Broken Bush Hog

Stacey and I took the DVDs back to the video shack and ate lunch at Grumpy's. We came home and picked up the mail in the box, paid a few bills online with Quicken and then Stacey began the jobs that Linda had told her to do before she left to work at the school. I went outside and drove the little tractor to the mum patch and began mowing the area around the mums. I trimmed around the patch and started mowing the area in the middle when the bush hog broke and was dragging the ground. I checked it out, disconnected the shaft to the PTO, lifted the bush hog as high as the tractor could and drove back to the hay shed.
 
I unhooked the broken bush hog from the old tractor and drove up the road to Phil Garmon's place and talked to him about a hitch setup for the 8N tractor. I told Phil I had tried to put on a hitch that mounted underneath, but there were no mounting holes in my tractor like on other 8Ns. He took a look and told me he had a hitch setup I could use, I offered to buy it, but he wouldn't sell it, told me to 'just use it'. I put the two pieces on the tractor and they will work to tow the hay wagon.
 
Back at the hay shed, I put the newest bush hog on the blue Ford tractor and went back and finished bush hogging around the mum patch. As I was finishing and heading back to the hay shed, I noticed that there were lots of vehicles with boats going towards the lakes. During the day, there had been the most boat traffic I had seen all summer. The forecast didn't read like it was going to be good boating weather over the Labor Day holiday weekend, and it had been cloudy and cooler for a couple of days, but they are coming anyway.
 
Pauline and Brent came over around 7 PM with their dogs. We went to Albany and ate at Major Pizza. We had noticed it a few days ago and wanted to try their pizzas. The pizza was pretty good and after eating, Brent played pinball on some machines they had near the rear of the shop.

Pumpkins For Sale and Recliners for P&B

I fixed a pot of coffee and we had Pop Tarts for breakfast. I asked Brent to help me get some cement blocks and boards with the Mule. We picked up those and drove to the upper barn and set them in the hallway of the barn. We made shelves with the boards and blocks. Then we moved the pumpkins off of the hay wagon and stacked them on the shelves. I plan on us selling the pumpkins right off the shelves as people want them. I then used the old Ford tractor to pull the hay wagon out of the barn hallway and park it in the driveway.

I pulled the tractor back in the barn hallway and went inside. Linda, Stacey, Pauline and Brent took the Mule and the rotten pumpkins and went to the creek. They split open the pumpkins and removed the seeds, threw the rotten pumpkins in the creek and placed the seeds on an old screen door to dry. I fixed cheeseburgers for everyone while they were saving the pumpkin seeds. They came inside and we all ate, then I took a shower while Pauline called Central Furniture and checked on a 'Cuddle Chair' (chair and a half) they liked. The salesman said the chair was there and told Pauline how long they were open. We all loaded into the CK pickup and headed to the furniture store. We went inside and looked around while Pauline and Brent checked on the price of the chair and a couple recliners. They ended up buying the two recliners and the guys loaded them in the back of our pickup. We headed out through the country and stopped in Edmonton at the Dairy Queen for ice cream desserts. We entered the Cumberland Parkway and drove west towards Smith's Grove. As we passed one Glasgow exit, the plastic we had covering the chairs had blown back and it was starting to rain. I stopped along the side of the road and Brent and I jumped out and tied the plastic back over the chairs. We got back in the truck and I drove on. "HOLD IT!", Brent said, he had lost his cell phone. I drove about a mile to the next exit, took the exit and went back to the last exit which was only about a mile and a half, turned around again and drove back to the spot where we had tied down the plastic. I pulled off and Brent jumped out, found the cell phone, and away we went to their house. We unloaded the recliners and checked out how they looked and felt while setting in them. Then we took the truck and went to Sam's Club to stock up on supplies. After making the rounds through the store, we checked out and headed back to Burkesville. I backed the truck up to the garage and we unloaded our supplies.

Linda's Labor Day Indiana Trip

Linda left for IN with Pauline and Brent early Sunday morning. They were headed to pick up her mom and then go to Abner's house in Moonsville for a family reunion. Below are some pictures that were taken while in IN.
From L-R- Abner, Reba, Linda and Imon.
 
Below, the picture on the left is Mike Bankson, on the right is Bobby Bankson.
   
Abner pulled a wagon load of kids around with his old Ford tractor.
   
After the family reunion, Linda, Pauline and Brent stayed the night at Reba's house and came home on Labor Day.

[ Send more pictures and I will put them online. ]

Drain Repair

The last few times that we have had thunderstorms that dropped large amounts of rain, the water has rushed across the driveway. I checked out the ribbed plastic drain pipe that I had put in under the driveway and one was full of mud and the second one was half full. I decided to replace the plastic pipe with some light weight PVC, so I began yesterday by scraping the area along the bottom of the slope behind the house with the grader box on the back of the blue Ford tractor. I also used the scoop to dig out a trench near where the water was supposed to drain into the pipe.
   
Next I used the scoop to dig out the old pipe. I tried to lift it out by hand after removing the dirt above it, but there was no way. It was too full of mud for me to lift it out and with the suction created by the wet dirt around the pipe it was not coming out without using the tractor. That's what I did, simply put the lip of the scoop under the pipe and lift it out. I pushed them over the top of the dirt pile I had made, then drug the two pipes out of the way. They must have weighed over a hundred pounds each. Next, I used the scoop to dig a larger trench to hold the two PVC pipes. I straightened the ditch and made it a little deeper on the down hill side to allow the water to run out. I placed the two sets of pipe in the ditch and took a break. Stacey and I went to town for lunch.
   
When I returned, I checked the position of the pipes and used a shovel to dig and level a spot for a flat rock under the discharge ends. Linda came home and went to the mum patch to pick some gourds. I set two cement blocks on top of the pipes to hold them in place while I shoved dirt over the top of the pipes with the tractor scoop. I leveled the driveway with the grader box on the back of the tractor and also used it to remove the dirt from where I had cut the trench that will feed water to the drain pipes. I parked the tractor as it was too dark to work.

Trash Day

Thursday is trash day at our farm, so I began by opening the garage door and Stacey lifted the ducks out of the cage. As soon as she set them down, they waddled under the bush by the garage door and were 'hidden' from sight, they thought. Lots of times, we will come home after dark and they will be under that same bush, waiting on the garage door to be opened.
 
I used the Mule to haul the garbage cans to the edge of the highway and then Stacey and I rode over to the hay shed. I helped Stacey back the Mule in the shed and we hooked up the black trailer. She pulled it out and parked in the gravel while I started the tractor and pulled it over the old broken bush hog. I used a chain around the bush hog and hooked on to the scoop, so I could lift the bush hog and set it on the black trailer. I drove the tractor while Stacey followed in the Mule pulling the bush hog on the trailer down to the mum patch. I used the tractor to unload the bush hog and set it inside Regina's old barn near the back of the mum patch. We drove back to the hay shed and I took the grader box off the tractor and replaced it with the disk. I then used the disk and pulled it across the yard at the base of the slope in front of the house. I made several passes back and forth and did about half of the yard. I had the disk set to cut about 3 inches deep and was trying to smooth out some of the ruts that had developed before the grass had started growing. It actually worked fairly well. I parked the tractor in the hay shed and went inside for a while. Stacey and I went to town for lunch and rented 3 DVDs at the video shack. Back at the house, we went back to the hay shed and cut two pieces of the drain pipe for the ends of the drain I had installed under the driveway. We took those and the 90 degree elbows and placed them on the pipes. That job is done, for a while at least.

My plan is:
1. The elbows turned upward should stop the mud or dirt from clogging the drains by only letting water flow over the top into the pipes.
2. When dirt in the trench nears the bottom of the pipes, I can pull off the three foot sections of pipe leaving just a little of each drain pipe exposed.
3. Then use the scoop and dig out the dirt.
4. Replace the two sections and elbows.
5. Repeat as necessary.
Linda came home and continued her weed eating along the road at the front of the yard. I began mowing the front yard and almost was done when the deck on the mower threw the belt off. I pulled up to the garage door and looked at the deck, opened the toolbox and took off a belt guard, planning on replacing the belt. Hmm, the belt was OK, but the pulley had came off the mower deck. The bearing in the pulley had locked up and the bolt was lost. This was a different pulley than the one that had been replaced earlier in the summer. I put the tools up and used the smaller JD mower to finish the yard.
 

Cleanup & Mowing

I started the day by taking the disk off of the tractor and hooking to the bush hog. Then I used the tractor to load some old farm implements on the hay wagon. Linda drove the Mule with the hay wagon behind down to the mum patch. I unloaded the equipment and set the pieces inside Regina's old barn. I used the bush hog to mow around the old barn as Linda lopped some of the limbs off around the barn. Stacey and Linda picked gourds and squash while I finished the bush hogging.
   
After Linda and Stacey were done picking up the tobacco sticks they had used for the tomatoes and getting the gourds out of the patch, I used the bush hog to mow down the weeds and vines that were left. I also mowed the entire area around the mum patch because it's almost time to start digging mums and people will be walking around inside the fence.

We finished the mum patch cleanup and went back to the house, cleaned ourselves up and went to Sonic for burgers and onion rings in the Mustang with the top down. It was a nice ride going up there, but sprinkled a little rain on us coming home. It wasn't enough to cause us to stop and put the top up though. Back at the house Linda talked to Kim on the phone for a long time while Stacey and I watched the NASCAR race.

Sam's Club and Flea Market

Sunday, we headed over to meet Brent and take Linda's Mustang to Sam's Club. We stopped at his house for a while, played with the dogs and talked. We left Missy there and Brent and Stacey followed Linda and I to Sam's Club. I had bought 4 tires for the Mustang earlier in the summer and two of them wouldn't stay inflated. So Linda had been talking with the service guys when she had returned once before and they had told her if the problem persisted, they would replace the two tires. We left the car and went with Brent to Zaxby's for lunch. Then Brent drove us to the Flea Market and we walked through. About two hours later we returned to Sam's Club and the car was done. They had put on two new tires and the service guy brought out the paper work and we were out of there. Linda and Stacey drove the Mustang and I rode with Brent. Brent and I checked out some tools at Sears and then went back to Pauline and Brent's house. Pauline was home from visiting her mom and sister in Morgantown. Linda and Stacey showed up a little later. We watched some of the Colts vs Giants football game on their HDTV. The picture was really crystal clear and the game was more interesting because the Manning brothers were playing quarterback on opposing teams.

Bowling Green Trip for Stacey's Dr Appointment

Pauline and Brent left for their work while Stacey, Linda and I waited a short time before leaving for Bowling Green. We stopped and ate breakfast at Hardees on the way to the Gilbert-Graves Clinic for Stacey's appointment with Dr Zhu. We checked in a little after 9 AM and then waited in the hall waiting area until called in by the receptionist. We talked with Dr Zhu about how Stacey had been getting along and he told us a few interesting facts about how he was keeping an eye on Stacey's problems. He warned us of some things to watch for and told us to continue with the medications as they had been working and there was no need to change what was working for Stacey. He ordered a set of blood tests so Stacey went down stairs and had the blood drawn before we left. We drove to Mancino's and it had closed, so we drove to another Mancino's location and ate before we returned to pick up Missy at P&B's. We then drove to Glasgow and stopped at the John Deere dealer to pickup a pulley for the mower while we were on the way back to Burkesville.

Digging Mums

After a little over an inch of rain yesterday, the grass was wet and the ground was damp. I went to the hay shed after Linda left and took the front tires off the 8N tractor. The left front had went flat a couple of days ago and both were weather cracked, so I was planning on putting on two new tires and tubes. I tossed them in the back of the Mule and drove to the house, transferred the tires into the back of the pickup and went inside and cleaned up by taking a shower. Around lunch time, Stacey and I headed to town and stopped at Jeff's Tire Service. The guys there told me they didn't have the right size tires to replace the ones I had in the back of the truck. They said it would be at least a week before they could have a set to put on. I said I was going to check a couple of other places. We decided to go back to the house and eat lunch at home. I called a tire store in Columbia and they said they could have the tires tomorrow, so I told them to get them and I would bring my rims up there to have them installed. Linda came home around 5:30 and we went to the mum patch to dig mums. The ground was just right for digging the mums. It was damp enough to hold together when I popped the plants out of the ground with a shovel. Linda was sitting on a milk crate and placing the pots on a 5 gallon bucket turned upside down for a potting table. Stacey was carrying the potted mums and placing them on the wagon.
   
We dug enough to fill the wagon and the back of the Mule, probably around 55 or 60 mums. We are planning on digging more tomorrow so we will have them ready to take to town this weekend during the Bluegrass Festival. I guess we will be selling pumpkins, gourds and hay bales too.

New Tires On The 8N

I had two new tires and tubes mounted on the rims for the front of the 8N tractor yesterday. This morning while the grass was still too wet to mow, I went down to the hay shed and took the tractor off the cement blocks and installed the tires. I'm not as fast as a NASCAR pit crew but it was fairly easy.
   
Then Stacey drove the Mule and followed me on the blue Ford tractor down past the mum patch and behind Regina's old house to bush hog a field. She set there reading a book while I bush hogged the field. It took a little less than an hour and I was done and we went back to the house.
 
We washed up and went to Subway for lunch, then back to the house and I started mowing while Stacey finished her work inside. I mowed the trailer lot and started the area where the old house used to be, when a guy stopped to buy five mums. I loaded those in his truck and took his money and he left, but before I could get inside, another truck stopped. They wanted to buy several mums, so I took the Mule and followed them to the patch. I dug the mums the lady picked out while her husband stuffed them in pots. We ended up with twenty one pots of mums and that was all they could get in the bed of their step-side S-10. They wrote a check as we talked about the church where they were buying the mums to plant for decorations. Last year, the minister had come down and bought mums from us and they said everyone had really liked those. I reminded them that he had found an arrow head in the patch while we were digging mums. Linda came home about 4 PM and Regina stopped as we were getting ready to go dig mums. We hooked up the black trailer to the back of the Mule and went to the patch. Regina came down and brought a cooler with ice and Dr Pepper. We dug a black trailer full of mums and I took them back to the house and set them on the hay wagon in the front yard. I returned to the patch and we dug another trailer full and then quit. We set and talked a little while, then went back to the house, it was 7 PM and getting dark. Brent called and said Pauline was running late and they would be over around 9 PM, so we should go ahead and eat without them. We took showers and then went to Jones and ate, then returned home and P&B showed up, they had picked up something to eat on the way over.

Blue Grass Festival

A lot of stuff happened today, beginning with coffee in the morning and then Pauline, Brent and I loaded hay bales in the pickup and the red trailer and parked it down by the road. Linda and Pauline then started loading pumpkins and squash in buckets and wash tubs while Brent and I pulled the hay wagon down to where I had parked the truck and trailer. Something unexpected happened then, a guy that Linda is getting to work on the 65 Mustang showed up with his trailer to pick up the car. We used the Mule to pull it out of the shed over to his trailer and he winched it on and chained the car down. We talked a few minutes afterwards and then he headed home with the car. Stacey, Regina, Linda, Pauline, Brent and I loaded mums into the trailer along with the pumpkins and a bunch of other gourds. Brent and I left with the trailer for town while the girls were grabbing more stuff. We parked in front of the Center On Aging that Regina runs and started unloading our cargo. Linda, Regina and the girls arrived shortly and helped setup the displays.
 
We finished the setup and headed to the park to check out the Blue Grass Festival. The park was crowded with people in lawn chairs and vendors along the edges selling all sorts of items. The music contests were going on along with clogging, picking and grinning.

   
   
After looking around, we returned to the Center and Pauline and Regina went to enter Pauline's quilt in the quilting competition. Brent and I walked across the street and ate breakfast at the Corner, then returned and let Linda, Stacey and Pauline go eat. They came back and everyone was there so I drove the truck and trailer back home and mowed the old house area and sold three mums off the hay wagon in the yard while mowing. I let the dogs out, called them back inside, and returned to the Center in town. Brent, Pauline, Stacey and I walked through the park again, this time picking up some sandwiches and vendor food for lunch. We went through the building with the quilts and voted on our picks for 'People's Choice'. There was over fifty quilts entered in the competition and displayed inside the newest building in the park. The judges had already made their decisions about which quilts were the best and Pauline's quilt had placed third.
   
Pauline was satisfied with the award and was already planning on how to make another quilt for next year. The winning quilt really was nice with scalloped edges and nice colors. Below is a picture of the winning quilt.
 
After checking out the quilts, we watched some of the competitions going on in the park. The newest event was a tournament for a game similar to horse shoes, only played with a bag of corn and thrown at a board with a hole in it. There were several teams involved and a trophy was presented to the winners. I guess there is a version played with washers also, but this version of the game seemed fun and easy to play.
   
There were also individual musical competitions divided by age groups and instruments People were also just sitting around playing music in the covered eating areas and under shade trees, where ever the musicians ran into each other, it seemed a 'show' would start.

   
There were announcements during the day of lost cell phones that had been found, there were even announcements of 'lost kids', but everyone was found, it was just a real friendly setting and people were enjoying the exceptional weather while hearing good 'Blue Grass Music'. We had been selling pumpkins and gourds during the day, but we had been letting the little customers pick out small pumpkins and giving them the 'kid size' pumpkins, but it was well worth it to see the kids having a good time. Later in the day, Rhonda stopped with her husband, Phil, and their family, including three grand kids, Carlyn, Zack, Zeke and their parents.
   
   
Around 6 PM I took Pauline and Brent back to our house, they loaded up their dogs and stuff and headed home to attend a party at their neighbors. Brent had told us that their neighbors' son was leaving for a few years service in the Navy, so they were having a going away party. I drove the truck with the trailer back to the Center and we loaded up the stuff we hadn't sold. There wasn't nearly as much as we had taken, so it wasn't too bad. We closed the trailer and parked the truck, then went to the park to enjoy the rest of the evening. I gathered up three lawn chairs and we moved them over to make them the 'best seats in the house'. The band competition had been judged and they paid money for the first 5 places, with third getting $500, second place $750, and the winner getting $1,500. The third place band played for 30 minutes, the second place played their 30 minutes and then the first place band played. It was after 10 PM when we left for home.

Making Roadside Shopping Easy

After selling quite a few mums at the Blue Grass Festival, we had the remaining mums in the red trailer along with bales of hay and pumpkins. I used the Mule and pulled the black trailer to the side of the red trailer and unloaded the mums and pumpkins on to it. Then I pulled the black trailer down to the hallway of the barn. I set the pumpkins that were in the tubs and buckets in the hallway and asked Stacey and Linda to put the pumpkins on the shelves. I went down and started the old Ford tractor and pulled the hay wagon to the side of the black trailer and we loaded the mums onto the hay wagon. Linda went with me as I used the tractor to pull the hay wagon to the creek and she stood on the wagon as I dipped water out of the creek and we watered the mums, then pulled it back to the front yard. Stacey was done with the pumpkins and I took the Mule and black trailer back to where the truck was parked and unloaded a few of the hay bales onto the black trailer. I pulled it down to the spot where the hay wagon was parked and we made a display to hide the cement blocks we were using to hold up the mum sign.
   
I took the black trailer to the hay shed and parked it, there was a wheel bearing squeaking, so I'm probably going to have to replace one of those. I walked back to the truck and pulled the red trailer over to the house trailer parking and unhooked it. I pulled the truck to the spot Regina was going to set up her display and unloaded the rest of the hay bales. I then parked the truck in the hay shed.
Near evening, I went for a ride in the Mule, planning on checking to see if Larry had mowed the hay, but as I was pulling out of the driveway, I noticed our neighbors coming down the road in their Mule.
 
Nancy and Steve had been to their place out on Jone's Ridge. They have a farm out there and built a pole barn a few weeks after I had the hay shed built. The same crew constructed both the barns. They pulled to the side of the road and we talked for a while, then said see ya, and went on, while I went over and checked out the hay fields. The fields had been cut and it looks like they will be ready to roll in about two or three days depending on how many days of rain we get.

Wheel Bearing Replaced

Linda left for work at the school and Stacey and I had pop tarts for breakfast. About an hour later, the garage door opened and Linda was home. The child she helps at school was absent, so she decided to take the day off too. Since it was misting rain, we watched a movie and then we all went to the Pizza Hut for lunch. We returned home and picked up the mail, and I went to the hay shed to work on the black trailer's wheel bearings. I jacked up one side and spun the tire and wheel and could tell that the bearing was bad. I hammered off the bearing cap, pulled out the locking pin, removed the nut and tried to remove the assembly. It was harder than it should have been, but eventually came off. The inside roller bearings fell into the gravel. The outside set was OK though. I had to hammer the inside race off the one inch axle. It took at least a half hour of pounding with a cold chisel and hammer. Finally, it was off, so I wrapped the pieces and hub in an old towel, washed my hands with gas, then soap and water and went to NAPA for a replacement. I bought a complete set including inner and outer bearings, a seal and a small tube of grease for $12.39. Back at the hay shed I put the inner seal on and tapped the inner bearing in place. Next, I knocked out the bearing races in the hub, cleaned it out and replaced the races with the new pieces by gently tapping them in with an old screwdriver and hammer. I spread the grease on the races and then the bearings. I rotated them to work the grease into the bearings and then put them in their places. I slid the hub assembly back on the axle and screwed on the nut, tightened it by hand, backed it off a little, and placed the pin through the nut and hole in the axle. I put the wheel on and tightened the lug nuts, spun the wheel and everything seemed good. I tapped the cap back on the hub and the job was finished. I went to the house and started water running for a shower, Linda and Stacey left for a Home Makers' meeting, and I finished showering. They were gone until nearly 8 PM and said it was fun and they had ate snacks and desserts.

Tue, Wed & Thur.

The last few days have been quite a bit cooler at night and the cooler weather has made some of the mums burst into bloom. We have been selling the yellow mums almost as fast as we dig them. We have sold them off the wagon as we pulled it back to the house, people have come to the patch to buy mums and we have taken a trailer load to the school and sold them after school let out to the teachers. Garmons have cut the hay across the creek and rolled it. Larry has cut the hay down at the other fields and I think he was rolling it as we dug mums this evening. Everyone was trying to get their hay rolled before the rain that is supposed to come this weekend.
 

Overnight Rains Caused Flooding

We had predictions of severe weather from the TV stations in Nashville yesterday evening, so Linda and I moved the truck, trailer, 4-wheelers, Mule and everything else, including the hay wagon full of mums, into the barns and sheds. Then we took the HHR and went to Albany for pizza. Just as we came home a little after 8 PM, a couple stopped and bought mums. We talked with them for a while and then came inside. Soon after, the rain began and the alarm went off on the NOAA Weather Radio telling us that there was a severe thunderstorm warning in effect for Cumberland County. I continued to watch TV through the night with warnings being scrolled across the bottom of the screen for areas in TN of possible tornadoes. At 1:33 AM, Cumberland County was put in the tornado watch area and the weather radio sounded the alarm. No tornadoes were ever reported by radar or observation, but the rain was heavy several times during the night. There was quite a bit of lightning and thunder too. When there was enough daylight, we could see the creek was out of it's banks and rushing through the fields.
 
Linda and I decided to walk up to the pond and see how it looked. The water was rushing out of the two drain pipes Imon had help me install several years ago and the pond was full of water. We came back to the barn and started the Mule and rode down to the creek to see how much debris was flowing by and how much had washed up in the yards.
   
The creek was raging, extremely muddy with lots of debris floating by, hopefully it will continue on and not lodge in the hay fields. Linda and I drove the Mule down the road to the mum patch. I was surprised with how well the patch had faired through the storms. There was hardly any standing water in the patch, but the entrance to the patch, near the old barn, was just about blocked by the creek flooding. Normally, the gate is fifty feet from the creek, also the implements I had placed in the hallway of the barn were under water.

We drove on down the road and looked across the creek at the hay fields and could see most of Larry's hay rolls were halfway under water. I'm pretty sure, he has lost most of the hay he cut and rolled in those fields. We came back to the house and I checked the rain gauge. There was about 4-1/3 " of rain in the gauge.
 
I had to go inside because it began raining again.

Flowers For Jones' Chapel

We had spoke with Nancy and Steve Riddle a few days ago and asked them about putting some mums on the steps of their church for a dinner they were having for the minister. They hadn't decided what they wanted to do, so Linda and I made a decision and took some yellow mums and yellow and white mums and put those in six pots to take to the church. We rode up the road towards the church in the Mule and on the way we spotted a group of young wild turkeys grazing in a fresh cut hay field. Linda took a picture of them as we were driving.
 
We continued on our way as it was sprinkling rain and we didn't want to stop on the road. We placed the mums on the steps and on the front porch of the church, then I stepped out by the road and took a couple pictures of the church with the flowers on the porch.
 
We left the mums there and turned the Mule around and drove back to the farm. We went down by the creek to see how high the water was still running and then set our mums back on the hay bales by the road. The wind and rain had knocked them over during the night. While we were doing that, Linda noticed a large 'garden spider' making a web on the mum sign. I snapped a picture of it, but the little Kodak Z700 camera doesn't work real well for close ups.
 
We pulled the hay wagon out of the barn to let the mums catch some rain instead of taking the wagon to the creek to water the plants. Almost as soon as it stopped raining, we had customers to buy mums. Linda had a theory that people like coming up to the barn better than when the hay wagon is in the yard down by the road. One thing is for sure, Cooter doesn't like it much, he seems to be more aggressive when people go inside the barn to look at the pumpkins and gourds.
   
The creek's water level has went down to where it is fairly safe to cross on a 4-wheeler, so today, I rode across the creek and back in the 'holler' to see if there were any problems, then I checked out the debris in the hay fields left by the flooding. They are a mess in several places. Larry's hay maybe a total loss, he had at least twenty large rolls that were partially submerged, and if those aren't unrolled it will rot in a short time.
 
 
 
I returned to the house, then Linda, Stacey, Regina and I went to the mum patch and dug a wagon full of mums. We had a couple customers buy mums right out of the patch. Regina drove her truck to town with Linda and Stacey riding along to take mums. While they were gone, I sold about half of the hay wagon load of mums we had dug.
 
The day turned out to beautiful after starting out rainy.

Is the Patch Half Empty or Half Full?

Linda has been working everyday at the school and it has been left up to Stacey and me to sell mums during the day. I received a call-in order for 14 bales of hay, 14 mums, and around 20 small pumpkins Monday. I asked if I could deliver those Tuesday, the girl at the bank stated she 'had to have them' and Tuesday would be 'too late'. I said OK, I would call her at the bank when I was ready to deliver them. Luckily Linda, Stacey and I had a wagon full already dug from the night before. I started by backing the truck to the front of the hay shed and loaded 14 hay bales, then I hooked up the red trailer to the truck. I pulled the trailer to the front of the upper barn and loaded in 18 mums. I loaded extra so the girl would have a few choices. I picked out the small pumpkins and placed them in a tray and set the tray in the back of the trailer. I called the girl, then Stacey and I delivered the load of mums, pumpkins and hay to the Cumberland County Bank and the girl bought everything I had loaded, so we set it all out and headed home. We came home and went to the patch and dug some mums to replace the ones we had sold. It was a good thing we did, because that day, I sold $152 worth of stuff before Linda came home. Of course we had to dig more mums once Linda was home to help. About half of the mums in the patch are gone as we have sold nearly every early blooming yellow mum. The butterscotch color is almost gone and the early blooming dark maroon color has done fairly well also. We have sold two thirds of the white with yellow centers we planted, they were the worst developed of any color, but people still bought them. I doubt the rest of those will sell. The two types of purple have done OK too, I estimate half of those have sold. Some of the mums are too big for potting, so we are selling those in cardboard boxes for people to replant in their yards. They are as big around as a half whiskey barrell. We have started digging the later blooming yellow mums since running out of the early blooming yellow. I've ordered more pots from Louisana, including some larger ones. Hopefully, those will be here late Friday.

Hay Fields

Wednesday was a busy day, Stacey and I let the ducks out of the garage and pushed the hay wagon full of mums into the hallway of the barn. Then we washed the HHR and parked it in the garage. By then it was after 9 AM, so Stacey drove the Mule and followed me on the tractor across the creek. I used the bucket on the tractor to scrape the debris into piles and then pushed it back into the creek while Stacey picked up plastic bottles and glass jars that was left by the flood waters. It was nearly noon when we finished and went inside. Linda had fixed extra hamburgers the night before, so we heated those in the microwave for lunch. I mowed the little house yard and the area around the old trailer. While mowing I sold forteen mums and before Linda came home I had sold ten more. Regina called and needed some bigger mums dug, so when Linda came in we went to the patch. I dug ten of the largest ones we had for one lady, five more big ones for the mayor, and three for other people. Linda cut boxes in half so they weren't as tall and I simply set the mums inside the box with a garbage bag underneath. We were digging mums past 6 PM.
Thursday began with rain, and I was really glad. That meant I wouldn't have to dig mums. I drove the Mule down to the patch and took a couple of pictures, one from each end to show how the patch looks, since I had tried to describe what was left in the previous entry.
   
Then I rode across the creek and checked out the hay field. Larry had been using a spreader type rake to flip the hay out of the rows and spread it out so it would dry quicker. I never was able to talk to him about the rolls that are pictured. Some of them were partially underwater, so I don't know if he can use those. The hay has been rolled for a week and some of the rolls are still emitting steam. They generate their own heat, one reason a barn full of green hay can catch on fire.
   
Farther back in the 'holler', the small branches were flowing water at a pretty fast pace. I've bush hogged the edge of the hay field so that the 'water feature' can be seen better.
 
I returned to the house and went inside for a while as it began raining again. Linda, Stacey and I drove the truck to town and ate at the Pizza Hut, then over to the Center for the Aging because Regina had asked us to bring the flowers we dug the day before into town. We were lucky, the lady that wanted the mums showed up while we were there, so we delivered her ten mums. It worked out great, we pulled in her driveway, set the mums out, got paid, talked a few minutes and were on our way home in less than fifteen minutes. She gave us an extra 'tip' for delivering her mums. Back at the farm, we unhooked the red trailer, parked the truck in the hay shed, picked up the mail and went inside. UPS delivered the three boxes of mum pots I had ordered on Monday. It stopped raining, so I took another ride and this time went across the creek to the hay fields I had scraped clean yesterday. Most of the dirt had washed back down in the stubble and the fields were looking a lot better.
 
If you check the picture closely, maybe you can see that a few of the tree leaves are starting to change colors.