If Nothing Else…

I’m really good at employing unusual methods to accomplish the task at hand…

But first I want to thank Robynn from over at Robynn’s Ravings for letting you all know that I’ve been socked in with big thunderstorms that came through. I’ll be sure and return the favor some day… 

This was on the front porch lookin’ out toward the gate yesterday morning during a break in the downpours.

I swam out waded out to the gate to take pictures just for you all.  The dogs looked at me like, “You are nuts!”.

This rain was what we around here call “a chunk floater”.  This chunk is about 14 inches long and 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

This was looking out the bathroom window over part of the backyard to the propane tank.

And north towards the little barn and the goat shed.

And looking south down our country road.When Bro and I got back yesterday evening about 6 p.m. I remembered to check the rain gauge. 

We had almost 4 inches at that time.  The rumbling, grumbling thunder started up again about 7 p.m. and started pouring down again.  Until after 11 p.m.

When I got up this morning it wasn’t raining, but grey and heavy clouds.  I hustled around and loaded up my pickup again and I hossed the washer and dryer that we had in one of the little barns onto the trailer and Bro and I headed to town and got that load off.  When we got back to the plantation I remembered to check the rain gauge.

Let’s look at it from another angle…

Yep, that gauge is lipping full.  Almost 51/2 inches in the last 24 hours. So now you know why I couldn’t even catch one second, much less one minute of internet time.

The falling on the knee again?  About 10:30 p.m. Carol said did you hear the weatherman saying we could get to 35 F. tonite?  Nope, didn’t hear it…  Well, says she, you’d better get the plants in off the porch… So I told Bro if you will stand at the door I’ll hand them in to you and we both won’t have to get wet.  So I would step out on the deck, grab a plant or two, pour the excess water off them and stepped in and handed them to Bro, turned and went back out and grabbed more and repeated the process. Some of our plants are large and heavy and I  was tiring out and trying to hurry because I was getting wet. I stepped out, barefoot, and hit wet deck just right, did a whoopti – into a single legged split… bunged my big toe, knocked of my rhinestone off my toe nail  and then landed on THE knee… but I didn’t hit nearly as hard as last time and my toe is sorer than my knee… Thank goodness. So you don’t need to worry about any bones.

And the reference to my Ethiopian Ingenuity… Found this photo while looking for THERE photos --- Yep, that’s a bungee strap.  I was running errands and got tired of hikin’ my drawers up and all I had in my pick up was a bungee cord.  It worked.

Need I say more?

I’ll get back to Bartlesville (THERE) on the next post.

Helen Is In Jail

This is her mug shot from last night.

I am writing this to you from a plane as I wing my way to Oklahoma so I can try and spring her.

I am your guest poster, Robynn of Robynn's Ravings. Helen called me on her ONE phone call and asked me to make up some cock-and-bull story about how it's been raining - a LOT - 4 1/2 inches worth (she wants this to sound good), and how her satellite feed is down so she can't get any message out to you, and how she is determined to go outside barefoot in all this rain and slipped and fell and hurt THE SAME KNEE - again - and how she's trying to move to her new place in between downpours, and how she had to go to the doctor and he told her she better take care of herself and fix a couple of things.

But I'm not good at lying.

I don't buy any of this for a minute. YOU know Helen. I know Helen. If there's a pile of anything to be stepped in, she found it. And she can make up all the stories she wants to. I know jail is the only thing that would keep her from posting and she tells everybody's secrets when she writes - especially about her siblings - AND shows photos. So, I'm thinkin' there's been a terrible family row and she's been hauled off. I'm makin' my way to her because I can't just let her have somebody else cook for her while she lays around on a cot. Not unless I get to do the same thing.

So if I can't get her out, I'm goin' in. Why should SHE have all the breaks?

You'll hear from her again as soon as the "rain" stops.....sure, Helen. Whatever. Just don't get any tatoos. If you have a tan line on your elbows, stop and think where that ship's anchor might end up. Why do you think I haven't done it? Keep your head, woman!

Copyright 2009

More About There…

This is another post about our home in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.  Yesterday I kind of gave you the Sunroom remodel.  Being the bass-ackward person that I am while writing that post I decided you needed to see the demolition that got us to that big room.

This wall was originally the wall in  the kitchen/dining area.  I had already taken the sheetrock off  and had begun to bust out the rock wall on the built in porch.

This photo was taken from the porch side.  There were heavy grey rocks on these walls and the fireplace because it was originally the outside walls of the house.

 Another shot of the dining room wall from further back in the kitchen.  You can see a box of stuff on the bar there in the bottom right of the picture.

This is again the fireplace outside wall.  The porch was originally open but the roof was built over the porch area so it made it easy to close in.  These rocks, however, were a bitch to dust and Carol and I talked about it for several years and we decided to open up the sunroom and make it a big open area.

Where the plastic is hanging is where the fireplace was… and the wall to the 3rd bedroom. 

This is the view from the kitchen after the east wall came down. You can see the size of the rocks I broke out and hauled out of the room. You can see the green indoor/outdoor carpet that we put down when we closed in the porch and put all the windows in…

Here’s the room that was my bedroom.  This wall was on the west side of the sunroom.

This was the fire place that was in the living room.  The exterior of the fireplace was the same heavy rock and it had a seating area that was about two foot  high and probably about  18 inches into the living room and it was also made from a heavy rock.  We joked about feeling like we were living in a bat cave.

Here is a photo from back further in the living room.  You can see some of the rocks in the sunroom floor.  To be honest with you, I didn’t do all the demolition.  I just worked on it with the Bubba we hired and then when he had left for the day, I continued on…

After we took out all the firebrick, all the building brick and all the big rock that made the outside wall we had to fill the hole with concrete to get it back to floor level.

This is just a portion of the rock I hauled out in the back yard.  John, the high school boy that we originally hired to do yard work, ended up helping me build raised flower beds with the rock.  He also helped me with building the flagstone patio area in the front yard and flagstone walkways in the backyard.

We did hire another young man we knew to build the headers across where we had torn out the walls.  When we moved in in 1995 on this wall was the fireplace and sliding doors going to the sun porch… The sliders were about where that strip of green carpet is now.

In this photo you can see where the header was made between the living room and the outside wall across where the bedroom wall was before I tore it down.

So that's it for this post. If you hang with me I'll give you some more of 'there' and I'm sure it will help you understand why I haven't written about B'ville before now. It just killed my heart because so much of me was put into our home there.

Later!

Here And There…

And everywhere…

Well, here we go again… These next couple of posts I decided to do have to do with there. Bartlesville,  Oklahoma.  Where I really got into the gardening.  And doing home decorating.  Carol would look at me funny when I suggested the colors for the sunroom but she loved it when she saw how it was coming around.

In our home in B’ville we had a built in porch on the east side of the house.  It was not closed in  but we hired it done because of our love of plants and flowers.

  I loved this rubber plant.  We were able to have a lot of indoor plants because of this room.

I would sit in the living room in my easy chair and watch the sun move and how it shone on the different areas and on the different plants sitting around. You can see my safety glasses there by the canned air.

So I’d take my breaks and look at the whiteness of the room and I decided that I needed to paint it a very clear yellow for several reasons.  One reason was the plants would really *POP* against the yellow.

Here’s a shot of the yellow in progress.  You can see where I taped off the ceiling from the bead board above the walls.   I wanted to keep that white to give the illusion of crown moulding… wide crown moulding and also I kept the door mouldings white.  And it added a crispness to the whole room. 

Here you can see why Carol thought I had finally gone ‘round the bend, as it were… I painted the inside of the windows with a firey orange.  In the mornings and during the day it was an incredible effect, if I say so myself, and one of those rare ideas that really worked.

The ceiling I painted and sponged with three colors of green.  Carol doesn’t care for most shades of green, with the exception of  living green as in the plants and money green, but she loved the ceiling because it wasn’t just green.  The sponging almost gave a cloudy effect.

With my next post, hopefully tomorrow, I’ll take you to where this all began… You know me, I do things a little bass-ackwards.

Tag – You’re It…

Thank you, Sylvia, for helping me out with a blog subject. I’ve been blank because of trying to get my head together for a move, but I needed and wanted to put up a new post and get Bro’s mug off the screen…

The rules:
1. Respond and re-work: Answer these questions on your blog. Replace one question you dislike with one of your own invention, and add another question of your own.
2. Tag some friends to play along!

1. What's your favorite article of clothing? My tank top tees.

2. Who was the last person you hugged? My Cousin when we visited her on Thursday.

3. What's your favorite dinner? Steak and a baked potato

4. What's the last thing you bought? A new pink mouse for the computer

5. How's your head feeling right now?  A little dizzy/light headed

6. What's your favorite weather? Clear and cool

7. What is your least favorite season?  winter

8. What's in your purse? I don’t carry a purse as a rule.  Pockets work for me and I don’t forget to take them home.

9. Say something to the person who tagged you. DocSly, I hope to meet you some day.  Maybe at a ballpark for a baseball game.

10. What is your favorite dessert? Peach cobbler and BlueBell Vanilla ice cream

11. What did you want to become as a child? A Cowboy     
12. What do you want to be now? a traveler

13. What is your favorite song? The Lord's Prayer  

14. What is your favorite country/state? U.S.A. and Oklahoma 

15. If you could go anywhere in the world in the next hour, where would you go? Hawaii
16. What are my most challenging goals right now? preparing to move.  Big GROAN…

17. What is your five-year plan? learning to quilt 
18. What is your favorite sport to watch? baseball in life, golf or college football on t.v. 
19. What show would you be a cast member of?  The Closer 

20. What is your most prized possession? my family
21. Name a favorite childhood memory.  Horseback riding in Tennessee at family reunions. 
22. What is your favorite movie?  LadyHawke

23. What is your favorite quote? If wishes were horses even beggars would ride.
24. What is your favorite book? The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

25. What sport would you compare your life to at this time?  Ping pong.

I tag  Robynn, Dar and Pastor Sharon

Bro-hawk...

Week before last Bro and I went into Norman to get our hair trimmed up for THE WEDDING... I had gotten mine trimmed up and shaped up a bit and it was Bro's turn... He had evidently talked to the guy that gives us our cuts while I took a bathroom break. Charles had the clippers out and hair was falling in the floor and Bro was grinning like a 'possum... Then I watched and realized why he was grinning...



To be real honest, I had thought about me getting a faux hawk and Bro and I had talked about it but I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to disguise it well enough at the wedding... I was feeling a bit cantankerous but had finally settled down enough to maintain propriety for the wedding and what did my brother do???



Stole my thunder, he did. But I'm still gonna do it.

Maybe for my 65th birthday along with my tattoo...



But on this Sunday, Bro, this one's for you... and for every 69 year old that has enough hair and enough enjoyment of life to 'go for it'!

THE Wedding, Part Two…

I know it’s awful to put yet another photo of the wedding cake but we are moving on to the reception momentarily… But first… a word from from her parents… (D. Menard)

My brother Ben and his wife Diane after the ceremony… note the big smiles… no words, however, I fibbed about that part... but the picture says a thousand words.  They do both love Tyler and that’s great.  They know he will love and honor Laura and she’s as crazy about him as he is about her.   (D. Menard)

The groom’s cake.  Tyler, besides being a huge OU fan since he graduated from OU and was president of his fraternity, is a huge Red Sox fan.  The  cake was chocolate… and despite his choice of teams (being a Texas Rangers fan myself) the cake was almost as good as the bride’s cake.  Yes, I ate a piece of both.  My job is to share photos with you and to report things as they really were, keeping it real, you know.  (D. Menard)

I think that the kids are having too much fun… which is totally as it should be…  (D. Menard)

Tyler is doing such a good job of  getting out a piece of cake after he and Laura made the first cut. They were so sweet to each other, not shoving the cake in each others faces… (D. Menard)

The toast… now we are getting something to wet the whistle and wash down the cake…  (D. Menard)

Shall we dance? Shall we dance with each other, shall we fly?  (name that movie)  They look so right for each other and so at ease… I think the rest of the world could have disappeared at this moment and all would have still been right in their world.    (D. Menard)

The first dance with Pop.  Bless his heart, he had been dealing with a bad back for several weeks, but he managed to not only walk Laura down the aisle, give her away and pull off  his dance with her.  Brother of mine, you came through for the Baby Girl… (D. Menard)

  The dancing commenced.  The girl in the front green dress is my niece, at least I more than claim her since she is married to my nephew Paul… And is the mother of the incredible Max… I’ll introduce you to him one of these days.  I think they were doing the Cotton-eyed Joe here.   Those line dances fascinate me… probably because I have two left feet.

Mom was boogeying down while getting her cake…

Now get me some iced tea to wash it all down…

Diane and her best friend for many years and my friend that let me swipe some of her photos for these wedding posts, Devonna Menard.  I so thank you for sharing with me, Bonna, so I could share with everyone that wanted to read about this shindig. You  snapped a bunch of good photos and they have sure helped me put my thoughts into the words I wanted to share…

Pop and their beloved pastor, T.C. , in deep conversation at the reception.  I don’t know what it was all about…

But this photo looked to me like the caption should be, “Don’t tell me that it’s not legal!”  Most likely they were swapping golf stories and it was so loud they had to huddle up to hear.

You want to see the most handsome fellow at the wedding? 

The man that stole my heart?

The one I can’t leave out of this joyous post? 

The grand finale?

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We all celebrated and this boy said it all without a word…  He’s Laura’s nephew, Elijah,  just walking good and he was such a good boy during the wedding.  He was dancing around at the church while all the photos were being taken after the wedding and I managed to get these photos and I had to share…

I hope I’m still around to see him grown up, in love,

And dancing at his own wedding… even though it will break my heart that it won’t be me he will be marrying…

TTttthhhhhat’s all folks.  Thank you for letting me share my joy and happiness about this union.

Laura and Tyler walk hand in hand and hand in hand with their Father and his son Jesus so they will have the Great Counselor guiding them through their long, loving, life together.