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Posted on Friday, September 02, 2005
Wagon In The Yard
Friday I started out by bush hogging around the hay fields and a few
other places, then I backed the tractor into the hay shed and removed
the bush hog. I then took the tractor up to the barn, hooked it to the
hay wagon and pulled the hay wagon out of the barn hallway. I pulled it
up the driveway and backed the wagon up to the garage door. I used the
hose to wash the crap from the Purple Martins that lived in the barn
over the summer. They have left for warmer territories now, but their
crap was deep on the wagon.
Linda came home from working at the
school and Stacey and her rode the wagon to the mum patch while I was
pulling them with the tractor. We had only been in the patch about 20
minutes digging some mums when we had a couple of women stop to buy
mums. They bought 7 plants and we cut them a deal for $20. We are
selling the mums for $3 per potted plant this year. They said they would
tell others and also would be back for some hay and pumpkins for their
fall displays. I ended up digging about 14 or 15 plants with Linda
putting them in the pots and Stacey carrying them to the wagon.We then
pulled over to the pumpkin patch to pick some pumpkins. I cut them loose
and Stacey carried them to the wagon. Linda was busy turning pumpkins
over to keep them from rotting in the patch. We thought we had enough so
we headed up the road towards the house. Linda yelled a couple of times
that the pumpkins were going to roll off and I needed to slow down. We
may have to lower the pressure in the wagon tires to keep it from
bouncing as much. We pulled down to the creek and watered the mums with
creek water. This worked well last year and seemed to be the way to
'get-r-dun'. After watering all of the mums we pulled the wagon in the
front yard and unhooked the tractor. I parked the tractor in the hay
shed and started off on the 4-wheeler to hook up the black trailer to
haul 4 hay bales over to Linda. We placed some cement blocks down, set
the sign in it and hid the blocks with the hay bales. Linda and Stacey
finished decorating with the mums and pumpkins. She also placed a
scarecrow out there to attract attention from passers-by. We had our
first sale off the wagon about a half hour later.
Posted on Saturday, September 03, 2005
Regina's Display
We were cleaning out some of the stuff in the garage, when Regina came
driving up on her lawm mower. We set there in our plastic lawn chairs
for about an hour just talking and watching the Labor Day Weekend
traffic fly by. We decided to head down to the mum patch and dig some
mums for Regina to display. She went and got her pickup, Linda Stacey
and Cooter got in and rode down the road while I went ahead on a
4-wheeler. We dug enough plants to fill up the pots she was wanting to
use, picked some pumpkins and headed back to her spot near the road. I
pulled up to the house, switched 4-wheelers for the one that had the
black trailer and stopped at the hay shed, picked up 3 hay bales for her
to use and took them on over. I set them where she wanted to have her
display and Linda, Stacey and Regina finished up the decorating.
Posted on Saturday, September 10, 2005
Scott Boys Visit
Stacey and I were home when the doorbell rang. Stacey beat me to the front door and she opened it. I was suprised to see three of my old buddies standing outside. Gary, Denny (Buzz) and Joe Scott. We used to live by each other when I was around 5-10 years old. We played ball together in our yards then and later played on the same highschool teams, and after we were out of school, we played slow-pitch softball for several years. I said for them to come on in and set down, so they did. Gary told me that Mike Rees had mentioned to him about his and Vickie's visit a few weeks ago, and they were down here now for their family reunion in Burkesville, so they decided to drop by. I sent Stacey down to tell Linda that we had company, so she could see them too. It took her about 5 minutes to go and return from Regina's house and once Linda was back we all did some 'catching up'. Gary said he was a grandpa now, and Joe was also. Gary, Buzz, Joe, Johnnie and Dean, all still live in Daleville. They told us where their houses were and a little bit about what had been going on in each of their lives. Gary had a few health problems and had retired, Joe said he had about 3 years to go before he retired from the Muncie Fire Dept and Buzz was working in Indy for a publishing company. We told them a little about what was going on with Brent, Stacey and us. They started to leave and I said there was no hurry, that we enjoyed it when people dropped in. So we talked a while longer and got to laughing about some old tiimes. But the visit had to end after about a hour and a half because they had left their wives back in town and were supposed to go to a dinner party, so they needed to go. We hugged and said good bye, and I told them to come back whenever they were down this way.
Posted on Monday, September 12, 2005
Stacey's Checkup
Linda was working at the school today, so I took Stacey to Bowling Green
to see Dr Zhu at the Gilbert Graves Medical Center for her checkup. We
left home about 7:30 and went thru Columbia. We made a quick stop at
McDonalds for something to eat for breakfast. After the drive thru, we
jumped on the parkway and went trucking across KY at about 70 mph all
the way to the Bowling Green exit. We listened to the country station on
the radio and they have a 'Goober Club' going on in the morning show. I
kept telling Stacey that she was the biggest Goober. We made it to the
Dr's office about 9:15 and they sent us right in to the examination
room. We could hear Dr Zhu talking to another patient, so we didn't have
long to wait. About 10 minutes and the Dr came in and told Stacey she
looked good. I agreed. We talked about how things had been going and
what pills she was taking. He asked if there had been any seizures and I
told him not since March or April. We both thought that was great. He
asked if I thought Keppra had made any difference, I said no, that I
thought it was more to do with her taking the low dose hormone birth
controll pills. He said that could be. He said he was sending Stacey
down stairs for a blood test. I winked at Dr Zhu and told him Stacey had
been listening to a country station and was becoming a 'goober' and I
wanted to know if he had any medicine for that. He laughed, so did I,
and Stacey told him she didn't need any more medicine and to have them
take a blood test from my arm too. We all laughed again and Dr Zhu said
he would see us in 6 months. We went down to the lab, had to wait there
about 20 minutes, then Stacey had her blood drawn and we were out of
there.
While we were in Bowling Green we needed to pick up 2
lawnmower blades for Regina, so we drove to Sears and they were out of
the ones we needed. They told us where to go to find the blades, so we
drove back towards the Gilbert Graves Medical Center and stopped at
Bone's Small Engine Repair and bought 2 blades. I asked Stacey if there
was anything else she wanted to do in Bowling Green, she said no, so we
headed back to Interstate 65 and then on the parkway back to Columbia
and on home. We made it back by about 12:45.
Later, Dr Zhu's office
called and told me to quit giving Stacey 1Tegretol pill at lunch time as
her blood level was a little to high with Tegretol. Regina came by with
some bread, said she was headed to Nashville for a Dr appointment and
that we might need 75 mums dug for Thursday. She would let us know
tomorrow.
Posted on Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Major Mum Dig
Linda called Regina last night to see if we had the 75 mums sold. She
said yes, they wanted them. About 6t:30 this morning I went in and told
Linda it was time to go dig the mums, she said, "I didn't know it was
going to be foggy." I told her that didn't make any difference and I
went in to check the email on the computer. Setting in the study, I
heard someone honk and I looked out the window. I yelled at Linda and
Stacey and told them that Regina went down the road honking her horn. I
went outside and let the ducks out, and Regina pulled back in the
driveway. Linda was getting up by then and I went down to the wagon in
the yard and Regina and I set off the mums we already had dug. Linda and
Stacey came out, so I told Stacey to ride to the mum patch with Regina.
I hooked up the black trailer to the 4-wheeler for Linda to drive to the
patch while I got the tractor and hooked the hay wagon behind it.
I
shoveled out the mums and put some dirt in the pots while Linda and
Regina placed the plants in the pots. Stacey carried the potted mums to
the trailer hooked to the 4-wheeler. Once we filled the trailer we drove
it down to the creek and took the mums off and set them in the creek in
water about 3 inches deep. We then went back and I dug more mums while
Stacey carried the potted mums to the trailer that Regina and Linda had
finished. We were getting about 18 mums on each trailer load and taking
them down and setting them off in the creek. After 3 loads in the creek,
I pulled the hay wagon down to the creek and turned it around so we
could walk on the dry rocks, pick up the mums that had been soaking in
the creek and place them on the hay wagon. The creek water was soaking
the dirt in the pots better than watering from the top would have done.
A couple more trailer loads, setting them in the creek, and it filled
the hay wagon. I used the tractor to back the hay wagon full of mums
into the old barn to keep them out of the sun. We picked up the rest of
the mums from the creek and left them on the trailer behind the
4-wheeler in the old barn too. So we had dug about 80 mums, watered them
and had them setting on the wagon and trailer in the barn. We headed
back to the house and Regina went to work. When we got home, I went
inside, turned on the shower, and guess what? No water. We couldn't wash
our face, hands or clothes. Whatttttttt? Linda called the water dept. to
see if anyone had reported it, they said yes, they were fixing a leak
and didn't know how long it would be off. Great. We ate lunch with dirty
faces and hands. As that wasn't bad enough, about a half hour later, we
heard the door bell ring, and our neighbors from down the creek, Sadie
and Bob Smith were at the door. We let them in and talked a while,
explaining why we were so dirty. They wanted to buy mums too, so after
about an hour of conversation we went down and dug them 7 mums. When we
returned home the water was back on. I was first in the shower, with
Linda and Stacey following once I was finished. Late in the evening,
Regina called again and told us she needed some more mums, so Linda and
I went back to the mum patch to dig those. We were digging mums and
watering them and it was dark. Overall, the total was 97 mums dug today.
Too many for my back, but we're happy to sell them, so I guess it was a
'good thing'.
Posted on Thursday, September 15, 2005
Major Mum Delivery
We woke this morning and began our mum deliveries as soon as we were all
dressed. I hooked up the red utility trailer to the truck and we drove
to the mum patch. I backed the trailer into the side road by the patch
and we pulled the 4-wheeler with the black trailer full of mums out to
the end of the red trailer. Linda passed the potted mums to Stacey who
handed them to me inside the red trailer. I set them in rows of 5 across
the trailer and we ended up with 40 potted mums in the trailer. I used 2
hay bales to at the back of the trailer to keep the last row of mums
from falling over while we drove to Burkesville. We pulled into the park
and were told to set them near the stage. I backed the trailer up near
the stage and we opened the doors and I handed the mums out to Stacey
who passed them to Linda. She set the mums in two rows all the way
across the front of the stage. We closed the trailer doors and drove
back to the mum patch and reloaded the trailer with another 40 mums. We
also placed 8 potted mums in the back of the truck. We drove back to the
park in town and this time they wanted us to set them near the log cabin
in the park. We pulled over there and unloaded 35 mums along the porch
of the cabin. I spoke with the guy in charge at the time and we told him
we would bring a 'flyer' down there because they wanted to tell people
where the mums came from and how they could get their own. We said
thanks and slowly drove out of the park to the Senior Citizen's Building
where we set the 2 hay bales out with 5 mums on them. Regina had wanted
a few down there so people could see what they looked like this year. We
headed back to the farm to unhook the trailer. Linda went to see how
Regina was doing, I guess she had the stomach flu. I took a shower.
Next we headed to Bowling Green to pick up some frozen cookies and 2
ovens to bake them in at the Blue Grass Festival. Linda was getting
those to help the Cumberland County School's PTO. We stopped in Glasgow
for some lunch at White Castle. We made it to Warren East Middle School
and delivered 4 mums to Teresa, and gave 2 to B.J. We spoke with several
of our friends there and picked up the cookie and ovens and headed back
to Burkesville.
Back in Burkesville by about 1:15, we stopped at the
school and picked up some canned pop, ice, and various other items to
haul down to the park for the PTO. We unloaded the stuff into the Pepsi
Wagon the PTO had obtained to use to sell their stuff. We drove home and
Linda had to head back to town to teach a jewelry class at the school.
Stacey and I went in to the Festival about 7 PM to eat and see how the
PTO was doing with their wagon and sales. We ate there to help them out
and then watch some of the beauty pageant that was being held. Stacey
and I went home a little before 9 after helping Linda and the girls from
the PTO close up shop. Linda came home about 9. It was a busy day.
Posted on Friday, September 16, 2005
Later Start Today
We started out around 10 AM this morning by heading to town. Linda wanted to take her gift for her 'secret pal' to the extension office. They leave the gifts there and the girls at the office calls whomever needs to pick up the gift. After we made that stop, we trucked over to the corner to eat an early lunch. Lunch was over, so we headed to the grade school to load up some more pop and ice and other supplies for the PTO. We took those to the Festival and placed all the pop in a large tub, probably 30 cases of pop, with 20 or more bags of ice. I put up a few posters that I had printed on the PC to let people know where they could buy our mums. We stopped at Lanny's office and the bank and picked up some large pots we had put mums in last year. We drove back to the house, changed clothes and shoes to dig mums again. We dug another 30 and put them on the black trailer, took them to the creek, set them in the water, and put them in the back of the truck. Just as we were finished loading them and were about to pull out, Regina pulled in beside us. We talked her into riding into town with us to deliver the mums. We set those off at the Senior Citizen's Building first, filled up a 5 gallon bucket with water and headed to the bank. Their pots were so big, I was afraid to water them, because I didn't think I could lift them in and out of the truck after the water had been added. It was almost all I could do to lift them out of the truck and set them on the steps at the bank. Linda and Regina watered those after I put them in place. Next, down to Lanny's office to set out the pots for their place. We used the same procedure there. Linda wanted to go back to the PTO wagon to check on some things so we dropped by there for about 10 minutes and then dropped Regina off at the mum patch to get her truck as we came on home. About 7 PM Pauline and Brent came over with Pico and Poco. We went in to town again to the buffet at Jones and then down to listen to the music being played by 2 groups at the Bluegrass Festival. Linda helped Carolyn close up the PTO wagon and we went home about 10 PM.
Posted on Saturday, September 17, 2005
Festival Day
Things started early this morning, with Brent and I taking the truck and placing hay bales in back with the wheelbarrow in there also. Linda was driving the Mustang with Stacey and Pauline riding along to the mum patch. We dug about a dozen mums,picked close to 20 pumpkins and headed into to town to setup our display in front of the Center for Aging. We pulled in front of the building and we built a couple haystacks with mums and pumpkins setting on them. As soon as that was done, we walked over to the Corner for breakfast. It took about a half hour to get our order and eat. Once back in front of the center Linda reminded me that Stacey and I hadn't taken our pills. We trucked back to the farm and had our pill race, picked up some Zebra Cakes for Pauline and headed back to town. By the time we were back in there, they had sold all our Purple colored mums, so we needed to return to the patch to refill our supply. We dug 10 Purple and 10 Red, set them in the creek to water them and then set them in the truck and back to town. It was around 1:30 by then, there had been a few more sales and some hay bales were sold too. We placed the rest of our mums on the ground and hay bales. By then we were taking turns going down to the Festival and looking around or getting sandwiches. Pauline, Stacey, Brent and I went down and picked up sandwiches for everyone including Regina and Linda. Regina had been having trouble with her stomach, but she was able to eat a tenderloin sandwich we brought for her. About 5 PM, I walked down with Stacey and Linda and we looked around for a while. I told them I was going to stay and listen to the Blue Grass Contest. There were 8 groups that played for a $1500 prize, $750 for second, $500 for third and $200 for fourth with 5th place getting $100. They also had a 'duck race' drawing for $500. None of us won anything, including 3 quilts that were raffled off. As the BG Contest was nearly over, they all showed up and said they had packed up and were headed home. I decided to stay a while longer as it was just about time for the main band, Pine Mountain Railroad to take the stage. They announced the winners in the BG Contest and then PMR took the stage and played about an hour. After they were done, I went home, even though there was going to be another hour and half of music from the contest winners.
Posted on Monday, September 19, 2005
Selling Mums
I started mowing around 11 this morning and mowed the barn lot and around the house. I came inside and Linda fixed us some hamburgers for lunch. She was working on her 'homemaker' stuff, as there was a meeting later in the day. She made a Banana Split Cake to take and was getting the 'bags' ready to give to the members. We had made a Krafty Kritters T-Shirt transfer and Linda had ironed them on the bags. We had to make one more as she had forgot about a member that hadn't been there in a while. After eating the burgers, I went back out and started mowing the yard down in front of the house. I saw Stacey and Linda leave in the Mustang with the top down and heading for town. I was listening to my MP3 player while mowing so the mowing was going OK. After about 2 hours of mowing, I finished the yard and headed up the driveway. I noticed that a pickup truck was following me up the drive. I stopped the mower at the top and took off the music player. A man asked if this is the place that sells mums and I told him it sure was the place. I jumped on a 4-wheeler and he followed me to the mum patch. He was a minister at a church near Columbia and wanted to buy about 16 mums. He asked if they were $3 and I said yes. He wanted to know if he bought 17, would I sell them for $50. I said I sure would. He said he wanted them and grabbed a shovel out of his truck. Since he was going to help, I counted out 20 pots and told him to set them down near the ones he wanted and I would dig the ones he picked out. I dug them as fast as I could, and still live, and just set them in the pots without adding dirt on top, since he was going to plant them in the ground later in the day. As fast as I could dig them, he picked them up and set them in the back of his pickup. He said, "These are the nicest mums he'd seen." He also told me he had looked at two other patches and didn't buy any of those. Hmm. I ended up giving him 20 mums for $50 and told him if anyone else wanted them they were $3 each, but that he had got a deal for helping out. He said thanks, we shook hands and he started to leave, then turned and said, "We might be back to get some more." I said that would be good. I rode home a little slower to cool off. I got a glass of ice water and set down and what ya' know, Linda and Stacey came home, after the work was done. Linda was still busy getting stuff ready for the homemakers meeting. She went to that at 4:30.
Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Selling Mums Accidentally
Several people had told Linda they wanted some mums so we went early
this morning and dug a trailer load, set them in the creek and let them
absorb water. We loaded them back on the trailer and went back to the
house to clean up and change clothes. We transfered the mums from the
black trailer to the pick up and then Linda, Stacey and I headed into
town. Linda wanted to cash a check, so I pulled through the drive up
window and the girl that was the teller said that the mums we had sold
her were looking beautiful. I said thanks and we were glad she liked
them, I said we had a truck full behind us. She told us to wait a
minute, then she had the other women in the bank come to the window to
see what we had. Well, that wasn't good enough, so we pulled around to
the front of the bank and about 6 women came out to buy the mums we had
in the truck. I said that those were already sold, but to tell Linda
what they wanted and we would bring them down on Thursday. They ended up
wanting several pumpkins, 6 hay bales and about a dozen mums. We laughed
as we drove away and went on our business of delivering the mums to the
people that had bought them. As we were setting 6 mums off the truck in
front of Lanny Judd's Law Office, a man stopped and asked if we would
sell those mums, Francis spoke up and said, "No, those were her mums."
We told him we had more, so he wanted 6 mums delivered to a beauty shop
where he was doing a landscape job. Hmm. We took the rest of the truck
load to the Extension Office and Edith bought the ones she had ordered
plus 3 more of another color. We headed back to the mum patch, dug the
six for the landscaper and left them set in the creek. Linda and Stacey
were going to return the cookie baking ovens to Warren East Middle
School and to shop in Bowling Green. They left, and I went back to the
creek, picked up the mums and took them to the beauty shop for the
landscaper. As I was returning home after lunch at Subway, I noticed a
truck at the mum patch and the landscaper and the local minister were
out in the mum patch looking around. I pulled in and they wanted 4 mums,
so I dug them and took their check and headed on home. I came in and got
a glass of ice water, the next thing I knew, I had taken about a two
hour nap. That was nice, because it was about 4 PM and cool enough for
me to mow the old house area without burning up while doing it. I
finished that about 6 PM.
Posted on Thursday, September 22, 2005
Bank Business
We had stopped by the bank the other day and some of the girls wanted us to deliver mums today, so Linda, Stacey and I went to the patch early to dig more mums. I was hot as soon as I dug the first mum. Linda had a list of what the girls wanted but I was digging more and some colors they hadn't ordered. Once again, we set them in the creek, and dug another trailer full. I asked Linda if Stacey and her could set the rest in the creek while I went and loaded the hay bales and hooked up the red trailer. They took them and placed them in the creek while I used the 4-wheeler to get the truck and load the hay, attach the trailer and drive to the patch, back it in the side road and open the doors. Linda and Stacey were driving the 4-wheeler with the trailer of mums that had been soaking up the water up to the back of the red trailer. We loaded up both loads into the red trailer behind the truck and headed to town. Linda wanted to go home and clean up, but I said let's just go on. We kept going and she said, we didn't have any change, I said we were going to a bank, and they would have plenty of change. We pulled in front of the bank and I went in to tell the girls we had their mums outside. They came out, bought what they had ordered, some extras, 6 hay bales, and several pumpkins. I though, heck let's try another bank, so we stopped at Citizen's Bank and out came some girls and they bought some mums too. We ate at Subway and headed home with about 20 mums in the red trailer. We both took showers and Linda was getting ready to teach her jewelry class, so I said I would follow her to the school and let the girls there look at what we had. Once there, the girls came out and they bought mums, hay bales and pumpkins. Stacey and I drove home with only 3 mums left out of about 40 that we had when we started. Linda stayed and taught 10 girls how to use beads to make a watch band. She came home later and I had sold 3 more bales of hay. We went back to the patch to dig more mums for Linda to take to Indiana this coming weekend.
Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Hay Cut and Out of Gas
Linda and Stacey made it back from their Indiana trip last night about 9
PM. They said they had a good time, but from the stories Linda was
telling, it sounds to me as if some of our Indiana friends' lives are a
mess. It was good to hear that Kim's son, Zachary was doing a lot better
and just about back to normal.
Larry Anderson cut some of the hay
last Friday and Phil and Steve cut the rest of the hay today. They were
all pretty lucky this year, as the creek never over flowed the banks, so
there wasn't any debris in the hay this time. It's my job to use the
tractor and the scoop on the front to push the debris back into the
creek. It isn't hard work, just takes time and knocks the hay down when
I have to do it. I'm still mowing and I have used all the gas in our
farm gas tank. Since May 3rd, I've used 155 gallons to mow and bush hog
this summer. The cost then was $310.35, which was $2.069 per gallon
. At the time, I thought that was quite high, but now I wish I could get
another tank at that price. From listening to the news, I'm thinking
I'll wait till after the 1st of January to buy another tank. Gas is
supposed to be at a lower price by then and there is no need to fill it
up now, with winter coming I won't be using any in the mower. It would
just be setting there for maybe someone to steal, so I'll wait. We
haven't had anything stole, but no sense taking the chance when I don't
really need a full tank now.
Posted on Thursday, September 29, 2005
Big Dig
Mum sales are going good enough that we have made our orginal investment back.
Now we just need to sell more to pay for the tiller I purchased too.
Linda, Stacey and I went to the patch this morning and dug a black
trailer full, Stacey and I pulled them home and unloaded them into the
red trailer. Then we returned to the patch and picked up the ones Linda
had potted while we were gone. We headed up to the house after unloading
those into the red trailer. Linda fixed us some hot ham and cheeses
sandwiches, but while we were eating Regina called and said she need 4
for a lady that had stopped at the Center On Aging (C.O.A). After
finishing our lunch we loaded up the desired mums and took them to town.
We set them in front of the C.O.A. and talked to Regina a little then
headed home. We went back to the patch to dig some other colors and
replacements for the ones we had just sold. We were still digging mums
when Regina stopped and said some women had seen the mums setting in
front of the C.O.A, and she needed about 6 more to take with her in the
morning. We told her we would load them in her truck a little later, as
she had to get on home for someone to hook up a TV for her. We dug
another black trailer full, about 20, and set off for home. We watered
them in the creek and I pulled the trailer over by the wagon in the yard
to let some of the water run off before transferring the mums to the red
trailer. Almost as soon as I got off the 4-wheeler and walked up to the
house, two guys stopped and bought 4 off the wagon and trailer. Regina
came over and as we were talking, two more people stopped on their way
back to TN., and they bought 4 mums. It seems like the more we dig, the
more we sell. We were trying to get the red trailer full to take for a
'yard sale' Saturday. They are promoting the 'yard sale' along SR 90
from Cave City to Sommerset, so there should be lots of traffic. We are
going to try to locate in a small park between the creek and highway in
Marrowbone. I figured it would be easy for people to pull off there and
maybe there will be lots of traffic that will stop for our mums and the
other stuff that people will be selling. It maybe too crowed for us to
even setup there, who knows. I told Linda if we needed to water the
plants, we could just walk down to the creek there, dip out a bucket of
water, carry it up to our spot and take care of the plants that way.
