until she has something motorized. With Prime day, I was able to take advantage of other shopping and got some weights. Ordering a barbell, curl bar, and bumper plates completes everything I want to have in my gym. The barbell I got was 40 lbs instead of of 45 that I think is standard, but it was a third of the price as the 45 lbs bars I had seen. Now all I need is more energy to exercise. Currently I’ve been increasing my daily stretching since I think tightness in my legs has been creating tension in my back. My brother should be arriving in about an hour, so I wanted to take this time to write. I realized that since the brothers visiting are on the podcast, they’re public figures and I can say their names. Since we’re all kings and priests it’s helpful to use an actual name when speaking of them. If you’re a fan of the podcast you’ll already be familiar with Alex and The Ben.

17 July 2024

This morning I took the princess to a park. She loves slides and the playground here had three of them. After going down the smallest slide she approached the big spiral slide, looked down it and said, “No.” Then walked away back to the small slide. That’s fine by me, I like seeing that she has the ability to judge when something is too dangerous and she’ll back away. There was another section that was like steps made of pipes, she went up the first two before getting back on solid ground. After a little time playing she was ready for the big slide and had no problem with it, she even went back again and again. My friend with the new baby said babies and birth are so amazing, why does the news report on anything else. Watching her explore the park was a lot of fun, there were trash cans she’d check out and say “hot” when she touched them. Then she wanted to get into the public grills there, but they were full of ash and I was not interested in dealing with that mess. After we got home and had lunch she grabbed her blanket and laid under it, in the living room, because she knows what time it is. My queen and I often talk about how important routine is, we hear about lots of babies that still don’t have a sleep schedule and this little lady is putting herself to bed. We’ll probably do more swimming this afternoon and my brother will be arriving tomorrow, so I don’t know whether I’ll have time to write. The next day another brother arrives and the cousins, this place is about to turn into a mad house, it’ll be a lot of fun.

16 June 2024

We got in contact with the Tractor and equipment repair shop and he was confident he’d be able to help, even offered to come out the same day. There’s not much rush for it, getting the mower operating next week would be great, by then we’ll be done with our hosting, the baby will be back in daycare, and I’ll take some time to rest. This week is the daycare’s Summer break and as tiring as it is to be carrying the princess more, I think it’s good to get acclimated to caring for a baby all day long before the newborn comes. A friend of mine, just had his first kid last night. Once I get some rest we’ll start preparing for the new baby, there’s all sorts of equipment to pull out of storage, assemble and clean. This time around things seem easier since I know how they work now, there are so many little buttons that are partially hidden to avoid baby getting at them that were frustrating to figure out. There was also a pressure to not mess things up, where now I have confidence that I know what I’m doing, babies are a lot sturdier than I thought before having one. Yesterday we were back in the pool again and it’s amazing how quickly my daughter is taking to swimming. A couple days ago she was afraid to have her body in the water, now she’s sitting on the stairs half covered playing with her toys. With her floaties on she’s kept asking to go to the deep end, it’s fun for her and a little more work for me than where I can stand. It’ll be exciting to see her playing in the pool with her cousins this weekend, I’m sure they’ll be getting her riled up and she always like to show off for visitors. 

15 July 2024

We live in an old house, from a history of the county the original build was in the early 1800’s. We’ve had a couple people say the house is haunted, I’ve said if it is the ghosts like us. From the first days in our old house I felt like that place was cursed and since we’ve been at the new house there have been several lucky breaks. For example when I had been looking for a utility vehicle for weeks and one day I looked up from the kitchen and saw what I was looking for sale across the street, it worked out perfectly. Now in the middle of Summer when the grass was getting tall, my mower broke down. Things looked bad until we called the landscaper that used to mow at this property and he offered to come out the same day. Then we found a tractor and equipment repair shop three doors down the street, both are veteran owned. The landscaper got our place looking great and he charged the same price as the guy who mowed our old lawn once, even though this is at least 5 times the size. I was talking to him afterwards and he’s a fellow infantryman and we were in Iraq at the same time. We still have to talk to the repair shop, but I have faith everything will work out. After that I felt a lot better and we had a great weekend. The princess and I spent a lot of time swimming, she finally understood how to have fun in the water and even asked for me to put her floaties on. I also got some building done on an umbrella for extra shade around the pool and a power rack, basically a squat rack with pull up and dip bars. My pole barn gym has just about everything I ever wanted.

11 July 2024

It’s been 10 days since I last wrote and I’m feeling rough. Having my friend stay for five days was exhausting. Early on the podcast I read a Ben Franklin quote from Poor Richards Almanac that “fish and visitors stink after three days.” I love the guy, but the older I get the more set in my ways I become and I don’t want to do things that aren’t me. With moving to the woods I become more eccentric, so it took some time to recover from having guests, I’m still recovering. Having to take a week off from my normal routine means a lot of work gets backed up, then taking time to recover means more. While trying to rest I had been worrying about all the stuff I wish I was doing, so yesterday I got back to work mowing the lawn and my mower broke. One of the blades for the mower fell out, it was the one that got stuck with a big chunk of wood recently, so I’m suspicious that the bolt holding it in broke. I tried to replace the blade, but have no idea what I’m doing. There’s lawn mower repair places, but I don’t have a trailer to transport the thing, and the grass keeps growing. All that leaves me questioning why am I doing extra work like writing or the podcast, I don’t know if I’ll continue, but I’m tired right now, so I’m trimming the fat. These artistic endeavors are good because they create something new in me, nature is unforgiving though. In the meantime I don’t expect consistency in my art.