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Posted on Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Etc.
The weather has been a little more moderate with the temperatures in the
low 90s during the days. We have been getting pop up rain showers once
or twice a week and it is keeping the grass growing. With the threat of
off and on rain showers, we took a trip to Columbia, Jamestown and then
across the Wolf Creek Dam and back to Burkesville. "The Longest Yard
Sale in The World" was going on along Highway 127, so we checked out a
few places that were selling stuff.
We
didn't buy a thing and made it home without getting wet. Linda has began
working at the school, which started on Tuesday. She is working full
days assisting a child with autism. We received a letter from the
state's attorney in Russell Springs saying that we have an agreement to
settle the case concerning the amount of money the state will pay us for
the barns and acreage they took for relocation of SR 61. I guess we have
to meet with the attorney and sign some papers transferring the land to
the state and then we get the check and that will be the end of it. The
entire procedure took over two years and it was a mess. The end result
wasn't as bad as Linda and I thought it was going to be, but it still
was a PITA! After driving the 65 Mustang to the Country Cafe for supper,
we returned to the farm and parked it in the garage as darkness took
over. Linda wanted to start driving the 97 Mustang to the school, so I
took her to the shed in the Mule to get the car. I dropped her off and
started to park the Mule at the back of the barn in the loft, when I
noticed a snake about 4 feet long crawling inside the barn. I yelled for
Linda to bring the "snake gun" while I held Coco and kept an eye on the
snake. She brought the .22 calibre pistol with bird shot loaded in it. I
fired a couple of shots and the snake curled up and stopped moving. I
chopped it's head off with a hoe just to make sure it had died. After
parking the Mule, we went inside.
Posted on Thursday, August 11, 2011
In The Woods
When Linda returned to the farm, after working at the school, she told
me that she had been permantly replaced by a full time worker at the
school. We decided to take a Mule ride, so Stacey put on her iPod and
rode in the back with us. I drove north on SR 61 and turned onto Jone's
Ridge road. We went to the top of the hill and down the other side, then
took Beech Branch road to SR 704. We drove along the creek and then
turned north on West Fork road past the old Lacy place to a farm we own
with Lanny Judd. Lanny and I had a crew logging the timber from that
farm and Linda and I wanted to see how things were going.
Billy
and Bobby Wray are the guys that are doing the logging. They have been
working for a few months and it looks like they are doing a good job to
me. Their trails are narrow and they're not tearing up the woods any
more than they have to in order to get the timber out. It looks like
there will be plenty of limbs left laying for firewood this coming
winter and next. If I could just find a crew to cut firewood, it would
be great! LOL. I drove the Mule back to the house. It had been a 16 mile
trip over there and back and took us a little over an hour.
Posted on Friday, August 12, 2011
Surprise - It's Brent's Birthday
Pauline came over to the farm around noon and brought Julie, Kyle and
the dogs. She had planned a surprise birthday party for Brent and was
starting to put the plan into action. Linda and I were going to take
care of the kids and the dogs from Friday till Sunday afternoon. Pauline
had reserved a horse ranch near Dale Hollow Lake for several guests to
stay during the weekend. While Pauline was at our house, she baked the
birthday cake, made Jello shots and fixed several other items for the
party. Pauline left for the ranch about 4 PM. Maxx had flew in from
California and met Brent in Bowling Green and they were driving to the
ranch. Shelly and Jeff drove down from IN and were also at the ranch.
Pauline had asked Stacey, Linda and I to bring Julie and Kyle to the
party to see Brent cut the cake, so we took them out there at 6 PM.
Michael, from Boston, arrived at the same time we pulled into the
driveway. The house was a newer log cabin sitting on a small hilltop
with a walkout basement and the owners greeted us at the door. We went
downstairs to the party and enjoyed a few drinks for a while. About 8 PM
we joined in singing "Happy Birthday" and watched Brent cut the birthday
cake. Everything had been a surprise to Brent.
Shortly
after eating cake, we took the kids and went back to the farm. A couple
more people are supposed to arrive Saturday and they're all going
boating on Dale Hollow Lake.
Posted on Saturday, August 13, 2011
Boating Day
We started the day with cereal and sticky buns (cinnamon rolls) for
Julie and Kyle, then let them play while we waited on a call from Brent.
He called at 10:15 for us to deliver the boat to the dock at 11 AM. I
went to the pole barn and pulled the truck out while Stacey carried the
empty cooler from the back of the Mule. Stacey and I went to town,
filled the boat's tank with gas, put ice in the empty cooler and drove
to Dale Hollow Lake State Park. Shelly, Jeff, Michael, Maxx, Pauline and
Brent were waiting at the Marina Shelter House when we pulled to the
front and stopped. Ethan and Frank were supposed to be there shortly. We
uncovered the boat, transferred the ice to the cooler they were using
and loaded everything into the boat. Right before they climbed into the
boat, I took a picture of their crew.
After
everyone was in the boat, I drove to the dock and backed the boat
trailer in the water. Brent started the boat's engine and backed it off
the trailer. I told them, "Have a good day!" and then pulled up the hill
and parked the truck and trailer in the middle parking lot. Linda had
drove the HHR to the dock and she picked me up. We went back to the farm
and ate lunch. We had a thunderstorm at the farm about 5 PM, so I asked
Linda to wake Julie and Kyle up from their naps and get ready to go to
the State Park to get the boat around 6:30 PM. We drove to the parking
lot and I got into the truck with the boat trailer. Linda, Stacey and
the kids went back to the farm. I pulled the truck and trailer to the
front of the shelter house and parked it. I walked around the building
and sat down at a table and waited for Brent to drive the boat into the
cove. About 15 minutes later, I saw the boat on the other side of the
cove, so I went to the truck and pulled the trailer to the dock, backed
it in the water and by that time, Brent had idled around the boat slips
and pulled the boat on the trailer.
I
winched the boat the rest of the way on the trailer, chained it down and
pulled up the ramp and stopped. Everyone climbed out of the boat saying
they had a good time. Frank was still there and Ethan had showed up too.
We covered the boat after taking all the stuff out and then I towed it
back to the farm. Pauline and Brent and their crew went back to the
horse farm to stay the night. It started raining as I went through
Burkesville and by the time I was ready to pull into the pole barn it
was pouring down rain. I closed the doors and went to the house.
Posted on Sunday, August 14, 2011
Party's Over
The party for Brent's birthday was over and they had to leave the horse ranch Sunday morning. Shelly, Jeff, Frank, Maxx, Pauline and Brent stopped by our house, around 11 AM, before heading back to their own living quarters. Linda had made a couple pies and some BBQ sandwiches for snacks if they wanted to eat. We spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon talking with them and hearing the stories about the boating trip and their personal stories of what had been going on in their lives. It sounded like they had a nice time at the ranch and boating. Frank said he was leaving for Nashville and at the same time, Shelly and Jeff left for the ride back to IN. About 6:30 PM, Pauline loaded the kids and the dogs into their HHR and left for Smith's Grove. Brent rode back to his house with Maxx in the rental car a few minutes later.
Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Nothing Much
Slightly cooler weather Monday and Tuesday gave me a chance to get
caught up on mowing. When it's above 90, I tend to just mow the main
areas and now I've been able to mow most of the areas I had let go. It
doesn't take long for those areas to start looking shabby.
Wednesday,
I went to the Chevy dealership to talk to them about a car show they're
wanting the Cruisers to help with on October 1st and then I went to the
Events Committee meeting concerning a festival they're having the week
after the car show.
Posted on Saturday, August 20, 2011
All Day Cruisin
Linda and I had agreed to go to a cruise-in with the car club on
Saturday, so we fixed a cooler, took the camera, and along with Stacey
drove the 65 Mustang to town. I stopped at the filling station and
turned the car off to fill up with gas. I was a little too far away from
the pumps, so got back in to move the car closer. It would not start,
not even wind over. Hmm, I pushed the Mustang away from the pumps into a
parking space and tried messing with the battery cables, still nothing.
A few minutes later, Randy stopped and we tried jumping the Mustang, it
wouldn't do anything while hooked to his Blazer with jumper cables.
Alvin stopped to help and we tried jumping the Mustang off a truck with
a bigger battery. The headlights would come on and the radio would play,
but the car would not start. I asked Kent to take me to the farm, where
I got our pickup truck and drove back to the station. We towed the
Mustang over to DC Auto Service and left it with Dave Neff, the owner.
He will look at it next week. We went back to the station to tell
everyone we weren't going on the cruise, but they said for us to go get
our 56 Chevy and come along with them, they would wait. OK, that's what
we did. After putting the chairs and canopy in the 56, we drove back to
the station and followed the club members the 50 miles to Dry Fork, KY.
The Rolling Rods car club was having a cruise-in at Thomerson Park and
there were lots of people and vehicles already there when we arrived. We
were pointed to a nice parking spot and once parked, we setup the canopy
and our chairs, then went and registered.
You
can see all the car pictures that I took by clicking HERE.
Later in the day, each of us went into the shelter house and ate FREE
hot dogs or shoulder sandwiches. They had FREE drinks too!
With
over 240 vehicles registered, that was a lot of FREE FOOD. They never
ran out. At 1 PM, they stopped the music and began drawing numbers for
door prizes. I was the second number drawn and Linda got two 'shadow'
characters. We left a little bit later and drove the 56 Chevy back to
Burkesville, filled up the gas tank and went back to the farm. It was 3
PM, so we had an hour before we were supposed to be in Albany for their
Cruiz'In On The Square event. We cooled off, drank some iced tea and
relaxed for a few minutes, then loaded back into the Chevy and drove to
Albany. We registered after parking and then walked around the square
looking at the vehicles and taking pictures.
You
can see the pictures by clicking HERE.
They were giving away T-shirts and drawing for door prizes for the 104
vehicle owners they had registered. We talked to several people that was
sitting around the Court House and about 7 PM, I went and started the 56
Chevy, drove around the square and stopped, Stacey and Linda climbed
into the car and we went back to the farm. We put the car in the pole
barn and drove the Mule to the house. Our day was over and we were
toasted! LoL
Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Mom's Heart
Monday morning at 6 AM, Stacey, Linda and I left the farm in the HHR and
drove to Daleville, IN. We dropped off Coco at my Mom's house and went
to Muncie to visit with Mom. Virginia was doing fairly well when we
arrived. She talked with us for a couple of hours and wasn't having much
trouble with her memories. After having a meeting with the nursing home
staff, I finished visiting with Mom and we told her we were coming back
the next day and left. We drove to Daleville, picked up Coco, then went
to Markleville and stopped at Linda K and Imom's house to see what they
had been doing. We talked with them for over an hour and then went to
Pendleton. We stayed the night with Linda's Mom.
Tuesday morning, we
drank coffee and ate a few cookies for breakfast as we talked, then left
Stacey and Coco with Nana. We went to Muncie to go with my mother to
Ball Memorial Hospital while she had a heart catheter procedure. An
ambulance took Mom from the Woodlands Nursing Home to the hospital and
we followed in the HHR.
They
registered Mom a little after 11 AM and she was put in a small room to
get her undressed and ready for the procedure. My cousin, Shirley, and
her husband, Jerry Moore came into the room as the staff were getting
Mom ready. Linda and I visited with Shirley and Jerry while the
procedure was done. It seemed to take forever, but was over about 3 PM.
The buzzer the hospital had gave us let us know when they were finished
and we moved downstairs to have a consultation with the two doctors.
Each doctor told us how the procedure had went and what their
conclusions were about Mom's health. They showed us parts of the
catheter procedure on a computer screen and we were able to see where
the blockages were located around Mom's heart. The doctors had
determined Mom wasn't in good enough health for open heart surgery and
the blockages were in locations where stints wouldn't work very well.
They both suggested that they try to help Mom with medications. We
agreed to follow their recommendations. Then we were directed down the
hallway to the recovery room to visit with Mom. Virginia had come
through the procedure and was lying on a bed in the recovery room and
was able to talk with us. She said she had been awake during the
procedure and the only thing that was bad was them trying to stop the
arterial bleeding with really hard pressure. Mom had to remain in the
hospital overnight due to the bleeding not stopping, but otherwise she
was doing OK. Shirley, Jerry, Linda and I all left the hospital and
talked about Mom's health and what the doctors had told us. We thanked
Shirley and Jerry for coming to be with Mom and they headed back home.
Linda and I went back to Pendleton and told Nana what had happened.
Wednesday
morning after coffee, Linda and I headed to Muncie again. We first
stopped at Woodlands Nursing Home to see if Mom had been released and to
drop off a new pair of shoes for her. She was still at Ball Hospital, so
Linda and I went there and found Mom's room.
Virginia
was setting up in a chair with an IV in her. She was ready to go she
thought. She wasn't feeling as good as the night before, the procedure
had left her bruised and sore from the direct pressure they had used to
stop the bleeding. A couple of hours later the nurses dressed Mom and
removed the IV, the ambulance workers placed Mom on the gurney and took
her back to Woodlands. I told Mom we were going to eat lunch before we
stopped at Woodlands. We ate and that gave the ambulance time to get Mom
back to Woodlands and to her room. We stopped and talked with her for a
while and made sure she was doing alright, then told the staff what the
doctors had recommended, we said, "good bye" to Mom and left the nursing
home. I drove to Pendleton and took about a 30 minute nap while Linda
talked with her Mom and packed the HHR for the trip home. We said "good
bye" to Reba and headed back to the farm. Traffic in Indy was bad, it
was rush hour, but most of the traffic was going the opposite way than
us, so we were able to get through without any problems. I pulled the
HHR in the garage at home about 9:30 PM.
Posted on Thursday, August 25, 2011
Catching Up
Let's see, where to begin? Last Sunday, when we returned from Somerset
the air conditioner for the house had quit running. We slept that night
without AC, then left for IN to visit with Mom. This morning, I went to
Albany to purchase a new capacitor to replace the one that had blown out
in the AC unit. The service tech at Albany Plumbing & Heating said they
had a unusually large amount of service calls over the weekend. I told
them that I thought it might have been because of an unusual solar flare
that hit the Earth. Linda's cell phone had also stopped working and the
battery in the 1965 Mustang had literally died as I was ready to fill
the gas tank at the service station. I purchased the capacitor and
headed back to Burkesville. On the way home, I made a deposit at the
bank, then stopped at DC Auto Service to find out if Dave had the new
battery installed. He was charging it and said he would bring the car to
the Cruisers' meeting later in the evening. OK, I went home and
installed the capacitor and put the breaker back in the electrical box.
I went inside and turned on the AC. Everything worked and cool air was
circulating throughout the house. Great! After putting the tools away
and cooling off a little, Stacey and I took Daisy for a run. She had not
been out to run for about 4 days. Nancy Riddle had taken care of feeding
Daisy while we were in IN (thanks again to Nancy). Daisy was ready to go
running!
Daisy
checked out around the fields as Stacey and I rode. She romped in the
creek water and then returned to hop in the back of the Mule. We rode
back to the barn, put Daisy back in the stall and fed her. An hour or
two after returning to the house, I talked to an aide from Woodlands
Nursing Home, she said Mom was doing good, had been up most of the day,
went outside to smoke and was in good spirits. That was good to hear,
because I couldn't tell how much the procedure had wore her down. I
thought she was just tired from being at the hospital, but I didn't know
for sure. Stacey, Linda and I went to the car club meeting at 6 PM and
after the meeting I paid Dave for the new battery he had installed.
Linda drove the 65 Mustang back to the farm a little after 7 PM.
Sleeping Wednesday night with a fan in the window that was blowing
outside air on me has caused me to have chest congestion, boy I'm glad
the air conditioning is working again.
Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2011
Day On The Lake
Friday, Chuck Anderson was visiting with Cindy and Bruce Beck near Star
Point on Dale Hollow Lake. Chuck had asked us to come over for a "Surf &
Turf" supper. When we arrived, Chuck and Bruce cooked fish and some
large T-Bone steaks for everyone to enjoy. We visited with them until it
was nearly dark, then we went back to the farm and found that Pauline,
Brent and their kids and dogs had came to the farm while we had been at
Cindy and Bruce's place. We played with the kids and chatted with
Pauline and Brent until bedtime.
Saturday morning after Paulilne
fixed breakfast, we headed out for a day on the lake. Brent drove his
Traverse and I pulled the boat with the truck. We filled the boat's tank
with gas and the coolers with ice, then on to the Dale Hollow Lake State
Park Boat Dock. At the dock, everyone transferred to the boat and we
launched at 9:45 AM. Brent drove the boat out of the dock area to our
favorite cove for everyone to get wet. The air temperature felt cool as
it was still early in the day and the water temperature was warmer than
the air. We were swimming when Chuck, Cindy and Bruce pulled in on their
pontoon boat. They wanted us to meet them in Ashburn Cove after they
picked up Brenda and Gary Brown. We told them we would be over there in
about an hour, so they went on. We let the kids swim a little longer,
then had them get in the boat to dry off so the wind chill wouldn't
bother them as we boated over to Ashburn. We were looking for Beck's
pontoon along the shoreline when they rode up from behind us, then we
followed them into a small cove where a couple of house boats were
beached.
We
mixed and mingled with the other people for an hour or so, then returned
to the boat.
We
told everyone so long, then left the cove and rode around the lake for a
bit. I pulled the boat into Willow Grove and we tied up to the dock.
Everyone went in the dock store and ate ice cream while looking around
at their shirts and things. After the ice cream, Brent pulled the boat
into a cove near the State Park Dock where we lounged on the boat and
took a last swim of the day.
After
drying off and running back to the dock, we put the boat on the trailer
and loaded in the vehicles for the ride back to the farm. I backed the
boat, trailer, and truck in the pole barn, Brent closed the doors and we
went to the house. Pauline and Linda quickly made a couple of pizzas
that everyone scarfed up. One, by one, we went to sleep in the living
room and then went to bed.
Posted on Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Events Committee Meeting
Linda has worked the first three days of this week at the school as an
aide for some of the kids. Today, Stacey and I went to the Events
Committee meeting in Burkesville. On the way, we stopped on the
Courthouse Square for Stacey to pay her bill for the Cumberland County
Newspaper and then we went into eat lunch at Subway. After lunch, we
drove to the meeting and went inside. John Phelps called the meeting to
order and we proceeded to discuss the plans for the upcoming Cumberland
Heritage Days.
The
reason I was there was to help make the plans for the car show they're
wanting us to run during the event. The meeting lasted about an hour and
a half, then we adjourned and Stacey and I headed back to the farm.
