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Posted on Sunday, June 03, 2007

Company Comes

Saturday morning we went to Grumpy's and ate breakfast and then stopped at the grocery store on the way home. Pauline and Brent came over a little before 10 AM followed by Sabra and Jim Lindsey with their two kids, Amber and Clayton. Clayton is about 8 months old and cutting teeth. He seemed like a happy baby that is starting to crawl.
 
Pauline and Brent were able to get some experience with taking care of Clayton and playing with Amber before their baby is born. Pauline is roughly a month away from delivering.
  
Jim and Brent were buddies from their high school days when they had been on the Highland Swim Team and have been friends for nearly 20 years. Jim carried Clayton in a pack he wore for a while when we went to the pond and on other excursions during the weekend.
  
Sabra has a small pond at their house in IN, so she dug a few of the cattails and other flowers to take back and plant. We gave her some slate rock and they also dug a few ferns from back in the 'holler'.
  
  
We had been experiencing a drought in our area for about 3 weeks, but Saturday evening we had a cloud burst over the farm. It rained 2-1/2" in less than an hour, so Sunday morning the creek had a little fresh water and was flowing a little bit. Amber loved playing in the creek and so did Sabra and Jim. Amber went to the creek several times during the weekend and would come back to the house soaking wet from head to toe. Sabra, Jim and Brent would take 4-wheeler rides through the creek and come back wet too. Linda kept us full of food the entire weekend, including a chocolate and lemon pie and it was nice for her to have Clayton around. Linda enjoys babies and it gave Sabra a break from the kids a little too. Sabra and Jim tried to pack as much fun as they could into the weekend and stayed until 9:30 PM Sunday evening before starting their 5-6 hour drive back to Anderson IN.

Posted by at 10:46 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Wednesday, June 06, 2007

First Pass With Tiller

This morning the TV weather man was saying that it was in the lower 60s, so I decided to go till the mums. A little after 5 AM, I went out to the barn and hooked up the black trailer with the tiller on it to the back of the Mule and headed to the mum patch. I became a little worried as I pulled on to the highway because the fog was thick. My webcam doesn't start saving pictures till 5:30 AM so it didn't get a shot of me leaving, but check out the picture below and you will see it was still fairly foggy at 6:33 AM.
 
It was cool and I was able to go through the patch, stopping only at the ends of the rows to wipe the sweat from my face. There weren't many weeds in the patch yet, but the downpour of rain had pounded the ground till it was hard packed. Busting it up with the tiller will inhibit the growth of the weeds and also help with water absorption the next time it rains. I finished and returned to the house a little before 7 AM.

I ate a PB&J sandwich and went back on the tractor and mowed the area around the patch with the finish mower. The survival rate of the plants has been exceptional so far since we have watered them every other day until it rained Saturday evening.

Posted by at 10:22 AM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Thursday, June 07, 2007

Pumpkins and Gourds Planted

Linda worked at the day care so I went to the hay shed early and started the Ford tractor and hooked the bush hog to the tractor and drove it to the gravel bar in the creek. I chopped down the weeds and small trees on the gravel bar because Linda has been picking up rocks there and wanted it mowed down. Stacey and I went to Albany for lunch. In the afternoon, Linda came home and with the temperature a little above 90 degrees we decided to plant the pumpkins. I removed the bush hog from the tractor and hooked the tractor to the disk. I went and disked the patch for the pumpkins and the remainder of the small patch for the gourds. Linda and Stacey picked up Regina in the Mule and drove down to the patch. I finished the disking and returned the tractor to the hay shed after unhooking the disk. I hooked the bush hog back up and then I went back to the pumpkin patch on a 4-wheeler. Regina and Linda were making small mounds of dirt and Stacey was planting the pumpkin seeds.
 
Linda sent me back to the barn to pick up 3 ears of "Indian Corn" for them to plant. I took it back to the patch and shelled half of 2 ears for them to plant. They also planted gourds, smaller pumpkins and 'Apple Gourds'.

Posted by at 8:19 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Friday, June 08, 2007

Pauline's Pregnancy Problem

Brent called me Friday about 10 AM and told me that Pauline had been to the doctor's office for a checkup. Brent said the Dr had told Pauline the baby was breeched and that he would have to deliver it by Caesarean section on June 23rd. Brent said that Pauline was upset. I mentioned a few things he could say to help her understand that the Dr had probably made the decision for the health of her and the baby. We talked a few minutes and then he said he would call again when Linda came home from working at the day care so Pauline could talk to her about the C-Section. Later, Linda came home and Brent called. Pauline, Linda and I talked a little while and I suggested we meet them in Glasgow to eat at Tumbleweeds. It was agree that we would meet at 5:30, so we showered and left. We arrived early, so we made a stop at TSC to check out some prices, then met Pauline and Brent for supper.
 
As we ate we talked about Pauline having the C-Section and other things. Pauline was still a little upset but I think the shock had worn off and she was making a come back. We finished eating and after a few goodbyes headed back to the house.

Posted by at 9:16 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Sunday, June 10, 2007

Edith Lovett Moving On

Dave is usually the person that keeps the Blog up to date, but I guess this entry should be written by me. I had been working on a scrapbook page and a Carrington Bear.

Those items were for a reception for Ms. Edith Lovett, who has been the Cumberland County Homemakers Extension person for over 8 years and is moving back home near Somerset. The reception was from 2 until 4 at the Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, and when Stacey and I got there about 2:15, it was almost full.
 
The Homemakers know this transfer to Pulaski County is something that Ms. Edith needs to do in order to be with her husband that is having health problems, but that does not make it any easier for any of us to accept.
 
 
There were speeches, cake, punch, presents, and a digital camera that was given to Edith by all the Homemakers, but most of all, there was a lot of hugs and some tears, because everyone feels the same about Edith, she is a very kind person that is always available to anyone that needs her. She is going to be greatly missed in Cumberland County, and I know that Pulaski County will soon realize how lucky they are to have her.

Posted by at 6:45 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Tuesday, June 12, 2007

New Camera

I've been wanting a new camera for a while, so I ordered a Nikon D80 from Amazon the other day and today UPS delivered it to the front door. They required a signature for the camera and then handed it over to me. I was like a kid at Christmas, I couldn't wait to get it open and start fiddling with it. I had a memory card from the Kodak Z700 camera that also fits in the Nikon, so I didn't have to order anything extra. I popped in the card and then the batteries and began taking pictures of the living room to find out how things worked. In years past, I had used several 35mm SLR cameras and the Nikon was like most of those. One of the best things about the camera is being able to see the pictures instantly and then knowing how they turned out immediately. I erased the living room pictures and went outside and found a few flowers to use for subjects.
  
Our flower beds have done fairly well even with the drought that has been going on in KY.
 
The purple flowers near the left of the picture above are in the closeups below. Click the thumbnails and check out the bee on the flowers in the larger images.
 
Hopefully, now my pictures will be better!

Posted by at 9:18 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Morning Mule Ride

After having a cup of coffee and a muffin, I grabbed the new camera and went for a Mule ride. The first thing I noticed was a big frog in the hole on the way down the driveway.
 
We hear the frogs in the holes croaking a lot of the time and every once in a while they will scare us by hopping in the water when we are mowing near the holes. I continued down the road to the mum patch and took a shot of the mums, showing where I had tilled around the patch to eliminate grass that was encroaching on the patch.
 
I then went across the creek and into the hay field. I looked back towards the road and took a couple pictures of the hay rolls I had lined up a few days earlier.
  
Larry Anderson will be picking those rolls up soon and hauling them to his farm on Jone's Ridge. As I drove back across the creek, I took a couple more pictures and thought about how the creek looked. In one shot, there appears to be lots of water in the creek, but in the other it's easy to see how dry the creek really is, especially since it's early June.
  
As I drove the Mule up the driveway, I noticed a Purple Martin kept flying across the driveway and flying into the little birdhouse in the lily flower bed. I stopped and watched it make over 20 trips and each time it flew into the house, I could hear a lot of little chirps.
  
  
After watching the bird for a while, I parked the Mule and went inside. I came back out without the camera and drove the Mule across the creek to check on where I needed to mow. As I crossed the creek, 3 deer ran out into the middle of the hay field. I think they had come to the creek for water and I had scared them. They stood in the center of the field as I stopped the Mule, then they slowly walked back to the edge of the creek farther upstream where I couldn't see them. After a few minutes I started the Mule and continued across the creek. When I drove towards the hill, the deer spooked again and that time they ran into the woods and disappeared.

Posted by at 7:56 PM
Categories:


Posted on Thursday, June 14, 2007

Stacey Drives and Helping Neighbor

This morning Stacey backed the Mule out of the barn for us to take another ride around the farm.
  
  
Stacey wanted to drive and that was OK with me. I could look around and take pictures while we rode around the farm. We crossed the creek and rode around the hay fields and then went down the creek since there isn't much water in it.
  
We stopped at the mum patch and then checked out our tomato plants. We noticed we actually have some really small tomatoes growing on the vines.

I have been going out on Jone's Ridge to help our neighbor, Steve Riddle. He bought a sickle bar mower at an auction last weekend and needed help hooking it to his tractor. Steve works days, so we were only working on it a couple hours during the evening. There were some problems with the three point hitch being too thick for the old style mower, and with Wednesday evening off for Steve to go to church, we finally were able to figure out how it went together and get the mower cutting. It just happened to be on Steve's birthday too.
  
 
It was a relief to finally get the mower working and take it a few laps around the field. I drove the tractor a few laps to check it out while Steve started another guy named Steve working on a fence. Steve and Steve have been fencing the entire farm with five strands of barbed wire. They are sectioning off a pasture and the area around his pole barn to be separate from another field.
  
I find it a little bit strange that when I was a kid, I refused to bale hay for money because I had a job at a grocery store or a filling station, but now, I'm helping bale hay for nothing in 90 degree heat.

Posted by at 9:16 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Friday, June 15, 2007

Severe Thunderstorm Hits Farm

Linda left for the daycare and Stacey and I went to Grumpy's for breakfast. I was meeting Steve Riddle and Stacey was going to eat with Jason Strange. Jason and Stacey have become friends over the phone. Stacey first met Jason while he was working at Houchens' Grocery in Burkesville. We arrived at 8:30 AM and Stacey and Jason sat at a table and talked while they ate. Steve and I sat at a different table and talked about the sickle bar mower and that Steve wanted to buy a hay rake next. After eating Stacey and I returned to the farm and took care of a few chores, then went back to town for a few items. On the way back to the farm, I told Stacey that it looked like it was going to storm. I drove the HHR and the rain began hitting the windshield, before we made it to the house it was hail hitting the car. I quickly pulled the HHR into the garage and Cooter followed us inside. The weather became nasty and the wind was gusting very hard. The white streaks in the pictures are hail falling.
  
The power blinked off and things were getting blown around on the back porch. When the hail stopped, it rained hard for a while, then cleared off and we could hardly tell it had rained once the road dried. The rain gauge showed that there had been one half inch of rain. Linda came home from work and said it had rained in town, but had not hailed. I showed her the pictures and we went for a ride in the Mule to see what damage had been done, if any. It didn't take long to find damage. The paw paw tree next to the shed I keep the boat in had half of the limbs blown down.
  
The next damage we found was the old apple tree near the picnic table had been twisted and broken.
  
We drove down to the mum patch and noticed that a few of the mums looked slightly damaged by the hail, but we won't be able to tell how bad for a few days. After looking at the radar images, it appears that the severe thunderstorm just popped up over Cumberland County and moved due south into TN and then fizzled out. It may have been the area that received rain was 10 miles wide and 20 miles long. We were glad to get a little bit of rain, but it didn't have to come in the form of hail and a downpour.

Posted by at 8:54 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Sunday, June 17, 2007

Father's Day Weekend

Saturday morning I had went outside a little before 5:30 AM, started the Mule and picked up the small tiller from the hay shed, then drove to the mum patch. I filled it with fuel and started tilling between the mums going perpendicular to the rows I make with the large tiller. It was effectively removing the small blades of grass between each mum. I had fogot how to use the small tiller and it hopped a few times and chewed off a few mum plants. I soon remembered to let the tiller go by the plants and pull it backwards past the mum plants. This kept the tiller from hitting rocks and popping up in the air. I finished a few rows and would take a break and wipe the sweat off my face, then do more rows. I finally finished the patch and returned to the house. It was 8:05, so it had taken two and a half hours to till the patch. I was worn out and soaking wet. Linda immediately wanted to go see Pauline and Brent, so I took a shower and cooled off, then dressed and we left for Smith's Grove. I stopped in Burkesville and bought a Coke at the filling station and we noticed an almost new round hay baler setting in the used car lot. I pulled over and asked the saleman how much they wanted for the baler. He told me a little about it and how much they were asking. We drove out and headed to P&B's house. As we pulled in, Brent met us, gave me a Father's Day present and then we went inside and played with their dogs and Missy.
 
Pauline dressed and we went to Bowling Green, ate at Red Lobster and then made a few stops at the mall and Goody's. We went back to P&B's house and sat around looking at pictures and watched a movie. We left for home around 7 PM.
 
 
Sunday morning Linda fixed breakfast and we hung around the farm. Stacey gave me a Father's Day present after we were done eatting. Later, I stopped and talked to Steve for a while on the way to the mum patch, then tilled between the tomato plants. Stacey and I watched the NASCAR race and then we went to Albany for burgers. It was a nice weekend, one that I liked, not much pressure to do anything.

Posted by at 8:10 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Monday, June 18, 2007

Home Makers Visit Farm House

Monday was normal for most of the day. Linda fixed breakfast, I mowed, we went to town for lunch and so on... Stephanie McClain wanted to ride to the Farm House restaurant for the Home Makers Dinner Out with Linda in the Mustang with the top down, so in the afternoon, Linda washed her Mustang and put the top down. Stephanie and her daughter, Hanna, arrived about 4:30 PM and they loaded in the Mustang with Linda and Stacey and roared off to meet the rest of the club. The waitresses at the Farm House were volunteers and their tips were being donated to Relay For Life.
 
Steve Riddle called and wanted me to come out to his farm, so I drove the pickup out to his place on Jone's Ridge. Steve and Nancy had found a small deer and we walked down in a gully where it was laying near a natural spring.
  
I helped Steve nail some braces on corner posts for the fence they are putting up and we watched Larry Anderson roll the hay we had cut a few days ago. He finished the rolling just before a light shower began which caused us to put the tools away and I headed back to the farm as Nancy and Steve were locking their gates. Back at the farm, I parked the truck in the hay shed and as I walked to the house, I noticed that the lilies that Kim and Kenny gave us had really bloomed out. I stopped and took a few pictures of the blooms.
 
 
 
Linda and Stacey came home with Stephanie and Hanna riding along with the top still down. Linda said they had to stop and put the top up once, but when they drove out of the rain, they wanted the top down again, so she stopped and lowered it to finish the ride.

Posted by at 9:48 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Finally a Rainy Day

The rain started early in the morning and continued off and on during the day. I checked the rain gauge and it showed over an inch and a half. I took the Mule down to the mum patch and the lower edge of the patch had water standing. It wasn't covering any of the mums so they should be OK. We ate lunch at home and then the school called Linda to work at the day care for the rest of the afternoon. I went outside and set on the front porch with the camera and watched the hummingbirds. The little hummers aren't as friendly yet as they were last year, they still set and wait while another bird is drinking.
  
The hummingbirds seem to wait until one bird is done before another comes to drink. Sometimes, one bird will run another one away from the feeder.
  
The red throated hummers seem to be more aggressive than the ones with a green throat. I've noticed some actually seem fat compared to the little one in the pictures below.
  
I think as time goes on the birds will start being more social at the feeder. I believe it has to do with plenty of flowers blooming now, so they don't have to congregate at the feeder. It's not their only source of food like it will be later in the season. Check out the picture below from last July.
 

Posted by at 7:53 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Julie Norris Makes Early Debut

After 9 PM, the phone rang, it was Brent telling Linda that Pauline was at the hospital in Bowling Green and he thought her water had broke. He was on his way to the hospital and Linda told him to call us when he got there and let us know if Pauline was going to have the baby. He called a little later and said that it looked like it was going to happen, so we loaded in the HHR and headed to Bowling Green. I went fairly fast, but the trip seemed like a long one. Finally, we arrived at the Medical Center and found our way to the maternity floor a little after 11 PM. We walked down a long hall and saw Brent along with Pauline's parents, Dorothy and Larry, gazing through the glass window at Julie Ann Norris.
   
Brent told us that Julie was born at 10:35 PM and she was 20" long and weighed 8 lb 4 oz. Julie was screaming and looked healthy. A nurse came out and told us that Pauline was in the recovery room and was doing good and that she would be in there about an hour. We kept looking through the window at Julie and the other babies. We were told there were over 50 newborns in the hospital. The hospital played Brahms Lullaby over their speaker system when a new baby was born and we heard it played a couple times. The nurses wheeled Pauline out of the recovery room and to the window so she could see Julie for the first time. They placed Pauline in her room and put her in bed, then Brent, Dorothy and Larry went in to see how Pauline was getting along. We gave them a few minutes and then we went in too.
 
After Dorothy and Larry made sure Pauline was OK they said they were leaving, so everyone said good bye. I could tell Linda wasn't leaving until she held Julie, so we asked Brent to GET THE BABY IN THERE! The nurses brought Julie to the room, gave a short speech about what to do with Julie at the hospital, had Pauline and Brent sign some papers and then handed Julie to Pauline.
  
We were asked to leave the room while the nurses checked a few things on Pauline. Pauline was groggy and not feeling much pain until the nurses began the pressing on her abdomen. Brent told us that seemed pretty tough for Pauline. We were able to return to the room and Brent picked up Julie and held her for a little bit.
 
Finally, it was our turn, we washed our hands and Brent handed Julie to Linda and a few minutes later, Linda handed her to me.
  
OK, it was time to let Pauline get some rest. We said good bye and left the hospital around 2 AM. We went past P&B's house and picked up their dogs. We let them out, then rounded all three dogs up and headed to the farm.

Posted by at 11:59 AM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Thursday, June 21, 2007

Julie And Pauline Doing Well

   
We didn't visit with Julie and Pauline in the hospital on Thursday, but Brent posted pictures on his Brent's Thoughts web site and I have copied them to here. Brent told Linda that Pauline was doing well and that Julie had been taken for tests and was eating, so it's sounds like things are going good. We plan on visiting again on Friday.

Posted by at 9:49 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Friday, June 22, 2007

Visiting Julie At The Hospital

Linda worked at the day care in the morning until 1 PM. When she came home Stacey and I were ready to go to Bowling Green and visit with Julie, Pauline and Brent at the Medical Center. We stopped and filled the HHR up with gas and then were on our way. The ride over didn't seem to take as long because we weren't as anxious about the events as we were when Pauline delivered Julie. We knocked on the hospital room door and went inside to find Brent holding Julie and Pauline sitting in bed.

Pauline said things had went well and she was feeling pretty good. They had experienced a few diaper changes and were talking about those and that Julie had been for a few tests and everything was OK. Linda and I took turns holding Julie for a little while, then I asked Pauline and Brent to put some of their clothes on her. Linda and I just sat back and watched as they both worked to get arms and legs inside the outfit Pauline had chosen to put on her. 'Misson Accomplished', and without Julie breaking into an all out scream. Linda and I again took turns holding Julie until there needed to be a diaper changed.
 
After the diaper change, Brent and Stacey left the hospital to pick up some sandwiches and while they were gone, Jennifer, Brenda and Tim Lawerance came in the room. They brought a couple of new outfits for Julie that were really cute. Brenda and Jennifer took turns holding Julie while talking with Linda and Pauline. Jennifer said she has been doing OK after a little bit of knee surgery. Tim and I talked a little bit about what had happened at our farm since they had been over and then Stacey and Brent came back. Jennifer, Brenda and Tim stayed until Julie needed to be fed, then they said their good byes and left. Pauline went into the bathroom and breast fed Julie while we ate our sandwiches. She came out and passed Julie back to Brent while she ate. Brent suggested Stacey take a turn holding Julie and practice reading stories to her. He sat Stacey down and gave Julie to her, then picked up a book and gave it to Stacey. Stacey read the book like she had been doing it forever, then laid the book down and told Brent, "That was pretty easy, you can bring Julie over, I can baby sit."
  
Linda and I took another turn holding Julie. Pauline and Brent are really lucky that Julie is such a good baby. During the entire 4 hours we were there, Julie only cried when they changed her clothes. With each visit I see Pauline and Brent gaining experience and more and more becoming parents. It was time for us to leave, so after saying good bye, we packed most of the stuff downstairs and Linda drove Brent's car to their house. Pauline had drove herself from work to the hospital the night she delivered, so they had two cars at the hospital. After Linda and Stacey dropped off their HHR, we headed back to the farm in Burkesville with a short stop at Wal-Mart in Glasgow. We made it home a little after 9 PM.

Posted by at 10:05 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Saturday, June 23, 2007

Julie and Pauline Released

Once again, I have copied pictures from Brent's Thoughts web site to this blog. According to the camera's picture information, Pauline and Julie were released from the hospital at 11:55 AM.
   
We went to Jone's for the buffet breakfast and after eating I drove the HHR to Dale Hollow State Park. We drove through the campground looking for Jason's family, but didn't see them. I pulled in at the camp store and Linda asked for their location. They gave her a map and told her which campsite the Youngs were using, so we drove to that campsite and found Jason, his brother Bryant, mom Stephanie, and their friends. We sat around the picnic table and in lawn chairs and chatted for a couple hours. A little after noon, we said 'see ya' and drove back to the farm. I told Stacey we were lucky we went to the camp ground early, because we had a light thunderstorm in the afternoon. I made a CD with 100 images on it and we went to Wal-Mart and converted those images to 4 by 6 inch prints. We ate at Taco Bell after leaving Wal-Mart and Linda added some of the pictures to Julie's Baby Album on the way home. Back at the farm, I placed the prints in our photo album and put together a frame with an 8 by 10 inch print of Stacey holding Julie.

Posted by at 9:14 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2007

Visiting Julie At Home

Linda woke early and started baking a ham and then a chocolate cake. Once those were done and loaded in the HHR, we headed to Pauline and Brent's house to see their new baby, Julie and return Pico and Poco. We arrived a few minutes after noon and announced the dogs were home before letting them run inside. A few of P&B's neighbors came in a little later, then Pauline's sister, Beth and mom. Dorothy brought P&B a meatloaf and a pumpkin pie. Visitors were able to snack on the cake, pie, ham or meatloaf while we all took turns holding Julie and telling a few tales about Pauline and Brent when they were little. It was funny and a little light hearted ribbing was included some times. Pauline went to the bedroom and fed Julie when she would cry and that would silence the crying. Not a problem the entire day, unless you call a real messy diaper that Brent ran into a problem, well it wasn't a problem for me anyway. :-) We left for home a little before 8 PM with Julie sleeping in her bassinet, Pauline resting in the recliner and Brent playing with their dogs.

Posted by at 10:07 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Tiller Work

I drove the Mule with the trailer behind to the mum patch Monday early in the morning and used the tiller I had on the trailer to till the entire patch. It takes over two hours to go through the patch. It looked like we had lost 8 plants to the heat and dry weather.

Tuesday morning, Linda and I went early, tilled the patch with the sweet corn, tomatoes, gourds and some "Indian Corn" closest to the camera in the picture.
 
Maybe in a few days I will run the tiller through the pumpkin patch. I'm waiting until the plants' vines are growing across the patch. Linda will move the vines while they are not very long and that will be the last time we can use the tiller on that patch.
 
After we finished the tilling, we parked the trailer in the barn and unhooked the Mule, then went inside and took showers. Stacey had made plans to meet Jason at Grumpy's for breakfast, so we took her and went to eat. We walked inside and Stacey went over to the table where Jason was at and sat down. Linda and I sat at another table and ate breakfast. After we finished, we talked to Jason a little bit before he went to work at Houchens, then I paid for Stacey's and our breakfast and we went back to the farm. We were in and out of the house quite often during the day as it was above 90 degrees and humid. I used the tractor and finish mower to mow around the mum patch and I noticed some blackberries along the fence. I knew the berries were there for a while because the briars had scratched my arms other times when I had mowed. There were some berries that were ripe and as I made a lap along the fence, I stopped and ate a few. Between 2 PM and 5 PM it was too hot for me outside, so I stayed inside.

I went back out around 5:30 and took a ride in the Mule. I stopped and talked to our neighbor, Steve for a while, then came home as it looked like rain. We never did get any rain.

Posted by at 8:06 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Another Visit to See Julie

We planned on visiting Julie at Pauline and Brent's house Wednesday, so we also made plans to stop at a couple other places while we were near Bowling Green. We left home after 9 AM and stopped in Glasgow at Lowe's. Linda needed to buy new battery powered grass clippers to cut the mums. She wanted to find a set that would have a battery charger that would also work with the older clippers. We found a Black & Decker clipper that has the same plug for the charger, so we bought it and headed on over to Smith's Grove. As we exited from the Cumberland Parkway, we stopped at McDonald's and picked up some sandwiches. We took those to Pauline and Brent's house and we all ate, including all the dogs. We held Julie and played with the dogs for a while, then changed Julie's clothes and took pictures of her.
  
We took the memory card for the camera and Stacey, Brent and I went to Sam's Club. I printed out the pictures and then we shopped for items on our list. Brent had his own list and Stacey drove the cart for him. We wound our way through the aisles and then checked out, packed our goods in the HHR and drove back to P&B's place. Julie was still being a good baby and Linda was holding her. Linda wanted Julie's footprints in a baby picture album, so they held her up, placed her feet on a stamp pad, and then pressed her feet against the page of the album.
 
Julie cried until they finished washing the ink off her feet, but it didn't take long for Julie to settle down and go back to being a good baby after they finished. We watched a movie and after that we left for home around 7:30 PM.

Posted by at 9:35 PM
Categories: Current Events


Posted on Saturday, June 30, 2007

P B & J Visit Farm

Friday evening...
Julie, Pauline and Brent came to visit us, and of course, Pico and Poco came too. It was lightly raining, so Brent backed their HHR close to the garage door and parked, then we began unloading all the items it takes for Julie. We finished the unloading and set down for a little bit and each held Julie. Pauline and Brent had talked on the way over that they wanted to go eat pizza and Linda and I had talked before we knew they were coming that we wanted to eat pizza, so separately we had agreed we would go to Major's Pizza in Albany. A new problem presented itself, what vehicle would carry 5 adults and a baby seat. The pickup was the only choice. Brent transferred the baby seat to the pickup and then loaded Julie in the carrier facing back in the middle of the back seat. Everyone else found a seat and away we went. Pauline and Linda had to take Julie back out to the truck, for a diaper change, while we were waiting on our food, but other than that, it went fine. We returned to the farm and talked about the stuff that had happened since Julie had been born for the rest of the evening.
Saturday...
 
Pauline said that Julie had slept most of the night, till 4 AM. I started the day by making coffee and omelets. Then the girls decided to watch a 'chick flick' upstairs, so Brent was ready to cut up the apple tree that had twisted off a few weeks ago. We took the Mule with the trailer and chain saws to the area where the old house used to stand. We began cutting the medium size limbs off the trunk and placing them on the trailer, then hauling them to the creek and sliding the limbs off the trailer. We continued doing that until most of the limbs were on the bank of the creek. I brought the tractor over and Brent rolled the larger pieces in the scoop and I drove to the creek and dumped those. We also cleaned up the paw paw tree that had split and fell from the wind and hail. We returned to the house just as the girls were finishing the movie. The rest of the day was spent inside due to rain falling off and on. Julie had a few upset moments when she was hungry or had a dirty diaper, but overall, she is doing good. Brent and Linda took Julie and walked down to Regina's house to let Regina see Julie, then Linda fixed hamburgers for supper when they came back. Later in the evening, Nancy and Steve Riddle brought a gift bag for P,B & J and stayed for a while. I handed Julie to Steve and after a few minutes he passed her to Nancy. Nancy held Julie for a while as we talked and Pauline and Brent told them about how things had went. Around 9:30, I took Julie and put her in the bassinet that Nancy and Steve had gave us from Nancy's Mom. Nancy and Steve left a little bit later and Pauline rolled the bassinet into the bedroom. I guess the baby show was over, so a little after 10 PM everyone went to bed.

Posted by at 11:00 PM
Categories: Current Events