Yep. I Got Muddy, Too…

There are times in my life that I will admit to being not quite bright, as my friend from Kentucky would say… Not often, but there are those infrequent times.  They usually transpire when I’m tired and worn down and the brain is kicking in a bit slow…

We decided that the safest thing to do was to leave the U-Haul on the gravel drive, hitch the little trailer on my pickup, drive it around to the big barn, load it and then drive it back to the drive and load it off the trailer into the U-Haul.

First we had to figure the route around the back of the trailer. And we did… with Jonathan and me both getting stuck once apiece.  However, Jonathan being a country boy was a bit smarter than me…

Duh… did ‘ja know that it’s right smart to shut your car door and not try to help push because your tires are spinning and throwing mud… all over my car door, my leg, my little trailer and the stuff on it.

The back end of  my pick-up and stuff that was in it.

The stuff on the trailer…

Another photo of the stuff.   Jonathan was the one that may have saved my life… If I’d had to do all this by myself I probably would have stroked out.

On top of working like a dog helping Walter and me with loading all the stuff, he was tending to his little sister, Haley.  He was very patient with her, letting her hand him little stuff that she could and when she would get in a place where she might get hurt or be in the way he would sit her on the back of the big truck to one side or the other or sit her on the tailgate of my pick up. 

And that boy can back up a trailer ‘way better than me.  Notice how nonchalant baby sister is… when I’d drive around she would sit inside the truck until I shut the engine off.

When I got home after the last trip to storage I asked Carol to take a picture for you all… actually two.

I took off my boots in the garage to try to minimize what I might bring into the house…

And this was just to show you that I walked in under my own power, on my own two sock feet and as soon as she took these pictures I went back out to the garage and stripped down and went straight to bed.

I didn’t even care about taking a bath first because I was so tired I’d have probably gone to sleep and drowned.  And my furbabies didn’t care if I might have been a little stinky,  they were just glad mom was home and all was right in their world.

If you want a bit more of a laugh, put your cursor on the picture of me in the truck with mud on me and the door…

I leave this nasty tale now.  I’ve got a lot of laundry to do…

Mud, Mud, And More Mud…

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… remember when I said it was going to get worse before it got better? I walked around on the plantation until I could get out on my cell phone and called AAA.  I have been a member of AAA since 1969 and when they offered the 100 mile tow plan for $75.oo a year I jumped on it.  The thing is I usually drive ‘pre-owned’ cars and for all the times I’ve had problems and had to be towed in AAA has lost money on me, but they keep sending me renewal forms and I keep getting the higher level option.  So I didn’t expect any problems… the operative word here is ‘expect’.  When I got the operator I told her that my U-haul was stuck in the mud and I needed them to send someone to pull me out.  “I’m sorry, ma’am, but we don’t tow U-Haul, you will have to deal with them… plus we don’t tow anything over a one ton vehicle”.  Well, shit to damn death…

Jonathan, my great little helper, said, “my uncle’s truck is less than a one ton”.  I thought about it and hit re-dial. And got the same operator.  I told her that I understood about them not doing anything about the U-Haul, but my pick-up was less than a ton and they could send someone out to help with that part.  “Okay, ma’am, someone will be out to assist you in about 45 minutes”.  Damn it makes me feel old when someone calls me ma’am…

In about 20 minutes the tow truck driver called to make sure he understood where we were out here in BFE.  He said, “Hi, this is Pops (I kid you not) and wanted to double check where you were…”  I explained where we were and he said, “Hell, I used to live around the corner from where you are… I’ll see you in about 15 minutes…”  Thank you, Lord.  I finally was getting some relief from this mud hell. Sure enough, he pulled in the gate, parked his truck, got out, looked over the ‘siciashun’, took off his hat and scratched his mostly bald head and gave me a gum only grin and said “y’all got in a little deep did ja?”  We got to talking and Pops was the same fellow that delivered our driveway gravel about 6 months before… his little granddaughter was his helper.   I said Pops, I know y’all aren’t supposed to do anything with that  U-Haul, but I’ve got forty bucks in my pocket that can slip into yours if you’d slip a cable on that truck and pull it back about 20 feet… I don’t want you doing anything you’re not okay with,  so whatever you decide is good with me…

I went in the house for a visit to  the bladderatorium and when I came back out that dang truck was back on solid ground…  I went over to Pops, gave him a big hug and slipped the two twenties in his overall chest pocket and gave him a pat.  He just grinned and said “I never saw a thing”.

There are angels among us.

I’ll wind this up tomorrow… Gosh it’s good to be spinning the yarns again.

More Mud…

 

You’ll have to forgive me on the quality of these next few photos. They were taken with my camera phone while I was laughing…

 

Bro said “I guess this means I’m making the Red Dirt Woman post…”

Yep, Bro, you are for sure.

 

Check the blob of mud that’s disguising the receding hair line.  Wally stuck the U-Haul… The guy behind him had a Bubba truck, you know the kind, the ones with the big wheels that are higher up off the ground that go mudding down on the river beds…  He brought his nephew who was helping us over to the ponderosa and he said “I’ll get you out.  Got any chain?”  All I had was about a four foot chain and about a ten foot tow cable that I had gotten in case I got the garden tractor stuck (which I did ONCE).  He had his nephew tie onto the front of the U-Haul and told Bro that when he started backing up to give the U-Haul a little gas to ‘git ‘er movin’.  He put his beast of a truck in gear and gave it a pop of the clutch and promptly buried it about to the axle. That roll looking thing in the foreground was some carpet padding that we tried to get jammed under Bubba’s back wheel.  The two garden posts laying there were the posts that me and Jonathan, my great little helper, were pushing on trying to give his uncle a boost enough to get out of his predicament.  Seems his 4 wheel drive ‘waddn’t’ getting in gear right.  I didn’t point out that if he’d had some tread on his tires that might have helped somewhat…

  More boards equals more fun, don’t ‘cha know.  After two and a half hours, I said and I quote, “Piss on this! I’m calling AAA.”

It wasn’t bad enough that I was dog tired and it was starting to get towards dark but we were all muddy and wet and Bro and I were about give out and the DUH uncle wasn’t any help. Me (64) and Jonathon (almost 15) were doing all the damn working and digging and pushing.

I’ve got to clean up a bit.  I’ve been planting at the new place and Carol’s son is bringing his laundry to his mom and we are going to eat Chinese… So there will be more later, and yes, it does get worse before it gets better.

Stay tuned…

Mud Puppies…

On top of everything else involved in the move we had rain. A hard, heavy rain the day before I took Bro in to rent a U-Haul truck to clear out his big barn.

Does this give you a clue as to what ‘fun’ we were in for?

Or perhaps this photo… not quite there yet?

Thank the good Lord that Bro just got a 17 foot truck.

More to come in a bit... I hit the publish button instead of the save to... duh.

Everywhere…

You’ve seen a lot of here through my posts of the past and I’ve shown you quite a bit of there through the last few posts. I’m having trouble finding the rest of the photos I wanted to wind up there with so now we are going to everywhere so you can see the blank slate that I am starting with… This is a rental home so I won’t be able to be as comfortable in doing any radical creativity but I can certainly make the place feel more like a home.

Here we go…

The house is on a corner and has this fourteen foot wall in the front yard. I’m already planning on what I’m going to do out here.

There are a few neglected and older shrubs along the about 3 foot wide bed that goes along the walk heading up to the front door.

then the walk is right along the house to the nook where you find the front door. This is looking north to the stockade fence. The shrub on the right is a rose of sharon that was there when we rented. Our rose of sharon that I’ll be bringing is younger and shorter and I will plant it closer to the brick pillar.

This is a crepe myrtle and there is one planted on either side of the drive way and you know that something else is going to be planted in there so it doesn’t look so plain.

This is looking up the side yard from another gate in the stockade fencing. I love the fence, SueSue doesn’t. She can’t see what’s going on in her world except for the occasional squirrel that drops into the yard, the she is on a mission to get that critter. Being the ornery and lazy woman that I am, I’m going to start feeding the birds AND the squirrels. After I need some entertainment to lighten my day occasionally, too. And if she catches one and kills it, I know how to skin them and fry them. I’m not too worried about that happening, because while Suess is fast she is not quite bright. She runs straight at them and you know squirrels can twist and turn on a dime…

This is the back yard. It is pretty large which the girls love, except with the stockade fence they can’t keep track of what all might be going on in their corner of the world.

This is the side of the house that the front is on, just the other side of the fence.

As I do my planting thing, I will take pictures along but I must tell you that Carol’s sister has her ideas about how we should plant the place. She, besides being rapid cycling bi-polar, has got to be ocd as much as she likes and needs order in her life.

She likes things in a row, I like things the flow. When I got to the house I took my babies out and looked around. When I saw a number of plants all along the back fence all in a row and almost exact distance apart. I just got my shovel out of the truck and started working on them… even as boring as she like it. Carol and I have lived together for so long that she know that there is method to my madness and whatever I do usually comes out somewhat unusual. And usually she loves what I do even if I do things somewhat with odd combinations that I enjoy trying odd colors and/or textures. So I know that while I will keep as many plants alive as I can, this will be essentially a plain, basic garden because the riots of color and shapes of a garden that Carol and I both enjoy is like raucous noise to her sister.

So as I get things planted and growing I’ll keep you posted but for right now, besides my life being bland, I’m so exhausted from the moving that I probably won’t be a very interesting blogger. And if I don’t live through this move I just want to say thanks to all of you who have become my friends through this wonderful blogging medium.

Tired To Tears Thursday…

I finally got hooked back up to the internet and it’s cable, not satellite, praise the Lord. But I’m so dog-assed tired I can’t even think so this will be a flowers I left behind in Bartlesville post.

This iris I dug up and brought with me. It blooms spring and fall.

This is one of my favorite photos that I’ve taken. The red trumpet vine I planted along the back fence grew around a dead tree stump that grew up around the fence so I just left it there. I like the contrast of textures.

Joseph’s Coat Rose. One of the few roses I’ve ever had any luck with so therefore also my favorite.

This is the climbing Joseph’s coat rose, the one I took the individual rose shot from.

This beautiful Jackamani Clematis was growing on the property line with the people that lived in the house just east of us. They were kind enough to let us claim it and care for it.

We had columbine in the shadiest part of the rock garden in the front yard.

This beautiful clematis was white with the most delicate pink stripes going down the petals.

When we move to this house in ‘95 there was a square of cement out toward the N.E. part of the back yard. It took a long time before it dawned on me that whomever had lived there before had a big satellite dish. I decided to plant wisteria there because it was strong enough to support it as it got older.

Wisteria blossoms just starting to bust open.

More wisteria a few days later in full bloom. It had the most beautiful scent.

Lilac… beautiful old fashioned lilac and what a wonderful smell.

lilac blooms in the shade.

And more lilac.

Sand cherry bush. I loved the contrasting colors.

Hosta “Freedom” if I remember correctly.

Ferns just beginning to greet the world. These plants were fascinating to watch unfurl in the spring

This is one of several irises that we brought back from one of our trips to Minnesota. We actually went to the farm where they were grown and picked out the ones we wanted. The gentleman also grew hostas and had some gorgeous varieties that we drooled over. The fellow said it was okay to drool as they were down in there water that year.

Mmmm, weigelia. This beauty was one of my favorite bushes.Sand cherry that we brought back from Minnesota. Beautiful coloring.

This dark iris was just about read to unfurl and show off it’s beauty but I loved the look of it at this stage.

I have no freaking clue at the moment what this flower is called. I planted it in our front yard water/rock garden but I've slept since then and don't remember it's name... which also happens with people... a lot.

This was another Minnesota iris.

More red trumpet vine.And one final iris.

Be patient with me and I’ll soon be back to stories. I’m so exhausted and still have much to move but don’t give up on me.

I get this move out of the way and my body and brain rested I’ll be back to the same old me…

What’s Not To Love…

Thought I’d take a break from posting about our old home. It gets a little hard on me and I’m going to have to get my old computer up and going to try to retrieve photos that I know I took before we sold the house. We thought we had gotten all the pics, but there are some missing…

So let’s switch gears to my girls. You hear me yakking about them but I haven’t posted anything about them in a while.

My beautiful Chloe… she’s 9, going to be 10 on January 1, 2010.

She’s my watchful laid back girl and she doesn’t like 2 legged rug rats.

SueSue is my blond. She loves everybody, even rug rats. She is as ditsy as her mom some days… or maybe ADHD like me.

She is always watching mom to see if it’s time to play ball. She’s my little (almost) firecracker, born on July 2, 2003… 6 years old and still plays like a pup.

I love it when my girls do what I call ‘frog dogging’… All four feet laid stretched out.

The love to chase each other…

Suess likes to sleep on the back of the couch… when we have a couch with a wide back.

And I don’t understand how they can sleep like this… but they can and the do.

Suess is on the back, Chloe is hanging off the front.

But this is when I’m dead meat…

What a baby girl!

Look at those little pads on her feet…

Got an itch!

My girls. Chloe cuddling the Baby Suess and laying with mom on the recliner.

Whatcha doin’ mom?

Okay, folks. I'm closing this with SueSue frogdogging on the ramp in the sunshine. I gotta get back to packing but I hope you have sunshine in your world today because we are sure enjoying sunshine in ours… despite the packing to move.

Later, my friends.