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Posted on Friday, January 02, 2009
Odds and Ends
One of the readers of our blog, Clayton Melton, sent us two bottles of pure maple syrup and we had that on the pancakes Linda fixed the morning she left with PB&J. It was thinner than the syrup we normally buy, but very good. I liked the taste and without any additives, it is probably better for us. Stacey and I have been letting the dogs out quite often to prevent accidents from happening in the house. There have still been some 'spills' occurring, but overall, they're doing fairly well. No dogs have been injured or left outside. We did have one near disaster with Coco. I went outside to get the Mule and I let Daisy out of the barn, Stacey was putting on her shoes and when she came outside, Coco ran out too. Daisy was right there looking at him barking at her. I yelled at Daisy and she came back to the Mule and Stacey put Coco back inside. We then rode down the road and let Daisy run around the hay fields. I have also finished splitting the wood and then helped Stacey finish stacking it in the wood shed. We hooked the splitter to the back of the Mule and towed it down to Steve Riddle's house so he could split what wood he had cut. Steve came out and talked with us as I unhooked the log splitter. Nancy gave Stacey and I a loaf of home made bread that we have been eating. I ate a few pieces with the apple butter that Nancy gave us before Christmas. That makes a tasty snack. The little dogs have calmed down and are getting used to the routine without PB&J. Coco has become a watchdog and barks at anything he hears unusual since there was a neighbor's dog outside a few nights ago.
Posted on Saturday, January 03, 2009
Travelers Return
Pauline, Brent, Julie and Linda returned from their IN visit about 4:30 PM. They carried in a lot of stuff that they had brought back with them. After petting their dogs and a little talking, we ate, then played a few games of dominoes and PB&J carried their stuff out to their car and left for their house in Smith's Grove around 8:30 PM.
Posted on Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Rainy Day
Rain began yesterday and continued through the night and this morning.
There was a slight break with just a mist falling, so I decided to take
the Mule and Daisy and cruise around the farm. The creek was still
crossable around 10:30 AM, but I kept Daisy in the back of the Mule
until we were across the flowing water. I let her out and then headed
around the fields. I took a few pictures of the old barns and the water
running out of the 'hollers'.
There
isn't a lot of color in the woods now, but I still like to ride around
and see how the water flows. Daisy and I were out for about a half hour
and then I fed her and gave her a bucket of fresh water. Linda went to
work at the day care, then returned and the rain continued all day.
Right before dark, the creek water was too high to cross, but not out of
the banks. After looking at the radar, I believe we will be having rain
fall all night.
Posted on Friday, January 09, 2009
Cumberland County High School Homecoming
Stephanie, Tommy and Jason picked Stacey up and went to eat before going
to the basketball game at the high school. Linda and I arrived a little
later after Linda had finished working. We found Jason and Stacey
setting near the top of the gym.
The
gym was fairly full because it was Cumberland County's Homecoming. We
watched the first game between the boys from Russell County and
Cumberland County. The CC Boys did OK until near the end of the game
when their offense failed to make some key buckets and they fell behind
to end up losing by about 10 points after several trips to the foul line
for the Russell County team.
After
the boys game, it was time for the Homecoming activities to be held.
There had been three representatives from each class elected and they
were announced along with their escorts and made their way to the center
court area, then moved to their respective positions as the other
contestants were announced. Once all the girls and their escorts had
walked in and their school activities were announced, a single winning
representative for each class was chosen and moved to the center court.
Brianna
Groce was then announced as the Cumberland County Homecoming Queen for
2009.
After the Homecoming ceremonies were completed the Cumberland
County girls played the Russell County girls. CC girls started quickly
and developed a 10 point lead in the first quarter, but by half time the
score had evened to a tie.
The
CC girls fell behind at the end of the third quarter and were able to
pull back closely at the end of the game, but lost.
Posted on Sunday, January 11, 2009
Coco
The little brown dog
we bought a few months back and named Coco is growing and developing
a personality. He is part Yorkie and part Chihuahua which makes him
really active and have an inquisitive mind. Coco was born on September
28th and has progressed nicely. We did have to worm him every two weeks
for six weeks with a liquid medicine, but that is fairly common in pups.
He makes every step that Linda makes through the house and constantly
monitors who's in the kitchen. Coco is playful and friendly and he loves
to fetch the dog toys we throw around the living room. It's the taking
the toys away from him when he returns that gets me in trouble because
he bites a little too hard with those razor sharp puppy teeth.
If
he ever grows into his ears...
Posted on Tuesday, January 13, 2009
DirecTV Problems
Last week we had two days of soaking rain and as it was coming to an end, our DirecTV started messing up. We would be watching and then the screen would go black and we would only see a message saying, "Searching for satellite". After a few minutes the channel would resume it's normal programing. As the week went on, the intermittent signal was getting worse. I began by checking the dish, then the signal strength and moved to tightening the cables on the receivers and at the dish. Things weren't getting better. Friday, I took a shovel and dug up the cable from the dish to the house, only about two feet of digging. I checked the connections and they were bad. The coaxial cable ends were wet and black. I went and purchased new cables and put them on two new male to male connectors. Still no better results. I went into the attic and tightened the cable ends on the multi-switch and that didn't help. All of this happened over a two day time period. I had reached the end of what I knew to do to fix the problem. Our dual tuner DVR and the single tuner receiver in the bedroom were both getting no signal on the odd number transponders from the satellite. I read the forum on the DirecTV web site and had tried everything they recommended, so I called and scheduled a service call. The operator said it would be $49.95 for a service call. I said to send them out. She made the appointment for Tuesday from 8 AM till noon. Skip ahead to Tuesday morning... a call from DirecTV said the service tech would be a little late, but he would call before he arrived. OK, he called about 12:15 and stated he would be there in about 15 minutes. They drove by the house and then returned and I flagged them down and showed them where the house was located. They used their meters hooked to the cable from the dish and then began by realigning the satellite dish, replacing the LNB, replacing the cable ends and connectors with waterproof connections, then going in the attic and replacing the multi-switch. After about a hour and a half of work, the signal was finally strong and all our channels were once again coming in clear and steady. I signed the paper work and he called and had the operator mark the call as done, she spoke with me and asked how the tech had done his job and if I had any questions or comments. Then they were gone and we were able to watch TV normally again.
Posted on Saturday, January 17, 2009
Cold Weather
Thursday, Thursday night, and Friday were really cold. The high
temperature for those two days were in the upper teens and the low was
in the lower single digits. Thursday we had about a 20 mph wind along
with the cold temperatures and water in the creeks and ponds froze. I
know these temperatures are not as bad as up north, but the TV
weathermen were saying that is was the coldest weather in a decade in
these parts of the country.
After
I took Daisy out for a quick run, Stacey, Linda and I went up on Jone's
Ridge to Bonnie and Henry Hollies place. Bonnie was having a surprise
birthday party for Henry and had invited us. Linda made a vegetable beef
stew in the crock pot and we took it for the pitch in dinner. There were
a lot of people and plenty of food inside the garage. They had propane
heaters burning to keep the place warm and comfortable.
Posted on Monday, January 19, 2009
Light Snow
We woke to a light snow on the ground this morning. There were still a
few flakes falling as Stacey, Linda and I ate honey buns for breakfast,
but by the time Stacey and I were ready to take Daisy on a run, the snow
had stopped. In the picture, Stacey is wearing a gift for her from a
friend of ours, Chuck Anderson. It is a brand new Pacer jacket he sent
to her in the mail. Thanks, Chuck! You should be receiving a thank you
card from Stacey, it is already in the mail.
Cold
water doesn't seem to bother Daisy, she will wade in it even when there
is ice on the top. She is a lot more carefull when crossing the creek on
ice though. After we returned Daisy to the barn and gave her food, we
loaded the Mule with wood and hauled it to the back porch. Linda then
came out and unloaded the wood and stacked it in the racks. The snow was
all gone by the afternoon. Regina had been having trouble getting wood
moved from her shed to her house. She had been using her riding mower
with a cart behind it to haul the wood, but the mower wouldn't start
because it had been too cold and it also had a flat tire. We bought her
a float charger when we were at Harbour Freight the other day. This
afternoon, I took jumper cables and used the Mule to start the mower and
an air tank to air up the tire. Linda and her then hauled a load of wood
while I went and hooked up the log splitter to the Mule and pulled it
back to Regina's shed. Linda passed the wood out of the shed to me and I
split it while Regina stacked it near the front of the building. We
finished the splitting and I showed Regina how to hook up the float
charger. Then we put our stuff back in the equipment shed and went
inside.
Posted on Friday, January 23, 2009
Two Days
We have had really warm weather Thursday and Friday. The temperature was 62 degrees today. It felt like spring was in the air. We went to town without any jackets and later, I used the tractor to smooth out the path at the edge of the hay field just to have a reason to get outside. I noticed the neighbor was having some bulldozer work done as the ground has dried up. The dozer was leveling the dirt and filling in the trenches that were left from digging their laterals. PB&J came over late in the evening to stay with us this weekend.
Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2009
Weekend
Pauline, Brent and Julie spent the weekend with us. The weather was
colder and we stayed inside most of the time.
Pauline
was working on a quilt for their friends and Stacey was using her iMac
to check on how the Pacer game had went, but Julie was the center of our
attention as Brent gave her a bath in the tub. She has learned to speak
more words and knows when to use them correctly. Probably the one she
uses the most is "no". We went outside a short while Saturday to let
Daisy run and Julie watched while riding in the Mule. Sunday, all of us
walked the little dogs to the pond and down to the creek. Several parts
of the creek were frozen and the little dogs could walk on the ice, but
it wasn't solid enough for us to walk on. Linda, Pauline and Stacey took
turns cooking during the weekend. Late Sunday afternoon, Nancy and Steve
stopped by to give Pauline the recipe and a start for a fruit cake that
takes about a month to prepare to bake. Pauline's dad had really liked
the cake that Nancy had gave us at Christmas and he wanted Pauline to
try making one. Nancy and Steve also gave Julie a small Care Bear before
they left to water their cows. PB&J headed home about a half hour later.
Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Freezing Rain
The rain started falling Monday night and by this morning it was a
freezing rain. School had been called off by 6 AM and the trees were
hanging a little low with ice accumulations by daylight. The roads were
in good shape as the highway department had sprayed them yesterday
afternoon with chemicals to prevent icing.
The
pictures show a light gray color in the tree tops, which was ice hanging
on the limbs near the top of the hills. The creek was nearly out of it's
banks and flowing fairly fast, so I didn't cross it with the Mule. While
I was out, I fed Daisy and went to the store for the usual milk and
bread. To my surprise, there were still plenty of both items on the
shelves, but the town was mostly empty of people. In the car I listened
to the radio and there were reports of power outages from downed power
lines about 10 miles to the north of the farm in Adair County. It seems
most of the ice storm went to the north of our area.
Posted on Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Rain Turns To Snow
School was canceled again today and the rain gradually turned to snow
shortly after daybreak. The creek was out of it's banks for about an
hour and then returned to not flowing as fast. The water was muddy
looking as everything else was black and white.
All
of the precipitation ended before 11 AM and the temperature began
dropping. It is supposed to be in the mid 20s for a high the next few
days.
Posted on Friday, January 30, 2009
Ralphie May Concert
Brent had ordered tickets for a Ralphie May concert in Glasgow at the
Plaza Theatre. He had purchased enough tickets for Stacey, Linda and I
to go with Pauline and him, so we had made plans to meet them in Glasgow
at Mancino's Restaurant We were a little early and they were a little
late, but we had enough time to order and eat before driving into the
Courthouse Square and parking for a short walk to the show. We went to
the "will call" window and Brent picked up the tickets and we were
seated without waiting in line. The seats were in the third row from the
stage and in the middle of the theatre.
They
were great seats and we were just a few minutes away from show time. The
theatre manager made a few announcements and reminded everyone about the
exits in case of fire and then introduced Ralphie May.
Ralphie
came on stage and the crowd reacted with loud applause. He told stories
about every type of people, religion, and sexual orientation in a funny
way. Not really mean stuff, just funny. Ralphie was on stage doing his
routine for over two hours and everyone was very entertained and
appreciative when he finally said good night. He went to the entrance
area and signed autographs and took pictures with people as his
merchandise was being sold. Ralphie was a lot funnier in person than on
Comedy Central. He also used a lot more adult humor in his act. Beware
if you plan on seeing him in person, it isn't for kids!
