On Cedar Ridge

LOOKS

2011-12-19T17:52:00.000-08:00

The following story, by an unknown author, was sent to me by a friend. I enjoyed it so much that I thought I would share it with all of you, the readers of this blog.

One Sunday morning the pastor of a fairly large church was about to begin his message when a man dressed in grease riddled jeans and leather jacket walked in and sat down in one of the pews. The pastor felt rather embarrassed by the burly man’s appearance. So, after the service was over he asked the man if he would pray and ask God if it was right to dress in such a way when attending his church. The man said he would.

The following week the pastor was just beginning his message when the man walked in wearing the same greasy jeans and leather jacket and takes a seat in the back of the church.

After the service the pastor was furious and went to the man once again and said, “I thought I asked you to pray to God and ask Him if He thought it was right to dress in such a way while attending my church.” The man replied, “I did.” The pastor said, “Well, what did God tell you?” The man said, “He told me that He didn’t have a clue as to what to wear in this church because He’s never been there before.”

“I Was In Prison, and Ye Came Unto Me”

2011-11-23T18:04:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have been quite eventful for my wife and myself. Those events have taken place, not on Cedar Ridge, but in the state of Texas. While on a trip to visit my wife’s sister and brother-in-law we spent several days with the founders of a prison ministry that we came in contact with a few months ago. My wife had been reading from the 25th chapter of Matthew where the Messiah answers the question “when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? Or when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?” His answer was “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Connie asked me, “How do we visit anyone in prison?” We didn’t know many prisoners. There was one young man that Connie had written to off and on over the last several years. Perhaps writing to him was in effect visiting or coming to one in prison. However, a short time later we were brought into contact with Broken Vessels Prison Ministry. We were drawn to this ministry in a way that is hard to explain except to say it was a divine calling. We began by contributing a bit financially, then by corresponding with a prisoner and later by “adopting” a couple of men who had no financial support whatsoever. (In the Texas prison system inmates are required to work if they are able but receive absolutely no pay.) A few dollars a month on their books allows them to obtain personal hygiene items, occasional snacks, stamps, etc.

We felt the need to receive a bit of an education regarding the needs and what we can do to assist in filling them. The few days spent with Thomas and Raquel was a crash course in prison ministry.

We went down to Huntsville and observed and participated in what is called “first contact.” Each day, Monday through Friday, quite a number are released from the Huntsville Walls. Those who do not have family waiting across the street for them to come out of those gates walk down the street about two blocks to the Greyhound Bus station, carrying their meager possessions in an onion bag. They have in hand the $50.00 check they are issued, a voucher for a bus ticket to their destination in the state of Texas. Their check will be cashed there for no charge. The voucher is exchanged for a ticket and soon they are boarded for either Dallas or Houston, the transfer points for most. They are given a free cell phone (or the phone number to call to get one if phones are not available on that day.) These are made available to individuals that have no income.

Perhaps the most important thing that is offered by those who were there from two or three different prison ministries is a smile and a warm welcome back. We were blessed to be able to join in that morning. We visited with several men, many who had served many years, such as Robert who had been behind the razor wire for 20 years. It was hard for him to fully express the emotions he was experiencing; fear, strangeness of everything, anticipation of meeting family and especially grand children he didn’t know.

After the fellows had all boarded their buses we went to the Texas Prison Museum. We saw and read about many interesting things but perhaps the most striking was a full-size prison cell.

The following day we were able to meet and spend some time with one of the fellows we had been writing to. He is now in a half-way house and had a pass for a few hours. We were able to take him with us to a local park and enjoy some time along with a picnic lunch.

The following morning, before heading on down to Connie’s sister’s home, we went to Navasota, Texas, to the Pack Unit and went behind the razor wire to visit two men we have been in contact with. When we began planning our trip they had added our names to their “visitor” list. We went in together and visited Troy for 2 hours. We had to come back out and go through the security check again to re-enter to visit Wesley for 2 hours. We certainly enjoyed our visits and found it sad to have to go. It really was heart rendering to learn that our visit was the first that Wesley had received since 2002!

After leaving Connie’s sister’s home we drove to Beeville, Texas where we spent the night. The following morning we went out to the McConnell Unit, a maximum security unit, and had a 2 hour visit with Robert. (A different Robert than referred to above.) All 3 visits were non-contact visits. Regular visits are all non-contact if you aren’t family. At the Pack Unit we could talk through a heavy mesh but at the McConnell Unit it was over a telephone, just seeing Robert through heavy glass.

We stopped by and spent a bit more time with Thomas and Raquel before heading back to Cedar Ridge. The many hours of discussion, asking questions and being given countless bits of information hopefully has prepared us for greater service to our brothers and sisters behind the razor wire that our Father is dealing with in some amazing ways.

Another Set of Eastern Red Cedar Candle Holders

2011-10-23T18:20:00.000-07:00

Due to numerous activities going on I have not posted for quite some time, neither have I been in the woodworking shop doing any projects. I finally took a bit of time a few days ago to turn a couple of candle holders on my Craftsman Router Crafter. I used a piece of cedar that had been cut while cutting firewood. Since it was about the right diameter I pulled it out of the stack of wood.

Here is a photo of the finished candle holders.

Harvesting Rainwater-Part Five

2011-09-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

In the last four posts I have described our move to put in a cistern to hold the rainwater captured from the roof of our house and the means we have put in place to use this water for our household use. This week we have been blessed with some wonderful rain. Tropical storm Lee dumped huge amounts of rain on the Gulf coast which caused major flooding. It created some tornados in some areas and added to the flood woes in the East, but here in South-Central Kentucky we received gentle but substantial rain from the outer bands of this storm. Throughout the week we received over 3 and 1/2 inches of rain, which completely filled my cistern tanks.

In the photo to the left you can see the water is up to the overflow pipe. So, in just a matter of days we went from having two empty 1500 gallon septic/cistern tanks to having over 3000 gallons of water ready for use.

The ball valve on the water line coming into the crawlspace from the public water has been turned off. As of this afternoon, September 9, we are now on cistern water! Everything seems to be working well.

Harvesting Rainwater-Part Four

2011-09-05T18:13:00.000-07:00

(If you would like to check out parts one, two and three here are the links: Part One, Part Two, Part Three )

I mentioned at the end of Part Three that I had to take care of the overflow once the tanks were full. My overflow pipe is installed on the opposite end of the tanks from where the water goes into the tanks.

In this photo you can see the 3” PVC pipe that comes out of the tank, runs to the side of the house and runs down to the corner where the roof washer is located.

The pipe turns around the corner and runs along the back side of the house, down to the end of the deck. There it turns back to the right.

As you can see in this photo the pipe goes over half-way across the end of the deck and then turns again, going under the deck.

The pipe runs under the deck and into one of the two poly tanks that are under the deck. These have been collecting the limited amount of water previously for use in watering flowers and garden. I plan to run a pipe from these tanks in under the house and by using ball valves make it possible to draw from them if the main tanks should run empty. The two poly tanks hold approximately another 950 gallons of water.

Here is pictured the pumping set-up. It may be a bit unconventional but I have installed a 12 volt DC pump. It is plugged into a converter that converts 110 volt AC to 12 volt DC. Electrical usage should be less. The blue tank is a 20 gallon pressure tank. Instead of the pump coming on every time a faucet is turned on as is common with most DC pumps used in RV’s or on boats we will have several gallons of pressurized water to use from before the pump kicks on.

Some have been wondering, I’m sure, whether we can survive on what rainwater we can harvest. Let us look at some figures. The average rainfall for our county is a bit over 46 inches per year. One inch of rain yields .6 gallons of water per square foot. The roof of our house is 32 feet by 47 feet (the “footprint”). That is 1500+ square feet. Multiplied by .6 we find that one inch of rain will amount to 900 gallons of water. At that rate it will take only about 3 and 1/3 inches of rain to completely fill the tanks, or the average rainfall would fill them almost 14 times.

Some figures found on the internet will tell you that the average person uses 60 gallons of water, or more, per day. I know that figure is much higher than our usage. Being quite liberal with my figures I calculate that we use 40 or less gallons per day, each. And, we will do some things differently knowing our supply will be limited at times. For example, the reverse osmosis system we have for our drinking water is a water waster. Depending on the system of course, but from 4 to 10 gallons of water goes down the drain for every gallon of filtered water you obtain. We plan to quit using the RO system and use the Big Berky fulltime.

We plan to switch over to the cistern soon. We have been receiving rain the last couple of days. When I checked mid-day today our tanks were about 60% full and it is still raining. We will keep you posted.

Harvesting Rainwater—Part Three

2011-08-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

(If you missed parts one and two you can read part one here and part two here.)

It was hard to see in the photo in my last post but in the middle of the piping connecting the two tanks together I ran a 1/2” pipe up into the crawl space under the house. This will be connected to the water pump. But, before any water can be pumped out it has to be “harvested” and put into the tanks.

I had put rain gutters on both the front and back of the house a few years ago and was capturing some of the rainwater in a couple of poly tanks that I had placed under the back deck. The only problem with these gutters were that they drained the water in the opposite direction from what I needed now. So, I took down the gutters and reinstalled them, swapping them front to back and back to front. This was due to the solid end and the end for attaching the drainpipe being opposite to what I now needed.

This photo shows the front of the house with the gutter reattached. While I had the gutters down I put a coat of brown paint on the fascia. The brown blends in with the brown of the gutters which were prepainted.

The water from off of the roof goes into the drainpipe which you can see in this picture goes into a vertical pipe. This is made from 4” PVC sewer pipe. It is hard to discern in the photo but at the bottom there is an elbow which has a screw-in plug. Near the top you see another pipe that tees off to the right. What is this all about? That my friends is my roof washer! The idea is that when it starts to rain the first few gallons of water that comes off of the roof will normally have dust, bird droppings, etc. in it. The tall pipe will catch this first runoff with this material. Once the pipe fills to the tee the much cleaner water will run on over into this second pipe. You can see that this pipe runs into a black box.

Here is a close shot of the box. It is a “drop box” normally used with drainage and septic installations. I ran the pipe in near the top on the left side and have another pipe running out from near the bottom on the right side. Inside, between the “in” and the “out” I have screening to catch what debris that isn’t caught by the guards I have on the gutters.

The water then is directed down along side of the house to the cistern tank. This pipe is 3” PVC and it goes into a 4” pipe along the end of the tank, which goes into the tank. The water from the backside of the house goes through a similar setup and is piped to this same point—all of the water entering the cistern tanks at this end.

This picture is of the roof washer and screening box at the back side of the house. I have 3” PVC pipe running along side the house to the other end of the tanks, going into the same 4” pipe that enters into the tanks. In the photo below you can see the 3” pipe attached to the side of the house.

With this all in place we have yet to take care of the overflow when the tanks are filled and the installation of the pump to get the water into the house. That will be in the next installment.

Harvesting Rainwater—Part Two

2011-08-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

(Harvesting Rainwater—Part One can be read here.)

The last photo in Part One was of the first concrete septic tank ready to be set off of the delivery truck. Here are a couple more photos of the tank being set.

Darryl is helping guide it into place.

The first tank is in place. You can see that it isn’t going to be underground at all. About two hours later the driver was back with tank number two and it was soon set into place as well.

Both tanks are set. Now the work begins getting them hooked up and ready to harvest rainwater. Since the tanks were designed to be used as septic tanks the inlet and outlet of each tank is on the ends and very near the top. Using them as cisterns we wanted to be able to hook them together in such a way that they would fill equally and also so that we could pump the water from near the bottom of the tanks. To accomplish this we rented a drill with a 3” core bit which has diamond teeth and drilled holes through the tanks. (We did these two and then Darryl’s three.) After drilling the holes we put 2” PVC pipe through the approximately 4” walls. They were sealed with silicone along with a Plexiglas plate on each side.

Pipe with valves, etc. connected these together. I built a box to protect all of this.

This photo shows all of the pipe and connections within the box—the lid is lifted and we are looking down into the box.

In Part Three we will continue the story of turning two septic tanks into a 3000 gallon cistern for harvesting and storing rainwater.

Harvesting Rainwater—Part One

2011-08-21T00:22:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned before that we live on top of a “ridge.” To have a well one would have to drill very deep. Down the hill, near where Darryl is building his house, there is a well but the water has a great deal of sulfur in it. The local water company has run water lines throughout the county, bring public water to almost everyone. We hooked onto the line coming onto the property when we moved here seven years ago. However, we have wished we could do something to have our own water supply. Having a cistern to hold rainwater captured from the house roof has been an option. But, we just couldn’t figure out where to put one. We put gutters on the house and did acquire some poly tanks to catch and hold a few hundred gallons of water, primarily to be used for watering the garden and the flower beds.

Darryl had determined that he was going to purchase some concrete septic tanks and use them for cisterns at his new house. We had considered that as well, but as I said, we couldn’t figure out just where we would put them. A few weeks ago, while discussing this again, it just came to me that they could be put right next to our house, between it and the driveway. Since Darryl was ready to buy his tanks and get them set in it seemed the time was right for us to go ahead and get ours and get them all done at the same time.

So, we are putting in two tanks, each with a capacity of 1500 gallons. When filled they will give us 3000 gallons or a bit more. We have had to be ultra conservative of water in the past and will have to do so again. Generally we get rains regularly enough that we shouldn’t have much of a problem but perhaps during the summer months we will need to exercise more care.

Here are a few photos of the cistern project.

Due to rock right under the surface we were unable to dig down deep enough to set the tanks under ground.

In order to put the tanks as deep as possible I spent several hours busting out rock with a sledge hammer.

This photo shows some of the rock along with dirt removed from the hole we had dug. The fellow used a small backhoe to dig the area out. I finished it with sledge hammer, shovels, and a lot of labor.

This is as deep as it gets! This was taken just prior to delivery of the first tank.

The first tank has arrived and is being prepared to be set into the hole. We will continue with the story in part two.

How Long Is Forever?

2011-08-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

I know there are many answers to that question but I think the appropriate response for me would be “since I last posted!” The last post is dated June 19th. A lot has transpired since then. I’ll try to give you a brief recap of what has been happening here on Cedar Ridge.

The last weekend in June we drove up to central Illinois to attend a annual family reunion. Our oldest son left his daughter, Tana, with us to spend about a month. We went from central Illinois on to Wisconsin to our daughter’s home for a short visit—we also got to meet our new great-grandson, Jason.

Upon our return home we were in the middle of blackberry season. I had picked 4 gallon before we left and Darryl, Danny and the grandsons had been busy while we were gone. Connie and Anne were canning blackberries, Danny was freezing blackberries. And, we were all eating a lot of them fresh. We lost track of exactly how many we picked but we know it was over 60 gallons. That is a lot of berries, and I might add, scratches and chiggers.

July was mostly hot and dry. Our garden suffered. I watered some items but some things just had to be let go. I got our garlic pulled and hung up to dry, our potatoes dug and also the onions harvested. We have been getting a few tomatoes but our plants have been hit with some kind of fungus and it doesn’t appear that we will get a lot of tomatoes.

Darryl and Anne got away for a couple of days—a late anniversary celebration. We kept the grandkids and did the milking. One afternoon we took Darryl’s four and Tana to the county lake fishing. The pan fish were biting and several were caught. Of course we had to keep almost all of them. After cleaning 10 or 12 I decided we had enough for our “fish fry.” Darryl and Anne got home before we were ready to eat so we invited them to join us. The kids were all pretty excited about not only catching fish but in have “their” fish for supper.

July 19th was our 47th wedding anniversary. We had talked about taking a couple of days and doing something special but with the hot days we decided to put that off. So, we took Tana with us and went to Bowling Green where we visited several thrift shops and finished off the afternoon by going to Chaney’s Dairy Barn for some of their farm made ice cream.

That weekend our son, Mark, from Illinois came to spend a few days and take his daughter back home. Our granddaughter, Beth, from Wisconsin drove to Mark’s home and she and her new son (our great-grandson) came as well. We had a very enjoyable weekend.

In the last two weeks we started another big project which I’ll write about in another post. Also, this last week I helped Darryl put up more hay and Connie and I canned 35 quarts of peaches. We bought enough peaches so that we could share with Darryl’s and Danny and have quite a few to put into the refrigerator to eat fresh.

I’ll try to not take forever before posting again.

Some Kitchen Remodeling

2011-06-19T01:18:00.000-07:00

In 2004 when we were getting the house ready to live in we laid down cement board and put ceramic tile over it for a stove board. We also put the same on the wall behind where our woodstove would sit.

This photo was taken before the hardwood floor was put down. Here is one after it was finished and with our newly purchased wood stove set up/

As you know, if you have been reading my blog for awhile, we replaced this little stove with a wood burning cookstove with a large firebox that allows us to both cook and heat the house.

In this picture you can see how the cookstove takes up about all of the stove board.

Once I built in the new cabinet we saw that we needed to move the stove a bit more to the left but there wasn’t room. So, here came the remodeling project.

This is just prior to beginning. You can see the limited amount of space between the stove and the cabinet on the right.

In this picture you can see that I have cut the oak flooring and am in the process of taking up that next to the stove board. It did pain me a bit to think of the work my oldest son, Mark, put into laying all of this hardwood that summer of 2004.

All of the hardwood flooring that I needed to take up has been removed. The next step was to put down some 1/2” cement board and lay more tile. There was a bit of a problem there. The tile I had used had been discontinued. We got the tile that was listed as the replacement. But, as we prepared to put it down we discovered that it was just a bit larger by almost 1/4”. That forced me to squeeze the tiles together a bit more than I would have wished.

The tile is laid down and the trim between the tile and the oak floor is in place. After the tile had set I grouted the joints. To take care of the wall I decided to not add tile but to place a piece of metal on the wall with about an inch of air space behind it. I painted the metal white.

Here is a view of the completed project. Another and larger view is below.

Here you can see the new kitchen island, the new cabinet and the expanded stove board. Now, what else can I find to do?

Another Project Completed

2011-05-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

When we were getting the house ready to live in back in 2004 we bought and installed a 220 volt A/C in the corner of the kitchen. The fellow who had started building the house had designed it to have a A/C there. We found that we used the A/C very little, just didn’t believe it to be healthful coming out of the heat into a cold house, etc. We had discussed taking the A/C out and building in a cabinet. Since the area is right next to the woodburning cookstove it would be very convenient.

Here is a photo of the area. We had a free standing cabinet in the very corner. We set our trash can in the area as well as had an area for the animal’s food and water.

I started the project on Wednesday, May 4th by removing the A/C. After getting everything ready, removing screws, etc. Darryl came and helped me physically remove the unit. After putting up siding and drywall I started on a new cabinet.

This photo shows the basic framework done, the countertop built and installed. The building of the doors and drawers had yet to be done.

This is the completed cabinet. It was built to match the kitchen island I built a few weeks ago. (See my post.) The countertop is made from oak flooring we had left over from putting down our floors. The top was “finished” with a few coats of walnut oil.

I stood on a chair to take this picture. You can see the countertop much better. The small door on the right hides our trash can. (We had to buy a bit smaller one!) Connie has yet to figure out just what she is going to put into the cabinet. What a problem!

Update On Connie’s Flowerbed

2011-05-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

I did a post two years ago (see here)

on the flowerbed I enclosed in landscape timbers and leveled out. Connie has added more plants each summer and the flower bed is looking pretty nice. Here are a few photos that I just took a few minutes ago.

A Ripe Tomato!

2011-05-03T06:05:00.000-07:00

Never have I had a ripe tomato in early May. But, I must admit I cheated a bit. Late last fall I noticed that I had a volunteer tomato plant in the garden. Just before the first frost I transplanted it into a flower pot and brought it into the house. A few months ago the plant began to bloom and I shook the blooms and brushed them with my finger. And, three set on . Later there were a couple more. A few days ago I noticed that the first one to set on was beginning to turn red. Here are some photos that I snapped yesterday afternoon.

A Few More Projects Made on the Craftsman Router Crafter

2011-05-01T17:28:00.000-07:00

I keep playing with my Craftsman Router Crafter. In the last couple of weeks I’ve turned out a few more items.

I made two of these candlesticks. The basic part was turned several months ago, shortly after I got my machine. The top was too small to allow me to drill a hole for the candle so I just let them sit. Recently I purchased some brass candle cups and I just fastened them on the top. I also made a base for each of them. The effect is often called a “pineapple” pattern. It is achieved by turning both a left and right spiral.
This is a close-up so you can see the effect.

This is a candlestick with 3 flutes and a hollow center. I think it is kind of neat.

These two candle holders are just simple, short turned pieces of cedar with a candle cup.

This is a mug tree made from the cedar. The “limbs” are made with shaker pegs. They are almost too large. I’ll have to try and find something else.

Which item do you like?

No Lake But We Have An Island

2011-04-17T18:42:00.000-07:00

Last December when our daughter and her family was visiting Connie was feeling pretty crowded in the kitchen with several sitting at the table playing games. We moved the table down the room a bit and that helped but not having the table for additional work surface was a valid complaint. I had made a small table out of some scrap lumber to put on the front porch next to our little cookstove so I went out and got it for her to use. She liked having it and it has remained in the kitchen ever since. What she really wanted was a kitchen island that not only gave her the additional work surface but would give her additional storage for pots and pans.

I told her that when I got my workshop completed that building her a kitchen island would be one of my first projects. About two weeks ago I got started on that project. Connie had given her input and I designed what I thought she wanted. As I got into it I found I had misunderstood a couple of things so the design got changed slightly. She is happy with the result. Darryl helped me move it into the kitchen this afternoon. Here are some photos.

The doors and the ends are made from beadboard plywood. This view is from the front. The back looks about the same as I put doors on both the front and the back.

This is another front view from a lower angle.

This is view of the top. I used oak flooring that we had left over from putting down the flooring in the house. You can see the floor in the picture which is the same material. The island top was given a couple coats of mineral oil, which is used on cutting boards. We may not use this as a cutting board but it can be used that way if we decide to.

The island is approximately 24” wide by 36” long and is about 31” tall. Connie wanted it to be slightly taller than the kitchen table but shorter than her regular cabinets. This is a comfortable working height for her.

Black Walnut Hollow Spiral Candlestick

2011-04-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

I turned another candlestick on my Craftsman Router Crafter from the black walnut salvaged from the old sill log from under the old house I tore down. This stick has the hollow spiral, like the cedar candlesticks made on my brother-in-law’s Legacy Ornamental Mill (see my blog post).

The candlestick is approximately 11” tall.

Another Craftsman Router Crafter Project

2011-04-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

All of the projects I have done to date on the Router Crafter have been short pieces, mostly candlesticks and candle holders. I am limited in length but decided to try something a bit longer. I turned a two part tapered walking stick. It isn’t perfect but I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. It was made from the Eastern Red Cedar that we have an abundance of here on Cedar Ridge.

Here are some close-up shots of the stick.

This shows the top of the stick.

This show the middle section, near the top.

Here the lower section of the middle part of the stick is shown.

And, this last photo show the bottom of the stick.

It Was A Very Hard Decision To Make

2011-04-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

We began discussing it several weeks ago. But that didn’t make it any easier to make the decision and then to move ahead once the decision was made.

I have enjoyed my goats. I especially looked forward to the new kids in the Spring. I really like good fresh goat milk. But, the cost in purchased hay, grain and other odds and ends made the milk pretty expensive. Part of the year we had more milk than we needed for just the two of us and then during a couple of months when the goats were dry we had no milk.

For the past few months Darryl has been giving us a couple of milkings of fresh cows milk per week. That really takes care of our needs—cream for the coffee, milk for the cereal and an occasional glass of milk to drink. He assured us that as long as he kept a cow he would share milk with us.

So, we finally make the decision to get rid of our goats. I waited until Zoe had kidded and her kids were a couple of weeks old before I offered them for sale. For some reason Brownie failed to kid this year. She had been with the neighbor’s buck so I’m thinking she may have aborted early in her pregnancy. Anyway, I priced her pretty “cheap” because she wasn’t producing. To make a long story short a lady called with an interest in Brownie but by the time she got here she was thinking more about Zoe. Finally she decided she would take both along with the little kids.

I has been a week since they have been gone and I felt that I could write a post about it now. I was a bit sad, both Brownie and Zoe were born here and grew up here on the farm. They were both daughters of Annie, who had been a very good goat. It is taking some getting use to not having them here. But, I’m managing.

Spalted Maple Candle Holders

2011-03-30T19:13:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you have never heard of spalted wood. I know I was unfamiliar with the term until just recently. From Wikipedia: “Spalting is any form of wood coloration caused by fungi. Although primarily found in dead trees, spalting can also occur under stressed tree conditions or even in living trees. Although spalting can cause weight loss and strength loss in the wood, the unique coloration and patterns of spalted wood are sought after by woodworkers.”

A few years ago Darryl and I cut a maple tree that had blown down into logs, planning to mill them into lumber. But, time passed and we didn’t get the milling done. Late this winter we finally decided to check out the logs and decided that the wood was not as solid as it was when the tree fell. Consequently we cut up part of the logs for firewood and I have burned quite a bit of it. However, I noticed the discoloration in the pieces of wood and after some research found that it was spalting.

I decided to try turning some of it with my Craftsman Router Crafter. The resulting candle holders are quite beautiful—not my work necessarily but the wood itself. Here are a few photos.

These two are 4-3/4 inches tall and have been drilled out on top for a tea light candle or a small votive type candle. Below is another view.

Pictured below are three candle holders I turned from another piece of maple from the firewood pile.

The tallest of the three is 4-3/4 inches tall. Here is a view of it by itself.

The next tallest one is 3-1/4 inches tall and the shortest one is 2-1/4 inches tall. These three are drilled to hold a regular taper candle.

The finish on these candle holders is clear spray shellac and then a polishing compound.

A Couple More Candlesticks

2011-03-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

I’m enjoying my Craftsman Router Crafter and am feeling more confident in using it. I recently completed a couple of candlesticks made from the Eastern Red Cedar we have an abundance of here on Cedar Ridge.

This candlestick, pictured to the left, is 6-1/2 inches tall. After turning it on the router crafter I sanded it, sprayed it with several coats of shellac, and put a coat of wax on it.

The candlestick on the right is 10 inches tall. It was finished in the same manner as the one above. I’ll post a picture below of both together so you can see the size difference.

I’m working on some other turnings and will post photos when I get them done.

After Summer Comes Spring

2011-03-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

Following several days of summer like weather we are back to spring like weather. We had several days of near 80 degree temperatures with overnight temperatures only in the 60’s. Now we are barely making it to 50 in the daytime and last night it was down in the mid-30’s.

While it was summer I got all of my early garden planted. On Monday I planted radishes, lettuce, spinach and carrots. On Tuesday I planted potatoes and onion sets as well as beets. I managed to do a bit of cleanup in the yard. Connie cleaned leaves from her flower beds and set out several plants that she recently purchased.

Our 3 peach trees are in full bloom. The redbuds are about ready to break into full bloom as well. The lilac bushes are leafed out with bloom buds showing on the older bush. The little weeping willow tree is leafed out and many of the trees in the woods are beginning to leaf out.

A little over a week ago we got baby goats. Our Zoe had twin boys.

This pix was taken this morning. They are doing quite well.

The Comedy of Aaron Wilburn

2011-03-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

Many of you may already know of Aaron Wilburn and his comedy but I just recently was made aware of him. I’ve watched several videos on You Tube and I know that maybe I have a weird sense of humor but I really enjoyed most of them. Here is one that I got quite a kick out of.

Black Walnut Candlestick

2011-03-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

The old house I tore down was built on sill logs supported by foundation stones. Some of the sill logs had completely rotted out, some partially rotted, but others were quite solid. As far as I could tell they seemed to be oak and I decided to cut them into firewood. As I began to cut into one of the sill logs I discovered that it wasn’t oak but was black walnut.

This log had been hewn by hand, although some of the others had been cut on a sawmill.

In the above photo you can see the stash of black walnut pieces I have to use for small projects. Which leads me to the first project I have completed using the black walnut.

I plan on giving this to the fellow who gave me the old house to tear down.

New Grocery Store Concept

2011-03-06T06:58:00.000-08:00

The scent of freshness.
It is reported that a new supermarket opened recently in Albuquerque. It has an automatic water mister to keep the produce fresh. Just before it goes on, you hear the distant sound of thunder and the smell of fresh rain.

When you pass the milk cases, you hear cows mooing and you experience the scent of fresh cut Hay.

In the meat department there is the aroma of charcoal grilled steaks and brats.. In the liquor department, the fresh, clean, crisp smell of tapped Miller Lite.

When you approach the egg case, you hear hens cluck and cackle and the air is filled with the pleasing aroma of bacon and eggs frying.

The bread department features the tantalizing smell of fresh baked bread & cookies.

It seems that the sales of toilet paper have dropped way off!

Tour of My Woodworking Shop

2011-02-28T13:17:00.000-08:00

As time has allowed I have been getting my woodworking shop set up. So, come with me on a brief tour.

This is looking into the shop. My Jet contractor saw sits about in the middle of the shop. At the back of the saw is a work bench/out feed table that I built.

On the left side of the shop is my Delta drill press and my Dewalt mitre saw. Against the far wall, next to the filing cabinet, is my Craftsman Router Crafter.

This photo is taken from in front of the router crafter, looking toward the right side of the shop. You can see my scroll saw that I have had in storage for over 15 years and my 1” belt sander. It is mounted on a bench that I built, mostly from material from the old house I tore down.

This is taken from the foot of the stairs to the loft showing the workbench/out feed table. You can see my old bench grinder stored inside the bench. This was salvaged from my father-in-law’s shop after his death. A date on the bottom is stamped July 1960. It has been around for a while.

This machine is to the immediate right as you enter the shop. It is my chain grinder for sharpening chains for our chainsaws. On the wall is my “Certificate of Completion” from the Foley-Belsaw Saw and Tool Sharpening School, January 1994.

Thanks for taking the tour. If there are any questions your tour guide will be happy to answer them.

“We’ll Leave The Light On For You”

2011-01-31T17:37:00.000-08:00

I suspect we have all heard Tom Bodett, the spokesperson for Motel 6, repeat that phrase numerous times in the past 20+ years. I wasn’t aware that my goats had ever heard that slogan but it seems they have taken it to heart. Numerous time over the past several months I have gone to the barn to do my chores to find that the goats have “left the light on for me.”

When I wired the barn I only put in 4 light fixtures. One light is right over the milking stand and I have it wired to a switch right inside the main entrance door. The other 3 lights are operated by pull-chain. One is in front of the hay feeder, one in the hay loft and the 3rd, which gets used infrequently, is in the main area that the goats have access to. It is this 3rd light that I find turned on for me.

I know this picture is dark but you can see the light fixture and the bulb. It is secured near the ceiling, which is quite low being only about 6 feet or so. Below is how it looks when the goats have thoughtfully turned it on for me.

It is hard to see but the pull-chain is only about 3 inches long and is to the immediate left of the bulb. As far as I can figure the goats, or most likely THE goat, doing this gets the chain in her mouth and pulls it. I have yet to catch one in the act but I have it pretty well narrowed down as to the guilty party. Due to one goat being rough on the other I have been separating them at night. The temporary pen is right under this light. So, when I went out a few mornings ago and discovered that the light had been turned on once more I knew that the one in the pen had to be the guilty one. And that was Zoe!

Making Slingshots

2011-01-24T06:53:00.000-08:00

I recently watched a YouTube video that I felt the grandsons would enjoy so I sent the link to Darryl. (I’ll put the video in, for your enjoyment as well, at the bottom of this post.) It is about the use of the old fashioned slingshot. I know I had several as I was growing up. My dad made my first one but I made other ones myself. I could never hit much of anything with them but they were fun.

Shortly after watching the video the 9 year old grandson came down looking for material to make a slingshot. He wasn’t sure what to use for the “rubber” in the slingshot. He remembered some of the rags I was using in the shop and he came asking if he could have the elastic from some of my old underwear. I told him I didn’t believe that would work. I suggested that if he had an old inner tube he could cut strips from that. It so happened he had an old bicycle inner tube. Shortly he had cut out a chunk with his knife and tried fastening it onto his forked stick with screws. I told him we would just have to make some slingshots.

So, yesterday we made each of the grandsons and the youngest granddaughter a simple little slingshot. Not professional quality but something to have fun with.

Here is the video I mentioned.

Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’

2011-01-22T17:13:00.000-08:00

It seems that change accumulates. Before moving here I would take my accumulation of change to my bank and they would run it through their coin sorting/counting machine and give me currency for it. I had never checked with my bank here. We used to save our change to take with us when we travelled as there were a number of toll roads here in Kentucky. But, a few years ago they took out all of the toll booths and we don’t need coins for the toll roads. So, the change keeps accumulating.

Last week while we were in town I went into the bank and asked if they had a coin sorting/counting machine. The answer was “No.” They were more than happy to supply me with a handful of coin wrappers so that I could sort, count and roll my coins. It was a morning’s activity to get the coins sorted, counted into stacks and rolled. After rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ coins I have a bit over $100.00 in coin to take to the bank. And, now I can start accumulating again.

How Much Does It Cost To Build A Workshop?

2011-01-13T07:44:00.000-08:00

I “Googled” this question, phrased as “how much does it cost to build a shed?” That is a hard question to answer as there are a lot of variables. One site said $18.00 to $22.00 per square foot. Another said that “according to the Craftsman National Building Cost Estimator program” the cost would be $22.85 per square foot. Some sites gave hints how to save money, such as doing your own labor, using used or recycled lumber, etc.

My woodworking shop did not cost me $22.85 per square foot, which would have been over $5000.00. If you have been reading my blog for the last several months you know that I did my own labor, salvaged material from an old house and obviously cut my expenses to the bone. I’ve kept pretty close account of my expenditures and so can give you my cost to build my workshop.

This is a photo of the old house that I salvaged my building materials from. There was adequate framing lumber, siding, roofing and wall boards to construct my workshop.

I had to purchase concrete blocks (although there were a few that had been used under the house to add support to sagging sill logs), concrete mix, fasteners, electrical wiring and some old windows.

In this picture, to the right, you can see the stacks of used lumber I had hauled home. Almost all of the lumber used for framing was rough sawn. Most of the 2x4’s were truly 2” by 4”, the 2x8’s were 2” by 8”. There was a great deal of work involved pulling all of the old nails out of the boards and getting it hauled home.

The first expense I had was the cost of gasoline for my little truck. The old house was 25 miles from my home and I had numerous trips up and back. I tried always to bring a load of material back whenever I went up. Based on the number of trips, the average cost of fuel and the approximate MPG I got I invested $250.00 in gasoline.

Here is my material cost for what I had to purchase.

Used windows $40.00

Concrete blocks and concrete mix     $125.00
Fasteners (nails, screws, staples, etc.)     $115.00
Electrical (breaker box, wire, cable, switches, outlets, etc.)     $290.00
Miscellaneous     $20.00

So, for material cost of $590.00 and gasoline cost of $250.00 (a total of $840.00) I have a 16’ by 14’ workshop with a storage loft above. Instead of $22.85 a square foot I have cut my cost to $3.75 per square foot. And, if I count the square footage of the loft as additional my cost drops to $1.88 per square foot.

My parents were married in 1929 at the beginning of the “Great Depression.” They learned to live frugally and I grew up learning about recycling before I ever heard the term. So, recycling an old house into a workshop is just a natural for me.

This is the end result. It has taken me a little over a year since I starting dismantling the old house pictured at the top of this post to get to this point. It hasn’t been a fulltime job of course and could have been done much more quickly if I had hired a contractor to do the job with all new material, etc. but I just did not have that extra $4500.00 or so to spend.

IF you would care to read the story from start to finish of the project scroll down and find the listing on the left under “labels.” Near the bottom of the list is the label “woodworking shop.” Click on this and all 14 or 15 posts will be pulled up, of course the latest one will be first.

Update On Woodworking Shop

2011-01-06T16:21:00.000-08:00

Since I last updated you on my progress I have been able to spend several hours working on the shop. I finished the flashing on the porch roof and patched the nail holes in the used metal roofing.

Most of the work has been on the inside of the shop area. When I tore down the old house I initially was thinking of the framing lumber and the metal roofing. However, I noticed that the walls and the ceilings had been made with tongue and groove lumber. Quite a bit had already been removed but it looked to me like there would be plenty for my needs.

The picture above was taken inside the old house before we brought it down. What you are seeing is a couple of walls and a partial ceiling. These are the boards I used on the walls in the workshop. Below is a couple of photos taken this afternoon in the shop.

The diagonal boards are structural braces. Because of them I had to cut all of the wall boards with angles. It took a bit longer perhaps but I got the job done. Now the fun begins to get benches and tools set up.

Workshop Update

2010-12-26T16:29:00.000-08:00

It has been several weeks since I last updated everyone on my woodworking shop. That has mainly been because not much new has been accomplished. I have worked a few hours in the last few weeks and have a start on putting tongue and groove boards on the interior walls. The biggest, or at least, the most visual addition has been the porch. Yes, a porch on a workshop.

It sort of evolved. I needed some sort of step at the doors and I thought of trying to move my table saw in and out and decided some type of floor extending out from the shop would be helpful. And, a little roof or awning over the doors would be nice on a rainy day. We had an old porch glider that came off of the house porch when we got our porch swing. Connie suggested the porch be large enough to have a place to put the glider. So, here is a photo of the result. I have yet to finish the flashing where the roof meets the wall of the shop.

From My Email

2010-12-24T07:39:00.000-08:00

I received this quite some time ago and keep thinking I need to share, so, here it is.

ALFALFA HAY

2010-12-20T15:58:00.000-08:00

When I first got goats, way back in the early 70’s, I read all of the dairy goat magazines I could find. I subscribed to Dairy Goat Journal and Dairy Goat Guide. One thing that all of the articles seemed to agree on was that to get good milk production the goats needed good alfalfa hay. That was no problem then. I was living in Southern California and the only hay I could find to purchase was alfalfa hay. It was grown where it was irrigated and where they were able to get it baled without danger of rain. All of the hay was baled to be shipped and was in 3-wire tied bales, averaging 125# per bale. One got only 16 bales per ton.

When I moved to Illinois I could get alfalfa hay occasionally. I fed some clover hay and some other poorer hay from time to time. But, moving here to South-Central Kentucky I didn’t find much alfalfa hay being produced in the immediate area. I was able to get some orchard grass hay which seemed to be pretty good but not quite to the degree good alfalfa would be. The last couple of years we have been able to bale enough hay here on Cedar Ridge Farm to feed Darryl’s cows and my goats, but it was just mixed grass hay. This year, due to the dryness, we were able to only get two cuttings of hay. Consequently there doesn’t appear to be quite enough to feed all of the animals all winter. Darryl found some grass hay, which will do fine for the cows, at a fairly good price.

I wanted to look around a bit and see if I could find some hay of a bit better quality. Darryl saw the ad first and drew my attention to it. A man was advertising some alfalfa-orchard grass hay. I made contact and Darryl and I made the approximate 50 mile trip two weeks ago to buy 50 bales of this hay. Even though it is getting toward the end of this lactation the goats have actually increased their milk production a bit. So, the better hay seems to be doing what it is supposed to do, and the goats seem to like it.

Four Letter Word

2010-12-13T08:04:00.000-08:00

We got SNOW, that four letter word often associated with winter. Our forecast was for maybe a half inch to an inch of snow. We received rain on Saturday (almost an inch) and it turned to snow Sunday morning. It snowed off and on most of the day with about what the forecast had called for, but it forgot to stop. It snowed Sunday evening and throughout the night. This morning (Monday) we had quite a bit more around than the half inch to a inch.

You can’t tell how much snow is on the van from this photo but I went out and stuck a 12 inch ruler into that on top of the van.

If you look closely you can see the green ruler stuck into the snow. It is near the center of the picture.

In this close-up you can see that there was 8 inches on the van. I measured several other places and the measurement was from 8 to 9 inches. I believe this is the largest snowfall we have experienced since moving here in 2004.

INFESTATION OF MICE

2010-12-11T09:11:00.000-08:00

A couple of evenings ago as I was leaving the barn after finishing the milking I noticed movement near the goat’s feed pan. I stopped to watch

and it was a mouse, no, make that several mice. They were not bothered by my standing and watching them eating the leftovers. I decided then and there I’d needed to declare war on the little beasties. Yesterday morning I drove into town and purchased some new mouse traps and some cheap brand of peanut butter to use as bait.

By evening I had caught 3 and I reset my traps. This morning I had another 5. But, the one thing that is a puzzle is that one trap was totally missing, carried away by a very powerful little mouse I assume. It may have been the one eating Nolan’s cheese.

We Now Have Power!

2010-11-07T17:04:00.000-08:00

I had a bit of time last week and was able to get electric power run to my woodworking shop. On Tuesday Connie and I went to the nearest “big” town to do some shopping and I went by the electrical supply house and purchased 85 feet of electric cable that I could bury between the house and the shop. On Wednesday we had light rain about all day and Darryl and I didn’t work on his house so I was able to get my small 70 amp breaker box mounted and wired up in the shop.

Thursday morning I dug a shallow trench from the shop to the corner of the house in which to bury the cable.

After running the cable to the house and covering it with dirt I ran the cable I had fed under the house across to the area where I needed to connect it to the power in the house. I drilled up into the wall and fished the cable up to the line, got it connected and then turned on the breaker to send power to the shop, all before lunch. Then, it was down to help Darryl put siding on his house.

What Have I Been Doing?

2010-11-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

They say time goes by rapidly when you are having fun. I seem to have been having lots of fun since time has gone by quite rapidly since I last posted. Well, what have I been doing? Here is a brief recap of the last several weeks and months.

In early June Connie and I made a trip to Wisconsin to attend our grandson, Cory’s, high school graduation. Our granddaughter from Illinois Tana, came back with us to spend several weeks. The last Sunday in June we made a trip to Illinois to attend a family reunion, returning on Monday. My high school graduation class held its 50th year reunion the following weekend. I couldn’t make it for all weekend but did drive up on Sunday, July 4th. I was able to ride the class “float” in the annual 4th of July parade and attend an afternoon meal and visitation with a number of the classmates.

Our oldest son came the 9th of July and spent a few days before taking his daughter, Tana, back home. Our granddaughter, Beth, from Wisconsin drove to his home in Illinois and caught a ride down with him. We enjoyed having both of them here for a few days.

Later in the month of July we celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary. We just took a couple of days and spent them visiting antique shops, thrift stores and eating a couple of meals out. All in all it was an enjoyable couple of days.

The last part of September we went to the Lake of the Ozarks and spent about 10 days celebrating a religious festival with a group of about 450 people. One of the highlights was meeting and getting to know a lady whose blog we read regularly.

As I have been reporting I have been working off and on building a small woodworking shop. I haven’t done much on it for the last several weeks. Priority has been on getting my son, Darryl’s, house closed in before bad weather. We are making great headway. For an up-to-date report you can read his blog, Cedar Ridge Farm.

The summer has been hot and dry. Our garden didn’t do real well but we had plenty of tomatoes to eat but few to can. As a matter of fact, I picked some tomatoes yesterday morning. I don’t remember ever picking tomatoes this late in the year. We have had a light frost but it didn’t seem to hit the garden. I’m afraid that will change this weekend.

Anyway, that is some of what I have been doing. I’ll try to do better at blogging.

A Bit More Progress On Woodworking Shop

2010-09-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

How can over a month passed since I last posted? I guess time goes by fast when you are having fun, huh? I’ve been helping Darryl on his house several days a week and attempting to keep up with the other things needing to be done has kept my progress on my workshop at a pretty slow pace, but there is a bit more progress to report.

I installed a door to the storage loft, using weights in the wall to assist in opening and closing it. I wanted a door to help keep dust from the shop from going up and getting on the stored items.

Here is a view of the door as you start up the stairs.

This view is from inside the loft looking at the door in the open position. You can see the green rope that goes over a pulley and down into the wall of the first floor. Old window weights are attached to the end of the rope.

Pictured here is a small closet that I built to hang winter clothing in the summer and summer clothing in the winter.

I built shelves along one wall and, as you can see, quite a number of items have already been placed on the shelves.

On the outside of the workshop I have put on some of the corner and window trim. Unable to be seen here is the trim that is also around the double doors. The other side has yet to be finished.

I have most of the outlets wired and the boxes up for the lights. I still have to run wire from the main breaker box in the house to a small box in the shop.

You can keep up with the progress being made on Darryl’s house and some of the work I’ve been helping with by clicking here.

The Siding Is On!

2010-08-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

I’ve only worked on my workshop a couple of days in the last two weeks or so. I’ve been helping Darryl on his house plus doing some of the other things that need done. We have been hot, humid and mostly dry here in South-Central Kentucky. Although there has been a brief shower every few days they have not amounted to much. Our little garden up here on the ridge is just burned up. Thankfully, we didn’t have a need to preserve a great lot this summer. And, we have had quite a number of things to eat fresh from the garden.

Here are a few photos of the workshop taken since the last post.

This side finished.

The metal on the backside of the shop.

Weatherboard, that I had left after the other 3 sides, installed at the very top. Now, I have yet to put on some trim and work on the interior, as time permits. I’m sure that much of my time will be spent helping Darryl. It you would like to see the progress that is being made on his house check out his blog, http://cedar-ridge-farm.blogspot.com/

A Bit More Siding Has Been Put On

2010-07-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

I haven’t been able to work many days on my workshop in the last 2-3 weeks due to a number of other activities but I have managed to get a bit more of the siding put on.

Here are some more photos showing the progress that has been made.

Just a small amount more and the 3rd side will be done. I have one small problem—I’m running out of weatherboard so the 4th side will have to be sided with metal roofing material. It should work just fine.

More Workshop Photos

2010-07-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

There have been a number of interruptions the past two weeks but I have continued to make progress on my woodworking shop. Here are a few photos.

The purlins have been put on as well as the facia boards.

A start has been made putting the roofing metal on.

One side of building has metal roofing completely installed.

The other side of the building has most of the metal roofing on.

The roofing metal is all on, the ridge cap has been installed, and the windows have been put in. The windows are from an old mobile home that was being torn down.

The double doors have been hung and a start has been made on putting on the weatherboard siding.

Further Progress On My Workshop

2010-06-26T04:55:00.000-07:00

Although I spent some time helping Darryl, picking blackberries and doing other necessary activities I got quite a bit more accomplished on my woodworking shop this past week. Here are a few photos.

The loft flooring is all down. Toby is checking it out!

The two end stud walls were built and set up.

The two side stud walls have been built and erected.

Here is another view with all of the loft stud walls in place.

I got the rafters cut and put up Friday afternoon. Hopefully, next week I can get the purlins and the roofing metal put on. We’ll keep you updated.

I Observed Something Unusual

2010-06-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

I went over on the neighboring property this morning to pick wild blackberries (they are just beginning to ripen). I was in the middle of a patch of blackberry plants when I heard something coming through the brush and weeds from the woods to my right. I looked up to see a coyote come running into the grass of the pasture where I was. It was headed across to the woods on the other side of the field, off to my left. Immediately behind the coyote, about 30-40 feet came a deer. The coyote ran on across the field, a distance of only a few hundred feet, with the deer right behind it. The coyote went through the fence and on into the woods, the deer jumped over the fence, and it was obvious neither saw me standing to their side, maybe 40-50 feet away. I was amazed to see a deer quite obviously chasing a coyote.

Some time later, as I had worked my way around the field picking berries, I was startled to have a small fawn jump up from a few feet in front of me. It ran into the woods which was only a few feet from where it had been laying. This spot was probably only 75-100 feet from where the coyote and deer had come out of the woods. The picture became clear to me, the mother deer was chasing the coyote which was a danger to her baby.

Workshop Progress

2010-06-17T18:35:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo essay of the work that has been done on my woodworking shop over the last two weeks.

The sills and the floor joists completed.

About one half of the flooring has been put down.

Here is the flooring totally installed.

The back stud wall has been built and raised into place.

One side and the front stud walls have been built and set into place.

The last stud wall in place, ceiling joists beginning to be set and the stairway to the loft area built.

All of the ceiling joists are in place.

Salvaged rough sawn boards formerly used as purlins being put down for the loft floor.

This is a side view taken after all my tools were put away this evening.

I Have Begun Building My Woodworking Shop

2010-06-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

Last Fall I decided that I would like to have a small woodworking shop and knew I couldn’t afford to build one without coming up with some used material. I posted about getting an old house to tear down. (You can read about it here.) I finally finished that aspect of the project and Darryl took his trailer up and helped me bring the last of the lumber home.

I have a back yard stacked with boards, rocks and metal roofing.

I have decided to build the workshop on block piers rather than a full foundation. This last week I got the blocks set and filled them with concrete.

This picture was taken before the blocks were filled with concrete. You can see that my back yard isn’t very level! The building will be 14’ wide and 16’ long. I plan to put a loft in it for storage. In the background in this photo you can see my barn and the woodshed.

Sadly I Have To Report The Passing Of Annie

2010-05-25T18:36:00.000-07:00

Annie came to us June 6th, 2005. She belonged to a lady Darryl had gotten to know before we moved here. Annie was an orphan, losing not only her mother but her three siblings at her birth in 1999. She was raised for some period of time in the kitchen and became a real “people” goat. When the lady was preparing to move from her small farm in the summer of 2005 she was seeking good homes for her animals and asked if we would like to have Annie. We were thrilled to get her. Although she had already raised several kids she was not a new mother when she came to Cedar Ridge.

In the nearly 5 years she was here she presented us with 13 goat babies. On January 24, 2006 she had quads. With a little help from us she managed to raise all four. We still have one of her daughters from that kidding, Brownie. The next year Annie had triplets on March 3rd, 2007. The little buck was stillborn but we raised both of the little does. We kept one and she is one of our current milking does, Zoe.

On March 28, 2008 Annie gave birth to two little does. March 16th, 2009 she had twins again, a buck and a doe. This year she again had twins, a buck and a doe. We named them Abe and Abby.

Just exactly what was wrong we aren’t sure but Annie developed some intestinal difficulties and very quickly weakened and then died this last Sunday night. Our immediate concern of course was for her month old babies. With some effort they have both now, finally, begun to take a bottle. Hopefully, we can find homes for them where they can be cared for.

Annie was quite special and will be missed by all of us here on the farm. You can read a couple of previous posts about Annie here and here.

Boy, Do I Ever Have A Lot Of Catching Up To Do!

2010-05-16T08:56:00.000-07:00

Blogging hasn’t taken a high priority for the last few weeks. Upon our return from Oregon at the end of March we have been busy, busy, busy! I had put off doing any gardening or seed starting. That had to begin almost immediately after arriving back home. That went well and we have been having fresh radishes, greens, onions from the garden.

I did a couple of posts as reports on our trip and I have more to post. Bear with me, I’ll get it done.

Shortly after getting back to the farm we began getting baby goats. Zoe, the goat who refused to accept her kid last year, was the first to kid. She had a nice little doeling which we named Zaylee. A couple of days later Brownie also had a doeling. We named her Baylee. Not exactly twins but are half-sisters, from the same daddy. Their mothers are half-sisters also.

That is Zaylee on the left and Baylee on the right.

Annie waited a couple of weeks and presented us with twins, Abe and Abby. Annie is getting old and isn’t in as good a condition as in previous years. I’m not milking her, just letting her raise her babies.

I used rocks I hauled home from the old house I’ve been tearing down to level out Connie’s flower bed. (See my post on that here.) That took a few days.

When I built our deck in 2005 I used some “cull wood” from the sawmill as decking. Even though I have applied water seal a few times some of the boards were rotting. I replaced the deck floor with treated deck boards.

Here you can see some of the new boards that have been put into place. The blue/green in the lower left is one of my water tanks that are under the deck. These are used to hold some of the rain that runs off of the roof.

When we first arrived back home we were in a bit of a dry period here in South-Central Kentucky, running a deficit of about 8 inches. That has changed. Over about 4 days at the end of April we received over 3” of rain, which we really appreciated. However, the next weekend, Saturday and Sunday, May 1 and 2 we got 11 and 1/10 inches! Living on top of a ridge we had no major problems, just a bit of erosion from the gardens, etc. But, our little community suffered some major flooding. Nothing like Nashville, TN but still several homes and businesses were flooded. The city lake almost washed out. The highway was closed and several folks were evacuated as it appeared that the dam was going to wash away. So much water was coming over the concrete spillway and the earth dam was eroding on both sides. Thankfully it didn’t go but there is alot of repair work to be done.

I have spent nearly everyday the past two weeks working to complete the project of tearing down the old house and hauling home salvaged material. I’m close to being done.

This pile of boards, all 14-16 feet long, have yet to be hauled home. Darryl will use his 16’ trailer to haul them. As you can see my little truck just won’t handle material of that length.

As I have mentioned before we heat with wood. The wood stove we have been using for the last couple of winters is a cook stove with a large fire box. When we quit having to have heat Connie hated to go back to cooking on our gas range. She said if I had told her 10 years ago that she would be cooking on a wood cook stove, and further, enjoying it she would have thought them crazy. With the big fire box it just isn’t practical to cook on our Bakers Choice in the warmer months. We discussed moving the stove onto the screened front porch for the summer but that is a pretty big job and still takes more wood to get the stove up to cooking temps. We decided to look for a smaller and less expensive wood cook stove that we could put on the porch. That would become in essence a summer kitchen.

After doing some searching on line I discovered on ebay what we were looking for. The individual/business had 3 different stoves available, all new. One was pretty plain, one just like it with chrome trim and the third one had a slightly larger fire box and a water reservoir. The third one was the one we bid on and bought. The stove is much lighter in weight, is not air-tight and isn’t the quality of the Bakers Choice but is a good little stove. We are enjoying it. Connie is learning how to use the oven as it doesn’t heat quite the same as the one we have in the kitchen.

Hopefully, this brings you somewhat up-to-date. I’ll try to stay a bit more current and I’ll strive to finish my reports on “our big adventure.”

Cedar-Apple Rust Gall

2010-04-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

Following yesterdays rain we began seeing these alien looking things hanging on many of the cedar trees. What in the world were they? It seemed evident that they were some type of fungi. After doing a bit of research we discovered that this is the Cedar-Apple Rust Gall.

The following information is taken from the Kentucky Pest News Newsletter.

“Rust-infected Juniperus species (cedars and junipers) are revealing bright orange evidence of the rust fungi infecting them during moist periods this spring. In Kentucky, we commonly see three different rust fungi on cedars and junipers, often on the same tree. These rust diseases are cedar-apple rust, cedar-hawthorn rust, and cedar-quince rust. All three rusts are caused by different species of the fungus Gymnosporangium, each of which must spend a phase of its life cycle as a parasite on Juniperus species such as native red cedars or ornamental junipers. The other phase of the life of these rust fungi is spent on susceptible alternate hosts such as apple, crabapple, hawthorn, mountain ash, pear, and serviceberry.

”

Cedar apple rust. The cedar-apple rust fungus (G. juniperi-virginianae) forms light brown to reddish or chocolate brown galls in the leaf axils of infected Juniperus species. These galls are usually rounded and range from pea-sized to 2 inches in diameter. As galls mature, the flesh becomes corky and the surface becomes pitted with circular depressions. In spring, following rainy periods, slimy, yellow-orange tendrils, or “spore horns,” up to 2 inches long swell and protrude from these depressions. A gall may produce many spore horns, which cause it to resemble orange-colored blossoms from a distance. Severely rusted Juniperus can be very conspicuous.”

From the reading I did I found that these galls apparently do no harm to the cedar trees but can do damage to the apple trees. There may be damage to the leaves and on the fruit as well. It can weaken the trees and can cause them to eventually die. In some areas in past years laws were passed requiring all cedar trees near apple orchards to be destroyed. As many cedars as we have here on the farm that isn’t an option. Hopefully, our young apple trees won’t suffer too greatly.

What Was I Thinking?

2010-04-15T18:08:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post I mentioned hauling home rocks that had been used for the foundation of the old house I’m tearing down. I have since hauled even more home and there are a few more to bring. We have had a flower bed in the back yard that is far from level. The richer soil seems to migrate to the lower edge. I decided that I would use the rocks to enclose this flower bed. That was a bit of work but hauling soil and filling it in is also taking time and a toll on my back.

Now that I am nearing completion I found a recent listing on the “local” Craig’s List. It was captioned, “Handhewn Antique foundation stone - $500” The ad states, “I’ve got about 40 ranging in size from 12x12x5 to a couple 12x12x36. These are HEAVY” What was I thinking? Mine were just as nice and heavy, I used approximately 40 of them on the flower bed and I’ve expended a lot of time and effort, and just think, I could have made a few hundred dollars (perhaps). Anyway, pictured here is the project nearing completion.

As you can see we have to move a few more plants before I can finish filling in the flower bed. Several have already been removed, some planted elsewhere and others awaiting being replaced in this bed.

Report On Our Big Adventure—Entry #3

2010-04-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

Late Tuesday afternoon, March 16th, we were getting some good views of the Rocky Mountains.

As we got nearer to Glacier the views got much better.

It was getting into late afternoon or early evening when we made our trip through Glacier. Shortly after reaching Glacier we were able to spot a small herd of elk right near the railroad. I had my camera in hand but it wasn’t ready to take a picture.

The above photo and the ones following are just a few of the shots I attempted. I just picked out a few to share. I’ll share a few more that I took on our return trip in another report.

The railroad tracks have a number of curves and are in many places right on the side of a mountain. The next photo is one of several I took of the train we were travelling on. As I mentioned before we were in the next to last car on the train and we were able to see the front section when making some of these curves.

As can be seen here, the cars on the Empire Builder are “double decker” cars. On the coach cars, such as we rode, the seats are “upstairs.” On the first level were the restrooms and some luggage storage. There are some special seating that can be reserved, as we found out on our return trip. Several ladies and their small children had reserved those seats and had an area that was pretty private.

Shortly after 8:00 P.M. we crossed the continental divide at 5216 feet above sea level. Actually, Marias Pass is the lowest pass between New Mexico and Canada. It was the pass sought by Lewis and Clark and which was finally established by John Stevens, with the assistance of a Blackfeet Indian guide, while on a mission for the Great Northern Railway in 1889. Just past the actual top of the pass I spotted this obelisk and snapped this picture. I found later that it is a monument to President Theodore Roosevelt.

By the time we reached the western entrance to Glacier Park it was getting dark. Connie and I were delighted to see the evening star and the small crescent moon.

Until the next installment.

Report On Our Big Adventure—Entry #2

2010-04-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

Before continuing my report I wanted to mention a few things. Some of the photos are not as good as I would have liked but there were several factors working against us. The train windows were dirty. We also got quite a bit of reflection on the glass at times. The train was moving at various speeds and unless pictures were taken looking forward of backward there tended to be a great deal of blurring. Now on to more of the report.

We were quite tired on Monday evening and it wasn’t long after it became dark as we traveled toward Minneapolis-St. Paul that we settled back and tried to sleep. The lights on the train were turned down and quiet time was requested—cells phones turned to vibrate, all electronic gadgets to be use with earphones, etc. Even station stops were no longer announced over the P.A. The conductor or attendant was responsible for waking those scheduled to disembark—a destination tag was displayed under the seat number. I think I slept through some of the station stops entirely. I did wake up when we pulled into the Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN station around 10:30 P.M. We were there for 45 minutes or so but I went back to sleep and was not aware of us leaving or stopping at the next several stations.

Sleeping on the train in Coach Class wasn’t too bad. The seats reclined some and we were given a small pillow to use. Most of the time when I did awaken it was because I was getting a stiff neck from the position I was in and I would have to reposition myself. When I did awaken early Tuesday morning it was difficult to know where we were. It was pretty easy to observe that we were in an area where Winter was still with us. The photos below (although with some reflection) were taken after daylight between Rugby and Minot, ND. These were taken from the observation car and I think there was more reflection there than in our own car.

Around 11:00 A.M. we stopped at Williston, ND. This has a bit of a special interest to us in that it was the home town of Ardis who was the bridesmaid at our wedding. I took this photo of an old locomotive that sits across from the Amtrak station. On the return trip I stepped off the train and snapped the picture of the station.

Shortly after leaving Williston, ND we crossed into Montana and Mountain Daylight Time zone. Here are a couple of pictures taken in Eastern Montana.

Going across Montana I saw quite a number of antelope but never had my camera ready when I saw them. The top photo below was taken West of Malta, MT and East of Havre, MT. In was in this area that we pulled into a siding to await the passing of the East bound Empire Builder, as seen in the bottom picture.

In my next entry I’ll cover our approach to and our trip through Glacier Park.

Report On Our Big Adventure—Entry #1

2010-04-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

Our Big Adventure began Sunday, March 14th. The day was spent taking care of all of the last minute details. We left home about 5:45 P.M. and drove to Bowling Green, KY. Darryl went along to drive our van back home. Our Greyhound bus was scheduled for 7:40 P.M., however, it was running late. Another bus came and we were told we could take it to Louisville but we would have to transfer to the bus we were waiting on to go on to Indianapolis. We decided to just wait. Finally about 8:30 we boarded our bus, a very crowded bus. We were not able to get seats together. I was one row back and across the aisle from Connie.

All passengers had to exit the bus in Louisville and we were told we would be there for about 30 minutes. About an hour later we resumed our journey. The bright side was that quite a number of the passengers had to transfer at Louisville and the bus was not quite so crowded. Also, as we were re-boarding we got to board before any new passengers got on and were able to find seats together. Even with all of the delays we arrived at the Indianapolis bus and train station about on time, about 2:00 A.M.

This photo is of the bus we rode to Indianapolis. The picture was taken at the Indianapolis station after we arrived. The side doors are open so luggage could be unloaded.

We had purchased our Amtrak tickets on-line and had gotten only a confirmation. We took this to the Amtrak ticket counter and obtained our tickets for the entire trip. Then it was wait once again. The Hoosier State train #851 was scheduled to depart at 6:30 A.M., but, it was also running late. Instead of arriving at Chicago’s Union Station at 10:35 A.M. we arrived about 11:15.

This did not present any problem for us as we were not scheduled to depart on the Empire Builder until 2:15 P.M. Our wait wasn’t quite as long as we anticipated. They began boarding senior citizens, handicapped and families about 45 minutes prior to departure time. The train is made up of two trains, train #7 going to Seattle and train #27 going to Portland. The train is split into two separate trains at Spokane, WA. Since we were going to Portland we were in the rear section, actually the next to the last car.

This is a photo of our car taken shortly after boarding.

Connie settling in for the cross country trip.

The trains enter and leave Union Station underground. This picture was taken as we began to move. The Chicago River in the foreground and the Chicago Sun Times Building as seen from our seats.

The day was cloudy and a bit overcast most of the day on Monday, March 15th, as we travelled from Indy to Chicago and as we headed toward Wisconsin. But, shortly after getting into Wisconsin the clouds disappeared and we had sun the rest of the afternoon.

We had station stops at Glenview, IL, Milwaukee,

WI, Columbus, WI, Portage, WI and here at Wisconsin Dells. The photo above was taken just after pulling away from the station and as we crossed the Wisconsin River. Connie and I had visited the Dells several times in past years so this was a familiar sight.

Shortly after the next station stop at Tomah, WI we went through our first tunnel of the trip, a 1,350 foot long tunnel. The photo below was taken as we approached the end and a bit of outside light could be seen.

As we neared La Crosse, WI and crossed into Minnesota we ran out of daylight. Here is a picture I took of the sunset.

I’ll continue the report of our Big Adventure in my next post.

We Are Having A Good Visit

2010-03-23T17:01:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Oregon last Wednesday morning about 9:50 A.M., approximately 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Most of the trip we ran ahead of schedule, except for the first night. The bus was late and crowded but the drivers (we changed drivers at Louisville) made up the time by the time we arrived in Indy. The train was late getting into Indy and about an hour late getting into Chicago, but we had plenty of extra time to kill there so it actually made things better for us. We will be heading back on Friday afternoon and hopefully we will be back home on Monday. We will update you then.

In Less Than 24 Hours…

2010-03-13T17:09:00.000-08:00

In less than 24 hours from now (Saturday evening about 7:00 PM) Connie and I will be embarking upon our “big adventure.” We are scheduled to leave from Bowling Green, KY tomorrow evening by Greyhound Bus and to arrive in Indianapolis, IN a bit after 2:00 AM Monday morning. After approximately a 4 hour wait we will catch the Amtrak train for Chicago at 6:30 AM. We will have another lay-over in Chicago of about 4 hours before boarding the Empire Builder Monday afternoon. And, then we have about 46 hours of travel across some very beautiful part of this land before arriving in Portland, OR on Wednesday morning. We will try to take a number of photos that we can post later.

Private Family Cemeteries

2010-03-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

The following quotation is taken from a book entitled “Weird Kentucky: Your Travel Guide to Kentucky’s Local Legends and Best Kept…” From page 209 in a section captioned “Cemetery Safari,” “Being so finely chopped up into small counties (one hundred and twenty: third most counties of any state in the union), Kentucky naturally contains a higher number of official county cemeteries than many other states. And because of our dense mountainous and rural areas there’s also a very high quotient of private family cemeteries, often on private property and just as often lost, forgotten, or bulldozed over.”

I have noticed numerous small cemeteries in the area. Some are quite small with only a few gravestones. Some sit near a road but with pasture or farm land all around. Some are not even near a public road but near where a house once stood. As I’ve posted here earlier I am in the process of tearing down an old house for the building materials. I had made several trips up to this old house, which is located about 1/4 mile from the public road down a farm lane, before I noticed an overgrown family cemetery. The only family name I located was “Wilcoxson.” Most of the deaths were from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The most recent burial I noted was in 1947. Here are a few photos.

Although not as commonly done as in days gone by some burials are still made in private family cemeteries. A friend of ours died a year ago last summer and she was buried on the family farm. According to what I have been able to find, if one’s land is outside the village or city limits and if there is no local mention of family cemeteries in any zoning there one may go right ahead and bury their family member on their own property. This is something we have discussed with Darryl and it is our hopes that when that time comes we will be laid to rest right here on Cedar Ridge Farm.

Enter My Son’s Maple Syrup Give-Away

2010-03-04T04:46:00.000-08:00

I’m not eligible for this since I live right here on the farm but all of you reading my blog are so go on over to his blog, New Kentucky Homestead, and leave a comment. Let him know you were referred by this blog.

Update On Acquiring Building Materials

2010-02-28T14:30:00.000-08:00

I posted back in early December about acquiring building materials for building a woodworking shop. (Read it here.) An update is in order. Tearing down an old house, cleaning up the lumber and hauling it home does take time. I have tried to go up and work as often as possible but with cold, snow, rain, etc. I haven’t been able to do so as much as I might have liked. This past week I was able to make three trips up which was much more than I have been able to do for some time. Here are a few photos showing my progress.

This is the house prior to bringing it down, as detailed in my earlier post. There had been quite a bit previously salvaged by others, as can be seen here.

This is a view of the house after we pulled it down. One section of roof can be seen in the foreground. The rest of the roof is on top of the interior walls, flooring, etc.

By the first of December I had most of the roofing metal off.
There is a bit still showing in the upper left of the photo.

The photo to the right was taken last Friday morning. There is still a bit to disassemble but most of the work remaining is clean-up. That means pulling nails and picking up and taking all the small unusable pieces over to a burn pile.

This picture shows the growing piles of lumber, metal and rocks I have hauled home and are sitting in my back yard awaiting to be used in constructing my workshop.

Answer To Question

2010-02-22T16:51:00.000-08:00

After my last post about obtaining a copy of Word Perfect Anna left a comment and asked, “What makes Word Perfect so much better than Word or Open Office?” Even if she weren’t my daughter I would still need to answer such a question. Word Perfect isn’t necessarily better than other word processing programs, it is what I have been used to using and from my point of view is a bit more user friendly. Let me explain what I mean.

I don’t see a lot of difference in doing a straight text document but something I do frequently is insert photos into a document. This is where there is a definite difference. In WP I insert a picture and it shows up as a small image with little squares at the corners ready to be dragged into a larger size. In Word the photo arrives quite large and only after clicking on it do I get the little squares to make it smaller. Okay, that’s not a big deal. But, what is a big deal to me is when I go to continue typing and wish to extend text beside the photo. In WP I simply move my cursor to where I want to type and begin typing. Not so with Word. I kept fussing with it to try and put text beside the picture and just couldn’t get it to work. Danny then told me I had to first create a “text box” and drag it to the size and space required.

As I told Danny, that seems like a lot of extra nonsense. I use Live Writer in doing my blog posts. I assume that many other bloggers do as well. Inserting photos and typing beside them works almost the same as Word Perfect. It just seems like the way it should be. Anyway, for me, Word Perfect is the word processing program of choice.

I Have Word Perfect Again!

2010-02-20T18:34:00.000-08:00

In my last post (Computer Musical Chairs) I mentioned my concern I had earlier about not being able to use my version 10 of Word Perfect on the Vista operating system. I had checked briefly about purchasing a new version but received “sticker shock” when I saw the price. That was last year when I was first considering a new computer. With the shuffle we have just gone through I tried to work with Microsoft Works but found it just didn’t work like my old Word Perfect. I thought maybe Microsoft Word would be better. Since Connie had a copy of Word I installed it onto this computer. I was attempting to do a few things with it and was getting frustrated. Danny came by and since he has taught classes in the past in how to use Word I asked for his guidance.

Needless to say I found out that it wasn’t going to be any easier to work with than Works had been. I did some checking on line regarding a new Word Perfect program. Corel’s website showed the price of the newest version, complete retail box, was $300.00! No, not really. It was only $299.99. Too rich for my blood.

I did a bit more searching and began to find various software companies offering the CD of the newest version, X4, for MUCH less. They emphasized that these were 100% legal and were genuine. I decided to give it a try. Well, I got my CD Friday, installed the word processing portion only for now and I found it was just like my old version in it’s simplicity. And, I didn’t pay $300.00 or $200.00 or even $100.00. Would you believe it only cost me $15.90 and I got free shipping!

Maybe I should have done more searching a long time ago and saved myself a lot of concern.

Computer Musical Chairs

2010-02-09T17:49:00.000-08:00

A little over a year ago I posted about my old computer that was suffering from a lack of memory and my concern over not being able to use my Word Perfect program on a newer unit with a newer operating system. (Read it here.) I finally came to grips with the fact that I would have to use something else. Text documents can be converted fairly well. But, to keep all of the formatting for further printing I converted text and text with photos to PDF. They, of course, can not be edited or changed.

But, I still had not purchased a new computer. Connie had been talking about getting a laptop for her use (and she says mine as well, especially when we travel). Darryl had said he was going to get a laptop because it would require much less electrical consumption and since going solar that has to be a major concern. In his searching he came across an outstanding “deal” and told his mom about it. She agreed that it was an opportunity to get her a laptop at less than what she had been expecting to pay.

So, to make a long story short, she ordered and received her new laptop. After transferring her data and programs from her “old” two year old Dell computer which has Vista on it to her new unit with Windows 7 she moved my data and various programs from my 7 year old Dell unit with XP to her unit with Vista. Then after a lot of physical shuffling as well we are both learning new computers and new operating systems.

With much more memory I find that things move faster and that is great. I’ve found a few little things that work a bit different and to me, at least, seem more complicated. But, I guess this “old dog” will just have to learn a few new tricks. I don’t have my Word Perfect but as far as I can tell at this point Microsoft Works will do the job and it converts my old Word Perfect documents pretty well.

All-American Pressure Canner

2010-02-05T09:55:00.000-08:00

Shortly after we were married we began doing some canning but it was mostly fruit for which we used a water bath canner. But, by 1973 we had other items to can which needed to be processed in a pressure canner. We went to buy one but for some reason they were in short supply. We placed an order with Sears and one with Montgomery Wards planning to accept whichever one came first and cancel the other order. The Wards order came in first, an All-American 921-1/2. The current 921 appears to be the same canner. As far as we can remember we paid about $40.00 for our unit, which seemed like a lot of money then. Now, the list price is $210.00!

Current info say it holds 21-1/2 quarts of liquid and can hold 19 pint jars or 7 quart jars. Normally we have comfortably gotten 18 pints into ours and easily the 7quarts.

As can be seen in this photo it has a pressure gauge. In addition ours had a petcock that was closed to keep the steam from escaping and allowing the pressure to build to the needed pressure. Once there one had to keep a close watch on the gauge to see that the pressure didn’t go too high or drop too low.

A couple of years ago it was brought to our attention that the new All-American canners (as well as some other brands) were using a regulator weight which allowed the pressure to be held. This is achieved by the excess pressure causing the weight to jiggle and allowing steam and pressure to escape.

I did some checking and found that I could order a weight and a vent pipe that would replace the petcock. This change has made canning much less of a stress in that once the pressure is arrived at one knows that it won’t go higher and can even walk away from the canner for a period of time.

To the left is the vent pipe screwed into the canner lid. The petcock simply unscrewed so there was no major alteration necessary.

Pictured here to the right is the petcock I removed. To allow the steam to vent the top piece was turned straight up and down. Once steam was escaping it was turned over as pictured and the pressure was able to build up.

Here is a picture of the weight sitting on the vent pipe. Notice that by turning it to different positions one can achieve 5, 10 or 15 pounds of pressure.

The pressure gauge is still in use. It easily verifies where the pressure is. Also, one never wants to remove the lid until all pressure is down. Once zero pressure is arrived at the weight can be removed which would allow any small amount of steam and pressure to escape before the lid is removed.

If we just had a dollar for each jar of food that has been processed in that All-American canner in the last 37 years we might be able to take that cruise we often talked about!

Disposing of Old Business Records

2010-02-01T08:54:00.000-08:00

I sold my sharpening business 6 years ago. I had all of my business records in file folders within cardboard storage boxes and moved them with me when we moved to Cedar Ridge. I knew that the IRS recommends records be kept for various lengths of time. I again reviewed their recommendations. Some seem a bit ridiculous. For example, if you file a fraudulent tax return you must keep your records indefinitely! Between you and me, if I were to file a fraudulent return I don’t believe I’d want to hang onto records that would prove it.

Some records should be kept for 1 year, some for 3 years, some for 7 years and a few indefinitely. One web site stated that it was a matter of individual evaluation. After 6 years I believe that most of my records can be discarded. This morning I began the process with my oldest records from 1998 and 1999. I tried to be totally above board with my business, kept meticulous records and didn’t try to claim any questionable deductions so I can’t foresee any questions coming at this late a date. I may, just may, keep the last year of records until the end of this year. 7 years will be complete for that year as well. We’ll see. When I get into the mood of throwing things away I probably better keep at it. It is too easy for me to hang onto everything.

Snow

2010-01-30T19:21:00.000-08:00

We awoke this morning to 5-1/2” of snow on the ground. I know that isn’t much to some of you but it is the most we have seen since moving here in the Spring of 2004. Some winters we haven’t had that much total. The grandkids have been enjoying it and it is pretty as I look out the window. I did have to walk through it going to the barn to feed the goats and chickens but I didn’t spend any more time than absolutely necessary. I stepped out onto the porch and snapped a picture or two and also took a few through the windows. Here are a few.

A Little Kentucky Humor

2010-01-29T12:34:00.000-08:00

Recently one of the blogs I read had a post entitled “Texas Humor.”

I thought you might enjoy a bit of Kentucky humor (with a bit of Texas humor as well.)

It seems that a fellow from Kentucky struck up a conversation with a guy from Texas. After a bit of the usual weather and sports items the Texan asked the Kentucky fellow if he had any land. “Oh, yeah! I’ve got 50 acres, with 25 in terbaccy and some good oak timber,” replied the Kentuckian. The Texan asked, “You call that land?” He continued, “Where I live I can get in my old pick-up of a morning and drive all day and still not reach the other side of my land!” The Kentuckian nodded his head knowingly and replied, “Yes sir, yes sir, I know what you mean. I used to have a pick-up just like that.”

The Excitement Builds For Our “Big Adventure”

2010-01-25T17:52:00.000-08:00

Although it is still several weeks away we are becoming more and more excited about our planned trip to Oregon via Amtrak’s Empire Builder. We have been doing a number of searches on the internet for information and pictures of the area we will be travelling across.

The above diagram is from Amtrak’s literature. Our trip will be to Spokane and down to Portland. From what I have discovered we will be seeing some mighty beautiful part of this country. It appears that Montana is gorgeous. Below are a few photos I “borrowed” from various sites on the internet.

I’m not real thrilled about the numerous trestles and bridges we have to cross but they are being crossed daily without incident.

The above picture shows a bit of fog while crossing on this trestle near the Marias Pass.

Trestles and bridges not withstanding the scenery is awesome. We will also be going through several tunnels. The Flathead Tunnel, 42 miles west of Whitefish, MT, is 7.01 miles long!

The photo above shows a train exiting the Flathead Tunnel. You will note that this is not an Amtrak train but it is the same tunnel that is used by Amtrak. From the information I have read the East portal has a door that can be closed and fans to ventilate the tunnel. Trains travel at or near 50 MPH going through this tunnel. Looking at the schedule it appears we will go through the tunnel somewhere around 10:00 PM going and about 5 or 6 AM returning. We may never know when we go through this tunnel although one individual commented that he was awakened by a change in air pressure. I guess we will wait and see.

Our Upcoming “Big Adventure”

2010-01-23T11:37:00.000-08:00

We have been planning for some time now to go to Oregon and visit our son and his family. I’ve never seen my last two granddaughters and we hardly know Amber. Our debate has been how to make the trip. We just DO NOT wish to fly. Flying wasn’t so much of a big deal before all of the “security” hassle but with all of this nonsense we do not wish to go through it all. We like to drive and see the scenery and stop when we want and come and go as we feel like it. But, a trip of 2400 miles or so, one way, is a bit costly with gasoline at $2.75 or so a gallon and motel bills, food, etc. We thought about taking the bus (take the bus and leave the driving to us) and also going by train.

So with all of these various options in mind we finally arrived at a decision. We are going to take the bus, uhh, I mean the train. Actually we are going to take both the bus and the train. For our trip the nearest Amtrak station is in Louisville, a little over 100 miles away. But, we can’t get a train there. We would have to be bussed to Indianapolis. So, we are going to catch a bus at Bowling Green and take it to Indianapolis. We will take the train to Chicago where we will transfer to the Empire Builder which will take us all the way to Portland, OR.

The Empire Builder takes the northern route across the country and will take us across several states that neither one of us has travelled through. Danny told us yesterday that this will be a “big adventure” for us. I know we will be tired when we get there but probably not as tired as we would be from driving. I will take less time than driving and will be less costly.

It has been years since either one of us has travelled by train and we are really looking forward to the trip as well as looking forward to seeing our granddaughters and their parents.

A House Built Upon A Rock

2010-01-20T16:58:00.000-08:00

In modern home construction one generally pours a concrete footer upon which concrete blocks are laid creating a foundation upon which the entire house is built. Many years ago when many of our ancestors built their log cabins or houses they did not and probably could not construct such a foundation. I found that the old house that I’m in the process of tearing down was built without a “modern foundation.”

It was built, as one person termed it, the “old timey” way. Large stones with flat tops were laid down at the corners and every few feet between corners. Upon these rocks were laid timber sills. These sills were logs hewn basically square. They are approximately 8” X 8”. They were leveled by adjusting the rocks. Into these sills mortises were cut about every two feet to receive a notched 2” X 8” floor joist. The entire structure of the house was then built upon these rocks and log sills.

Many of the log sills have some deterioration and probably won’t be worth salvaging however, the rocks are in good shape! I plan to haul all of them home to be use to created borders and terraces for flower beds, etc. I hauled home the first load yesterday afternoon. In the photo below you can see some of the rocks that have held up the old house for many, many years.

Organic Chicken Feed

2010-01-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

I have often thought that since we aren’t able at this time to grow all of our own grain for livestock feed that feeding what is commercially available was our only choice. I never occurred to me to even ask if organic feed was even available. A friend of ours recently talked to one of her friends who works at a feed store (of the same company that owns and operates the store where I purchase my feed) and asked if they could supply organic feed. He told her that they could, that in fact they normally stocked some but were temporarily out. He said they could get it brought in.

I went in and talked to one of the fellows in the store here locally on Wednesday. He at first told me that they made organic cattle feed but in bulk only, meaning that one would have to buy 3 tons at a time. He didn’t know about organic chicken feed but was willing to check. He called and found that the company did in fact make and bag organic chicken feed but were down to only one bag in stock. He ordered it in for me and I picked it up yesterday. My question was whether they would continue to make and bag this item. He said he was told that they plan to run more next week and he seemed quite willing to keep a few bags in stock for me, and for Danny who wishes to feed it as well.

My thanks to Karla who thought to ask a question that I had never thought to ask. Her question came up after having watched a video on the dangers of genetically modified foods. You can watch it here.

This, That and The Other

2010-01-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

I’ve not been posting much the last several weeks. It seems I just have not been able to focus on any one thing that I felt motivated to post about. I thought perhaps what I needed to do was just cover numerous things that I have been doing, that have been happening here, all in one post. So here goes.

I did cover our trip to Texas in October. I covered beginning to tear down an old house for the building materials to use to build a woodworking shop and I posted about obtaining a Craftsman Router Crafter.

I continue to work at salvaging lumber from the old house. I try to get up one or two days a week, weather permitting, and do a bit more. Hopefully, by Spring I’ll have that done and can begin the actual construction. I mentioned that the old house had no windows or doors. I have a door and Darryl has a couple that he won’t be using in his new house that he said I could use. Doors do not present a problem but I do want several windows. Watching Craig’s List I found an ad for used windows from a mobile home. As it turned out the fellow was tearing down an old mobile home and didn’t even have the windows all removed when I went to look at them. He got them all removed while I waited and I purchased all of them—11 in all. Six of them are 40” wide and 60” tall. I most likely will turn them sideways when I install them. The other five are 30” wide and 27” tall. I was able to buy them for less than $4.00 a window.

Shortly after returning home from our Texas visit the “modern firearm” deer hunting season opened. Darryl, Danny and I were out almost every day. I was the only one to see any deer but I did not manage to shoot any. We were given two that we dressed out and shared. Darryl has a steer that we plan to butcher soon and he plans to share the meat so we won’t be suffering from not having meat.

I usually try to get my goats bred fairly early in the season but this year I didn’t get that done. The lady whose buck I normally borrow had reduced her herd, including her buck, and did not plan to breed any of her goats this year. I kept looking elsewhere for a buck. She had told me that she had a young buck she was raising for a replacement for the buck she sold. I finally asked her if she thought he was big enough to service my goats and she thought he was. I brought him over and kept him for about six weeks. It appears he was able to take care of things, so we should have kids about April.

We are down to about 12 hens and 1 rooster. All of the hens but 2 are older. At least one is about five years old. As the Summer was coming to an end the hens slowed way down on their production. By October and November I was only getting about 2 eggs a day. By the end of November that went down to zero. Finally late in December I started getting an egg every day, then two eggs and even three eggs one day. Today I found five eggs when I did the evening chores. So, we can have eggs more often that once a week if we care to.

Early last week our daughter, son-in-law and grandson from Wisconsin spent a couple of days visiting. They had been in Northern Kentucky for a family activity and came on down. We enjoyed having them, only wished it could have been a bit longer visit.

Early last year Darryl, Danny and I cut and hauled in several loads of firewood from a neighbor’s property. We threw it all onto a large pile down below where Darryl is building his house. As we have emptied out part of our wood storage areas we have been hauling some of this wood up and restocking. The wood has been uncovered and has been wet and doesn’t burn well until it has dried. Darryl was running out of dry wood so this week we all went back and cut more wood. It is from tree tops that have been down for some period of time and are pretty dry. Danny and I each got a truckload and Darryl got two. All of this has been stored under roof so will be available as it is needed. And, with the weather we have been having and is forecast for this weekend it is needed!

Pictured below is my little truck loaded up with wood from the big pile down “the hill.” Over the truck you can see the roof of Darryl’s house that is being built. In the second photo you can see the wood being stacked in my woodshed.

Dementia Test

2010-01-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

My daughter posted a “yearly dementia test” on her blog. I thought she and the rest of my readers might enjoy another.

Dementia Test

Test for Dementia below are four (4) questions. You have to answer them instantly. You can't take your time, answer all of them immediately. OK? Let's find out just how clever you really are.

First Question:
You are participating in a race. You overtake the second person. What position are you in?

Answer: If you answered that you are first, then you are absolutely wrong! If you overtake the second person and you take his place, you are second! To answer the second question, don't take as much time as you took for the first question.

Second Question:
If you overtake the last person, then you are...?

Answer: If you answered that you are second to last, then you are wrong again. Tell me, how can you overtake the LAST Person?

Third Question:
Very tricky math! Note: This must be done in your head only. Do NOT use paper and pencil or a calculator. Try it. Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1000. Now add 30. Add another 1000. Now add 20. Now add another 1000 Now add 10. What is the total? Scroll down for answer.

Did you get 5000? The correct answer is actually 4100. Don't believe it? Check with your calculator!

Fourth Question:
Mary's father has five daughters: 1. Nana, 2. Nene, 3. Nini, 4. Nono. What is the name of the fifth daughter?

Answer: Nunu?
NO! Of course not. Her name is Mary. Read the question again...

How did you do? Any dementia?

Bible Reading Plan

2009-12-31T12:19:00.000-08:00

Approximately one year ago I did a post about a Bible Reading Plan. I thought I would revisit this topic again briefly since I have finished reading through the entire Bible again over the course of this last year. In 2008 I read through the Bible in chronological order. For 2009 I read through in the historical order, which is according to the estimated date of the writing of the books. For 2010 I plan to read from beginning (Genesis) to end (Revelation). Once again, here is the site where I obtained my plan. There are numerous plans, just Google for sites offering plans to find one that may suit you better.

Stat Counter

2009-12-24T17:55:00.001-08:00

I began blogging a little over one year ago. I desired to have some kind of feedback on how many people visited my blog, where they were from, etc. Darryl had found Stat Counter which did all of these things and more. StatCounter.com is a free invisible web tracker. I can obtain a great deal of info. Click on “statcounter.com” above and check it out. Click on “demo” and you will see the type of stats one receives. I personally like following the “Visitor Paths.” I know that I have several “regular” readers of my blog and know where they live. I just don’t know names. I don’t often comment on other people’s blogs and perhaps most of you are non-commenters as well, but perhaps just this once you could leave a brief note. Just say “hi” or let me know what you would like to hear about from me.

Craftsman Router Crafter

2009-12-09T17:29:00.000-08:00

In my post about making my cedar candlesticks I mentioned my brother-in-law’s Legacy Ornamental Mill that was used. I thought having one would be great but when I went to checking on the price I knew right away that buying one was out of the question. But, as I did more research on the internet I discovered that there have been other companies that have made somewhat similar machines. One that I began finding references to was a unit that Sears marketed for a number of years, the Craftsman Router Crafter. It was much less sophisticated than the Legacy but for hobby use it sounded like something that would do what I wished to do. However, I discovered that Sears had discontinued this piece of equipment. Apparently a company by the name of Trend Machinery (now called Trend Routing Technology) had made this machine and had marketed their own, called a router lathe. This machine had also been discontinued, apparently about 2004.

On a woodworking forum on the internet I saw that others had been referred to Ebay to find such a unit. I started looking and found one listed that the individual stated was from his father’s estate, was still in the original box and had never even been opened. I made a bid and later had to raise my bid a bit but did win the auction. And, just as had been stated the unit was brand new. Under the sealed flap I found the original invoice from QVC where it had been purchased in March of 1993.

Here you see the unit set up in a corner of my barn. (I’m still working toward a woodworking shop!)

I’ve been “playing” with it the last few days, trying to learn how to do the various things it will do.

Pictured on the left is a piece of cedar limb I cut from the woods. On the right the piece has been put into the machine and has been rounded down.

In this photo you can see that I have successfully turned spirals in the piece. I’ve got to obtain a few more router bits but I’m about ready to attempt making another cedar candlestick.

Acquiring Building Materials

2009-12-06T17:02:00.000-08:00

As I began making plans to build a small woodworking shop I started thinking about where and how to obtain lumber and roofing materials without spending a huge amount of money, something I don’t have. I started checking Craig’s List and reading the classified ads. A couple of area radio stations have programs they call “The Trader” and “The Real Trader.” One can buy, sell, trade and advertize for needed items at no charge. I submitted an ad on one of the stations stating that I was looking for used lumber and metal roofing materials. I also mentioned that I would consider tearing down old buildings in exchange for the building materials.

A fellow responded stating that he had an old house that I could tear down. I took Darryl along to look at it. As it turned out it was an old house that someone had started tearing down some years ago but had never finished. Although some material was gone there was still adequate framing lumber and metal roofing for my purposes. The house was a two story affair with a fairly steep roof. We decided that it would be easier to salvage the material, and I might add, a lot safer if we pulled the house down. Darryl helped me for a day and a half and using his truck we were able to bring the house down, not all a once but in increments.

As can be seen in this photo all of the doors and window are gone and much of the siding has been removed. There had never been any electricity into the house nor any plumbing. The chimney had also been taken down earlier. Some of the interior walls were ripped out and those remaining did not have lath and plaster but tongue and groove boards. The metal roofing was not original. It was obvious that the house had been shingled with wooden shingles at an earlier time. The metal is quite rusted, as can be seen, but the under side is still brightly galvanized and quite usable.

Here are a few pictures of the house being taken down. We first worked on the section of the house to the right in the above photo. We pulled out the side walls with chains and then took down the rest of the section with a long rope, all attached to Darryl’s truck.

The front wall is being pulled down.

The end of the house is crashing to the ground.

The front wall on the remaining section of the house is being pulled down.

The back wall on the still standing section is coming down.

It is about to go!

GOING!

GONE! The entire house is on the ground I’ve been able to work a day or two a week salvaging material and hauling some of it home. It will take a while to get it all done.

Some of the roofing metal and some of the rafters headed home!

As I took the still photos seen above Darryl’s video camera was recording the action. He posted his video on line and can be viewed by clicking on this link.

My Next Major Project

2009-12-06T16:28:00.000-08:00

After spending time with my brother-in-law in his woodworking shop while in Texas I came to the decision that I wanted a small shop of my own. I have always enjoyed working with wood. As a small child my parents gave me a set of small tools, access to small pieces of wood and small nails. I attempted to build all sorts of things. I worked with my father putting an addition onto our barn and adding a workshop to the back of our garage. While in high school he managed to get me hired to work with him doing carpenter work during the Summer vacation two different years. When I went to college I worked two years part-time in the campus woodworking shop.

I have done numerous projects through the 45 years we have been married, the most major being the completion of our house here in Kentucky. But, I have never really had a shop. I’ve worked out of the garage or on the front porch to do several projects. My goal is to build a small shop, approximately 16’ X 16’ in our back yard. As I plan it I envision adding a loft for storage, something we seem to always lack. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T09:27:00.000-08:00

I was awakened at 2:25 A.M. (CST) by a telephone call from my youngest son, Craig. When I answered he told me he was calling to wish me a happy Thanksgiving. I asked if there was something else he wished to tell me, and there was. He informed me that I had a new granddaughter, Sammi Elizabeth Pifer, born at 12:03 A.M. (PST). So, we have another grandchild to be very thankful for. We now have eleven grandchildren, seven granddaughters and four grandsons.

As I was carrying in firewood this morning I noticed that one of our strawberry plants has it’s seasons confused!

Our fall has been quite mild with a low temperature of about 30 degrees only once or twice. I still have several items in the garden. I went out and gathered greens for today’s salad. I had radish leaves, beet leaves, turnip leaves, two kinds of lettuce and two kinds of chard. With a little oil and vinegar dressing it will be yummy.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Cedar Candlesticks

2009-11-12T18:09:00.000-08:00

On our visit to Connie’s mom and her sister in South Texas three years ago I saw some candlesticks that my brother-in-law, Roger, had made on a new piece of equipment in his woodworking shop.

This photo is a bit dark but hopefully you can see the beautiful spiral candlesticks. (Click on the photo to enlarge.) The one set is made of pecan wood and the other from mesquite. When I first saw these I told Roger I’d like to have a set made out of our Kentucky cedar.

It was while we were there visiting that Connie’s mom suffered a stroke and Connie felt she needed to stay for a few weeks. I came on home and went back a few weeks later to get Connie. When I got ready to return I went out to our woodpile and pulled out a few pieces of cedar that had been cut up for firewood and took with me.

When we went for our visit this Fall Roger told me that I needed to make my candlesticks. He pulled out the cedar pieces (and got wasp stung doing it), designed my candlesticks, set up his Legacy Ornamental Mill to make them. As he got each step started he instructed me in the operation and let me run the machine. After getting them made he showed me how to sand them. After I had the sanding done he sprayed shellac on them (several coats). After letting that cure for a couple of days he showed me how to go over them with steel wool to take away the shine and then put a wax finish on them.

Here are some photos of the end result.

Even if I did part of the work I think they turned out pretty nice.

South Padre Island and Red Tide

2009-11-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

One of the things Connie wanted to do while we were in Texas visiting her sister was to go over to South Padre Island and spend a bit of time on the Gulf of Mexico. However, when we got to Tami’s we found out that they were experiencing a red tide on the island. A “red tide” is the term used to describe a particular type of algae bloom in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, as well as other areas. According to material I read the density of these organisms during a bloom can exceed tens of millions of cells per liter of seawater and often discolor the water a deep reddish-brown hue. The most noticeable effects of the red tides are the numbers of fish, birds and marine mammals that are killed. And, in many cases it causes respiratory irritation to people that visit the beaches.

We were in Corpus Christi, Texas in October 1986 during a very severe red tide, stated later to be “the worst experienced along the Texas coast with effects stretching from its inception near Galveston Island to Mexico.” We drove over to Padre Island to see the Gulf of Mexico. We were able to drive right out onto a beach but when we opened the car doors and got out the irritation was immediate. We began coughing and decided to get back into the car and leave the area.

Having had this experience we quickly decided a visit during this trip to South Padre Island was out. However, about mid-way of our visit Roger, my brother-in-law, informed me that he had a bit of work to do over on the island and asked if I’d like to go along. I agreed to go. I found out later that he didn’t really know what the red tide was like.

We got to the house where he had some work to do, got out of the truck and we were immediately assailed by the effects of this red tide. We began coughing and our noses were running. Roger hurried through the work he needed to do and we left the island as soon as we could. I did take a few pictures of the Gulf of Mexico for Connie’s benefit since she didn’t get to see it in person.

This photo is of the house Roger was doing some work on. It is still being finished and the owners have yet to move in. It sits right on the Gulf. The following pictures were taken from the patio and a back stairway, as well as from the dunes that are between the house and the water.

I’m Back

2009-11-07T16:35:00.000-08:00

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that I haven’t posted anything for the last three weeks. For two of those three weeks we were away from home. The last week I have just not taken the time to write anything.

Connie and I left for a trip to Texas on Sunday, October 18th and arrived back home on Friday afternoon, October 30th. We went down to the Rio Grande valley to visit Connie’s youngest sister and her family. We had originally planned this trip for last Spring but it didn’t work out. That was before Connie’s mom died and our main reason for planning to go had been to visit her mom. Her sister still wanted us to come for a visit so we decided to go ahead and make the trip this Fall.

We had a good visit but are happy to be back home.

What A Difference!

2009-10-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

Connie bakes our bread, a good whole wheat bread. She has made it the “old fashioned way” but has used a bread machine much of the time in recent years. However, she has been somewhat distressed that her loaves of bread do not turn out as they have in the past. It seems they just don’t raise as they should and sometimes the tops are not nice and rounded. Recently she baked a loaf that looked nice but was quite “squatty,” much shorter than it should have been. She decided to try an experiment. She had from time to time found that potato water seemed to help. So, upon removing the first short loaf she started another loaf of bread. But this time she cooked a small potato, mashed it up in the water which it had been cooked in and used that as her liquid. Here is a photo of her results.

What a difference a little potato water made!

Visit To The Nashville Zoo

2009-10-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

Darryl and Anne had taken their children to the Nashville zoo some few years ago and had wanted to go back. On Wednesday, October 7th we all made the trip. The zoo may not have as many animals as some but the exhibit areas seem to be more spacious, allowing the animals more space in which to move around. Here are a few pictures taken during our visit.

We stood and watched for quite awhile as this elephant played with the log.

Naomi was quite insistent that we go and see the giraffes. We all enjoyed watching these long necked animals.

The children were able to go through a tunnel and look into the meerkat enclosure. Below is a photo of one of the little critters.

We also enjoyed viewing the exhibits of fish, snakes, etc. Here is one photo taken in that area.

All in all it was a very good day! There were some things we missed seeing so we will have to go back another time.

Recent Excursions

2009-10-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

Last week we took a number of excursions with Darryl and family (and Danny on a couple). We visited and toured Diamond Caverns near Park City, Kentucky. Connie and I had taken our grandchildren from Wisconsin, Beth and Cory, as well as Jessica, during the summer of 2004. Darryl and Anne had been there even previous to our visit. The younger children had not been there or were too young to remember. Below are a few photos taken during our visit.

Leaving the caverns we drove to Bowling Green, Kentucky and visited the Historic Rail Park and Train Museum. The museum was quite interesting but the real highlight was being given a guided tour of several restored rail cars. Again, a few photos.

Here we are preparing to enter the caboose that is on display.

In this picture we are standing in the dining area of the personal car of the president of the L & N Railroad. This was used not only for dining but also as a conference room.

In the picture on the left we are in the dining car. On the right is a photo of a post office car, one of two in existence.

The next day’s excursion will be covered in the next post.

Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart

2009-10-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

The above proverb has been credited to the Dutch, the Pennsylvania Dutch, the Germans, the Swedes and others. No matter where it originated it seems to bear a lot of truth. Life moves on and though at the time we often don’t recognize it we grow older. And, sadly, we don’t gain the wisdom or the smarts we should. What gets me to thinking about being older?

Last weekend Connie and I made a quick trip back up to Illinois to attend a family reunion. There were 15 of us first cousins in attendance. There were gray and white haired cousins. How could that be. It was just a short while ago that we were all “kids.”

Here is a photo of the cousins taken in front of my parents home in the spring of 1952. The names of those attending the reunion last weekend are in capital letters. A photo from the recent reunion is on below.

Front row, L-R, Connie, HELEN holding JIM (or is it JOHN), VERA ANN holding JOHN (or is it JIM), BETTY, FRIEDA with GLENN in front of her, Margaret, REVA, KAY with her arm around REVA, BRENDA. Back row, L-R, Larry, Roger, RONNIE, GARRY (that’s me), ELLIS, Patricia Sue in front of ELLIS, Jeannie, Grandpa Arlie, Diane being held by Grandpa, Sandra in front of Grandpa, GENEAN, Donna being held by GENEAN. Lyle, Mike, Lorie, Penny, Kayla and KATHY were born after this picture was taken. Roger, Patricia and Grandpa Arlie are deceased.

From L-R, Kathy, John, (Jim for some reason didn’t get in the picture), Reva, Brenda, Glenn, Ronnie, Ellis, Betty, Garry, Kay, Vera Ann, Helen, Frieda, Genean. As you can see we have all aged some in the last 57 years. I do believe we are all a bit smarter than we were then as well.

Lawnmowers Can Be A Headache

2009-09-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

When we moved here to Kentucky I brought along an old push type lawnmower that had been left with the house we bought in late 1999. It was several years old then and we used it regularly until moving here. I mowed the large lawn that went with the old mobile home we rented in town all summer long in 2004. By the time I started mowing here around the house it was finally beginning to fall apart. I purchased the least expensive mower Wal-Mart had in the store. After 5 summers it was also having problems. The metal was breaking out where the wheels mounted causing the wheels to flop over and there wasn’t much one could do to repair this. The engine was not running right either. I replaced a diaphragm in the carburetor (I hope this spelling meets your approval as there are 4 different possibilities in the dictionary!) but it still wasn’t running as it should.

Danny had an old mower that someone had given him that had the recoil starter messed up. He said I could have it so I worked with it and got the starter fixed but I could not get it to run. With some starter fluid sprayed into the carburetor it would fire and burn out the fluid but wouldn’t keep running. I discovered that the intake manifold, which was made of plastic, was broken on the end that attached to the carb. I bought a new one and I still couldn’t get it to run until I took the carb off and cleaned it. I did some mowing with it but the engine wouldn’t stay at the RPMs I needed. A throttle cable should fix that, I thought. So, I purchased a universal throttle cable. I soon discovered that I needed a small cable clamp to hold the cable. I checked with the largest mower dealer in our nearby “big” town. They didn’t have such an animal. They referred me to another business which also didn’t have such a clamp. I decided I could make my own.

Now that everything was back together I should have been back in business. But, again the engine didn’t want to start. While pulling and pulling the starter rope snapped. Now, that shouldn’t be a big problem. I’ve rewound many recoil starter springs BUT this one was different. I couldn’t seem to figure out how it had to be done. Searching the internet I could find parts manuals, operator manuals but no info on how to rewind the spring in the recoil starter. I found where I could purchase a repair manual for $20.00 or so.

Needless to say, about this time I was tired of working with old worn out mowers. So, yesterday morning I went mower shopping. I was hoping that maybe some of the stores would be putting mowers on clearance this late in the summer. Lowes had a good selection but no clearance sale. TSC has only ONE push type in stock but they weren’t discounting it. They told me that they had purchased fewer mowers this year and had planned to sell all inventory. Wal-Mart was putting their mowers on clearance but I didn’t find what I really liked. So, I went back to Lowes and was able to buy one that seemed to meet my needs. Hopefully it will last as long as I will need a lawnmower.

My Little Girls Are Gone

2009-09-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

If you have ever had goats you know how hard it is to let go of any of them. My little goat kids are now over 6 months old. I should have gotten rid of some of them before now but I kept wrestling with myself, trying to talk myself into keeping Annie’s daughter (A.G.). Brownie’s little girl (B.G.) was a beautiful little goat as well but A.G. was just a gorgeous little doeling. However, I finally made the decision to sell the girls and ran an ad on Craigslist.

A lady called and wanted both of them, so they will still have each other. They also will have other goats to make friends with. The lady could tell that I was having a hard time parting with them and she sent me an e-mail to let me know that they are doing fine.

This is what she had to say, in part. “Anyway, the one you liked so much....I haven't named them yet......she got a ride on the 4-wheeler sitting in my lap. I think she enjoyed it as she was in no hurry to get up. The other one was running along behind us calling her head off!! Anyway, thought you'd like to know how they were doing :)” I got quite a chuckle picturing this in my mind. I feel sure they will get good care.

Here are a couple of pictures taken just before they left here.

This is A.G. Isn’t she a beauty?

B.G. is spotted much like her dad.

The Front Porch-Part Two

2009-09-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my last post, The Front Porch, that I would keep everyone updated on the completion of the project of screening in the porch. Well, I’m happy to report that the carpet is down and the new door is up. I also redid the sidewalk. It is a “board walk” and the old one was put down hurriedly nearly 5 years ago. It was sagging in some areas, boards were warped and a few were beginning to develop some rot. Here are some photos.

The carpet is blue, Connie’s favorite color.

The cedar screen door and carpeted front steps. The bottom section of the screen door is expanded metal, which should take the beating given it by a dog and grandkids.

The walk extends from the front steps to the parking area. It runs at an angle of about 24 degrees.

We have been enjoying eating on the porch without being bothered by insects. Last evening Ramiah ate with us and this evening we were joined by Malchiah. In the photo above we were preparing to eat our lunch today. This evening as we were eating there was a light rain falling. Without any wind blowing it was very pleasant. In case you can’t tell, we are enjoying having a screened porch.

The Front Porch

2009-08-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

A friend told us that every home in Kentucky needed a front porch, that it was actually additional living space. Before we had finished the addition to our house I built a front porch. It is the length of the house, 3o feet, and 8 feet wide.

The picture above was taken shortly after the porch was built.

One item that Connie had wanted for the porch was a porch swing. I kept thinking that I could build her one, even located plans on the internet, but just never got around to getting one built. We had sat in a patio swing with the canopy at my cousin’s home and discussed getting one of those. We looked at a nice one at Wally World (Wal-Mart) but decided that it was just too big for our porch. I asked the associate if they carried porch swings. She said that they didn’t but that her husband built them. She cautioned me to be quiet but she gave me his phone number.

After talking to him on the phone Connie and I went over to his shop and looked at one he had built. He said he would build whatever we wanted. The only thing different we asked for was a little additional depth, it was a bit short for my long legs. He built it for us with that additional depth and also a bit taller. It was built out of native cedar, although not from here on the ridge.

While we were at Wally World looking at the patio swing we noticed that they had marked down the price on “porch rockers.” Connie had expressed many times that one would be nice. So, we went back and bought two!

With nice porch furniture we decided that it would be nice to have the porch screened in, which we had discussed in times past. Although not quite finished, we are getting the porch screened in. I had to do some additional framing, as shown here.

Since we had never put a ceiling in the porch that was also needed. I considered several ways of doing it but finally settled on using OSB (orient strand board).

I caulked the seams before painting. After painting I also installed two ceiling fans with lights.

This week I have put up the screen and put wood strips over the seams. These I put on with screws so they can easily be removed if I should need to replace a screen.

We have yet to put up a screen door. The man who built our porch swing is making us a cedar screen door. I’ll post a picture once we get it put up. We also plan to put indoor/outdoor carpeting on the floor since there are cracks between the boards and creepy crawly critters can come up from under the porch. We’ll keep you updated.

A New Front Door

2009-08-05T04:49:00.000-07:00

For quite some time (like since we first put it in) we have wanted a different front door. The door we had was a solid door without any glass. We really wanted a door with glass in it to let in a bit more light. But, perhaps the biggest frustration was that the door couldn’t be opened all of the way back.

The door had been purchased for another application and just wasn’t right for the location we chose to use it in. The door was designed for a standard 4” wall (one using 2” X 4” studs) and our wall is a 6” wall. With the brick moulding on the outside of the house, as it is supposed to be, the door lacks 2” from reaching the inside wall. I was able to cut material to fill in the gap from the trim to the door jam but it was not possible to open the door beyond straight into the room.

In this photo, taken at Thanksgiving, of our daughter, Anna, and her husband, Jeff, you can see the old door sticking out into the room. We generally keep a chair back in the corner and anyone sitting in it had to look around the door.

We picked out a door we liked but it also was made for a 4” wall. We inquired and found that we could order one for a 6” wall BUT it was $100.00 more! The salesman suggested that I remove the brick moulding, set the door to the inside wall, attach the brick moulding to the outside, and then fill in with material. I had considered that but the problem was, as I saw it, the door had a 4” sill and that was a problem. He informed me they could order a 6” sill, which was less than $25.00. Needless to say, that is what we did.

In the above pictures you can see the door opened back and also with it closed. A feature with this door, that you can’t see, is a built-in mini-blind. The blind can be raised, as in these pictures, and is hidden at the top. It can be lowered part way, or all the way, and can be adjusted with the blinds opened or closed. We probably won’t use the blind all that often but it gives us the option if we choose to use it.

Opry Mills Shopping Mall

2009-07-28T16:01:00.000-07:00

Before returning home on Monday afternoon, July 20th, Connie and I spent 2-3 hours at the Opry Mills Shopping Mall. This mall is right next door to the Opryland Resort and the Grand Ole Opry House and sits on the former site of the Opryland USA theme park. It was constructed in 1999, a joint venture of Mills Corporation and Gaylord Entertainment. It is now owned by Simon Property Group. There are over 200 stores and services within this 1,200,000 square foot facility. I calculated that out to be 27 and 1/2 acres. You can check out the Opry Mills website.

One of the couples that sat at our table on the General Jackson had visited Opry Mills the previous day and mentioned several interesting things to us. One was the Aquarium Restaurant. They advertize this as “an underwater dining adventure.” They were not open for business when we walked by but we could look into the dining area. Huge fish could be seen swimming right by the tables. As you walk into the facility you will have fish swimming on both sides and above you.

We also enjoyed the aquarium within the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World. (That facility takes up approximately 3 acres!) Their aquarium if filled with fresh water fish, one of which is this gigantic catfish pictured below.

It was almost impossible to keep from getting reflections.

One store we particularly enjoyed spending some time in was Black Lion (or maybe Blacklion)

. This large facility is filled with numerous smaller booths with items from individual vendors. Some would liken it to an antique mall perhaps but the items are new and range from framed pictures, craft items, to ??? I think Connie did buy a couple of small items in this store.

If you can keep your cash and credit card close to you this mall is a fun place to visit.

Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

2009-07-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

After checking into our room, following our cruise on the General Jackson Showboat, we walked across the street to the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center. This hotel is the largest non-casino hotel in the continental U.S. with 2881 guestrooms, 200 of them suites. In fact, it is the largest hotel in the U.S. outside of Las Vegas. The room rates were a bit more than we cared to spend. Even the parking is a bit much, $18.00 per day for self-parking and $25.00 per day for valet parking. Our interest was to visit and walk through the 9 acres of tropical gardens, all under glass and steel. And, the admission to do that was in our price range, FREE.

The three gardens, The Conservatory, The Cascades, and The Delta, contain over 10,000 tropical plants. There are numerous small streams, many waterfalls and several fountains. The Delta even has a 1/4 mile long river upon which one can, for a fee, take a guided boat tour.

This is a view of the glass and steel roof in one of the gardens. Being climate controlled the plants are very “happy” and lush. In some of the following photos you will see some of the many flowers that were in bloom.

Connie told me that this was a variety of African violet—much larger plant and blooms than what Connie has at home. There were many different colors of blooms.

I was quite impressed by all of the different types and colors of orchids. Consequently I took several photos of them.

Here is a view of one of the many waterfalls and streams throughout the gardens.

It maybe difficult for you to see, but Connie is standing directly behind this waterfall. It was rather “neat” to be able to walk behind and be able to see through a waterfall.

We enjoyed the many fish in the streams, most being Koi or goldfish, as I call them. Over time there has been a lot of coins thrown into the streams, as can be seen here.

We spent 2-3 hours walking through the 9 acres of gardens, taking pictures and enjoying the many plants. Our only complaint was that there were no signs or labels to tell us what they were. Some we knew but many left us wondering. We would recommend anyone visiting Nashville to visit the gardens at the Opryland Hotel (or resort as it is now known.)

General Jackson Showboat Cruise

2009-07-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 19th, was our 45th wedding anniversary. We decided we needed to do something more than send each other a card. We had been to Nashville, TN and attended the Grand Old Opry five years ago. Nashville is only about 100 miles or so from where we live and makes an accessible destination. We went on line and checked out several attractions and activities in the Nashville area and decided on the General Jackson Showboat cruise as one thing we wanted to do.

We left home at 9:00 A.M. Sunday morning and arrived at the boat landing about 11:00 A.M. We picked up our tickets and entered the assembly area to await the call to board. It was here that our photo was taken. (See my last post.)

The General Jackson Showboat , named after the first steamboat to operate on the Cumberland River in 1817, was launched in 1985. It is approximately 300 feet long, the length of a football field. It can accommodate 1200 passengers and a crew of 157. It is powered by two 1050 horsepower (per engine) diesel engines. These run 880 kw generators that in turn power two 600 h.p General Electric motors that turn the paddlewheel. (1200 h.p. total) The paddlewheel is 36 feet long, 24 feet in diameter. The paddlewheel weighs 36 tons.

We took what is known as the mid-day cruise. We had wanted to take the evening cruise but it was not offered for Sunday evening. The evening cruise lasts a little longer, has a bit nicer meal and has more elaborate entertainment, but we had no complaints about our cruise. Our seating in the Victorian Theater was excellent. We were only a couple of tables back from the stage, as can be seen in this picture. Tim Watson and his band put on a very enjoyable show.

The cruise on the Cumberland River isn’t all that scenic but it was quite enjoyable. While most of the time was taken up eating and enjoying the entertainment we still were able to spend some time on deck and watch the river.

Following the completion of our cruise we checked into our hotel room and then embarked upon our next activity, which I’ll tell you about in my next post.

Our 45th Anniversary

2009-07-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 19th, was our 45th wedding anniversary. I’ll share a bit of our activities in a future post but thought you might like to see what we looked like 45 years ago and what we look like now.

This photo was taken on our wedding day, July 19, 1964.

Exactly 45 years later, this picture was taken July 19, 2009. Remember, for a larger view just click on the photo.

Chigger Bites

2009-07-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

I posted a few days ago about it being blackberry and chigger season. I’ve been pretty successful in avoiding chigger bites by putting on a repellant before going out to pick blackberries or do other things in the garden or yard. I don’t use the chemical repellants because of all of the nasty stuff they put into them. We get a product that contains several essential oils. It is called Buzz Away and contains citronella oil, essential oils of cedarwood, peppermint, lemongrass, and eucalyptus as well as purified water, grain alcohol and castor oil. The most effective repellant, according to several websites, and one we used at home when I was growing up is powdered sulfur dusted onto ones clothes.

A few days ago I went out to prune my black raspberry bushes and get the new canes tied up. I sprayed my pants legs and shirt with the Buzz Away as usual. But, for some reason I got bunches of chigger bites. Connie thinks maybe I didn’t shake the bottle before spraying it or perhaps the little beasties were thicker and hungrier than usual. The following photos, not glamorous, show my legs about two days after picking up the little critters.

These are just the welts. I haven’t been scratching them---although the urge to do so is pretty strong. They itch worse at times more than at others. One just must wait until they clear up, sometimes a week or 10 days.

Oh, I’ve been out since picking some more blackberries and the repellant seems to have worked. Thankfully!

How Much Milk Would A Milk Goat Drink If A Milk Goat Would Drink Milk?

2009-07-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

Although I don’t buy into the argument, some feel that an adult should not drink milk. One of the “reasons” is that one never sees an adult animal of any kind drinking milk. But, they have never seen Annie.

I’m not sure just when I first discovered her thirst for milk. I know that when there was extra milk I would put it out for our chickens to drink and Annie would drink it before the chickens had a chance. With two cows Darryl is getting more milk than his family can use. He skims the cream to use to make butter and the extra milk gets poured into the pan in our chicken/goat yard. Annie almost knocks one down getting to the milk. And, I’m not talking about a small amount. She will drink upwards of a gallon at a time if it is there.

Here are some photos I took recently of her devouring a gallon of milk.

The pan is filled BEFORE I opened the barn door!

She is beginning to drink the milk.

The pan is nearly empty!

She’s done, and this only took a minute or two. Just what she “craves” I don’t know but she is quite the milk drinker.

It’s Blackberry (and Chigger) Season!

2009-07-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

The wild blackberries are ripening and I’ve gone blackberry picking 3 or 4 times now. Hopefully, I’ll be going out again soon.

The down side of blackberry season is that it is also Chigger season! I have to agree with the comment made in various articles on the internet, there is probably no creature on earth that can cause as much torment for its size than the tiny chigger. Chiggers, Jiggers or Red Bugs, as they are commonly known, that cause all of the problems are the larvae stage. The adults and nymphs are vegetarians but the larvae need an animal host to feed on. I was always told that the little mites, which are about 1/20th of an inch long and can be seen only with a magnifying glass, burrowed into your skin. Not true. They pierce the skin and inject a salivary secretion that contains powerful digestive enzymes that break down skin cells. The tissues become liquefied and are sucked up by the little chigger. All of this causes a red welt to arise and intense itching. The natural urge is to scratch, which can cause the skin to be broken and secondary infections can develop. These welts can develop 3 to 6 hours after the little beast climbs aboard and often lasts for up to a week or more.

As I mentioned, chiggers are very tiny but upon magnification one will see that they are usually bright red and have hairy bodies.

This photo, taken from the internet, is of a chigger magnified 1500 times!

I found a poem that tells it like it is. I was given permission by the author, Jerry Schieicher, to share it. You can find this and other poems written by Jerry on his page of the cowboy poetry web site.

The Chigger Blues

I ain't a'feered of snakes ner spiders, and ticks don't make me twitch.
I kin roll around nekked in a poison ivy patch and never even itch.
I ain't skeered much of lions ner tigers, or other carnivores much bigger.
The only critter that gives me the chills ... is the cold-hearted chigger.
They ain't no bigger than a dot. Most folks have never seen one.
You don't even know they bit ya', till they've already et' and gone.
And drilled yer skin with a bitin' end that's part needle and part digger.
Pound fer pound, the baddest bug around ... has got to be the chigger.
They crawl inside yer pants and socks, and creep into yer underdrawers.
And commence to have a feast, while yer doin' yer gardenin' chores.
It seems their spit dissolves yer hide, which they then consume with vigor.
Fer an arachnid version of the vampire ... I nominate the chigger.
I still got scars up 'n down my carcass that I reckon I'll bear fer years.
From clawin' at the welts they've left, from my toes up past my rear.
The itch they leave behind lasts much longer than you'd figger.
If you want to drive a man insane ... jist feed him to a chigger.
I've tried that nail polish myth, and doused myself with lotion.
But nuthin' seem to keep 'em off. There ain't no magic potion.
And steppin' out into my own back yard only seems to trigger
A fresh attack by my worst nightmare ... the man-eatin' chigger.
Most folks love the summer season, and fer most it's all good news.
Of flower gardens, fresh-mowed lawns, and backyard bar-be-cues.
But if you invite me to yer outdoor games, I'll respectfully refuse.
Cause you don't want to hear me wailin', as I sing the chigger blues.
© 2005, Jerry Schleicher
This poem may not be reprinted or reposted without the author's written permission.