May 31st - Habitat ReStore Day

This afternoon we volunteer at the ReStore.

It is WET here. At our house we have received 2.5" of rain in the past 36 hours and more is on the way. The ground was already saturated so almost all of this rain ran into ponds and creeks. Our pond is FULL.

 

Lots of water leaving the pond. This morning, after the rain had stopped, I think there was still more water going into the pond.

 When I looked at the "bridge" I thought, "How can the water be so high if the bridge isn't covered?" When I stepped on one of them I learned that the wood beams are floating. Only the vegetation on the banks is keeping them in place.

 Lydia trying to put on my hat.

 She gave up on wearing it, since it kept falling down over her eyes. She decided to give it to me.

 Wild rose bush is yard, pond side, is pretty.

The sun is out for a few minutes. WOW!

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

May 28th - 46th Anniversary

Today is our 46th anniversary. We didn't do anything out of the ordinary. We did go to Red Lobster for supper. The food was good.

It sprinkled on and off all day, again. Temperatures weren't that bad, 80's, but it sure was humid.

 I hope you all had a good day. May God bless you and yours.

May 27th - Not Much to Report

Another week between posts, just not much to talk about.

I have finally kicked the sinus infection. Hooray!

Last week we took Lydia to the Runge Nature Center, in Jefferson City. The "bear" intrigued her but of the exhibits inside the building she was most interested in the aquarium. It was maybe 5' tall and 4' wide. The fish in it were all native to Missouri (bass, blue gills, etc), not the typical fish you expect to see in an aquarium.

After the aquarium Kathy wanted to stop at McDonalds. This was obviously not the first time Lydia had eaten a hamburger. She knew exactly what it was and how to eat it.

I mowed the lawn on Saturday. We have nearly 5 acres here but most of it is woods. Our lawn is smaller than the acre we had in Indiana, but it takes at least as long to mow and far longer to trim. The lawn (and weeds) here are divided into 6 rough areas, most of which have lots of things to mow around. It takes me about 2 1/2 hours to mow, and a little over a tank of gas. I haven't done and weed eating the past couple of weeks and need to do that again. It takes at least a couple of hours to do minimal weed eating.

We had the new Pastor (Steve Bickel) and his wife over for supper one night. He is actually an "interim" Pastor. Several years ago he retired from the ministry and they moved to central MO to be located nearer one of their married children, as well as somewhat equidistant between he & Carolyn's aging parents. We really enjoyed our evening with them.

It has rained, or threatened rain, a lot during the past week. I just haven't gotten out and done much. Most of the heavy rain has been 30 miles north of us. It rained a little during the night and the weather radar looks like we will get a significant amount today, starting in about an hour.

I've located several dead trees on the property and need to get out and get some wood cut. Hopefully after todays rain things will dry out enough to make it decent to do so.

Have a great Memorial Day. May God bless you and yours.

May 19th - WOW - A Week With No Posts

It has been a slow week for me. I've been fighting what I think is a sinus infection.

Last Sunday I was fine all day. After church I mowed the lawn and Andy, Kelsey, Lydia, Amy, Marshall & Melissa come over for Mother's Day supper. We had an enjoyable evening.

Monday morning I woke up with a LOT of congestion. Tuesday morning I went to the Doctor. She checked me strep throat, said I didn't have that, and gave me prescriptions for an antibiotic and an inhaler. I had started using my Netipot, to flush my sinus's, again and she told me to keep that up.

The good news is that I already started feeling better Wednesday morning. The bad news is that Sunday morning, today, I don't feel any better than I did Wednesday morning.

If it weren't for the head congestion I wouldn't feel all that bad.

I didn't go volunteer at Habitat Friday. Kathy said that they weren't all that busy.

I did get out and mow the lawn yesterday. It needed it even though I had mowed it last Sunday. Last night Andy & Kelsey took us to the Cajun Catfish House for supper. I may have been the only one who had catfish. All of us had fish/shrimp/etc and we all enjoyed the food. It is the closest restaurant to us, maybe 7 miles, where we have found good food.

I planned on going to Sunday School and church this morning. By the time I had eaten breakfast and taken a shower my sinus's started draining big time. I decided to stay home since I knew I would be blowing my nose every 5 minutes, at least it seems that way.

Some photos from the week.
 The pond had yellow iris's in bloom on all sides of it.

 

The rhubarb that Kathy started from what we brought back from Elaine's (Iowa) last summer. We thought it had died out during last summers drought.

We  have 5 dwarf cherry trees. They were quite pretty when they were all flowered out. We can now see the small cherries growing. I sprayed them for the first time this week (never seemed to have time to spray them before they blossomed).

 

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

May 12th - Happy Mother's Day

Last Friday afternoon was our volunteer day at the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. We were fairly busy for the first couple of hours and then things slowed down. After things slowed down I helped one of the guys make some changes to the display racks, just to keep reasonably busy. It was slow enough so that we guys who work “at the loading dock” did have some slack time to tell stories and have some fun.

Saturday morning we went back to Jefferson City. We went to a couple of grocery stores, to Tractor Supply and to the farmers market at Lincoln University. We managed to hang around long enough to have an early lunch at the oriental buffet. On the way home we stopped at a nursery in Centertown and Kathy found some plants she liked. We, at least I, didn’t do much Saturday afternoon. She planted the plants she bought, and I’m sure did other things. I did some reading and after a nap I picked up a tractor bucket full of wood, I had cut it up some time ago, and moved it to the boiler. I also did some driveway regarding, the rains have been tough on our steep driveway slopes. I went out in the “meadow” and picked up two buckets full of rocks, so that I can mow a little more of it.

This morning we went to church. Last week the church voted unanimously to hire an interim Pastor, Steve Bickel. He and his wife live near Lohman, MO. He has preached at the church several times while we have been attending and we look forward to seeing what his leadership will bring.

The scripture for today’s Sunday School lesson was Proverbs 31:10-31

10 A good woman is hard to find, and worth far more than diamonds. 11 Her husband trusts her without reserve, and never has reason to regret it. 12 Never spiteful, she treats him generously all her life long. 13 She shops around for the best yarns and cottons, and enjoys knitting and sewing. 14 She's like a trading ship that sails to faraway places and brings back exotic surprises. 15 She's up before dawn, preparing breakfast for her family and organizing her day. 16 She looks over a field and buys it, then, with money she's put aside, plants a garden. 17 First thing in the morning, she dresses for work, rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started. 18 She senses the worth of her work, is in no hurry to call it quits for the day. 19 She's skilled in the crafts of home and hearth, diligent in homemaking. 20 She's quick to assist anyone in need, reaches out to help the poor. 21 She doesn't worry about her family when it snows; their winter clothes are all mended and ready to wear. 22 She makes her own clothing, and dresses in colorful linens and silks. 23 Her husband is greatly respected when he deliberates with the city fathers. 24 She designs gowns and sells them, brings the sweaters she knits to the dress shops. 25 Her clothes are well-made and elegant, and she always faces tomorrow with a smile. 26 When she speaks she has something worthwhile to say, and she always says it kindly. 27 She keeps an eye on everyone in her household, and keeps them all busy and productive. 28 Her children respect and bless her; her husband joins in with words of praise: 29 "Many women have done wonderful things, but you've outclassed them all!" 30 Charm can mislead and beauty soon fades. The woman to be admired and praised is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God. 31 Give her everything she deserves! Festoon her life with praises!

As I studied the lesson I thought about my Gramma Ruthie and also my mother. Not everything is applicable, but certainly the part about them being loving, smart and very hard working women applies. I’m not sure my Grandmother ever realized how important she was to our family, I can only hope that my Mother does.

I hope you all have/had a great day. May God bless you and yours.

May 9th - Lazy Day

Not much happening today. It rained a little last night and has been lightly raining, on and off, so far today. Right now the sun just popped through the clouds, but before I typed this the clouds covered it back up.

Tuesday night we had a couple from Centertown Baptist Church come over for supper. Larry is a deacon and leads the Sunday School class we have been attending. We discussed whether or not we had a "fit" at Centertown Baptist because we are somewhat (me a little, Kathy a lot) Pentacostal. I don't think we would ever formally join a Baptist church but both Larry & Neville assured us that we would be welcomed with open arms and allowed to fully participate in church activities. Formal membership was not a big deal to them. We think we will give it a try. We had a very enjoyable evening with them.

I did more weed eating Tuesday and Wednesday. I like my new Stihl FS90 weed/brush eater. It has bicycle handle bars and I bought the full double shoulder harness to use with it. The only knock that I have is that the gas tank is to small. I can get a long ways from the house before I run out of gas. So far, I always run out gas before I run out of energy. I will have to time how long it takes me to use a tank full. Tuesday I mowed the lawn and then burned a tank of fuel in the weed eater before I ran out of line. Wednesday put a different head on it, one with plastic blades, and ran through two tanks of fuel. (We went to the Amish grocery store after the 2nd tank and I never got back to weed eating.) The plastic blades will cut heavier weeds but, maybe because I've already dulled them, they don't do as good a job on grass as the line does. I also have a steel blade to try. Changing the heads is a breeze, not that I've done it once.

Kelsey had a class today and Andy brought Lydia over this morning. He was here, had breakfast and left before I even got out of bed. I'm really getting lazy in retirement.

We had a carrot before lunch. She decided that she needed to feed me my carrot.

Then she decided that we should share it.

The sun is back out. I suppose I ought to get out and do something. Maybe I will go out and sit on the porch for awhile <grin>.

The September Alaska trip seems to be coming together. I think I said earlier that we have confirmed reservations on the cruise ship. If Kathy hasn't already made our plane reservations, to fly to Seattle, she will do so today.

I hope you all are having, or have had, a wonderful day. May God bless you and yours.

May 6th - Cutting Wood

 I split some wood I'd cut a few weeks ago and filled out the first row of wood in the storage shed. During the past winter we burned 5-6 times what you see in this photo.
I hope to get a fair amount added during the next few weeks, before it gets to hot.

Last week while looking for mushrooms I came across some pieces of wood laying on the ground. They had already been cut to length. I split what I found and below is the pile. It is oak but its been laying on the ground far to long. It is well worth the effort splitting it but 5 years ago it would have been really great wood.

I dragged these logs out of a swale. Again, five years ago, maybe ten, they would have made great firewood.  I'm not sure these will be worth cutting up. They are hollow and full of trash. They will be hard on chains. I will cut a chunk or two off and see if they are worth the effort.

I didn't start my chainsaw today. I had it on the front porch and touched up the chain. Below is my helper giving me a hand trying to start it. She was quite interested in watching me sharpen the chain.

I received a surprise phone call this morning. Dave Williams, the camp director at Logan Valley in southeast Missouri, and Bruce Tremayne, the carpenter who was in charge of the building project I helped with last October, called me to see if I would come help them with another project this year. They are building a 28x32 home, single story with a full basement, for the couple who work there. They think the basement walls will be complete in about a month. I really enjoyed working with them (Bruce is also a Pastor at a local church). I told them to let me know the schedule when they got closer to starting and that I would be there to help with at least part of the project.

Today we received confirmation for our cruise to Alaska this fall. We are going with Tom, Mary Lou and Les and Connie Rocky (sp?).

No rain today and it isn't supposed to rain tomorrow. The yard is still wet but tomorrow will have to be a lawn mowing day since rain is in the forecast for Wednesday, Thursday & Friday.

I hope you all had a great day. May God bless you and yours.

May 2nd - Wet & Cool

We had the AC running during the day for the past couple of days. This morning I fired up the wood boiler. Yesterday at 5 PM the temperature was still over 80. It is currently misting rain and the temperature is down to 46, at 5 PM. The low for tonight is forecast to be a rainy 37.

I bought a Stihl weedeater/brush cutter yesterday. I ran 1 1/2 tanks of gas through it and it seems to work well. It accepts a bunch of different "blades", in addition to the standard head with line. I have one of the steel brush cutting blades and another head with plastic cutters instead of string. The one I used when we were out in Oregon had a head with the plastic cutters, I liked it. I have only used the string head so far.

I couldn't spend a lot of time weedeating yesterday because Lydia came about 1 PM. I just had to spend some time with her. I hope you all have seen the awesome "9 month" photos of her that Kelsey had taken. They are posted on Facebook.

The guy who I dealt with at the hardware store lived in Indiana for several years. His wife, who also works at the store, grew up in Crawfordsville. The moved to Missouri in the early 90's. I tried to get him to come down off the list price, or to throw in a full harness, but wasn't able to get him to budge on the price. I mentioned that I wanted to use the weedeater to cut down bamboo. He told me he would like to have some. I told hime to come over and dig up as much as he wanted. I intended on buying the full harness when I was there but when I got home I found that it wasn't in the bag, nor was I charged for it. The single shoulder harness that came with it worked okay yesterday but I still want the double shoulder one to do serious work (2-3 tankfuls in a day). This morning I dug up some bamboo shoots and went back to the hardware store. I told the guy that I thought that he purposely didn't give me the harness because he hoped I'd come back with some bamboo. We had a good chuckle over it. He ended up selling me the harness for $10, it listed for $22. Wasn't bad pay for the time I spent digging up the bamboo.

After I returned home we went to Jefferson City (I bought the weedeater in California), had lunch at a Mexican restaurant and did some grocery shopping.

I just got off the phone with Scott Jones, my boss the last year that I worked. He had some questions about a job he is working on for Tate & Lyle. I think I gave him some worthwhile insights into the history of the structure he is working on. It was good to visit with him.

It is almost to late to take a nap, but I may take one anyway.

Hope you all have/had and enjoyable day. May God bless you and yours.