Feb 20th - We Are Still Alive and Kicking

I haven't posted in over a week now. Haven't had much to say and have had a head cold. I'm not sure how I caught the cold but I'm sure glad I'm finally getting over it. I didn't do much the last half of last week nor so far this week.

I did manage to run a couple of tanks of gas through the weed eater Tuesday, Feb 12th. Kathy said this stuff is "ornamental grass". It was to heavy to cut efficiently with my weed eater, but I finally got it whacked down. It is now on a burn pile out back, waiting to be burned. I need to get a real weed eater.

Lydia was a hoot when she was here that afternoon.

The Cheez-It box and the roll of blue tape were some of her favorite toys for the afternoon. She thought the "hat" was fun, for awhile.

This is her shredding some tissue paper that was used to wrap some stuff that was in the "hat". She thought tearing the paper into pieces was great fun. Andy, her Dad, ended up picking up most of the pieces.

Thursday evening the Baptist church we have been attending had a Valentines Day dinner at the restaurant in Centertown. We attended and had an enjoyable evening, but I was pooped by the time I got home.

I think it was Thursday that Andy and Kelsey took one of our couches to the Habitat Re-Store and picked up a dresser that Kathy had purchased for the downstairs bedroom. A big thank you to them because I sure didn't feel like doing it.

Kathy volunteered at the Re-Store on Friday but I stayed home. About the only time I went out of the house for a week was once in the morning and once in the evening, to throw wood in the wood furnace. Kathy did that three of the times.

We both did make it to church on Sunday. Still no permanent Pastor. We had heard the guy who was there Sunday preach previously, he is a lay person. He was good then and good again last Sunday. The lady who plays the piano is having surgery tomorrow. Kathy will be playing the piano for the next couple of weeks.

Monday was one of two days when the Ott family butchered hogs. I think they did two on Saturday and another two when we were there on Monday. Below is Andy's brother Butch, his Uncle Palmer, and his brother-in-law Rick. You can see a little of Andy over Rick's shoulder. Andy was cutting up fat for lard.

 Andy's Dad, David, and Butch. They took turns running the band saw.

It was cool and windy that day, and it was sprinkling by the time we left. Palmer walked us around to look at some of the equipment, in particular his new CAT dozer (actually used, but it looked almost new). We all stood around the fire for awhile while David stirred the fat in a huge kettle. I forgot to take a photo of it.

The ladies were inside the house packaging the meat and grinding and stuffing sausage. The inside of the house was a VERY busy place. I also forgot to take a photo of them in action.

If I heard Rick correctly, last year the only butchered hogs on one day, but they did seven hogs.

Yesterday I spent about an hour on the phone with GMAC insurance. We have had our motor home insured through them since we purchased it in 2009, they had the best rates when we first insured it with them. I had put the motor home "in storage" when I came back from TX. When it is in storage we only pay for comprehensive insurance. I called them to take it out of "storage" and found out things were a mess. The motor home is owned by a Montana LLC that is wholly owned by Kathy. (saved us about $7,000 in taxes when we bought it, it is all perfectly legal). It must be insured in the state where it is licensed. Somehow, probably when we changed our residency, and mailing address, from Indiana to Tennessee, the GMAC people assumed the motor home was licensed in TN. They are supposed to be RV insurers but it appears that only a few of them are smart enough to understand that RV'ers are not always residents of where their RV's are licensed. Once I finally go to the right person it was no hassle, other than price. This is hard to believe but, insuring the motor home in MT cost 28% more than insuring it if it was licensed in TN, about $600/year more. In 2009, when we first insured it, the cost was less than $800/yr, and it was insured as being licensed in MT. I remember this because I was stunned that it cost less to insure the motor home than it did my pickup. 3 1/2 years later the cost has increased to $1238/year. I have things all straightened out but now I need to do some MT insurance shopping. Because a lot of people license their RV's in MT it is fairly easy to find insurance companies up there. Hope I can find one that hasn't increased their rates so dramatically over the past 3 years.

Today we went in to get our Missouri drivers license and to transfer the plates on our car and truck from TN to MO. Since MO had a personal property tax on vehicles there is no way I'm licensing the motor home here. Have I previously mentioned how fond I am of the government? NOT!!!!

Kathy thought we needed to go to the Cole County courthouse. We parked, fed the parking meter and went in. You have to go down into the basement and go through security. It is as big a joke as in Michigan. The bureaucrats are scared to death of the people. I had to take my pocket knife back out to my truck. I came back in and finally cleared security. (I thought maybe I would have to be strip searched since my suspenders kept setting the thing off.) After getting through we found out that we were in the wrong place. The security guy sent us to another huge government building 8 blocks away. (For those of you who live in Crossville, TN you can thank your lucky stars that the folks who work in the courthouse there are actually glad to see you when you come to do business. They don't think you are there to murder them with your pocket knife.)

At the next place we drove around for 15 minutes and could not find a place to park that was even remotely close to the place. The place had two large parking lots. (My guess is that if half the bureaucrats who worked there were fired tomorrow, 95% of us would never notice the difference.) We gave up, I was agitated enough by then that I'm sure if someone had thrown water on me it would have turned to steam.

We went over to a used furniture store where Kathy had purchased a couch last week. She had not wanted to get it earlier because of the guy doing the drywall and painting work in the living room and dining room. We picked it up and the lady told us that we still had not gone to the correct place. She directed us to the correct place. When we got there we found out that passports were not enough identification. We also needed "approved" paperwork that showed we had a MO mailing address. SCREW IT, I'M STAYING A TENNESSEE RESIDENT! (Probably not, but I am until after I get back from TN next month.)

Elaine Anderson is coming down from Collins, IA today. She will be here visiting for several days. She is a good friend from the days we lived in Maxwell, IA (1977-80). It will be good to get to spend some time with her. We parked the motor home at her place a couple of nights when we were on our way from the west coast back to MO last summer.

Next Monday, the 25th, or maybe Tuesday, I plan on heading to TN in the motor home. I intend on staying for around a month. I want to work on our building there.

I've been working on some home plans for our son Drew, in Oakland. The city has decided that the guy who owned the place before Drew purchased it in Jan 2012 didn't get a building permits when he built the "sun room" when the guy built it many years ago. Drew is now faced with huge fines for Building Code violations. He is trying to get them to accept a "retroactive" application. It is still going to cost him a chunk of money before he gets things straightened out. It's the government and even worse the government in California, need I say more.

Guess that is enough of a book for now. Have a good day. May God bless you and yours.

PS. If you haven't watched Dr. Benjamin Carson speaking at the DC Prayer Breakfast a few weeks ago please take some time and do so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZfaXNBO9PU
I've also watched him make other speeches, and also on John Stossel's program. This guy makes a lot of sense and seems to be a great man.
You can read more about him at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carson