And another thing!

Yeah, I’m teaching that same “Intro to Hourly Management” course again this week. I’ve decided to do things just like the script says to do, so rather than working ahead today like I normally would when we finished the day two material early I sent them home. Enough of that for now though.

I looked back and see I failed to mention I’m wearing hearing aids now, so that’s new. I’ve noticed myself asking people to repeat themselves a lot and I’ve had to turn the television up to 50 for a while just to hear it, so I went to an audiologist and got checked. Two hours and a whole lot of cash paid out for devices my insurance doesn’t cover (it covered the exam though) I can hear again. I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten, honestly, or I’d have done this sooner.

I had a really weird dream Sunday night: my last management trainee needed to be fired because he bought a truck and then to save money moved in with one of his female employees, which is obviously a no-no, and I had to drive up and tell him because everyone in the organizational structure between him and the CEO (about a dozen people) was busy and I wasn’t. What the hell, I’d at least get mileage, lol. He is a bit of a doofus, but not that much of one.

I think my purple bell peppers died in the last cold snap, but I have some seeds left over and plenty of time to re-plant. The black bells, the green bells, and the jalapeños all seem to have pulled through. I wasn’t at all worried about the wheat, garlic, or onions since they don’t really mind cold as long as it doesn’t get into the 20’s F. I hope to get a plot marked off for some corn so I can get that tilled and the sweet corn started. If I can get sweet corn to grow I’m going to start popcorn in a different plot a few weeks later to avoid cross-pollination. I plant to companion plant zucchini with the sweet corn and jack-o-lantern pumpkins with the popcorn. I’ll eat the zucchini and try to sell the pumpkins. My parents will enjoy the sweet corn and I’m keeping the popcorn. Once I figure out the best drying technique I might try selling some. Critter has started making soap on the side, if she’s still doing that I’ll try growing some loofa gourds and selling them to her for a good price. Then she can cut them up, fill them with soap, and charge through the nose for them. I can probably sell any she doesn’t want on one of my other social media accounts. If I can work up the energy I might try growing birdhouse gourds as well. The only problem with the loofa gourds and birdhouse gourds is drying them out for use, it takes a while from what I understand. Since I’m going to have to dry the popcorn too I might build a small (10×10) outbuilding to use just for that. Building that would not only give me a place to dry my corn and gourds it would also be good practice for the chicken coop and rabbit hutches I’ll need next year anyway.

I’ve got a vacation coming up in a few weeks. I’ve got to rent a truck and grab some cattle panels and more T-posts for the back fence, and maybe some more 6×6 posts for the front fence. I’m using 6×6 instead of 4×4 on the side of the yard I’m putting the bees on as an added defense against bears, heffalumps, and woozles. I’ll also be electrifying that portion of the fence. I’ll be using 4×4 posts for the rest of it. My “rails” are 1×4 boards screwed in place. I looked at using 1×6 boards but they looked too big. I’ve got a raspberry bush and two different species of blueberry bush planted along the fence that I’ve already got up. Unless they really start to shoot up I’m not getting any berries this year, but I really just wanted to get them started so the bees would have their pollen available next year. I’ll be seeding perennial wildflowers between the fence and the road as well, and once I get the farm plots laid out properly I’ll always have a clover plot going somewhere that I’ll plow under the next year as I rotate crops and I’m sure they’ll enjoy that as well.

And, no, I don’t take my “pay attention” pills anymore, so I’m rambling, but not all my entries will be this way.