Aug 7th - HOT! in Missouri

I'm sure it is hot in other places also, after all it is August. Right now 6:30PM WeatherBug says the temperature is 86 and it feels like 92. I came in about 45 minutes ago and it felt hotter than 92 when I came in. PTL for AC.

We had a good service at church Sunday, after a good Sunday School. Lots of visiting/chatter before and after Sunday School.

I had blood drawn Monday morning so that lab work could be done before my normal 6 month appointment with my Dr. Rauba, my Endocrinologist (diabetes doctor). I saw him yesterday morning. All is well. BP was 124/74. I've lost 6# over the past year. Cholesterol, triglycerides, etc., were all OK. Got the standard "pep talk", "Don't eat so much bread or potatoes or red meat." or anything else that tastes good. Also, in addition to whatever else I do, walk at least 30 minutes a day. I'm so pooped right now that there is no way I'd even consider going out for a 30 minute walk.

Yesterday afternoon I mowed the lawn, which take almost 3 hours. Still need to do the weed eating. It may not get done until next week. We had a couple from church over for supper last night and had a very enjoyable evening. It was the first time we have had a chance to get to know them.

Today I felt a little like one of the "senior jokes", where the person starts out to do one thing, then changes to something else, and then changes again and again. I went out this morning with the intention of working on the rock retaining wall at the back of the shed. I still have about 15' of it that needs to be built up. As I was scouting for rock I walked under some tree branches that bother me when I mow. It was in an area where I would drive the tractor to get more rocks. I got my pole saw and trimmed branches. After I finished, only in the "front" of the house, I didn't do any trimming on the pond side, I hooked the trailer on the tractor and drove it up in front of the shed to put some stakes in the stake pockets, so that I could pile more branches on it.

We had a half inch of rain last night and when I was in the shed I walked around to see if there was standing water on the floor. Water comes down the hill and when it rains hard it actually runs under the wall of the shed. I was pleased that there were only a few damp spots. I went out into the lean-to on the shed to see what it was like and there was about 3" of standing water all along the shed wall, in a little ditch. A plastic pipe is supposed to drain the ditch. I went out and cleared debris from the end of the plastic pipe and some water came out of it. I went back and noted that the water was still standing in the ditch, and it was not moving. I set up my shop vac to blow and stuck the hose well into the 4" plastic pipe. No water came out the far end of the pipe. After a minute I noticed water shooting up out of the gravel drive. I dug around and found an elbow that was not connected. I dug up the pipe, removed the elbow and stuck the shop vac in that section of pipe. Still no water at the end of the pipe, but soon I had water shooting up out of the gravel about 4' from the elbow. I dug that up and found a coupling that was not connected. When I blew out that section of pipe I finally was able to drain the ditch. The 45 degree elbow, the coupling and a 4' section of pipe are on the left. I need to get a rubber boot to be able to put things back together, without digging up a lot more pipe.

Then, after putting some stakes on the trailer it was off to pick up the limbs I had trimmed. Quite a few of these limbs are 18' long.

Once I unloaded the branches and put the tractor away I dumped the tanks on the motor home. I had left it parked back out behind the shed. Kathy and I then moved it up by the shed so that I could hook up the electricity.

Time for supper. Good night to all. May God bless you and yours.

August 3rd - Home Again, Home Again

I arrived back home at 9 PM last night. Kathy and I went down to Logan Valley last Sunday, after the potluck/pitchin at church. The McCunes, a southern gospel family group from Mountain Grove, MO; led the Sunday morning service. We thoroughly enjoyed them. They are related to the man who leads the music during our normal Sunday morning services.

We had supper Monday evening with Bruce & Charlotte Tremaine. Bruce is the lead carpenter for building projects at Logan Valley Christian Retreat, where I have been volunteering and where we both volunteered the month of Oct 2011. Bruce also Pastors a small church in Ellington, MO. I enjoy working with the people down there.

Kathy drove back home Tuesday, to resume her babysitting duties ;-). I drove the motor home back after work yesterday. I had planned on driving back Saturday but the weather forecast changed my mind.

During the week some of the guys ran the water line to the new building. They buried the line 3-4' deep, FAR deeper than necessary, 18" would probably be fine in southern Missouri. The backhoe has a 24" wide bucket so it was also a wide trench. I had to drive across the backfilled trench to get to the road. I was a little concerned about driving over the trench when it was dry, they just pushed the backfill back into the trench, although David worked hard to make sure the surface was well compacted. It was supposed to start raining Friday night and keep raining for several days. I knew I didn't want to drive over the trench was the soil was saturated, so I cleaned up after work, got the motor home ready for the road and left a little after 5.

We unloaded the motor home this morning and I'm ready to say enough for the day, and "rest" the remainder of the day. It was hot working down there this week, and even though I enjoyed it, it was tiring. I actually worked about 35 hours for the week. I had my "electrician's hat" on most of the week. I set boxes in both the walls and ceilings, set the fans in the upstairs bathrooms and wired up the lights in one half of the lower level (a walk out basement). I also framed an upstairs "closet" floor above the stairway down to the lower level.

Dave Williams, Dave & Sue are the camp Directors, has always made it known that he appreciates my coming down there. He gave me a Thank You card when I left yesterday. When I opened it after getting home last night I found that in addition to the Thank You note the envelope contained a $200 check for "gas money". It was a nice gesture, although not needed.

We received a much needed inch of rain while I was gone. We are supposed to get more over the next several days, and we can use it.

In case you don't follow Kelsey's Facebook postings. One of the events I missed this past week. Lydia helping Grammy clean up dishes, after mixing up brownie batter.

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

July 26th - RAIN - At least a little

We aren't in a drought but it is dry here. It drizzled rain here from early this morning until around 3 PM. We only received 3 tenths but not a bit of it ran off.

Kathy came back home Wednesday. Doug is feeling better but not 100% yet.

Hot tubbin.

Hot tubbing if hard work. Sharing some of Grammy's home grown tomatoes with Mom.

Grammy makes awesome strawberry shortcake. Lydia decided it was so good that she picked up her empty bowl and did her best to lick it clean.

I'm not sure what these flowers are, but they are pretty.

 The "grass bush" is beside the flowers. We have several of them. I cut them down to nothing last fall. I thought maybe I killed them because they didn't start growing until late spring. This one is over 7 feet tall.

Lydia came up missing for a couple of minutes. She was in the kitchen organizing Grammy's cabinets.

Later, after finishing the cabinet organizing, her and Grammy shared a bowl of popcorn.

We are so blessed!

Andy's business is doing great. His biggest worry the past week is that he has more work than he can do. Last week when he stopped by one night to get Lydia, he said he thought he was finally a real PDR (paintless dent repair) guy. He has been working at it since he went out to California and trained under  a PDR guy out there. It appears that he is really getting a knack for it, and that his investment of time and money is paying off well. He and Kelsey both show that America is still a country where young people who are willing to work make a good life for themselves.

It is good to start getting acquainted with some of the local businesses. I loaned my log splitter to a guy and when he brought it back one of the tires wouldn't hold air. The tires are old and cracked so having one not hold air wasn't a shock. I took the tire over to Nathan's, in California, this morning. The place was BUSY, which is normal, I rolled the tire inside and told the lady I needed a used tire. She had me roll it in the back and leave it along a wall. She didn't bother with getting my name, how much I wanted to spend, or anything else. She told me to come back in an hour. When I came back they had a decent used tire mounted and it cost me $20. I considered it to be a good deal.

We went to Jeff today to pick up a gun security cabinet I had ordered. It isn't a gun safe but it is more than adequate to keep curious great-grandchildren from every being able to get at my guns. I thought about getting a gun safe (they are fireproof and a lot more secure) but they are about 3 times what I paid for the cabinet. The only real value my guns have is sentimental value for the ones Dad left me. I just couldn't see spending an additional $400 to protect them from fire or theft. Besides, getting a 500# safe into my office would have been a challenge. The security cabinet only weighs 90#.

After we returned from Jeff, Kathy, Kelsey and Lydia headed down to Springfield, MO. It is about a 3 hour drive southwest of hear. The are staying in a motel overnight (girls night out) and Kathy is attending the wedding of one of the Teen Challenge girls (maybe one of the Councilors) tomorrow.

Sunday morning we have a gospel group providing music during our church service. After church we are having a potluck/pitchin dinner. After dinner we stop by home to finish loading and head to Logan Valley, it is about a 3.5 hour drive down to southeast MO. I'm going down there to work another week. Kathy is going down to visit and then probably returning home Tuesday. I will drive the motor home back, probably on Saturday.

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

July 19th - HOT!!

I'm not doing much this week. It is just to stinking hot. Temps in 90's every day and humid. Today's heat index is supposed to hit 100. PTL for AC. Forecast is for the high to drop into the 80's Sunday but the forecast high is over 90 every other day through next Thursday.

Kathy is Indy visiting Doug & Anthony. She left yesterday morning.

I got to babysit Lydia yesterday. She was very good most of the time. Normally she wakes up from her nap and Kathy lets her go back to sleep. She fusses a little when she wakes up but then goes back to sleep. I made the mistake of going in and getting her before she went back to sleep. She was bad after that, just not her normal smiling, joyful self. By the time Andy came to get her, around 7 PM, she must have gotten her "second wind" because she was back to her normal joyful self.

Below are some photos of several of Kathy's tomato plants. These plants are all over 6 feet tall. She "pinches them back" but they just keep growing.

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

July 13th - Back Home

I am alive and well <grin>. I went to Logan Valley Christian Retreat Sunday afternoon and came back home yesterday afternoon. I can sometimes send a text message from down there buy my cell phone is virtually useless. If I made the effort I could probably get on the camp's WiFi. I got the password but was unable to connect and didn't bother trying to find out why.

I had a good time down there. Lord willing I will go back down for another week after being home for the next two weeks. They guys made a lot of progress while I was gone. They finished the sheathing on the gable end walls, put on the house wrap, installed the doors and window. put on the soffit along the front, etc.

Monday we worked 5:30-2:00 to try and minimize the time in the heat. Tuesday through Thursday we worked 7:00-3:30. We started later because there were campers staying in a building near the construction site. We didn't want to wake them up to early with the hammering.

We worked on siding and trim all week. Monday evening the house looked like

By Wednesday night it looked like this

Thursday we finished the siding on the front and single story end. We also got the siding up to below the bottom of the windows on the back of the house. We ran out of siding. At that point we started working on the roof trim. I knocked off early, around 2:30 on Thursday while Bruce and Lance worked on the soffit along the back of the house.

Friday I knocked of around 1:00 and started to pack up to come home. I didn't take any photos Thursday or Friday. I think that Bruce and Lance probably only have a couple of hours work left to finish the trim around the roof. The remaining siding is supposed to arrive next Wednesday. They will probably have the exterior totally finished and be working on the interior when I go back.

Bruce's church has a Wednesday evening outdoor service. I attended and then ate with them after the service. David, the man who does the preaching on Wednesday evening, also does the cooking. We had pulled pork sandwiches and a vegetable dish that he cooked in aluminum foil on the gas grill. The vegetables included were zucchini, potatoes, onions, etc. It was spiced with some type of Cajun spice. Both the pork, which came from a wild hog, and the vegetables were excellent.

I left early so that I could get home in time for us to attend the Southern Gospel concert at church. The group was really good.

Today I've been catching up on emails, the news, etc.

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

July 5th - Working on Shed

Not a lot going on here. I've been working on/in my shed for the past several days. The building is divided into several rooms. It has one 9' wide by 7' high overhead door where I might be able to get the CR-V in, but because of benches inside the door it would be tight. It also has a 9' wide by 8' high overhead door but that door opened into a 12' x 12' room. That door is pictured below. As you can see I already started tearing down the back wall when I took the photo.

The back wall is now gone and I have a 12' wide by 21' room, large enough from my truck. Note the wires hanging down on the left side of the door, more on that later.

This is one of the electrical boxes after I pulled out the outlet and wiring. Note all the sawdust and wood chips in the box.

There is evidence that there was a fire in the shed attic. Don't know how long ago that might have happened. The more I've worked with the wiring in the shed the more amazed I am that it hasn't burned down. Carl, the previous owner, made a comment about turning off the power, at the entrance panel, when he left the building. I now understand while he did that.

I don't know what the wire hanging by the door was used for but I found out that one of the interior wall switches actually made the wires "live". There "hot" wire was bare, just hanging there for someone to touch.

I have been turning off most of the circuits when I leave the building for extended periods of time. After I had removed the wiring in the wall I removed I turned on some breakers trying to power the outlet that I have a small air compressor plugged into. The breaker popped off. I knew I had done nothing that should have impacted that circuit so I was baffled why there was not a short in the circuit. During the week I had blown a bunch of leaves out to the lean-to on one side of the shed. I was in the lean-to for some reason and noticed a piece of wire hanging down. It turns out that the wire was on another switch inside the building. The ends of the wire were exposed. Somehow the leaves must have kept the wires from shorting. After I blew the leaves out of the lean-to the wires must have been touching the ground.

Today I need to clean up some of the mess I've made tearing things down. I've got some decent wood scraps that I need to move to an out building and some other scraps that I need to cut into pieces that will fit in our wood fired boiler.

Pat McAfee, a good friend of Kathy's from Lebanon, came yesterday for a visit. She is staying through Saturday.

Yesterday we went to Kelsey & Andy's for a 4th of July lunch. Amy & Marshall were also there. We had a nice lunch, and got to play with Lydia.

Time to get out and get something done.

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

July 1st - Learning is Fun

First, take a look at some of Kathy's tomato plants. They are supported by some steel fence posts and fencing but they are growing far above the fencing, even though she had tried to keep the pinched back. I think she is going to run some twine up to the porch roof to see is they will climb the twine.

Kelsey and Andy made it home from Mexico. They had a good time on their trip.

Now about the learning.

Have any of you every heard of Special Order 191? I never had until a few days ago. One evening last week Kathy and I were having supper at a restaurant in Jefferson City. Somehow, and I have no idea how, the subject of the Civil War came up. She asked the question, “I wonder how things might have been if the South had managed to gain its freedom from northern aggressors. (Yes I am biased. There is absolutely no way the Constitution would have ever been approved by the States had people been told that if they voted to join the United States they could never get out. I could go on for pages but I’ll force myself to stop here.)

She had me wondering, so I did a web search for “what it the south had won the Civil War” One of the hits was a book titled “How Few Remain”, by Harry Turtledove. Mr. Turtledove is a historian and writer. One of his series was a historical fiction series called the Southern Victory Series. The books chronicle his views on how North America would have evolved if the South had won the war. I downloaded a copy of the book from the Crossville library and have started reading it.

The books divergence from actual history starts on September 13, 1862. General Robert E. Lee had drafted Special Order 191 on September 9, 1862, it was his battle plan. On the 13^th a Union Corporal found a copy of the Special Order wrapped around 3 cigars, lying in the grass at a campground that the Confederates had just vacated. He passed the plan up the chain of command until it found its way to the Union’s Major General George B. McClellan. McClellan was the commander of the Army of the Potomac. After reading the Special Order McClellan stated, “Now I know what to do! Here is a paper with which, if I cannot whip Bobby Lee, I will be willing to go home.”

The Battle of Antietam (Confederates called it the Battle of Sharpsburg) was fought on September 17^th, 23,000 soldiers were killed during the battle. Even though the Confederates were outnumbered 2:1 McClellan was only able to stop Lee’s advance. He was not able to destroy Lee’s army. Mr. Turtledove suggests that had McClellan not been aware of Lee’s battle plans he likely would not even have been able to find Lee’s army. Further he suggests that it would have been quite possible that Lee would have advanced to Philadelphia and crushed the Army of the Potomac.

 

So far I've read up to a point about 20 years after the Civil War. By that time the South is already seriously considering ending slavery, mostly because of pressure from European nations. I have no doubt that slavery would have ended without the slaughter of over 600,000 Americans during the Civil War.

 

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