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Posted on Sunday, May 01, 2005
Busy Weekend
Shelly and Imon stayed Saturday night and we got up early Sunday
morning, had omletes for breakfast and we told Imon he had to stay until
we all ate lunch. He was OK with that, so we got on the 4-wheelers and
took a ride. We went back in the holler and then headed down the creek
to go around the hay fields. We stopped where we are going to grow the
mums and then went for a longer ride out Jone's Ridge. We went past the
sawmill and down Beech Branch to the river. We came back and Linda
started fixing lunch. After lunch we talked a while longer and about
2:30 Shelly and Imon loaded up his Corvette and headed for home.
Shortly after they left Pauline and her mom, Dorothy, came over. They had been
to see Pauline's sister, Beth, and Dorothy's family in Monticello.
Dorothy took the quick trip thru the house and looked around outside
before heading on home to Morgantown. Pauline stayed to ride home with
Brent and Pico. They left about an hour later.
Shelly sent us an
email stating they had a good time and made it home OK and we sent her
an email with the picture I had taken.
Posted on Monday, May 02, 2005
A Stinking Day
I started my day about 9, going outside and heading over to the hay shed
to get the big tractor. As I got closer to the shed I noticed a strong
smell of skunk. I looked around to see if one was actually in the hay
shed with me, the odor was that strong. Thankfully, there wasn't a skunk
in there. I started the tractor and went across the creek to use the
scoop to push the debris at the edge of the hay field back into the
creek from where it had came. We had 3 inches of rain Saturday night and
this was the first time I had been able to push the sticks and limbs out
of the hay. I finished that, and took the tractor back to the shed. I
started the little tractor and went over the debris area with the bush
hog to chop up the stuff the scoop had missed.
After finishing with
the bush hogging, I went to the shed and began to mow the yard at the
little house. Once again, I noticed the strong smell of skunk, but all
the time I was mowing I never saw one, but the smell was all around the
little house and hay shed.
After lunch and more toward evening I told
Linda I was going down and bush hog around Regina's old place. Linda
came down when I was almost done, and she wanted to go back in the
holler and dig some wild flowers, so I went back there and bush hogged
on the way back and made the trail wider by also bush hogging while
coming back out. We headed back to the house, and I put the tractor in
the lower barn. I started the 4-wheeler and headed up to the house. As I
was crossing the road into the drive, I noticed something moving in the
hallway of the upper barn. At first, I thought it was a snake, I could
only see a little bit of black, but as I got close, it became apparent
it was a skunk. It was headed into the barn, so I gave it a wide berth
and went up the side of driveway making sure to not get too close to the
barn. I went inside the house and got Brent's rifle with a scope on it,
I came back out and the skunk was outside the barn. I waited until it
moved far enough away from our truck so it wouldn't spray the truck.
Then I shot the skunk. One shot had dropped the skunk, but I took
another to make sure it died quickly. Of course the skunk sprayed one
last time and the odor was extremely strong, worse than earlier in the
day. I left it lay and will remove it tomorrow if something doesn't
carry the carcass off tonight.
Posted on Tuesday, May 03, 2005
I've got gas
Well, the skunk was still laying outside when I went out this morning. I
went back inside, picked up a paper grocery bag and a shovel. I took the
shovel and picked up the skunk, then dropped it inside the paper bag. I
jumped on the 4-wheeler and took the paper bag to the other end of the
farm and tossed it in the weeds. We won't be able to smell it any more.
We went to the video shack and rented some DVDs today and on the way home we
stopped and ate lunch. We came on home and I started mowing the
hillside, but trouble hit. The transaxle in the mower has tore up,
making loud noises and not pulling the tractor correctly. I call the
John Deere dealship in Glasgow for a service appointment. Later the
truck from Newcomb Oil Company delivered the gas I had ordered. They
pumped in 150 gallons. The cost was $310.35, which was $2.069 per gallon.
Posted on Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Glasgow Trip
We had a busy day ahead of us, so we started early. Linda went to Dr
Rice's office to get her stitches removed. When she came home, we hooked
up the red trailer and put the small mower inside to take to the John
Deere dealer for repairs. I had phoned Rite Aid to renew Stacey's
prescription, so we stopped there after taking the DVDs back to the
video store. Then on to Glasgow for a tank of gas and to check out the
prices for mulch for the flower beds. I stopped at the JD dealer and
unloaded the mower. When I talked to the service manager, he said it
sounded like the transaxle was messed up and it would probably be better
to simply remove the old one and replace it with a new one, at a cost of
$553 for just the transaxle, not including labor. Whew, that was a bunch
of money, so I asked how much they would give me as a trade in for a new
mower. The salesman made a couple of calls and came back with a figure
of $200. I laughed and said I would rather throw the mower in the trash
than take $200 for it. He said it was worth about $1,000 but there were
$750 worth of repairs needed. I went and told the service manager to
tear it apart and give me a call about what they found wrong.
The
next stop was Captain D's for lunch and then over to Lowe's for some
mulch. We bought flowers and 30 bags of mulch. They set the pallet of
mulch in the red trailer with a fork truck. Linda had me stop for a few
minutes at the K-Mart and we headed on home.
We drove home and then
started spreading the mulch in the flower beds at the front of the
house. It made the flowers standout and should keep the weeds down too.
Posted on Friday, May 06, 2005
Taking it easy
We finished the mulch around the house yesterday evening.
Linda left
early for Bowling Green. She is helping Brenda at WEMS with a school
dance and then staying the night with Pauline and Brent.
Stacey and I
were left here to take care of the ducks, Missy and Cooter. Not a
problem, the ducks laid their two eggs and we let them loose. Missy and
Cooter both had food left, so not much to do for them. I did give Cooter
a 1/2 Milkbone bisquits, he grabbed it and headed to the grass to chew
it up. Stacey and I went to the store for a loaf of bread and we rode
around town a little. We took Missy with us for a ride. The highway
department was grading the edge of the road along 61 and they did the
side in front of our house too. It makes a mess, dust flies every time a
truck drives by now. It took a crew of 7 guys and 7 pieces of equipment
to accomplish the job. After they finished, we took a 4-wheeler ride
down by the road to see what they had done, and how big a mess they
made. Later in the evening we watched a NBA game with the Bulls playing
against the Wizards.Washington won the game.
Posted on Sunday, May 08, 2005
Linda is Back
Linda stayed Friday night and most of Saturday in Bowling Green and at
Pauline and Brent's house. She came home Saturday evening and we watched
the Pacers beat Boston in game 7 of their series. The Pacers move to the
next round to play against the Detroit Pistons.
Sunday morning was a
slow starter, so I went down and disked the garden patch in the lot
where we are going to grow the mums. I went back and bush hogged the
grass there a little later in the day. I came home and drank a glass of
tea, watched a little TV and looked for Stacey and Linda. I saw Cooter
hanging around in front of Regina's house, so I figured they were
inside. Regina came out and asked me to come in and have a sandwich, she
continued asking, so I went in and ate 2 sloppy joes. Linda and Stacey
had already ate. I stayed and talked a while and then headed out. I
later went and bush hogged the hillside at the mouth of the holler
behind the trailer. I was trying to get my bush hogging done while I'm
without a mower. Then when I get the mower back, maybe I can get caught
up on mowing again.
Posted on Monday, May 09, 2005
Flower Power
The day started a little shaky, Stacey has been experiencing some different things since starting the birth control pills to help control her epilepsy. We were watching her closely this morning, she was blinking excessively, but nothing ever happened in relation to seizures. After an hour or two, we decided to take the day as it came, and just be watchful. I went and started the small tractor and finished bush hogging at the back of the holler. It took about 45 minutes and I came back to the house. All was ok, so we decided to go to Albany for lunch and then over to a small town in TN called Pall Mall. Linda had been told that there was a large greenhouse company over there that sold flowers. We ate at the Burger King and headed on over the state line at Static. Instead of turning to go to Byrdstown, we stayed on 127. That is one of the curviest roads that I have ever driven. After about 20 minutes of curves, hills and switchbacks we came to Pall Mall. We saw signs directing us to the nursery, we followed them to the place. It was huge, with over 40 greenhouses and lots of people working. There were lots of flowers, perenials and annuals. We picked out several herbs, a tray of flowers and paid for our choices and then headed back home. Once home we decided where to put the flowers, and Linda planted them, I watered most of them and then trimmed some of the bushes we already had from a year ago. I went inside and checked on Stacey, she said the Pacer game was starting, so I told Linda and I started fixing hot dogs. After a supper of dogs and beans, we finished watching the game. The Pacers lost the first game to the Detroit Pistons.
Posted on Friday, May 13, 2005
Pickup
Linda was ready to go to Glasgow to pick up the lawn mower, but they hadn't called to say it was ready. She called the dealer, and they said it was ready to be picked up. We hooked up the trailer and headed over to pick up the mower. $893.33 later and we had the mower loaded, and ready to eat lunch. Linda chose Mancino's for lunch and we stopped there. Their sandwiches are great, Linda and I split a steak grinder with Stacey having a pizza grinder. We left there and went to Wal-Mart for some light bulbs and supplies for Stacey. We started for home and made it about 3 PM. I unloaded the mower, got the mp3 player and began mowing. Linda and Stacey unpacked the groceries and went to plant some pumpkins down at the mum patch. I continued mowing until it was almost dark, when Linda came out with a glass of tea and told me the Pacers were playing. I drank most of the tea and continued to mow. I mowed till it was dark and I was using the lights on the mower to see, the reason I stopped was the dew was making the grass too wet. I went inside and showered, sat down about 10 minutes and Pauline and Brent came in with Pico. We watched the Pacers beat the Detroit Pistons to take a 2 game to 1 game lead in their playoff series. Stacey went to bed almost as soon as the game was over, with Pauline, Linda, Brent and me following soon after.
Posted on Sunday, May 15, 2005
Pauline, Brent and Pico
Pauline had been working long hours last week and said she wanted to
take it easy this weekend, so that's what we did too. She mentioned she
wasn't going to get up till 8:30 Saturday so we were quite suprised when
she was up and moving around about 6 AM. She was letting Pico out, and
then Brent was banging something around, so I made some coffee and told
them that if they wanted to do anything outside that we had better do it
early because there was rain on the radar. Pico loves going to the pond
and walking around the farm, so that was the first thing we did. After a
little exercise, we stopped the walk at the strawberry patch and
everyone ate what we could find. It is still a little early but there
were enough for each of us to eat 10 to 15 berries. We continued down to
the creek and let the dogs play in the water. We tried to get Cooter
into the creek for a bath, but that wasn't going to happen. We went back
to the house and left the dogs inside and went 4-wheeler riding for a
while. We checked out our little tree patch and went around the fields,
in and out of the creek and down the creek to the south end of the farm.
After riding for a while we returned to the house for lunch. Linda and
Pauline fixed us some burgers and we finished up with an Oreo pie that
Linda had whipped up the night before. Mmm good! Brent and I went to the
holler behind Regina's old house to move a tree that was down, we used
the tractor's scoop with a chain to pull it out of the trail and then
shoved it into the bushes. As we came back to the house the rain was
about to start, so we stayed inside the rest of the evening with games
being played.
Sunday morning was cooler outside, and Linda started
our day with breakfast of sausage and duck eggs with bisquits. Pauline
was spending her time knitting on an afghan, Brent was dinking around on
one of the computers and Linda was trimming the weeds with her weed
machine, so I decided to take the tractor around the hay fields bush
hogging the trails. I made it around one without any problems, but as I
was going into the second field, I had the bush hog too low and killed
the tractor. Brent had to come and help me tow it out, pull it to
restart the tractor, and then I finished the second hay field. After
lunch we watched the Pacers lose a game to the Pistons to even the
series at 2 games each. Pauline, Brent and Pico left when the game was
over. Linda and I worked on our usual jobs of weed eating and mowing
until near dusk.
Posted on Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Eats
Taking it easy today, we decided to go to town for lunch and to rent DVDs. Linda went to the second hand store while Stacey and I picked up 3 DVDs at the movie shack. We picked up Linda and parked in front of Subway where I acted like we were going in there, Stacey started arguing about, "we weren't going to eat there", so I admitted I was teasing and we went to the Corner Pool & Lunch. After we were home a while, Linda went to lope the limbs around the hay field, Stacey rode along, and I took the tractor to bush hog the limbs she cut off, then we decided to remove a wild rose bush from the end of the old trailer. It took us a while to trim it down and then pull it out with the tractor. Stacey and Linda picked up the brush and used the 4-wheeler with the wagon behind to haul off the brush. Back inside for a rest and a cool drink, we decided to go to Columbia to eat at Sonic, but had a tough time getting Cooter out of the truck, he wanted to ride along, but he stinks too much. We did let Missy go along. It was a quick trip, as the Pacers were playing and we had to get back to see the game. The Pacers lost, giving Detroit a 3 to 2 advantage in the series.
Posted on Thursday, May 19, 2005
Reggie's Last Shot
Linda worked today in Burkesville. She came home a little before 5 PM.
Stacey and I were ready for the Pacer game, but we needed to go to the
grocery store. We hurried in and back so we wouldn't miss the start of
the game. The Pacers started the game playing well, with Detroit going
down 10 points mid-way through the first quarter. Reggie was having a
good game along with Jermaine O'Neil. But by half time the Pistons were
only 2 points behind Indiana. The Pistons continued playing from behind
the Pacers until about 6-7 minutes left in the final quarter, then they
took a 3 point lead. Reggie hit a couple of shots a short time later
that tied the game or brought the Pacers to within 3 points of Detroit,
but the Pacers never led after that point. Reggie missed his last 3
point attempt with Detroit leading by 7 with less than 30 seconds to go.
At the next dead ball, Rick Carlisle substitued for Reggie and the crowd
gave Reggie a standing ovation. Larry Brown, Detroit's coach, called a
time out to let the fans continue the ovation, and he and the Pistons
stood at half court and applauded Reggie also. The Pistons beat the
Pacers and will play the Miami Heat.
Reggie ended his career with a
27 point game,
a standing ovation from the fans,
a standing
ovation from his team,
and a standing ovation from the opponents.
Not a bad way to go out!
Posted on Saturday, May 21, 2005
It's a Berry Berry Weekend
Our two patches of strawberries have bloomed and the berries are ripening. We have been eating them as fast as they turn red. Linda and Stacey have went to Smith's Grove to meet Brent. They are going to work on the trailer, maybe paint some of the rooms. I mowed the trailer lot again. I waited until the end of the day and went down to the strawberry patches and picked the ripe ones. I used a couple of old plastic flower pots to hold the berries that I picked. I couldn't eat all of those, and with Linda and Stacey not here, I decided to give Regina one of the containers of berries. Iwent around to her house, but she wasn't home, so I just set the berries on her front porch and took my other container home and put it in the refrigerator.
Posted on Monday, May 23, 2005
Strawberry Fields Forever...
Well, maybe not forever, but I was remembering the Beatle's song as we
were picking more strawberries.
We can't eat them all!
The last 2
days we have picked almost a gallon per day. Linda has been cutting the
stems out of them, washing the berries, and putting them in small
containers and freezing the strawberries. There are still some on the
plants, but the plants aren't as full as they were, rain would probably
help.
I have the mum patch ready to plant, and the mums starts are
supposed to be delivered Wednesday. I hope it works out better than last
year. There was a delay last year in delivery, and we ended up getting a
double order, which was good, but we kept expecting them to arrive, and
it ended up being about a week late.
Posted on Tuesday, May 24, 2005
RSS Feeds
I have updated the Blog page with RSS feeds in the right hand column.
There are a couple links to Brainy Quotes, a section for Web Pro News,
and also a section for Engadget. The feeds are checked for updates every
time the page is loaded, even a refresh causes new feeds if they are
available. The links are clickable if you want to read the entire
article. I believe most will open a new page in your browser.
Posted on Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Seems like everything happened today
I was enjoying the morning while setting on the front porch watching the
cars go by and 2 or 3 hummingbirds drinking at the feeder. Linda came
out and asked if that was all I had to do? I said no and got up and
started working on the flower bed we were building at the end of the
walkway. I used the scoop on the tractor to scratch out a groove for
bricks to line the flowerbed. Then I spread the dirt with a shovel, used
the tractor to get a scoop of old mulch to cover the ground in the bed.
That took a couple of hours.
When I was inside, I asked Linda if she
was going to paint the rims on the hay wagon while I had them off. She
said yes. I took Stacey and we went to town to the bank and to Rite Aid
to pick up Stacey's prescription. While we were in there I stopped at
the tire store and checked on the price for some tires and tubes for the
wagon.
I picked up the tires and rims back at home and took them to
the tire store. I waited while they put the tires on the rims with tubes
inside. They tossed them in the back of the truck and we went to the
parts store for some wheel lugs.
I pulled in the driveway back at the
house and saw Linda had mowed about 3 laps and put the mower back in the
hay shed. I got out and asked her if she tore up the mower, she said yes
it was tore up. She didn't think it was too bad though. Great, just what
I needed. I put the tires on the wagon, and went to see what had
happened to the mower. Nothing fatal, just a belt had messed up and
needed to be replaced. I went to buy a new belt at the parts store, came
home and it was too short. Fedral Express delivered the mums while I was
working on the mower. Linda opened them up and said they looked healthy
and the order was correct. I had Linda take the too short belt back and
I found one we had bought a year ago and put it on and the thing worked.
I mowed the yard and the mower worked well.
I then hooked up the wagon to
the tractor and took Stacey and Linda a short wagon ride. The wagon
worked well also.
Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2005
BRAKES
Linda had to work today and I needed to take the S-10 pickup to Jeff's
Auto Service. That is where I purchased the tires for the wagon
yesterday. I drove the S-10 and Linda & Stacey rode in the big truck. I
dropped it off and the guys said it would take a couple hours to put on
new disc pads. I drove Linda to the school and dropped her off, Stacey
and I stopped at the T-Mart and got us a couple biscuits with sausage
and egg for the ride home. About 11 the shop guy called and said the
truck was done, so Stacey and I went to pick it up. We paid and left the
big truck. We stopped at the Corner Pool and Lunch and ate lunch. We
came on home and Stacey worked on the laundry while I mowed at the old
house area. About 4:45 we headed back into town to pick up Linda. I
dropped her and Stacey at the shop and they drove the big truck while I
drove the S-10 back to the house.
Linda was picking strawberries and
I headed into the holler to bush hog the trails and the area where we
have our trees planted. They came back as I was finishing and we all
rode out together.
Posted on Saturday, May 28, 2005
Mums Are In...The Ground
Saturday morning arrived and the radar was showing light rain in our
area. None was hitting the ground though. So, Linda started us a pancake
breakfast early and we started getting ready to plant our mums, all
1,000 of them. We gathered up hammers, rakes, stakes, twine, drill, bulb
planting bit, buckets, cups, coolers, chairs, awning, 4-wheeler, truck,
wagon and the tractor. Pauline, Stacey, Regina, Linda, Brent and I
headed down the road to where we were going to plant the mums. Brent and
I started by staking out the rows with twine and drilling small holes to
place the mum starts. I then took the tractor into the creek and scooped
up water and brought it up to the mum patch to use for watering them
in.Regina and Linda were placing the starts in the holes and Stacey was
pouring a cup of water on each start. Pauline and Regina were covering
the roots with dirt and leveling the area after each plant had been set.
Everyone was working together to get the big job done. It was cloudy as
we started and kind of cool, really a nice working condition, but as the
day went along, the skies cleared and the sun was blazing down on us.
Stacey was the first to get to hot, and Linda and Brent set her in the
truck for a cool down. About 11:30 we all we ready for a break so we
called lunch break', and head to the house. There were 26 rows planted
with 25 mums in each row. We were looking for something immediately to
eat, so I suggested a bowl of strawberries and whipped cream. Just a
snack before we went to the Corner Pool and Lunch to really eat.
Hamburgers and fries were the most ordered item and after eating those,
stopping at the store, we came back to the house for a 'nap'. It wasn't
long till Regina showed up, wanting to go back and plant the rest of the
mums. Linda and her talked a while, letting Pauline, Stacey and Brent
rest a little longer. About 3 we went back to the patch and started
planting the rest of the mums. We were nearly done, when Regina's
grandaughter Casey, and her friend Jade, came walking down the road and
began helping cover up the planted mums. Brent and I thought we were
done drilling holes, but come to find out, there were enough 'extra'
plants for 2 more rows. We drilled those holes and started picking up
the stuff. Linda, Stacey, Pauline, and Regina finished the planting and
watering. We set there a few minutes to admire our work and then headed
to the house. It was 5:30 when we finished. It was a long, hot job, much
like what they used to do when setting tobacco.
Later that evening we
made some home made strawberry ice cream. Put it in the ice cream
freezer to churn it into ice cream. Then we set it in the deep freeze to
harden overnight.
Posted on Sunday, May 29, 2005
Still getting berries
After planting mums almost all day yesterday, everyone was a little slow
getting up. Pauline had asked , so I fixed omelets for breakfast. About
9:30, no one could wait any longer, so we cracked open the home made ice
cream and we all had a bowl. It was great, just a hint of a taste of
strawberry, but the texture is so much different from the store bought
ice cream. Pauline, Brent and Linda went down to the patch and picked
over a gallon of strawberries again. Linda cleaned them for Pauline to
take home.
Brent and I started watching the Indy 500. The big news
this year was the girl driver, Danica Patrick, having a chance to win
the race. The race was a good one, with the lead being changed several
times. Danica led for a lap early due to pit stops, but also was leading
near the end thanks to 'skipping' a pit stop for fuel. It ended up being
the cause of her not winning in the end. Dan Wheldon was the winner.
Brent wanted to use the pressure washer over at Smith's Grove trailer,
so we brought it up to the house and worked on getting it running. We
finally started it up and pressure washed a little bit of the back porch
to make sure it was running ok. We loaded it into the back of the truck.
They were leaving the Triump here for Linda to drive for a while, so
they needed a ride home. Linda and Stacey took Pauline, Brent and Pico
home.
Posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2005
No Rain Yet
We planted the mums Saturday and we still haven't had any rain. That's not good. So, we went down to the mum patch with the tractor, buckets and plastic cups. I scooped up as much water from the creek as the scoop would hold and drove slowly up to the edge of the patch. I lowered the scoop and we started dipping water out with the buckets and carrying it between the rows of mums. We poured about 1/2 of a cup of creek water on each plant. Some looked like they were in bad shape, but most were reasonably well. Stacey had trouble telling when she had poured enough water on each plant, but we finally told her to just put a whole cup on each one. Carrying the bucket of water got real heavy real quick, but that was about the only way we could keep them alive. Hopefully it will rain Wednesday evening or Thursday like the forecast is predicting.
