Norris Family Blog

Opener Repaired

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:15:39 -0500

I drove the Mule down to the pole barn, opened the sliding door and started the Harley. I rode it outside, shut the door and headed to Campbellsville a little after 8 AM. After a nice ride in the cool air, I pulled up in front of the Overhead Door Company and turned the bike off. I went inside and talked to the service manager, who handed me a new circuit board for our garage opener. He said he had called and left me a message on the answering machine. He had scheduled a service call next week when they would be working in our area. He told me to replace the circuit board and if that fixed the problem to call and cancel the service call. I agreed, took the circuit board and put it in the saddle bag on the Harley. When I rode out of the parking lot, I wondered if I was going to get wet on the way home, but the closer I rode to home, the lighter the sky was becoming. No rain at all. I parked the bike in the pole barn and took the Mule back to the house and noticed it was nearly 10 AM. It took about 15 minutes to replace the circuit board, make a few settings and then program the opener to our remotes. IT WORKED! Just like it had been working before the problems had begun, finally success! Raising and lowering the door to make the adjustments had drove Coco into a frenzy, he was thinking it was Linda and Stacey coming home, so I had to let him out into the garage to see they were not home. I erased the message on the answering machine and called and canceled the service call. I mowed grass with the tractor and finish mower until I was unable to see because of the sweat running in my eyes. At that point, I went inside and cooled off and watched TV until time for the Cumberland River Cruisers meeting at 6 PM. There was a thunderstorm that went through our area while I was at the meeting.

Door Opener Problems

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:30:19 -0500

I had mentioned in a previous post last week that a lightening strike had messed up some things in our house and pole barn, one being the electric garage door opener.
Tuesday, I had removed the electric eyes at the bottom of the garage door tracks and when Linda came home from working, we drove to Campbellsville. I went to the Overhead Door Company and talked to a service man about the trouble we were having with our garage door opener. He took the two electric eyes and put them on their floor model in their show room and said they worked. He said I must need a circuit board replaced in our door opener. He then showed me the circuit board and gave me a quick course on how to replace it. I paid the $80 plus tax for the new board with my credit card and took the circuit board and my old electric eyes. We ate lunch and then walked through the Peddlers' Mall. After that, we drove back to the house and I worked on the door opener. I replaced the circuit board, which was easier than I thought it would be.

After closing everything up and tightening the screws, plugging the door opener back in, it still didn't work properly. AHHHHHH CRAP!!!!
Wednesday morning, Linda was up early, fixed breakfast and was packing for a trip to IN. Stacey had said she was going, but as time to leave was getting closer, she was having second thoughts. She finally packed her bags to the HHR and then we all said good bye and I took their picture right before they drove away.

As soon as they left, I went to work on the door opener. I took the circuit board out, put it back in the box and then drove the truck to Campbellsville and returned the circuit board for a credit. I bought two new electric eyes, $38 plus tax, and headed back to the farm. I replaced the eyes and tried the door opener. Once again, AHHHHHH CRAP!!!! It still didn't work properly. I tried calling Overhead Door for a service call, but the place never returned my call to schedule a time. I may ride the Harley up there tomorrow, 90 miles round trip, and re-buy the circuit board and install it, now that I know I have two working electric eyes. The service techs told me it can only be those two things. If that doesn't fix it, then I guess I will just tell them to install a new unit. The last few evenings a group of deer have came out of the pine and cedar trees behind our house and walked down the hill. Tonight, I was able to take pictures of three out of seven that walked by the end of the house. There were five doe, a spotted little one, and a young buck just growing his antlers for the season. The buck is to the right in the picture.

Coco was standing at the back door barking like crazy while I slid the kitchen window open and took the picture through the opening. It was too dark by the time all the deer came out of the trees and they wouldn't stand in a small group for a flash picture. :-)

New Links to Pictures

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:00:26 -0500

I have uploaded a set of pictures taken from January 1, 2010 to June 30, 2010. There is a link at the bottom in the right column of this page or you can click HERE. I have also created a separate set of pictures that you can view as a slide show and change the size of the pictures to fit your monitor size. The newest group is located HERE. There is a new section in the right hand column titled "Around The Farm Slide Shows" that has the links to the pictures I have placed into the slide shows. The pictures are divided into the first six months and the last six months of each year. If you need help, you can click the image below for a larger image that shows how the slide show pages work.

When you have time, please make a comment by clicking below and letting me know if you have any problems.

Blazing Hot

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:15:32 -0500

We've had enough rain in the last few days to cause the water in the creek to begin flowing again. The water is really muddy from the road work being done a couple miles upstream from our farm. Some of the freshly bull dozed dirt has washed off-site and into the creek. The hay fields are growing again and will probably be cut in a week or two. The hay is not as high as usual, but by delaying the cutting, the harvest will be nearly normal. It may make the fall cutting a little bit shorter. We've been taking Daisy for runs in the early mornings due to the extreme heat later in the day.

The Nashville TV channels have been forecasting temperatures of 100 degrees. I'm not sure if our area was that hot, but I did see that our thermometer, on a post in the equipment shed, was showing 96 degees at 3 PM, and it is mounted in the shade. I was headed to the tractor to do some mowing. I mow for a while, then go inside and cool off, then back and mow a little more. Linda is trimming on the riding mower and doing the same thing.

Mustang

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:15:31 -0500

After Linda came home from working, we went to DC Auto in Burkesville to pick up her 1965 Mustang. We had the engine bored .030 over and completely rebuilt at Southern Kentucky Engine. We also had the C-4 transmission rebuilt at Lee Myles Transmission shop in Bowling Green. Dave at DC Auto had cleaned up under the hood while we were waiting on the other work to be completed. He then put the engine and transmission together and reinstalled them in the Mustang. He replaced the hoses and belts and freshened up the entire under hood area. Dave had also installed the neutral safety switch that we had ordered. He pulled the car out of the lube bay and parked it. Linda looked it over and we told Dave thanks for his well done job. Linda drove the Mustang to the filling station and filled the tank with gas, then drove on home and parked it in the garage. The Mustang had 82,406.1 miles on the odometer when we parked in the garage. Our farm is 6 miles from town, so we're going with 82,400 miles on the car when the engine and transmission were rebuilt.

We waited a little while, then Stacey, Linda and I drove the Mustang to town and ate at the Subway shop. The Mustang still has some minor issues, but I guess we will see how this set of repairs goes before starting work on anything else.

Trips

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:00:24 -0500

We enjoyed most of the weekend with Julie and Kyle watching movies, playing with Kyle, eating pop sickles with Julie and taking both of them on Mule rides.
Sunday about 2 PM, Brent called on their way home from Louisville and we agreed to meet them after they unloaded their car. We packed Pico, Poco, Julie and Kyle into the HHR along with Stacey and Linda and then I drove us to Glasgow to meet Pauline and Brent. We met in the K-Mart parking lot, then drove to McDonalds. We all set in the play area outside with Pico and Poco while we ate ice cream sundaes. P&B told us about their trip and how the swim meet had went, we told them how the kids had been and some of the usual things we had done with them. We said good bye to them and drove home.
Monday
Donnie Cox, one of my buddies, with his son-in-law JR, stopped at the house and invited us to come over to Star Point for a cookout on Tuesday evening. They stayed for about an hour and talked about who was at the lake and how long they were going to stay. We agreed to go over there Tuesday evening.
Tuesday
I had ordered a new muffler and a neutral safety switch for the oldest Mustang and the safety switch was delivered, so Stacey and I drove the 97 Mustang to town and gave Dave at DC Auto Service the switch to install. We returned to the farm and found that there had been a thunderstorm go over while we were gone. Evidently, lightening had struck near the house because our electric garage door opener was messed up, the power was off in the bedroom, and the computer in the pole barn was off. The last picture it uploaded to the internet shows the lightening lighting up the sky.

I was able to reset the breaker for the bedroom, but I haven't been able to fix the garage door opener. The computer in the pole barn is probably toasted as it won't even start. Later, Linda and I took the muffler to DC Auto Service and picked up the Mustang. Linda drove it to Jeff's Tire Service to have the muffler put on the car. They removed and installed the new muffler in about 30 minutes, they also installed the safety switch but we returned the Mustang to DC Auto to have Dave adjust the switch. The car is running good and it sounds much better with the new muffler. We left the farm in the HHR and drove to Byrdstown and ate at the Bobcat's Den before going on over to Bonnie and Donnie's cabin. Their daughter, Julie was there with her little baby girl named Callie (sp?). She is seven months old and they were not going to take her over to the lodge for the get together. I guess Susie and Gary Mater had their boat quit out on the lake, so Donnie and JR helped them tow their boat to the dock, which caused Donnie and JR to be running late. We stayed and talked until they were nearly ready to go, then we headed on over to the lodge. We met several of our old friends and some lake buddies at the get together. There were probably 30 to 40 people there having fun, cooking out, drinking, lying and farting. We stayed until about 10 PM, then said good bye and drove home.

Grand Kids Stay Over

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:00:32 -0500

After Linda came home from her training session, Stacey, Linda and I drove to Pauline and Brent's house to pickup Julie and Kyle. Pauline and Brent were going to Louisville for the weekend to run a swim meet for WKU Coach Powell. They were about ready to leave, so we talked a few minutes, then loaded the kids in their safety seats along with Pico and Poco and headed back to the farm. Kyle slept most of the way, but Julie wouldn't take a nap, she seemed too excited to go to sleep. Once at the farm, both the kids were wide awake and ready to have fun. Julie was parading around the living room with Elmo on her back and saying she was 'back packing Elmo'. Brent does it with her and says he's, 'back packing Julie', so she was mimicking his actions.

Kyle was happy, after a short feeding of formula, while Linda sat him in the crack of the love seat, so I snapped a picture. Him setting up in the crack makes him look older, I think.

Julie was ready for a Mule ride and a couple popsickles so away we went. Kyle didn't care for the ride that much, but he's getting used to it.

House Driveway Paved & Mustang Engine

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 22:00:33 -0500

This morning the paving crew was back at work and started paving the driveway approach to the house. They graded the driveway smooth, spread a gravel base, rolled it till it was packed hard, then paved it with asphalt and rolled it till it was firm.

While the paving crew was finishing the driveway the road crew was putting the final touches on the dirt bank in front of the little house. I watched them work for a while from the front porch, then began watching the humming birds swarm the feeder that Linda had filled the night before. They are draining it nearly every day.

Dave Neff had asked me to help replace the hood on Linda's 1966 Mustang, so Stacey and I went to his shop in Burkesville. He had stored the hood above his office in the attic space below the roof. He handed the hood down to me, then he climbed down the ladder and I held it while he bolted it back in place on the car. He started the engine and it ran fine, he shut it off and restarted it, it was good to see and hear it run again.

Dave wiped some of the smudges off the windshield, then I drove the car to Jeff's Auto Service to see if they could replace the muffler. It had blown apart when the engine backfired at a parade last fall. We left it there and Randy picked us up and took us back to DC Auto where we had parked the HHR. We drove home and were only there a short time when the muffler shop called and said they didn't have a muffler that would fit. I ordered one from Amazon.com, then Stacey and I went back to town and picked the Mustang up and took it back to DC Auto Service for some minor adjustments. I paid Dave for his work and then we returned to the farm. Linda had been at a training seminar for the day care until nearly 5 PM.

Driveway Work

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:30:01 -0500

I went down to the pole barn this morning to work on a piece of glass for the frame of the button flag that Pauline had glued together. I took a piece out of an old storm window. On the way back to the house, I noticed that the road crew was working on the driveways in front of the little house.

Stacey and I went to the hardware store and bought a small glass cutter and returned to the farm. I cut the piece of glass the size I needed for the frame and took it to the house. Then I went back outside and drove the Mule down to watch the Gaddie-Shamrock crew pave the little house's driveway approach.

One pass, then they backed up a little and turned slightly to widen the approach where it met the highway. A little shovel work and they were done in approximately 20 minutes. A guy on a roller came over and rolled it after about another half hour and it was done until the finish layer of pavement is laid down. I went outside just before sundown and took two pictures on the way back to the pole barn.

A Field Trip & A Few Showers

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:00:01 -0500

Linda went on a field trip with the kids at the day care. They went to Tompkinsville, KY and visited the Old Mulkey Meeting House State Historic Site. The kids did 'rubbings' of the names on the old tombstones of people buried on the grounds.

They also stopped for lunch at McDonalds before returning to the day care and hearing a story read by a guest reader, Jason. After the story was read, they laid on mats and watched a movie while taking a break.

We've had a few showers of rain and the temperatures have been in the mid 80s the last two days.

I hope the little bit of rain that fell will get the hay fields growing and cause the fescue to fill in the gaps. There is a little water flowing through the creek.

Of course the grass in the yard has quickly greened up and began growing.