Outdoor Hot Tubs and Their Covers

What I wouldn’t give to have a nice hot tub to soak in after a long hard day around here. It would be great to have one set up right out on the side porch, a perfect place for a good sized hot tub, outside, but not too far from the side door. Of course if I ever get enough cash together to purchase one I would need to then search for good quality hottub covers, since it would be out in the weather all year, it would need to be made to last and plenty durable, like the ones advertised at Hottubs2buy.co.uk.

Maybe this is something that I need to look at when I get next year’s tax refund check.

Nemo Tents and Sleep Systems

For many years, more than I wish to confess to, I have been wanting to go out with some friends and go hiking, camping and fishing like the good ol’ days, but had just been too tied down with work and spending time with loved ones. This year I felt was a brand new year, and was a perfect time for me to get out there and so something I had always wanted to do.

Like I said before I had been wanting to go camping for a long while, and I found myself scavenging my garage for supplies and camping gear I needed to go. I found so many things I used to use while camping, but couldn’t find my tent I used to use. While searching for it, I realized my tent is very out of date and probably needs an upgrade even if I did come across it.

I took a night to sit in the office and just search around the net for some good deals on tents. I came across a nemo tent sale, and had found great deals on all types of tents, but the one that stood out to me the most was a 3 season tent, something I’ve always wanted to own. I ordered it right away and had it shipped to my home, and in no time at all I was camping out by the lake the following weekend. I am so grateful to have found such a sturdy tent to spend many of nights in while by the camp fire enjoying nature.

photo of Nemo camping gear
Nemo Sleeping Bags

 

Luxury Vacation Rentals, Paris or Greece?

Since it has been so nasty outside with freezing rain, snow, sleet, along with some pretty hefty winds these past couple of days, I do what I only have to do and get myself back inside as quick as possible. The older I get the less I enjoy (yes I used to enjoy) winter and all the ugly weather that it brings along with it, like it or not. Although we have had some pretty mild winters these past couple of years it is still winter and it’s still cold and wet. Not my favorite mixture.

I’ve been going through some boxes that have been in the “Guest Room” for many years now that mainly have papers in them that have needed to be gone through, most of which ends up in the paper/cardboard recycling bin. It’s a slow process and sometimes a painful one that causes me to feel depressed for days. Even though my folks have been gone for over four years now it is still painful and raw. I will never get over it, but am doing the best that I can with the cards that I have been dealt in this life. Living here at their house and running the family farm on my own has been a challenge and will continue to because that is real life.

What I really need right now is when I get my tax refund check is to book one of the luxury paris vacation rentals that I’ve been eyeballing online for years now. I made the mistake of sharing my wants and needs for a luxury vacation some where like Paris or Greece and now she seems to be on a mission to get me away from here and plan the “perfect get-a-way” for me before I lose my mind and health. I don’t want to go alone, but there really aren’t a lot of people that I could spend that amount of time with and enjoy before wanting to strangle them. I’ve been on my own for so long here that I don’t know how I would handle sharing myself 24/7. And trying to find someone that can get away for a week because of their job, or their kids, or their aging parents, or their health or their finances, blah, blah, blah………

 

Weather, Yards and Gardens

Today I woke up to the buzzing sound of a neighbor’s lawn mower. Oh good grief, can it be that time of year already? I guess I need to drag my lawn mower out of the depths of my garage and make sure it starts and runs again this year. My immediate neighbors all take great pride in their lawns and landscaping. Several of them pay a professional lawn care company to come mow their grass once a week. I am sure that they enjoy having someone else take care of that chore, especially when it gets hot in the summer time. But I enjoy being out in my yard and doing the work myself.

I like a more natural look for the shrubs and flowers rather than the sterile, edged lawns across the street. I am going to do some gardening this year – nothing too big and fancy, but I want to get outside and enjoy the sunshine on the weekends, and I like picking fresh vegetables and fruit from the yard to include with my meals. Home grown is always a good ingredient to be able to toss into your meal at the last minute. Hopefully I will be one of those people that will bringing in a variety of fruits and veggies and leaving them there for the other employees to take and use. Lord knows I’ve taken home plenty of these freebies so it will be good ton be on the other side for once.

Hot Apple Cider

This is fast becoming the type of day where a nice hot cup of apple cider, with a shot of some spiced rum will taste mighty good. I was all set to make myself a cup when I noticed that it wasn’t even noon yet and decided that I should wait a few more hours at least before indulging. I’m not a serious drinker what so ever, but on cold and wet days such as this, it sure would be a nice treat and certainly only one shouldn’t be an issue. Some warmth on the inside sounds like heaven at this point.

For the most part I rely on hot coffee, but some times a guy needs to switch it up and I’ve never really been into drinking hot tea, even though they have a trillion different varieties and flavors out there on the market these days.  So a hot cup of apple cider once in a while is a nice change of pace with or without the spiced rum. Of course after dinner while kicking back on the sofa watching a game or the news a nice cold beer always tastes good no matter what the weather is like outside.

 

Beach Weather

Well I’m glad that we all survived the Super Storm Hurricane Sandy and that my sister and her family were able to enjoy the beach house rentals destin fl that they had been planning for long and were threatened to have to call off because of the weather. I know that New York and New Jersey were hit the worst, what a mess that have to clean up.

So far sis tells me that the weather is fine down in Florida and the kids really wished that I had come along, but there is no way I could leave the farm for that long.

Burn Baby Burn

The one thing that I would really enjoy and appreciate getting for Christmas this year is a carhartt jacket. I spend so much time outside during the freezing cold winter months and my old trusty jacket really needs to be trashed, better yet burned. Besides it doesn’t have a hood, which is pretty darned important since having to wear a hat around here is just a pain in the rear especially since hats seem to not to want to stay on my head where as a hood generally stays in place. Could never figure out why though……

The Labor Day Rains

It looks like I’ll be cooking dinner for 3 tonight since my sister and her son will be stopping by on their way home from work to pick up the two airpots that were left here last weekend from our Labor Day family picnic. The rains came so quickly that we really scrambled to get everything covered up and back inside as fast as we could and the kitchen just turned into a nightmare of wet, cold food and people.

At least the rains waited until the end of the day. For the most part it was a good time. The next time we will all be getting together will be in November for Thanksgiving which is coming quicker than any of us really want it to get here, because after Thanksgiving comes Christmas and I don’t know anyone looking forward to all that goes along with Christmas.

Shooting The Breeze

Spent the afternoon talking computers with my brother-in-law, the family computer geek. Although most of what he talks about I really don’t have a clue on, but I usually walk away learning something. Today it was about secure data backup, not something that I really have to worry about but it was interesting non the less.

It felt good not having to ask him over to take care of any of my computer/Internet issues, it was just to basically hang up and catch up, since I haven’t really seen him since the 4th of July. We had a few cold beers, ate some chow and spent a few hours on the front porch enjoying a nice day that only got into the mid 80’s. A nice change from this extremely hot and humid summer that we have had to deal with. As much as I hate the winter I’m almost ready for the cold weather, this heat has been sucking the life out of me.

Week End Guests

I’ve been extremely busy, trying to get the house ready for next weekends company. My guests are my sister and her hubby, along with their two kids. I haven’t seen them in ages because they live very pretty far away from this area. They are arriving next Friday morning and spending the whole weekend, so I needed most of today to do my shopping and cleaning, and get the guest room ready.

I hope that we will be experiencing some nice weather next week-end, so that we all aren’t stuck in the house for the majority of their visit.