Norris Family Blog

Hay Work

Ever since the extreme weather and the resulting flooding on May 2nd, I have been worried about the condition of the hay fields. The creek water flowed through them and could have left debris that wasn't visible due to the height of the hay. Larry Anderson started cutting the hay fields down and across the creek last Saturday. Steve and Phil Garmon cut the hay fields across from the house Tuesday. Larry raked and rolled what he had cut yesterday. Steve and Phil raked and rolled across from the house today.

After everyone was done with rolling the hay, I went through the fields with the Mule and picked up the larger pieces of debris, there wasn't that much, it was a lot less than I had expected. I put the bush hog on the small tractor and used it to cut where they had left the hay standing due to debris in it. I simply chopped up the small pieces with the bush hog. I finished just before dark, but the fields are clean and ready for the next round of hay harvesting.

Posted by Dave at 7:30 PM
Categories:

CRC Cruise-In

The Cumberland River Cruisers cruise-in was held in Burkesville at 3 PM. As club members, Linda and I were responsible for selling the "Cruisin' The Square" t-shirts at the cruise-in, so we packed the shirts into plastic containers, put a folding table in the pickup truck along with lawn chairs and a cooler full of drinks. We left the house a little before 2 PM and ate lunch at Subway before setting up our stuff.

The temperature was 92 degrees as we sold shirts and I took pictures of the cars and trucks. If your interested in the car pictures, you can see them all at this LINK.

It was a pretty day, but pretty hot during the cruise-in, then right as it was over at 5 PM, the weather changed and a light rain began to fall. We packed up the shirts and stuff and headed home. We drove towards the house and a couple of miles out of town it wasn't raining at all. :-)

Posted by Dave at 7:00 PM
Categories: Current Events

Ditch Work

School is out in Cumberland County and Linda is working from 8 AM till 4:30 PM on Monday and Tuesday during the summer. After she left for work, I noticed the highway relocation crews were working on the ditch that runs along the new road in front of our house. Monday, they only did a little and then moved to another section, but today they had a dozer, a track hoe and two dump trucks working in our area.

They are removing the old road bed's dirt and gravel and removing the old concrete culvert. The dozer bumped the old culvert and cracked the concrete, then the track hoe just pulled it apart and dropped it in the dump truck. It wasn't but a few minutes and they had the culvert completely cleaned up and hauled away. I've been talking to the job boss about making the grade a little less steep so that I can keep the grass mowed all the way to the bottom of the ditch. They've agreed to do it that way, but what they've done isn't the finish work. I'll need to keep watching and make sure they do what they said that they would do. I used the back hoe on my tractor to dig out a small hole next to the pipes sticking out of the ground where the old store building used to stand. Jamie and Tyler cut the pipes off below ground level and I hauled the pipes to Garmon's metal pile. We hope the road crews will bury the debris and cover it with dirt in the next few days.

Posted by Dave at 8:15 PM
Categories: Current Events, Farm

Recycling

We've had lots of rain this year and the weeds have been hard to keep down. Linda had used the string trimmer inside Daisy's dog pen twice, so we decided to do something to fix that problem. We moved Daisy to another stall in the barn and we opened the pen fence. Linda chopped the weeds down with the push type string trimmer and then I sprayed the entire area with vegetation killer. I headed to the shed to get the tractor and Linda unrolled enough weed block fabric to cover the inside of the dog pen. I went to the creek and scooped up creek rock and drove back to the dog pen. I raised the scoop over the top of the fence and began slowly dumping the rock as I backed away from the fence to spread the rock over the fabric. I headed back to the creek for another scoop of rock and Linda went to the pole barn for a garden rake. I returned and dumped the second scoop of rock. Linda and I used the rake to spread the rock evenly over the area. I put the tractor away and Linda put away the rake. We moved Daisy back to her regular stall and then called her outside to see how she reacted.

Daisy was fine with the rock to stand on. The dark line in the rock was caused by the light rain dripping off the barn roof.
This morning the road relocation crews were working on the old road bed. I saw them removing old cement tiles and they had dug a hole and were crushing the tiles in the hole and planning on burying the pieces. I asked if I could have the tiles if I would haul them away and they said yes, so the guy in the track hoe easily dug them out and laid them behind the track hoe. I used the scoop on the tractor to pick up a single tile and haul it to the back of the smoke house. I repeated the procedure for 6 more tiles. I had already hauled 12 tiles to the back of the smoke house when they had dug them out on other days.

There are 5 tiles that are 14" in diameter and are 4' long. There are 6 tiles that are 24" in diameter and 3' long. There are 7 tiles that are 18" in diameter and 3' long. Some of the connector flanges are broken, but I can place those at one end or another to avoid that issue. I plan on using the tiles around the farm instead of buying the ribbed black plastic type.

Posted by Dave at 6:00 PM
Categories: Current Events, Farm

Hot & Hazy

The weather has been hot. We have had over a week of temperatures above 90 degrees with no rain. The humidity has been high along with the temperatures and the combination has made it hard to do anything outside during the day. I have been mowing early in the mornings before the temperature is unbearable. Monday, Linda tried to drive the pickup to the school and found that the battery had failed, so she drove the HHR. I drove the Mule to the pole barn and put the battery charger/booster in the back and then went to where the truck was parked. I used the battery booster to start the truck, Stacey put the Mule in the barn before we went in to town to buy a new battery. I purchased one at Glenn's Auto Parts store and then drove the truck back to the farm, then down to the pole barn and removed the old battery. I replaced it with the new battery and then took the old battery back to Glenn's for the exchange. My shirt was soaking wet after finishing that small job. Most of the highway crew's equipment has A/C, so they are still working and making progress since there hasn't been any rain.

Posted by Dave at 6:30 PM
Categories: Current Events, Farm

Lilies and Daisy

After breakfast, Linda and I went outside to let Daisy run before the temperature climbed too high. I took the camera and took pictures of the flower bed in front of Daisy's dog pen while Linda backed the Mule out of the barn.

The flower bed is mostly lilies that Kim and Kenny gave to us several years ago. They have filled the bed nicely, I think. I also noticed that there were honey bees working on the 'chigger bush' that was blooming in the same flower bed.

Some of the darkest colored lilies that I like real well were blooming along with the many other colors.

As Linda drove the Mule to the front of the barn Daisy was ready to go and jumped in the back.

We headed across the creek from the house and turned Daisy loose while we helped the ATS road crew hook up a water pump to fill their truck from the creek. They use the water in the truck to keep the dust down where they are working and to wash the pavement where they have tracked mud and dirt onto the highway.

After the crew had started the pump and made sure it was working, we continued across the creek and began riding around the hay fields and trimming low hanging limbs with the loppers We took turns driving while the other person was lopping from the passenger's seat in the Mule. Occasionally we had to get out and cut some higher branches. We made it around one field and back in the 'holler' and out before we were hot enough we quit and just rode the rest of the way. Daisy had rolled in dark mud while we were working, so we let her romp in the creek some more before putting her in the back of the Mule and taking her back to the barn.

Posted by Dave at 5:00 PM
Categories: Current Events, Farm

Julie Is Three

Stacey, Linda and I left the farm a little before 9 AM and I drove to Pauline and Brent's house for Julie's birthday. When we arrived, we set up a canopy and helped move chairs under it. We went inside and played with Kyle and Julie for a while. We all went outside and watched Julie playing in the kid's pool and on the slip n' slide. It was really hot and before we knew it, Pauline was in the pool and Brent was sliding on the slip n' slide.


Julie had squirt guns for everyone and we were shooting each other as the water felt good as hot as it was outside. When Julie was ready for a break, Pauline brought out the cake that was decorated like a Dalmatian dog and Julie blew out the #3 candle. We all ate Julie's cake and ice cream in the dog bowls that went with the Dalmatian theme. Pauline had a doggie hat for Julie, but luckily they were too small for the rest of us. :-(

The celebration moved inside and Julie put on dry clothes to open her birthday presents. It was fun watching Julie open the presents and play with them.

Julie enjoyed her presents until it was time for us to leave, we then said good bye and received hugs and kisses on the way out.

Posted by Dave at 7:30 AM
Categories: Current Events

Culvert Construction

I began construction of a culvert in the ditch by the equipment shed. I dug a shallow trench with the back hoe on the tractor to even out the dirt. I then used the the scoop to carry each cement tile from behind the smoke house to the culvert location. I set the tiles down and rolled them in place using the back hoe to push, pull and slide the tiles around until they were set tightly together. I worked about two hours of an evening and three hours in the morning before it was too hot. After a couple of days the tiles were set and ready to be covered up. I found a scrap piece of the material the highway crews were using on the roadbed to cover the rocks. It was similar to felt, but heavier. Linda and I stretched the piece over the 20 feet of cement tiles and doubled it. The next day I began covering the tiles with dirt. The highway crews had pushed dirt with their bull dozer into a pile at the end of the little house driveway and I used the scoop on the tractor and took some of the pile. I slowly covered the tiles at first to keep from moving them out of their locations. Then I began scooping up a full scoop of dirt and backing up to the shed and then dumping the dirt over the tiles. I filled in one side and then started driving over that dirt to dump the dirt on the other side. That helped pack the dirt as I drove across the tiles. It probably took me 50 trips back and forth to the pile of dirt till I had enough to make the crossing fairly level. I wanted the side away from the shed a little lower in case the culvert tiles get clogged the water will overflow on the lower side. I went back and forth until the dirt was packed and smooth to cross. I found some gravel that had asphalt chunks in it that the highway crew had bull dozed into a pile and used a few scoops of it to cover the sides of my culvert.

The highway crews hadn't finished the entry to the driveway for the little house and I needed to wait on that to order a load of gravel to spread over the top of the culvert.

Posted by Dave at 6:00 PM
Categories: Current Events, Farm

Rock Throwing

We picked Julie up at her baby sitter's house shortly before noon on Thursday. We stopped and ate lunch, then went to Aldi's and Sam's Club to buy groceries and supplies. Julie and Stacey took naps in the car on the ride back to the farm. Julie had received a couple of shots in her thighs and wasn't feeling all that great, so we took it easy the rest of the day after unpacking the groceries.
Friday morning we had breakfast and Julie was feeling better and wanted to take Daisy for a run. We went early, before the air temperature and humidity had reached it's peak. That made it easier on us and Daisy too.

Stacey drove the Mule with Julie riding beside her while Linda and I rode in the back. Stacey stopped on the gravel bar in the creek for a while so that Julie could throw rocks into the water. Julie wanted to throw big rocks this time and spent a lot of time searching for the larger ones and then walking back to the edge of the water to throw them in.


When Julie tired of picking up the big rocks, we went back to the Mule and continued our ride around the hay fields.

We let Daisy run around all the hay fields, then took her back to the barn and we stopped at the pole barn for popsickles.

Posted by Dave at 5:30 PM
Categories: Current Events, Farm

Half Dozen Hummers

We've had a heat wave that has dried up most of the watering holes and the creek has almost stopped flowing. There aren't many spots for animals to find water and we've noticed the deer are coming down to the creek to drink in the evenings. There are lots of flowers blooming, but not much water to collect in the blossoms. Linda has been filling the hummingbird feeder at the end of our front porch regularly. The hummers have been emptying the feeder almost daily and we have purchased two extra bags of sugar to make their food in order to keep them coming. They are spunky little birds that will fight each other over a spot to land on the feeder.

A short rain shower that wasn't enough to create any water run off caused the hummers to concentrate their efforts at the feeder for a while. We've had more birds sitting on the feeder at one time in years past, but their numbers are starting to increase this year.

It is unreal how many tiny battles go on in the world that we hardly ever notice. These hummers have to fight with each other, the ants and with wasps, such as the one with the yellow legs in the first picture.

Posted by Dave at 8:15 PM
Categories: Current Events

Chuck Comes To Breakfast

Chuck Anderson, one of my friends from high school, work and playing basket ball drove down from IN and stopped at our house. He had called the day before and said he was going to Dale Hollow Lake and wanted to stop by early. I had told him to come on down and we would fix breakfast when he arrived. When he came in, we talked a little while, then I fixed omelets for us. As we ate, we continued to talk about what was happening with the people we had both known and what we had been doing since his visit two years ago. Like several of our acquaintances, he said he had read the blog and had kept up with us on there. Chuck filled us in on the where abouts of several people that we used to know and what he had been doing too. After breakfast, we showed him the pole barn and how we had fixed the 'club house' with the old barn siding. He looked around the barn a little bit, then we went back to the house. He asked us all to carry in some boxes from his car as we started back inside. We had to make a trip back to the car to pickup the rest of the boxes. Once inside, we set the boxes on the table and Chuck asked Stacey to look at some of the stuff in the boxes. She was surprised to see it was NASCAR collectibles. Chuck picked out some of the items and handed them to Stacey for her to take a closer look. Stacey was telling Chuck how much she liked Jimmy Johnson and he pulled out a couple of the Johnson collectible cars. Stacey's eyes lit up when she saw those cars.

Linda and I were amazed at the amount of NASCAR items Chuck had brought and was giving to Stacey. I asked Chuck what he was doing giving his stuff away and he said he was ready to let it go and didn't really have anyone to give it to that he thought would appreciate it as much as Stacey. There was a lot of items that don't show up in the picture above, like the commemorative plates and coins, the programs and even some things that had never been unwrapped. There was a collectible winning car from every year of the Brickyard since 1994. I posted a few of the pictures of the cars below.

There were collectible plates and coins from every year also. The plate and 4 coins pictured below are from the inaugural race in 1994. The other Franklin Mint coin is from last years race.

Chuck talked with Stacey about the stuff and about the Pacers too. He has sent her Pacer tickets more than once and he knows how much she likes the Pacers. We all talked a while longer, said thank you to Chuck and then good bye. Chuck left a little after noon and was headed down to Dale Hollow Lake. He was meeting Bruce Beck and Gary Brown at Star Point and going boating with them Thursday and Friday.