OK, OK....

Stop with the emails, I am trying to stay on top of life!
I have had no time in the garden what with 2 full time jobs and all but the broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, & cauliflower have arisen and are talking to me... Feed us, plant us, take care of us and we will take care of you...But it was with great relief that a load of Christmas was taken to the Christmas Storage Facility (mom's garage) yesterday (just in time for Easter) and Mr. Grumpy is happier for that fact! As we will be traveling this coming Christmas there will be no decorating (sorry neighbors!). Well except the one family who shall remain nameless (but you know who it is) that have requested we go to mediation before they take us to court or whatever... I shall continue to ignore them and pray for a cosmic event to take them out of our lives...

I requested a late shift at the job that cannot be named place and so far no go, it is a 2 - 11(PM) shift and as this Kevbear fades at around 10PM it will be interesting as I have this shift for the next 2 nights. I had to tell the family that I am working Easter (1st time ever) and will not be able to go to Easter service and have supper with them... no one is happy over that... Funny that a company from North Carolina (read Bible belt) would put the $$$ above religion, go figure huh?

On the ALL STAR REAL ESTATE note I have my lease and we will be moving into the new office on April 1st (no not a Kevbear joke) and I have been very busy on that front with office furniture, insurance, phones, and stress... Here is the new office...
And the view...
And the inside...
I found a source for our name badges and have ordered mine, they are actual western sheriff's badges to tie in with the western them and the star in the company name! They are exactly what I had in mind since the company name was chosen and are toooooo coool!
I had wanted this office since day one as when it was a real estate office way back we had a huge amount of walk-in clients and in this market it will take every advantage I can muster... plus it is 5 minutes from home! Now if I could just quit the paying job... but I like the folks I work with and it is paying the bills so stay I will. I have had an awakening there on how hard it is for young families to make ends meet on low wages. Some of those kids have 3 jobs trying to get by (I did too in my 20's) but had forgotten how hard making a living can be, and I never had a family to support! I have Monday and Tuesday off next week and am hoping to get away from both jobs and get the first of the spinach and lettuce planted... But Tuesday will be at least a half day in real estate so we will have to see.

So thanks for that email (lone reader) to get me back in the saddle and once again riding the blogger range!

The Garden Bear is out of his cave

You all know how I detest going to a 9 to 5 job... or should I say a 6 to 3 or a 1 to 10 job... but in this economic climate it is a very wise thing to have a second (read paying) job and I will stay there longer then first thought... a lot longer it looks like. And I like the folks I work with too!

Mr. Grumpy is enjoying this enormously and is now making comments like "let's see how you juggle real estate, Lowe's, and a big garden this year!" And I am wondering that myself... But it is better to have him saying that then the popular comment of January which was "now you know how real people live in the real world"... hmmph, palease... All of you that know and love the Kevbear know that the real world and the Kevbear world only line up in the correct phase once every 10 lunar cycles... or something like that.

So today is Lowe's off day and we ran into town to pickup the pickup which died 4 times when we went to the dump last week. Apparently we need to drive it more then once every 2 months... Mr. Grumpy was happy that 2 of the mechanics there wanted to buy it, saying it was the nicest truck in the most perfect condition they had ever seen. If it is Mr. Grumpy's it is always in perfect condition... except me... I am in mint condition...

Last night I shared with Mr. Grumpy a few things I had been stashing away (read still putting away Christmas stuff) like the seeds for this years garden!
And all the seed starting stuff I have been gathering...


And I finished fertilizing all the trees & shrubs... which I normally do in January but what with 2 jobs.... hmmmm is this a taste of things to come in the garden???

And we (Mr. Grumpy) got the stove pipe cleaned out so there will be no spring chimney fires this year! And I got a spring calf on hold so we are going into raising our own beef (with Brenda & Chas!). Today I got the dormant spray (1st coat) on the fruit trees and the last of the manure on the asparagus.


Now back to the manure piles! Or maybe back to laying on the couch and reading thru my new books... and if I do that then let's talk about peak oil soon, OK? And in the mean time look around the Google (as that idiot calls it) and look up peak oil yourselves...

Sunday blahs

No pics tonight, but there was nothing worth taking a pic of except snow... and I am tired of it. Today we went to the dump, always a thrill and today was more so! Apparently the 4X4 has an electrical system issue and we made it to the dump & back by getting jump started 4 different times, what a joy that was as neither of us had a coat and there was a fair amount of wind chill factor in the air... But at least our next dump run should be when it is much warmer, like March or April.

I got more Christmas stuff put away, there is still more to go... And I am taping all the boxes nice and tight since we are wanting to be someplace warm next Christmas. Mr. Grumpy has December 28th on off. Tomorrow is a 6 AM shift at Lowe's, still cannot figure out why they need someone in a garden center in winter at that hour??? But it means getting off at 3PM which should give me time to put away more Christmas... Fellow staffers are saying there are rumours of layoffs already so I count myself lucky to be fulltime...kinda... By next winter I think those with jobs might be the privaliged few in America. Plant, grow, can.

Shocked Mr. Grumpy today by watching the Superbowl, he had never seen me watch any sporting thang before... I lost all interest when they stopped the locker room interviews, go figure... But we had chips and beer and guac and slasa and pizza and more beer, just regular guys. It was not all that thrilling as both teams were yankees. But it did give me a chance to catch up on some gardening magazines!

On the real estate front both Pam and I wrote offers on Saturday so perhaps next month I will not have to feed the company... it took almost all my Lowe's paycheck on Friday...sigh... And we are getting close(r) to having an actual office!

So it is off to bed for the Kevbear as the alarm is set for 4:00AM... should have checked that lottery ticket today!

OK Already... catching up

I know it has been awhile, but really, I have been working like a dog at Lowe's and have just been exhausted each night. Days have been busy with real estate when I have some time off from the pay the bills job. But I promise to be back to being my old self soon.

So to recap; all the garden seeds are ordered except for the Territorial Seed Company and I am getting ansey for the snow to go away (as we all are!) so I can play in the garden again. Some seeds have arrived and more are coming, I ordered from 4 different companies this year... Now if the snow would just go away!

I really love the snow but the gardening is my stress relief valve and I could use the relief these days! Retail nowadays is nothing like 25 - 30 years ago when I was last at it. The main thing that has me totally out of sorts is the fact that almost every single box that comes into the store says "made in China" on it. Not a good thing for our economy in the long run... Mr. Grumpy still is OK with his statement that I can walk away from Lowe's anytime I want and we will get by OK. And that rebate stimulus check "in the mail" is that a joke or what. I can just see my Buyers saying they now have a down payment!!!
On a brighter note I will shortly have 3 agents at the company and our location should be available to us sometime in Feb. so that has me jazzed. And the website is almost ready to re-appear after the parting with RE/MAX! And on a garden note we awoke the other morning to a present from Max...
Yuppers a big steaming pile of shit in the yard, gotta love that guy (from a gardener's point of view). Max has more if anyone needs a load to start with the spring garden, and his price is reasonable too!

Enough for now, I will be showing houses today, and again next week! Funny thang... I need to sell just 3 houses and I will make what it takes me to make at Lowe's in an entire year. OK time to hit the shower and get back to laundry & KP detail...

Happy New Year!

Here it is the new year and you are all snuggly, hung over and sleepkins. I on the other hand am getting ready to go to work at the new job... Here is how it goes..
Day One... Kevbear is not a morning person...

Kevbear and 100 other drones worked like slaves for 11 hours... Kevbear knew he would hate this... BUT, I like the people there (go figure). At lunch break I was on the phone being a Realtor... Kevbear came home on NEW YEARS EVE, Mr. Grumpy said nice things like "Now you know how real people live" and "Welcome to reality"... lucky for Mr. Grumpy he still is alive this morning... We ate dinner, Mr. Grumpy had champagne (Kevbear did not care), Kevbear was in bed before 9:00 on NEW YEARS EVE! What's up with that... At midnight Kevbears sadistic Mom called yelling HAPPY NEW YEAR into a sleepy Kevbear's ear... Kevbear hates the world this morning... but I think I might live...

I do morning sooo well...
Sue & Dean, sorry we missed your party, I hope you understand...

Home Bear Day

We survived Christmas and the best part was we awoke to snow so I got my white Christmas!
And even though I am not supposed to talk about where I now hang my hat to keep the bills paid, you might get a clue somewhere on this post today...Oh yeah and what a coincidence, I will be in their garden center...
On a down note after my past office was closed my agents went to another company owned office and to spread further holiday cheer they found out they were out a job there too! In just 3 weeks... I should know shortly on office space for ALL STAR REAL ESTATE and be able to offer some a home. I really hate it when people are treated shitty. And they were...
One the second job front I will be starting 2 long weeks of 12 hours days so there might be limited posts here after Monday. BUT the overtime will be great to pay the rent on office space! Gotta go now... new seed catalogues came today... I already placed one order last week (and they already cashed the check) so I know there will be something in the mail soon! And all the asparagus has been ordered so we will have a nice patch after I get this second order planted, it should arrive in April. Since this is a Blog about gardening I figured I ought to mention it every once in awhile... More snow due tonight... YIPPEE (sorry Mr. Grumpy) so I spent the morning splitting and stacking lotsa wood on the porch...
Later Dudes...

A Westie Christmas Storey

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