I arrived back at our place in Tennessee around 6 PM. The trip was uneventful. I plan on staying at least a week this time.
Kathy is in Indianapolis. One of the girls from Teen Challenge is back in the Indy area for a few days and Kathy wanted to see her. She is staying with Doug & Anthony.
One thing that has been interesting during the trips back and forth has been the fuel mileage of my truck. Several trips ago I noted that the mileage seemed to be significantly better than it used to be. I did not check it but figured I was getting at least 1 mpg better than I got a year ago. I have 89,000 miles on the truck now and haven't done any maintenance, other than oil changes for quite some time.
Before coming here the last time I had a cover installed on the truck bed. I think it has had an additional impact on my fuel economy. I checked the fuel mileage during our trip home the last time and averaged over 18 mpg, 2-3 mpg better than I used to get. We drove an average 5 mph over the limit during the trip. Coming here this time I drove 2-3 mph over the limit and averaged 20.05 mpg.
May God bless you and yours.
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
July 22nd - Back IN Missouri
We arrived back in Centertown around 7 PM yesterday evening. Kathy, Kelsey, Lydia and I left for TN a week ago. Doug came down from Indy for the weekend, but Anthony had to stay home and work.
We had a good time while there. Lydia especially enjoyed her time with Uncle Tom, Aunt Mary Lou and cousins Dean & Wendy. It was cool & rainy most of the time we were there. I think she may have only went swimming once.
I added two more electrical outlets in the kitchen, did some plumbing to get water shut-off valves under the future kitchen sink, put up 3 sheets of dry wall on one of the kitchen walls and mowed the lawn. I probably should have done more while I was there, but I'm happy with the progress I've made so far.
Below is a photo of a produce stand a couple of miles from our place. It operates on the "honor system". You put your money in the black box on the table. It is in a field along side hwy 101.
Lydia is a good traveler. It takes us 11 hours to make the drive. Her little butt must be paralyzed from sitting in the car seat. Kelsey got her a chocolate covered ice cream cone at one of our stops. Note the ice cream on her upper lip and chocolate on her chin.
It rained most of the time we were in TN. It was a nice gentle rain. I don't think it had rained there since I left the previous trip. No rain here in Missouri, just heat. The heat index in forecast to be 105 this afternoon, actual high is forecast to be 95. There is only one other day in the next 10 days where the high is forecast to be above 90. I drove up to get the mail & paper, and to move my truck to a shady area, and that is the extent of my being outside today,
Kathy's tomato crop is being raided by rogue turtles! Who knew turtles ate tomatoes? Something is picking/eating any relatively ripe tomato that is within a foot of the ground. Other varmints may also be getting some of the higher ones.
Our "new" Whirlpool gas range (purchased from Sears when we moved in in June 2012) appears to be as big a piece of junk as the new Whirlpool refrigerator we purchased at the same time. The repair man was out this morning and said that the regulator on the stove is bad, $300 for a new one. $300 for a piece of junk that lasted just 2 years. I think the repair men have been out at least 4 times to work on the ice makers in the 2 new refrigerators (they gave up trying to fix the original new refrigerator and the ice maker in the replacement didn't work). One of the repair efforts resulted in a water leak, in the ice maker plumbing, that caused water to leak through the kitchen hardwood floor and damage the dry wall ceiling in our lower level.
I hope it is cooler wherever you are. May God bless you and yours.
We had a good time while there. Lydia especially enjoyed her time with Uncle Tom, Aunt Mary Lou and cousins Dean & Wendy. It was cool & rainy most of the time we were there. I think she may have only went swimming once.
I added two more electrical outlets in the kitchen, did some plumbing to get water shut-off valves under the future kitchen sink, put up 3 sheets of dry wall on one of the kitchen walls and mowed the lawn. I probably should have done more while I was there, but I'm happy with the progress I've made so far.
Below is a photo of a produce stand a couple of miles from our place. It operates on the "honor system". You put your money in the black box on the table. It is in a field along side hwy 101.
Lydia is a good traveler. It takes us 11 hours to make the drive. Her little butt must be paralyzed from sitting in the car seat. Kelsey got her a chocolate covered ice cream cone at one of our stops. Note the ice cream on her upper lip and chocolate on her chin.
It rained most of the time we were in TN. It was a nice gentle rain. I don't think it had rained there since I left the previous trip. No rain here in Missouri, just heat. The heat index in forecast to be 105 this afternoon, actual high is forecast to be 95. There is only one other day in the next 10 days where the high is forecast to be above 90. I drove up to get the mail & paper, and to move my truck to a shady area, and that is the extent of my being outside today,
Kathy's tomato crop is being raided by rogue turtles! Who knew turtles ate tomatoes? Something is picking/eating any relatively ripe tomato that is within a foot of the ground. Other varmints may also be getting some of the higher ones.
Our "new" Whirlpool gas range (purchased from Sears when we moved in in June 2012) appears to be as big a piece of junk as the new Whirlpool refrigerator we purchased at the same time. The repair man was out this morning and said that the regulator on the stove is bad, $300 for a new one. $300 for a piece of junk that lasted just 2 years. I think the repair men have been out at least 4 times to work on the ice makers in the 2 new refrigerators (they gave up trying to fix the original new refrigerator and the ice maker in the replacement didn't work). One of the repair efforts resulted in a water leak, in the ice maker plumbing, that caused water to leak through the kitchen hardwood floor and damage the dry wall ceiling in our lower level.
I hope it is cooler wherever you are. May God bless you and yours.
Saturday, July 5, 2014
July 5th - Dam Work
The past several days I've been doing more clearing on the back side of our small dam.
I had previously cut a LOT of bamboo off the backside of the dam. Below are photos of from July 3rd, my recent starting point.
The top of the dam is on the right side of the photo.
Below are the 5 8-9' long logs I cut from a dead tree located downstream of the dam. It was dead when we moved here 2 years ago. I was concerned that it might be rotten but it was solid. There are some branches still to be cut but they are all in an area still to be cleared before I can get close to them with the tractor.
This was what it looked like yesterday.
I had previously cut a LOT of bamboo off the backside of the dam. Below are photos of from July 3rd, my recent starting point.
The top of the dam is on the right side of the photo.
This photo is taken further down the backside of the dam.
Below are the 5 8-9' long logs I cut from a dead tree located downstream of the dam. It was dead when we moved here 2 years ago. I was concerned that it might be rotten but it was solid. There are some branches still to be cut but they are all in an area still to be cleared before I can get close to them with the tractor.
This was what it looked like yesterday.
And this is what it looked like this morning after Kathy and I spent over an hour the brush pile. (It burned for over 3 hours, but the first 1.5 hours was all that required close watching.
I left the green "brush" near the top of the dam. I've sprayed it with brush killer once and want to do it again before I actually cut it down. Hopefully Monday I can spend another couple of hours clearing and get the rest of the wood from the dead tree out. It is a little muddy down at the bottom, because of a leak in the dam. I have no idea where the water is entering the water side of the dam. All I can tell is that down near the bottom of the back side there appears to be water that has leaked through the dam.
The temperatures have been remarkably cool for mid-Missouri, but they are heating back up into the 90's at the beginning of the week. YUK!!
I was cutting Kelsey some tomato stakes with my old radial arm saw and blew a breaker. The breaker would not stay closed so I had to run an extension cord to finish cutting the stakes. The wiring out in my shed is absolutely horrible. I thought I had probably shorted out a wire somewhere in the wall. After taking the breaker out is appears that the breaker just went bad. Hopefully I can find another at the antique breaker store.
That's the news from MO. Hope all of you had a nice 4th.
May God bless you and yours.
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