from the porch

FORE!

2010-01-14T05:34:00.002-06:00

Day Three was a real bitch, the urge to kill was very strong!!!!Of course I actually DO feel better, I just don't want to admit it cuz I still WANT A CIGARETTE!!!!! But hopefully that feeling passes and I can get on with life.
Just hopefully nobody crosses me today and there happens to be golf clubs nearby....

Day Two

2010-01-12T03:00:00.002-06:00

Well I made it thru Day One without killing anybody but I have to admit I was a bit nervous a few times!
Actually it wasn't too bad, I did eat alot of candy and chewed up several straws but I realized alot of my smoking habit was just that, habit! Certain times of the day were much worse than others. When I was busy at work, didn't even think about it but when the normal cig break time came about,boy the urge went thru the roof! And when I get behind the wheel, after eating etc. All the "normal" times I habitually smoked, that is when the shakes were there. And last evening here on-line was the worst! That's when I really wanted to smoke! Went thru the most candy then, gonna have to get some sugar-free gum and stuff today. I hope today goes as well!

I'm gonna do it this time...

2010-01-10T19:24:00.003-06:00

I'm gonna quit smoking! I have to, money wise and health wise...Wish me luck!

I just flushed the remaining cigs in my pack down the toilet that way I won't automaticaly light one up first thing in the morning.

Of course this will affect my beer drinking but that is something else I have to slow down on...

But it won't affect my popcorn habit! Gonna go pop a bag in the micro and watch some vid of the TV version of the Posidon Adventure!

The Amberstone Warrior is going to school!

2009-09-05T19:09:00.002-05:00

I'm giving my nephew my beloved truck! He's the first one in my family to have the chance to go to college.

His POS Dakota would never make it in Nashville (or even TO Nashville!) so I am trading my truck for his truck. This boy is soo smart it is scarey! I want to help him as much as I can,since I can't help him money-wise I'm letting have my truck.

The topper will go back on this week...a totally uncool item for the younger set but nephew is practical about it...

"COOL! I can haul my stuff down and then throw a mattress in the back!"

...ahhhh, youth! Looks on the best side of everything!

On the other hand, I am giving up my 84,000 mile 1993 baby for a 250,000 mile 1990 beat-from-one-end-to-the-other Dakota!

I hope the radio works!

push push.....blow,blow...push push....blow,blow....

2009-08-24T18:32:00.003-05:00

No I'm not having a baby (or having sex)! I attended CPR training today for my job at the jail.

We had to practice a bunch on these alien-looking torsos...

These things were really ugly...I'd have to be really drunk to date one
(Ummmmm, now that I think about it,been there...done that!)

WOW! This is hard work! At the end of the first full session I was ready for the paramedics myself!

It was a good class tho, I knew the basics (sorta, I have watched TV!) but this class really explained WHY you do these things in this order. That I never knew and having the WHY explained helped me a lot in remembering what to do.

I want to take some more classes and learn how do do this and overcome my tendency to be the one that runs around screaming like an idjit, or just stand there vibrating!

Who knows? I might be at a strip club on of these days and a dancer collapses onstage! I'll be there,READY!

Party Animal

2009-08-23T16:46:00.005-05:00

We have an alcoholic squirrel out at the farm!
When Brother and I are working on stuff out in the shop and sometimes (always)in the evenings we will have a few beers (surprise surprise!). After we are done with the beer cans we toss them in an old milk crate,then the first one back out there the next day smashes them and throws them into the recycling bin we have out there for aluminum.
Well several morning in a row we have found a squirrel in there lapping up the dribbles out of the cans!
When surprised he jumps out of the bin and runs (slowly) over to the trees and just kind of sits there, looking at us. If we walk towards him he will try to scramble up the tree but sometimes he doesn't make it and slides back down!(I can identify with him, I've had problems climbing the three steps up on my porch at times!)
Poor guy! We don't chase him or try to annoy him and just let him rest there at the base of the tree til he can make it back up to his home.
We laugh about him,saying there is a squirrel up in this tree sleeping off a hangover and I'm sure he's getting hell from Mama Squirrel about laying around all day and drinking all night instead of out gathering nuts!

There's a tool for that????

2009-07-02T18:01:00.002-05:00

The last few days we have been trying to straighten up the "shop" out to dad's,enduring the cussing and screaming and accusations from dad. Dad has hauled shit into here at the farm for the past 100 years and thinks he knows everything that is out there. Well he can't remember if he ate lunch or not or who we are! He calls bro by our uncle's name and often calls me by my mom's name! (God love her, I wish I was more like her but unfortunately the older I get the more I resemble the ass {dad} that made my childhood {and is making my adulthood!} miserable!!!)

Anyhoo, while moving stuff in the shop I happened to look up at the top of a post and spotted a bright red something. Looked a lot like and old keychain keeper or a coin purse. Upon closer inspection I found this...

...what on earth was this used for? (other than the obvious nasty thoughts that immediately came to mind!)

Okay, back to the dad rant! When dad retired back in the 80's...he RETIRED! I mean from doing anything except drinking beer and driving around everywhere (and yes, at the same time). He started going with Mom to auctions (Mom was an antique dealer) and drug home all manner of useless crap, if it was cheap he bought it,truckloads of stuff! We must have about 20 electric weed-eaters here. Including one that will totally light you up if you plug it in! I refuse to test anymore after THAT ordeal!

So today I tested electric drills that we unearthed from under a table, I guess I'll never learn!

The same with everything else,if there is one here there is a dozen! And sadly what stuff was good isn't now. Dad when he bought stuff just threw it anywhere and there it laid. We have run across so much stuff that used to be good and useful and is now scrap or trash. The shop is an old tin building with a damp earthen floor and stuff is just piled up helter-skelter. We have found probably 20 log chains that are ruined, rusted together in a lump (good log chains aren't cheap!)

Just another day of cussing and screaming and whining....

a normal day in my life....

any wonder I drink?
(which is the reason my posts are few and far between and rarely make any sense!)

'strokin' again...

2009-06-23T18:13:00.004-05:00

....HEAT strokin' that is! If yesterday wasn't bad enough, today was worse as far as heat was concerned! I'm sure that Val thinks I am a total wimp because I can't handle 92 degree afternoons! But the humidity here is killer!

So bro and I mowed out to dad's today....thank god for the beer cooler! I don't think I woulds have made it otherwise!

HOT HOT HOT! No breeze what-so-ever!

So what do I do? When I get home I decide to burn all the twigs and branches and clipping I gathered up last night. (remember the no breeze comment!)

No breeze...no wind... I rarely get to chance to burn stuff here in town (for some reason the town frowns on burning when it is windy, I don't know why!!!!)

So I light up the brush...and guess what... a breeze starts up! So here I am running around with a rake trying to contain burning debris in a gale storm in 90+ degree heat!

So of course a burning leaf decides to go down my shirt...I do a major screaming funky chicken dance around the yard...I'm sure the neighbors were majorly entertained!!!!

Singed chest hair smells AWFUL!

Courting Heatstroke

2009-06-22T17:30:00.002-05:00

OMG IT IS FREAKIN HOT AND HUMID!!!!

Okay that statement is out of the way! But it is hot and miserable here right now.

And rain! It seems it rains everyday! Not just little pissy showers, we're talking about thinking about hiding under the house storms! BOOM BOOM BOOM are we going to end up in Kansas type of storms!

So there was no storm forecast for today (tonight is another matter entirely!) so I took a day off (not from work...from DAD'S!) so I could hopefully get some yard work done before the next monsoon comes thru tonight.

The grass was getting so high that sheep and cows from outside of town were putting in for transfers to my yard!

And so out into the heat I go in my cute little shorts and cut off shirt ( I'm sure the neighbors were impressed) and enough sunscreen on the top of my bald head to coat an entire girl scout troop and attacked the jungle that normally is my yard.

Nothing sexier than a bald fat man trying to have sunstroke and a heart attack at the same time!

One good thing, my farmers tan is darkening nicely,the legs are still snow white but they are shaded by my belly the whole time!

I have so much yard work to do it is not funny. Flower beds to weed,edges to trim,gravel to rake,mulch to put down....
The list goes on and on!

It really depresses me to look at my yard, I always took so much pride in it and my flowers but since Dad got bad I have no time to work on it. The weeds are taking over.However I was thrilled to see while I was courting a coronary that the cactus is finally blooming this year! You have to ignore the weeds!

And my Mimosa tree (that I started from seed from Mom's tree which is now dead) is going great guns! I had about twenty sprouts a few years ago and this was the only one that survived a freak freeze we had that year. The Mimosa is about three years old now and I think it's gonna make it! (again please ignore the weeds!) I should have blooms probably next year!Some things thrive on neglect tho! This is my "miniature" Japanese Maple! Don't always believe the tags on clearanced plants at Wal-Mart! This tree was supposed be (according to the tag) a small,weeping Japanese Maple like my buddy has! His is about 10 years old and only about 3 feet tall,cascades beautifully down and behaves itself in its spot. Mine has turned into a monster tree! I love the tree but if I had known it was going to do this I would have planted it in a different spot!

The hostas are going berzerk and hopefully I can divide them this fall...I had to cut down the roses, those damn jap beetles wiped them out!

I guess I have to be grateful of what plants did survive while I was away and just hope I can replace what bit the dust!

Happy birthday to me,somewhat!

2009-06-03T18:27:00.004-05:00

Today is my birthday,only one year away from the half-a-century mark now!

And if that fact isn't depressing enough (actually that doesn't bother me)life in general sucks.

I am finally close in getting caught up with all the bills, but you know how that goes,get caught up and something else happens to put you behind again. I my case I found out that I have to now replace the gas line in my house. The gas company showed up and it seems I have been lucky,my gas line under my house is full of holes and my crawlspace was full of natural gas!

YIKES!

I have been living on a time bomb! I could have lit a cig or flipped a switch and ended up in Kansas!

They pulled the meter and shut the system down but now I have to have a new line installed under the house. More money to spend that I don't have! I am grateful that the company found that and that my ass didn't end up in Kansas (and every state between here and there!) but why does every silver lining come with a price tag?

On a less life threatening note,(but still very frustrating) my computer has some major problems, I'm gonna have to take it in and have someone give it an enema and fix it (more money out!) but since the computer is my only link to the outside world I need to have it done.

I can't access my e-mail now, or most anything else, I can't even get on my Fiesta message board! I did manage to get on the message board briefly tonight but after reading one post and replying, the 'puter went dead and I had to restart. So I guess I'll have to wait til after I get this dastardly thing back from the shop to acknowledge any messages there.

After the restart, this infernal machine did let me into my blog so I thought I would try to do a post, I have no idea if it will let me or not!

There was a bright spot today, when I got to work, there was a birthday card waiting for me signed by a bunch of the staff and several of the inmates!!!

And one of the inmates came out with drink cups stuck under his shirt and performed the Marilyn Monroe JFK version of Happy Birthday for me! It was a hoot and a hell of a way to start the day! Imagine a skinny,tattooed inmate with pointy "breasts" singing a breathless song to you at 5am!

Cousin Itt

2009-05-25T17:17:00.003-05:00

My wisteria is loaded this year! This type of wisteria (what kind it is I have no idea!) grows wild around here in certain places. This was a little sprout dug up from my friend's woods. It's about 4 years old.

Most wisterias take about 7 to 10 years to bloom but this stuff just takes a couple! And it will take over and choke out anything else around it if left on it's own. I buried an old ladder in the back yard well away from everything else and let it go to town. Soon it will get too top heavy and break the ladder so I'll have to cut it down and start over but for now I just enjoy the look of it. I've nicknamed it Cousin Itt from the Addams Family (does anyone one else remember that far back?)!

I spotted another patch of it today not too far from dad's house if I need more starts of it.

Those are trees under all that! This is out in the old coal mine country and there used to be a house here. I don't know if it was planted here or just started on it's own. Oh, the smell in this area is heavenly!

Click on the pics for a larger view.

A mess

2009-05-21T20:03:00.003-05:00

What's up with some of these child-proof caps? I mean some of them take an act of congress to get open!

I just bought a new bottle of baby oil (get your mind out of the gutter! It's NOT for THAT! I use it on the bottom of my feet because they get so dry and cracked,I'm too old and fat to buy it for those "other" reasons!)

It wouldn't open, just sat there and spun. Hmmm. So I put my eyes on and checked out the writing on the top.

"Push down top and turn while holding opposing sides in"

Okay besides the fact that I don't have seven fingers on my hand to perform this feat, that still didn't work!

I pushed and twisted, held in, rotated, and generally turned that cap every which way but loose!

No go.

(I'm pretty sure I heard the cap laughing at me)

I try again. And again.

Still no go.

(by this time I know that whoever designed this thing is rolling on the floor busting a gut thinking about someone trying to open it!)

So I'm sitting here with a death grip on the bottle and trying to open the cap when...

GEYSER!

The bottle split open along the side.

Yep! Baby oil absolutely EVERYWHERE!

Except of course on my feet.

So I have to get up and throw the bed clothes in the washer (and the bottle in the trash!!!!)

I can't imagine a young mother trying to open this thing while holding down a screaming, squirming baby!

Are packaging manufacturers sadist?

HOLY SHIT!

2009-05-12T18:10:00.003-05:00

Today out at the farm was another "repair the barn roof" day. Only this time I didn't get to throw the hammer at brother!

The old barn was very poorly constructed by dad,like most things around here it was done half-assed and as cheaply as possible. Rather that spend just a touch more and buy longer nails,dad went the cheapest route and bought short nails, as a result, the wind is working the short nails out and letting the tin fly off the barn!

Anyhoo, on the west side of the barn (we worked on the east side last time) there is a rain gutter just above my head. While brother was getting the tools and supplies ready for the repair I decided to clean that gutter out. I could just reach up and pull the leaves and crap out of it.

I cleaned out about 15 feet of it (nasty old rotted leaves and twigs,smelly!) before bro was ready to go up on the roof.

Part of my job today was using my considerable weight on the ladder to keep it from tipping up and letting bro fall off the roof. While I was up on the ladder I glanced down at the gutter to see how much more nasty shit there was to clean out.

About 10" from where I stopped reaching up blindly to grab crap out of the gutter was a large snake!

It was a barn snake about 5' long! Apparently it crawled up there to sun itself.

If bro had not been ready to work on the roof I would have continued down that gutter and grabbed that sucker!

I would have had a heart-attack right there on the spot!

Of course this would have been after I had a screaming fit and scared the hell out of neighbors at least a mile away!

There's no way! It's not possible!Can we really? Finally?

2009-05-11T18:21:00.004-05:00

Could it be possible we might be able to finally tear down the old house?
Dad has not given in for the last 5 years and let us tear down the old family house. The house sits right next to the new house but dad thinks it is still livable and just needs a bit of work. Well,it is beyond repair,the roof has huge holes in it,the floor has collapsed and the walls ain't far behind! It is a major hazard!

(check some pics of a previous post to see the condition of the house)

We finally got approval to order a storage building to put some of the stuff in that is still good. When the shed arrives in a couple of weeks it will be too tall (on the truck) to pass under the old wires to the house so dad let us take the wires down over the weekend (which also takes the old house off the tax roll! As long as power was run to that house we had to pay taxes on it even tho it was unlivable! As long as there were wires run to the house it was considered a residence)

I thought that was a major deal! The first step in convincing dad that the house had to go!

Well when I got out to the farm today, brother said we were taking down the old metal chimney off the back porch. I expected a major battle but dad was okay with it! Years ago when dad put that chimney up, he had welded some straps to it and then bolted it to the house. We took the bolts out and then realized that the pipe would not fall over because the straps were hitting the eaves of the house and wouldn't let it come down.

We tried and tried to figure out a way to make the straps clear the eave without ripping the eaves out, the straps wouldn't bend and the boards were nailed in every which way to Sunday on the eaves.

Dad came out while we were puzzling over it and said...

"Just rip those damn boards down, the whole place is coming down anyways!"

What? What? Did I hear him correctly? Is he finally accepting the fact that the house has to be torn down?

My shock for the day!

(of course brother probably will have to listen to him bitch all evening about it!)

Hopefully this attitude of his will continue and we can get this hazard torn down!

survivor

2009-05-05T19:16:00.003-05:00

Mom had a green thumb. I can remember as a child the profusion of flowers around the house that mom had.
Oh the colors and the beauty! I was enchanted! Well once the brothers got old enough to mow the flowers started to disappear. I come from a family that hates to mow around anything! If it was in front of the mower it was fair game!
Slowly but surely everything gave up the ghost after being mowed down for several seasons!
Of all the fabulous flowers that I remember from my youth,very few survive today. I can remember a whole row of Iris (one of my fav flowers) in almost every color of the rainbow,only this single yellow and a few purple are left.
Mom had a huge bed of orange Oriental Poppies, gone now, Snow On The Mountains, history now, a Lilac bush that was pulled out of the ground because "it way in the way of turning the mower", several flowering trees that were also "in the way", several colors of Peony's (one determined white one remains!) and several others.
There are a few that refuse to go away and bravely comes back every year no matter how many times Brother mows them down!
The Paperwhites are trying their best to keep it going,the aforementioned Iris, the Lily Of The Valley is still going strong (but will have to be moved before the old house comes down or it is toast) and I have managed to save one Spirea bush (out of FIVE!) and it is doing good this year.
The pink vining Rose didn't survive last years spraying of a lethal brush killer, another casualty of "I don't want to mow around it"
I sure wish I had the opportunity to have starts of those flowers for my yard now!

Death of a Lady

2009-05-02T08:20:00.003-05:00

This lovely old Victorian Painted Lady is slated for destruction here in town to make room for a new Dollar General store! Now granted I like the idea of the Dollar General being closer to me in a more convenient location (right now it is on the edge of town and a real pain in the ass to get in and out of) but I hate the idea of this fantastic house having to bite the dust!

This is a glorious old house that I don't understand why has sat empty for years. I attended an auction there about three years ago and got to tour her. She was beautifully preserved inside with a great fancy wrap-around staircase,gorgeous woodwook,wainscoting,fireplaces,etc.

The outside had been badly remodeled (or rather remuddled!) with horrible wide aluminum siding that was poorly installed. And all the fretwork was removed from the porches. I can remember this house when I was a kid (back in the stone age) and she was a very fanciful house, with the narrow clapboard siding, fishscales in the gables and gingerbread everywhere!

Painted up properly she would have been a great example of a Painted Lady. Someone tried to give her the look by painting that horrid aluminum siding in shades of purple. But the effect was like painting an old lady up like a whore.

I guess no one wanted her, she has been sold four times in the last three years and no one ever moved in! Something must have been horribly wrong with her. She had been wired for electricity, had central air and a fairly new heating system.

The location totally sucked, almost no yard space and on a busy street but there are other old homes in this town with similar spaces and people have restored them.

If I had the money I would have bought here and moved her to a more suitable locale.

Thankfully the current owner was smart enough to save as much of the good stuff as possible. She contracted a salvage company to remove the windows,woodwook,fireplaces,the stairs and anything else that could be reused to help restore someone else's beloved old house.
So many times when someone decides to tear down an old house they don't bother to save anything and some great stuff is forever lost.

The little green frame house next door meets an untimely death too, but it needed alot of work.

Death of a Lady pt 2

2009-05-02T07:49:00.003-05:00

As you can see the salvage of the goodies has been started.

This fantastic spiderweb leaded glass window on the second floor was covered over! Why someone would hide this gem is beyond me. The only reason I can think of is the ones that did the remuddling and slapped on that horrid aluminum siding were too lazy to fit the siding around it!

Thankfully they didn't cover over the stained glass windows on the first floor! There were two of these windows on the first floor and both were in closets! I've noticed that alot of times in older houses the fancy windows were located in the closet spaces and always wondered why the builders put them there. Well I found out when talking to one of the salvage gus there, back when these houses were built, either electricity was limited or just unavailable so windows were often in closets and using stained glass windows let the light in without the botheration of curtains and kept the contents of your closet private from outside eyes! And the fact that these closets were big enough to use as changing rooms, the use of stained glass really makes sense!

Even the eaves were detailed!

And now she is just a pile of rubbish. Very sad!

"shroomin" 2

2009-04-24T21:13:00.004-05:00

Okay, I lied, went out again today with brother hunting mushrooms. Went south instead of north on the old railroad right-of-way. Beautiful day, a bit (read majorly) windy, sweated my ass off, (82 today!), wearing a long sleeved flannel shirt (purple of course!) to attempt to keep the briar scratches to a minimum.
Walked about 450 miles,up and down major hills,saw several items of interest including:
some beautiful wild flowers...
two baby box turtles about the size of a quarter...
a large snake...(thankfully he was making tracks as fast as he could away from me!)
a really cool log...
the cowl section of a late 20's/early 30's car...
a baby deer...
a really large crawdead eco-skeleton...
The one thing we didn't find was...MUSHROOMS!!!

What's up with these woods? Everyone around us is finding tons of mushrooms! Is our woods played out? Mom used to find (literally) hundreds of those suckers here! Or am I so inept that I have tromped every mushroom out there with my big clumsey feet?

I can tell you this much, that if it was Fiesta out there I could spot it from 100 paces!

Who's 'shroomin' Who?

2009-04-20T18:20:00.002-05:00

Or perhaps this post should be titled Mother Nature 3-Papa 0!

It's mushroom time here is the Hoosier state! If you have never had these delectible little beauties I recommend that you find some! There is nothing better than fresh fried wild mushrooms. Of course you have to know which ones to pick,some are lethal! I only pick the ones I know that are safe,which is actually a moot point right now. I HAVEN'T MANAGED TO FIND A SINGLE ONE!

Which is actually not surprising. Mom was a major mushroom hunter and could spot them suckers at 50 yards when they were only 1/2" tall and covered with 45 dead leaves! I can only see them if they are three feet tall and I trip over them!

When I would go mushrooming with Mom as a kid,Mom would bring back lots of mushrooms, I would bring back a box turtle. I will never forget Mom having to take off her shirt to put mushrooms in to carry because I refused to let the turtle go!

Brother has been fairly good at spotting them and I get to tag along and be miserable. Don't get me wrong, I love prowling around thru Mother Natures beauty and looking at the wonders of spring but when it comes to actually finding mushrooms I become a total klutz! Bro and I have been out three times so far this spring and haven't found a single mushroom. One of the guys at work sez he has found about 500 so far! (and the meanie won't share!)

I did find some last year so I guess,maybe,my mushroom hunting skills are finally coming forth.( I thought!)

The only things I have brought back to the house this year (so far,shudder) is a fucked up knee,a jammed hip and a nose full of mud!

I think Mother Nature is after me for kidnapping that turtle!

All three times we have been out, I have gotten my foot caught under a root or a limb or something and did face-plants in the dirt! Oh! And I forgot to mention the blackberry briar that whipped back and scored me right in the nuts!

Mother Nature must be really angry with me!

I may forego more ventures into the wild....besides the beer cooler gets heavy after awhile!

The tractors

2009-04-19T17:20:00.002-05:00

We used to have a few more,bigger tractors here when we actually farmed this ground, but those and all the useful equipment was sold last year before it was too far gone to use. Scroll back thru the archives to see them.
The only ones we have left are the little ones that do get some use,basically for mowing and puttin' around on.
This is the IH Cub Lo-Boy. I was mistaken in an earlier post,this is a 1967 model. Brother uses this one to mow with, I don't even know how to start it,he does something with the carb before it will start! Bro is an excellent mechanic and he could fix it so it starts normally but I think he leaves it that way to keep anyone else off of it!

This is the one from the 40's, a 1947 IH B Farmall. We have a sickle-bar mower attachment to use on the B to mow the woods and other areas.

Here's the oldest one on the farm, a 1937 Farmall F-20. We don't use it anymore (the motor is locked up). Dad built the front loader bucket on it and it has moved a lot of dirt and junk in it's day!

And here's the baby of the bunch and my playtoy! Tho not technically a farm tractor, we use this little Cub Cadet to pull a trailer around and haul the light stuff. It's pretty handy!

Still Got Junk!

2009-04-16T17:37:00.004-05:00

This is just a small part of the inside of the shop. This the area we have to work in if we need to repair something! Unless, of course, we work outside. There are just narrow, meandering paths throughout to get to different areas. Believe it or not we used to be able to fit four cars in here to work on! But that was back when I was just a wee lad, lots of time since for dad to drag home stuff and fill it to the rafters!

There is an ungodly amount of stuff in here, even vintage porn! A 1966 girly calender is still hanging on the wall. (the top right one)

The junk just seems to go on and on forever!

Hmmm...someone must have been shopping!

And then there is the centerpiece of the farm...the old house, front and center, right out by the road for all passers-by to enjoy!

Just a little paint and drywall and she's move-in ready! It even comes with "skylights"! Well I suppose you might want to put down some carpeting too, the hardwood floors don't look like they can be refinished very easily!

Got junk?

2009-04-15T17:13:00.008-05:00

WE sure do out at the farm! I have a request from M to see some of the junk out on the farm....so here it is!

This is just one pile (one of many!)next to the shop....

...the shop...

...every available shed is packed to the gills...

...need a combine? We got ya covered whether you need a self-propelled or pull-type, one row corn picker and there is a pull-type bean combine in the background...

...if you need to spread some lime, we've got just the ticket, a 1949 Ford F-8 with a lime spreader bed! Dad bought this truck brand new! I think it needs a bit more than a wax job now tho!

...or if you have the sudden urge to run out and drill some holes in your yard, we have this 1937 Dodge that is set up to drill water wells.

I'll post some more pics later, right now it is getting close to my beddy-bye time....gotta get up early and fix oatmeal for the boys!

Down on the Farm

2009-04-14T17:17:00.002-05:00

Wow, I haven't been here in forever!Been busy,busy,busy! And when I haven't been busy I fight with the computer (it wouldn't let me log in to my blog! I gotta get this thing in for an enema!)

The weather is getting better,slooowly,and brother has a bunch of stuff he want's to get done out there. So,of course I'm drafted to help!

We've been trying to get all the old tin nailed back down on the barn before they take off sailing for New Jersey. Sounds simple right? NOT! That old barn wasn't built the sturdiest to start with 40 years ago and time has not been kind to it! So here's brother climbing around on it while I wait on the ground to fetch supplies and carry them up. I do not do heights well (hell I get shakey just standing on a chair to change a light bulb!)So getting me up one that ladder is a major feat and I sure as hell NOT climbing up on that roof! Not only would I be terrorized by the height I'm sure this fat boy would fall right thru and end up impaled on the old corn planter so something!

I do have to admit that having to throw the hammer at brother when he dropped it off the roof was fun!

And we had to start mowing as soon as the first blade of grass popped up. We've mowed twice now and I swear it doesn't look any different that before mowing! If it wasn't for the mower's tire tracks I wouldn't had been able to tell where I had mowed and where I hadn't!

But before we could even do that we had to get the mowers up-to-snuff for the season. Since I am such a mechanical wiz,(hell, one of the mowers I don't even know how to start! It's an IH Cub Lo-Boy built sometime in the 50's and you have to go thru some kind of procedure to start it!) again I am the parts,tool,rag handler.

Also we are trying to make some sense of one area of the shop so we will have space to work on stuff other than out in the yard (not fun in the rain!)
So we move stuff (junk) from one side to the other. We can't get rid of anything,Dad would have a cow! Actually he is bitchy just because we moved some things, but he is bitchy about everything so what's new?

We need a storage building to put stuff in before all of it is ruined. So many of the things in the shop already are shot and now worthless because of dampness and neglect. We'd like to save what we can before it is all worthless and fit only to be bull-dozed into a big hole. There are several welders,generators and lots of tools and other stuff. And lots of just pure junk too. Every building on the farm is stuff to the rafters with junk (anyone need some worn out tires? I could set you up with a bunch!)

Ok, it's about bedtime,hopefully I can get back in here and blog some more another time. Good-nite!

Heloise was right!

2009-03-07T18:52:00.002-06:00

Ya know you read all those helpful handy household hints everyday in the newspaper. Well this one actually worked! I've used vinegar for several cleaning jobs in the past.Recently there was in Helosie about cleaning mini-blinds,a very tedious job!The article that day suggested putting some warm water in your tub and soaking your mini-blinds in them. Well today was extra early dad-sit day so out of utter boredom I decided to try to clean the blinds in the kitchen.
I used the garden tub (a totally useless object) in dad's bathroom,filled it with a couple inches of water and added a couple cups of vinegar and dumped the blinds in to soak.
Then I humg them off the shower curtain rod and rinsed them. A whole bunch of shit came off! But still not white. Hmmmmmm. Then I hit on the idea of using my mag wheel brush (super soft but long bristled) to brush them with. OMG the shit just rolled off them! Dipped the brush in vinegar and lightly ran it over them.
Nice and white with very little effort! (my kind of cleaning!)Bonus cleaning tip,the tub was nice and sparkly after I was done! Martha would be so proud of me!
Only got three of them done before I ran out of vinegar, I'll pick some more up later and do the rest.
Of course my hands smelled like a pickle when I was done,had to resist the urge to slap them between two pieces of bread with a hamburger patty and chow down. Popped a beer instead and killed that urge real quick!

Don't forget to change your clocks tonight!!

hack,Haack,HAAACK!

2009-02-26T03:23:00.003-06:00

Sometimes I think my cat Harle's mission life is to make me miserable! Or kill me!Of course he does the trying to trip me up by getting underfootoot all the time and he knows the best,darkest,most lethal places to try it! Like the dark spots in the hall,coming around the counter in the kitchen, etc. One of these days he's gonna get me good!
Last night tho I was awakened by the sound of him horking up a big hairball. Disgusting sound right? Not normaly an alarming event, unless the you are sound asleep and the cat is sleeping on your head! Talk about flying out of that bed!
(parents take note,want to get your kids up fast?,have the cat hork on their heads,works every time!)
Of course I stepped in a pile on the way to get the paper towels,yeech! Needless to say Harle spent the rest of the night outside!

Damn, my beer is frozen...

2009-02-19T21:52:00.002-06:00

I wasn't planning on drinking tonight,I needed to do some house-cleaning before B came over to watch Survivor. I needed to clean because my niece was coming down for the weekend and visit.

Well, AFTER I started to tackle the ungodly mess that is my fridge (removing UFOs [unidentified food objects]) I checked on-line and found out that my niece has sprained her ankle and won't be coming this weekend.

So since I had already dragged all my beer out of the fridge I decided to finish the job. I found things in there that I didn't know I had! BBQ sauce, pickles of an undetermined age, a bottle of Sloe Gin (!!!!score!!!!) and some stuff I have no idea of what it is (or rather was!!!)

Filled the bathtub up with hot sudzy water and piled the fridge shelves (cool looking tempered glass {okay only cool looking when CLEAN, otherwise really gross when they haven't been cleaned in months!!!} in. After soaking for awhile I was able to scrub the crap off.

[note to self, clean the shelves BEFORE they turn green!]

Anyhoo, I decided I deserved a beer for doing all this nasty work, so I popped one.......YEECH!....... HOT BEER!

So thinking I could enjoy some cold beer during Survivor I put a half a dozen in the freezer.

Got the box clean before B showed up and enjoyed a few nice cold ones during the show.

Then after the program I figured I could drink the last two and check the blogs....ERUPTION! BEER SPEWING ALL OVER MY DESK!

Thankfully the only things soaked were bills waiting to be paid (isn't there a law somewhere that beer-soaked bills can be thrown away and forgotten?)

After the mess was cleaned up I discovered I had a nice beer slushie! ROCK!

Survivor was great (more on that later)!

((BTW that is not a pic I took, that was "borrowed" from Photobucket! I'm a Can Fan!))

So since I have discovered Beer Slushies, ya think I could set up a stand this summer????

I just LOVE this woman!

2009-02-17T17:55:00.002-06:00

Meet Sandy from the new season of Survivor! This woman is great! She's the old lady (53 is old????) this season but she's not gonna let that stop her! Sandy is from Louisville,KY ( I wonder if Christopher knows her?!) but she sounds like they went searching thru the deepest backwoods and mountains to find her. A modern day Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies!
Of course since she is my favorite person so far she is doomed,not only does she have to win over all her younger tribemates but my fav person NEVER lasts long on the show! Sorry Sandy, I just jinxed you!
Sandy sounds a person I would love to hang out with, things would never be boring around her! (plus I bet she knows how to make moonshine!)

Waiting with (beer) bated breath!

2009-02-10T17:58:00.002-06:00

The new season of Survivor starts Thurday! I can't wait! This time it is in South American and don't even ask me to pronounce the place,let alone spell it! Here's a vid showing some of the cast. I apologize for the commercial at the begining, I couldn't figure out how to remove it and couldn't find a commercial-free version!

Don't even THINK about calling me for the next several Thursdays!

46 Questions

2009-02-08T18:15:00.003-06:00

I've been tagged a couple times to do this (and a couple other similar ones) so I will finally get this done (if the damn computer doesn't freeze up on me again!)

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANY ONE?
...First name no,Mom wanted names that would sound right (no cutesy names) for all of us boys when we got old and feeble and would be easy for us to remember! I had a great aunt that was lobbying for me to be named after her brother (Erastus),thankfully she got out-voted! My middle name,however, is from a business man in the town where Mom grew up and she thought was the hottest thing around and her and all her friends had major teenage crushes on! Oddly enough, I am the youngest in my family and that man's youngest is now my best friend! We laugh a lot about the fact I was named after his dad!

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
...Yesterday,I was chopping onions!

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
...My handwriting is funny. it changes several times during what I am writing, sometimes slanted to the left, sometimes to the right,and often I revert to printing right in the middle of a word! And it is even worse since I had a stroke last year, the old motor control thing fails me sometimes! Thank God for the keyboard on here!

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
...Deli sliced Cajun Turkey! Won't touch the prepackaged stuff!

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
...Does a cranky cat count?

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
...Depends on how much I had to drink that night!

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM?
...DUH!

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
...Yep, still have all my original parts, but some of them don't work like they used too!

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
...HELL NO! I don't even like standing on a chair to change a light bulb!

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
...Grape Nuts!

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
...Nope, no shoestrings here!

12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
...Chocolate and peanut butter swirl

13. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
...That depends on how tight of pants they are wearing!

14. IF YOU COULD HAVE ONLY ONE ALBUM FRONT TO BACK FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
...Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

15. RED OR PINK?
...Very much RED!

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
...There's not enough room here for THAT list!

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
...My Mother, she was my absolute best friend.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST?
...I think everyone else already did!

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
...Black dress pants and brown slippers. I am not a fashionista!

BRB, gotta drain the vein!

20. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
...Oldies on the radio.

21. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
...Budweiser red!

22. FAVORITE SMELLS?
...OK I am really strange on this one...I love the smell of gasoline! I enjoy standing there at the gas station and filling the truck up (except, of course, when it is fifty below and I am freezing my boys off!)

23. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
...Bruce, finalizing plans to watch SURVIVOR this Thursday!

24. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
...Yep!

25. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
...The cat fights at the bar!

26. HAIR COLOR?
...FLESH! Okay there is still a bit up there around the edges and it was originally brown but mostly looks grey now! I used to have a beard that was red but now grows in totally grey! Needless to say that is not allowed to grow anymore!

27. EYE COLOR?
...Brown...(I have heard that people that do not have brown eyes are a quart low!)

28. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
...Nope, glasses only. I can't imagine trying to take contacts out while shit-faced!

29. FAVORITE FOOD?
...Okay here the list would be very long! I love Mexican food but I would have to say my fav meal would have to be burgers out on the grill,fresh from the garden tomatoes and just-picked corn-on-the-cob (with lots of butter and celery salt!)

30. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
...Scary!

31. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
...I'm about halfway thru Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" which is actually pretty scary!

32. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
...A black/red/tan/stiped western shirt with snaps (am I butch or what!)

33. SUMMER OR WINTER?
...no contest...SUMMER!

34. HUGS OR KISSES?
...Is either one going to lead to sex?

35. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
...No one...everyone else already did! I'm last place LuLu on this one!

36. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
...Is there anyone left that hasn't?

37. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW?
...Nothing, which is a bitch cuz I love to read. Gonna have to hit Wally World tomorrow and see what is out there.

38. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
...A picture of a mousetrap!

39. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
...The first half of the Al Gore documentary.

40. FAVORITE SOUND(S)?
...Did you say something?

41. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
...Both

42. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
...Not been far from home but I did get to go to Mexico City on a class trip way back in the Ice Age. And I have been to Arizona (Kingman)

43. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
...Nothing I can post about here!

44. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
...Here in my hometown, but the hospital has now been torn down, and my high school has been torn down, and this summer my old grade school is scheduled to be torn down, plus we need to tear down the house I grew up in....MY CHILDHOOD IS RAPIDLY DISAPPEARRING!

45. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
...Already got them!

46. HOW DID YOU MEET YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER?
...I still haven't met them yet!

Signs,Signs....

2009-02-05T05:18:00.002-06:00

...they're everywhere and sometimes they provide us quite a bit of humor!

let's take a little road trip and check some out, be sure to stay on your side of the road!

As we head down the road we can't help but be distracted by the billboards

along the way. oh look a campground!

that could be a fun place to stay!There is a town sign coming up,is that the city we are looking for?

Nope that's not it. So we keep motoring along,checking out the scenery. Now there is a warning we should probably heed

no need to get shot on our trip! hey there is another sign up there,is that our place we want to go?

Nope, a tempting place to stop be we do have a time schedule to keep! Oh look,there's a yard sale!

I would love to stop but just don't have the extra time. Hey! There's our exit!

We have to go here first because the ranch

is stuck right in the middle of it! Let's see now,where is that street we need to turn on? There it....nope not it

close but not quite. Oh look there is the ranch owners other business

Ah,there's our street

I knew it was something close to the other one!
Yeah! We're finally here! And just in time for Uncle Fred's birthday!

my fav TV channel

2009-01-31T20:04:00.001-06:00

Frisk me!

2009-01-30T03:09:00.002-06:00

Since I finally (sorta) got the DSL to work on my 'puter I've been able to cruise arond YouTube and watch some vidios! I like the funny ones of course and anything cop-rated I get a big kick out of since I work for the Sheriff. I found this one amusing since we had just been discussing the proper way to search a person at a meeting the other day! Listen closely!

Got 10" last night...

2009-01-28T15:17:00.005-06:00

...and it is a real pain in the ass! Actually we got about 3" the night before and another 7" last night. Going out at 4 in the morn to get the truck ready to leave for work and having to deal with all this white crap piled all over it (not to mention the ice underneath!) is too much fun! And then having to drive thru it! Thrilling! I didn't think I was going to make it all the way out of the driveway,got stuck half in, half out in the street. But I gave 'er hell and plowed thru,fish-tailling out into the street,doing some creative wheel work to avoid the neighbor's car that is parked there,churning along up the street,finally baja-ing it into work where the truck promptly buried herself when I had to slow down enough to park! So there she sat all day! This afternoon I had to get some trustees out to shovel her out so I could come home. Of course when I get home I find that the snowplow had piled up a bunch of snow across my driveway. Figures.
So I have to park in the street. And forget shoveling out the drive,there is a huge drift across the front of the shed that I would have to shovel away to get to the door, and guess where the snow shovel is? Right....in the shed! So I guess my poor baby will have to risk spending the night on the street, hopefully no one barrels down thru there and sideswipes her!

I've been immortalized!

2009-01-21T16:57:00.000-06:00

Success!!!!!!

2009-01-17T19:44:00.004-06:00

Doing the happy dance! FINALLY I got DSL uploaded to my computer! Still playing with it to see what I can do. It's not as fast a connection as I could have had but my 'puter is soo old that I had to connect using the USB port instead of the Ethernet connection. But it is still waaaay faster than my old dial-up! Still have some glitches to work out but I am soo happy with I have! Now maybe I can actually use this thing and have some fun with it! No more click on something...go get a beer....drink the beer...check to see if the page loades in yet...use the 'puter for a couple minutes...click again...go get a beer...check the screen...get another beer...play a minute...click...get another beer...click...get another beer...get another beer...click...restart...get another beer...get a beer...scream...get a beer.........
HMMMMM....the Bud people are gonna be pissed 'cause I won't be drinking as much while on-line!
Like that is gonna happen!!!!!!!

%$#(%&#!

2009-01-07T18:00:00.002-06:00

No tech guy showed up today,spent another hour on the phone punching this and saying that and taking to still more people who don't know a word of English! Had to go down and buy another month of dial-up to even check my e-mail! So I'm packing all that shit up and sending it back! And I am going to have to call that frickin number again and wait and finally get an idiot and make sure I don't get charged for DSL. I am ready to shit can Verizon on everything! And I may! They have the worst phone suppore/help system of anyone!

I'm soo frustrated

2009-01-05T19:09:00.005-06:00

I am soo ready to beat my computer (and Verizon!) to death! For my Xmas present to myself I decided to get DSL and stop begining totally bent-out-shape from my sooo very slow dial-up connection. I want to be able to load up pics and post them and play with my blog and soo many other things! So I jumped in and signed up.....so then I get my box from Verizon....seems simple....hook it up.....and......NOTHING! IT WON'T LOAD IN! So I disconnect everything and start over...and over....and over...! Nope,no dice,no connection! YAAARRRRGGGG! I am soo ready to take a ball bat to this thing! And forget calling Verizon with my troubles! Tried all weekend...PLUS! I sooo hate those comupterized voices telling me to say this and punch this number for that!And the damn installation CD kept telling me to contact Verizon on the web. HELLO! To get on the web I have to disconnect all your stuff and hook back up to dial-up! So the website couldn't do me any good. So again I try calling (and everytime I called I got a different menu!!)
I finally get through to a sorta live person and guess what? English is their third language! I couldn't understand a single word they said!
So I hang up and call a friend of mine who has the same set-up. She came over and went thru it...said she had the same problem when she got DSL...turns out she had a faulty modem so she had to have them ship her another one and then it worked fine.
Soo I call again today, spent almost two hours on the phone(punching this number and saying that word!) and finally got thru to a real person again. This lady spoke sorta English and we went thru the set-up again. I told her that the problem was probably the modem but we had to go thru EVERYTHING! She finally decided that the problem MIGHT be the modem but they have to send out a tech person to check it out!
So here I am again on a dail-up system that is supposed to expire tomorrow and the tech guy isn't going to be here til Wednesday!
(Oh did I mention we have an ICE STORM coming in on Wednesday!)
He'd better show up since I already arranged for the day off to wait here for him (and if he is smart he will bring a case of Bud with him!)

Smell my finger

2008-12-29T18:32:00.005-06:00

Yarrrg! Today was a major stinky hand day! Normally smells don't bother me (except dad's and brother's farts)! Today I had major smells on BOTH hands! First off when I went out to dad's Bro was working on the chainsaw,installing the new carb I got off eBay. So then after the carb was installed I got to hold the chainsaw RUNNING AT FULL SPEED! while he adjusted the carb! SCARY! That sucker was cookin'! And that spinning chain was only inches away from my arm! YIKES! But being the manly man that I am I refrained from screaming like a girl and bravely held on (of course I was also ready to throw that sucka across the yard if it moved so much as an iota!)

So the result was (oh I forgot to mention that the carb cover was OFF at the time) that my hand and the ENTIRE sleeve of my coat was coated with gas spewing out of the carb (thankfully I tossed my cig before this happened! Otherwise I might have really been FLAMING!)

Then after we get done with that and go back into the house to watch TV with dad, Bro comes up with a tube of new pain reliever cream and wants me to rub some on his back....do you know what that stuff smells like! HORRIBLE!

So here I am...my left hand smells like gasoline...my right hand smells like Ben-Gay! And neither smell goes away by washing your hands! They have to wear off!

The coat went into the washer as soon as I got home but I guess my hands will just have to stink for awhile! Out of bleach till payday and not a lemon in sight.

The smell of the gas is more tolerable than the smell of the muscle rub so I guess I will just have to drink my Bud left-handed tonight....I'll just pretend I am at a NASCAR race!

Does this car make my butt look big????

2008-12-28T17:39:00.003-06:00

Went up to Indy to the Auto Show with friends yesterday. Kinda figured this might be the last year for it with all the troubles the big three are in now. Not much really stuck me as exciting,all the new cars look sooo much alike! Ya gotta walk around and search for the emblems to see what kind of car it is! We did get a kick out of the Smart car! I would be afraid I would get run over by a semi! Or even a VW Bug! These things are seriously small!
But we did have a fun day,K wants a new pickup and was all over the H3 truck,her husband looked a bit doubtful tho! And we found out that B has already ordered a new car, a Camaro in orange! Of course it remains to be seen if it gets made or not!
After the show we went to the Hard Rock Cafe in downtown Indy. I just love this place! It's in an old,beautifully restored building and decorated top to bottom with music memorabilia,great music playing non-stop in videos on a multitude of big screen tvs that are everywhere! And the food is awesome! Since we had had a big breakfast I decided to just have a salad. But what a salad! It was called a Haystack and there was enough there to feed four people! Needless to say I brought what I couldn't eat home and have been munching on it ever since!

I GOT IT UP!!!!

2008-12-22T18:05:00.000-06:00

I'm soooo thrilled!!!!!

2008-12-18T18:01:00.002-06:00

Over at CMG, my fav Fiesta hangout, we are having a Secret Santa amongst the members. I received this ORIGINAL Fiesta newspaper advertisement from Fred! It is sooo cool! I've always wanted one of these and figured I would never get one. Hell I couldn't even afford one of the reprint posters that show up on eBay once in awhile! And something even cooler, this paper is from Fred's house! It was actually found when he was tearing out walls during his remodeling! Apparently back in the 40's (this page is dated April 28th 1940) newspaper was rolled up and used for insulation in the walls! Sounds like a major fire hazard to me even before you think of what electrical wiring was like back then! (the only thing I found in my walls when I was remodeling my kitchen was old mouse turds and leaves)

I can't wait to get this framed and hung in my kitchen!

Have you lubed today?

2008-12-15T09:53:00.001-06:00

A Fiesta Contest!

2008-12-13T17:48:00.002-06:00

Jaci over at Ravings of a Mad Housewife is having a contest! She is giving away FOUR placesetting of Fiesta, my fav dinnerware and my main love! All you have to is visit her blog and comment on the contest and you are entered to win FOUR placesetting of Fiesta in your choice of current colors! This is soo very exciting! Be sure and read her blog to, it is very entertaining!

IT SNOWED TODAY...

2008-12-06T19:22:00.003-06:00

Not as much as shown in this pic I got e-mailed to me but it expresses my thoughts exactly!

I've been tagged!

2008-12-02T19:22:00.003-06:00

My friend Craig at RainbowDishes tagged me in a simple (the only kind I can do!) meme.All you do is post the 6th picture on the 6th page of your pic hosting site (I use Photobucket, but there is also Flickr and others) and tell a bit about it.

Here the pic that turned out to be my 6th on the 6th....

Rather appropriate don't you think? This was taken a couple years ago at the James Dean Run car show in Fairmount IN. The car was built on a stretch VW frame so it was rear-engined. Under the hood was an iced down keg and the tap was the hood ornament! My kind of car!

Trying a link

2008-12-02T19:04:00.003-06:00

My friend cobaltprincess at Collectible Medium Green gave me a way to put a link in my posts that is a word instead of the whole url. So lets give it a try!

Still degreasing.....

2008-11-29T06:02:00.001-06:00

I'm beginning to think this is not a chore......it's a career!

signs,signs everywhere a sign....

2008-11-23T07:33:00.003-06:00

Not baby wants.....BABY NEEDS BEER!
My thoughts exactly!

Well if I ever get to Texas I'll know which lanes to drive in!

Degreasing the Fiesta....

2008-11-10T18:09:00.002-06:00

...and the flamingos and the walls and the floor and the stove and..............

AS some of you know I got to move back into my house awhile back and Bro moved in to dad's. Brother was NOT a good housekeeper! I'm no Betty Homemaker but I did like to keep my kitchen nice. Bro liked to deep-fry stuff so EVERYTHING in the kitchen is COVERED in a heavy layer of grease! All the Fiesta that was on display is greasy,the flamingos are slimey,the stove is atrocious and the walls and everything will probably have to be repainted,I don't think the paint will take the scrubbing! Since I just have a couple hours home each evening the clean-up process is going very slow and this stuff is VERY thick! Fortunately the Fiesta takes scrubbing very well,just lots of work. The flamingos unfortunately have lost a lot of their color, I might be able to coat them with a coat of lacquer or something to bring the shine back and just will have to live with the lighter colors. (a bright spot in this,one of the flamingos actually looks better,it was a bright pink-orange before,now it is a softer pink,looks better!) This project is going to take awhile. Wish me luck!

Cars gone....

2008-11-09T15:32:00.002-06:00

...and have been replaced with a walking frog! He doesn't do anything but walk up the window but he is cute. Also changed the template background. I've been looking around (google) at free blog templates but the instructions on how to do it are scary! So I just went with one of the standard templates blogger offers. I would like to really customize this blog but that will have to wait until I learn how to build things like this. (if anyone knows of a good simple site that has free stuff or just some tips,let me know!)

Been playing on the side...

2008-11-07T19:32:00.003-06:00

...the side bar that is! My friend Craig at http://rainbowdishes.blogspot.com/ (sorry haven't figured out have to do a link with just a word yet!) added a cool fishies thing to his blog so I had to go check it out! I found this ring thingie on the site and added it to the bottom of my right column. Further clicking found the "car of the day" link so I added that since I am into things automotive, but that one may be deleted soon, I hate that the pics are cut off,not resized to fit the space. Sorry nothing more exciting than that happening right now....hmmm...the 80's CD just finished on my lime green boombox....I guess it is time to put in RuPaul, I have been discussing a "womanless" beauty pagent today with my JC so drag queens are on my mind!

Now this is how to load up!

2008-11-03T18:07:00.002-06:00

As mentioned below, the guy started loading stuff up off the farm today. I wish I had one of these fork-lift/loader jobbies. It would make throwing the junk around much easier!

And they're off......

2008-11-03T18:00:00.002-06:00

The guy came today and started loading up the farm stuff. He took two loads today and will finish up loading in the morning. Dad did well,only bitched a little bit (but of course he may have gone off after I left!) The IH 806 really dwarfed the Massey on the trailer!

Goodbye Massey!

2008-11-02T17:33:00.002-06:00

This afternoon I helped Brother get some things ready out to the farm that have been sold. Amongst them is this old Massey Harris tractor that has been residing in the barn since I was a little kid. I dodn't think that the Massey was ever really used as a work tractor here but more as a "play toy" for us boys. We all drove this thing around, pulling the wagons and such and basically was our first driving lessons. Since by age 11 I had graduated to driving the pick-up and the family car you can guess how young we were driving this thing around! We have not farmed our land for several years and are going to rent it out to neighbors to use, we decided to get rid of the farm equipment. Most of it is old and useless but a dealer who has good luck with "hobby" farmers that like old small stuff offered us a decent price.

So goodbye to an old friend, I hope you find someone else who will love and enjoy you!

And now for some pussy....

2008-10-17T21:59:00.002-05:00

...this is CC, our barn cat. She has a bit of a story about her. She originally started out as a kitten on my front porch while bro was still at my house and I was still living at the farm. Bro kept having to check under the hood of his truck before he started it up because she liked to sleep on the engine. (we're lucky that he found that out!) So one weekend he came out to the farm and somehow she rode out there in the frame of his truck. We tried to catch her but she kept running back under the truck and hiding in the frame again. Finally we left her alone thinking she might jump out and run away from the truck. We didn't see her the rest of the day, and checked over the truck before bro left. Thought she had left. Well the next day she was back on my porch (6 miles away!) She stayed there on the porch for another week. Then the following weekend out on the farm,you guessed it,there she was under the truck! She'd rode out there again! Still couldn't catch her. So bro drove his truck down the lane,back to the barn, and left the truck sitting there for a couple of hours. Sure enough,she jumped out and ran into the barn. And she has been back there since! I call her CC,short for Combine Cat because she decided to live in an old combine we have stored back there. She is now probably about 6 months old and is a very loving cat. And fast! She doesn't hold still for much and I had a hard time getting a pic of her,she is constantly on the move! She is not a true tuxedo cat, too much white on her,she kinda looks like a black cat was walking across something and white paint sprayed upward and covered her lower parts! Hopefully I can get some better pics of her as she gets older and loses some of her kitten hyperness! But she IS a character! But then again, aren't most cats?

The neighborhood pooch

2008-10-13T19:24:00.002-05:00

Meet Whitey, aka WhiteBoy,WhiteFang,Moochie,FurButt,Worthless and anything else you want to call him! He responds to anything as long as you have a Milkbone in your hand!

Whitey is the neighborhood dog out to dad's house. He used to belong to an old man that lived down the road,we used to see him laying at the old man's feet on the porch and when the man died his kids cleaned out his house but Whitey was left behind,homeless. He stayed by the old man's house for a couple years,sleeping in the rain and scrounging food. Well we finally coaxed him into our yard (with Milkbones!) and now he hangs out with us alot. But we also found out he cages treats and food from all the neighbors! Everyone likes him and feeds him so he makes his rounds everyday getting what everyone offers him! He is definitely not underfed!

He is part husky and something else and has a very winning personality, rarely barks but is very protective of his territory to other dogs (probably doesn't want to share his treats!) but loves the cats and leaves most of all the other wildlife alone,except squirrels,he loves to chase squirrels!

He's a very good dog and I find it hard to believe some one abandoned him like that!

I got three spots!

2008-10-13T19:22:00.001-05:00

I just added a map thingy to the blog showing where my (if any!) visitors are from. I'm up to three spots!

Hey that link worked!

2008-10-12T20:30:00.001-05:00

Now I just have to remember which link it was! And it cut off part of the pic! (the same pic was used for all the tests) I need to play some more!

I wonder what this link will do?

2008-10-12T20:29:00.000-05:00

That didn't either!

2008-10-12T20:27:00.001-05:00

I'm trying to post pics from my Photobucket album which has a couple pics that are not saved to my puter. Have more ideas,stay tuned

well that didn't work...trying again

2008-10-12T20:26:00.000-05:00

[IMG]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b400/papafiesta/posterized.jpg[/IMG]

test

2008-10-12T20:25:00.000-05:00

[img]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b400/papafiesta/posterized.jpg[/img]

Kelly Girl

2008-10-11T23:19:00.002-05:00

...but I am a temporary cook instead of a temporary office girl! My nephew reopened my old steak restaurant here in town. He is normally the steak cook (when he is in town,he also drives a truck,delivering boats out of Florida to people that have way much more money than me!) but right now he is in Texas helping with the clean-up. So I was asked to come back and fill in for him til he gets back. It's been a few years since I have done the to-order cooking in a fast-paced restaurant. And,WOW!, I am majorly wiped out! I'd forgotten how much work that is! My feet really hurt! And when it came time to clean up I didn't have trustees to do it for me! That part really sucked! But I had fun and got to see a lot of my old customers that I had not seen in quite some time. But it should be just for a couple of weeks so I should be able to survive it. I hope!

Weiner Watching

2008-10-08T18:06:00.002-05:00

My job at the jail is fairly straight forward,cook,order food,schedule employees,ride herd on inmates,deal with inspectors,etc. But every once in awhile I have to do something out of my normal day. Like yesterday. I had to p-test a couple of inmates. Which means I have to go into the area (in this case, a holding cell) and watch them piss into a cup for a drug test. And I do mean WATCH! I have to make sure that they don't try and slip something into the cup other than there own stuff! Usually there is a male jailer around to do things like that but yesterday I was the only male on duty so guess who got to be the pecker checker?!

This is a very embarrassing situation, I mean, what do you talk about when you are standing there watching a guy hold his pecker waiting for the flow? "Hey,howz it hangin?" Is it really that cold in here?" "Come here much?" And especially when you get a guy who just can't "go" and you end up watching over and over for about an hour! And then you try every trick you know of to make them "go" (running water,etc) and it ends up YOU have to go really bad! It is difficult enough trying to be professional in that situation and even worse when you are dancing around and crossing your legs and thinking "GO NOW BEFORE I SHAKE IT OUT OF YOU!!!!!"

Work is interesting sometimes!

Another try...

2008-10-07T18:33:00.002-05:00

Okay,giving this a try again! I have not played with this blog for almost two years!

After mom died I moved out to dad's to help take care of him (he is a major pain in the ass but that will take a whole 'nother post on that subject!) Brother stayed here at my house and was out there with dad when I was at work. (no internet at dad's,hence no blog!)

To make a long story short,bro and I switched places. I am back at my house now and he is full time out to dad's. He's not working so that was the best bet (for me at least!) I still go out everyday and on weekends but at least I can sleep at night! I get up at 3:30 in the mornings to go to work so it was very hard getting any rest out on the farm.

So I am back home,but not much time to do anything,just a couple hours of an evening before beddy-bye. And this house needs LOTS of cleaning! Brother was not a Betty Homemaker type. So I uess just a little at a time and eventually it will get done! Time, just need lots of time!

Starting over....again

2008-10-04T20:44:00.001-05:00

Gonna have to learn how to do this all over again! Had a post all ready and sent it somewhere into cyberspace! Please be patient while I learn how to do this all over again!

SHIT!

2008-10-04T20:43:00.000-05:00

My Mother

2006-11-19T21:27:00.000-06:00

My Mom is engaged in dying right now. I wanted to post this pic,this is my fav picture of her,her graduation shot,I always told her she was a great beauty,why didn't I get that gene!. She would be totally embarrassed of me right now. I'm sorry. I miss her already. I may not be posting for awhile. Please join me in wishing her a safe journey.

No. 19 Blogworld Road

2006-11-15T20:50:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Blogworld Road!All of us bloggers decided we needed to live in the same neighborhood so we can party and enjoy everyone else's company! Ces,Ms Val and others have already moved in so I thought I'd better get down here before all the houses were gone!I'm just around the curve in No. 19,back in the field! All the shows on HGTV are always saying buy the worse house on the block and fix it up,so I picked this one!

It's the old asylum from way back before Blogworld became such a nice place! The road curves around the lake so even tho I am not right next door to everyone I can look across the corner of the lake and see Ces's Barn and Ms. Val's house. I can take the boat out and drop in on them anytime! The old asylum wasn't needed any more since because everyone is so happy now and I was able to pick it up for a song (my rendition of Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" sealed the deal)! I've got lots of work to do but now finally have room to put out the Fiesta collection! Each color can get it's own room now! I plan on having lots of parties this spring,little does everyone know that when they get here they will be handed a drink and a shovel! Lots of landscaping to be done!

Signs

2006-11-12T09:30:00.000-06:00

I wonder which color Fiesta vase would be appropriate?

This was an actual sign in Indy,it was up for a couple hours before someone finally stopped and told them how to spell the word "peonies"!

The Sunday Funnies

2006-11-05T15:07:00.000-06:00

Got stump?...

2006-10-24T21:44:00.000-05:00

...from my friend I got the elephants from,I also got a Blood Banana tree to try to save and replant in the spring. Unfortunately when I said cut all the leaves off he went nuts with the machete and almost chopped the whole thing down! I dunno if this one will make it thru the winter but I'm gonna try!

Bananas....

2006-10-24T21:38:00.000-05:00

...got my puny banana trees dug up and ready to store for the winter. I had HUGE ones last year but had a freak early freeze and lost all but one tiny little sprout that was protected by the weeds growing around it! This is what I got this year from that little sprout! Next year I will have some good trees!

Elephants on parade...

2006-10-24T21:30:00.000-05:00

Went over to a friends house today and dug up some elephant ears to store over the winter. Can you beleive all this came from three bulbs! He never digs his bulbs up and stores the over-winter to replant in the spring,just buys new ones every year. Well when I found that out I just had to go raid his flower beds! There are some big suckas in here and I didn't dig all of them up! I should have elephants out the ying-yang next year!

Well,not totally over.....

2006-10-23T15:06:00.000-05:00

The fall foliage is beautifu! This maple in my backyard out does itself every year!
And the mums are finally coming on strong! These guys are been kinda slow about doing anything but are making up for it now! I guess they just needed a cold slap to get their juices going!

The nuncia is finally putting out it's winter berries,the birds will eat well this winter!

However the tomatoes are looking a bit sickly!!!!(grin)

The party's over...

2006-10-21T09:55:00.000-05:00

This time of year is sooo sad,all my pretties are gone for the year. Now the real work begins,

gotta cut all this back,dig it up and store it for the winter!

The boys were over tonight...

2006-10-11T21:17:00.000-05:00

....nuff said! Can't type tonight!

Elvis stopped by today....

2006-10-10T20:34:00.000-05:00

...and left me this CD!

There was a knock on the door this morning and when I peeked out I found Elvis standing on my front porch! Where is the National Enquirer when you need them?!
Actually it was Bruce Borders. Bruce is from a neighboring small town and he is an Elvis impersonator. He used to be the mayor of his town and bills his act as the Mayor of Rock n Roll! Now he has gone father in politics and is a member of the Indiana House of Representatives,so I guess you can now say that Elvis is in the House!!
I sold some things on eBay and it turned out Bruce was the buyer,he just stopped by to pick the items up and gave me the CD as a thank you gift!

The Lime green car...

2006-10-08T21:13:00.000-05:00

...is a 1964 Ford Galaxie! Just goes to show I probably shouldn't blog while drinking! This Galaxie was awesome tho! I wish the actual color would come thru with the pix,it was eye-searing!

Had a brain fart...

2006-10-08T21:08:00.000-05:00

...big time! This is the sherbert Buick!

The James Dean Run...

2006-10-08T21:02:00.000-05:00

Of course there was more than Caddys there at the JD Run,I fell in love with this serbert-colored Buick....and there was a chicken there too!

Back in the saddle again....

2006-10-05T21:29:00.000-05:00

Well I'm back agin and have some catching up to do! A couple weekends ago a friend of mine and I went up to Fairmount Indiana to the annual James Dean festival and car show. Had a great time in spite of the weather which was drizzly and cold,then warm,then cold...you get the idea! How would be this Caddy for a real crusier!? Can you imagine trying to pull out of a blind intersection in this baby! And you could be your own back-seat driver!

Now this Caddy is more to my liking!

Please stand by....

2006-09-27T20:01:00.000-05:00

I have some stuff to deal with right now with my elderly parents,me and bro are tryiny to get things done,so I'm sorry I haven't been posting,have to get this stuff done.Hopefully it will get resolved soom so I can get back to my usually intering life my three fans have gotten used to reading!So for now just enjoy this pic!

Oh so busy...

2006-09-25T18:30:00.000-05:00

So sorry to my three fans out there who faithfully read my blog! I have been really busy and haven't had a chance to post! Had a big string of looong shifts at work so when I got home I basically checked my mail,MG and then crashed! Did manage to have last Sunday off so Bruce and I made a trip to Washington (Ind) for their annual cruise/show. As usual it was a very nice show,lots of great cars and the park down there is beautiful! It has it's own lake that cuts thru the park with islands and fountains and all that stuff,all beautifully landscaped. I need to head back down at Xmas as they do up the whole park with lights and such,it is really cool!

As I said lots of really cool cars,even Christine's sister was there,all dolled up and puttin on the ritz!

I got a new piece.....

2006-09-18T20:53:00.000-05:00

for the Porch (not what you were thinking,silly,if I had gotten a Piece the headline would have been in caps!!!!)
A friend of mine,Kathy,makes these chairs out of old doors and gave me this one for the Porch. I think it is pretty cool looking! I wish I was that clever and could look at an old door and see something like this! I haven't set it in place yet as I have to move some plants around and just haven't gotten to that yet. It's been much easier just sitting there,drinking beer, and admiring the plants instead of tackling it! Or maybe I'm just afraid to fight my way thru the jungle,Audry might be living in there!!!

Another celebrity car?

2006-09-12T07:15:00.000-05:00

Spotted what I thought was another famous vehicle there,the Clampett car! Upon closer inspection tho I noticed that it did not have Californy plates on it,but Kentucky. Was it possible that there was another celebrity there? Another famous person? Was it you,Christopher?!!!!

More fest....

2006-09-12T07:03:00.000-05:00

At the farm fest there were huge displays of old equipment,this years focus was on John Deere.

There was also a small car show,how'd you like to drive this all the time?! It's a 1951 Crosley. Do you think the propeller makes it go faster???

I just know Jan and Cindy are around here somewhere!

Weekend of farm fun!

2006-09-12T06:50:00.000-05:00

Took a trek over to a small town about 45 minutes from me this past weekend to their annual Fall Fest. Had a blast! This Fest concentrates on old farm equipment,steam engines and the old way of doing things. Got to watch them make apple cider,apple butter,saw logs,bale hay,make ice cream,woodwork and various other activities all without using electicity! Horse drawn machines,steam engines and just plain hard work makes you realize just how hard things were back then before you could just flip a switch and turn something on! They also had a huge flea market,saw some Fiesta but nothing I wanted. I was a bit disappointed they wouldn't let me on the Barrels of Fun kiddie ride!

It's amazing....

2006-09-07T15:50:00.000-05:00

....what you can find on the web if you will just go search! I just found out that my bromeliad is an Aechmea Fasciata,also know as the Urn Plant and the Silver vase Plant! The top phto shows a close-up of the bract spike and the tiny flowers. The lower pic is of a different bromeliad but is similar and shows how the spike comes up out of the middle of the plant.

For Ces......

2006-09-07T15:00:00.000-05:00

This is the plant Ces asked if it was donkey ear plant. I have never heard of one but they sound interesting! If anyone has a link to show me one,post it! This is a bromeliad aechema but I don't know for sure which one,there seems to be hundreds of aechmeas! It sends up a big pink spikey ball with tiny blue flowers on it about every two years. After it blooms,it sends up "pups" (baby plants) beside it and the parent plant dies. You can see the pups are getting big on this one and the parents are dying,it bloomed this spring. I have had this plant (or rather it's offspring) for over 6 years now and every other year it has bloomed.
That's Homer there keeping an eye on everything!

This Old House....

2006-09-04T20:56:00.000-05:00

...just ain't what she used to be! This is the home where I grew up in. My parents got a modular and placed it in the field next to it and the old place has really fell apart in the last few years. There is still stuff in there we are slowly getting out but the going is shakey,the floors are falling in,the ceiling coming down,etc. The old girl has got to be torn down this year. I am sad about that,but she is too unsafe to leave standing. It almost seems my childhood is being wiped out,the hospital where I was born has been razed,my old high school torn down and now my childhood home is next on the list. When I get rich and famous there will be no place to preserve in honor of me! I guess they will just have to restore the house I currently live in with a plaque out in front...."Papa Lived Here!"

In the Big House...

2006-08-29T20:45:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I spent a year in the Hoosgow now! It seems just yesterday that I started this job and this week is my one year anniversary there! Time flies in the Pokey (at least it does when you get to go home each night and not back to a cell with a bunkie nammed Bubba!!!!)

Easy come.Easy go.......

2006-08-29T06:52:00.000-05:00

Snagged this really cool looking victorian iron stand for my porch recently. It never made it! I set it out in the driveway to wash it off and mom & dad came by. Mom loved it and wants it for her house! So off to mom's it goes! Sigh. At least I get to visit it!

yesterday.......

2006-08-27T20:44:00.000-05:00

...while cruising thru that small town looking for shops and auctions,for some reason or another this shop caught my eye while driving by at about 50 mph,hmmmm,I wonder why!

auctioning.....

2006-08-26T19:23:00.000-05:00

Went auctioning with a friend today. The first one that we hit,that we had found listed on-line,was a real bust,nothing but junk very creatively decribed in the sale bill! So we went out crusing thru small towns looking for shops the browse. Along the way we spotted and auction sign,followed a narrow road forever and found this auction. A good old-fashioned estate sale! Lots of goodies to look at!
Wagons loaded down with boxes and boxes of stuff,old tools,crocks,rusted things,you know,cool stuff!

The only thing I did by was this funky looking oil lamp! Ugly to some people,neat to me!

All in all a great auction to attend,woth the drive to find it!

They are joining forces.....

2006-08-22T21:21:00.000-05:00

The houseplants and the yard plants are joining together! When they get strong enough they are going to attack! See how the Wandering Jew,the Heart Ivy and the Arrowhead vine are combining forces with the ground Ivy and the Morning Glories! It's all in their plan! (see below post)

I think I am in danger.....

2006-08-22T21:14:00.000-05:00

...of being swallowed up by my garden! I knew this would happen one of these days,the plants are creeping up onto the porch! Anyone remember the SK film "Creepshow"? Especially the segment called "Weeds"? That's gonna happen to me! One of these days I'm gonna be lazing around drunk on the porch and the plants are going to come up and swallow me up!

puddy tats....

2006-08-17T18:42:00.000-05:00

My boys are such a joy....sometimes! Then other times They are a real pain in the ass! Had to rescue Harle out of the tree today. I know damn well the little sucker could've got down own his own but got tired of the pitiful "meows" that were directed at me while I was working in the yard! So I relented and rescued his happy ass!

And then there's Homer! You think you get a bad reaction when you wake your spouse up in the middle of a nap! Teeth!!!!

It keeps growing and growing and....

2006-08-16T14:54:00.000-05:00

It's amazing the diffence a month can make! The top picture was taken just the other day and the bottom pic was taken in July! I never thought the sweet tator vines would go that nuts! They never have before!
Must be all the bullshit dripping off the Porch!

Busy,busy,busy......

2006-08-14T19:02:00.000-05:00

I'm so sorry for my three fans out there that have been reading my blog! I don't know if I mentioned the fact that I work 13 hour shifts. A ral bitch but the up-side is I work 6 thirteens in a row but then I have 6 days off! So as far as posting on my blog there will be stretches that I don't post,I'm working and sleeping and that is about it! So during the times off I have to cram everything in that most people do every day! I got the housework part covered tho by my sign that I have on my front door! I only clean house every other week! Ok,just flipped the TV on,OH WOW a Tim MaGraw concert! Major distraction! Catch ya tomorrow!!!!