Getting closer, Mom.

 I didn't get pictures of everything, but here is what I did get.

They used this when they put the halves on the property, and they used it to move them into place on the dirt pad.

This is the back section in place and they are taking the protective plastic off.

And yes, I took these from our truck because I was cold. 

As the morning went on, they took their jackets off, but I mostly still stayed in the truck. :)

Up on the roof removing the travel, retaining boards.

These parts go back to Champion Homes, the builder. So I am curious why 

these got left behind.

A few more pictures.

Leveling and strapping. I mostly missed them putting the plastic under the home. 

The big "reveal", haha.

We had to go into town shortly after this, so there was a bit I missed. Middle son was there in case they had questions; but they pretty much did their own thing.

The two sections together. Doing roof work

No pictures of the inside until it is... polished? Still a lot to do. This crew's only job was getting it together, leveled and strapped down. Other people do other things.

I should have gotten more pictures of the outside, but we were tired.

The skirting is the last thing to be done.

Need the new septic put in. Gas and water need to be done before electric (so says the parish powers), though the gentleman who is doing a lot of the cosmetic stuff said it doesn't always have to be that way.

Most likely at least 2 more weeks before we can start moving in.

And then we need a new driveway.

All in God's time, of course. :)

God bless!

It's a start

Five of these.

A lot of this.
 

And some laser leveling

And we get this.

With God's will, and no big rain, the manufactured home will be put together and finished on the 28th.

Then the gas, water, electric and new septic system have to be put in.

Praising God and praying this is his will for us. I know I am past ready for it. 

You all be safe and God bless.

Our home to be

You remembered I mentioned a manufactured home.
We need more yard cleanup done before they will be able to hook into the septic tank.
Hubby decided he wants gas instead of propane, so we need to get that done.
We will salvage the 80 gallon propane water heater we bought a year or so ago, though, and figure a way to hook it into the new place somehow. The most they come with is a 40 gallon water heater.

The dealer seems to think maybe September, but with all the covid stuff, I don't know. I thought maybe October. I know lumber costs have gone up about $6000.

All in God's hands.  :)

So if you are curious, here is a rough outline.

We opted for a different bathroom. That's why the masking tape.

Small compared to the old farmhouse; but it will seem a lot bigger after this apartment.  :-)

Going to V/Watts this weekend. See some friends we haven't seen in months and get some eggs.

You all be safe and God bless.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.

I think I mentioned we were going to North Carolina? Sorry if I forgot, but yes, we went to North Carolina. We were gone a week.
We needed to talk with the company that is renting out our other house. And of course we needed to see our boys. We had heard that our two youngest had lost their jobs; but we hadn't heard from them.

We took money from my husband's retirement account for the trip. Paid a penalty, but it was worth it. Found out our youngest boys are doing okay. They had not wanted to worry us. They did everything they could to make ends meet. Collected aluminum cans, scrap metal, and found a food bank. The rental agency worked with them to keep them in their apartment. The same agency handling our house for us. We are very grateful and I thank God for that. They didn't tell us everything, but they did explain that they didn't tell us because they knew I would worry.

They're right, too. But the middle son is going to college now. Between his Pell Grant, and the G.I. Bill, he said they are doing okay. The youngest boy is looking for work. We believe he has Aspergers. He does really well at jobs, and then loses them. I gave him some information and hopefully he will look into it as much as he can with no income.

We are very proud of all of our sons.

This is our oldest boy, our granddaughter through marriage, and our daughter-in-law.

He went with his wife when she went to England. While there, he got a job at Boots. Right before he left, he got his certification to be a pharmacy dispenser. He enjoyed the job so much that when they came back to America, he decided he wanted to become a Pharmacist. He did two years at the local Community College and won a full scholarship to Chapel Hill University, where he is taking classes to get his Pharmacy degree.
We are really proud of him.

Our other boys. The Iraq war vet on the left, and our youngest on the right.

They are sharing an apartment. Our veteran told us last year that he would 'take the youngest boy off our hands', to help him grow up. I know he didn't intend it to happen the way it did, but we are very proud of them for getting through a very tough time. I kind of wish they had told us though.

My thoughts are with those in the Midwest and the terrible snow storm last week.

Hope you have all been well. Will try to catch up. It's nice to be home again. Have a wonderful, blessed weekend!

No thanks to you, Mr. Frost

I know we got too early a start, but with all the feed stores, grocery stores and box stores having plants, (as well as hubby getting itchy fingers) we planted. With a predicted freeze, I covered the plants I thought most tender.
But Mr. Frost had other ideas.
We may have lost 3 of 4 tomato plants. The grape plants have had a set back, as have the bell pepper plants.
The broccoli didn't notice the weather.
The potato plants are a little wimpy, but we're pretty sure they'll recover fine.
The apple and pear trees seem none the worse for the cool night.
Oddly, the sunflower plants seem to be doing okay as well.

We found our bed frame and got our bed set up in the house, but we can't sleep in a 40 degree house, so we're still in the trailer.
Monday night might be 60!
So we may try sleeping in our bed Monday night, we'll see.
We did buy a small, electric space heater, so maybe we'll give that a try.

I lost a day or two somewhere.
Trying to get the tax stuff sorted too.
I think that's all I know right now, but that could be wrong, too, haha!

Have a blessed week, everyone!

My brother and Sister-in-law are headed home

to Michigan. They left at 10:43 this morning. We had a wonderful time, got a good start on a few things, and had a good visit, too.
We took them to Prejeans a couple of times.
Once when we went to the Habitat for Humanity Resale store in Lafayette, and once when we went to the Jockey lot flea market.

This is us. Hubby and I on the right; my brother and his wife on the left. :o)



I gave them a bag of pecans to take home, SIL bought a cook book to make pecan pies with. ;-)

And while they were here, hundreds of geese landed in the field across the street.



I'm guessing there was a lot of leftover sorghum in the field after they harvested it. :o)
I wish I lived in the house across the street. The geese came right up to the ditch there. What a view they had!
Hope you all have had a wonderful week and a half. We all did.

Have a great Friday!

It's raining, it's pouring

So we are under a severe thunderstorm watch.
We had a severe thunderstorm last night.
And this morning.

And a lovely rain a couple days ago that hubby and I shared in the house for a bit. It smelled really nice.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! ♥

Third time's a charm?

I've been trying for 3 days to do a post. Blogger mobile has been a brat. I actually have time to use my laptop, so let's see if it will work today.

We've been here, finally, since Thursday. Three days. Hubby's brother asked how he was doing. Hubby said we are feeling a bit... weird?
We spent most of a week on the road. Got here the first time, the afternoon of the 6th. Drove straight through. Had several white knuckle moments - like rain when I could not see hubby in front of me - but we (I!) made it. I drove my new to me car, pulling our small utility trailer; he drove his truck, pulling our big utility trailer.
The utility trailer started out fishtailing. A lot! Scared the daylights out of me and I had to drive slower, too. Hubby figured (rightly) it was because of its design and made some modifications to it, in a Lowe's parking lot.

May look wonky, but it improved the tow-ability 1000%. Since it is a 'tilt' trailer, he put a hitch pin on it, too. It worked great. Only took a couple hours longer to get here than usual.

We stayed 2 days and then went right back to NC to get the last of the stuff we couldn't load on the 2 trailers. Rented a U-Haul - can't say enough good about that - and started loading the most important of what we couldn't get before. (Air compressor, bed frame, etc.)

We still had a few things to load when it started raining. And I do mean pouring. We both got completely soaked. And no way to change. So, we decided we were done packing the U-Haul - after packing a few more things, got on the road and after about 2 hours (6PM our time) we got a hotel room so we could get into some dry clothes.

We took our time getting back here to the farm. A luxury we were never able to afford ourselves before - at least in our minds.
Now we keep feeling like we need to hurry so we can get back to NC. Like we usually do.
Except that, like he told his brother when he called, there is no back to get back to.
There could be. I mean we decided to rent the house instead of sell, but there isn't really. He is still coming to grips with the fact that he is retired.

On another note, we tried painting the floor of the kitchen. He decided it wouldn't do what we wanted it to, so we are trying a self-stick tile. We put 3 pieces down, to see how it will hold, and so far we are really liking it.

I know I am way behind. Will try to catch up,but now that he is retired and we are here, I don't have as much time to be online.
Hope you are all doing well. Have a blessed, wonderful week! ♥

Back for a bit

Will try to catch up. Hope you are all well!
Thanks for all the comments and good wishes on my last post. They helped!
Everything was fine when we got there Friday.
Will try to post more later.

Found this when I got home. :o)

And those of you who said I had volunteer potato plants? You were right! :o)

The plants were starting to die off. Not sure if it was the heat or the fire ant nest I found in the mulch box.
Anyway, I dug around in the mulch and found these.

We will definitely plant potatoes again. To me, they are without a doubt, the easiest thing for a beginner to grow. :o)

Have a blessed week! ♥

Two Months

To retirement...
Will try to keep up with everyone, but I may fall behind as we pack and clean and such.

Our middle son has been accident prone all his life.
All our boys were diagnosed ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) when they were little, but grew out of it for the most part.

Being military, we moved around a lot. Our oldest boy was born in Alaska. Our middle son in Nebraska, and our youngest in Okinawa, Japan.
I used to wonder where they got it. But I'm pretty sure I know. The ADHD came from hubby. He can't sit through a show (but he can sit through a movie) without flipping channels. He doesn't like commercials. He has missed parts of shows we were watching, because of flipping channels and picking up the middle of something else.

And he can't relax for more than an hour (except at the movies) without needing to get up and do something. Or at least be doing something while he is sitting.

The accident prone? That comes from me, haha.
We put a new trailer hitch on the back of my car, which I of course promptly walked in to.
Getting in or out of the car, I often bump my head or my shins because the running board is bigger than I'm used to. And my legs are to short to step past it.
I tend to trip on shadows, or my own feet.

More than once I have felt my guardian angel with me.

Today I was painting the trailer. I had just painted the railing and was leaning down to paint a low spot. So what did I do? I laid my arm on the wet paint.
Not once, not twice, but three different times.

Got a busy couple of weeks ahead. Granddaughter's birthday, packing. medical appointments of various kinds. Movers coming to give estimates.

A quick trip to the farm to pick up a car we left there last trip.
A chimney sweep coming to clean our chimney...

It has taken me all day to finish this post!

I want to post some flower pictures. Sorry for the quality. My phone camera has a scratch on the lens. Don't ask me how because I don't know.
This is a bush on our fence. Hubby says it smells like honeysuckle, but doesn't look like it.
All I know is our yard smells wonderful right now. :o)

Hope you all have a blessed week! ♥

We're home.

Have a bit to talk about, but not today.
I forgot my camera. :o(
Hopefully my phone worked. If so, I will have pictures and maybe a couple videos to share. We shall see. ;o)
I have much catching up to do, but it will take some time, sorry.
Hope you all have a safe, wonderful, Blessed Easter weekend! ♥

Not so Silent Sunday

Hubby got the mowing bug so I'm listening to the mower as I post a couple pictures. :)

Have a wonderful day!

We're home.

Tired, sore, but home. Will post more after the holidays.
Hope you all have a safe and blessed New Year.

*hugs* ♥

Home tomorrow

We're headed to our other house tomorrow. ;-)
Back to North Carolina.
We did manage to get the yard mowed. I know I took before pictures; I think I took after pictures...
I did of course manage to get bit by something.
My ankle itches.
Happy Friday and a blessed weekend! ♥

Sometimes failure can be success

So. I am dense. In spite of all that I read, it never occurred to me that topsoil would not be good for plants.
The topsoil like you buy at the box home improvement stores.
Or Walmart.
But it's true. All topsoils are not created equal, and they are not good for a lot of plants. How did I manage to learn this?
The tomato plant that we have gets blossom end rot before the tomatoes ripen.

To give you further information, I know I mentioned the bucket gardens. Well, I've learned that while broccoli and brussels sprouts don't like heat, they don't like freezing temps either. While I managed to keep them alive, they did not do what I would have liked and had pretty much gone to seed by the time we got back from the farm in February.

So, into the composting pile they went and I bought some seed potatoes from Walmart. Because it's here where I live and not 30 miles away.
I experimented with buckets and a raised bed. Some of the seed potatoes went into buckets and some into the raised bed. They seemed to grow really well, lots of vigorous green leaves, and I thought 'cool'.
But then the leaves began spotting. A lot. And dying off.
I looked it up on the internet, and it was some sort of disease that was especially susceptible by a variety called Red Norland.
And what did Walmart sell?
Yes. Red Norland. By the time we got back from the farm in May, all 7 plants had died off completely.
You see why I say I have a black thumb?

Anyway, in an effort to save the tomato plant and get it some soil with more calcium in it, I decided to get some fruit and vegetable dirt. I dumped out the dirt from one of the buckets that the potato plants had been in and refilled it with the other dirt and moved the tomato plant. Probably not the wisest thing to do, but since I'm losing tomatoes anyway, I figure it's worth a try.

But the 'success' I spoke of? Guess what I found in the buckets.

Guess.








That's right. Potatoes. :-)

Only one was really of any size, but I don't care. Made me smile. :-)
Those of you who know about potatoes, should I have left them in the dirt longer? Would they have gotten any bigger? Or did I do right to search them all out since the plants were dead?
Just curious.

So yes, even though I thought I failed with the potatoes, I sort of succeeded.  :-)

Now to see if I can save the tomato plant....

And we went fishing this morning. Caught a half dozen nice pan fish. I'm thawing the fish we caught before we went to the farm and we'll fry them up for dinner tonight. Fish and potatoes, too. :-)

Happy Saturday, everyone!

I thought there was a red one

but either it didn't come up this year, or more likely, I remember wrong. Got another white one today.

And another pink one yesterday.

I was sure I had ordered a red one because I wanted to see if hummingbirds would be attracted to them. And I don't like pink, so I would not have ordered those either. More likely it was advertised one way and they just sent what they wanted to, haha.

The orange lily is all bloomed out, so I'm left with pink lilies and white lilies until the daylilies bloom.

Oh well. The first weekend of June is almost here! :-o We're hoping to go fishing this weekend.  :-)

Spring Sunday

Nothing new here

So I am going to share some pictures.

We have these little.... frogs, I think they are. They flourish when the ditches have water in them, heh. They are about two inches at most, I think, and have the loudest croak for the size I've ever heard! Here's a picture of one. On the kitchen window screen.

Now I'm sharing more pictures of the daylilies. They're enjoying the heat. ;) Sorry about the irregularity of the pictures. I am definitely blog challenged when it comes to layouts and such.

Remember I mentioned the lilies that came up unexpectedly after two or 3 years? Well, that white one was the only one to bloom. The one on the right of the next picture. You can see on the left where the buds just sort of never opened, got eaten, were malformed and died off. Don't know what happened there. And the others just never did more than leaves. Oh well. Since they didn't grow before now, I'm not too sad they didn't bloom, just curious.

And last, a picture of the crepe myrtle. It's starting to bloom. :)

It's a bicolor. My oldest son got it for me when he worked as manager of outside lawn and garden at a local Lowes. I love the flowers when they bloom.
Only drawback? The wasps love them too. ;) I noticed a couple weeks ago, when the buds were forming, that the wasps were quite infatuated with the crepe myrtle. Oh well. I can't blame them. :)

Have a blessed weekend, everyone!