But unfortunately cats do have their problems, and that’s what I wanted to talk about today. One of the problems of keeping cats.

It’s the fact that cats love to climb things, and because of this you may well find out that your cat is climbing your curtains. That happened to me and I’ve solved the problem with a simple cat tree.

I suppose it’s instinctive, after all if you think about lions in the wild they climb things all the time. How many pictures have you seen of a lion sitting in a tree.

And cats are just the same. My cat, when he is outside, spends half his time up and down trees. I don’t let him out at night because he climbs trees so well that he’s been known to kill some of the local tree dwelling animals which come out at night.

But either way I suppose cats climb things because that’s what they’ve done for millions of years. And not only do they climb things but they also love to scratch as well. I believe it is to keep their claws sharp so that they can climb better.

And once you’ve had your cat climb the curtains in the lounge room, and tear holes into them, chances are you will need to find an answer.

So I got on the Internet and did a little searching and found that you can find these things called a cat tree. A cat tree is just a simple device that cats can climb, that you keep in a house, so that when your cat feels like climbing things he has his own tree to climb. And you don’t mind a bit, in fact you encourage it.

You can get all sorts of cat trees, from very simple to extremely complex, and of course the price varies accordingly. I bought quite a complicated one and my cat absolutely loves it.

Of course you have to train him to use it. A cat doesn’t automatically know that this strange looking device is there for him. But once you show him how to use it he loves it.

So I still love cats, even though mine destroyed my curtains before I came up with an answer, my cat tree did the trick and now my curtains are fine.

Yes, I get to go away this weekend. I’m really looking forward to it heaps.

I can’t go with my family because they all have some concert to go to that I don’t like particularly so they can’t come and I get to go with a friend.

We are planning to camp this time. I have a great tent, water proof, big enough to be comfortable and its forecast to rain, again, so I may need all of that. I hope it doesnt rain because rain isnt what you need when you go camping, like I’ve said before.

We leave Friday morning at about 4 am. We’re meeting some other people at 8 and it will take about 4 hours to get to where we’re meeting. I don’t really like getting up early, good thing I don’t have to too often, I’ve talked about getting up early before, grrrr.

But it’s not that much of a drama getting up early if you’ve got a holiday to get up for I suppose, you have to give up something. And I’m looking forward to it so it’s not that much of a problem really, I’m just being grouchy.

But my car is very old, I really hope the car makes it ok. It’s not that it’s breaking down all the time or anything, in fact it goes pretty well. But it is old and I just keep my fingers crossed that it makes it there and back.

Saturday is going to be an easy day. Nothing planned at all, just a hang about day to do what you want, when you want. I plan to take my fishing gear along and do some fishing, in fact I bought a new fishing rod this morning. I broke my old fishing rod a while ago which was pretty sad.

I made that fishing rod when I was about 23. I bought the blank and I bought the whipping and rod varnish and all the other bits and pieces that go into making a good fishing rod. I was pretty pleased with myself that I managed to make my own fishing rod and catch fish with it.

Ive used that fishing rod for a lot of years now, and it was a sad day when I broke it. I dont even know how I managed to break it, I was just walking through the trees and suddenly I noticed the tip of the rod broken off hanging in its own. Boy was I pissed off.

It wasnt worth a lot but it was to me, it was mine. I mean I made that rod myself. And I broke it myself. So today I went back to the fishing shop and bought a rod, but it isn’t mine.

And I couldn’t believe. 40 bucks for a new fishing rod. They certainly aren’t expensive now to buy. But the new one isn’t the one I made. I’d rather my old one than a new one, I did love that rod.

They’re probably so cheap now because they’re all made in China like everything else is. Anyway that’s a bit about my forthcoming weekend. I’d like to catch a fish and I hope it doesn’t rain.

If it’s as good as the last one it’ll be hot.

I just like living in the country and I’m happy to say it. I’ve talked about that before on this site I think.

And I love seeing birds too, and one of the best things about living in the country is the birds that live with you.

There’s really a massive number of birds out here, so many you can’t believe there’s so many. Maybe it’s because there’s so many trees out here in the country. The birds live in the trees and pull off the pods from the leaves and eat them, you can see them doing it all day long. They pick them off with their feet and hold them to eat.

Now I have to say that I like birds a lot but I don’t like the damage they do to my trees. They break off so many little branches to get to the pods that under the tree looks like a wasteland. There’s bits of my trees everywhere.

They’re all parrots, and parrots have strong beaks so they can do all this. But on the positive side they have great looking colors and they look great. I get them sitting around the verandah that goes around my house, they sit on the railings and look at me inside. And I love to see them there so I sit really still and watch them. If I sit still they don’t go away.

There’s so many benefits of having parrots around the house that you just have to put up with the damage they do to your trees. I could just run out and shoo them away from the trees but I just put up with it.

Its got to be so much better out here. Ill bet there’s no birds like that in the city. Too many people too scare them off and no trees for them to wreck and eat from.

And of course there’s lots of other animals here too, not just birds. Animals are just as good to have around as birds are. They’re all great to have around my place.

I think it’s good for you having animals and birds around the house. It’s nature and nature is important to me. It’s like life for everything else around us. So give me the birds and animals around me and I love being around nature with birds and animals. I’ve just had one of those colored parrots perch on the veranda right in front of me right now.

Ah, give me the country life, you won’t get me going back to live in the city and time soon.

But now it’s all done, my weekend I mean. And it was a great weekend? I loved it, though getting up quite so early was a little hard. Way too early for me to enjoy.

I got up at around 6 am, really early for me. It was very dark and it felt like the middle of the night. Wow was it hard to get myself out of that bed, but I got out because I knew that I had a good weekend to look forward to, and I did.

I had to get going on time to meet the other people, so I picked up my friend as faast as I could. But it took quite a while to get all his stuff packed into the car, we were stuffing things into every space we could find in the car.

And by the time we got there it was raining which was quite annoying. And we’ve had such good weather over the last few weeks to have it raining the same weekend that I go away is pretty annoying, but there’s nothing you can do about it is there? What can you do about weather really?

And when you’re camping in a tent the last thing you want to have is rain. Rain is the worst thing because when something gets wet it’s wet for the whole time unless it gets warmer again. Luckily the rain was heavy but when we were putting up our tent it eased off a little. Some good luck at least. And it was a long drive in the rain.

And along the way there were new speed limits and so we had to go slower than we would have liked which was annoying.

But if you asked I’d have to say that it was a really good weekend even though it rained quite a lot. I caught a fish which was a big bonus. I’m not the best fisherman although I do like it. And eating fresh fish is so healthy too and fish tastes great.

It was a brilliant weekend.

Just a small aluminum boat, about 10 feet long. Its got its own trailer so I can tow it behind the car, I don’t need to put it on the roof of the car.

Last week was the kids school holidays to I took may family, including my kids, away for a few days. 5 days actually at a small resort about 5 hours drive away. Unfortunately there was a really strong wind and heavy rain when we left and I thought it was going to be a rough drive but the wind dropped and the rain stopped after about an hour, the sun came out and it turned into a pretty nice day.

And it was a really nice resort and the kids loved it a lot. So many things for kids to do there. The killer of a good holiday is bored kids, if you’ve got bored kids then they aren’t happy, and if they aren’t happy you aren’t happy. But here there was so many things to do for the kids and they had a great time.

There really isn’t anything worse than bored kids to kill a good holiday. They get really grumpy and annoy me and as I like to read a book it’s no fun being hassled by bored kids all the time, and they really hassle if they’re bored.

But no bored kids last weekend at all. There was this huge plastic thing that they could jump on and they spent hours jumping up and down on it. How they can be so entertained with something as simple as that is beyond me but they loved it and they had a great time.

And there was this huge tv for them to watch in the games room and every night there was a kids movie to watch so they loved that too, they love movies.

And of course there was a swimming pool. I can’t believe something as simple as a swimming pool keeps kids entertained for so long but it does.

But back to my boat. I took it for several reasons. Firstly because I wanted to take the boat along with us, but also because I wanted to take the kids bikes with us too, and I can’t get both the bikes into the car. But theres no problems getting 2 kids bikes into the boat. Theres stacks of room in there.

So it was really worth taking the boat along. We spent some time on the river putting up and down looking at the scenery and having a good time. We stopped and spent an hour or so having lunch while the kids ate and had a swim. And we got to sit and read a book in the sun on the river bank.

And the small lake was great too. Last summer I bought an inner tube and rope and pulled the kids around with it so I brought it along this time too and they loved it just as much. In fact it was hard to get them off it. They just wanted to spend the day there.

So a boat is a big bonus. Use it to take the bikes along and have the kids entertained along the way. I’m really glad I took the boat with us, it was good to have along.

They’re big yet they’re so gentle. In all the time Ive had cows I’ve never had a bad moment with them. They aren’t aggressive at all and they are even tame enough so that mykids can pat them a little, though they don’t like being patted too much, they tend to pull back when you pat them. Just pull back a little that’s all you need to do.

The best time to pat cows is when you feed them their hay. They just love their hay, and when the grass growth is getting slow because winter is coming you need to supplement their feed with hay or something else like that. I have hay.

Now that means of course  that youre committed to feeding your cows every single day of the year. Once there’s no feed left in the field then they need hay each day without fail. So you cant just go away for a few days and leave them or they starve. So youre committed to feeding cows unless you make other arrangements.

I like to feed the cows too, but I like holidays as well so when I go away I have to make some other arrangements. This is how I do it when I need to.

I have various different fields each fenced off. 7 total. So when I have plenty of grass I lock one up and leave it with the long grass in it. Then when I go away I open the gate to that one and the cows discover that the gate is open and head in there, because they may look slow buy cows aren’t.

The cows aren’t silly, they know that there’s grass in there somewhere when they look through the gate  and see it so once I open the gate they’re right in there as fast as they can.

Then when I come back I send them out of that paddock and back into the one with no grass and I start feeding them their hay again.

Right after breakfast I feed them the hay. They get 1 1/2 bales of hay every day but if it’s too cold I give them 3 bales of hay and they eat the lot. And they’re not silly, they know when feeding time is, they’re waiting right out the front of the shed for their hay, and they love it.

In fact this morning I gave them 3 bales. But it’s getting warmer soon and the grass is beginning to grow and that’s good because I don’t have a lot of hay left any more. But that’s ok because I’ve got more grass coming so I’ll have more hay soon.

But the cows are smiling as the grass is growing and they’re soon to get fat, and they look sleek when they’re fat.

Isn’t writing a lot of fun? I love to write and I’ve done it for a long long time. And I still love to write now, even when I’m older. I remember when I was young and at primary school I wrote so many short stories, I suspect my teacher got bored reading all my stories. And he was amazed that I could write quite so much when I was so young. But I’m not sure that I’m any good at it, I just love it.

I did a university degree when I got older, but it didn’t include any writing, though I wish now it had. If I was young again and going to university over again I’d think about doing some real study about the art of writing. I studied what I needed to to get a good job, I just wish I’d studied what I liked to do.

It’s an interesting question about whether I could ever have become good enough at writing to make a decent living from it. Who knows? But if I had the chance then I should have tried better, after all if you don’t try you never know if you can really do it. I should have tried more.

Writing well can be learned I’m sure of it. It’s a skill, not genetic. It’s not something that you’re born with I’m convinced completely. It’s a skill that anyone, including me, should be able to learn. I think the most important thing is that you enjoy it and if you enjoy it you’ll keep at it till you’ve learned how.

But if you love it then you’ll be happy to write every day, and if you write every day you’ll be getting in so much practice that you’re really bound to get really good at it. So I really feel that the most important thing to getting really good at writing is loving doing it. And just doing it.

So I have this website and this is where I’m going to practice my personal writing. I have it on the internet as it’s a convenient place to have it, but I really don’t intend for lots of people to come along and read it at all.

It’s just about me and what I do each day, so it’s probably pretty boring to others. But if you’re someone reading this then I have at least one other visitor other than me, so thanks for visiting my website and reading about me Stan Heath.

Of course I’ve decided that it’s a perfect day but maybe not everyone would agree. Maybe for some people it’s just a really terrible day. Really really bad. Maybe you’ve had some really bad news or something isn’t working out for you at all or maybe you’re sick, or just feeling  down.

Now of course that’s my own interpretation. For many people today might be a terrible day. Perhaps you’ve just had some bad news for example, or just feel bad. Maybe you’re trying to do something that isn’t working out. Maybe you just don’t feel well.

My point is that everything is subjective and in the mind. What is a great day to me seems obvious, it’s nice. It couldn’t be anything but a good day, for me. But that’s only me. I love the day but if you don’t its a terrible day for you.

Maybe you see terrible things in the day, all bad, darkness, sadness. The best day for me is the worst day for you.

Surely the only explanation is that it’s in our minds, what the day is like. We see the day through the filter of our minds. We don’t see the day, we see what our minds tell us the day is like. We filter the day through our minds and our experiences and that’s what makes a good day for me and a bad day for you.

Its all in our head isn’t it? That has to be true. Our minds tell us whats a good day and whats a bad day, because we filter all our experiences through our brains. Every experience we have is filtered like that.

There’s some of my silly rantings, it means nothing.

I was just thinking about this sort of stuff today, that’s all.

I decided to live in the country. I love living in the country, Ive been here for quite a few years now and I wouldn’t live anywhere in the city again, though that’s where I grew up.

There’s so many things in the country that you just cannot get in the city. For example I love to ride bikes. It keeps me fit, and I know I need to keep fit. It gets me outdoors and I love the outdoors and getting out on the road.

I ride past so many wonderful things, and so many good views. I love to see the cows in the fields and I see sheep and other animals as well. I even have my own cows and they give me calves which is great too, both for selling them and for watching them.

Having cows and calves around just makes me feel good. It makes me love nature, it makes me see the cycles of life, and I really think life is all about cycles.

Its summer right now and its very very hot. We’ve had some really hot days lately. Now of course if I lived in the city it would still be as hot. But here I see the cycle of the seasons so well. I feel more at one with the seasons and with nature now and that feels good. I see the grass grow then die when summer comes, I see the grass regrow and get green again for winter. It see snow and I see drought and I see rain.

All the leaves turn such wonderful colors, and they fall off and they look so good all on the ground around the base of the trees, and the trees drop seeds and new baby trees start to grow underneath them all. I get to see the old and the young, all cycling, all nature.

Nature cycles just like me, and I love to watch it all happening right through the year, winter and summer.

Maybe if I lived in the city I’d have a little garden or maybe a big garden, maybe even no garden. And I might not even have a tree or shrub. Maybe all I’d have is some concrete in my back yard and no more, except a BBQ perhaps. I do love BBQs.

Apart from the temperature I mightn’t even know which season it is.

It’s so sterile in the city and I spent a large part of my life there so I’ve been there. Of course it’s just me that thinks it’s sterile, others don’t  Well not everyone.

My own family still live there now, including my brother. He’s a doctor and he’s single and he like the city so he’s happy with the social life there. He likes all that stuff and so he’s happy living in the city, but I’m not.

I’ve lived in the city for quite a long time, I grew up there and I really feel now like I’ve wasted so many years. Now of course I didn’t waste them I had my time and I lived my life but it feels like wasted time a bit. I should ask my brother if he’d like to live in the country, it would be nice if he lived nearby. But even if I suggested that to him I doubt that he’d move here.

Give me the country any time, give my brother the city, we’re all different.

Cycling is it.

I came to cycling a little while ago. Well no not that long ago actually, considering that Im not young. Like I said, near 50.

I tried swimming but it just never worked for me, I never took to it at all. I just found it really boring stuff and it was a real effort to get up in the morning and go swimming down the pool. You just go up and down and down and up and up and down and a minute feels like an hour or 2.

There’s this black line and you just spend your time watching that line, because of course there’s nothing else to watch other than that black line. Now that’s what I call really boring.

So after trying swimming I knew that wouldnt work for me, though it does for some. I knew I couldnt spend 4 or 5 days a week trying to make myself swim. Because if youre going to keep fit youve got to do it about 4 or 5 days a week or you’re just wasting your time.

And you’ve got to do at least half an hour. Less than that and its a bit of a waste of time really.

So when I decided I didn’t like swimming I really had to find something else. And like swimming I found running pretty boring too so that was out. What to do? Then I thought about cycling.

But I had a problem. I didn’t have a bike. So I wasn’t going to be cycling too far with no bike to ride on. Well actually I did have a bike but it’s really really old and all rusted, so no good. So I had to get hold of a bike and and they aren’t cheap, in fact quite expensive.

But I found out that there was a cycling club near me and they were starting up a new cycling group for recreational riders. The ideal time to buy a bike and take up riding.

So I joined the group and got riding. And I loved it. They did long rides and short rides and I did all of them. But after while I started to get a little frustrated with the speed of the riding.

I’m not exactly young but despite that I really felt that I could ride harder than the recreational group did, that it was a fun social situation but I wanted to get fitter and do a workout and it was too slow for me. So I started riding on my own to get a faster ride in and workout more and start getting fitter.

So after a time riding on my own I found that it was nice to ride hard but a little lonely. I was getting a bit of a workout but on my own. So I made some enquiries and found out that there was a group of cyclists that rode out of town a few days a week that used road bikes and rode hard. It went on sundays and I decided to go along and see what it was like.

But the bike I had was a hybrid, half mountain bike and half road bike and they all rode a good road bike so I would have no chance of keeping up riding my hybrid. So again I was stuck without a bike, or without the right one. But I knew I liked riding now so I bought a road bike and joined the. They’re good riders and sometimes I can’t keep up but mostly I can if I really try.

But unlike the recreational group the Sunday group gives me a hard workout and that’s what I wanted, I’m not complaining at all.

So that’s my cycling. I love it, I ride 4 or 5 times a week and I’m getting fitter.