Mar 28th PM - Deers

We were sitting out on the front porch this afternoon. We watched 3 deers wander from out by the trailer over to the yard that is outside the circle drive. One of them wandered off into the woods but the other two grazed for quite awhile as we watched.

They were less than 50 yards from us most of the time they were grazing.

Forgive my crude mark-up attempt.

Mar 28th - Warm Day, Finally

It is quite nice out today. It is still wet from the melting snow but the warm temperatures that are melting the snow are welcome.

Nothing exciting happening here. Lydia was here the past two afternoons. Below is a photo and video clip of her.

In the photo below she is having and after lunch cracker.

 In the video below we are seeing who has the most stamina. She is pulling the newspapers off the table and I'm putting them back on. This went on for a long time. Probably not a good "game" to play. I think I lost.

Kathy is off grocery shopping this morning. I've been sleeping a lot the past few days. I must have gotten caught up on sleep. I've been up since 3:30 AM. Now I need a nap before actually going out and getting something done this afternoon.

Have a great day! May God bless you and yours.

Mar 24th - SNOW!!!

It rained on and off throughout the night, the about 6 AM it started snowing. We actually had some lightening and thunder this morning.

At 8:30, when I went out to add wood to the boiler, there was a little over an inch on the ground.

 There are lots of birds at Kathy's feeders this morning. She has posted some of the photos on Facebook. I took this photo out the kitchen window. The female cardinal is sitting on top of the snow on a branch.

 I took the photo below at 11 AM. There is probably 7" of snow on the table top.

At our house we haven't gotten much wind, as you can see by the snow piled on the tree branches in the photos. Below is the tree at the end of our front porch, by the hot tub. Weatherbug says the wind is blowing at 20 mph, with gusts of 26 mph, but we are sheltered by all the trees.

Glad we decided not to go to church today. I'm sure we could have gotten out but may not have been able to get back down the drive to get home. The snow has let up a little, but it definitely is still snowing. It is supposed to keep snowing all day. I think we already have most of what we are going to get.

We went to Jefferson City yesterday, mostly because I wanted to buy a cordless Hitachi impact driver that was on sale at Menards. I also bought 10 gallons of diesel fuel for the tractor. It was almost full but it takes over half of a tank to plow our driveway. We also bought some groceries so we have no need to get out. I won't start working on the driveway until mid-morning tomorrow.

Hope you all have a good, and safe, day. May God bless you and yours.

Mar 21st - Back In Missouri

We arrived back home in Missouri about 8:30 PM. Traffic was no problem. Roads appeared to be a little wet the last mile or so.

It is a LONG drive. I only drove about 240 miles of the 580 miles. It seemed nearly as long as when I drove the motor home to TN a few weeks ago. I think we left about 10:30 AM. We stopped twice for gas, once at Demo's for lunch (in Lebanon, TN) and another time to stretch our legs and empty our bladders. I reset the fuel mileage indicator on the CR-V when I filled up the first time. It read 27.1 when we arrived home. We drove 5-8 mph above the speed limit most of the way, 75-78 mph except in Illinois where the speed limit is only 65. My guess is that if we did a fuel mileage calculation we probably only got around 25, but that isn't bad for the speeds we were driving.

Every thing was fine here. There is a light dusting of snow on my truck but no significant snow on the ground. It looks like we are going to get some additional moisture over the next several days but not much, if any, of it will be in the form of snow. I don't think Andy put more wood in the wood furnace after last Sunday afternoon. There were still enough coals in it started fine after I added wood. The house was 55 degrees, which is what Kathy had set the thermostat at when she left.

Mar 20th - Packing Up

We plan on heading back to Missouri tomorrow. Tonights low is supposed to be 18 here, we just had snow flurries, even though it is still 45 degrees. We are driving the CR-V and leaving the motor home here.

Below are some photos of our TN building.

Our building is behind the motor home. The red that you see is the entry door. The building is 28'x32', approx 900 sq.ft. This photo was taken from the edge of Allen Burgess Road. Our address is 1063 Allen Burgess Road, Crossville, TN; if you want to look us up. Use Yahoo maps, not Google; Google shows the wrong place.

Below is a floor plan of the building.
This photo is taken standing in the living room looking at the kitchen. The door on the left is for the bathroom. The door on the right is the main entry door, it is red on the outside.

 This photo was taken standing in the kitchen looking at the living room. Bedroom #2 (future) is on the right.

This photo was taken standing in the living room looking at the future bedroom. It is now my tool room. The framing on the right if for closets. The "master" bedroom is on the other side of the closets.

This is the bathroom. We did it when we were here in August 2011.

 This photo was taken standing in the "master" bedroom and looking into the utility area, which is located behind the bathroom. The heat pump air handler is in the attic area above the bathroom and utility room.

I had hoped to get all the wiring in the exterior walls and to install the insulation in the exterior walls this trip. I have the runs from the panel to all the different areas but did not get all the outlets installed. I only got about 15% of the wall insulated. A contractor is supposed to come blow about a foot of insulation in the attic area.

I had not planned on building the closet area this trip but am glad to get it done.

I'm hoping to buy a used refrigerator, range and microwave from the Habitat Re-Store where we volunteer Friday afternoons. I'd like to bring them with me when I come back the first or second week of April.

The neighbors finally got their well drilled. The stopped trying for water in the first hole after drilling 300'. They had a guy come out and "witch" for water. He had them move the drilling a relatively short distance (maybe 100-200 feet, I don't know for sure) and told them that they would hit water at about 150'. Yesterday, at 140' they hit water. This morning the water level was at 100'. I'm not sure why the wanted to drill a well rather than just hook up to the county water line.

Enough of a book for today. Hope you all had a good day. May God bless you and yours.

March 17th - Sunday

Went to church this morning and then to Ryan's for dinner. Also had to make a stop to pick up some light bulbs and covers for electrical boxes.

Church was good. I don't care much for the contemporary music but the volume was reasonable and the lyrics were fine, it just wasn't southern gospel. The church is getting ready to grow AGAIN. The new sanctuary building won't be 2 years old until June. The old sanctuary is used for youth church. It is not longer large enough for the youth. They are working towards adding 3,000 sq.ft. to have room for more youth. At a youth event last week they had 550-600 youth attend, the population of Crossville is 11,000.

Just typed up, and lost, some comments about the Pastor's message. Bad Internet connection. May add them later.

Marvin and I finished installing the drywall on the ceiling, except for a small piece in the "utility room". I had to add a box for a light in that room, which I have now done. Marvin is coming back tomorrow and we are going to frame the closet walls between the two bedrooms, and install real door on the bathroom. Still no drywall on the walls. That is one or two trips down the road. I won't have any taping done until all the drywall is up. A big Praise the Lord for my shoulders not giving me any significant problems installing the drywall on the ceiling. We had a "panel hoist" to raise the drywall sheets up against the bottom of the trusses but there was still a LOT of overhead screwing to attach the sheets to the trusses.

I still intend on installing the batt insulation in the walls but am having a contractor blow the insulation into the attic. He is supposed to do that some time this week.

We plan on packing up Tuesday and heading back to Missouri Wednesday. We are going to leave the motor home here. I plan on coming back, probably with my pickup, in 2-3 weeks to continue working on the building.

Weather has been beautiful the past several days.

Better get this sent before I lose my connection again.

Hope you all have a great day. May God bless you and yours.

Mar 14th - SNOW!

The official low last night was 18. The thermometer in the dash of our motor home registered 22. Tom said his thermometer said 19. I think that was the coldest night we have experienced while in the motor home. One of the nights when we were at Logan Valley, Oct 2011, it got down to 25. I think that was the lowest temperature until last night. It warmed up into the 40's today and it supposed to stay above freezing tonight, and for the rest of the week.

The heating contractor got our heat pump working today. We know have heat and air. I worked in our building all day today, mostly on the electrical wiring. Marvin and I were going to put up some drywall on the ceiling this afternoon but just as we started hoisting the second sheet into place the hoist cable, on the lift I rented, broke. Kathy took it back to the rental place and got us another one. We will start on the ceiling drywall again tomorrow.

We went to Tom & Mary Lou's for supper. Kathy made pies again. We had mashed potatoes, roast beef, cole slaw, peas and pies for desert. When we left to come home it was snowing! It snowed quite hard during the short drive home but soon quit. There was no accumulation.

Time for bed.

Good night. May God bless you and yours.

Mar 12th - Nothing Exciting

Nothing exciting going on today. Lots of visiting with neighbors. Marvin came down to see what was going on. Before he left his brother Roger stopped to talk. Later Dwight , Delmar and Janice's son, stopped by. He and his wife Teresa are going to be building next to us. He wanted to make sure he didn't do anything that would upset us with the way electricity was run to their place. He will have to cut down some of our scrub trees along the road, to provide the clearance to the new line to his place. Later Bill & Sally, the folks who live on beyond Tom & Mary Lou, stopped as they drove by. They just wanted to say Hi.

We went to Tom & Mary Lou's for supper last night. Dean fixed scalloped potatoes and veggies and Kathy made a couple of pies. All was good, but that is normal.

The heating guys should finish up in the morning. My drywall for the ceiling and the insulation for the exterior walls is supposed to be delivered tomorrow afternoon. I will pick up the "drywall hoist" (device to lift sheets to the ceiling) either late tomorrow or the first thing Thursday morning. Marvin is coming down Thursday to help me, or maybe I'm helping him, put the drywall on the ceiling.

I will put fiberglass batt insulation in the exterior walls. A guy is supposed to give me a price for blowing insulation into the attic. Tom got me pricing for spray insulation, it was over 4 times what fiberglass will cost, of course the price included the labor to spray it.

Andy has been keeping wood in our wood furnace, back in Missouri, while we have been gone. Hopefully we are getting to the end of the below freezing temperatures. It was close to freezing here in TN last night. Tonight it is supposed to get slightly below freezing and then tomorrow night it is supposed to be in the mid 20's. After that it warms up.

Kelsey and Lydia had an uneventful trip back to Missouri yesterday.

Good evening to all. May God bless you and yours.

Mar 8th - Kathy, Kelsey & Lydia Here

The photo below if from Tuesday morning, right after I parked at our property in TN.

It rained during the night, and morning. That was the good weather. Tuesday evening it snowed and we had 45 mph wind gusts, with a low temp around 27. The snow is almost gone today.

Lydia, the Queen, on the way to TN yesterday.

Great-great grampa Merv, Lydia & Molly at Tom & Mary Lou's last night.

RV bathtime is lots of fun.

She had to do some investigating while waiting to go to town.

While I was taking a shower this morning Kathy go Lydia and brought her back to our bed. She played on the bed, with us in it, for close to an hour. Then it was on to breakfast, bathtime and off to town. As they were leaving I asked Kelsey if she though Lydia would be asleep by the time they got to Rte 101 (maybe 2 miles) or perhaps even by the time they hit Midway (about a mile). Kelsey sent me a text to tell me that Lydia was asleep before they got to the Pickin Barn (a half mile).

While the ladies are in town I need to insulate above the bathroom and utility room. When the guys come to install the heat pump air handler in the attic, above the bathroom, the space between the bottom of the air handler and the top of the ceiling will already be insulated. Jay, the heating guy, is going to have someone give me a price on blowing in insulation in the rest of the attic. I only intended on using 5 1/2" batts (R-19) but Jay told me that the minimum recommendations for this area are now R-30 to R-38, 11" of fiberglass. I can't imagine needing that much but if I have someone blow it in the cost of the extra material can't be all that much extra.

It got down to 26 last night but the wind was light. It is supposed to get into the 50's today with a low of 32 tonight. Then it is going to warm up to more seasonable TN temperatures, in the 60's during the day.

Hope all of you have, or have had, a great day. May God bless you and yours.

Mar 4th - Crossville

I'm parked in the Tractor Supply parking lot, in Crossville, for the night. Was to tired to drive out to our property and park in the dark. 580 miles behind me, 15 miles to go in the morning. Previous to this my longest solo driving day was just over 500 miles.

From last Thursday. Some people think their grandchildren and great-grandchildren are incredibly smart. We know ours are. Lydia is checking Kathy's spelling as she types in a text message.

Although some might just think she is watching Kathy use the phone.

Don't know if you remember how far the canoe was out of the water is some photos this summer. Look at it now. It is mostly covered up with snow, in the center of the photo. It is probably only 6-9" out of the water.

Traffic was light most of the way. It was significantly heavier in KY & TN. Had no problems until I pulled into the welcome center in TN to stop for lunch. Did my normal walk around and found the awning had started to unroll.

 I haven't had the awning down since it collapsed during a heavy rain while we were in TN last August. I tried to get it fixed while I was in TX but couldn't find anyone who had the time (its the bad economy and all the unemployment). I think all the melting snow on the roof caused so much water to seep into the awning that it just sagged down and then, with the help of the wind, it kept pulling down.

I stuffed it back as best I could and put tie wires around it to hold the fabric under the aluminum shield.

Perhaps I will be able to find an RV place in TN that isn't to busy to do some work on it.

Time to get to bed, I'm tired!

Good night to all. May God bless you and yours.

Mar 4th - AM - Travelling Day

Yesterday we went to church in the morning and readied the motor home in the afternoon. Kelsey and Lydia came over in the evening (Andy was helping a relative work on a car) for pizza. (Gave Gpa a chance to say goodbye.) Lydia was such a character last night. The girl can eat. She had asparagus, pizza and strawberries for supper, which she ate herself. Kelsey just "chunked" the food up into small pieces and put the pieces on the high chair tray. Later she took a bath in our big bath tub. She looked like she really enjoyed playing in it.

At church Kathy played the piano again and sang a duet with Gary, the "Director of Music." The guest pastor came over to her after the service and commented on what a great job she did. He is the "Director of Music" at a larger Baptist church. By the way he did a good job with the message.

Still some packing to do to get the motor home ready. The water system is flushed and I put in enough water to last me for a couple of days. I had some problems filling the water tank. The water inlet was frozen. I put a couple of light bulbs in the compartment, closed the door and let it warm up for an hour or so. No problems after than and no leaks that I could see.

In order to hook up the CR-V, for towing, we need to take it and the motor home down to the little grocery on the corner. Their parking lot is easily large enough to allow hooking up the CR-V to the motor home. I can barely make the turn out of our driveway, onto the county road, with just the motor home.

I plan on staying overnight somewhere along the way, maybe at a truck stop near Paducah, KY. I've driven 500 miles solo a couple of times, but it is 600 miles to Tennessee.

Mar 1st - March Already!

Yesterday I started the motor home and the generator and let both warm up. Just preparation for leaving for Tennessee on Monday. I also hauled a bunch of wood from the building out back to the shed by the wood furnace, maybe 6 bucket loads. Just replenishing the supply before I leave. I've been surprised by how much we burned during the past 6 weeks.

We had a light dusting of snow today. I packed my tool boxes back up but did not put them in the motor home. Had the DishTV installer come out and check our installation. He was nice and everything seemed to check out OK. I am not happy with the piddling amount of rain that it takes to cause us to lose the signal, but I guess this is the best they can do. The service guy did make a comment that made sense. He said that even though it might be a light rain here there might be a lot of interference causing weather up higher along the path to the satellite.

I didn't go to volunteer at the Habitat Re-Store today, but Kathy did. I am STILL fighting a cold/sinus's/??? I just can't seem to kick it. Probably being in TN will cure me <grin>.

Did everyone watch the President today? I watched about 3 minutes and by that time I had heard enough lies that I had to shut off the TV and go vomit. It is kind of funny the way he is having to back off from all the dire predictions he and his minions have been making over the past couple of weeks. Arne Duncan, the head of the Dept of Education, still continues to lie about teacher layoffs, even though the fact check people have already said it was a lie.

I wonder why the federal government is paying teachers? Maybe that is just one of the reasons why we have such a debt problem. If State and Local government had to raise taxes to pay for things, rather than using the river of "free money" from DC, we would not have debt problems.