You can click the small pictures in this column to see larger versions.
Posted on 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.
Posted on Thursday, February 02, 2012
Kidney Stone
Linda went to work at the school and Stacey and I ate breakfast, then
dressed and headed to Bowling Green. Brent was having a kidney stone
removed and we were going for support. We arrived at the Medical Center
a little before 11 AM. We parked and then walked through the building,
asked where we should go to find Pauline and Brent in the Ambulatory
Surgery Unit and they pointed us in the right direction. We found the
unit and Brent's room.
We
had a little over a half hour to nervously chat with Brent before the
hospital employees took him to the operating room. Pauline, Stacey and I
went downstairs and across the street for lunch at the Subway inside the
hospital, then returned to the surgery reception room. The lady there
notified us that Brent was out of surgery and in the recovery room about
12:45 PM. That was just a little over an hour. The doctor talked to
Pauline and told her that he removed the kidney stone and left a stint
to drain Brent's kidney. Brent stayed in the recovery room for what
seemed like a long time, it was a few minutes after 3 PM when they let
us go in and see how he was doing. He was awake and eating ice to help
the sore throat from the tubes they put down there during the surgery.
They gave Brent a little more pain medication before he ate a few
crackers and drank some clear pop, then the nurse said he could go home.
Pauline was going to pick up the prescriptions and their kids on the way
home, so Brent was going to ride with me. I pulled the HHR around to the
door and they wheeled Brent out and he climbed in the car. We talked a
little on the way back to his house, then went inside. He sat in the
recliner for a while with the TV on. Pauline arrived with the medicine
and the kids. I gave the kids time to love on their Dad while Pauline
packed their clothes and stuff for them to go to the farm with us. Linda
was taking off Friday to take care of the kids. After loading their
things and putting them in the car seats we headed out. I stopped in
Smith's Grove at McDonalds for burgers and we all ate them on the ride
back to the farm.
Posted on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Ditch Work
Water has been running off the hillside and creating a small gully along
the driveway that was causing trouble when Linda was using the riding
mower. The gully was about a foot deep at the bottom end. Stacey and I
took the truck to town on Monday and bought PVC pipe to use to channel
the water and prevent the erosion of more dirt.
The
weather predictions were for shirt sleeve temperatures and no rain, so I
used the tractor with the back hoe to dig the trench and place the dirt
on the edge of the driveway. I then slid the pipe together and laid it
in the bottom of the trench. 
I
used the scoop of the tractor to push the dirt off the driveway and back
into the trench to cover the pipe. I drove over the top of the trench
and compacted the dirt with the tractor tires, then drove the tractor to
the creek and scooped up several scoops of small creek gravel. I spread
that on the places that needed to be filled and smoothed it all down by
dragging the scoop over the gravel while driving backwards.
I
had to do a little bit of shovel work to clear out the entrance point of
the pipe and then I tried the drain out. I took the tractor back to the
creek and scooped up as much water as I could. Then I drove back to the
driveway and slowly dumped the water out of the scoop. The water ran
through the pipe and cleaned out the small amount of dirt that was in
the pipe. It all worked. I hope when it rains it will work as well as it
did during the trial.
Posted on Sunday, January 29, 2012
Kyle's Party
Stacey, Linda and I showered a little before 10 AM, dressed and then
drove to Smith's Grove and on to Pauline and Brent's house. Julie and
Kyle met us outside on the sidewalk with big hugs. We spent a little
time talking while the dogs did their thing before we went inside. While
we were wrestling with Julie and Kyle, the kids' Grandma Dorothy and
Grandpa Larry came in with Buddy, their dog. A little bit later, Pauline
called us to the table for sandwiches and chips. Kyle missed the lunch
while taking his nap, but Brent woke him when they thought it was time
for the party. Kyle's birthday is February 2nd. Brent had made a
basketball themed cake with the players made of cookies. Kyle used his
finger for his first taste of the cake icing.
Everyone
sang "Happy Birthday" to Kyle, then Pauline lit the candles and Kyle
blew them out.
Pauline
served Kyle the first piece and he took a bite, then decided he could do
better without using a fork and proceeded to stuff the cake in his
mouth. We agreed that he must like the cake.
After
the cake and ice cream, Kyle opened his birthday presents while Julie
watched from close by.
Around
an hour later, Dorothy and Larry left to take care of some other things.
We stayed until about 4:30 PM, then drove back to the farm, arriving
just after dark.
Posted on 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.
Posted on 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.
Posted on Friday, January 20, 2012
John Anderson Concert
I had ordered tickets to a John Anderson Concert at the Plaza
Theatre several months ago. Stacey had invited Jason to go with us,
so we picked him up at 4:30 PM and drove to Glasgow. We stopped and ate
at Zaxby's since Stacey and Jason both like that type of food. Our
service was quick and the food was good. We ate quickly and were on our
way to the concert.
We
parked on the Courthouse Square in Glasgow and walked a half block to
the Plaza. Our seats were in the second row and right on the middle
aisle. We were all pleased with the location. The theatre filled up the
bottom seating area and people were being seated in the balcony. I'm not
sure, but if it wasn't a sellout, it was really close to being one.
After
a few announcements, John Anderson began playing. He only had one other
musician with him that played a guitar and the fiddle. John sounded just
like his CDs and put on a great show. He played some of his old stuff,
some new songs, some gospel music, then he played a few of his big hits
and finished with "Seminole Wind".
He
left the stage, then came back to the loud applause from the crowd and
played three more songs. His last song was "Money In The Bank", which
everyone enjoyed and gave him a standing ovation when he left the stage
for the final time. John played about an hour and thirty five minutes.
The
crowd seemed satisfied as we all slowly walked out of the theatre and
crossed the street to our car. We talked about the concert as we rode
back towards Burkesville. We dropped Jason off as Stephannie and Tommy
pulled into their driveway. We stepped outside our car and talked with
them a few minutes while Stacey and Jason exchanged CDs. We said good
bye and returned to the farm about 10 PM.
Posted on 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.
Posted on 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.
Posted on 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.
