Memories

November 15th - Saturday - Sunny - Cold

Lou and I have the opportunity of visiting used car sales lot in Jersey Shore and when I walked in the door this is what I saw.

Memories flowed back so quickly of this car.  This is exactly the car that I drove back and forth to MSU to college in 1960 and what a joy she was to drive.  I was fortunate, she was provided to me by my parents.  Daddy paid for the gasoline, I worked part-time, making the huge amount of $32.00 per week, $10.00 went into my savings, $10.00 to my parents, $2.00 to church offering, and $10.00 to me.  Not bad was it?  What would the kids today think of that?

My parents raised broiler chickens and purchased this car and paid cash for it.  They were so proud of their purchase.  We all worked hard raising chickens along with our dairy cows; however, I wouldn't trade growing up on a working farm for anything.  It was a great like.

Another Project Completed

November 14th - Friday - Snow Flurries and much colder - 19 degrees this am

This is a Butler's Table that my late husband built years ago, and just prior to his death, he fell into it and broke one of the boards.  Lou found it in our barn and looked at it and thought he could fix it.  A friend of his had made a special brace to fix picture frames with and he thought that would work on the top of this table.  Lou brought the table to the house and we cleaned it up and he used a special wood glue on it, used the brace on it and indeed it did work.

Notice the homemade brace that can be adjusted.

I am so pleased to have the table back in our living room and in use again.  I was going to paint it black to match the rest of the tables; however, Lou felt it was better to leave it as Al had made it, so it stayed the same.

Another project that we have been trying to get accomplished since we got back from Florida has been accomplished thanks to grandson, Travis.  He and Noell came over on Tuesday and took care of the problem with the skirting.  He did a great job, reinforced it with plywood that he brought with him, it looks so good.  We are so thankful to him.  I just regret that I didn't even get a picture of them working on it!!  Can you believe that.  I so enjoyed having them here and we walked around the property so they could see what Lou has done as they haven't been here in some time.  Lou was at the homestead winterizing three lawn tractors for the season, which is another job completed.  Travis is going to help Lou jack up our Tack Room and secure it next year.  That building means so much to me, as my father purchased it from a neighbor 70 years ago and he helped Al and I drag it down here 24 years ago and it has housed many kinds of animals and been used for many things, I just have to preserve it.  Krista and Steve put a new roof on it six years ago.  Tim removed a huge hive of bees from it one winter.  It has a lot of history...

We had trick and treaters but I can only show pictures of Matthew, as Shawn and Maegan won't allow pictures of their girls on line.

Matthew

Frosted was a popular theme this year, Krista made Matthew's costume, as did Maegan make the girls and they were cute and well done also.  Never met a little girl that didn't enjoy being a princess.

We had the pleasure of keeping Matthew one day and he enjoyed playing with toys that all of the kids have enjoyed.  

Matthew and "Bill Dings"

He was able to put a bunch of Bill Dings together all by himself.  Those were mine when I was a kid, so those have seen the hands of many kids.  Matthew is going through his dairy challenge and up to sterilized milk and doing well.  We are all so excited about this.

Krista has a move in date of December 1st.  We are all going to spend Thanksgiving Day packing the U-Haul truck.  We are all very excited about this move for their family.  Will be a very busy week for all involved, but worth every minute of it.  God has indeed answered prayers on this.

 

Beauty of Fall

October 30th - Thursday - Partly Cloudy - Cooler

Even though it is cooler, I can't help but enjoy the beauty of fall.

I planted this Bittersweet vine the year before my husband died (2006) and it grew well, but never had any berries.  In fact, it really grew more than I wanted it to.  Last year Lou and I decided we would cut it back, because it was getting almost more than we could manage.  We cut it back and Lou built a new support for it to grow on.  I guess this is what it wanted, as this year we noticed it had berries and I have been watching for them to pop and look at how it has "popped".  I am thrilled with the results.  Krista tied it up a little more yesterday, to help protect it a little more during the winter.

Witch Hazel

This is our Witch Hazel tree that I planted the year that Al died and I noticed yesterday that it has blossomed, isn't it pretty?  As the leaves come off the blooms are more noticeable.  I had always seeing these trees in the woods when I would go hiking and when I found it at the nursery, I thought this would be interesting to have at home.

Blue Bird.

Look what stopped in to visit yesterday.  I think it is interesting that they always stop on their way south, as if to say "we are leaving now, but will be back in the spring".

Sluice Pipe Project Completed!!

October 29th - Wednesday - Cloudy and Cooler

Yesterday one of Lou's dreams came to a conclusion.  He has wanted to have a pipe around our property to carry excess water away in the spring or any time we have an abundance of rain.  He started digging the ditch several weeks ago and found that he sorta enjoyed digging it.  I tried to get him to rent a small back hoe to do it, but said he enjoyed doing it.  It is bottom land and very few rocks.  Al had put a metal sluice pipe across so we could drive across the area and at one time Krista had dug a ditch, but it has filled up with dirt from next door.

Preston drove up from Tyrone yesterday and helped his dad finish the job and he was able to stay until about 4:00, then Krista helped Lou connect the last piece of pipe and we secured wire across the last  piece to keep any foreign objects from plugging the pipe and Lou dug a collection basin  and put as much of the sod back in place as he could before he quit at 6:00 pm.  He was pretty pleased with the finished project.

This gives you an idea of how long of a ditch  they dug.

This is where they make a curve 

They made sure they kept it at a grade to keep it flowing

"It's level Grandpa".

Connecting the last piece.

While the men were working of the pipe, Krista cut off all of the Autumn Joy, and kept me supplied with what I needed to work on the roof.  I cleaned the gutters, fixed a spot that was leaking in the gutter and repaired a shingle, trimmed branches from two trees and took care of a couple places that were leaking on our roof over the deck.

Trimming branches.

 Krista and I  were busy working all day long, putting the exterior water to bed for the winter, putting plastic over the barn windows, bringing the snow blower up for winter and washing windows and Matthew was with us most of the day. He loved to be with his Grandpa, but he was afraid to walk down the bank by himself, so either Krista or I would walk down with him and hold his hand.  Finally on our last trip he did it on his own and was he ever proud of himself.  We have really enjoyed this fall.  He has been so easy to keep content, just give him his bucket of toys, a dirt pile and he is happy!!!

Doesn't he look proud?

Lou also finished his project on the bank, has his stone wall finished and has his grass seed planted, just waiting for rain.  Certainly is going to make it much easier to cut the grass.

People that knew what it looked like before can really appreciate the difference.

Yesterday we broke an all time high it was 79 degrees, and today it is 53 degrees, and I am going to get back to my fall house cleaning.  I have certainly enjoyed being outside and will take advantage of the good days when I can.

I am still looking for someone to help Lou with the Work  Shop, as we want to jack it up and probably put some new support under it and someone to repair the skirting on our home.  We call people and get promises without results or they don't even return our phone calls.  I understand other home owners have the same problems.