April 30th -- Lydia Day

Lydia came today. In the morning we worked doing some landscaping and gardening. Kathy and Lydia were leveling out the soil that I had tilled a couple of days ago. I worked on a couple of stacked rock walls and then we added a 1" limestone  perimeter around part of the concrete patio on the lower level.

 My traffic director letting me know how I was doing dumping the rock.

And being a laborer to help spread it.

 Then it was on to planting asparagus.

Lydia took a nap after lunch, and Gpa nodded off a little also. I went out to split some wood and, after Lydia got up, she and Kathy went "swimming", in the hot tub.

 

 

I had cut a dead tree trunk up into 3 - 8' logs some time ago. Yesterday I cut them up into 2' lengths and today I split them. I had to split them in half by hand because I couldn't lift the section up onto my splitter. I was only able to split one of the pieces with the splitting maul, every other one required the use of a wedge.

I split about half the pieces in two and then split them into smaller pieces with the splitter. (First time I have run it since the guy cleaned the carb and told me the CDI(?) module was bad. It ran, but rough.)

After stacking what I had split, and taking a break, I managed to finish off the rest.

 

Kelsey & Andy came for supper after Kelsey got off work. It was a good day.

 

May God bless you and yours.

 





April 28th - Back in Missouri

Came back to Missouri Sunday. I was satisfied with the progress made while in Tennessee, and had an enjoyable time visiting with relatives and friends.

Marvin is reinstalling the last piece of siding on the south wall. I LOVE the big window!

The west wall after adding the 2 windows. All windows and doors are now finished. The exterior is complete, until we decide to add a porch on the south side, so that we can look out into the woods.

Kitchen area.

Bath on left, kitchen on right.

Living room south wall.

Future 2nd bedroom with windows.

I couldn't see any dogwoods on our property from up front. Took a short walk and found 7 or 8 of them.

Mamie said she thought this was a wild azalea(sp?). Don't know what it was but it was pretty.

This moth was on the window screen. There were 4 others on the side of the cabin. It was quite colorful.

Took this photo before I put up the wall board around the window. The view is just great. Looking out this window it is 4,000 feet to our property line.

Still LOTS to do but I'm comfortable with the progress.

Lots of stuff to do here in MO. Kathy has been working outside a lot. I mowed most of the lawn again (have to finish today). This is the 3rd time it was mowed in 2 weeks, and it needed mowed. I rototilled up a couple of small area for her to plant flower. One area tilled okay but the other area was one where bamboo had grown. The tiller beat me up when kicking out all the roots, but I got it done.

Kelsey, Andy & Lydia came over for supper. (Boiled dinner. Yum, yum, had it again for breakfast.) Kathy, Kelsey & Lydia planted flower seeds Doug furnished.

I'm sitting at the Dodge dealership right now, waiting for them to fix the windshield washer on my truck. It quit working right before I left TN. Probably not that difficult to replace but the most it can cost me to have them do it is $50 since I have a lifetime bumper to bumper warranty.

Kathy is still really happy with her Toyota minivan. I haven't driven it yet. If she is happy with it I'm happy with it. She has been studying the manual but I don't think she can work all the "bells and whistles" yet. Kelsey, Andy & Lydia drove to Indy to visit Doug & Anthony over the weekend. Andy said it drives great at 80 mph.

Kathy is also happy with the progress she is making being the music leader at church. She has had a lot of compliments and said she can already notice more people actually singing. She also had started the choir back up.

We plan on going back to TN on the 7th and returning to MO on the 16th. I plan on talking to a guy about taping the dry wall I have installed in the kitchen and living room. I'd like to get that taped so that we can prime and paint while we can still move stuff into the bedrooms during those activities. That will be the last time I can go until after Kathy gets back from her trip to California in mid June. To many things going on during that time frame to be able to stay in TN long enough to make a trip worthwhile.

Better get this posted. Hopefully my truck will be finished soon.

May God bless you and yours.

April 16th -- In Tennessee

I drove to TN last Monday, the 13th. The trip was uneventful, just LONG, 580 miles. When making the trip to TN I often stop and fill up with gas in Union, MO, before getting on I44, about 40 miles west of St. Louis. I was shocked to see that their diesel price was less than regular. I can't remember the last time I've seen that. Just down the road I saw another station with the same prices. Diesel $2.23/gallon, regular $2.29/gallon

Tuesday morning I waited at the cabin for a material delivery, 1 door, 4 windows, 20 sheets of drywall and misc other items. Tuesday afternoon I had an appointment to get my teeth cleaned, and checked, at the place that pulled a tooth when we were here in March. The dentist said everything looked good.

Tuesday evening I went to Mamie Burgess's for supper. She puts out a great meal for a lot of her family on Tuesday nights. Roast pork, a whole chicken fixed on the gas grill, potatoes, sliced tomatoes, a big pan of vegetables that I couldn't identify (but they sure tasted good), green beans, corn that had been cut off the cob, corn bread and cake for desert. I think there was more, but I can't remember what.

Mid-morning Wednesday Marvin Burgess, our neighbor and a great carpenter, came down to help with construction. Actually I am his helper.

These are the "before" photos. The south exterior wall.

 West wall of a future bedroom.

 West wall of main bedroom.

 South interior wall.

 

South interior wall after I removed the insulation and pulled out the electrical wiring.





South exterior wall with siding partially removed.

South interior wall with openings framed for a 5'x5' window and a door. We still have to frame in a 3'x4' window on the right side.

We planned on getting the other window framed and the windows and door installed today, but plans change. Marvin stopped down about 7:30 this morning to say he had a dead new calf that he had to bury, and that he had a Doctor's appointment in the afternoon. It has been rainy while I've been here and it was thundering this morning when he was here. We decided to hold off on the next phase. (It wore me out to watch him work so I was glad to take a day off <grin>)

I went down and visited with Tom & Mary Lou for awhile this morning and then came back to the cabin where I have been putzing around all day. Yesterday we ran down both of the batteries for Marvin's reciprocating saw, he had forgotten his charger. I got mine out and we couldn't get a blade to stick in it. This morning I spent at least an hour trying to get it to hold a blade but was unsuccessful. Guess I'm going to have to take it to the Hitachi repairman when I get back to MO. This afternoon I put the wiring back in the wall area where we framed the window and door. I have lines ready to stick out through the wall, for an exterior outlet & light at the door, when we put the siding back on.

Last night Kathy told me a great story about Lydia, our great-granddaughter. Lydia stayed overnight with Kathy Monday night. She is big enough, almost 3 years old, that she wants to dress herself now. When they were getting ready for bed Lydia had her clothes off and was putting a pair of panties back on. Kathy noticed her tugging and tugging, trying to get them up. Finally she told Kathy, "Grammy, my butt is to strong for these panties." She had both legs in the same leg hole. Kathy said Lydia had her legs wedged in so tightly that it was really tough getting them back off.

I had mowed our MO lawn last Friday. I knew it would be really tall when I got back. When I talked to Kathy today she told me that Andy, our grandson-in-law, was over mowing the lawn. She said it really needed it. WHAT A GRANDSON! Thanks Andy.

May God bless you and yours. He has sure blessed me many times over the years.

April 10th - Beautiful Day

Yesterday we got some rain in the afternoon but today has been just beautiful.

Lydia was here yesterday. Kathy went up and helped the church ladies provide a meal after a funeral. Lydia and I had lunch at home and then she took a nice nap. In the afternoon she and Grammy spent some time in the hot tub, which led to some excitement. After Lydia had been in the hot tub awhile she decided she wanted to wear her life preserver. I was helping her get it on and "popped" her elbow. We had to take her in to the Emergency Room so that Kelsey could pop it back in place. It doesn't happen often and fortunately Kelsey knows how to pop it back in place. After that we came back home and Lydia and Kathy spent more time in the hot tub.

When they tired of that they decided to go mushroom hunting.

They found some red ones. We haven't eaten any yet but Andy says they are almost as good as morels. He found a couple at our place Easter Sunday. The big one in the picture below is about 3" in diameter.

After they tired of mushroom hunting I got a helper in the shed, while I was working on one of Kathy's chairs. Lydia is wearing the same outfit that she wore for mushroom hunting.

Had an interesting "God incident" yesterday and today. When I took my pants off yesterday I emptied my pockets and only had one hearing aid in one pocket. (I regularly remove them, when I'm doing something noisy, and stick them in my pocket. Actually maybe not regularly since I don't normally even wear them. Anyway....) I figured I must have pulled one out of my pocket during the day and that it was lost. I checked the pockets of another pair of pants I had worn yesterday but no luck. I also checked the bedroom floor hoping that it had fallen on the floor when I transferred stuff from one pocket to another, but no luck. I also checked the small tray where I keep stuff when I empty my pockets, but the other hearing aid was not in it. Today, after I got home from the YMCA and after Kathy got home after having lunch with a lady from church, she asked me when I found the missing hearing aid. I said that I hadn't found it. She said that both were in the tray, and they were. Call it what you want but I say, "Thank you Lord".

This afternoon I mowed the lawn and Kathy raked and burned some leaves.

Time for bed.

May God bless you and yours.

April 8th - Easter Sunday Week

The highlight of the past week was Easter Sunday. I helped the men at church cook breakfast for the "sunrise" service. (For some reason the sunrise service doesn't happen until 8 AM. Guess we Baptists are just to lazy to get up. I have very fond memories of being out in Sebastapol, CA a few years ago and helping direct people to parking places on the soccer field, in the dark, before they hiked up the mountain for the sunrise service.)

We had a good turn out for both Sunday morning services, and for the breakfast.

Then it was back home for Easter dinner. After dinner we had the great Easter Egg Hunt.

After a tiring time hunting eggs it was time to rest on the porch. Kelsey & Lydia are unwrapping an Easter present.

Marshall did a little fishing, but didn't catch anything. David and Andy walked around a little trying to find mushrooms, Lydia was helping them. Andy did find one decent size red one and another small red one.

Later Lydia posed for a couple of photos.

 

Kathy has put up with the CR-V for almost 4 years, but she finally got another minivan. One of my "must haves" was that it have AWD, so that we at least have a chance to get up our driveway when it snows. The only manufacturer that now has an AWD is Toyota. We went to Jefferson City just to see if she liked a Toyota minivan. We didn't have any idea that we would end up buying the first vehicle we looked at.

 

It is a 2011. It was owned by a local Doctor, he traded it in for another Toyota. It has 67,000 miles and from all I see it is in excellent condition. He bought it at the dealership, had it serviced there and traded it for another vehicle there. I haven't driven it but so far Kathy really likes it. It is LOADED, more than we care about. Navigation system, bluetooth for hands free phone use, a cool back up camera, a DVD player for passengers and more. The first row of passenger seats recline and have kick out foot rests, for comfort when watching DVD's.

 

 

Four of us "old guys" from the church met for breakfast this morning, and continued our study of Philippians.

 

May God bless you and yours.

April 2nd AM - Spring Has Sprung

Last Saturday morning we were greeted with light snow.

 

 We now have flower blooming.

We did manage to get the motorhome out of the mud and up on the parking area. I graded the area where we wallowed around in the mud moving it.

It started raining again yesterday afternoon and we are supposed to get more rain over the next several days. This morning is has been raining steadily. It may be mid-summer before it dries out enough to get the motorhome back out.

Lydia was here yesterday, and she is here again today. We went to California, got some burgers and had a picnic at the park in California. I bet she went down the slides 50 times.
 

I went to the YMCA early yesterday, was there from 6-8AM, and then had breakfast, while we did a Bible study, with 3 other guys from church.

I bought one of the 12" double bevel sliding saws at the new Harbor Freight store in Jefferson City. We received a mailer from Harbor Freight the day I went in to buy it. A coupon in the ad dropped the price another $30. I have it set up and cut a couple of boards with it. I think I got a good deal. I plan on taking it to TN and leaving it there. It should be great to work on interior window and door trim, but I'm quite a ways from doing interior trim work.

Kathy still has her cold, although I do think she is improving a little. She was supposed to go to the Doctor yesterday but her inconsiderate husband forgot she had a morning appointment and he didn't get back home in time to watch Lydia. She cancelled the appointment and didn't make another one.

Time to go get the newspaper and the mail.

May God bless you and yours.