New year on the way

What are some resolutions for the new year? I have a couple I am going to be working on. I will try 2-3 items for each quarter.
This quarter I am going to lose 20 pounds and be on time to work every day.
I will get out the door by 10 after to be on time.
I will eat more fruit and vegetable items and less candy. Although the last time I stopped eating sugar for more than a couple of days, I felt really horrible. I probably have an overage of yeast and I need to go on a sugar fast sometime when I can rest.

Happy New Year!

Holiday!

My computer crashed again and then the monitor went out. We now have a 20" wide screen monitor. Very nice.
Happy Holiday to everyone. I am off work as it is Saturday. We will be having meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and squash with strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Hope everyone's holiday is safe, fun, and filled with presents.

Looking for Pictures

Patrick

Wedding Party

Parents of Groom

Patrick and Meghan's wedding. Grapevine, Texas. September 4 2010

Crash

My computer had an error in the windows operating system. Now I have two copies of windows xp to choose from. The one I am using has the drivers installed. I am really bummed to have lost all my favorites links. I have no idea if I can find them all again. The ones I used daily I can remember, but some of the weekly and monthly ones are lost unless I can follow the same links again. I also lost all my programs, my games, all my favorite websites (to pay bills and look up interesting items). I tried to look for my old user profile but have had no luck yet. I am still trying to download all the updates that were lost. The first set was 68 and the second set was 32. Lots of updates since we got the computer in February 2006. I will have to upload all my pictures again. They are on the computer somewhere but I have no easy way to access them. I also lost all my documents. The password list, the work order list, everything.
And the Qwest backup did not work, it updated as soon as it was reloaded, so I could not recover anything. System restore did not work either as it had no reference point past the time I uploaded the windows os from the disc.
Oh well, it is a good lesson for me to back up my files onto a cd instead of depending on something else.
Hopefully, the wedding pictures will be up soon. I still have to finish all the updates and reload all the programs.

Wedding

The wedding was great. We had a good time. Then we went on a tour of Central Texas, down to Galveston and up to Austin then back to Dallas to fly home. I will have pictures up soon.

Preparedness

I like reading preppers blogs. I have done some of this in the past but have fallen out of the habit because of W. I need to get back into it more as last week we ran out of food and I had to spend my money on developing film for a project of his. Not the best week.
I hope Acre Island becomes a sanctuary where there is plenty of food put by and work for all who need to keep busy.
We are going to my son's wedding next week and then looking at Texas. Maybe the land I am searching for will be there. We are planning to go to Galveston and swim in the ocean and then look at Austin and the Hill Country.
I am looking forward to seeing Patrick again. I see him on Facebook. Meghan is on Facebook too. She is very active with her status updates. I hope she and he have a good marriage.
Hopefully, I can get my work caught up by the time I leave so I don't come back to such a mess. I have done very well with cleaning my office, I can actually see most of the floor and walk to the back. I hope to complete some special projects so I have extra money. Luckily, payday is the same day we leave so I will be able to have money to spend if I need something on the trip. W. is very good about buying things on vacation, but I hate to ask him as he is paying for the trip.
All the cats are good. They are looking forward to cooler weather so they can go outside again.
I need to write more. I used to write all the time. I don't read much anymore either. Not sure why. Maybe the computer and the blogs take the place of books.
Walnuts and almonds are back in the store again, freshly harvested. I need to buy some to save in the freezer.
Still having trouble with my stomach. Sometimes I can eat an item and it doesn't bother as much as other times. Also, salad and fruit bother sometimes and I wouldn't think they would be sensitive foods. Still on the waiting list at the Library for the stomach book.
Wondering about the raw diet for the cats. I don't have access to clean fresh chicken and mouse without spending lots of money to have it shipped to me. I do try to feed them more wet food than dry. Although the dry is out in self feeders in various locations. Not sure what people who raw feed do for vacations without a reliable person to come and feed the cats. it is hard enough to get someone to come a couple of times a week much less every day.
Football season is starting again. Preseason games are on week three. We are going to the local Arizona-Iowa game with W.'s brother S. and his friend P. and a small group of friends. W. and S. are twins and the oldest of their siblings. They get along quite well.
James, my brother from Michigan, is planning on coming to the wedding. He just had a baby boy and his wife and other child are staying home. W. is hoping he says nothing about religion or marriage for us.
Getting late, need to go to bed soon as I have to work a long day tomorrow.

Prepping?

As I am reading lots of blogs for the blogathon, I am wondering what prepping is. I wonder what the difference is between preparing for disaster and preparing for the end of the world as we know it. You need the same skills for both, as both are disasters of some sort. The disaster usually has an end and the end of society will not. Stock piling food and learning skills like canning, sewing, gardening, first aid, and bartering will get you through a disaster like a flood, fire, or tornado. Learning how society works will serve you better in the event a societal disaster strikes, it is important to know how people work together to serve a common goal.

Cats

We have 6 cats in a condo upstairs. They like to jump on the upstairs patio railing and watch the birds. During the summer, it is too hot for them outside, so they tend to get into mischief inside.
We have 2 sets of 3 siblings. The first set all look alike, one has golden highlights (Golden), and one has black highlights (Live Wire), and one is big (Little Bit) so we can tell them apart. They were given to me by my sister. The second set we found in the street at Nana's house. They all look different. One is calico (Sultan), one black and white (Shadow) and one grey stripped and white(Tiger). They all have white paws and noses.
Tiger loves to tear up paper. Any paper laying about is sure to have teeth marks on it sooner or later.
We also have two love birds, Toby and Tuppance. They are from my mother. They love to shred paper as well. The cats like to look at them. The birds fight back and bite any paw or nose that comes close to the cage.
We had a 5 minute shower today, very hard rain. Then sunny day again. It has clouded up again and we are supposed to have 100% chance of rain at 8 pm. We will see, the weather men are often wrong.

Monetary Systems

I have been reading different books and they all have different monetary systems. It is interesting to think about. Everyone needs a system to exchange goods and services even if they don't use paper or coin money. A system of credits can be used but it is hard to track without using something physical. If everyone had a hand held device, credits could be tracked by computer. Thus doing away with physical pieces of money. We almost do this now with debit cards, not everyone even accepts cash anymore.
Only half an inch of rain in our area. My grandmother, Nana, lives 15 miles to the south west and she received an extra 3/4 inch last Thursday.

Weather

It is monsoon season here in Arizona. It is not raining yet. We have had a 'trace' so far. Areas around here have had some rain, but not in Tucson proper yet.

It has been cloudy most days. Yesterday, I was at work and we had a huge grey cloud overhead with lightening and thunder and two drops of rain. Just enough to mess up the dust on your windshield.

We keep watering the yard. Hopefully soon the rains will come and we can see some proper growth. Lots of plants need a rain to fully put out new growth, watering from a can is just not enough. There must be some minerals let loose from the ground when it rains.

We did have 7 inches over the winter and the weeds are horrendous. Most of them have died by now because of the heat, but we still have some hanger-oners.

It was 109 the other day. Very warm. Keeping cool in the house mostly. Of course, the electric bill is very high.

See you soon.

Yosemite pictures

One of the Falls
Merced River
Wayne in the Water
Half Dome from Glacier Point
Fallen Monarch (Mariposa Grove, Sequoia)
We had a good trip. Wayne got in the water twice. I walked in with my clothes on, just past my knees. Very cold water. There was still snow in the high country.

New Diet

W. was attacked by his sister on our vacation about his weight and so has decided to go on a diet. We went out yesterday and got him fruit and vegetables. He has chosen to eat less, one sandwich instead of two. He goes out to water the yard and has a one gallon jug he carries with water to each plant. He wants to lose 3 pounds a month, which should be doable as doctors advise no more than 1 pound a week. He may have to pick the exercise more as he loses some because he loves to eat. He tends to snack, so we got him tomatoes, melons, grapes, and cherries to eat instead of pretzels and candy bars. I also got squash as he loves to eat it.

I need to lose a couple of pounds as well but have not figured out what I can eat that won't hurt my stomach yet. I can eat some things one time but at other times the same item causes pain. I am still finding my way.

4th of July

Yesterday was the 4th of July. I had to work of course as it was Sunday. At least I didn't have to open or answer phones.
I will post some pictures of our vacation when the photos come back on Saturday. I take them to Walmart to be developed with a CD archive disc.
W. spent the day napping as it is hot and he doesn't have a hobby. We planted some agave, aloe and other succulents in the common area at our condo and he takes care of them, picking up leaves from the tree and watering. We have some accent solar walk lights amongst the rocks and plants. It looks very nice.

First Post

My name is Tanya and I have wanted to have a place called Acre Island since I was young. I am hoping to eventually have a homestead/sanctuary where I can have a garden, raise animals, and provide sanctuary for homeless individuals (either animal or human). I already have a great plan, it just needs a location to finalize the details.
I have a partner named W. who is more interested in travel right now, so it might be awhile till I get my sanctuary. He is retired while I am still working.
We both love the water so a water feature will definitely be part of the plan.
Plans to visit Arkansas are in the works for September.
We visited Oregon last year and Washington state the year before and while they are both great locations, nothing struck us as perfect yet.
We still have lots of time as both of us are in good health.