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dooley's Blog
Septic's done!!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 2:18 am Today, the septic people spent from 9 am until 6 pm but the septic system is all in for all three homes. It's an aerobic system and has two big tanks and three smaller tanks and miles of pipes going every which way. I hope when the electric company comes tomorrow to hook the service poles to the transformer they don't drive over anything important. It's all marked pretty well. dr and I walked down to check it out after they left. They made a trench for the water lines too so now Rufus doesn't have to dig that by hand. I think once the electric company comes tomorrow that is all the outside contractor work. Then comes laying and hooking up water lines, building decks and skirting each home. I planted the rose bush that Glenda brought over on Tuesday into a pot because I don't know when I will get it planted or the other 10 that I bought (?) I mixed up plant food and watered them all. I trimmed back my herbs where little portions froze during the winter. I trimmed the gardenia bushes back some. They were green most of the winter but the last freeze got them. It went down to 10 degs. They are still green inside and some small green shoots were coming up from the bottom so I cut off the dead shoots. I took some pictures of the wildflowers that are in the yard so will try to get them done tomorrow. Things are coming along now but it's not moving time yet. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 364 times
All in one day!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:31 am I woke up to sunshine today after a night of thunder and lightning and heavy rain. We went into town to the post office and stopped and had breakfast. When we got home there was much activity down on the lots. The movers were back to level the third home. It's a three bedroom so it's long and wide, too. The trim guy was back to work on the double wide. He was having problems because they delivered the wrong panels to fix the ends. The electric people were there putting in service poles and boxes for each home. Tammy was there answering questions and directing things. Howard was there delivering parts to the electrician and the trim guy. Tammy had two grandchildren, ages 2 and 4 with her and a little dog was running around. There was general chaos in abundance but everyone seemed to know what they were doing. The electric should be all hooked up by Friday. They have ours and Tammy's done but need to do the third one and they couldn't do it with the movers still working on it. We were back and forth doing this and that to help where we could but with all the workers we were just in the way sometimes. We did deliver water and ice to the workers. It turned out to be 78 degs. here today and drinks ran out early. The movers finished leveling the third home and got ready to leave and their truck wouldn't start. Tammy went door to door until she found someone with jumper cables and they got a jump from Tammy's daughter who showed up to take her kids back. Then, the electric went out all over the neighborhood. The electricians claimed they didn't do it because they weren't yet hooked into the main line. It turns out it was a pole a few miles away that got hit by a car, we think. The electric was out a little over two hours. The septic system person delivered three tanks and said he had some more stuff to bring and would be back on Thursday or Friday. Tammy's son came to dig water line trenches but it was getting dark so he's coming back tomorrow. Weather forecast for tomorrow, thunderstorms in the AM, some severe. Then, sunny for a few days. So, the septic should go in on Friday, the electric company should hook up the service boxes on Friday, the trim guy should be able to do the outside of the double wide on Friday. The water lines go in after the septic. Things are going to be like a three ring circus for the next week or so and then things can start to happen. But, wannabe is coming on the 18th so we aren't moving until the end of the month. We can start some serious packing and getting things ready now. We have plans, Tammy has plans and Tammy's father has plans. He will move last because they want to some remodeling on the third home before he moves into it. I don't know what to do first. Glenda brought me a rose bush today for a friendship present. It will have yellow flowers on it. I will put it in a pot like the other ten until we decide where to put it and get the yard prepared for planting things. I think the waiting is done and things are moving at a serious pace now. It's a bit exciting and a little scary. Oh, and in between things I sewed two tote bags, too. dooley Last edited: Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:32 am This blog entry has been viewed 416 times
Three down and they are all moved!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:00 pm The third mobile home was moved yesterday and I think the men moving it were very happy to have it here. We decided by noon it wasn't coming so we went into town and had a sandwich and went to the library and stopped at the thrift store. It was nearly three when we started for home. Yep! You are right! The movers were stuck on the corner where we had to turn to our house. No way around them. No other way home. We sat and waited. They finally had to pull past the corner and back it across the corner yard. They backed it the other mile and a little to the lot. It was drizzling rain and not a nice afternoon. I bet if they hadn't started it moving they would just have liked to have left it right in the middle of everything. They parked it in it's place and left. I expect they will be around later to do the setup work on it. It's going to be raining the rest of the week but maybe next week the utility work can begin. Tammy said she'd been working on this since October and she can't wait for it to be over. But, just because all the homes are moved doesn't mean it's over. There is still lots of things to be done. The work is still on-going. It's going to be too wet on our lot this morning because it's at the bottom of the slope. We are going to have to get some rock for the driveway and get some plants growing to keep from sinking into the ground. It seems to be mainly sand so lots of additives, too. I could use a pair of knees that work better but I expect I'll make do with what I have. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 382 times
A windy day!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 2:27 am It rained all of Sunday night and all day yesterday and most of last night. I was really happy to wake up to sunshine this morning. The forecast said it would be 58 degs and that's not so bad. Except it was really windy. We couldn't do much outside because it was too cold. Both dr and I have runny noses tonight and I'm blaming the wind. dr washed clothes and hung them out. The wind is good for drying clothes when it's combined with sunshine. I cleaned house and packed some things that were somehow sitting all over the counters so every time I wanted to use the counter I have to move the stuff. Now, I can see the counters again. I sorted magazines into keep and toss piles. The toss piles will probably go to the thrift shop. I sewed two tote bags and a kitchen apron. One tote bag was red with a lining with little animals doing their colors. Cute for someone just learning about colors. The apron is yellow. I have another one to sew tomorrow. I may do a blue garden apron tomorrow, too. I was making Cornish pasties for supper yesterday and just popped them into the oven when my next youngest brother called. He was going from Houston to Fort Smith, Arkansas and was about 30 miles south of us. He said if we'd meet him in town he'd buy us supper. So, I let the pies finish cooking and cooled them and that's what we had for supper tonight. I don't see my brother too often. I think I saw him about this time last year when he was coming from Houston, going to pick up a load in Dallas and heading who knows where from there. He drives most everywhere. He retired a couple of years ago and got bored and went back to work. He tries to take more time off now than he did but the company doesn't take kindly to that so he might change companies. We spent a couple of hours catching up on this and that and he finally said he had to go get in the back of his truck and get a few hours sleep. We came on home through the rain. Our dirt road was awash with water in spots and ruts in other spots. I drove down the middle so I didn't slide into the ditch. Good thing it isn't a busy road. I didn't meet anyone, coming or going. I hope the wind dried things out some so we can get out and do something tomorrow with out getting into the mud or blowing away. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 463 times
The houses are moving!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 1:31 am We were just getting ready to eat this evening when two pickup trucks pulled into the driveway. It was the people we rent our house from. We've been waiting and waiting for our mobile home to be moved. On Sunday, Howard came and took down some fence and we burned a huge pile of brush and trees so the truck could get from the road to where the mobile home needed to be set. When they came today, they had to hurry and take down another fence and pull the posts because the truck was on the way with the first home which will be ours in a few weeks. The truck pulled that mobile home just like it was a little camper. He's experienced at it and that makes the difference. He got lots of advice as to where to locate it and where to stop and it was a little crooked, etc. But, a truck came behind him with a little remote control machine on tracks. They hooked it to the tongue of the mobile home and with the remote controls the man moved it back and forth until it was just right. Tomorrow they will come back and level it and put blocks under it and put the skirting back on it. Then, Howard will bring the decks and put them back on it. We can't move yet though because there are two more to be moved. Sometime in the next week, the three bedroom mobile home will be moved onto the lot next to where we are now. Then, in 10 days to two weeks the doublewide will be moved between the two mobile homes. When it gets moved, then the septic systems, electric and water can be installed. I will try to get some before pictures tomorrow. It is sure a mess down there and it will take some work to make it ours. We are only going to rent it but it will still be ours. We can build fences for Chance and clear the space for a yard and garden. We won't be able to move for about a month though. Too many things yet to be done. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 388 times
A new address
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:07 am When we moved to Texas in December, 2008 we moved into a four bedroom, three bath home across from Glenda. We never intended to stay here. We were just going to use it as a temporary place while we looked for something smaller. The move took a tremendous amount of energy for two "older" people so we sort of dug in here and stayed. Last fall the lady we rent our house from called and wanted to know why we didn't tell her we were moving. I replied, "I guess it's because we don't know we are moving." Someone we met once or twice had called her and told her we were moving out by them and they were losing their renter. She said she didn't know we wanted something smaller. She said she had a two bedroom, two bath mobile home in a mobile home(trailer)park in Midway. Only problem, she had just moved into it. So, she began the process of finding her another place. She would move the mobile home to the lot next door to where we are now. They have about 15 acres of land around where we are living now so after inquiring of the county officials about the septic systems and the energy company about electricity it was decided to move both of us down the street from here. The place they wanted to locate was very wooded and full of brush. So, since December whenever it wasn't raining they have been out here clearing brush and making a driveway and putting up fences and keeping busy. She and her husband both drive over the road semi-trucks and are gone for most of the week and sometimes for longer periods of time. Yesterday, she came out with a lady from the county and they went and looked at the places they cleared and the lady went back and put it into the computer and came up with addresses for three lots. So, gardening this spring and summer will be a challenge because the space cleared right now is just for the mobile homes. When they are all moved and set up then they and we will clear the spaces for gardens and yards. We will have lots of space and Chance will have a bigger space. They will do all of the outside fences and we will fence a space for Chance and for the garden. Her husband was also talking of making a very large garden area for all four houses. A mobile home is a house on wheels that can be moved to different places. They put it on a foundation and skirt the bottom and it looks like a long narrow house. It is not as expensive as building a house. It started out with them being in "trailer" parks but now people purchase them and put them on lots. There are also "doublewides" which are two put together to make a square house. Anyway, within two or three weeks, weather permitting, the moving of mobile homes will begin and hopefully before wannabe comes the middle of March we will be in the smaller place. Maybe we will be in between and will be sleeping under the trees. Maybe we will still be here because everyone seems to be posting the pictures of the giant snowstorm so we are sure to be getting a lot more rain. dooley Last edited: Sun Feb 07, 2010 3:37 pm This blog entry has been viewed 516 times
The color is gray!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 2:23 am I was just sitting here reading about Toni's pantry. I've been feeling a little blah today. It seems like it's been gray and cloudy and raining forever. When the sun decides to come out, it's just in time to watch it disappear over Glenda's house. I think she gets more sun than us and it's just not fair. Gray is not a color to instill anything. I've been trying to sew and do things and not just sit around watching the rain and thinking about sunshine. Today, I was sewing a garden apron and it was a dark blue. I wanted to put an orange butterfly on it. I drew the butterfly on the cloth and embroidered (zigzagged) around it. I missed the line in a couple of spots because it's gray in here, even with the lights. So, I think I will not put that pocket on the apron. I think I will choose a print material and put a pocket out of some cheery material on the apron instead of a butterfly. Now that I'm thinking about it, I think starting in the morning when it's going to still be gray and cloudy I'll just sew things out of bright cheery material and leave the plain stuff for sunny days. It was a soup kind of day and I was looking in the pantry cupboard, trying to decide what kind of soup to make. There was a package of bean soup mix. It said 16 bean soup mix. Not a mix really, just 16 different types of beans. So, I washed them and put them in a pot and added water and boiled them a minute or two, turned off the pot and let them soak an hour or so. dr said I should use the leftover pork barbecued ribs for the flavoring instead of fresh pork or hambone. So, after the soaking, I drained the beans and washed them and put fresh water on them, added the barbecued ribs and brought the pot to a boil, turned it to med/low and let them simmer. I pulled the mixer to the front of the counter and mixed up a batch of yeast bread dough. We brought it into this room next to the heater to rise. In this big house we try to heat only the areas that are in use. Chance is used to us moving her bed around to rooms where we are so she stays warm too. Anyway, when the bread went into bread pans I put two potatoes, chunked up and some chopped onion and peppers into the soup pot. I pulled the ribs out and cut the meat off of the bones and put the meat back. After taking the accumulated fat out of the dish the ribs had been stored in, I poured the barbecue sauce into the bean pot. I turned it to low now so it wouldn't be done before the bread. I made the bread into to large loaves and 12 rolls. We made inroads into the 12 rolls for supper with the barbecued pork bean soup. dr says I should make a few extra barbecued ribs each time so we can have barbecued bean soup each time. It was very good and there is enough for another time. Reheated, it might be even better. I made cranberry orange bread yesterday so in a bit I will go and make a fresh mug of tea and have some of it as a snack before bed. I don't need a snack before bed but it's just sitting there waiting for someone to eat it and it should be me, I think. dr is going to get Chance up for some exercise. She sleeps too much on these gray days. Then in the middle of the night she gets up to play. We are not very happy to be woken up by a dog playing squeaky in the middle of the night. He took her out on the long front porch to run up and down. She went out the back for her nightly outing and had to be dried out when she came back inside. She doesn't much like to be wet. I don't blame her. That rain is cold!! I've formed an opinion about why we are getting so much rain. It seems like people other places are getting a lot of snow. So, every time someone mentions the word snow, it rains on us. It doesn't matter where they live, if they mention they are getting snow, it clouds up and rains here. So, if someone is getting snow every day some where then, we end up getting rain here every day. Just look at our forecast. Rain three or four days out of every week. This week only one sunny day and it will probably turn out gray and cloudy. dr says it will take him the entire day to catch up on the laundry because it's been two weeks since we've had a day that he could hang it out to dry. Okay, the color is gray. I'm glad Toni didn't paint her pantry gray. There was a little color in my life today. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 394 times
Super Loud Thunderstorm
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:11 pm We were shaken out of bed last night or I should say at 2 AM by a super loud clap of thunder and lightning that brightened the room like someone turned the lights on. It moved through quickly though for which we were thankful. Chance took offense at it and ran to the glass double doors and barked at it. She wanted it stopped right now! The extremely loud thunder only lasted maybe ten minutes but it rumbled and grumbled the rest of the night. I would say the rain that came with it amounted to four or more inches. We had to go down to College Station to the doctor this morning. The road was awash in water. All the creeks and rivers were over the banks and in some places the water was right up level with the highways. Anymore rain and it would have flowed over the road. We passed many stock tanks(ponds) that were over full and flooding out into pastures. The most of the rain had passed by the time we left home at 8:30am for our 10 am appointment. I drove carefully as the roads were wet and it was still drizzling in areas. The traffic was for the most part traveling at a reduced speed. We arrived in time and spent a good five minutes with the doctor. He took out the sponges and vacuumed out the crud and said continue the drops and come back in two weeks. As he was disappearing out the door I asked if the infection was cleared up. He turned and said, "for the most part. It's still a little red." They renewed the prescription and I made sure it was for the lower priced one. We have an appointment to go back in two weeks. We came home in about the same amount of time it took to drive down there. It wasn't rainy any more but there was a large amount of road crud splashing up from big trucks and cars passing going the opposite way. I'll have to remind dr to check our washer fluid because I used a fair amount of it. It's a bit cooler than I like it here and with the damp my knees keep saying, "Ouch!" but I'm sure summer is just around the corner. I wish though that I could find that corner. I need a map! I'm sure the plants, etc. enjoyed the storm a lot more than Chance and I did. Even dr with his hearing loss heard the thunder last night. Chance has been napping the day away. She had a busy night what with barking at the thunder and sitting by my side of the bed to make sure it didn't get me. I had to put my hand on her head so she knew I was still there or she whined about it. Dumb dog! I wasn't going anywhere in that storm. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 716 times
Not My Favorite Week!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:28 pm Despite being in the 70's all week and no rain, it wasn't my favorite week at all. Monday was nice and sunny and warm and I went out and sat on the porch. I've been having some problems with an earache and the warmth made it feel better. I let Chance out on the porch with me. She was enjoying the sunshine, too. Another dog went past on the road and Chance thought she should bark at it. I told her "no bark." She didn't listen so I told she had to go back into the house and started after her to shoo her inside. She doubled back right in front of me and I tripped over her and fell flat on my face on the concrete porch. I think my nose tried to move to the back of my head and I'm sure if I look closely I'll find a dent in the concrete. I was afraid to get up and see what was broken. My nose was bleeding all over the place. I yelled and dr came to see what all the yelling and barking was about. He got cold compresses for my nose and helped me up. I got lucky or blessed because nothing was broken, not even my nose. It had a small scrape where my glasses pushed into it. My fingers on one hand were bruised where I tried to grab the porch post to keep from falling. But, no major damage. I was a bit shaky the rest of the day. The next day I didn't let Chance out with me. She was out on the back deck. Wednesday we went and did some major grocery shopping. Thursday, I broke down and called the doctor's office to see if I could get in anytime soon to get my ear looked at. Wouldn't you just know they could fit me in on Friday morning. I just love going to the doctor. We got up early Friday morning and went down to College Station to the doctor. We got there at 8:30. I waited until 9 to get in to see the doctor. That happens when they fit you in among other appointments. The doctor looked into my ear and said, "It's full of crud." He called and got me into see the ear doctor. The ear doctor was around the back of the building and across the street. I got lots of directions for getting there and though I had no idea where it was, I found it easy enough. After filling out tons of paperwork and getting my picture taken for their records I got in to see the doctor in less time than the family doctor. The ear doctor looked into my ear and said, "It's full of crud." He pulled out the trusty little vacuum cleaner and vacuumed my ear. It sounded just like a vacuum cleaner, too. Then, he looked again and I have an ear infection. Well, I knew that already. He put little sponges into my ear and squirted some ear drops in it and told me to come back in a week to get them taken out and let him check the ear again. Coming home we stopped to pick up the prescription for ear drops. We didn't pick it up. They wanted a hundred and thirty dollars for it. I didn't even put my hands on the bag to find out what it was. I just told her I didn't have a hundred and thirty dollars for ear drops, we needed to eat this week, too. So, the pharmacist faxed the doctor to see if there was something cheaper. It took all afternoon and finally we got some for closer to thirty dollars. So, we get to eat this week, too. We would have anyway because we did the shopping on Wednesday. After having put the drops in three times now and what the doctor put in, my ear has stopped hurting. But, I will finish the drops and go back on Friday to get the sponges taken out. It was a beautiful day on Friday, 76 degs and sunny. Today it was 72 degs and cloudy but it hasn't rained on us. Tomorrow starts another week with sunshine and 68 degrees. It's bound to be a better week than this one. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 434 times
I'm Waiting
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:50 am I'm waiting but not patiently. It's been more than cold enough for me here this winter. I know it's been warmer than most of the country but you all should know by now that I'm not a cold weather person. So, I just looked at the 10 day forecast. Tomorrow will be 66 degs with mostly sun. I'll take that for sure. I might even be able to go outside without the cold to make my ears hurt. But starting on Tuesday we have temps in the 70's for five days and only rain on one of them. Hurrah!! There is rain for Wednesday but it will be 70 so I can take the rain. It calls for isolated showers so maybe they will isolate elsewhere. Then, it's back to the 60's and rain on Saturday and Sunday. Well, it's still January so I guess I can't expect 70's all of the time. Well, I can expect it but I don't always get what I expect. There are things we can do outside. There are things we can do inside, too. Maybe we can open the doors and let some warm inside, too. Chance will like it. She likes sun and warm, too. We've had rain for four days now and it's been cloudy and gloomy and cold. I guess you all feel sorry for me now, right! Probably not! I can handle that. I'm just waiting for summer. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 442 times
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