My day

You may have noticed that I'm not doing any in-depth entries lately.  I've tried to add something every day, but there isn't much content.
My daughter has breast cancer.
With that on my mind, there isn't much else that seems important.  
Tomorrow she will find out what stage.  
I am praying.  Not for a miracle, mind you.  I don't expect God to bypass the laws of nature just for me.  Today I am hoping the cancer is stage 1, but it is what it is and my prayers won't change that.  
 Whatever the stage, I will praying that Rachel gets the right doctors, and that whatever treatments she receives that will rid her of cancer.  
You bet I'm scared.  In fact, if I were given the choice I would probably trade places with her, because I've had a good, long life and my children are on their own.  I have enjoyed my grandchildren.  I am blessed.  
But then again, who knows what you would really do, given the opportunity?
I don't have that choice. 

My day was pleasant, in spite of all that.  I got to babysit my granddog, Titan.  He and Iris played for hours and made me laugh out loud several times.  Heather came to pick him up, and we had a nice visit, discussing my tattoo.  (I'll bet you all thought I had forgotten about that, right?)

  I started a new strawberry bed, digging up plants from the old, grassy patch.  I wonder if that will work?  My mom and dad always waited until the strawberry crop was finished and the plants started sending out runners.  They used the baby plants on the runners to start a new strawberry patch.  I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained.  If the transplanted plants die, I'll go buy some new ones; if they live, I have saved some money.  
I'm really hoping it doesn't rain tonight or in the morning, because we plan to bring Bonnie-the-Jersey-cow and her calf home.  I need Miss Personality back in the pasture.  
As is my custom lately, I chorded on my guitar as I sang a few songs.  I have lovely callouses on the fingertips of my left hand and am ready to sing any time I have the opportunity.  

Small town stuff

No particular reason for sharing this except that I like it

Our weekend was a good one.  The daughter's car, formerly known as the Smokin' Hot Neon, is back on the road after the deer incident, but still having some problems.  She's had it in the shop a couple of times, with Cliff trying to help her fix things.  One problem seems to be unfixable:  the left headlight aims way too high, and because the car is mostly plastic, there doesn't seem to be a way of bending things to get it right.  Rachel was concerned about taking up so much of her dad's weekend, but as I told her, every day is his weekend now and it isn't that big a deal.  My sister-in-law Rena and I just go sit in the shop with our dogs and watch the action, which makes it a family gathering.    
The grandson and Heather showed up yesterday to do some target practicing.  Later on they went to the river bottom to shoot, with more friends.  They found cops there, waiting to catch some local boys riding unlicensed four-wheelers and dirt bikes down there.  My grandson called and warned the boys.  It's a small town; young folks watch out for one another, knowing they may be the next ones doing something mischievous and needing a heads-up.  
It's none of my business.  


A couple of weeks ago, Cliff advertised his prize tractor, the one he so laboriously restored, for sale.  He put what he thought was a ridiculous price on it.  Over the past week he has received quite a few calls, and today a guy is coming from St. Louis (200 miles away) to look at it.  I think Cliff is a little nervous now. 

Here's the "before" picture.  

Here's "after".

I'll let you know if it sells. 

A couple of perplexing things concerning my blog lately.  First of all, the entry right below this one has been tweeted four times and shared seven times on Facebook.  For the life of me, I can't imagine why anybody would think that entry is interesting enough to share.  Maybe it's the kittens?  

The other thing is this:  When I checked to see what websites bring people to my blog, I found THIS BLOG was sending a reader or two here every day.  Yesterday I finally found out I am listed under blogs he reads.  Now I can't imagine what first drew him here; my daughter suggested maybe the entries I've done about them doing so much shooting in the pasture.  

You will now find his site listed under "links" where it says "I link to him because he links to me".  

Linky-love, don't you know?  If you love guns, I imagine you'll like his blog.  I don't think many of my readers are gun nuts.  

And that's your report from someone living about two hundred yards off Redneck Road.

I'm amused at this

I received a panicky email this morning that informing me that on January 1, 2012, the government is going to initiate a 1% tax on all bank transactions.  At that time, the government is also going to require all social security checks to be received by direct deposit.  "Obama's finance team" is responsible for this whole dastardly scheme.  
At the bottom of the email is a link to Snopes, with the advice to "check it out on Snopes".  
I clicked on the link.  
Sure enough, it took me directly to information about this email.  
Snopes informed me that Obama had nothing to do with this proposal; only one lone representative with no support has proposed the 1% tax.  
Oh, and by the way, January 1, 2012 has come and gone.  
Hey, it made me smile.  An email that includes a link verifying that it is a lie.    


On another note, I took word verification off my comments yesterday.  I get an email when someone leaves a comment, and I received some emails of comments that were obviously spam.  However, when I came to my blog to delete them, they weren't here.  Blogger is not allowing them on my blog!  
Good work, Google Blogger.  So as long as the spam is being taken care of automatically, I can keep things simple for my commenters.  
I am already getting advice and help from Canadian readers, and will be receiving a map before long.  Some people, one of them my daughter, have suggested we get AAA before we travel.  I'll check that out and see how much it costs.  


Oh, do you know anyone within twenty miles of Kansas City who needs and deserves a new roof?  Click HERE to nominate them.

random

Some Iowa guy on a tractor message board mentioned that he and his grandson were looking for a 550 Oliver that they could restore together; after checking with Cliff to see if it was OK, I posted Cliff's email address on the board and told the man Cliff had two of them, as well as a Super 55 (a similar tractor).  
He contacted Cliff and then they talked on the phone.  Cliff priced the best 550 for $3,500... it's my favorite, and the one he was going to paint next... and the more worn-out one for $1,200.  The man and his grandson drove all the way from Iowa to look at the tractors, and he talked like he'd be back after MY tractor, the good 550 Oliver; perhaps today.  No cash changed hands, however, and he hasn't called back.  
I haven't decided whether I want this guy to show up or not:  I personally talked Cliff into driving clear to Kansas to get that tractor!  It has power steering, something that's hard to find on an Oliver 550 tractor.  I've been looking forward to seeing it painted up like new.    
On the other hand, if both tractors, the cheaper one and the more expensive one, were painted and restored, they'd look identical sitting side by side.  What's power steering to me?  I don't drive the tractors around here.  For that matter, what's power steering to Cliff?  He wouldn't be using the tractor for farm work; he has a perfectly good John Deere for that.  So if the man buys my favorite tractor, it really doesn't matter.  
I should mention that Cliff has offered to call the guy and tell him he's changed his mind about selling that particular tractor.  I feel as though if someone comes all that distance (400 miles round trip) to look at a tractor, it wouldn't be right to back out now. 
We'll see if MY tractor stays or goes.  I'm going to assume that whatever happens is for the best, because that's usually how things work around here.  
As a result of posting Cliff's email on the message board, he also got a couple of inquiries asking whether he ever paints tractors for other people; they have seen the pictures of his 1855.  He is not so sure about doing this because he has no idea how to price his services. 


Yesterdays steak turned out just dandy, if a wee bit overdone.  It was tender and tasty.  
Iris is still sleeping in the bedroom.  She doesn't even get out of her bed until we are both out of bed, and at one point yesterday she was in there during the day, instead of in the computer room with me.  Who knows what goes through their little doggy-brains?  
Jody no longer has a headache and has forgotten she ever had those little nubbins of horns.  She already looks much better without them.  She is the color of a purebred Jersey, but the shape of her head shows her Holstein genes.  
Bonnie-the-Jersey-cow could be bred any time, but I haven't witnessed her showing signs of heat.  Come on, Bonnie!  Get with the program.  

Today

Cliff is at his brother's place, helping him fix a neighbor's tractor.  I know Cliff is enjoying himself, since he loves the challenge of getting a tractor working the way it should.  
It's the strangest feeling, however:  I don't think Cliff has been off the place without me since he retired, except maybe to run to town and get tractor gas.  I feel like part of me is absent!  Maybe it will be good for me when he goes back to work part time.  It's official, by the way.  He'll start the last full week of next month, and continue to work one week each month.  I asked him, "What if you don't like doing this?"
"Then I'll quit," he said.   
I got a little more harvest from my weed patch garden a couple days ago.

Some good-sized sweet potatoes.  Since I haven't had much luck storing sweet potatoes in the past, I think I'll boil these, peel them and mash them, and freeze them.  When my cousin was here from Iowa, she told me they dug some of their sweet potatoes early because the moles had started eating them.  Guess what?  

Varmints have been at mine, too!  If I hadn't heard my cousin's story, I would have blamed mice.  
I brought in some peppers too, since there's a chance of freezing and frost Tuesday and Wednesday nights.  
Because of a month-long drought, the grass in the pasture to which Adam's horses had access was getting pretty sparse.  Yesterday Cliff did some electric fencing that gave them a lot more grazing room.  
Now, when horses find out they have access to new territory, they get excited because they think they've escaped.  When they're excited, they run.  And they run so fast, they'll run right through electric fence, breaking the fence and getting a shock in the process.  I looked out the window and saw Tude in a place the horses weren't supposed to be, and Cliff and I got him out and patched up the electric fence.  
We were very thankful it was Tude and not Sassy; once she's been shocked, she will not go near the place where she entered, and she won't let anyone near her.  
Anyhow, this morning when Iris and I headed out for a walk, I saw the horses were in their proper place and breathed a sigh of relief.  However, when I got to the back of the electric-fenced area, I saw it was down in two places; so I got to patch up some electric fence by myself.  I imagine by now those two have experienced enough shocks to realize where the fence is.   
Those who pity our neighbors on either side of us because you think they are victims of the poor economy, think again.  In both cases they are victims of their own bad choices and wrong decisions.  
Enough said on that.  
I do have hope that something will begin to happen with the big house on the west, because I saw online that the local bank has a court date with the squatter in November.  Something about Unlawful Detainer.  It would be SO great to have that place cleaned up!  

Non-political

It's time I sit down and type something, if only to push Ron Paul on down the page.  
My cousin Pauline and her husband, Marvin, spent the night with us.  They're on their way to St. Louis to a funeral.  We had a nice visit, and they brought us some apples, huge sweet potatoes, cucumbers, eggs, and other goodies.  These are people who do things like the Amish in a lot of ways:  canning, juicing, preserving.  Blight never troubles their tomatoes, and they are the winners in any battles with squash bugs.  
Can you tell I'm jealous?  Well, I envy their success, but you'd never find me putting all the effort into it that they do, so how can I be jealous? 
My garden this year was almost a total failure and I had Cliff mow the main plot.  It was that bad.  Our early corn was good, and the cabbage and carrots.  The tomato plants are taller than my head, but I haven't gotten as many tomatoes off a dozen plants as I would normally get off one plant.  Seriously, I may totally swear off gardening again.  
My daughter's ex-husband, Jerry, is having heart surgery today; one artery was 95% blocked.  Prayers would be appreciated.  We all care about Jerry.  
Meanwhile, Cliff had his routine blood test Monday.  His sugars are high for about the third time in a year; the nurse who called said he isn't diabetic, but he needs to watch his carbs, fats, and proteins. The doctor yelled at us about this not long ago.  He wants Cliff to lose fifteen or so pounds because, as he put it, "If you go on like this, you will be diabetic!"  
*sigh*  
I think Max is taking a little more of Bonnie's milk, but I'm still getting about a gallon once a day, mostly from one back quarter.  
This is a boring entry, I know.  But it's the best I can do today.  
By the way, it was 45 degrees this morning when we woke up.  Winter is approaching!  

Today's activities

Perhaps you've noticed a decline in my blog posts in the past few days.  Everything is dandy, but nothing memorable is going on.  
Cliff is finally sandblasting the Oliver 1855 that he purchased two years ago; both yesterday and today, I heard the sandblaster going most of the day.  He goes to the shop after our walk, comes in for dinner at noon, then goes back to the shop and stays until six or seven P.M.  
This puts me in hermit mode, reading.  I finished "The Help" this morning.  I'm now reading Dean Koontz's "A Big Little Life" about his wonder dog.  I have to confess this one is a little boring to me, since I've had dogs that can do about anything his retriever could do.  OK, so his dog was better-behaved than any I've had, but other than that, he wasn't so unusual; his dog didn't even watch TV, for heaven's sake!  It's a short book, so I'll go ahead and read it all.  
I'm still being forced to milk the cow once a day.  This morning I saved a gallon of milk that I'll make cheese with in the morning.  I already inoculated it with buttermilk.  Also, I skimmed some milk so I can try a new method of making cottage cheese, using a crock-pot.   I have a chunk of home-made cheddar-type cheese already aging in the refrigerator, coated in paraffin.  Ideally it's supposed to age for a month, but I doubt if my curiosity will let me wait that long.   
I churned some butter today, too.  I was down to one egg in the house, so I looked up a cookie recipe that uses butter and only needed one egg:  snicker-doodles!  The recipe doesn't make many cookies, but then Cliff and I don't need many cookies.  
When Cliff came in for dinner, we watched the latest episode of "Closer" on our DVR.  When he was heading toward the door, he bent over to give me a kiss as he thanked me for dinner, and dumped sand on my upturned face!  His hair was loaded with sand from all that sandblasting.  
Tomorrow will likely be another uneventful day, so don't be surprised if there's no new entry.         

This and that

We have put Clyde on the schedule for butchering at the shop up the road.  Tuesday is the day we'll bid him goodbye.  I know city folks can't understand how on earth I can name an animal, watch it grow, and then eat it.  Well, the first time is somewhat difficult, until you realize those white packages of meat in the freezer look nothing like the furry animal you raised.  At this point in my life, I enjoy knowing my beef comes from an animal that had a name and a good, happy life, and was never mistreated.  
It's a little more complicated these days, since Cliff sold the pickup.  Although the butcher shop is right up the road, we'll drive about twenty miles one way to borrow a friend's pickup and livestock trailer so we can haul Clyde exactly one mile from home.  
There's the matter of freezer space:  I spotted an older chest-type deep freeze on Craigslist that's not so far from home; maybe we'll pick that one up.  We wouldn't be using it year-around, just when we first butcher.  


Yesterday was my day to go to therapy.  I swear, that man manages to hurt me more each time I see him.  It hurts so much that I absolutely cannot keep from groaning.  I told him, "Next time I'll have my camera with me so Cliff can take pictures for my blog while you're hurting me," and he said, "That's fine; I'll even smile while I'm hurting you."  
Funny man.   
Oh, I get to stop taking coumadin Monday, the four-week anniversary of my surgery.  That's a good thing; I hate taking that stuff, although I haven't had any problems with it.  
We got an inch of rain last night, so today would be a good time to mulch my tomato plants while there's moisture in the soil.  Oh, and after several days of unrelenting heat, the high temperature today is only supposed to reach the mid-seventies.  What a treat!  I was sitting here by an open window until it got too cold to suit me, and I closed it.  
Oh, good news:  the temporary loss of appetite caused by my surgery and recuperation has gotten me below 160 pounds!  Let's hope I can maintain my weight there, or even lose more; it will be much better for both my real knee and my new artificial one.  I expect to start going on our daily walk again within the coming week, although I may forgo the steepest hills at first.  I've been putting in ten minutes on the exercise bike every other day, keeping it at level five.     
Direct TV is giving us a free weekend of HBO, and we enjoyed it yesterday evening:  one we watched was a Paul Newman movie from the '90's, and the other was "Bill Cosby:  Himself", which I've seen many times.  However, it had been years since I watched it, and I laughed out loud throughout the thing.  I love Bill Cosby!  It was rather sad to hear him talk about his only son, knowing that the boy would eventually be shot and killed.  

Hello

Cliff wondered yesterday why I had not posted an entry.  The truth is, I simply have nothing of interest to share.  Bonnie-the- cow is still happily munching away at the new grass.  Clyde hasn't found a way in yet, and may never find the gate.  It doesn't matter:  there's grass outside the electric-fence enclosure, it's just not as lush; and his mom makes sure to join the big baby and let him have his milk every couple of hours.    
You know the old saying, "In springtime, a young man's fancy turns to love"?
My fancy turns to baby calves in the spring, and I'm wanting a calf so badly I'm beside myself.  Of course, the ones available that I'd like to choose from are an hour from here, and we have no way of transporting a calf.  Plus the fact we really have no money set aside for the purpose of buying a calf.  So I'm a bit in the dumps over that.  

The tomato plants in my bedroom are growing well.  I'll probably harden off a couple of them and set them out early, with plans to cover them on the coldest nights.  

We're having fantastic weather and beautiful sunrises.  

Bonnie just can't get enough of this tender new grass.  I took two pictures similar to this, but in the other one, I had unwittingly caught my husband taking a leak in the background (it's great to live in the country) right after our morning walk; so I chose this shot.  
I'm reading "Washington:  A Life" from the library.  It's surprisingly interesting, portraying George Washington as being just as human as the rest of us, with the same faults and foibles.  It's based in large part on his correspondence.  There are over a thousand pages, and at this time of year I'm not certain I'll get it finished in the two weeks I'm allotted by our library; but I can always check it out again.  With e-books, there's no option to renew.  
On this note, one of my readers who lives in Illinois is also a Facebook friend; she posted on her status that she needed a library card but couldn't afford the arm-and-a-leg she'd have to pay to get one.  Can you believe that in some parts of the country there are people who have to pay a huge fee for a library card, based on the amount of taxes they pay?  One of this lady's friends commented that it would cost over $600 for her to get a library card.  
This just doesn't seem right to me, and if my circumstances were like this, I'd be blogging about it and writing congressmen.  Meanwhile, I will be very thankful for my free library access.  
I leave you with a few seconds of Bonnie, grazing heartily.  She makes that grass look so good, it almost makes me want to try it myself.  

It's winter again

Missouri weather is doing what it does best:  Keeping us all guessing.  It's raining and windy now, with snow in the forecast for the weekend; the forecast doesn't have us reaching the sixties again for a week or more.  Cliff had our studded snow tires taken off the car yesterday, wouldn't you know.  Such is life in the midwest.   
Someone commented on yesterday's entry that the chicken-feed-sack dresses must have been itchy:  I guess the person was picturing burlap sacks, which were great for hauling a baby pig someplace, or picking up walnuts, but weren't used for clothing.  The sacks I'm talking about were 100% cotton, which in my opinion can't be beat for comfort.  They had delightful flowery and checked patterns, as you can see in the picture below.
    

Thanks to Meesha for a heads-up on this picture.

I believe Mother may have starched my dresses lightly.  I remember her mixing up starch and... cooking it?  Could that be right?  Maybe I'm mixing up starch with wallpaper paste.  Some of you people who are as old as I am, help me out here!  Personally, I neither starch nor iron.  Ironing is against my religion.    
Mother also used bluing when she washed white clothes and sheets.  I can picture a bluing bottle in my mind's eye, with a cork stopper and dried dark blue stuff around the rim; I steered clear of bluing bottles when I was a kid because it could be very messy stuff if spilled.  Speaking of cork stoppers, I think that's what was on bleach bottles, too, when I was a kid.  
Obviously this entry is going all over the place, so just bear with me.  
Yesterday our mail-lady delivered the camera I got on Quibids, and I used the two fifteen-dollar Walmart cards I won to help pay for two bags of grub killer.  Moles are really making themselves at home in my yard.  There is a mole-free area out there around the battery-powered mole-chaser I paid $35 for at the home and gardens show; yes, friends and neighbors, the gadget works!  We'll see if it lasts long enough to be worth the price.  Oh, and if you click THIS LINK, you'll find them for $19.99.  Of course.  
Another thing I got from Quibids was a $25-dollar gift card for Overstock.com;  I applied that toward the purchase of a 400-count sheet set that ended up costing me less than $15, shipping and all.  So yes, I got a lot of goodies for $76, and I have not done any bidding there since.  Truthfully, it's so much fun, it scares me!  I go watch the crazy bidding every once in awhile and console myself with the fact that the only things they have I'd really want, now that I have my camera, are the Walmart gift cards.  They auction off a lot of Ipads (they usually go for less than $50), but I already have one of those.   
After doing the entry about our blacksmith neighbor, I did some research on Zabasearch and found out that all six of his kids still live not far from where they were born.  I only knew the three oldest, the others having been born after we moved to Missouri.  But I remember quite a bit about those three, including the night I caused the boys to set their bed afire, and the event that made me stop playing with them.  I can't help but wonder if either of those boys remembers any of that.  I looked for them on Facebook, but only one girl, out of six kids, is on there, and she's one of the younger ones.  Her Facebook account doesn't seem to be active.    
It's probably just as well.   


So far there are twenty-three names thrown in the hat for PW's cookbook, with six days to go before Cliff draws the names of two winners.
     

Silly cows

Bonnie is so spoiled after being served bread every morning that she comes up bawling for it.  The bread is almost gone, so she's going to be making all that racket for nothing in a day or two.  

Cliff put a bale of hay in the small lot for them a couple of weeks ago, but they've only started eating it in the last couple of days.  There's still a lot of grazing out there, and they still spend plenty of time in the pasture.  We haven't give the horses access to hay yet; they're still fat and sassy, and once we put hay out for them they'll just stand in place and eat.  In fact, we'll likely just tear hay off the big bale and ration it out.  
Why must horses be such pigs?
Yesterday when Cliff and I went walking, Clyde was feeling playful.  He followed behind us, bucking and running and even letting out a staccato moo every once in awhile; we got a good laugh out of that, although it worried his mother.  I would loved to have gotten a video of his shenanigans, but, as happens with all youngsters, by the time I got the camera out he was done performing.  

We've been having decent weather.  Cliff and I even worked in a motorcycle ride Monday; he had to pick up some plowshares he'd ordered in a town about thirty miles away.  Temperatures were in the fifties, which makes for a cool ride, but it was nice to get out there on the bike.  Weathermen are talking a wintry mix for tonight, followed by a warmup this weekend.  

Cliff goes for a nuclear stress test at the cardiologist's office tomorrow at 8:45.  He's not to have any caffeine in the twenty-four hours before that, so he's asked me to wake him up at 7:30 this morning so he can have coffee.  That will give him an hour to enjoy his caffeine.  He'll need it, because he will only have had four and a half hours of sleep at that time.  He's off work now until the Monday after Thanksgiving, so he can take a nap today if he needs it.   
I'm loving our level-payments on propane and electricity.  The payments are the same year around, no surprises.  It's so much easier to budget.  


How's that for a random and uninspired entry?

Autumn goings-on

I put the calf in the stall last night so I'd have lots of milk this morning; I'm having a good time experimenting with cheese and making butter.  When I got up this morning, I wondered why Bonnie wasn't bawling and bellowing for Clyde; normally when she's separated from her calf overnight, she gets quite vocal.  
When I got to the barn lot, I noticed the sliding door to the stall I'd put Clyde in was open about three inches.  I peeked in and realized the calf wasn't there.  Obviously, Bonnie managed to push the door back a little with her head (I've seen her trying this) and the calf managed to push out through the small opening.  
I called them up again, got the calf in the stall again, and this time, shut Bonnie out of the small lot so she can't get near the sliding door.  I'll milk this evening.  
I'm trying my hand at making ricotta cheese today.  I had no idea you could make something out of the whey that is left after making cheese; it's practically clear.  You wouldn't think there was anything there of substance.  But when it's heated to almost boiling, it looks like... wallpaper paste!  Yeah, that's it.  Don't ask me what I'll do with the ricotta cheese if it turns out; I read that it's highly perishable.  
I gave in and ordered a dairy thermometer, a much cheaper version that I had originally looked at.  My candy thermometer just isn't accurate enough to suit me.
Cliff and I went out in the pasture and picked up black walnuts yesterday, and I got a few more this morning.  I'm in this hunter-gatherer mode lately.  So are the mosquitoes hiding in tall grass where the walnuts had fallen.  They were ecstatic to have a warm-blooded creature actually show up where they're living.  
My son-in-law came in last night and showed me how to remove my mini-blinds.  Of course, now I'm totally out of the mood to clean blinds; I'm busy hunting, gathering, and cheese-making.  However, it's good he took one down for me and showed me how it's done, because now I am forced to do this task that desperately needs to be done.  
Iris has decided that I should go outside any time she goes, and almost refuses to go alone... I practically have to push her out the door.  I guess she got used to me going outside for my coffee when dawn was coming so early and thinks she requires my companionship.  
This is the first house dog I've ever owned that will not potty on command; she goes when she's ready, and not before.  Also, like many dogs, if the grass is wet or if it's storming, she doesn't want to "go".  I finally got her to the point that she will pee in the nice, dry barn if it's been over twelve hours since she last relieved herself.   Crazy mutt.  

Hello out there

My daughter came over yesterday and gave me a piece of her mind.  Why, you ask?  Because I had not done a blog entry since Thursday morning!  
Oops.  
In my case, if there has been no blog entry, you should probably thank your lucky stars, because I probably had nothing to say; but that's never stopped me before.  
The renters found a nice, roomy place in the country and are completely moved out.  This means Cliff will be a very busy man figuring how to get rid of the old mobile home: once we went inside it, we realized should have been vacated long ago.  Can you say decrepit and dangerous?  It's going to be quite a project, and Cliff will be anxious until the task is behind him.  A next-door neighbor with a bulldozer will see what he can do to help get it moved.  We've called KCPL about pulling the electric meter and line, and are waiting to hear how soon they can do that.      
My son, his wife, and my granddaughter Lyndsay will get here from Georgia tonight around nine or ten o'clock, so I've been getting ready for their arrival, making sure all bedding is fresh and vacuuming, dusting, and mopping.  Also cooking some things ahead.  
Honestly, I've had time to make blog entries, I've just been focusing on other things.  
My dog, Iris, is totally over her cold/flu/pneumonia, whatever it was she had.  She is a bundle of energy who absolutely loves all people; there have been no more dogfights, and we plan to see that no more fights are initiated.   
So there you have it.  Over and out.  I will include a picture my daughter took yesterday of my great-granddaughter walking with my son-in-law:

I love this picture.

My day

I've been putting quarters in a pint jar for over four years; it's almost full, and this morning I decided to see just how much money I had in there.  

  It came to $59.50.  I went scrounging through Cliff's pocket change figuring maybe I'd find a couple more quarters and have an even $60; alas, there was only one quarter there, so I let him keep it.  Maybe I'll switch to a quart jar and keep on saving.  Or not.  
We went on a motorcycle ride today.  Cliff said to get our hobo lunch ready:  He was going to stop by the John Deere dealer in Richmond, then go on to Excelsior Springs to Scott's Bargain Barn.  
He's been looking at zero-turn mowers lately, and I suggested while we were at the John Deere Dealer, we should price some of theirs.  He was ignoring my suggestion, so I went back inside all by myself and made the request.  By the time someone got around to helping me, Cliff realized I had disappeared and joined me. We got the low-down on John Deere zero-turn mowers and headed on to Excelsior Springs.  
I really do not enjoy Scot's Bargain Barn; it's dusty and dirty, and they sell a lot of stuff I'd classify as junk.  Up toward the cash register they have candy bars on sale for a quarter; now you'd have to pay me to eat one of them; Lord only knows how old they are!
  
Cliff had planned on us eating our picnic in Excelsior Springs, but it was only 11 o'clock when we came out of Scott's.  I suggested we head home and stop at the park in Lexington, which is less that ten miles from our house.  It was an enjoyable stop, and at least we were eating at 11:30 instead of 11.  Our picnic table overlooked a lake, and we watched families of geese swimming to our end; once there, they got out and grazed awhile.  

They were soon followed by a smaller family with younger babies.

On our way out of the park, we saw this large group of marchers; I think they were too young to be actual military folks.  Wentworth Military Academy is in Lexington, so perhaps they came from there.  At least the weather wasn't quite as hot today, so their marching probably wasn't too miserable. 

I drank my Mexican Coke this afternoon, and it is definitely better than regular Coke.  Cliff, who only likes artificially-sweetened pop as a general rule, agreed it was better and tasted like Coke tasted in the old days.


And I believe that's all the news that's fit to print from around my place.  

Our Saturday

Adam took his two horses away for the weekend, leaving next-door neighbor's horse, Snickers, alone.  Here's how she's been acting with her friends gone:



At the end of that half-minute video you'll hear a John Deere tractor starting up; Cliff sold his 520 on Craigslist, and the guy came to pick it up this morning.  Cliff is counting his money.  Also at the end of that video you'll see a crummy old trailer house that my mom used to live in.  It will soon be a thing of the past; because the people who have lived there for the thirteen years since my mom vacated it are moving.  I think the move will be good for all concerned.  Cliff is pondering how to destroy the trailer house; it ain't gonna be easy, folks.    

I love Craigslist.  Goodbye, 520 John Deere!

The peas in my garden are climbing up the fence very nicely, and there are already young pods on the vines.  On the right side of this picture are strawberry plants.  

Left to right in this shot you see potatoes, a row of cabbage and broccoli and cauliflower plants, and some onions.

Imagine my surprise today when I saw Iris actually go into her outside pen of her own free will and lie down in her little hidey-hole there.  

We went for a motorcycle ride; Cliff thought he had his strength back after his bout with a virus, but he was wishing he was home long before we got back.  He's OK, just still in the last stages of recovery.  

We went to Menards in Sedalia.  I LOVE that store; I want one in this area in the worst way!  


The end.

Dog-centered house

I'm at an unusual loss for words in my blog.  Right now life pretty much revolves on getting the new dog settled in, and there's only so much I can write about that.  
When Cliff wakes up, we have some fencing to do:  The pasture is so lush that the horses around here are getting way too much to eat; I've seen enough founder to last me a lifetime, so we're going to have to electric-fence a smaller area for the horses.  The herd now consists of Adam's two horses and the next-door neighbor's buckskin mare.  The cows, of course, can continue to enjoy the buffet our forty acres offers; they don't suffer ill effects from eating all they want, as long as they don't eat too much white clover and bloat.
We received two inches of rain yesterday and last night, which is always welcome.  It's been unseasonably cool, reminding me of 1967, the year my son was born (happy birthday a day late, Jim).  Here I was with this beautiful new baby; we lived in the country, and I couldn't wait to be able to take him out in the stroller.  I swear, we had to bundle him up to take him outside until mid-June, it was so cool that year.   
Then there was the year we had a hard frost around this time.  After checking online, it appears that must have been 1980; the low in Kansas City was 35° on May 9, and I'm sure it was colder out here.  I read somewhere that if you took a garden hose and ran water over the plants to wash the frost off, they wouldn't be harmed; I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it on my tomato plants.  
I knew I was out of luck when little icicles were left hanging from the leaves of those plants where I had "washed the frost off".   
We've been selling things on Craigslist again; there's one item that has quite a story behind it, but I want to make sure it's actually sold before I blog about it (we were given $100 cash to hold it till Friday).  I don't want to jinx the sale of something that has been a total disaster ever since we laid eyes on it.  Murphy's law has been in force around here.  I'll leave it at that for now.

For lack of anything better...

It's been such a long winter, I've resorted to watching more television that I've ever watched in my life.  I'm still watching all those old E.R. episodes on TNT for the first time; I've developed crushes on various doctors, and become depressed when some of them left the series.  I'm now up to the episodes filmed in 2006.  
My daughter recommended Modern Family to me.  Although I don't always like the shows she watches (Survivor???  please), this one turned out to be a new favorite for Cliff, and I find it entertaining as well.  It's so much better than some other shows my husband enjoys... for example,  My Name is Earl.  Ewww.  
Cliff and I agree that the absolute winner for best new show is The Good Wife.  That one is amazing.  We're disappointed when each episode ends, and can't wait for the next new one.  
I've also enjoyed a locally produced program on the local PBS station, "Meet The Past".  I especially enjoyed the episode where Crosby Kemper interviewed Annie Chambers, a famous prostitute and Madame in Kansas City in the 1800's.  I may have developed a slight crush on Crosby Kemper III, too.  He's a force to be reckoned with in all things Kansas City.  Didn't his family use to be involved in politics?  He'd have MY vote.  
I still watch all episodes of The Dog Whisperer by way of the Internet.  And yes, I still have my crush on Cesar.  It's the accent.  
Crushes come and go, but true love is here to stay.  I appreciate Cliff for putting up with me for almost forty-four years, even through the long, hard winters:  he's the one I love. 

How about a nice, boring entry?

I recently moved my radio/CD player into the computer room, and I've been experimenting with various stations.  My husband, who is allowed to listen to his radio at work, told me some time back about Delilah; I've found her to be a delightful alternative to evening television when there's nothing to watch but reruns.  Of course, my favorite kind of music is American folk, and you don't get much of that on most radio stations.  I could bring my Grace Internet radio in here and listen to my preferred music with no commercial interruptions, but I go to sleep listening to that; so it stays in the bedroom.  
One thing I've discovered about myself:  I can only stand noise for so long before it begins to irritate me... even if that noise is my kind of music playing.  
On another note:  Last summer I decided to get some much-needed dental work done.  I consulted with the dentist, we agreed on what needed to be done, and the plan was submitted to my insurance company.  They turned it down, because I had gone, on my own, to an oral surgeon and gotten a tooth pulled.  Evidently that constitutes a "pre-existing condition" in their book.  
I don't know what finally persuaded the company to help me out, but in January I got a call from the dentist's office saying the work had been approved.  Finally!  
So I went for another consult, since so many months had passed, and made an appointment to start getting things done.  
Cliff said it'll be a whole new me, the way I'm getting body parts re-shaped and replaced.  He suggested I go ahead and get the knees done too; I told him not to get pushy, because I might run away if I get new knees.  
Our income tax refund should arrive in a few days.  Cliff and I will split that money:  his half goes into his tractor fund; mine will go, this year, to the dentist, because our dental insurance really isn't all the great.  I'm thankful we have it, though; it pays half of the total cost.  
Friday I will get my hair cut; I always know it's time when we're in the car going someplace and Cliff asks, "Did you comb your hair?"
My kinky hair looks pretty good without any effort on my part, as long as I keep it short.  
I set out to do a boring entry, and I do believe I've succeeded.  If you're made it this far and are still awake, congratulations.

stuff

I learned a long time ago that very few people share my taste in music; that's why I don't have music playing automatically when you come here. There are things you can click on in my sidebar, if you so desire, to hear music I like. But that's your choice.

When I'm blog-surfing, I often have my Pandora station playing; sometimes I have an actual radio or CD player going, next to my computer. So when I go to a blog and some sort of obnoxious music starts without asking my permission, my first impulse is to click off that blog, FAST. Unless it's a REALLY good blog, in which case I'll put up with it. I won't like it, though.

Even if I enjoy the song that's playing, it's clashing with what I'm listening to already.

But that's just me.

If you want a chuckle, go read Heather's latest blog entry. Sometimes I get the feeling she and I are related, because her family sure sounds a lot like mine. Nurses have the greatest sense of humor; maybe they have to, in order to keep their sanity.

I went to see my plastic surgeon yesterday (in a million years, I never thought I'd be using the term "my plastic surgeon); he said I can do anything and wear anything (or not) I want, since I've done so well. He seemed very pleased with his handiwork. I have to go back one more time in six weeks for my "after" picture, once the bruising is gone. I feel like a centerfold.

Oh, here's something interesting: The tissue that was removed was tested for malignancy, and none was found. I didn't know they were going to do that, but I'm glad they did. It makes sense.

Now I have my music where I want it

I don't want it sitting on the desk, though; but it'll be OK there until I come across a table that's just the proper size. Then it will be to the right of my computer desk. I have it facing away from the computer because I'll often be in the other room when it's on.

In a comment, Lefty got me thinking about those jewel boxes that CDs come in; I think he has a point, so I'll look for some kind of storage that accommodates the cases as well as the CDs. I don't have a huge collection, and I've already thrown away many of the cases to CDs that are in albums in the car. It shouldn't be too difficult to find some way of storing the ones I have in the house without taking up too much precious space.

I've been having a blast on Facebook: There's this thing going around where lots of us are posting pictures of ourselves as babies or youngsters and using that as our profile picture for awhile. It's so much fun seeing what my Facebook friends looked like when they were kids.