A Friend Visits

I had received a call a few days earlier asking if we would be home on Thursday so an old friend could drop by. We were and he did. It was Chuck Anderson, a friend from high school in Daleville and later on work in Anderson, IN. Chuck stopped a little after noon on his way back to IN after staying a few days at Dale Hollow Lake. We picked up where we had left off 11 years ago when Linda and I moved out of IN. It was fun catching up on what each of us had been doing. Chuck had retired from GM in January of 2007 and was enjoying his retirement. We took a short trip around the farm in the Mule and then back to the house for some more conversation. It was great to see Chuck, but soon he had to be on his way. We exchanged email addresses and said, 'So long' and Chuck left around 3:30 PM.

Happy 4 th of July

Julie's 4th of July Parade

Pauline, Brent & Julie came over Thursday evening. Linda fixed breakfast for us this morning and after a while we went outside. Pauline was pulling Julie around the house in the little red wagon and resting by sitting in the swing on the back porch. Julie was also playing on the back porch in between rides in the wagon.
  
   
We were having a little bit of rain, but it was only a slight drizzle, so we decided to go to Burkesville for the 4th of July Bike Parade. We also decided to take the little red wagon and let Julie ride in the parade. We loaded into the pickup truck and headed to town. I picked a place to park on the Courthouse Square and let Pauline, Brent, Julie and Stacey walk a short distance to the bank parking lot to join the parade. Right about noon, Stevie Wheat drove the police car past the courthouse with lots of bikers behind the car. After the bikers came the smaller kids in the wagons and strollers.
   
   
   
After the kids made the trip to the park, our State Farm Insurance agent, Wade Flowers, drew names for free bikes. The kids that won the bikes are in the last picture. Julie's name wasn't drawn, so we left the park and went to eat before returning to the farm. We enjoyed the rest of the day riding the ATVs and Mule around the farm and playing with Julie.

Visiting Koala Ridge

Saturday morning began with Linda fixing pancakes for breakfast, then Brent and I began working on the plastic dryer venting hose under the house. The crawl space is high enough that I can set upright, so it wasn't too bad to get under there to see what was wrong with the plastic dryer hose. We found there was a section of the hose hanging down that had become clogged with lint and then the humidity in the air discharged by the dryer had condensed and there was water in the hose blocking the air flow. To remedy the problem, I decided to replace the plastic hose with aluminum duct. We purchased the duct and some hanger straps, then returned to the farm to replace the plastic hose. I snapped the pieces of aluminum duct together and Brent pushed those pieces together to form the 22 feet of duct we needed to run from the dryer to the outside wall. Brent added the 90 degree elbow and I went upstairs to cut the length of duct we needed to connect the back of the dryer. The hardest part was getting the piece attached to the dryer and then sliding the dryer back to hook that piece to the rest of the ducting. Overall, it was only a couple of hours and we were done. Pauline fixed everyone BLTs for lunch and later in the evening Pauline, Brent, Julie, Stacey, Linda and I loaded into the truck and I drove to Byrdstown to meet several of our friends from IN for dinner at the Bobcat's Den Restaurant. We ordered soft drinks and then Bonnie & Donnie and Lana & Frank came in and set down with us. We all ordered our food, ate and then went to Bonnie & Donnie's cabin on Koala Ridge near Dale Hollow Lake. Susie & Gary were there along with their son, his wife and their two kids. We sat outside on the deck and had a few drinks and talked for a couple of hours. It was fun and over too quickly as Susie and Gary had to leave to light fireworks with their grandkids. Julie had went to sleep on the floor also, so we decided to leave for the farm around 9:45 PM. On the way home we had to drive through a sobriety check point and have my license and insurance card checked. Not a problem, so we came on home a little after 10:30 PM.

Sunday morning I fixed everyone omelets for breakfast, then we rode around the farm and let Daisy run along with us. Stacey, Brent and I watched the NASCAR race on the DVR while Pauline and Linda watched Julie play in the water on the back porch. PB&J left for Smith's Grove slightly after noon and we relaxed the rest of the day.

Southern Softball Classic

After a partially rainy day, it cleared off and we did a little mowing, then decided to see if Jason was at the Southern Softball Classic in Burkesville. Stacey called him on his cell phone and he said he was there, sitting in the same spot where Stacey and he had watched the games the night before. Stacey told him we were coming to watch the games and to look for us. We put our chairs in the back of the truck and fixed us a cold drink to take, then we headed to town. We paid the $6 total admission and drove around the diamond to where Tommy had parked his truck. There set Jason in the pickup bed in a lawn chair. I parked our truck next to their truck and set Stacey's chair in their pickup bed so they could set and talk while watching the game.
 
We sat in the back of our pickup on our lawn chairs and watched the end of one game and two more complete games. We talked to several other people that walked by as we watched the softball games. I bought Stacey and Jason a hotdog each and Linda and I a hamburger each to go with the drinks we each already had.

I have inserted a link to new pictures at the bottom of the right hand column of this page.
You can also click HERE to see the pictures.

Family Visit From IN

Friday afternoon, Anita drove in the driveway about 5:30 PM with Trevon and Nana riding along. We started the visit by talking a little while, then taking a ride around the farm after it cooled off. Nana hadn't been around the farm the last time she was here and with us having the Mule it made the ride easier. After taking a quick lap, we went back to the house and talked the rest of the evening until everyone was ready for bed.
Saturday morning Linda began fixing breakfast and Pauline, Brent and Julie came in with their dogs. They ate breakfast with us and everyone was playing with Julie, Trevon and talking. Brent and I delivered a wagon load of hay to Steve Riddle and had to pull it in his barn to keep it from getting rained on. The truck and wagon was a little too long to fit the entire wagon inside, so we had to unload the back half of the wagon quickly to keep the hay from getting wet. After the shower of rain passed, we backed the wagon outside and headed back to our house. Pauline picked blackberries while Julie ate them and then Julie and Trevon played in the water while Nana, Linda, Anita, Pauline, Regina, Brent and I watched.
  
   
 
Pauline, Brent and Julie left for home slightly before dark after a full day of playing and having fun.
Sunday morning, after breakfast, Anita loaded the car and after Nana, Trevon and Anita hugged us, they drove away, heading for IN.

Daisy Runs & Mum Patch

Stacey backed the Mule out of the barn and I let Daisy out of her stall. Daisy ran around the Mule then Stacey told her to jump in the back of the Mule and she did.
 
Stacey drove to the mum patch and I took a picture of the patch. Regina and Linda had worked two evenings to pull the weeds that were too close to the mum plants for me to use the tiller.
 
The mum plants have really jumped in size and it is time for them to be clipped. Linda will take care of that with battery powered grass clippers in the upcoming week she says. After that I will need to till the entire patch. There were some guys standing inside the fence looking at the mums, so I asked what they were doing. They said they were from the University of Louisville and were using their equipment to see if there were any prehistoric dwellings or burial sites underneath where the road was going to be built. After a few minutes of talking, Stacey and I went across the creek to let Daisy run around the hay fields.
  
Daisy seems to be enjoying taking a swim in the creek to cool off. Sometimes, I wish I could join her. We let her run the rest of the way around the field and then loaded her back in the Mule and headed across the creek. I stopped to take a picture of the guys working in the mum patch.
 
As I was stopped and talking to the woman, Steve Riddle pulled up and talked a while before going on his way to school near Albany.

Hay Baling

Linda worked in the office for the FRYSC yesterday morning. While she worked, Stacey and I took Daisy for a run, then I mowed with the FarmTrac and finish mower as Stacey set in the Mule listening to her iPod and working a word search. Linda came home and we went to town for lunch, then back to the farm. Phil Garmon had raked the hay in the field across the highway and told me it was ready to bale, so Linda helped me hook the square baler to the tractor and I headed to the field. After some trouble with the baler needing a shot of WD-40 and Steve Garmon adjusting the pickup height I was off and baling. No more problems and I finished the field as Linda watched and moved a few bales out of the way for me. I checked the bale count and it read 82, then I set the baler to travel position and parked it in the shed. Linda and I went to the house to cool off a little, then Stacey and her picked up Regina and they went to the mum patch to trim the buds off the mums.
 
After a couple glasses of cold water, I went back out and hooked up the trailer to the pickup truck. Steve Riddle showed up and wanted to help pickup the hay, so we started picking it up and stacking it on the trailer. Shortly, Linda came driving up in the Mule, with Regina and Stacey. Linda took Stacey to the house and Regina began driving the pickup truck through the field while Steve and I picked up the hay. Linda returned and helped until the hay was stacked too high for her to throw it on the trailer. Then she took over driving while Regina rode along and we finished picking up the hay. Afterwards, I moved a wagon and parked the trailer full of hay in the barn hallway. Linda took Regina home and brought back a blackberry cobbler that Regina had made for us. We enjoyed that with ice cream right after taking showers. It was delicious!

Stacey Has Trouble and Hay Baling

Friday morning, I went to the mum patch and tilled half of the patch, then went back to the house and Stacey began having trouble about 7:30 AM. We began with 15 mg Valium. Stacey's involuntary movements slowed down until 10:24 AM, when we gave another 10 mg Valium and I went to town and picked up lunch for us. A little after 11 AM Stacey, Linda and I ate lunch and watched TV in the living room. At 4:25 PM, we gave Stacey another 5 mg of Valium to stop the uncontrolled muscle movements in her arms. Linda went to the mum patch with Regina and they finished trimming the buds off the mums. I called Linda on the hand held radios and asked where she was about 7:15 PM. She was coming in the house when I called. I told her I was ready to take Stacey to the hospital as we had reached the 30 mg of Valium limit the doctors had given us. I helped Stacey to the car as Linda gathered up her medicine and we headed to the ER. Stacey's involuntary movements were increasing as I drove towards town, so I told Linda to give Stacey another 5 mg of Valium. We checked her into the ER about 7:30 PM and shortly afterwards the ER doctor had the nurse start an IV and give Stacey 5 mg Valium. The doctor admitted Stacey for a 24 hour observation and decided to place her in a room. About 9 PM, and after 40 mg of Valium that day, Stacey seemed to straighten up and was hungry again. Jason had called right when Stacey was having trouble, so Linda called Stephanie and told them Stacey was doing better, so Tommy and Stephanie brought Jason to the ER to see how Stacey was doing. They walked along with us as the hospital personel placed Stacey in her room. I stayed until about 10:30 PM and watched as Stacey ate some soup and I kept an eye on her. Linda stayed the night as I went home, slept and returned to the hospital at 4 AM. Linda went home at that time and slept until I called and said Dr Rice had released Stacey to "go to the house" about 10:30 AM. Linda came and picked us up and I drove us home. On the way home, I saw Steve Anderson and asked him if he wanted to help me bale some hay around 1 PM and he did. After getting Stacey settled in the living room, I went and hooked up the hay wagon to the FarmTrac tractor and the hay baler to the Ford tractor. Steve Riddle came up and he followed me to the hay field where I left the FarmTrac and hay wagon. I went to town in the pickup truck and Steve Anderson was ready to bale hay, so we headed back to the farm. Steve and Steve rode to the hay field in his Mule while I drove the tractor with the hay baler to the field. They hooked the wagon behind the baler and climbed on and we baled the hay. We had no problems at all and we were done fairly quick. I put the hay baler in travel mode and Steve Anderson drove the tractor pulling the hay wagon back to the farm behind me pulling the hay baler and Steve Riddle in his Mule. We backed the hay wagon in the barn loft and unloaded the hay, then had a few cold cans of pop. I took Steve Anderson back to his house and it had taken us a little less than 2 hours. I returned to the farm and put the equipment away, hooked the finish mower to the FarmTrac, backed the wagons in the barns and went inside. Stacey was doing OK and watching TV.

New Laptop

My postings to this blog have been limited for the last few months by the fact that the laptop I used to post had the LCD screen quit working. I now have a new Dell Inspiron 1525 that I'm learning to use. The new Dell has the Windows Vista operating system and it is different from using Windows XP. It has taken a couple of days to get the new laptop setup the way I like and then a couple more days to transfer the Thingamablog program and files over to it. Hopefully, I'll be posting more often now that I can sit in comfort and write the entries.
 

Hay In The Fields And The Barn

Linda went to work at the FRYSC office this morning and Stacey and I were at home. We started the day by taking Daisy out of her stall for a run around the hay fields.
  
I'm going to start calling the shed, in the picture above, an equipment shed, instead of a hay shed because I don't store hay in it and it is full of farm equipment. We drove down to the mum patch and took a look at how well the mums were doing and how well Regina and Linda had cleaned the weeds out of them. I will probably run the tiller through the second half of the patch early tomorrow morning.
  
After a lap around the mums, we let Daisy out of the Mule and she took off down the creek and around the hay field.
  
  
The hay has been cut short and with the recent rains it is coming back quickly. The wind blew most of the remaining roofing off the old barn and broke several limbs off trees around the fields too. Stacey drove us back to the farm and we led Daisy to her stall and put the Mule in the barn loft. The hay is in good shape stored in the barn loft and is curing quickly.
  
There are about 200 bales of hay in the barn that was cut this season. The brown ones on the floor at the left are several years old and will be tossed out.

PB&J Visit

We had picked Julie up Thursday afternoon while meeting Pauline and Brent at Mancino's in Glasgow for sandwiches. Friday we played with Julie and Linda took her to town to let the girls at the FRYSC office see how much Julie had grown. Saturday morning Pauline and Brent arrived early and were eager to see Julie. They played with her for a hour or two, then we loaded everyone into the pickup truck and went to Columbia. Pauline, Stacey and Linda went into the shops to look for some outfits for Julie while Julie, Brent, and I waited in the truck. After stopping at 3 places in Columbia, we went on to Campbellsville to a couple of shops. We ate at the Arby's and then walked through the Peddlers' Mall. As we started back to the farm, Pauline mentioned she would like to look through Central Furniture near Greensburg, so we went there and walked through one of the largest furniture stores around. We left that store and went back towards Columbia on Highway 55. I stopped at an ice cream shop called Bossman's and we went inside and had some delicious ice cream. After that we returned to the farm.
Sunday morning Brent was ready to help me pull a few broken tree limbs out of the hay fields. Pauline took Julie along with Brent driving the Mule while I took the tractor. We hooked the chain to the limbs and drug them to the edge of the fields and then returned to the house. Pauline and Stacey fixed breakfast and then we played with Julie for a while. Linda and Brent took a ride in the Triump and then Brent drove the 56 Chevy down to Salem Park and back to use some of the gas. We began watching the NASCAR race from the Brickyard in Indy while Linda fixed us chicken breasts for lunch. After lunch, Brent drove the Triumph and followed Pauline and Julie to their house about 4:30 PM.

Hospital Stay

Linda brought Stacey into the bedroom about 9PM Sunday evening and said she was having a few problems. We all slept the night without a problem occuring. Monday morning, Linda left for the daycare and around 7:45 AM involuntary movements in Stacey's arms and shoulders had begun, so I gave 15 mg Valium. I called Linda and told her and she came home. At 9 AM Linda gave another 10 mg Valium. I gave another 10 mg Valium at 1:30 PM as involuntary movements were returning. About 3:30 PM we took Stacey to Dr Rice's office and he told us to take her to the ER. He called in orders for 5 mg Valium by IV to the hospital and it was administered about 3:45. Another 5 mg Valium was given by IV at 5:40 PM right after Linda left for a short trip home. Dr Rice came in and looked at Stacey about 8 PM. He upped her Keppra dosage by 500 mg twice a day. Linda returned about 10 PM and I left, then another 5 mg Valium was given by IV at 10:30 PM. I returned to the hospital about 4 AM and Stacey was still having problems. Linda left for home and Stacey went into a deep sleep until she awoke and regained some clarity of mind about 7 AM Tuesday morning. Her muscle control was also returning. Linda came back and after we had walked Stacey around the hallways a few times, as Dr Rice had ordered during his morning visit, was getting Stacey dressed . I left for a little rest at home and then returned before Dr Rice released Stacey to go to the house about 7:!0 PM.

Number 3

Yesterday afternoon, Stacey and I were planning on taking Daisy for a run, so Linda said she would weed-eat inside the dog pen. She went ahead of us and started the trimmer and was going around the flower bed as I walked by. As she was trimming the trimmer head broke off the machine and just fell to the ground. Hmm, just what I needed to see. I looked at it a few minutes, then Stacey and I took Daisy for a short run. Once back inside, I used the info Linda had written down about the model of the trimmer to find the replacement pieces we might need. Two web sites offered the assembly, one site's price was $184 and the other site's price was around $140. So, I started looking for new models to buy. I found that there really was only one model that most places sold, other than the original DR Trimmer. Lowes and Tractor Supply were the places near us that sold the cheap imitations. Lowe's price was over $500 and Tractor Supply Company (TSC) was listed for $339. It was too late to call or go get one, so I mentioned to Linda that we might go to Glasgow today to get one at TSC and it would be a good time to let Jason ride along so Stacey and he could spend some time together. Stacey asked Jason during their telephone call and he did want to ride along. This morning, I called and the TSC in Glasgow didn't have any available, but said there were two at the Bowling Green store. I called to check and there were two. We picked Jason up a few minutes after 10 AM and were on our way. During the ride to Bowling Green, I told Jason that Linda had used two of the weed eaters and the new one would be #3 and I was thinking about putting a big number three on it. Our first stop was at Zaxby's for lunch, then over to Home Depot to look for a couple lights for the house, no luck there, so over to the mall and into Sears. We also walked around the inside of the mall while we were there with Stacey and Linda buying some gifts for their Secret Pals. Jason and I drug the girls out of the mall and over to Sam's Club to pick up supplies. We checked out and loaded the items in the back of the truck, then drove to the TSC store. Good news, the trimmer we wanted had been marked down to $299 and they still had two of them. We picked one, paid, and loaded it on the truck, then away we went, headed for Burkesville. We stopped and bought 3 dozen ears of sweet corn on the way. Stacey and Jason chatted and worked a word search together while we rode back to Jason's house. We dropped him off at his house and went back to the farm. I made a few adjustments to the trimmer and then we filled it with gas and it was ready to use.
 
Stacey and I took Daisy for a short run while Linda used the new trimmer in the dog pen. Then Stacey and I rode down and checked out the mum patch.
 
I went back and mowed with the tractor while Linda used the trimmer around the flowers and buildings. Stacey went inside and worked on emptying the dishwasher and laundry as darkness approached.