Ever Wish You Could Erase Time?

Yesterday was an absolutely exhausting day for Dwayne and me – which kinda put the icing on the cake for what turned out to be a fairly horrible week of events taking place. It had to be one of those – “If it’s not one thing it’s another…” without a doubt. We’ve been saddened – along with so many other folks all across this country – by the declining health of a dear friend – Monica. Even in the middle of all the other heartbreaking events we’ve experienced in our lives over the past week – emotions and worries have held fast at the forefront of our minds and hearts with constant prayers for Monica and Heidi. This world will never find two sisters as bonded and loving toward each other. They have been the truest sense of the word ‘Family’ and lived as such a wonderful example for so many of us caught in the net of all the antics in this crazy world. My life-long wonderful friend – Debbie – ended up missing a milestone reached by her son’s surprise 30th Birthday party – due to coming down with the flu. As if that weren’t enough – she and Bud lost their beloved dog Tasha the day following. They had eleven years of pure enjoyment with her as a part of their family. After bending over backwards to help our now 22 year old daughter, Jennifer, – having not even given second thought – our dear friends – Wayne and Charlotte – were handed the most disrespecting and hurtful blow from pure lack of appreciation and consideration. It was enough that it became necessary for them to leave her no option but to find another place to live. The incident played the heaviest role in Charlotte having to leave work the day after the incident and come home to Wayne – for the first time ever. The entire family remained at home the next day – following an evening at the Emergency Room at Blount Memorial Hospital. This remains a heated issue in our household at this time – enough that it’s impossible for me to even talk about or share while maintaining control over my anger. If I had to find one word to describe how I feel about the choices my daughter has made – that word is – Betrayed. Yesterday was planned to be a day for getting more work done on the house and – grocery shopping – laundry – as well as a few other extra side jobs we wanted to tend to. Just wasn’t in the cards. We spent almost five hours helping three officers with Loudon County Animal Control load a shocking surprise from our hay pasture. One of the officers was under the impression she had finally found the mare – colt – and donkey that others had called in three weeks prior. They had been seen all the way up near Hwy. 72. The officers had not been able to find them and gave up after several hours. The shock came when we all discovered the mare was no mare. It was a Stallion. And he was good-natured so much it would blow your mind. But all the trouble came from obvious signs he had never been loaded onto a trailer. Since February of this year we have noticed some discouraging issues going on pertaining to ten horses and a donkey in the pasture owned by neighbors next to our property. Apparently – there was a relationship that split up. The children were taken. But neither party ever made the effort to make sure the animals were properly cared for. And there have been some really strange things going on over there – to say the very least. Zucker woke up yesterday morning and jumped into full alert without stopping until Dwayne got out of bed to look out the windows. We had three of the neighbor’s animals on our property near the barn – where there is no secure fencing. Fortunately – Terry had left the gate to the hay field open. Eventually – all three headed for the hay field and I was able to get the gate closed before going through the remaining tasks of helping these animals. These animals had received no Vet care. What continues to worry me is – we can’t figure out what happened to the other eight animals. There has never been activity measuring up to any of the animals being carried out by trailer. The only access to the pasture is a dirt road on the other side of the gully of trees between the two properties. The pot-holes on that road provide a great alarm to anything accessing. This guy and his wife had been hiding vehicles back there – obviously for avoiding repossession – since before Christmas. Water was being carried up to the animals in a tank loaded on the back of his pickup. Not only has the tank been missing from his pickup for quite a while – he has rarely even gone up to the pasture anymore – and usually at night. The sounds we’ve heard were as if he was dumping scrap metal. I managed to get a photo taken before the officers showed up. Fonts- Edmonds Fenice BT

Full Moons and Fussin'...

Spent the second half of the day mowing, yesterday. Seems to be the number one chore lately – next to – washing dishes. LOL Just kidding. Hehh… anyway. By the time I figured I better head out there to take care of that – I had ticked off one Boss Dog of The House. It had been a morning filled with the two of us going at it! I don’t think I’ve seen so much snapping going on between the two of us before. I guess that Honeymoon period really is over. I dunno. He just doesn’t understand. There are some things that just must be taken care of in life. And if you lag – problems just build up like a pile at the dump. And the next thing ya’ know – it’s a trip to the doctor. I mean – that’s just common sense. Right? Okay – so how many still think I’m talking about Dwayne? LOL Check this out! (click on photo for larger view) Yeah… It was around 1:30am this morning before I realized how late I’d stayed up to finish this. But that face was just worth it! Kit - "Life is Ruff" created by Digilicious Designs by Athena Gray at Digital Design Den Fonts- Bentley Coldbringer KG CongressT Here's a peek at Athena's kit!

Got the South Side of the House Power Washed!

The last time Dwayne took a week of vacation to work on power washing and sealing the house – it rained all but two out of twelve days. After working six days straight and getting back to another round of four days off – we were looking at rain busting our hopes, again. Trying to push the issue has become one we’ve given up on. If we get it done – we get it done. If we don’t – we just – don’t. In the meantime – Dwayne decided to move on to something else on the list. If nothing else – we could manage to get the inside of the basement sealed. So – we picked up five gallons of sealant at Co-Op and brought it home. Dwayne decided to take advantage of a pocket of time we had yesterday. We went ahead and set up the extension ladders and walkboard on the south side of the house. The day was kinda crappy. Showers would show up every once in a while. But he got out there and began power washing that side of the house. By the time rain began coming down too much for the power washer to be standing out in the middle of it – he had managed to hit the entire side of the house. (click on photos for larger view) THANK YOU, GOD!!!! Most of you know - I'm only 4' 11" in height. Guess who helped him set all that up! By the time he had to raise that walk board a second level - we called on one of our neighbors for help! Remember that plant I asked about several posts ago – the Devil’s Trumpet? Well – I got that seed pod off. Mind you – it took a pair of leather gloves and clippers to get that thing separated from the plant. And that thing is coming out of the ground TODAY! It’s growing right beside our Pink Lady apple tree. By the time I went to check on that first seed pod – this is what I found. And there are about seven more of these huge pods waiting to turn brown before they threaten to explode and send a nightmare out into our whole yard! That’s not happening! I brought the seed pod inside and used a toothpick to get it fully opened and get the seeds out. Boy the threat of damage only one seed can do! Take a look at this… These plants don’t like getting their feet (roots) wet. This plant’s not very happy with all the rain we’ve been receiving. And it’s become downright – ugly. Not only that but – I found all kinds of stink bugs mating all over the thing! I dunno if I even wanna save the seed on this one. I was all about making a special home for being able to enjoy that wonderful perfume scent of the flowers! But – after seeing all those stink bugs???

Rain Can Kill as Much as Drought and Fire

The local forecast here claimed that no rain was expected until this coming Thursday. Terry even got off work Monday and headed over here to spend about two hours cutting the hay. Dwayne finished up working six straight days Monday night – after covering two days for a coworker that had to take his son up to college and get him settled in. Yesterday evening – I ended up taking a late nap – only to be awakened by the sound of – rain. The Doppler showed a small patch. Okay – figured it would pass and we’d be done with it. It’s only now given us a break and the clock reads 8:17am Wednesday morning as I write. Almost feels like the atmosphere had a collision that spent the night creating the rain right over our heads. I’m beginning to wonder about our hopes and efforts in trying to get this house power-washed and sealed. The last time Dwayne took a week of vacation to get the job completed – we had solid drenching rains for ten out of 12 days. We’ve dealt with rain for the majority of the rounds of days off – since. And apparently – the forecast has now changed. Chance for showers and storms has developed for the rest of this week and throughout Labor Day weekend. We were ready to give up and use the last week of vacation to finish getting this house sealed. Our wedding anniversary is September 11th and my birthday is September 29th. I informed Dwayne that both should be just blown off so we can get this taken care of and be done. I’ve reached the point where that decision might as well stand. And I’m just letting go from there. I really don’t care at this point. It rains or not – we get it done – or not. We’re only two people and we can’t get everything done with Mother Nature standing in front of us with a hard case of PMS. The cutting of hay is as good as lost. Terry informed me that this cutting was thinner than the first – usually expected. However – this cutting was expected to turn out better than several others in our area and would have been a great help. This field had not been fertilized this year. Several others in the area had been fertilized. They were lost by the torrential rains that washed the fertilizer down into low patches of fields – causing the hay crops to burn in patches too large and too many for making any effort to bale. Listening to Dwayne it seems he has already given up on trying to finish sealing the house until next year. He’s decided to move his focus onto another project – sealing the inside of the basement. Might as well protect the basement from any possible leaking through the water table of the soil. We’re not able to move the sloping dirt away from the house until we move the barn next year. Runoff from rainwater heads right for underneath the back of the house and under the full-length porch. The cinder-block for the basement was sealed during construction before back-filling. However – it’s been nine years and we just can’t take that chance. Considering the fact that this house was constructed on the cheap beyond the log shell – only wise to cover our back door. God knows – we don’t need any nightmares. The Honey-Do List is long and costly enough. We’re not the only ones facing obstacles here in the circle of friends and coworkers. Everybody’s had their problems trying to accomplish anything on their own lists. Work schedules make it almost impossible for them all to get together and go door to door helping each other. We can’t even manage to hook up with our neighbors to get anything done. Dwayne’s off when they’re working – and vice versa. It looks like we just may end up having to hire help to get things done around here. I wake up every morning giving the day to God. Good AND bad – He gets all the Glory. And right now – He knows I’m pretty angry. I don’t know what His reason is for all this going on. But I do know this much. He always gets the last word – and it’s always good. So – for whatever reason He has these things going on – I’m turning it all over to Him and leaving it up to Him to bring something even better out of the disappointing picture in front of our eyes at this moment.