One more post

Before the end of the year.
Thought I should talk just a little about our trip to the farm again.
Just a short post.
One day when my hubby was out mowing, he saw a snowy owl! Now this is not my picture, I borrowed it from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology .

And while they do not say it on their web site, I did a google search while we were headed in town and found an article that said the owls do sometimes come as far south as Louisiana and Georgia (so we didn't call any local bird groups about our sighting. Don't want people coming around when we're not there, after all).
I was in the house doing something or other so I didn't see it, and it happened so quick he didn't take a picture with his phone.
It flew out of the old barn when he was mowing, he said, so we definitely won't be tearing down that barn until we know for sure that the owl isn't coming around any more.
I know they are bad if you have animals, but all we have right now are mice and rats and they are more than welcome to them. ;-)

The other thing is that more than a few times, sometimes at night and sometimes in the early morning, in addition to the trains passing in the distance; we hear this really low "hoo-h'HOO--hoo-hoo."
I used the Cornell site to identify the sound. A Great Horned Owl.

This picture is also theirs, as we have yet to actually see the owls; I think it's neat. Might not think so when we have chickens, but right now, I think it's neat.
I have seen a fox around, too, so if an owl decides to eat a baby fox, I'd probably be okay with that, too. Don't know which might be worse when we have chickens. The fox or the owl.
I think we'll need a couple of roosters....

If I don't get on again to post before the New Year, I hope you all have a safe New Year's Eve; and may God Bless you all with a healthy and prosperous New Year. ♥

Merry Christmas!

Since I fail at doing things here on Blogger, here's a little something from me to you. :)

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a happy, safe, Holiday week!

This month is going to disappear before we know it!

So I put our tree up. It's a little 3 foot artificial tree that we've had for years. I'm not really feeling the spirit this year, like a lot of the bloggers I follow. I don't know what it is, or why, but I do understand it.
Still, like Thanksgiving, I have a lot to be thankful for - and Jesus is one of those things - so I put the tree up on the hearth this year.

Like so many, Money is tight, so there will be one gift for everyone with a reminder of what we have to be thankful for. Like family.
While I think I am all but over whatever I had, hubby announced this morning that he thinks he is coming down with something.
We had already (thankfully) decided not to go to the farm this month (February now - will be soon enough.); so hopefully staying home and resting will see hubby well quickly!

Since I think pretty much everyone is cold, if not snowy right now; I'm going to wish you all a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and hope you all stay warm and healthy!

*hugs* ♥

Just wanted to say

That I've started a blog on Wordpress. http://klsgrem.wordpress.com/
I'm still going to be here, probably; but there have been some strange things going on and I figure a backup is a good idea.

I'm feeling a lot better. Seems like the antibiotics did the trick.
We've had a lot of rain the last two days. Supposed to get some hard freezes next week. Hope the roads dry before it does.

Hope you all have a great week!

Kitchen

Yup. Thought I should talk about the kitchen just a little. We didn't get the flooring put down - I'm having a LOT of trouble deciding on what to use. I don't want a white and blue diamond pattern. UGH.
But my sister-in-law was a big help in getting it painted. I thought a  bit more about just painting the windows, too, since I am terrible painting around glass. Besides, it would have given me this nice yellow light in the kitchen and then I wouldn't need curtains, either. ;-)

But, in the end, I didn't paint the glass - well, not all of it, anyway. Besides, the windows all need fixing or replacing and I can worry about the glass then.
So, here is how the kitchen looks now - besides empty, I mean.

It is 15 feet 8 inches by 15 feet 8 inches. The pantry is there on the left of the bottom picture. It is part of the measurement. The ceiling is 11 feet 9 and 3/4 inches, which is apparently a French measurement. All the ceilings are that high. The windows - which I still need to write down so I remember - are approximately 75 inches by 43 inches. They let in a LOT of light. :-)

It has OSB on the floor. Sort of like plywood. But for some reason they put some of it down upside down, completely ignoring where it said 'This side down'. My brother thinks if we sand it, it will probably be fine. Otherwise we'll have to put some thin luan down over it, for attaching the linoleum or tiles with. I am thinking linoleum, but what hubby and I like best is apparently special order - which makes it hard to get when we're going to be there.
Oh well. We'll think of something.

We're also having trouble trying to decide on cabinets. At first we were thinking custom, but we haven't won the lottery yet. ;-)
We've found some we like, but it's bits and pieces at several different places so I'm not sure how they would fit together.

My  brother also said he was pretty sure the older tiles, like in the pantry and hallway, were asbestos. So the crappy hallway job will need to be finished. Since the tile in the pantry is almost complete - only a small chip or two - I think we'll just cover over that. I'd like it to look similar to the kitchen.

And that's about all I can think of for now. lol. Got antibiotics from the doctor Monday. She thinks I may have a sinus infection. Feeling a little better, and I hope I KEEP feeling better.
Hubby wants to go back to the farm. Over Christmas. I'm not keen on that - expense and all, and finances are tight now. But I guess that is where we will be on Christmas day...

Enjoy your week, all - and stay warm!

Steppin' on up.

So this trip, one of my brothers and his wife came down to help us. He works in construction so he knows a lot about the kind of stuff we need to do to get the house livable again. It's a long trip from Michigan so it meant a lot to us that they were willing to use their vacation time to do it, too.

Of course the first two days they were there, it rained. We all drove to New Orleans on Tuesday, since we couldn't do what we needed to while it was raining; but we did get beignets at Cafe du Monde! Yummy!

Anyway. Remember the steps I showed you in this post here?
Well, here is how they look now.

Don't they look great? My brother did a fantastic job! And he did them in a day and a half, and made the stringers for them, too. My husband helped with setting the posts for the steps, but after that it was all my brother while the husband did mowing and my sister-in-law and I finished painting the kitchen.

And I thought I should post a picture of my brother, sister-in-law, and me.

Yup. We're standing on the steps. I love those steps. :)

What do you do?

How many of you have a wood table? Do you polish it? Do you also use it as extra counter space for baking? If so, do you cover it with wax paper or something similar?

The house we are in now has a small kitchen, and even less counter space. Much of which, like the kitchen table, is taken up by stuff; not all of which is used by me, the cook.
I am thinking of putting the table in the kitchen in the farm house, to use for kneading dough and such, since it will probably be lower than the counters an I haven't grown taller in ages.

Anyway, I was wondering what you all do. And now I think I'll go back to my nap.

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Thought I'd try to get a post in.

Hope you're all doing well.
I am fighting off a cold. Stuffy head, sore throat, the occasional cough that doesn't do much, and a tight chest.
Took a hot shower this morning and had chicken noodle soup for breakfast.
Still feeling blah, but hopefully that will pass as the last of the year passes.

As you remember from this post here, we were quite dismayed by how much everything had grown between the end of May and when we went back the end of October.
Granted it was summer, but by all accounts it had been a very hot and dry summer, with only a little rain in the days before we got there. So it was annoying.

We cut what we could with the bush hog that came with the tractor, but it is more of a finishing mower and it really couldn't handle what needed cutting. I had ordered a heavier bush hog through Tractor Supply 2 weeks before we got to the farm (might have been 3 weeks); all I know was it didn't get there when they told us it would. It did finally get there, though, and we DID get all that stuff cut finally.

This is how it looked when we left.

You all have a great day!

Happy Thanksgiving

to all who celebrate it this week!
Going to the BIL's on Thursday and Friday. Not feeling much like blogging right now, sorry. Don't know why.
But I will be checking blogs on and off.
Hope you all have a wonderful, blessed Holiday Season, however you celebrate it!

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

I take Metoprolol for my blood pressure and it gives me really vivid dreams. I often wake more tired than when I went to bed.
Anyway, hubby and I worked at a place that made pictures by hand. Can't say as they were paintings, we would simply brush our hand over the canvas and the picture would appear. Then we delivered them. At one point we realized that by using some *thing* that I never saw, we could deliver them around the world and suddenly we were delivering them back in time too. (Yes, dreams don't make sense. ;)  )
At some point, Gil Grissom appeared and tossed an empty cracker box and changed history. You'd think he'd know better, haha.

But I woke up then, thinking about my strange dream, and suddenly The Kingston Trio, my first favorite music, was in my head singing the song which is the title of my post.
I always wanted to learn the 5 string banjo. I loved their banjo playing, and their songs.
Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds and Dave Guard. Great music and a great group.
I understand Johnny Cash did a really haunting version of the song on his final album American IV. I really need to get that, I think, as the only song I can recall them playing on the radio from that album, is Hurt.

But here are the words to the song, since I can't find the music online.


Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream by Ed McCurdy

Last night I had the strangest dream
I’d ever dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war

I dreamed I saw a mighty room
The room was filled with men
And the paper they were signing said
They’d never fight again

And when the papers were all signed
And a million copies made
They all joined hands and bowed their heads
And grateful prayers were prayed

And the people in the streets below
Were dancing ’round and ’round
While swords and guns and uniforms
Were scattered on the ground

Last night I had the strangest dream
I’d never dreamed before
I dreamed the world had all agreed
To put an end to war.

Fungus Friday

I thought I'd post some pics of fungus today. I think that is what they are called, anyway, haha. There were three different kinds on some pecan wood. One of the trees, we noticed in 2008 when we first started going to the farm, looked like it had been hit by lightning. There's a good bit of tree laying in the pasture - it may be from a different tree, I haven't looked that close because that area hasn't been cleared properly. I took the photos with my phone while out picking up pecans, so sorry for the quality.

This one was kind of fuzzy to the touch.

This one looked kind of strange.

This one was kind of pretty with the stripes.

 

 

Hope you all have a wonderful, blessed weekend. Happy Holidays!

Wordless Wednesday

A little post about our vacation.

We did indeed leave when he got off work on Thursday. We intended to stop at a hotel, but before we knew it, it was Friday morning and we were headed into New Orleans.
Traffic in NO on Friday morning is CRAZY.
We were on the I-10 high rise bridge when we had our accident. It's annoying that the last person is the one at fault; but fortunately for us, we were not found at fault, because the driver in the middle of the three car accident left the scene.
The first car only had a few scratches (we did not know this until after we were directed where to park, and got out to talk with her).
We have figured out that the reason we couldn't stop in time (we were going less than 10 miles an hour when it happened), was because the car that hit her was backing up when we hit them. Of course this all comes to us as we think about what happened and see how the damage was to the front corner of our truck, and not centered as you would have expected it to be.
It also explains why car #2 had damage to only one corner. But not why they left the scene. They told us driver #1 was stalled - which turned out not to be true. They were older than us, you'd think they'd know better. (I know, age is not proof of maturity.)
So, since the truck was drivable, and no one was hurt, we continued on to the farm to have our vacation.

Our poor truck goes to the body shop tomorrow for an estimate. Fortunately the insurance company will cover it.

Hope you're all having a good day!

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.

Yup. Home finally. Had a good trip home. Stopped at the flea market in Florence. Didn't buy anything this time, but we looked at a lot of stuff.
Got home and the coffee pot broke.
Then we noticed a crack in the hallway ceiling where the hubby had sent one of the boys in the attic to check something.
And told him to step only on the beams.
He didn't tell us he had missed one.
And we didn't see the crack until now. :(
No idea what that means.
I have a lot of laundry to do.
And a lot of catching up to do, so please bear with me while I get caught up.
Need to take the truck in Tuesday to have them look at the damage done by the accident we were in, in New Orleans when we first got to Louisiana.
And I need to get all the pictures sorted and uploaded, too.
And I need to start thinking about Thanksgiving. I think we are going to the BIL's house.
Hope you are all well and have a blessed week! :)

Almost over

Yup. Our vacation is almost over. Hard to believe it's already been 2 weeks!
We got quite a bit accomplished. Not a lot, but to us it was quite a bit. Over 2600 pounds of trash to the dump!
I think that's a lot if nothing else, haha.
And there's still more trash to go, but that is for trips in the future. They've raised the dump rate, too, so it cost us about $60, if I remember right. It was worth every penny, too.

I have a bit of poison ivy on my arms. Not sure if it happened pulling weeds or picking pecans (we have a good 5 gallons of pecans from 2 trees so that's not too bad), but I have a bit on both arms; so I suspect it was the weed part. Oh well. I should have worn a long sleeve shirt, but it is annoying feeling hot year long.

There will be pictures and more posting when I get home, of course; but I wanted to let you all know how it's going until then. I've tried to catch up, but you know how that goes.
Hope you're all well. God bless!

Quick post from me. :)

We've had quite the last few days. Will expand when I have more time, probably not till we get home.
Brother and sister-in-law are here for a few days to help out.
Weather did not cooperate. Rained all DAY!
Hope you are all doing well and I hope everyone who could, voted today.
Will catch up as I have time.
*hugs* :)
 

Counting down

Won't be long now, and it could be sooner rather than later because truthfully? Hubby can not wait!
Don't get me wrong, I'm excited, too; but he more so because this is his home. :-)
So, while I would like to get a good night's sleep tomorrow he will most likely want to leave after work, which will mean no sleep until Friday night.
Because, yes, those few hours will make a big difference. ;)
I may be out of touch for a week or so but I'll check in when I can. I still have a little time tomorrow. 

I didn't sleep well last night, so hopefully tonight.

And since we'll be out of town on Nov. 2nd, we're going to vote today. Remember, everyone to vote! It's your right and people have died to give it to you.

Happy Hump Day!

Five days!

Happy Sunday to you all. :-)
I am going to post a few pictures of the house now.  There is so much to be done.
Need to figure out how to get the roof work done and hoping that we don't have to tear off the new roof the last renter put on, to get it done. There's LOTS of repairs to do, just showing you a couple.

The porch will have to be replaced because whoever did that didn't have a clue. It's not tongue and groove either. Just flat boards...

There is still roofing stuff and trash to be hauled. It's on the screen porch - which needs a lot of work, too.

Inside the house, of course, I talked about the kitchen. Still bothers me, but that's the past and we'll make it ours now.
There's floors to refinish and repair.

Since they don't make the old tongue and groove boards any more - at least not the sizes that went into a house at the turn of the last century - we've decided we'll probably go with one of those 'floating' floors. The interlocking wood flooring made to go over old wood floors.

They did a lousy job of taking up the hallway floor. It had green tiles. I have no idea why they decided to take them up. Wish they would have done it better. The junk has all been hauled off.

The transoms all need repairing or replacing, and of course everything needs painting, too.
I despise pink...

Oh well. We'll definitely stay busy after we retire. I think we'll be looking for paint at clearance prices because we'll need way more paint than we'll have money. ;)

Hubby says there is a support under the sun room side of the house that he thinks needs replacing. That will be interesting. Not sure how we'll do that, though we have found a mill in Southern Louisiana that said they can cut it. The beam that's there now, if I remember right, is 12 feet by 10 inches by 10 inches. It's a BIG piece of wood. It might be 10 feet, but you get the idea. Will definitely need help for that.


Ah well. You all have a wonderful day and a great week! :-)

9 days!!!!

And this is what I see when I come to do a post. Image uploads will be disabled for two hours due to maintenance at 5:00PM PDT Wednesday, Oct. 20th. Learn more

There's nothing more to learn, btw. The linked page tells us the same thing.

Anyway, I thought I'd talk about what I call the Out Building. Don't know why I call it that, other than it's a building, and it's out, haha.
This building was actually part of the farm house at one time, back in the early 1900s.
When Eva Lou Joffrion's siblings had mostly moved out and they didn't need a farm house made of 3 houses, one (whether all or in part I've never been able to figure out exactly) was deconstructed and built in the back yard as a kind of utility building. They did their ironing out there, heating the irons in the fireplace; and they had a bulk storage sort of pantry out there. I don't remember if they did the wash there or not, but they might have.
My husband's family used it as a workshop to fix their tractors when they had a lot more acreage than is there now. It has a concrete pad, so in spite of the poor condition, again, if at all possible, I'd like to save at least a good bit of it.

And I do realize it is going to take a lot of work.
Let's see if I can upload any pictures today...

The building has definitely seen better days. The building used to have electricity, too, but the power line was cut at some point. This is what it looked like that first summer after his brother told us we could buy the property. He called us one night and asked us if we'd like it. *rolls eyes* Of course we jumped on it, even though we couldn't hardly see the property that first trip.

You can see there had been an initial mowing, but the out building can barely be seen.

Summer and fall pictures of the building.

There's holes like this on both sides of the roof, but not in the same area...

 

I am guessing here that someone wanted some sort of inside access to the roof, but really I'm clueless.

The leaks have done a lot of damage, of course.

 And that's just on one side of the building.

We think they had animals here at one time. Maybe chickens...

That's the fireplace behind that... wall.
The building used to be one big "L" shaped room, but now it's two, I think. Maybe because someone used it to keep animals once? I wonder a lot, you can tell.
And of course the other side not only has a hole in the roof, and water damage, but more trash to be hauled.

And again, it's work that will wait until a while after we are finally moved in; but it would be nice to be able to clear around it enough to put one of those blue 'Southern roofs' on it. ;)
And by that, I mean to cover it with a tarp until we can get around to hopefully being able to have someone help us with that roof. Unlike some of my braver friends on the blogs I read, there is no way I would get on a roof this peaked, and certainly not in this condition.
And my husband isn't really able either, so hopefully we can find someone to do the work at a price we  consider reasonable and can afford.

Or maybe we can barter work for fresh chicken and eggs...

Happy Wednesday, everyone! :-)