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Friday, February 03, 2012
Julie & Kyle
We began the day with Julie and Kyle eating pancakes and sausage for
breakfast and then playing with toys for a while. Around 10:30 we put
their jackets on them and we all went outside. I drove the Mule and we
let Daisy run around the hay fields while we rode along.
After
the Mule ride, we needed to go to the grocery store, so we loaded into
the HHR and drove to Albany. Linda called in our pizza order at Major's
Pizza and they had it ready when we arrived. We all ate pizza and the
kids played with the pinball and video games until everyone was
finished. We then walked next door to the grocery store. Julie and Kyle
really liked going to that store because they have miniature carts that
we let both of them push through the store. It was like a shopping
train, Linda and Stacey walking with Julie and her cart behind them,
then Kyle pushing his cart, then me pushing the big cart. We checked out
and came back to the farm, put the groceries away and then it was nap
time. Julie, Kyle, Stacey, and Linda laid down for naps. I went to town
and stopped at a new garage they're calling American Street Rod Garage.
When I returned to the farm, Julie and Linda were awake. A little later,
Kyle and Stacey woke up. We ended up the day with another Mule ride
around the farm, stopping to let Julie and Kyle throw rocks into the
creek water. Stacey, Julie and Kyle went into the bedroom to watch a
Disney movie and about 7:30 PM, Stacey came out to the living room and
said that both Julie and Kyle were asleep. Linda moved them to their
beds and they didn't wake up.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Lacy Visits
Linda brought Lacy King home with her from the after school day care.
Lacy talked to us and then began playing with the various toys we have.
She really liked the Legos and was building things with those before her
Grandpa Jimmy came to pick her up.
Lacy
has learned to accept Coco's barking and doesn't scream, "He's going to
kill me!" like she did when she first started coming to our house. We
heard her talking to Coco when they were both in one of the bedrooms.
Lacy was wearing her "Super Reader" t-shirt that was gave to her for
achieving her 50 point AR Goals. When Jimmy arrived, he talked with us
about the school's lack of handling of her aide's absenteeism for a
while. They then put their coats on, said good bye and left for home.
Monday, January 23, 2012
NASCAR Die Cast
Early Saturday morning there were severe thunderstorms that rolled
through Cumberland County. The warmer temperatures had brought radical
weather to our area and Sunday night and Monday morning there were more
storms with downpours of rain. When I went outside about 10 AM, the
temperature was nearly 60 degrees and the driveway had big ruts from the
rain water running down it. I used the tractor with the scoop tipped
down like a grader blade to smooth the gravel and fill in the ruts. I
cleaned out a few of the ditches that had filled partially up with mud
and debris. Stacey and I took her new NASCAR Paul Menard die cast car to
the pole barn and placed it in the cabinet. Paul won the Brickyard 400
in 2011 and we needed to place the replica car in our "Winners' Row".
Chuck
Anderson had began the tradition of buying the winning Brickyard car
each year when he owned the collection and we've been continuing it
after he passed the collection to Stacey. Last year we
added Jamie McMurray.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Brush Pile
Pauline and Brent and their kids came over Friday evening. Saturday we
couldn't come up with a plan of anything to do, so we sat around the
living room watching old movies and burning wood in the stove. The kids
were playing and getting rowdy, so I decided it would be a good day to
try to burn some brush I had bulldozed into a pile over a year ago.
There was enough snow to cover the grass and keep the fire from
spreading. I gathered up some cardboard boxes and a gallon of diesel
fuel and put those in the Mule. Brent and I headed down the road in the
Mule and crossed the creek to the pile of brush. Linda followed in the
pickup truck with Stacey, Julie and Kyle. Pauline stayed at the house
and was keeping the fire going in the wood stove. Brent and I placed the
cardboard boxes in the pile of brush and then poured some fuel over them
to get the fire started. We started the fire and stood back. The fire
started, but didn't spread as fast as we had thought it would. We tossed
smaller sticks on and kept it burning for a while, but it never really
burnt like we wanted. We decided to return to the house and go to town
for lunch.
After
lunch, we went back to the brush pile with a new plan. We took several
pieces of wood for the fire pit and several pieces for the wood stove
that we knew would burn and made a sort of campfire on top of some of
the brush. We lit that and it burnt like it should. The brush seemed
like it was going to finally start burning faster, so I went back to the
equipment shed and returned to the brush pile with the tractor. We
worked with the tractor and by hand to try to keep the fire burning and
get it to spread to the rest of the pile. Not much luck with that. 
When
the sun had went down and the temperature was beginning to drop, we quit
and went to the house.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Snow
On Wednesday the high temperature had been 61 degrees, but this morning
the weather changed and it started getting colder throughout the day. By
3 PM the wind was gusting and there were snow flakes flying. Stacey and
I had stayed home all day and kept the fire in the wood stove burning.
When I went out to the back porch for a stick of wood, I brought in an
arm load and piled it in the small wood rack by the stove. Linda came
home and said that everyone had picked up their kids quickly from
school. An hour later, we had snow falling fast and the ground was being
covered.
The
wood that was on the back porch was being slowly covered with snow, but
by bringing in extra pieces, the snow was being melted before time to
put each piece on the fire. Linda took over keeping the fire in the
stove burning. About 8 PM, there was a notice on the internet that
school had been canceled for Friday. After Linda went to sleep, I kept
the stove burning most of the night. The temperature bottomed out at 19
degrees early Friday morning.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Supply Trip
After Linda went to work at the school, Stacey and I dressed and watched
TV for a while, then we took the HHR to Bowling Green. We had lunch at
Mancino's and then went to Aldi's. Stacey used a quarter to obtain a
cart and we went inside. We bought several half cases of canned goods
and loaded them in the car. Stacey returned the cart and retrieved her
quarter for doing so.
The
next stop was Sam's Club, where we bought several more items we needed,
then checked out. Stacey drove the cart to the car and I opened the
hatchback. I lifted the 50 lb bag of dog food off the bottom of the cart
and the end of the bag came open and the entire contents dumped onto the
parking lot. Stacey remained with the car while I went inside and Sam's
gave me another bag. They told me to leave the bag and dog food where is
was and they would send someone out to clean it up. I returned to the
car and we finished loading our items into the HHR. I drove back to
Burkesville while Stacey took a nap. We went to the US Post Office and
bought stamps, then returned to the farm and unloaded our things. I
refilled our container for dog food and we put it in the Mule and picked
up Daisy to let her run. After her run, we gave her food and put her
back in the stall. We parked the Mule in the garage and went inside to
start a fire in the wood stove. Linda came home just before dark.
Saturday, January 07, 2012
New Trail
During the daytime, lately, the temperatures have been near 60, a day or
two above and a day or two just below. Linda has used the nicer weather
to take down the Christmas lights and take them to the storage building.
Stacey and I split a load of firewood and stacked it in the wood shed.
The loggers have moved over to Regina's farm to cut some of her timber.
She wanted enough cut to get a 4 wheeler trail to the top of the hill.
They
had worked a week and told me to bring Regina over there and we could
ride in the Mule up the hill to the top. They had opened up the trail
with their skidder, but there were still plenty of small limbs to smack
us in the face as we rode along. We can trim those with loppers, but
most of the trail was open to the top of the hill that is directly
across from our house.
Linda
and I cut another trailer load of firewood and left it sitting on the
trailer by the log splitter. Stacey and I will get around to splitting
it in a day or two. Linda helped me put the disc on the tractor and I
used it to smooth out some of the area where the loggers had worked in
our hay field.
It
was too wet to do the entire area.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Christmas At The Farm
Frinday morning, Brent's family arrived. Linda began things by getting
the kids to decorate an edible tree. It is an ice cream cone with green
cake icing and candy for ornaments.
We
kept the kids busy during the day, playing and riding in the Mule. Maxx
Lobo arrived around 4 PM. Maxx had flown from California to Nashville a
few days earlier and then drove to the farm to visit.
Linda fixed a
quick breakfast of cinnamon rolls and then everyone began opening the
presents.
After
the presents had been opened, everyone began playing with one of their
gifts. Maxx and Brent built some 'experimental' vehicles while Kyle and
Julie painted with water colors. Linda and Pauline then started making a
banana pudding and other stuff for dinner later.
Maxx,
Kyle, Brent and I took a short trip down the road with the tractor and
Mule. We used the new chainsaw to cut a downed tree into pieces for
firewood. Then we sat a large box up for a target. We began shooting
Brent's 22 rifle and adjusting the scope until we had it hitting the
target. Then we switched to shooting the 30/30 carbine. It made a lot
louder noise and kicked harder. Kyle would walk back and forth with us
to the target to see how close we were hitting to the center. Dinner was
almost ready when we returned to the house. Pauline and Linda had done a
nice job and all the food was great. We enjoyed the rest of the day
playing with the kids.
Maxx was flying back to CA on Christmas Day,
so we had breakfast early, then we all said 'good bye' and he left about
9:30 AM.
We
went outside in the afternoon and finished cutting the wood and loading
it on the black trailer. We used the Mule to pull the load to the shed
where the firewood is stored and unhooked the trailer from the Mule.
Back inside, we ate leftovers for lunch, then Pauline and Brent took
their kids and dogs and headed home just before dark.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Christmas Decorations
Linda started bringing the Christmas decorations from the storage
building to the house Sunday while the temperature was still in the 60s.
Stacey and Linda put the Christmas Tree together and decorated it with
hundreds of lights and ornaments.
As
the week went on, Linda brought out more and more decorations.
Saturday, December 03, 2011
Burkesville Christmas Parade
I went up the road to Garmon's farm to check out how the hog killing was
progressing. They had finished the slaughtering and were rendering the
lard outside in three kettles over open fires. The liquid was then
poured through a cloth to strain out the impurities and into a bucket to
cool. Inside Jone's
Ridge Meats, Stevie and some of the ladies helping, were grinding
sausage and packaging it into 2 lb rolls, then putting those in the
freezers.
After
returning to the farm, Stacey, Linda and I moved firewood from the wood
shed to the back porch and stacked it for use in the racks. We also took
the Christmas Tree from the storage building to the house before
unhooking the trailer from the Mule. We took Daisy a run before leaving
to go to Burkesville for the Christmas Parade. The parade began at 5 PM
with Mrs Nancy Buchanan serving as the Grand Marshall for the "Story
Book Christmas" themed parade. Mrs Buchanan had been a librarian and
volunteered for numerous functions in Cumberland County.
The
parade had lasted just over an hour, the temperature was near 60 degrees
this year and there was a large turnout of spectators watching. People
on the floats threw candy and we were given free cookies and there was
free hot chocolate being offered around the Courthouse Square as we
watched.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Steady Rain
After everyone had left to go home Sunday, the rain began to fall. The
rain wasn't coming terribly hard, just steady. All Sunday night, all day
Monday, Monday night and Tuesday. I went to the pole barn to look up the
serial numbers on the Sea Ray for Brent to give to the Lake Cumberland
Sea Ray dealer to schedule a bit of service work. I guess it will be
scheduled in January since the dealer said they close for most of the
month of December. While I was outside, I took a couple pictures of the
water running through the ditch and the creek.
I
won't have debris to clean up because the water never did get out of the
creek banks, so I was glad about that.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Another Nice Saturday
When the temperature was in the upper 50s we went outside to do a little
work. We sawed up another tree that had been cut by the loggers. They
had left the tree top for firewood, so we cut up the bigger limbs and
tossed those pieces on the trailer. Then I used the tractor to shove the
small limbs and debris into the edge of the woods. We hauled the wood to
the shed and split and stacked the pieces. The temperatue was near 70 by
late in the afternoon when Brent and I repaired the walkway lights. Some
of the wires had become loose, so we used the soldering gun to hook
those together. We also had to replace a couple bulbs. Brent crawled
under the house to place an extension cord for a new set of lights we're
going to install along the walkway to the back porch. We finished that
right before dark and went inside. Kyle and I played with the small
tractors in the floor.
Pico
watched and played with the dog toys while we were in the floor.
Pauline
worked on braiding Julie's hair while she watched a cartoon movie. Linda
was busy straightening up and Stacey and Brent were watching the movie
too.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Friday Outside
Friday morning, Pauline fixed breakfast. Pauline's sister, Beth had
stayed the night. Beth and Pauline played with Kyle and Julie most of
the morning as we watched. After the sun had been up long enough to warm
the outside air, we went to the pole barn to do some things to the boat
and old cars. Brent took the life jackets out and hung them on the
rafters and also removed anything else we had left in the boat by
mistake. We checked the oil and decided to make a service appointment
with the Sea Ray dealer in Somerset. Brent took Julie a ride in the TR-3
and then took Pauline and Beth a ride in the 56 Chevy. When they
returned, we put battery tenders on the cars to keep the batteries
charged over the cold months. Beth and Pauline had the kids down at the
edge of the creek playing, so we joined them and watched the little dogs
run around while we were outside.
A
little after noon, we went inside and had sandwiches made from left
overs while Beth was preparing to leave. Beth told everyone good bye and
kissed the kids, then left for her trip back to eastern KY. Lunch
created a 'sleepy field' that over took us all for a while. I ended up
going outside and taking a chainsaw with me to the area where the
loggers had cut down the cherry tree. I sawed up the largest part of the
tree, then returned to the house for the tractor.
By
that time, Stacey, Linda and Brent were awake and willing to help. We
took the Mule with the black trailer and the tractor back to the downed
cherry tree. Brent chained the piece that was unusable to the scoop on
the tractor and I carried it to the edge of the woods and dropped it in
there to rot away. Brent used the small chainsaw to cut the remaining
pieces while Stacey, Linda and I cleaned up the debris and picked up the
pieces he cut.
The
mess was cleaned up! We then took the tractor back to the shed and
parked it. Brent pulled the trailer loaded with wood to the wood shed
and parked it close enough we could split the wood and toss it on a
bench. Stacey picked the wood off the bench and stacked it in rows in
the wood shed. Julie helped Linda rake up the scraps that busted off and
we scooped those up with the scoop shovel and tossed them on the
trailer. Brent and I relieved each other for breaks from splitting the
wood until we had finished the load.
We
parked the Mule after cleaning the debris off the trailer and unhooking
it, then we went inside. Later, we ordered pizza for supper and picked
up some milk at the store while getting the pizzas.
Thanksgiving Day
Pauline and Brent arrived Wednesday night with their kids and dogs.
We
had cereal and pop tarts for breakfast Thanksgiving morning. Linda had
been cooking all morning, then Pauline joined her to make a few more
things. Brent and I kept the kids busy while the cooking was going on.
We loaded Julie and Kyle into the Mule and took a ride across the creek.
As we turned the corner in the hayfield, I saw a car in the driveway at
the house. We headed back and as we pulled onto the road, Beth was in
her car turning around. She had drove past the house before she realized
it. We all drove to the house and found that Dorothy and Larry had just
arrived. We helped carry in a cake and other dishes of food they had
brought with them. About 45 minutes later, we began dinner.
With
the food that everyone brought and what Linda fixed, our table was full.
The food was really good and the desserts were even better. After
everyone had finished eating, Larry and I took the larger dogs and rode
around in the Mule. Larry's dog, Buddy, was a beagle but didn't want to
get to far away from Larry when we stopped to let Buddy and Daisy run. I
called Daisy and put her back in the Mule, then we rode around the farm
letting Larry see the place since it was his first visit. When we went
back inside, Larry had brought two electric guitars for Brent to try
with an xBox game he had purchased. Larry showed Brent a few things
about playing a real guitar while Dorothy and Linda talked. About 3 PM,
Dorothy and Larry left to go to Sommerset to see Dorothy's sister that
was in the hospital. 
Beth,
Julie, Pauline, Linda, Kyle and I rode in the Mule with Daisy running
and Stacey and Brent riding the ATVs. We went to the creek and let Julie
and Kyle throw rocks for a little bit, then stopped at the 'popsickle
barn' on the way back to the house.
Pauline
and Beth read story books to Kyle and Julie as the day turned to night
and later we played a card game called "Apples to Apples". It was
terrible because Linda won all three games (j/k). We ended the day a few
minutes before 10 PM.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Daisy Runs
The deer hunting season is now over for a few weeks. That means that we
can let Daisy out and let her run around the hay fields again. I had
kept her penned in the barn stall while the deer hunters were all around
the farm to keep her from running up on one of them and maybe getting
shot. It had been raining most of the night and had stopped for an hour,
so Stacey and I went to the barn and loaded Daisy in the back of the
Mule. We drove down the road and intended to cross the creek, but we
turned around because the water was too deep. We drove back up the road
and crossed the creek across from the house. The creek is wider there
and that lets the water spread out farther and for that reason, it is
not as deep.
The
water was running pretty fast as we crossed the creek and it was coming
out of the little branch too. Daisy had a good time running and sniffing
while Stacey and I drove around the fields in the Mule. We went back to
the barn and put Daisy in her stall, fed her, then we went in the house.
Stacey and I went to town a little after noon and picked up the last
check for the Christmas Parade, then took it to the Extension Office.
After that, we stopped at DC Auto Service and talked with some of the
guys for about a half hour. We went back to the farm as it continued
raining.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Boat Winterized
Around 8:30 AM a guy from Davidson's Marine called and said they had
finished winterizing the Sea Ray and we could pick it up anytime before
noon. Stacey and I went to the shed and took the pickup truck to get the
boat.
Joe
Davidson had told me he had 48 boats to winterize when I made the
appointment, but they had put the Sea Ray ahead of those boats because
he knew I would come and pick it up right away and get it out of their
way. I told them I appreciated the good service, paid the bill and
hooked up the boat to the truck. We drove back to the farm and put the
boat in the pole barn, unhooked it from the truck and put the truck back
in the shed. Stacey and I split a little more of the wood we had left on
the black trailer and then we went inside. Later in the day, Linda,
Stacey and I finished splitting the wood.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Wood Work
Tuseday and Wednesday had been rainy and cooler so the loggers had
stopped working across the creek and parked their equipment along the
edges of the hay field. Before they had quit, they cut a few trees at
the edges of the field that I had told them to cut. They left the tree
tops for us to cut up and use for firewood.
We
started on one big cherry tree top and have most of it worked up. I
bought a new chain for the little saw and it is cutting the small limbs
into pieces without much trouble.
A
couple of the tree tops are in the edge of the woods and will need to be
drug out to the open before I cut those up into smaller pieces. These
few tree tops in the pictures should help keep our house nice and warm
most of the winter.
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Loggers In Action
Daisy was ready to go for a run when we pulled the Mule
around to the front of the barn. Linda and Stacey let her out of the
stall and she came running out of the barn and then jumped in the back
of the Mule. We drove the Mule across the creek and around the hay
fields, then stopped and watched the loggers while they worked.
The
loggers were sawing the trees they had hauled out of the 'holler' into
shorter pieces to be loaded on the truck. Three loggers climbed on the
skidder and headed back in the 'holler' to cut more trees and drag them
out. Billy Wray used the front loader to pick up the logs and stack them
on the truck to be hauled to the log yard for grading and to sell.
When
Billy finished loading the truck, we drove the Mule back to the farm and
put Daisy and the Mule in the barn.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Successfull Turkey Hunters
Our neighbor, Regina Jones and her daughter, Sondra Jones, had been
hunting turkey in the 'holler' across the creek from the house since
Monday. Sondra had setup a blind back there. The weather had been dry
and they hadn't seen anything Monday or Tuesday. When we talked Tuesday
afternoon, it was said that the turkeys might be moving on Wednesday
because there was rain predicted. Early this morning, it began raining
and the temperature dropped into the low 50s. A little after 8 AM this
morning, I saw Regina riding on the ATV with Sondra and they were headed
across the creek in the rain. They rode part of the way back into the
'holler', then parked the ATV and walked the rest of the way back to the
blind. Around 1:30 PM, the door bell rang and when I went to the door,
it was Regina and Sondra. They had two turkeys they had killed. I
grabbed a sweatshirt and went outside with the camera and took a picture
of Regina and Sondra with the two turkeys they had harvested.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Network Problems
Wednesday evening our home network stopped functioning. I determined the
wireless router was the problem. It hooks to the DSL modem and hands out
the IP addresses to the computers on our network. I guess it just died
inside, none of the computers could access anything on the internet and
none could contact any other computer on our home network. As I posted
earlier, we headed to IN on Thursday to visit with my Mom.
Friday, I
contacted Brent and asked him about fixing the network for us. I asked
him to go to our house Saturday morning and either replace or repair the
router. He agreed to take a look Saturday and said he planned on
replacing the router with a newer one and taking the old one home with
him to see what had happened to it if possible.
Saturday morning,
Brent called and said he had replaced the router and we would be able to
get on the internet again. He had left our house and was on his way
home. So were we, we had left IN and were about half way between Indy
and Louisville. When we arrived at the house, there was still some work
to be done to restore our home network to the level it had been before
the router had crashed. I messed with the PCs a little while, then went
outside to enjoy the rest of the day. We had been inside too much in IN,
it seemed there wasn't anywhere to go or anything to do but set inside
the house up there.
Sunday morning, I chatted with Brent on Skype and
we discussed what was needed to return the home network to operation. I
worked on making the changes to the settings of several PCs and they
started becoming visible on the home network. I eventually had to unplug
the wireless repeater at the pole barn and take it to the house and
physically plug it into the network to change the settings in it. Then I
returned the unit to the pole barn and finally, everything was working!
