Arrived Safe & Reasonably Sound, after 900 miles in day & half

We got to the rental office about 4:45 yesterday, to pick up keys. Then it was on to the beach house. It is about 15 miles west of Gulf Shores, on Fort Morgan road. We are prob as only only about 5 miles from Fort Morgan.
The beach house is in a rental complex. We are in a nice 3 bedroom 2 bath unit. The units are fully furnished.

After a breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast, juice & coffee everyone one but me is down at the pool. I walked down with them & stayed for a few minutes before heading back to the house.

This is the first time I've done a blog post using my phone. It's not as easy as with my laptop but it appears doable. Didn't want to bother with laptop. God is good, may He bless you & yours.

April 6th - Leaving for Alabama

This afternoon, after Lydia gets out of dance class we (Kelsey, Andy, Lydia, Nolan, Kathy & I) leave for a week at Gulf Shores Alabama.

We have finally received enough rain that we are starting to get some runoff, at least at our house. The water level in our pond is raising faster than the amount of rainfall we are receiving. The level is still nearly a foot below the overflow pipe. With only a 50% chance of rain one day out of the next ten there isn't much danger of it overflowing in the near future.

Temperature was in the low 40's last night and is supposed to be in the high 30's tonight. After than only 2 nights out of the next 10 with overnight lows as low as the high 40's. It is time to finally retire the outdoor wood boiler for the season. I will leave a fire in it when we leave this afternoon but unplug the forced draft combustion fan. It will simmer for awhile but eventually go out because it won't get enough oxygen to support continued combustion.

Anthony was here Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. He taught a class in the St. Louis area on Wednesday so he took the opportunity to come for a visit. It was good to see him.

Not much news from here.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.

March 28th - No Rain Today

Sunday evening we went to Kelsey & Andy's for supper and a trip planning session. We are all going to Gulf Shores Alabama for a few days, including Lydia & Nolan. We are leaving here the evening of Thursday, April 6th, after Lydia gets out of dance class. We will stay overnight somewhere along the way and drive the remainder of the distance Friday. It is about 840 miles down there.
We will head back north on the Tuesday, the 11th, and finish the drive on Wednesday. Temperatures down there for the next 10 days are highs in the low 70's and lows in the low 60's.
Nolan was here yesterday. It drizzled rain most of the day so he couldn't be outside as much as he likes. Actually I don't think he ever gets to be outside as much as he wants.  Kathy read books to him and he spent some time playing with his phone.

 Kathy went in town this morning to run some errands. She had lunch with a friend from church. In the afternoon she went back to town with me. I needed to pick up a sheet of paneling to make some repairs in the church basement wall and get some no ethanol gas to mix for my chainsaw & weedeater.

Our pond has come up a few inches which means we are getting a little run off from the recent rains, but not much. The forecast if for a 60% chance of rain tomorrow and a 70% chance on Thursday. We can still use several more inches of rain, especially if it mostly comes nice and slow like the last couple did.

God is good. May He bless you and yours.

March 25th - AAAAARRRGHHH

I had a good morning. Lydia stayed overnight and this morning we went to Russellville, just Papa & her, for breakfast.

After that I spent most of the day working on federal taxes. IT SHOULDN'T BE THAT HARD! The self-serving scum that run our country should all be tarred and feathered! Taxes would be so easy if we would only change to the Fair Tax https://fairtax.org/index  We will never see it happen because then the politicians and bureaucrats in DC could not sell their favors (tax exemptions) for campaign contributions. Also, if people really learned how much the federal government costs us we would revolt.

Next I need to tackle Kathy's Missouri taxes. Missouri's system is beyond stupid. Last year I had something like 20 pages of forms. Kathy owed a whopping $28.

For my Tennessee taxes I had zero pages. I love Tennessee!

Okay I'm over my rant 😁.

We continued to get light rain on and off most of the day. We are probably approaching an inch of rain with what we got yesterday. Looks like we are going to get more next week. We can still use it.

God is good, even if he doesn't send everyone in the IRS straight to hell 😊. May He bless you and yours.

March 24th - Got A Little Rain

Temperatures have warmed back up some and we got a little rain this afternoon. We are supposed to get more this evening and tomorrow. We sure can use it.

I had been building another rock retaining wall but it was unfinished. Yesterday I finished it and leveled some soil I had put in it. Kathy is going to plant some kind of bushes there.

We went into Jeff this AM and ran a few errands. This afternoon I took Kathy's van in for a vehicle inspection so that she can renew her plates. I also stopped at a body shop and got an estimate for fixing her bumper, the one my ran away trailer damaged.

This afternoon I finished our pre-check in for our anniversary tour cruise. May 28th is our 50th anniversary. May 29th we fly to Fairbanks, Alaska. We spend the next 6 days touring Alaska. On June 4th we board ship cruise to Vancouver Canada, arriving June 11th. While on the cruise we spend a day in Haines, AK, a day in Juneau & a day in Ketchican. We fly back to Kansas City after getting off the ship. We are sure looking forward to the trip.

Lydia just came over. She is "sleeping over" tonight. Kathy just made popcorn, a ritual when Lydia comes.

God is good. May He bless you and yours.

March 21st- Not Much to Note

We received some much needed rain a couple of days ago, about 0.75" at our house. It sprinkled a little this AM but hardly enough to settle the dust.
Yesterday's high temperature was 87 degrees. Today's was 63. I cleaned up some trash wood alone a path through the woods and fired up the Hardy boiler to burn it. Kathy did several loads of laundry this afternoon and the burning trash wood preheated the hot water she used. I still have a lot of cleanup work to do along the remainder of the path.
Nolan was here yesterday & today. Yesterday he snagged an almost empty gallon jug that had distilled water in it. He was playing with it today when Kathy offered him a drink. He wouldn't take a drink until he filled the glass. The cap was still on but that was OK with him.

 Guess he figured he had the glass full so it was OK to take a drink.

When he heard the chainsaw running he fussed until Kathy took him out to see what was happening. He didn't like the noise but when it came time to pick up the wood, and ride on the tractor, he was ready for that.
God is good. May He bless you and yours.

March 15th - Back in Missouri

I drove back to Missouri yesterday. The trip was uneventful. Before I left I was able to get the electricity for the shed hooked up and now have a light and an outlet in the shed.

I left our cabin at 7:30AM and arrived at our house in Missouri at 5:45PM. An average of 56.4 mph. I stopped twice and got sandwiches, which I ate on the road, made 3 stops for fuel and stopped once to buy Kathy some flowers.

This morning I had breakfast with the guys in our Men's Fellowship group. We had a good visit and a good study time.

Nolan is here today.

Last nights low was around 16 degrees.This afternoon the blossoms on our Bradford Pear trees look like they are starting to turn brown. No more below freezing temperatures in the 10 day forecast. Daytime highs are forecast to be around 60.

God is good. May He bless you and yours.