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Posted on Saturday, January 02, 2010
Travelers Return
Stacey and I had fixed lunch and were watching TV when Brent called from
I-65 just south of Louisville. He told Stacey they were about an hour
away from home. They chatted a few minutes about what had happened while
they were in IN, then hung up. Stacey and I put on our shoes, rounded up
the dogs and let them out one last time, then loaded in the HHR and
drove to Smiths Grove to PB&J's house. Linda, Pauline and Brent were
sitting in the living room when Julie met Stacey at the door. She was
surprised to see us since they had only been home about 5 minutes. All
three dogs raced in to the house and jumped on everyone. Stacey and I
received hugs from Julie as she tried telling us what they had done.
Linda and Pauline filled in some of the details, while Brent gave Stacey
two new games for her Wii. Brent also brought us two family service
radios. We stayed for a while and heard about the trip, the party at
Shelly and Jeff's house, and the swimming.
Pauline
and Brent said that Julie had fun playing with Amber and Clayton while
they stayed at Sabra and Jim's place.
Linda
talked about her Mom, seeing Kim & Kenny and also Jane. They all used
one word a lot in their descriptions, "cold". Pauline was ready to fix
supper, so we loaded in the HHR and headed back to the farm. We stopped
in Glasgow at Sonic for a few eats, then back on the Cumberland Parkway.
Stacey used the cell phone and called Jason when we left Glasgow and
talked to him until we exited the parkway near Columbia. We parked in
the garage and went inside, I started the fire in the wood stove again
and listened to some more stories about the trip.
Posted on Monday, January 04, 2010
A Little Accumulation
The weather has went south for the winter. We have temperatures in the
teens at night and this morning the snow was coming down. It was very
light and only snowed for a couple hours. It did accumulate a little as
the ground was cold enough that it didn't melt right away.
Coco
was too little to remember the snow during last winter and today it
seemed as he didn't know what was happening with the snow. He sniffed
around in it until his whiskers were full of snow, then like most small
dogs, he quickly became cold and began holding his foot off the ground.
He then dashed back to the front porch to come inside. By noon, the
clouds had moved on and the sun had melted the snow except in the
shadows of the hills. We're expecting cold temperatures for about
another week.
I've placed a new group of pictures online that
were taken between July and December of 2009. There is a link at the
bottom of the right column on this page or you can click HERE.
Posted on Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Mule Repaired and Back On Duty
Stacey, Linda and I were sitting in the living room playing the Wii when
the phone rang. It was the girl from Rex's Cycle Shop in Columbia. She
said our Kawasaki Mule had been fixed and was ready to be picked up. I
checked with her on the hours they were open and how much the repair
work was costing. I hung up and we quit playing the Wii and drove the
truck to Columbia. I pulled in the back of Rex's lot and hooked up the
trailer that I had left there when I dropped off the Mule. I went inside
and paid the bill, then returned to wait for the service man to drive
the Mule out to the trailer. He pulled it on the trailer and I chained
it down. We left the repair shop and went to Taco Bell for lunch, then
returned to the farm. I unchained the Mule and let the rear gate down,
then Stacey drove the Mule off the trailer.
We
immediately began using it to put things up and haul the chains back to
the equipment shed. Then I backed the trailer in the barn, unhooked the
truck from it and parked the truck in the shed. Stacey drove the Mule
down and picked me up, then we parked it in the garage. Stacey and Linda
helped me put on the windshield. I had to take it off because when you
haul the Mule the force of the 60 mph wind will bust the windshield.
Later in the evening, we went to the Cumberland County basketball game.
Both the girls and boys teams lost to Metcalf County.
Posted on Thursday, January 07, 2010
Snowy Run For Daisy
Around here, Thursday is trash pickup day, so this morning I had to fire
up the Mule and take the trash cans to the side of the road. It was
snowing lightly and there was some accumulation.
After
that chore was finished, since it was snowing and I was already outside,
I loaded Daisy in the back of the Mule and took her down to the creek.
She is very cautious when she has to cross the creek on the ice, even
though the water is only a few inches deep.
After
she was across, it was full speed ahead. Around the fields, back in the
'holler', just a sniffing nearly as fast as she could go. It was like
the snow made it all seem new. I stopped a few times and just listened
to the water trickling in the stream while Daisy explored all sorts of
possible hiding places for wild animals. After she slowed down and came
back to the Mule a few times, I drove back to the creek and Daisy jumped
in the back of the Mule. We crossed the creek and headed up the driveway
to the barn.
Lately,
when it is time for her to return to her barn stall, I've been letting
Daisy out of the Mule without a leash and she has been going in without
any trouble.
Posted on Sunday, January 10, 2010
Sun Comes Out
After several days of cloudy weather with snow flurries, it was nice to
see the sun come out this morning. When I went outside, I could feel the
difference in the temperature too. It was warmer and the snow was
starting to melt. I took a fresh bucket of water to the barn to replace
the bucket of water that was frozen for Daisy. When I opened the door,
she ran out of the stall and jumped in the back of the Mule, eager to
get going.
It
was a lot easier to let her run longer since the temperatures were
higher and the wind was no longer causing a wind chill factor.
Posted on Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Colts Cover-Up
During Linda's trip to IN, Nancy Riddle called Linda and asked her to
buy some material with the Pacer's or Colt's insignias on it. Linda
brought the material back with her when she returned home.
Monday
evening, Nancy and Steve came to our house and Nancy and Linda worked on
the cover-up. After a short delay of not being able to slide the dinning
table apart to put in the extra sections, due to the table sections
being locked together, they were finally able to lay the material out
and start cutting and pinning it together. Steve and I kept the fire
going in the stove while Nancy and Linda worked. Around 9 PM, they
called it a night.
Nancy and Steve returned about 7 PM to finish the
work that had began the previous night. Once again, Nancy and Linda
worked while Steve and I watched TV and burnt wood in the stove. They
finished the project by cutting small slits around the edges and tying
them together, then Nancy and Steve gave the cover-up to Stacey.
Stacey
took the cover-up, thanked them and began using it to cover up while she
watched TV.
Posted on Friday, January 15, 2010
Julie With Us
Thursday afternoon, a Fed Ex truck pulled into the driveway while I was
on the tractor cleaning up the hay fields. Linda met the guy and I
pulled in behind him on the tractor. He set two boxes off his truck and
carried them into the garage. I looked at the boxes and they were from
Dell. I said that I wasn't expecting those until near the end of the
month. He joked that he could keep them until then, if I didn't want
them now. Then he asked about the pin ball machine and said he buys them
and makes repairs, then sells them. He wouldn't make an offer and Linda
wouldn't give a price, so he left.
Friday morning we ate a sausage
biscuit and then left for Smith's Grove in the HHR. A little over an
hour later we picked up Julie at her sitter's house. Julie came out
giggling and yelling about seeing us from inside the house. She climbed
in her car seat and Stacey strapped her down, then we headed to Bowling
Green. We stopped at Granny's Attic and looked through their stuff, then
over to Hobby Lobby. Our next stop was the mall, where we ate lunch,
then to Aldi's and finally Sam's Club. We bought groceries and headed
back home. Stacey read books to Julie the entire time it took us to ride
back to the farm. Once we had carried in the groceries, we put on
sweatshirts and Stacey drove the Mule down to the barn. Julie yelled,
"Turn Daisy loose!" as Stacey let the dog out of the stall. Daisy made
two quick laps around the Mule, then jumped in the back. We went across
the creek and let her run around the fields as Julie was talking and
pointing out where Daisy was going. Julie noticed that the creek was
frozen and I told her that the water was cold and Daisy didn't like
crossing the ice. We stopped at the corner of the field, Daisy jumped in
the back and we took her up the hill to the barn. We noticed that Daisy
had rolled in the dirt and was filthy, but it was too cold to give her a
bath, so we put her in the stall, gave her food and a dog biscuit, then
went inside. Julie played in the living room while we watched some of
the Pacer basketball game on TV. After Julie went to bed, I went back to
working on setting up the new Dell computer. It has Windows 7® as the
operating system and it seems really easy to use.
Posted on Sunday, January 17, 2010
Deer Miss
Sunday morning, we had a sausage biscuit for breakfast while I was 'chatting' with Brent and then Pauline. We were lining out what time we would take Julie home. Pauline wanted us to come over early and then go out to eat with them, so we quickly dressed and headed on over to their house. I had to fill the HHR with gas, so we went through Burkesville and took Highway 90 towards Glasgow. It was raining lightly and traffic wasn't too bad, so we were running a little less than 60 mph. Things went normally until we neared Glasgow and headed down the last small hill right before the place that has all the out door furniture. I noticed off to the right three deer running towards the highway. I hit the brakes almost as hard as I could and the ABS kicked in and started the cycling on and off to keep our car from skidding. One large deer went across in front of us with a second deer following right behind. The deer were only about 10 feet from the front of the HHR. Someone in a pickup truck coming from the opposite direction hadn't seen the deer. The first deer made it across, but the truck hit the second deer. Pieces of the truck flew off and we could hear the smack when the collision occurred The second deer tumbled and fell into the ditch. The third deer remained on the side of the road and didn't run into traffic. We slowly continued on as I watched what happened in our rear view mirror. The truck pulled off to the side of the road and the guy jumped out and looked at the damage the collision with the deer had caused. The deer had came out from between houses in a residential area and it surprised me to see them in that area. We continued on our way and arrived at PB&J's house. Coco was the first one out, then Julie, Stacey, Linda and me. Brent met Julie at the door and grabbed her up. Next was Pauline's turn. Afterwards, we went to Bowling Green for lunch at Puerto Vallarta Mexican Restaurant. Once we ate and returned to PB&J's house, we sat and talked and helped Pauline get things ready for her trip to the hospital to deliver their new baby. Pauline said she was ready to go right then, didn't know how she could wait the two weeks the doctor says it will be before they do the c-section. We left for the farm before dark and had a calm safe ride home.
Posted on Friday, January 22, 2010
Family Visits
PB&J came over around 7 PM. We sat in the living room for while and
caught up on what had been happening with everyone, then Julie pulled
the Wii Fit board out from under the couch to get things started. Brent
started the Wii up and turned on a boxing game for Julie. She stood on
the platform and used the controllers to punch the opponent.
After
Julie got tired, Brent took over and was doing the ski jump game which
made Stacey come out of the bedroom where she had been watching a Pacer
game. Brent and Stacey played several games until we decided to bowl.
Then the rest of us took turns rolling a game before going to bed.
Posted on Sunday, January 24, 2010
Nothing Much
With Pauline almost ready to deliver their baby, we hadn't planned on
doing much this weekend. That fit everyone's agenda fairly well. Linda
fixed some cinnamon twists for breakfast and Brent helped me switch a
computer from one location to another while it warmed up outside.
Everyone was wanting to get outside since we had been house bound by the
cold weather recently, so we walked around a little, let Daisy out, but
kept her on a leash with the small dogs running along as we looked
around. We put Daisy back in the barn and the little dogs in the house
and went down to the pole barn. I mentioned that since it was warmer, it
would be a good time to start all the old cars. Linda fired up her 97
Mustang first, then Brent popped off the TR-3 while Linda started the 65
Mustang. We let them run a few minutes then shut them all off and hooked
the float chargers back up to each one. We also changed a tie down rope
on the old cover on the Sea Ray. We had to attach it to the old rope and
pull the new rope through the edges of the cover until it went all the
way around the boat. We finished that by melting the ends of the rope so
they wouldn't fray out. We had the doors open on the barn and someone
moved over to the fire pit and started throwing sticks into the pit. I
told Linda we should burn some of the scraps of old barn siding we had
left from doing the 'club house'. That was right down Brent's alley, he
quickly had a fire going and we spent an hour or two burning sticks and
sitting around watching it burn. Julie and Stacey were getting hungry by
then, so Brent drove us over to Albany to eat, then we came back to the
farm and went back down to the fire pit We stayed down there until
almost dark. After supper and taking some cold medicine, I went to bed
early.
This morning was rainy and we stayed inside the entire day.
Steve and Nancy dropped by to see Julie before PB&J went home about 2:30
PM.
Posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2010
UK Fleece Blanket For Sale to Benefit Charity
Nancy and Steve came to visit, eat chili with us and make another
blanket. This time Linda had bought material with the University of
Kentucky logo on it and they are going to sell it to benefit the local
Relay for Life charity.
The
blanket is made of two pieces of fleece and the finished size is 68" by
52" not including the fringe.
The finished UK fleece blanket can
be viewed at First & Farmers' Bank in Burkesville.
First $100
donation to the Relay For Life charity at the bank takes this item home
or readers outside this area can buy the blanket by sending me an email
to make the arrangements.
Posted on Friday, January 29, 2010
Are We Ready?
We have stocked up on milk and bread, filled the wood racks on the back porch, gassed up the vehicles and parked the 4 wheel drive pickup truck in the garage. We're as ready as we can be for the winter storm that has been forecast for three days. We are supposed to receive rain, freezing rain, sleet and anywhere from 5 to 9 inches of snow today and tonight. Every school in middle TN and southern KY has already closed.
Snow It Begins
We went and ate lunch and returned to the farm. About 3 PM the snow
began dropping lightly. We wanted to take Daisy some food and pick up
the kerosene heater from the pole barn in case the freezing rain that is
supposed to happen would cause the power to go off. We dressed warmly
and fired up the Mule in the garage and headed down to the barn. Linda
let Daisy out of her stall and she made laps around the Mule until we
opened the tail gate so she could jump in.
We
took her for a short run around the fields, then returned her to the
stall, gave her food and made sure her water wasn't frozen. We went to
the pole barn and retrieved the heater and the 5 gallon plastic can of
kerosene. I pulled the Mule back into the garage and Linda shut the
door. Later in the evening, a Pacer game was about to start on TV, so I
asked Stacey if Jason would want to come over and watch it with her. She
said that he probably would, so Linda called Stephanie and made the
arrangements for me to drive over to their house and pick up Jason. The
roads were getting to be snow covered as I went to pick him up. We
returned to the farm and Stacey and Jason watched the Pacers play the
Cavaliers. The Cavs are Jason's favorite NBA team and they beat the
Pacers. After the game, Stacey and Jason played the Wii for a while.
They bowled and then drove in the NASCAR Cart racing game.
It
was after 9 PM when I said I had better take him back to his house. The
roads were completely snow covered as we drove to town and made the turn
on 90. I dropped Jason off and returned to the farm as the snow was
coming down harder.
Posted on Saturday, January 30, 2010
Snowy Trip
Yep, you can tell by the pictures that the snow did fall. We didn't get
a massive amount, but there was at least 5 inches when I went outside. I
like to go out early before the wind begins to blow or the sun begins to
melt the snow that hangs on the trees, so a little before 8 AM I opened
the garage door and backed the Mule out. I pulled to the barn and let
Daisy go with me.
After
returning Daisy to the barn, I went inside and instant messaged with
Brent to make sure we were still supposed to pick up Julie. We were, so
the girls dressed and we left for PB&J's house in the red truck. We
drove the truck because the roads were a mess and it was 4 wheel drive.
There hadn't been much plowing done overnight and we had to pick our way
though the narrow places that had snow drifted over the roadway. When we
reached the Cumberland Parkway, the entrance ramps hadn't been plowed
and I couldn't tell where to turn. I slowly drove over one of the
medians, but returned to the roadway quickly without any real problems.
The parkway had one lane clear and some snowy places in the fast lane.
We stopped in Glasgow to pick up some sandwiches to eat with Pauline and
Julie, then drove on over to their house. Pauline said that Brent had
left about 20 minutes before we arrived. He was working a swim meet for
Coach Powell at WKU. We hugged and got hugs from Julie, then ate our
lunch and talked for the rest of the afternoon while watching Julie and
TV. Brent returned around 4:30 to take Pauline with him to the swim
banquet and we loaded up Julie's things and left with Julie. She is
staying with us this weekend and then we are taking her to the Medical
Center on Tuesday to see her new brother after Pauline has a c-section
delivery. The plan is to then return to the farm with Julie staying with
us until Pauline is ready to leave the hospital, then we will take Julie
to the hospital again and let her ride home with her family when Pauline
and the baby are released.
Posted on Sunday, January 31, 2010
Blinding White
This morning the sun came out and the sky was clear. It made for nice
pictures, but was blinding to the eye.
After
a ride around the farm for a few pictures, I parked the Mule in the
equipment shed and tried starting the tractor. It wound over but
wouldn't start, so I went to the pole barn and picked up the battery
charger/booster that also can be used to jump start vehicles. I returned
to the shed and hooked it to the tractor, let it charge a few minutes,
then set it to boost. The tractor started up after winding over a few
times. I turned off the booster and unhooked it, then backed the tractor
out of the shed. I put it in 4 wheel drive and turned the scoop down to
use as a grader blade. I shoved off the driveway at our house, then did
a few of the neighbors' drives. I think by shoving off most of the snow,
the sun will melt most of what was left. When I finished the last
driveway, I found Linda and Julie outside playing in the snow. I gave
them a ride up the hill in the scoop, then I put the tractor back in the
shed and hooked up the float charger to keep the battery fully charged,
then returned the battery charger/booster to the pole barn. On the way
back up the driveway I took a picture of our house.
While
Linda had been outside with Julie, they had made a snowman and shoveled
the walkway.
