Google and Blogger are both brats

Hubby has new hearing aids, courtesy of the VA. At least one of us will be able to hear good now.
The dentist also told him it was a sinus infection and not dental related, based on 2 x-rays they did today.
While going out to the truck, I tripped and fell (yes, I am so coordinated). I was worried that, at my age, I might have broken my wrist. I still can't grip with it, and it still hurts, but not as bad as fifteen minutes after I fell.
According to the VA, I just bruised it severely.
We are blessed. :-)
Hope you are all doing well!



P.S. Hope this isn't too jittery....

So we put in a new vent

for our stove.

We looked long and hard for a vent like the old one when hubby grew up in this house, but they are just not made any more.
So we bought a new vent to go with the new hood we're going to be putting in.

Hubby had to cut through the wall of the farmhouse, of course. I managed to save two pieces. The third fell between the walls.

The reason so many old houses survive so long? They are made with double walls. Double wood walls. Walls on the inside, and walls on the outside. When my brother came out to help us last time, he said he couldn't build a house like ours. The cost would be prohibitive.

I should have taken more pictures, but I was busy helping hubby. I did take a few though.

This is what 100+ year old cypress wood looks like. :-) The wider piece is from the outside. The narrow piece is from the inside.

They used tongue and groove back then. Stupidly, I forgot to take a picture of the 'tongued' wood;

But I do have a couple of pictures of the grooved inside wood.

Doesn't it look amazing? Very well cut, I'd say.

The outside is... lap board, I think it was called? The boards were placed bottom to top, each board overlapping the previous one.
They were ... sorry. Words don't come as easily as they used to. But here's how the outside boards were formed.

That looks pretty well done to me, even without modern routers.

Hope you all have a safe New Year's Eve, and a wonderful New Year. ♥

At my age you would think I'd know better

This is going to be a picture heavy post.
As you know, hubby had shoulder surgery a couple of weeks ago, so I've been trying to keep up with things. We don't have a big place, but it does take a while to get the mowing done. He's doing much better, thank you. It's getting harder to keep him from doing what he thinks he can do.

We do have a lot of trees, and they do provide shade. Here is the shadiest spot in the pasture (no, no animals there right now, but we still call it the pasture).



A shot of the canopy. ;-)



Lovely spot, isn't it? And yes, we need to do some trimming.

This is what you see when you exit. Lots and lots of sun.



We have lots of trees, and sporadic shade from them. And it does feel nice when you get in it.



But there is a lot of sun to mow under, too. ;-)




This is how the shade tree looks from the outside. You can see the Live Oaks are shorter than the pecan trees. :-)





I saw this little fellow(?) while I was mowing. It was in the shade too.



Can you see the little praying mantis? :-)

I should have used the umbrella contraption like I used here; but the tractor has a roll bar and I couldn't figure out how to mount the umbrella. I'll have to figure it out for next time, though, because it's only getting hotter this week; and I think I got a mild case of heat stroke today.
I felt fine while I was sitting on the tractor and mowing (though it was hot -- 100F, (37.8C)). I took short breaks. I had 2 bottles of water with me.
But when I finished and went in the house, I very nearly blacked out. My vision kept getting hazy and I was dizzy and weak. Couldn't move and my legs almost gave out, so I had no choice but to sit down. (A little background here: Until my 60th birthday, I didn't sweat. Finally, a few years after menopause I can sweat!) Anyway, I got the small fan off the counter and turned it on high. Then I called hubby and asked him to come into the kitchen so he could move the other fan so it would blow on me, too. No AC in the kitchen and I couldn't get up to go to the closest air conditioned room.
I asked him to give me some celery, and I really started feeling better while I was sitting there.

Suffice to say, I feel fine after some dinner and more to drink. But I really should have had the sense to come in out of the sun. It took two days to mow the pasture. Next time I'll take three.

You all have a wonderful, safe weekend. ♥