Perks of the Job....

Gotta be some right?  Spread an orchard with lime the other day and asked the owner if I could steal some apples off his trees, he said go for it, the contract overseas was filled and they weren't allowed to sell them locally due to copyright of the fruit so extras and those not up to overseas standard are left to rot on the trees or feed the birds!  So with an apple junky horse in mind (and the others and the pig and the kid) I grabbed some and with permission went back on the weekend for some more!  So the dehyrdator is running (yes, I bought it so apple junky Smokey could have apples in the off season LMAO) and I have so many apples I thought I'd juice some too as the kid is a juice junky and I make him water that store bought sickly sweet crap down.  So I've just juiced about 20kg of apples to get 10 litres of juice, 6 in the freezer and 4 in the fridge and the kid admits it tastes so much better than the crap from the supermarket.

I feel content with an abundance of food at my place, don't know why, we never were lacking for food as a kid, but my freezer and pantry and spare cupboards are always stuffed to capacity and now the animals have plenty too :) 

Perks for the boy too, he needed another part time job to get some money after he chucked his paper run in end of last year, and the butcher shop hasn't got space for him right now, so he has scored a job washing down our mini spreader trucks if they need it on the weekend, and since he is cheaper than me and does a MUCH better job than I do I anticipate I can talk the boss into giving him more than they had originally thought.  That job has meant he can replace his laptop that he not only broke but broke only half an hour after windows disappeared off it (how many times do you have to tell a child that viruses are real?!) so we went computer shopping for him after we went apple picking yesterday and he is now paying that off to me (it was an interest free deal, only way I ever pay anything off!) 

A nice productive weekend without doing too much at all LOL.

And last but not least, I would be mentioning how it's now still lightish at 5.45pm instead of 5.30pm but there are no horsey chicks around to appreciate it *sigh*  Nearly half way thru winter already!!!  WOOHOO!!!!

Gotta Mention the Good Things!!!!

The boy child has Aspergers so has struggled all his years to control himself around other kids and not be bossy, not just go on and on an on about stuff that interests only him, and his need to correct people all the time.  All completely normal kid things to do right?  But Aspergers kids don't learn how to filter all that easily so at 13 some of his behaviours are as selfish as an 8yr old, but hey, social behaviour is a learned thing, he just needs more help to actually learn it and apply it.

And having a mother who threw her filter away when she entered the work force as a truckie and was already a foul mouthed, sarcastic bitch, Marcus grew up from before age 5 hanging round the trucking yard hearing all that (and stuff I wish he hadn't heard!!!) from the guys working there.  And then came the bullying at school, particularly when he changed schools for year 4.... So I tried to teach an unfiltered child how to use his words instead of hands, feet and objects, but teaching an 8 yr old (who we didn't realise was on the ASD spectrum then) sarcasm possibly wasn't the best way to go, this child has an incredible wit, but now it's an incredibly dry and sarcastic sense of humour, one that GRATES!!!

So him going off to college this year was a blessing as he was heading into a new school where the majority of kids didn't know him or his buttons they could push, it was the chance at a fresh start for him where he could step out of the role he had found himself pushed into.  Of course, this meant he needed to change the way he interacts and REACTS with other kids, so now that he is taking the school bus to and from school, part of the deal is when he gets home before he jumps on his computer he does some chores, veggies for dinner, vacuuming, or something else and he reads a chapter of 'How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing With People' (next on the list is 'How to Win Friends and Influence People') and he is really enjoying the book and it's making sense and we talk about which chapter he read when I get home and talk about how he can apply it at school etc.  Well, altho he still manages to push others buttons enough that they hassle him, and learn his buttons enough to get him to react, he is doing a LOT better at school than he did last year, and better this 2nd term than the first term, he's finally maturing a bit!!!

And he's a great wee helper round home now, actually thinking of other people not just himself, I haven't been able to say this much about Marcus thru the years, but he is a real joy to have around and a great help at home now.  Proud of how he is growing up and that book really is helping.

He's also just picked up some work after being allowed to chuck in his paper run at the end of last year, he's cleaning down our spreader trucks at work when we (the drivers) don't have time to get them cleaned down and today was his first day doing that and he took pride in his work and he did a great job, really proud of how he went today too.  My little boy is finally growing up.

Procrastination finally beaten.....

for ONE thing on the list LOL.  Two years ago Marcus and I took 2 bikes to the beach for a hoon.  Unfortunately it all ended in tears when the clutch fucked out on my mudbug, waaaaaaaay down the beach with an incoming tide and having to push the useless thing back to the vehicle.  Well Marcus had a few wee hissy fits trying to get HIS bike up the beach too and it got laid down in the sand a few times while he was having these hissy fits.  Not a good end to what had been a good day, and then the mudbug broke it's stand in the float coming home and crashed over into Marcus's wee bike which had a grinding noise afterwards in the back end, long story short they both got parked up and forgotten for a while.

Then I got a 2nd motor and clutch off Mal, who'd I'd bought the mudbug off (not that I've done the clutch yet!!!) so they were still sitting there.  About a year ago and boy wanted to ride his bike so he pushed it outside, I kicked it over for him, lo and behold it started but it was pissing fuel out the air filter, so it got parked up again and the carbie ripped off it.  A few months later I mentioned it to Jim (who lives round the corner) and he said bring the carbie round, he'd pull it apart and clean it out (figured it had shit from the beach in it LOL) which it did and I've had that carbie back ready to go back on the bike for at least 6 mths.

Well TODAY, I finally put the carbie back on the bike!!!!  (and in the meantime somehow the grinding back end fixed itself hahaha) it kicked straight over once the fuel was there again and the boychild had a great time ripping round the paddock on it.  It was wonderful to watch and by the way his knees are up around his ears I'm wishing I hadn't procrastinated so long and glad I didn't procrastinate any longer!  He's grown like a weed!!!!

And there were two people out there smiling today, and laughing when the whooping and hollering started, and laughing when he pulled up with mud splattered all over his face.  Good thing is it's back on the road so there'll be plenty more fun to be had for the kid again.  Now, to get the clutch on the mudbug done!!!  Good things take time ;)

But Then There Was a Day to be Remembered....

Teacher's Only Day yesterday for Marcus and after having a day off on Wednesday too with the teachers' strikes, I dragged him into work with me for the day.  Ever since he was 4 he's been spending time in the trucks with me, and every day we used to talk about any and all sorts of things then and in the car for 15 mins morning and night going to work/school.  Since he's been at college he's been on the school bus and at 13 is quite capable of having the odd day at home to sleep in and relax instead of having to get up at sparrow's fart to come with me... So Wednesday he got his sleep in and Friday he came with me, and the radio in the truck wasn't working.  We had the BEST conversations about all sorts of things, starting with kids at school, kids damaging things of others, intentionally or not, and that started us on the legalities of actions, what constitutes a criminal act compared to a civil dispute.  This moved on to murder vs manslaughter, assault vs self defense, use of weapons in all of those things and the main ingredient of them all, intent.

We talked about ego and how it drives people to be more always, how it works, how to work with it or around it.  We talked about our old conversations about ashes in teabags and gingerbread men, yeah, I'll put up those stories another day LOL, inheritances, debts, nutrition and the lack of it and so many other tangents.

All that took us thru till about 1pm LOL.

It was great!  At 3pm I left him at work and he trundled off down to the butcher's shop in Renwick to see about a job and grabbed a couple of hours of computer time in the mealroom till I finished up.  A great day had by all :)

Those days, those moments are worth remembering.