The Finished Job…

My baby brother sent me these photos… He came in from his shift at Fast Track at the hospital where he works about 11 p.m. on last Wednesday night, heard the ruckus and knew what was happening.   He managed to snap a shot of yours truly doing one of the things I most love to do… DEMOLITION.   I had my hammer drill with the chisel bit and I was gettin’ it done.  He knows how much I love my power tools.  And while a lot of times when I’m really concentrating on what I’m doing I might stick my tongue out of the corner of my mouth,  ala Michael Jordan, I do NOT do it when using my hammer drill because the dust is gritty and tastes nasty.  Anyway, after he did the caulking around the firebox he was kind enough to send me a photo of the finished project.

By the way… that is mostly my t-shirt hanging down, not my belly… 

But here is the finished project and it was done and dry for them to entertain probably about 30 family members for Thanksgiving today.

And they were thankful for so very many things, but one of them I know for sure is that I ran down and helped bust out the old tile that they had been wanting to change out for several years and then helping get it all back together in time for Thanksgiving.

And it’s good to know that there are folks in this world that are thankful for me… at least once in a while.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with many blessings.  I know that despite everything else in my life I have many more blessings than woes and all of you that stop by and visit and have become my friends through this blogging world are right up there after my family, and once in a while, before them…

Want To Get A Project Done?

Start it less than a week before Thanksgiving when a whole mess of family is coming to your home to share the blessings in their life and a lot of food. I took off last Wednesday and headed south for a visit and to get away from the stress of all that has been going on around here.

This is what the fireplace looked like when I got to Ft. Worth Wednesday evening. In less that 2 hours (we had to go stuff our faces first) Diane, my sis-in-law started doing this:

Give her a hammer and chisel and she is the demolition princess.

Hearth is done for…

I had to bust my hump to keep up with her. Of course I did have to stop and take photos along to record the process for posterity (and a break).

Round and round she goes… and the surround is down.

Cleaning up the excess mortar…

Blowing off the smoke after putting the hurt on the mortar.

Miss Molly is overseeing the job to be sure there is no corner cutting. This was the end of evening one except for the sweeping up and washing down.

Day 2: Sheetrock is cut and installed. This job fell to my brother and me.

The tiles are cut first so Ben and I can run right through mortaring them and getting them up, so we could sit in the floor and get the surround tiled without having to get up and down. He’s been down in his back and I’ve just been down.

Here it is… taped and spaced to make sure it stays in place while it sits up overnight. Thus ends Day two.

Ben had to work on Saturday so it fell to Diane and me to do the grouting and clean-up and I was so whipped out I forgot to take photos but I’ll get baby Bro to send me photos so you can see the finished project.

Molly giving it the critical eye and her blessing for a job well done.

Yeah, some work was involved but it was exactly what I needed to do to get myself leveled out. When I can lose myself in a project I don’t dwell on the things that are not right in my life and when I’m worked to ‘rode hard and put up wet’ I sleep great and everything looks better in the morning.

This is the way that I get my perspective back and start getting healed from a horribly inconsiderate fracas. Now I can start planning to start over next month.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and even with what all has gone down in my house I still have so much to be thankful for in my life. I’ve got my furbabies, I have wonderful sibs and I’m not afraid to start over again.

I'm Still Alive...

There's just a lot of b.s. going on in my life right now. I will be moving again. Not quite sure where but as soon as I know I will let you all know. My posting is going to be sporadic for a bit, but when me and my pupsters get us a home things will hopefully get settled back into a routine.

I just love it (not) when I don't have a clue as to what's gonna happen next, but I sure am looking forward to finding out. And to tell the truth I haven't looked forward to much other than waiting for my flowers to bloom for quite some time.

I just wanted to keep you all "posted".

Jon's Ride...

Here is, I hope, the video of Jon's ride. If not, it won't be up for long...

Just Call Him A Bull Rider…

You heard me speak of my good fortune at finding a strong young man to help us move and do heavy lifting for me. This is Jonathan getting his game face on…

Both his daddy and his granddaddy were bull riders.  Jon started riding when he was 5 years old and after 9 years the boy is practically a veteran.  They only let him ride steers, which really ‘chaps his ass’, pun intended, but he will be 15 in April and then can start riding the big bulls.

   One of the neat things about going to small local forums is that I can walk around and watch what the cowboys do to prepare for their ride.  Here Jon is working on the baling wire on his spurs that go under the heel of his boots to help keep them from slipping when he gets hooked into the hide of the bull.

Some riders like to tie their boots on with strips of latigo. They DO NOT want their feet to slip out of their boots causing them to lose their leg grip.

And another example… or two.  Each cowboy has their own routine that they go through, kind of like every other sport, they have their own superstitions.

I thought these chaps were good looking… not much else is on this photo…

This shot looks a little better…

And check out these blue chaps.

Jonathan strapping his chaps up, getting ready for his ride.

Waiting his turn.  There were 21 entries in the bull riding division so they ran out 10 of the bull riders, then ran Jon’s group, the steer riders, then the mutton busters which was won by a GIRL!!!  Wooo Hoooo!!!  Then came time for Jon’s group.

He asked me if I could video his ride for him and I told him I’d try.  I’d only done it once so here is my try at video with my point and shoot camera…

Except for the fact that I can’t figure out how to get it to download. I’m unloading my boxes as fast as I can to try and figure it out.  I know where the video is, it is the verbiage that is killing me.  I give them (those gremlins that reside in my computer) the answers to the questions as best as I can figure out but then I get something like the path is incorrect or the name isn’t right for the transition to be made and my ever favorite,         ” You’re an idiot that can’t figure out shit about computers!”

When I do figure it out I’ll have a bunch of videos to share. Right now I think I’ll go back to bed and cry myself to sleep.

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.