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Posted on Friday, September 02, 2011
Lacy Visits
The kids didn't go to school today but the teachers had a professional
day, which means they had to work. Linda had agreed to keep one of the
kids at our house that she had been an aide for at school. Lacy King
came to our house a little before 10 AM with her Grandpa Jimmy King.
Jimmy thought there might have been a problem, but after seeing Lacy
just come in and start playing, he wasn't worried any longer. He gave us
the lunch they had packed for Lacy and then headed on to work. After a
few minutes of playing in the house, we asked Lacy if she wanted to ride
in the Mule again. She did, so we went outside and took the Mule to the
barn. Lacy has problems with dogs, so we strapped her in the seat and I
brought Daisy out of the barn on the leash, instead of just letting
Daisy run out of the barn. Lacy didn't even notice we had the dog in the
back, so I went to the house and retrieved the camera to take some
pictures.
We
let Daisy run and Lacy didn't have any problems. We returned Daisy to
the barn and then went to the pop sickle barn for a pop sickle and a
cold drink.
We
went back to the house to cool down and ate lunch, Lacy ate her lunch
she brought from home. She played inside with the toys most of the
afternoon, until her Grandma Karen came to pick her up a little after 3
PM. Lacy asked her Grandma and Linda if she could come back again. The
answer was "yes".
Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011
Labor Day Weekend
We asked Carol and Dave Neff to go to the lake with us Saturday. They
arrived at the house at 10 AM and we headed to town, I put gas in the
boat and we drove to the State Park. We readied the boat, then waited
our turn on the dock, launched the boat and idled out of the marina's
cove. There were lots of boats on the lake and they had it rolling with
boat wakes. We stopped in our favorite cove and anchored for a while.
Everyone but Carol quickly jumped into the water. She remained in the
boat and thought about getting in the water. I didn't know it, but Carol
was afraid of the water. After about 20 minutes of standing in the boat
with a life jacket on, she climbed down the ladder and joined us in the
water. We enjoyed the water for an hour or so, then loaded into the boat
and rode to the dam area. While in the large area by the dam, we just
drifted and ate lunch meat sandwiches we made right there on the boat.
The breeze blowing across the water kept us cool during our lunch. We
stopped a few times and swam on the ride back to the Trooper Island
area. We stopped again and ate another round of sandwiches before going
back to the dock about 6:30 PM. Then there was a line of boaters waiting
to take out their boats and it took us a little longer to put the boat
on the trailer because we had to wait our turn. I pulled the truck and
trailer to the middle parking lot and we tied down the cover while
parked there so we were out of everyone's way. Carol and Dave helped us,
then they headed to their house and we drove back to the farm and put
the boat away.
Sunday morning, I went outside early and mowed the
grass on the hillside behind the house and the slope in front of the
house. It was supposed to rain later, so I wanted to mow the sloped
areas before they were wet. After going back inside, I contacted Brent
on Skype and we planned a trip to Sam's Club. Stacey, Linda and I drove
the HHR to Pauline and Brent's house. We arrived at 1 PM and played with
Julie and Kyle for an hour or more while we talked. Stacey rode with
Kyle, Pauline and Brent as Julie rode with Linda and me to Sam's Club.
Sam's was packed with people shopping. I shoved a cart with Kyle riding
in it and Stacey pushed a cart for Pauline and Brent. Julie was running
around with Linda. We wound our way through the aisles and tried to
avoid disrupting the other shoppers as we found most of the items we
wanted to buy. After checking out at the register, we pushed the loaded
carts out to the car and packed the items in the back. We sat Kyle in an
empty cart next to their Traverse and had Julie setting in her booster
seat right by him, then we hid behind a big truck when Pauline and Brent
walked up. It looked like we had left the kids alone, but we really had
not.
We
had a little chuckle about that with Pauline and Brent, then said good
bye and headed back to the farm. The rain poured down on us several
times as we drove back to Burkesville. We pulled the HHR into the garage
and unloaded our supplies as Coco ran in and out of the house with each
load.
Posted on Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Rainy Days
The rainy weather started Sunday afternoon when we were on the way back
from Sam's Club and it has rained every day since. Not a downpour, but
just a steady rain, around 2 inches a day until today. It lightened up
and just misted rain most of today. Stacey and I went to eat before
attending the Events Committee meeting and then stopping at DC Auto
Service. Back at the house, I ordered 200 magnetic plaques for the
Cumberland Heritage Days.
I
took the picture last year during the Burkesville Bicentennial
Celebration. After Linda came home from working at the school, we went
to town and ate.
Posted on Saturday, September 10, 2011
When You Think You've Heard It All
Thursday, after Linda returned from work at the school, we were sitting
in the living room watching TV. The phone rang and I answered by putting
it on speaker phone. It was Alton, a friend of my Mom's from IN, that
was calling. He talked a few minutes and then asked if I knew Mom's
house was listed in the paper to be sold at a sheriff's sale. I was
surprised and told him that I didn't know about that, but I would check
it out and then return his call. I looked it up on the internet and
indeed, Mom's house was ready to be sold because of delinquent property
taxes. The rental house across the street was also listed for the
sheriff's sale. I called the Delaware County Treasurer to find out the
specifics and how to pay the back taxes. I called Alton back and told
him what I had found out about the taxes.
Saturday morning we watched
TV for a little while, then decided to go to Somerset. We drove the HHR
and ate lunch at Fazoli's. We drove through the new car lots and checked
out the Fords, Chryslers and Chevy vehicles, then went to the Peddlers'
Mall and walked through. When we returned to the farm, Brent had left me
a message saying to contact him, so I went to the computer and began a
Skype chat. Brent proceeded to tell me what had happened with the
property where we used to live in Smith's Grove. Here's a little
background on it. We sold the property to Brent and he lived there a
little while. Since then, he has sold it on contract several times and
then would get the property back for lack of payments and the people
would move out. The picture below was taken when Stacey, Brent, Linda
and I lived at that location. I don't know what the place looks like now.
About
3 months ago, a guy was living in the property and had stopped making
his payments. Brent had confronted him and told him to move out. There
had been some heated exchanges, but he moved away. A woman saw the
property and wanted to move one of her sons into the place. Brent
printed up another contract and they began cleaning up the place and
moving in. During the next few weeks, the neighbors told her that the
previous renter must have had some type of hidden room in the garage and
she began looking for it. She found a tool box for the bed of a pickup
truck setting in the corner of the pole barn. When she opened the lid,
the bottom of the tool box had been cut out and there was a passage way
to a room below. The guy had dug out a basement room in the pole barn,
then poured a cement floor for half of the pole barn over the top of the
room. So, it was all hidden, except the entrance that was covered by the
truck tool box. He had tapped into the neighbors water line, had
electric power down there and a ventilation pipe running to a wood
burning stove to get rid of the odors. WOW! She contacted a state police
friend and showed him the place. He remarked that it wasn't illegal
because there wasn't any dope down there now. Whew, I'm glad Brent
doesn't need to have a meth lab removed, no telling what that would have
cost. So, she wants to fill in the hole and cement over it. Brent
agreed. We hope that's the end of it!
Posted on Friday, September 16, 2011
Courthouse Trip
Thursday morning we pulled the HHR out of the garage and headed towards
IN. There was a court hearing scheduled for Friday at 9 AM that I was
going to attend and I had some other business to do in Muncie. The trip
went well. When we were driving through Louisville, we noticed traffic
was backed up on the IN side of the Ohio River. The traffic jam was
about a mile or two long. We passed through without problems and drove
on to Indianapolis and then to Anderson and finally to Daleville. I
stopped at the bank and picked up two certified checks. We then went to
Pendleton and picked up Nana. It was her birthday and we decided to take
her with us to eat at Bird's Smoke House restaurant near Daleville. We
were almost done eating when I noticed Linda K and Imon were parking
outside. Linda N had called and told them to meet us. We left the
restaurant and went to my mother's house so that Imon could take a look
at a small plumbing job we needed done. After estimating what he would
need for the job, we all sat and talked for an hour or so. Linda K and
Imon went home and we took Nana back to Pendleton and stayed the night
with her.
Friday morning, we drank a cup of coffee and left Stacey
and Coco in Pendleton with Nana while we went to the hearing in Muncie.
We parked close to the courthouse and went inside for the 9 o'clock
hearing. The nursing home brought Mom to the courthouse. A few minutes
later, Stephan Blackwell, the Adult Protective Services officer, joined
our group setting in the lobby. An officer of the court walked up to us
and asked a few questions. Everyone agreed that the case should be
dismissed and he went back inside. A few minutes later, he came back
out, said the order would be filed, the case would be dismissed and we
would be notified by letter. I asked if we were done and he indicated we
were indeed done. We told Mom we would see her in a little while at the
nursing home after we finished some business at the courthouse. Mom had
forgot to pay her property taxes for a couple of years, so I had to get
those caught up. We went to the Delaware County Treasurer's office and
paid all the taxes that were due with the certified checks. We then
stepped into the office next door and changed the mailing address for
the taxes, so that from now on, I will know when the taxes are due and I
can pay them promptly. Linda and I then went to the Woodlands Nursing
Home to visit with Mom. Virginia was watching TV when we walked inside.
We talked for a while, then went to the cafeteria for Mom to eat lunch.
We talked with Mom and all the people, including some of the staff,
while Mom waited on her lunch. When her lunch arrived, we said good bye
and left. It had been a pleasant visit that lasted a couple of hours. We
stopped at the house in Daleville and set the furnace's thermostat so
the heat would come on if the temperature dropped to 50 degrees and then
we went to Pendleton. Linda was ready to go back to KY, so we packed our
things in the HHR. We let Coco out for a minute or two, Stacey hugged
Nana, then Linda and I gave her hugs and we left. Traffic in Indy was
not bad because we left early, but as we drove into Jeffersonville,
traffic was backed up about 5 miles north of the river. I took an exit
and used the GPS to find our way to Kingfish Restaurant on the bank of
the Ohio River. We purchased a to-go order and reentered the traffic on
I-65 about an eighth of a mile from the river. I had bypassed about 4
miles of backed up traffic and also picked up dinner, a win/win
situation. We were across the river and back up to speed in about 10
minutes. The rest of the trip was normal and we arrived home around 6:30
PM.
Posted on Saturday, September 17, 2011
Blue Grass Festival
Pauline and Brent brought Julie and Kyle and their dogs over Saturday
morning. We visited with them a while, then we all went to Burkesville
to check out the Bluegrass Festival that was going on at the park. Brent
parked the Traverse and we headed straight to the food vendors' area. I
mean really, there isn't any use to go to these things if you don't eat
the food. The vendors were parked around a large shelter house and we
all split up and chose different items to eat. The kids had hot dogs,
Pauline, Stacey and I had grilled hamburgers, Brent had a shoulder
dinner and Linda had a breaded tenderloin. Some of us had iced tea,
others had canned pop and I had a lemon shake up. After eating, I took
the kids to the playground area and watched them climb on the equipment.
Pauline,
Stacey and Linda walked through the craft and vendor sections, then
Pauline went to see the quilt show. Brent came and watched the kids play
while I looked around and listened to the music a little bit. The quilt
blocks in the picture were just the blocks that were entered into the
'Bird' theme competition. The people donate those and those pieces are
then quilted together and sold at next year's event.
Each
of us returned to the playset and we decided we had seen enough. No one
wanted to stay just to listen to the musice, so we loaded into the car
and returned to the farm. A short time later, we piled into the Mule and
let Daisy run as we rode around the hay fields. I noticed that Larry
Anderson had cut the hay in several of the fields. We let the kids throw
rocks in the creek and then loaded Daisy back in the Mule. After
returning the dog to the barn stall, we went to the 'pop sickle barn'
for..., yep, pop sickles. Brent and I, each enjoyed an alcoholic
beverage that was left over from his birthday party. Julie and Kyle took
naps and when they woke, we went down to the firepit and had a weiner
roast. Our neighbor, Regina came and joined us and we sat around the
fire watching it burn down until the kids were ready for bed. Pauline
and Brent took Kyle and Julie to bed, then Stacey and Linda used the
lights on the Mule to clear off the picnic table and carry the stuff
back to the house. Regina went home and I closed up the barn doors and
turned off the music, the party was over.
Posted on Sunday, September 18, 2011
Deer Stand
Sunday morning was so nice, Linda and I took the kids for a Mule ride
with Daisy running. We were about half way around the fields when Brent
rode up on a 4-wheeler with Pauline on the back. David McIntyre was
tedding the hay so Larry Anderson could roll it later in the day. The
tractor running made Daisy think that she could continue playing in the
creek longer than we wanted, but eventually Daisy returned to the Mule
and jumped in the back. We took Daisy to the barn and then we went to
the house, Linda put a few cold drinks in a cooler and we all headed out
on a longer ride to our farm on West Fork. We drove up SR 61 and turned
right on Jone's Ridge road, then went to the top of the hill and down
the other side. We stopped on Beech Branch road and let Julie ride with
Brent on the 4-wheeler. We turned North and went a couple of miles on
704 till we turned left on West Fork road. About 5 miles later we turned
into the log yard the loggers had made when they were cutting timber. As
we pulled through the log yard towards the creek, I saw a new deer stand
that had been built.
The
guys, from Georgia that rented the land had planted corn and some other
crops to attract the deer to the area. I parked the Mule and climbed the
stairs to check out the view the hunters will have when they use the
deer stand.
Patsy
Judd takes care of renting the property for hunting. She advertises in
newspapers and makes the hunters sign contracts, then collects the money
in advance. I simply cash the checks. We went across the creek and then
stopped and checked out the way the loggers had left the log roads. They
had blocked the roads with large limbs and scrapped dirt into foot high
piles in the log roads to stop the water from creating gullies when the
rains come pouring down. That is what the conservation department
requires them to do. We also looked at the farm on the other side of the
road, the loggers had taken more timber from there, but they had
correctly fixed their logging roads over there too. Brent thought they
had done a decent job, their roads were only as wide as needed and they
had taken the time to do it right. The worst part of letting them cut
timber is the limbs left laying around are just wasted. Hundreds of
homes could be heated with the wood that is left to decay. Maybe we will
find someone that wants to cut those limbs up and sell firewood this
winter, I don't know. Pauline fixed potato soup for lunch when we
returned to the house. They went home about 3:30 PM.
Posted on Friday, September 23, 2011
Rainy Week
We've had light rain about every day this week. Linda worked at the school while Stacey and I were at home and mostly stayed inside. Wednesday, I was involved in a small skirmish with our neighbor and they called the sheriff on me, then we did attend the Events Committee meeting later that day, but other than that, not much went on around here.
Posted on Sunday, September 25, 2011
Sunday Drive
Saturday was really nice weather, around 75 degrees and a gentle breeze
blowing. Linda and I mowed most of the day as the predictions were for
rain on Sunday.
Sunday was nice too. So nice that since we had the
mowing done, we decided to take the 97 Mustang for a ride with the top
down. We drove to Columbia and ate lunch at Sonic, then made a short
stop at TSC. I bought a set of lights to put on a wagon. We left TSC and
went south down SR 55. It is a nice road that doesn't have much traffic
and is fairly curvy as it winds through southern Adair County towards
Lake Cumberland. We drove about 50 mph through the country looking at
the homes and farms. We crossed Wolf Creek Dam that impounds Lake
Cumberland. As we crossed the dam, we could see that the section of
highway where the dirt meets the concrete section of the dam has sunk a
foot or more. I don't know if they're going to be able to fix that
problem. We continued south through Clinton County towards Albany. A
section of the highway was closed because the state is building a bypass
around Albany, so we took a short detour, then passed through town and
turned back towards Burkesville. The ride back to the farm took about 20
minutes longer, then I parked the car in the garage and we went inside.
Stacey and I watched the NASCAR race we had recorded as daytime turned
to dark.
