Housework: Vacuuming

I thought it might help people understand my condition and what my life is like if I explain how I manage some of those basic household tasks. Vacuuming is probably one of those things that most of you don't think very much about. You just get up and vacuum, vacuum, and put it away and it's not a big deal. I just wish things were that easy.

Our vacuum is a Dyson. DH had already when I moved in. When we heard about the new animal vacs, we checked them out. It turned out that the only real difference was the one mouthpiece it had that we didn't have. We asked and were able to order that mouthpiece for our current vacuum. We're really glad we did, because it is made a huge difference in how well dog hair gets cleaned up. Not that that was relevant to how I vacuum, but I thought it was an interesting fact.

Our vacuum is stored in the furnace room between the furnace and the saddles. Getting it out requires stretching, bending, and pulling all a once. That combination is a real nightmare for me, so DH has to get the vacuum out. Because he leaves for work before I get up in the morning and is gone most of the day, I have to decide to vacuum a day ahead of time and ask him the night before to get the machine out before he leaves for work. He is very agreeable to this, but occasionally forgets. If he forgets, I skip vacuuming that day.

When I do vacuum, I can only do a little bit at a time. Doing the entire house takes four or five blocks of time. I have to rest at least half an hour usually longer between blocks.

The job I do is not the job I want to do. What I want to do is really vacuum thoroughly and completely. What I can do is vacuum the easily accessible high traffic areas. I only vacuum the spots I can reach while standing upright. Nothing in the way gets moved, except things Molly can move for me and things on wheels. So I can get Molly to pick up a dog toy or pair of shoes, but she can't move the recliner or coffee-table. I also can't bend down to vacuum under the coffee table or the sofas. I only vacuum as far as the vacuum reaches when I'm standing up.

I only move the vacuum around by dragging it by the hose. Fortunately, it is able to roll over the bottoms of the baby gates.

Emptying the vacuum requires bending down. So I don't do that either, not usually anyway. Today filled up so quickly, that I did have to empty it before could finish vacuuming. But that means I'm in a bit more pain than usual.

Obviously I can't put the vacuum cleaner away. So it stays out until DH gets home and puts it away for me.

Because I am not able to do the job properly, DH has to regularly go through and do the proper job. However, we have found that if I vacuum regularly. It is much less often that he has to follow after me. It also makes the house cleaner and more comfortable for living in. Yes there are big balls of hair under my furniture. But we don't see those all the time. So in terms of the living in a messy house stress that DH gets, it is significantly reduced.

Garden Pictures

I promised Mom pictures of the garden and thought the rest of you might enjoy them too.

We recently got a picnic table. With the gorgeous weather, we've been trying to eat outside. I can't stay sat long, but we both enjoy the fresh air. This picture was taken after we finished dinner. DH is training with the girls while I take pictures. Please excuse the white showing through the yellow on the walls. It is time to "whitewash" (only with yellow) the house so I have been scraping off the loose stuff. This is the kitchen (back) door.


The peonies are blooming. At least I think they are peonies. They don't have the ant infestation I am used to from Mom's peonies. The Danish name for them translates to "farmer's roses" or something like that.


Don't know what this one is. The flowers remind me a little of a snowball bush, but much smaller. Also DH swears it is a TREE. Ours just isn't very big yet.


These flowers come from some kind of bulb. We've actually been clearing a lot of them and other bulbs out of the flower bed to make room for herbs, but I thought I'd take a picture anyway.


This one is up in the stone bed behind the garden. When I first moved here, I'd pretty much gotten control over this bed, but with my inactivity of the past two years, it is more weeds and grass than things that belong there. We did clear a few spots this weekend and put in mounds of horse manure and planted pumpkins (the American Halloween ones)


This is looking from the stone bed out over the garden to the house. The small pins in the lower left corner are marking where pumpkin and squash have been planted. The net to the right is for the peas to support themselves on. Then you can see the entire flower bed, some of the girl's fence, the clothesline, and the picnic table.


This is the other half of the garden. Again the green net for peas. Four rows of potatoes that are doing well. The stuff closest to me is the rhubarb. We've got 3 times already this year and it is pretty much due for another cutting. The red section of building is the garage. You can see the trailer garage and the black storage shed to the right.


A plant I don't know what is. DH says it is some kind of medicinal herb, but it isn't in his herb book, so I don't know what to use and how. Anyone know? We've been using parts of the bed behind it as a compost pile for rhubarb leaves, etc.


This is the mint I use for tea and stuff. The one we think is peppermint.



I hope you enjoyed those! Feel free to post any questions you have or requests for better pictures of anything.

Hopi in a Halter

I've been spending a few minutes a day in the pasture a few times a day. Yesterday I started working with a halter--getting it partly on, taking it off again, over and over. I just got in from another short pasture visit but this time left Hopi in the little red halter. She let me put it on then a little later adjust it to fit.

So the next step will be teaching her to be led.

A few days ago, we moved the larges horses onto their summer grass. This year DH even set up a water cup instead of the usual trough he needed to fill every day by pushing jugs over in the wheelbarrow. The change is SUCH a relief for him. It was expensive in hose, but worth it.

With my back problems, I'm not allowed to ride right now, so it is not an issue for me to have them over there. When it improves, we'll have to work out if we can safely remove Ria from the pasture.

My 30-to-5 Rule, Herbs, and Other Babble

I think I've worked out a way that I can manage to be productive and still take care of my physical condition. That's what I call my 30-to-5 rule. Basically it means I need about three minutes of rest for every five minutes that I do something. I realize this is probably the opposite of what most people need, but it seems to be working for me. Of course, sometimes I need more than 30 minutes of rest, but at least it is the basic idea of how to cope.

We have really dry weather right now. It's sunny and there is a slight breeze and the air is really dry. So it is just perfect weather for drying herbs. We already dried and put away two large batches of the peppermint that I mostly use for tea. We found a really good and easy way of doing it. We use one of those lingerie bags for delicates in the laundry. That way don't have to worry about how long the stems are and try to tie them into bundles. Instead I just cut them at whatever length they are, shove them in a bag, and then rotate the bag a lot. Right now my bag is filled with the other kind of mint that we have. I am not sure what kind it is. But it looks more like mom's tea mint than the peppermint does. The one I am identifying as peppermint has a very definite reddish tint to both the leaves and the stems. This one has very green leaves and green stems, except the corners of its square stem appeared to have a reddish thread in them.

We have two other herbs drying right now. Those are done by that tie the stems into a bunch method. Unfortunately, I don't know what they are called in English. Instead I will give you their scientific names. The one is called Artemisia dracunculus. The other is Levisticum officinale. The latter we use a lot because it helps make old potatoes taste better.

We are using a lot of mint at the moment. Most days I am making tea on fresh mint. We were reading in DH's herb book about the values of lavender, so today we added a sprig of lavender to my tea as well. It was quite good in my opinion. I also added a sprig of mint to the bottle of cold water DH keeps in the fridge. Makes it just a little bit fresher.

In other news, my back is still improving. Or at least it was. As soon as I wrote that, Shawnee had a little accident on the floor. Her first in ages. I got her outside to finish then cleaned up. But when she came back in, she is so upset and sorry about the accident that she was glued to my feet. I turned around to go get myself a glass of water and tripped over her. I think I need my ice pack again.

I had planned to write more, but hurt too much now to do so.