I Have The New Computer.

I have the new computer, bought because the old one kept having problems and eventually they said no point paying out more money...a new one would be better.  Not happy but OK, I will buy a new one.

I was supposed to pick it up Thursday, it wasn't ready, went down Friday afternoon, payed the money and brought it home.  I connected everything, plugged it in, turned it on...nope, didn't work.  I just got a no signal message.   Rang the guy who wasn't much help, he had ideas but not anything that I could do then to get it going.  Feeling cranky now...  This morning I disconnect it all and ask Husband to connect it up again, you know, in case I am dumb and did it wrong.   He connected it all up, plugged it in and nothing.  Good, not me then.   The difference now is that he can, and did, look and see what the problem was.  It seemed that the signal cord wasn't connecting but he looked some more and noticed that it was too long to fit and unscrewed some screws to make it shorter and connected it.  Cool, thanks Darl, now I have a computer.    Jobs to do too though so no time for a play.  It saved me having to drive back to Harvey though to get the guy to work it out.

Time to play now, how do you connect with Windows 7?  Call the daughter and she comes out to have a look for me.   It doesn't connect to Internet.  Getting crankier.  Call the guy, talk about it with him...seems my modem is not compatible with Windows 7.   Quite cross now!  Drive the 25min back down to Harvey to buy a new modem.    Come home and dump the box on a chair, I am cranky and over it.    Husband comes in, we put it all together and I have Internet.     

So I have a new computer.  It took longer than he thought it would to transfer the old data over and even then not all of it happened.  I had to change to Windows 7, needed a new modem, I had to throw away the old bits and pieces...I always feel sad when stuff has to be thrown away.   I will take it to the FreeMarkets but who will want it...maybe someone.  

Sadly, I no longer love my computer.  I am hoping that it will come back though as I learn how it all works and I get back into everything.  Actually, I am looking forward to getting back into everything so maybe the love will come soon.  Maybe by Valentines Day I will love it again...

TESTING

HELLO, I AM AT THE COMPUTER SHOP, HAVING A PLAY TO SEE IF THIS WORKS....WILL IT...

Only took most of the day...

Finally got this to turn on...only took a million and twenty tries...Started trying at 5.30 this morning.  No idea how long it will stay on for though.   I have been told that it is the processor that is loose and doesn't keep the connection.  I was told to wiggle it.  Turn the power off and wiggle the fan unit to try and connect the processor underneath. 
I took photos of the computer laying on it's side, open to the world...The heart of it laying bear for all to see...I can't get the photos up though so you will just have to believe me about it all.  
Sometimes it works, mostly it doesn't.  I am going out the beach tomorrow and will drop this off in Harvey on the way.  He will build me the new one, transfer whatever he needs to transfer...I will end up with Windows 7 which will probably bug me but I'm sure that I will get used to it.  I'm hoping that I will be able to get it connected by myself but if not I will try and get that book finished.

I need to turn it off now as I have too much to do but worry that I wont be able to get it going again later on...My life is sad, so sad.  I should rejoice if it doesn't start up as then I could defitately get the bookclub book finished.  And the floor washed.  I dropped an egg last night, yep last night.  Bit's of it are still stuck to the floor.  I am a complete and utter opposite to what I want to be.  HoHum...off to have a pity party get the floor washed, the dished finished, the clothes put away, more stuff done...

Hello!

I am online for a bit but for how long only the Computer God knows.   I have ordered a new computer though so this one will proberly work for months now with no more issues...Too bad, it's agoing. 

I have been having trouble with this one for a few months now, it works, it doesn't work, I take it in and pay money to get it fixed, it works, it stops working so goes back to the shop...He fixes it, different problem so I pay more, it works, it doesn't, he gets it going for free...He knows what the problem is and tells me it will be expensive to fix, not really worth it considering the age of this one...He will build me a new one and use the new bits that he has put in this one and give me a discount too.  This time round it hasn't worked for nearly a fortnight and I finally got it down to the shop this morning thinking to leave it there untill next week when he can build the new one.  He fiddles with it and gets it going, shows me what he did in case it stops working again and tells me to return it next week...It works but I need to be quick with using it in case it stops again and I didn't watch close enough to what he showed me to do...

In the meantime, if no-one hears from me it is because I can't get this one to turn on.  Or I am out in the garden.  Or trying to get a book finished because I joined a book club...

When this one started having *issues* I more or less decided that I didn't need it fixed.  I could live a pretty decent life without it.  I would get so much done, my house would get tidy, all the books would get read, I would build a bookcase so that I could bring in the books that are out in the shed...But no, none of that happened.  None of that will happen so I may as well get a new one that I can use whenever I want to so that I have something to do when husband is home watching crap on the TV all night.  It will save me having to go to bed at 7.30 because I have nothing to do and there is crap being watched on the TV.

I am now going to have a coffee and read some blogs. I might get to yours before this thing stops again.

Are you reliant on your computer?  Could you happily go without it if it didn't work?  Or are you like me and though you don't need it you like it, want it, will get a new one so you have it... 

Goodbye 2013. Hello 2014.

Chickens.

Remember how I said I had a chook sitting on eggs and five weeks later there were still no chickens?    I left the shed door where I had her open and she came out and never went back in so I cleaned out the shed ready for next time.   That chook just went back in with the rest and wasn't wanting to sit any more.  As you would, after 5 weeks!   Anyway, in the meantime I had a grey chook sitting on some eggs and Baby, my raised from an egg Aracauna seemed to be wanting to get in that nest all the time too.  And the little black Aracauna was also sitting on a couple of eggs in another box... I wasn't sure about them though and kept taking them off, collecting eggs, forgetting for a bit and finally just left them to it thinking that I'd better move them out so that the other chooks wouldn't lay in those nest boxes...but I didn't, not for a long time anyway.  Finally last week I noticed that Baby was the only one in that box and she was very pecky when I went near her so in the dark of night I lifted her box and put her in the cleaned out shed and in my head wrote down a date a couple of weeks ahead.   The next day there were 2 chooks on the other clutch of eggs so I moved those 2 chooks and their 7 eggs into a nest outside of the main hen house.   Within a couple of days Baby had a chicken.  A couple if days later there were 2 more.  She left the other 4 eggs in the box and as they were cold and there was no sound coming from them I removed them.  Sowithin days of me moving her she had babies.  Seemed my dates were a tad off!  Then I notice 1 lone chick with the 2 black chooks.  It seemed to be with the Black Aracauna while the other chook stayed in the nest on 5 eggs.   This afternoon I was out there feeding them and there is another chicken.  One chook was still sitting on eggs and this new chicken was out with the first chicken.  There is a noticeable size difference, as there would be seeing as there is 3 days between them.  I'm hoping that over the next week a few more will hatch and survive but this is not a good way of doing things.  I need to keep a better eye on them and move the clucky chooks and their eggs out so that the eggs are the same age and not being added too over the weeks that I leave them.  That is not good.  Some of these eggs could be a week or more older than the ones that have hatched and it is possible that the chook will leave the eggs and the chickens may be left to die unhatched...I hope not but I haven't managed things very well at all.

But, as of tonight I have 5 chickens, 3 with Baby in the shed and 2 with the other Aracauna.  And some unhatched eggs in the same enclosure in the same nest ...but with a different chook sitting on them...Fingers crossed it will turn out alright for them all.

Mowing and Marron.

We have had a productive day with mowing and whippersnippering getting done.  We are having another get-together here next Sunday and even though we had one at the beginning of December and I managed to get it all done then it was still a big job today.  Husband used the ride-on and did the dam area while I used the self propelled mower to do around the house and whippersnipped the edges.  This mower mucks my hands and arms up big time and I am real sore tonight but daughter and her fella were out here earlier and it gave her something to make fun of so it's not all bad.  

They, everyone but me, spent the evening catching marron and putting them in the purging tank so that they will be all clean for eating next week. We then had tea, supplied by T and a big thanks to her for that and then a few hands of cards before they left.  A good day.    Husband has just come in after a last pull of the nets and says that there are heaps of different sized marron out there so that's good.  He says that there are heaps of frogs around the dam too so it shows that the place is good and safe for wildlife and that is a main reason  I don't want to use poisons...I love having all the frogs in different areas even if they do make me squeal when they jump in front of me...Another reason for keeping the grass mowed short, when snakes come in for a feed of frog I want to be able to see them...

We're away for a few days soon so I am a bit worried about the seedlings I have planted...I will water and mulch before we go and keep my fingers crossed they survive a couple of days without a drink...With a bit of shadecloth over them they may be alright.  Fingers crossed anyway.  I'm hoping the new chickens will be OK too but will have to remember to set up extra water for them before we leave.  They should be right for food as they all have outside areas to scratch in and I will put out food for them but water is the important thing for them.    Might have to call on T to come out and check on things...If she reads this I might not have to call...

Today I Will Plant...

I am supposed to be outside getting the gardens ready to plant the seedlings I bought last week.  I'm not though.  I have been and will be but right now?  No.  Not there.  I am in here eating pavlova for breakfast.  I will make a veg smoothie soon so that I feel better about it. 

I keep thinking that the gardens are next to useless at the moment but I don't get out there and get them fixed.  Bad gardener!   But!  Today is the day.  Today I will get them sorted and the seedlings planted.    I need to if I plan on having my smoothies each day and if I don't want to take pills then I will need the potions. 

Looking around out there we can still get a decent feed from my unloved gardens.  We could have potato, sweet potato, onion, tomatoes, capsicum, chillies, cabbage.  Mix it all with eggs and we'd be feeding ourselves, no problems.  The problem starts when husband wants a salad or I decide that I want healthy smoothies and there isn't any spinach growing.  Nor silverbeet.  No kale either.  No zucchini, no cucumber, no salad stuff at all.  And it's Summer!  Where is all my salad food?   Luckily a friend gave us a box of veg as he was going to be away for a few days, husband brought some leftover veg home from his work and darling daughter left half a watermelon here.   We have a few apples that are ripe, a few ripe oranges still on the tree plus heaps in the freezer...the boysenberries are being picked every day as are the strawberries.  And some of the grapes are ready to pick too.  We have plenty of food and there is no need to go to the shops at all but there is a great need for me to get out and plant if we want to be eating from here next year.  So, in saying that...

What do you have growing?   Is there anything that you grow enough of and have no need to buy?   Tell me about your garden please.

Busy Time Of Year...

I've not had a computer all week...don't ya hate that!  I thought that I would too but actually it was OK, boring at night with just the TV but I had lots of time during the day, when I was home, and managed to get quite a bit done.

One job I am happy to say is finished, or near enough, is the sorting of my shoes.  The basket has finally been sorted, only took me a few months.   Blimey, what a lot of shoes I had crammed in there.  No wonder it was an effort to get it in and out from under the bed where it is kept...much easier now.  I still have an outside cupboard with too many pairs in it and will work on that over the next few weeks.  Or months...Whatever.

I have been through a few cupboards and taken another pile of stuff down to Vinnies with another lot ready to go to the FreeMarkets on Saturday.  Still more to go of course and the decluttering will be an ongoing thing for quite a bit longer.   I can't really tell where the stuff has gone from which is a bit sad but I supose in time I will start to see the difference.

I've not done enough out in the gardens and feeling cranky with myself because of that, again still! but have promised myself that I wll get stuck into it again next year.    I've not done any of the sewing that needs doing and there is still too much cleaning to do but I am hopeful that some of it will be done before our next get together lunch here.  That gives me a couple of weeks...

The coffee and cake with some women from the Meetup group I joined last week went well.  I met some really interesting women and hope to get together with them again next month.  

The lunch we had here on the 8th went well.  Everyone seemed to have a good time and a few want to know when the next one will be...

Vinnies had their Hamper Day today so I have spend most of the day in town with a dozen others helping give Christmas Hampers out.  It was my first year doing this and seeing as I didn't get too cranky with it all I think I will help again next year.  After getting back from that I  drove down to Harvey to pick up the computer...Sadly, it looks like I am going to be on here too much again...

It's school holidays here and that means the childcare work is back on so that will keep me busy for a couple of weeks...seems like I am going to have quite a bit on for the next few weeks so for someone that says they never go anywhere or do anything...I wont be able to say that for the next month or so...

I want to do some write-ups on different places that we have been lately so hopefully I don't forget to do that.  It will be a record of where we go and if  we think it's worth going again.  I already have a list with a few places on it so need to get started on that soon.

And of course there is mowing, chook yards, weeding to do.  I broke *my* mower so that will make the mowing less enjoyable...I will need to use the ride-on and the self propelled one but I don't like them as much.  Still, it's what I have so will need to suck it up and just do it. 

I'm at Vinnies tomorrow, FreeMarkets on Saturday, out Monday, working all day Tuesday...Might be able to get stuck into it all sometime towards next week...

Meetup.com

I recently read on SS about a site called Meetup that is all about, wait for it... people meeting up.   Strangers meeting up with other strangers.  For coffee, dinner, a movie, walking, fun weekends, art and crafts, just about anything.  Some of the Meetup groups have hundreds of members, some only a few.  And I daresay, some of those strangers would become friends.  That can't be bad.

http://www.meetup.com is world wide but there are no groups in my town nor the 2 towns closest to me.  A few over in Mandurah though and I liked the sound of one of them so I joined up.  They are having coffee and cake in Barragup one morning soon and I am hoping that I get up enough guts to actually go.  I'm always whinging about having no friends and never going anywhere so if I don't take advantage of this group I'll have no-one to blame but myself.  The place where they are going, Decadent C's, is not on my list of places that I want to go to, I have actually read about it and heard from someone that has been and decided that it wasn't for me but this will give me a chance to give them a chance. 

Has anyone here heard of this site?  Is anyone a member?   Have a look at it and let me know what you think.