Im back everyone !!!!! for better or worse.. :O)

   Hey everyone!!!!!!!   I'm still alive and kicking lol  

   it's been so long !  Cant believe that it been so long.  I have so much to say or tell you all about.  I built my house and then meet someone very special.   special enough to marry !!    that's a story in itself..   as you all can tell I still ;don't know how to type lol  we added onto the house, will have to download some pictures from the phone.   quite a few.   I and we haven't been on much of a adventure traveling but its been a adventure with each other and the extended family.  The wife has three grown kids and one of them has given us 4 wonderful grand children!!  pictures soon.   

  We have three dogs now, 3 house cats and who knows how many outside barn cats!!  two crazy goats, nigerian dwarfs.  looking to b uy some females to grow the heard..  the two we have are males and I banded them so they are unisexed now lol   male goats stink when they have their dingle berries!!    one of our dogs is a daytime inside dog then it goes out for the night to guard the property.  to bark at the deera, the possums and anything else that it decides that is "dangerous"  lol

 we have been planting a garden each year but some years its been a flop for the most part.  weeds!!!   ugh...  bought some weed fabric and it helps really good but after a few years it starts to get thread bare.  then the weeds get to creeping in..  pictures coming soon.

 My wife lived in kansas city but always liked the idea of living in the country so here she is lol   she's not a big fan of being two hours away from the kids or the grand kids but when we get everything settled in it will get easier for all.   pretty sure we will be seeing the kids more since we added on two bedrooms, another bathroom, family room and what we call a family hall way. its over sized so we can put pictures on the walls and some plant table things so in the winter we can bring in the sensitive ones.   added three closets, one in each bedroom and one in the bathroom.  there's also a north hallway with a north facing door.  its basically a way to get to the cloths line and the furnace room.   had to move the cloths line  yet again, third time is a charm right? lol

 the old rv finally laid down a died.  not the motor but the camper shell itself..  had a leak i didn't know about and it rotted/ got moldy.  it was a sad day when I started taking it apart.   sold the motor and transmission. then took the frig out and saving it.  not sure why, pretty sure the hoarder in me has something to do with that.  took it up to my uncles and he tore the wood parts off and saved the copper and such out of it.  the cab, frame and running gears are still there but going to the junk yard soon.

  we bought a new computer,  can we say learning curve?   I have been kinda technology free except for  a smart phone.  no, I can operate it half the time either.  know what I want to do, I know the phone/computer can do it but again, not computer savvy .....

Patches my traveling cat of 17 years passed away a couple of years ago.  she was a great cat all in all.  she was her own personality lol   I still miss her but I buried her and put crickets ashes in with her.  thought it was fitting..   they lived together all their lifes so now thay are living together for all eternity.  them two kept me save from myself back in the beginning of this blog,  they was my world nad my rock...    will remember them forever...

still have chickens, was selling the eggs to the wife's coworkers but since she has moved here it just hasn't been working out getting eggs up to kansas city.  sorry kc peeps but your probably not going to be getting any eggs.   its been really nice though making money to pay for the chicken feed.  the chickens got thinned out by a bobcat sadly along with some of the cats.  guess thats the circle of country life..  

   Ive been talking to my daughtere again,  :O)  planning on flying up to see her and her family..  We have 5 grandkids from her and so excited to meet them all.  pics will follow lol   they are doing good and living life like the rest of us.  

 so anyway, going to get off here and figure out some othere stuff on this thing.  

really enjoyed talking to you all again.  now that im retired and its winter I will be pestering you all alot more.....:O)  

 

Hello

  It’s been so long.   Again.    

What to say lol.   I hope all is well in your worlds, it’s been good here.  As soon as I get internet at the house again, I’m going to work on getting the blog going again.    I’m learning tictok and YouTube so there’s other ways of viewing activities.    I will let everyone know what I’ve been doing the last several years. I’m still living in the house I built, actually working on getting it added onto. 

There’s been so many changes here and in my life…. 

  I'm here all, one day I will be posting again. 

Hey all, my goodness it's been such a long time.
 Allot has happened in the last year or so, I lost my mom for one. She has another stroke and this time it affected her alot. Ended up she had to stay in a nursing home for several months while she was taking physical therapy.  She got better so I remodeled her bathroom to make things easier for her but unfortunately she wasn't able to stay home. She was not happy about it but there wasn't anything that we could do differently.
 It seemed like to me that she gave up at that point and it wasn't very long that she got really sick and with her inability to breath on her own anyway, she went into the hospital and never came out of it.

Rest in peace mom love you and miss you.

 Hey all, its really been along time this time. Just got on here to say hi and let you all know that i am still alive. just so very busy with life. It thru us a curve ball back in june of this year. Mom had another stroke, wasnt a pretty one at all. She lost use of her left arm and leg but she has had months of therapy and she has gained back most of her movements but her arm is very weak, Her leg works mostly but she has problems with her lower leg. She cant use her ankle or foot much at all but she has learned how to walk even with that not working properly. Unfortunantly, her balance is off too much for her to be on her own doing things. She can use a walking fine but we have to be there holding her saftey belt just incase or rather when she losses  balance.  She is in a nursing home which she does not like but she cant be at home. She requires more help than what we can give her at home as well. Sadly. 

  For the most [art she is really chipper and doesnt get to depressed for the most part. There are days though that are not so good.  Its been a very chalenging time for her..  She wants to come home but Im not sure if that will happen. She did come home for 6 days a while back but she lost her balance several times a crashed, the last time she did she fell on the walker and bent it up and cracked two ribs. She went to the hospital and found out the ribs and that she had pnumonia, went and stayed in the hospital and while there we talked and she said that it was time to go back to the resthome. I told her that if she got her balnce back and was able to do all the things at the rest home that she would need to do at home to live there then she could come home again.  She said that would be great but we both knew that she wouldnt be coming back home. Maybe there is a chanace for her too but ...  If she does then that would be great :O)

  In other news, The graci dog has gotten over trying to kill or pluck the feathers off the chickens for the most part, yay.  still working with her but she has made great progress, exspecially after Greg the younger rooster gave her a pecking lol didnt hurt her but she sure thought it was not right for that rooster to be mean to her, not once but twice. she has a new found respect for them now..

  Okay, have to cut this short, again. But will be back on since I have new a computer that I get to use :O) 

Hope all is well out there. I hope all your dreams are coming true and happyness has found each and everyone :O)   

Be safe all :O)

hi again

Hey all, :O)  told you I would be back soon. How has everyone been? good I hope. Things have been plugging along here, nothing really exciting just life.

  I went to bingo with mom fri night, she really enjoys getting out and going. She gets pretty bored in the rest home. She even won at bingo one game, made her money back lol

  Shes really working hard to get out of there. Strokes can really mess things up for a person.

  They are saying that she may get to come home by the end of October, we are hoping so. She said fri night that she just wants to go home and sit in her chair and relax. I can only imagine..

 Country living update.

  I have 24 chickens now and most of them are laying eggs, got way too many eggs lol If the zombie apocalypse happens I will eat pretty good on chicken eggs lol

  We ended up with one roster out of the sixteen chics we bought, I'm thinking we were really lucky from the stories I have heard from diff people buying chicks from orchelns.

 The garden is done, the one cantaloupe plant is empty and the cucumber plants (2) do not produce any, If they do the chickens get them before I do. really Really need to get that fence put up :O(

 

Curiosity

  Sometimes I get really curious about things, like for instance I have a few followers that are my constant. I know that the person in Moscow, Moscow city, I don't know but I am saying hi to you and thanks for being one of my followers :O) One of the other one's is from St Paul Minnesota, That one I may know lol it is a small world sometimes, I wonder if its really truly that small? what would be the odds of it being a old friend that I used to know?   Anyway :O)   Like I said, I get curious and I cant seem to let things go.

the kittens are growing quickly, pooping all over the place. They seem to forget where the litter box is at times. I don't walk in the yard anymore bare foot..  There is 10 kittens and I believe that 9 are boys ugggg.

  Built some flower beds in front of the porch the last few days, looks pretty good I think :O)  Went out and gathered up a lot of flat lime stones to make the retaining walls out of. Even have some to spare. Sure wish I could post pictures on here again, nope I still haven't figured out what the problem is..

  In other news, I cant seem to sleep anymore.  When I do want to sleep I cant because I'm at work lol Very frustrating.  I have tried many diff things but nothing seems to work. I imagine that it has something to do with my Lupus, I know that lately its been acting up.

  I still don't have any goats or any other critters. Still haven't finished the fences for the pens. Things just haven't been happening around here like I had hoped. Sure is rough to get older lol cant wait for another 10 years to be added onto this body. should be entertaining :O)  Well, I'm getting off here and go outside and look at the night sky, maybe I will get to see a meteor or two.  Good night all and talk again soon.  Be safe :O)

surprise

Surprise everyone....    It has been a loooooonnnnngggggg time.  Hope everyone has been doing great.  I'm sure that I have lost most of my followers, if not all. I apologise for the Gap in keeping up with the posts.  Been in prison lol.  No not really. Just been busy with life.
  Some of the high lights that I have been up too and what's been going on.
. Still dating my girlfriend. Working on the place. Working at my job. Getting Pno trained basically. A dog trainer I am not. I had it so easy with cricket dog, she was such a layed back little girl. Pno is a in your face kind of dog lol.
  My mom had a stroke back in June and we have been dealing with that. She's getting alot better but it's still along road to go. Taking her to lunch tomorrow at the Saddle Rock, it's a favorite place that she liked going to. And then going to go see Grandma Estes, she will be 98 tomorrow.  Yay you grandma. You always said you wanted to live to be 100. Just two more years and you will have made it:-)
 I have some cat. 15 to be exact now. Anyone want a kitten? Or two?
 The chickens are doing great, the young ones are starting to lay eggs now. Getting between 7 to 9 eggs a day so far. Got a few free loaders but not sure which ones they are. I had been letting them run all around but they started tearing up my plants and pooping on the porch alot! Got them penned up for now. Need to butcher one rooster, got one too many.
  Got the lean to all done, going to start soon on a bigger one on the other side. Got most of what I need. Will be nice to have the extra room.
Still need to move the tin she'd home that I had given to me.
 I also messed up my knee some how. Bruised the bone ends in my knee. And tore something inside, they said I need surgery on it but have to wait. I need to build up my sick days and vacation time. Can't afford to loose any wages. Did it at home, I'm thinking it might of been when I was chasing graci the dog and fell.
 It's had me hobbling around for a while. It got so bad for a while that I was on crutches. It hurt bad.....
  It's feeling better now, atleast I can walk on it. Just have to be careful.
  Got some cucumbers out of the garden, chickens got alot more of them. Really need to put up that fence.. the one cantaloupe plant has did a wonderful job. The other day I took five cantaloupes over to the rest home where mom is so the cook could give them to all of the residents. They all pretty much loved them. They have asked me to bring some more over again.
  I just tried to upload some pictures, wasn't successful. I'm posting this from my phone. It's smart, I'm not I guess lol...
  Now that I know I can post this way I should be on here more.  I will work on getting some pictures to go with my comments.   Talk again soon.   Be safe all..

wow

  Well hello all, its been way too long since I have let you all know what I have been up too.  Actually, I haven't been up to much but doing a lot of running. I have been neglecting a lot of things that I have been wanting to do and get done around here.  No ones fault just have been doing other things.

  The chickens are doing really good, they have been laying eggs regularly. Iv been enjoying them a lot :O)  I have to get rid of one of the roosters, they are fighting over the chicks and disrupting the zen of the chic house.  My farmer neibor buddy needs a rooster so I guess one of them will be going to live there.  The chickens are allot of fun to watch, just wish they would stop popping on the porch, going to have to make a fence to stop that I think.  Going to be buying some more chickens soon, need about 6 more and I will be happy lol

  Work has been going pretty good, rebuilding a lot of roads lately.  They need it, some of my roads on the route don't have ditches anymore.  Been trimming tree limbs too on the route. Some of my roads don't look the same at all. Starting to look pretty good. 

  In some other news, I now have a puppy :O) her name is Pno lol  I know, odd name but I like it. She is a mixed breed, she is part jack Russell terrier, part chiwawa and English bulldog and I thing some others might be in there too but she looks mostly like a jack Russell so far.  Pretty smart, Ive taught her to sit, lay, stand on her hind legs, and too fetch.  she's a pretty cool dog so far lol   She will actually crawl into the shower with me on her own, to be with me I guess but sometimes we take a shower together lol sounds strange but that's the way it is. She enjoys it.  No sticky dog here.

  So far she gets along with the chickens too, every once in a while she acts like she's going to maybe chance them but doesn't. will be keeping a eye on her for sure. She likes to travel in the truck or even in the grader lol took her to work one day and she done really good. Wont be making a habit out of that but it was nice having her in there with me.

  Went and got a bunch of older telephone poles yesterday, thanks for your help RO.  There was a lot more there than I had thought, its a load and a half lol also stopped and picked up two big rocks out of the road ditch as well. Going to be using them in the land scaping project for the front yard one of these days. Now that I have the poles home I can get busy on the lean-to. Got pretty much everything I need now to get it built. will be nice to have more room to store stuff like the tractor and the extra lumber I have saved up. That way I can get my work shop organized finally.

  Going to be getting started on the goat pens as well. maybe I will get them don't this year. I'm also going to build a extra pen on the north side of the property. Its going to be a pig pen. Got to have pigs to have bacon :O) and pork chops, pork cutlets,  sausage :O)  I've been catching some pork sales at the grocery store lately, been using the tenderizer I got from Howard quite a bit here lately. works really nice :O)

  I bought a old antique cubbored last weekend on my way back from Kansas city, shouldn't have but I did. Its been used and even abused some but all that is just character to me :O)  ;It looks really good in the kitchen.  I found it on offerup :O) I really like that app.  There are so many things for sale and a lot of its really cheap. I have even sold some stuff on there as well.

  In other news I have been working on the short wall around the kitchen, I have finally got the sheet rock all mudded and sanded now, now just to paint it lol hopefully that doesn't take me 3 yrs lol  yes, I can really drag my feet with some projects. 

  went out today and cut back a bunch of the tree limbs along the yard so I done have to dodge them on the tractor when I'm mowing this year. pushed them all into the brush pile for burning later on.  started pushing up a lot of the old trees that had fallen down among the other trees, just cleaning up the tree ine some. get it ready to plant some trees in place of the dead ones so I can keep the wind break going for the place.  Cleaned up the garden area today and yesterday,  getting it ready for spring planting :O)  Going to till up some extra ground this year, I've had two gardens basically but this year I am going to till up the area between the two of them. Going to be one big garden.  I'm going to try a new way to plant tators this year, going to plant them in a wire cage in layers, saw it on pentrist.

  I have two grader tires now as well, going to cut the sidewall out of one side of them and fill with dirt to make some raised beds. Getting tired of bending over all the time and it hurts too much to get down on my knees anymore as well. Its not much fun to be getting older and to have a medical issue that there is no cure for.  One that has no rhyme or reason either.  some days are good ( I say good but that just means that I'm able to get around better than the other days.)  Here lately its been really kicking my ass.  I'm not whining about it, just getting tired of it. Some days all I can seem to get done is go to work and get my job done. Come home and sleep or not sleep. sometimes sleep just isn't in the works.  Just have to Keep on Keeping on like Joe Dirt says lol

  well, its late. Going to bed.   talk later to you all.   Be safe :O)

 

 

still alive

  Hey all, sorry that's its been so long since I have been on here. Honestly I have been debating about calling it quits on here. Just doesn't seem like I have enough time anymore or maybe its just time to stop.

  I have been kind of busy still, got one of the old grain bins home. Another one still to get. The chicken house is pretty much done, just doing small stuff with it now. The chickens stopped laying when it got cold, put electric too it and now they have more light and a heat bulb for a little heat. The egg production is back in swing.  I'm in the process of putting another poop door in. Its rather cute, will have to get a picture of it.  Still fighting with the windows 10 picture stuff, ,maybe that's one of the main reason why I haven't been blogging and thinking about stopping. The picture deal is such a hassle.  Its rather frustrating and I say that politely .... 

  did everyo9ne have a nice xmas? We had a relatively stress free time :O)  Took mom to the casino again, she won money again, I lost money, again.... 

 

picture heavy

went out picked some squirrel food the other day.  Might be enough for the winter, maybe. They squirrels up in kc we lovingly call them Tree Pigs lol

I was trying to capture all of the humming birds in the pic. only got three but there was five buzzing around.

Red and Whitey, wonder which one is which? lol

these are a bunch of poles that I bought for  1 dollar apiece from the local phone company. Going to be used in the fences for the goat and pig pens. Going back to get some more soon.

Just a cool pic of Red on the porch with the flowers

The next two picture are from work, was trying to show you all the graded radius in the ditch that I had just done. Might not look like much but there are a lot of hand and wrist coordination going on in those pics. I don't have a steering wheel in the grader, its all run by two joy sticks.  and to do those radius cuts like that, there is ALOT of moves lol

Yes, that's a glass of wine on the fender of my tractor :O) That's just how we roll out here in the country :O)

Here is the chicken house and chicken pen (aka Alcatraz)

Just some pretty clouds and they were actually red like this, the sun was rising.

Went snooping one day at a old abandoned farm and this is one of the things I found there. Pretty cool picnic table I think :O)

yes, a rainbow.

This is the machine I got to run the other day, its a joy stick operation as well. was nice :O)

We tore a old bridge out a few weeks ago a mile east of my house. Boss told me I could have the rocks if I wanted them. Yes they at the house now :O)  Going to be doing some major land scaping with them someday soon I hope.

If you look close you can see my cap (for a reference of rock size) sitting on one of the rocks

more rocks, might make some into some large water troughs as well.

My pancake cast iron griddle, cleaned and seasoned again. worked just fine the other weekend when we had mom and uncle out for breakfast :O)

and this, is my new grill I bought a while back. Its NOT supposed to smoke like that. :O( it had stormed the night before and I turned it on to dry it out some. Guess there was a build up of grease in there as well as some water. I just about had a melt down. Things got hot and stinky.

I put it out and its working again just fine. a little more careful about things now and I clean it more often lol

My Halloween tomatoe :O)

country fresh eggs and home made rolls :O)

Moon, was big. and bright.  :O)

I love this old Toyota and its even forsale but for the condition of it she wants too much :O( But just look at that thing :O) its a custom cab, Factory I might add. 4x4 22 rte motor (T is for turbo) rare. very little rust at all. but its rough. would need a lot of tlc.

Just a random pic of a old grain elevator. thought it was cool.

Just one of the MANY MANY hauls out of the garden.

OK, its really time for bed now.  Take care and will talk to you all again. :O) Be safe.

hmmm.

 

  Well, I had big plans of blogging tonight. Couldn't even come up with a post title.    wondering what to talk about.

  I went to my doctor today, one of them anyway. Lupus doctor, didn't learn much new.  Told him I didn't have much money so we needed to just do the important blood tests, down to two blood tests and a urine test.   I was getting anywhere from 8 to 11 blood tests every three months. plus the urine tests and there is about 7 to 9 tests that they do on the urine. can we say expensive?  very costly even with insurance. When it wants to pay it seems like.

  The chickens are doing good, got 4 free loaders though. They better get serious pretty soon or its going to get very serious for them... 

  As you all know I bought  a new to me pu, I made the deal with the understandment that they would put new tires on it. They did and I kept the old tires which weren't wore out but would of had to buy new in about 6 or 8 months ( I don't drive a lot of miles anymore) I brought them home and yesterday I put them on a flatbed trailer that I have. Its been used for a while now as a place to store a bunch of steel and stuff like that. Well, its ready to roll down the road and be useful for something better than what its been doing. which is nothing.  I have to unload it now but will be nice to have it to use again. I had made that trailer back in 97, it used to be a camper trailer but the camper went bad. Tore it all off, reinforced the frame, shortened it about 8 ft. (still 16' long ) put some 2 x 12 planks on it and made a really nice trailer. Don't haul cars on it, would probably haul it but why take the chance and break it.

  Doing laundry right now. exciting huh? lol 10:30 at night and I'm doing laundry. Why? Because I cant seem to sleep much anymore.  Its weird, I can be ready to fall asleep during the day at work and when I get home at first I'm so tired but do you think that I can go in there and go to sleep? nope, not very often can I do that. gets frustrating that's for sure.

  The day before yesterday I was petting patches and found a nasty scab sore area on the side of her head. Looked really bad, I made a vet appointment the next morning. Took her over and she has a bacterial ear infection.  The weird part is the infection came out on the side of her head. guess it does that. She hates me twice a day now. I have to give her ear drops and then some amoxicillin liquid too. She can handle the ear drops but the liquid med is really nasty I guess because she fights me hard not to take it.  not pretty.  She's starting to act a lot better though.

  Made some inside window sills today for the house windows. Patches is getting used to have one to sit on and look outside from. maybe my plant in the kitchen window will do a little better being closer and in the more direct sun light. I found one of those glass water bulb things and its made a big diff on rather it gets water or not lol I can see the bulb and when it needs filled. I need to get a lot more of them for more house plants.  I like it in the mornings when the sun is shinning thru it. makes a lot of colors. The cooler weather seems to be getting here, highs in the high 60's next week and lows in the forties :O)  good sleeping weather If I can get to sleep :O/ 

I'm really looking forward to this winter actually. I just would like for it to snow some, if its cold there should be snow on the ground and I should be able to use my v-plow on my grader to plow snow :O)   

I cant believe that's its already Nov. wow but the time sure slips past a person the older you get.

Thanksgiving will be here before we know it then Christmas will be zipping by and then it will be another new year.  I have no idea what we will be doing as a family this year for either holiday, the family still hasn't recovered from the nonsense a while back.  So who knows for sure. Might just have it out here, its been a pretty small gathering anymore. Might have to go to the casino again. lol 

  Think I will start getting my cast iron ware gathered up and start re seasoning them. Some have to be sanded down completely and started over from square one.  I like me some cast iron ware :O) Not sure where I'm going to put all this stuff in the house :O) I really need to get some more shelf's or buy something to put them into. Going to move the freezer out into the garage soon too. that will make some room in the kitchen to do something about the shelving problems.

whelp, I just went blank again so with that I will say good, be safe and talk to you all again soon :O)

Been awhile, again...

     I haven't been up to much different, just work, feeding the chickens, spending time here or at the Girl friends house in the big city. Big enough anyway lol Got the chicken house mostly done, still have some things to finish up on it but it holds the chickens well enough :O) Iv had the two roosters for a while, went and bought 8 hens a couple of weekends ago. Been getting a few eggs but they are not very reliable so far. Have gotten about a dozen so far and they are so good lol even better since they are mine lol  Same chicken same food same everything except they are laying their eggs in my chicken house :O)  That's what makes them taste so much better lol They are miss matched bunch of chickens lol barred rocks, orpintons, uummm   them kind and those kind and that other kind lol   This spring we are going to buy some chicks and it will look alittle more organized, I hope.  Some of them have had a rough time of it, there's a chicken plucker among them, going to stalk them this weekend and find the culprit. will be fresh chicken in the skillet this weekend maybe :O) 

  Things are really going pretty good around here, slow but its going. Got the woven wire over the gate finally the other day, been along time getting that done :O(  Still no goat pens yet but its at the top of the to do list before winter sets in, I hope. or atleast get them started.... I'm thinking the lean too is the next big thing on the list that I need to get going on. That way I can get some stuff in under the shelter.    I have come to the conclusion that I have entirely too many irons in the fire but isn't that how it works on a place like this in the country? Have to pick my projects on a priority scale...

  Lets see, Lean too, Have to get the power poles from down the road to do that, have the tin and boards to mount the tin on.   So I need to get the poles home then get to going on that.

  Then the goat pens, have to get more poles, wire, steel posts and ties, and then get busy on it. Need to finish the chicken pen, build the pen gate, put the chicken door on the chicken house for the chicken to come and go out of into the pen. Put another chicken exit on the east side so they can come and go during the day free ranging in the yard. Built the pen mainly for them to get outside while I'm gone on some weekends.  I haven't let them free range yet since we got them, about two weeks. I bet red and whity is ready to get the heck out of there and down into their favorite spot in the trees.

  Need to plow the garden up and get some more cow manure to put on it, and I have to put the tube in the tire on the trailer before I can do that too.   I still need to put the new hydraulic hose on the dump bed to make life easier when dumping the manure too. The Tomato plants are still going strong, they are full of tomatoes ready to pick yet again.  The bad ones I give to the chickens, they love them.  I sometimes give them some sunflower seeds as a treat.  Also checking into how to raise meal worms, looks easy enough lol I guess chickens go nuts over them.

  Oh yea, don't remember if I said anything but I actually bought me a new to me vehicle, the hoopty just wasn't going to hold up running back and forth to see the girl friend very much longer and besides that, I was really wanting something more reliable and usable. I bought a little two wheel drive pickup,  Its my "car" lol this way when I see stuff along the road or at a yard sale or whatever where ever I can pick it up.  gets good gas mileage and its comfortable to drive.

  Hooked up the icemaker and water dispenser on the frig last night finally. not real impressed with the water dispenser, I really think I can pee faster and harder than that thing does.... But the ice maker works fine lol  lets just say that getting the right stuff for the job and making it all work was a interesting time. grrrr.   But its done and there is no water leaks (knocking on wood/my head lol )  I have heard so many horror stories about the hose breaking or the frig springing a leak that I was half scared to leave the house this morning with it on. Came home to a dry house though yay.

  In other news, Here a while back I got on Pinterest. I had always thought it was a chick thing, sorry for sounding so typically a guy but I did.  I have found a whole new world in Pinterest lol   I'm always looking on there lol  If you cant find it on there it really doesn't exist ... I really enjoy the metal art and the homestead stuff, chickens goats, gardening ect ect ect lol its amazing lol   but any  way.  it really is amazing :O) 

  the weather got pretty chilly there for a while and I was loving it :O) got alitlle rainy at times but I still was enjoying it. But the mosquitoes got pretty bad for a while too uuggg.. The lows were around 45 at times loved it. now the lows are around 55 or 60 and the high yesterday was around 80. not too bad. 

Oh yea, back to the list..  still need to organize and build shelf's in the storage trailer too :O(  It never ends lol  I'm going to go through all that stuff and put a lot on a for sale place called "offerup" you can sale anything and everything on there and find just about any thing you could want. Pretty cool. thanks Ro for showing that to me :O)   I have sold a few things on there already, I actually take pictures of the items then send them to the girl friend and she posts them on there a couple of days before I go see her and usually things get sold while I'm there for the weekend :O)  What I don't put on offer up I'm going to give to good will or just simply give away or shit can it....   Tired of holding onto a lot of the stuff. Need the space for other things more than I need the stuff. Time to clean house!!!

  Weve been grilling a lot and its been burgers or chicken for the most part, been trying to catch things on sale but sometimes you cant. Ro had been buying boneless thighs and I really fell in love with grilled boneless thighs but they cost a lot of money, so we started buying bone in thighs and taking them and boning them out ourselves. so much cheaper to do it that way :O) we save the trimmings and bones to boil up later to make chicken broth.  its a win win :O)  Any more I would rather have a grilled boneless thigh over a chicken breast.   Going to buy some cheap beef roasts and make some minute steaks too, love me some chicken fried steaks.  Its really handy having a actual tenderizer on hand to use. :O)  Thanks Howard old buddy R.I.P Miss visiting with you.  He told me to take his home out of the blue one day. Said if he needed to use it he knew where it was...

Here is the bone in chicken, it really is pretty easy to take the thigh bone out, just need a good sharp knife and just start in doing it. Wont take but a few and you will get a feel for it and before you know it your will be whipping them out :O)

 

There's the pile of boned out on the right and the little pile on the left is the bones and fat trimmings with a few meat pieces. Like I said earlier, will boil them up and make some home made chicken broth. and of course you will need to pressure can the broth to safe it for later use. So we are saving all the stuff in the freezer until we have enough to process.

all packaged up and ready for the freezer, I divide them up into four thighs per package then I toss them all into a gallon size bag, keeps it from getting freezer burnt for quite a while. They usually don't last long enough in the freezer to get burnt lol

The fat cat :O)

  I was thinking the other day about patches and what all we have been thru together and realized that she is getting old. She was born in the spring of 2005, She was such a cute little kitten, She had a eye infection in both eyes and couldn't see. She was a outside barn cat up till that moment lol I cleaned her eyes up, took her to the vet and she got some shots and such. I brought her home and that was the last time she was ever outside willingly lol  Cricket and I just about lost her twice when we were living in the motor home, once she fell out of the screen door when she jumped against it to catch a fly, she freaked out and ran under a bunch of junk in the yard.   Got her back in and she wouldn't touch the screen door again, she would sit there all day and watch out it but would not touch it lol. The other time was when we were in the mountains and cricket I had walked up a dirt road to make sure it was safe to go up with the rv and trailer, we had got in a pretty dicey place once and didn't want to do that again...  But anyway we came back and was getting ready to go and I heard the cat meowing kind of weird. cricket was hanging out the window just about ready to fall out looking at something. It was the cat lol she had fallen out the driver window and was panicking under the rv. Good thing I heard he and cricket was acting stupid hanging out the window lol  after that she never got close to the window either lol   Patches will be 12 this spring.  

  Well all, going to get off here and get ready for bed,  I still haven't figured out the problem with the pictures on windows ten and my phone. Once I do I will be bombing my blog with a lot of pictures. I might just have to go some where and have someone show me or fix my problems that I am having with this.  I have so many pictures I want to share with you all. Bare with me :O)  I will figure it out one way or the other :O)   

Be safe all :O)  talk to you all again :O)

Im back :O)

this is a mushroom that I found along my route at work one day, that is my eye glass case, it was one of the biggest shrooms I have ever seen.

Pictures are out of sequence and I cant find half of the ones I wanted to share so I will have too another day but this is the chicken house I built. There is a round window in the end of it for the chickens to look out of when they are roosting and they do lol

this is the brace I used to keep the fence from moving the posts. looks like a rusty rainbow over the gate :O)

the two lawn chairs I was talking about in the other post.

In other news the humming Bird feeders work really well, sometimes we have five fighting over them, may not sound like many to some but for around here that is a lot :O)

CH construction pics

and yes the Walls are actually slanted like that on purpose :O)

I made the ends like this because I have always liked that look on the older barns, from the days that they used the hay fork to lift the hay up into the hay loft. There is no real reason for them on the CH except that they do keep some rain water off you when you go to feed them. I just like the looks of them so that is good enough reason for me :O)

and yes, for a none carpenter type person such as I am they were a extreme pain in the ass trying to get all the angles right....

before shingles. and yes, that too was a lot of fun doing it by myself.  I actually used asphalt shingles on it. was easier for me. costly but easier.

I will try to figure out where the other pics are and get them posted on here. until then though, you all be safe and enjoy each day as if its your last day :O) 

catching up

  Hi all :O)

I had some time today so I thought I had better catch you all up that are still actually following my blog. 

  I'v been working on the Chicken House for a while now. Its just pretty much done. The two remaining roosters out of seven, have been successfully moved in. I had thought originally that it was going to be a difficult ordeal but it turned out rather painless for all involved. I just started feeding them closer and closer to the chicken house until they were eating inside it. I then just reached in and shut the door on them lol  They actually settled right in and calmed down too my surprise.  They have been roosting in there every night sense. they seem to trully  enjoy and like their new house. they better...   Damn but its exspensive to build anything anymore.  Its a unique CH, its a design of my very own lol and with input from the girl friend :O) 

I have a few things like put the ridge cap on, do some draft control with the famous foam in a can, put some electric into it..  The moths and crickets love it. I have to put up the outside pen plus the chicken doors, I want a pen for the weekends that I go to the big city. Don't need to feed the wild life anymore than I have already..

  Its been rainy here a lot so I have been doing a lot of mowing, here and at work. Tired of that.  The garden is just about done, it really did good this year, lots and lots of tomatoes, cantaloupe,  squash, zucchini, cucumbers, Tomatoes, some corn but not a lot, it was so hot that I think it got steamed on the stalk and then the coon found it so needless to say there was a shortage of corn yet again this year.

  Going to put a pen around the garden for nest year I'm thinking, and some electrified wires, maybe even a land mine or two as well. :O) 

Been moving stuff around at the place, just moved the camper yesterday, and I must say that for never pulling anyone before with a vehicle, the GF really did a outstanding job. Since she had never done anything like that I walked her thru what needed to be done then we moved things, and it happened just like I wanted it too.  Now I need to put some used tires that came off my new to me pickup :O)  yes, I finally broke down and bought a vehicle.  Yay me boo to the payments. Its a nice little two wheel drive chevy Colorado. gets between 19 and 24 mpg. Its my new car. its a exstendacab, but there is really not much room in the rear seat, more for storage than actually seating.

  I like it, rides good and there is plenty of leg room. I have to slide the seat forward a few notches actually to be comfortable with the pedals and that's a rarity in itself that I have plenty of leg room.

Now when I see a ac window unit laying next to the road or anything else that catches my eye, I can stop and pick it up without problems.  When I bought it I told them that I wanted new tires on it before I would buy it, the salesman said no prob. I told him that I wanted some good tires, not car tires and he said no prob. well, they put light duty small pu tires on it. they are new and the name brand is Cooper tires but they are not what we originally agreed upon. but they are new tires so it is what it is. I will buy some good ones when these wear out.  I might pick up a pair of tires for the winter conditions coming up but we will see if we have a winter or not. I still have the trusty 4x4 chevy if the need arises.

  I had to put a new upper ball joint in the chevy, then had to get it aligned, drives like a new truck that has 228,000 miles on it lol 

  Been grilling a lot this summer :O) sure is nice to keep the heat out of the house while cooking. and grilling is always better in my mind. Had some friends over last night, grilled some burgers for supper. They brought over some spinach dip and some Hawaiian sweet bread stuff, it was really good :O) going to be eating some of that stuff again soon. You just dip the bread into the spinach dip and eat it. good good stuff....  Had a really good time :O)

  Topped off the propane tanks in august, paid 99 cents a gallon. when I had it filled up a yr and a half ago, they had filled it too 78 %, I had them top it back off when it was at 50% its only a 500 gallon tank so basically I have used 27% propane for the yr and a half. pretty good I think.

Got the porch pretty much done as well, got it looking pretty comfy, went to town a while back and bought  two very comfy lawn chairs, saw a lady in one at one of the GF's sons baseball game. Checked them out in the store and they are so comfy. Bought two lol  Use them to lay back in while looking for meteors.  Zero gravity lay down lawn chair thingies.  Still have the old steal chairs too but those are for company now lol Not really, anyone can sit in any chair at my porch... Just as long as its not in my chair :O)

Patches has been doing fine, cant believe she is going to be 12 this spring. Time sure speeds up the older you get it seems like. Shes still a pain in my butt so all is normal with hers and my love hate relationship lol   

No goats yet :O(  still no pen yet :O(  trying to get abunch of other projects finished up before starting anything else new.  too many irons in the fire :O/   I don't know if I said anything or not but I bought another window ac unit for this summer, it really didn't raise my electric bill too much more, about 30 dollars actually. The first one isn't working near as had to keep the house cool now with the second one going, I have both on low usually and it stays at a steady 70 degrees in the house even on the hottest of days.  I just cant take the heat anymore.  My Lupus Has been acting up lately so that slows me down some as well.  Some days it just pretty hard to get going and some days I don't get going lol Its really not funny but it is what you make of it I guess. 

The chicken pvc pipe chicken tractor thingy was a total flop. Its in pieces now, was a exspensive learning curve :O( I'm taking it apart and saving what I can from it. The chicken kept using it but it was looking pretty sad.

got a call, be back in a little bit :O) Be safe all

 

Just sitting here.

  Not sure what to write about, not sure I want to write about anything at the moment lol    Been getting a few things done, got the driveway fence done. Just need to add the woven wire to the gates to make them critter proof.  and string the one strand of wire along the top.  Getting some of the shop cleaned and organized, not making much progress actually.    Don't feel very good. 

              

hmmmmm?

Its not worth turning the news on anymore, I turn it on to see the weather report. That's about it anymore, if I want to get depressed, irritated, distressed or angered I watch the national/world news.

 Its just sad and disheartening. I am so glad that I live here in the middle of nowhere and living the life style that I am. 

getting better at windows 10 grrrr

I'm not sure how I did it but I found the missing pictures lol

This is just some of the vegetables that I have picked out of the garden, I do believe the cow manure helped out the garden.

just a picture of the future goat pen area with all the different flowers :O)

We went to GOJO'S  in KC a few days back, I had never been there before. For those of you that lead rather sheltered lives such as myself lol its a Japanese restaurant  that cooks the food right in front of you. It was a rather cool experience, food was ok. I honestly thought it was going to be a better eating experience, don't get me wrong it wasn't bad but it just wasn't what I thought it would be.  This was our cook.     No, he doesn't look very Japanese lol  

so how many out there remember the looks of this tire and rim ?  lol  its really a blast from the past :O)  

I was running around in this the other day while chip sealing in white city.  was a fun and relaxing day it was :O)

was told to run this today, never ran one as new as this before. Its got a lot of electronic stuff on it. I found out if you push and pull enough switches and knobs you can make anything work lol

this was supper last night with some of todays supper tossed in there too :O)  tin foiled stuff was new potatoes and two big baked taters :O)

this was at GOJO"S , some of the food that was prepared for us.

trying to catch wild critters..

this is a fruit mix that I made up the other day, it is soooo good,  watermelon, cantaloupe, two different types of seedless grapes, blue berries, strawberry's and just a touch of sugar but its really good without the sugar as well :O)

 

a duplicate grrrr  stupid windows 10, or it might be me.   surely not me lol

Found this cast iron pot thingy the other day, figured it would make a flower pot or something. Or it will be extra weight in the junk trailer :O)

hope you all enjoyed the photos, still haven't found the ones of the little baby possums that I have been trapping lately.  Live traps that is.  But I do drive them a few miles away before releasing them. 

Be safe all :O)  talk again soon :O)

July 18th 2016

  So how has everyone been? I hope great. Iv been busy but not busy enough on the place.  The garden is producing Squash, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, corn,  cantaloupe and of course the wide varity of weeds and stickers. I do really good for most of the spring and into the summer on keeping the weeds under control but when it gets really hot I kind of go into the "its too freaking hot" mode lol  Plus like I said a while back my computer updated to windows 10. windows 10 is a off spring of a demon spawned malignant creature of much hate and discontent.....  I do not like it.  at all.  I really really don't.   

Did I tell you that I really don't like windows 10? Just making sure I did .....  grrrr

  So anyway, if been cleaning on the shop, getting stuff out of the storage shed since I have been getting more organized in the shop. There is a lot of things in there that I have not used since 2010. Some because I couldn't get to it but needed it, other things I just have no need for it and I'm going to take it either to a auction place or put it on craigslist or offer up.  either way I'm getting rid of some stuff.

  We are chip sealing (spray with tar and then spread small pebbles onto the tar) roads at work again, its that time of year. Dirty hot work. I'm running the broom (motor driven sweeper ) I actually volunteered for it, I would rather be hot and sweaty but have a breeze verses sitting there in the sun being very miserable and no breeze.  The guys think that I'm nuts for volunteering but at least I can create my own breeze and broom it in a way that I eat very little dust. Sure there are the times that it cant be helped and I get in the dust and I have to take two showers back to back when I get home lol but its really not to often that that happens. Just so happens that today was a dusty day though :O( 

  Iv been slowly working on the fence, it almost done, one small piece of fencing and another small piece at the drive way and it will be done. except the goat pens, but I have put in a corner post the other day. I'm out of wood posts but Iv got a bead on some more, just have to go cut them to length and haul them home. Been meaning too for quite some time now but just haven't gotten too it.  I need roughly 12 more just to get started good on the pens, uggg. It never seems to end lol

  Been grilling a lot, it sure is nice to have a nice grill again :O)  it works really nicely. I made some of the best pork chops the other night, amazingly good actually. I probably wont be able to make them that good ever again lol 

  I still have two chickens. Roosters. I call them many names actually, Dumb and Dumber, Red, Lloyd, but the one that seems to come out the most is Rat Bastards...   They are pooping monster machines....  Seriously, since I have poured the porch its the only place they want to poop now.  went to Kansas city for a few days and when I got back they had pooped 143 times on the porch.....   Really!!!  I'm going to paint a bingo card on my porch, that way I can play chicken poop bingo...  anyone want to play along?   lol

this is one of the squash plants, that flower is about as big as my hand. 

See? I wasn't kidding about the chicken poop....  Anyone ready to play the chicken poop bingo game? lol 

this sadly is a combine,  This is what happens when it gets hit by a train. Sadly, the operator of the combine didn't survive :(  He was a local guy that I have known since I was a little kid.  RIP.

This is actually the operators compartment, He was actually thrown from the combine on impact. 

It was weird for me to hear about this the next morning, I had actually met him on the gravel road when I was headed home that day about 5 minutes before he was hit by the train.  I was most likely the last person he saw.  Its a sobering deal, you never know from one moment to the next which one will be your last....   

Mom and my nieces daughter at the family reunion :O) 

My nieces son :O) such a little cutie :O) 

I saw this and had to take a picture :O)  mom her great grand kids. I thought it was neat that they are stair stepped in sizes. 

Okay, I was messing around in the garage again and this is what came out of it lol

I was told that its a spider bird lol

and here is Patches :O) 

Bought some LED lights a while back and put them up under the porch, I wanted blue but they didn't have any in that length. Its not as bright as the porch lights are but its not the soft light that I was looking for.   Maybe next time they will have the blue :O) 

As you can see I was having a tough day at work lol

Oh yea, the chicken pvc pipe cage thingy I made a while back. Don't make one like that, at least don't use the schedule 40 3/4 pipe. Its not sturdy enough for the Kansas winds or the chickens roosting on the top bar.  Its a good design but just make sure to use the schedule 80 one inch pipe. It would be a lot better that way.  Just wanted to give that update so no one else would make the same =mistake that I did :O(

This is a much better picture of the squash plant flower :O)  I thought it was really pretty as well.

this is some of the flowers that we bought and hung up on the porch to help attract the humming birds. It has worked actually, we have at least two female humming birds that regularly feed her at the porch.

Just a plant that we put on the antique pedal tractor on the porch, going to put a shelf where the motor is supposed to be and put a flower on each side. should look really cute.

I think I have posted this picture before :O(

Made this seat for the front porch as well. I don't know what old implement the seat came off of but I'm thinking it was a horse drawn piece. Maybe?

This is one of the two humming bird feeders that's hanging on the front porch,  Have I said lately just how much I really enjoy the front porch? I love it actually :O) I have always wanted a big porch and now I have one. Its actually starting to be a little smaller with the stuff I have been putting on it too lol  Might have to put a addition on the porch one of these days :O)

I love sitting out there in the early morning hours or the evenings watching the birds and animals in the yard. There are many different breeds of birds that go to the feeders and bird bath. Sometimes deer even walk down the road in front of the house. Rabbits scamper all around, a few squirrels and stupid possums too.  I haven't seen the ground hog this year though, wonder if its still around?

This is Shane on the left,  I took this picture on fathers day at the reunion. Little did any of use know that just a few short days later he wouldn't be with us any longer.  He was riding his mountain bike and got hit by a vehicle.    RIP Shane, you are missed by many.

just a random pic of some flowers in my yard :O)

Well all, going to get off here and eat some supper. Sorry that its been so long between posts but I am still here and I will keep posting as long as I'm able :O)  I will be posting some more pictures as soon as I figure out where and what windows 10 has done with them.    

  Be safe all :O) and make each day count as if its your last day :O)

Notlim