Slow Start

The new year slid in kind of quietly around here. We stayed home and inside and watched the crazies on TV. The temperature has been above average, in the upper 50s and lower 60s. Linda and Stacey went to Smith's Grove and took Poco and Pico home New Year's Day. They did a little shopping in Bowling Green too. Linda said Pauline and Brent had a pretty good time while they were in IN. Brent told me on the Skype instant messenger, that they "killed" the Highland High School Swim Team during the annual 'Old Timers' swim on New Years Day.
Tuesday
Linda went to work at the school, so Stacey and I went to town to eat lunch and picked up a couple DVDs while we were there. When Linda came home from working, we took the Christmas Tree down and I fixed us some sandwiches while Linda was packing other Christmas decorations away. We watched the movie "Superman Returns" to finish the evening.

Virus Invades?

I've been unable to post any entries lately due to being hit with a seemingly intestinal virus. My symptoms began around 1:30 AM Thursday when I woke feeling like I had heartburn. That soon changed to diarrhea and around 8 AM my body started to purge everything in my stomach and intestines. I experienced severe vomiting for around 6 hours intermixed with diarrhea. I did not eat or drink until Linda came home from school and gave me a couple spoons of ice cream and a small bit of orange juice. It passed through me quickly to say the least. I could not sleep Thursday night for fear of losing control. Friday, my symptoms were a little milder due to nothing left in my body. I could tell that liquid was being drained out of me though, the skin on my limbs became looser and the continued trips to the bathroom were making it quite obvious. Friday evening I thought I felt well enough to go eat. I asked Linda if we could go to Sonic. I wanted something tasty that I didn't have to go inside. She asked Regina to go along. I drove to Columbia and we ate in the truck. I had a hamburger and an order of onion rings with a little bit of a coke. After driving back to the house, I began my uncontrollable trips to the bathroom again, which continued through the night. Linda and Regina made candy. Saturday morning, Linda came down with the same symptoms. Her problems were just like mine, but seemed to alleviate a little sooner. Saturday during the day, I did eat a sandwich of jelly on bread. I've learned to not drink anything in the evening if I plan on sleeping during the night.

Back to Normal

It was a battle for a time, passing the sickness from one family member to another lasted less than a week, but seemed longer. I guess we were lucky, we weren't all sick at once? I went to town and picked up a loaf of bread and sandwiches on Sunday. Stacey became sick shortly after I returned with the sandwiches. Her symptoms only lasted a day. Monday we all began lightly eating again, and Linda fixed a pot of homemade potato soup. We all wanted something that had taste, but not too spicy. It was good and stayed down for everyone. Linda has returned to work at the school today and Stacey and I have been feeling better. Our household is almost back to normal.
 

Jamison Visits

Linda brought her work home from school in the form of a 5 year old named Jamison. Linda has been escorting him around the Cumberland County Grade School most of the time since school began this year. Jamison has to have an aide due to Muscular Dystrophy. His disability isn't severe, but requires help with stairs, carrying food trays, removing clothing and other physically demanding activities. He is able to walk without his walker, but can fall unexpectedly, so those times must be chosen carefully. He is a bright and pleasant boy that is fun to be around. He stayed at our house a little over an hour. His main reason for visiting was to check out the ducks. Linda had mentioned them to him at school and when he arrived, he immediately headed to the back porch to see Bobber and Houdini. Stacey rounded them up and I picked up Houdini. I stuck my finger between her bills to prove they wouldn't hurt him and then let Jamison touch the duck. After petting the ducks for a while we went upstairs and let Jamison play with the Brio Wooden Train set while watching TV until his grandpa came to pick him up.
 

Packing Away Christmas Decorations

Linda had a day off from working at the school, so we used it to put away most of the Christmas decorations. The day was warm, but misting rain off and on. It never rained enough to cause us to stay inside though. Stacey helped by carrying some of the decorations to Linda in the living room so she could pack them away. I helped a little and fixed lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, then later, I also fixed the left over pot roast into BBQ sandwiches. It took Linda a month to get all the decorations out and there are still some Christmas things setting around, but she made a lot of progress.

Peaceful Weekend

Linda and Stacey left early Saturday morning to visit Brent. They took Missy with them. It was quiet around here and I watched the football playoffs. The Colts won their game and then I took a ride in the Mule and checked out the ditches for washed out places and debris. The ditch by the trailer has washed away some of the fill dirt, but nothing serious. I will need to fill it in again and level it as spring gets closer. If I redo it now, there won't be any grass growing to hold the dirt. Everything else looked OK. I went back inside and watched the remainder of the second football game.
Sunday, I continued my football watching with the game that began at noon. At halftime, I went to town and bought two 'mini-cheeseburgers' for Cooter and a sub from Subway for me. Cooter was waiting as I pulled the HHR into the garage. I think he can smell the food as I come up the driveway. He scarfed those down in no time and I went inside and ate my sandwich while watching the second half of the game. New England won that game and will play the Colts next weekend. Linda and Stacey returned around 6 PM and told me about their trip and going to Bowling Green and the shopping they had done. Dang! I missed all that shopping.

Farm History

Since there isn't much happening around the farm now, I've wrote a little about the history of Norris Farm.

My grandparents, Annie and Arnis Norris, purchased the farm we now live on in 1952. There was a house and an older barn at that time. Around 1956, he had another barn built along with a smokehouse with a cellar underneath. I lived with Grandma and Grandpa until I was nearly 6 years old. It was a formative time that I remember fondly. Grandpa worked the fields with mules and never drove. We would hitch hike to town one day a week, always on Saturdays. I would help Grandma make lye soap in a big kettle over at the side of the house and we churned our own milk into butter. We never had running water or indoor plumbing, but we did have a refrigerator. My toys were a tobacco stick, a cane pole and a plastic boat. No bikes, no video, in fact, no TV at all and the radio station went off the air at 6 PM every night. I left it all behind, kicking, screaming and hollering to live in IN. We came back during the summer months and sometimes at holidays. We always returned for funerals too. My Grandma passed away first and left my Grandpa living on the farm.

My Uncle Ed lived at home too after coming home from the Army. The picture below is of Uncle Ed on the left, Grandpa Arnis in the center and my Dad, Delbert on the right.

After my Grandpa passed away, it seemed like we lost interest in coming and didn't have much reason to visit. Later, as I got older, my wife, Linda, and I were living in Indiana along with our two children, Stacey and Brent. We started making trips down here several times a year going to Dale Hollow Lake and stopping to see Uncle Ed. In April of 1994 Uncle Ed passed away and left me the farm.

The picture above was taken the first day the farm was ours. There was junk everywhere we looked. If you look closely, you can see around 30 washers, dryers, stoves and refrigerators laying in the barn lot. Every building had piles of junk and scrap metal inside. It was a massive cleanup job that I could never have finished without a tremendous amount of help from Linda, Brent and Stacey.

Hamilton's Reopens and the News Catches The Bug

Stacey and I went through town today and noticed that Hamilton's BBQ had reopened. We decided to eat there since it had been a couple of months since a fire had caused them to close. We went inside and were greeted warmly, we mentioned that we had missed them being open. We were told they had reopened two weekends ago. Norman said he had done almost all of the reconstruction, but he couldn't do the electrical wiring. There were new tables, chairs, and several other items that were all new. Norman had replaced all the windows in the building, put up some new walls, painted all the existing walls and hung a dropped ceiling. It looked pretty good considering the place had burnt, but the main thing was the food was still good.
Several days ago, I posted about a virus that hit our farm. Well, now the news has began to publish articles about the disease that hit us. It is known as 'norovirus' or the 'stomach flu'.
"Thousands of people have shown up in recent weeks, suffering from an intense gastrointestinal illness. Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea are sending people to their doctors office and the emergency room. And it looks like a norovirus, an intestinal bug that's contagious, is to blame. The virus is contagious. You can become infected from eating food contaminated with the virus, touching a contaminated surface and then putting your hands in your mouth or having direct contact with an infected person. Fortunately the norovirus isn't serious in most people. "Patients will get better in 48 hours, though they may still be infectious for another 72 hours after that." Dr. Conn said. The norovirus is being seen all across the country."
None of us went to the Emergency Room or the doctor, although I would have liked to have had some medicine that would have made me feel better quickly. I didn't think we had the flu because there wasn't any fever or severe headaches that accompanied the symptoms we experienced. If this 'bug' passes your way, be prepared to wear out a path to the bathroom!

Stocking Up Our Grocery Supplies

Stacey, Linda and I loaded in the HHR and headed north on 61 through Columbia and then took 55 to Campbellsville. We stopped and ate lunch at Arby's, then took a lap around the GM Dealership car lot checking out the 2007 vehicles. I stopped and looked at the sticker price of a red 4 door Silverado with a short step-side bed. It read, 'out of my price range'! Of course I don't need a new truck, but it was a sharp one with leather interior and 4 wheel drive, a trailer package and several other options for a total price of over $37,500. We continued over to the Peddler's Mall, now they had some stuff we could afford, but nothing we really needed. Linda looked around in the Dollar Tree, then we bought some items including groceries at Wal-Mart. We loaded our stuff in the HHR and then stopped at Lowe's. We just piddled around in there, looking at new tile, lighting, outdoor fencing, plywood and decking. We left Lowe's, turned back south and drove to Columbia where we stopped for ice cream at Sonic and then finished the trip to home. We unloaded the items we bought and started watching the Pacer game on TV.

Feds fear a dam break in Ky

The following is excerpted from an Associated Press article.

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Fearing a dam break that could cause catastrophic flooding in Kentucky and Tennessee, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began lowering the water level on Lake Cumberland on Monday. The measure was aimed at reducing pressure on the weakened 240-foot-high dam, said Lt. Col. Steven J. Roemhildt, commander of the Corps of Engineers' Nashville office. "We must take this emergency action to reduce risk to the public and to the dam itself," he said in a statement. If the dam, which is nearly a mile long, were to break, flooding in communities downstream along the Cumberland River could kill people and cause an estimated $3.4 billion in damage, Roemhildt said. Cities along the Cumberland include Nashville, Tenn. Corps spokesman Bill Peoples said failure of the dam was not imminent. But he said people should have evacuation plans ready in Nashville and other downstream communities, including Burkesville in Kentucky and Celina, Carthage, Clarksville, Gallatin and Hendersonville in Tennessee. The dam, which has a concrete core surrounded by earth, was built near Jamestown in the early 1950s. The lake it holds back was created as part of a federal plan to control floods along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Roemhildt said water has been seeping under the dam and eroding the limestone on which the concrete rests. He said crews were pumping grout into the ground to counter the erosion. Reducing the water level could have a major ecological and economic effect as well. Roemhildt said people can expect fish kills because of a rise in water temperature, and boats could at marinas could be left high and dry. Kentucky Commerce Secretary George Ward said as many as 90 percent of the launching ramps will be unusable because they won't reach the water's surface.

Wow, that is certainly different than what the ACOE told the residents of Burkesville at the meeting in the high school cafeteria.

Lake Cumberland to be lowered for fear of dam break
By Bill Estep
SOMERSET — The water level in Lake Cumberland will have to be dropped lower than first thought because there is a high risk of failure at Wolf Creek Dam, which impounds the giant lake, a federal agency announced Monday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the dam and lake, announced Monday that it will maintain the lake level at 680 feet above sea level this summer. The normal summer level is 723 feet. The mile-long dam is made up of a traditional concrete structure with a power-generating station and a long earthen embankment. The earthen part, which is about three-quarters of a mile long, is leaking. The Corps announced a $309 million plan last year to pour a new concrete wall inside the dirt portion of the dam to stop the seepage. The agency said at the time that there was only a very small chance of a catastrophic structural failure at the dam. Monday, however, the Corps said more recent studies show a “high level of risk” that the dam will fail. That requires emergency action to take pressure off the dam by lowering the lake level, the Corps said in a news release. The Corps said engineers will constantly monitor the dam, and it might be necessary to lower the level of the lake even more. Bill Peoples, a spokesman for the Corps, said the leak at the dam has not gotten worse. However, the way the Corps evaluates risk has changed, based in part on lessons learned from the failure of levees in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, Peoples said. The Corps had been assessing dam safety nationwide even before Katrina. The study and new method of interpreting risk levels show Wolf Creek is one of the most at-risk Corps dams in the country, Peoples said. The Corps has estimated that if the dam failed, flooding downstream on the Cumberland River, to Nashville and beyond, would cause $3.4 billion in damage. It also would kill people, although Peoples said he could not release the estimated number of deaths. He said that number is small because residents downstream would have time to evacuate. That’s because the fear of a giant wall of water rushing downstream is not accurate. Studies show that in the community closest to the dam, Creelsboro, the river would rise three feet an hour, Peoples said. And the river wouldn’t start rising in Nashville for more than 20 hours, he said. Tourism interests around the lake are concerned that the lower lake level will mean fewer visitors this summer and result in a drop in profits. And many marinas were scrambling Monday to plan the process of moving docks to cope with the lower water level. Some also might have to extend ramps to where the new edge of the water will be. The Corps estimated that the lower lake level will mean a loss of $9.4 million in direct tourism spending in lake counties this summer — including gas purchases at marinas — and a loss of $3.4 million in personal income to tourism-industry employees. The Corps will take emergency steps to pump grout into the dam. It will evaluate that work this fall to see whether that process has boosted the reliability of the dam, and it will use that information to decide on a level for the lake next year. The overall project to put a new concrete wall in the dam will take five to seven years.

Well, that doesn't sound as drastic as the first article.

Bad Timing On My Part

Brent had told Linda he was running a swim meet this coming weekend and he had run one last weekend, so I thought it would be a good time to go to Sam's Club and then eat with Pauline and Brent. We left the farm and drove to Smith's Grove and then to their house. Brent came home a few minutes after we arrived. He called Pauline and they decided we would meet her in Bowling Green at the Santa Fe restaurant. We drove there and Pauline was waiting inside. We were seated and ordered our meals. We chatted and had fun until the orders arrived. They had messed up two or three of our orders. My steak was a 6 oz and should have been a 9 oz. Pauline's steak was supposed to be a Filet, but was a sirloin. Linda's steak was supposed to be med-well done, but was bleeding and making mooing sounds when they set the plate down. Pauline had to send her steak back for more cooking, Linda complained about the doneness of her steak too, and I just ate mine but told the waitress that it was the wrong size. The manager came out, saw what the problem was and said he would take care of it. They finished cooking Pauline's steak, and he told Linda he would adjust the prices accordingly. I didn't say much, I didn't care that much that I had a smaller steak because I didn't want to send it back and wait for another steak to be cooked. I paid the bill after he adjusted the prices and we tipped the waitress and headed to Sam's Club. We really didn't buy that much, it was just a side trip while visiting Pauline and Brent. We paid for our items, loaded them in the car and headed to Pauline and Brent's house. We stayed until almost 10 PM watching the Pacer game, then Stacey, Linda and I headed to Burkesville. As we neared the Columbia exit for 61, I noticed Stacey was taking off her coat. I asked her what was going on and she said she was getting hot and "twitzy". That's what she calls it when she starts having involuntary movements before a seizure. I held her hand and I could feel the jerking beginning, so Linda gave her a Diazapham and we exited the parkway and turned south towards Burkesville on 61. About 15 minutes later, we were almost home and the movements were increasing, so Linda gave Stacey a second tablet. I pulled the HHR in front of the garage, left it running, unloaded Missy and put the ducks inside. Linda and Stacey remained in the car. I got back in the car, closed the garage and we headed to Burkesville and the ER at Cumberland County Hospital. I wheeled Stacey in to the ER and they started checking out her symptoms. Dr Flowers was on duty and he told us to give Stacey another Diazapham while they started an IV in case it was needed later. They admitted Stacey for overnight observation a little after midnight. Stacey was placed in a room and Linda stayed with her, while I returned to the house, unloaded the stuff we bought. I took a short nap and returned to the hospital around 5 AM to relieve Linda. Linda went home to sleep. Dr Rice came in the room about 9:45 and released Stacey to go home. Stacey called Linda and she picked us up and we left the hospital about 10:30 AM.

Closer to Normal

After bringing Stacey home from the hospital Thursday, it was touch and go for a while, we made it till about 3:30 PM, then we needed to give Stacey a Diazapham to stop the involuntary movements again. We followed up with another about 15 minutes later. We gave her a third tablet about 4:50 PM and that seemed to stop all the tremors and twitching. We continued to watch her nervously the rest of the evening and everyone slept lightly except Stacey. Friday was ok, we kept a close eye on Stacey and things went OK. We even went to Albany and ate at Burger King in the evening. Saturday morning everything was going good. Linda fixed us eggs and bacon with a few biscuits for breakfast, but Stacey was as grumpy as I have ever seen her. We couldn't tell if she was feeling bad or it was just the 'hangover' from the medicine. I guess it was the latter, because after about two hours she straightened up and was pleasant to be around. I went down to the hay shed and loaded the Mule with a bed full of wood, drove to the back porch and unloaded it. It filled the wood racks 2/3rds of the way. Back down at the shed, I tried to start the blue Ford tractor, but the battery was low on charge, so I jumped it off of the Mule. Instead of just letting it set there and run, I decided to fill in some holes with dirt. I scooped up a few buckets from the branch between the hay fields and dumped them where they were needed. I noticed Linda and Stacey were riding around in the Mule while I was playing in the dirt. It was a nice day, near 60 degrees and mostly sunny. Stacey felt good enough that we went to town and ate at Hamilton's BBQ. Linda was wanting to taste their stuff again, she missed our trip there the other day when she was working. When we returned to the farm, Stacey watched another Pacer game while Linda and I watched a movie upstairs as dark settled in on the farm. It's heck on our nerves having to watch Stacey constantly and it isn't easy for Stacey either. We're constantly yelling, "Hey are you ok in there?"

Wolf Creek Dam Inundation Map

I had heard that residents were able to examine Wolf Creek Dam Inundation Maps at the Burkesville Town Hall, so I decided to go and take a look. Linda and Stacey didn't want to go, so I drove the HHR in to town and parked at the Burkesville Police Station / Town Hall. I went inside and asked to see the maps. The lady opened a door and turned on the lights in the room and the maps were laying on a table. She simply pointed to the maps and said, 'there they are'. It took a few minutes to figure out what section of the maps I needed to examine, but eventually, I found the one that showed our farm.
 
There were three colors represented on the map, they indicated the water level at various times after the breaching of the dam had occurred. The green color was indicating the worst level of water anticipated during the entire event. Whoops, that's not correct, it was stated on the maps the water level could be 15 feet above or below the estimated levels. Regardless, it looks like our house will be above the worst case water level even if 15 feet is added to the estimated level. That's a minor relief, now we just have to worry about looting and no electricity or water to drink. The road in front of our house would be impassable north and south.
So, to sum it up, no way in or out, no electricity or water for a minimum of two weeks.