Norris Family Blog

Julie & Kyle

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:30:03 -0600

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.

Kidney Stone

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:30:06 -0600

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.

Ditch Work

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:30:06 -0600

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.

Kyle's Party

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:00:27 -0600

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.

Lacy Visits

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:00:08 -0600

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.

NASCAR Die Cast

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:30:35 -0600

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.

John Anderson Concert

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:30:06 -0600

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.

Brush Pile

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:00:16 -0600

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.

Snow

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:30:33 -0600

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.

Supply Trip

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:00:55 -0600

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.