The difference between men and boys

My husband says he is reliving his childhood. When he was growing up on this farm, he had all the Tonka trucks and moved around 'mountains' of dirt.

Now he does the same thing with the Yanmar Cub Cadet SC2400 that we own.

What he is doing is leveling a low spot by the 'cow bowl'.

After Isaac passed yesterday, it must have made a change because sometime this morning we had crazy thunderstorms and pouring rain. 6-8 inches in a few hours.

Anyway, he's using the super-soaked ground to push mud around to level it out. :o)

Our road had 'high water' signs posted when we got up. I was pretty sure water was over the road. But by afternoon, it had mostly soaked in. The ditches are high. Haven't left the yard today, so don't know much more.

We're okay. The road is passable but I don't think we'll go anywhere today.

You all take care and have a wonderful weekend! ♥

Google is really annoying. >:\

They removed access to my blog and gmail until I agreed to give them my phone number for verification purposes.
So, I'm back now.
I know I haven't been updating a lot. There are numerous reasons.

1) I actually have a life now, haha! I know many of you have a much fuller life and still manage to post, but now that it is just hubby and I, I need to please him, too. When he worked, I had hours to fill.

2) Our internet is slow. We use our phones, tethered to our laptops. We are Alltel grandfathered Verizon customers. And I've read how they treat grandfathered, unlimited data customers. Sometimes the internet is so slow I can't even read blogs, let alone try to do a post. I get frustrated and just give up.

3) I mostly only have the evenings on the internet. Today is a benefit of Tropical Storm Isaac - who didn't give us as much weather as a good thunderstorm.
Hubby likes the internet for researching things - like the asbestos tile in the farmhouse - or getting a good deal off eBay. He doesn't understand my blogging or reading blogs. So he thinks I spend too much time on the internet, even though I've cut my time back probably 90%.
Oh well.

I'll leave you with a few pictures, if Verizon and Google will play nice.
The BIL came down for 2 days. I recognized the compulsion that we had in our short trips, and that we had when we first got here. He helped a lot.

He helped with clearing brush and putting in new water lines.

Still getting used to the heat. We work in the mornings, when it's not raining and do our running around in the afternoon.

You all have a great day and a wonderful weekend if I don't see you before then!

Those of you who garden in the South

or have gardened in the South. Or those of you acquainted with this annoying pest.
How do you keep fire ants from deciding your spot is theirs? Or can you?

Waiting to see what will happen with Tropical Storm Isaac.
Work on the house has slowed a little. Trying to formulate a plan but it's hard when we've had to make new holes in the floor to run new water lines.
I am not amused.

Oh well.
Trying to keep up with you all. Have a blessed Tuesday. ♥

A mid August post?

Hi All. I do have you in mind every day. I visit when I can. I hope you are all well. :o)

Just wanted to catch you up. We have gotten the flooring in the kitchen. (Sorry if I've said all this before. I am quite forgetful and don't want to read back over my posts...)

We've gotten appliances, but only the refrigerator actually works right now. No ice because the water is not hooked up to the house yet. I could use an ice tray, but I haven't bought any other than the one in our trailer freezer. ;o)

And we have a few cabinets sort of in. We're going to try doing some of the 'fastening in' tomorrow. We have a sink and faucet, but we need counter tops first. We called someone who was highly recommended, but he is on vacation until next week sometime. (This is the month a lot of places close for vacation.)

But that's okay because it's not like we don't have other things we can do, like run new electrical wires for outlets, put the water line in, get the septic tank cleaned, work on the hubby's work room and start working on a bathroom or the bedroom.

Here are a few pictures.

I am also working on a hobby room where I will be able to work puzzles, or start seeds, or learn how to sew.
I got a new sewing machine. It's a beginners machine, but knows more than I do about sewing.

The mail person drove in this morning and brought me my first house warming gift!
I want to say "THANK YOU, GAIL!" It's a wonderful painting and I have placed it where I can see it while I'm sewing, or doing puzzles, or whatever else I decide to do in my room. :o)

Hope everyone gets rain who needs it, and I hope you all have a wonderful week!

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! ♥

EWWW!!!

WARNING - GROSS ALERT! - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!



















There was a measly 20% chance of rain yesterday and we had one heck of a thunderstorm start up about 7 PM.

I had the door open to one of the rooms in the house - they all have doors to the porch - and saw hubby quickly taking the tractor to the garage.
We have a raccoon that has taken up residence in the pasture and hubby says it is not afraid of people...

Anyway, I was sweeping out who knows how many years of trash and mouse poo. *wrinkles nose*
I had called hubby in to help with his three piece tool box. We were watching the storm while I swept. We are going to make that room a work room for now.

I have bifocals, but I still don't see well. Go figure.
As I was sweeping stuff out, I thought there was a piece of insulation on the fireplace hearth. I did think it was strange, as that 120 year old house does not have any.

But, I tried to get it with the vacuum anyway.
And then I realized.
It was not insulation.

It was a big dead rat on a sticky trap! EWWW!!!! Is what I said.
"What?" is what hubby said, as he came in from the porch.
"A dead rat on a sticky trap!" was my reply.

Fortunately hubby disposed of it for me.

I don't like pest control services that do only half the job you pay them for. :o/

In better news, we have ONE CABINET in the kitchen!
I will be staining more today. We bought 'unfinished' cabinets because they are cheaper and neither of us is good at building such things.
And I'd like to start learning how to make home made bread this year, haha.

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday! ♥

This is our back fence line.

We are sort of working on a small garden test plot behind the garage. People have put a lot of garbage back there so we are digging out tin cans, glass, and so on. It wasn't like that when we lived here in '94.

Anyway, we noticed butterflies flying around the fence line. I took a bunch of pictures, but only a few turned out, after cropping them.

All we think we can say for sure is they are some sort of swallowtails.

I think they were around some sort of berry plant/vine like this one.

Whatever they are interested in, it was not the elderberries, which look quite different, as you can see from the upper right corner of this picture.

We've been getting visits from hummingbirds, too, but I've not had my camera when I see them, sorry.

Hope you all have a blessed Friday! ♥