Wednesday September 28th 2011

Well, work again today, Mark won’t be here so I think I have enough to keep busy.  I started mowing and it is a beautiful day to be mowing!  I finished about three in the afternoon so I figured I may as well do some spraying Roundup. I started spraying at the end and worked backwards.  I used the golf cart to haul the sprayer down then worked backwards and I finished twenty sites.  Looks like really green grass growing in the sites but I’m not sure that is what it is.  Kind of looks like it could be moss or something like that.  I can see some of the spots where I sprayed the sand burrs last week so it must be working.

I think he likes the Day Lilly!

I almost forgot!!  We had phone problems!  Linda had made a phone call and ran out of time, supposed to be unlimited!  Well, I called the Philippines and was on the phone about an hour and a half and they finally said it wouldn’t work!!  No kidding???  Now they are going to send me a new one which will probably take about three weeks.  What a farce! The are going to send me a box, I will send it back and they will send me a new one, well, that’s what they said, we will see.  I think we are going to check on a Sprint phone.  Mark owns the Sprint store so that may be the direction I will have to go.

Glad to be home, talked to Larry, our neighbor for awhile.  I was going to wax the camper but it was getting dark.  Time to go to bed Y’all….

Tuesday September 27th 2011

Guess what???  I have some pictures today!  Actually this if Thursday so I have to think back and see what I can remember about Tuesday.

Work gets so jumbled up when I don’t write everyday but I think that I picked up limbs that I had trimmed last week.  Not a lot but enough.  I started mowing again but didn’t get much done.  Cole, Rob and Mark are moving a covered deck and I get to be the block man.  Cole said he would send me some pictures of the moving process because I didn’t have my camera and actually it was Wednesday that I took these pictures…

Got a pretty decent picture of Cole but didn’t get a good one of Rob.  They have the deck almost all the way to the ground.  I will have to put one in of the transport if Cole sends it to me.

I helped most of the day with this so I didn’t get much mowing done, but tomorrow is another day.  I can’t remember if it was today or yesterday that I cleaned the kitchen floors of another mobile home.  They were a mess and they were going to lay linoleum this morning so I hurried over and did that, which was really, I mean really, a mess!  I’m not sure what they spilled on it but hot soapy water wouldn’t take it off.  The guy laying the linoleum said it would be OK because he was going to put something on it anyway and he said it was cleaner than he thought it would be.

I did get a little mowing done, not much but some.

I have a picture of a “Day Lilly”.  I didn’t even know these were here and I’ve never seen them like this.  Think they look nice but they sure don’t last long…

I just mowed late last week and I didn’t see any sign of this thing.  It is in the middle of the yard.

I’m going to put in our supper, it isn’t actually from today but I’m not sure if I said anything about it.  I was hungry for Ravioli so we got it together…

It wasn’t to bad, sure could have used some meat, it was just cheese.  Not a lot of taste to it but it was OK….

Not much going on tonight, the phone is working for now, knock on wood.

Catch you on the flip flop…..Night Y’all….

Monday September 26th 2011

Another day at work!!  Beautiful day, cool in the morning and probably get up around seventy today.  I can handle that kind of weather.

At work I got to mow.  The grass is really getting shaggy and the sand burrs are ridiculous!  The Kubota really runs and cuts good.  I stopped early because Mark thought that if I had some time or got bored maybe I could spray some Roundup.  Guess I’ll spray some roundup.  The grass grows over the pedestal surrounds in the sites and it seems like it doesn’t do any good to spray because it seems to come back with in a week or doesn’t even kill the grass.  Maybe it is getting immune to the spray.

I know I have pictures but I haven’t downloaded them yet.  Maybe tomorrow I will do that.

Not much going on tonight just a little TV and relaxing!!! Night Y’all…

Saturday September 24th 2011

Well, it is cloudy and cool this morning, not sure I will get much of anything done if it rains.

About 9AM the clouds started rolling away and I figure if it clears and the sun shines, I may mow the lawn later this afternoon.

After Linda got up we went into town and did a few odds and end things.  I stopped at Lowe’s to check on some prices for a new deck.  Figure it will cost a bundle but I was mildly surprised.  For a deck that will be ten feet by sixteen feet plus a new pump house, the material for both will be less than a thousand dollars.  We don’t need either one right now but if the price is right and I have the time I would really like to build both of them.

When we got home I decided to mow the lawn.  This was almost a perfect day to mow the lawn!  I left the lawn mower out to cool off so I could clean it up.  During this time I decided to do a little more waxing on the camper. I don’t really like to wash or was the camper but it is necessary.  I finished one side so now the front, back and one side is done and only have one side plus the basement doors and the front cap to do.  Guess I have time as long as it doesn’t snow!  After  quit waxing I washed the lawn mower. Sure looks nice!!

Well, I had a great day today!  Wish I could do this more often!  Anyway, time to sign off….Night Y’all…

Friday September 23rd 2011

Today is another day at work!  I’m going to finish cleaning the mobile home then not sure what I will do.  I did end up with ten bags of garbage plus an entertainment center that I busted up.  The dumpster was almost two thirds full from the garbage from this mobile home.

After lunch Mark had me spray roundup on sand burrs. Used almost four gallons of roundup on them.  My shoulders really hurt after this.  Glad that I’m done with the roundup, well, for awhile anyway.  We have a lot of sand burrs and hopefully this will take care of them.

When I got home I decided to take it easy since I was so sore.  Wonder if I’m getting old???

Nice quiet night tonight, not going to do anything but sit around.  Night Y’all…

Thursday September 22nd 2011

I am to the point that working five days a week sure doesn’t give a lot of time to do much of anything else.  Talking about work all the time is really getting boring.  Guess we will have to start traveling again to do something that is exciting!

Well, work was a bummer again today,  I finished staining all the boards and then stated cleaning another trailer.  The trailer wasn’t as bad as the one I cleaned a long time ago, I call it “Kim's” trailer.  Got about nineteen large bags of garbage from it and I’m sure I won’t get near that many from this one but it is bad enough.  After looking at this trailer I kind of wish that I had the time to work on something like this to put it back into shape again.  This is a three bed two bathroom trailer.  It is actually very solid but someone took a lot of things from it like the furnace, air conditioner, faucets and the electric panel.  It can all be fixed or replaced for a price but I think the home can be made to look very nice. I won’t be doing it though.

Linda fixed pork burritos tonight and wow, they are good.  Took some ibuprofen  for my sore shoulders and relaxed tonight.  Worked on the computer for awhile and the phone also.  The phone is really not user friendly but I’m learning…

That is about all for tonight, will sign off…Night Y’all…

Wednesday September 21st 2011

OK it’s Wednesday and another day at work today and it is cool out. Should be a good day.

Not anything special about today. I kept busy at work staining boards which really makes my shoulders and neck sore and by the end of the day I’m ready to take it easy!!

I fixed ravioli tonight. It wasn’t to bad but didn’t have a lot of taste. I think some sausage would have made it taste a lot better.

Linda will fix pork burritos tomorrow, looking forward to that!!

Guess that is about all for today…Night Y’all…

Tuesday September 20th 2011

Beautiful morning but it is cool.  I opened up the house for a little while and let some of the cool air in.

At work today I started on the mobile home again and then Cole had some work to do and we were getting in each others way so I decided to start with the staining.  I stained a bunch of boards for Cole but had to stop to wash a trailer, well actually parts of two. While I was doing that I decided to finish washing a trailer I had started  a couple of days ago.  I finished it and it was time to go home.  One paragraph and three different jobs, didn’t know for sure if I would get any of them done.  The stove is still dirty, but clean enough to pass.  I bet I spent five hours scraping and rubbing to get the grease off.  I think after the carpet is laid it will be ready for renting!!

When I got home I was really sore from the staining so I took some ibuprophen  and took a nice hot shower.

Almost forgot, we took Sparky in to get his stitches removed!  We got to take off his lampshade and I think he is really happy.

Not much going on tonight so I will say Night Y’all…

Monday September 19th 2011

Boy am I late writing this!!  Today is Thursday, guess I have been sloughing  it a bit.  I’ll try to remember what we did on Monday.

I know that I went to work and now what did I do??? OK now I remember, I was cleaning a mobile home that Cole had finished (almost) remodeling.  The place didn’t look real bad but after getting started it was a real mess. The carpeting has a lot of saw dust and wood particles in the knap and it is terrible trying to get out.  The kitchen floor is linoleum  and I think it has a coating of grease or something on it and it was pretty hard to get clean.

The kitchen stove, well that is another thing. There is grease all over it!  I started cleaning it and the grease is kind of petrified!  It doesn’t scrub off and the grease cutter Mark got for cleaning isn’t working either!  Well, I will just keep cleaning and scrubbing and maybe I’ll get it clean.

I’ve spent almost all day trying to clean this place and I’m not done yet. Tomorrow is another day and I will have to try to finish it then.

Frito Pie!!!  Had to have some of this, good stuff!!

Not much going on tonight, there just isn’t much time during the day to do much so I will have to try to get my shift changed so I will be able to have a couple of mornings free…. Guess that is about all for today…Night Y’all…

Sunday September 18th 2011

It is rainy this morning and a little warmer, supposed to warm up for awhile then a cool front is coming through early in the week, we will see what happens.

Went to church at Fellowship again this morning and I sang in the choir.  There was a young girl that sang a special, fast, which was about Jonah and the whale.  I think she did a good job, got a couple pictures…

Not a real good picture from the back..

I asked her mother if it was OK to take her picture and put it in the blog and she said OK and her name is Sara without the (h).  I think she will be a great singer one day.  I wouldn’t mind having a recording of her singing that song.

Sticking with the special music, in the evening service Pastor Joe and his wife Debbie sang…

Their song was kind of a tear jerker about a cripple who stated that one day he would “walk” to the Throne!  Great song.   The sermon was out of Revelation about the last battle in the world, Armageddon.  I am really enjoying the series on Revelation, learn something new all the time!!  Well, it doesn’t take much for me to learn something, I’m not real smart.

Well, I called Kim tonight and we played with the telephone and finally got it working, not sure it is what I expected, I will have to keep playing around with it to see if I can make it do what I want it to do..that’s about it for tonight soooo…..Night Y’all…  Oh, the special music last Sunday night was by a lady that I had her name wrong and will probably spell it wrong again, it is Olmalene and like I said it probably isn’t spelled right…

Saturday September 17th 2011

The weather today is a little warmer still nice out though.  Might get some rain, it’s cloudy!

I keep playing with my new phone trying to get it to work but not having any luck, I did get my remaining time transferred though so I can at least make calls until this part of the contract is up then I will have to see what happens.  I have paid for another month so hopefully it will transfer, the computer says it is in place already so maybe Tuesday I will have the new contract in place.

Not much going on today, I went in to town and did a few errands but not much else.

Linda made a big pot of chili!!  It is still cool out so this should really hit the spot!!

It was cool enough this morning that we turned the furnace on for a little while to get the chill out of the air and it worked!  Didn’t need it the rest of the day, it warmed up.

I really enjoyed the chili!  Not sure how many meals this will make but it will be a few for sure!

Tried to get ahold of Kim tonight to see if she could help me with the phone. Guess she was out with the girls but she did text me later and said to call tomorrow and maybe she could help with it.

We have black birds.  They come around in the morning and hopefully they are eating the insects.  Lots of blackbirds…

They are sure noisy, not obnoxious, but pretty noisy.

OK, I guess I don’t have much more to say so I will say..Night Y’all…

Friday September 16th 2011

Another cool day, I thought it was supposed to be a beautiful day but it is cloudy and a pretty good breeze blowing which makes it feel pretty cool.

Wasn’t to sure if I was going to be able to do the cool sealing today or not because I thought it looked like it could rain.  Mark checked the weather and it said cloudy turning partly cloudy in the afternoon.  Guess I get to go to Russell Street today!

Got all my supplies together and Mark took me over and dropped me off. I had him get four buckets of cool seal which I probably won’t need but I sure don’t want to run out.

The first one went pretty fast and I was done by a little after noon and I carried all the “stuff” down to the other trailer, about four lots down the road. This one has some leakage problems on the roof so I tarred it where it looked like it might leak. Got a before and after picture….

This roof actually looks pretty nice, only a few rust spots on it..

This was the last mobile home I had to do!  Grant started out helping but he was called away to college so I got to finish by myself.  We did sixteen trailers altogether and actually this wasn’t the last one but the last one only took a few minutes to finish.  I had run out of cool seal on the last one in the park and only took about twenty minutes to finish it.  Now it looks like I am going to get to wash all the trailers.  Not my idea of a good time! I had to force myself to wash our camper, it isn’t one of my favorite jobs!

Sparky has a friend that comes over and plays?

I think he is a mixture of Rat Terrier and something else. Sparky is the one with the lamp shade.  He had a tumor on his back leg removed.  He is getting used to the lamp shade but still has another week to go until he gets it off, sure will be glad when it is gone!

Well, after the cool sealing I still had time to blow rocks off the road, that is OK work, better than sweeping for sure!

Tonight when I got home I mowed the lawn!  Beautiful evening for mowing! I mowed Daniel’s lawn also even though they don’t live there anymore.

I fixed some egg burritos for supper. They hit the spot.  I was kind of hungry for something like that.

Well, we are having electronic problems!  My new phone still doesn’t work so I got another month on my old phone (with a different phone number) so we would have something to use.  I spent more time talking to the Philippines this morning before going to work.  Not fun, not profitable!

Linda’s “Nook” can’t get online so we messed with that for a few hours, then I messed this computer up with the security code, what a bummer of a night!!! Guess I will call it a day and go to bed…Night Y’all..

Thursday September 15th 2011

Today is sunny, windy and very cool.  The wind is out of the North at a pretty good clip. I had to put on a hooded sweat shirt to keep warm.  When I got to work, (went in early) I tried to call about my new phone again. Same thing, turn it off, turn it on, try to make a phone call etc.etc.etc.  Still doesn’t work.  I bought a new monthly plan and it still doesn’t work.  It was set for today and when I got home it was on the computer and on my charge card but not on the phone, it still doesn’t work!  I did stop at Wal Mart and the girl there had a good explanation, well, I thought it was good, the last phone service for my phone number doesn’t expire until the 19th and the time didn’t transfer, even though I bought a new plan it still won’t work.  I finally put another month on my old phone so we have a phone now.

Back to work, I get to clean the drive ways.  They worked on the road and used a lot of “pea” gravel and oil or something but the drive ways are full of gravel and Mark likes a clean driveway.  Sure looks a lot nicer when they are clean, so I got the shovels and the leaf blower and went to work.  Bet there was a half ton of gravel on the driveways!  Took about an hour and a half but I got it cleaned!

After that I did the garbage detail and picked up trash.  With the wind blowing like it is I had a lot to clean up.  I think Missouri has the, what do you call them, litterbugs?  We have some, maybe a lot, that are habitual litterbugs. You can count on the coke cans and the McDonald bags in about the same place every day.  Kind of sad they don’t take a little pride in their city…

Well this afternoon I get to wash mobile homes.  One has a lot of smoke damage on the outside where someone tried to burn it down.  It did not clean up.  The second one did a lot better, had a lot of rust stain on the side but it did come off pretty good and even though I didn’t get to finish it sure looks a lot better.

I’m a little sore tonight, guess I’m not used to all the scrubbing with a brush.  Guess I will be OK though, should have taken some Tylenol but I didn’t..  Oh well, guess I will say Night Y’all….

Wednesday September 14th 2011

It’s cloudy cool and rainy this morning.  Bet I won’t work today!!  I still have a couple more mobile homes to cool seal but not if it is raining.  I will go into work anyway just to see if maybe he has something else to do.

There is nothing else to do except a little staining and I don’t think I will do that today.  Before I went home though I asked if I could use his office phone to try and get my new phone operating.  I was on the phone for over an hour, turn it off, turn it on, make a call, turn it off, take the battery out and finally they said to try it again tomorrow!  I need the phone! I did ask where she was and she said the Philippines so I asked if I could talk to someone in the US. Guess they don’t have anyone in the US, guess I couldn’t talk to the floor supervisor either.  Kind of frustrating.

Well, I went home, tried all day to get the phone to work with no luck.  Well I will try to call again tomorrow.  Maybe I will have better luck.

Linda and I didn’t do much of anything today.  I could have gone to church tonight but forgot it was Wednesday!! When I remembered it was already seven and church had already started.  I don’t get to go on Wednesday night because I usually work to late.

Well, not much else to say, glad I got to rest today, maybe I will be able to go great guns tomorrow….Night Y’all…

Tuesday September 13th 2011

We are really having a run on beautiful weather!!  Nice and cool this morning with a nice little breeze…again!

More cool sealing today!  Five more to do and maybe I will never have to climb up on another roof or cool seal another roof!!  Sure hope not, at sixty seven I think my time for hard labor is about over..

Well, things went very well today and the sealing went a lot faster than I imagined it would.  I finished sealing two mobile homes and the second one was one that was just moved in and very tall.  The step ladder was a long way from the top so I did the edges from on the roof.  Went very well except that the roof was getting hot and was kind of uncomfortable sitting and kneeling on the roof but I finished the edge and finished the rest of the roof which was in very good shape so it went pretty fast.

I still had two hours left so I had one more here in the park to do and by golly I’m going to try to finish the third one!!  Might not have been a good idea, I ran out of cool seal and while walking on the roof I  broke the ceiling in at least two places and probably a third! What a bummer.  The people inside said they could see every place I walked because the ceiling bowed down.  Oh well, more work for Cole.  I will finish the rest of the trailer from the ladder so I won’t have to walk on it anymore.

Well, no pictures today.  I may have one for tomorrow but then again maybe I won’t!! 

I was tired tonight, three mobile homes, almost, and I’m tired but if the weather would hold out I could finish tomorrow.

I watched the history channel tonight and it was about a pawn shop in Las Vegas.  It is very amusing. Chumley is one of the workers and he does some really funny things but the show is very interesting and amusing.

Time to shut it down now so I guess I’ll say…Night Y’all…

Monday September 12th 2011

Monday morning and it is cool out and I think it will get kind of warm. That is OK at least there is a very nice breeze.

I think it is going to be a nice day to cool seal mobile homes again today. There are still seven more to do!  If I can get two a day I will get done this week, if it doesn’t rain.  I’m starting on the worst looking one in the park. The mobile home has been empty for about seven years and the roof looks like it is going to rust through…wish I had gotten a picture before but here is a picture after…

The rust streaks still show on the side of the home but the roof took the seal very nicely.  This is also the same mobile home I took nineteen large bags of trash out of when I cleaned it.

Well, I finished two homes today and it was just beautiful outside, what a pleasure to work outside on this kind of a day.

Five more left to do and so far the weather is holding up nicely.  Supposed to rain Wednesday I think so I will have to wait until the end of the week to finish up.

Not a lot going on tonight, will take it easy and get rested up for tomorrow…..Night Y’all…

Sunday September 11th 2011 (9/11)

Well, today is another beautiful day, cool this morning and I’m sure it is going to be a nice day.  Went to Church at Fellowship again this morning and I even sang in the choir, they don’t mind if I’m not a member so if I know the songs I will sing. They don’t practice, well, next Sunday they are going to start practicing for the Christmas Cantata and I think I will practice also even though we won’t be here for the Cantata. Should be in Mississippi or somewhere like that.

We took it easy in the afternoon and didn’t do to much.

Went back to church tonight and the special music was a woman from our Sunday School class and I think her name is Olma, not sure but I think that is it…

I also took a picture of the corn field behind us.  It is ready to pick and I figured they would have done it but it’s still there…

Doesn’t seem like it was very long ago I was watching it sprout up and I took a picture when it was about two inches tall.  What a difference a summer makes!

Well, time to call it a day.  Night Y’all…

Saturday September 10th 2011

Today is Saturday and I don’t have to work today!  Sparky and I messed around this morning for awhile doing nothing much important.

I keep looking at the camper and I know I have to wash it and also wax it! I keep trying to avoid this job but I guess it won’t get done unless I do it. I started washing it and it was pretty dirty, the hood has some spots on it and I would say they are fly specks but not sure, I know they won’t come off. I don’t know what else to try, scrubbing doesn’t work and neither does soaking.  I did finish washing the camper and decided to put the awning out to let it dry out.  What a mess!!  Looks like mud on the awning! This is something else I need to do though and it sure wouldn’t look good without scrubbing it..

I did do a little waxing.  The front and the back and now all I have left to do is the sides.

I started the generator and it started right off, I was really surprised.  Let it run for awhile so it would get warmed up and get the oil flowing.

We took the camper to town today, need to keep it running, the only problem I see is the gas gauge doesn’t work!  I don’t go very far without filling up the tank so I guess I can live with it.

We had another steak from Johnson’s Food Market. We got two T Bones and They weren’t nearly as good as the one we got last week.  It was pretty tough and the best part of the steak had been taken off so we were kind of disappointed in them this week.  Probably won’t get one next week.

Bought a new phone at Wal Mart but won’t get it activated for awhile, want to use the time on the other one first, then I will get it activated…

Time to close for today…Night Y’all…

Friday September 9th 2011

This will be kind of short.  The weather is beautiful again today, cool and a nice breeze. I know I will do some more cool sealing today.

I was right, I am cool sealing. I should get close the three done toady because I started on one yesterday and all I have to do is finish it up.

Got to working on the second mobile home and cleaning the roof I find that there was a lot of tar on the edges that were cracking and splitting.  The cracks were wide enough I could almost stick my finger in them. I had Mark get about three cans of tar because I figured it would take at least two cans to fix the cracks.  I was close it took about one and two thirds of another one.  Then I got to sealing and it went pretty good and I got done in good time but as I finished I looked at the one I did this morning and it looked like the rust was bleeding through the seal!  Not sure why this happened but thought I would have to do it again but will probably be after I finish the other seven.

Well, not much else to say, didn’t do to much the rest of the day. Nothing much going on the rest of the night.  I’m going to check my pictures…

Here is a picture of Sparky with his “lamp shade”.  He had a growth on the back of his leg that the vet took off and put about four or five stitches where he removed it.

Not much going on tonight so will sign off until tomorrow…Night Y’all…

Thursday September 8th 2011

Back to work today but the weather looks like it is going to be gorgeous! It is very cool outside and the wind is blowing, wonder what I’ll be doing today???

Well, since it has been so dry the grass isn’t growing so I get to do some “cool sealing”.   This is pretty good weather for that kind of work.

The day went great and I cool sealed two mobile homes and started on the third one.  It was really a good day for working outside.

Took a picture of our petunias that we have in front of the garage. 

Red, White and Blue! Well, they look kind of purple but they are doing pretty good.

Now for the biggy…our “Heirloom Tomato…

This tomato is humongous!  Oh, no it isn’t, that isn’t a glazed donut next to it, it is a cheerio!  This is the only tomato from this plant.  Guess I will need to pull it out because the blooms are almost non existent now.  Oh, well, next year maybe.

I’m tired tonight and I’m kind of sore, think I will probably take some Tylenol and go to bed….Night Y’all..

Wednesday September 7th 2011

Slept good last night but we were really tired!

We brought Ken and Ruth a loaf of home made bread which we are having for breakfast.  We don’t usually eat a lot in the morning so this hit the spot.

We left for Lincoln about 8:30AM and figured that would be enough time to get to the funeral home by 10:00AM.  We made it in plenty of time.  The funeral message was nice and there were quite a few people there. The drive out to the cemetery  was a long drive. I was surprised that it was so far out in the country, must have been ten miles.  The grave side ceremony was also nice. The American Legion had a part in it since Donald was in the service.

Donald left a couple of young kids which is sad, Ashley is seventeen and Donald Jr is fourteen..

I believe one of their brothers or sisters are going to take them in and keep them until they are of age.

I had to keep watching my watch, we wanted, or I wanted, to get on the road so we could get back and pick up Sparky before the vet clinic closed at 5:30PM.

After the funeral we went back to Ken and Ruth’s and packed up our can and had a sandwich before we left.  I figure we have just about enough time to get to the clinic just before they close.  The trip went fine, Linda called the clinic to check for sure what time they closed and it was 5:30PM so we told them we would try to make it but wasn’t sure if we could or not. at 4PM we still had about 100 mile to go, it would be close!  We did make it about 5:25PM and got to get Sparky.  He has a collar on so he won’t pull the stitches out and he does not like the collar.

We got home around 6PM and unloaded the car and tried to make Sparky comfortable.  He couldn’t sleep in his cage, he couldn’t get in his cage so guess what???? He got to sleep with us!!  Lucky Dog!  That’s about all for tonight….Night Y’all…

Tuesday September 6th 2011

We decided to go to Springfield IL today and go to Linda’s brother’s (Donald) funeral .  We stopped at Ken and Ruth’s place in Carlinville IL and going to stay with them tonight, go to the funeral tomorrow and then back home. A real quick trip!

We had a good trip going up to Carlinville and didn’t get lost.  There was a lot on construction in I55 which took us a lot longer than we expected. The visitation wasn’t until 4PM so we had plenty of time.

Before we left we dropped Sparky off at the vet clinic and Linda wanted to get a small tumor on his back leg checked out to see if  it needed to be removed.  On the way up she got the call and decided to go ahead with the removal and the biopsy to see if maybe it was cancer.  They are really nice at the vet clinic but for the price they charge they ought to be nice!

Ruth was playing cards so we visited with Ken until it was time to leave. We picked up Ruth and went to the funeral home and got to meet Linda’s relatives.  I didn’t recognize any of them except her brother Eugene and his wife Barbara.  I think Linda was glad she got to go and see them even though she had a hard time remembering who was who.  It had been a long time since she had seen any of them.

After the visitation we stopped at a Mexican restaurant  for supper.  It was a very nice place, the prices were decent and the food was excellent.  Didn’t get a picture and I should have.  The name of the place was Xomilchco or something like that.  I think it was a Mayan name.  The food was very good though.

We visited with Ken and Ruth for awhile after getting back to their place but I was so tired I couldn’t hardly stay awake. Ruth had to kind of make a joke of it, she said that people can only listen to her for about ten minutes then they start doing strange things!  This wasn’t strange for me, more like normal!  Got a picture of Ken and Ruth….

We always have a lot of fun with them, she is kind of crazy (funny)!

That was about it for the night.  I had to get to bed…Night Y’all…

Monday September 5th 2011

Beautiful morning!  It is so much cooler this morning than it has been, the cold front made it through.  It rained just a little bit but I can see blue sky to the West and will probably clear up soon, well, it cleared up by about 1PM.

It was nice enough and the wind was blowing out of the North so I decided to bake bread.  I don’t like to bake when it is so hot out that the air conditioner has to run that much harder to keep it cool. Bread…

The red and green stuff is jalapeno peppers!  This bread will bring tears to your eyes!  For some reason our peppers are exceptionally hot.  After I made bread Linda made zucchini bread.  We had a few fresh zucchini and decided to grind them and make some bread and freeze some more.  We have enough to last us a long time now.

I took over our okra, yellow squash and peppers to the neighbors, his mother loves the jalapeno peppers!  I couldn’t eat them, they are to hot for me! 

We are making plans to go to Springfield, IL tomorrow, well actually to Carlinville to see Linda’s brother, well, actually Linda’s older brother passed away and we are going to the funeral.  I’m not looking forward to the drive up there for some reason and I really didn’t want to take the time off work, not because of the money, but I just don’t like to call off but I did.

For our supper we had tomato and bacon sandwiches.  Linda used the jalapeno bread and at times she had tears rolling down her cheeks, “really good stuff”.

Oh, I mowed the lawn today, figured it was nice enough to do it, and it was!   I even wore a sweater, it really wasn’t that cold but I was comfortable.

Time to go for another day, will be a long day tomorrow, we haven’t figured out if we can board Sparky or not being a holiday, they aren’t open until 7:30AM Tuesday so will have to wait to see if we can board him, if we can’t I suppose he will have to come with us….Night Y’all….

Sunday September 4th 2011

It is a little cooler this morning but I think it may get warm, not like it has been though.

Went to church at Fellowship again, nice church, I like it there. We have a new Sunday School teacher and I can’t remember his name, I think it is Tom but not sure.  He is pretty good and I think we will enjoy him as a teacher.

In Church we had special music by Sheila, and she is a very good singer. She sang a song called “When it Rains, It Pours”.  Very interesting song and she did a very good job.  I guess she lost her place when she started so she started over but I sure couldn’t have told you she  lost her place.  She is also very animated when she sings, makes me wonder if she has done this professionally?

Our choir in the back ground is pretty small and I will probably join if I can get them to at least go over the songs once before church.  I need the practice and some songs I just don’t know.

We had left over steak and short ribs for lunch.  Still very good and I made some instant mashed potatoes which were pretty good and Linda even said they tasted better than the mashed potatoes in Nutrisystem but then I think dog food tastes better than Nutrisystem food, not that I eat dog food but Sparky has some that sure smells better than her food!!!

I was going to go to church at Morehouse 1st General Baptist Church but I guess they cancelled it tonight like Fellowship did.  I ended up going to the 1st Baptist Church (Southern) in Morehouse and a young fellow had the sermon which was pretty good, very short but to the point.  I enjoyed it!

Tonight is a night that we won’t do much again, sound familiar???  We don’t do a lot in the evening.  We opened up the house in the afternoon and it was cooling down nicely.

The temperature in the house is going down and I’m sure it is going to be cool tonight, great for sleeping….Night Y’all….

Saturday September 3rd 2011

I’m glad I have today off, it is going to be another hot day.  It isn’t cool this morning so I know it is going to get hot.

I worked a little in the garden, picked some okra. It is coming on pretty good now, everything else except for the tomatoes are gone and the tomatoes are starting to produce again, I think.  There are a bunch of little tomatoes coming on and in another couple of weeks we should start getting some more.  I’m not sure what happened but I may be allergic to okra!!  My fingers and my arm itch like crazy.  I put some stuff on them but didn’t help much so Linda has some chigger cream that I used and that did a pretty good job of relieving the itches!

We went to town to take care of some business and of course, go to Wal Mart.  Linda looked at the “eBooks”  and decided she needed the Nook. One thing about the eBook is they don’t take up hardly any room at all, not like the paperback books.  The books are a little cheaper too.  When we got home she practiced on it for the rest of the evening.

Got a picture of the corn field across the road…

Now this is the field in back of use as the sun is coming up..

This field will be gone in another week probably.  I put moth balls around our house  trying to keep the mice out.  Hope it works, I know they will make the big move when it gets cold but moth balls are pretty cheap.

We ordered steak dinners, T bone and a rib eye, from Johnson’s grocery store in Matthews.  They have pretty good meat there…

The steaks were excellent!  The baked potato was probably the best I’ve had since I don’t know when and the price was probably the best part, $5 for the T bone and $6 for the rib eye!

The T bone was 16 oz and the rib eye was 12 oz. They have these on Friday and Saturdays.  We will probably get them again.  Also got a large package of short ribs for six dollars, they were half price.  Haven’t tried them yet though.

Time to call it quits for today I guess and get some sleep…Night Y’all…

Friday September 2nd 2011

Glad today is Friday, I think I’m ready for some relax time! It is supposed to be hotter today than yesterday!  Supposed to be around 100 today but it could be worse.

I didn’t have any mobile home to clean so I helped Cole for a little while and closed and turned on the refrigerator in another mobile home that I had opened to let it thaw out (the one that had a ton of ice in the freezer) and it had ice in places you couldn’t see.  It was open over night so should be thawed out by now!!!

Mark didn’t really give me any job to do today so I’m looking for things to do. I did some spraying (lots), weed eating, mowed some weeds down and used my trusty Swiss Army Knife to cut some others down that looked like small trees.  Also used my knife to cut some sucker limbs off a tree that really didn’t look good.  That took awhile because they were quite big!

Well, I left work early, about 4:30PM, only worked seven hours today.  When I got home the neighbor across the road, actually it’s a corn field, was picking it.  Didn’t think it was quite ready but what do I know.  I will have to take a picture tomorrow.  I also used the tiller and tilled up some of the grass in the garden, took awhile and then it took about as long to get the grass from around the tines!

Going to take it easy tonight and rest up.  Can’t believe how thirsty I am!

Time for bed I guess, got things to do tomorrow…Night Y’all….

Thursday September 1st 2011

Kids are back in school already, fields are turning brown and won’t be long before they will be picking corn and harvesting soy beans.  Summer is coming to an end, but, it is still hot out!  The mornings are really great but by about 9AM it starts getting pretty warm and by 2PM it is hot!

I cleaned another mobile home today and it wasn’t to bad but after being empty for a year or more it gets a lot of spider webs and also a lot of saw dust from being remodeled.  Took about three hours to clean it. Later I took some carpeting out of a closet which had a hole in the floor so that is something else now that Cole will have to repair.

I did a few odd jobs around the park and then sprayed a little more Roundup!  I’m hoping the weeds aren’t getting immune to it because they don’t seem to die off like they used to.

I was ready to go home.  The heat and walking around is making me tired. After getting home I picked the Okra which is starting to produce now so we are getting quite a little bit from the plants.  Looks like the tomato plants are starting to get more little ones on them so maybe by the end of September we will get some more.  I was almost ready to pull them up.

Linda got some bad news yesterday, her brother Donny died.  He had stage four cancer and to use oxygen also because his lungs were shot from smoking for fifty years or something like that. We probably won’t get to go to the funeral, not sure yet though.

I’m tired tonight, so we just laid down for awhile just to relax and the rest of the night went pretty good.  Can’t believe how much I drank after I got home.  Think I may have been just a little dehydrated.  Well, time to say, Night Y’all…

Wednesday August 31st 2011

Last day of August!  Supposed to get pretty warm today.  Not sure what I will be doing at work except for cleaning one of the mobile homes.

I started on the mobile home that was just finished  remodeling. Mark said the freezer part of the fridge was full of ice.  It sure was! I got out most of the ice that was loose and dug a bunch more out but there was still about a twenty pound chunk hanging from the top front and it was pretty solid. After getting what I could get I vacuumed the floor in the bedroom which had a bunch of sawdust and wood splinters etc.  I had to sit on the floor and use the hose to get it cleaned up.  After doing that I went back to the freezer and worked on it for awhile and it is starting to come out a little easier.  I should have had my camera!

I worked on that all morning and finally got the freezer cleaned out then Cole and I moved a set of old steps to the back door of another mobile home.  The steps are about eight inches to tall so I will have to dig holes for them to set in and get it leveled out.  Wasn’t to hard and Cole thought that it looked good. At least they were solid after I got the dirt back around the legs.

Had a couple of hours left and I decided to stain a couple of doors that Cole had put in.  I really wasn’t looking forward to that but I have plenty of time.  They didn’t look to bad after I was done, the first was kind of sloppy but the second one looked nice, at least I thought so.

I fixed some jambalaya for supper, I used smoked sausage and turkey. As an after thought I added brown rice and okra.  Turned out pretty good..

Linda had a turkey sandwich but this was pretty good…

Not much going on tonight going to rest up and take it easy until bed time… Night Y’all…