Another Trip With The Tiller

I fixed us omelets for breakfast and we watched a movie in the morning. During the afternoon, I took the Mule and the trailer with the tillers on it to the mum patch and began tilling the mums. I tilled ten rows and returned to the house for a glass of cold water. Regina and Linda were there and after I cooled down they followed me back down to the patch. I tilled another ten rows and used the towel I had brought to keep the sweat off my face. I took a short 4-wheeler ride to cool down. Linda drove the Mule around the hay fields with Regina riding along while I went back and continued tilling. Regina and Linda came back to the patch and pulled a few weeds that were too close to the mum plants to get with the tiller. They left and went back to the house. Linda returned to the patch and left the Mule for me to tow the trailer back to the barn when I was finished and she went back to the house. I finished the last ten rows and loaded the tiller on the trailer, towed it back and parked it in the barn. I parked the Mule in the upper barn and went inside for a shower.

Sam's Club Trip

We headed to Smith's Grove to Pauline and Brent's house to take Pico and Poco home. On the way we stopped at Hardee's in Glasgow and ate breakfast. I finished mine quickly and went across the street and filled the HHR with gas while Linda and Stacey continued eating. I went back and picked them up and we continued on. Pauline and Brent were happy to see their dogs and played with them while we talked and watched TV. They told us about their trip to IN and what was going on with the people up there. After noon we loaded into the HHR and headed to Bowling Green to shop and eat lunch. P&B picked Zaxby's for lunch, so we parked and went inside to eat. The food was good and when we finished we left the lot there and parked in the Lowe's parking lot and did some shopping inside. Once they had found everything they needed we drove to Sam's Club and began our shopping in earnest. P&B had a cart for their stuff and we had a cart for ours. We went up and down each aisle and were filling the carts. Before we finished, Pauline remarked about 'how were we going to get it all in the car?' We checked out, then went to the parking lot and ran into trouble. We had too many people or too much stuff! I packed the rear of the HHR as full as possible, then we laid down one of the rear seats and set a cooler of frozen food on there, Brent put a box of stuff on Linda's lap in the front seat, Stacey rode in the middle rear seat and Pauline rode home on Brent's lap. We were giggling and joking about how full the HHR was and that if a cop stopped us we would be in trouble. We made it back to their house safely and unloaded the HHR and set the cooler of frozen food inside the house and then began working on a couple of things. We used the four anchor bolts and a drill bit for concrete, that Brent had bought, to anchor his outside umbrella to his patio. Then we mounted a dowel rod on the wall for Pauline to hang a quilt. Pauline made a few strips to fit around the dowel rod and the quilt went up. When we left for home it was around 8 PM and we made it back without any problems and then unloaded our stuff and put some of it away before going to bed.

Happy Independence Day

We dressed and jumped in the Triumph and headed to town for the 4th of July Bicycle Parade. We arrived just before the parade began and were sitting on the Courthouse Square as the kids rode by us.
   
   
   
The building in the background of the pictures is the new Justice Center on the Courthouse Square in Burkesville. We also stopped and looked at the marker for all the service men that were 'killed in action' from Cumberland County. Stacey is pointing to my Uncle Ralph's name on the marker. He was my dad's oldest brother and died while serving in World War II. There are also service men listed that died in the Korean Conflict, Vietnam Conflict, and Operation Iraqi Freedom on the opposite side of the marker.
    
We drove through town and stopped for breakfast at Grumpy's. Then I drove the Triumph back to the farm and we covered it up in the hay shed. A little after 8 PM we took the Mustang to town and watched the fireworks from the park.

Enjoy the Fourth of July safely...
and 'celebrate' how great it is to live in the 'land of the free'.

Hummingbirds Attack

We had been seeing a few hummingbirds visit our feeders recently, but since the 4th of July, and with the rain, they have 'attacked' our feeders. Linda came in the room and said, "They are tearing the feeder off the hook!" Of course, they weren't, but the hummingbirds were swarming around the feeder and causing it to swing around crazily. I went outside with the camera and stood next to the feeder and took pictures. The birds ignored me and flew inches from my face and between me and the camera I was holding. I even stuck my hand out to see if I could get one to land on my finger, I didn't, but it didn't scare them away either. I used the camera to take several pictures and I made a movie of the birds too. The pictures don't reveal the sound they make as they squabble and fight over perches on the feeder. The movie does capture the sounds and gives a better feeling of how frantic and mean the little birds really can be.

[Advisory]
Clicking the link below will download a 13 megabyte .mov file.
It will take a while if you don't have a fast connection.
Hummingbird movie. 
[Advisory]

Stacey's Locks of Love

I took the Mule to the mum patch and went through the mums with the little tiller in the opposite direction I usually till. I was removing the grass that was growing between the plants where I couldn't get to with the larger tiller. I finished that and went back to the house to cool down even though the temperature was only around 84 degrees. I had set down with a glass of ice water when Linda and Stacey came through saying they were ready to cut Stacey's hair. They had been planning for a while to cut it and send the cut off pieces to Locks of Love. Linda measured Stacey's hair and cut it with the scissors. Stacey seemed happy about it and had no problems with having shorter hair.
 
The rest of the day, Linda and Stacey tried out different 'styles' for her shorter hair.
The guidelines for hair donations to Locks of Love are listed below...

1. We accept 10" minimum hair length (tip to tip), not wigs, falls, or synthetic hair
2. Please bundle hair in ponytail or braid.
3. Hair needs to be clean, dry, placed in a plastic bag, then padded envelope.
4. We need hair from men and women, young and old, all colors and races.
5. Hair may be colored or permed, but not bleached or chemically damaged (if unsure, ask your stylist).
6. Hair swept off the floor is not usable.
7. Hair cut years ago is usable if it has been stored in a ponytail or braid.
8. Hair that is short, gray, or unsuitable for children will be separated from the ponytails and sold at fair market value to offset the cost of manufacturing.
9. You may pull curly hair straight to measure the minimum 10".
10. The majority of all hair donated comes from children who wish to help other children.
11. Layered hair may be divided into multiple ponytails for donation.
12. Please note: Anyone can cut your hair as long as the above guidelines are followed.

Hazy, Hot and Humid

The fog was really thick in the morning. Linda worked at the daycare in the afternoon and Stacey and I went to town and stopped at the bank, then to the autoparts for two screws. I had been bush hogging on Sunday and hit a small tree with the back tire of the tractor, it then came crashing down on the front of the oldest tractor and knocked one of the headlights out of the housing. I found the headlight ring, but never looked for the small screw that held it together. I came home and replaced the screws in both the rings that hold the headlights in the brackets. I started the tractor and bush hogged on the hill above the hay shed. The thermometer on the porch wall read 94 degrees and the humidity was high when I went inside. Linda came home and we ate supper while a very small amount of rain fell. It wasn't enough to even wet the rocks in the walkway. I rode in the Mule down to the mum patch and stopped and talked with our neighbor until it was almost dark.

Kentucky Repertory Theatre at Horse Cave

Linda fixed us ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch and a little after 2 PM we left for Glasgow. The first stop was for gas in Burkesville, then on to 'Ben and Elmer's Tractor Sales' in Glasgow. I have been having starting problems with the little 8N Ford ever since we bought it and I was getting annoyed at having to get Linda to pull it with the Mule to get it started, so I was price shopping for replacement tractors. They had some great big tractors, but I mentioned what I needed one for and the salesman steered me to a brand new tractor that the price was discounted because it was last year's model. I checked out the price on a couple of more models, then we left. We drove to Bowling Green and ate at Mancino's, then on to Pauline and Brent's house. We chatted briefly and then drove to the Horse Cave exit on I-65, then in to Horse Cave and parked behind the Kentucky Repertory Theatre. We were barely seated and the show promptly started on time.
   
It was a comedy called "Greater Tuna", starring Henry Kevin Haggard and Robert F Brock. The setting was 'the third smallest town in Texas' and several characters were brought forth during the play by the two actors.
   
The crowd enjoyed the play and laughs were numerous during the evening and culminated in a standing ovation at the end for the cast and crew.
 
After the show, we walked to the car and went back to P&B's house, where we played with the dogs before leaving for Burkesville a little before 11 PM.

Thursday, Friday & Saturday

Thursday started off with rain in the early morning and then it cleared off. We ended up mowing from about 10:30 till almost 6 PM. We just finished before it rained a light shower for about 30 minutes.
Friday morning we took Linda's Mustang to a guy to have new headlights put in and grease the underneath. He called about 2:30 and we went and picked up the car. The new lights looked nice and Linda paid him, and we left for home. The girls stopped at the grocery on the way and Missy and I came on home. Late that evening we drove the Mustang up the newly paved road on Jone's Ridge to see how the headlights worked. We both thought they needed to be adjusted for better vision of the road. We were going slow and two deer jumped right in front of us and I was able to stop and avoid hitting them.
Saturday morning, Linda left the house early and picked up Regina and went to clip the tops off the mums. They had been there a little over an hour, when I went down and tilled the half of the patch that they had already trimmed. Everyone quit when the patch was half done and went back to the house. Around 4:30 PM, I started the little tractor and went to the back of the 'holler' and bush hogged the trails and around the trees we have planted. I was almost done when Linda and Stacey came back in the Mule. Linda was lopping limbs and Stacey was driving. I kept bush hogging until the tractor died and then we pulled it trying to get it started, but had no luck, so we pulled it all the way to the hay shed and left it setting there. Maybe it will start tomorrow, or maybe the next day, it's hard to tell when it is this hot outside.

Hazy, Hotter and Still Humid

Linda fixed us sausage and eggs for breakfast, then she finished trimming the mums and I finished tilling between the rows. We towed the tractor and got it to start, then I finished bush hogging around the trees we planted back in the 'holler'. I was completely done and headed to the barn to park the tractor. As I was about to cross the road with Linda behind me in the Mule, the tractor just died while running with nothing going on. I was just driving towards the road and it stopped running. We left it set for a few hours, then towed it down the road and back, but could never get it to start. I don't know what happened, maybe an electrical component failed?
The weather here has been EXTRA HOT, around 95 and supposed to be hotter the rest of the week. The ducks are breathing with their bills open, like a panting dog. Linda felt sorry for Cooter and let him in the house this afternoon to cool off.

Small Deer and Hotter

Linda fixed breakfast and then left to work at the day care. Stacey and I went to town and ate lunch at Subway and picked up three DVDs at the video shack. We came back home and I tried to start the tractor a few times, but no luck. We went inside and stayed most of the day because of the heat. I was messing around in the study, when I saw a small deer in the front yard. I grabbed the camera and went out on the front porch. The deer was moving along the fence right next to the end of the house.
   
We had seen this little deer a few days earlier with it's mother, but hadn't seen it since the mother was killed on the road right in front of our house two days ago. It looks like it is old enough to live without the mother, as long as a bigger predator doesn't catch it. Linda came home for a little while and then left to go to Bonny Holly's house for a party.

Even Hotter

Linda went to work at the daycare early. Stacey and I took the DVDs back to the video shack, then stopped and bought two light switches and a 50 lb bag of feed for the ducks. I drove to Columbia and we went to G&G Motors, the Ford tractor dealership, where I price shopped for tractors and scheduled service for the 8N Ford. We ate at Wendy's and then went back home. We were upstairs, almost done watching a movie, when Linda came home. We watched another movie, as it was too hot to go outside and do anything. We heard on the TV news that it was 100 degrees in Nashville, and that was the hottest it had been since August of 2000. Cooter was inside to stay cool again today and he was interested while Linda was cooking the bacon for BLT sandwiches. Linda poured a little of the grease, after it cooled, over his dog food and he went outside to lap it up. G&G picked up the old tractor around 6 PM.

Thunderstorms

Thursday, Stacey and Linda went to Smith's Grove to stay a couple of nights with Pauline and Brent.
Friday, the weather had cooled down and it was only around 80 degrees and cloudy. It was spitting a little rain off and on during the day, but not enough to wet things down. Around 5:30, the first real rain shower arrived and we had a little over 1/2 inch in the gauge. About 7 PM, we had some heavy thunderstorms roll through and they poured down enough rain that the water was running across the driveway in several places. It was more than the guttering and plastic pipes could handle. The rain gauge showed nearly 2-1/2 inches, so we had received another 2 inches of rain in a little less than hour. The ground soaked most of it up as it had been dry for over a week. There was no water in the gully and the creek water level never changed. The rain was all over before nightfall.

Bedroom Furniture for P&B

Pauline and Brent came over when Linda and Stacey returned. Pauline and Stacey were riding with Linda and Brent drove the 65 Mustang Convertible. They parked the 65 in the shed and covered it with a car cover. They hung around for a while and then we loaded into the HHR and went to a Mexican style restaurant in Columbia. We had a really good lunch there and then headed towards Greensburg. I was taking Pauline and Brent to a furniture store where Linda and I had bought our leather sofa and love seat for upstairs. Pauline immediately started picking out things she liked and they were impressed with the size of the store. We were about 2/3rds of the way through the store, when Pauline found a bedroom suite that she really liked. She asked the saleswoman to figure a price for it while we all continued to look through the store. We returned to where the bedroom suite was located and set down in recliners while Pauline asked a few questions. After finding out the price and then being offered an even better price, Pauline and Brent decided to buy the furniture, so we had to hurry home and get the pickup truck with the red trailer and get back to the store as quick as we could because they were going to close. We made it as fast as we could, in about an hour and a half, but still arrived about 20 minutes after the store closed. The saleswoman had called the owner and the owner was waiting at the back door with her family. They helped us load the furniture in the trailer, cover with blankets and quilts. and tie it down to avoid it shifting around and maybe being damaged. I was able to drive slower on the way back to our house and the furniture rode without any apparent damage. Linda fixed BLTs with tomatoes we grew down at the mum patch for supper. I don't care how good the store bought tomatoes taste, the ones grown at home always taste better.

Dale Hollow Visit, Furniture Delivery

Linda fixed us sausage biscuits for breakfast and then we started getting ready to go to Dale Hollow. We unhooked the red trailer with the furniture and hooked up the boat. We packed the coolers and loaded into the truck and then stopped and filled the boat with gas and on to the lake. We pulled the boat off the trailer and I parked the truck and trailer and we were headed out of the State Park Dock by 10:30. Brent was driving the boat and then Stacey took over and we went straight to Ashburn's Cove, where we were supposed to meet the Dial family. The only problem, we were about 3 hours early. We all went for a swim and then got back in the boat and took a ride south towards Sunset Dock. I turned the boat into a long fingerlet called Eagle's Creek. The fingerlet is probaly six miles long and we rode to the 'head' of the creek, well at least till the water was only about ten feet deep. It was the smoothest water we were on all day as the channel was narrow and the wind wasn't causing any ripples. We returned the way we came and ended up back at Ashburn about 15 minutes before Derek, Lana and Frank pulled in the cove where we had anchored. Stacey started giggling as soon as they arrived and kept it up the rest of the day. After swimming for a while, we boated over to Fanny's Creek and Derek and Brent tested out a wakeboard and then went kneeboarding.
 
There is a ski course set up at the very end of the fingerlet and I took Derek through it on the kneeboard.
  
Both Derek and Brent were tired when we finally pulled over next to Frank's boat and anchored, then set and talked a while, before leaving for the dock. We pulled the boat off the lake and covered it up a few minutes before 6 PM, then towed it back to the farm and put it in the shed. We unhooked the boat and hooked the red trailer to the truck and pulled it up to the house. We went inside, changed out of our swim suits, ate sandwiches and loaded the dogs, Pauline, Stacey, Linda and I in the red truck. Brent drove the TR3 and went ahead of us. A little over an hour later, we backed the trailer into P&B's front yard and went inside. Pauline and Linda tore apart P&B's bedroom and Brent and I started carrying in their new bedroom suite. The dresser was the heaviest piece and it was taxing carrying it in through the doorways, but we made it. After all the pieces were inside, Pauline used Pledge and dusted the new furniture and they examined it for damage. Great, NO DAMAGE! I was relieved, as I was the one that had loaded the pieces and put quilts and blankets between them. Then the 'hard part' came, trying to figure out where Pauline wanted to set the dresser, bed and chest??? I had one opinion, Linda had an opinion, Pauline had an opinion. We set the dresser one place, no that didn't look right, ok move it here, no not there either, ok, how about here? I'm not sure it's exactly where Pauline wanted it, but she quit asking us to move it anyway. We put the bed together and Brent was ready to go to bed, but no, the bed wasn't made.
 
We snapped some pictures anyway and the next thing I noticed Brent and Stacey were asleep on the couch while Linda and Pauline were still decorating. It was a long day and we ended up staying the night.

Something Has Hit The Fan?

Yesterday, Linda went to work at the daycare and I went to mow. I mowed the slope and yard in front of the house and then came back in to cool down. When Linda came home we went back out and began mowing. She mowed the barn lot and around the trailer while I was doing the ditches and the little house, behind the trailer and down by the creek where the old house used to be. Linda was also mowing around the fire pit and the flowers. We were nearly done, but my mower started smoking. It was the belt that turns all three mower blades. I stopped and looked, then drove it to the house where I could see better by laying on the garage floor. It was too dark outside to tell much anyway. I decided the mower was too hot to mess with and I would wait until it cooled.
I went out to the garage about 6 AM and checked out the mower deck. I determined it was a bearing in the spring loaded belt tensioner pulley. I decided to take the mower to the John Deere Dealer in Glasgow as it also needed an axle seal replaced. The trailer was still hooked to the truck from the furniture delivery Sunday. Linda left for work again and I loaded the mower in the trailer, then took a quick shower and Stacey and I left for Glasgow. We dropped off the mower and explained what needed fixed to the service manager. We stopped on the way home and ate at Burger King, then returned home about 2 PM. As soon as I stepped inside the house, I knew something was wrong, because the temperature was too high. I looked at the thermostat and it read 80 degrees. It should have been on 76, so I began checking out what was wrong. The HVAC air handler motor was running and circulating air, but it wasn't cool air. I walked outside and the heat pump wasn't running. I went back in, shut off the system and waited 5 minutes, then restarted it. I went back out to the heat pump and could hear the compressor running, but the fan on top of the unit wasn't. The compressor shut off after about a minute. I called for service and after a couple of calls they said they will be out early in the morning. The temperature inside at bedtime was 86 degrees, a little uncomfortable, but hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow.

A Better Day

Well the day started a lot better. Before 8 AM, the service man for the HVAC pulled in the driveway. In less than 15 minutes he had the AC working. He replaced a capacitor and the fan started and the compressor continued to run. He said he will order the correct part for our unit and return to replace it, but the unit should run ok with the part he put in it until then. He also said the part was covered under warranty for 5 years, so there would be no parts charge, but there would be a service call bill. I said great and thanked him for coming as early as possible. We had rescheduled our meeting time at Dale Hollow with the Dial family to 2 PM, so we would have time to get ready if the service call took longer. We packed coolers and took stuff to eat and loaded that stuff into the truck, then hooked up the boat and left the house about 11 AM. We took back DVDs to the movie shack and then headed on to the lake. As soon as we left the dock area and headed towards Trooper Island we crossed paths with Derek, Lana and Frank. Stacey stopped the boat and we circled around and began telling them what had happened since we left the lake Sunday. Cindy Beck and her son, Jake pulled up in their family boat and we talked with them for a few minutes, then we all headed towards Wolf River Dock.
 
We all ran along together for a few miles to the dock, then pulled over and told Cindy and Jake so long, they continued on towards the cliffs. We pulled in to the dock and Frank asked where we should park to eat at their restaurant. The guys on the dock told him, but said that it wasn't open on Wednesdays. So we pulled back out into the lake and headed towards the cliffs and looking for Cindy and Jake as we went. We stopped in a cove and watched eagles flying above us while we swam. We eventually made it to the cliff area and never did see the Beck's. We pulled over and watched a few brave people jump off the 40 foot cliffs into the water. After setting there awhile, we boated back past Trooper Island and pulled into our favorite cove. We anchored there and swam for an hour or so, then a cloud popped up over the hillside and it began to rain. We pulled up the anchor and headed on west to Pusley Creek.
   
We anchored in there and swam around until after 5 PM. The water was so smooth, it looked like glass in the entire fingerlet. We left for the dock and pulled the boat out a few minutes after 6 PM. Towed it back to the farm, put it in the shed and went inside. Great news, the AC was still working.

The Dials Visit the Farm

Lana and Frank Dial and their son, Derek, stopped by our house on their way home from Dale Hollow.

They had been staying at Bonnie and Donnie's cabin near Star Point for almost a week. They came inside and we talked for a short time, then Derek wanted to see the rest of our house so we showed them through. We ended up setting upstairs and using the big screen TV to look at pictures that we have taken in the last year. Derek had a digital camera, so we loaded his pictures on the computer and took a look at his shots too.
 
We shot some pool while we were upstairs and then went outside. Frank drove the Mule around the farm while Linda took Stacey and Lana a ride in the 97 Mustang Convertible. They came back and we let them drive the Mule while we went inside and had a cold drink and talked about what had happened while they were at the lake. They stayed a couple of hours and then left for their home in IN.

Saturday & Sunday

Saturday morning started off a little strange. I was upstairs messing with the xBox when Linda yelled up that she was giving Stacey a Diazepam tablet because she was having involuntary movements that usually precede her having a gran mal seizure. I came down and we watched Stacey for a while, gradually the involuntary movements subsided. It just makes my stomach twist to think about her seizures starting up again. We both stayed inside and monitored Stacey, but about 3:30 PM Linda noticed more activity and gave Stacey another tablet and again the movements quit in about a half an hour. Linda and I decided to give Stacey one more tablet at 10:30 PM, before she went to bed for the night. She slept through the night without any recurring symptoms.
Sunday, we didn't know what to do with Stacey having problems the day before, so we stayed close to the house and took turns going outside to do odd jobs. It was in the mid 90s during the day, so it wasn't that hard to stay inside. About 5:30 I went to the mum patch and used the small tiller to get the weeds and grass out of the patch. I was wringing wet when I came back to the house and took a shower shortly after checking with Linda on how Stacey had been.

Mower Pick Up

Linda went to work at the day care and I called about the John Deere mower. The service manager said the mower was finished and I could pick it up. Stacey and I headed to Glasgow to pick up the mower and as we left we noticed the Garmons were mowing our hay fields. The John Deere office needed some decent help. They couldn't tell me how much by bill was, what parts they put on or anything like that when I got there. The mower was loaded and the trailer was hooked to the truck way before the bill was completed. It took about an hour to figure out the bill and then it took about a minute to write the check for $479.69. We went to Burger King to eat, stopped at Lowe's and bought pipe, then drove on home. Linda was home when we got there, so we went outside and unloaded the pipe and then the mower. I began mowing and made about seven or eight laps around the front yard and the mower deck began having the same problem it was before I took it to get it repaired. %^&*^&^%! I drove it to the red utility trailer and shut it off. Looks like I'll have to make another trip to Glasgow tomorrow. Linda went to a meeting at the Ag Extension Office.