Itty Bitty Hooves

Moving Beasts and Other Farm Chores

I was so happy when hubby got a new truck. I kept the old one for basic farm chores but it has seen its better days. It is over ten years old and has more than three hundred thousand miles on it. Not bad at all really. How many trucks or cars make it to that kind of mileage? It’s pretty darned near all original parts too. Definately the original engine and transmission. Considering how many miles were spent pulling and hauling that’s a danged strong engine. That’s why when we got its replacement we still got the same type of truck, only a heavier model. For awhile we were using a truck rental whenever we had any serious work to do since the old truck just wasn’t up to it anymore. Actually it still probably could but it made us really nervous to use it for anything hard.

Now Bob is talkiing about getting rid of the new truck thanks to the gas prices and everything. I can understand that really, but it will be back to renting trucks when we need to do heavy work again.

The Toughest Part of Working from Home

Working at home for myself has always meant being able to keep accurate track of monies due from various places all at once. I currently work for five regular companies and a handful of individual accounts as well. Lately though, my biggest company has begun to slack in their invoice payments. Sending invoices is another thing that can be difficult to keep track of when you work for a number of different places that all have their own accounting schedule. I have three that pay bi-weekly, one that pays monthly, one that pays daily, and the individual ones pay on completetion of each project. That means a crazy schedule for sending out invoices to the various places and a desperate need to be able to keep track of all the dates.

I’m pretty good about it, but when one company begins to stall on payment it makes it even more difficult to control. I need to find a better financial reporting software than what I currently use. Basically my current system just involves my own forumlas on an excell spreadsheet. It has worked very well but now with so many a good program that will automatically control when invoices are due and build them easier than my own would be a great asset. That is the toughest part of my job… well, the second toughest after going out and finding clients. That’s the part I REALLY hate.

Time To Get Back On Track

I’m kind of glad this summer is almost over. I didn’t quite make my goal of being completely finished with my diet. That was probably pretty unreasonable anyway. It didn’t take one year to gain it, so it is going to take more than one year to lose it. It is going fast, just not fast enough to get into the sexy swimwear I’d dreamed of when I started out on my quest for getting healthy.

I have to admit too that I’ve let exercise kind of slack off in the last few months. Injuries didn’t help but lately it’s been more about working too many hours a day to get anything in. I have to get back to my enforced exercise breaks. The funny thing is when I start it, I get addicted to it and love doing it, but it really doesn’t take more than a few days to get back into the ‘lazy rut’ where it is the last thing on my mind. Time to change that too.

New Pictures of the Kitties in my Office

I know it seems like all of the pictures of them are with mom sleeping or eating, but it’s about the only time I can get a shot of them. They are by no means lazy. The little devils are running all over the house now.

They are staying the same color, and I sure do hope they keep it, but I’m still not holding my breath. I still think they’ll turn completely black, but the color is sure adorable now.

Kitten Carnival

I am laughing hysterically here. The new kittens in my office are really getting active now. They are jumping all over boxes, and bookshelves, and just causing all kinds of trouble. Their poor mother just sits in the middle of the floor trying to control them with soft mews. Yeah, as a fellow mother I know exactly how well that works. When she starts ’shoutting’ I’ll know she has come to the realization too. In the meantime, the ‘kids’ sure are fun to watch. It’s a real kitty carnival in here. Now THAT’s one reason to stay home and work.

Better Opportunities

I’m getting a little frustrated with chasing down money owed to me for freelance work. I’m waiting right now on an invoice that is two days past due. It is making me seriously look into the many franchise opportunityfor starting up a business that I can still run on my own and be my own boss, but be more in charge of the flow of income. Right now while I still work for myself, I am at the mercy of those companies contracted as clients to pay me. To be fair, usually they are really good about it. Every once in awhile you get a bad apple in the bunch that makes you think seriously about the intelligence of doing this type of work. Those times are usually the largest of the invoices as well. Figures, right? I still want to work for myself, but maybe a franchise business would be a better way to go.

Wearing Out My Office

My husband says I’m hard on furniture. I broke my office chair again. It is the second chair in five years. I don’t know that it’s a matter of being ‘too hard’ on my furniture. The rest of the furniture in the house lasts a long time. Our couches are 14 years old and still in good shape. Maybe it’s because although they get used, NOTHING in the house gets used as much as my office chair. It gets at least 12 hours a day 7 days a week use. That’s being fairly conservative in an estimation too. It’s more like 24/7. Anyway, I need to find a good chair at a good price. I’ve been looking at discount furniture because while I need a really good chair that is both comfortable and supportive, at the rate I go through them, I can’t afford to spend a fortune on it. Hopefully the next one will last at least 3 years.

Cute Creepy Crawly Things

Unlike the beautiful, but scary crawly thing in the post below, the little creey crawly things that now inhabit my office are the cutest little things ever.

A few months ago my house cat ‘Spooky’ (black black black cat) got outside on me. One day, that’s all, I couldn’t find her for a whole day…

Got her back in and didn’t think much about it, even as she started to get a little heavier. I thought to myself how nice it was she was finally getting some heft to her. She was never thin as in sickly, but she was always a very lean cat.

Surprise…

A couple weeks ago she had kittens in a file cabinet in my office. Of course, making her nest meant pulling everything from the bottom ’shelf’ floor of the cabinet over the lip and out onto the floor in front of the cabinet, but that was her choice of nesting boxes. I suppose that is better than the middle of my bed! LOL So she had her kitties:

Two kittens to be exact.

Today for the first time they managed to make it out of the ‘nest’ to explore, and boy are they active. They’re still wobbly on their little legs (partly due to the fact that there so HUGE for two week old kitten, I’m sure. Having complete access to all of mom’s milk with only the two of them, made for some pretty tubby kitties.)

I have spent the last few hours sitting here laughing at them. I managed to take a few pictures. It is a little hard to see them because they are so dark. Actually I wish they’d stay the color they are now. It’s a steel gray with black points. I know they won’t. They’ll probably end up as black as mom.

Here are the pics.

Creepy Crawly Thingies

I’m glad we don’t have any of these things around here:

Seriously, it’s really beautiful, in a creepy sort of way, but I sure wouldn’t want to meet up with one.

Of course it looks a lot bigger in the picture than it actually is, but it still packs a heck of a whallop.

The Big Move

Aw you have to feel bad for babies at this time of year. Yep, it was weaning time yesterday. Actually it was weaning time for everybody except the very oldest… no not by choice, she slipped through the ranks and got in with the big girls. Maybe she just felt like being with all the bawling babies was beneath her–she is the oldest don’t you know.

I did make one kind of big mistake. I put all the mom’s over by the big barn and left the babies in the back by the old barn. That field just happens to be right by my office window so all last night I had babies crying for mommy in my ear.

It would have been a lot quieter with the mom’s over here. There wasn’t a peep out of them. They were probably all over there thinking ‘if I don’t say anything, maybe they’ll shut up!’

I’m pretty sure they were relieved to finally be rid of the brats… all but poor Boots. She still has her little hold out.